Why we have Liturgy

all right tonight i am actually really really actually for sure most definitely gonna go shorter than normal billy's shaking his head i only have three pages of notes i know yesterday there was zero today i have three so it grew a little bit um so actually what we're going to do tonight is i'm i'm going to have a short teaching and then we're going to have the worship team come back up and we're going to have some extended worship tonight so that's why i have to go short so if i start going too long cheryl's just going to come up here and start playing anyway but tonight i'm actually going to talk about something a little different we're taking a break from the gospel series again and i'm going to be talking about what is liturgy and why do we do it i've had a lot of people asking me questions about that and i thought you know maybe this just is something i need to just talk about so everybody kind of has an understanding what it is and why uh so would you go ahead and buy your heads with me actually you know what why don't would you even stand with me and uh let's recite the lord's prayer together okay our father in heaven hallowed is your name your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us today our daily bread and forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever amen that is liturgy i don't know if you guys are aware of it or not but that's liturgy you go ahead and have a seat um liturgy refers to things dealing with worship and so it could be uh teaching it can be prayer it can be the song service it could be dance it can be all kinds of different things liturgy refers to the service the service that we offer to god the ministry that we do and so liturgy actually comes from the greek word liturgia so it's based on a greek word and it's used a number of times in the new testament most of time in your translation of your bible you'll see the word service or the word ministry is usually what is how it's translated but it means service ministry sacred duty priestly service levitical administration or religious service and so liturgy just has to do with the the service and oftentimes it has with the order of service and what's done and why it's done the function uh there was a liturgy in the temple and so the the levites and the priests had a certain liturgy that they would perform when they go to the temple and it was the the type of service that they would do and then later on when the synagogue developed there was a service in the synagogue and how that developed and there were certain prayers that were that were recited um various things like that and then in christianity that liturgy has developed over the years too we see early christianity in the first century they had forms of liturgy and then different denominations have taken their own different forms of liturgy and so it's a very common thing and most people think when they think of liturgy they think of like the catholic church you know they think liturgy just means you know real rigid structural formal um repetitious there's no uh there's no freedom in it things like that but even if you take a service that is very free form if you will uh they still have a liturgy they still have a type of liturgy an order of service and what they're doing is ministry and service so there's worship taking place and so it all has different functions and and meanings and so the reason we do what we do uh i'm gonna get into so you know if you you if you've been with us very long you know that we have a certain kind of order structure to our service we you know we start out and we have uh responsive reading time right where you know uh leader opens up and he says remember the sabbath day to keep it holy in the congregation says six days you labor and do all your work but the seventh day is the sabbath of the lord your god and so we start off with this responsive reading time where we're reciting scripture to each other and then we move into a time of praise and worship where we're singing songs and dancing and then we have prayers we have prayers over the family then we move into a torah tour teaching tour thought where we look at the torah portion and we talk about what the torah portion had to do with this week and then we go into a regular teaching time where we would talk about yeshua or the gospels or various things in the scriptures and all of that is part of our liturgy as part of our order part of our service and then at the end i usually close with the aaronic blessing that's part of our service and so as we look at liturgy i want to go ahead and open up luke chapter one and i just want to show you something where this word is used and and how it's used and this is just one example there's a number of places where you see liturgy in the greek luke chapter 1 verses 21 through 23 it says and the people waited for zacharias and marveled that he that he lingered so long in the temple but when he came out he could not speak to them and they perceived that he had seen a vision in the temple for he beckoned to them and remained speechless and so it was as soon as the days of his service that word there is liturgy as soon as the days of his service were completed that he departed to his own house and so when zacharias went into the temple to serve it was called liturgy the service that he gave in the temple was called liturgy and so liturgy throughout scripture refers to religious service and it often outlines a specific order in the service it primarily consists of instruction scripture reading and prayer those are the three primary elements okay we say that again instruction the reading of scripture and prayer are the three primary elements in liturgy there are other things that may entail but those are the three primary functions and and forms that you'll see the weekly torah portion as i mentioned earlier is a type of liturgy what does that do for us so as we look at the uh weekly scripture reading each week you have different section of scripture that you read through and so you read through and you study that section of the torah and we all do it together corporately and so all of us are in the same place in the torah and not only are we together as a congregation but we're also because the torah portions are done by people all over the world we're reading the same passage of scripture that people in various countries are reading many different congregations are reading jew and and christian alike all reading the same section of scripture as we're following through the store portion which is kind of cool to think that we're reading the same studying the same section of scripture as as so many different people around the world and so it helps to bring unification to the body and kind of brings connection to us with other other people in other places and so we you know you may have congregations in texas or kansas or colorado or california or wherever and they're all reading the same section of scripture as us and it's like well that's really cool that we can have that connection with them through the word we recite these verses each week to reinforce and deepen our belief in those things and so as we as we study these things each year you know we go through the same portion cycle each year and so you start in genesis 1 and every year after tabernacles we start over in genesis 1 again and every time you re-read through it it just deepens that that word inside of you right the more you read it the more you retain the more you retain the more you learn and every time you revisit it you learn something different you learn something new and you're like wow how did i not see that before and so repetition in a lot of way in in this type of thing is is often very helpful and very good it helps the word of god to penetrate into you more deeply and it also helps you to have better understanding and and uh also the more scripture you read you can draw from other passages that you've read and so as you're going through the portion and you're like hey i recognize this verse this is something that yeshua talked about or this is something paul talked about you know and you can make those connections and you start to see how deep this stuff is and how far it goes and so it's important to continually read through those things and liturgy helps us to do that um but this uh this type of liturgy is often referred to as our devotion you've heard of people doing their devotions and it's like their daily scripture reading daily devotions and so you have liturgy and you have devotion liturgy refers to what we do corporately and when we come together as a body we we perform liturgy the service we do the ministry we do is liturgy and so our worship our prayers our scripture reading all that stuff is called liturgy when you do it at home by yourself it's called devotion so as you study the scriptures on your own you're doing devotion when you pray on your own you're doing devotion when you worship on your own you're doing devotion and so you see kind of where the difference is liturgy is corporate it's the mystery of all the people devotion is private it's what you do on your own time in your own home but by reciting scripture regularly we begin to memorize those things and we write them on our heart and so when we go through our our responsive reading at the beginning of of the service if if you hadn't figured it out it's almost completely scripture you know six days you shall labor and do all your work but the seventh day is the sabbath of the lord your god in it you shall do no work that comes straight out of exodus um therefore the children of israel shall keep the sabbath to observe the sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant it is a sign between me and the children of israel forever for in six days the lord made the heavens and the earth and the seventh day he rested was refreshed straight out of the torah this is scripture and as we read it each week it's it's penetrating deeper and deeper into our minds into our hearts and transforming us so we're being transformed by the washing of the water of the word and so as we repeat these things each week it's it's refreshing us and renewing us and so these scriptures that we've selected for these readings are very intentional scriptures they're things that we saw they're important and we we need to know them we need to have them committed to heart committed to memory and so that they're part of us and they transform our life and they transform our relationship with god so that's why we do those as i mentioned earlier the lord's prayer is a type of liturgy when yeshua was speaking to his disciples he said in this manner therefore pray they said teach us how to pray and he said okay in this in this manner in this way pray like this and if if you look through early early church history you'll see that in the first and second and third centuries early christians all the way back to the apostles there's things written by the apostles and the disciples of the apostles where they said that the apostles taught them to pray the lord's prayer twice a day or three times a day morning noon and evening they prayed the lord's prayer morning noon and evening paula carp says that john the apostle taught him to do that you have numerous other writings in the new testament the the dedicated talks about praying the lord's prayer three times a day it was part of their liturgy as part of their service to god and those those are the times of sacrifice in the temple morning noon and evening and so that was the time of prayer you see in jewish jewish history that they did the same thing they would pray at those certain times of day and even still today in jerusalem at the wailing wall morning noon and evening there are prayers being made at the at the wall this is type this is a type of liturgy a type of service and this actually comes from the scriptures it comes from the psalms uh both the psalms and daniel actually psalms talk about praying morning noon and evening psalms talk about praying in the morning and evening talk about praying at noon and at midnight and like there's there's various psalms to talk about various times but morning noon and evening are very common times of prayer that we see throughout the psalms daniel in the book of daniel said that he was praying and he prayed i think he said he prayed twice a day morning and evening maybe three times a day i don't remember is it three daniel played three times a day morning noon and evening and that's when you know he was praying by his window and they went and captured him through him in the lion den but he was praying at his window three times a day and this was part of his liturgy this was part of his service part of his devotion this is how he worshipped and served god so these things are it's not a catholic invention it's not a protestant invention it's not a modern thing it actually goes all the way back into the old testament we see this type of devotion this type of liturgy this type of service the shema is another example deuteronomy 6 is recited twice a day morning and evening this is it's very it's a traditional thing throughout jewish culture is to do you pray the shema in the morning and praise the shaman evening and yeshua when he was asked what is the greatest commandment he said he quoted the shema he hear israel the lord our god the lord is one love the lord your god with all your heart soul mind and strength he said this is the first and greatest commandment the second is like it love your neighbors yourself well there's a connection you pray it twice a day morning and evening why you recite this morning and evening why because it's the greatest commandment and you need to take it to heart you need to let it penetrate and transform your life and as you meditate on it and recite it and memorize it and rehearse it morning and evening you start your day the first thought on your mind is the lord our god the lord is one love the lord your god with all your heart soul mind strength the first thing on your head first thing in your mind the first thing in the morning is the love of the lord your god so the rest of your day is is kind of geared towards that and then the last thing you say before you go to bed is here is a israel the lord of god the lord is one love lord your god with all your heart so mind and strength so the last thing you say before you lay down brings your mind right back to god to love god with all your hustle mind and strength so your whole day beginning and end is framed with this concept of love the lord your god with all your heart soul mind strength why because this is the greatest commandment everything you do throughout your day should be hinging on that commandment so why don't you guys uh let's go i'm gonna have you guys stand again and can you guys pull up deuteronomy 6 4 through 9 on the screen i didn't give you guys a heads up about this do you know how to do that real quick okay give them just a second to get that up here give me a thumbs up when you're ready looks like they're getting close okay judah six four through nine would you guys just recite this with me hear o israel the lord our god the lord is one you shall love the lord your god with all your heart with all your soul with all your strength and these words which i command you today shall be in your heart you shall teach them diligently to your children and you should talk about them when you sit in your house when you walk by the way when you lie down and when you rise up you shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes you shall write them on the door close your house and on your gates is that all of it okay all right go ahead and sit down so that is what they call the shema the shemas deuteronomy 6 4-9 here hero israel israel hero israel this is liturgy you're reciting it morning and evening this is part of your service part of your devotion another common thing we see in liturgy is reciting hymns or doxology psalms many of the psalms were used as as part of worship as part of liturgy and they would pray them they would chant them they would sing them this is done throughout history and so the psalms were used as a type of liturgy hymns and doxology is another one one of uh when i was a kid i grew up in a church that we did something it was called the doxology which is called the common doxologies probably the most common uh form of doxology that's said in various different denominational backgrounds and it's one that when i was a kid i learned it and as a kid i didn't really see the value in it you know it's like why are we just saying this every week why is this it seems so repetitive we do this every week it's kind of boring you know it's not as exciting as like the songs and the the singing and dancing and the instruments and all that and so as a kid i didn't really see the value in it but looking back now as an adult i see the value in it and i see the significance in it and so how many of you guys have ever are are you familiar with the common doxology raise your hand uh if you grew up in a methodist church or a lutheran church some form of of church like that you probably are familiar with it and so just basically it's it's really simple it says praise god from whom all blessings flow praise him all creatures here below praise him above ye heavenly host praise father son and holy ghost all right have you guys heard that one before yeah and it's actually typically song and so praise god from whom all blessings flow praise him all creatures here below praise him above ye heavenly host praise father son and holy ghost and so you know you you have this something like this in your service and it's a call to worship you know it stirs people's hearts and it says you know praise him all you people praise him all you creatures praise him even all you angelic beings in heaven everyone praise the lord it's it's a call to worship is what it is and so as you know we recite these things it it stirs our hearts and it directs our attention to him so there's significance in these things another common type of liturgy is a creed and so creeds are basically doctrinal statements that often are chanted or sung but they're said in a repetitious way that you know each week you recite this creed and it's it's given for the purpose of basically deepening your doctrinal beliefs about something getting it making a foundational part in your life that you this this is something you are solid on you understand this doctrinal statement you understand this belief this is a foundational part this is the core of who who you are and so creeds were often used uh one of the most uh common one of those most well-known of these is the apostles i'm sure everybody's probably heard it at some point i'm actually going to omit one line that talks about the catholic church and so you know i understand that at the time it was written the catholic church as the denomination didn't exist it meant the the universal or the worldwide church um but you know it's just one of those things that a lot of people aren't fond of and i'm particularly not terribly fond of that statement as well uh but here's the apostles creed minus that one statement i believe in god the father almighty maker of heaven and earth and in jesus christ his only son our lord who was conceived by the holy spirit born of the virgin mary suffered under pontius pilate was crucified died and was buried he descended to the dead on the third day he rose again he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the father and he will come again to judge the living and the dead i believe in the holy spirit the communion of the saints the forgiveness of sins the resurrection of the body and life everlasting this one statement here contains so many core doctrines so i believe in god the father i believe in god belief in god is foundational i believe that he's the maker of heaven earth he's the creator he's not like any other gods he's not the gods of the pagans he's the creator the one who created the earth in six days and rest on the seventh the creator in genesis 1. i believe in him and in jesus christ his only son our lord i believe in the son of god the belief in the son of god is vital to our faith it's a core doctrine he was conceived by the holy spirit the virgin birth conceived by the holy spirit born of the virgin that is a core doctrine doctrinal statement belief that he was conceived by the holy spirit and born of a virgin he was not conceived by regular means the way that you and i were conceived it was because the holy spirit placed inside of the womb of of mary this person the son of god okay this is core this is foundational that he suffered under pontius pilate was crucified dead and was buried his death and burial is is a cornerstone in the gospel belief that he died was buried and then rose from the dead that is that is essential core doctrine of our faith you know if you talk to a muslim what do they say let's say that well he didn't actually die and because he didn't actually die they don't think he actually resurrected that's what muslims teach and it's like well no he did die he was buried and he did resurrect that is a core foundational belief and i am not going to move on that you can't you can't convince me otherwise i know what the scripture says and i i need that needs to be foundational in our hearts okay that he uh he descended to the dead on the third day he rose again that he ascended to heaven this is another essential doctrine who has ascended and descended what is his name and what is the name of his son that's what the psalmist says or i'm sorry what proverbs says who is the sinner descended who who holds the wind in his fist what is his name what is the name of his son yeshua referenced this in john 3 right he said no one is ascended to heaven but he who came down from heaven the son of man no one has ascended to heaven but yeshua and he came down from heaven first he came down from heaven then he ascended back up this is a core fundamental doctrine the catholics will tell you that mary ascended to heaven and that the saints have ascended heaven it's not biblical that's not true that's not scriptural there's absolutely no reason to believe that lie yeshua said no one has ascended to heaven but he the son the son of man the son of god who came down from heaven this is a core essential doctrine uh that he seated at the right hand of the father and that he will come again to judge the living of the dead that he is going to return another core doctrine that we all believe he is coming back he's going to gather together his people he's going to judge the earth i believe in the holy spirit this is a core doctrine we believe in the holy spirit that we believe in the communion or the fellowship of the brethren this is core and essential we believe in the forgiveness of sins without it we have no salvation we believe in the resurrection of the body that we will one day resurrect when yeshua returns and we believe in life everlasting that the gift of god is everlasting life these are all core doctrines and so the church developed this creed and they would recite it on a regular basis to to embed these core doctrines into your heart and into your mind so that you you understand it so you live it so you can tell other people about it even if you you know at the time if you think about it at the time they didn't all have a copy of the scriptures they could read you think about early church history most people didn't have the ability to read or access to the scriptures it was the educated people and the wealthier people that had access and education but they would teach them these creeds and these creeds would contain core fundamental doctrines and so the person even though he couldn't read he understood these doctrines and they were they were written on his heart even though he wasn't able to read them he understood them so these serve a purpose they have a function and so we do this type of thing to deepen our faith and to to help us ground more into uh the word of god into our into our beliefs about god these creeds types of creeds teach us doctrine and cement our faith our liturgy here at the grafton church is unique i didn't i didn't go to some other church and and download their uh their liturgy you know i i went through the scriptures and and i thought what are the important things that we want to center on and so you start off we have the sabbath what is the sabbath why we keep the sabbath this is important to us this is god has called us to worship him on the sabbath and it's important for us to remember this and to make this part of our faith and part of our confession the second one what is the great commandment this is a foundational thing that yeshua said this is the greatest commandment so we need to know this this shapes our life this shapes our interactions with other people and this should be something we take to heart and then what is salvation salvation is through yeshua alone and all of these things in our liturgy that we go through through the uh the response of reading is all just taken straight out of scripture and is to to embed and cement these things in our hearts and our minds so by reciting these scriptures each week we are being transformed it's one thing i want you to realize is that by reciting and memorizing scripture it is transforming your heart and your mind it's not just or it shouldn't be any way just mindless repetition oh well we just we do this every week so you know uh yeshua said i'm in the way of the truth in life no one comes to the father except for me nor is there salvation any other for there's no other name but i haven't given about you must be saved okay i did it like that's not the attitude we should have you know what i mean this is this is a core fundamental belief that we have yeshua said i'm the way the truth and the life no one comes to the father except through me he says this is significant and that needs to shape our mind that needs to shape our life and as we repeat it and recite it and memorize it we take it to heart and it it transforms our mind and it transforms our life and then we're not going to be easily tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine you know somebody comes along and says oh you know there's lots of ways to get saved and you say no yeshua said i'm the way the truth and the life no one comes to the father except through me there's not lots of ways to be saved there's one his name is yeshua and if you don't know him you don't know salvation like that's our because it's been grounded into our life it's been embedded into our mind and our hearts our response is not oh really tell me about these other ways to be saved i'm curious no that's not our response our response is no you're wrong yeshua is the way to salvation because it transforms us it conforms us to his word and so repeating and reciting these scriptures is good for you it benefits you it helps you grow and it helps you walk closer to the lord so liturgy is not only an act of worship and an act of service to god but it also ministers to us and it shapes us so as we are ministering to him by reciting his word we are also ministering to each other and ministering to ourself by reciting his word being washed in the water of his word so do you see why i feel like this is an important thing for us to do each week does that make sense to you some of you maybe who had questions before about why do we why do we do these same readings every week because i feel like they're important and and i hope you feel like they're important too reciting blessings is also a type of liturgy and so we start off by blessing god blessing our families blessing our children blessing our wives things like that and at the end of the service though what happens is is god blesses us god told abraham god god told aaron this is how i want you to bless the children of israel and this is a blessing that god is giving to his people and so we end our service with the blessing that god gives to his people right may the lord bless you and keep you may he cause his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you this is a blessing to you this is a blessing that god has given to you he said this is how i want you to bless the children and so everything we do from beginning to end is liturgy it's not just the the response of reading time everything we do is liturgy when cheryl comes back up in a minute and and they start singing and playing music again that's liturgy when you're dancing that's liturgy it's it's your service to god it's your offering to god it's your worship it's your ministry and so it all has a place in liturgy when we get up here and talk right now this is liturgy i'm instructing you i'm giving instruction i'm i'm bringing forth the word this is liturgy when greg came up a minute ago and he was teaching from the torah portion that is liturgy so everything we do is liturgy we just don't always call it that all right so does that make sense how am i doing on time i'm still early maybe not as short as i was hoping but i'm still early surely you guys want to go ahead and come back up and lead us in some more song lord as we come before you and praise and worship i pray that you are pleased lord as we offer an offering of praise and offering of thanksgiving this is our worship this is our gift to you this is our service to you this is our offering to you lord we don't come with the blood of animals we come with our hearts or we don't come bringing sacrifice of animal we come bringing sacrifice of praise sacrifice of our lips sacrifice of song and of dance this is our offering to you lord and i pray that it is pleasing and beautiful and acceptable to you i pray that we are exalting you in our praise and lord we invite you to come and inhabit our praise as your word says that you inhabit the praise of your people and so lord we invite you holy spirit we invite you come inhabit our praise lord we praise you and we love you in the name of yeshua amen would you stand for worship

Channel: The Grafted Church

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Length: 36min 6sec (2166 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 28 2020