Prepared for Worship

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Transcript:

This morning, we’re going to take a look at the last of the seven reasons that I’ve listed of why people look at Christianity, why people look at the church and say, no, I don’t want anything to do with that. And these reasons that we’ve gone over are not the only reasons out there, but as I’ve tried to listen and tried to understand, these are seven of the most common that I’ve come across. There are hypocrites in the church.

Well, yeah, there are hypocrites down at the gas station too, but you still go fill up your car. But we learn what hypocrisy means to Jesus and how we can address that because it’s not about saying this is the standard and us believing this is the standard and yet I fail to meet it. It’s about saying this is the standard and then pretending that we meet it when we know we don’t.

It’s about acting apart more than it is about failing. We’ve talked about how the church just wants your money. Well, no, not exactly.

And if you are in a church that just wants your money, get out. Run. Run from that place.

And I hope we never give that impression that we’re just about your money. The church is too political. And yes, sometimes the church is too political about the wrong things. There’s nothing political about standing for right and wrong according to the Bible.

But there is something political about saying, well, you know, the biblical principles apply to you and not to me. Biblical principles apply to your party and not mine. And we do run a risk of doing that.

We’ve got to be careful about it. We’ve talked about several reasons. I’ve been hurt in church.

That’s going to happen any time two sinners get together. There’s going to be friction. There’s going to be hurt.

But God’s word gives us the recipe on how to deal with that. Well, today we’re going to look at somewhat a familiar passage. Hopefully it’s familiar to you because we’ve looked at it already just in this series, but one of the less familiar parts of this familiar passage in Hebrews chapter 10, and talk about the subject of preparation for worship.

One of the reasons that I hear frequently, people say they want nothing to do with the church. They don’t need it. Who needs that?

One of the reasons is that people say, well, I don’t get anything out of church. Have you ever been there? Have you ever felt that?

It’s okay to admit it. I don’t want you to be afraid to raise your hand because, oh, the pastor’s going to be offended. I didn’t get anything out of church.

I’m the one preaching, and sometimes I don’t get anything out of church. But you know whose fault that is? Mine.

Not mine as the pastor, but mine as the worshiper. If I don’t get anything out of it, oh, great, he’s going to blame us. No, don’t, don’t.

Stay with me for a minute. We’re going to look at what God’s word says about it. We’ve got to look at why we come to church.

If you’re coming to church because you think God takes attendance and it’s going to somehow, it’s going to somehow move you up in his sight, it doesn’t work that way. You might as well stay home. Now, I hope you don’t.

But if you’re coming to church just because you think God takes attendance and you’ve got to be there, you’re not going to get anything out of church. I remember that there were classes in college I had to take because they were required, and I didn’t care anything about them, and I only went because they took attendance. There were some of those classes that were required, but you know, you could pretty much read the book and show up for the last day of class and take the test and be okay.

There were other classes that took attendance as part of your grade, and I showed up because I had to be there, because the professor took attendance and I got nothing out of the class. If that’s your view of church, of course you’re not going to get anything out of church. There were also those classes that I loved, that I would have gone to whether they took attendance or not, because I was going in expectation.

My French classes were that way. I loved French. And it’s one of the sad ironies of my life that there’s nobody around I can speak it to.

So, unless I just teach my children, force them to learn it.

anyway I loved that class and I would go in every day expecting I was going to get something out of it whether they took attendance or not and you know what I learned more in those classes than I did in the others because I came in with this expectation so if you’re coming in with the expectation of God’s going to take attendance and that I’ve just got to be there you’re not going to get anything out of it if you’re coming in with the expectation of everybody’s going to see me and I’m going to look good in the community because I go to church those days are over okay back in the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, everybody joined a church or lots of people in town joined a church because it gets you ahead in business or it gets you the right connections or you’d be prestigious because you went to this church because that’s where all the movers and shakers in town went.

I hate to tell you, but our culture has changed. Our culture has changed. There has been a shift over the last 40 or 50 years where the, have you noticed this, that the culture’s gotten further away from God?

I think you have noticed that. We are not the dominant culture in America anymore, and we can wring our hands over that. I think it’s actually a good thing because we don’t have churches full of people who pretend to be Christians, and I’ve always said you can do more with, you know, 10 people that are sold out to Jesus Christ than you can with 100 people who are just there because of what it benefits them.

So we can look at it as a good thing. We can look at it as a bad thing. It may be a mixture of both.

I choose to look at it as a good thing. It is purifying the church, that we’re no longer the dominant cultural force. If you’re here because you think it’s going to increase your standing in the community, you’re not going to get anything out of it.

And there are all sorts of reasons that people come to church and they don’t get anything out of church. It just seems dry and it just seems dusty. And I go back to what makes the difference.

It’s preparation. Do you come in with the expectation that you’re going to meet with God together with your brothers and sisters? Because that’s what we’re here to do.

Can you worship? Can you meet with God outside of this time together? Absolutely.

And you should. But there’s something special. There’s something special about coming together and worshiping God together. There’s something meaningful about that.

There’s something about that that builds us up. There’s something about that that encourages us. There’s something about that that is good for us.

Otherwise, God wouldn’t have designed us to do this together. And I talked about that a couple weeks ago with the objection, well, I can be a Christian without the church. Yeah, you can be saved without going to church.

You can’t be obedient without being part of the church because God designed us to do this together. And if there wasn’t something about it that strengthened us, that challenged us, that encouraged us, that did this thing as the Bible calls us, iron sharpens iron, that we refine one another and we prepare each other. If there wasn’t something about that that takes place together, God wouldn’t have put us together.

And so when we come together, it shouldn’t be out of a sense of obligation. It shouldn’t be out of a sense of, well, it’s what I’ve always done. Shouldn’t be out of a sense of habit.

Shouldn’t be a sense of, well, if I don’t show up, who’s going to do X, Y, or Z. It shouldn’t be any of these reasons. It should be the understanding that we are going to meet with God, which we can do on our own, but that we are going to meet with God together.

And that God is going to strengthen us, and God is going to work on us, and God is going to speak to us together. And when you come in with that expectation, it changes the whole equation. When you come in looking for God to do something, you’re more likely to find it.

We tend to find what we go looking for, right? We tend to find what we go looking for. And the Bible teaches that we should prepare ourselves for worship.

I looked in Exodus 19 this week at God speaking to Moses prior to his handing down of the Ten Commandments. And he’s telling Moses, in this many days, you’re going to meet me at Mount Sinai. And the people are going to camp at the base.

And he says, have the people get themselves ready. Have the people prepare themselves. Have the people wash their clothes.

They had to go through this whole time of preparation for worship. We go through preparation for things that are important to us, don’t we? Just me?

Just making sure y’all are awake this morning. We prepare and we plan ahead for things that are important to us. I know that if Benjamin and I are out driving around, I’m hauling mulch, we’re moving lawnmowers or something, got the trailer hooked up, and we get hungry, it’s no big deal to stop at the gas station and say, oh, why don’t we stop here and get some hot dogs?

I know that’s fine. He’s going to be happy with that. It’s not that big a deal. We’re just moving stuff, and we’re hungry.

If to my wife on our anniversary, though, those of you who are married or have been married, if she said, it’s our anniversary, where are you taking me? And I said, I don’t know. Let’s just run by the gas station and get a hot dog while we’re out.

Is that going to fly? No. No, because our anniversary is important, and I’m expected to have put some planning and preparation into it.

Now, in all fairness, God has blessed me with a relatively low-maintenance woman. She was happy when we got one of the grandparents to stay with Charlie. The kids were in school, and I took her out to eat Mexican food for lunch for our anniversary, and she was thrilled with that.

And then I tried to take her to her favorite coffee shop by UCO, but I didn’t realize it had been closed for like four years. So, but it was the, it’s still on Google. Update your stuff, people.

But she knew I had tried to prepare. She knew there was an effort put forward. And so, hey, that was great.

That was all she was looking for. And so I prepared because it was important, and we had a great anniversary. If I had said, I don’t know, let’s just get something while we’re out.

probably wouldn’t have had a great anniversary, right? Might have gotten a little bit of a frosty silent treatment on our anniversary. We prepare for things that are important.

Ladies, when Thanksgiving is coming, those of you who do Thanksgiving at your house, you don’t just wake up that morning and start rummaging around the pantry and see what’s in there, right? If you’re like my mother, you’re buying turkey pieces back in July when they’re on sale. I mean, you’re putting all sorts of preparation into this.

We prepare when something’s important. And the Bible calls on us to prepare ourselves for worship, to prepare ourselves to meet with God. Well, why would I do that when I don’t get anything out of it?

You’re not getting anything out of it because you’re not preparing yourself. We look at it backwards. And as we get ready to go to Hebrews chapter 10, I’ll tell you a story of myself.

Sometimes I feel like worship, our song time, our worship, whatever you call it, is just dry. And I’m not putting that on Brother Ken. That’s on me.

Because I’ve been in churches where it’s praise and worship music and other people are waving their hands. And I just didn’t get anything out of it. I’ve also been in those times where I felt like I worshiped God.

And I’ve been in times where the music was hymns and playing the piano and slow and all that. And I felt like it was dry. but I’ve also been in those times where the piano playing was slow and the old hymns, and I felt like I worshiped God that night.

The common thread is how I prepared myself. Because there was a Sunday back in October that, man, I just felt like Brother Ken was on fire, and I told him about it the next Wednesday. Sunday night, I just felt like you were on fire.

I feel like you just led us in worship. And he just, you know, he was gracious in his response, but he kind of looked at me like I don’t know what I did different. I don’t know what’s.

I figured out the difference. That was the afternoon that I had talked to you all about doing the life chain down in front of the cash saver. You know, where you go and it’s a silent vigil for the unborn.

And we went out there and we stood for two hours that afternoon, those who did it, and we held signs. But on the back of our signs, there were suggestions of things to pray for. Well, I prayed through all these things for the country, for the community, for the mothers of the unborn, for the unborn themselves, for God to change people’s hearts.

I spent about 45 minutes praying, and I’m almost ashamed to tell you, I ran out of things to say after about 45 minutes, even with the list of suggestions. And so I started singing. I thought this is supposed to be a worshipful time.

I wasn’t very loud, and I wasn’t close to anybody either, but I just stood there, and I just started singing. This is my father’s world, rock of ages, whatever hymn came to mind. And then as I thought of something else to pray, I’d stop and I’d pray that, and then I’d go back to singing.

And what I essentially did was spend two hours intentionally worshiping, so that when I came back here that Sunday night, my heart was already prepared and ready to go. And I think that’s one of the best times of worship I’ve experienced in this church. The difference was not, oh, Brother Ken did his job right today.

The difference was I prepared myself for worship. And we go to Hebrews chapter 10. And I say this is a familiar passage because we quote all the time, verse 25, about not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together.

We’ve already looked at that in this series. But we’re going to start back at verse 19 today, where he says, Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh. And having a high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering, for he is faithful that promised. And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the day approaching. So the writer of Hebrews is calling the church to assemble, to get together regularly for these times of worship, but he’s telling them to prepare themselves in advance.

You’re going to meet with God. Act like it. Treat it like the privilege that it is.

And again, I tell you, we prepare ourselves based on the importance that we place on the event. I dress a different way depending on whether I’m going to, in the morning, drop the kids off at school and then go back to my office and work, or whether I’m going to the Capitol. I dress and I prepare myself differently.

We all do that. If you were going to meet with the Queen of England, you’re going to dress differently than if you’re going to see a man about buying some cattle, right? I would hope so.

We prepare ourselves based on the importance we put on the matter. And folks, when we come together, we are coming together to meet with the God who made us. Yes, we can meet with him anywhere.

But this is a time that we set aside where he says, get together and meet with me. Well, he tells us, starting back in verse 19, he points out that we have a meaningful relationship with the Father through Jesus Christ. We’re not coming together to meet a stranger. We’re coming together to meet the God who made us and the God who rules over all, the God who sees all, the God who knows what’s in your heart before you even do, we’re going to meet with him.

But folks, it’s not an impersonal relationship. Like if I go to meet with the governor, she probably doesn’t know me from anybody. The president definitely doesn’t know me from anybody.

That would be an impersonal relationship, somebody distant. Now the word teaches that we have a personal, meaningful relationship with the Father through Jesus Christ. Because he says in verses 19 through 21, having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. He says that we are able to enter boldly into the throne room of God.

That’s not because I’m so good and so important that I have the right to just burst into God’s throne room. No. In their understanding of kings in the ancient world, if you came into a king’s court uninvited, You could be executed.

Just right there on the spot off with his head. He says we can come boldly and he says we can enter into the holiest. Also into the holy of holies. Only the priest, only the high priest could enter into the holy of holies in God’s temple.

That’s where the ark of the covenant was kept. That’s where the presence of God was said to sit among the people of Israel. It was in the holy of holies.

The most holy place in the temple. And you couldn’t just go right in there. You would die.

Only the high priest could go in. And only on certain days. And only for certain reasons and only with the right preparation.

Because if he had not dealt with God about his sins before he went in, he would die. And they’d have to drag him out by a rope that was attached to his leg. And so this image that he gives us here is one of a king’s court where we have no right to enter.

And one of the holy of holies at the temple of God where we have no right to enter. And he says, therefore, brethren, we can come boldly into these places by the blood of Jesus. If you think back to the story of Esther, not even the queen, not even the king’s wife could come into the court uninvited.

So what does that tell you about our relationship to God? That through Jesus Christ, we have the closest possible relationship with God. He says, by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he has consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say his flesh.

When Jesus’ flesh was torn, when his blood was spilled, when his life was surrendered on the cross, the veil that separated the people from the Holy of Holies in the temple was also torn in two. And because of what Jesus Christ did, the veil of separation between God and man has come down, and it says in verse 21 that we have a high priest over the house of God. We are no longer separated from God, and we have a high priest who is willing to usher us right into his presence.

and you need to realize that when you prepare to come to church you’re not talking to some far-off deity yes we need to respect him as the god of the universe but he’s not some far-off deity who sees you but doesn’t know you and that you can never know I’ve spent a lot of time in the last few weeks for a project that I’m working on researching the views that various religions and I don’t mean denominations but various religions have of jesus christ not only what does orthodox Christianity, not only biblical Christianity, what do we say about Jesus Christ, but what do the Mormons say about Jesus Christ? What do the Hindus say about Jesus Christ? What do the Muslims say about Jesus Christ?

And as I’ve been studying what some of their teachers say, and don’t worry, I’m not going off to follow one of these. It’s a kind of a compare and contrast thing. As I’ve looked at these, I’ve learned some things about their views of God or their gods, and there’s not always a personal relationship.

Most of the people on our planet who believe in some higher power are praying with some higher power that they don’t, or praying to some higher power they don’t really know on a personal level. And yet the Word of God says that because of Jesus Christ, because of His blood, because of His crucifixion, because the veil of separation has been brought down, because His blood was shed for us, because He is now our high priest, we are ushered into the presence of a God who knows and loves us, and we can come there boldly, which is a right that nobody has. But Jesus Christ bought it for us.

And because of Jesus, you can have a meaningful relationship with the Father. It’s not just supposed to be, okay, God, I’ll see you on Sunday. We can have an actual relationship with the Father.

We can know Him. That doesn’t mean we’ll know everything about Him. God is so far beyond our comprehension, but we can know Him, and what’s more, He can know us.

and folks the God of the universe cares about you. If he didn’t care about you he wouldn’t have sent Jesus to die for you in the first place and so through Jesus Christ he ushers us into the presence of God. He welcomes us into the most holy place in God’s presence and he intercedes on our behalf.

He’s there all the time talking to the father and pleading your case with the father. This relationship where even the queen can’t come into the king’s court uninvited or even the high priest can’t come into the holy of holies except with certain criteria. God looks at you because of what Jesus Christ did.

God looks at you and says, come on in. That is incredible. That’s incredible to me that God would welcome us in such a way into his presence, that God would have such a relationship with us through Jesus Christ. And so when you come to worship God, well, folks, when you worship God at home, when you worship God driving down the road, when you worship God in nature, when you worship, and I hear people say, I can worship God on the golf course.

Yeah, you can. All those times, but especially too, don’t forget when you come together to worship God as a family, as a family of believers, as a community of believers, that we are not worshiping some far off deity who sees us through a telescope and really doesn’t care about us. You are worshiping the God who made you and loved you and bought you with the blood of Jesus Christ. and now invites you into the most intimate of relationships.

And so we see from this that God invites us to come into his presence. He says in verse 22, the writer of Hebrews says, let us draw near because of all this, because God has made this available to you. He says, let us draw near.

We have an open invitation to come to God, so let’s go, he says, let us draw near. Let’s go right on in. It’s a little strange for me at my mother’s house, my mother and father’s house, Because I don’t live there anymore.

Do I knock? They don’t like me to knock, but it feels weird not to knock going into somebody else’s house. But I’ve been told, don’t knock.

At my mother-in-law’s house, don’t knock. Just come on in. Charlie is telling me, stop knocking.

Just go in. And it’s taken me a little time, but I’ve gotten more. I did this Friday.

I just came in. That was okay. Did that at my parents’ house too.

Just came right in. I don’t think either one of them would have given me keys if they didn’t want me there. But it’s taken a little time, but I’ve kind of come to realize we have an open invitation.

Just come on in. So I don’t tell the kids, well, I don’t know. We’re out at the curb.

We need to call first and make sure it’s okay. No, we get out or we pull up and get the kids out of the car and it’s just let’s go on inside. We have an open invitation.

That is the same thing that we have with God. We have an open invitation. So the writer of Hebrews is saying, let’s just go on in.

Let’s go. Let’s hurry. Let’s get there.

Let us draw near. And that should be our attitude every Sunday when we come together, every Wednesday when we come together. Any other time of the week that we come together and the purpose is worship.

We ought to come in with this attitude of God. God has invited us. Let’s go.

Let’s not waste any time. Let’s go. Let’s worship him.

We’re ready. But he calls us to prepare ourselves for this. Yes, we have this open invitation from God.

But let’s also not forget that it’s God. And let’s put some importance on it. Let’s treat it like the privilege that it is.

God invites us to come into his presence with the heart, first of all. Because he says in verse 22, with a true heart. Well, for your heart to be true, your heart has to be there, right?

Your heart has to be in it for your heart to even be true. He says, let us draw near with a true heart. And here’s what I’m saying about coming to God with the heart.

The Bible says, from God’s perspective, they worship me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. It’s possible to come and just go through the motions of worship, isn’t it? Without your heart being in it.

Have you ever done that? I’ve done it. You can go to worship.

You can participate in worship. You can even lead in worship, and your heart not be in it, be going through the motions. That’s not a good place to be.

If we are physically present, but our hearts aren’t in it, we can’t expect to get anything out of worship. So if we’re thinking, why do I need to be part of the church? Why do I need to go?

Why do I need to do this? I don’t get anything out of it. If we’re going, it doesn’t matter that we’re physically there.

If our hearts aren’t there, yeah, we’re not gonna get anything out of worship. We need to be prepared to go with our hearts, to not just go through the motions, not just worship him with our lips, but let our hearts draw near to him as well. And if you’re thinking, how do I do that?

How do I get my heart into it? Ask God. Pray.

Pray about it. I know that sounds like the cliche answer, the Sunday school answer, but it’s true. I have found over the years that as I pray, God less often changes the situation than God changes my heart about the situation.

Is that confusing the way I said it? God is more likely to change my heart than he is by circumstances. And God is more likely to soften my heart and bring it in line with his than he is to say, oh, good, let me just take that problem away from you.

Now, he does that sometimes too. But I find this over here with the heart happens way more often. So if you find yourself saying, God, I’m supposed to go worship, but my heart’s just not in it.

Tell him about it and ask him to soften your heart. I believe that God absolutely will answer those prayers that change our hearts and bring them in line with his. And if you ask God to soften your heart, I believe he’ll do it.

He’s done it to mine enough times. So God invites us to come into his presence with the heart. Prepare your heart.

Don’t just come to worship. Be in worship. Not just with your mouth, but with your heart.

Worship God. He invites us to come into his presence with honesty. He says with a true heart.

The heart needs to be true. If we’re pretending or we’re playing games, we can’t expect to get anything out of worship. If we’re not being honest with God or with ourselves, we can’t expect to get anything out of being here.

If we’re coming in putting on the holy mask that we’ve just led a perfect sinless life this week and we have no problems, you’re not going to get anything out of worship. And you know what, let me not say you, let me say me. I’m also a hypocrite when I do that.

Take the mask off. Be honest with God and with other people about who you are. You know what, God gets more glory when people see our struggles and see how God brings us through them than for us to just walk in and look like we have a perfect life.

And we’re just going to praise God anyway for all the all the little perfection that we have around us. When we come in and our hearts are full of sin, they’re full of wickedness, they’re full of bitterness, and we just pretend like everything’s good and we’re good and we pretend to worship God, of course we’re not going to get anything out of it. That’s why David said in Psalm 139, Search me, O God, and know my heart.

Try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. He invited God, search my heart, look in there, Look inside of my heart and see if there’s anything there that shouldn’t be. See if there’s any lies there.

See if there’s any deceit there, anything that I’m pretending about, anything that I think I’m trying to hide from you. God, you look through it and you see what’s there and get it out of there. And that’s not in the sense of ordering God around.

That’s in the sense of surrendering to God and saying, if there’s something in my heart that you don’t want there, take it out. So if you think, how do I come to worship and not play again? I feel like I’m wearing a mask every time I come to church.

Folks, ask God to search your heart. Pray the same thing David prayed. And if you pray it and mean it, God will search your heart and he’ll show you things.

And he’ll pluck it out. He’ll start plucking it out. God will start making changes to your heart.

God invites us to come into his presence with honesty. But he also calls us to come with full confidence. With full confidence.

Verse 23 says that he is faithful who promised. We’re called to come in verse 22 in full assurance of faith and let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering, for he is faithful that promised. Folks, if we are not convinced that God’s promises are true, we can’t expect to get anything out of worship.

If you’re coming in thinking, I don’t know, God, maybe you’ll do what you say, maybe you won’t, probably not going to get anything out of worship. But if we come in with the expectation of God, these are the promises you’ve made in your word. This is who you say you are.

This is what you say you expect. This is what you say you’ll do. And I might not have seen it yet, but I believe that you are who you say you are, and I believe that you’ll do the things you say you’ll do.

If we come in with that kind of confidence that even though we haven’t seen it, we know that God’s promises are true, and we’re just waiting on Him to fulfill His promises in His time, that’s the kind of confidence that we should come to worship with. Because in the next chapter of Hebrews, Hebrews 11, 6 says, But without faith it is impossible to please him. Y