>> [ Congregation singing ]
>> Today we are blessed
with a wonderful gift from God,
the Bible.
This book is God's living word.
In its pages we are told,
"For the word of God is living
and powerful, and sharper
than any two-edged sword."
It is in this book of books
that we find the answers
to all of men's questions
and need.
This morning, your area
Churches of Christ
welcome you to a program
committed to that perfect
law of liberty.
>> [ Singing continues ]
>> As we present
"The Living Word."
>> [ Singing continues ]
>> Now here is your host,
Ray Sullins.
>> Good morning.
Thank you for joining us today
for the "Living Word" program.
I hope you've had a great week
and I hope you're ready
to begin this new week
with a day of service
and offering to God.
And as always, it will be our
commitment through this program
to proclaim the simple truth
of our Lord and savior
Jesus Christ,
those things
that are confirmed for us
in the word of God itself,
the Bible.
And I hope you do have
your Bibles handy this morning
and are ready to worship God
as we together sing praises
to his name
and as we study
from his perfect word.
As we begin our offering
to God, at this time,
will you bow with me before
his mighty throne in prayer?
Our God and Father in heaven,
we are so thankful for this,
another day of life
and the great blessing
that we have to be
called your children
and to be servants
in your kingdom.
And father, we thank you
because we know
that every blessing
comes from above,
every physical thing that we
have and every spiritual thing,
and that you've given us
everything that we need
in an abundance.
And father, we thank you
and we love you for this great
and these wondrous gifts.
Father, we also
are thankful for this,
the Lord's day,
that we might worship you.
May we give you our best
in spirit and truth,
that we might be found
pleasing in your sight,
but not only today,
but every day,
doing those things
that honor you
and lift up your perfect name.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
We want to begin our songs
of praise this morning
by singing a hymn
that reminds us
of the greatest price
that was ever paid,
in order that we might overcome
sin and have eternal life.
Where is the power of God
unto salvation found?
Well, let's find out
as we begin this morning
by singing together
with the congregation.
Will you join in
as we sing together,
"There Is Power in the Blood."
>>  Would you be free
from the burden of sin? 
 There's power in the blood,
power in the blood 
 Would you o'er evil
a victory win? 
 There's wonderful power
in the blood 
 There is power, power,
wonder working power 
 In the blood of the Lamb 
 There is power, power,
wonder working power 
 In the precious blood
of the Lamb 
 Would you be free from
your passion and pride? 
 There's power in the blood,
power in the blood 
 Come for a cleansing
to Calvary's tide 
 There's wonderful power
in the blood 
 There is power, power,
wonder working power 
 In the blood of the Lamb 
 There is power, power,
wonder working power 
 In the precious blood
of the Lamb 
 Would you do service
for Jesus your King? 
 There's power in the blood,
power in the blood 
 Would you live daily
His praises to sing? 
 There's wonderful power
in the blood 
 There is power, power,
wonder working power 
 In the blood of the lamb 
 There is power, power,
wonder working power 
 In the precious blood
of the Lamb 
>> Most of us have brothers
or sisters,
but if not, we have at least
lived in a household
while we have grown up
with a family,
and therefore we learn to work
together in some ways
and even share things
that we have.
At times, all of us
have just thought,
"I wish I had my own room,
or my own bathroom,
or maybe even my own apartment,
or even my own house."
This might sound great
on the surface,
but sometimes
we don't always think through
the things
that we ask for.
Why do I say this?
Because no one really likes
to be alone all of the time.
When was the last time
you felt alone or lonely
when nobody was around?
And you might even
have felt like
that no one likes you or no one
wanted to be around you.
How many of us like to go out
to a restaurant, for instance,
and be alone
and to eat by ourselves?
How many of us want to go
to the game and sit alone,
or by ourselves,
with no one to talk to,
or no one to enjoy
the game with?
How many of us really believe
that we would be truly happy
and content
to be just by ourselves,
and alone all of the time?
Well, imagine being stranded
on a desert island,
as we might have considered
before in our minds.
You may have been asked
even of the idea,
what is the one thing
that you would want
if you were stranded alone
on that desert island?
Well, some might say cable
or television or the radio,
but most with serious thought
would say companionship.
And why? Because no one
likes to truly be alone.
God realized this even
from the very beginning.
You might remember with me
in Genesis 2:18,
after creating man
that God said,
"It is not good
that man should be alone.
Therefore I will make for him
a helpmate comparable to him."
Because of this, in verse 19,
God then made a woman
out of the rib of man.
And even our creator realized
at that time
the great significance
and importance of companionship.
We also realize
where we can find
this greatest of all companions
and the companionship
that we need.
That, in a spiritual sense,
is found in who?
Jesus Christ our Lord.
In Matthew 28:20,
Jesus made this promise --
"And lo, I am with you always,
even to the end of the age."
Here we see that God is with us
forever and without end.
How encouraging it is to realize
that not only is Jesus with us,
but that he will
always be with us
each and every step of the way,
even forever.
The word always helps us
to realize
the great points
of our discussion,
and to find truly
that God is a God
who is with us every moment,
and who will never let us down.
And how long?
As we have seen, forever.
What other companions then do for us in this life
really are short in comparison
to the great things
that God has promised
and that God
is doing for us.
You remember what Joshua said
there in Joshua 1:9,
and as God instructed him,
he learned this.
"Have I not commanded you to be
strong and of good courage,
not to be afraid nor dismayed?
For the Lord your God
is with you wherever you go."
Now we add the idea that God
is with us wherever we go.
Not only are we not alone,
but he is with us.
And as Joshua said,
and was told, rather, by God,
there is no reason
to be afraid or dismayed
because God is always
with the faithful.
I hope we are
starting to realize
that the Lord's companionship
means so much to us.
And even as King David
said there in Psalm 139,
as he really asked the question,
"Where can I go
from your spirit?
Or where can I flee
from your presence?"
Here we see that David
eloquently helps us
to understand
that God is always with us,
for no matter where we go
and no matter where we are,
God is there,
and he loves us,
and he helps us,
and he cares for us.
And he wants to make sure
that in all things,
we always have what we need.
Isn't it wonderful to have
such a God in each of our lives?
This morning we have
a guest speaker with us
who is the minister
of the Bona Church of Christ
in Bona, Missouri.
This brother also
is one of our teachers
at the Bible Institute
of Missouri,
and we're happy
that Brother Cory Orr
has joined us today to lead us
in our thoughts from God's word.
As far as our series of study,
we have been looking at the idea
of God's special people.
And our specific topic today
will focus on a special worship.
So please continue with us
this morning
and after
our next song together,
then Cory will return
with this study from God's word.
The name of the next hymn,
"The Steadfast Love
of the Lord."
>>  The steadfast love
of the Lord never ceases 
 His mercies never come
to an end 
 They are new every morning 
 Great is Thy faithfulness 
 The Lord is my portion
says my soul 
 Therefore I will hope in Him 
 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases 
 His mercies never come
to an end 
 They are new every morning 
 Great is Thy faithfulness 
 The Lord is my portion
says my soul 
 Therefore I will hope in Him 
 Therefore I will hope 
>>  Therefore I will hope 
>>  In Him 
>> I'd like to thank you
so much
for joining us today,
and appreciate so much
the opportunity to be able
to come into your home
and to preach the word of God.
I hope that you have
brought your Bible today.
We think about -- If you would open your Bibles here
to 1 Peter chapter two.
We think about our topic
that we have been discussing
and looking at
and being able to think about what it is to be special.
And the fact that if you look
here at 1 Peter 2:9,
here we read,
"But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood,
a holy nation,
his own special people,
that you may proclaim
the praises of him
who called you out of darkness
into his marvelous light."
To be his own special people.
And there are things that we
think about what we get to do,
the way that we get to live
for God every day,
to be called a child of God,
and how truly special it is
to be able to have that blessing
of being able
to be called God's child,
and how special that truly is.
When we think about the things
that in our lives
that we look at,
that are special to us,
there are things
and memories that we have,
there are people that we have
that we hold very dear.
We would call them special.
When we think about that,
that word and what
that means to us to be chosen,
special, to be set apart.
You see, there are people
in our lives
and things in our lives
that we set apart.
We would call them special.
Well, today our topic
is to be able to look
at what is special
about the worship
that we get to bring before God.
The fact that we get
to worship him.
When we think about that word "worship," it is to revere,
means to pay homage to, to adore
him and to even bow before him.
Ultimately, what it means
is that we are putting him first
and that we have
made him the object.
And we'll talk more about that
as our time
continues this morning.
But we think about
how special our worship
to the father gets to be.
It's not just in
the New Testament
that we read about
God being special
and to be first in our lives.
But even in Exodus chapter 20,
here in the Old Testament,
under the old law,
God, here in Exodus chapter 20.
We often think about the old law
and the Ten Commandments,
things that we see God
has given in the past.
Here in Exodus 20:3,
God says, "You shall have
no other gods before me,"
meaning that he comes first.
Do you understand
that we give him a special place
then in our lives?
He is to come first.
We are to have
no other gods before him.
If you look with me
at Mark chapter 12,
we even see Jesus use
this same idea
and the fact that we put God
first in our lives
and what that looks like,
what our lives look like
with God at the center of it,
with him being in first position
where he belongs.
It makes him special.
Here in Mark chapter 12,
beginning in verse number 29,
notice with me,
"Jesus answered him,
the first of all
the commandments is,
Hear, O Israel, the Lord
our God, the Lord is one,
and you shall love the Lord
your God with all your heart,
with all your soul,
with all your mind,
and with all your strength.
This is the first commandment."
We love him with everything.
We think about
being his special people.
He loved us so much
that John 3:16 tells us
he gave his only begotten son.
The greatest gift
that God ever gave,
the greatest gift
that has ever been given,
he gave on the cross.
He gave us
his only begotten son,
that we would have
that opportunity to be able
to spend eternity
in heaven with him.
Now, what a great privilege
that is,
and what a gift
that God has given us.
And when we really stop
to think about it,
how special does God
find us to be?
You see, God thinks of us
so highly
that we are his own
special people.
When we think about a life
lived with putting God first,
well, friends,
what we think about then
is what does it look like
on the first day of the week?
We call it the Lord's Day.
At times, I think we maybe
think of it as the Lord's hour,
or maybe two hours
if we stayed for Bible class,
three hours if we stayed
for the afternoon
or the evening worship service.
But day?
Do we often think about that?
We call it the Lord's Day.
Do we actually give it to him?
Is he special enough for us
to set aside that time?
Let me ask you this question.
Is he special enough
in your life
for you
to give every day to him?
Places like Luke 9:23.
There Jesus says, "If anyone
desires to come after me,
he must deny himself,
take up his cross daily
and come after me."
If we desire to follow him,
it means that we put him
first in our lives.
Well, what about
our worship to him?
Does it look the same?
Look with me at Psalm 29.
There's a few psalms
that we will look at here
this morning to think about
our worship before God.
Do we revere him?
Does he hold that special place
in our lives and in our hearts?
And can we show it to him?
Do we long to show it to him
in the way
that we live our lives
and especially
on the first day of the week
when we come before him
to worship him?
Is he able to see that in us?
Here in Psalm 29:1-2,
David writing says,
"Give unto the Lord,
O you mighty ones,
give unto the Lord glory
and strength.
Give unto the Lord the glory
due to his name.
Worship the Lord
in the beauty of holiness."
Holiness.
Think about that set apart,
that we hold it
to be of great value.
We think about holiness.
There is nothing impure there.
God is pure, period,
has no impurity.
1 John 1:5.
"God is light, and in him
is no darkness at all."
We think about the pureness
of God, the holiness of God.
We worship him, revere him,
pay homage to him,
that we bow before his presence.
When we think about
coming together to worship God,
what does that worship
look like?
Do we truly think about
how great he is?
In Psalm 95, we get this idea
of the greatness of God
and that he is worthy
of our worship.
Here in Psalm 95,
beginning in verse number one.
"Oh, come and let us
sing to the Lord.
Let us shout joyfully
to the rock of our salvation.
Let us come before his presence
with thanksgiving.
Let us shout joyfully
to him with psalms.
For the Lord is the great God
and the great King
above all gods.
In his hands are
the deep places of the earth.
The heights of the hills
are his also.
The sea is his,
for he made it, and his hands
formed the dry land.
Oh, come, let us worship
and bow down.
Let us kneel before
the Lord our maker."
Again, as we defined
at the beginning,
we think about worship
being a part of what we do,
and we bow down.
Everything that we have...
As Ray has already spoken about
and even prayed about
this morning,
everything that we have,
all these good things
that we have.
James 1:17 tells us
that every good
and every perfect gift
comes down
from the father of lights,
in whom is no variation
or shadow of turning.
And God doesn't say one thing
and do something else.
And God never changes,
and our worship to him
should be sincere,
should be in truth.
Staying here in Psalms,
we notice that in Psalms 96,
beginning in verse seven,
"Give to the Lord,
O families of the peoples,
give to the Lord glory
and strength.
Give to the Lord the glory
due his name.
Bring an offering
and come into his courts.
O worship the Lord
in the beauty of holiness.
Tremble before him
all the earth."
There's the reverence
and the respect,
the homage that we pay to him,
that we bow before him,
and we worship him.
In John chapter four,
we notice here
the words of Jesus.
He is speaking to the woman
at the well.
She's a Samaritan woman,
and they worship at a mountain.
Jesus tells her
that a day is coming
when they won't worship
in that mountain.
They won't even worship
in Jerusalem.
But here in John chapter four,
beginning in verse number 23,
"You worship" --
Beginning in verse 23.
"But the hour is coming, and now
is, when the true worshippers
will worship the father
in spirit and truth,
for the father is seeking
such to worship him.
God is spirit,
and those who worship him
must worship in spirit
and truth."
You see first and foremost that
God is seeking true worshippers,
those who are there
out of sincerity of heart,
that they put their heart
behind everything.
We see in places
like Ephesians 5:18,
Colossians 3:16.
And you could be turning
to Colossians 3
there in verse number 16.
"Let the word of Christ dwell
in you richly in all wisdom,
teaching and admonishing
one another in psalms
and hymns and spiritual songs,
singing with grace
in your hearts to the Lord.
And whatever you do
in word or deed,
do all in the name
of the Lord Jesus,
giving thanks to God
and the father through him."
When we think about,
we come together,
the object of our worship
first and foremost is God,
that we put him first.
We're not there
for our own entertainment.
We are there --
We teach one another
as we read there
in Colossians 3:16,
but God is the object
of our worship.
He comes first.
Special worship is a big deal
because we have to have
the right object,
and it is to be God the Father.
He is seeking those who will
worship him wholeheartedly,
that we put everything that we
have into worshipping him.
That when we come before him
on the first day of the week,
we have put aside
the cares of the world,
that we have put out
the thoughts
and cares of the things that we
have going on in our lives,
and we focus.
That's what true worship is.
When we think about
all that God has done for us,
all the things
that he has made for us.
Do we put him first?
We think about
how special we are to him.
Do we put him first?
Or do we come before him?
Do we bow down? Do we worship?
Do we pay homage?
Do we revere him,
we respect him?
Do we show forth from the heart
that which we ought to?
You see, God is worthy of us
praising him.
God is worthy of us
worshipping him.
This true worship
is a special thing.
It is where we get
to come before God
with those of like
precious faith,
our brothers and sisters
in Christ.
We get to join together
to sing songs of praise,
to lift up our prayers as we
have done even this morning,
and sung those songs of praise,
as we have even this morning
to hear a message from His word,
to partake of the Lord's Supper,
where we remember the greatest
gift that he ever gave.
That he gave his son to die
on the cross on our behalf.
We come together to worship him.
We give of our means,
remembering how much
we have been blessed by him.
But we must first
and foremost understand
that God is the object
of our worship.
True worshipers worship God
in spirit and in truth.
There is nothing that is
going to come before God
in our worship to him,
that we don't think
about the things
that we have going on
in our lives.
Instead, we focus on God
and all that he has done for us.
We put aside
those worldly concerns.
You know, often we joke
about what we're going to eat
and things after services.
We get to come to services
to feast on His word.
We get to come to services
to put God first
and to show him
that every day he comes first.
Not just on the first day
of the week, but that every day,
and we get to worship him.
What does your worship
to him look like?
Do you worship him
in spirit and in truth?
It's what God is seeking
and it's what he deserves.
He comes first. We're not there
for our entertainment.
We're there to worship God
and serve him.
>>  Zion's call sweetly rings
over land and sea 
 bidding us look to realms
above 
 While the light from the
throne shines for you and me 
 let us list to the call
of love 
 Zion's call is ringing 
 (Zion's call),
coming from the throne above 
 While we hear it ringing 
 (clearly ringing) 
 Let us heed the call of love 
 (perfect love) 
 On the road to the goal,
burdens we must bear 
 but we have help from realms
above 
 We receive courage new
when we kneel in pray'r 
 let us list to the call
of love 
 Zion's call is ringing,
coming from the throne above 
 (in Heaven above) 
 While we hear it ringing 
 (clearly ringing) 
 let us heed the call
of love 
 (perfect love) 
 While we tarry below,
there is work to do 
 and our strength cometh
from above 
 As we labor and wait
we must all be true 
 let us list to the call
of love 
 Zion's call is ringing,
coming from the throne above 
 (in heaven above) 
 While we hear it ringing 
 (clearly ringing) 
 let us heed the call of love 
 (perfect love) 
>> What a wondrous time
that we've had together
to participate
in the things of God.
I hope we've all been encouraged
through our time spent together.
And please remember
that you are invited to join us
every Lord's Day morning
at 7:30,
as we commit ourselves
to this time of service
and worship
before the throne of God.
But for now, let me ask
if you have any questions
or comments
about today's lesson.
Maybe you'd like a free CD
or a free DVD of the program,
or even a transcript.
However we might help you,
please contact us
at the following address.
The Living Word,
2540 North Kansas Expressway,
Springfield, Missouri, 65803.
Many of these items are also
available on our website.
That address,
TheLivingWordProgram.com.
Or if you prefer, you may
call us at (417) 869-2284.
Thanks be to God
that he has given us
a specific pattern
in the Bible
as to how we should worship him
as his special people.
Therefore, may we always
be those who strive to satisfy,
by doing the will of God,
all the commandments
that he has given us,
that we might always
be found true
and doing our best
according to his perfect will.
The question this morning --
Have we submitted properly
to worshipping God today?
>> Our prayer is to help
the world know more
about God through
this television program.
"The Living Word"
has been brought to you
under the oversight
of the elders
of the Kansas Expressway
Church of Christ
in Springfield, Missouri,
with the assistance
of the following area
Churches of Christ.
>> [ Congregation singing ]