Category: Exhortation

Part I

Part II

Part III

No church liturgy is perfect! Some liturgies are better than others, but no liturgy is perfect. The Church has much more to learn about the Scriptural patterns for worship. This is how we should view our liturgy. As a pastor I am the first to acknowledge a certain fear when making changes, but I am also the first to acknowledge that if we truly care about this Divine service, then we will continue to learn and that means continuing to make changes and perfecting our Order of Worship.

A couple of weeks ago I argued that the exhortation is a form of verbal preparation for the call to worship. To help us transition from exhortation to the call to worship, we have added a short time of silence and preparation. Even though Covenant Renewal Worship is fond of triumphant hymns and exuberant praise, this does not mean that there is no time for reflection. Silence is crucial to frame our minds and to set the mood for what is to come. It is proper during this transition to reflect silently, to distance ourselves from worldly concerns, and prepare for the Call to Worship.

During this time it is appropriate to read through the short meditation found in your bulletin, or to pray that God would enable you to sing with joy, that your ears would be attuned to the Word preached. This is a time to consider how God will shower you with his gifts.

Part I

Part II

These exhortations are explorations of what are we doing on Sundays. My goal is to go through every dimension of our liturgy and give a basic biblical foundation for each. This morning, however, I would like to take a step back and define something that we generally take for granted. I would like to define the idea of  liturgy. You may have experienced that when you mention the word liturgy people who are not familiar with the idea may take a step back and wonder what has happened to you. They may think that you have embraced Romanism or Orthodoxy. Generally, they rarely consider that the Protestant reformation was a recovery of true biblical liturgy. Further, they never consider that the word liturgy is a biblical word. In Roman 12 we are called to offer our bodies to God, which is our “reasonable service.” This latter phrase “reasonable service” is the familiar Greek word “latreia,” which is translated as “liturgy” or “service” in the English language. This Greek word appears throughout the New Testament in various ways. Usually it can be translated as “serving or ministering.” Our liturgy is God’s service unto us and our active service rendered unto the Lord. The word should not frighten any of us; our Reformation forefather used it frequently. Peter says that we are all priests and kings who offer our services unto God. The priests offered sacrifices unto God. These sacrifices weren’t offered as they pleased. They didn’t say, “…today, our liturgy will be done the way we want to. We are going to sacrifice an animal in a different way than before.” This was never the way they thought. They knew the consequences of their action. To put it simply, “liturgy is a way of offering our service unto God in the way that He has commanded His people in His word.” The truth is everyone has a liturgy. The reality, however, is that very few in our modern day has thought about how the Bible speaks to this issue. Our desire at Providence is to be intentionally liturgical realizing that no longer do we sacrifice animals unto God as our reasonable liturgy, but that we are the living sacrifices to God, and this is the beginning of understanding biblical liturgy.

Prayer: Teach us, O Christ, to render our service unto You even as you serve us this morning.

Part I

Note: These are Sunday exhortations delivered at the beginning of Covenant Renewal Worship at Providence Church in Pensacola, Fl.

This morning I would like to continue to discuss this matter of what happens in the liturgy. Last week, I mentioned that we come to church on Sunday to be renewed by God. He gives gifts to us. We are passive recipients first, so that we may be active givers of thanks. All things are gifts from God. The grace of Yahweh is what is guiding this liturgical service; this Divine service is a response to what God has done and continues to do for us.

We have made some changes in our liturgy in these past nine months in order to more accurately reflect the flow of redemption. God is assembling His people to shower us with good gifts. He is calling us into His presence. But notice that before the Call we have an exhortation. What purpose does this serve?

a)      First, the exhortation serves to call the people of God to holy conversation. When the minister of God exhorts you he is speaking as God’s own representative. Our conversation is different. We are not here to discuss our work; we are here to discuss God’s work on our behalf. The minister wears a robe to show the world that his calling is different. And when he speaks the people of God are to hear and be challenged and encouraged. As the writer of Hebrews writes, the liturgist or the minister is watching over your soul because he will give an account of how he has shepherded the flock one day. In the exhortation the minister looks in the eyes of his sheep and gives them the initial call to action.

b)      Secondly, the exhortation is a taste of the Word of God. It is a Biblical principle, a quote that that captures the Biblical message, an encouragement that enlivens the weak, a call to repentance; it is all these things and more. It is given so God’s people may know that when they come to God’s house, they begin with the Word of God and they end with the Word of God.

c)       Thirdly, the exhortation is like a table homily. It is like the father calling his children and himself to live in light of the realities of this New Creation. It is a subtle warning as if to say: Are you ready for this feast? Are you ready to be taken into the heavens? Are you ready to have supper with your Messiah?

d)      Fourthly, the exhortation is a pastor’s plea to His people to transition their work-oriented minds into worship-oriented minds. It is true that we worship every day, but Biblically no day is more worshipful and delightful than the worship with God’s people on the Lord’s Day.

e)      Finally, the exhortation is a message for you. It is a message for God’s covenant people. It is a message that only makes sense in our world. It is not a message for the unrighteous, but it is a message for the righteous. Unbelieving, covenant-breaking men have no interest in our assembly. They have no interest in the ways of Yahweh; they prefer to take advice from the wicked. The exhortation is like getting the ladder ready to go up to the roof, except in this case Christ is the ladder and Christ is taking us to heavens. Are you ready to renew covenant with our God? Let us pray.

Our God prepare our hearts for this holy task and quiet our hearts as we prepare to taste and see that you are good.

Have you ever asked the question: “Why do we go to Church?” or “Why do we gather together?” People will answer this question in various ways. Some will answer that Church provides fellowship with friends; other will say that they come to hear a strong expository sermon; still others will assert that they come to experience God, to praise and worship. These are all legitimate goals. We find fellowship, Biblically oriented sermons, and praise and adoration of God in Church.  But we must realize this morning that our abilities to hear, experience, understand and all other liturgical necessities are gifts from God.  As Jeff Meyers observes “… both our life and redemption come from God.”  We come not merely to give, but to receive from God. This is one reason we call our service a covenant renewal. In renewing our covenant, we are following the manner God has ordained for His people to assemble. Even this morning, we are “passive receivers of His gifts as well as active giver of thanks.” God is giving us gifts and our response to His gifts is thanksgiving. When God renews covenant with us, we are renewed ourselves.

Note: These exhortations are based on Richard Pratt’s study entitled Pray with Your Eyes Open.

Exhortation, Part I

Exhortation, Part II

We come to our last part in our short series of exhortations on praying with our eyes open, that is praying with Biblical eyes. We have learned that we are called to pray with boldness asking God to remember His love for us, His promise to bring victory to His people and to remember His covenant faithfulness. We are to be deeply engaged with our Heavenly Father in prayer; we offer Him reasons of why He should be faithful unto us. Our Father does not promise to bring all things to pass as we desire, but He does promise to hear us and He encourages us to pursue this sacred engagement.

Secondly, we saw that the Bible calls us to pray with an attitude bathed in thanksgiving. We are called to tell our story. I remember that when we practiced praying in this manner in seminary, some students would go on for over 20 minutes. This is not something that comes naturally. We need to train ourselves to tell God our stories. There is so much to say; our own stories are to be filled with the aroma of thanksgiving.

I want to conclude briefly this morning on the necessity of prayer. We see a wonderful example of this in one of your favorite books of the Bible, I Chronicles. In chapter 29, we see David. We are all aware of the life of David; certainly not a life of perfection, but a life that pursued Holy living until the end. David ends his life with a great crescendo. In I Chronicles 29 David has just finished preparing everything for His son Solomon to build the temple of God. What is so sobering in this text is that David relies completely in God to build this temple, which is also why the New Testament places full hope and expectation in Christ to build His own church. It does not matter if this church is filled with competent people in every dimension of life. The church is not a business, but the temple of God is far beyond anyone’s ability to build and manage and make succeed.

David praised the Lord in the presence of the whole assembly when he said: “Everything comes from You and we have given only what comes from your hands.” David says that he did not do this! It was too much for someone like me to do.

And here is where we see the necessity of prayer: “O Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, our fathers, keep forever such purposes and thoughts in the hearts of your people, and direct their hearts toward you.”After praising God, David says “Please keep this desire growing; this devotion to perseverance.”  David says God needs to give people the desire. David prays this way because he understood that despite everything that has been done, it could all go down the drain tomorrow.

Consider the faithfulness of the parents in this congregation. One of the things I have heard often in my nine months at Providence Church is that people are attracted to this congregation because of the faithfulness of parents in nurturing their children in the Lord. Our prayer is that this trend continues for the next 1,000 years here at Providence. But let us not trust our own strength; let us not trust our intellectual abilities to see faithfulness in our children and their children’s children. All of this can be lost tomorrow or in 10 years if we as parents do not rely and pray to our God that He would continue to make the hearts of our children yearn for Him from the day of birth to their day of death. Let us not sit back and rely on our prayers yesterday, rather let us pray today and tomorrow and the day after continually relying in Yahweh to maintain His promises to our children and our children’s children.

All it takes is for you and me to think that our competence can take care of our situation. Yahweh calls us to pray continually that we may persevere in godliness and faithfulness all our days. Thanks be to God.

If you have ever worked at a bookstore as I have, you know that there is an entire section dedicated to Business and Success. The section on success is largely filled with a plethora of books on how to make a million dollars in a month or something of that nature. It reminded me of the words of G.K. Chesterton who once wrote “…these are books …written by men who cannot even succeed in writing books.” Chesterton looked right through the underlying assumptions about success from the modern world. They are always associated with money and power. There is nothing that even hints at the Biblical definition of success. It was Joshua who first described success as not turning to the right or to the left, but rather being obedient to the Law of God.  True success is following Yahweh and His laws. In the end our hope is the hope of Chesterton who writes:

…let us hope that we shall all live to see these absurd books about Success covered with a proper derision and neglect. They do not teach people to be successful, but they do teach people to be snobbish; they do spread a sort of evil poetry of worldliness.

Our prayer is that the poetry of worldliness will be replaced with the poetry of Biblical Revelation.

St. Chrysostom says about singing the Psalms that the men, the women and the little children are to accustom themselves to singing them, in order that this may be a sort of meditation to associate themselves with the company of the angels.

The Psalms have for centuries been a source of comfort and joy for the people of God. But I think what many of us forget is that the Psalms are highly political. They are filled with warfare language. They bring horror to the opponents of Yahweh. Even in the end, it is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our paths.

Many years ago, a group of theologians were sitting around a dinner table theologizing as theologians do. One of them asked: “If you had only one book of the Bible to take to a desert island, which book would it be?

One theologian shouted: “I will take Romans!” Another said: “I will take Hebrews!” Finally, one theologian stood, looked at his brothers and said: “Gentleman, you can’t sing Romans and you surely can’t sing Hebrews, but you can sing the Psalms for the rest of your lives!”

This morning, we ascend into the mountain of the Lord. We will sing a Psalm, responsively read a Psalm and hear the preached word from a Psalm. Blessed are the people of God who love the Psalter.

As Thomas Adams once said, “It is rashness to search, godliness to believe, safeness to preach, and eternal blessedness to know the Trinity.” Psalm 29 says that in His palace everything says: glory! Our Covenant Renewal Worship teaches us to say Glory at every stage. We say Glory because He has called us; we say Glory because He has cleansed us; We say glory because He consecrates us; We say Glory because we commune with Him; and we say Glory because He commissions us to service and in the end Yahweh will bless us with His peace. Indeed it is eternal blessedness to know the Father, the Son, and the Spirit because in His palace, His image-bearers say that the triune God is glorious!