First time I've ever been applauded to get up to preach. That meant a lot of folks applauded when I got done. Good job. Thank you all so much. That was a blessing and encouragement. I want to say first of all, thank you very much for your concern and care for Kathy. She is doing well. She's in Siskin. They moved her there yesterday evening. She is a good patient, and they're very grateful that she is there instead of me, because I'm not that good of a patient. But she is doing well. She's working hard. If motivation can get you out, she'll be out tomorrow. Might be out this afternoon, I'm not sure. But most of you may know she fell and broke her hip on last Tuesday. And we were doing some cleaning up at the house, trying to get rid of some clutter and get rid of junk. I've been listening to the preachers preaching. about not having clutter, so I'm doing my job. We're trying to get rid of clutter, and she was up on a little two-foot ladder, and I don't know if the ladder, she just shifted her weight, and it tilted over. All I know is next thing I know, she is on the ground in great pain, so. But she's surgery went well and I'm very grateful and I appreciate your prayers and continue to pray for her that the Lord would help her. I want you to take your Bibles this morning and turn to the book of Psalms, Psalms chapter 84. I want to say this and I am not given to flattery. I don't flatter people. I just be honest with folk. But if you're missing Sunday school, you're missing something that would really help you. As a matter of fact, and I'm being totally honest about this, as I listen to Brother Dale teach in the Book of Revelation, I'm thinking, well, I know one thing, I'm never preaching for the Book of Revelation around here, amen? Because I just don't know enough about it from after hearing him teach and I'm very grateful It's been a blessing and a help and I just insights that he has that God has given him I appreciate that so very much. I'm gonna preach to you this morning in just a minute. I'll have you stand I don't preach to you this morning and then again tonight on what I believe is the most important thing that a Christian can learn. I do believe that what I'm going to say today that sinners can benefit from it. But to be frank with you, what I'm going to deal with this morning and tonight is what I believe that would help every Christian if they would grasp the truth I'm gonna share with you today. I wanna talk to you this morning and tonight on this thought, how lovely is the house of God? How lovely is the house of God? Let's stand, if you will, and we'll look in verse one. We'll read down through the entire chapter, only 12 verses. We'll only look the first few this morning and finish up tonight. The Bible says, look in verse one, and I'll stop and just make a comment here. How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts. I don't know if your Bible's like mine, but mine is a reference Bible, and out the side it gives notes. And beside that, and then when I look it up in the dictionary, that word amiable means lovely. And here's what the sons of Korah were saying. How lovely are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts. My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God. Yea, the sparrow hath found a house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my King, my God. Blessed are they that dwell in thy house, they will still be praising thee, Selah. You know this, I think, but the word Selah there means pause and think about what was just said. It's a musical pause. It said, blessed is the man whose strength is in thee and whose heart are the ways of them who, passing through the valley of Baca, make it a well. The rain also filleth the pools. They go from strength to strength. Every one of them in Zion appeareth before God. O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer. Give ear, O God of Jacob, Selah. Behold, O God, our shield, and look upon the face of thine anointed. For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. For the Lord God is a sun and shield. The Lord will give grace and glory No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in Thee. Now Father, we have done the best we can to prepare for this service this morning. I want to thank you for the good singing. Thank you for the good choir singing. Thank you for the good congregational singing. Thank you for the special, Lord. And thank you, Lord, that we have our hope in Christ. And, Lord, our hope is not on sinking sand, but it's on the solid rock of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, Lord, I come today asking that you would give me the ability to connect with the hearts and the minds of the congregation of people that are listening to me today, whether they be here in this building or whether they be online. Help me somehow to connect with them this truth that has transformed my life. I would ask you that you would work in me and work through me. Fill me with the Holy Spirit. Guide my mind and my heart. Help me, Lord, to say only what I should say in the manner in which it should be said. I pray that you would help me, Lord, not to say anything that should not be said. And I will thank you for this. Bless now and guide us today. We're asking in Jesus' name. And for his sake we pray, amen. Today I want to preach to you on the importance of church in our lives. I've heard our pastor say time and time again that most of our problems would be solved if we would just get in church and then get in church when we're in church. Can I get a witness right there? There's a lot of folks, they get in church, but they're not in church when they get to church. But if we had learned to go to church, when we go to church, I do believe that many of our problems and lies would be solved. The Bible tells us in Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 25, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another and even the much more as you see the day approaching. I believe that that is a prophetic promise that Christ Jesus is coming. And here's what he said, he said, as we see that day of the coming of Christ, then we need to assemble more often in the house of God, not less often. We need to be at church more regularly than we've ever been. I've always said this, I heard it whenever I was a child, in this church, not this building, but this church, I heard the pastor make this statement, and it was back in the olden days when we didn't have the glass doors and all that. But he would say this, every time the hinges on the door squeak, you ought to be in the house of God. And I do believe that that is true. I believe that many of my, all of my problems can be solved whenever I obey God and get in the house of God. In Acts chapter 14 and verse 21, he talks about how that they ordained elders in every church. If you'll study the Bible, you will find the Bible does not teach that today that there is this, let me try to make it a little clearer. There is the invisible church in the sense that everybody that is born again are in the body of Christ. But the Bible teaches us about individual local assemblies. The Bible talks about that. Think about this. The book of Philippians was written to the church at Philippi. The book of Galatians was written to the church at Galatia. The book of Thessalonians is written to the church at Thessalonica. The book of Ephesus is written to the church at Ephesus. When you go and read the book of Revelation and you read about those seven churches, they were seven bodies of Christ that were meeting and worshiping God. So the fact is that you and I cannot get off the hook by saying, well, I'm a member of the church, you know, the invisible church. God expects us to be a part and a member of the local church, the local assembly. I believe that everything that God does that is eternal, He does through His local church. And if it is not through the local church, God is not involved in it. Because the Bible says this, that Jesus loved the church and gave himself for it. Now I'm afraid that this generation has lost the importance of attendance at the house of God. I have no desire to bore you with statistics, but I do think that they serve to help us understand how bad of shape we really are. Back in 2007, the Pew Research — Pew did a research about churches and they said that 35 — 39.5 percent of people and America attend church at least one time a week. Seven years later, it was down to 35.7% and America attend church at least once a week. This drop was a drop in 3.8% in seven years. In 2020, they tell us that only 24% of Americans attend church at least once in a week. Now, you think about this. In 16 years, 15.5% of people have quit going to church. I mean, we went from 39% down to 24%. That is staggering when you stop and think about it. That's almost a percentage of year. And so if God doesn't stem the tide and God's people don't get under the burden of being in the house of God, every year one more percent drops off, one more percent drops off. And if it continues in the way it is going, In just about 24 years, there will be little or no church attendance. Now I'm saying the reason that is happening is because we have lost the concept that church is something that we should enjoy, not something that we endure. It ought to be a place that we look forward to going. I read the statistics and it said this, the religion that had the highest, and this really grieved me, I gotta tell you, this grieved me. the church or the religion that has the highest attendance every Sunday is Jehovah Witnesses. 85% of Jehovah Witnesses go to church every Sunday. Now that grieves me, I gotta tell you, because they're a false cult. I also read that the second highest number of people who go to church on Sunday are Mormons. 77% and it is just tragic. And then they say evangelical Protestants, which we are not Protestants, but we are evangelistic, but evangelical Protestants, they said that they come in at 58%. And of course, in that is grouped all the Pentecostals, Methodists, Presbyterians and everything. And I was reading in the Southern Baptists have 14.8 million members on any given Sunday, they only have about 50, 5,200—5,200,000 people in attendance. And so that's approximately 36 percent of their membership go to church on Sunday. You say, oh, I thank God I'm not a Southern Baptist. Well, I hate to tell you this, but we independent Baptists didn't fare a whole lot better. As a matter of fact, I read the statistics says only 46 percent of independent Baptists attend church service. at least once a week. Now, having talked about the downward spiral of the church, I think it would behoove us to stop and ask why is it dropping as it is? Why is church attendance falling off? The simple answer is this. People have come to believe that the church is no longer beneficial to their lives and to their families. They have come to think that church is just something that you do because it's what you've always done and they don't see church as being a place of worship and a place of adoration toward our Lord here in Psalms 84. It gives us a clear understanding what church should be and sadly what it is not to most people. There are eight things in this Psalms 84 that God showed me that ought to be part of our church experience. I believe that you ought to enjoy going to church. I believe when you woke up this morning, you shouldn't have said, oh, Lord, it's Sunday. I've got to go to church. You should have said, oh, Lord, praise the Lord, it is Sunday. I get to go to the house of God. Now, here we find in verse one, it says, our amnable are thy tabernacles, oh, Lord of hosts. The word amnable, as I mentioned earlier, it means pleasant. It means refreshing. And above everything, it means lovely. Now the sons of Korah looked at the place of worship. They looked at the tabernacles of God, the places where people meant to worship the Lord. And they saw it as a lovely and a pleasant place. They saw it as a place that they enjoyed being a part of. They saw it as a place that was important to their lives. Not just something that they did, but something that was a part of their lives. These eight things that I want to show you today from this psalm, I believe if you and I get them in our heart, it'll change our church experience. The truth is the reason many folks just come to church occasionally or don't come at all is because they're bored when they go to the house of God. Can I tell you something that is honest in my heart? I have been in some boring church service, but I have never been in a boring worship service. I've been in some services that were kind of boring. I was thinking, oh, I sure do wish he'd shut up. I mean, I've been in a few of those. I've been in some services where I think, man, is this thing ever going to get over? You know, I don't worry about folks looking at the watches when they shake it. That's what bothers me a bit. But the problem is, is people today, they get bored. And the reason they're bored is because they did not come to worship. They come to attend. I want to tell you, I'm grateful that you're here to attend, but my desire is to get you to worship when you're here. I'm going to get you in the realm of worship. Now, let me show you the first three things this morning. First of all, the church is lovely when we have a passion for it. Look what he said in verse two. He said, my soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God. Here we find that these sons of Korah, when they were writing this psalm, they were longing for the house of God. I read in Psalms 27 in verse 4, one thing of a desire to the Lord and that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord and inquire in his temple. Here we find the psalmist said, I long for the house of God. I long to go to the place, the house of God, to enjoy the beauty of the Lord and inquire of him in his temple. There are two things in verse two here in Psalms 84 that I want to point out to you. First of all, we should long for or have a passion for the place. Look what he said, my soul longeth, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord. Now what he's talking about is that court that goes around the tabernacle, that outer court. He said, I just long to get around the people of God. I long to be around the house of God. When we are away, what they were saying is this, these sons of Cora were saying, when we're away from it, we long to be there. When we're at home in the evening, our minds is focused and desiring to get back to the house of God. I wonder how long it's been in many of our lives. And we said at home, and we thought, man, it's only Thursday. It's three more days until Sunday gets here. I mean, I think that's the way we ought to be thinking. Lord, I want to be in the house of God. We ought to long for it. Kathy asked the doctor. We were going to have surgery. She had broke her hip on Tuesday. We were there to have surgery on Wednesday morning. We were there and we were in the room waiting to go into the operating room before they took her in. And Kathy was talking to the doctor. She said, am I going to be able to go to church Sunday? He said, no, probably not this Sunday. I only shared that to tell you there's something that longs in the heart of a person who loves God. I remember whenever my first wife, and I've not shared a lot with you, but I've shared a little bit with you, when she was dying with cancer and hospice was involved and hospice would come out to our house, what a great group they were. They were such a blessing to our family. And I remember one Sunday, I'm sorry, I remember one week that the hospice nurse come out, and she was our friend. I mean, she was just like part of our family. And so I think it probably was on a Monday, and Jill was very tired on Monday. And so the hospice nurse were there in the bedroom, Jill was in the bed, and the hospice nurse says to me, now look, Eddie, you're gonna have to quit wearing Jill out. You're going to have to quit taking her to church every service. You're going to have to find somebody, of course I'm pastoring, you're going to have to find somebody to take care of her, and you're going to have to leave her at home, and you're going to have to go just once a week ought to be enough for her. And boy, it just floored me, and I'll never forget it. I looked over at Jill, and Jill looked at me with those eyes that only she had, and she said, but I want to go to church. And I want to be there every Sunday, and I want to be there on Sunday night, and I want to be there on Wednesday night. And I looked at the nurse, I said, listen, as long as she's got air in her lungs and I'm able to get her in the car, if she wants to go to church, I'm taking her to church. You want me to tell you why that was her choice in her life? Because she longed for the house of God. She longed for the place where people worship and folks adore. Now, I believe that we need a revival of the longing of the house of God. The sons of Cora respected and reverenced the house of God. I mean, they reverenced that place where God met with his people. I'm afraid today that many people are more excited about when church is over than they are when church starts. A lot of folk, they're back in the parking lot, and God help your soul if you're out there when the service is over, because they'll sling gravels all over you just to get away from here. Amen? I want to tell you, that's not the heart of a person who loves church. A person who loves church is not looking for it to get over. They're looking for it to get started. They're looking for it to go on. And however long God meets, we're ready to meet with God. That's the way we ought to be. Many people spend more time preparing for what they will do after church. then what they will do at church. That's good preaching. Amen. You see, I believe this morning you ought to and I ought to have prepared ourselves to come to the house of God. You ought to have awakened this morning, opened up your Bible, read from the word of God, spent some time in prayer, asking God to prepare your heart for what's going to happen in the house of God this morning. The truth is, you didn't know what was going to happen, I didn't know what was going to happen, but I knew this, that there was going to be some things happening, and I wanted to get in on the ground floor and be a part of it in my life. That's my heart. We ought to have a passion to attend church. You ought to have a passion to care for the church. You ought to have a passion to invite others to church. I've learned this in my life. Whatever's important to you, you share with others. How many of you remember they had blue? Oh, just a few of us. I loved him. What a great preacher. Brother Ed would get to preaching, and he'd get to preaching kind of like what I am, maybe a little better than I am. And he'd walk down the front, and he'd look out in the pulpits, amen, preacher! Don't make me do that. Amen? Don't make me do that, all right? I'll take a few amens along the way. They're not gonna hurt me. I have a passion for a place, but notice in verse two, I have a passion for a person. I think what makes me have a passion for the place is I've got a passion for the person. Look what he said. He said in verse two, he said, my soul long with him painted for the courts of the Lord, my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. He said, I just got us here from heaven today. I've got to hear from the Lord today. I want to know that God is real and God is moving. He said, I'm crying out for the living God. You see, I believe that every person, when we wake up on Sunday morning and we come back on Sunday night and we get here on Wednesday night, it ought to be a passion. Lord, I want to know more about my Jesus. I want to know more about my Lord. I believe it ought to be a passion in our hearts to know him intimately. in the soul of our very being. The person that neglects the place of worship, I want you to hear this, is a person that neglects the person of the Lord Jesus. You can't neglect his church without neglecting him. You cannot ignore his church without ignoring him. You cannot be apathetic about his church without being apathetic about him. And see why the church attendance is dropping off and why our young people, and I'll get to that in just a minute, but why our young people are falling off the map and quit going to church is because they've seen us go through the routines and the rituals of having church without ever really having church in our hearts. They're bored. I mean, it's bad when they can get more excitement watching a football game than they can going to the house of God. Say amen right there. At church, we learn who the Lord is. At church, we learn and remind ourselves of what He has done. It's at church where we learn what His desire is for our life. It is at church where we remind ourselves how much He loves us, that He gave Himself for us. However, the greatest thing that we learn about the Lord when we come to church is we learn that we've come to meet with Him. We've come. The truth is, it shouldn't matter to you or me who preaches. It shouldn't matter to you or me who's singing. It shouldn't matter to you or me who does the Sunday school hour. All that matters is we've come to hear from heaven. We've come to hear from the Lord. We want God to speak to our hearts. We want God to move in our midst. We want somebody to stand up and tell us what God said. And we want to know God in an intimate way. That should be our heart's desire. One of the great problems of the Church of Corinth was this. They had those in the church who, they loved Paul, this one loved Paul, this one loved Peter, this one loved Apollos, and I mean, man, they were split and splintered. The problem is when he, folks, just loved Jesus, amen? The Bible says we're two or three gathered together in his name. We're in the midst. He's there in the midst. I know that we could argue, well, I worship at home. And can I be honest with you? I think you should. But there's something different about collective worship. And here's what is different. Number one, it's a matter of obedience. But let's lay that aside for just a moment, not long, but just a moment. Whenever we're at home and we're trying to worship, if you're like me, when I get on my knees to pray, my phone's gonna ring. I'm gonna get a text message. My computer's gonna buzz. The mail person's gonna ring the doorbell. The TV in the other end of the house is gonna distract me. Isn't that true? And so there's so many distractions whenever we're at home trying to worship. But when we come to church, we don't have those distractions. At least we most time don't have those distractions, amen? But the thing is, we need to understand that God wants our attention. We focus our attention on his love and his mercy, his compassion. When we come to collectively worship, we can focus our attention on his death and burial, his resurrection. We can focus our attention on his word and his presence. I don't know about you, but the older I get, the more difficult it is for me to stay focused. I hate to admit that, because I'm 42 years old plus a year or two. But it is harder for me to focus. When I'm here, I have to make myself pay attention. Amen? I do. I have to work at it. Sometimes, and I hope you're better than I am, but sometimes I catch my mind off in left field somewhere. And I think, how in the world did I get out there? Well, I tell you, there is a satanic attack against us of paying attention, but when I find myself there, I run back as quickly as I can to focus my attention upon the truths of Scripture and upon the Word of God and the Lord Jesus. Church is loving if we have a passion for it. You say, well, I had to get up and come to church this morning. Wrong. I've got to get up and go to church this morning, amen? I had the health to do that. I had the ability. Every day when I pray, one of the first things I tell the Lord is, Lord, thank you for the ability to get up this morning, to dress myself, to take care of my needs of my body, to take care of brushing my teeth, being able to walk to the bathroom, walk through the house. I tell God I'm appreciative of that. The church is lovely when we have a passion for it. Notice verse three, this is such an important truth. The church is lovely to the parent who raises their kids there. Look what he said. Yea, the sparrows have found a house, and to swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God. Here the Lord describes two very common birds. He describes the sparrow, and he describes the swallow. Down here in the south, we see both of them quite regular. Regular, there we go. We see them quite often. There's nothing spectacular about them. God didn't talk about the eagles doing this, though certainly I think it'd been fine, but he talked about the sparrow and the swallow. I don't know about you, but it's very, I don't know that I've ever looked at a swallow, especially them that build those dirt nests on my front porch and think, boy, aren't they a beautiful bird. I think they're a pest, man. I'm not very Christian whenever they, I dare it down today and they build it back by tomorrow. I'm not very Christian. I wanna take a tennis racket and have fun. That's not very Christian, I know, and I've never done it, but that's what I wanna do. But God said this, those everyday birds, those sparrows, and those swallows, nobody says, wow, how beautiful they are. But he said, they do something. They make their homes in the house of God. God help us as Christians to understand. We may not be spectacular. Nobody may look at us and think, wow, man, there's an eagle saint. Man, there goes one of those high profile Christians. They may never look at us that way, but I want them to look at me and say, well, they're just a dirty speaking sparrow or a dirty speaking swallow, but they're building his life and he's building his family in the house of God. That's what I long for them to know. Let me show you two things quickly. First of all, the sparrow has found a place for rest. That's what he said. Verse three, the sparrow hath found a house and the swallow a nest for herself. She may lay her young. Now, he said that the sparrow, he said, first of all, has found a house. What do you connect your home with? Rest. Just rest. Relaxing. Being yourself. just being able to they want you to be if you ever come to my house and announce you're gonna find me in my uh... not sweatpants but those leisure pants and everybody wears to walmart now I don't wear them to walmart, okay? Amen! That's where you're gonna find me! You're gonna find me in a t-shirt. You're gonna find me in those flannel, not quite flannel, but those kind of pants that pull up and, you know, they don't squeeze your belly too tight. And a pair of socks and house shoes. And I mean, when I walk in the door, that's the way it happens. I'll tell you why. It's a place of rest. I want to tell you the church ought to be a place of rest for you. There'll be a place you can come and kind of get away from the pressures of life, the burdens of the world. You see, the truth is, whenever you're burdened down and the world is caving in on you, you ought to say, Lord, let's have church on Tuesday night, because I sure do need a place of rest. See, these sparrows, they found a place of rest. Jesus said, come to me, all you labor and heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. Jesus said in Mark 6, 31, he said, and he said to them, come yourself apart in a desert place and rest a while. He said in Psalms 55, verse six, he said, oh, I said, oh, if I had wings like a dove, then would I fly away and be at rest. I believe that church ought to be a place of rest. Folks, as I'm just too tired to go to church tonight, well, let me ask you a question. Are you going to be tired at church or at home? Amen. Just the way it is. I know we're tired physically, but can I tell you, when I come to the house of God, when I'm tired physically, there's an energy that builds up in me and a joy that builds up in me, and I'm glad I'm there. Let me show you the second thing quickly. I'm leaving a lot of this stuff out, and you think, thank the Lord. The Bible talks about, in verse three, the sparrow hath found a place of rest, but he said the swallow has found a place of reproduction. Look what he says, that she makes her nest and lays her eggs there. When I was studying this, I did a little bit of study about the habits of the swallow. And what they said was this, they said that both the male and the female build the nest. And they said this, they said that they will join other swallows to help chase away predators like eagles, or hawks rather, and other animals, birds that would fly in and take the young. But they work together with others. And I think there's no accident God put that here in the Bible. We work together as preachers and members and Sunday school teachers to raise our children in the things of God. I want to tell you something. We've got to get our kids loving church. We've got to get our kids loving preaching. We've got to get our kids loving that that is eternal. You see, your kids, the devil has put a, he has put a target on their back. And I mean he is doing everything to damn them, to destroy them, to tear up their lives. He's doing everything to steal the virginity. He's doing everything to steal the variety. He's doing everything to steal that. are the only line of defense before them and the devil, and you need to bring them up in the house of God, so they'll hear preaching like this, and preaching like we hear every Sunday morning, every Sunday night, every Wednesday night, and they'll know that God is real. We've got to have it, our kids need it. Does that mean if you bring them up in church they'll never fall away? No, but I'll tell you what, they're far less likely to fall away if you bring them to church than they are if you don't bring them to church. I have watched parents grieve over their children. And I've watched them as I've pastored them for years and their kids take a left turn and go out into sin and wickedness. And I remember for years I preached to those parents, stay in church, stay faithful to God, stay in the Bible, get your kids to church activities and to church things. Get them to Sunday school. Get them to anything the church is involved in. Give them an appetite for spiritual things. And the parents ignored me. And now their heart is broken. And definitely I would never say I tried to tell ya. But the truth is, I know in my heart, I tried to tell them. You see, these sparrows understood the place to raise their young. The greatest responsibility the Lord has given parents is to raise children that love Him. That's your greatest responsibility. You say, well, I work hard and I clothe them. That's good, but that's not your greatest responsibility. Well, I put food on the table. Wonderful! But that's not your greatest responsibility. Your greatest responsibility is to teach them to love God, love His Word, and love the house of God and the things of God. It's time we teach our young people to reverence the house of God. Amen? To reverence it. We need to teach kids, and I appreciate what the pastor did this morning. One of the young people started running out. He called, don't run, don't run. You know what he's doing? He's teaching them the reverence, the house of God. This is not a racetrack. Say amen right there. This is a place where collectively we meet to worship the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. We ought to reverence this place. We ought to respect this place. But let me say, going quickly, I've got to hurry. I've got a hospital to visit, and you've got lunch to eat. Amen. Children, not all must be taught to reverence the house of God. They need to be taught to reverence the man of God. Amen. You remember in 2 Kings 2, verse 23, there was a group of kids. making fun of Elijah, called he was ball-headed. And whenever, it's so funny, whenever they kept doing it, the Bible said that Elijah put a curse on them, or was it Elisha? Which one was it? Elisha. Man, I get them, I wish they was Pete and Joe, I could keep it separate, man. But Elisha, he said, he called out the she-bears. And ate them up. Why? Because they were not respecting the man of God. And it wasn't the individual, it was the position that he held. Amen? Now, my kids, when we were raising them, I had preached on this some time, and after my kids got to be teenagers, and I'd be talking to them, and they would look at me and say, the she bears know. I wish you could know my family, they're fun. They're fun. But you know, I've always taught my kids to reverence the man of God. When I was just a member of the church, my kids reverenced the man of God. Let me just give you a word of advice here. Never tell your kids, I'm gonna tell the preacher on you if you don't do right. I don't mean to be unkind, but that's stupid. Because what you're doing, you're causing them to fear the one who loves them more than life. And we do that to manipulate them in doing what we want them to do. You shouldn't have to tell the man of God. You know it, you ought to deal with it. Say amen right there. Amen. The best friend your child has is the man that's standing behind this pulpit and loves them and leads them tells them truths from Scripture. Best friend you'll ever have. Don't ever show disrespect to the man of God, but certainly not in front of your child. We should teach them to reverence the Word of God. I've got to hurry, but I'm going to make a statement here now. Go on. If your kids grow up not loving the Bible, it's not your preacher's fault. Well, they went to public school, and you know how that is. It ain't the public school's fault. If we don't develop in our children a desire for the word of God, it's our fault. You as a parent need to teach your kids to love the Bible, to love the Bible, to read the Bible, read it to them. The church is a lovely place when we're passionate about it. It's a lovely place whenever parents Raised their kids there, but it's a lovely place look in verse 4 Where we give praise to God Blessed are they that dwell in thy house. They will still be praising thee I Want to tell you something As far as news goes I can't watch news I get so backslid I can't hardly watch it I So I watch it very little. I mean, if I do, I just watch bits and pieces. But when I watch the news, and it's very rare, I don't find myself giving God praise. Can I tell you what some of my favorite TV programs are? I Love Lucy. Leave It to Beaver. Andy Griffith. These are my favorites, but not a one of them caused me to praise God. Not a one of them. But I tell you what, when I come to church and I hear the songs like we sung this morning, and I hear the songs that we sing that are special, and I hear the congregational singing, that causes my heart to well up with praise and adoration to the Lord. I'm going to tell you, you're not going to get that anywhere else. I do believe you ought to praise God at home. And I want to tell you something, there's just something different about praising God at church. And don't get caught up on the method of praise. Everybody praises differently. I understand that. All of us have different ways. I mean, I, honest with you, I weep a lot of times when I praise God. I'll raise my hand. Sometimes I'll stand up and shout hallelujah. Everybody doesn't do that. I'd like to say, I'd like for you when you leave here this morning to say, I sure gave God praise today. The Bible says, talks about praise because we should praise God for the giving of sin. He talks about here in the courts of the Lord. You know what was in the courts of the tabernacle? It was that brazen altar. That brazen altar was given for the purpose of atoning for sin. and what it templifies in our lives, it is that they went there, they offered their sacrifice to atone for sin, and here we find the sons of Korah were saying, I praise God that my sins have been atoned for. I'm grateful that I have been saved, in our terminology. I'm praising God that he has washed my sins in the blood of his dear son, and he saved me and gave me a home in heaven. You know, the Bible says that I'm not to rejoice because devils are searching to me. But he said, I am to rejoice because my name is written in heaven. How long has it been since you just cleared you off a spot and took a hallelujah stroll with God and had a shout and spell because God saved you, kept you out of hell, gave you eternal life through the blood of his dear son? How long has it been? I'll tell you, if you get used to that, it'll make church a whole lot more fun. a whole lot more enjoyable. But then also in that court there was also the brazen laver. These are all sermons in themselves, I'm just touching on them. The purpose of the brazen laver was this, that after the offering was sacrificed and then the priest would walk to go into the tabernacle, their feet would get dirty and their hands would be dirty and they would stop at that brazen labor and they'd wash their hands and their feet before they went into the tabernacle or the presence of God. What this tells me is this, as I walk in this life after I've been saved, Man, my hands get dirty and my feet get dirty. There's some sin that I've allowed to go unchecked in my life and I'm thankful for that spiritual labor when I go to and I say, Jesus, forgive me. I've sinned against you and he washes my sins away and forgives me and gives me peace with God. I'm glad he saved me whenever I was born again here in the third grade, but I'm glad that from that day to this, he still forgives me. You say, well, I don't need that. Well, maybe you ought to be preaching this morning. Amen? Yeah, you need that just like I do. I've got a whole sermon I preach in Psalms 107, and it says four times in Psalms 107, oh, that men would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works with children of men. Verse 13, it talks about the children of Israel when they sinned against God. Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and He saved them out of their distresses. He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death and break their bands of thunder. He's talking about the children of Israel that had gotten back in fellowship with God. And He says, oh, that men would praise the Lord for His goodness. and for his wonderful work with children of men. Isn't it good to know that whenever you confess your sin, he's faithful and just to forgive you of your sin and to cleanse you of all unrighteousness? We should praise him for forgiveness of sin. We should praise him because of the foundation we have in Christ Jesus. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ the solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand." We should give God praise because we have a future in heaven. Church is a lovely place. I love it. I'm honest with you. I can't fathom why people don't love going to church. My brothers and sisters are here. God's Word is preached. Songs of Zion are sung. Fellowship is enjoyed. Burdens are lifted. Problems are solved. Why would you not want that? Amen. We need to get faithful to church. I remember years ago, and I'll touch on this, and I'm done. Years ago, I was preaching a revival meeting up in Middle Tennessee, and Jeremy, I'm not sure if he was already out of college, and he was, I think he was already out of college, already teaching in a Christian school, and he had come home for a few weeks, and so had that revival, so he went with me. Jeremy's my oldest. Mitchell's my youngest. April's the center child, the girl. But I was preaching one night in that revival, and I made a statement. I said, I have never, and it was an honest statement, not one time did one of my children ever ask me, Dad, are we going to church today? Never. They knew if it was Sunday, we're going. They knew if it was Wednesday, we're going. They knew if it was Bible, we're going. I mean, I never heard that, or never spoke that, and my kids never heard it. You'll love this. I said, you need to know my family. After the service was over, it was like on maybe a Tuesday night or Wednesday night of the meeting, whatever night it was, we went back to the motel, and Jeremy said, Dad, are we going to church tomorrow night? I would knock a knot on his head, amen. But I'm not saying that to boast in me. I've just learned whenever I was young how important church is. I learned when I was raising my kids how important church is. I've learned as a young dad, Jill and I got married when we were 18 years old, and Jeremy come along, we were either 20 or right at 21. I learned as a young dad how much my kids needed church. Let me conclude with these questions. And I want to say this, don't get mad at the questions. If you're going to get mad, get mad at the answers. Amen. Why did you come to church this morning? Was out of habit? Tradition? Responsibility? Second question. What did you do to prepare to come to church this morning? It's all, you know, Brother Eddie, I got up, I took a shower, brushed my teeth and combed my hair, shaved my face, got my clothes on. That's not what I'm talking about. Spiritually, what'd you do to prepare to come to church? You see, we're trying to make this place pleasant in your mind, and that can only happen as you prepare. Third question. Where's your mind being since you've been in church this morning? Don't get mad at me, I'm just asking the questions. If there's a problem, it's with the answers. It's not with the questions. There's a fourth question, and that's this. What are you gonna do about the answers to the first three questions? If I have one thing that I excel in, it is practicality. I'm extremely practical. And so the question is, we asked you this question, why did you come to church? What did you do to prepare to come to church? And where's your mind been since you've been at church? The last question is this, and what are you gonna do about it? Amen? I think that's good questions. Jesus loved the church, and he gave himself for it. Are you giving yourselves to that which Jesus died for? You say, well, I know preachers, they only do it because they get paid. Can I tell you I did a long time before I ever got paid? Amen. You see, as Christians, we need to understand that God has given us an avenue by which we can renew our spirits We encourage our hearts. Worship God. Give him praise. And be a blessing to those around us. And in the meantime, raise our kids to say, wow, this church, this church day. Let me tell you, change your vocabulary. Let me just share this and I'll be done, I promise. Quit saying we have to go to church. Quit saying it. Get out of your vocabulary. Don't go in, wake the kids up on Sunday, say, get up, get up, we have to go to church today. Go in, wake them up, say, get up, get up, we get to go to church today. Amen? Is that not different? Get that mindset. Because when you put it in their mind, we have to go to church, it immediately, it's like we have to go to school. Now I'm honest with you, that was not top on my list when I was a young person. I have to go to the dentist, amen? I have to go to the doctor. I never get up and say, I get to go to the dentist today. No. And when we put that have to in front of going to church, it puts in our kids a mindset that it's a thing to be dreaded, not something to embrace. So if you don't get nothing else from what I've said this morning, at least get that. We get to go to church. On Sunday afternoon, you ought to be looking at your watch saying, oh, three more hours, we get to go back to church. Now, if you're like me, you have to wake up before you do that. But after you wake up, OK, I got two hours, we're going to be at church. Get that in your heart. And by the way, if the church is lovely to you, it's already there. It's already there. I'll say this, and I'm done. If you're lost this morning, what I said can help you. You need to be in church, but it won't save you. Just one thing that'll save you, and that is Jesus Christ. His death, His burial, and His resurrection. I'm glad you're here. I hope you'll come back next week. I hope you'll be back tonight. I hope you'll come Wednesday. I'm glad you're here, but being here won't do the job. The only thing that can get you to heaven is Jesus, nothing else, nothing else. And if you're lost this morning, you come to church maybe out of duty, but you come and God spoke to your heart about your need of salvation, why don't you let him save you today? He's in the saving business still. Father, we're grateful for your word. We're thankful that people are here to hear it. Thank you, Lord, for the truths of Psalms 84 that reminds us as believers how lovely, how precious is the house of God. Lord, I pray for those of us that are believers that are maybe on the fence and we're maybe not really joyful at coming to church. God, would you please convict us help us lord to look into your word what we heard this morning please let it speak to our hearts and let us those three questions at this alter this morning god if there's one that is lost i pray that you speak to their heart bring them to salvation in christ jesus help them lord understand what it means to be born again help us to help them come to know you in the free pardon of sin. I ask it in Jesus name. Our heads are bowed as the ladies