Missions and worship

Leading hud who are said missions exist because worship does not. That essentially, we do missions because there are people who are not yet worshiping the one True and Living God. There are people who are mired in idolatry, there are people who are serving false gods, and that this is merely unacceptable to those of us who know God. There is an inexorable link between missions and worship. As we spread the word of God abroad, essentially we are spreading the worship of God abroad. We are calling people to know God and to worship God. Now, it's because this link is so inexorable that it's incredibly important that we understand what worship is. If we're going to do mission, we have to understand the worship because essentially we are establishing worshiping communities. And there has been much degradation in our understanding and practice of worship in recent years. I'm sad to say that even in Reformed circles, there has been much degradation in our practice of worship, in our understanding of worship that there are where I come from, there is a sort of revival of what I would call quasi reformed theology. In other words, people are grabbing hold of the doctrines of grace, and I praise God for that. Amen, hallelujah, praise the Lord that people are grabbing hold of the doctrines of grace. Unfortunately, for many people, they equate this with the sum total of reformed theology. And so you'll have people who are not reformed, who are called reformed, who are known as reformed. And what this does is it clouds our understanding and it leads to practices that don't line up with overall Reformed doctrine as a whole. And one of the areas where this compromise begins to creep in is in our worship practice. And so we have people who approach worship from a standpoint that is not reformed, but the hold of the doctrines of grace and call themselves reformed. And therefore there's a generation of people who don't know that there's such thing as a reformed approach to worship. That the Reformation addressed worship, that there were debates and the Reformation between those who held to regulative worship and those who held to normative worship. Those who held to regulative worship argued that worship was only appropriate to the degree that it was offered in the way that God commanded. Interestingly enough, our topic was that of Reformed worship. And as we talk about this issue of worship, I was alluding to the fact that there were two schools of thought coming out of the Reformation. There was one idea, the regulative principle, that argued that the way we worship God must be governed by the Scripture, such that we only worship God in those ways that He specifically tells us. That we only worship God in those ways that He tells us to worship him. In other words, the elements of our worship must be those elements of worship that we find in the scriptures, and those elements only. Now, the reason this is important is because, remember, the Reformers are coming out of and responding to, the false worship in Roman Catholicism. So the question then became what things do we include and what things do we not include? And the answer was rooted in sola scriptural that the Bible tells us how we are to worship God. There was a second school of thought that held to what is called the normative principle. The normative principle argue that we worship God in those ways that are specifically prescribed in script sure and other ways that are not specifically denied by scripture. So if the Bible doesn't say it's forbidden, and it doesn't necessarily contradict what we find in the scriptures, that it would be acceptable to add these elements to our worship as well. So, coming out of the Reformation, there were these two schools of thought. There was the regulative principle and the normative principle. The Reformers held to the regulative principle of worship. However, today there's no argument about regulative versus normative. In fact, most people have never heard of the regulative principle, never heard of the normative principle, and so by default we hold to what I like to call the affective principle. In other words, here's how we define acceptable worship. If there is someone somewhere who likes it and says they're blessed by it, then it's acceptable. That's the way we believe today. If there's someone somewhere who likes it and says they're blessed by it, then it is acceptable worship. And in fact, anyone who would argue otherwise is legalistic and not spiritual. But the question is is that a legitimate way to understand worship from a biblical perspective. The answer to that question is no. And in order to make that argument, what I want to do is I want to address another issue that is central to the Reformed faith and that really separates the Reformed Faith from other versions of Christianity, and that is I want to look in God's Law. One of the hallmarks of Reformed Christianity is a belief in the perpetuity of the moral law and the belief that the moral law is summarized for us in the Ten Commandments. And so I want us to look there. I want us to look in the Ten Commandments. In fact, I want us to look at the first Table of the Law, the first four Commandments, which I believe set the parameters for biblical worship. This is important on two fronts. First, again, it's important for us to know and understand what biblical worship is. And as we move forward, what we're doing is establishing worshiping communities. Again, this is who we are. Jesus said that God was seeking worshipers who would worship him in spirit and in truth. So if God is seeking worshipers. We ought to be a worshiping people, Amen. And if God is seeking worshippers, our mission ought to be to create worshiping communities. But as we do that, we must do it in accordance with God's word. And secondly, this is important again because we're going back to God's law in order to get an understanding of this. Exendus Chapter twenty. I'm so glad I brought my iPad tonight. Exendus chapter twenty, beginning of verse one, and God spoke all these words, saying, I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. Now stop there. It's very important to understand why God brought Israel out of Egypt. And on a number of instances he says so through Moses to Pharaoh, and what he says again and again, and we often miss the second part of this. Everybody remembers let my people go, Amen, But what we don't necessarily remember is it was let my people go so that they can worship me. This is why God wanted his people out of Egypt, so that they could worship him. We often missed that in fact, in the Book of Exodus, we often missed two thirds of it. I don't mean as far as the length of the book. I mean as far as the significance of the book. Oftentimes, when we think about Exodus, the only thing that we think of is the baby in the basket and the confrontation between Moses and Pharaoh. However, that is only the starting point of the book of Exodus. After this starting point, the people of Israel are freed from Egypt, and God gives them two things. One he gives them his law, and two he gives them instructions for the tabernacle. This is where Exodus ends. Exodus ends with a worshiping community. Exodus is about God creating a people to worship him. It is about God dwelling among and in the midst of a people who worship Him. And this inexorable link between a life of holiness and a life of worship. A life of holiness will lead to a life of worship, Amen, and that worship will be in accordance with holiness. And so when he says, there, I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, there ought to be in your mind dot dot, so that you would worship me. Then we get these first four commandments, two tables of the law. First table of the law, those vertical commandments, our duty to God. Second table of the law, horizontal commandments, our duty command. Jesus referred to these two tables of the law in Matthew chapter twenty two when he was confronted asked to the greatest commandment. Now there were schools of thought, some schools of thought that thought the greatest commandment was the first. Some thought it was the fifth because it's a bridge between the first and second tables of the law, could belong to either one. And some thought that it was the tenth because ultimately, all of our sin is a result of our coveting. So when Jesus is approached in Matthew twenty two and they ask him what is the greatest commandment, they probably thought he was gonna say one, or five or ten. However, his response in Matthew twenty two thirty seven is that the greatest commandment is you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. In other words, Jesus, what's the greatest commandment. His response is one through four. That's a summary of the first table of the law. And then he says and the second is like it, love your neighbor as yourself. This is a summary of five through ten. Jesus, what's the greatest commandment? I'm gonna have to say one through four followed closely by five through ten. That's his answer to the question. And so we're looking here at commandments one through four, and we're looking at them very specifically as it relates to worship. Worship that is appropriate, worship that is acceptable, the kind of worshiping community that God is creating. The first commandment is there in verse three, you shall have no other gods before me. This first commandment gives us the object of our worship. If worship is to be appropriate, it must be directed at the appropriate object. And the appropriate object of worship is the Triune God, and the Triune God alone. If our worship is directed in any other way, it is idolatrous, it is unacceptable worship. This is why in Acts chapter seventeen, when Paul comes to Athens, he looks around and he sees the idols, and he is perplexed. He sees the idols, and he is He is not at ease. He sees the idols and he is beside himself because the city is filled with idols. Because when you know and worship the One True God, it is not acceptable for there to be worship offered to anyone else. This problem is a subtle one for us Christians, because as Christians, we know, for example, that we're not supposed to bow down before idols. We're not supposed to bring idols in before us. We know that we're not supposed to worship false gods. However, there are small ways that we can change our focus in our worship, and this happens especially in missions. You see in missions, oftentimes what we will do is we will create worship experiences that are designed to elicit a specific kind of response from the people whom we are trying to reach. And so just doing that in and of itself means that God is no longer the main focus of our worship. All of a sudden, Man becomes the focus of our worship. Because we are asking ourselves what is it that man wants? What is it that will please man? This in itself is idolatry. It is unacceptable worship. When man is at the center, God must be at the center. Our worship, in fact, must be an exposition of the One True God. When we gather together, our goal is to speak to God and to speak about God, and to speak for God. This is our goal. Our goal is to please God in all that we do. Because God is God and there is no other. He says, I will not share my glory with another, and so man centered worship becomes unacceptable for the Ken Jones brought up to us earlier this week this very same issue when he talked about the program that he was watching, and in watching this program, how there was a reformed church that continued to lose numbers because of another church in the area, because of a particular movement, because of the seeker driven movement, because of people who have designed worship around the idea that we want lost people to come and feel right at home. There is pressure here. This is why Paul tells Timothy to preach the word and to be in season and out of season, because there was a time coming when people would not endure sound doctrine, but instead they would accumulate for themselves. Teachers in accordance with their own desires, and they would turn aside from the truth and start to follow myths. Of This is also true as it relates to worship. There are people who do not want and will not tolerate God's centered worship. They want worship that is centered on man. They want worship that is centered on them. They want worship that is designed to give them a particular kind of experience. And if the worship doesn't give them that particular kind of experience, they will go elsewhere. Folks, I've had conversations with Christians who say that they love Jesus with every fiber of their being. They love the Word of God. They want the word of God. However, there is a church near them where the word of God is preached, but they don't like the music, so they go to another church where the word of God is not preached faithfully, but the music makes them feel good every week. This is what we've come to, this is what we've begun to experience. And by the way, notice the focus here. The focus here is on what the service makes me, feel, not whether or not God is exalted. How many of you know that being in a place where God is exalted doesn't always feel good. There are sometimes in your life where being in the presence of Almighty God makes you want to curl up in a ball and crawl underneath something. Amen. And yet this is truth. There is also a sense in missions where we look at things from the perspective of an anthropologist and not from a perspective of theologian. And so the anthropologist comes in and tries to figure out what the people in a particular community think or believe about God, and then create a worship experience and create a gospel presentation that is in keeping with what these people are believing about God. This is happening oftentimes in Muslim communities. In Muslim communities, there are people who are trying to bring this idea that you guys worship a loh but Allah is actually the same as the God that we worship. Let us just introduce you to this. This is problematic, This is unacceptable. That is not worshiping the same God. Giving a different name to the God people already worshiped is like finding a man committing adultery and instead of saying that woman is not your wife, get up out of the bed, we say to him, you're okay, just call her by your wife's name. This is the exact same sentiment people doolatry is unacceptable. God says, you shall have no other gods. You don't worship the god of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob alongside other gods. You don't worship him in ways that other people worship their gods. For example, this is why in the Holiness Codes and Leviticus eighteen through twenty, there are things like you don't cut the edges of your beard. You ever wonder why there are these things or why you shouldn't cut the edd This is because there were worshiping communities around Israel that had very specific ways that they cut their hair in accordance with the worship of their pagan gods. God is saying to his people Israel, do not practice, even in the way you present yourself, the religion of the pagans. There's also this forbidding of tattoos. Don't wear these tattoos typically, don't mark yourself for the dead. Why is this because there was pagan worship being practice that included the marking of one's body for the dead. So God says, don't even engage in these practices that are around you. Don't even look like these people that are around you, because they do those things to worship their pagan gods, and you must take no part in that. So the first commandment sets parameters around our worship, and that it makes clear the object of our worship. The second commandment. If the first commandment makes clear the object of our worship, the second commandment sets the limitations of our worship. You shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is 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 generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. There are limitations. Not everything is acceptable, and I would argue that this is the touchstone of the regulative principle of worship, that God does not accept worship in other ways. Now, there are a couple of biblical examples to let us know how serious God is about this. The one example is the example of Uzza and the Ark. God gave very specific instructions as to how the art was to be carried. This was an aspect of Israel's worship, and the Philistines had taken the ark, and because the Philistines had the ark, God was visiting them with all sorts of plays, and they didn't want the ark anymore. They put the ark on a cart and just sent the ark back, hoping that it would find his way back to Israel. It comes back and there's a celebration, but in the midst of all of this, the ark is about to fall, and uz A, because he loves God and loves the ark, reaches out to stop the ark from falling on the ground. And at this moment, the best quote I've ever heard about this text is from Arcie Sproul. Arcie Sproul said, Uzza made the mistake of believing that his hand was cleaner than the dirt, and so rather than allow the ark to fall on the dirt, he reaches out and he grabs it, and God kills him. The other example is from nay Dab and Abai, who nay Dab and Abeyeh, who are in the Ministry of worshiping. And God has made very clear how it is that he is to be worshiped. He's made very clear how it is that the fire is to be maintained. And Nadiabnebaye, who meaning well, decides that they're going to be innovative in worshiping, and in their innovation, they bring strange fire before the Holy God and they are consumed and they are dead. These two examples show us the seriousness with which God approaches his worship. These two examples show us that there is no amount of sincerity that God will accept when it comes to idolatry of any kind and worship that is unauthorized. These examples demonstrate to us that our goal in worshiping God ought never to be innovation. Our goal ought always to be faithfulness. That we worship God as God has told us he wants to be worshiped. Why would we assume that we know better than God how he ought to be worshiped, And why would we assume that God has let something out that would be more appropriate for him in worship. What kind of God is it who would say, here are your instructions in worship, but if you really love me, you'll find out this thing that I really like, and I'm going to test you and see if you can ever get there. This is not the God whom we worship. The God whom we worship gives us worship for very specific reasons, and he communicates there certain things to us through that worship about himself, so that when we worship him, we are to worship him in precisely those ways that he has prescribed. We don't ask ourselves what do lost people like? We don't ask ourselves what do carnal and selfish people like? We ask ourselves what does God demand? Now, this text brings up an issue. And I've said this many times, but there are those who have a hard time but this text because of this idea of God being jealous. And we look at this and we say to ourselves, what jealousy is wrong? And jealousy is a sin. It's one of the worst sins. So how is it that God can be a holy God and simultaneously be jealous. It's interesting. I know you know the name Oprah Winfrey. Oprah Winfrey is the wealthiest woman in the world by far. She has more money than she could probably ever spend. I don't even know how much money Oprah has, there's a certain point at which it really doesn't matter. Amen, She's just that rich. And I'm not mad at her. Amen, I'm not mad at her for being that rich. God bless her more money, more problems. I'm not mad at her. But you know, Oprah grew up in church, and Oprah has turned her back on Christianity and has adopted and embraced all manners of idolatry. She's embraced all kinds of religions and all kinds of spirituality. And she said on one of her programs that I was watching and I think you know, and you're obligated at any time when you say that you saw something on Oprah's show, you're obligated to say, I was just flipping through channels and then I saw it, and so I was. I was flipping through the channels and narrow things. And she was having one of these moments that my wife tries to keep me away from. There are these moments on television where people are doing and saying things, and my wife will come and she will say to me, so, Yark, why why do you do this to yourself? Because she can see the veins start to pop out in my neck and I start to talk to the television and she says, you know they can't hear you, right, And so this was one of those days because Oprah said that the moment that she knew she had to leave the church is when she heard the preacher say God was a jealous God, because jealousy is a sin, and she did not want to serve a God who was so petty that he would be jealous. I got up close to the television and I was pleading with her, just give me a few moments of your time. That's all I need, just a few moments of just And she wasn't listening to me. But if I could just get those few moments, I would sit her down and I would say, my dear sister, would you please listen to me. Your problem is that you don't understand the definition of jealousy and that you don't understand the character of God. You see, Jealousy happens when I envy you because of the praise, possessions or position that you have that I think ought to belong to me. Jealousy basically is me saying to God, you don't know how to hand out praise and possessions or positions because that person has them and I ought to. Jealousy is me looking at what you have and saying I want it for myself. Now when I do that, I'm being dissatisfied with what God has given me, and I am thinking too much of myself. However, God, on the other hand, deserves all praise, all possessions, and all positions. Therefore, if God were to not be jealous and allow the praise, possessions, and positions that belong to Him to be bestowed upon another, that he would be guilty of the idolatry that he himself condemns. Therefore, in order for God to be holy and righteous, us be jealous, because his jealousy is merely the expression of the fact that all praise is God's, all possessions are Gods, and ultimately all positions are Gods. That is why it is sinful for you, but not sinful for God. So if she ever comes over here and gives you a few minutes of her time, we have to share that with her. This is what it means for God to be a jealous God, and we need to worship God as though he's a jealous God. And as we advance the Gospel among peoples and tribes and nations and tongues, we need to make sure that in teaching them to observe everything that the Lord has commanded us, that we keep them to observe this principle of the second commandment, that there are limitations around our worship. That you cannot merely add the worship of Jesus to whatever worship you're familiar with or comfortable with. That there is a way that He is to be worshiped, and not beyond that. Then there's the third commandment. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. This demonstrates the reference of our worship. Worship is to be done in reference. We are to come before God as though God is God. We are to come before God confessing and acknowledging our sin, embracing and receiving His forgiveness. We are to come before God with His name on our lifts, not as a curse. We are to come before God. And the reformers have understood that this is not just about God's name, but it's also about his word and his words. It is about all the things that God has created and all the things that represent God. They are to be treated with reference. God is to be treated with reference. Now, listen, let me be very careful here when I say that God is to be treated with reference. There are some people who take this completely overboard. There are some people, for example, who think that you know you're a laughter We just laughed a few moments ago. And there are some people who would argue, oh, no, no, no, no, no, you can't laugh and worship because to laugh would be irreverent. And if they hear anything that would make them laugh and worship, they would immediately stop and by their heads and repent before God for finding something funny. Say repent. But the Bible tells us that laughter is good, that it does us good like medicine. There is a difference between us acknowledging those things that might be humorous for us because God laughs at the wicked Amen, and us Amen, Hollelujah, praise the Lord. Okay, there is a difference between this and us, for example, engaging in the Holy laughter movement. Have you seen this, whether people are you know, stricken with the spirit or us spirit. As I say, they're stricken with us spirit. They call it the spirit. I say, it's us spirit, and they laugh and they laugh uncontrollably. The key there is uncontrollably. In reference before God, all things are done decently and in order. Then there is a way that we comport ourselves. There is a way that we present ourselves. There's even a way that we dress ourselves when we come before a holy God. Now again, we can take this too far, and all of a sudden we become like the Muslims, and we have people covering themselves up. Walk around in Islamic countries and there are women who are covering up with everything but their eyes. You know the great irony in that you see. Modesty in its truest sense means to not draw inappropriate attention to yourself. When I see a woman walking around like that, I can't help but stand and it's drawing inappropriate attention because it doesn't fit in this century. This is the dress from centuries and there reason ago that was oppressive event and is oppressive now. Amen. So when we talk about the reference with which we worship God, we're talking about in the attitude of our hearts that we come before God and we revere him. I'll never forget. I was preaching at an event in the US, and it was the first time that I was in a big concert style event. There was thousands, thousands of young people, college aged people, four or five thousand of them. And I came into this room and again everything I saw, the stage that was set up, and it's amazing. This ought to speak volumes to us. As it relates to worship. In Roman Catholicism, the principal piece of furniture is what the table for the Eucharist, because that's the sinner, the doctor and transphantiation and the literal body and blood of Christ. That's the center of Roman Catholic worship. After the Reformation, they build these cathedrals, and the most auspicious piece of furniture in those cathedrals is the pulpit, because they were saying sold the scripture. Oftentimes you have to walk upstairs to get to these hostere pulpits. They folk volumes. The table was still there, but the pulpit was a central piece of furniture in most churches today. In my culture, the central piece of furniture is not a piece of furniture at all, it's a stage. We've gone from the table to the pulpit to a stage. We've gone from the Eucharist to the preached word of God to the certain and this is where we were. And I'm here and I'm looking at the stage, and it was absolutely mind bottling. And all of a sudden things started. And when things started, the lights went down in the room. The lights came up on the stage. The stage lights were moving all around, and they were different colors. The smoke machine came on and the stage filled with smoke. The band walked out onto the stage and they started to play. The place filled with noise like you would not believe. And I looked around and young people began to jump around and comport themselves in such a way that was anything but holy. It was irreverent. It was irreverent not because it was loud. I don't know if you realize this or not, but you folks are loud. Amen. There's nothing wrong with loud. But there's a difference between people who are singing out and singing with one another and singing to the Lord, and people who are in a room where the music is so loud that it drowns them. Out, and all they can do is close their eyes as though they're no longer in a worshiping community, scream to the top of their lungs, and move their bodies like they're at a rock custer. That says something that communicates something. It says something about our reference before a holy God, or our lack thereof young people. Listen to me, You're being pulled in a lot of different directions in regards to this very thing. Hear me when I I say this that everything that we do has consequences. And when we gather before God, the question that we need to ask ourselves is does this make much of God? Is this referent before God? Or am I engaging in something that is merely feeding and gratifying my flesh. This is a central battle ground. It's not just a central battle ground as we move forward into cultures that don't understand biblical worship, but it's a central battle ground. As the Pentecostal movement gains more and more ground, and as we become more and more familiar and less and less put off by excesses, more and more willing to accept those excesses as more normal, we must be vigilant and we must be careful as it relates to our reverence in worship. The first commandment gives us the object of our worship, the second the limitations of our worship, the third the reverence of our worship, and the fourth the regularity of our worship. Verse eight, remember the sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is the Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, your son, your daughter, your male servant, your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath and made it holy. This is the commandment that everyone wants to abandon. This is the commandment that people see as here relevance. This is the commandment that many today, even who holds to the doctrines of Grace but don't hold a reformed doctrine as a whole, would say, it's legalistic. You can hold it the other nine and it's not legalistic. But if you hold to this one. It's legalistic newsflash. If we don't hold to the fourth commandment, why do we meet once a week on the Lord's Day. If we don't hold to the fourth commandment and there is no moral obligation, then how can we discipline people for not being faithful in worship. Here's the other issue. God gives us this not here in the law for the first time, but it gives us this in creation. It's the creation of ordinance. God creates the world in six days, and on the seventh day he rests. Listen, My God neither slumbers nor sleeps. He does not get tired. So when he rested, it was not for his own benefit. It was not because he needed a reader. When he rested, it was to communicate something. And what he was communicating with the centrality and the regularity of our worship. One day in seven we come together and we worship God. Why because we are acknowledging that God is God. We're acknowledging that he created the world and everything in it. We're acknowledging that he is the censor of our physical and our temporal universe. You can take a man who knows nothing and put him out in the middle of the desert and give him a few instruments, and in a while you can come back and if he's a man, who's a you can ask this man as you've looked around with these instruments and observed, have you observed the concept of a year? Why? Yes, I have. The year is how long it takes for the Earth to orbit the Sun, and if you watch the stars long enough, you can see that that's just about three hundred and sixty five days. Yes, I have observed, through the instruments that you've given me and through what is out there in space, I've observed the concept of a year. Excellent. Have you observed the concept of a month? Well, actually I have because while I was watching the Sun and I was watching us orbit the Sun, I also noticed that there were these phases of the moon, that the Moon would get larger and then it would get smaller. It was always the same size, but because it would get larger and smaller, I recognized that it was the Sun and its reflection and all these sorts of things. Anyway, in short, what I've noticed is that a month corresponds approximately to one phase of the moon. So yes, through these instruments. I've observed this concept of a month. Have you observed the concept of the day? Yes, that's the first one I got. Day is approximately twenty four hours. That's how long it takes for the Earth to rotate on its axis. Sir, Can you tell me what a week is? Huh? Yeah, a week? And maybe I need another instrument for that, because I'm looking at the Sun, and I'm looking at the moon, and I'm i and I'm exerting the Earth and I'm observing our rotation on our axis and are orbit around the Sun, and I'm observing the moon, and it's maybe you didn't give me enough instruments. Folks. There is no instrument. There is nothing in the sky that will ever give you the concept of a week. The only reason we have that concept is because of Genesis one and two, and it is solely for the purpose of worship, so that we might be reminded one day in seven that there is a God, that he created the world, and we owe him our worship. Not just that we owe God worship one time in our life, or even that we owe God worship during significant moments in our lives. There are other religions that believe that way, that there are certain times that you have to go up and you have to give God worship. That is not Christianity. In fact, he's a New Testament. When you read the New Testament, you won't find days of the week. You won't find, you know, on Sunday we did this, and on Tuesday we did that, and on Friday we did this. You won't find that. You'll find on the first day of the week, and on the second day, and on the fourth day. In other words, here's the way they understood time. The first day after the Sabbath, the second day after the Sabbath, the third day after the Sabbath. In other words, the Lord's day was the center of their temporal universe, and the way that they measured out all of their time and their human existence was through this one day in seven when God commanded worship, we worship him regularly one day in seven. That there's more that can be said about the poor commandment. But for our purposes here understand that this is about the regularity of our worship. One day in seven is the Lord's That one day in seven is set aside for God and for his worship. All four of these commandments give us a biblical theological frame work for what we are to look like as a worshiping community. They give us a biblical theological framework for what we are to advance. As we're running forward with the Gospel, we're to advance this picture. We are to create these worshiping communities. We do not take the Gospel to people and say, Okay, now you're saved. Figure out as best you can how to worship God in a way that's meaningful for you. No, people come to embrace Christ, and as they come to embrace Christ, we initiate them into this worshiping community. In fact, as we go forward proclaiming the Gospel, we move forward as a worshiping community, calling people to join us in this worship community. Because the fact of the matter is, when we know God, we are never satisfied unless every need POWs and every tongue confesses that He is Lord to the glory of God, the Father. Our desire is that all men give God the worship that he is due. And so we end where we began. Missions exist because worship does not. There are people who are worshiping idols. We must bring them into authentic worship. There are people who are worshiping themselves. We must condemn that and bring them into authentic worship. Why because God is worthy of nothing less, every job, every tribe, every nation, every kindred, everyone gathered around the throne of God offering him worship. Isn't it amazing that as we get to this last book in the Bible, and as God shows us the picture both in Revelation five to nine and in Revelation seven nine up the throne room in heaven, that the throne room in Heaven is filled with worshipers. And how many of you know, none of them are trying to figure out how to be innovative, not a single solitary one, in fact, talk about not being innovative. Around the throne. There are angels who do nothing else but say, Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord God Almighty. This is their job and they don't get tired of it. Why because God's just that holy and this is what they were created to do, and this is what we were created to do. But there is the song that we sing that the angels cannot. You see, the angels can't sing the song of the Redeemings because they have not experienced our redemption. And it is because of the redemption that we have in Christ, that our worship is utterly and completely unique, that we fill Heaven with something that heaven never had before our redemption in Christ. That Christ, by his blood has bought for God worshipers who can worship Him, not because we remained in the state that we were in like the age. They were created in this state that was acceptable before God, and they offer this worship that is acceptable before God. Man was created in this state that is acceptable before God. And Adam could offer to God this worship that was acceptable before God. But then Adam fell, and all of us fell in Adam, and as a result of that, none of us can offer God that which is acceptable to Him. But as Peter tells us, it is Christ through the Cross that makes us a peculiar people and a royal priesthood, so that we might offer worship that is acceptable to God. It is only through Christ, so that as we're calling people to worship God, we are not calling them in and of themselves to figure out how to be worshippers. But as we proclaim the gospel, Christ, by virtue of his work on the Cross, transforms people from those who can only offer unacceptable worship, selfish worship, unholy worship, unrighteous worship. By virtue of His work on the Cross, transforms us and changes us so that we can stand before a holy and righteous God, clothe in his righteousness, not our own, and offer to God that which is acceptable, which is a glorious, beautiful and fragrant offering before the King of Kings and the Lord of lords. Missions existed because worship does not let us run forward and make worshippers or the power of the Gospel to the glory of Christ, that he may indeed have the fullness of the reward for which he died. Let's pray, Father, we bow before you, clothed and the righteousness of Christ, and grateful for the privilege of worship. Grateful for this knight that you've given us, this night that you reminded us that we don't need electricity to worship you. We don't need light to worship you, because we have the life of the world. Thank you for creating a worshiping community here in Zambia, for calling us together here less. Thank you that you have called your people throughout time and throughout the world to prepare for us songs that we might sing, so that when we gather in a room like this, from all over Africa and all over the world, we have this rich heritage from which to draw, because we are united not only with one another, but we are united to the Universal Church throughout time, throughout history, that has worshiped you in spirit and in truth. Grant by your grace that we might be mindful of this. Grant by your grace that we may never forget that you are seeking worshipers who will worship you in spirit and in truth, and that in Christ you have made us for psych sleave that we rejoice in this. We thank you for this, and we pray all these things and the name of Jesus. Amen. Amen,