Sermon: Worship: The Heart of the Church and the Call of the Pastor

Join with me in prayer. Our great God and Hemley Father, we are so thankful for this evening, the ordination and installation of Andrew Cheeseborough to the Office of Teaching Elder in the Presbyterian Church in America. There's certainly lots to celebrate concerning Andrew and Vanessa. Tonight we are here primarily to celebrate and to lift high your name, the name of your son, Jesus Christ, the name of the one who conquered death,

the one who rose from the grave and is now seated at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty. And so Father, as we come to your word, we ask for clarity and conviction from me as I preach, and that you would give us all listeners soft hearts, that we might hear your word planted deep in our hearts. Be with us now in Jesus' name. Amen. It was always a tremendous privilege to be back at University Reform Church and to see so many friendly faces,

people that I've grew up with and went to college with. And so it is a tremendous joy to be back here. I see a lot of people that I don't know, and that is also wonderful because that means that U r C is still growing and welcoming in, in new people. And so I'm very thankful for that. And I of course am very thankful to be here tonight to celebrate this evening with my very good friends, Andrew and Vanessa Cheese, bro.

I have known Andrew and Vanessa for a long time. I 15 years, something like that. Uh, I knew them when they were singles at Michigan State, and then I knew them when they started to date, and then I knew them when they were engaged and married and now as parents and at, at every step of the way, I've always considered them to be very good friends and co-laborers in the gospel. I've known Andrew especially, uh, in, in ways that I probably can't share tonight, just some of my stories,

what wouldn't be fitting for this evening. But, but one story just to show you are the, our relationship. A number of years ago, Vanessa was pregnant with their second child, and Andrew, Vanessa called and said, you know, we think Vanessa's gonna go into labor soon. If, if we go in the middle of the night, can you come over and watch James while we head off to the hospital? And I said, well, of, of course I'd be glad to do that. So it was the middle of the night,

got the phone call at, at this point, Andrew is, is very calm, and he said, it, it, it seems like Vanessa's is going into labor. It, it might go fast, so why don't you just come over right away? And I said, oh, okay, that's great. So got changed, jumped in my cars, maybe they're in 15 minutes or so. And as soon as I'm pulling into their neighborhood, I heard the ambulances and thought, whoa, something's going on here.

I pull into the driveway and Andrew runs, he had more hair than has this, this fro that's all frazzled. He's not wearing a shirt. He says, Vanessa's holding the baby in the bathtub. John, what do I do? And I said, I'm a pastor. I don't know. So I, I just, I just prayed. Um, the Lord heard our prayers. Uh, Vanessa was fine, Alice was fine. The paramedics took him to the hospital and we had James for the day. And so it was a great memory.

So we have been through a lot together and it's a tremendous privilege call both Andrew and Vanessa, very good friends. And tonight, Andrew, it's a tremendous privilege not just to be a friend, but to consider you, uh, a fellow pastor with me in the Great Lakes Presbyterian, Vanessa, there's gonna be a lot of talking about Andrew tonight. Just a a quick word to you. I know that getting to this point has been a grind, summer projects and babies and Andrew taking seminary classes in Orlando.

And I just want to commend you that you are a humble, sacrificial wife. My my friend married well, and I know that Pathways wanna be tremendously blessed to have you as a pastor's wife there. Here's what we're gonna do tonight. This is more just a, a regular sermon with some touch points for Andrew, but it's mostly just a regular sermon. One one of our concerns, Alicia at Redeemer Detroit that I know also concerned here at University Reform

Church, it's the reason that we're actually so bullish on church planting across the state of Michigan is this conviction, this understanding that, that we're concerned that most people do not understand what actually happens in church on Sunday morning. So at best, across the straight of Michigan Western civilization, at best people think of church as a collection of programs. So throughout the week you might do a vacation bible school or small groups or

women's ministry. And if that's all the church is, then Andrew didn't need to go to seminary. Nor do we need to orain him tonight to just understand the church as programs throughout the week is very minimalistic. You see the center of the church, the heart of the church from which everything included, all the programs flows out from is Lord's Day worship Each Sunday morning as we're going to see you from Nehemiah chapter eight,

the service on Lord's day's. Mornings is a covenant renewal service for 90 minutes. God and his people have their relationship renewed in that service is where we get a glimpse of the glory of the kingdom to come while we're planting churches. The reason that we're sending to Andrew to pathway this evening, not just to do more programs, but out of a deeper conviction that people need to meet with God in the context of worship.

I read a quote recently from Jackson Leers. He's a secular historian. It's a little bit of a long quote, longer than you would normally read in a, a service, but it's so good, just pay attention. I I read this quote in a book by Mike Horton. He's what Jackson Lears write writes, as Calvinism softened into Pist humanism, Protestant Christianity in America lost the gravity provided by older sterner creeds lacking spiritual ballast,

bourgeoisie cultured into a nche had called a weightless period, the decline of religion into sentimental religiosity, further undermined a solid sense of the self leading to a weightless culture of material comfort and spiritual blandness breeding weightless persons who long for intense experience, they give some definition, some distinct outline and substance to their vaporous lives. That's a quote damning quote. Cause here's what Jackson Lears means is in, in Western civilization,

there was a time when God was waiting, when God's glory meant something, that, that God actually had definition in our lives. We knew who he was, we knew who he was not. We trusted His word has been absolutely true. And to worship this God was the solidifying factor in your life. To be saved by Jesus was to be life changing, life altering. And because God was this big, he provided value and purpose in life. And now according to Jackson Lears, platitudinous,

humanism, platitudes are, are, are statements that that sound good, that sound fancy, but are ultimately trite and have no meaning, no spiritual ballast in the world today. As CS Lewis would say, we are men without chest because worship has been lost. Men are aimless. Doubt me, just turn on the news or look out into the world and you will be convinced of what I am saying. So he here, here's what's happening in evangelicalism,

but we, we look out in the world, we see men without chest, we see a culture that is weightless. We see that we are losing the culture wars. So in in our our state of panic, we're, we're losing all the institutions, we're losing the government, we're losing the schools, we're losing the academy, we're losing social issues, sexuality, apportion in a panic. The church is now focusing so much on these secondary issues instead of going deeper,

which is to connect people the God. Now of course we want to influence institutions, we want to be concerned about the moral decay, but unless the weightiness of God is restored, all of that will just be putting lipstick on a pig. Sexual ethics, pro-life issues, secular institutions, greed, name your sin. Those are all the symptoms and not the ultimate cause. One of our concerns is that the church is spending so much of her energy

fighting the symptoms instead of going deeper. So God needs to be restored in our lives and in the life of our culture. I recognize that that was a very long introduction to get us to the scripture reading. I do have two points for us, for us this evening. The first point is what exactly happens in worship? We gather each Sunday morning, what exactly is God doing? And then the second point will finally be a word to Andrew as a new pastor.

But at this point, we're now going to read from God's word. And so I would invite you to stand as we read from God's word. You'll see in Nehemiah eight that the people stood and we'll also see from Nehemiah eight that in verse six, at the end of the reading of God's word, the people said, amen and amen. So if you have a Bible in front of you, I would invite you to follow along. There is a list of very long complicated Hebrew names.

Just bear with me. I'm gonna try my best. But this is the reading of God's holy inspired and in Aaron's word, and all the people gathered as one man and to the square before the Watergate, and they told Ezra the strive to bring the book of the law of Moses, that the Lord had commanded Israel though as were the priest brought the law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could understand what they heard on the first day

of the seventh month. And he ran from it facing the square before the Watergate, from early morning until midday. In the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand, and the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law in Ezra, the stride stood on a wooden platform that they hadn't made for this purpose. And beside him stood Messiah, Shema Anaya, Uriah Hillay and Messiah. And on his right hand, Amaya, Michelle Maja and Hashem,

Hashana Zacharia and Mel Shalom on his left hand. And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people where he was above all the people. And as he opened it, all the people stood and Ezra blessed the Lord the great God. And all the people answered, ah, amen and ah, amen lifting up their hands and they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground. Also Je Bonnie Sheba, Jamine Ahab Shaha hoai Messiah,

KTA Aria Joed Haan pal. The Levis helped the people to understand the law while the people remained in their places. They read from the book, from the law of God clearly, and they gave the sense so that the people understood the reading. This is the word of the Lord. Amen and amen may take a seat

to set the context for Nehemiah and for this worship service. What we need to do is we actually need to zoom out a bit and understand all that has happened up to this point. One of the concepts that we see unfolding in the scriptures is the concept of covenant. The God interacts with his people through covenant. The first covenant that we see in the scriptures is the covenant of works. God says to Adam, he says to Eve, if you obey me, you will live.

And if you disobey, then you shall die. And of course, Adam and Eve, they disobey. And so Adam, as the representative of for all humanity, Adam falls and we also fall in Adam. We have broken our relationship with God. The covenant of works has been broken, but thankfully, and this will be our focus for this evening, there is a second covenant that shapes the Bible and the story of redemption starting in Genesis three all the way to the very end of

the scriptures. You see the first hint of this in Genesis chapter three, with the promise of the Son of Eve that is going to stomp on the head of the snake, the covenant of grace that there is going to be a snake crusher. And through this man, this great, great, great great grandson of Eve God's people will be redeemed. The covenant of grace, all the following covenants, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, and the new covenant in Jeremiah 31 all are under this bigger umbrella titled

The Covenant of Grace. So we have the non-believing world that is judged by the covenant of works, and then we have believers, the church that are saved because of the covenant of grace. Now, it's very interesting in the last couple decades there's been some good scholarship that has discovered how these ancient covenants work. What we're learning is that this idea of covenants is not just a Jewish Christian concept, but that neighboring nations also had covenants.

And in these covenants, in these covenant documents that we have found, there is always a king who will promise to protect his people, graciously protect the people if the people promised their loyalty back to the king. Very similar to a number of the covenantal sections that we see in the Old Testament. Covenantal documents are very, again, very similar to what we see in the Old Testament. They begin with a prologue,

which is a preamble for why this covenant is necessary. There's a list of commands. Then third and finally there is a list of blessings and curses. The king will graciously watch over you if you uphold your end of the deal. This is the basic pattern of the Old Testament, and yet to no one's surprise, Israel has violated its end of the deal. Old Testament believers, even though they are saved through the covenant of grace,

they still do not give their loyalty to God. Instead, over and over again, they are running to the other gods of the other nations. Therefore, leading up to the book of Nehemiah, the people are sent into exile. They are sent into judgment, and that's where Nehemiah picks up. The exile is coming to an end and the people are beginning to return to their home. You have these, these pilgrims, these exiles, these covenant breakers,

they're coming back to the city and you would think that these people coming back are, are likely doubting that God loves them. Of course, they, they heard about Genesis and they heard about the Snake Crush and they heard about the Messiah that is to come. They would've understood that they were saved by grace. But, but, but they're looking around the, the city's a mess. They've been sent into judgment. All the neighboring countries seem to be doing well.

These people are doubting that God loves them, doubting that God will ever bless them again. And yet, in the midst of the judgment, in the midst of the rubble of this city, in the midst of these people forgetting that God loves them, the most remarkable thing happens. They find the scriptures, they find the covenant document. Look, look at verse one. You see, they, they, they want Ezra the scribe to bring the law of Moses to them.

They want to hear the Covenant Book. You see in verse four, Ezra is actually standing behind a wooden podium, something like this pulpit that I have in front of me. The leaders like tried to read with the best I could have these very long, difficult names, but they're all present. We all see it's not just the leaders that are present, but we see men, women, anyone who can hear and understand, including the children, young and old.

Everyone is present here. Ezra opens the book and he begins to preach and he begins this preaching with the greatness of God, our great God. Essentially, it is a call to worship and the people respond with their voices. We had longer, we would go through the, the following chapters in Nehemiah chapter eight, in that chapter nine, in chapter 10, and what we would see is that in chapter nine, the people confess their sin like we just did with teaching the Elder Del

Belcher. They confess their sin and they're reminded of God's love. In chapter 10, they offer up their tithes and their offerings. There's lots of singing. There is lots of praying. This is an outline for a service today. Everything that we do in a reformed worship service is not just thrown together because we don't know what should go in. It's a passage is just kind of thrown out darts hoping something sticks. No God's word guides the service,

but more importantly, the main goal of the service, the main reason that God puts this all together is very simple. In this service, in this worship service, the covenant that God has graciously made with his people, that covenant is going to be renewed. People don't need to be re-saved, but in a personal sense, the relationship to God will be renewed. They will be reminded of God's saving grace. So God is calling you as an exile,

doubting covenant breaker. He calls you to the worship service so that his grace might be renewed in each and every one of us. That's what happens in a worship service. It is a conversation designed by God. There's, there's a back and forth movement. We see that in these three chapters of Nehemiah. God speaks to people, respond, there's an anti movement to the service. And in all of it, as we hear and interact with God, we are an encouraged, convicted,

and refreshed in our walk with God. And sadly, we live in an age when almost everyone has forgotten the glory of the worship service, the church. Not u r c, not redeemer, but but, but out there. So many have forgotten the glory of the worship service and are settling for cheap imitations. Think of churches that just do skits simply to entertain and draw a crowd. We give skits and dramas with very moral lessons about being a better husband or

a better wife or caring for your kids or culture is the quote Neil Postman is, is entertaining ourselves to death and the church is not helping at all. You see, the, the, the greatest drama in the history of the world is not a moralistic lesson about being a better father. No, the great drama in the worship service is the drama of the death, resurrection, and ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's the drama. Or Phillip Re was made so famously clear in his book,

the Triumph of the Therapeutic. See, many services are designed just to, to satisfy psychological needs that there needs to be an extended counseling session on Sunday morning therapy. Perhaps most sad, there are many that think of church is just a way of helping God out. How many people look out and then they read the news and say, oh, you know, western culture's falling apart and nobody loves God anymore. And I poor God,

he, he's probably in heaven. He's all alone and nobody likes him anymore. Maybe I should go to church on Sunday to help God feel better about himself. It it, it's ridiculous. God does not need you on Sunday morning. No, he is God. He is the God who is I am. He has no beginning. He has no end Father, son Holy Spirit and the fellowship of the Trinity. He is simple in being. He is perfection personified. God has no needs.

You are not ministering to God by being in the sanctuary tonight or next Sunday morning. No, it's about God overflowing his grace into you. It is a downward movement. You need the service, not God. God has designed worship that you might grow in His grace. There's a lot more that I could say there, but we are gonna move on to point number two, a word to Andrew as a new pastor Andrew, there are going to be lots of new responsibilities for you as a pastor,

programs and budgets and so many meetings. There'll be so many meetings, there's gonna be a lot for you to do. My encouragement would be to do it well. We have to do all things decently and in order and to do it excellently. I think the church needs to be more excellent in these trying days. But remember this, what your main job is, is to lead the people to meet with God on Sunday morning in the context of God's gathered,

people guided by his word, fueled by the Holy Spirit, lead the people where the covenant is renewed each day Lord's day morning. That's what the people need more than anything else. A lot of other aspects that go into a healthy church, but all of those other aspects are fueled by gathered worship. As we gather on Sunday morning, we feast on grace so that we might become full so that we can live lives salt and like scattered into the world for the other six days. So Andrew,

if you want a church, if you want pathway and Brighton to be aggressively evangelistic, and if you want a congregation that actually loves one another, and if you want effective discipleship and children's ministry, all of that begins on Sunday morning as the people meet with God. You guys all know anxiety and depression. Is that an all time high? And I should take this off for me to drink anxiety and depression or at an all time high,

which is very interesting because we live in a, in a culture that that has so much. If there was ever a time not to be anxious, it would be this current time period, technology, medicine, more advanced than ever. We have machines that are our, our house like laundry machines and dishwashers that do our chores. Just sell a commercial that there's actually a lawnmower. Now let just, we'll mow your lawn for you there. There is so much that should make our life easy and yet people are miserable.

We have it good. People are very miserable. There's obviously a plethora of reasons for why this is, I don't wanna be overly simp simplistic, but my sense is the chief reason that people are so depressed and anxious today, even though we have it so well, that because we are living in an age of self exaltation that is ptu as humanism, that is creating men and women without chess. All we hear today, live for yourself, believe in yourself, care for yourself.

That that all sounds very good religious platitudes that Jackson Leers was talking about. It sounds good, but when you press it, what does that actually mean? It's empty. It's humanism. And so we are lost. You see, the design of humanity from the very beginning was to commune with God, to have our lives centered on God. God is the first cause of all things. God is, I am the God who just is God without beginning, without end God who is simple. He has no parts. He has no passions.

God is the end of all things. If you want to have a weighty life, and if you want to be set free from these cultural anxieties and fears, you need to become a weighty person. And that starts by interacting with God. And winners that happen most clearly Sunday morning in worship, the Westminster Shore Catechism says, our chief end is to glorify and enjoy him. John the Baptist says also a great confession. John the Baptist says,

he must increase and I must decrease as, as Jesus increases in John's life. And as John decreases, John goes on to say, that is when joy is made complete. The culture does not need any more self-help. What they need is an opportunity to meet with God. Andrew, your priority as a pastor is to lead the people to worship where true healing begins. And don't lead the people as a sort of a, a crusty dogmatic Presbyterian, as if you know the more boring, the better.

That that's not very helpful. Don't just be concerned about dotting the eyes and crossing the ts a, a, a joyful, lively, spirit-filled encounter with God. Lead them with the joy of the Lord that for 90 minutes a slice of heaven is breaking forth into our weary lives. That you as, as the senior pastor of pathway that you, out of all people would be amazed that God still speaks to his people. And as God speaks and as God blesses your ministry,

that our people would be set free from anxieties and set free from the self. We get to enjoy the kingdom of heaven. John Calvin describes this as the theater of God. Like in the same way that you might go to a fancy show in Broadway, in New York City to experience a heart moving drama every single Sunday, the theater of God, a divine drama, the story of all stories, the story of the triune God who enters into covenant with a sinful and

lost people. The drama of the gracious work of the begotten son, the son Jesus, Jesus who died a bloody substitutionary death on a cross that we might be forever right with the Lord. That's the drama. I don't wanna go to church just because we're traditionalists, our formalist. We come to church because the Lord of the covenant is calling us and heaven breaks forth into our lives. Was three years ago that the church I serve at Redeemer, we moved into, uh,

a new building by new, it's actually not very new at all. It's, it's an old Catholic church. It's over a century old. It's this gorgeous old building downtown Detroit, originally named St. Leo's. That there are some images. We, we, we've tried our best to cover as many as we can, but besides the images, besides our, our idols, uh, it is an incredible building marble. And there's bronze there, there's stained glass. It's,

it's a breathtaking room. Whenever anybody walks into our sanctuary for the first time, their eyes go immediately to our ceiling. The ceiling's 85 feet tall. I read the, the ceiling, the, the dome in particular is the tallest unsupported dome in the state of Michigan. I don't know if that's still true or not. Honestly, I I don't really understand what that means. An unsupported dome seems very dangerous to me. But that, that is what I've read. So this, this,

this is gorgeous unsupported dome and every Sundays I'm preaching here, the dome is right above my head. The dome is, is is painted blue like disguise. And on the ceiling there's, there's gold that paints the vines and the leaves and then surrounding the dome are the angels. The idea is that when you walk into our building, you immediately look up and see something that represents the heavens. Then as your eyes begin to begin to come down from the ceiling,

people notice that the walls become much more muted. It's, it's beige, it's brown. We have very simple pews, much more earthy tones. At the bottom of the building, there is very little decoration at the bottom of the building. So here's the idea of what is being communicated in this church architecture, in a worship service on Sunday morning, the kingdom of God, the heavens are breaking forth into our earthly lives. The divine is coming to us in our mundane,

the God of the universe, the beauty of God himself is engaging us Even though we are still sinners, even though we are doubting and even though we have broken the covenant, The heavens are coming down to us. We confess our sin in the service and We're reminded that God still loves us. We sing our praise to him. We offer up our prayers. We offer up our ties, our offerings. We hear God speak in the sermon. We see God's word pictured at the Lord's table and in baptism and in all those

things, the kingdom Of God is breaking forth. God's coming to us. The covenant is renewed and our relationship to God is strengthened. The kingdom is breaking forth. Andrew learned in seminary, the church is not the kingdom. They are two separate things. But where we are going to feel And experience the kingdom In the most significant way Is in the context of the church like the sun. That that Is breaking forth on a cloudy Michigan spring day.

God's kingdom is Breaking forth, the clouds are partying, the kingdom is coming, and where are you going to experience that? In the deepest way Will be in the context of worship to Andrew. The sobering, sacrificial, joyful call that God has now placed on your life is to lead your people into worship. Every Sunday morning is the highest of all privileges. And may the Lord give you grace that you might do it well. Let's pray

Heaven. Father, we do give you thanks for the glory of the church. We are thankful that you love us and that you keep moving closer to Us. We thank you that you keep renewing the covenant within us. We thank you that while we were yet still sins Christ died for us. We give you thanks For your grace. Father, we do pray for a renewal, a revival across the Great Lakes presbytery, where men and women are committed to Lord's Day worship.

Not so that it would Ultimately give Something back to you, but so that we might be Ministered to by you. To bless all churches in the Great Lakes Presbyterian. Specifically, we pray for Andrew and his new call at Pathway. Father, we pray that every Sunday morning the people of Brighton would meet you and the context of New Covenant renewal. In Jesus' name, amen.