Rescuing Sunday
Theme:
Text: Psalms 100:1-5, Psalms 122:1
Psa 100:1-5 A Psalm of praise. Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands. (2) Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing. (3) Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. (4) Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. (5) For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.
Psa 122:1 A Song of degrees of David. I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the LORD.
Introduction
These last two Sunday’s we have been talking about commitment. Commitment to the Lord “with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our self” and also commitment to the church as the bride of Christ. Commitment to God’s people and commitment to church attendance.
When we get disconnected to the body of Christ we will often become disconnected to Christ. He said “we are the branches and we are the vine”. We must stay connected as a body.
Our connection many times is this service and this day.
Problem is too many people do this as a duty or a have to and miss the benifts of what Sunday represents. This morning I want to give you a new way of thinking about this day that I hope will renew your spirit into a new perspective.
I. Remember this day is HIS day.
John says something unique to the church at this time yet became synonymous with Sunday worship Rev 1:10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet,
We need to learn how to see Sunday in a new way.
Every since the day that Jesus stepped out of that tomb the first day of the week has never been the same. “Think about it. ON that morning, for the first time, He conquered death. He had atoned for our sin. He had made a way to come boldly in the presence of the Father. And every Sunday since has been an anniversary of that amazing morning. The Savior has risen-and everything has changed.”
Jesus promises in Mat 18:20 For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.
In scripture we learn that the first day of the week, what we call Sunday, became associated with “the LORDS day”.
Mark 16:9 tells us that this is the day that the Lord rose from the dead
John 20:19 tells us that this is the day that the Lord Jesus appeared to his disciples
1 Corinthians 16:2 “on the first day of the week”
We must learn to “build our week around Sunday”. If we don’t we are missing out on God’s best day of the week. How do we do this?
II. Prepare Early
I believe that too many times we get ready externally without getting ready internally. We look good on the outside (or at least we think we do) yet on the inside our heart (that we talked about plays a very important role in our life) is not ready. We need to get our heart ready for Sunday worship.
How?
We begin by preparing Saturday night. We often question about the power that used to be in the church. I know we have the same spirit. But did you know that people used to prepare everything on Saturday night so they could focus on the Lord on Sunday. Even their meals would be prepare on Saturday so they would not have to worry about anything on Sunday.
Yet we put our kids to bed early for school and let them stay up late for church.
We need to prepare our minds by being careful what we watch on Saturday night also.
One man observed
“It astonishes me how many Christians watch the same banal, empty, silly, trivial, titillating, suggestive, immodest
TV shows that most unbelievers watch-and then wonder why their spiritual lives are weak and their worship experience is shallow with no intensity. If you really want to hear the Word of God the way He means to be heard in truth and joy and power, turn off the television on Saturday night and read something true and great and beautiful and pure and honorable and excellent and worth of praise (see Philippians 4:8). Then watch your heart un-shrivel and begin to hunger for the Word of God.”
Phi 4:8 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
We need to learn and make and effort to prepare our hearts to hear from the Lord and his word.
Another thing we may do for Sunday preparation is to protect our Sunday afternoon. Whether it is News TV or movies on Sunday morning. (We don’t let our children watch TV unless they watch a Bible based movie.)
III. Listen & Learn
When we come to church we have got to realize the eternal significance of what we are doing.
Gathering together where Jesus promises to be. Hearing a word directly from the Lord. As I mention about the offering we too many times “pause our worship” to take up the offering and hear the word of God. Yet I believe that both of these are a part of our worship and many times show more about us than the songs we sing.
In Luke 8:18 Jesus tells us “Therefore consider carefully how you listen” NIV
As one man said, “The real burden of responsibility on Sunday morning is not on the preacher to perform, but on the congregation to listen”.
When we come to church w
IV. Live
Maximize the potential of the message and the service. Don’t miss the opportunity for the Lord to show you his application of the message. If you listened well then you will see it in action.
I was going to save this for Wednesday night but I want to tell you this morning. As you know on Wednesday night we have been studying about “Becoming a Contagious Christian”. Basically understanding how God made us to witness. We need to be our selves. We got to a point of changing the conversation to spiritual matters. Looking for the opportunity.
Well I was reminded of that Friday morning as I was taking young couple to the bus station. We had been building a relationship with this couple trying to get them into church. I stopped by the store and the man said in reference to the lottery “44 million dollars. What could I do with 44 million dollars?” Then he went on to talk about all the great things he would do.
Well the Lord laid it in my heart so I said, “You know I’ve got something better than a lottery ticket, the Lord sent his only son to die for me so that I can be forgiven. To me that is better”.
You see it is all about seeing opportunities. We need to do that on Sunday also. To many times we put the message on a shelf after Sunday service and don’t think about it again. Yet God has brought us here on purpose.
Conclusion – What if we didn’t have it?
While I was attending Bible College I met up with a man named Cornell Potra. He was from Romania. We were discussing his home one day and the church came up. Then came up about the stripes on his back. You see Cornell was in Romania when it was a communist country. It was illegal to worship in a church setting. So he was beat many times because he got caught worshiping the Lord.
Look what we got. What if we didn’t have it.
I wonder if we could just close this service by doing two things. 1) thanking the Lord for the privilege and freedom to come and worship on Sunday morning. 2) Make a renewed commitment to make this day special.
With special thanks from Joshua Harris’ book "Stop dating the Church"
