What is worship?

[0:00] Okay, so we are going to do a series of four evenings looking at the subject of music in church.! There's all sorts of questions that could start us off, maybe questions you have, questions I've heard.

[0:16] I've got two here which sort of give you the general idea. So the question, why don't we...like other churches? Now this is all supposed to...ahhh! So this is going to sound so funny on the recording, isn't it?

[0:32] Now I want to try and move that up. Why don't we blank like other churches? So somebody might come and say, why don't you have an organist at Calvary like other churches?

[0:49] Why don't you have a music group or a worship band like other churches do? Why don't you have a time of worship, a long time of worship? Why don't you do that?

[1:00] Why don't you have a worship leader? Why don't you have a drum kit? Why don't you have a soloist? Why don't you have a choir? All sorts of questions you could just fill in the blank there. They're good questions.

[1:13] And I'd like to...for us to have an answer to those, to know why we are doing what we're doing, and as a group, to be reasonably happy together that what we're doing is right for us at this particular time.

[1:31] I say reasonably happy because I don't think that some of these issues we're all going to think exactly the same. And it is a Christian virtue to sort of put our own preferences second to our brothers and sisters if it's something that helps them.

[1:55] Right. Here's another question. And I really do want this screen to go up. Go on, go up. How do you make it go up? Oh dear. Go up. It went down. What have I done to it?

[2:27] Anybody suggestions? Two fingers it usually makes it go up, doesn't it? Oh, I know. What about the control? Yeah, arrow keys. Hmm?

[2:39] Arrow keys. Arrow keys. Ah! I did do the up and down one. Now what's happened? Oh dear.

[2:51] Oh dear. I've no idea where it's all gone. This is, let's go back.

[3:10] App commands. I'll tell you what the second question was.

[3:22] The second question was somebody who came to the church and said, we'd sung a song by Graham Kendrick. And the person said to me, you're singing songs by Graham Kendrick at your church.

[3:34] You won't have any. No, it's not going to do anything. And he said, has your heart grown cold like the heart of Solomon? When he got older, he turned away from the Lord.

[3:47] And my answer was no, I don't think so. I don't think a singer song by Graham Kendrick indicates that. But the questioner obviously thought it did. So, what I was hoping we would look at. Oh no.

[4:05] What I was hoping we would look at. This is so frustrating. Right. Gee. That was the one.

[4:16] Five pages. Look at that. Load. Food. So, what I would like us to look at. So, to answer the question about music in church.

[4:29] So, this is I'm afraid my way of doing things. Like a jigsaw puzzle where you put in the outside pieces first and you work in towards the middle. So, what I'd like us to look at this evening is the question about what is worship.

[4:46] And the second question, what are we meant to do when we gather together? So, that's what I'd like us to look at. God helping us and we need some help this evening.

[5:00] So, okay. Let's see what I can do from memory. So, let's do it in this order. So, what is, let's move from the Old Testament to the New Testament.

[5:16] And we'll look at a little bit about worship. Old Testament, New Testament. And see how those fit together. And then we'll try and look at what that says about when we meet together as a group.

[5:31] I'm more or less giving up on this. And I might try something else completely different. So, let's try this.

[5:43] Right, okay. Can you see that? So, I'll do my homework. This is the homework I did. So, I'm going to search for the word worship in the Old Testament.

[5:57] Is that big enough for you to see? Can you see it? Yeah, I can make the text bigger.

[6:09] Okay, well, okay. Well, let's do it. We'll just do it as homework. So, if you wanted to find out. No, that's not what I wanted to do. If you wanted to find out what worship was, you would search.

[6:24] So, here's a piece of software that helps you to search in the Bible. So, come on. Do it properly. Worship.

[6:35] Thank you. Right. I'm not going to change it. It's working. In the Old Testament, there are 102 uses of the word worship.

[6:50] Worship. And they're all listed in this box here. So, I've done a search for worship. And I'm going to ask it to give me the word number. So, some of these words have numbers and you can look them up.

[7:03] Here is the first one. Let's look at it. Genesis 22.5. First use of the word worship in the Bible.

[7:24] This is the story of Abraham going to sacrifice his son, Isaac. Genesis 22. Some time later, God tested Abraham.

[7:37] He said to him, Abraham, here I am, he replied. Then God said, take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love. Go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.

[7:52] Early in the morning, Abraham got up, saddled his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son, Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about.

[8:06] On the third day, Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. He said to his servants, stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.

[8:18] Okay. First text about worship. What do you think he meant when he said we're going to go and worship? Pray. Pray. Yeah.

[8:29] Pray. Could be pray, couldn't it? Anything else? Sacrifice. Sacrifice. Yes. He said he's going to make a sacrifice. So it certainly could be that.

[8:40] So here's a sort of trick question. Do you think he was going to do any singing? No. Sorry? It's acknowledging. It's acknowledging. Yes. It's acknowledging who God is.

[8:52] So let's go a little bit further because worship is often linked with. No, no, no, no, no, no. Let's just try and remember what I did.

[9:04] This is the word shah. Shahach. Come on. That's it. It's down at the bottom there. And it means to bow down.

[9:15] If I now do a search for all of the uses of that word. So I'm going to search again and look for that word. We'll find that it is often used.

[9:29] So look at Genesis 18.2, where the same word is used. Genesis 18.2.

[9:43] The Lord appeared to Abraham near the great trees of Marmere while he was sitting in the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day. Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby.

[9:56] When he saw them, he hurried from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed down, bowed low to the ground. That's the same word according to the computer.

[10:09] So we learn straight away that the word for what we do to God in Hebrew can be used for what you do to angels. Or it can be used for what you do to the people of the land.

[10:28] Genesis 23.12. Can you see that up there? Abraham bowed down himself before the people of the land. So it can be, it can be, the meaning can stretch from, you know, it's a stretchy word.

[10:44] It can mean to show respect in an appropriate manner. So if you, if you met an angel, it might be, he's being respectful.

[10:57] The people of the land, Genesis 23.12, he's being respectful in an appropriate way. But when it's with God, we're respectful in a way which is appropriate to God and only to God.

[11:11] So it's, the word is to bow down and it is linked often with, let's see if I can find an example of it. So when we get to Genesis, when we get to Deuteronomy, just notice there, 33.7, Leah with her children came near and bowed down.

[11:31] So it's used for bowing down. And let's get, I want to get as far as Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy.

[11:51] Of course it is linked with service, come on. Yeah, here we go. Yeah. Okay, Deuteronomy 5.9, let's look at that.

[12:15] Second commandment, Deuteronomy chapter 5, verse 8. You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or in the earth beneath or in the waters below.

[12:27] You shall not bow down to them or worship them. Let me just see if I've got this right. Yeah.

[12:38] You shall not bow down to them or worship them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sins of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.

[12:55] So notice, my NIV says you'll not bow down or worship them. Has anybody got a different translation there in verse 9? Thank you.

[13:12] Because that's more what it says. So the bowing down, that's our shahach word.

[13:23] The next word is to serve. So it's, there it is, abad. And that's the word for servant. Can you think of any servants called ebed or abad?

[13:37] I can't off the top of my head, but it is the word for being a servant. So in this commandment, worship is linked with serving.

[13:49] You shall not worship, you'll not worship other gods nor serve them. In other words, do what they say. In other words, offer yourself to them to be at their disposal.

[14:01] So worship is sometimes linked with service. And it's also sometimes linked with sacrifice. So let's see if I can find that. So let's look at worship.

[14:13] Worship. Worship. And. Sacrifice. See whether that comes up. Okay. So here is one Samuel 1-3. Let's look at that one.

[14:25] Okay. So here is one Samuel 1-3. Let's look at that one. One Samuel 1-3.

[14:49] There was a certain man from Rephathim, a Zufite from the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Elkanah, son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuf, an Ephraimite.

[15:04] He had two wives. One was called Hannah. The other Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had none. Year after year, this man went up from his town to worship and sacrifice to the Lord Almighty at Shiloh.

[15:20] So worship, to bow down, and to express that in the sacrificial system. Sacrifices, killing animals, putting them on an altar, all that sort of thing.

[15:35] Okay. So, rather than look up all the however many hundred examples of that in the Old Testament, I think that gives you a little flavor of Old Testament worship.

[15:50] Now, we're not Old Testament Christians. We worship the same God, but we come in a different way. Let's stay with the Old Testament for a moment. What do you think, if we're thinking of worship, service, sacrifice, and so on, what do you think were the big issues in the Old Testament?

[16:11] What would be the things that you'd have to look out for and to be careful of and were the main features for Old Testament worship, service, sacrifice?

[16:22] We thought of some of them this morning, actually. The animal's back to the lowest. Sorry? It should be more blemished. Thank you very much. Yes?

[16:33] It should be done in the Old Testament by the Old Testament. And the courts of the Old Testament, each one has one significant reason for the whole people who have the same.

[16:45] It also can make the more animals. Okay. So, I'll just repeat that so that everybody could hear. So, correct me if I'm wrong. You're saying that one important thing was the sacrificial animals had to be unblemished.

[16:57] So, that was very important. And you had to come in the way that Moses described in considerable detail. So, the temple had different areas and different ways of approach.

[17:12] And you had to follow that exactly. Thank you very much. Very helpful. Those are the sort of issues you get in the Old Testament. Definitely. Anything else? Because there is, there was a big issue this morning.

[17:25] Maria, could you? You wouldn't. Yeah. If anybody's, yes. What were we thinking? What has been the big issue that we were thinking about this morning and the other Sunday on the same subject?

[17:39] Where they got it completely wrong? Let's let Maria have a go. That you should worship God rather than idols.

[17:52] Okay. God rather than idols. That's where Ahab went wrong, we think about this morning. Because we worship Baal instead of the Lord.

[18:04] But Jeroboam's mistake was a little slightly different to that. But he had a graven image. Yeah. Yeah, you had to be careful of graven images because the Lord didn't want a graven image made in his name.

[18:20] Right. Now the thing is, was Jeroboam saying, let's worship Baal? No, he was saying, let's worship God, but in the form of two calves as though they were God.

[18:32] Exactly, yes. So that's the, that is the Old Testament issue of the precise exactness of the sacrifices, the precise procedure of the temple, the fact of who you worship.

[18:49] So worshiping the Lord and not Baal. And how you worship, so that you worship the Lord in the way that he said. And he hasn't said, visualize me as a golden calf.

[19:02] He said, that is not the way to come. You know, you might think, oh, that would be very helpful. But it's not. For worshiping God, that's not the right way to come.

[19:13] That's a sort of Jeroboam-ish sin. So, that's the Old Testament. Let me just try and think if there's anything else I meant to say on that subject.

[19:24] And I think probably not. So let's come into... What about singing? No, I haven't. We haven't seen any texts about singing yet. Well, the Psalms talk about coming into his presence with singing, don't they?

[19:40] But if we go earlier than Psalms, can you give Jack the mic? Jack the mic. So, where in the temple paraphernalia does it mention singing?

[20:02] What I was thinking of was, was it Miriam that led the people in singing? Yep. And that didn't seem to be within...

[20:14] I don't know what context it was within. But I just wondered when the first time singing was mentioned. Yeah. I'm not going to try and do everything tonight.

[20:25] Yeah. I'm just trying to give the broad outline. But it... The singing... Yes, you certainly get examples of that, don't you? They sung the song of Moses after crossing the Red Sea.

[20:36] But it's not part of the mainstream of the temple institutions. It's really... That really comes later with David. He's the one who brings singing into the equation.

[20:50] But when Abraham says, well, I'm going to go to worship, he doesn't have singing in mind. When Elkanah goes to the tabernacle to worship, he doesn't have singing in mind.

[21:01] To be sure, singing is part of the equation for us. But if we're building up the picture, it's not as yet part of the main theme of it.

[21:14] Is that fair enough? Yeah, I mean, I don't know. I just was thinking, oh, when does singing start, you know? Okay, hold on.

[21:26] So the singing, we will talk about singing, but we're just doing the outside of the picture first. And it's not part of the main framework so far.

[21:37] Circumcision. Yes. That's another subject on its own. I think I'll hold that one on one side for the time being.

[21:52] So let's go from, let's go, let's do a big jump, go from Old Testament, sacrifices, temple, priests, all of that stuff.

[22:06] And we'll go over into the New Testament. Now, let's just sort of prepare our minds. Do we expect to find in the New Testament a particular temple building that we have to go to?

[22:22] I think we probably won't find that. And will it tell us that if we're to be worshippers, we better go down to the butchers and get some lambs and things to bring, and we'll slaughter them on this nice carpet.

[22:35] And are we likely to find that? No. No. We certainly find something, but we do find a shift from the Old Testament to the New Testament.

[22:49] So let's, well, why don't we look for worship in the New Testament, which might help us. So I'm going to do a search here, and I'm going to put search in the New Testament, and I'm going to put worship.

[23:10] And we have 40 references to worship in the New Testament. The wise men come to worship.

[23:22] Let's just scroll through these. Satan tempts Jesus. I'll give you all these things if you fall down and worship me. Matthew 15, 9.

[23:34] In vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men, repeated in Mark, Luke.

[23:50] I think when we get to John 4, that's a text worth looking at. So this is on the subject of worship as we go from the Old Testament to the New Testament.

[24:01] This is Jesus and the woman at the well. So she's a Samaritan. She has her own traditions of worship, and she would follow the Jeroboam tradition of worshiping in the north, whereas the Jews would worship in the south.

[24:17] And that's the question she asks. John 4, 19. So John 4, 19. The woman said, I can see you are a prophet.

[24:28] Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place we must worship is in Jerusalem. So she's sort of asking which of these places is the correct one.

[24:39] Jesus declared, believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father, neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know.

[24:51] We worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.

[25:07] God is spirit and his worshipers must worship in spirit and truth. Okay, so what is Jesus' answer to the question, which of these two mountains is the correct one?

[25:21] What does he say? Neither. Neither. Yeah. And what does he say about timing? Does he say, it's never been the case that you should worship on either of these mountains?

[25:33] What does he say about timing? He makes two references to timing. A time is coming, verse 21, when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.

[25:46] And there's another time reference. Yeah, 23. A time is coming and has now come. So, he's saying that there has been a shift as we go through time from the way it used to be to the way it is now.

[26:00] And what does he say about the way it is now? He says, He says, He says, He says, He says, He says, He says, That we shall worship in spirit and in truth.

[26:18] Thank you. You put, like the NIV, you put one too many ins in because it says, Worship the Father in spirit and truth. So they're linked.

[26:29] Although the NIV puts in another in, in verse 24, that is incorrect. It says, They worship in spirit and truth. So spirit and truth are linked together.

[26:40] So, hmm. I wonder what he means, worship in spirit and truth. Any suggestions what he means to worship in spirit and truth?

[26:54] It could be just very, I think that's quite a difficult question. What does he actually mean by this? But we could probably inch a little way forward on it.

[27:06] Could be, couldn't it?

[27:18] It depends whether he means, whether it's spirit, my spirit, or spirit, the Holy Spirit, probably the Holy Spirit. And he links it with truth.

[27:29] So, this is something inward and it's something, it's something gospel, I would say. Because usually in, in John's gospel, truth is to do with Jesus and the gospel.

[27:42] Okay. Okay. So, that being the case, what, hmm.

[27:56] That being the case, would you agree with me that this means that worship can be a very wide-ranging thing? The qualification is not you have to be in a certain place. The qualification is the spirit and truth.

[28:08] So, I think that makes it quite wide-ranging. So, you could worship the Lord while you were peeling potatoes, couldn't you? Because you could be thinking about the gospel, the Holy Spirit could be at work in you.

[28:21] Would that be correct? You could worship the Lord, you know, I don't know, when you're driving the car. You don't have to be in a particular location. That's how it used to be, but it isn't like that now.

[28:35] You worship the Lord in spirit and truth. And what does it say is God's attitude to such a person? So, if you put up your hand so you get the mic so we can all hear. What does it say is God's attitude to such a person?

[28:55] Hannah, you get a microphone. It says somewhere that the Father seeks true worshippers who worship in spirit and in truth. So, God seeks those who worship. Thank you very much. That's a very significant statement, isn't it?

[29:08] I think it's one of those statements that's really rather big. What is God about in the world? He is about seeking. Let me just find which verse it is. Which verse is it?

[29:20] 23. These are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks. God is seeking worshippers. And I think it's another way of saying what evangelism is.

[29:33] Because that's what Jesus is doing. He's gone out of his way to talk to this woman at the well so that she might move from being far from God to becoming a worshipper.

[29:48] I think he's saying this is exactly what I'm doing. I'm... Jesus is embodying the Father seeking people to be worshippers.

[29:59] And worship not in a narrow sense. It's something you can only do in a certain place at a certain time. But something in quite a wide-ranging sense. And I think it's almost a definition of a Christian.

[30:10] The Father seeks people who will be in their heart, in their life, in every moment of their day, in every breath of their body, in every thought, in every emotion, be his worshippers.

[30:24] I think that's what it's saying. The Father seeks worshippers. So it's not a very narrow thing. It's a big, big thing. And I think that's as far as we will go with that text.

[30:36] But it is quite a wonderful text. Let's go to John... No, not John. I mean to say Romans 12.

[30:59] So here again, what I'm doing is moving from the Old Testament where we have animal sacrifices, temples, a very specific way of approaching. What else to say?

[31:10] Unblemished animals. Temple worship. Oh yes, and worshipping the right God in the right way. So we move to Romans 12, which says...

[31:25] So he explained the gospel to them, explained the truth of the gospel and the ministry of the Spirit. He says in Romans 12, Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God.

[31:41] This is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is, his good, pleasing and perfect will.

[31:58] Okay. Now then, does that... So I'll do some yes or no, probably. Does that text mention sacrifices? Yes. Does it mention breathing sacrifices with blood flowing round in them?

[32:16] No. Yes, it does. Yes. Yes. Yes. They are breathing with blood flowing round in them. But what's the difference then between this and the Old Testament? We are living sacrifices.

[32:27] We are living sacrifices. We are living sacrifices. Is there something about the Old Testament, the Old Testament, the part of the Old Testament, the sacrifice of the atonement of sin?

[32:38] Yes. This is more of a kind of thank. It's a sacrifice that... It's not atoning for sin as such, but this sacrifice is a sacrifice of gratitude or... Yes. Yes.

[32:49] Hang on to the mic in case you want to come back to me on what I say. Yes. Yes. I mean, the big movement is because Jesus Christ has been the Lamb of God and the sacrifice.

[33:04] He is the blood sacrifice. So, whereas in the Old Testament they were sacrificing lambs and bulls and goats left, right and centre, and their blood was spattered all over everywhere, that is fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

[33:18] So, it would be an insult to Jesus if we were to come this evening and offer more lambs and bulls and goats. Because we would say, well, wasn't that enough that Jesus died on the cross?

[33:29] So, that language of sacrifice gets sort of taken and turned inside out like you would turn your socks inside out.

[33:40] Like this and it comes out another way round. And the language of sacrifice gets applied to us, doesn't it? In terms of not atonement, but thanksgiving.

[33:54] So, when Elkanah went to offer sacrifices, back in the Old Testament, he was probably doing both of those things. It was probably a sense of atonement and a sense of gratitude and a sense of bowing down before God.

[34:08] And the sacrifices expressed all of that. But for us in the New Testament, the atoning bit has been done. But the thanksgiving and the worship is, that's the bit that gets turned inside out.

[34:23] And he says, so what I want you to offer as a sacrifice, the body I want you to offer is you.

[34:36] Yeah, I want you to be the sacrifice. I want you to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. This is your spiritual act of worship.

[34:48] Has anybody got anything different from spiritual act of worship? Pardon? Is it? No, we're looking for a translation that actually...

[35:00] The new NIV says, what's it say? This is your true and proper worship. Yeah, that's fine, isn't it? So, the language of worship has gone from what you do in the temple and a certain city with a certain procedure to the way we live.

[35:19] Am I right? So, offer yourselves as... Offer your bodies as living sacrifices. So, in other words, when you are peeling the potatoes, do that as an offering to God.

[35:33] When you're driving the car, do that as an offering to God. When you're... When you're... You know, you think of something that you're doing. You know, cleaning the car, that can be a sacrifice to God.

[35:47] When you go to work, you say, I want to do this for you, Lord. And, you are a living sacrifice. This is your spiritual act of worship. And, it's interesting.

[35:58] It's difficult to stop the reading at verse one, because it all fits together. He's saying, the way you live, the way you think, the renewing of your mind, the actions that you take, you'll be able to test and approve God's will.

[36:16] And, then he goes on to talk about the way you relate to other people in the church. For, by the grace given to me, I say to you, don't think of yourself more highly than you ought.

[36:27] Think of yourself with sober judgment. And, then he talks about the gifts and the way you fit together. So, all of that sort of seamlessly blends into New Testament worship.

[36:38] Does that make sense? So, okay. Let's go to Hebrews. And, I'm going to need some help with a reference for this.

[36:50] It's the bit where it says, with such sacrifices, God is well pleased. Thank you very much.

[37:01] Hebrews. Yes. 13. 15. Okay. 1315. So, Hebrews is about that transition from the Old Testament to the New Testament, isn't it?

[37:21] That's really what it's about. It's addressed to Jewish people, we would think, Jewish Christians, who are tempted to go back to Judaism. And, they're saying, you know, we're missing you at the temple, we're missing you.

[37:36] You know, the rabbis has been asking after you, why don't you come back to us? We've got priests, we've got sacrifices. All you Christians have got is chairs, basically, isn't it? That's, you know, when you go into a Christian meeting, what do you just see?

[37:49] Chairs. We've got the real stuff. And, that's the background of what he's saying in Hebrews. Hebrews, that's interesting what he says here in 13.

[38:01] Let's just have a little look. Let's go earlier in Hebrews 13, verse 9. Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings. It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace, that's God's goodness in the Gospel, not by ceremonial foods.

[38:19] Oh, come on, come and join in with us at our Jewish festival. No, that doesn't strengthen you. They're of no value to those who eat them. We have an altar from which those who minister at the tabernacle, you know, the Orthodox Jewish tabernacle, they've got no right to eat.

[38:36] The high priest carries the blood of the animals into the most holy place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp. So, Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood.

[38:48] Let us then go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore, for here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.

[38:59] Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise, the fruit of lips that confess his name, and do not forget to do good, and share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.

[39:22] Does it mention sacrifice? Yeah. Is he saying that it would be therefore a good thing for us to slaughter lambs and do all that sort of thing?

[39:34] No. What sacrifices, how does he use that language for New Testament people? What does he say they should be doing? Praise, verse 15. Yeah, and?

[39:45] And? And doing good. And doing good. And sharing with others. So, really, that's broadened out into the way we live. Doing good.

[39:57] Sharing with others. That's, he's using worship language, isn't he? Sacrifice language. And he's broadened it out into the whole of life.

[40:08] Does that make sense? Okay, so I should stop soon, because you're saying, you'll be thinking, I came along this evening to hear about songs.

[40:19] And he steered away from that, and he's ended up talking about, saying that worship is everything we do, every breath we take, everything we do.

[40:32] Which is true. So you're gonna say, well, is there no point then in meeting together? Nothing that we do, that meeting together, that is, is, is, you know, is the language of worship redundant?

[40:46] So let's look, I'm gonna find this difficult to do in a short time. Let's look at Colossians. So I'll tell you what I'm going to aim for, but I'm not gonna achieve it this evening.

[41:02] What I'm going to aim for is to say that the right understanding of worship for Christians is that there's the whole of life. So if you drew a great big circle with everything in it, washing the car, cleaning, cleaning the pots, doing the ironing, working, you know, sitting at your computer, doing spreadsheets, dealing with staff members, everything, that's, all of that is worship.

[41:28] All of that is worship. And inside that is another circle of the things that we, the worship things we do when we meet.

[41:39] And what I'd like to say, and I'm not gonna get time to, to prove this to you is, that this is what you call a subset of worshiping activities. All life is worship, but the things that we do when we meet together are those worshiping activities that are edifying.

[41:55] So it would not be, it would be worship if I was to bring, it would also be very unlikely, if I was to bring our dirty washing and iron it in front of you.

[42:10] Okay? I'm not going to do it, but you could imagine it, if you want to. Clean washing, it's clean washing, sorry, clean washing, iron that. That would be worship.

[42:22] Worship. It would be worship, or rightly done it would be worship. I'm doing it to God's glory. But it would not edify anybody to see our washing being ironed, would it?

[42:33] You wouldn't say, well that was a blessing to see the way you did that shirt. You know, I really learnt something from that. I mean, not that I would ever do that. I'm getting myself into deep water here.

[42:44] But what we do in, what we do when we assemble is we do that subset of activities which are worship, which are edifying.

[42:56] So that we could, no, let's go to 1 Corinthians 14, because having embarked on this I'd better. 1 Corinthians 14, I did have a list of the references, but as you can see I've lost it.

[43:14] 1 Corinthians 14 is applying principles to the assembly. 1 Corinthians 14, when you assemble, what are the principles that govern what you should be doing and what you shouldn't be doing?

[43:31] And I want to argue that it's a fundamental principle. Say in verse 12, since you are eager to have spiritual gifts, try to excel in gifts that build up the church.

[43:47] So if you meet together and what you're doing doesn't build up the church, it's a failure. The things that you do when you meet together should build up the church.

[43:58] And what sort of things does that mean? Well, let's have a look at verse 13. 1 Corinthians 14, verse 13. For this reason anyone who speaks in a tongue should pray that he may interpret what he says.

[44:10] For if I pray in a tongue my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful. So what shall I do? I will pray with my spirit, I will also pray with my mind, I will sing with my spirit, I will also sing with my mind.

[44:24] If you are praising God with your spirit, how can one who finds himself among those who do not understand say amen to your thanksgiving? So he's saying here's somebody and you're really thanking God and praising God and worshipping God in some way, which the person next to you cannot understand.

[44:46] So as far as they're concerned, you might just as well be ironing a shirt. You're getting very worked up about something, but you've got no idea what you're talking about, no idea what's going on in your mind.

[45:00] It is not worship. No, that's not quite right. It might be worship, but it is not appropriate for the assembly. Because the other person, look what it says, the other person does not know what you're saying.

[45:15] Verse 17, you may be giving thanks well enough, but the other man is not edified. So this is what I want to get us to tonight.

[45:26] A whole of life is worship, but what we do in the assembly is that smaller set of worshipping activities which are edifying. They build up the church, and in particular, you can understand.

[45:42] You go away saying, I've learned something. Or you go away saying, I agree with that. Do I need to say that again?

[45:55] Is there another bit that says the same thing? Yeah, what about verse 18? I thank God I speak in tongues more than all of you, says Paul. But in the church, I would rather speak five intelligible words to instruct others than 10,000 words in a tongue.

[46:13] It's interesting, isn't it? And I think the underlying principle is this. If you were speaking in a tongue, and Paul says he did that, he could be worshipping in that sense in an excellent way, but in the assembly, he would rather say something if it was just five words that could be understood to help the next person.

[46:41] You know, so he could be saying, thank you, Lord, for dying on the cross for me. Ah, I can understand that. Amen to that. That helps me. I don't know.

[46:52] I can't think of anything with five words, and it'd have to be, you know, that sort of thing. Thank you, Lord, for what you did for me during the week. I can understand that. I can say amen to that.

[47:03] That builds me up too. You servants of God, your master proclaim and publish abroad his wonderful name. The name of all victorious of Jesus extol.

[47:16] His kingdom is glorious and rules over all. I can say amen to that. If you understand that, that's edifying. And that's the, that's where we, that's where music and singing comes in.

[47:29] I'm going to stop there. Thank you very much for your patience. Not only with me, but with the technology. Let's sing. We had one song left in the repertoire, which was...

[47:43] Let's sing. Let's sing. Let's sing. Let's sing. Let's sing. Let's sing. Let's sing. Let's sing. Let's sing. Let's sing. Let's sing.

[47:54] Let's sing. Let's sing. Let's sing. Let's sing. Let's sing. Let's sing. Let's sing. Let's sing. Let's sing. Let's sing.

[48:05] Let's sing. Let's sing. Let's sing. Let's sing. Let's sing.