Untitled Sermon (16)

COVENANT RENEWAL WORSHIP

LEVITICUS 9, ROMANS 12:1

There are others who emphasize the emotional or inner experience of the congregation in worship. They believe that the Sunday service’s function is to produce some kind of beneficial “heart” response in the people. Religion is reduced to what happens “inside” of us, sometimes even to sentimental and pious feelings. The Christian faith is reduced to religious sentimentalism.

The Reason Why We Need to Have a Right Understanding of Worship

The way we now worship, the way we pray, the way we approach God in corporate worship in our churches will determine what our spiritual grandchildren one day will believe, teach, and confess.

The Renewal Covenant Worship

We are in Covenant in Christ which also means we are in covenant with one another. That’s why we strongly teach church membership. Because we cannot equally yoke with non-believers. (2  Cor 6:14)

The model of worship we see in Scripture is the regular renewal of the covenant God has made with us, called “covenant renewal worship”: “During corporate “worship” the Lord renews His covenant with His people when He gathers them together and serves them”. This is in complete opposition to modern churches’ casual and fellowshipping and trendy style.

Worship occurs only in the covenant. There is no covenant with people who are outside the church. non-believers. Covenant must inform your worship. Our Praise should be for Covenant blessings. Our preaching should be about Covenant promises. Our warnings should be about Covenant curses. Our communion should be about Covenant Union.

Covenant renewal is a reaffirmation of our covenant in us and our proclamation of our covenant keeping God.

Throughout Scripture, covenants were not only made but reenacted through sacrifices: the animal was brought to the priest, the people’s sins were laid upon it, the smoke of its burning would ascend “to heaven”, and the people would feast before God.

While Christ abolished animal sacrifice by sacrificing Himself, we must still come into God’s presence through sacrifice. We were united with Christ in his once-for-all sacrifice, so now every Sunday we are united with Him in a reminder of that sacrifice. Christ is always and will always be the mediator of man to God. All our worship is accepted by the Father because of Christ. when we remove Christ in our worship it is not worship anymore.

Who Should Lead Worship?

This means that those who lead every aspect of the service are acting on behalf of Jesus Christ, representing Him to His Bride. This underscores the high calling of the pastor, which is not to be taken lightly or separately: “And no one takes this honor for himself, but only when called by God, just as Aaron was” (Hebrews 5:4). Therefore, the one who leads every aspect of the service should be an ordained minister and must be a man:

The congregation should be assured that when their minister reads, pronounces, preaches, prays, breaks, distributes, and blesses he does so speaking and acting for the Lord Himself….This is why we have ministers preside and lead the service: to give God’s people the assurance they need that the call to worship, the forgiveness of sins, the sermon, the bread and the wine, and the benediction are given to them by the Lord Himself….This is precisely why a woman is prohibited from serving as a pastor. She cannot represent the Husband to the Bride.

-Jeffrey J. Meyers, The Lord’s Service: The Grace of Covenant Renewal Worship

What is a Christian Worship

Let us clarify the importance of liturgy (religious ritual or service) in our worship.  The word “liturgy” is a Bible word and ought not to scare us, if we properly understand and qualify its meaning. In Romans 12:1, for example, we are urged, in response to God’s mercy, to offer our bodies as living sacrifices. Such a course, we are told, is holy and pleasing to God; it is our “reasonable service.” The word translated “service” (or “worship” in some translations) is the Greek word latreia, which refers to the sacrificial “service” or “liturgy” by which the worshiper presents himself to God (Phil. 3:3; Heb. 9:9; 10:2; 12:28).

The meaning of “liturgy,” therefore, is intimately connected with the biblical practice of “offering” and “sacrifice” at the holy tabernacle and temple.

Christian worship is sacrificial; when we say Christian worship is covenant renewal worship, we mean that it takes the form of sacrifice and offering.

Worship is not merely something we do for God or to God or in God’s presence. Worship is something God does for us in the person of Christ through the power of the Spirit. Worship is not primarily our act, but foundationally the gift of God.

God serves us in worship. God gathers us together and ministers to us, drawing us into His life of love and fellowship. In this way, secondly, we serve Him.

Worship is principally God’s Service, not our service to God. It is what we are graciously given as well as what we are given to do in Christ.

1. THE CALL TO WORSHIP (Lev 9:7)

God Himself calls us to worship. He summons us from heaven to assemble. We do not decide to gather together and then ask God to be present. This is the Lord’s Day. We don’t gather together and ask Him to be with us. He commands us from heaven to enter into His presence, and we respond in obedience as the Spirit effectually enables us. We usually do the call to worship by reading passage in the Scripture about worship, about the God we worship, about His call to His people.

When the Church gathers on the Lord’s Day she enters into heaven (by faith) to worship God with all of the angelic host and departed saints.

The Lord has now called us into His special presence. He has taken hold of us by His Word and separated us out from the world as His people.

How do we respond to the call? Through the Opening Hymn of Praise. This song is addressed to God, which means it is a prayer. This first hymn will usually highlight some aspect of the character and/or work of God thereby giving concrete form to the congregation’s adoration and praise.

Remember, the entire service moves forward as God speaks and the congregation responds. It is something of a conversation between God and His Church. God calls and we respond. God speaks and we listen. God gives and we receive. God acts and we thank Him. We say “amen” each time the Lord speaks to us or acts for us. The dialogical pattern is found throughout the Bible when men find themselves in God’s presence (Is. 6:1 - 12; Jer. 1:4 - 8; Rev. 4 - 5, 19:5 - 10). So, here, at the beginning of the service, the Lord calls us and we gather to praise Him.

We also respond by prayer and or Responsive Scriptures.We pray expressing our need for the Lord’s help in order to worship Him properly. He Himself is the One who “helps” us enter His presence. We do Responsive reading, most of the time taken from the Scripture, and we altogether respond during the reading because it signifies our unity in standing about the truth of God.

Opening Prayer. The congregation prays the prayer of adoration and petition that extols the Lord’s greatness and requests His continuing service and presence throughout the service.

In our prayers we have an important portion called “the memorial pleading” (“through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.”)

2. THE CONFESSION (Lev 9:8-10 emphasize “sin offering”)

To seek an entrance with God Almighty without humbly confessing sin and faithfully receiving His forgiveness in Christ is sub-Christian at best. “If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.” (Ps. 66:18). This is the first service that God renders to His people when they are gathered before Him. God’s initial service to us consists in cleansing us from the guilt of our sin. It properly situates us in heaven so that we can praise Him with the heavenly company of angelical beings and departed saints.

When we are ushered into the presence of Almighty God, we are made painfully aware of our own sinfulness and guilt. Consider Isaiah’s experience. His translation into heaven and his vision of God’s majestic holiness had an immediate effect: Isaiah cries out, “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts”(Is. 6:5).

These examples are given so that we might learn the proper way to approach God’s majesty. In each case (and we could cite many more) those that are “undone” in the presence of God are not unbelievers or even particularly heinous sinners who might have reason to fear God’s wrath. Rather, they are those who are in covenant with God, but nevertheless experience the holiness of God upon approaching Him. God’s covenantal grace provides for the ongoing forgiveness of sins for His people.

In the same way, every Christian worshiper, at the beginning of the service, must ask God the Father for the forgiveness of sins on the basis of the death of His Son, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

3. THE CONSECRATION (Lev 9:12-14 burnt offering, ascension offering)

The pastor announces, “This is the Word of God. Pay careful attention. “The call to hear God’s Word is the solemn reminder that what the congregation now hears is the very voice of God speaking to them.

Just as the priestly sword was at this point trained on the sacrificial animal to prepare him for his ascent into the Lord’s presence, and the fire on the altar was stoked up to purify and transform him for fellowship with a holy God, so also now the fiery Spirit will use the Word of God during this part of our service to “chop us up, wash us, and transform us into holy people prepared to meet our holy Lord (Heb. 4:12; 12:14; Ps. 24:4; Eph. 5:26 - 27).

“For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two - edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart “(Heb. 4:12).

Sometimes when we hear the message during worship, we get to have  a sense that I’m hurt with what the pastor is saying. Its not the preacher who does that, it’s the Word of God. do take it as the pastor is taking you personally.

“Hearing” the Word of God creates an orderly community of love and mutual submission. We don’t choose what part of the Bible comes to us. We are commanded to “hear.” The whole Word of God is brought to bear upon us, and we are called to submit ourselves by faith to the authority of the Word of God. God speaks; we listen. Speaking and hearing God’s Word is the most fundamental ritual activity in the Church. When the pastor reads the passage, everyone should hold their head up and listen intently to the reading.

4. COMMUNION (Lev 9:18-21 peace offering)

God has called the Church together to eat with Him. Before God sends us out to serve Him in the world, He first sits us down for a common meal. He must strengthen and nourish us with bread and wine for service in His kingdom. We must experience the shalom of God at the table. Therefore, the culmination of the covenant renewal service occurs when we sit down and eat dinner with Jesus, receiving from Him by faith His own life - giving flesh and blood.

Luke 22:19 says, And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. “Do this as my memorial” alerts us that there is something richer, something more profound happening in the Supper than a reminder technique to help us remember Jesus. The word memorial should bring us to the Exodus 12:14 “This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast.

This is the Passover. When the Lord saw the blood on the doorpost, He remembered His covenant and spared His people. Indeed, all the sacrifices made by Israel were offered as memorials directed toward God so that He would remember the covenant (Exod. 12:14; Lev. 2:2; 6:15 calls sacrifice “a memorial for the Lord”).

The Lord s Supper memorializes the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ. This is a sacrificial symbolism. In every sacrifice the body of the animal was divided. Even a small bird had to be divided; the head had to be wrung off of the body (Lev. 1:15; 5:8). And on that new table the body and blood are already separated. The death has already occurred. It only needs to be memorialized, and the benefits enjoyed by God’s people as He faithfully remembers His covenantal promises.

It is in this sense that the Lord’s Supper may be properly understood as a “sacrifice.”

5. COMMISSIONING (Lev 9:22-24)

Once the sacrifice is over, Yahweh sends the worshiper out renewed and empowered for service in the kingdom. (Num. 6:22 - 27). We do this as the pastor prays for the church as they are sent into the world to live for God and as witnesses.

Benediction

The minister then ends the service with the benediction. The Benediction (or “blessing”) is the final service God renders to His congregation as a whole on the Lord s Day (Lev. 9:22). Through the pastor’s words the Lord assures us of His peace, promises, and His gracious presence as we leave His special presence (in the midst of His assembled human temple) to return to the world. Luke 24:50, Jesus final recorded act was a blessing pronounced upon his disciples: “He led them out as far as Bethany, and He lifted up His hands and blessed them.”

The benediction is not a prayer. It is a performative utterance. The congregation should not bow their heads and close their eyes but receive the blessing facing the minister with their eyes open.

We respond as we sing Doxology. Our doxology is our highest adoration to God in the form of hymn singing. We emphasize the Trinitarian doxology. It allows us also to unitedly affirm our faith in the triune God. Doxology is not a signal that the worship service is about to end, instead we need to have an attitude that we are longing for God. Because you are already in the presence of God, you are already in heaven but it is not yet the time to stay in heaven, we have to be a witness to the lost world.

The Name of God — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — is liturgically non-negotiable.

In the bible as revealed to the Lord’s follower, the proper Name of God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God is first and foremost a Father not in relationship with His creatures, but in relationship with His Son. And God the Son is Son not by virtue of His likeness to created sonship, but because of His eternal relations with God the Father. Mention also the importance of Creed.