Pillar 7, God Centered Worship, Hebrews 12:28-29, Colossians 3:16

Hebrews chapter 12 verses 28 and 29 Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken and Thus let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe for our

God is a consuming fire May the Lord add his blessings to the reading of his Holy Word Well, I arrived in Pasadena, California from Alabama in mid -september of 1987 to start seminary on the morning of October 1st

So just about two or three weeks after I've arrived there. I was lying on my bed reading

You know studying for classes when I began to notice that Everything this house

I was in Was beginning to vibrate. I immediately thought well There must be something like big truck driving by But the shaking just got worse and worse more than a truck could cause

I couldn't figure out what was causing this What is this house shaking because at all my experience up until that point at the ripe old age of 22

There's just one thing you can be sure of one thing that has never changed in all my life the ground

Doesn't move Then as the shaking continued I realized wait, I forgot where I was.

I'm not in Alabama anymore This is Southern, California Where there are earthquakes and I realized

I was experiencing something that before Before this I had only heard of that was only a theory

I Was in an earthquake then I ran outside the house. I was in at which it later

I learned was the wrong thing to do don't do that in an earthquake You know, I watched I'm watching the electrical cables between the poles

Swaying back and forth like a jump rope between two children It was a mind -altering experience for me

The one thing that I had just assumed up until then could not be shaken very ground itself was shaken

Sure, I I knew about earthquakes, you know theoretically but until then experience had taught me deceptively

That the ground doesn't move that it's stable. It's dependable What do you think can't be shaken

People are looking for something something that's stable something that's solid it's unshakable

So they can found their life on that in modern American culture that has been sold as well

We now just call it the relationship You know the word relationship used to mean all kinds of relationships now it when you say the relationship

Everyone knows what you mean that one particular usually the whatever got the love of your life the partner the spouse

You know romance that's the thing that you seek to found your life on We're just two days after Valentine's Day Which in my opinion is an entirely unnecessary holiday since most couples already celebrate their anniversary

But we feel in this culture that what we now call the relationship So it's so important that it deserves even another holiday to celebrate it

Even if it makes single people feel even lonelier than ever but who cares about them, right? Yes, our culture doesn't

There are even there's novels there's there's whole genres of novels, you know the romance There's songs like from the 70s.

You light up my life. There's movies all Unquestionably holding up the vision that the love of my life is what life is all about But like sitting on a on a balsam wood chair if they make such a things maybe a cardboard chair be a better example

We put so much weight on that relationship That we've crushed it

So now the culture this culture is made so much out of the romantic

Marital relationship in probably more than any other culture in the history of the world Also probably has the highest rate of divorce in the history of the world.

You know, we're so known This culture so known for being unfaithful to our marital commitment

This the Prime Minister of Singapore once warned Singaporean women to be careful about white men because they will divorce you quickly

Fortunately one Singaporean girl didn't listen to the Prime Minister. But that was the warning It is as if and I don't

I can't say this is a prophet proclaiming God's decree But is it is as if God saw the idol that we were making out of romance and decreed

That he would unleash a plague of broken relationships on us

It is after all all under his control. So now the relationship we call it is shaken judgment for making an idol worshipping with our lives as An idol out of something that was supposed to help us worship him

For Traditional Chinese culture the idol often often literally is the family

Family ism is though is the real religion of the Chinese much more so than Buddhism or our

Taoism or Confucianism They'll they'll throw those things overboard easily, but not the family the family's the the one lasting

Unshakable institution they think the Chinese aren't the only ones who've done this thing making an idol out of the family

They've they've just been the most consistent at it. They've just taken it to a whole new level They've developed it, but there are other cultures that have done that in the movie

The Godfather 2 Michael the Godfather senses a problem in his marriage and and so he he asked his mother for advice.

It's a good Family member and he's asking how to handle his responsibilities as the

Godfather without Shaking his his family Now at first his mother doesn't even understand what he's asking

She can't conceive that the family could be shaken and so Michael has to clarify, you know says no

I meant how do I not lose my family? His mother is puzzled speaking in Italian insist

But you can never lose your family The Chinese would agree with that Not even death can separate you from your family.

We serve our family now We even still serve our dead ancestors, we're still connected with them

We send them money and food or even paper houses and cars and cell phones Because we're still part of that family death can't separate you from it

China China resisted the gospel because some said Christianity was quote an ancestor denying religion and the judgment for that seems to have been a communist government that disrupted families

During the so -called Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1976 the Chinese Communist Party taught a total dedication

To it and a rejection of the family Children were encouraged to inform on their parents and their parents will be executed on the basis of the testimony of their own children

It taught people to betray the family one song the the Red Guards taught their children

Thought the children with something like this mother is close and father is close

But they won't be as close as Chairman Mao Sorry, I can't sing it in Mandarin.

It probably sounds much better in Mandarin, I guess Family affection was officially considered by the

Chinese Communist Party one of the old habits that was to be replaced then soon after the end of the Cultural Revolution then in by 1979

China instituted a one -child policy that limited the family and so Encouraged sex selective abortions which resulted in now the entirely foreseeable result

Was that now as many 30 million young men who? Statistically will not be able to have families of their own because there simply are not enough women to start families with the family

Has been shaken Now many people think that the thing that can't be shaken is money.

You know, if you have if you have enough of that Your life will never be too troubled you can buy your way out of any problem if you have enough cash you could just you know

Pay for whatever you need you can have the best medical care So you'll last you'll live as long as physically possible if you have enough money

Some around us right now are working hard to get rich Some people we know to get comfortable at least and maybe they think that when they have enough what they think is enough enough to establish their life on so that they won't be

Shaken into bankruptcy if you know some Disease sickness strikes their family if that they're laid off on their job or their business goes bankrupt

If they'll have enough to rely on things go really bad that they'll be on the phrase is

Solid financial footing the term used by investment counselors. It's something solid you have enough money

Then you have something solid to rest on is the assumption for your retirement for your old age and but something well, okay

I'm gonna get my solid financial footing and then maybe I'll come back to church. I'll have the free time to work less and serve

God more once I Have a solid financial footing then I'll be stable of course being rich Didn't save Kobe Bryant who had a net worth of 500 million dollars

But half a billion and died tragically with his daughter at the age of 41 just a couple weeks ago or Chris Klein who was a billionaire who died at age 61 also in a helicopter crash or Steve Jobs founder of Apple who died of cancer at 56 or Ivan some wunga a

Ugandan socialite worth 8 .8 million dollars in Uganda no less in South Africa, which they're you know

It's a lot of money here It's an enormous amount of money there Who died when of a heart attack at the age of 39 and when he died at his funeral instead of his friends that people

Assemble at the funeral throwing in, you know, like sometimes they do throwing in handfuls of dirt into the grave over the casket

They threw in handfuls of cash That in a place as poor as Uganda, but money makes a poor substitute for earth

It's shaky ground What we think of as unshakable as dependable as solid is what will base our life on and We'll show that By living for it above all

That is the thing we live for and it shows in all of our life And it shows what we give worth to but we give our time our attention to and that is the

D definition of worship Worship or worth? Ship is giving worth to something with your life

The priorities that your life demonstrates But by the time by the interest the energy the money that you're willing to pour into something here in Hebrews 12

We see worship we see giving worth here. We see three principles of worship first.

It is to be grateful Second is to be acceptable and third it is to be reverential

First is to be grateful, which means it is to be joyous is to be Celebratory, it's to be glad that we receive something that we realize that we did not earn

You know the notice the writer here says in verse 28 that we have received something in Verse there in that verse 28 we you achieve accomplishments you receive

Gifts and that gift here is A kingdom the good the good news of the rule of God that has come in our lives

We haven't had to work for it. We haven't had to fight for it We didn't have to have a revolution to bring it about at the cost of our lives

It was granted to us by grace because it is God's kingdom and it was donated to us by God It cannot be shaken

It doesn't depend on our will or our or effort it won't lose us and he won't let us lose him and That fact he says is worth being grateful for You know in that earthquake in Los Angeles everything around me was shaking

There was no place to go to get away from it Not like a tornado you can go in the basement to get away from it or you know

Hurricane you can go to higher ground earthquake You just better hope the house doesn't collapse on you

If there was a stable place to go a place with no shaking I would have run there as fast as I could but there wasn't

Everything was quaking and and that's the way this world that this life all the things that we are

So sure are are stable are solid are permanent every relationship every nation every government every religion

Everything that has been made can and will be shaken But we have received

There's a gift a kingdom That cannot be shaken for that We should be grateful and here the writer says that through that gratitude

Through that that happy reception of a good Solid unshakable things that we don't deserve that we did not earn.

We just received it through that we can then offer to God Worship we could give him worth because gratitude leads to worship then worship is not an act of Self -denial or affliction that we subject ourselves to I don't know in order to impress

God how much we're willing to sacrifice That's the way some people see church attendance Some don't come to church because worship really is important to them.

So they'd be late is more important They give worth to that watching something on TV is more important But God is not because they don't they haven't received a kingdom some calm because they have exactly the wrong idea of worship

But they do come That but they think it's their weekly duty It's their chore that they must endure it to sit through that long sermon again that long -winded guy so boring

If that's how you look at coming together with the church to worship He's for you adults now children.

You got to make them do things. They don't want to do but if you adults You would be better off nuts Not coming they're off to stay in at home instead of fooling yourself that you're impressing

God by coming to something You're not really giving birth to God You're just trying to earn something from him if the singing and the sermon and the

Lord's Supper is just just so dreary Then don't come Of course, you would be much better off if you changed what you think is giving worth to that the rule of God over your life that the singing and Praise to him the hearing the

Word of God with his people that that maybe you once regarded is so much drudgery That now it is one of the most important things to you the highlight of the week and and when we don't sing your favorite songs and The preacher is a little flat as he sometimes is believe it or not but just the sure sheer fact that you assembled with other of God's people and You were reminded that God brought you into his kingdom.

It's it is Unshakable. He brought you to it by grace. You didn't have to earn your way in that makes you grateful and With that gratitude you praise

God Some people won't cross the street to go to any church Some will cross a dangerous ocean to be able to go to a biblical church

The Puritans coming from England came in to America and founded New England Many of them came first to to the

Netherlands and then came to America for just that Almost every Christian will will say they that worship is important to them

But if you have proven it as boldly as did the Puritans who came here to America to plant what they called a city upon A hill this would do a few of them and consider the evidence from their lives a one pastor named

John Allen Who was the earliest pastor of the church in dead of Massachusetts? insisted that Quote only the hope of enjoying

Christ in his ordinances Was enough for them to forsake dearest relations parents brethren sisters

Christian friends and acquaintances overlooked the dangers and difficulties of the vast seas the thought whereof was a terror to many and Go into a wilderness where we could forecast nothing but care all those worries and temptation

In other words, he is saying it was worth coming to America Even when the only thing that they could be sure of that they would encounter

Were problems or dangers were shortages. It was worth it just so they could worship

God biblically They gave worth to God by forsaking dearest relations you know even their own very their family members facing the terror of the ocean and None and the end of the wilderness just so that they could be in a biblical church

Another leader of the second generation of the Puritans in New England Samuel Wigglesworth said quote a pure and undefiled religion a pure and undefiled religion

Was the great thing our ancestors had in their view when they cast their eye towards this wilderness for a habitation

And another leader at the same time increased matter wrote quote it was in respect to some worldly accommodation that other

Plantations means colonies were erected Others other colonies were made for worldly things like colonies like Virginia or North Carolina But religion and not the world was that which our fathers came hither for pure worship and ordinances

Without the mixture of human inventions was that which the first fathers of this colony

Designed in their coming hither we are the children of the good old nonconformist he says

Their worship was important to them. It was worthy. They proved by braving dangerous oceans on rickety sailboats

Because we now know that we've been given a kingdom that can't be shaken We worship we give work to God to his word to his people it's the natural reaction even if we have to cross a dangerous ocean since we've received this kingdom and since it is unmovable

Let us offer to God worship acceptable worship, he says

The worship must be acceptable and he means acceptable to God Means that God is the one who approves of what we do in worship

And this is this is the heart of what we mean by God centered Worship when in traditional reform theology we called the regulative principle of worship what determines how we worship

Well here did it acceptable to God that it's done God's way There are so many people even church people who when you ask him here, what are we supposed to do in worship?

What what determines what songs we sing what scriptures we read out what we do Many will answer.

Well today. Well, whatever quote opens a heart to God, whatever makes me feel spiritual and what they mean is whatever course gives us a sense of joy and fulfillment and so the principle they think

That regulates worship for them that determines what the church does is themselves

Now their feelings their their sense of what makes them Feel religious what works maybe or maybe they're a little more other centered and they think well

What we need to do is attract other people bring them in so we feel big and successful What's the principle that determines what we do in worship?

They think well the customer It's like any other business, right? The customer is always right and they assume even in the church that they

Are the customer? but in the second commandment You shall have no graven images that you have the

Lord insists that worship be done his way it didn't matter if the image Wasn't of another

God, you know if it was an image to bail or something if it was supposed to be it didn't matter if the image was supposed to be a

Symbolic representation of the Lord it didn't matter that in their culture You know everyone use images at worship just take it for granted that you if you had some

God you had an image of it It didn't matter if it made them feel religious

What mattered is what God said it was God who regulated worship

He's the one who makes it acceptable and we see this brilliantly illustrated in Leviticus chapter 10 verses 1 to 3

They're the sons of Aaron thought that they could worship God in you any way they wanted what they thought best

What's maybe what they thought was disconvenient. They didn't abide by the law. They didn't follow the instructions The Lord had given they didn't do things

God's way. So it wasn't an acceptable worship. They were supposed to put Offer incense before the

Lord you have incense. You got to have it burning. You got to get a fire To burn the incense and you think well, what's the big deal?

I'll get fire from anywhere But the law specifically said you got to get fire from the altar and they didn't do that The principle for them was convenience what they thought was common sense

There's probably you know get out there lighter and like the thing or whatever they did They got fire from the closest place They took fire from wherever they could get it and they tried to use that in their incense and they immediately learned

That last verse here in Hebrews 12 that our God is a consuming fire fire came out from God and Consumed Aaron's sons and the

Lord spoke to Aaron through Moses. No no words of condolence Among those who approach me

You're going to come to God in worship You're coming to him among those who approach me.

I Will show myself as holy in the sight of all the people.

I Will be honored They thought they could take any fire. They wanted to burn the incense oil that they could worship

God their way They ignored what God's Word said about whether fire was to come from and so they got fired so to speak

When it comes to worship We often quote the Lord Jesus from John chapter 4 verse 24

Where he tells the Samaritan woman that those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth We often talk about you know, what a spirit mean what is truth mean?

We sometimes overlook another key word there in that passage must The Lord Jesus said that the kinds of worshipers the father's is seeking must

Worship in spirit and truth not just any way they think is right But we must do it

God's way we let God Regulate worship if we don't have that attitude would we come to him?

Among those who approach me. God says I will show myself. Holy if we don't have that whole attitude our worship isn't acceptable third worship is reverential

With reverence and awe he puts it here. I believe these two terms reverence and awe Or maybe they're not quite synonyms, but they're two sides of the same coin

Reverence is a holy fear, you know what those sons of Aaron lacked. They didn't fear

God notice the last verse begins with for or because the verse 29 for because Reverence and holy reverence and awe because our

God is a consuming fire the Greek could literally read for indeed Emphasizing that this statement is the basis.

This is the reason For worshiping with reverence and awe. Why do we worship God with reverence?

Which is a holy fear with fear trembling with awe for indeed Because our

God is a consuming fire It's like saying, you know be careful with that wire because For indeed it is high voltage.

It's a live wire. You could get electrocuted be careful There is danger in approaching

God We sometimes become so used to speaking of the things of God reading his word handling his ordinances such as the

Lord's Supper Coming to worship. We think we've done it all our lives.

It's just routine We know that we go through the motions and so we lose all fear of it The Corinthians had apparently done that with the

Lord's Supper They took it just any way they pleased each whenever they got around to it with with no thought of anyone else

The wealthy who could come anytime they wanted they arrived early took as much as they wanted some took so much to the wine

They got drunk off of it and they would wait for the poor slave who had to wait You know couldn't could arrive till late because till he got off work.

Maybe they wouldn't even leave any for him They didn't think about the body And so Paul says that that was the reason that some of them were sick and somebody even died

This is why we prepare ourselves With with our Church Covenant and serious prayer before taking the

Lord's Supper that we not take it thoughtlessly without Reverence that will recognize there were dealing with a dangerous

God All the term all I'll be a little more positive

Reverence is holy fear Oz a more Wow, it's more focused on the feelings

Oz in overwhelming feeling of wonder at Facing something or someone who's so much greater

Than you so much greater that you become aware that you even you lack the capacity to fully understand

How much greater and so you're humbled By what gives you all?

Like the sense you get maybe looking into a star -filled sky night sky and you you get a

Wonder of how big God must be that no matter how many billions of light -years away.

These stars are God created them people will travel hundreds or thousands of miles just a

Stare into the Grand Canyon and be like be swallowed up in its enormity to have that feeling of awe

One of the goals we should strive for in our church is a sense of of all About God, it's not be so in love with our theology

With what we've learned that we we think we've we've pretty much figured out God by now, right? I mean we know all about predestination and all our theology.

We have it fine -tuned And we we think it we have them down pat It's come with an indescribable sense that this

God we worship Is beyond our understanding and this is what Hebrews is calling for us here to worship with awe

How do you give worth to God worship If you're grateful acceptable and in trembling in reverence and awe

So those are the three principles of worship now for exactly how? More practically how we do that if you turn to Colossians chapter 3 verse 16

Have another slide to Colossians chapter 3 verse 16. We don't usually go to different passages, but verse 16

He says let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly Teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God This verse consists of just one sentence, but with four parts and let's take it part by part four parts dwelling

Teaching singing and thanking first part one We are to he says let

Like it means allow the Word of Christ to dwell in us richly We let means we open ourselves up to him.

We are allowing the word to be active in our life We're making a decision that God's Word can have its way in our life

We will change our thoughts and our feelings according to what it says and it is the

Word of Christ whether it's about Christ even from the Old Testament or about what Christ has done.

It's the gospel let the gospel live in you Richly, let it be like a let it be like a spoiled child.

It always gets its way let it be like a Plant planted in very fertile ground.

It just thrives and produces fruit Let the gospel consume your attention and interest

That the word is to dwell means it's to live. It's alive. It's not just facts you memorized things

You're making yourself think about it is alive and producing life in you and live in us in a particular way

Richly is to flourish in our minds in our hearts

That's why we strive here for its scripture Saturated services, so we so we read a psalm we sing a song we pray

Based on the Psalms the Psalms are inspired by God for the purpose of being reflected back to God in worship

And so it makes sense that we use them in worship. We hope our other songs are also scripturally based

We read our passage. I set it apart from my words, you know we say here the word of the Lord made the

Lord add his blessings to his to his word because His words are higher than my words.

The sermon should be Expository means taking the main point from the passage and frequently drawing our attention back to the open

Bible in front of us worship is about getting us to encounter and absorb

The Word of God so that it's living richly in us

Church again, it's not it's not a building It's whenever God's people gathered around the

Word of God We can gather around the word and so have church we can do that in a home in a park School in a gym.

That's where we are in a gym And if the Word of God is central then we've had church or we can gather in a church building

But in reality be gathering around other things the relationship the family money

Maybe around a concert or a show or a personality or whatever What makes it a

Christian Church is if we gather around the Word of Christ if we're giving worth to God We'll cross the street

Maybe cross the county cross state lines even cross an angry ocean to get to worship

Then the second part Colossians chapter 3 verse 16 is teaching. We are to teach and admonish one another in all wisdom

Notice this is not just addressed to the to the preacher what preacher to the pastor to one another all of us address one another

So it's to you so you too should look for opportunities to teach and admonish one another maybe before and after the service make big contacts and See each other during the week email or call or message or Facebook Teach it admonish one another or share something wouldn't new with someone during the week.

We worship by giving God worth In talking about him to others then the third part

Singing singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs In a modern evangelical worship has lost a lot by not singing the

Psalms We sing here we sing through them all but it doesn't say here

The passage doesn't say you only sing Psalms hymns and spiritual songs are not just work in other words for Psalms We know from 1st

Corinthians chapter 14 where Paul says that some were singing in the spirit What exactly that is is not the point but that they were singing in the spirit that they weren't only singing

Psalms here. We're also to let the Word of Christ dwell in us richly through through hymns. So songs of human composition like What's called the

Carmen Christi the song of Christ and Philippians chapter 2 or? spiritual songs joyful Hopeful people sing

Singing has always been a part of Christian worship because worshiping Christians are joyous people

Even if we're not always happy. I've seen worship and other religions seen it in Buddhism and Taoism and things like that They hardly ever sing.

Maybe sometimes the priest don't chant something but they don't sing Christians sing Because we're joyful and hopeful

Sometimes happy but sometimes not always happy some Psalms also teach us how to be maturely

Unhappy you need to learn sometimes how to be Unhappy we have laments for that.

We have a limit laments because sometimes we need to know how to be unhappy But whether we're singing happily or lamenting we give worth

To God we should not have the attitude that singing is just a warm -up act for the preaching Isn't it's it's what the people do some of that.

We should have the attitude that is just what people do You know fill up a little time Get in the right attitude set the mood and the real

Substance of a church meeting the real worship is the preaching No, that's that's really not biblical either

Paul plainly here put singing is not something other than worship Not even something separate from letting the

Word of Christ dwell on us ritually we do that through singing It's a way of doing that our our singing is one technique one means that we use to let the

Word of Christ dwell live thrive in us ritually a

God -sitter worship the main goal of our music, you know, it's not just a walk down memory lane Oh, that's my favorite song from way back

Or sing the newest most upbeat song You wouldn't believe what I heard on k -love this week or to entertain ourselves or or Entertain people from outside to draw them in it is to get us to have the

Word of Christ dwell in us Ritually so that we worship the Lord member from Hebrews acceptably with reverence and all

So this whole debate, maybe some are still having I hope not but some still have between should we just sing old hymns?

It's got to be at least a hundred years old before we sing it Or just sing contemporary music because it's more like our style.

It's more we're more familiar with it that whole debate is just nonsense to the

Christian to whom worship is important, you know when the purpose is When it's seen as letting the

Word of Christ dwell in us richly to to worship acceptably with reverence and all then

Who cares about the how old the song is? Then what we go in we may go in search of we go in search of whatever music or songs

Do that for us whatever music lets the Word of Christ dwell in us richly whether it's new or old that doesn't matter

The principle then is what music and what songs help us to remember

To sing to dwell on the Word of Christ Worship should be important enough to us that we will sing through all the

Psalms we will learn some 500 year old hymn or Will change to an entirely new contemporary style if it will help us all as the church worship give worth to the

Lord Then the fourth part is thanking even here in Colossians 316 which takes us back

You remember to Hebrews chapter 12 verse 28 with thankfulness in your hearts to God Yes, we're dealing with a dangerous

God a consuming fire a God who strikes people dead for just offering any kind of sacrifice any fire

They want on the altar for taking the Lord's Supper in any way they please but we we can be thankful to him

For grace, we can be thankful that we who so easily overlook the truly important things

The God who is a consuming fire We can be thankful that even though we become so attached to all the things of the world this life and the things that will be shaken

That we who so easily become attached to all the temporary things and forget about the permanent things yet still

He who cannot be shaken He who is permanent takes hold of us

We are set on a foundation That will never experience an earthquake

The beginning and the end of worship is The thankful attitude of our hearts that we have not gotten the bad things that we deserve

But we've been given the good things. We don't deserve So when we accept the gospel, then we cannot help

But be grateful because we have seen in it that the death which was the wages of our sin was born by Christ and the life

That we lost by our sins Has now been given to us by grace

How much worth? Do you give to worship? I Went about two years ago.

I wrote an article about answering Eastern Orthodox Apologists, I learned that the kinds of people who are most drawn to convert to Eastern Orthodox the

Eastern Orthodox Church are Often theologically educated evangelicals people with often master's degree in theology people who take their faith very seriously who think it's worth something and they look at the

Modern evangelical church and they see how often how shallow how flip it how

Unreverential it is how little all That there is how little worth

Is put on God? the worth now in many places is all on how

God can Help our relationship help us raise our kids help our family help us get rich God is so often used to serve

Whatever shakable thing that our culture idolizes and so these people theologically educated often

Evangelicals they look to the Eastern Orthodox Church to you know Smells and bells and think well because of their ancient rituals that they think well

This has stood the test of time and so is unshakable and they buy the line that this is

The early church We'll take it from me Church historian it is it and It has been shaken to that Eastern Orthodox Church has been shaken like marriage and has in this country or the family in China It's been shaken by Islam and communism

Almost every country that was Eastern Orthodox has fallen to either Islam or the atheism the official atheism of communism

There is no substitute You won't find it in Having proper fine -tuned theology like many reform people think you won't find it in right structures

You won't find it in ancient rituals There is no substitute for having the

Word of Christ the gospel richly living in your heart

Jesus himself Was a worshiper He gave worth to God with his whole life

Even though he dreaded the pain he despised the shame He abhorred the thought of the alienation that he would experience from the father as the sins of people were placed on him

And he was punished for our sins still for that He gave thanks on The night he was betrayed

He took up the bread and the wine Simulating his own body to be broken that very day and it says he gave thanks

He gave thanks to the father for that and then

He sang He had gratitude for it because in it and that sacrifice he would satisfy

The wrath of God against our sins and he would make it possible for the love of God to give us an unshakable

Kingdom, he made it possible for us to worship God in spirit and truth and So he gave thanks for it

How much did worship mean to Jesus? What was it worth to him?

Well, he crossed not just an ocean but heaven to take on flesh and then to have that flesh broken