We have a lot of interaction in our class and it's a good thing. A lot of back and forth, it's a good thing. But I would encourage you if you want to make a contribution or you have a question to raise your hand. Sometimes I might be in the middle of a thought that's got a particular progress and I'm hoping to get that sentence in and it's better to raise your hand, I'll acknowledge you, and I might say something like, well, I'll get back to you in a moment, or that's a question we might answer offline, as it were, not necessarily in the class. So we wanna be a little bit more orderly about the way we conduct our Sunday school class. So again, not to cramp your style, not to say you can't ask questions, but simply to create an orderly structure in which We can ensure what Paul says in 1 Corinthians, maximum edification. That's the purpose. Well, we're looking at what's called the regulative principle of worship. And there are really two aims that we have in studying this subject. One is to create greater unity as the people of God. especially for those of you who are visitors. You haven't been here for any of this, so I'm gonna do more review than I would normally do. And it's good for visitors, because we want them to see where we're going with this. And for us who have already had some instruction, it's a good way to remind us of where we have been and refresh, as it were, our memory. Okay, you probably be aware that our services here are different. If you've been to other churches, you probably see that our services are not like other services. Today is Easter Sunday. We haven't forgotten that. It's not like we don't care. But the reason why our services are different is because of this very subject that we're studying this morning called the regulative principle of worship. You might say, well, you're a small church, you don't have many resources. That may be true, but that's not the reason why our services are different. Our services are formed by biblical convictions. We want to please God in our worship. What pleases God? I hope that all of the people of God are delighted to worship God according to the scriptures, but the biggest smile we want to see is God's smile. on our worship. We want to please God in worship. He's the center of all that we do as a church. So since we're concerned to experience unity as a local church, this is an important part of that. But as I say, the most important thing is that God is pleased with what we do. We want to know that God smiles on what we do. The Bible is very clear that the unity of the members of a local church are good for the health of the church and also that they are pleasing to God. Let's turn in our Bibles to Romans. Well, I'll start with Ephesians chapter four, because that's where we really did start when we were considering this. Ephesians chapter four, verses one and two. The brethren would, if I had given them an opportunity, they would have told me these verses. Okay, so the first verses are Ephesians 4, 1 and 2. Paul says, therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, he was in prison when he wrote this. implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called. And he tells them exactly what he means. He says, with all humility, that is, with a sense of my relationship with God in which he is master, he is king, and I am his servant, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. So there, I went all the way to verse three because there's where it talks about unity, local church unity. And the other passage that we looked at was Romans chapter 15. Again, these are verses that we've already looked at together, but I'm trying to refresh your memory about what these verses say. about our subjectly regulative principle of worship. Romans chapter 15 verse 5. Paul makes a kind of a prayer and an exhortation combined when he says, Now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus, so that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. These verses join together the regulative principle of worship, how we worship God, and how we are united, both of those things. Just a reminder again, for those of you who are here, we looked at what God provides in this verse. God provides, and Paul's praying that God would continue to provide two things, perseverance and encouragement. Second thing, we need grace. And Paul tells us what that grace is. He says that there is to be conformity of mind among us so that we think the same way about certain activities. Paul has a particular activity he wants us to engage in with the same mind. What we do, how we do it. He wants us to be united in our mentality, the things that we think and the way we achieve our aims. And again, it's not in everything that we do. We have different habits, different styles. Those are legitimate. The old writers called them things indifferent, the adiaphora, right? But Paul says there is a legitimate diversity, but also an important unity. And so that's what Paul says we need grace for. The particular activity is worship. Paul's prayer is that we will all be thinking the same way and expressing the same faith when we worship God. That's what Paul's about in Romans 15, 5, and 6. He tells us that we need to use our spiritual faculties and our bodies in the worship of God. Now this is kind of a common sense thing. But sometimes people forget, right? We use our spiritual faculties when we worship God. We use our minds. We think about God. We remember about God. We use our hearts. Our hearts are to be full of devotion and love to God. We use our will. we actually do choose to worship God, right? If you've ever been in some churches, you'll find I remember the first church I attended for 10 years, people didn't sing. The choir sang. The people held the hymnals. They may have muttered some words, but they didn't really sing. But When we worship God, we choose certain activities and we engage our wills to do those things. So we use our spiritual faculties and we use our bodies. I was thinking about this this week as I was preparing for the Sunday school class. Well, let me ask since we love interaction. How do we use our bodies in public worship? Or let me put it a different way, what parts of our bodies are engaged when we worship God? This should be pretty easy. Yes, Melissa. Very good, our mouths, and actually that's the part that Paul talks about, the mouth. That with one mouth, that's the literal word there, stomata, with one mouth. Okay, so we use our mouths, what else do we use? What do you use to hold your hymnal? You use your hands, of course you do. And in order to get from the back of the room to the place where you're sitting down, you use another part of your body, your feet. Okay, so that's just a sample, a little sample. We use our bodies, and that's, again, sometimes people think, well, worship is such a spiritual thing, it really is. We don't really use our bodies. Well, actually, we do use our bodies in worship a lot. My sister Barbara serves the congregation by using her hands. Okay, so we use our spiritual faculties, we use our physical faculties as well. But there's a standard that unites everything that we do. Again, we're interested in pleasing God, worshiping God, and there's a standard that unites us. And one of the brethren got that the other week. But let me ask you, what's the standard by which we determine whether we are doing what we should be doing when we worship. It's there in the text. Little three words. Anybody wanna take a shot at it? Okay, so we don't lose a lot of time. According to Christ. In other words, the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ and the example of the Lord Jesus Christ are what guides us in our worship. So we know we're doing the right thing and God is pleased with us because we're following the example of Christ. Christ was the one person who was always pleasing to God. He said, I always do those things that please the Father. So, if we can see the example of the Lord Jesus, then we know we're on the right track. If we can see the teaching of the Lord Jesus, which comes to us primarily through what channel? How does the will of Christ, how is that made known to us? His word. That's right, his word. His word, through the apostles, right? Because the apostles wrote most of our New Testament. Okay. Very good. Now, what I did last time, and I'll just mention this briefly, is I give you a little bit of history about this principle called the Regulative Principle of Worship. That's a fancy title, and what it means basically is what regulates our worship. At home, You might not have a thermostat, you might have a wood stove someplace to regulate your temperature. But most of us, we regulate the temperature of our home by going over to a little dial on the wall. and turning it up or punching in the number of degrees we want our living space to be, that's a regulator, right? It regulates the temperature, the regulative principle, what regulates our worship. Well, one of the things we use to help us, and it's not ironclad, is church history. Church history helps us to look back and see what other godly people have done in worship. What scriptures they pointed to, to tell us what they think worship should be like. And I remember one pastor, Mr. Rosati knows this pastor quite well, used to say we were not the first people to read the Bible, right? We're not the first people to try to figure out worship. So church history helps us by pointing us to reliable guides. Not everybody, I'll try to explain it in a moment. Not everybody had the same principle of worship, the same way of deciding what should be done in worship. There were differences, especially during the period of the Reformation. for a long time, the Roman Catholic Church had its philosophy of worship. And the reformers and the Anglicans said, oh, no, no, no, this is not going to work. This is not biblical. And so they formulated two principles of worship, the normative principle of worship and the regulative principle of worship. Now, who can tell us what the normative principle of worship teaches? Anybody remember that? We did go over that, the normative principle. What may we do in worship if we hold to the normative principle? Yeah, go ahead. If it's not, if it's not forbidden. We can do it. As long as it's not forbidden in the Bible, we can do it. That's the normative principle of worship. And I tried to use a silly illustration. I like juggling. I actually can't juggle at all well, but I like juggling. Does the Bible forbid juggling in worship? No. I mean, I've read this Bible for 50 plus years. and I've read it through dozens of times, literally cover to cover. There's no place in the Bible where it says you can't juggle and worship. So according to the normative principle of worship, you could juggle and worship. I could stand up here, I could sit where Mr. Randall is and juggle, and that would fit within the normative principle of worship, but the problem is it's not worship. So the regulative principle is quite different. What's permitted in worship according to the regulative principle of worship? Yes, Melissa. Biblical mandates. That's correct. Biblical mandates, to put it in a slightly different language. I like it. Nice, simple term there, Melissa. Whatever we can do in worship, only what God tells us we may do in worship. We regulate. What's the regulator? The regulator is the word of God. The Word of God tells us what we may do, what God wants to see in worship. Okay, so those are the two principles. The Reformed churches objected to the worship of Rome, and also to the worship of the Anglican churches. So there were two groups that held to the normative principle. Again, I'm giving you a little bit of history, because many times, it's like Jesus asked his disciples, who do people say the Son of Man is? And he got a consensus of other positions, and he said, who do you say? So what Jesus' disciples said was true, everybody else was barking up the wrong tree. One of my favorite expressions that my wife knows, I love to use, barking up the wrong tree. Because I can see that dog at the bottom of the tree. He wants a squirrel, but the squirrel's not there. He's barking up the wrong tree. Well, the Reformed churches said, huh, the Anglicans and the Lutherans are barking up the wrong tree because they believe in the normative principle of worship. And that colored their whole history of worship. Whereas the Reformed churches stationed primarily during the Reformation, Switzerland, And let's see, Switzerland and Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland, and Zurich, Switzerland. In Zurich, there was a man who held to the regulative principle of worship. And of course, John Calvin was a champion for the regulative principle of worship. So we say that we believe that the Bible tells us everything we need to know for worship. We don't need to go someplace else. We don't need to find some other book. We use church history as a quality control. Those of you who have had a profession in any producing kind of a business always had QA, quality assurance, quality control. That's what church history does for us. But the main way we determine what we do in worship, and I know you're already got your wheels turning in your head, well, what are the things? When are we gonna get to the things? We're gonna get there. God helping us. So, well, first we go to the Bible. That's first of all. And the Reformed churches said, well, The second commandment tells us how not to worship, and by logic, how to worship. God in the second commandment says not to make idols and worship God by idols. I have my Baptist catechism here. Most Baptists don't like catechisms too much, but this is helpful. Let me read to you. This is catechism. So the catechism asks questions about all the commandments. And here is question number 53. What is, well, 52 is what is the second commandment? They quote it, you shall not make for yourself any carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me. but showing loving kindness, mercy to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments." Now, God says no idols. That fits the regulative principle and the normative principle. No idols in worship. No representations of God of a physical nature to which we direct our attention. So we don't kneel before idols of Saint Anthony or Saint John or Mary or even Jesus. Because those are idols. And God says, I don't want idols in my worship. But then, The Reformed teachers saw in the second commandment another important principle. Here it is. What is forbidden in the second commandment? Question 54. The second commandment forbids the worshiping of God by images or any other way not appointed in his word. They said, when God says don't worship through idols, he's saying I control worship. I'm the one who decides. There was a lady, I was a lady in one of the churches where I pastored. Lovely woman, dear saint. Mrs. Anita Markland. She said, oh, but I like a cross. I like pictures of Jesus. And what I said to her is, if you can't worship without them, then guess what they are? They're idols. If you can't worship without it, it's an idol. And God says, no idols. That's why this building, I love this auditorium for one particular reason. No idols. Okay. And that's what the Bible says. And the principle of the regulative principle is that God decides what worship is to be like. So, I wonder if you picked up in the second commandment, we read the second commandment a moment ago. God talks about the motives of the heart, and of course we use our wills, we use our motives. Somebody says, I've got to have an idol. I've got to have at least a picture of Jesus to worship. You see, well they're exercising their will, you see. When you understand that God says, no, don't do that. That doesn't please me. And then you're going to exercise your will. You're going to say, I'm going to say to God, my will, not yours be done. Or I'm going to say to God, your will, not my will be done. Right? Understand? But in the second commandment, notice what God does. He talks about the heart. He talks about why people worship idols. and their attitude toward him. Did you pick up on it? What's the word for people? Why do people worship idols? What's their heart disposition? What does God say of this? Now people say, oh, no, no, no, not me. No, this is what God says. And let me tell you, God knows our hearts better than we know ourselves. So what's the disposition of the person who worship God through idols? What's that disposition of the second commandment? Maybe I should read it again, huh? Maybe I should. If you want to look at Exodus 20, because I could tell you it's in Exodus 20. It's right there in plain English. Now it's translated from the Hebrew. But it's always good for you to see it with your own eyes in the Bible. You say, well, Mr. DeWana may have pulled the wool over our eyes. He may have said it says something it didn't say. So look here. The second commandment starts in verse four. No idols. Verse five, you shall not worship or serve them because I'm a jealous God. And I'm visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children. Not only does the worship of idols affect the person who does it, but it definitely affects the children of the people who engage in idolatry. That's what the Bible says. Okay. And what does he say is the heart disposition at the end of verse five. Why do people worship idols? Because they hate. That's what God says. Now you can say, I don't think God knows what he's talking about. I hope you don't say that. That would be a very foolish thing to say. God knows. And then, but now verse six. What's the hard disposition of people who love, who, I almost said it. I almost said it out loud. Who don't worship God through idols. What's the word? Four letter word. The one four letter word is hate. Love. They love me. And how do you know that they love God? Because they keep his commandments, including the second commandment. You see that point? And God says it offends him. Well, there you go. That ought to settle the whole issue of idols forever. It ought to. We go with that in a lot of detail. But let's consider again, regulative principle. I'm going to read to you from Martin Luther. Now, the Lutherans didn't follow what Martin Luther says here. In his little book, Table Talk, he says this, all manner of religion where people serve God without his word and command is simply idolatry. And the more holy and spiritual such a religion seems, the more hurtful and venomous it is, for it leads people away from the faith of Christ and makes them rely and depend upon their own strength, works, and righteousness." He says, people who worship God in a way that he has not called for, they're being led astray. Not good. Would that all the Lutherans followed Martin Luther's words, because that's the regular principle of worship. Well, we started looking at more than just the second commandment. Here's a point for you, a little bit of logic. Has anybody here never taken geometry? I took geometry, but you took geometry? No? Most of you never took geometry? No. Well, how do you get a straight line? What makes a straight line? I bet you Selena knows. How do you make a straight line? What's the rule for a straight line? Two points make a straight line. And a third confirms it. So my teacher, they made me plot these things in high school. And the same thing applies to the Bible. If you wonder, well, did I understand the second commandment right? Am I right in understanding that God wants to tell us how to worship? Hmm. Well, I got the second commandment, and the reformed people are pretty sure they got it right, but you know what? Let's get another point, and let's get another point, because two points make a straight line, and a third confirms it. And if you keep on drawing points, and draw the line through it, are they all in there? Then you've got a straight line. So, very simple, a geometrical reason for studying the Bible. Here it is. We went to John chapter four, so please turn again. I'll try to be quick with John four because we already looked at this passage and we're doing review, but it's okay. Because the Arabs had a proverb, rather an insulting proverb, by much repetition, even a donkey may learn. If you don't like what the donkey's doing, you get a big stick and you hit him over the head with it. And sooner or later, he'll get the point. But John 4, John 4, he's talking to the Samaritan woman. And she realizes Jesus is a prophet, because Jesus said, go call your husband. She said, I have no husband. Jesus said, I know. You've had seven husbands, and the guy you're living with now is not your husband. And then she says, I perceive, sir, you are a prophet. She didn't have to go to seminary to find out that Jesus was a prophet. He told her, she says later on, he told me everything I have done. So, she has a problem, she has a question. She's a Samaritan, the Samaritans worship not in Jerusalem, but on Mount Gerizim. And interestingly enough, Jesus and the woman are in a well right near Gerizim, so you could just, you wanna see Gerizim, just look up your, I can imagine that there she is with Jesus, asking him, are people worshiped on this mountain? See Jesus? this mountain." You people say that Jerusalem, which was no place nearby, is the place where men ought to worship. And Jesus answers them, this woman, in verse 21, Jesus said to her, Woman, believe me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain, garrison, nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father, You worship what you do not know. We worship what we know for salvation is of the Jews. So what Jesus is saying is place is not the regulating principle of worship. It's not about the place. You could be in the right place every time, every time the Lord's day rolls around. That's not what makes worship. Jesus says an hour is coming, verse 23, and now is when the true worshipers, people who are really doing it, will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. So, they worship by the help of the Holy Spirit, they worship with their own spirit, and they worship in truth, truth from God's word. That's where we find truth. And Jesus said, that's the way you worship. That's what makes worship. For such people, the father seeks to be his worship. So God is, very funny, it's a, God's condescending to us to talk to us like children. He says, God's looking for certain kinds of worshipers. God has worshipers he wants. He has people he says, uh-uh. Doesn't make it for me. Doesn't tickle my fancy, doesn't float my boat. No, but God has something that does appeal to him and he's looking for it. If God, well God knows everything. He doesn't actually have to search, but he's telling us, this is what I want. He says, The true worshipers worship the Father in spirit and in truth. For such people the Father seeks to be his worshipers. God's spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth. So there it is. That's the regulative principle in a nutshell. God is not interested whether you are in a place with other people who worship God. That's not the point. Hopefully you are in a place where other people worship God also because it's much easier for us to worship God when we are united, when our brethren are loving the same things and singing the same things and hearing the same things. Much easier for us. Okay. But Jesus tells us that God the father seeks those who worship him in spirit and in truth. So God, God gives directions for worship. God gives the directions. God tells us what he wants in worship. That's the principle. Um, so How does God want us to worship him? He's seeking worshipers in a certain way. And it includes dependence on the Holy Spirit. I don't know if you get that when you hear these words that Jesus says, the Father is seeking those who worship him in spirit and in truth. It's dependence upon the Holy Spirit. It's interesting, and you brethren here at Lumberton, you know this because if Edie leads in prayer, or Walter leads in prayer, he says, Lord, we need the help of your Holy Spirit. We all say that. We say that in our prayer meetings when we pray for the next Lord. Say, Lord, help us. Send your Holy Spirit to us. Now look at Philippians chapter three. Philippians chapter 3, it's one of the many passages. The more I study this subject, the more passages I find, so I have to be careful that I don't wear you out with passage after passage, but we need more than two or three. Here's Philippians 3, where Paul's warning the Philippian Christians about certain kinds of people, the Pharisees. He says in verse 2, beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the false circumcision. He said these are the people who think that they're fine, that they're worshiping God acceptably, but he says it's like barking dogs, barking up the wrong tree. Right? Beware of the dogs. Beware of the evil workers. The Pharisees thought they were doing wonderful works. We just do this for God and that for God and the other thing for God. And Paul says, well, no, actually, they're not pleasing God. They're evil workers. They are the false circumcision. Now, by way of contrast, he says this, for we, you Philippian Christians there, we are the true circumcision who worship in the spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh. You notice the part about worship? what marks true people who please God. They worship by the Spirit of God. Now it doesn't mean that you raise your hands and shake them. It doesn't mean that you dance a jig. It doesn't mean that you shout very loudly. No, it means you're helped by the Spirit of God. We'll go into that. That's going to wait for another lesson, I'm sorry. But it's not a wild behavior of emotionally overheated people. That's not what Paul means when he talks about the Spirit of God. Because if you've ever seen Jews at the Wailing Wall, you see what their worship was like. It's standing before a piece of geography, putting a slip of paper in a crack in a wall, and doing this, while you recite the Shammah. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. That's Jewish worship at the time. Paul says, our worship is different. We worship by the help of the Spirit of God. So here's the question. Here, let's think about it this way for a moment. We pray, those of us who lead, we pray for the Holy Spirit. Let me ask you, I don't want you to answer out loud. I want you to answer in your heart. Do you ask God to help you to worship Him in a manner that pleases Him? Do you ask for the help of the Holy Spirit? You want to. We all ought to. Okay, that's John 20, Philippians 3. Now, we're done with review. Took a long time. I want to turn you to a few passages here. We probably won't get to questions today, but I promise we'll start with questions next week. Next week I'm teaching Sunday school, so we'll get a chance to do that. Please turn to Hebrews chapter 12. An intriguing passage about worship. Hebrews chapter 12, verses 28 and 29. Now, the prior verses, the writing to the Hebrews is saying, you know, God has shaken the earth before. He's thinking of Mount Sinai. When God spoke on Mount Sinai, the earth shook. He says, and God's gonna shake the world again, so that the things that can be shaken may be thrown away, and the things that cannot be shaken will remain. And so he says in verse 28, therefore, since we have received a kingdom, the kingdom of heaven, which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe. So now here, God says there are three things that ought to mark real worship of people who have received God's kingdom, okay? What are the three things in these verses that tell us how we ought to worship? They're right there in the text. The first one is gratitude. Gratitude, okay. So we know that giving thanks to God in worship is part of real worship. We ought to thank God for what we have received. Gratitude, okay. Two other things. Edie? Reverence. Reverence, right, right. And that's part of the humility, right? Where am I when I worship? Well, believe it or not, the right to Hebrews has already said, you're in the presence of God. We have come to the presence of God when we worship. Okay, so they ought to be reverent, not to be flippant. We ought not to be silly. We ought to be serious. Worship should be serious. Now, I'm sorry if that doesn't fit your emotional meter, but that's what he says. What's the other word? Any more word in there? Yes, E.D.? Awe. Reverence and awe. Awe is the sense of greatness. You're in the presence of greatness. I was only a Christian a year when I was given the opportunity to speak in Harrisburg at their main public building. There were thousands of people there, and there was a guy who was a Mr. Universe. And they got a bunch of guys to sit on the table, and Mr. Universe got his back onto the table and lifted them all up. And I said, that's awesome. You don't want to make Mr. Universe angry. You don't want to put out your hand and get him to use his considerable strength to squeeze your hand. is awe in the presence of power and might and majesty and greatness. And guess where we are when we worship? Who are we trying to worship? We're trying to worship the God who made heaven and earth. We're saying that Him, come to Him who made this splendor. You wake up, you get in your car, you drive down the highway, and you see the flowering trees, different ones flowering at different times according to the design of God. This is the God who made heaven and earth. I was camping with a bunch of young people. Again, I was a very young Christian, but I knew a few things, a few things. I asked the counselor, can I go outside and look at the stars? Because we were in a dark skies area. It was a beautiful area. And he said, yes. And several of the other of my friends who were camping that night, can we go too? Yes. So we went to the cliff side and we looked up. I said, God made all of this. Have you ever been in the presence of so many stars that it's virtually oppressive to your soul? The majesty and the greatness of the God who made them all. And now we have the James Webb Telescope. And it's showing up galaxies that have never been seen before. Well, God made them. in the beginning, in one little verse in Genesis chapter one, he made the stars also, just a little throwaway. He made the stars. That's a God, that's a God worth worshiping, you see, with gratitude, reverence, and awe. Okay, but there's a word in here. That's why I went to Hebrews 12. We're not gonna get any further than Hebrews 12. Look at this. Since we have received a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude by which we may offer to God an acceptable service. I use the illustration of June making me breakfast, cause I, you have to, you have to, Make sure the white of the egg is thoroughly cooked. If it's a runny white of the egg, it's not acceptable. Take it back to the kitchen, please. Can't stand it. Some people love that. A gooey, runny albumen. Not me. So if you want to please me, there's a certain way to cook the eggs. And that's true of most people, I think. God says, I want my worship a certain way. Offer to God an acceptable service. I'll give you, I'm almost done. This phrase acceptable is found also in 1 Peter 2. Last time I told you you could look at the first, it was one of the passages. And we'll get to that next week. but the word acceptable is used there as well, in a worship context. Well, I can't go further. Let me stop here and let me give you a homework assignment, because I know some of you love a homework assignment. I would like you to answer two questions for me in your homework assignment. How can we worship God acceptably? I have on my list one, two, three, four, five, six. Six things. There are more, but I'll tell you one of them by the aid of the Holy Spirit. See, that's what we've already learned. So in your list, how can we worship God acceptably? That's one of the six, but there are five others. Try to find them out, figure them out, and list them. Then here's another one. What should our specific acts of worship be? Now, in the first question, I don't want the stuff from the second question, but I'll give you an example. Offerings. If you know the Bible, you will know that there are places where God says that supporting the work of the ministry is acceptable to God as part of God honoring worship. So that's one of the things that you do in acceptable worship. But there are a lot of other things. Let me see, let me count again. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, nine things. I have nine things. So next week. I'm going to answer the question. First, we'll get some question time. We'll get some other passages, and then we're going to see who can help us understand, A, how can we worship God acceptably? B, what should our specific acts of worship be? That's next week, before the morning worship. So, there we have it, okay? Let's pray, thank God for our time, and ask Him to continue to help us as we try to figure out what's pleasing to God in worship. Our Father, we come to you who made this splendor. We come to you who have revealed yourself and told us that you are looking for particular kinds of worshipers. And we know, Father, that there are many times when we have come to places of worship, and because we are tired, or because we are disappointed, or because we are confused, we have not worshiped you the way we ought. We sing that sometimes, Lord. We sing, we have not known you as we ought. We have not loved you as we ought. We have not served you as we ought. Please forgive us of these sins. We bow before you and we say, help us, our God. Help us from your word. Help us by the Lord Jesus. Help us by the Holy Spirit. Grant, Lord, in the coming hour that we may be the kinds of worshipers you are seeking. So hear our prayer and answer us for Jesus' sake and glory. Amen.