What We Believe - The Lords Day

Secular: Going to the dentist is such a pleasant experience…

All that picking, polishing and drilling…

I helps to have someone that is kind and gentle… but the experience is hardly ever described a joyful

• Takes discipline
• Flossing etc….
• We need to be reminded…
• It is of great value
• our health
• our appearance
• our bad breath…
• all count on a good trip to the dentist

The thing about gathering on Sunday…

• sometimes we get picked, polished and drilled
• we are challenged, examined,  held to account…
• other times… we experience shear joy, communion with God, worship, surrender, refreshing….
• No one (Normal by my standards, anyway)… chooses to experience the Dentist
• We need to be committed to corporately and personally experiencing God

Biblical:

Section M - The Lord's Day
We believe that the first day of the week is the Lord's day and that, in a special sense, it is the divinely appointed day for worship and spiritual exercise…

Section M - Sunday
We affirm the tradition of the early church, which recognized the special character of the first day of the week, the day on which our Lord arose from the dead. Although every day is to be lived for the glory of God in obedience to Christ, the first day of the week is in a special sense an appropriate day for corporate worship and service.

Personal:

I am always amazed…

I look in the pattern of Scripture…

• See God trying to remind us… of our relationship to Him… of our need for rest…
• Genesis account and God patterns rest
• Genesis 2:2 By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.
• Think God needed a rest?
• Think the glorious God of the universe… who spoke it into being and sustains it… needed a break?
• Just as parents pattern things for their children….
• Reflection and quiet…
• Or in the feasts… celebration days…
• FEAST OF TABERNACLES Zech 14:16
• Day of Atonement Zech 12:10
• Feast of Pentecost Lev 23:20
• Feast of Booths... first fruits… Passover…
• God set a plan to remember… the Sabbaths and all the feasts pointed to the relationship with God… and a hard wired need for rest…

Bridge:

In the New Testament… God tells us again in His Word… that Sunday… has special value and meaning… that we are set apart from the Sabbath rituals… but there is value in a day of focused worship and rest….

Body:

What are Sundays for?

NAU Acts 20:7 On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul began talking to them, intending to leave the next day, and he prolonged his message until midnight.

• What do we do… and when do we do it
• Break bread
• Fellowship… eat together…
• We share food… meals… conversation
• No handshake and gone… spending time
• Celebrating the Lord’s Table…
• Not about cubes of bread… or grape juice
• It is, in obedience, a grand celebration….
• It is, in obedience, solemn reflection…
• But is also about Communion…
• Communion with God…
• Communion with our Brothers and Sisters in Christ…
• Hard to be obedient to the command of Scripture when we are absent…
• Hebrews 10:23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; 24 and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, 25 not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.
• Staying true to our beliefs…. Hold fast to the confession… learn and grow…
• Because God is faithful
• Know his truth…
• Stimulating each other to love and good deeds
• Know it… now keep each other faithful
• Focus on the mission… love and good deeds…
• Miniature version of the great commandments…
• Love the Lord your God
• Love your neighbour
• Staying true to one-another
• FAMILY!!
• Do you like everyone in your family… given a choice would you have hand-picked them all?
• The weird uncle… the overly smoochie aunt… the cousin that is too rough…
• THE QUESTION is… do you love them…
• I mean… given a choice would I have hand-picked them all? Probably Not!
• … call a family meeting…
• ever have those… issue based sit downs…
• offence… too three times in the last little while
• time to be a family!
• That’s why we take time before communion… and have coffee fellowship… to build dialogue… speak into each others lives… to love one another…

• Message… learn/dialogue

Paul began talking to them, intending to leave the next day, and he prolonged his message until midnight.

• You have got to love that…
• I go 35-40 minutes… and I get it looks and comments….
• Something better to do than spend time in the Word…together…
• Are you rushing home to do a devotional…
• Why don’t we have a till midnight… spend a day relishing Christ together…
• Learning through listening and through engaging dialogue… Through the music and prayers… I am not up here to preach at you but talk with you… I love the feedback… we are here on this day set aside for worship in music, prayer and the Word…

What are Sundays for?

NAU 1 Corinthians 16:1 Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I directed the churches of Galatia, so do you also. 2 On the first day of every week each one of you is to put aside and save, as he may prosper, so that no collections be made when I come.

• What do we do… and when do we do it
• Take offering…
• Again it is about discipline…
• About faithfulness to the body…
• We can do a little each on our own…
• Or we can multiply what we have… in the Lord’s treasury… faithfully giving so that we can do great things for the Kingdom…
• (Paul want no special collections for the on going needs of the church… instead wanted faithful stewards…)
• Sunday is a blessing
• A habit
• A discipline

What has happened to Sunday…

• The World says…
• Church is a needless sacrifice
• My time is too precious
• Things not focused on God are okay
• We do not need rest…
• We need more opportunities to shop
• We need more opportunities for sports
• We need more need to be out in an hour… who could give more than an hour… really
• NHL Game 2.5 hours
• Lord of the Rings 3 hours
• Lunch with a friend 1+
• Drive the city and back 1.5- 2
• Lord’s Day focus and activity…
• The Bibles says…
• On the first day of the week
• we gather to break bread
• we fellowship
• we learn
• we dialogue
• we encourage
• we grow steadfast
• we don’t fail to come together
• we give generously
• we stay till midnight!
• It did sound like a lot to do in an hour…

Passion / Obedience…

• What does Sunday look like for you…
• What is your focus?
• What sliver of the Lord’s Day do you give to him… WE NEED TO FOCUS
• Our attention span has been wiped out in a world where NEWS is given in 15 second sound bites…. WE NEED REST
• Our families are eaten alive because we don’t demonstrate commitment to fellowship and encouragement… WE NEED TO GATHER
• Think of something better for your family than being in a place where God’s Word is taught and His love demonstrated… WE NEED TO BE TAUGHT AND ENCOURAGED
• If the church truly is a the light and hope of the World… we need to make it exciting and vibrant – LIVE IT… so there is not a  stampede out at 10:30 or 12:15… but a stampede in at 9:15 & 11.
• We need to live lives that have REST and WORSHIP in the proportion God dictates…
• What changes in your life… in mine…