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[0:00] I am so thankful to be gathered together with you this morning. Take your Bibles, turn it over to the book of Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10. Last week we introduced this series that we're in for the next few weeks.

[0:14] Not 100% sure how many weeks we will be in it, but I know we will be in it for at least the next four weeks. But this morning we will focus on Hebrews chapter 10, starting in verse 19.

[0:26] I'm going to verse 25. If you were here last week, you know that this is a different type of series than what we are normally in. We're not going through a particular book or a particular set of scriptures, but rather we are looking at a certain theme.

[0:44] Last week we looked at a number of verses and we looked at a number of passages as we began to introduce a biblical vision of the church. And we are really basing this upon kind of the vision of the church the scripture paints for us and the values, the core values of the church.

[1:01] If you had not had time or you were not here last week to hear the sermon last week, I do not have it up online yet, but I will hopefully by the end of the day today get it online. I encourage you to stay up with this series because this is a series really that speaks more to my heartbeat for the church ministry than any other series.

[1:20] The vision that we laid out last week, I have it written in my Bible. I've had it written in my Bible for a number of years. The Bible I preach out of on Sunday mornings is well worn, so I don't carry it any other morning besides Sunday mornings.

[1:34] Other than that, it stays on my desk because it's just, I have a habit. I know some of you have pointed out, so pastor, when you hold your Bible, you tend to bend them in half and I break the binding on them.

[1:45] So it would fall apart a little bit, but I have it written in this Bible and in also the Bible that I use daily for my daily reading. And that vision is really to be the visible, properly functioning fellowship of believers, reaching out into the community and world Christ has placed us in with the love of the Father.

[2:04] Remember, we looked at those three things last week, to be visible, to be properly functioning, and to be reaching. How God has called us to do that. And if we are doing that, I have what I call a view of the future, what that would look like.

[2:19] And then based upon that view, this is what it's going to take us to get there. My view of the future would be every member maturing in their personal walk as they fulfill their function within his body.

[2:29] Christ being made known among Wartrace, Bedford County, Tennessee, and the world because of what they hear and see from Wartrace Baptist Church. That's my view. That's what I long to see.

[2:41] And there are four core values that I hold to that I believe will get us to that view, that we will begin to look like that. And that is what we're going to begin laying out over the next several weeks, is those core values.

[2:55] This is my first one. The very first core value that I hold as a member of a church and also as a pastor is this. If you want to write these down, you can.

[3:06] They're completely up to you each week. Unless the Lord allows me to tarry a couple of weeks on one core value, we will begin looking at these. There are only four total. But the one we're going to begin to look at this morning, this is my first value as far as church goes.

[3:22] The weekly corporate worship of the entire body of believers. I value the weekly corporate worship of the entire body of believers.

[3:38] I choose my words very carefully and I choose them to say what I mean for them to say. I remember I shared that with you last week. Words are important. Words are powerful.

[3:50] They say what we mean and we mean what we say. So I value, highly value, not only just as a pastor. And you say, well, you're a pastor, you're supposed to value it. I value it as a church member.

[4:01] I value the weekly corporate worship of the entire body of believers. Now there are times where the entire body of believers cannot be together and I get that.

[4:15] From health reasons to work reasons to rest reasons. But that does not mean that I value them less. That is a high value. That is priority number one of mine. When I say the word worship, immediately some things come to mind.

[4:32] Most of the time in today's age when we say the word worship, the thing that pops to mind is music. And we begin to speak about worship styles and we begin to speak of worship leaders and we begin to speak of worship time.

[4:47] And we begin to speak of a worship service. Understand this, that what you're thinking of, if that's what comes to mind, is actually praise, not worship. Music is a way or an avenue in which we can worship.

[5:03] The book of Psalms is filled with a number of praise psalms. As a matter of fact, when you get to the end of the book of Psalms, really I would encourage you tonight or this afternoon to go home and read Psalm 145.

[5:17] If I had time, I would read it to you this morning. And Psalm 145 really just begins to say, I will praise the Lord. And this is why I will praise the Lord. Because He is majestic. He is mighty. The great works which He has done.

[5:28] And He has shown me, I will praise the Lord. And really beginning from Psalm 145 until the end of the book of Psalms, which gets you to Psalm 150, there is this thing called the Psalm of Ascents.

[5:39] They are songs that they would sing as they ascended the steps going into the temple. And one of the Psalms of Ascents, it may be earlier than 145, says, Who will open up to us the gates of the temple?

[5:51] Who will throw open? It says, The King on high, He will lift on high. And these were songs as they would praise God as they entered into His presence to worship Him. Praise would be the thing that would open up the hearts to worship.

[6:06] One way of worship is giving. The Bible tells us over and over again that monetary giving is a testimony of the worship we offer.

[6:16] The way we give, the way we provide, those are aspects of worship. Worship entails a number of things.

[6:27] We're not going to lay them out in particular this morning, but I want you to see why I value and why we as a church should value the weekly corporate worship of the entire body of believers.

[6:42] Before you say, Pastor, you're just in the business of counting noses, and you're just in the business of wanting to fill the offering place, or you're just in the business of making sure the pews are filled, but I want you to be fully aware that very seldom do I know how many people are here on Sunday morning, and I have found that even when those pews are empty, they don't normally fly out of the building.

[7:03] And my father owns the cattle on a thousand hilltops, so he does not need my money, though he longs for me to give him my money. So I'm not worried about the offering. I'm not worried about the pews.

[7:14] I'm not worried about the building. Okay? It is a value of mine that I value the weekly corporate worship of the entire body of believers. And you will see that, I hope, by the time we finish this morning, why that is a value of mine, found in Hebrews chapter 10, starting in verse 19 and going through verse 25.

[7:37] If you are physically able and desire to do so, I'm going to ask if you'll join with me as we stand together and we read the Word of God, found in Hebrews chapter 10. We're going to pick it up in verse 19, but we'll go back and get it in context to make sure we're not reading it out of context.

[7:53] Hebrews chapter 10, starting in verse 19 and just going down to verse 25, we'll read the Word and then we'll pray. Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil that is His flesh, and since we have a high priest or a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near 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.

[8:26] And 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 as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another.

[8:43] And all the more as you see the day drawing near. Let's pray. Lord, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You, O God, that Your Word is timeless, that it speaks to every time, every people, and every segment of society.

[8:59] We thank You, O God, that we have the opportunity not to only hear it, but to read it and to hold it in our own hands. We pray, God, now as we've heard Your Word and we've looked at Your Word, that Your Word would look at us and that it would hold us.

[9:13] We pray that Your Word would raise us up to a standard even beyond ourselves. God, that it would draw us closer to You. Lord, that it would lead our hearts and minds into Your presence for Your glory and honor.

[9:25] And we ask it all in the sweet name of Jesus. Amen. You may be seated. We are looking at the weekly corporate worship of the entire body of believers.

[9:36] I know that's a long title, but we're just looking at these values of a biblically focused church. One of the things that we see throughout Scripture is this thing of worship.

[9:49] The Bible tells us that God longs to worship. As a matter of fact, the very first job man was given to do, even before the fall of man, before man had to till the ground and labor by the sweat of his brow to bring up food, man was given one job.

[10:06] He was given one priority, and that was to worship and obey God. His calling, man's whole purpose for his creation was to rule over creation. And as he ruled over creation, to worship and obey God.

[10:19] We see that in Genesis 3. If we take the biblical study of the law of first mention, and we find the very first thing given to man in Scripture was to worship God, then the law of first mention shows us that God intended man to worship.

[10:35] It tells us all throughout Scripture that God longs and desires to be worshiped. It tells us in the book of Ecclesiastes that God has set eternity in the heart of all men so that men would have a longing to worship something greater than them.

[10:49] That longing often is filled by things of this world, or it is sidetracked by the schemes of Satan. But yet God has put it in the heart of all men. We know throughout history, and we know through the study of anthropology and the study of mankind, that there has never, ever been a people group discovered that we're not worshiping something.

[11:12] Every new people group, every discovery of, oh, we didn't know somebody lived over here, whether deep in the Amazon or whether in the major metropolitan cities of the world, every people everywhere are worshiping something.

[11:25] You say, well, pastor, what about the atheist? He doesn't worship anything. Yes, he does. He worships himself. And he worships Satan. That's what atheism is, right? The worshiping of Satan.

[11:36] And by the way, you do not have evil unless you acknowledge that there is a good. So there you go. And what about the agnostic who says that he does not know if there is a God, or he does not, there could be, or there might not be a God.

[11:47] He's agnostic. Surely he doesn't worship. He worships his own knowledge, and his worship is limited by what he can know, or what she can know. Every man of all kind, men, women, are always worshiping something because God has created us and designed us to worship.

[12:05] The Bible tells us in the book of Revelations that God will be worshiped. Not only did God create men to worship, not only does history show us that all men do worship something, the Bible tells us that in the end, all men will worship God.

[12:26] It is the Word of God that says, Every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. They will worship and acknowledge who he is.

[12:38] So if worship plays such a foundational role throughout Scripture, and if it is so essential to not only the creation of man, but the ongoing well-being of man, then shouldn't it become us, isn't it becoming of us, to value it as a church, and to hold it to the level that it desires to be?

[12:59] We see in the book of Hebrews here where God tells us that worship is important, and not only individual worship, but also the corporate worship of the saints. This is a hot button of mine.

[13:11] I'm just going to go ahead and tell you, this is the driving force behind your pastor. This is why I make the decisions I make on Sunday mornings. I know I was joking a minute ago and said, the reason that I sit on the front pew is so that my kids are always behind me, and they don't distract me when I'm sitting in front of you.

[13:27] But in all actuality, that is not why. As a practice, a number of years ago, I began to move from the platform down to the front pew. I sit on the front pew with my back to join you in worship, because I want to be a part of the worship of the body.

[13:43] I did it because I didn't want anyone looking at me up here. I didn't want them seeing what I was wearing. A number of years ago, some may remember this, it was prior to my coming here as pastor, I used to give out outlines of sermons that I preached.

[13:55] I still do it on Sunday nights. I give you outlines. But when do I give you the outline? After the message, right? I used to give them out prior to the beginning of service. When they handed out bulletins, there was an outline.

[14:06] And I stopped doing that. And I stopped doing that because I had comments made to me over a span of two weeks. Pastor, you didn't miss a single point. I never saw you look at your outline, and you said every single word on your outline, and I began to be convicted.

[14:20] People were paying more attention to my typing than they were to what God was saying. So I quit doing it. I just stopped. It upset some people, but that's okay. This is why I like for things to wear seamless on Sunday mornings.

[14:32] Some say, well, you're just OCD. You don't like these things. No, I don't want anything distracting from the presence of God. Whether it be me, whether it be anything going on, because worship is important.

[14:50] It is foundational. The Bible tells us here in the book of Hebrews four things, and I'll try to get through them quickly. I'll try to get to them quickly, and if we can't lay them all out this morning, then we'll extend it to next week.

[15:02] Number one, why is worship of such high value? Number one, because of a newfound accessibility. I'll just be honest.

[15:13] We could stop right here on this one, and we'll see how the Lord allows us. Because of a newfound accessibility. It says there in verse 19, therefore, you had a great interim pastor prior to me, and that interim pastor's name was Brother Sidney Gibson.

[15:28] And Brother Sidney Gibson always had a great saying, right? If you ever see a therefore, find out what it's there for, right? And you always want to make sure that you know why verse 19 is in chapter 10, because you don't get to Hebrews 10, 19, until you've read Hebrews 10, 1 through 18.

[15:42] But for the sake of time, we don't have the opportunity to do that this morning, so I'll let you know, and you'll go check me this afternoon. Hebrews 10 introduces to us, first of all, the great problem of man. Again, the author of Hebrews, we don't really know who he is.

[15:57] Some assume that it is the Apostle Paul, and it very well could be, but this is such a unique writing. It is never attributed to any individual. But the author of Hebrews tells us in Hebrews 10, there's this great problem, that in spite of all of man's efforts, the continuous offering of sacrifices can never atone for the sin of man.

[16:17] And he gives it like this. He said, if that sacrifice of blood and lambs and the spilling of bulls' blood and all this, if it could atone for sin, then they wouldn't have to do it year after year, because all it does is remind man of his sins.

[16:30] It doesn't atone man of his sins. And what he is saying is, the great problem of man is that there is nothing you can do that can ever remove your sin. Nothing. Now, you may not have lived your life, or you may not be living your life going out and killing a bull to offer a sacrifice, or killing a lamb to offer a sacrifice, or killing a turtle dove to offer a sacrifice.

[16:51] But that is nothing other than a labor and work of man. We have found out that no matter how good you are, no matter how much effort you put forth, no matter how hard you try, all you can do is remind yourself you have fallen short.

[17:04] You can never take care of the shortcoming problem. You may feel good for a little while, but after you start feeling good for a little while, you will ease up and go back to your normal self, and you'll find out you have to do it again because you have fallen again.

[17:19] And that's what Hebrews 10 verses 1 and following tells us, that no matter how hard you try, no matter how much effort you put forward, you cannot atone for your sin.

[17:29] But then he introduces the problem, just as scripture always does, so that he can introduce us to the solution to the problem. And it says, But Jesus came to do the will of the Father. Jesus came, says, In the scroll of the book it is written of me, these sacrifices you have not desired, but my life I lay down for you, and to do your will.

[17:46] And he tells us, And by this will, that is the will of God, think about this, what is the will of God for my life? And by this will, I want you to read this verse, go back to verse 14, By this will, actually it is verse 10, and then I want you to see 14 as well, 10 and 14 of Hebrews 10, By this will, that is the will of God, the coming of Christ, the death of Christ, the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, by this will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

[18:22] What we could not do in our own efforts, the works we put forth, no matter how much we sacrificed, no matter how much we gave, all we could ever do is remind ourselves of our sin, we could never cure ourselves from our sin.

[18:34] But God's will sent forth His Son, and by the will of God, those who come to Him by faith, have been sanctified once for all, the scripture says, through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ.

[18:47] In verse 14 it says, By one offering, by one offering, He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. That is not all people, that is not everywhere, that is those who come to Him by faith.

[19:01] And I love what Hebrews 10 tells us, it says, when Jesus did that, He sat down. And that's good news, because when you sat down, you sat down when your work is through, right? Jesus gave Himself once for all, He gave Himself at the opportune time, so that whoever believes in Him, shall be saved.

[19:19] And then He sat down and said, there's nothing else for me to do here, I'm finished. And this is what the Bible tells us in Hebrews. It tells us that Jesus came to do what we could not do.

[19:29] Now, we're leading into worship, and then it says in verse 19, therefore, since what you have been trying to do your whole life, get better, do right, clean yourself up.

[19:43] All you've been trying to do is to go back to your created purpose. You know why you're here this morning? You're not here this morning because you thought it was a good idea to go hang out at World Trace Baptist Church. You're not here this morning because you wanted to see the kids sing their song.

[19:57] Maybe that was what brought you here, but you know why you're here this morning? It's because God has set something inside of your heart that wants to worship and has a longing for your Creator. And all your life, all you've been trying to do through all of your hobbies, through all of your activities, through all of your busyness, through all of your excitements, why are there so many thrill seekers today?

[20:17] Have you ever noticed that? So many people take risk. YOLO, right? You only live once. Problem of that is that that's wrong. You don't only live once. You live twice. You live once shortly. You live second forever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever.

[20:28] And why are there so many people taking risks? Because they're trying to fill this void. They want this excitement. They want this rush of adrenaline because all that is is this God-shaped vacuum inside the heart of every individual.

[20:41] And they're trying to fill it with everything they can. And they're trying to fill it with pleasure. They're trying to fill it with excitement. They're trying to fill it with all these things. So the reason you're here is because there's a vacuum.

[20:53] And all your life, you've been trying to worship. But you couldn't do it because you can never, I can never do enough. But Jesus did it and sat down. And those who placed faith in Him, here it is, here's the great news.

[21:07] Because of the work He has done and because I trust in the work He has done, therefore, therefore, it says, let us, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil that is His flesh.

[21:29] And since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near. Friend, I want you to understand something. Worship always stems from presence.

[21:43] Worship always stems from presence. You will not worship when you're not in that presence.

[22:00] The good news is that because of Jesus Christ, we have access to the presence we can never attain to in our own effort.

[22:10] because of Jesus Christ, we can run into the presence of a holy God. Think about this just for a moment. It's not like you can't even walk into the presence of the President of the United States.

[22:24] Like Him, love Him, or hate Him. You can't go into His presence at all. Without an extended invitation, you can't even go into His residence, let alone His presence.

[22:35] And so much more than that is there is the God who created it all. There is the God who holds the kingdoms of this world in the palm of His hand and He has thrown open the veil and said, come in here, but you must come in through the blood of Jesus.

[22:51] There is this presence that is now welcoming to us. All throughout Scripture, we find people that the moment they encounter the angel of the Lord, they fall on their face and they begin to say, woe is me, woe is me, I am a man undone, I'm going to die because I'm in the presence of God.

[23:06] We see Isaiah in Isaiah 6 being caught up into the heavens and he sees God on his throne and he goes, oh no, I'm about to die because I'm in the presence of God. And then we go to Ezekiel and he is by the river and all of a sudden there's the presence of God and Ezekiel goes, I'm about to die because I'm in the presence of God.

[23:22] And then we find John on the island of Patmos and he goes, I'm about to die because I'm in the presence of God. But after they realize they're not going to die, they go what? I'm going to worship because I'm in the presence of God.

[23:32] Now because I'm in His presence and I'm alive in His presence, now I can't help but worship in His presence. Friend, listen to me. When you're really in the presence of God Almighty, somebody doesn't have to compel you to worship you.

[23:46] Somebody doesn't have to compel you to get excited. Somebody doesn't have to push you or move you to get a little carried away because just as that song says, I can only imagine I'm probably going to be the guy who dances like crazy because I as a white man can't dance too good right now.

[24:01] But I'm not going to be one who stands still. I move a lot now but I can't wait until I got a glorified body that I can dance in because I'm going to be, think about it, in His presence physically.

[24:12] But the good news is right now, we have newfound access to the presence of God Almighty. We can rush into His presence boldly.

[24:23] We can come before the throne of God mightily and we come through the blood of Jesus. And friend, listen to me. If that does not lead us to worship, it is only because we're not there, not because it's not available.

[24:36] If that does not lead us to get excited, it's only because there's an invitation we have not responded to. And one of the greatest callings of a church, and I'll probably stop on this first one by the way, just in case you're, my man, he's got three more.

[24:54] I'm probably going to stop on this first one because I don't want you to oversee this. One of the greatest callings of a church, one of the greatest burdens on my heart as a pastor is that when you come into this building, you realize you're coming into his presence.

[25:17] And when you leave here, you realize you've been in his presence. It is the calling of the church, corporate, to take great pains to create, is environment important?

[25:33] Well, if environment wasn't important and God would not have commanded them to build the tabernacle and then the temple, right? To create an environment of God's presence. That is why we make the decisions we do.

[25:45] That is why I love for the kids to be up front with us for a little while because if we are really in God's presence, isn't it a great thing to bring our children with us into God's presence? Even if they're running around and already dancing, it's okay because they're in his presence.

[26:00] This is where worship is. This is why we must, as a corporate body, take great pains to ensure that we worship.

[26:12] Does song have something to do with it? Yes. This is why when I came and there was this void and somebody, oh, we need a song leader and we need a song leader, the first thing that was on my heart was I want to make sure it is an individual consumed with worship, not an individual consumed with performance.

[26:32] I'm not trying to call attention to it. I know Miss Tricia has told Carrie and I so many times, I'm just not worthy, I'm just not worthy. I say, that's exactly the type of person I like because neither am I. I'm not worthy to stand up.

[26:44] I'm not worthy to stand up and preach the glorious news of Jesus Christ. And the moment I begin to trust in my own worthiness and you tell me to step down and get down from preaching the gospel, it is to be consumed with the presence of God.

[27:00] The songs that we sing should be a consuming of the presence of God. Now does that mean we're always going to sing the same genre of songs? I don't know. I love Holy, Holy, Holy. I love that because when I read the words of Holy, Holy, Holy, even when a piano is not playing, even though I'm thankful for Miss Lynn and her efforts, I can read the words of Holy, Holy, Holy, and I can be consumed with the presence of God.

[27:21] But I also love the contemporary music and I love those things because it brings me into the presence of God. And you say, well what style of music should I be praising to and what style of music should I be worshiping and what style of music should we listen to in the church?

[27:37] And I don't have the answer for that because we are a vast array of people but this is what I encourage you to do. Whatever genre of music you like personally, find the worship music that goes with that.

[27:49] Because Satan has used that beat, that rhythm, that tone, that music, he has used that style because God creates things in order. I love creation and I love how the beat of the hummingbirds matches with the sound of the whales and I love how I showed it to you one night, Louis Giglio, the heavens and the earth declare the praise of God and all of creation begins to sing of that and God creates things in order and that's why music works in order and that's why it resonates in so many individuals but the problem is when we begin to separate our worship music and our everyday music.

[28:23] Do you know every hymn that we sing? Every hymn that we sing, if you look at the bottom of that hymn book, there is a melody that that hymn was written and there was a melody that hymn was put to.

[28:34] Do you know that that melody was set to the day, the time music of that day? They literally took, in most of the hymns that we sing, they literally took the tune that was being played in the bar and put praise lyrics to it.

[28:54] Why? Because the people coming out of the bar could remember the tune and they wanted to give them a truth to go with the tune. I used to have people say, well that's devil's music.

[29:06] No, that's devil hijacking God's music. God is the creator of music. It tells us to take harps and lyres and timbles and cymbals and all these things and to praise the Lord.

[29:19] That's why I find whatever it is that resonates in your being and praise Him. I'm going to stop right there. We praise Him, friend, listen to me, because we have a new found access to the throne room of glory.

[29:36] And everywhere you find the throne room of glory in Scripture, guess what? There's a praise and worship service going on. I'm going to go ahead and give you the next three points and I'm going to preach them next week.

[29:48] That way you've got to come back, okay? Not only is there a new found access, there's an unwavering assurance, there's an encouraging association, and there is a day approaching.

[30:00] This is why we value the corporate worship of the saints. You say, well, the new found access, I can have that alone. You can. That's why there's three more points.

[30:13] That's why there's three more points. You need to understand how you can do it through assurance, how you can do it through your association with other believers and the importance of doing it in light of the day approaching.

[30:26] We would probably be here another couple of hours if I preached to all those so we'll stop. Let's pray. Lord, I thank you. I thank you that you are faithful. God, I thank you that you call us to worship you.

[30:40] You've created us to worship you. God, I know your word says that our hearts and minds have been programmed to be drawn to you and Lord, you are drawing us to you. So God, wherever we're at, each of us at different levels, Lord, maybe there's one here today.

[30:58] They can't worship because they don't know you. They're still trying to work it on their own. God, would you open their eyes and show them the effort that they're laboring so hard for will never reach the mark.

[31:11] God, those of us who have come to this realization that we now have access to the throne of God, we come by the blood of the Lamb.

[31:22] We come because of the price of Jesus Christ. We come not because we're worthy, not because we deserve it, but God, because you've opened it up through the death of your Son. May our hearts worship.

[31:36] May our hearts be set on you. May our lives be given to you for your glory. We ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen.

[31:56] Amen. Amen.

[32:28] Thank you.