Remember the King

Good morning. It's always encouraging to receive an invitation to be invited to spend time with other people, especially over a meal, but there's been occasions where I've been invited to an event like this and it actually causes quite a bit of anxiety. When I'm invited to a formal meal, something that has more than just a fork and a knife, there's numerous forks involved, I start getting a certain kind of anxiety. When I expect that I'm going to have to wear a coat and tie, it's not as exciting because of the formality of it. It actually can be pretty nerve-wracking for me. You see, I like a restaurant where there's paper towels in the middle of the table. If the food comes out in a basket, all the better. So that's where I feel my comfort zone in eating, but when there's a formal affair, you have to get dressed up. I understand there's different forks for different parts of the meal, but I'm afraid of what's going to happen if I mess up. My contrary nature wants to go against what's expected of me. And really, there's a lot of insecurities going on. What if I mess up? It makes it less enjoyable. I even can start to think, like, this is so nice and formal. Do I even belong here? Am I welcome? So this kind of event, it could be fun if you do it regularly, if you practice the formalities of this kind of meal and you're prepared, you can start to feel more comfortable, more confident. Well, I mentioned the invitation because this morning, we're actually looking at an invitation. More specifically, we're studying how God's people respond to the greatest invitation given to anyone at any time. You see, Psalm 132 is a song of ascent. This is what Israelites would be singing on their way to worship. They've been called, they've been invited to worship. That's what God did with Moses. A forever invitation to Israel, come and worship. Some of us sent as a way to respond. Now, one of the most remarkable things about God inviting us to worship him is the very fact that he invites us to worship him. We're his creatures. He created us for worship, but we rebelled against Him. We were created to love God, and we chose to hate Him. We murdered His Son, and yet still God says, I will welcome you, come and worship. And we'll look more about what that, look more into what that looks like. So this morning, we're looking at a gracious invitation. That's what lies behind Psalm 132. And really we're looking at how Israel is coming prepared to worship. As I said, this is a song of assent. You can look on page 519 of your pre-bible there. If you look at the subscript of Psalm 132, the very first line, a song of assents. The best understanding of what this means is that these were songs that the Israelites would sing on their way to worship in Jerusalem. So as their journey, they would make a long, difficult journey to worship all together. Now two weeks ago, when Mark was with us, we looked at a Song of Ascent that was 121. And it was one of those songs that you would sing on the journey, reminding yourself that God is going to help you, protect you, and keep you on the way. He's mighty to save and protect, and they were asking God for help and knowing He would help them. This is a different kind of psalm of ascent. This psalm is actually understood to be in a group of three. Psalm 132, 133, and 134 are believed to possibly be the psalms that the Israelites would be singing as they're walking up to the temple, getting closer and closer on the steps as they're about to enter into the place of worship. If you look at this in 134, we'll look at this again later, it's come. Bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord, who stand by night in the house of the Lord. Lift up your hands to the holy place and bless the Lord. May the Lord bless you from Zion, who made heaven and earth. So these psalms all have in common is the emphasis on where they're worshiping, with Zion. Something we see repeated, the dwelling place of God, the resting place of God. Where is God? Where do I go to worship Him? One of the great things about God's worship is that He establishes His worship. He invites us into worship. He instructs us in how to worship. The people just need to simply follow by faith. So this is a psalm of ascent. It's also a royal psalm. As you heard Cheryl read, I hope you heard that David is mentioned over and over again. Verses one to five open the psalm, focused on David, the king who wants to build God a temple. Then you look at verses, verse 10. For the sake of your servant David, the anointed one, the king. Go back down, verse 11. The Lord swore to David he will have one of his own children on the throne. And then verses 17 and 18. I will make a horn to sprout for David. That's kingship language. He's my anointed one. He will have a crown that will shine. It's a royal song that really highlights the role of the king in worship. It's one of the few psalms that really help us to see the significant role of the king in worship. Psalm 110 is the only other psalm that does this in this way. And then finally, I want us to see it's not only just a psalm of ascent, a royal psalm, but it's a remembrance psalm. Remember David. It's recalling something significant about what God has done. So we're doing quite a bit with this psalm this morning. It remembers the covenant. It's a psalm of ascent, a psalm going up to worship, and it's a psalm that focuses on the king. Now, I chose this psalm in this series. We're looking at different psalms. We're looking at different kinds of psalms, specifically, so that we can see how they all function, and they all speak to us in different ways, with a different purpose. And I chose this one because this psalm helps us see how the psalms are a doorway from the Old Testament to the New Testament. The Psalms are a doorway. They help us see how God has made promises, and then he's fulfilled those promises. And the Psalms really help us make a transition. And this one is very explicit in that transition. Last week, for instance, we looked at Psalm 77. And there, if you're with us, I hope you felt that that was a mirror to the soul. Psalm 77 helped us look inward to the kinds of despair and struggles we have to help us learn how to look to God in the midst of that despair. It helped us see what was going on inside of us more clearly and how to resolve it with the gospel truth. This Psalm is standing back farther. and helps us to see what God has been up to with His glorious plan of salvation that's been unfolding that helps us worship Him with confidence. I hope we see this morning that He has given us the true King. God has made a covenant, He has kept that covenant, He's fulfilled the covenant. We get to now worship Him with confidence. These Israelites will be singing this to build up their confidence. God has made an oath. He has sworn He will be in his resting place. He will meet us there. We will worship with great joy. We will be satisfied So too we come and we worship the King knowing we can see his glory. I want to pause here for a second and explain what it means that the Psalms are a doorway from the Old Testament to the New Testament that there's a number of messianic themes, there's a number of salvation themes that run throughout the Bible. The Old Testament is the first books of the Bible, 39. New Testament is the last 27. And what you see here is the difference in the first 39 and the last 27 is Jesus. Jesus makes the transition. Because all the promises that were given in the first books of the Bible, they've been fulfilled in Him, and now we become a new kind of people rejoicing in how God has fulfilled them. And there's what we call scarlet threads that run throughout these, that help us see how God has been doing one great work throughout history. And I'll just mention three to help us understand what these are. Prophet, priest, and king. Prophet, priest, and king. These are three significant categories for you to know how to read Scripture well. From the old to the new, God had set up prophets to proclaim God's truth. And then, as Hebrews says, in latter days, He spoke through prophets. But in these days, finally, His Son has come to speak. Jesus is the ultimate prophet that fulfills every prophecy, and is the final great prophet. Priest. We see in the Old Testament this bloody system of sacrifice. A priest represented God's people to God and so therefore they had to slaughter many animals to make sacrifices to cover the sins of all the people. It was a messy, bloody work. But then we see as we studied in Hebrews recently was Pastor Sam leading us to that book. Jesus Christ, he's a great high priest. We don't have to keep making sacrifices over and over again. No, he's the one true priest who made the one true sacrifice that didn't just cover our sin, but washed it away once and for all. And then we get the king. The theme we're gonna be looking at today, as the priest represents God's people to God, the king represents God to his people. The king is supposed to have a righteous rule that declares God's goodness to them, that represents God to them. And that's who Jesus is, as his son, teaching what God has, what the Father has said, and doing what he's seen the Father do. Let's turn to 132. If you're looking at the text, I want you to see that verses one to 10 are the first half. It's actually a petition. And then 11 through 18, that's the second half. It's the invitation to worship. The people have been given this script to prepare them. So the first one to 10, it's actually the people talking to God. Remember, oh Lord. that David he wanted to build you a house and and we want to come and we want to see you in this dwelling place and we hope there's priests there that for the sake of your David don't turn your face away we we're coming to worship according to your way in your place we're looking forward to it then look at verses 11 through 18 God responds I swore to David an oath He will have a son on the throne forever. I will make my resting place with my people. I will put priests there that are clothed with salvation, that people will shout for joy. David will have a crown shining with glory. We see a request for worship. We see an invitation from God to worship. And if we actually look closely, The requests individually are answered individually. One to five is a plea on behalf of David where he said, when David said, I wanna build you a house, based upon 2 Samuel 7. Look at verses 11 to 12. God also recites 2 Samuel 7 and says, well, he wanted to build me a house, but I said you'll have a son. Then look at verses six to eight. They're looking for a place to worship. They wanna be in the dwelling place. Then look at verses 13 to 16. I've given a resting place. I've chosen it forever. They've appealed to David. He's appealed to David. They've asked to meet him in the dwelling place. He said, I've given you a resting place. I will be with you. And then finally, there's an appeal to David in verse 10. And there's an appeal to David at the end of verse 17 to 18. So our two main points is there's a request to worship. That's one to 10. There's an invitation to worship. Let's look at the request to worship. Notice the Psalm begins and ends with David, a reference to David, and then in the middle, there's a reference to David. Verses one to five is a section focused on David's commitment to build a house for God. There's great anguish for David. It reverts to the vow he's made, the hardships he's endured, the lack of sleep he suffered because of this desire to build God a house so that his ark would be in a more safe and secure and glorious place. As they're ascending to Jerusalem, they're looking back to that event. They're remembering the covenant that God made with David that began with David's request to build him a temple. Now, what's interesting is that David is forever going to be connected to the worship of Israel. And what's amazing is David is not a worthy man, if we really think about it. David was an adulterer and a murderer. David was a bad man. He actually isn't allowed to build the Temple because his hands are covered with blood. But here we see this is God's grace. David is a sinner just like you and me, and God is gracious, and He's steadfast, and He says, my steadfast love will never leave you, David. My covenant will be fulfilled through your line. Sin does not hinder God's plan. Verses six to nine all have to do with the place of worship. They've heard of this call from Ephrathah, and this is most likely a place near Bethlehem, the birth city of Jesus and of David. They're going to come to this dwelling place. They're going to worship the footstool. The footstool, it shows a place of humility first, the footstool, but the footstool is also where the blood would fall from the sacrifice. It shows that the entrance into worship comes at the cost of the sacrifice being made. The ark represents God's Presence with his people a great theme if you want to study the the theology of worship in scripture is the simple phrase God with us The ark represented God's personal powerful presence with his people God with us. He's not a distant God. He's not a guy We've got to figure out who he is and what he's like and try to figure out if we can please him No, he's a he's a God who said I'm with you I'm for you Here's how you come to worship me. Verse nine, the importance of the priest, that they're clothed with righteousness. This doesn't mean that they are perfectly righteous themselves, but they've been given a righteousness by God, declared. And there's a desire for the people to shout with joy. And then the petition, it ends again. For the sake of your servant David, do not turn away your face, the face of your anointed God has made this promise. You can come and worship me. I will meet you in this place. David has set up this place, his son has set up this place that people are eager to come worship and they're coming with proper expectations. I believe God gave them this psalm to recite so that they are coming with a confident right posture. Not confident in their righteousness, not confident in what they can do to please God, but confident that God has said, I have sworn forever, I will be with you. Confident that God has given His word and His promise. They're coming with proper expectations because they're following God's way. Now again, let's back out a moment. As they've been traveling, they've been reciting other Psalms, they've been remembering other things, like God's steadfast love and His power to help them and keep them. But here, if the commentators are right, these are Psalms they're singing right as they're about to come into Jerusalem, right as they're about to go up to worship. We see here that they're remembering, we can go into God's holy and glorious presence because of promises He's made. There's a wonderful declaration of reminding themselves, according to God's own word, what God has said and who He is. Again, Psalm 134 is just this simple, sweet declaration. It's bold. Behold, bless the Lord, all servants of the Lord. Imagine them saying this as they're coming in. Behold, bless the Lord, all the servants of the Lord, who serve by night in the house of the Lord. Lift up your hands to the sanctuary and bless the Lord. May the Lord bless you from Zion, who made heaven and earth. For me, this really challenges how casual I can too easily come to worship. God has prescribed and given us pretty clear instructions here from Israel. We don't have to make a long journey that's dangerous, but we do have to come together to worship. And as they're singing these songs, as they're reciting these things, it makes me wonder, what kinds of things am I thinking about on my way up to the doors to worship with God's church? What kinds of things am I thinking about to prepare myself? What kind of petitions am I making to prepare my heart so that I have proper expectations when I come together with God's people to praise Him? See, we're oftentimes just way too casual with our worship. You know, when we go to a sporting event, if you're gonna do something athletic, you stretch. Think about the game. There's preparation. Friends, this isn't just something that happens to you. Worship requires a preparation that requires a practice of preparing your heart, your mind, your soul, and your body ready to come and proclaim Him together. You can do this by pre-reading whatever the sermon's on. Next week, it's Psalm 32. Prepare your heart beforehand to look at the songs, to be ready to sing with boldness. Or simply to ask God, speak to me today. Speak to me. That's the way to have a good, proper expectation. God, I want to see more of your glory. I want to sense more of your grace. I want to know who you are. Have an expectation that God still speaks. Show me sin to repent of. Something I wanna highlight that we do every week that I think probably is not considered as important as it should be. Even to myself, it's the call to worship. You can get your order of worship back out. Let's flip back to the first inside page. This morning we sang, we heard Chris read Praise the Lord. Sing to the Lord a new song. His praise and the assembly of the godly. Friends, this is one of the best parts of the worship service. Because we are being invited in to praise not only our Creator, but our Savior together. This is one of those important parts of the service because it reminds us I'm not coming in my way, on my time, the way I want to do it. No, I'm coming at the glorious, gracious invitation of God Himself. I'm coming, and it's a reminder that He says, come. And the new song, that's the song we get to sing because Jesus died. We sung because Jesus died to cover our sins, to wash away our sins, to do away with our sins, as far as the east is to the west, so that we can now come, not in our terms to worship, but Jesus' terms, who died on the cross and rose again. He's the king who properly leads us into worship. He's the priest who properly leads us into worship. He's the prophet who properly invites us into worship. So it's important. I wanna challenge you. Get here early and be ready for that call to worship. Prepare your heart to be hungry so that when that call to worship is given, you're ready to say, I'm ready to come and see your glory and taste your grace. Let's look at the second half. There's the plea, there's a request. We're coming to worship, God. Remember your promises. We're looking forward to that dwelling place. Let your priests be clothed. The Lord again declares and reminds him of the covenant he's made with David. They've appealed to David and now God is going to respond with an appeal to David. And he's taking us back to 2 Samuel 7, and we're gonna do a little theological heavy lifting here, so be ready. We're gonna have three different times in which we're gonna think about. We've gotta think about when the covenant was made, that's 2 Samuel 7. If you like just dates and a timeline, we're looking at 1050. BC, okay? Covenant of David, 1050 BC. Then we've got the covenant remembered. That's our psalm. We have no idea when this was. But let's just say 950 for fun. The psalm was written after the covenant was made because it's remembering the covenant. And then you have Jesus Christ, say 30 AD, about the time we think he died. So we have the covenant made, 2 Samuel 7, the covenant remembered, and this would have been repeated and recited over and over again as Israel would go up to temple, and then the covenant fulfilled as Christ and the king died on the cross. So let's first go back. Let's look again to 2 Samuel 7. We can look in the bulletin, the order of worship again, or you can look in your own Bibles. But I want us to see something here. Verses one to 10, David's made an appeal, and God especially said, I'm going to give you a resting place. God is promising David, you're going to have a resting place. Your people will not be in battle all the time, forever. I will come and I will give you peace. And look at verse 11b. All right, so I'll read the first full sentence of 11. And I will give you rest from all your enemies. So that's really close of that particular point. And then look how God begins the second main point of this covenant. Moreover, even better than peace from all the other armies of all this world, even better, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house. Now God's done a little. Word here. The word house means family. The word house means structure. David wanted to build God a structure. A place for the ark to be. And God said I'm going to build you a family line dynasty. It's going to be forever. When your days are fulfilled, okay, you're gonna die, David, and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you. He shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. I'm going to give you a dynasty. Look at verse 13. He's gonna do what you wanna do. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom, Forever. That word forever is extremely important. There's going to be a forever king. A king who does not die, whose reign does not end. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. Now that's an amazing promise. Okay, so some level David might be able to think, all right, well, I'm gonna have a child who's gonna be forever. His reign's going to be for as long as it can be. But now God says, we get the Trinity on this side of the cross, but at this time, this is weird language. Unusual language. God's gonna treat my son like his own son? He's going to be as a father to one of my children And I believe the rest of this this passage following it it actually is it explains what it means to be a father to a son What it means to be a father to a son is that you discipline God says when he commits iniquity, I will discipline him. We have a good God who disciplines us and it's good and He is saying, whenever your son, who's going to be my king, commits iniquity, I'm going to discipline with the rods of men, so that he's corrected, so that he comes back in the way. And then look at verse 15. But my steadfast love will never depart. A God disciplines and always loves. A father disciplines and always loves. And then there, look at verse 16. And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. So this Davidic covenant, which, you know, we've already had the promise of Abraham. God said to Abraham, you're going to have a people. Then God took that people in Egypt and they went up to Mount Sinai after he deemed them through the Red Sea and he made a covenant there, giving them the law. And then after the Mosaic covenant, you have the Davidic covenant. And here God says, I'm going to put a king on your throne so that you're properly ruled. This is a key moment for all of Israel because it has to do with their worship. The king is going to build the temple so that God's people know where and how to worship him. And God has made some amazing promises. His rule will be forever. He will be my Son. My love will not depart, and I will discipline. Okay, that's the covenant made. The covenant remembered is Israel just singing this wonderful song, saying, we remember you made promises to David. We're going up, as you've told us. We're going to go to this temple. We're going to meet you. We're going to help to worship you, where you've made a dwelling place, where you've made your Resting place. It's really amazing as I think about this covenant, remember, God is not only the object of worship, he's the orchestrator of worship. Something we have to really remember here. He's the object of our worship and he's the orchestrator of our worship. We don't get to worship him unless he invites us to come and then enables us and instructs us on how to come. This is what's so amazing about the Israelite religion, the one true religion versus all the other pagans religions out there. There's confidence. You don't have to kind of go around wondering, what's God like? What is he like? What's his favorite candy? It's nerve wracking to think if you don't know who God is and what he's really like, you're running around constantly worried, am I actually really worshiping? God doesn't want us paranoid or confused. Yes, there's a great mystery of His nature, but there is no mystery in who He says He is and what He expects of His people. It's beautiful. We don't realize how good we've got it. We have instruction on how to worship. We didn't have to show up today and think, well, what kind of name do you think God would like to be called today? No, we knew we could call Him Father. in the name of his son, Jesus Christ, with absolute clear confidence. This psalm is helping us know that we can remember with confidence because God has made promises and God has given instruction. So let's go to covenant fulfilled. Who was this king who would be called God's son? Now, I really can appreciate how Israel will be very confused when it comes to if Solomon was his king. Solomon was a pretty good king for some time. He's David's son. He, when given the opportunity to ask anything he wanted, he asked for wisdom. He actually is the one who built the physical temple. It seems very promising. Israel should have been very excited. Solomon, as he continues the spread of the rain, he gives more peace, more rest from the enemies. He's doing great things. But we know it's not Solomon because he took 500 wives from all the nations. He disobeyed God. He did not remain faithful. The end of Solomon's reign is the kingdom divided, and he's disciplined for his sin, but we know it's not solemn because his reign ends with Israel divided, and he dies, it's not forever. Friends, we may look through the book of, let's say, 2 Kings, and just kind of glaze over, but there's something glorious about 2 Kings. This guy reigned, he did evil, he died. Not the guy. This king reigned, he did evil, he died. This king reigned, he did evil, he died. And at some level, you start looking, you're saying, is God gonna keep his covenant? Look at how bad all the kings are. Can God keep his covenant? And then it gets worse. The Israelites are taken into captivity. That temple that Solomon built, it's destroyed. Can you imagine the confusion and the anxiety and the despair that an Israelite would sing with Psalm 132 without the dwelling place, knowing where it is? With half of his kin's folks dragged off into slavery? And the temple just a rubbish, destroyed. This is what makes the new covenant so sweet. We see how God's people kept disobeying. That's why they were taken to Babylon. It was God disciplining them. We see how the kings, they died. God was disciplining them because they were evil. And then we see how glorious it is when God actually fulfills his covenant. He sends his own son. God Himself comes to be with us. He takes on flesh. Jesus Christ, He's born in the city of David, Bethlehem. He takes on our own nature. He is perfectly righteous. He represents God to His people because He is God Himself. He speaks the truth of God. He is the actual Son to the Father because that's their eternal relationship. He fulfills everything 2 Samuel 7 says. But what about that statement, he'll be disciplined when he commits iniquity? See, the hard truth is Jesus was the most disciplined king to ever rule over Israel. But yet he did not sin. He committed no iniquity, but he received the harshest, most difficult discipline that God has ever given to anyone. He did not receive discipline for his own transgressions. He was disciplined on behalf of ours. He died in our place so that he could then, as the king and as the priest, lead us into the presence of the Father and say, they're washed. They're pure. They're ready for worship. I have washed them. I've purified them with my blood. I've given the sacrifice that allows them to come in and worship. This is why Jesus Christ is our worship leader. He does everything we need so that we can come into God's presence with, with, with confidence to worship Him. We come with a confidence. Not because of how good we are, or what we've thought of, or are unrighteous. We come in the name of Jesus Christ. Clinging to what He's done. If you're not a Christian this morning, we're talking about worship. And something I want you to understand is that you are a worshiper. Because God created every single one of us for worship. And our problem is, is that we are typically, especially if we're not Christians, if you're not a believer in Jesus Christ, you're always seeking to worship everything but God. Think about the things you love. Think about the things you commit your time and energy to. These are things that we treat as gods, and they're not. Really, here's the problem, and this is a problem for all of us. When we determine what we're worshiping and how we're worshiping, we're really saying we're God. We don't receive that invitation. We don't receive that instruction. Another Christian this morning, one day you will stand before the holy and righteous God, and you will receive the discipline for your disobedience, unless you believe in Jesus Christ, who is disciplined for our disobedience. that those who come to worship as Christians, we're not better people. We've just simply looked at Jesus and said, I believe. He died for my sin, I'm now washed, now I'm going to seek to live according to his way. For you, a non-Christian, if you're not a believer, what you have to do is recognize, I do love everything of this world. I love myself and I try to rule my own life, and when I try to rule my own life, it always gets me into trouble. I realize I've sinned, and the hardest thing to understand is that our greatest sin is against God. And that's what's so beautiful about that invitation. God says, I will still have you. I will still welcome you. I sent my son to die on your behalf so that I could love you and you could know my love. But you must believe in Jesus. As we finish our passage, verses 13 to 16, you see there it's focused on the dwelling place, the resting place. God is making a promise, I will be with my people. God is with us. The priests, their clothes of salvation, that's what marks them. The saints, they sing for joy. What's amazing about Israel's focus, about the dwelling place, and God's response, yes, I'll have a resting place, is it is important to know, where am I gonna meet God? Throughout history, most religions have what we call sacred space. The history of Israel has what we call sacred space, and it's special places where people come to do their worship. Now let me just ask a question. What are the sacred spaces of Charlottesville, Virginia? We have some sacred spaces, think about it. The lawn, that's sacred space. Special, memorable, awe-inspiring events take place in the lawn. Now at some level, good things happen there. People are being trained up, they're becoming better citizens of a society, Lord willing. But we look at that space and there's something sacred about the lawn. Let's try another one. John Paul John's Stadium or Arena. That's sacred space. There's some serious worship happening there. These are sacred spaces. God has designed us to have an awe about certain places where certain events happen that capture us. The church is supposed to be a kind of sacred space. It's not because of the building. It's because of what happens here. It's because of who's gathering, and what we're doing, and why we're doing it, and most importantly, how we're doing it. We need to be aware that we're coming together and we're making this a sacred place to gather, meeting God, who's with us. Really what's amazing about this passage is We can worship God everywhere on this earth. Because the real sacred space that Jesus Christ establishes, I'm not going into detail here because Sam preached through Hebrews with us. You can go back and listen to that. But the temple that Solomon built, the latter temple, that Israel went to it, those were just, they were models. They weren't the real Holy of Holies. Jesus Christ, the great high priest, he has gone into the true holy of holies, made the perfect sacrifice, and now says, come, I'm at the Father's right hand. You come. I will present you to him face to face. We worship in the true place of God. As we conclude, I want us to go back and think. As we worship, we make a very similar, we should be making a very similar prayer of verse one. God, remember your king. God, remember your son. I'm coming with confidence because your son has come and he didn't lose sleep like David. He didn't endure the kinds of hardships David did. It was much worse. He was nailed to a cross to be cursed and beaten for my sake, for my sin. Father, remember your son. In his name, we're coming to worship with confidence. We know we're welcomed in love. We know we're welcomed for worship. Christian, we get to be in the presence of God. Not like Israel where there's a boundary set up and you couldn't come to a certain place. No, the boundary's in the sides, in the left and the right, so you don't go wayward. No, we get to go straight forward as far as we want to go in the presence of God without fear, without confusion. Remember Jesus. We come by remembering Jesus and so that we remember Jesus. We're coming together so that we can remember Jesus. Let's just face it, we're pretty forgetful. If I ask you on Thursday what I said on Sunday, something about Jesus. That's good, all right, as long as you remember Jesus, that's fine. But we're so forgetful. But we so easily get distracted by these other sacred places, these other sacred practices. We need to always be reminded, the Son died for me. I can set aside my fear, my anger, my sin, my discontent, my expectations of what life is to be and it's not. I can come and I can just expect God will give me grace and I can see His glory because that's what He's promised and He is able to do what He says He'll do. This morning we have a wonderful opportunity to remember that this is a uniquely designed ordinance, the Lord's Supper. It's actually designed just so we'll remember that we don't come to worship God in our own terms, we come to worship because of what Christ has done. We come despite our insecurities, our sin, and our unforgiveness, and we come and we, we said we're gonna have to protect this together. And that's actually the beauty of the warning portion that we go through with the Lord's Supper, which you're gonna experience, we're all gonna experience in a moment. I wanna correct something that I see as a common misunderstanding. I'll call somebody because I notice they weren't here on the first Sunday and they'll say, well, I just haven't worked something out in my own heart or I haven't worked something out with somebody so I didn't come to church on Sunday. Okay, that's not the purpose of the Lord's Supper. The purpose of the Lord's Supper is not to avoid it because there's still sin. The purpose of the Lord's Supper is to partake of it and confront your sin with the gospel of Jesus Christ. We don't avoid this opportunity, remember? We just trump all of our sin, all of our unforgiveness, all of our insecurities underneath the power of the cross as we remember what he's done. This is an opportunity to remember that overpowers everything that we think keeps us from coming to God. So as we come, we're gonna come boldly. We're gonna come with confidence. Not because of who we think we are or what we've done, but because Christ has given us a sacrifice. He's given us a certain salvation, and he's given us precise instruction. Will you pray with me? Father, we thank you that we get to hear that call to worship, to praise you, to sing your new song, to sing a song of praise that Christ is risen. He is at your right hand. He is our king eternal. We can trust him. Help us, Lord, to have confidence in him. Help us, Lord, to remember him, to follow your instruction, to remember your instruction, to focus on that cross that unites us together. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.