Seeing TBC Thru the Eyes of a Visitor, Part 1

In this part of the sermon: The discussion will consider three dimensions of church life: as a worshipping assembly (Godward), a fellowshipping assembly (internal), and a witnessing assembly (outward), with…

Martin humorously acknowledges his poor handwriting on the board, a personal detail that lightens the atmosphere before diving into serious theological points.

And for any of you who have not discovered it, you will soon discover I have the worst ability or the least amount of ability to print or write clearly on the board. It's something my mother never taught me, all right? But we're going to consider the dimension of our life as a worshipping assembly, which is primarily our life Godward, and then our life as a fellowshipping assembly, and that deals with our internal life, and then our life in its outward aspects or dimension, and we could call that our life as a witnessing or a confessing assembly of God's people.

2:51 - 3:34 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Visitors should perceive God as holy, exalted, loving, and merciful, not an 'easy to get along with' deity, but one worthy of reverence and awe, as revealed in passages like…

He uses the analogy of a 'nearsighted, large-hearted, benign grandfather' to describe a false, comforting image of God that visitors should not receive, contrasting it with the true, majestic God.

What impression should that visitor receive about the nature and the character of the God whom we say is the object of our worship? Should they have an impression that he's a very easy to get along with, never to be threatening God? Should they get the impression that he is sort of the essence of all that is found in the nearsighted, large-hearted, benign grandfather on whose knee all the grandchildren populate, pop up with confidence that he'll always have a quarter in his pocket and stroke their heads and never frown at them? Should they have some impression

13:56 - 14:41 Read in full sermon

Driving home: And that's the God whom we worship. Holy, exalted, loving, merciful, beautiful in all of the integration of what we call His attributes.

Martin uses the clock as a humorous, racially mixed analogy to acknowledge the time constraints, showing his awareness of the clock while still making a point about God's character.

It sits right down here. Some of you think that we never see it and never pay any attention to it, but we do. It's there and it constantly talks with its two black hands against the backdrop of its white face. It's racially mixed.

16:04 - 16:17 Read in full sermon

The point: Recognize that maintaining the simple, three-fold dominant characteristic of our worship (God-centered, Christ-suffused, Bible-based) will increasingly cost us as a congregation.

He uses the business analogy of a 'consumer is king' mentality to critique the church growth movement's market-driven approach to worship, contrasting it with biblical principles.

for their satisfaction. You've heard about the church growth movement and the whole consumer mentality that has dominated in many churches, and there are whole churches and whole movements of churches that are geared on the basis that you don't approach the matter of the worship of God from the perspectives that we've spoken about this morning, but you say, how can we frame the worship so as to make it marketable to today's consumer? The question is, the consumer is king. And if you don't market what he wants, you fold as a business, right?

28:01 - 28:39 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Beyond content, the spirit of worship should be reverent, joyful, and enthusiastic. Reverence is supported by Hebrews 12, contrasting New Covenant privileges with the…

Martin uses the example of approaching a dignitary with inappropriate demeanor (chewing gum, hands in pockets) to illustrate the lack of reverence that is unacceptable when approaching the living God.

Deep respect, love, and awe. If I come into the presence of a dignitary chewing and popping bubble gum when my child is half down on my hips and my hands in my pocket and three days stubble on my chin, my appearance and demeanor is not commensurate with the dignity of the person in whose presence I'm being presented. When we come into the presence of the living and the true God, then everything about that approach to Him should bespeak something of the dignity of the God to whom we are coming. And in Hebrews 12, we have a very wonderful statement of this reality.

31:58 - 32:43 Read in full sermon

Driving home: He is to be approached with reverence and with awe. Not with flippancy. Not with laid-back, relaxed indifference. With reverence and with awe.

He contrasts God consuming those who touched the ark with God consuming His own Son on the cross, arguing that the cross is the clearest demonstration of God's holiness and justice.

God's holiness is seen when inactivity, anger, He consumes those who dare to touch the ark, who were not qualified to touch it. But that was God consuming the creature who was a sinner. On the cross, He consumes His well-beloved Son, plunges Him into the darkness of abandonment until He cries, My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? His justice, His holiness, His righteousness, as well as His love and His mercy and His peace all of His attributes receive their fullest revelation in the realities of the new covenant and they should all be calculated to impress upon us

35:06 - 35:51 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Joy and enthusiasm are also essential, evidenced by Psalm 100 and Psalm 2:11, which calls for serving the Lord with fear and rejoicing with trembling, and the command to love God…

He uses the example of a child playing soccer without 'heart' to explain how wholeheartedness, though unseen directly, is manifested through outward engagement, applying this to enthusiastic worship.

And how do you know when someone's heart is in something? Can you see someone's heart? You watch some kid out there on the soccer field and he's just sort of lumbering up and down once in a while and you say, hey, that kid's something wrong. His heart's not in it.

43:25 - 43:38 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not grieve or quench the Spirit with ethical controversy with God or fellow men, as this inhibits His ministry in enabling us to worship biblically.

Martin uses the analogy of a quiet cemetery to illustrate that mere quietness or sedateness in worship does not equate to true reverence, as it lacks life.

I've never seen carnality producing a reverent worship. But there is a quietness and a sedateness that has nothing to do with true reverence. A cemetery is a very quiet, sedate place. But there ain't no life.

46:47 - 47:03 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not grieve or quench the Spirit with ethical controversy with God or fellow men, as this inhibits His ministry in enabling us to worship biblically.

He references a chapter by Dabney's successor on the Spirit in public worship, based on Philippians 3:3, to underscore the Holy Spirit's role in producing true worship.

And the successor to Dabney, teaching in a southern seminary, has a marvelous chapter in his book on the gifts of the Spirit, on the Spirit in public worship, which I had time to just read reams of that chapter. But he bases his whole essay on Philippians 3 and verse 3 where Paul says, We are the circumcision who worship God in the Spirit or who worship by the Spirit of God. Exegetically, it could be rendered either way. We are the true people of God who worship by the Spirit, who worship this one true and living God revealed in Christ, but we worship Him in the dynamics of the ministry of the...

47:18 - 48:03 Read in full sermon

The point: Plead with God that we will do nothing to grieve or quench the Spirit, recognizing that without His presence, we have no backup system.

Martin recounts a visitor's experience of sensing God's presence for the first time in a worship service at TBC, illustrating the desired impact of Spirit-wrought worship on unbelievers.

He falling down upon his face will say God is of a truth among you. And there will be that sense that what we are doing is not just some little thing of our own, but God will attest to the heart of those who come among us that this is indeed an activity of worshiping the God who is. I was speaking to someone the other day who was trying to describe their first visit to our assembly toward the end of our time when we met in the phase one upstairs is our auditorium and he was trying to describe that for the first time in what was called a worship service he sensed the presence of God. And I didn...

49:33 - 50:13 Read in full sermon