The Worship Service at GCC : What is happening when God's people gather for worship?

My kids have been attending worship every Sunday since they were born and as we are getting them ready one of them will ask “Where are we going?” as if we are doing something completely unexpected and out of the ordinary! "The same place we go EVERY Sunday!” We are going to Church." That's what I used to say – now I often answer: We are going to go worship God. When we gather for worship we may gather in a building, but we are also gathering somewhere else - in the very presence of the Lord. The OT saints worshiped God from a distance. There were many barriers that stood between them and God to teach them that “Without holiness no one will see the Lord.” (Hebrews 12:14)

In Hebrews 12 two mountains are contrasted – one represents where God's people gathered for worship before Christ – the other where they worship now that Christ has come. The old mountain was a frightening mountain. He is referring to Mt. Sinai, the location where God descended in a terrifying display of power to give Israel the covenant of law. He is using Sinai figuratively to refer to the Tabernacle/Temple, the priests, altars and sacrifices.God gave Moses all of the instructions about these things on Mt. Sinai and so Sinai represents all of them. But he uses the event of God's descending to sum up OT worship before Christ came – it was deadly. “Put limits for the people around the mountain and tell them, ‘Be careful that you do not go up the mountain or touch the foot of it. Whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death...Whether man or animal, he shall not be permitted to live...When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance...”(Exodus 19:12-13, 20:18) This was the closest humans had been to God in a long time. Way back in Eden Adam and Eve enjoyed face to face interaction with God – no barriers, no danger. But sin came between God and man putting a great chasm between the two leading to their expulsion from the garden.

I sat next to a Jewish man on a plane once. After learning I was in Seminary he asked me what the book of Revelation was about. I said: "Its about the return to Eden." He replied: "That doesn't sound too bad." Its more than just merely going back to Eden - in fact its so much better! Redemptive history is essentially the story of God bringing man near to himself and our knowing God as our redeemer - knowledge Adam and Eve did not have in their innocence. God's choosing Israel and giving them his laws, the tabernacle, priesthood and sacrifices was part of this redemptive process. On the mountain God told Moses to build a tent where his presence would be located. It would be the meeting place for God and Man. There the blood of bulls and goats were spilled allowing them to draw near, but still not as close as in the beginning. Barriers remained. God put between himself and the people priests and a curtain. Now the gospel writers tell us that this curtain was torn in half the moment Jesus died on the cross. Coincidence? Not at all – this meant that the distance and danger are gone. A major milestone in the history of redemption had been reached. God and man just got a lot closer! The holy, spotless Son of God has shed his own blood as an atoning offering for sin. That old mountain of fear and judgment is no longer the place where God calls us to gather. Now he calls us to come to Zion. He calls us to gather where he IS - which is at the right hand of God the Father (Hebrews 1:3). "“But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.” (Hebrews 12:22–24)

Jesus brings us directly into God's presence – we enter into his living room in worship, his dining room in communion. And look who's also there – countless angels joyful celebration! Saints from all over the world are there! And also the spirits of the righteous are there – the saints who have gone before us are in heaven worshiping. The contrast is striking – Sinai is a scene of darkness, fear and judgment – Zion a picture of celebration, joy, laughter. No more barriers – no more curtains, no more sacrifices, no more thunder, lightning – wrath has been removed! Jesus himself took our sins upon himself and then went to the old mountain to take the full brunt of God's wrath. We can “approach the throne of grace with confidence” (Heb. 4:16), meaning we are now free to enter directly into God's presence without any fear that he will judge our sin. This reference to confidence tells us two things: Jesus has done something truly amazing, and it tells us God has not changed one iota. In Hebrews 12:28 we read: “Let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our “God is a consuming fire.” In worship we “come to God the judge of all men. This is the same God who descended Mt Sinai in the thick darkness bringing the lightning of his wrath with him. Jesus did not make God nicer, more tolerant of sin. In fact the cross reminds us of God's lack of tolerance for sin as much as it reminds us of his love. Yet something has changed with us: we have a new status. Jesus has given us HIS status so that when we stand before God, he sees the perfections of his son upon us.

We needed Jesus to do this for us. Did you know that God does not accept our worship otherwise? We need JEsus to make worship possible! But by making it possible he has also made it appear easier.This is why we take worship for granted. We are predisposed to fearful motives – we need the lightning to motivate us. But what we have is a powerful display of God's immeasurable grace – for which we should be “thankful.” I doubt an invitation to have dinner with Tim Tebow would go ignored or even accepted with a lack of enthusiasm by many reading this. But invitations to gather on Mt. Zion with the Father, Son, Holy Spirit and the angels and saints can seem like such a chore. Why? We don't get it! We think worship is just us coming to a building to sing songs that we hope God hears from heaven. But the truth is when we gather to worship, we go to heaven by faith. Someday we will go there physically as well and stand before him with confidence, joy, without fear. It will be just like it was in Eden – only better. Sunday worship is a little bit of what we have to look forward to. It is a little bit of heaven each week.

I hope that this gives new meaning to our time together each Sunday. My prayer and my vision for our church is that this truth would transform how we worship and why we worship (our motives). It starts with what we believe we are gathering to do on Sunday morning. Next time you are asked where you are going on Sunday morning – tell them the real truth – I am going to Mt. Zion to join the angels, the saints and all of my brothers and sisters in Christ to worship God; to celebrate the glories of Jesus Christ who made it possible for us to draw near to God in worship.

Why we're going to begin studying the book "The Discipline of Grace" on Sunday mornings

On January 8, a new study will begin on the book by Jerry Bridges The Discipline of Grace. Let me share why this study is so important. Many Christians don't get grace. Some don't understand that we are justified freely by God's grace. (Romans 3:24) They may use the words but somehow this translates into try hard to be good so God will accept you. Then there are Christians who understand that justification is by grace but do not understand that sanctification is also by grace. They may use the words, but once again this translates into try hard to be good so God will CONTINUE to accept you. He accepted you in the beginning - that was grace, but will he continue to accept you if you blow it? Is there a limit to his grace? When you blow it how do you respond? Do you look again to his grace or still believe its your duty to just try harder? Do you squeeze the handle bars a little tighter and try to muscle your life in the right direction? How's that working for you?

What if the grace that justifies also sanctifies? What if full reliance and faith in the Lord Jesus and the power of his immeasurable grace is what actually changes a person? That is what this book will show you. Some have argued that focusing on grace gives believers an excuse to sin. But I would argue that person is not focusing on grace at all but a cheap imitation of grace. "For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age." (Titus 2: 11-12) Gospel grace is where the power for holy living comes from. It is what transforms us. So if you're a sinner who wants to live a holy life, then you need to get more familiar with the abundance of God's marvelous grace in Jesus Christ! I hope to see you at 9:30 on January 8.

The Worship Service at GCC (Part 2) The Songs We Sing

Scotty Smith, the RUF campus minister at Belmont University and singer-songwriter with Indelible Grace, rightly points out that the songs we sing are formative. In other words, what we sing matters for several reasons which I will aim to explain in this post.

Our tendency as Christians is to blindly accept the content of the worship songs we enjoy. We usually evaluate songs according to how they make us feel.While feelings are not irrelevant, they can be misleading. I have heard Christians describe how moved they were by a song that was at its best - theologically shallow and at its worst theologically erroneous.  We may be tempted to think that as long as they mention God, Jesus, the cross in some fashion then the songs are acceptable. We are a reformed church which means we believe our beliefs and our practice must come from the Bible.What we sing in our service must be consistent with the bible.  There are some songs we previously used  in our services at Grace that we have stopped doing because we realized the song content was not in line with the Bible. There are some songs that use phrases from the Bible that are not biblical. This may be a confusing point so let me explain what I mean. Piling up lots of words or phrases from the bible does not count. We could write a song that simply had as its lyrics God, Jesus, Cross repeated over and over and we would not be communicating anything truthful. Or, what if we selected a phrase from the 4th verse of the first chapter of every book of the bible and turned it into a song? As you can imagine this would not work very well. The content would be from the Bible, but this is not the same thing as having content that is biblical because the Bible is not just random words or phrases thrown together. The pages of scripture reveal the truth about God, about ourselves and about the way of salvation in Jesus Christ. There is a message being communicated. Same is true of our songs. This is why we have to give serious consideration to precisely what the songs we sing are communicating about God, about ourselves and about the gospel of Jesus Christ. And just because its in the hymnal doesn't mean the lyrics are biblical!

In Colossians 3:16-17, Paul writes: “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. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” (ESV). We often think of the sermon as the teaching segment of the service, but according to Paul, our songs are also tools for teaching God's truth. Bob Kauflin who directs Sovereign Grace music (and has written several songs we sing including Grace Unmeasured) says: "Leading songs is a pastoral function before its a musical one. Because the songs we sing are meant to enable the word of Christ to dwell in us richly. (Colossians 3:16) Our songs are meant to open peoples' eyes to the glories of Christ in the gospel."  One of the worst pitfalls songs fall into is man-centeredness. A man-centered song is not a song that uses alot of first person pronouns or speaks from the individuals perspective. A man-centered song is a song that places man at the center of God's redemptive purposes. Why did Jesus come to die? To save sinners, yes. But why did he decide to save sinners? If we are reading our Bibles correctly we will see that all of God's reasons for saving is his own glory. God is at the center of his redemptive purposes, not man. God's passion for his own glory is what draws him to poor sinners, and also what turns him away from the proud and haughty. “For though the Lord is high, he regards the lowly, but the haughty he knows from afar.” (Psalm 138:6) Therefore, our songs need to be centered on Christ and seek to exalt him so that his word may dwell in us richly.

What about the music of the songs we sing? While lyrics are of first importance, music is still important. Music has a supporting role when it comes to worship songs. It is meant to highlight what we are singing. Often our  preference for certain songs have more to do with our sentiments about the tune (how it makes us 'feel') than the biblical-gospel truths being communicated in the song. Those who prefer hymns are not immune. Often the preference for hymns has more to do with the familiarity or sentimentality of the tune than it does the lyrical content. There are many great hymns that we ought to sing (many of them we do sing) but there are many lousy hymns too. What makes them great or lousy can either be the tune or the lyrics. Sing-ability, is an important factor especially with some of the oldest hymns. If it is a challenge to sing then it will not be effective in communicating truth. Also, does the tune match the mood or meaning of the lyrics? If the lyrics are joyful but the tune is written with minor chords then it may be best to leave it be or put it to a new and more appropriate tune.

When it comes to selecting songs for worship at Grace, these are the standards that we try to use guide our decisions. We don't do this perfectly but our aim is to provide a worship service that is right with biblical truth, deep theological thought and overflowing with gospel-realities.