We will remain standing for the reading of God's Word this morning. Our reading will be taken from the second chapter of the book of Ephesians. You can follow along if you have your Bibles with us this morning. It is one of the most comforting and yet profound chapters in all of Scripture. Hear now the Word of the Lord. And you He made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins. in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lust of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. But God, who is rich in mercy, Because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together in Christ. By grace you have been saved, and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. That in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Therefore, remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh, who were called uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision made in the flesh by hands, that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus, you who were once far off, have been brought near by the blood of Christ, For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace. And that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father. Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ being Himself the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit." This is the Word of the Lord. Let's pray. Our gracious Heavenly Father, we give You thanks for the gift of Your Spirit. We give You thanks for the richness of Your Word and the truths that it would teach us. May we have hearts and minds open and receptive this morning to those things that You would teach us. We ask this in Jesus' name and all of God's people said, Amen. You may be seated. We're going to begin this morning a series of what I hope to be five sermons on how and why we worship the way that we do here at Church of the King. It's going to be a real back to the basics series, so it's probably appropriate for you to be asking, well, why is that needed at this time? And I want to assure you that I'm not concerned that we're slipping away from where we should be. In fact, on the contrary, I'm very pleased to see us growing more vigorous in our singing and we're continuing to try to follow more biblical order in our worship as we began this morning. However, I think there are two very good reasons for some review. The first is that it is good for us to remember why we do some of the things that we do here on Sunday morning. And second, we have a tremendous responsibility to pass on our love of the Lord's Day and our right understanding of proper worship to the covenant children that God has blessed us with. And that means the parents who are given those children directly and the rest of us as their sponsors, as we were reminded last week during Henry's baptism. As Jeff Myers rightly says in his book, The Lord's Service, the way we now worship, the way we pray, the way we approach God in corporate worship in our churches will determine what our spiritual grandchildren will one day believe, teach, and confess. So, my hope is to cover in each message the major elements of what we call covenant renewal worship, or as many just call traditional Christian worship. You have these elements running through the full 2,000 years of church history. There is a call to worship by our triune God. There is a time for us to rightly confess our sins before our holy God. There is a time of consecration where God teaches His saints. There is a communion meal with our Savior and a commission to disciple the nations. And it will be important to remember that in each of these elements it is God who is the one who acts and we rightly respond. God calls us and we respond by gathering together. God demands that we be a holy people and we respond by confessing our sins and receiving His forgiveness. God instructs us from His Word and we listen and bring our prayers and gifts. God sets before us His holy meal and we respond with the eating of the bread and the drinking of the wine. God commands us to go forth and take His kingdom to all of the earth and we respond by going forth to live faithful and obedient lives during the week. We do not gather for worship to be spectators. And we do not gather to simply give something to God. God calls us together in order to renew His covenant with us. And we'll come in the weeks ahead to understand that much more fully. The call to worship may seem like the simplest of these elements. And yet, I believe it is one of the most profound. And, I would argue, one of the least understood of all of them in the modern church in America today. What we understand about the call to worship And how we respond will reveal our priorities when it comes to the right worship of our Triune God. So, I want us to begin with a very simple but important question. Why do we come to church on Sunday? Why do we come to church on Sunday? Is it because that's what we've always done? It's a good habit to be in. Is it because there was nothing else to distract us this week? Come if it's convenient. Is it because our parents made us come? And even some of you youngest children can think about that. Is it because of the great food that we get afterwards that we can often smell? Is it because of where I get to see some of my good friends or even enjoy good Christian fellowship? You see, there is some truth in all of these possibilities, but by themselves, they are the wrong priorities. We gather on Sunday morning because God calls us together. We gather because God calls us together. If we really believe that, it changes how we approach the worship service on Sunday. So, especially here in America today, the logical question is going to be, well, how can you be so sure that God wanted us here at 11 o'clock this morning? And that seems pretty arrogant to make that statement. Well, first, we know from our study of the Scriptures and the New Testament that the saints gathered on the first day of the week. The week is not really in dispute, or the day is not really in dispute. It's the day of Christ's resurrection. And we'll talk a lot about how the Bible informs us about what we need to do in right worship during these five weeks. And as we do that, we always need to remember that the Old Testament or the Old Covenant, that worship always looked forward to the work of Jesus. The New Testament or the New Covenant worship is always celebrating the finished work of Jesus and applying it to our lives. So it should not surprise us that we would find some similarities with how the saints worship, nor should we be afraid to allow the Old Testament patterns to teach us about what we are doing during New Testament worship. As we saw from the reading of Ephesians chapter 2 this morning, we are now in Christ. That's the good news. Not only as individuals, not to each of us come knowing that our sins are forgiven, but as His body, as a holy nation, as we learned from Peter last week. And this is also the point made by Paul in the letter to the Hebrews. Now, we're going to be talking a lot about the book of Hebrews in the coming weeks, so I'm going to refer to Paul. It's in some dispute as to whether he's the author. I think he is, so we can argue about that. But for the shortness of time, I'm just going to say Paul, rather than the author or the writer of Hebrews. Paul begins to review the importance of Lord's Day worship. as he says this in chapter four, seeing then that we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, for we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need." Hall then outlines for the next six chapters how Jesus is the Great High Priest, how the Old Testament led to this great sacrifice and pictured it so well, and the fact that all of this was foreshadowed All of the tabernacle and temple worship was pointing to the great work of Jesus, which was accomplished once for all. And then in chapter 10, Paul returns to this very same point. Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh. And having a high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in the full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. and let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the day approaching." Now, do we as individuals have access to the throne of grace because of what Jesus has done? Can I claim that promise when I pray in the morning? Absolutely. But it is not the focus of what Paul is teaching here in Hebrews. And I hope we come to understand this. We are called the body of Christ. Each of us being members of that body. We are called a nation of priests. Each being a priest in our own right. But when God calls us together on the Lord's Day, He is not calling us together as a bunch of individuals, but as His body, as His nation. And yes, how we respond is important. I suspect that a lot of us are kind of excited right now about the Giants going to the World Series. Mike had two heart attacks last night, but he's fine. I want us to think about this. The members of that team, members of both teams, are going to be called together for the first game. And it will be at a specific time and a specific place. Now, if one of the teams has members who, you know, just kind of wander in a little bit late, or they come wearing their sweats, or they don't even bother to come at all, That would not be a good sign for that team. And we would expect the coach to be all over those erring players. And we'd be outraged with the salaries that they make. However, in America today, if an elder or a pastor says anything about church attendance, he's likely to be told to mind his own business. The Bible would also encourage us to think about this in a military context. There's a lot of military examples in the Scriptures. If a general calls his troops together for an important battle at a specific time and place, and some of them don't show up, some show up late, and others forget about half of their gear, that would not be a good sign. The general would be pretty upset. If, on the other hand, They were all there early and excited, well equipped and focused. Then it would instill fear in their enemies. So I hope you can begin to understand the importance of showing up on the Lord's Day. But that still leaves the question, well, why at 11 o'clock? Why here? Well, the reality is that God has placed elders and pastors over His churches. And they are the ones who prayerfully consider when the congregation is to be gathered. Some call them together both morning and evening to emphasize the fact that this is the Lord's day. Some call the meeting in the afternoon because that is the only time that they can work together and have a facility to meet in. Some have multiple services to make room for all those who wish to attend. Here at Church of the King, we gather at the traditional American time of 11 o'clock, just the way we do it as Americans. But we also follow our service with a fellowship meal so that we have an extended time together as the body of Christ and can remember the importance of gathering as the body of Christ. So it is making sure that you're here by 11 on Sunday, Fulfill the requirements of a faithful saint. Well, not really. It's a good step. But if we really believe that God is calling us together, we would not only want to make sure that we were on time, but also that we are prepared mentally and physically to meet God. I called you down for an appointment at 3 o'clock on Tuesday this week. Would you do anything to prepare for that? Would you maybe be a little early to make sure you weren't late? If we choose to stay up until 2 or 3 in the morning on Saturday night, we run the risk of oversleeping on Sunday morning and we will certainly be pretty tired for worship. If we're a family and we set the alarm for 10 o'clock and live 20 minutes from the church, again, we're running the risk of being frazzled if we get there at all on time. And though our worship here at Church of the King begins at 11 o'clock, we have a short time of reviewing the songs that will be sung that day and learning some new ones so that we can progress in our worship. If you miss that on a regular basis, Are you going to be as prepared as you could be to worship the King? If we don't use that time to help our children learn more about how to sing in church, are we taking their discipleship as seriously as we should? And our generation especially has to remember, just because we struggle to sing and to understand singing, doesn't mean that our children will. They will surprise us with what they can do. And again, being on time or making it for the music practice is still not all that is involved. Are we as ready as we can be to rightly worship God? Have we put some thought into what we're wearing or did we just come in whatever was clean or handy? Did we get the rest that we needed the night before? Did we eat some breakfast? Big or small. People vary. But if you don't have any breakfast, I'll bet just about this time you start fainting or smelling the food too much in the back. Did we, especially if we're families, did we think through our schedules for Saturday night and Sunday morning so that everyone is not a basket case by the time we get to church? You know, this is something that we tried to focus on in the Stuse household and I tried to take a special responsibility because, you know, Sunday is supposed to be a day of rest. Well, guess what? Most of you guys, that's not a problem. You don't work on Sunday. But mom works the other six days of the week and Sunday too. So how does mom get a day of rest? Well, we can go out of our way to make sure things are prepared on Sunday night. We can help with the children. In my case, I took over the breakfast duties on Sunday morning. I ended up with some famous waffles after many, many years. But it became a tradition. It became something that our children expected. And in fact, you think, oh, I got everything I can do to get ready on Sunday morning anyway. I can't imagine having a family breakfast. Well, when we planned to have a family breakfast, it actually improved our schedule because we knew we had to get up a little bit earlier and get things ready and get things cleaned up and get off to church. So whatever in your particular situation makes you the most ready by 11 o'clock on Sunday morning, that's what you should be doing. If you've got something that runs you ragged on Saturday nights, stop it. It doesn't need to interfere with church. Now that doesn't mean we're not providentially hindered. It doesn't mean you can't have a flat tire on the way to church and have problems that come up. But I'm talking about the week in and week out preparation that we need to have. Now again, in our American individualistic mindset, much of this is going to seem like silly legalistic details. But they are not if we again think about the important question. Do we really believe that God is calling us together to worship on the Lord's Day? Do we believe that? I hope that we do. So, we're all here and we're ready. What happens during the call to worship? This is where I hope our children are listening and parents. I've given some steady materials, things that we pass out on a regular basis to our visitors. These are things that you should start working through, even with our youngest children, so they understand what we're doing. As a final part of all of those preparations that have gone before, we have the pianists begin to play music about five minutes before the service. That's when the conversation should stop, as fun as they are. We've got the fellowship meal where they can continue. Seats should be taken. Children should be encouraged to be with their families quietly. And a moment of prayer could even be in order that we might all rightly worship our Triune God. And then we see the first of God's actions and our reaction. We need to understand that it is God who calls us into His presence. We don't gather here on Sunday morning and then ask God to come be with us. We often read from Psalm 95. It says, let us come into His presence with thanksgiving. Oh, come let us worship the Lord. We are called into the heavenlies, just like we learned from Ephesians. And we immediately respond with a hymn of adoration. And that is modeled after what we often see from the angels and the saints when they're gathered around God's throne in heaven. They're singing songs of adoration. And that's our immediate response. We have used, oh, worship the King. Church of the King is our song of adoration. And we do so each and every week. Not because we can't learn another song, but because again, we specifically try to have places in our order of worship where our children can participate, even before they can read. The young ones will stand there with their order of worship. You know they can't read. But they will stand and at certain points during the service, they can sing along with us. It is part of training them to be part of the body of Christ. And don't forget, they have better memories than we do. I remember having some of my grandkids in the car playing a tape and it had one of our favorite psalms, Psalm 98. But they only sang six of the eight verses. And I wouldn't have noticed. But the kids from the back seat, when it ended, said, why did they leave out those verses? They knew there should have been two more verses. Theron and Mike, after we've sung our hymn of adoration, declare what we call the salutation. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And we respond with a hearty Amen. And then we are reminded that we are truly at this point in the presence of our Triune God, when the Leader says, Jehovah be with you, and we respond, and also with you. We need to realize that those are not just words that are there, so we've got filler on that first page of the Order of Worship. We are reacting to the fact that we're now in the presence of God. And you'll notice as we go through this series that we are constantly reminded that we are now in the presence of God and that we are participants, not just spectators. That's an important thing for us to understand. We're not just spectators. We have more musical talent in this church than I deserve to have as a pastor. I feel guilty sometimes. But it's also difficult because we don't do special music or operatories or things and we do that specifically because that only encourages us to be spectators. We are to be participants and as much as possible we need to understand that. So I'm thankful for the orchestra times and the special music times that we do have because I love hearing them. But we don't do that in service for that particular reason. We also need to understand that we are not in the presence of just any God. Thomas Jefferson would not have been comfortable walking into our church. We are in the presence of the triune God of the Scriptures. And we make that clear. It should be an encouragement to us and it should be something fearful to those who would visit. We have addressed God by His name, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We do not address God as Father just because it makes us think about Him as a fatherly figure or as a way for us to help relate to Him, thinking about our earthly fathers. His name is Father because God the Father has been God the Father from all eternity. And all that we know about fathers here on earth, is derived from His character and His attributes. That's why we recoil when we're in the presence of bad fatherhood and evil that is done against children. It is the name that we proclaim. And we do the same with the Son. Jesus is the eternal Son of God. He is not a born or created Son. Again, all that we know about family relationships is a mere reflection of the great relationship of the Father and the Son from all eternity. And it is the Spirit of God who has delighted in that relationship and served in that relationship from all eternity. It's so important for us to understand that, especially in our modern age. God is not like Allah. the great one God, a monastic God who had to create something to be able to relate to it. And He's not like the Eastern gods that are looking for nirvana or nothingness, an equilibrium to where there is no distinctions and no relationships. When the Bible declares that God is love, that's not something that's supposed to make us feel good. It is something that helps us remember and to declare the fact that the three persons of the Godhead have related to and loved one another from all eternity. Love is not a creation. Love is the very nature and character of the God that we serve. And all that we know of earthly love, all that we can know, of earthly love and relationships is derived from this true nature of God. It's the reason that the punishment for sexual sins is so severe in the Scriptures. They are an offense against the very nature of God. So, we have been called into the presence of the God of the Scriptures. And we'll see over the next three weeks how He will renew His covenant with His chosen people. We have been commanded to come boldly into the presence of God. And again, we will learn why this is possible and the richness of our relationship with God. God will remind us that our sins are forgiven. He will instruct us from His Word and accept our gifts and prayers. And then we will fellowship with Him around this very table. That is why we gather on the Lord's Day, and it should be a central focus in our Christian lives. This is something that our children must learn, not just intellectually, not something they need to pass a quiz on, but it is something that needs to be a reality practically in their lives. And we, as their parents or as their sponsors, have an obligation to teach it to them, not just intellectually, but by giving them the proper example to follow. And they will follow our example. Our gathering together in response to God's call each week demonstrates the great truth that we read this morning in Ephesians chapter 2. where Paul said, But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses and sin, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved and raised up together and made us sit together. in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding richness of His grace in the kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. And I want you to notice that Paul did not say that he's going to make us sit with Christ in heavenly places. He made us sit together. Our new song of ascension and the response that we used for the first time this week, are intended to help us demonstrate and to understand this reality each and every week. The words are a paraphrase of Psalm 134, set to some of Amber's beautiful music. And I pray that it will grow to be a very special time for all of us in the service. It reminds us that we are to come boldly before the throne of grace. It says, Come bless the Father, all you servants of the Son, who stand by the Spirit in the house of the Lord. We stand by the Spirit in the very house of God. We are responding to God's call. And now, as those who are in Christ, in the power of the Spirit, we can stand before God, blessing His holy name. And it is proper to do that with our hands lifted. The psalmist in our song says, lift up your hands to the holy place and bless your God. Now, that's something we ought to ponder. We get to bless God. So when we raise our hands, you know, whatever way you would raise to bless your children, that's what we're doing. We are blessing God as we stand in His presence. God sees us as the victory of His Son. God sees us because of the power of the Holy Spirit. And we can bless Him as His people. Lift up your hands in the holy place and bless your God. You see, in the Old Testament, only the high priest could enter the Holy of Holies, which only represented the presence of God, not even the real presence of God. And then he could go in only once a year and had to have blood to represent the great sacrifice that Jesus would make. Now, we can stand as a nation of priests. bringing blessings to our God before His holy face. And as we gather before God to renew His covenant, He graciously responds. And thus, the psalmist declares, May the Lord bless you from Zion, from His presence. May the Lord bless you from Zion, He who made heaven and earth. And as we sing that, we need to, again, physically think about what that means. I am in God's presence, blessing my God. And as I stand there, I realize that this powerful, loving God, who created all that there is, is the source of my blessings. And so our hands should drop to those of receiving. thinking about how awesome it is to have the God of the universe, the God who made all that there is, bless and love His people. My prayer and hope is that we will all continue to mature in our understanding of just how exciting it is to be in the presence of Him who made heaven and earth. May we always come ready and prepared to stand before the God who has shown us such great mercy, the King of kings and the Lord of lords, who calls us into His presence, learning to understand the richness of what the Apostle Paul taught the young Ephesian church. Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners. but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself, the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. Let's pray.