Philippians 4:4-7

January 1, 2017

Lord’s Day Worship

Sean Higgins

Download the bulletin.

Download the Kids’ Korner.

The sermon starts at 14:50 in the audio file.

Or, Everything by Prayer and Supplication

We begin a new year of our Lord this morning, number 2017. We also complete our sixth year of worshipping together as a church, service number 312. Christ calls His people not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together (Hebrews 10:25). He calls the redeemed to say so, to “offer sacrifices of thanksgiving, and tell of his deeds in songs of joy!” (Psalm 107:2, 22). We assemble to extol Him in the congregation of the people (107:32). The psalmist admonished, “Whoever is wise, let him attend to these things; let them consider the steadfast love of the LORD” (107:43).

At the beginning of each new calendar year and congregational anniversary, we’ve taken a brief pause from the current sermon series and attended to the things of worship explicitly. Usually a man just gets in his car and drives, but sometimes he needs to fix something or learn proper maintenance or just figure out how to change the time on the radio, so he reads the owner’s manual. Most of us have not known this type of worship service longer than we’ve been doing it at TEC. Our kids will have some of this baked in; we realized we forgot a couple cups of flour and had to take the lump out of the oven and remix it all part way through the cooking. The loaf might not end up very smooth, but with enough of the Lord’s butter of grace, it might still taste alright.

We have in previous years worked through the five Cs in our service: Call, Confession, Consecration, Communion, and Commission. The order of service doesn’t come from any given verse, there is freedom here, but the order does represent a common sequence of Old Testament sacrifices and it is also consistent with the call of the gospel. We’ve talked about how our worship is a united offensive against the gates of hell, an assault on the walls of unbelief and rebellion. We’ve talked about how our worship is more than filling up truth tubes; the Word—sharper than any two edged sword—flays us open as sacrifices and arranges us on the altar for God’s pleasure. We’ve talked about the reality that we become like what we worship. “We all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image, from one degree of glory to another” (2 Corinthians 3:18).

For this go-round of attending to the things of our Lord’s Day worship I want to address two things: 1) prayer in liturgy and 2) kids in worship. Today we’ll look at the place of prayer. Previously I’ve talked about prayer as it fits into the different parts of the service but not considered by itself.

What if we could do everything else but pray when we assembled? It seems unlikely that a government would allow singing and Bible reading and preaching and communion but not prayer, yet there is a law on the books in the “land of the free” since 1962 prohibiting out-loud, “disruptive” praying in school. What if prayer in church were outlawed similar to King Darius in Daniel’s day as recorded in Daniel 6? Would we, like Daniel but in public, “[give] thanks before [our] God, as [we] had done previously”?

We can and must pray as individuals. We can pray in private, in quiet, or even when others are around, and with our eyes open. No Christian needs to go through a human mediator to talk to God. We all have access to the throne of grace in Christ. We are the only ones who stop ourselves from praying.

But what about corporately? Would it matter if the assembled church cut prayer out of her worship, either according to law or by neglect? I am ready to say that if we do not pray, then no matter what else we call it, we are not worshipping. We cannot glorify God as He deserves without prayer.

The early church “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship. to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (Acts 2[...]