The Wonder and Glory of Christian Worship

For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them. For they could not endure the order that was given, “If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.” Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear.” 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.

See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven. At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of things that are shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.

Hebrews 18:12-29, ESV

The Wonder and Glory of Christian Worship!

What is acceptable worship? More than details of music or styles.

The Place of Worship (18-22)

Mt. Zion, the Heavenly Jerusalem, the City of the Living God.

Not Mt. Sinai or physical Jerusalem.

Deut 4; John 4; Gal 4; Rev 21

The People of Worship (22-24)

Myriads and myriads of angels in festal gathering. (Rev 5)

The assembly, the church of the firstborn – ekklesia. (Deut 4; Ex 4.22; 19)

God the Judge
All true believers
Christ our mediator
Christ’s blood:

  1. Cries out, “Grace!” (Better than Able’s)
  2. Cried out, “Justice!”

The Posture of Worship(25-29)

Gratitude and joy

Full of reverence and awe.

  1. Because God is a consuming fire.
  2. Same yesterday, today, and forever.

Effect/impact for us?

It should transform our…

  1. Pondering the way we enter into worship.
  2. Preparation for worship.
  3. Participation in worship.
  4. Seeing the expectation in our worship of joy/gratitude/reverence and awe.

What we can only see by faith is truly/actually taking place.

This is our natural response when we realize that all that was needed to escape our due punishment was provided powerfully & completely by our Lord Jesus Christ.

Note: There may be some errors in this generated transcript. It is intended to provide some level of search-ability and help you follow along as you listen. If you would like to assist in editing this document, please use the contact form above with questions.Thank you!

Heavenly Father, we come again before you while we bask in knowing the privilege of your presence as we worship you together now, we thank You, Father, that you have called us to do so. And that you have promised to work through your spirit through this word in our lives, to change us, Lord, indeed, to challenge and refresh and comfort us and to conform us evermore to the image of your son, our Savior, Jesus Christ. And so, Lord, we come again, as your people become desirous to hear the voice of our Savior in this word. And we asked to speak, for your servants are listening. We asked this on his name, And all God’s people said, Amen. Amen. Hebrews chapter 12, starting verse 18, once more, please give your full attention. This is the Word of God. For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them, for they cannot endure the order that was given. If even if these touches the mountain, it shall be stoned. Indeed, so terrifying was the site that Moses said, I tremble with fear, which you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God to 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 righteous man made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, that speaks a better word than able see that you did not refuse him who was speaking, for a day that I escape, when they refused him, who warned them on Earth much less? Well, we escape if we reject Him, He warned from heaven. At that time, his voice shook the earth. But now he has promised yet once more, I will shake not only the Earth, but also the heavens. This phrase yet once more indicates the removal of all things that are shaken, that is things that have been made, in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken. And let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe for our God is a consuming fire, the word of the Lord. Man, what is the delight to be back with you all this morning? To get back in the saddle, as they say, and we come to a new year. And January, you may know is named for the Roman Roman mythology, the Roman god Janus, right he is the God who looks both ways. It’s the beginning of the year.

All the wrapping papers cleaned up from our presence, the tree is put away, we’re getting back to our normal lives. And we realize the struggles and the difficulties and the pains are all still here.

It’s important that we look back at what’s God has done in light of these this reality and look forward to what’s ahead. His promises for his people, his ultimate promises for the future, and his close promises, even for right now for our lives, promises that though we return to our lives, full of brokenness and stress in this fallen world, that God will be with his people to dwell with Him forever in glory. And God will be with his people to sustain them through life, and this pilgrim land here and now. One of the gracious and wonderful ways the Lord strengthens and teaches and sustains us is through corporate worship. What we’re doing right now, corporate worship of the people got week by week, by week, and I wanted to begin the year. Again, looking at this key part of our Christian lives, corporate worship, the worship of the people of God, the assembly of God’s people. I’ve tried to take time each day, at the beginning of each year, to refocus our our attention on these things, the worship of the Church of Christ. And I don’t know if it can be overstated, how important and incredible the gift of worship for his people is, as we gather together on his day, but it is good to regularly review, right what we believe in why we do what we do. And so I wanted to take this Lord’s Day at the beginning of 2023, to reset our focus, or maybe for the first time to look at what Hebrew calls acceptable worship, acceptable worship. An order if you’ve ever thought about that, that I do want acceptable worship is or if there is even such a thing as acceptable worship many People in many churches don’t really think in those terms, they would be hard pressed to say that anything in worship is unacceptable. But is that the case? Is there such a thing as unacceptable worship? Or the types of worship that regardless of the good intentions would be unacceptable to the Lord? Well, if we look at Hebrews chapter 12, we have to conclude that there is acceptable worship and distinction from worship, that is unacceptable. Because if there’s no standard for us to know what acceptable versus unacceptable worship is, it ends up coming down to what just what we feel like right what we feel like doing. And this is the popular view, of course, right of many just be sincere and really mean it. And that’s all cool. It’s not merely a matter as we look at these things of what are the appropriate instruments to use in worship, or the hymns or songs that we sing, or the age of the music, it’s much bigger than that much more comprehensive and overarching, than those incidental things. We don’t want to get bogged down in those issues, the so called worship wars of the eight of the decades. Those aren’t unimportant, but they’re not all important. And they’re more downstream from what is really important in regard to what worship is. The important question is, What does God expect? And find acceptable from us in corporate worship? And that’s the question that we’re seeking to answer. What is acceptable worship? And we’re gonna approach this question this morning, by looking at Hebrews chapter 12. In more detail, to see what we can learn about worship, and what is acceptable worship the Lord lays out for us, we’re doing here, right, Lord’s day by Lord’s day. Right, the rest of the world is sleeping in and staying warm, right, and resting and getting ready for the rest of the week. But we get up Lord’s day by Lord’s day and come with the light, right glorying in the Lord, seeking to be served that to offer worship to Him. What is that? Next week? Next week, we’ll look at the pattern of worship that we see drawn from the pages of Scripture. But this morning, what is it that God expects, and accepts in worship? That’s the question. Just what are we to do? What are we doing in worship?

And I pray that as we look at this text, we’ll see that corporate worship is altogether amazing and awesome, right? I want you to, I want us to, to grow in our reveling in the glory of the Lord and what we’re doing. And you children, I would ask, pay particular close attention to what we’re going to talk about. This is not unimportant, right? I pray that as we look at this text, we will reorient ourselves to this glorious gift of God, the worship of the church. And then we will be moved to praise and worship him as we do, and more and more and always. So just to reframe where we are to set the context of this passage in Hebrews 12. Remember what Hebrews is about? Hebrews is all about the superiority of Christ, the superiority of Jesus, right? It’s about the superiority of the person of Christ, of the personhood of Christ, and the superior privileges that Christ people have by virtue of being united to him.

And the author is giving these Hebrews a warning. It’s a cautionary tale. And the core of that warning is related to what to the worship of the church to worship, what they’re doing. This is what the warning is. The church there is made up of mostly of Jewish believers, and many of them are wanting and actually leaving to return to Old Testament worship. Right? They’ve left the corporate worship of the church and return to Old Testament worship, right, and the temple, the sacrificial worship, worship with priests and all. This is what they knew, and this is what they preferred, and they were longing being pulled to go back to that. And there is this temptation to go back to that physical form, and focus of worship that they were familiar with that was that they could touch. Right? And so the here in Hebrews, which many have recognized as a sermon, right, the book of Hebrews as a sermon to these people, the author, there is what he’s pleading with them, to not go back to the old not to return to Temple worship. And he’s telling them that Christ is superior, the Lord Jesus has come. God is giving them something better, something much better than what was the old way. And in fact, that old way, was preparatory and pointing to Jesus was pointing to Christ. And so what God has offered us in Jesus, and along with him, the worship that God has given it’s superior to the Old Covenant, because Christ is the culmination to all those pointers and promises and preparation. Right? The fulfillment has come. We’re not going back to the type of is the message of Hebrews. And that fulfillment of Jesus Christ, and our worship of Him is superior to what has come before us to Old Covenant worship. And if this is what he’s saying, and if that’s true, and that is, it’s really a no brainer that New Covenant worship would be superior a better way. Hebrews says, that Old Covenant worship that which God ordained, right, God ordained the old way for that epoch for that time. And even though it was meant to pass away, right, we think, if God ordained for a time, that thing is inferior to what is now how much more can anything that man can come up with, be inferior, right? If New Covenant worship is superior to the Old Covenant worship, it should be very clear that New Covenant worship is superior to any inventions of man. So let’s dig in now to our text this morning. And as we look at it, we’ll see that Hebrews gives us a number of reasons why this is the case, number of reasons why New Covenant worship is superior to Old Covenant worship and the old way. Those were merely types and pointers to what has come. And it gives us some grounding. When we look, we try to figure out what it is that is acceptable worship, this phrase that Paul uses here at the end of chapter 12. And what we find when we look at this, is that acceptable worship has to do with what it has to do with a place and a people and a posture, right a place and a people and a posture. First Hebrews discusses the place, the place of worship, acceptable worship, must be in the right place. Now, what do I mean? Well, what does Hebrews mean verses 18? To 22? It begins he, he, he gives her a comparison of two gatherings of two assemblies to church assemblies. And as a comparison between these two. Look what it says in verse 18, and verse 22, that you have not come to a mountain that may be touched, right? And then verse 22, it says, But you have come to a mountain. It’s mountain Zion. And what is he talking about there in verse eight, you have not come to a mountain that may be touched. When we look at this passage, we see that it’s pretty clear. He’s talking about Mount Sinai, and about Israel who was gathered in the wilderness. Remember, as we read, they came in the gathered for the purpose of to enter into covenant with God on the mountain. And it’s clear that that was a physical mountain, it couldn’t be touched. But the warning there at that time was what do you not touch it, I did not touch it. Even if a piece touches the mouth, and it will surely die. And it says, but for certain there was a touchable, visible physical mountain. Hebrews is saying, that’s not the mountain you have come to. It says that it is a heavenly mountain that we need to grasp by faith. There’s a physical mountain and then there’s a heavenly mountain. Right, and we read Deuteronomy four. And notice in that passage, all of the language that we see here in Hebrews 12, right, he says, You have not come to a mountain that can’t be touched. Then it describes the mountain right? of burning, blazing fire, darkness, gloom, a tempest. So he’s describing Sinai. And that event, you’ll recall from your Old Testament that Israel saw, saw and experienced in the wilderness, and he tells the Hebrews, this isn’t your reality. This isn’t your reality. This is not your worship, as the assembled people of God. He says, You New Testament Christian Church, are not like them on that mountain. You’re also a corporate assembly, you have come to a mountain, but it’s a different mountain. It’s not that. And Hebrews gives us comparison, as we read between these churches in these assemblies. There is one church and assembly and mountain sign on, I’m sorry, what Mount Sinai in the wilderness. And then there’s the church, the assembly of the New Covenant, the Christians in Hebrews, and they are gathered at a different mountain there at Mountain Zion. And he says, you’re no longer in Sinai, but instead we have come to this rich mountain of grace in the new covenant. So they like we come in verse 22, mountain Zion, we’ve come to nothing less than Hebrew says mountain sigh on the city of the living God to the heavenly Jerusalem. And he’s not here talking about three distinct places, different places, but he’s calling the same place by three names. Mountain Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. says you’ve come to this one place this one assembly in the Old Testament, as you surely knows Diane is just another name for the city of Jerusalem. And we’re seeing this throughout the Old Testament. And so the author of Hebrews is telling them they shouldn’t go back to the physical place Jerusalem, because they’re currently in Jerusalem, the heavenly Jerusalem. And he warns, if you go back to that physical city, Jerusalem will be lost. They want to go back to the holy place to Jerusalem to Temple worship, right, but the author of the Hebrews is warning them, that they are really concerned about Jerusalem about Zion, they’re already there. Even now, you have come to this mountain to spy on. It’s not the physical, but the physical one down in Palestine. And now, if you’re paying attention, this might strike us as odd. It should rather because the author to the Hebrew says, You’re not at Sinai, you’re in Jerusalem, right? Track with me. But the Jewish Christians, what were they trying to do? They were not trying to go back to Sinai. But Paul equates these two, right, they weren’t making a journey to return to where the 10 commandments were received. Their desire was not to go to Sinai, they wanted to go back to Jerusalem, physical Jerusalem, where the temple was. And so what the author is doing, you’ll see he’s equating these two Sinai and physical Jerusalem together, right. And it’s interesting that he does this. And he says, they’re the same place when you compare them to what, to the true Jerusalem, that is now that now is the Heavenly Jerusalem. This is the only place where we see this. We’re in the New Testament, we see this going on about these mountains, right. Galatians chapter four, we see the Apostle Paul making the similar comparison, the similar point. In Galatians, 425, you’ll recall Paul says of Hagar, remember, he says regarding Hagar, now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia. And she corresponds to the present Jerusalem. So yeah, for she is in slavery with her children. Okay, so he’s equating these two. And Paul says that Hagar has what a type of mountain, the mountain Sinai, and she tells us where the mountain is. It’s in Arabia, the physical location. And then he says, Now that mountain corresponds to present Jerusalem, whose children are in slavery, even now. He says Sinai is physical Jerusalem, and all physical Jerusalem’s children are in bondage, because they have not received the Messiah. And so Paul takes Sinai and Jerusalem, and he makes them parallel. And he combines them together. And Paul goes on in this passage in Galatians. And he says that the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is the mother of us all speaking of the Church of Christians. And so regarding true worship, Paul says, that is no longer Sinai, physical Jerusalem there out, that’s not the place of worship. And some of you might be making this connection as well to the Gospels, right, the Gospel of John, John chapter four, when Christ is speaking with this woman at the well. And she asked him a question about worship, a proper place and acceptable worship. And what did Christ respond your recall?

Is that woman, believe me, the hour is coming, when neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, will you worship the Father. But the hours coming in is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. For the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth. And says, Look, you’re no longer going to worship at this mountain, nor in Jerusalem. The hours coming and now is when all that’s changed. It’s not physical mountains on Earth, but instead you worship in Jerusalem that is above. And so Hebrews and verse 22 of our passage, he calls this Jerusalem, Heavenly Jerusalem, but it’s in heaven. It’s the same Jerusalem by the way, where else do we see a Jerusalem in heaven? This language, right, the last week of our Bibles with force, right, the book of Revelation. It’s the same Jerusalem that we read up there that will come down on the last day, Revelation 21. firsthand, and he carried me away in the spirit to a great high mountain, he showed me the holy city, Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God. Right. So the author of Hebrews is saying, that’s where you are right now. So where you are right now, as a corporate assembly, when you come together to worship in the church as the church, he’s telling them, You don’t need to go down to Jerusalem, because you’re really in Jerusalem, the true heavenly city. As you come to worship him, and whereas it’s up in heaven regardless, that’s where you are when you are gathered together in corporate assembly. That’s an incredible thing. It’s incredible thing to reflect upon the promise and the declaration of the reality of what’s going on. It’s something that should truly blow our minds. That’s where we are when we’re gathered. Right? Do you see that? And again, especially your children, right? Think about what’s going on there. You’re not coming just to, to disrupt your your mornings, right? We’re being drawn up into heaven. That’s awesome. Dropped the Heaven itself even now, right? Do you believe that? If you believe in the awesome, it’s hard for us to really let that sink in and to detach from the rest of our lives, right, where our minds have a hard time thinking that this is true. Because it sure looks like we’re here in Indiana, and a little burnt brick church with parking struggles and construction going on, right. But what we read here is that when we are answered God’s call to come into worship, we aren’t simply here, rather than call up in heaven itself, and are assembled in the heavenly city, the New Jerusalem, at this a declaration of the reality of our situation. And it’s very hard to comprehend that truth, right? We are so physically minded and physically tethered. But that’s one of the reasons we come Lord’s day by Lord’s day, you’re reminded of the reality and pulled back into what’s really real. It’s difficult, but know for certain brothers and sisters, that when you’re beaten down from this life, in this pilgrim land, throughout your week, when you’re a week from the journey from the world and the devil and your own flesh, know that Lord’s day, by Lord’s day, he calls you to come in to experience a foretaste of glory and worship, worship with the people of God. And He calls you to taste a small sample of what that heavenly worship will be like. Even here, as we gather week by week in a small brick building. And by it, He strengthens, and he grows and he refreshes you, as we do so, except the warship is in the right place. Book of Hebrews, the New Testament tells us we need to grasp that heavenly worship is this worship is because what he tells us next we’re going to look at intensifies the glory of what’s going on in worship. Again, framing our reality again, having our brainwashed minds, washed with the truth of God’s word reminded of the truth. And he says acceptable worship is in the right place, right the heavenly city. And then second is with the right place or with with the right people or the right company. Right verses 22 to 24. We are drawn into glory and corporate worship, to the heavenly city, and who is there when we come to worship? Who is there with whom we worship? Again, verse 22, but you have come to Mount Zion, into the city of the living God said to the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, right? It’s an amazing thing again, I keep drawing attention to the children. Man, listen to what listen what listen to what the Lord is telling you here. You’ve come to Zion, the City of God, the heavenly Jerusalem and to innumerable angels in festal gathering. Right? It says you’re gathered here. As you are, you’re ready to innumerable angels Myriad’s 1000s upon 1000s. And he says, Not only should you not go back to physical Jerusalem, when you gather corporate worship, you are surrounded with 1000s upon a myriad of angels. That’s happening even now. And this is the same group of angels, right, that you read about in Revelation five, when John was taken up into heaven and shown what it was like? And he says there in Revelation 511, he heard around the throne. And the living creatures and the elders and the voice of many angels, numbering Myriad’s myriads of myriads, and 1000s of 1000s, right? How many 10,000 times 10,000? Right. It’s an emphatic right, the number multiply exponential. And this is what Hebrews is saying, as well. That the vision that John saw of all these angels surrounding the throne, when you come and worship in the church as the church, that is where you are, at this route reality of where we are, and again, notice what kind of gathering it is. Right? It’s not a dirge. It’s not a funeral. It’s not a memorial. In the term of funeral, the gathering of angels is what? It’s festival festival, celebratory gathering. And we see in Revelation, the song that they sing Worthy are you oh Lamb who was slain, to receive glory and honor and power and blessing. They’re taken up in song about the slain and risen Christ, who now rules in their midst. And the author of the Hebrews is telling them, he’s telling us that as the church, that is what we are called to, when we come to worship, and worship, we’ve been caught up into heaven, you’re part of that scene right now. Angels are truly presence in our midst. And so true worship, acceptable worship, right worship is with the right people. And it’s in the first of those people read about is these myriad and 1000s of angels. The next thing he goes on to tell us in verse 23, you were also with the assembly, the church of the firstborn, who are enrolled in heaven. We read here Hebrews against the same language from the discussion regarding those gathered at Sinai.

And then it has a word that’s used here for church ecclesia, you guys by notice the cold out Ecclesia. And this is what the assembled church in Israel in Sinai was called right, the Greek translation of the Old Testament. That’s the same word in Deuteronomy four in Exodus 19. Israel is called the ecclesia in the wilderness.

And they’re also called God’s firstborn son, Israel is referred to as God’s firstborn son. Right. Remember, recall, when God speaks to Pharaoh, he says, let Israel go, for he is my son, even my firstborn son. And again, it’s important for us to understand what’s going on. In the book of Hebrews, these Jewish Christians are being tempted to go back to old, the old ways. And they’re afraid that they’ve thrown off their birthright. And that there are some who are doubting if Christ in fact, is the way. And so the ones who return the lower to go back to worship in the temple in Jerusalem, to Judaism. And this book, is telling them Hebrews is telling them, that’s not where the gathering of the firstborn is.

And Hebrews, the saint, whoever gathers together in this assembly is God’s Church is his assembly, his firstborn sons, those who are enrolled in heaven, the dividing wall, right, the separated them, has been abolished forever. They’re no longer those who are far off Gentiles, and those who are near Jews, no longer, but all who gathered become part of the assembly of the firstborn, God. And so we gather not only with the Christians in this room, our brothers and sisters in Christ, but with all the saints who presently worship, the Lord is right, and we worship in the Spirit.

And as we do so all of God’s people are caught up into that same assembly. And then notice who else is here it says, right, myriads of angels, the saints, and who else it says, God, who was Judge overall. God is there he’s called judge in this assembly. He really could have used various words to describe, to title God, various terms to describe him, but he says, Judge because of what God is his present in our midst, on his throne, as father, yes. But he also comes this judge to show who we are, and who we are not. God is there. And that’s what we see. It says, The spirit of Jasmine made perfect are there as well. We come to this mountain, the spiritual Jerusalem. Right, and this is all true believers throughout history, right from the Old Testament, all the way till now, God says they’re gathered there as well as the assembly in heaven. And also it says, what next Christ is there. Christ is that the mediator? And praise God that he is, right. That’s why the judge being there is not terrifying, because our mediator is there. Jesus, the mediator, or king and our Redeemer, the mediator is there when we come in worship, of course, is the promise of the Bible, and God sees you you’ve trusted your life for him clothed what in a spotless perfection of that mediator. Less glorious indeed. And then Hebrews says, what we’ve come to the sprinkled blood, it says, that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. Remember, this reference that he’s giving here? God came and the judge came Amen, right? And he said, I’ve heard the blood of your brother crying out. And what was it crying out for? It’s crying out for justice. I don’t have a justice, justice against the sin. When Cain murdered Abel, his brother, Hebrews is telling us here Christ’s blood is in this assembly. And it speaks for something better on our behalf. Not merely justice, but what the grace, but grace, it was the Lamb who received justice, when he took the penalty that we deserved. And that’s why it’s joyous and delightful and wonderful, that we can be there boldly before God the Judge, to amazing thing. And so according to Scriptures, the church is gathered in the heavenly city, Jerusalem, even now that’s the place and the people the company, right, we are gathered together with myriads of myriads of angels, and all the saints have come before in all of history, and all the saints still on earth, all simultaneously with us together. And God, the judge is there and with him, the mediator, Jesus, and it’s His blood that speaks on our behalf, grace for you. Because justice for Christ in this gathering, is the one that Hebrews is telling us. We’ve come to, this is where we’ve come. This is the gathering we’ve come to isn’t that staggering, right? Isn’t that it’s incomprehensible. It’s incredible. This is the reality of worship, and your prayer and your meditation and your preparation for worship, before we come, has this truth settled into your minds and your hearts? Do you trust God’s word here when tells you these things? Or do you think, Oh, if only that were true? Do you think that or do you by faith, trust what God is telling us here and embrace it with certainty as a certainty, you are truly there. This is the reality of the glorious assembly to which we have come when we come to worship. And the author is telling them all those things that you want to go back to their pathetic and weak and dismal compared to the reality of what and where you now are as the assembled church and worship. All of that pointed all those things you want to go back to pointed to what we have in Christ, and He is here with you, along with all the rest that he mentions. And these things drive our, our worship, and they drive our order of worship, they drive our liturgy, which is just the ordering of things, the way we do things. And we don’t put these things together. Because we want to be different, or we want to be old, or we want to be against contemporary worship. That’s not what drives us not, it’s not why we do the things that we do. It’s no small thing when we come as God’s church to worship Him. You have gathered corporately, with the church universal in heaven and on earth, and all of God’s angels before Him on His throne in Christ and the throne. On the throne seated next to the Lord. That’s the scene and if that’s true, and that is, it’s reflexive and natural, that would change our focus from yourself, right and any other thing and put your focus on Him, on him. And so when your mind seemed distracted, all of us all ages, you children, and you adults, me distracted. That’s the things that we need to remember. That’s what we’re doing. We’re coming to do business with the Lord. He’s coming to serve us. If we if this is true, and we focus on these things, our worship certainly will be affected by this reality. And so the type of worship that is acceptable, will be formed and affected by the place of worship and the people in worship. Hebrews both demands proper acceptable worship, he says, and it defines us defines that as well. And this worship is a gift from God. It’s a gift from God as well to his people. And then lastly, what is acceptable worship? Hebrews tells us, it’s worship with the right posture, the right posture, verses 25 to 29. And that posture that Hebrews is referring to, it says that worship is what it’s joyful, full of gratitude, with reverence and all. That is acceptable worship. Do you see that in the texts?

Transcribed by https://otter.ai