You are accustomed now to all the liturgical changes we have made over the course of this last year. You must now be exhorted to remember the point of all such orders of worship. The fact that you know the order of events frees you to concentrate on worshiping the Lord Himself, just as learning …
You Were Baptized in Water
When we gather together as the people of God, remember that we are the redeemed of the Lord. Our characteristic note should therefore be one of exuberance and joy. Accept no substitutes, particularly the substitute of carnally generated joy. We are called to worship God in the joy of the Holy Ghost. We are commanded …
For the Small Stuff
I am on the road this Lord’s Day, and will be preaching at Christ Church in Cary. At home in Christ Church, the pulpit will be filled by Francis Foucachon. Thus, as it turns out, I am not responsible for the exhortation in the call to worship this morning, or for the homily that accompanies …
Like One Another
By the grace of God, we are growing into a genuine community. This means that we must deal with far more than the simple issues that attend membership in a religious club that meets once a week. We are learning to live together. This means shared meals. It means watching one another’s children. It means …
Three-Fold Office
Our Lord’s threefold office has been described as that of prophet, priest, and king. But these are not mere titles we assign to Him, without any practical apparent meaning. At the beginning of our service, we confess our sins. We seek a way to approach God through the blood of Jesus Christ. In the forgiveness …
Worship As Unity
This morning the ministry of the Word will be brought by Pastor Steve Schlissel, of Messiah’s Congregation in Brooklyn, New York. We of course welcome him in the name of Jesus Christ, and declare grace and peace to him, and to his wife Jeannie, and his daughter Rebekah. But he is not here as a …
Words and Worship
James tells us not to bless God with our tongues while we go on sinning with our tongues. You are coming now to sing, to pray, to say amen, to fellowship with the saints. This means you must pay attention to your words. You have frequently heard that you are not to impute motives when …
Please. Come In.
Once there was a man with gifts in accounting, but it has to be said that he became intolerable. He, of course, did very well at his job, which was an accounting job, but his problem was that he could not be made to understand that all of life was not like that. He thought …
Take Off Your Shoes
As we are given the enormous privilege, again, of ascending into the heavenly places to worship God in the name of Jesus Christ, take special care. We are walking into the throne room of God, and so we must take off our shoes — we are entering into a most holy place. If we walk …
Avoiding Moral Incongruities
The Lord’s brother warned us about the problem of incongruity in speech. With the same tongue we praise God, in a service of worship, and we also curse those who are made in God’s likeness — whether in traffic, or in family irritations, or in self-righteousness censure. Gossip during the week is inconsistent with what …