“A Case for Organization” – FBC Morning Light (4/26/2024)

The Value of Order in Worship

Well, good Friday morning to you. You're looking forward to the weekend I trust and to a gathering with God's people on this coming Lord's Day, the last Sunday of the month of April. And we're heading into the nice spring months and then on into summer.

So thank the Lord for these days of spring. Well, today we're reading in 1 Chronicles 24, 25, and 26. Now, on the one hand, you may read these chapters and understandably, you don't necessarily pour over them like you might in reading three chapters in Ephesians.

You know, Ephesians 1 to 3, where there's so much meat on those bones. Here you have the divisions of the priests and the Levites and dividing up of different things here and there. And it seems to be, you know, really kind of mundane and not much application to everyday life.

I understand that. And it's easy to kind of skim through it and let your mind wander while you're reading. Okay, I get that. But I also want you to see today that there's some very important principles.

Structure and Preparation in Church Life

You know, we're coming on the Lord's Day, we're coming together to worship the Lord. And there are some Christians who have the idea that when you go to church, things should just be spontaneous, you know?

I remember one time visiting a church, I was actually contacted about the possibility of pastoring that church. And I'd never been to it, didn't know really anything about it, but I was invited to come and preach there as a potential to candidate for the pastoral position.

And we got to the church, and just looking at the facilities, I could tell this church is a haphazard thing. I mean, it was like the building was just pieced together, slabbed together, without much thought, and organization or structure to it.

And I thought, I wonder if that's how church service is gonna be. Well, I found out the next day. Sure enough, on the Sunday morning service, there was some structure, I mean, songs had gotten picked out.

But then just at the beginning, before we sang one song, the song leader, the congregational song leader said, now we're gonna have a choir, so anybody wants to sing in the choir, come on up, and we got the music here for you to sing.

So, you know, grab a piece of sheet of the music and come up if you wanna join in the choir. And, you know, we stood to sing and all these people started coming up to be in the choir and they were handed the song that was gonna be sung.

And it was quite evident that there was absolutely no preparation on the part of the choir when they sang a few minutes later. It was a mess, to say the least. Now, why do I mention that? Because when you read these chapters, 24 through 26, it all has to do with the priests and the Levites and the temple worship and service at the temple.

Different Tasks in Temple Worship

And you find here that there is good order and structure that is provided, there's good organization. And that's a worthwhile thing. It's a worthwhile effort to have good organization and structure in the functioning of God's house and of God's worship.

And when you, especially when you read chapters 25 and 26, you find a variety of different tasks involved in the functioning of God's house and the worshiping of God's people. There are different tasks, there are different positions, different jobs to be fulfilled, different ways of serving in the temple worship.

You have a variety of ways. And all of them are important and honorable, whether they are very public or whether they're behind the scenes. So for example, in chapter 25, you've got a bunch of different kinds of musicians.

There are those who played on harps and stringed instruments and cymbals, others who sang. But in verse six, it talks about how these people were under direction from a music leader. And it says they were under the direction of their father for the music in the house of the Lord, with cymbals, stringed instruments, and harp for the service of the house of God.

Verse seven says the number of them with their brethren, they were instructed in the songs of the Lord, all who were skillful, and there were 288 of them. So there was structure in the musical preparation, instruction, the learning of the songs that they might be presented in a way that would be meaningful and helpful to the congregation as they assembled.

So you have musicians. Chapter 26, there are gatekeepers. And at the end of the chapter, there are financial stewards in verse 22 that are over the treasuries of the house of the Lord. And the chapter ends with some administrators who had administrative functions.

Why Christians Should Not Reject Organization

You know, all these things are important. And I think it's a mistake on the part of Christians to eschew organization and structure. There's a sort of sentiment afoot today that said we don't need the organized church.

We don't need the organized religion. Well, I understand that sentiment where organized church, organized religion has gone to seed and has run amok and is dead and lifeless and theologically liberal.

I get that, I understand that. But that is not to say that it is worthless for us to plan a worship service, to have structure to that worship service, to have personnel involved to do different tasks, to carry out different tasks in the worship of God's people and the functioning of God's house and the local church.

So don't eschew it, don't eschew it. Appreciate it. We have ample evidence here that God values it. So our Father and our God, we do thank you for our local churches and thank you for those whom you have gifted to serve.

And we thank you for the skillful organization, even of an order of service, that we might be able to participate in worship in meaningful ways. So bless the worship of your people on this coming Lord's Day, we pray.

In Jesus' name and for his sake, amen. And I hope you will be among God's people who worship together in the local church on this coming Lord's Day. Have a good weekend, God bless.