Speaker 1: 0:03

I am so glad to be here with all of you today to get to worship our wonderful Heavenly Father together. For those who don't know me, my name is Jacob Phillips. I'm the Youth Director here at Westtown and I'm a little biased, but this is one of my favorite Sundays of the year. I love getting to see our students serve God and His Church in an extra special way on this Sunday morning, and I've already been so encouraged encouraged by seeing the interactions that we're all having together by seeing our students serve in various ways and I've been very encouraged by the 75 point sermon that we all just heard. Are y'all encouraged as well? Some of you are a little confused. You're like isn't that what you're about to do? And it is, but it won't be 75 points. But we just heard four songs with 75 individual points. I didn't count the repetition. Many of these are repeated, but 75 individual points about who our God is and who we are.

Speaker 1: 1:06

In light of who our God is, we sang these truths and in many ways, we should treat this like a mini sermon. Now, it's by no means the main reason we worship. We worship to praise our God and lift His name high. But I hope that, if you have it in the past, that going forward you will see worship singing to our God as an opportunity to learn about who he is and learn about who you are. In light of that, we're doing a series at youth group right now called Sing Into the Lord, where we are focusing on worship, and we are primarily focusing on singing, which is the one way of worship that we actually call worship the most or call it most directly. But I do want to acknowledge that we worship God in so many different things. We worship God by being a good husband, by being a good wife, by being a good son or daughter, a good parent. We worship God at school, at work. We worship God when we love Him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and do whatever we are doing to His glory. We are worshiping you might have heard this before that we worship with our time, our time, our talents and our tides or our treasures. So worship is not just singing, although that is the one that we most directly call worship. Worship is many things and as we go through our go through our passage today, I want you to both be thinking about how. Yes, these things will apply to all aspects of worship, but we are focusing on singing today, and we'll be trying to answer the question why do we worship? And to help us with that, if you're a note taker like myself, you can go ahead and write kind of an acrostic. We're going to use worship as an acronym to hopefully help us as we leave this place, to remember why we worship.

Speaker 1: 2:58

This is by no means an exhaustive list, but I hope, in prayer, it'll be a helpful one. Before we jump into God's word together, though, let's let's go to Him and pray. Heavenly Father, you are wonderful and magnificent and worthy of our praise and our worship. As we come before you today, lord, I pray that you would give us a focus to hear from your Word, to understand it, to be able to apply it to our lives. Holy Spirit, that you would be with us, encouraging us and making your Word clear. Today, lord, I pray that I would fade into the background and that you and your glorious name would shine through and be lifted up. Lord, we love you so much. We thank you for first loving us and showing us that love on the cross, in Jesus' name, amen.

Speaker 1: 3:48

So why do we worship? I want to, before we read, just set you up for success and go ahead and tell you a little bit about what the author of Hebrews is talking about. We're going to be in Hebrews 12, 18 through 29, if I didn't say that, if you want to turn there, if you have your Bibles Hebrews 12, 18 through 29 and what the author of Hebrews is going to do is they're going to draw our attention to God's congregation in the first time that they really met God. Now, god had met with different individuals, but we are going to see God's people, the Israelites, as they approach Mount Sinai and hear God's voice as a group for the first time. Now we're also going to look at Mount Zion, the heavenly mountain that we will all, as God's people, one day approach together. So, beginning of the text, mount Sinai. End of it, mount Zion. I hope that's helpful as we as we jump in and read, starting at 18.

Speaker 1: 4:47

For you have not come to what may be touched a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them, for they could not endure the order that was given. If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned. Indeed, so terrifying was the site that Moses said. I tremble with fear. But you have come to Mount Zion, into the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, into innumerable angels in festival gathering, into the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, into the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of April. See that you do not refuse him. Who is speaking? For if they did not escape when they refused him, who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him. Who warns from heaven? At that time, his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised yet once more. I will shake not only the earth, but also the heavens. This phrase, yet once more, indicates the removal of things that are shaken, that is, things that have been made in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire. I love this text and part of what the author is doing here by pulling up both mountain scenes is they're trying to help us see the similarities as to how our future approach to the mountain Mount Zion, which is the new heavens and the new earth, as we look forward to that approach, it is helpful to look back at Mount Zion and see the similarities between the two approaches. But, more importantly, the author is drawing our attention to this to call out the differences that we might see, the differences between God's people coming to Zion and God's people coming to Zion, but a similarity that we see in both, which leads us to our first point, is that we worship because wow, both of these scenes call up in us an amazing sense of wow, period, that's it. I mean, there's so much more that we're gonna get into, but at first, just wow, our God is so amazing.

Speaker 1: 7:35

I'm gonna use an analogy. We use a lot in church. We use it a lot because it's good, and that's why I'm using it today, but I hope you guys are enjoying it. I hope you guys are enjoying it. It's good and that's why I'm using it today, but I hope to add to it a little bit as well. It's this idea of the Grand Canyon. Right, the Grand Canyon is beautiful and you should go see it. Because as much as you might see pictures of it, or as much as someone might tell you that the Grand Canyon is big, you're never gonna really realize how big it is until you go see it. You're never gonna really realize how beautiful it is until you go and see it for yourself. Now, this analogy, I think, is really helpful, because our God is like that he is always gonna be bigger than we could ever fathom, more beautiful than we could ever fathom. But as I think about this analogy, it hits me a little bit differently, because I've never been to see the Grand Canyon. I really wanna go. I hope I get to go one day. The last few years of my life we've brought two little boys into the world, so it's made it a little hard playing trips like that. But I would love to go to the Grand Canyon because I want to see it for myself.

Speaker 1: 8:37

I think in church sometimes we are way too content to sit and let the guy on stage tell us about how amazing the Grand Canyon is and just kind of take his word for it. I wanna be clear that is not the invitation today. This is not an invitation to come and just hear me tell you about my trip this week into God's word, where I saw God and saw how beautiful and wonderful he was, and you just take my word for it Now. The invitation today is that we all come to worship together Right here and now. We are worshiping God together as we go to His word and seek truths, and I want you to come with me because, just like the Grand Canyon analogy, I want you to see it for yourself.

Speaker 1: 9:19

I'll never forget when I was younger, I was kind of a know-it-all. I'm kind of a know-it-all today. That's, my wife would tell me, sanctification, getting better at it. But I remember that I was talking to my dad and he said something and I really wish I remembered this part of it. I do not, but I said, oh yeah, the Bible says this. And my dad just kind of looked at me and gave a quizzical look. Important information is that I had not actually read the whole Bible not much of it. But my dad had and he gave me this quizzical look and he was just like no, it doesn't. And I was like what do you mean? I hear people say this all the time and he was like there's your problem, jacob. You've heard it, but have you read it for yourself? Have you read it for yourself?

Speaker 1: 10:05

We are not just called, we are called to hear God's word, but we're called to read it for ourselves, to see and know the beauty of God that is found in it for ourselves. And that is my invitation to you today. God is alluring enough to draw his people in, but it is more than that. There is a sense of just wow. But there's so much more than that. We are called to him and must obey, which leads us to our next point, which is that we worship to be obedient. We worship to be obedient. I'm gonna read 12, 25 again. God brought his people to the mountain. He brought them to the mountain through Moses. Moses would lead them out of Egypt through these miraculous plagues, through the Red Sea and then up to Mount Sinai, where God's people prepared for three whole days to come into the presence of God. God had called them there and brought them there this day. Today, god calls his people through the work of the Holy Spirit. He calls his people to himself, and it is a call we must obey.

Speaker 1: 11:29

The author is not trying to say that it is difficult to escape, but rather that it is impossible to escape this call. He says much less talking about Moses that if they could not escape the one who warned from earth, moses, who warned God's people follow him or else these are the consequences, how much less can we escape the one who calls from heaven, jesus Christ, who says come and follow me. This is an inescapable call. The gospel is good news, and it is optional in the sense that when we choose to follow God, we are making a choice to actively follow our God. But it is not optional in the way that you can take it or leave it and be fine either way. It is not like the Grand Canyon in that regard. I could be invited to the Grand Canyon time and time again and never get to go, and sure, my life might be a little less wonder filled, but I would be fine. I could live the rest of my life, die, having never seen the Grand Canyon, and it really wouldn't change all that much. This call is not that way. This is not a call to the mountain that you can take or leave and be fine either way. This is a call to eternal life, as opposed to your impending and eternal death.

Speaker 1: 12:55

See, we see that there is not just beauty in the mountain, but that there is power, that there is immense power, a power that must be obeyed. This is the part that's actually maybe missing from wow, and we see this in our next point, that we worship out of reverence and awe. We worship out of reverence and awe. Read 28 and 29 again. Therefore, let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire. There's a sense of wow and beauty, but there is more than that. I think a definition would be helpful. For us, awe and reverence are pretty overlapping. So let's just look at awe, which says this a feeling of reverential respect mixed with fear or wonder.

Speaker 1: 14:00

For our purposes today, I'm gonna go ahead and change that to say a feeling of reverential respect mixed with fear and wonder. I imagine it's like seeing up close a volcano erupt, that you would look at it and think that is powerful and beautiful in so many ways, and also I'm probably gonna die. This is what the Israelites are experiencing is they are at the mountain and, to be very clear. I'm not trying to give a scientific explanation for what's happening here. I think in many ways it looked like a volcano eruption, but was not. It was the presence of God descending on Mount Sinai as a holy fire and there was smoke and lightning and thunder. And as the Israelites are watching this, they're saying this is beautiful, but also I'm probably gonna die.

Speaker 1: 14:49

The fear of the Lord is good and healthy. Yet in fact we'll see later that he is teaching the Israelites a lesson that he wants them to have a healthy fear of him that they might remember and not sin as they go forth from this place. But we aren't completely and fully meant to stay in fear. God draws us to himself and as we have a healthy fear of God that never goes away. But we understand more and more, as we understand the gospel, that because of Jesus we do not have to cower away from the mountain. But the respect that should be given to God never goes away. God is the one true God and is worthy and deserving of our respect, and when we worship we should be respectful, and how we express worship of our God, there needs to be respect always mixed in with it.

Speaker 1: 15:52

We have to talk to our students about this. Sometimes we have students in many ways. They're coming over from Egypt, farnell, they cross the Red Sea that is racetrack and they come over here and many of them don't know God. Many of them have never met God, and so we, a lot of what we're doing, is just trying to get them to encounter him. That's the most important thing, because God is gonna do the work, but we try to help that along and give them helpful tips to help them understand who God is and how we worship him. And sometimes we have students none of these students that are here today.

Speaker 1: 16:25

They're all wonderful, they really are but sometimes we have students who they don't really understand worship and they definitely don't understand the respect that is meant to be given in worship, and so they'll start to take attention away from God, where it should be in that moment, and try to put it on themselves. They will sometimes even copy good things that they see other kids doing. They'll raise their hands and they'll sing, but they'll sing loudly as a way to distract. They'll raise their hands as a way to make fun, they'll mess with their buddies or they'll kick the chair of the person in front of them, all of which is very disrespectful to our God, and we help them understand that. Hey, what you're doing is you're taking the attention off of God, where it should be, and placing it on yourself, which you should not do. It's a very dangerous thing.

Speaker 1: 17:10

I wanna give us some food for thought here, because I don't think that we really struggle with that too much on Sunday mornings. But kind of the opposite into the spectrum communicates the same thing. If someone were to look at you during worship and say, man, that person looks really bored, that person looks really apathetic. Your expression in the same way is not respectful, does not communicating that your attention is on your God, to which you revere an awe and you are in awe of. When we worship, we want our expression to show that we are here to respect and bring glory to the one true God.

Speaker 1: 17:52

I think our next point will help with this as well. We worship to be shaken. We worship to be shaken. I'm gonna read 26 and 27 again. At this time, his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised yet once more, I will shake not only the earth, but also the heavens. This phrase, yet once more, indicates the removal of things that are shaken, that is, things that have been made in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain.

Speaker 1: 18:24

Again, I think a definition will be helpful here, because some of you already have your little theological red flags going off, like what are we doing? We're being shaken in worship, and you might feel this way because we have seen people kind of abuse this right, that they might be visibly shaken in worship in a way that is not bringing glory to God but rather bringing attention to themselves, and that's not what the text is talking about. Nor is it what I'm talking about, because I'm trying to talk about what the text is talking about. But shaken is having had one's composure or confidence upset, shocked or disturbed, and again I'm gonna tweak this a little bit for our purposes today it's having had one's composure or confidence in oneself upset, shocked or disturbed. Because some of you you might be thinking about worship songs where you're like we sing about not being shaken. So why are you telling me I'm supposed to be shaken? But when we sing about not being shaken, what we are saying is that we will not be shaken because our confidence is not in ourselves but rather is in the rock of ages, our firm foundation which cannot be shaken. That falls under one of the things in the text that cannot be shaken, and if we are standing on that then we won't be. But we are called into worship to be shaken so that the old sinful made things in our lives, the idols that we have made to find pleasure in or to worship. We are shaken by God that those might fall away, so that our confidence can be a no-made thing, but rather our confidence can only be in the good and pure thing which is our God.

Speaker 1: 20:03

I've been shaken in many different ways during worship and it can look different ways. I've been shaken so that I have been compelled to lift my hands high and proclaim the name of my God. I've been shaken that all I can do is sit and be quiet. I could not utter a word, much less a song, in the moment because of my confidence in myself being shaken away. In this worship service this morning. I would say the time in which I've been most shaken was when the entire room was silent, when we had our time of confession. As I go into a time of confessing to God, the made things that I have an attempt to let loose of them in the presence of God. Oh my God, the point is not what you look like when you are being shaken. The point is where your heart is at when it is happening.

Speaker 1: 20:57

We do not come into worship to feel something. That is not why we do it. We do it to lift the Lord's name high. We do not come into worship to feel something. And yet if you worship and never feel anything, you're doing it wrong. You are not coming into the presence of the one true God If you worship and you never feel anything.

Speaker 1: 21:26

When I was in eighth grade, my parents had recently split up and were starting to go to different churches, and one morning I went to church with my dad and my brother, to Peninsula Baptist Church. We just recently started going there and we were there and they sang this song where I belong, by building 429. It says this all I know is I'm not home yet this is not where I belong. Take this world and give me Jesus. This is not where I belong. This verse of this song shook me that morning, because here I was trying to put my confidence in myself, which had worked pretty good for me so far in life. I played sports, I was pretty good at sports. I was good at school. I got good grades. I was a well-behaved kid. People came up to my parents all the time and told them how much it was a delight to talk to me and how well-behaved I was. I was trying to hold on to this family that went to church, that everyone thought was a good family, that I had a younger brother and a younger sister, that I was trying to be a good older brother too.

Speaker 1: 22:31

And yet, despite all of my efforts and all of the things that I was trying to be confident in, my home life was a wreck. It was being destroyed. I hated it. We didn't sleep often because of how much we were fighting constantly. It made it difficult to perform well in sports and to get good grades. And now my parents were officially, publicly split up. We were no longer even pretending and going to church together.

Speaker 1: 22:59

And in this moment God grabbed me and he shook me and he said, jacob, this is where I have you now, but this is not where you belong. This is not the home in which your hope should be, and it should be in the eternal home that I am preparing for you. And in fact, jacob, you get to give all of that crap, you get to trade all of it in for my son Jesus, who has saved you and who loves you. It was in my confidence being shaken at this point that I had to sit down. I could no longer stand up. I put my head in my hands and I was still attempting to keep my composure. My confidence had been shook, but I was still holding on to my composure. And then they played another song, a white flag by Chris Tomlin that says this we raise our white flag. We surrender all to you, all for you. We raise our white flag. The war is over, love has come, your love has won.

Speaker 1: 23:57

It was at this that God had already shaken my confidence and now he shook my composure. I began to weep, I began to sob loudly and this was very awkward for an eighth grade boy in public. This is not what an eighth grade boy thinks about doing. But I was weeping, I could not stop and I remember my dad and my brother who were there and they were like kind of trying to come for me, but also like this is awkward and like wanting to pull away from this awkward scene that was going on and I could not regain my composure. I could not even get myself together so that I could go on worshiping. I had to literally run out of the sanctuary, go into the parking lot to where I could sit down on a curb and continue to sob. My dad eventually came out after me to check on me and he's like are you okay? And I said, yes, I'm wonderful. I can't stop crying, but I am wonderful.

Speaker 1: 24:52

God shakes us so that we might surrender all that we have and all that we are to him. Our next point we worship because he is holy. We worship because he is holy, holy. We're going to read 22 and 23 and 29 again, but before we do, I want to give you a real simple and just working definition of holy. It's a church word. We use a lot that I think. Often we just use it and we don't actually really know what it means. But it's really very simple in its definition. To be holy is to be set apart, and so there are actually many things that we know that either are or will be holy. Angels are holy, in fact, we have even been made holy. Jesus tells us to be holy, even as our heavenly father is holy. We are set apart, but we are not as holy as God is. God is the most holy, and I'll give you an example of this God is the only uncreated one, he's the only one in this category up here as uncreated Everything else, everyone else is created. In that sense, god is holy, he is set apart, he is different than everything else. He is the most holy one. So let's read 22 through 23 and 29,. But you have come to Mount Zion, into the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, into innumerable angels and festival gathering, into the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, into the spirits of the righteous made perfect. And then 29, for our God is a consuming fire.

Speaker 1: 26:46

There are two groups represented here at Mount Zion, three counting God, but two groups around God that are holy. Now there's some intricacies to these two groups, but predominantly two groups. We have the angels and we have the saints, we have all of those Christians that have been redeemed by God, and both are holy in the presence of a holy God at this mountain. Let's look at our first group, the angels. We're going to go to Isaiah six, one through two, and if I'm honest, a part of what I want to do here is just maybe change the image in your head a little bit, because if if you're picturing a bunch of men in robes with two wings and a halo, probably not really an accurate picture to what this will be like. There will be a lot of different types of angels, but this will be one of the angels that we will see when we are there.

Speaker 1: 27:33

That fateful day, isaiah six, one through two. In the year of the King Uzziah, the year the King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon the throne, high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the Seraphim. Each had six wings with two he covered his face and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. This angel is a holy being. How do I know this? Because it is in the presence, the full presence, of a holy God. You might recall that God told Moses that if you were to see my face, if you were to see my full presence, you would surely die, because Moses at the time was not holy. So this angel is is holy in the presence of a of a holy God, and it has two wings, of which it covers its face, to help shield it From the sheer and raw awesomeness of our God. You might also recall that God told Moses you were standing on holy ground. Remove your sandals. This angel has wings that cover his feet, because he is in the presence of God and on holy ground, and then, lastly, he has the two wings. Were all familiar with what she flies with Little bit more. I want to tell you about this angel. If you're now, if you're picturing a man, you're going to tell me about this angel, if you're now, if you're picturing a man with six wings, still not there yet.

Speaker 1: 28:55

The Hebrew word Seraph, seraphim means fiery serpent, fiery serpent. This is a fiery serpent with six wings. This idea, this theme, that one God is a consuming fire. I meant to say that earlier. This is very important, so I included verse 29. God is a consuming fire and he consumes his creatures in fire that they might be holy. We see this with the angels. Angels are often depicted as either being on fire, or having eyes like lightning, or looking like burnished bronze, which is to say, they look like a metal that has recently come out of a fire, a refining fire that burns off all impurities so that what is left is pure. These angels that are in the presence of God must be holy. It's the only way they can be in the presence of a holy God. And this theme of fire as a refining tool carries on even for us. This is not just for the angels, it is for God's saints. Romans 12, one.

Speaker 1: 30:01

I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. What would the Israelites have thought of the Hebrew people thought of when they were told to be a sacrifice? They would have thought of sheep and lambs and goats and bulls. That they did what with that? They put in a fire, that they would be a burnt offering. Now, thankfully, not literally, but we are called to do the same. As sacrifices, we are to be put through fire. We see this. John the Baptist puts it this way Matthew 3, 11, I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. As Christians, we are baptized by the Holy Spirit. We have the Holy Spirit living in us, the Holy Spirit who is often likened to a flame. The same way that we are shaken so that the old sinful self might fall away, we have a flame within us that is doing a work of burning off every impure thing in our lives so that we one day, as we are sanctified and ultimately glorified, might stand before a holy Father.

Speaker 1: 31:23

Holy the angels. Let's go back to our angel friends in Isaiah 6. They have something really important to teach us about the holiness of God. In verse three they continue on. It says and one called to another and said holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory and the foundations of the threshold shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. We see similar themes here between Psy and I in this vision right, the smoke enveloping the mountain, the very foundation being shaken.

Speaker 1: 32:00

What the angels teach us here that is so important is that they say that God is holy, holy, holy. See the Israelites. They did not say something was really this or very that. If they wanted to bring emphasis to something, they repeated themselves. We see this with Jesus when he says truly, truly, I tell you what he is saying is listen to me. What I am about to say is true and I want to emphasize its truth and its goodness. He repeats himself. He says truly, truly.

Speaker 1: 32:35

The angels teach us something very important here, and that they did not say holy is the Lord of hosts. They did not even say holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. Rather, they said holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. Our God is the most holy. He is fully and completely holy. I talked about both angels and us being holy, and this should not lead us to worship angels or worship ourselves. Those are two really bad things. Don't do those. But as holy beings, we are called to worship the only truly, completely, fully holy being. That is our God, and the Israelites knew this when they approached Mount Sinai.

Speaker 1: 33:25

We're actually going to go to Exodus 20 and read about their interaction with God in his presence in 18 to 21. It says this now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled and they stood far off and said to Moses you speak to us and we will listen, but do not let God speak to us lest we die. Moses said to the people do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin. The people stood far off while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was. I've heard different commentaries and thoughts on whether or not the Israelites passed the test that was given to them, and it's fruitful conversation, but not what I want to focus on today. But I want to focus on the experience that God gave them through this. He gave them an experience that they might know that he was holy and that they were not, and that the fear of this would go with them as they left.

Speaker 1: 34:37

But the Israelites heard God loud and clear, at least in this specific way. If an unholy people is to be able to commune with a holy God, they must have a mediator, they must have a mediator. So they said we cannot bear this anymore. But Moses, you go, be our mediator, be the in between us and unholy people and this holy God. Which leads us to our next point, which is that we worship because we are indebted to our perfect mediator. We worship because we are indebted Verse 24, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood. That speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

Speaker 1: 35:28

I hope to let me clarify this for you just briefly. A little confusing for me when I was going through this is like why is he drawing attention to the fact that Cain killed Abel and spilled his blood, and he actually isn't? Really the author isn't necessarily drawing our attention to that specifically, but rather that Abel's the first one we see perform sheep sacrifices, that Abel would take lambs from his flock and sacrifice them to the Lord. It says that theme we will continue to see throughout scripture. And these sacrifices were ones that pleased God but were ultimately unsatisfactory to him. They could not satisfy God's full wrath.

Speaker 1: 36:07

In his judgment, moses was a great mediator. Through God's power he led the Israelites out of slavery through magnificent plagues into the promised land. But even he could not rid God's people of their slavery to their own sin. He could not rid himself of his slavery to his own sin. He also could not walk with them into the land west of the Jordan. We and unholy people are in need of a perfect mediator if we are to commune with the holy God.

Speaker 1: 36:40

The author of Hebrews draws our attention to this scene in Exodus to encourage us that we, as God's people, never have to approach that old, untouchable mountain ever again. We approach a new mountain, a new Zion, with a better and more perfect mediator, so that we do not have to be afraid of certain death if we touch the mountain, but rather we have a mediator that stands at the foot of the mountain and says put your fingers here and see my hands, and put your hand and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe. We have a Savior who spilt His blood to die for us. Catch this at the very beginning of Hebrews, our text. It says you have not come to an untouchable mountain, but we are coming to a mountain that has a Savior who is touchable, who we can touch, who we can fully commune with. We worship because we believe in a Savior who has ransomed us with His own sacrificial blood, and this is the best news that there is. This is the best word that there is.

Speaker 1: 38:00

Last point for us today we worship to practice, and I don't mean to insinuate that what we do now doesn't actually count, but, more to say, let's put it into practice. Hebrews 12, 28,. Therefore, let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe. Our inheritance is an eternal kingdom, an unshakable kingdom, where we will intimately worship Yahweh forever. Why wait?

Speaker 1: 38:37

The good news of the gospel is not just that you go to heaven when you die, it's that you're a little slice of heaven right now. You are temples of the Holy Spirit. You are places of worship, places of sacrifice. Now we eagerly await the day that we approach Zion, because it'll be more perfect and better than what we could ever have on this earth. But we do not have to wait to worship the one true God. He has made a way that we can come together as his congregation and worship him here and now. So why wait? Let's start right now. Let's practice together. We still have a 33 point sermon coming up. We've got another song in our doxology that tell us 33 more individual points about who God is and who we are. Because of it, let's sing this together, let's worship together and lift our wonderful God's name high. Let's pray.