You are gathered here as an assembly of those who have been washed in the Word of the Lord, in the waters of baptism. You are the congregation of the saints, the assembly of the righteousness. You have gathered here, not from habit or custom, but rather to hear the same Word that washed you, and then by the grace of God in covenant, you are here to eat and drink that same Word yet again through faith.
Our God is truly a gracious God. He placed His grace on you in baptism, and He pours His grace into you through the preached Word and the privilege of eating and drinking at His table. The sole instrument for making these means of grace effectual is evangelical faith. The grace of God is the grace in which we now stand, in which we live and move and have our being. The grace of God surrounds you on every hand. Covenant faithfulness sees this, and glories in it.
Therefore, I charge you in the name of Jesus Christ, in the presence of God the Father and all His holy angels, and empowered by the Holy Spirit of God, to worship God rightly now, without dissembling or hypocrisy.
The waters of grace were given to you. Remember that grace. The psalms God gave to us are a precious possession; return those psalms to Him now. The Word of the Lord will be declared; tremble to hear it, and let the trembling be rich with joy. We are now ascending into the heavenly places, and God wants to hear our petitions and thanks – overflow with them. God invites us to converse with Him; respond to what He does and says by singing back to Him, and by saying amen as though you have been forgiven – for you have been. And He has set His table; look forward to the culmination of our communion with Him. He has given us union with Him, and therefore you are to grow in communion.
You are saints; you are growing in Him; let the taproot sink deep.