Today we get to talk about the rhythms. And we have been going through this rhythm series, what we practice every kind of. After the holiday season, after holiday chaos, you get back, and there seems to be this fresh new drive to maybe do something different. So I know you guys have probably been asked this a lot in the last few weeks, but does anyone in here do resolutions? Okay. All right. So we got three out of this whole entire church. All right, well, you have a lot of accountability, I guess. I don't know what to do with that. Either way. Whether you watch the news or whatever you do, there's a lot of people talking about new rhythms or new things that they're going to try this year. Is anyone going to try anything new this year? Okay, there's a few more hands. All right, that's really great. But seemingly, and even I also try to avoid kind of the resolution thing, I'm thinking, why set myself up for failure so early in the year? But nonetheless, even as much as I try to avoid it and am generally annoyed by all the stir about it, it seems like it's a reset. It seems like it's a reset. And if I know anything about myself, which I've gotten to know myself pretty well over the years, I need a plan. If I am going to accomplish something, I need to lay it out, and I need to lay out details for. For how to get there. I think about writing class or comp two, where you'd have to spend so much time working on your idea or your thesis, and then you have to spend time working on your outline, and then you have to do a rough draft. And I didn't do well at comp two, but I get how that works. If I'm going to succeed at something, I need to have a plan. So whether you're going to try to lose a couple pounds or whether you're going to try to get into shape, it's. It seems like we need a plan. Like, growth requires a plan. And so it is with your faith, I would argue, like, what is your plan for growing closer to Jesus in the year 2025? And not just 2025. What's the plan? Yesterday is an old day. Today there is new grace that is given by a great God. What's the plan? What is our plan moving forward? And so the rhythm, when we talk about rhythms, they're habits or they're things that we want to get ingrained into us so that there's a desire to do it. If you're a runner, which I don't Know why you would be. You get to a place in that exercise where you want to go. You want to go and run. You hit this hunger, and if you don't get to do it, you get grouchy. That's what a cyclist do. We get grouchy when we don't go. But we want to develop a habit, a habit that focuses on who our God is and what he has called us to do. And so again, why we do rhythms. And so the rhythm that I want us to talk about is worship. And not just worship in the sense of glorifying God. I want us. We're going to talk about it, okay? We're going to leak over into that. But I want us to talk about the rhythm specifically of attending church, coming together, gathering together as the body of Christ for the sake of worship. And so with that, I want to say, like, what is your plan for that? What is your plan? Is it just to, like, show up Sunday mornings? Like, we make this happen? It's kind of a big deal. It's already on the calendar. It's called Sunday. We'll just be there. Or is there more that is invested into that plan? We can talk about the practicals more toward the end. But what's the driving factor for you even coming here today? Is it because traditional lends itself to this? Certainly it does. But is that the basis for why you come to church? Is it because your spouse made you come to church? Maybe put a 9 millimeter to your head and said, we're leaving. 10, 15 is coming, let's go? I hope not. There seems like there could be more issues there if that is the case. But to sum it up, like, why are you here? Why are you here? Because there's two ways this message could go. One way, and I hope and pray that it does not go this way, is that you come out of here saying, we have to be a church, okay? That's not my goal. My goal is the second outcome, I believe, to encourage you to really show you what Christ has done, which so many of you know, but remind you what Christ has done and hope to give you a hunger to go after it, a true desire to go after it. A friend of mine recently had a heart attack, and it was a shock, kind of to all of us. But what that did is made all the jokes about dieting so much less funny. And it became a sweet motivation through that pain to be like, it's just not a question. I'm going to eat grass the rest of my life. And it's it's not grass, but it's drastically changed who he is because there was a swift and stern warning for him where he was at, to maybe rethink things, rethink the snacks and stuff like that. And. Well, again, that's more of a negative warning. I want it to be a positive plea, an invitation for us to get to know God through the worship. Hey, I found my water. All right, so if. If you want to, you can turn with me to the Book of Hebrews, but. And we're going to get to Hebrews chapter 10 here in a minute. But I do want to recognize for a minute all that I'm going to share about worship and gathering together. Worship is something that we can do every day, and it ought to be a lifestyle. It ought to kind of exude from us knowing God and then obeying God. We then worship God. It's kind of a reaction to it. Recently, about three weeks ago, I dropped a glass platter, thickened glass platter, on my toe. And you know what I exuded in that moment? All good things, just so you're aware. But tears flowed down my eyes. Blood from my toe. I know you all wanted to know that, but it was a reaction. Now, again, that was more of a negative situation, but when it happened, something came out of me. And so as we're spending time in the Word, hopefully with a rhythm of Bible reading that isn't perfect, but I'm going to the Word and I'm reading about this God and learning more about who he is, it starts to exude. One way that that knowledge and growth might exude is in obedience. Oh, God says this. Oh, God says this about patience. Oh, God says I can trust him in the situations. So I obey as I know him and I follow him and I do the things he calls me to do. And then as a part of that or as a natural outflow of that I worship, it's not much different than preparing for winter. Okay? Earlier in the fall, we got the warnings from the meteorologists, like, hey, it's going to freeze tonight, so if you have something still in your garden, you better cover it up or cover up your flowers, right? And so we know that in the past, flowers have died in the frost. And so we go out and we cover the plant up until we can take it out of the ground or do whatever we want to do with it. So we, we. We do that. We respond. We act out of this need or this call. And so it is with so many other things, you know, if you want Your diesel engine to run all winter, you got to put something in the diesel so it doesn't gel up on you and you have that problem going. So many things in life we respond to, and again, I think the calling is how are we responding to God? What does worship look like in our life? And let's be real, we're called to worship a lot of things. I would argue that the Bible tells us that we are created to worship. The problem is we're created to worship God and our country and our situations are calling out to us. Worship me, Worship me. Find peace in me. The definition of worship, I think, according to Google, is an expression of reverence and adoration. We regularly. We consistently give our time and our talent and our treasure to things all the time. So where does God fit into that mix? In fact, I would say if you're not worshiping God, you're worshiping something. Worship comes out of us as humans. And I think when it comes to worship, a part that gets overlooked is the part about worshiping in a gathering. Some of us dread the thought, like, you can't. You can't tell me, like, to come and worship. Like me and my relationship with God, it is good. And so either the call to worship comes and just kind of falls on deaf ears or eyes that won't see, or we get. And I'm going to enter a little bit of a rant here, or we get Matthew, chapter 18, verse 20, and Matthew 18:20 says this 4, where two or three are gathered in my name. There am I among them? Okay, we kind of go to that text and everybody we're pushed back on. You can't tell me to gather because wherever I am with my friends, like, God is present. And. And I just want to put that verse in the right context here before we go on talking about what the gathering is. Matthew 18, verse 20 is in the context of confronting a brother or sister in Christ. Okay, so we're part of a body of Christ. And when it comes to this verse, like, it's a sweet reminder to us that Christ is with us. We're on a journey. We're walking towards holiness, I hope. And when one of us falls, we as brothers and sisters who are spiritual ought to go up to them. We ought to confront them, not yell at them, not punch them, not scream at them. But we ought to go up to them and say, hey, brother or sister, I'm concerned about you. And what's happening here in Matthew chapter 18 is Jesus is saying, he's reminding, he's Doubling down on a truth. He's saying, hey, wherever two or three are gathered, the context is confrontation. I want you to know I'm with you. I am with you. Those dicey conversations, those ones you're so nervous about, I'm with you. Because if you look at the Older Testament, you see that God will never leave you and he will never forsake you. And I want to remind us of this. You don't just need two or three people to have the presence of God with you. He's going to be with you when you drive home from this church in your car by yourself. God is with you at night, at 2am on Friday, if your spouse happens to be away, or if you're single, or if you're young, God is with you. The whole presence of God is with you. He does not just join you when he sees, oh, hey, they're at one, when is the other person gonna get there? Oh, there they come, alright, here I am. No, God is with you, Christian all of the time. And he doesn't necessarily get thicker when you have more of you. But in this context of love and approaching a brother and maybe stirring a brother up, God goes with you to do that. That is not a replacement for the gathering of the local body of Christ. God is here. And if you guys weren't here, he would be here. It's his character, it's his nature, it's who he is. And Jesus sweetly reminds us, I know how scared you are to confront your brother, brother. I know how scary it is. I'm going to go with you. Let's go. Let's go confront the brother. Let's, let's go and win them back to Christ. Okay, so that's the end of Rant, right? You guys get that? Sometimes I get tired of seeing Matthew 18 just, just used, out, pulled out like that. Okay? And it's good for us to know that that context exists. Okay? But anyways, so what, what about gathering? What about gathering? So we see the people of God gathering. Throughout the scriptures in the Older Testament, God has called a people, the descendants of Abraham, to himself. And he's going to make of them a great nation through which all the nations of the earth are going to be blessed. And so in the older covenant, God gives them things to remember and he calls them to gather and to celebrate his work. He says, hey, remember Egypt. Remember Egypt. Remember the great things that Yahweh did to get us out from slavery. Crazy. Let's celebrate. Let's celebrate what God did. Let's Come together and remember that. Hey, remember the Red Sea? How crazy was that? I walked through on dry land or grandpa walked through the Red Sea on dry ground. Do you remember? Let's celebrate that God. And so the people of God, the people of Israel gathered regularly in yearly celebrations. And they had a lot. They would gather and they would celebrate and they would worship this God that brought them out of Egypt, this God who had been faithful to them with food and meat and water and freeing them from slavery. They would remember. And then you see in the New Testament, in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, this man, Jesus, this Christ, gathered with the people. And consistently he was surrounded by people. So much so that one time he has to be pushed out into the water so he can speak to them because they're crushing him. And you see them hungering for the teachings of Jesus Christ, this Christ, you see them hungering for his words and his actions, his miracles that he performed. And you see this young group of believers gathering centered on Jesus Christ. And then you see in Acts, you see this thing called the church get started. And in Acts, chapter 2, verse 42, you see these people gathering and they're sitting under the disciples teaching, and they're praying together and they're breaking bread together. It says that they were. They're just like. They were so unified, so connected. They would just give each other stuff. You struggling, just take my car, like, it's great. Take my mule. It's great. He works. He's got three legs, but he works. You can use this thing. And they would share with one another because they were so united in Christ, they were so unified. And so when we come to Hebrews, some of you who've been holding that for a long time is it's not the first time that the church has gathered. And so I want us to go to Hebrews chapter 10, and I want us to look at verse 25, and I'm just going to kind of show you my cards right up front. I want you to hear the direction that we're driving to, kind of our big idea right up front. So if you have a Bible, go to Hebrews 10. And I'm in verse 25, where it says this. Not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near. So here's what I want us to remember and take away from this message. The rhythm of weekly worship is, encourages us and others with the realities of Christ, his past work and our future hope. This rhythm of gathering okay, you didn't just come here out of tradition. Mom and dad used to always do it. We do it Sunday morning. It's what's up. Okay? I want more than that. Because one day, if it hasn't already happened, mom and dad might not be there. And then what motivates us to come? Okay. I want us to have a high priority of worship. Because if the government shuts down Sunday morning worship, are we still going to worship? Does the church stop gathering? That one gets technical. But. But should we. How should we consider it? What drives us, what fuels us, what motivates us to come in and worship? Okay. And we see here, too, like what I want us to gather from is we remember this, the realities of Christ's past, the work that he did, and this future hope there is a day that is coming. Okay, but I digress. Let's kind of hone back in. So if you have your Bible, Hebrews 10, let's start at verse 19 and kind of get a fuller picture of what this context is. Okay? We as a church ought not to neglect gathering on Sunday mornings. And we should worship together as a church. Why? Why do we worship? Hebrews 10, verse 19 says this. Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain that is through his flesh. And since we have a great high priest over the house of God. And I'm just going to stop right there. I know it's a comma, it's not a period, but let's just kind of chew on this part little bit. This verse starts out with the word therefore. What do we ask when we see the word therefore? What's it there for? What are you talking about? Okay, so I want to give us a big overshot of the whole entire book of Hebrews. It should go in like two minutes. Okay? Starting in Hebrews, the author wants to build this case for who Jesus Christ is. He wants to lay out the supremacy of God's son, Jesus. Then he moves on, talking about the better Moses. Okay? Jesus is an extraordinary, pivotal, pivotal person. And I think for some of us, we can just get sloppy with who Jesus Christ is. It's Jesus. I mean, you read Luke 2amillion times a couple weeks ago. I mean, it's Jesus. He's born in a manger. He did miracles. He walked on water. Wow. Jesus, he died on the cross. He rose again. And we can get kind of flippant with this whole Jesus guy. Let's not get flippant. Let's come back to him as source here, okay? So when you think about his supremacy as God's son, and when you think about him being a better Moses, the people there are like, well, Moses is kind of a big deal. Moses was given the ten Commandments by God. Moses was in Egypt with us. Our grandfathers loved this guy. They loved his leadership. He was super gifted. And not only did he bring us out of Egypt, he walked us through the Red Sea. We were out in the wilderness. We didn't have bread. He talked to Yahweh, and Yahweh brought bread, and then we brought meat and then water, right? But there was a problem with Moses. Moses wasn't God, therefore, he wasn't the greatest leader. In fact, when Moses was called to get water from a rock, he did not obey the leader, the command of a holy God. And God said, moses, you don't get to enter the promised land. But here you have this man, Jesus, who comes in and he makes the case that where Moses failed, Jesus doesn't fail. Jesus submitted to the will of his father his whole entire life, his whole entire ministry. Jesus Christ gets to enter the promised land. He fulfilled it where Moses failed. And then if you go on, in the Book of Hebrews, he talks about Jesus kind of being sweet rest and peace. It doesn't say this in Hebrews, but in Matthew, it says, come to me, you who are weary and heavy laden. I will give you rest. And it'll be so much greater than a Saturday. I will give you rest, just like I gave the Israelites rest. I am the Prince of peace. I give rest. And then he talks about him being the greatest high priest. And we're going to get into that in a little bit. And then just before this section in chapter 10, if you look at the header at verse 10, chapter 10, it says that Jesus is the better sacrifice. And we have to go a little bit into the sacrificial system, because the sacrificial system to the Jews was absolutely no joke. If you read the book of Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers, some difficult books in the Bible, Numbers is a real doozy, okay? And it's difficult because it lays out this intricate plan. And for centuries, these Israeli people, these Jewish people, had been bringing their birds and their goats and their sheep and their bulls to the altar where a priest would make a sacrifice for their sin. And then once a year, you see this picture of a high priest. You have different rooms in the temple, and one of them is called the Holy of Holies. It was the place where Yahweh chose to reside. And this priest, having taken in all these sacrifices for all the year, for all the sin, would prepare a sacrifice for all the people, for all the sin. And I imagine it would go something like this. And he would walk into the holy of holies, into the presence of God, with this sacrifice, he would walk through a nine inch veil into the holy of Holies and he would atone for all the people. Or he would make a sacrifice and reconcile all these sinners to their God. All this work, all this law, all of it. And these sacrifices were not sufficient for the sin of the people. A sheep cannot atone for my sin. But it was a picture. The priest was a picture of a greater priest. The sacrifice was a picture of a greater sacrifice. Even the lamb was a picture of a greater lamb that was to come. And we see that Jesus is the greater lamb. But first, Hebrews 10:4 states, for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin. There was a need for a greater sacrifice. And Christ was it. No more taking animals to the temple. We don't have to stain the parking lot out here. How crazy would that be? Hey, we're your new neighbors and you own the building. We killed a hundred sheep out here today. Do you have a power washer? That would be weird, right? But we don't need to do that anymore. The work is complete. The work is finished. We can approach God. So anyway, so when you get to verse 19, it's huge. We as believers can enter into the presence of God by the blood of Jesus and the tearing of his flesh. That veil, that holy of holies, it was torn open so that sinners like you and I could come into the presence of God. That we could know God. We could get to know him. We could have a relationship with God through the cross. We can approach God. Christ is the greater sacrifice. He's the greater priest. No longer does a scared human priest need to step into the holy of holies as a sinful man. For sinful men, a sinless man. Christ enters the holy of holies, offering himself as the most perfect sacrifice so that you and I could be saved. And this is the foundation, the motivation for our worship. Not tradition, not history, not good singing, not people. Not that you might see a family member here. It's Christ, the greater sacrifice that came in. So we didn't have to shed the blood of bulls and goats to worship. We can have a relationship with God as sinners because of the work that he did. That is our motivation for worship. It ought to change the way we see this Sunday morning thing. So let's go on. What do we do? This is our foundation for worship. Christ has united us to God, the prize. So. So what do we do with that? Let's go to Hebrews 10. Let's go to verse 22. Verse 22 says, Let us draw near. And he starts kind of just sharing this with us in three let us statements. And he says, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith. With our heart sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and. And our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering. For he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works. So he starts off with, let us draw near. I think so often in religion we learn more religious stuff. And getting saved isn't about. And getting saved and being freed from sin. It isn't about learning rules. Okay? It isn't about attending church. Start cooperating. It's an invitation for us to draw near to God. Draw near to God. I think about middle school. Don't you all love to think about middle school? Think about it with me. And you see that person 100 yards away that you really, really love. In fact, you should just get married right now. But you never talk to them. Okay, I love you. I would die for you. What's your name again? You know, and a lot of us in a more serious sense have that issue with God. He's a great God, man. He's good. But we don't know him. We don't know him. I remember telling my brother about this great relationship I had. And he's like, well, did you talk to her? No, I've never talked to her before. He's like, what? What kind of a relationship is that? And Jesus Christ, through the shedding of his blood, he takes away the gap. He brings us into his presence. Not that you have to know that that person is 5 foot and has this color hair, but you can know all these facts about God and you can pass a Bible test, but you're invited to know God through the work of Jesus Christ. We can have faith that God has saved us, that he has saved our hearts and he saved our minds. They've been cleansed by the Holy Spirit. Even our conscience is dealt with. That thing that pesters us. Pope says he failed. You failed. Remember what you did in middle school. Remember, remember, remember, remember, remember that conscience is transformed by the work of God, there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. It's a picture of what our baptism did that many of you saw last week. A person said, hey world, I was dead in my trespasses and sins. I was following the prince of the power of the air. But God, who is rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when I was an enemy, he died for me. And this picture of washing as you come out of the water, it cleans even the worst conscience. It cleans the heart, it cleans the mind. It frees us from the condemnation. We're free to approach the throne because of the work of Christ. Let's move on to the second let us statement. This is our confession of hope. I want to reread these verses. Let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith. With our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering. For he who promised, he's faithful. Okay, you think about this. That the God who addressed my deepest sin, what else can't he handle? He knows the worst about me and he died for me. An enemy like this is a confession of hope that God saves sinners. This guy that's hopeful, what will he fail at if he can work at such a deep level? And what's worse is when that conscience comes and tries to chip away at. Look at what you've done. Look at what you're doing. The one who says this is hopeful. He's faithful. The God who wrote this through this author. He doesn't tell lies. He works, he moves and he holds and sustains. This is our God. Let us hold fast to that confession of faith. For he who promised is faithful. And then he says, and let us stir up. Let's go to verse 25 and let us consider how to stir up one another. To love and good works, not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another all the more as the day is drawing near. Good works come through the greatest work that Christ did. I love because he loved. I forgive because Christ forgave. He gives me an example of how to live. I follow God because Christ rightly followed God. He is the great display of what God is calling me to now. He does it perfectly. But at least I have an example to follow. I have something to pick myself up and pursue if I struggle or if I fail. So how does all this come down to a Message on rhythms about how to gather regularly. I think we're people of habit. I think we're people who respond. At the heart of worship is Jesus Christ. Do we desire him? Do we follow him? And when you get into the desire of Lord, I want to worship you daily. Lord, I want to worship you in a gathering. We need accountability. Does anyone in here just dominate at the memory game? I'm not literally talking the memory game, because we all know the kids win. I was just talking to somebody who was asking me. I grew up in northern Minnesota, and they asked me, like, how's the weather doing up in northern Minnesota? Because every time about this season, it's usually 40 below and horrendously awful. And it's crazy because as cold as it is out here, do all of you remember that it'll be 95 and 1000% humidity in six months, and it'll be here like that anyways? Yeah, but we. I can't. I know. I know it's coming, but I don't really know what it feels like because I'm trying to survive getting to my car. I'm trying not to freeze to death right here in the parking lot. Right? And I think about going back to Minnesota when it's so cold. Like, how do they even live? There are thousands. There are millions of people living up there. There's a whole nation further north. Can you believe it? But they live. And no matter how much I think about it, I slowly move away from that reality. And when I have the opportunity to go back for Christmas, I am swiftly reminded that 40 below, it's really cold. I don't like it. It just gets me to the core. It blows through my coat even more than zero. But zero is pretty serious. I live in balmy Iowa, for goodness sakes. I need that reminder. I factually know and understand that 40 below 00 is brutally cold. But when I feel it, I'm like, oh, yeah, this is what it is, folks. I need that. As a Christian, I don't mean to share too much of my life, but sometimes by Wednesday, I just think I'm out there doing it on my own. It's me and Jesus trying to read my Bible. I miss Tuesday. I got to restart Wednesday, master that restart. And sometimes you get this idea as a parent, like, am I the only one living for holiness? Does anyone else care about these things? And I start to get segmented or thinking that I'm doing this kind of alone. I have an idea. I know I'm not the only one. I mean, I know it. But boy, it's encouraging to see you here on Sunday. It's encouraging to see another group of parents, another group of people that says, I want to live for Christ. I am motivated by this cross that Christ brings me into a new community. I need the encouragement. I need to be stirred up to love others. I need to be stirred up to follow God in everything, like work and play and study. I can't do the Christian walk alone. I cannot do it alone. I need the encouragement to stay faithful, especially as the day of judgment approaches. I need weekly gathering with you. We're going to sing a song called Behold Our God. And I sat there and I heard them sing the first service. I need to hear you sing. I need you to speak truth into my life. At the door or in the hallway. I need to hear the body of Christ sing. I need to sit with the body of Christ as we sit under teaching together. I need. I need you to ask me how my worship is. Throughout the week, I love to get to gather. I'm encouraged by gathering with others who have tried to read their Bibles and missed Tuesday and restarted Wednesday. I love to sit with people who proclaim the glory of God as they share what they've struggled through this week. I need that and you need to hear my stories of how I've struggled through the week trying to glorify God. A quote from a theologian of our day says this people do not drift towards holiness. I don't drift towards holiness. I can't sit on my couch watching YouTube and I grow closer to God. I've tried a thousand times. I need you to speak into my life. We need to speak into one another's lives. We need to stir one another up. We need to have the body of Christ check our hearts to remind us of Christ's work, remind us that he gave us God. He made a way for us to approach the throne. Why are we settling for less? Remember Matthew, Remember Christ has done a work. Research tells us that in the United States, church attendance is down to depending on where you look. 42 to 44% of Americans regularly attend church. And by regularly, they they mean two out of four Sundays. And what's concerning church for us and for me as a pastor, when we look at our data here at Veritas, is that we're not very far off that, that we worship a Christ who was the ultimate sacrifice, who is the greatest high priest. And when it comes to church attendance, we're like, I mean, I'm busy, kids are sick. We Got stuff like we're just. We're just busy church. What, what are we worshiping? What are we giving our time and our talent to? What are we placing, pursuing with our treasure? And even as attendance is going down throughout the nation, this verse is interesting. Look at it with me again. Verse 25. Not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another. Then it says, and all the more, as you see the day drawing near. Why is attendance dropping, friend, when we're growing closer to the day we'll see Christ, when Christ will say, father, my bride, I have brought her here for you. Here she is. She's beautiful. Why are we moving away from that? We're living for this world when there's a greater world coming. In fact, in this world, I want to be a follower of Jesus. I want to see Jesus. I want to glorify Jesus. I want to worship Jesus. And I will get to worship Jesus all the time. And God will be like right there. And I can ask him questions, and I can commune with Him. Why are we moving away from gathering? Why are we signing up for all the things, doing all the golf, working all the work, doing all the trips, doing all the tournaments when the day is drawing near? Every day that we move further from the cross, we move closer to the day where Christ will come again. And there were promises that were fulfilled in the cross. And he has made another promise that I am coming again and he will come again. How is it that we. We were just busier? Are our priorities off? What are we. What are we worshiping? Veritas. Let's be a church that has a rhythm of weekly worship, a commitment to worship God in a gathering of Christians. Having spent time all week worshiping God, let us be a church that gathers consistently and worships God together. Let's prioritize the gathering for worship over everything else where we can be encouraged in Christ and where we can prepare our hearts for his return. This life is a preparation for a life of eternity that we will all be a part of. We will all live for an eternity. And I pray for you that we all live in eternity with God. And so it still begs the question of how, how, how do I prioritize church of all things? Like, how do I. How do I do this? And so I want to talk about that very practically. First off, I think you should grease your skids for the rhythm of gathering for worship by worshiping at home. The two are not separable. One leads to another. And so I hope and pray perhaps this is your first year ever, and perhaps you've been doing it for 10 years or more. Be. Be in the Word. Be readers of the Word. Grow your view of who God is through daily reading and daily worship. Consider how to obey God. Consider how to know God more and then overflow on Sunday. Really. See, Sunday is not just an event that you have to get to by a certain time, but gathering of your spiritual family. I get to go worship. These people have been doing this too. Brad's been reading his Bible. Brad's been studying. I get to. Sue has been pursuing Jesus through her work, through her parenting. I get to be with these people. I get to see them worship. I get to see them pursue Christ. I get to challenge them. They can challenge me. Grease the skids by worshiping and preparing your heart even for the spiritual family. To make a plan, do you need to set out clothes the day before? Sharon and I, we have three boys. We started saying, like, we cannot get to church at this time and be Christians if we don't prepare earlier. That is not theologically accurate. You do not lose your salvation. But it sure seemed like we drew close. Okay, so we started at 9pm on Saturdays. And guess what? That wasn't. That didn't work. So we had to lay out clothes sometime on Saturday afternoon and just pray that they wouldn't get used for abuse or anything else that could happen and that they'd still be clean on Sunday morning. Okay. But we had to make a sacrifice because we wanted to do other things on Saturday. We wanted to be other places and do other things. It took laying clothes out on Saturday afternoon to help us prepare to be at church on Sunday. What's your plan if people get sick? Like, we just survived fall sickness and we're coming into spring sickness. What's the plan? And I would argue that your whole family doesn't have to stay home when one or two of you are sick. Dads, this is a call to you. You can take the children and come to church. As spiritual head of your home, you're invited to come to church, to come and worship with who you can. But oftentimes we know that sickness will come. What's. What's the plan? What does it look like in your home for you or part of your family to come and gather with the local body to be challenged by the preaching of the Word and to worship the song and the preaching of the Word. What's your plan for summer? The weather is nice. It's balmy outside. 95 and 1,000% humidity. It's great. And here's my challenge with us as a church for the summer, right? There's all the sports. There's all the things. There's all the golf, there's all the baseball, there's all the softball. There's all the things, right? And there's always a chance of rain or there's a chance of, you know, like college scholarship or there's a chance of becoming a pro for you and for your kids. And the one thing that we know for certain is that there's 100% chance that the day of the Lord is coming. Are your priorities set to prepare you for the day of the Lord? Or do they dabble in distraction? And all the things I've spoken of are not inherently evil? Don't hear me saying that. But folks like, when you look at the free, the freedom of summer and the freedom of less schedule, does it show a desire to worship the Lord, or is it my time now? I'm free. Consider those Speaking of sports, do you worship with the same vigor and action that you do when the Iowa team you love does good? Is that vague enough for you? We jump off our couch. We raise our fist. When the Vikings lose, I cry, but at least the lion's lost. We get passionate about things. We get passionate about things that in some subtle way might be true, might be a reality. But doesn't eternally matter? Do we share? Or are we vigorous in worship with the saints? Or we think about announcements that happen in our lives and we celebrate. I've got a celebration for you. Christ rose from the dead. Amen. It is worth jumping up for. It is worth raising your hands in worship for. Let us worship with vigor and action. It doesn't have to be boring and mundane. It is Christ a living king we are worshiping. And lastly, church get plugged in. Taylor comes up and talks about LaunchPoint, and it's an invitation for you to even go past Sunday morning, but to be a part of a body where they don't just shoot generally in your direction. They can know your strengths, they can know your weaknesses in the truest sense of the term. They can ask you how your heart is, which eternally matters. Whether you're succeeding or whether you're struggling. There's an invitation to be a part of a group that takes you through these doors and into a deeper relationship with other saints, for the stirring on of your soul and for your encouragement, and also gives you an opportunity to use your gifts to serve them. Get involved in your church. Get past the Sunday Morning. If it's such a painful thing, consider the sacrifice that Christ made. That is our motivation for doing these things. And folks, if the motivation isn't there, let's pray that God would reveal himself to us. Let's pray that he would move in our hearts so that we would desire the body of Christ, his local church. And now, now, even as we prepare for communion, let's consider those things. Where is our heart at? Are we following Jesus Christ? Have we, are we aware of and do we function out of a reality that Christ shed his blood for us and his body was torn for us so that we could enter the Holy of Holies, so that we could enter into his presence so that we could know God? The prize is that what is motivating us. And folks, if there are things in your life where you can say I was not motivated by the glory or worship of God God, let's confess those sins. He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. And let's partake in what represents the torn body of Christ and the shedding of his blood as a church. Let's pray. Father God, we are grateful you are so great and worthy of our praise God. I pray Lord that we would consider daily the sacrifice of Christ God and it would motivate us first and foremost to be a people of worship who obey because of Christ, who want to know more because of Christ and who want to gather and stir one another on one of the one another's because of the work that you did God. It isn't even a proclamation of Veritas, but a desire of Christ worshipers to bring you worship because you are worthy, Father. Do that in us and may we remember consistently the sacrifice you made in Jesus name we pray. Amen.