Turn with me please to Deuteronomy chapter 6, and I want to read verses 13 through 15. You shall fear only the Lord your God, and you shall worship Him and swear by His name. You shall not follow other gods, any of the gods of the peoples who surround you. For the Lord your God in the midst of you is a jealous God. Otherwise the anger of the Lord your God will be kindled against you, and He will wipe you off the face of the earth." I really do believe that this may be the most important conference some of you have ever been to.

And The reason for that is because much, if not most, of congregational worship today in American churches, and I'm not talking just about Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox and liberal, I'm talking about evangelical, That much or most of the worship in churches in the United States today is polluted. Polluted with all kinds of superstitions. And I'm praying that God will use this conference to end in a major way much of those pollutions. But there's another reason why this may be one of the most important, if not the most important conference in your life. You may have sung hymns.

You may have said the Lord's prayer. You may have taken the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. You may have put money in the collection plate. And some of you may never have worshipped God in your life. Malachi chapter 1 verse 10 says this, Oh that there were one among you who would shut the gates that you might not uselessly kindle fire on my altar.

I am not pleased with you says the Lord of hosts nor will I accept an offering from you." Now that's an amazing statement. If we apply it in our generation it's simply saying this, God's saying I wish there was somebody, one person that could shut the doors and lock them and turn off the lights of many of the churches in the United States whose worship is worthless. Without heart, not according to the Word of God. You see, not all worship is pleasing to the Lord. Even when you go through the right motions all worship is not pleasing to the Lord.

And here he says, I wish somebody would just turn out the lights and lock the door. I'd rather have, says the Lord, no worship than worthless worship. The only worship that God accepts is that worship which is from the heart in Christ according to His Word. I read to you a chapter that always comes to my mind and I'm always tempted to preach on it when I come to the subject of worship because to me it has all the basic ingredients in it. I'm not going to preach on this text, but I'm going to give you the outline if I were to have preached on it.

That's a cheating way of getting two lectures into one. The context of verses 13-15 of Deuteronomy 6 is the first 10 chapters of Deuteronomy and those chapters spell out the basis of worship. Why is it that a human being can even think God was willing to hear His voice? Why is it a human being is so brazen as to think that God would accept His worship at all? Finite creature that He is, sinner that He is.

And the first ten chapters of the book of Deuteronomy tell us the reason God accepts worship from finite sinful creatures like we are is because of this wonderful covenant that God made with His people in Christ. If it were not for that bond of intimate eternal friendship that God has graciously established between Himself and His people in the Lord Jesus Christ there would be no such thing as worship on the face of this earth. And the only people who have ever worshiped God, who ever will worship God, are those who are in covenant with Him. Then we have in this section the object of our worship. And we see that it is not God in some kind of generic way, it is the triune Jehovah.

It is the one true and only God beside whom there is no other. There is no other God to worship. And the object of our worship is the God of the Old Testament incarnate in the Lord Jesus Christ in the New Testament. The Great Commission says that the name of Jehovah is God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. What's the source of worship according to these verses?

The fear of God. One of the rarest things in our day. I love Psalm 25, 14. I'm glad Scott didn't steal this so I can tell it to you for the first time. Psalm 25, 14, the secret or the intimacy of the Lord is for those who fear Him and He will make them know His covenant.

Isn't that a great text? The intimacy of the Lord. An intimate personal relationship with the Creator of the universe belongs to those who fear Him. What is it to fear Him? Does that mean to shake in your boots every time you think of Him?

Possibly. It all depends on what kind of life you are living. But it also means to stand in awe before Him, to bow in reverence before Him, to desire to make the number one priority of your life the worship of Him, to submit yourself to Him and to His will, that's fear. And without fear there is no worship. What's the nature of worship?

Well, there are several words in the Old Testament. There's one here in verse 13, but there are several words in the Old Testament for worship. All of them to one degree or another means something like to bow down, to bend, to become prostrate on the ground, to have your face on the ground. That worship is for those who recognize the total sovereignty of God over all of life and their total helplessness apart from His grace. And they bow down in reverence and submission before Him.

Worship also in the Bible according to our text makes a specific demand upon us. Now most people go to church today or many people what they demand of worship is to go home feeling better, having peace of mind, being a little more secure, a little less lonely. But the demand of worship in the Bible is that those who worship Him swear by His name, you shall not follow other gods, any of the gods of the peoples who surround you. I wish I had time to go into how the Bible teaches us that one ordinance of worship after another has the nature of an oath from a confession of faith, to baptism, to the Lord's Supper, to the offering. All of these in Scripture and many more have the nature of an oath of swearing to be totally and only and always His, that you will not worship any other God nor serve any other god but this one true and living God.

And then this text talks about the awe of worship. We're going to talk about that most of the time. In fact, I'm just looking at these verses to set the context for what I'm going to spend most of my time on, the awe of worship. What is it that makes worship so awful? To use the words we sang recently in a song, The Lord your God in the midst of you is a jealous God.

What makes worship so awful is not the organ, it's not the eloquence of the preacher, it's not the beautiful architectural surroundings, It's the fact that God who is present all over the world and all over the universe and bigger than the universe is especially present with His congregation when They worship Him. Now remember what the text says. This God who is in our midst whenever we worship Him is a jealous God. You remember the last line of C.S. Lewis Chronicles of Narnia where Aslan has just defeated the mean queen, rescued the children and now the children want to pat him.

They love Aslan so much they just want to pat him. And so in so many, I'm putting this in Southern by the way. They just wanted to pat Aslan because he did so much for them. And the line is, lion is, oh he's good, but he's not safe. You don't go patting lions like you do your pet cat.

You stand in awe before Him. And the God who is present with us whenever we worship Him is a jealous God. He is jealous for all of your affection, and all of your love, and all of your service, and all of your worship, and all the energy and time of your whole life. He is jealous for that. And you don't want to pat a jealous god.

You want to bow in submission and humility before Him. Well those six points, the basis of worship, the object of worship, the source of worship, the nature of worship, the demand of worship, and the all of worship set the context. And now the rest of my sermon is the introduction. Introduction comes last. I want to talk about three basics of worship that most American professed Christians have never thought of in their lives.

Now remember I'm not just talking about Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox and Liberals. And here are the three basics that we are going to talk about this evening. The supreme importance of congregational worship. The supreme importance of congregational worship. Second, the meaning of worship.

That is what are we doing when we are worshiping God? And the third point I have a variety of titles for. The essence of worship, the heart of worship, the mystical nature of worship, the mystery of worship, the supernatural nature of worship, pick whichever one you want. But first of all let's talk about the supreme importance of congregational worship. The most important thing you ever do in your life, The holiest, godliest thing you've ever done in your life and ever will do is to worship the living God.

You are never more human than when you worship the living God in spirit and in truth. And we learned that from ancient Israel's civilization and culture. You remember the tabernacle in the wilderness? It was the center of the camp, everything was around the tabernacle. And then when David conquered Jerusalem Solomon puts a central sanctuary in the capital of the whole theocracy.

Here's the center of the whole nation. This building, this tent that represents the corporate public congregational worship of Almighty God. And without that communion with Him in worship Israel would have no national unity and she would have no community. That is there wouldn't be any sharing of life with each other as human beings in this ancient Israelite civilization if the heart of it was not in communion with the living God in worship. No community is possible without communion.

Now when we talk about the supreme importance of worship we also need to talk about the priority of worship. I want to read to you something from John Calvin that I listen to very carefully for two reasons. This is not exactly what our age would say. And secondly he was more literate than we are. Here is the priority Calvin placed on the congregational worship of God.

And I want you to see if you would place it as highly as he placed it, okay? Now listen, if it be inquired then by what things chiefly the Christian religion has a standing existence among us and maintain its truth, it will be found that the following two not only occupy the principal place but comprehend under them all the other parts and consequently the whole substance of Christianity. And those two things are, now what would you say? What would you say is the two most important things about Christianity that are so important that in these two things the whole essence of Christianity is comprehended? Let's see if you would put what Calvin put.

First, the method by which God is duly worshiped. And second, of the source from which salvation is to be obtained. When these are kept out of view, though we may glory in the name of Christians, our profession is empty and vain after these come the sacraments and the government of the church." Now notice what he said, the two most important principles of Christianity that comprehend the substance of Christianity are how God is to be worshipped and how we are to be saved. And notice the order. He put how God is to be worshipped as prior to how we are to be saved or the source from which our salvation comes.

And then he says after that in the sacraments and the government of the church. But I wonder how many people would line them up that way. The most important thing in the world, more important than learning the source of our salvation is learning how to worship God. Now of course you can't worship God unless you know Christ. But the point is there is a priority here in worship that not many Christians to this day share.

You remember what the catechisms, the various catechisms of various churches say about the man's chief end? Calvin wrote a catechism called, and the first question was, man's chief end is to know God. Westminster Shorter Catechism says man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. Now what's the point I want to make? I'm impressing with you upon you the superior importance of worship.

If you know God by God's grace, then whenever you think about God or whenever you speak about God, there will be this desire in your heart to worship Him. And if you can think about God and talk about God and not have this desire to worship and praise Him, my friend you do not know God. If you can talk about baseball, food, children, God, television, in the same manner with the same disposition, you don't know God. Somebody who really knows God through the Lord Jesus Christ, which the Bible says is eternal life, to know God. Every time he thinks of Him.

Every time he speaks of Him. He wants to worship Him. Do you remember this great quote in Psalm 87? Now this is one of my favorite quotes in the Psalms. It says, "'The Lord loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwelling places of Jacob.

What was Zion? That's where the Temple was. What are the dwelling places of Jacob? That's our families. God loves our families.

God loves what goes on in covenant families. God loves the worship and everything else we offer Him. But God loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwelling places of Jacob. You think congregational worship is important to God? My dear brothers and sisters, not to make the worship of God supreme in your life is to be less than human, and it is to be a rebel in God's universe.

The meaning of worship. What do we do when we are worshiping God? You don't worship God accidentally. Worship, as you know, comes from the old English word, worth ship. So that worship is showing God what you think he's worth to you.

Worship is paying tribute to him as your creator and your Lord and your Savior, you bow before Him. You offer to Him the entirety of your life in praise and submission because you know He's the one that created you and gave you breath. He's the Lord to whom you are accountable every moment of your life. And He's your Savior without whom you would be lost forever. Now there is a popular view today that sounds very spiritual.

And that is the view that worship is all of life. It's not some specific thing you do. Worship is all of life. Now, all of life does grow out of worship. Worship is related to all of life.

But when you say worship is all of life, I think you're saying something the Bible doesn't say, and you are removing any real content from the word worship. Worship is something you deliberately do. It's something you knowledgably do. Worship is when you give praise and adoration and honor and devotion to the triune God according to His Word." I love that quote from the London Baptist Confession on the Regulator Principle. Didn't you love that?

Or not? It was plagiarized from the Westminster Confession of Faith. Now let me read what the Westminster Confession of Faith says in chapter 21 paragraph 6. God is to be worshiped everywhere. That is there is not one spot that is more sacred than other spots.

Not one building more sacred than other buildings. God is to be worshipped everywhere in spirit and in truth, that is in a way that is in accordance with His character and accordance with His Word. As in private families daily, " daily, did that cut you down at the knees? As in private families daily and in secret each one by himself, so more solemnly in the public assemblies which are not carelessly or willfully to be neglected or forsaken when God by His Word or Providence calls us there unto." So you see the historical stance of the Reformed faith is that worship is something you do deliberately at three times. One in your families.

You would be shocked how few Christians, how few Reformed Christians ever have family worship with their whole family singing songs, reading the Scriptures, explaining the Scriptures, praying. I hope you are not one of those people from whose life and family, family worship is completely absent. Such a precious thing and such an important thing. When I give, well that's not such a thing. Family worship, private worship, when you are in your car by yourself and you are studying the Scriptures and praying and meditating upon the Word of God.

And then more solemnly in the public assemblies which are not carelessly or willfully to be neglected or forsaken." So here, and this is nothing unique about the Westminster Confession of Faith. This is the old, Reformed Protestant view, you worship God according to His Word with your families, by yourself, and supremely with your brothers and sisters in Christ in the congregation. Calvin points out four elements of a true worshipful attitude. He says, first of all, and see if these are in your attitude when you worship God. Total dependence upon God for everything.

Total dependence upon God for everything. Total dependence upon spiritual, material, physical, social blessings upon everything. Total dependence upon God's Word to know how to worship Him and know how to live life. Total dependence upon God the Father's mercy for any acceptance with Him. Total dependence upon the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, sacrificing Himself in our place making access with God possible.

Total dependence upon the Holy Spirit for any kind of knowledge of God. Worshipful attitude has in it total dependence on God. Second, grateful rendering to God the glory due His name. Worship has to do with gratitude. It has to do with thankfulness.

It has to do with praise. Calvin says the third aspect of worshipful attitude is the adoration of God. You know adoration is different than gratitude. It's more profound than gratitude. Gratitude is thanking God for something that God has graciously given you in your life.

Adoration is giving to God the deepest love of your heart and then expressing in worship everything God has revealed about himself that you adore. When you adore your wife, you tell her things about her you love. In worship, when you adore God, you're telling things about Himself, which He has revealed in His Word that you love. And then the fourth element of true worshipful attitude, Total dependence upon God, gratitude to God, adoration of God, self-abasement. The book of Isaiah says that God's not exalted if man's not abased.

If man is not brought low in the presence of God, there's not worship going on. What did Isaiah do when he saw the Lord high and lifted up on his great throne? The glory filled the temple surrounded by the cherubim. He falls down on his face it says because he saw the king. And he says, woe is me for I am undone.

I am a man of unclean lips. I am among a people of unclean lips. I don't deserve to be here. I'm a dead man. I deserve to be a dead man.

The only reason I'm being accepted by God in His presence is because of His grace. That's self-abasement. You don't go into the worship of God with head held high. And that's why when you enter the worship of God, the first two prayers you ought to pray when you are preparing to worship is the adoration of God and the confession of my sins. Were it not for Christ, oh God, I could not be here.

Now what all this means so far is that worship, write this down on the inside of your eyelids, worship is not a means to an end. That is you don't worship God in order to do something else. You don't worship God in order to achieve other ends. You don't worship God in order to receive benefits and experience. Now there are all kinds of wonderful benefits and experiences that God gives us graciously during the worship of Him.

But that's not the goal of worship. Worship is not a means to an end, worship is an end in itself. That is what's the purpose of worship? Worship. That means that worship is not a means to entertainment or to evangelism.

Now if you are going to preach Christ exegetically from a text, and there are unbelievers there which hopefully there are. By God's grace they may be saved. Hopefully they will be saved. I'm not downplaying evangelism. Evangelism is one of the most important things the church does.

It's the spearhead of everything we do to try to recapture this country for Christ. The church exists by mission like fire exists by burning. But in the worship of God it's not a means toward anything else. Other things may happen, but it is an end in itself. You worship God for the purpose of worshiping God.

Now we come to the last basic of worship. The first is the supreme importance of it. The second is the meaning of it. And the third is, like I say I had a hard time picking a title for this third point. The essence of worship, the heart of worship, the mystery of worship, the supernatural nature of worship.

Worship is not simply emotional, though I trust your emotions are involved whenever you worship God. Worship is not simply intellectual, though I trust when you go into your congregational worship you don't leave your mind at the door, that you bring your mind in and you love the Lord with all your mind. But it's also spiritual. There's something supernatural going on whenever true worship takes place. Now understand what I mean by supernatural.

You got the natural realm and you have the supernatural realm. Let me ask you a question. Do not answer it because I don't want you to embarrass yourself with the wrong answer. What is in the supernatural realm? God.

That's it. The triune God. Not only is He present throughout this created order, but He is beyond this created order. Everything else is natural. Angels are natural, you just can't see them usually.

Demons are natural, everything else is created. God is the one who comes into this created order, particularly into a worship service, and supernatural things take place. God is especially present in congregational worship, really, truly involved in our worship. He ministers to us, He nurtures us, He feeds us. He receives our praise.

He illumines our hearts. He melts our hearts. You remember what the tabernacle was called in the Old Testament? The tent of meeting. Is that because Israel met there with each other?

No. That's because God met there with his people. It was a tent of meeting where the Israelites would come to the Lord's house and meet God. He was not a guest in their house, they were a guest in His. As I'm sure you know probably the most, well not probably the most common word for church in the New Testament is ekklesia, the called out ones.

But there is another Greek word for church in the New Testament and that is the word from which we get the word synagogue. Synagogue comes from a means if we were to give it a modern definition, the meeting place. Now is the church in the New Testament called the synagogue, the Christian synagogue because that's where Christians met together? No. That's where Christians met with God.

In fact it says the gathered, together ones is where the word synagogue comes from. Turn with me to Hebrews 9. Now this, I mean there's a world of theology and truth and fire and everything else in this text, so don't expect all the loose ends to be tied up. And if you go away from this passage without a sense of awe and mystery, you didn't read it clearly enough. Let's read a few verses from Hebrews 9 and Hebrews 10.

They are related. Now remember, we're talking about the supernatural goings on in the worship of God. Hebrews 9, verse 8, the Holy Spirit is signifying this, that the way into the holy place has not yet been disclosed while the outer tabernacle is still standing, which is a symbol for the present time. Accordingly, both gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make the worshiper perfect in conscience. Since they relate only to food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until a time of reformation.

But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come. He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is to say not of this creation, and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood He entered the Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption." Now don't forget what we just read and turn to Hebrews 10 verse 19 and following. Since therefore brethren, we have confidence to enter the holy place, by the blood of Jesus, by a new living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil that is His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God in the holy place. With a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water, let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering for he who promised is faithful and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together in the holy place, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day of distress and trouble drawing near." Now look at all those words.

The external tabernacle of the Old Testament was a symbol of the holy place which is the heavenly tabernacle not made with hands, not of this creation where Jesus entered once for all having obtained eternal redemption. And now we who are brothers in Christ are said to boldly and with confidence in Christ, enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus and draw near to God and don't forsake the assembling of ourselves together in that holy place. So when we assemble for worship as God's people and we worship Him from the heart, in spirit and in truth, we are assembling in the holy place where God is graciously present with us and we're present with Him through the Lord Jesus Christ. And in that holy place where God lives, where we are drawn by the Holy Spirit into there is a dialogue that takes place. Now don't misunderstand the word dialogue.

I went to a liberal seminary and I was told in this liberal seminary that preaching is obsolete, that the lecture method is the most ineffective way of communication, though man never told God that. God never learned that. And that We ought to do away with sermons, particularly long sermons, and have dialogues. That people come up into the pulpit, start talking. Start saying what's on their heart.

And start discussing things with each other. And making points with each other. And maybe that would bring the congregation into the worship service. Well, the problem with that, among other things, is you don't have any of that in the Bible. When I use the word dialogue or conversation I don't mean a conversation between two men on a pulpit or a dialogue between two people in a pulpit pulling their ignorance.

I'm talking about a dialogue or a conversation between the living God and His church. Where God speaks to us in His Word. I'm not talking about voices whispered in the ear. But where God speaks to us by the illumination of His Word by His Holy Spirit and where we speak to Him through prayer and through hymns and the various other things we do in worship. Have you ever noticed in the Psalms, in the same Psalm you can have something like this, thus saith the Lord, and then there is a direct quotation from God, I am your shield.

And then in the same Psalm you have a psalmist addressing the Lord. So you have the Lord speaking to the psalmist And you have the psalmist speaking to the Lord. That's the dialogue. That's the conversation that I'm talking about that takes place in a worship service. I'm not being metaphorical.

And I'm not saying that There are voices that you hear in your ear. I'm talking about a voice that only the heart hears, only the heart understands, that comes through the Word of God, enlightened by the Holy Spirit, and then when you offer your prayers or your praise back to Him. That's what takes place in a worship service. Now, do you see what you're saying when you miss congregational worship without a good excuse? Now, I mean, there's time.

You have to miss church. You've got a broken leg, pneumonia. I'm talking about all those times people miss church and they don't have an excuse to hold up on Judgment Day and you miss church because there's a ball game. There's a final game being played, perfect day for the lake, et cetera. All these reasons people give to miss church.

You see what you're saying? I don't want to involve myself in a dialogue with God today. There's other things in my life that are more important to me at least this Sunday. That entering into a conversation with God and to have the Creator of the universe address me and I address Him. You better have a very good excuse whenever you miss congregational worship.

And now do you see also why, now I want you to listen carefully here because if you go out of here and you misquote me I know you are lying through your teeth. Now do you see why unbelievers should feel on the outside in the congregational worship service? I think a worship service is the best place in the world for an unbeliever to be. And we are always trying to encourage our people to bring unbelievers with them to church. And we've seen unbelievers converted during our congregational worship services.

But understand that if your worship service is going to benefit that unbeliever, he must feel like he's left out. And after all, there is no reason for the unbeliever to feel at home in God's house. His sin and his unbelief have separated him from the living God. We want unbelievers there. We want them and we pray that they to listen and to watch everything that's going on with the prayer that the Holy Spirit would draw them to the Lord Jesus Christ.

This whole idea of seeker friendly churches where you don't want to say or do anything in a worship service that makes the unbeliever uncomfortable or which the unbeliever cannot understand is the emasculation of the worship of God. Congregational worship, biblically ordered With the people truly involved in all aspects of worship, can by the power of the Holy Spirit have a profound impact on unbelievers? As they hear our prayers of the adoration of God and confession of sin, We see our energetically sung hymns about the grace and the glory of God. We hear the preacher read clearly the scripture and preach faithfully on that word. We see people give their lives in the offering and we see the Lord's Supper being displayed and baptism and the benediction.

All of those things we pray Lord help the poor unbeliever to recognize he does not have a part in any of this until he believes in Jesus. Lord make him to feel in his heart, I feel left out of this old God. I feel like I'm on the outside. Oh how I do want to be on the inside. But now remember if your worship is no-hearted or half-hearted, unbelievers can detect it.

They're looking around. Are these people that profess to be such great evangelical and reformed Christians, are they really involving themselves in this worship service? If they see you bored, If they see you looking out the window texting, whispering to your neighbor, they catch it and they will say, there's nothing here for me. Now you got to be friendly with unbelievers before and after church. But during church you want everything to be done by the Word of God with the prayer that these unbelievers will recognize they're separated from God and will want to come back to Him.

Turn to Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12. Let's read verses 22 through 25. Now you'll notice here in this text as of many places in the New Testament, Old Testament names for Israel are given to the church because the church is the new Israel of God. Verse 22, but you, speaking to the Christians to whom Hebrews is written, but you have come, when you came to faith in Jesus Christ, you have come to Mount Zion, where the temple set, And to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.

And to myriads of angels, I believe there are angels in our worship services, maybe demons too. To the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven. And to God the Judge of all and to the spirits of righteous men made perfect and to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant and to the sprinkled blood which speaks better than the blood of Abel. See to it that you do not refuse Him that is Christ who is speaking through the preaching of the word. For if those did not escape when they refused him, the Old Testament prophet, who warmed in on earth, much less shall we escape, who turn away from him, Jesus, who warns us from heaven through his word.

Here you see congregational worship is that time when the highest heavens meet the congregation on earth in the Lord Jesus Christ. Heaven and earth meet in the worship of God in Christ. Hence, the title of my sermon, You Don't Have to Wait Till You Die to Go to Heaven. What's this song? Heaven comes down and glory fills our souls.

Well, it's the other side too. We ascend into heaven and glory fills our souls. That's the mystery of worship. We ascend into the heavenly Jerusalem, the General Assembly and Church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant. When we worship God from the heart, in spirit, and in truth, we're drawn into heaven, and we actually fellowship with the living God.

We fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ by His spirit at God's right hand. Scott read you that great Psalm 27. He's going to talk about it more tomorrow. Study that carefully. It's simply saying, among other things, many of the things we're saying this evening.

Where's the place, according to Psalm 27, that worship takes place? In the courts of God. Psalm 29, two, ascribe to the Lord the glory to His name, worship the Lord in the beauty or splendor or majesty of holiness. Have you ever gone home from church Because you really paid attention to the prayers that were prayed. You paid attention to the music that was sung.

You paid attention to the Scripture and to the sermon and all the rest. And you go out at the surface saying to yourself, God is so beautiful. Psalm 96, 7-10. Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples, ascribe to the Lord, glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord, the glory of His name.

Bring an offering and come into his courts. Worship the Lord in the splendor or beauty of holiness, tremble before him all the earth. Say among the nations, the Lord reigns. Indeed, the world is firmly established. It will not be moved.

He will judge the peoples with equity. You see, worship is ascribing glory to God. Worship is bringing an offering to God. Now that has a couple senses. First of all, we know that without the offering of the Lord Jesus Christ and His bloody sacrifice on the cross, we would have no access with God.

But believing that, we are also to bring the offering of ourselves and rededicate ourselves to the Lord every time we worship Him. In the music, in the prayers, in the communion, everything else. Worship in Psalm 96 is coming into God's courts. Worship is coming before God with trembling. Have you ever come to congregational worship or been in congregational worship and you've trembled with such a sense of our awful God?

Like a little grandbaby or a child, but I'm thinking one of my grandbabies. She was so anxious to see granddaddy, she was just. Shake. Trembling. You ever done that before the presence of God?

Notice all The world is commanded to worship God. So let me ask you a question. Have you ever worshiped God like this? Like we're talking about this evening? Do you need to repent of the way you've been trying to worship God?

Let me encourage you to be honest with yourself and to cry out to God right now to forgive you of the way you've been trying to worship Him without heart, with half a heart, without His Spirit, without His Word. But now, right now, cry out to Him to renew a worshipful spirit within you. Now, before I quit, let me pinch you just a little. The Congregational Worship Service as we've seen is the sanctuary of God. A sanctuary is not a building.

The Congregational Worship Service is the sanctuary of God. It is not to be treated or entered into as you would enter into your den or family room. You may be starting a new church and you have to meet in your family room or den for a while. But the point I'm making is the worship service that takes place in your church building or in your house. The worship service is in God's sanctuary, God's heavenly tabernacle.

Calvin says that everything we do in worship are ladders that enable us and help us to enter into God's presence. So my dear friends, do not act or dress in congregational worship service as you would in your den. How do you come into your den? Anytime you want. Come late and leave early.

I've seen churches, people come 10, 15 minutes late, leave before the benediction, the consummation of the whole service when God blesses his people through the preacher or the elder, because they realize that the pot roast is burning. You can come and go as you want in your den. Would you do that to Queen Elizabeth? Now she's a human being, frail little human being, frail little Episcopalian human being. And she says to you, you may come and see me at Windsor Castle from 5 to 6 today.

You go bop at the end about 15 minutes late. Sorry Bess I just couldn't get here on time. You've got till six o'clock, you leave at ten till six, say well I got a ball game, sorry. I mean you wouldn't do that to a human being like this. But we do it all the time to the living God.

No punctuality in what time we get to church. Now I recognize the effort in getting a lot of children to church. People have done it before you, they'll do it after you. You can do it. When you go into the heavenly sanctuary, you want to be on time.

You don't want to be late to meet with God, do you? And you don't want to leave before the time's up. And eating and drinking, I think one of the most sacrilegious, blasphemous and tackiest things I know is to take food and drink into the heavenly tabernacle. Lord I praise you I love you, gulp, gulp, gulp, gulp, gulp. Lord I do love you and I want to sing your praises like mike mike mike mike and most certainly don't want to text stews the god I got a message of the answer And during the worship service you don't want to go in and out whenever you...

Go to the bathroom first. Take your children to the bathroom first. And dress appropriately. Now, I'm not telling you you ought to wear a coat and tie. I'm not telling you that if you're men in any way, shape or form.

I'm just saying that it all depends on the person you're meeting with as to how you dress, I trust. If you're a self-centered person that says, well, my dress code is comfortable. I just want to dress comfortably, so I'm going to dress the same way whether I go to meet God at church or my parents or my grandparents or the president or whatever. That's a self-centered. You think I want to be here with this?

I mean I would say sweat but that's in the south after I'm spiring like crazy You think I want to wear this coat and tie you think I'm comfortable in it, you know why I do it I want to honor you It's important for me to want to honor you. We come to God and we say, God, I just want to be comfortable. Queen Elizabeth Says, you can come to my palace, five to six. We show up with the t-shirts, sweatpants, and sandals. Are you gonna do that?

I doubt it. And she's a little human being. But we think it doesn't matter how we dress when we enter into the special presence of Almighty God well my earnest prayer is that these two thousand people, can you imagine two thousand people come to a conference on worship? That's bound to be the work of the Holy Spirit. My prayer for you is that you all will be 2, 000 people of true worshipers who worship God from the heart in the Lord Jesus Christ, in spirit and in truth.

And in that worship, you give yourself wholly and completely to Him. And you recognize what worship is. That you're in conversation, you're in the presence of God. And there you are in the holy place. My prayer for you is that in all of your churches and wherever you go, that worship, congregational worship will be that important and that precious and have that priority.

And I tell you my friends that when the church starts worshiping God again Everything about this dark culture will start changing. Thank you. And for more information about the National Center for Family Integrated Churches, where you can search our online network to find family integrated churches in your area, log on to our website, ncfic.org.