Every Member Coming

Every Member Coming Psalm 95:1-7 INTRODUCTION: A lady named Gladys Dunn was in town and visited a church one Sunday for morning worship. She arrived a little late and sat toward the back. The atmosphere was pleasant; the music was uplifting, and the sermon was good, though a little long, and after a while she noticed a number of heads bowed and eyes closed – not because they were in the posture of prayer. After the benediction, as the people were filing out, she introduced herself to one sleepy-eyed old gentleman. “Hello. I’m Gladys Dunn.” To which he replied, “You’re not the only one, dear lady. I’m glad it’s done too!” Look. My wife will tell you I personally believe in Sunday naps. I really do. I love my Sunday naps, and I think everybody should take one. But listen. Please wait ‘til you get home! And what about our “twelve-o’clock-I-got-other-things-on-mymind-andbetterthings-to-do-check-the-worship-block-glad-it’sdone” attitude that afflicts so many churches today when it comes to one of the most fundamental and foundational aspects of what it means to being born again children of God and members of the body of Christ, which is worshiping the Father in heaven in spirit and truth? I mean, why even bother? Why go to the trouble? Why even come if the purpose of your coming is to check the worship box and be done with it so you can go back to the life you want to live - and are going to live regardless - because you aren’t there to have a life-changing experience in the presence of the Living God in the first place? Why even come? This morning, I’m going to do my best to give you an answer to that question. It’s a big, elephant-in-the-room type question, because so many people aren’t coming, and it’s been trending in the wrong direction for a long time. Last week I began a series of messages entitled The Every Member Church-he Way it Ought To Be, and in these messages we’re going to be looking at the church in terms of the five biblical purposes: • Every Member COMING – that’s WORSHIP • Every Member GROWING – that’s discipleship • Every Member SERVING – that’s MINISTRY • Every member BELONGING – that’s fellowship • Every Member GOING – that’s EVANGELISM and MISSIONS As I explained last week, the every member church is an understanding the church we see in the first church – the Jerusalem church in the book of Acts – after Pentecost, after the coming of the Holy Spirit, in which literally every member was included, instructed, involved, and invested in the life and mission of the church. And for us, this every member church is an ideal – a standard – we’re striving for and working toward. And, let’s be honest, we’re a long way from this ideal. There are so many of our members who are no longer connected to the body, so many who are lost to us, and so many who have drifted away, but that doesn’t mean we ought to forsake them, forget them, or just write them off like a bad debt or a lost cause. In the spirit of the Good Shepherd, we have a responsibility to leave the ninety and nine and go out and find them and bring them home. I know today is HOMECOMING, but every Sunday ought to be like a homecoming in the sense that family members are gathering together in a reunion of relationships bound together by the blood of Christ, drawn together by our common longing for the Father’s love, and our hunger for the Holy, and our shared need to confess the brokenness of lives and repentance in tears and receive the Father’s forgiveness in the knowledge of his love, and to bow down before him together in humility, and as we lift up our praise, adoration, and thanksgiving for his goodness and grace. One of the great imperatives that permeates God’s word is: THE IMPERATIVE TO COME: This imperative to come is an invitational command of corporate worship – to come into the presence of God in reverential fear, with rejoicing spirits and voices, offering sincere acts that give him praise, honor, glory, and thanksgiving, and having receptive hearts and minds to hear his voice of truth. The imperative to come to him in worship is the very heart of God and the Gospel. Listen to the Word: In Isaiah, he says. READ ISAIAH 55:1-3. In Psalm 100, we find this call to worship. READ PSALM 100:1-1-3 In Matthew 11, we find Jesus’ own heart-tugging invitation. READ MATT. 11:28-30. But I want us to turn now to our main text for this morning. READ PSALM 95:1-7. Listen. When we understand the imperative to come as an invitational command, we’ll stop this foolishness that worship for the true believer is a matter of convenience, comfort, and check the box. Our worship together is our response to the awesome command to be among the community of the committed, where every member comes, and every member counts, and every member contributes to the whole. On this 160th Anniversary, we need to let these words resound in our ears this morning. We need to let this call to worship sink deep into our hearts and souls: “Come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord our maker.” And let’s also wrap our minds around: THREE REASONS IT IS IMPERATIVE TO WORSHIP TOGETHER: Let’s just use the words of the psalmist in verses 6 and 7. The first part of verse 6 is the imperative – the call to worship. He last part of verse 6 and then verse 7 explains why. 1) First of all, the psalmist says, “For he is our God.” Now he is my God, and he is your God. And because he is my God, I worship him personally every day as I am led to worship him. I have shared with the Wednesday Prayer Group a principle I practice the best I can – I begin every day in prayer and begin every prayer with praise. In a nutshell that’s how I worship the Lord privately and personally, and I assume you also worship the Lord privately and personally during the week. So he is my God, and he is your God, but he is also OUR God. It’s in our DNA to worship our Creator, and it’s the way our Creator designed us that we worship him in community, and that community as Christians is the church. 2) Secondly, the psalmist says, “We are the people he watches over.” This is who we are. We are his people. We are his precious possession. He is our God, and we are his people – the flock he watches over. Think about the NT images that teach us about and describe our relationship with God and with one another: • We are the body of Christ • A building of God • The temple of the Holy Spirit • Living stones being built together • The family of God All of these images describe one entity with multiple parts that are unified together to the praise and glory of God. And if parts are missing – if people are missing – we’re not whole. Can you imagine one of our local football teams lining up to play next Friday night, and the bleachers are full, but when the whistle blows to start the game Colleton County, or Colleton Prep doesn’t have but 7 guys on the field because some of the guys decided they had other things to do? Why doesn’t this kind of thing happen to a football team? It doesn’t happen because everybody understands that the team is more important individual interests and desires. Why is it that this same team mentality, or family mentality is missing in so many churches? 3) Thirdly, the psalmist says, “We are the flock under his care.” Worship should be the priority of every church member because worship in a word is LOVE. Worship in a word is love because it was God’s love that sent Jesus to die as a sacrifice for our sins, and that love – that incomparable love - is how we become the children of God. The Bible says, “God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love – not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a Sacrifice to take away our sins.” (I John 4:11-12 NLT) RESPONSE: So now that we have come to know this love and experience his love in the way he forgives us and saves us and in the way he so lovingly cares for us every day as his children, what is the one thing we can do together to demonstrate to him that we love him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength? What is the one thing we can do together that expresses to him that he is our God and there is nothing more important, nothing we are devoted to, and nothing we love more than him? That one thing is this: WORSHIP. There is an ancient story about Cyrus, the King of Persia. A foreign prince and his family were captured by his army and brought before Cyrus to determine their fate. “What will you give me in return if I were to release you?” he asked the prince. “I will give you have of all my wealth,” he replied. “What will you give me in return if I were to release your children?” the king asked. “I would give you everything I possess,” he said. “And what would you give me in return if I release your wife?” the King asked. “Your majesty,” he said. “I will give you my very life.” It is said that Cyrus was so moved by the prince’s sacrificial love for his wife and children that he released them all. As they made their way back to the home country, the prince said to his wife, “Wasn’t Cyrus a handsome man?” And with the look of deep love for her husband, she said, “I didn’t notice. I could only keep my eyes on you – the one who was willing to die for me.” Worship in a word is LOVE. In a word, how do you think the Lord would describe your worship?