“Ready for Sunday?” – FBC Morning Light (5/19/2023)

Preparing for the Lord’s Day from Psalm 100

Well, a good Friday morning to you. We come to the end of another week. We are past the midpoint of the month of May, and we're approaching another weekend. And that means Sunday's coming. Sunday's coming.

And I'll have some more to say about that in just a moment. But our Bible reading today, we're reading in 2 Samuel 7 and 8, Acts chapter 11, and then the hundredth Psalm. And the hundredth Psalm is what I want to focus on, because Sunday's coming.

In a couple of days, it's going to be the Lord's Day, and hopefully you will set some time aside. You should set the day aside for the Lord. It is the Lord's Day, but set some time aside to gather with God's people and worship the Lord together.

And Psalm 100 gives us five good ways to think about the worship of the Lord, maybe to prepare for the worship together of the Lord's, on the Lord's Day. And so listen to the Psalm, and I'll break it down, go by verse by verse, and show us a way to pray, to prepare for the Lord's Day.

Serving the Lord with Gladness

After the exhortation of making a joyful shout to the Lord all you lands, verse 2 tells us that we should prepare for the Lord's Day by being glad for the privilege of worship. It says, serve the Lord with gladness.

Serve the Lord with gladness. And that word serve has to do not with like manual service of, you know, preparing a meal for somebody, or ushering at church, or teaching a Sunday school class, but it has to do with worship.

Worship the Lord with gladness. Do you approach the Lord's Day with a sense of, I am so glad that I get to go to God's house today and worship Him together with God's people? I want to encourage you to develop that mindset, if it's not your conscious mindset, when you're on your way to church, or even this night before getting ready for church.

Coming Before God with Singing

Secondly, the last part of verse 2 says, come before His presence with singing. So when I am preparing for the Lord's Day, I should be ready to sing to the Lord. I didn't say I should feel like it, I should be ready to do it.

Here's the thing, a lot of times we come to church and we may come frazzled, we come tired, we may be on the heels of a long, hard week. Saturday, you know, may have been, like yesterday, maybe you worked out in the yard all day, or did something and you're just utterly worn out by the time you hit the sack at night, and today, you know, on the Lord's Day you're dragging.

And understand that. And so you don't necessarily feel like singing when you get into church, but when you open your hymnal, open the song supplement book, open the psalter, and you start singing these texts that exalt God and that lift up the Lord Jesus, these things can cause your emotions to catch up with you.

So be ready to sing. Be ready to sing. And then in verse 3, he says, know that the Lord, he is God. As I prepare for the Lord's Day, I need to remember who he is, and then who I am. He is the Lord. He is God.

It is he who has made us, and not we ourselves. We are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Who is the Lord? He is God. Who am I? I'm one of his created beings. Furthermore, I am a sheep whom he has brought into his sheepfold, into the sheepfold of the Great Shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Remembering Who God Is and Who We Are

Remember who he is, and who I am. Fourthly, in verse 4, it says, enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise. Be thankful unto him. I can be ready for the Lord's Day by reflecting a grateful heart, and then expressing it.

You know, one of the things we do often on Sunday evening service is give time for testimony, and it's a great time to just be able to express some way that you're grateful to the Lord for what he has done, for who he is, for how he has provided, and so on and so forth.

But have that kind of an attitude, a grateful heart that is ready to express it. And then finally, in verse 5, it says, for the Lord is good, his mercy is everlasting, and his truth endures to all generations.

I can prepare for the Lord's Day by acknowledging God's goodness, acknowledging his steadfast love, that's his mercy, it's translated mercy here, his steadfast love, that is his faithfulness to his covenant, his loving loyalty to his covenant, and acknowledge God's faithfulness, that his truth or his fidelity endures to all generations.

You can count on him. So as you meditate on this psalm, Psalm 100, today, I'd encourage you to meditate on it through the weekend, and especially perhaps on Sunday morning, do a quick review before going to church, so that you go prepared, glad for the privilege, ready to sing, remembering who he is and who you are, reflecting a grateful heart, and expressing gratitude to the Lord, and then acknowledging God's goodness, his steadfast love, and his faithfulness to his word.

A Prayer for the Coming Lord’s Day

So our Father I praise, we approach this coming Lord's Day, I pray that we would be ready to gather together and worship. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. All right, have a great Friday, a wonderful weekend, and a blessed time of worship together on the Lord's Day.

Good day.