In My Worship To God (Loving Others)

Introduction

In John chapter 18, we find Jesus talking with Pilate. Pilate is uh questioning Jesus as uh the uh Pharisees were wanting to put him on the cross. And Pilate says, Are you a king? In John 18, verse 37. Jesus answered, You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice. And Pilate’s he asked that that question that just rings out, what is truth. We have with us this morning, and uh through Wednesday, Brother Steve Neemeyer came to uh is here from Indianapolis, Indiana to present God’s truth. We learned in class that everything that Jesus taught was given to him through God.

And that’s what Steve will be teaching uh this week. It’s so encouraging to have him and Cronny here this uh um this uh this week. And uh I would invite and encourage all of you to give Steve your utmost attention because as we found in the lesson book that we recently studied under Ralph’s guidance and teaching the class, he puts things, nothing new out of the scriptures, but he puts it in such a way that you can’t help but to understand. So at this time, Steve. First of all, I want to thank the elders for the opportunity to be in this gospel meeting. I’m very encouraged by what I’ve experienced so far. I really commend the elders for the way that they have got the services set up on a Sunday morning.

Just wonderful to take the time during the Lord’s Supper to really remember Jesus and what He’s done for us. I appreciate that so much. You know, as we think about different things in life, we talked about in class. Sometimes sometimes what we have is things don’t work like they do.

How many of you got up this morning? Don’t have to raise a hand. I bet all of us probably looked in the mirror. Some of us may be in shock what we’ve seen, because it’s one of those things you look in that mirror and go, where’d this old person come from? What happened to that young person? And one of the things I think that we do sometimes is we take the Lord’s day, and we basically use it, and it becomes a repetition to us. And as we think about that, we think about the fact that we’re not to do that. Let me see if I can help them.

But in Romans the 12th chapter, verses 1 and 2. It talks about living a transformed life, living a life that is transformed. But also not being conformed to this world, but being transformed. I want to challenge our thinking a little bit this morning on the subject of the Lord’s day and the worship that we have. In Revelation, the first chapter, verse 10, just down a few verses from what was read by us by the good brother. John says, I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day. And I heard behind me a loud voice as of a trumpet. And I think about that and think he says he was in Patmos. We were in Patmos, my wife and I. We went into the cave where they thought John was there when he wrote the book of Revelation.

They showed us a crack down the ceiling of that cave, and they said, Now we know this is where he wrote the book, because the Lord’s Spirit, the Holy Spirit, sent a lightning bolt and cracked the ceiling of this. Now, whether they did that or not, I don’t know. Whether it was the exact slave or exact cave, I do not know. What I do know was it being a lot of meaning there to have it in the fact that John was in one of those caves. He was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day. He wrote and received the revelation to write. Very, very comforting. Very interesting. Tony, you’re looking at me like I can talk, that’s for sure. Now in Acts of 20th chapter, verse 7, there we find Paul said he was came together with the brethren who were going to break bread on the first day.

And I look at this and say, the first day, what does the first day mean to us? What’s the Lord’s day mean to us? John said he was in the spirit on the Lord’s day. Brethren came together to break bread on the first day of the week, the Lord’s day. And I think thus, what’s the Lord’s day? The Lord’s Day when I was a kid, I’ll tell you how it was. One thing was on Saturday night at 6 o’clock, everything stopped. What you had at that time was you were to be prepared. I had to have my Bible lesson as a kid. It had to be done, had to be approved by the parents as they looked over it. My clothes, I had one little sport coat, one shirt, one tie, one pair of pants, one pair of socks, and one pair of shoes that were the Sunday going to meeting dresses, I called it.

And you wore those to funerals, weddings, and the Lord’s service. Those were to be clean and ready to go. By nine o’clock, you were in bed. Early the next morning you were up and you were ready to go. You were to spend time quietly thinking about going to worship the Lord on the Lord’s day. Things have changed since that time. That’s what it was to me as a child coming together on the Lord’s day. So when we think about the Lord’s Day, I want you to think about what does the Lord’s day and worship mean to you? And we see these, I’ll get through these passages we’ve already used. We get some special things about this day. And special things about the Lord’s day that sometimes maybe we don’t think about is this.

1. Special Things About the Lord’s Day

It is the fact of where God created light. Back in Genesis 1, 3 through 5. What a special day that is light. We all have light here. Matter of fact, probably when you when you get there at night, I used to have a night light as a kid. I guess it was to scare the ghost away. I have a night light now to make sure I don’t fall when I get up. But we have a light. We have a light. Light is something that we live by. We want light. We like light. And light is something God created for us. Of all the physical things God created, of all the things of physical, none is more symbolic of his own character than light. Light shines, light shines.

Light is reflective. Light is something that we live with. Also, in 1 Timothy 6, chapter verse 16, who alone has immortality? Dwelling in an unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen. We also see in 1 John 1 5, this is the message which we have heard from him and declare to you that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. So light is a special thing that was created on the first day. We also see on this day that Jesus was raised from the dead. I really appreciated the way Brother John did the Lord’s Supper talk. I’ll call it that. But there’s something that we need to think about. Remembering his death till he comes, but now we should all understand it’s because of his resurrection that we’re here.

Because if he hadn’t resurrected, all men die.

But Jesus was raised from the dead. But not only was Jesus raised from the dead, in Matthew’s account, when Jesus was raised from the dead, saints came up out of their graves. I think how amazing is that we forget that. Saints came up out of their graves. I often think of that and think, how would that have been? How wonderful is it for us to know that saints were raised. But when we read in 1 Corinthians 15th chapter, when Paul says after Jesus was resurrected, he was seen by over 500 brethren at once. Then he goes through a list there. I’m thinking to myself, not only did they see Jesus raised from the dead. They saw saints that had been dead for a while raised from the dead.

And I’m going, are you kidding me? And we have trouble thinking about resurrection? God proved resurrection right there, and he proved it numerous times over and over again when he raised the dead in Christ and He raised the saints at the same time. When we think of that, we also think about the Lord’s church began. So when we think about the Lord’s church, here’s what’s discouraging to me at times, where we have gone with the Lord’s church. Paul was told there would be some apostasy, or he told Timothy there’d be apostasy, and that has come about.

Jesus is the one that went to the cross for us. God his father said Jesus is where salvation comes from. One Lord, one faith, one body. We know all of that in Ephesians chapter. Or Ephesians 4 chapter. What gets me is how confusing that has become that we’ve confused that on the Lord’s day, especially of what it really means. The Lord’s church began.

Something we just do. We may not have our minds into it. Maybe hard. And if you’re passing emblems off and say the one one of the hardest things to do in a congregation is sit for that three or four or five minutes in silence. Keep your mind on the death of the Lord while the emblems are being passed. We want to, but Satan wants us to think about other things. And on the Lord’s Day, we come together to participate in the Lord’s Supper. It means keeping our mind there. We also give of our means on this day. It’s a great day to do that. Now I will tell you a little story. This happened when we were at Florida College years ago. We would notice, being young, older people, the collection plate would come around.

And people every Sunday, we sit behind some of the same people when the collection plate came around, they’d go, Oh, it’s time to give. Shock, shock. What did they purpose in their heart? Did they think? Or as one lady did, she put in a 20 and got out four or fives and change every time. And so you look at this and go, have we purposed in our heart about giving? Do we know about giving? Have we made that preparation? We’ll see that in just a few minutes. The day of worship and singing in Revelation 4 and 5. A day of worship and singing. I don’t know about you. I hear some great singers just being the short time I’m here. I can’t sing electric. I make a joyful noise.

That’s what the Lord’s given me the talent to do. But when I get to heaven, in my mind, he’s going to make me a tenor singer like no other. And I can’t wait to get there. And I look at this and think about coming together, and we we have the singing, we have the worship going on. Our brothers, our family, we’re joining in song together. What a wonderful thing that is. But it’s also a day of preaching and teaching. I will tell you, as I travel overseas into Moldova or Sierra Leone, I love teaching there because you do it by question and answer. Love that. You give a lesson and then they start questioning. And you teach a question. And they are not limited by a clock.

They may, if they’re supposed to start at 9, they may start on what we would call BMT time versus WMT time. BMT time was for them, black man time, and they named it not me. They said, You, Brother Steve, work on WMT time. Don’t work over here. We work on BMT time. You know what they’re talking about? It starts when we get here. And it doesn’t end until we want to leave. You get there and you start, and let me tell you what they start doing. We want you to speak on this subject. Well, I’ve got this lesson prepared. We don’t care. Speak on this subject. We’ve got questions on this subject. So you give a lesson, and the questions come. Four and a half or five hours later, on the Lord’s Day, they may leave.

2. Why Worship?

They may leave. Someone once asked me, Did you teach them about Sunday night service? I said, excuse me, if you came Sunday morning and stayed from 9 o’clock to about 3 o’clock, would you want to come back at 5 o’clock? What do you think? And I look at this and say, we have our own traditions, we have our own things. Every congregation’s got that. But it’s a day of teaching, preaching, worship, singing, giving, particularly participating in the Lord’s Supper. It’s a day of edification and spiritual refreshing. I look at that and say, that’s special things about this day. However, there are some things that we look at and say, we need to remember about this day also. Why worship? Malachi 1 6 talks about that Jesus or that God was the Father, and where’s the Father without honor?

We need to honor God. God wants us to worship Him. He seeks those who worship Him in spirit and truth. He seeks that. Our God who created us and gave us all the blessings he’s done, spiritual and physical, seeks us to worship him. I want to let that sink in. He wants you to worship him. He seeks you to worship. That puts a whole different light on coming to worship. Not coming to worship because the elders are keeping track. Not coming to worship to put a checklist up that I went to worship. It’s coming to worship because my Heavenly Father seeks me to worship him. He seeks me to come together on the first day.

Because it leads to reform. Ephesians 5, as Paul’s writing to the church at Ephesus. And as we look at this, the reform, and it’s kind of interesting about what reform is. But in Ephesians 5 and verse 1, Paul simply says this, be imitators of God as dear children. God seeks me to worship him. I’m to be an imitator of God. How do I learn about being an imitator to God? How to get refreshed? How to get edified? How do I get built up to do that? By being with my brothers and sisters in a worship service to God who’s seeking. On the Lord’s Day, on the first day of the week. We see those and we think to ourselves, well, if God seeks those that worship him in spirit and in truth, what’s my attitude about going?

3. The Challenges to This Opportunity

Do I go because I want to honor God and seek to please him? Or do I go because it’s just what I’ve always done? There are some challenges to this opportunity, and that is the challenge of authority. God wants us to be there, but at the same time, he doesn’t want us to worship in vain. In Matthew the 15th chapter, Jesus is saying there, in vain do they honor me, or excuse me, they honor me with their lips, but their heart is not with me. In vain do they worship me? I can’t think of anything more discouraging in my life to walk away from services saying, I did it in vain. And sometimes we ask the question, What can I get out of this service? Let me ask this question.

What did you put into it? What did you put into the service? Were you a participant? Did you sing the songs? Did you pray along with the prayer? Did you read along with the reading? The Lord’s Supper, did you pay attention? I told Brother John, what a great talk he gave around the Lord’s Supper today. That was so inspiring and encouraging. I think to myself, did I hang on every word with that because it’s the Lord’s Supper? It’s the day that I’m to be here to do that. Or was my hearing kind of dull and I basically didn’t listen and it became vain? What about ignorant worship? Acts of 17th chapter. Paul talks there, and it’s kind of interesting. And all that talking that went on, and if you take a look at Mars Hill and the temple and what he’s talking about there, of all the idols, as we were there, it’s kind of interesting.

Where he would have been at in the marketplace, and then he went up to their apagas, which is middle way between the marketplace and where the temple would have been. He stopped and he said, I can look down over here and I see all these idols. And all those idols, because you’re religiously superstitious, there’s an unknown God, and I’m going to talk to you about that. But basically, they were doing things in ignorance. They thought they had everything covered, but they weren’t. Ignorance is one of those things when I come to worship that I look at and say, I don’t want to be ignorant in what I’m coming to do, why I’m coming to do it. One of the worst enemies that has hit the Lord’s church in recent years is COVID.

Terrible what it did to the Lord’s church. We started using Zoom worship services. There are many have not come back into the buildings after COVID, call themselves brothers and sisters of Christ, that may be thinking they can zoom worship out on the lake on a boat in the mountain skiing, or just out for family relaxation. Paul says, when you come together as a church, we’re going to see some other things about that. But I look at that and say, to me, we’ve become ignorant about what worship is to God and where we’re to do that. This is the house of God. Now we say there’s nothing special about a building. Let me tell you what’s special about this building. It was built with the Lord’s money, number one.

Number two, it’s got the family of God in the house of God right here. Number three, did we want God to be at this service? His spirit.

Sometimes I think I forget by ignorance that God is in this service, and so is his son, Christ, so is the Holy Spirit. Then we’ll worship. Worship the way I want to worship. Doesn’t work that way. As we mentioned in class, there is a cost to serving the Lord. The Lord wants us to worship his way in spirit and in truth. Not my way, but his way. Now, one of the beautiful things about a congregation is in the autonomy, the Lord said the elders have the right to set up what time you worship, the order of worship. Yeah, they’re right. They don’t have a right to change the day of worship. They don’t have a right to refuse the Lord’s Supper. They don’t have a right to do that.

4. The Nature of True Worship

These things are to go along that line. And it’s wonderful you’ve got elders that follow that pattern. That is a pattern God has said. As a child of God, under the authority of God and under the authority of the elders, I am to be here. I’m to be here. I’m not to express them about will worship, ignorant worship, or vain worship. I’m to yield myself, be here. That means the challenge of selfishness. I can be selfish at times. Challenge of entertainment. There may be other things I want to do. The challenge of autonomy. Fact of the matter is, and what we see is that everything we do were to do all in the name of the Lord. Now, when we look at that, we need to think about the nature of true worship.

One is John 4 24, which talks about worship in spirit and truth. But the proper object is God. Nothing else but God. God is our object of worship. Along that line, the proper standard is truth. Spirit and truth. What is truth? How are we to worship? We’re to worship to honor and please God. We’re going to see there’s some other things involved in that. The proper attitude is with the Spirit. But here maybe we need to understand the proper acts of worship a little bit more. The singing, the praying, the teaching, the Lord’s Supper, the giving. As we repeat those, we need to understand those are five acts of worship that we are to do on the Lord’s day, the first day of the week. So how do you think about the Lord’s day?

5. We’re Not to Forsake It

How do you think about your worship? How do we think about that? Those things seem important, would you not say that those things seem important? That we follow God’s law on that, that we follow that. We seek to worship him in spirit truth. We want him here. We want to sing, pray, we want to do things with understanding. We want to participate in the Lord’s Supper the right way. We want the preaching and teaching to be gospel of truth. We want these things to happen. We want to give of our means. Now all that happens, but there’s something else about the Lord’s day, that there’s another command given among those commands there. This command is we’re not to forsake it. Hebrews 10. Turn over to Hebrews the 10th chapter.

In Hebrews, the 10th chapter, as the writer of Hebrews is going, and as some was read during the Lord’s Supper talk. Hebrews 10, the writer’s coming up, and I want you to notice some things he says. Therefore, brethren, that’s those that are members of the Lord’s body, having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus. By a new and living way which he consecrated for us, through the veil that is his flesh, having a high priest over the house of God. Now, this is brethren. Let me tell you about this. This is the boldness. This is who we’re doing. It’s a new living way. He’s the high priest. Now, here’s what we’re to do. Here’s what we’re to do, brethren. Let us draw near with a heart.

Doesn’t say that, does it? Let us draw near with a true heart. Where’s your heart at this morning? Did a true heart worshiping God right now? Are you thinking about other things? Is your mind elsewhere? Is the world got you taken? Is Satan got you turned around? Are we worshiping with a true heart, drawing near with a true confession? True heart is my heart set upon what we’re doing. Let us draw near. We look at that with a true heart, in full assurance of faith. Does your faith ever waver? I’m going to be honest, mine does at times. Maybe yours does too. I hear of assassinations. I’ve heard the political. You look at our world situation. Bombings here, bombings there, wars here, wars there, political attacks here, people dying, getting shot, multiple shootings.

I just learned that there was a multiple shooting in Indianapolis, not far from us yesterday. I think two or three were killed. I look at that and say to myself, faith sometimes can waver. But we’re to draw near with a full assurance of faith. We’re to be full of faith. We’re to have that faith and draw near with that. Having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience. Put the evil away, put the evil conscience away, draw near with full assurance of faith. Without, or excuse me, and our bodies washed with pure water. You know, I think about that and think, was my baptism in pure water? Now I don’t mean was it clean? Because I’ve baptized people in creeks, lakes, probably some water that we shouldn’t have been in to baptize.

Not everything’s in a baptistry. But pure water, you know what makes that water pure? Jesus Christ is in it with you. That’s what makes the pure water. Today’s world, for some reason, we get baptism and somebody says, I’ve been baptized. You might have been in the water, but you were baptized with the one baptism where Jesus met you there and took your sins away. It takes about five minutes to do that. And while we argue about that, and while we question that, I look at that and say, Do you not understand there’s one baptism? I have trouble with that in myself. The older I get, I have more trouble with that. There’s one baptism. The Lord adds to the church daily, those and such should be should be saved.

To the one baptism. There’s one way to Christ. There’s one way to God, and it’s through Jesus Christ. So I look at this and think to myself, not to be forsaken, not looking sprinkled with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering. Without wavering. Without wavering. Steve, you just said you sometimes your faith does a little bit of shaking. Without wavering, Steve, you’re to have this faith. Without wavering. For he who promised faithful.

Let me be faithful to him. Then notice this. Notice, and here’s the challenge for you today and for me today. Let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works. Let’s just stop right there. Who is it here you don’t want to stir up the love and good works with? Who’s your fellow member that you won’t go over, hug their neck, and stir up love and good work? Who is that? My brother over here hugged me when we came in, right? I’ve never been before, but he’s my brother. He hugged me. I think, yes, I’m ready to go now. I got a hug. I look at this and say, who is it we don’t want to go to heaven with? Stir up one another.

I can’t do that if I’m not here. If I’m not here, I can’t stir you up, you can’t stir me up. One version says provoking one another. You know what a cattle prod is? I found out the hard way. Cattle prod is got electrical currents run to it, and you hold the two ends down here and push a button, you get shocked. And it’s hard enough for the cattle to move. What’s it do to a little guy like me? When I was younger, I thought, I wonder what that. Sometimes I think it would be good if the elders went around and did a little cattle prodding. Stir us up, get these love and good works going. I can’t double do love and good works. I can’t do that by forsaking the assembly because verse 25, which man has put in, not forsaking the assembly of ourselves together.

Why? Well, number one, you can’t consider one another in order to stir up love and good works. You can’t do that. Number two, is it the manner of some but exhorting one another? And so much more the day you see the day approaching. We can’t participate in the singing, the praying, the teaching, the Lord’s Supper, the giving. We can’t provoke one another love and good works. We can’t worship God in spirit and truth. If I’m not here, that’s the Lord’s day in the worship. That’s his day. It’s a special day. It’s his day. How do you feel on your birthday?

On your birthday, even as old as we get, I kind of think, I think there might be a cake going to come. And maybe if we got that cake coming, it might be chocolate with white icing or white with chocolate icing. There may be some ice cream with it and some chocolate syrup. It’s a great day. Special day. This is the Lord’s day. He’s the one that set it up. It’s his day. Steve, you don’t have to go to services. You are privileged to go to services. You get to come and worship me and seek to worship me in spirit and truth because I seek you to do that. You get to praise me and honor me. You get to exhort your brothers and sisters in Christ.

You get to encourage them and you get to uplift them. And they’re going to uplift you. You had a little down week? Come to services. You’ll get uplifted. The word of God will uplift you. You’ll be reminded of who you are. Your brothers and sisters will provoke you to love and good works. Come to worship. Why is it that our elders have to spend so much time trying to encourage us as members? Be faithful. And by the way, they’re not by themselves. In the New Testament, there’s four books of the gospel. Three of them are synoptic, the book of John. Then you have the Acts of the Apostles through the Holy Spirit working with the apostles. Then you have the book of prophecy and the book of Revelation.

You know what happens starting with the book of Romans and goes all the way through the book of Jude? You know what those 21 books are about? Stay faithful, Steve. Encouraging me to stay faithful. Twenty-one books written in the New Testament for us as Christians to worship properly, properly, stay faithful, encourage one another, keep the faith, keep doing what we’re supposed to be doing, and don’t fall away. Think the Lord didn’t know us. He knew us well. And he tells us today, hold fast to that profession. Come to services, worship in spirit and truth. Be encouraged, be uplifted, not forsaking, but exhorting one another so much more as you see the day approaching. Brethren, I’m afraid we look down a little bit on the Lord’s day compared to where it used to be.

6. The Day for the Lord

Now, in doing that, we think about some more special things about this day. It’s not the Christian Sabbath. Sabbath day was hung on the cross when Jesus died. Not the Christian Sabbath. But basically, what it is, the day for the Lord. It’s for the Lord. Our whole day should be dedicated to Him. Now, it should be in Bible study. It should be in visitation. It should be in hospitality. It should be in personal evangelism. Be worshiping spirit and truth. Now notice I didn’t have up there today for NFL games to be watched. I don’t have up there it’s soccer time, shopping time, golf time. It’s the Lord’s day. Worship Him. Spend the whole day with what things he wants us to do. Hospitality. We’ve spoken of brotherly kindness in the class, and we spoke here about encouraging one another.

Get together with people. Get together with the people that you love and care most about, and that is the family of God. Try to teach other people. Got other people in your family that are non members of the Lord’s body. Spend the day trying to teach them. It is the Lord’s day. Let me concentrate on being with the Lord and doing his work on that day. Let my lights shine every day in the world, but on the Lord’s day, it’s his day. I want him to be at services. I want Jesus to be here at services. I pray for that to happen. I want the Holy Spirit active in the services. I want to be here and I want to make sure that I am prepared for that.

Back when I was a kid, remember, by 6 o’clock, things started dying down. Had to be ready for services the next day. My father, at times in Kentucky, would go preach on a Saturday night to a country congregation. That would be what we would call their first service, not to the Lord’s Supper. The next service would be on a Sunday afternoon. He would preach Sunday morning at the congregation normally that he’s preached at. He was going to preach Sunday night there, but he had drive out to the country congregation Sunday afternoon. We had to be prepared. We had to be prepared.

It had lots of wear to it. Saturday night, Sunday morning, Sunday afternoon, and Sunday night. I never once heard my mother or father complain about getting us ready to go. I never once heard my wife complain when she had to get one, two, and then three kids ready to drive 75 to 80 miles on our appointment preaching back years ago. Spend the whole day and come home. Never heard a complaint. What I did hear from my wife at times and from my parents at times was, I’m worn out. Grover Stevens used to pray, Wear me out in thy service, Lord. What I’m saying is, how do you look at the Lord’s day? Are you glad to be here? Or is it just you can’t wait to get out because you got something else planned?

Things we can do to make this day special for ourselves. We can disentangle ourselves from activities that interfere with our service to the Lord. Worldly things are things of the world, and we enjoy that. I’ll enjoy watching football, and I enjoy, by the way, the Indiana Hoosiers beat the Allian Island last night. 63 to 10. That’s a wonderful thing for us because in football we were never known for being good. This is great. But that’s not the Lord’s Day stuff. That’s other stuff. I love to play golf, not on the Lord’s Day. Today is the Lord’s day. Lord, let me live it to the fullest for you, and thank you for giving it to me. Thank you for letting me come and meet new brothers and sisters.

Be reunited with older brothers and sisters. Be with our family friends like the bunches. Thank you for the elders inviting me. We get to meet new people. Brothers and sisters in Christ that we want to spend heaven with. I want to spend heaven with J.R. I want to spend heaven with Ralph. I want to spend heaven. And I got to meet him on this earth before I got to heaven. Glory, hallelujah. Where did I meet him? At services on the Lord’s Day doing the Lord’s will. Encouraging one another, uplifting one another, getting a hug from a brother I’d never seen before in my life. What a day it is. Disentangle ourselves from the activities that interfere with our service to the Lord. By the way, prepare for this day.

We’ve talked about that. But disentangle. When I grew up, there was a thing called the Blue Law. I don’t know if anybody remembers the blue law or not. In Kentucky, Tennessee, Blue Law was there was nothing open on Sunday. You’re going to eat, you’re going to go home. You don’t have enough gas, that’s shame on you, you’re going to run out. You need some clothes, you should have got them Saturday. Nothing was open except religious buildings. Nothing. I can remember there was no funerals during that time on Sundays either. No viewings, no nothing. There were no Little League games on Sunday. There was no football played on Sunday. And I’m talking about back in those days, football in the local area. The NFL’s been going on on Sundays for years.

But I look at this and say to myself, that was the blue law. Where’s the blue law today among us Christians? It doesn’t exist. Today’s just another day for us. Except we’re going to worship. We need to think about the Lord’s Day. And there’s nothing wrong going out to a restaurant and eat, don’t get me wrong on that. What I’m saying is, have I put my priorities on serving the Lord on his day? I’m to live a life, a transformed life. And I’ve got a question. When I grew up, there were three-week meetings. Might be three gospel preachers. One would come for one week, one for another week, and another for another week. They would bring their song leader with them and also bring their reader.

Now, for those that don’t know, the reader was somebody from the congregation. And if I ever have to have a reader, where’s the young fellow that read today? Tell me where your hand is. I’m coming to get you. Because boy, he can read. And I think about that and I think to myself, how wonderful it is that we had those times. Now, whether it’s society or something, those are changed. Not saying it’s bad, I’m just saying what has happened. What’s happened to us, brethren? Now we’re pleading with people to prepare for the Lord’s day. Be ready for the Lord’s Day, disentangle about the Lord’s, and pray about this day. Brother, we don’t pray enough. We just don’t pray enough. Our God is ready and able to hear us at any time we pray.

Now think about coming together in the service of brothers and sisters. We did this some back when Dave and I had agreement we would have a prayer service. Those days. The day of September the 11th, 2001, congregation I was preaching at. I got a call from her brother that says, What are you going to do about it? Well, I’m going to be at the building at 6 30 tonight. Every member was there except two who had to work. We prayed for an hour and a half. Prayer. Go to God in prayer. It’s a wonderful thing. Pray that this day would be good. Reserve this day for the Lord and His people. His people. That’s us. That’s us together. There’s a blessing to being a child of God, and this is one of them.

And that blessing is something we should see. And make memories. Make memories of it for us and our children and friends and family. Make good memories of it. The day we serve the Lord together. My great-grandmother, who lived to be 99, used to travel around with us for my dad to preach. Now we had a 1940 packard that had no heater in it. My grandmother weighed about 210 pounds. My great-grandmother. Guess where all the three kids went around her? Like a chicken with his mother as a hen. She had a lot of heat to go on. And I mean to tell you, we loved every bit of it, made memories. But bless her heart, she would say, Children, you’re going to remember this when I’m gone.

Conclusion

And we do. He had to sacrifice to make this work, and she did it. But in conclusion, the Lord’s day, a day that God has provided for our spiritual strengthening. Spiritual strengthening. Want that to set in. You want to know what you can get out of services? What you put into it to grow spiritually. Studied the book, committed to spiritual growth. Grow spiritually. How can I do that? I can get encouragement from my brothers and sisters coming to worship, worshiping in spirit and truth on the Lord’s day. But not only that, I don’t want to forget something. There’s a session that goes on on Wednesday nights here, too, I believe. I don’t know about you, but about midweek, I’m thinking, Satan, you’re sure hitting me hard this week.

Sure would be good to go see Brother Sean or Brother J.R. See the elders, see my brothers in Christ. It’d be good to go see them and get uplifted here in the middle of the week. And I know it’s hard. You still gotta understand something. I work 45 years in business and preach full time the whole time. I know what it’s like for you to have to come to a gospel meeting. I know exactly what sacrifices it takes. And brethren, you can do it. You’re gonna be tired, you’re gonna be worn out. But when you walk in this building, you look at the other brothers and sisters who are tired and worn out that are here to uplift and encourage you as you uplift and encourage them.

It can be hard, but it costs. My burden is easy, and my yoke is light, my burden is easy. It costs something to be a child of God. Strengthening.

Sunday is the best day of the week. That’s just all there is to it. Not because I’m a preacher. Doesn’t mean Sunday’s the best day of the week. Why? Monday through Saturday, there’s somebody, one trying to tear you down. That’s Satan. If you’re not here on Wednesday night to get a plug to go on, he can really get to you. Sunday, you’re going in in a safe haven where God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit’s at. Your brothers and sisters at truth is being taught. Salvation is there, and you can look to it and say, just a touch. Just a tiny bit of heaven comes every Sunday morning. Just a tiny bit. Oh no, I want to go. Now think of that and think, yes, it’s the best day of the week.

It should be our favorite day. Psalms 1 and 22. I was glad when they said to me, Let us go into the house of the Lord. Did you say that this morning? I hope you say it every Sunday morning. Get to go meet with our brethren. I’m glad to go meet with God. I’m going to go serve Him and worship Him as I should. What should I do to be saved? As I mentioned, I end every con every sermon with this little slide or a slide like it. If you’re here and not a member of the Lord’s body, let me tell you what you’re missing. You’re missing all the things I just talked about. You’re missing a family of God that loves one another, cares for one another.

Do we have issues? Yes, we have issues. But we should have the heart, the biblical heart to overcome those issues. Whatever they are, we should love one another and overcome those. You’re missing out on that. You’re missing out on the most important thing that you can do in your physical life. That is turn your physical life around and go into spiritual life with Jesus Christ by meeting him in the water grave of baptism. You believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Are you willing to repent of your sins and confess that He is a Son of God? Meet him in the water grave of baptism, be raised a new creature. That puts you in his body. But maybe, just maybe, you’re here in that body.

You find the day that you’re sitting there thinking, I’ve not really treated worship well. I’ve not treated my brother or sister well. I’m not really living up to what he wants me to do. And I need to change. Now’s the time to do it. Today’s the first day of the rest of your life. Live the rest of your life for Christ Jesus. Live it for him, starting right now while we stand and while we sing.