you know if we're going the right way here I don't know I think we missed the mechanic shop um yeah I don't think we're going the right way really no I'm gonna turn around right here wait a second here my worship light just turned on what does that mean you know what that means um I'm not sure oh my god first the community light and now in the worship light it's okay you're gonna do it's okay justjust calm down we'll figure it out together don't worry all right man and I'm pullover okay let me pull over okay okay oh my my phone is dead there's somebody hey I think there's somebody running right there let's get them okay hey hey hey you hey you yeah you can help me out the time I worshipped like just turned on and we're all the way the mechanic in my phone died and everything I bore your phone I don't have a stolen but I know a really good mechanic those by here can you can you take it we don't know way around sure I couldn't get in the back let me get the door for that's really nice of you thank you yeah all right hey man look who I thought she gonna take us to mechanic ii to get my worship light turned off internet awesome yeah that's great this is my friend wait I never got your name what's your name you know what forget that your name's gonna be community could you help turn off my community light okay okay you know I you know the way to did a mechanic yeah I just make a left up here okay hey guys you know it'll help us all feel better what singing some good worship songs really I've never tried that before do you know any I don't want yeah yeah build your king wrong series bro oops did it again oh wow look at that my worship blood just turned off what a coincidence hey do you need you still come with us to the mechanic shop just to check it out and make sure everything's okay sure why not okay let's keep going to the mechanic I will good morning everybody welcome to the third week in the body shop and if you're just kind of joining us here for the first time what we're taking a look at is that the most important organism in the universe which is the body of Christ and what we're seeing every single week with the help of our lovely actors and actresses right there just up on the screen is what does it take to be healthy members of the body of Christ and every week we're looking at a different what I call the pillars of health of a member of the body of Christ and last week we started off by talking about the first component to be a healthy member of the body of Christ if you look back in the book of Acts chapter 2 we saw a picture of a healthy church and healthy church members and it was clear that community and fellowship was an integral part of their life and we talked about last week how god made us not just to live amongst each other but to really live life together and to share life we talked about that last week this week we can talk about the second pillar or the second component was at which as you saw right there is the worship component before we get into that though let's take a look back at the most important verse that's kind of guiding us through this series which is Ephesians chapter 1 verse 22 and 23 where st. Paul says and he put all things under his feet and gave him to be the head over all things to the church which is his body the fullness of him who fails all in all as I start up here talking about what does it take to be a healthy member of the church I hope you realize that it is your greatest honor to be a member of the church because the church is not a human organization the church is not an organization even at all you hear me keep using the word organism versus organization why what's an organism an organism is alive and the church is alive the church is a body the church has a head who is our Lord Jesus Christ and has a body who is me and you and the fact that he allows us to be part of this body is the greatest honor in the whole wide world and the same way that you cannot have as a person you can't say my head is working but my body has not worked like if my head is alive my my body is disconnected then the whole thing is broken and the same thing with the church the church is God on earth the church is God on earth because it is the fullness of him who fills all in all and what I say is that i'm not going to say you cannot know God outside of the church I'm not saying that but what I'm saying is you cannot know the fullness of God outside the church and yes you can no god but you cannot know the fullness what God has for you outside of his body because I was his plan from the very very very start well we're gonna see today if the church is the fullness of him who fills all in all we want to see where does that fullness exist where is the source of that fullness and I want to see how I can tap into that fullness and receive that fullness in my day-to-day life on Monday morning when my boss is coming at me on Friday night when my friends are tempting me how can i tap into that fullness of God on a practical level on a day-to-day level touched on it a little bit last week but will get much more in depth into it this week first Corinthians chapter 12 verse 27 tells us that now you are the body of Christ and members individually last week I finished off by trying to hopefully change your view on what does it mean to be part of the church and we agreed last week that as members of the church we are not individual members we are part of a whole and it's that whole that gives value to the individual members and if you remember last week I brought a piece of the bread that we used during the liturgy during communion I brought a piece of that bread and we have that bread that bread becomes the body of Christ okay that bread is the body of Christ but that bread comes from where it comes from a little piece of wheat over here little piece of wheat over there little piece suite over there that come together and together they are transformed into the body of Christ and then after they are transformed those little individual we wouldn't say the wheat is transformed individually we'd say the one bread is transformed and then after that one bread has transformed what happens it now disperses again into a million different directions it's broken into a million different little pieces and it goes off and the body of Christ goes all over the place well that same concept the same way of thinking is what we should think of as at all times as a member of the church individual members come together something happens and then they go off different than they came individual pieces a week come together something happens they go off not as pieces wheat anymore individual members come from from Rockville in from Arlington and from Baltimore and from South Riding and from Fairfax and from wherever it is that you're from come together something happens and then each one goes off in a different direction different than they came I say it this way God gives power to the church the church gives power to its members God gives power to the church the church gives powers to its members think of the church as a tree and each one of us is a branch our power our connection to God is through the stem like the branch is not powerful in and of itself but when connected to the stem and the roots then that branch has all kinds of power and nutrients and stuff inside of it well we as members of the body of Christ are the same way we come from different directions we unite ourselves together and we'll talk about what that unity is together in a second we unite something happens here and then we go off and it completely all kinds of different directions different than we came jesus said this way in Matthew 16 speaking about the church he says I say to you are Peter and on this rock I will build my church and now he gives a description of my church he says the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it he doesn't say that the gates of Hades should not prevail against you shall not prevail against my church important difference I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven now he's speaking to the church okay i will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven or whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven this is why what I'm saying is the church is not a normal organization church not a group of people who get together and sing songs and pray because it's nice the church has the power over the gates of Hades inside I don't know what that means the church has the keys to the kingdom of heaven everyone wants heaven the church has the key to it the church has the power to fine stuff and to lose stuff that will be an eternity bound and loosed this great power this great power is too much for any one person would you agree it's too much for any one person this load of carrying the kingdom of heaven is too much for any individual person to carry would you agree with that so what God does he doesn't ask any individual to carry it he asked the church to carry it and he asked us to plug into the church think of an easy example think of electricity along these walls here here outlets all over the walls all right we love outlets you walk into a store or a restaurant you see everyone plugging their phones and outlets outlets out we like outlets what's an outlet and now lit is you have a power line okay and inside that power line is a whole bunch of electricity how much electricity is in that power line yeah let's say a lot okay my my only standard electricity is one point twenty-one gigawatts okay which is from Back to the Future if you moretz how much it took one point twenty-one gigawatts one point twenty-one gigawatts let's say and that power okay power line there's one point twenty-one gigawatts which if you remember the movie can send you 40 years forward or backward in time but in the outlet there's not one point twenty-one gigawatts if you stick your finger in the outlet it'll shock you a little bit but if you stick your finger in the one point twenty-one gigawatts watch out you that's not gonna be a good situation that's the way the church is the church is the power line and then we as the individual members when we connect to that power line we ourselves have power but our power is not in and of ourselves our power not because anything us our powers because we're connected to the one point twenty-one gigawatts which is the church so here's a sentence I said earlier God gives power to the church the church gives power to its members I belong with me on that so far here's our topic for today the methodology or the mechanism which is used to distribute this power is called liturgy God gives power to the church and the church gives power to its members and the means by which this power is distributed is called liturgy the word liturgy has a meaning to us today which is different sort of than its original meaning that it started with you know how like like like for example like a Kleenex okay the word Kleenex has changed through time to mean something that it isn't really all right or Xerox or things like that liturgy is the same way then we now associate a certain act on Sunday morning from nine to eleven here before anyone comes all right from nine to eleven we call that the liturgy and we capitalize it but the word liturgy doesn't really mean anything sacred we use its refer to the divine liturgy but you'll see in a second the word liturgy comes from two Greek words okay and you see it there on your handout comes from the Greek it's to it stored litter little gaya which comes from the greek word louse okay elite which means people and air gone which means work so little gaya aur liturgy literally means the work of the people it means people coming together to do something together that's why for us when we talk about the divine liturgy or the Liturgy of the Eucharist that is people coming together to celebrate the Eucharist but we also in our church like we have a baptism we call data liturgy as well the baptismal liturgy is people coming together to do a work which is baptism a funeral is a liturgy anytime you have a group of people gathering together to do something that's what cold that's what the word liturgy is all about last week we talked about how God wants us to live together today we see he doesn't want us just to live together hang out together go bowling together do fun stuff together he wants us to pray together and he wants us to unite in true liturgy and we'll see what that means to show you how much God wants it look at this verse this might be the best promise in all of the Bible and Jesus talked about liturgy prayer when he said for where two or three are gathered together in my name I'm there in the midst of them this might be the best promising old Bible we're two or three gathered together in my name notice he didn't say in an individual sense he didn't say if you stand up to pray at home I will be there and with I'm not saying that individual prayers bad okay but it's different he didn't say about individual prayer that I'll guarantee you all be there but he did say it about group prayer right here and let's think about this logical let's think about this experientially our experience tells us that the times where we feel God's presence the most we know that God is always present everywhere but the times when we feel his presence the most i bet you 9 out of 10 times you're going to say that happened in a group context would you agree with that either it was during a church service or it was out a retreat or it was a time where a group of us got together and we had it out and we prayed together the times that you felt the presence of God the most i betcha came in a group context again I'm not saying that preying on your own isn't just as important as praying together I'm not saying that but I'm saying it's different that's why here if you look at our list of core values that we have as a church one of them is about the importance of transformational communal worship but the one that follows right after that is about the passionate pursuit of god we don't stop worshipping after we leave church but we continue to passionately pursue God through our bible reading through our prayers who are giving to our service whatever it may be the two need to be working together because what they are think of it this way as a candle that I have a candle right here and this candle is nice as a little flame like this but imagine that i bring my candle you bring your candle you bring your kin we put all those candles together you know and a half have a blowtorch the power of group prayer is based on the power of the individual prayer so if you bring a whole bunch of people together on sunday morning who never pray monday through friday then their group prayer is going to be pretty worthless because bring a bunch of empty candles is worthless but when we are people of prayer and we have prayer in the individual candle and we put it together we bring it like I said like the wheat from all the ends of the earth man that's the kind of prayer that moves mountains you never hear about somebody praying individually and moving a mountain you hear about the people of God prayed and move the mountain you never hear about people individually praying and stuff would shake and things were but you when the people of God pray together that's when stuff happens today I want to break down this word liturgy and try to understand three questions alright what is liturgy and again what is the meaning of the word liturgy and we'll talk specifically about the divine liturgy which we talked about here in the Orthodox Church a lot what is liturgy why liturgy and how liturgy what is it why do we need it how do we do it let's start with the first first one liturgy is fill in the blank what would you say most people would say liturgy is Sunday morning church most people when they use the word liturgy like I said they're referring to the Liturgy of the Eucharist all right and and that's fine like a that's fine but let's just understand the word liturgy is much bigger than that the true word liturgy means a group of people gathering together as I said so we can say that when we up here together we close our eyes and we're singing is that liturgy a form of liturgy absolutely it's a form of liturgy group of people work together we get together in a life group and we bow our heads and we pray is that liturgy absolutely as literature when I bring my family at night husband wife boy girl we stand here we pull out our egg Bay our prayer book and we pray as a family is that liturgy absolutely that's liturgy that's liturgy in the truest sense it's not the Liturgy of the Eucharist obviously but it is liturgy and it's that form of prayer group prayer that is our definition of definition of liturgy is a communal response to God however it looks a communal response to God on Sunday mornings that communal response is a sacramental gathering around the table remembering as our Lord told us commanders to remember do this in remembrance of him is the remembrance of his the mystical supper the last supper that's our liturgy on Sunday morning after that we may have liturgy like I said in the myriad of ways it's a group of people responding to God through prayer through praise through Thanksgiving through repentance who grew people closing the lights and spending time and repentance that's all liturgy in the true sense of what it means in fact when our Lord Jesus Christ said whatever two or three gather in my name there I'm in there in their midst he wasn't talking about gathering in church you know how we know that because there was no church there was no church he wasn't saying when two or three people go to a building on their in their midst they were talking about a building it's not about a gathering that's what I'm saying is that gathering that's anytime me and you we get together and we respond to God's presence always starts with him we respond to God that is the truest sense of what liturgy means so does that mean does that mean that any time we gather together and we pray and any time we got it together as a church anytime we gather together to sing that mean anytime we do that the power of God will always be there and we'll always God will be in our midst always every time not exactly and again this again this fits experience like always when you see something up here you question and say is that true or not true and my experience tells me father Anthony is great as the words that you're saying my experience tell me there's many times I come to a church and I feel it's dead and many times we stand to sing my mind is a medicine they don't feel the power glad I feel the presence of God at all and I would say to you that is correct one hundred percent correct because if you look at especially like the writings of the people from the first second third fourth century they speak about a concept called good liturgy versus bad liturgy maybe you never heard that word before and that sounds kind of like good liturgy and bad liturgy what is there between good liturgy we come together presence of God power of God Spirit of God is moving versus badler G were just staring at wall talking to ourselves what's the difference one thing true liturgy good liturgy requires one heart or the biblical expression you've seen the book of Acts all the time is one Accord someone says come to the come to the Divine Liturgy on Sunday morning it's heaven on earth you walk in say man that's heaven all I have nothing to do with it you say why why is heaven so dirty why is heaven so disorganized why are so many kids screaming in heaven why can't that boy sit down if it's in heaven you say this is what heaven is and I tell you you know what it is not having for you because you are not in the one heart and one accord and yet the easily you're cute thought I was gonna say they're doing a bad job and they're not in one or no I'm saying that they could be in heaven and you could be completely out of it because you're not in the same spirit in the same one heart and the one accord you know like I know that being next to somebody doesn't mean that you have a oneness together a one heart or one accord you can be hundreds of miles apart and be like this you standing right next to with someone we living in the same house with a person and be miles and miles apart in here and spirit you all agree the same thing is true when it comes to worshipping God and praying that our power doesn't come from standing in the same room together our power comes when we are united in one heart and one purpose in one spirit and when we pray together it's not just me praying and you listening that it's all of us praying together and when we sing together is not just someone singing and me daydreaming it's all of us singing together and when there's that one spirit there's that one heart one Accord may that's the stuff the mountains like I said mountains will move from the Bible book of Acts very clear I can only fit three verses up on the screen I could put a hundred of them acts 114 these all continued with one Accord and prayer and supplication with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus and with his brothers acts 21 the day of Pentecost they the Holy Spirit came down most powerful day in the history of the world when the day of Pentecost had fully come they were all with one Accord in one place and last acts for 24 so when they heard that they raised their voice to God with one Accord how come I come to liturgical prayer I come to the liturgy Eucharist and I don't feel power cuz you're not in one Accord you're not in one heart and yes it's easy for you to blame everybody else that they're not one heart with me but that's that's a cop-out so I'm not blaming everybody I'm blaming myself are you blaming yourself because here we are in the liturgy like for example Liturgy of the Eucharist there's a there's a peace we pray for the Peace of the world you're not praying for the Peace of the world we pray for the safety of the travelers we pray for the hierarchy of the church we pray for the poor we pray for the truck they're strangers the orphans the widows if you are not praying for those things you will have no power in the liturgy so don't tell me that is the liturgies doesn't have power I say you're the one who disconnected from the power line so yes the outlet is dead we come together you say let's say you we have like a prayer meeting together alright we do this every so often Church you say we get together and have a prayer one things that I believe in for prayer meetings it's very important for me personally because i'm not good at prayer naturally some people are good they can just pray on the spot I can't I need to know what's the theme of our prayer I like to have prayer with the theme tonight we're gonna get together and we are going to pray fill in the blank tonight we're going to focus on repentance we're pray prayers of repentance and it's all repentance repentance repentance tonight when get together and we're gonna celebrate the work of God after something amazing that he did I like to have a theme because when we get together and pray one person's over here and I'm coming in with a repentant heart and I'm ready to cry when it's my turn and repent repent and this guy is praising God for the goodness in on my count I missed my chance to now I'm jumping in the wrong place and someone over here is thanking someone overhears morning if someone over here is praying for the middle east on over here is praying for his is there's stubbed toe or whatever it may be and we're all in different corners of course that prayer is gonna be boring of course that prayer is gonna be meaningless because it's not one heart they got together acts 2 in the middle one they said Jesus told us to stay here and pray for the coming of the Holy Spirit so they prayed what happened and the Holy Spirit blew them up they would pray for example we'll see some examples times where people would pray he would pray for this person who is sick or this person who had died and cut needed to come back they would pray for one heart one purpose one accord and God did amazing miracles in that time with that said the importance of the one Accord explains something which maybe you've heard me refer to if you have attended Liturgy of the Eucharist you've heard me refer to it all right or maybe you just heard of it from wherever which is and no one's gonna get offended by oh I'm sake i hope i hope everybody appreciates that I try to be honest okay and I know sometimes like I don't say the politically correct thing I say the honest thing I'd love why can't we all have communion together right we can't all have communion together and if you're visiting us and you attend the Liturgy of the Eucharist maybe you even celebrate the Lord's Supper in your own church now you come here and you hear me say that you have to be baptized in the Orthodox Church in order to participate in communion they say hey wait a minute you believe in Last Supper I believe in Last Supper use it like how come we can't all be united together around the table of the Lord don't be offended I'm not trying to offend anyone I'm trying to explain the truth is that our communion as I talked about last week is not just a union with God it is a union with one another that's the whole point of one body so when we connect if you take communion here and you unite with Christ and you unite with Christ you are united by default right so if each one unites here like Christ is the unifying agent that unites we unite to him and by default we then unite to one another by definition i should say no by default therefore I don't tell people that you can't take communion I don't say that expression I never say you can't I say we are not in communion because the very fact that you and I believe different things were not praying the same things we don't have communion and the act of participating in communion is not what makes us United it's the sign of our unity it's not what makes us United does that make sense what I mean by that is when we have one prayer and one belief and one faith then we are in communion and we symbolize that or we we manifest that we act that out through are participating in the body and blood of Christ but if we don't have the same faith and we don't can't share in the same prayer then we're not in communion even if it doesn t we can't pray together doesn't mean we can't love each other but that means that we can't have the fullness of communion together now you sit there and say no but I believe everything you believe ok and I say if that's the case ok let's let's do it then then let's go all the way in and let's make that out that inside belief and outwardly manifested in by joining the church but the point is is if I cannot say we many times in our liturgical prayers we say we believe we believe we believe the priest will say something we respond we believe and if we are not all believing the same thing and praying the same thing and have one faith and one prayer then we're not in communion together again with that said I'm not saying we can't be friends I'm not saying we can't pray together share the Word of God together what I'm saying is the difference between you and I as friends and me and my wife as one is a difference so we can all be friends with each other but we are not united in the way that a husband and a wife are united so it's the same thing that we as brothers and sisters in Christ yes alright we are united in that way but our communion the power comes from our unity of faith and unity of Prayer that's what is liturgy communal response to God second question why liturgy why do we need liturgy why do we have to do what's so valuable otter I'm gonna go through three quick reasons and I'll run through them pretty quickly here of the value of liturgy number one I'll tell you this liturgy gets results people praying together gets results we're gonna go to the book of Acts chapter 12 and the book of Acts chapter 12 is a critical time in the history of the church because it was the first time the church faced major persecution especially to its leadership all right there had been some persecution kind of with the people down there but in Acts chapter 12 is when Peter who is like one of the heads and James who's also one of the heads of the early church are taken into prison and James is killed in prison by Herod and Peter his turn is next he's awaiting person awaiting death in prison that's where we pick up the story in acts 12 verse 5 says Peter was kept in prison but constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church now behold look at the results of that now behold an angel the Lord stood by him and a light shone in the prison and he struck Peter on the side and raised him up saying arise quickly and his chains fell off his hands Peter in prison do you think Peter was praying in prison absolutely he was praying do you think that each of these believers in the church was praying in their own individual prayers for Peter of course he's their head I would hope if the guide the head goes to prison and everybody's on board I hope everybody's brain his prayers didn't do it individual prayers didn't do it are the believers but when they got together and constant prayer was offered to him chains fell off the doors were opened a great miracle took place why because a candle is great but a blowtorch that's what you need when you need results I believe in this so much this is what Jesus said in Matthew 18 19 I believe in this so much again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask it will be done for them by my father in heaven I believe in this so much that so many times when i find myself week from my prayer life week I tell group of people we need have a prayer meeting for something for the church why we need and we need to have brie know why I because I need it not because they needed because I need it because I believe in many times I say this is my prayer I say God you don't want to do this for me I totally understand I don't deserve it but God for the sake of all these people here you're gonna answer and I believe that I believe in many times I'll stand in front of God and I don't I can't stand in front of God and ask for anything but when God sees all these people asking his like when one kid comes to you and asks we want to stay up late watch the movie back to bed when they all come and they're going to revolt on you God can ignore my prayers but he cannot ignore the prayers when they're offered together in a liturgical sense in a communal sense it gets results number two while ergy because it brings joy liturgy brings joy and if you've ever been in this situation you know exactly what I'm talking about we had this just a couple weeks ago for those who were at the momentum conference which we did in Pennsylvania those were there I'm telling you there was a time we were up there together and we were singing and the lights and the band was up there and we were praying and I didn't want it to end and nobody wanted to end and we were staying in this song we sing it last week that uh from the rooftops I pro-shot out your name from the rooftops I proclaim a man i'm dashed out the roof die wit shower was screaming and it wasn't a person who wanted to leave that because there's something joyful and powerful about a group together like I could in my room or i should say my shower more accurately i can sing the top but it's not the same as when a group people together united together in prayer it brings joy but you can't get on your own also in a church sense like for example when when you're one of the that we're approaching very soon the the season of Holy Week all right which is that sacred time where the churches are packed and people all come at shared view I'm going to church for years and we're singing we sing the hymn of the him from the book of Revelation thine is the power we sing that a bazillion times and we sing it at eno da did and we go and belting it out and you can't hear yourself EP and that's man that feeling you can't get that on your own but when you're together united in prayer psalm 100 as a commandment says shout for joy to the lord all the earth worship the Lord with gladness come before him with joyful songs what I have discovered like I said it proved this every morning in the shower is that it's really hard to do this by yourself it's much more difficult to make a joyful shout to the Lord by yourself you can do it but it's something powerful about when we do it all together think about the difference between singing together think my name is Queen singing alone versus singing with another person for singing with another ten people there's another hundred people there's another 500 people there's power and there's something special when it's done together in unity and that gets us to that the last one why liturgy because liturgy prepares us for heaven because when you get to heaven I don't know what your picture of heaven is but if you are picturing it you're going to be in heaven in your little own little corner and just with your own little Bible and your sermon that you listen to like if that's what you think of heaven your little journal that in heaven because anyone who has ever gotten a vision of heaven or a picture of heaven or written about heaven talks about thousands of thousands and ten thousand times ten thousand we picked that up here in Revelation chapter 5 john the beloved saw a vision of heaven he said then i looked and i heard the voice of many angels around the throne living creatures the elders and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands that means literally too much to number okay but just an expression 10,000 x 2 delta saying with a loud voice worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing heavenly worship is liturgical worship in the sense that it is corporate or communal and that's not to say that each one of us won't have a very strong connection in an individual way with God but it says that the true heavenly worship will be when all those individual parts come together and one United Way now last question we need to answer is how let's be honest how can we make liturgical worship and again i'm applying liturgical worship to win anytime two or three gather together to do anything whether like I said that's that's your prayer at the end of your life group that's a group of believers who are together share the Word of God that's us before the well when we sing together at the end of the well when we pray together that's also the Divine Liturgy of the Eucharist how can we make it truly transformational like how can it true leg what do I need to do to get this power because for most of us is a disconnect between what we read and hear about liturgical prayer and what we experience and there's a disconnect this is what you say it is this is what my experience is what's the key to take me from where I am to where you say it can be I think whether it's singing songs whether it's a prayer meeting whether it's a life group whether it's a group of friends for a birthday party want to be in God's presence whether it's the Liturgy of the Eucharist whatever it is the number one factor that will contribute to you experiencing power in liturgical worship is active participation simple not just participation active participation it means not just showing up like you're showing up to a movie not just showing up as a consumer where I'm coming to sit in the chair someone liturgy me and take me to heaven someone do a bunch of stuff that just automatically makes me be in front of God's president that's not how it works there's no such thing as consumers in liturgy liturgy is all about people coming together and doing their part to lift the whole group up to heaven think about it this way think about I go to Wall Street check out a hundred dollars my pocket let's say no what I want to be a millionaire I've read stories by people who came with a halogen a pocket they invested it wisely millionaires here's one hundred dollars I just showed up out of the blue this it says Wall Street Mahama invest my hundred dollars and I'm gonna find myself a millionaire what's the likelihood i find myself a millionaire if that's all i do i just showed up I just saw wall street the people who made themselves millionaires of people who put a little animal effort into it a little preparation little research did their home we didn't just show up in the first guy who says I'll take like that's not how it works but that's what we do with liturgy that's what we do with liturgy we just show up at whatever time we show up and we just our mind is everywhere and we just expect everybody else to give me a powerful experience in you're never gonna find a powerful experience imagine somebody going back in the gold rush alright when their gold inside the mountains I just showed up on the mountain and say I'm here on the mountain where's the gold you're not gonna find gold who's gonna find gold world comes with a hat with a little light with the pickaxe with the bucket and he's digging he's getting dirty he's getting his fingers dirty and he scraping himself up but he's going inside the mountain and that one who did the research and did the metal detector whatever it may be like that's the guy who's gonna find the gold how many of us show up and just expect gold to meet us in the face I promise you I promise you there's gold in liturgical prayer I promise you you have my word on it that's talking about again that's time about any time the group of believers gathers together there's gold the question is not is it there the question is will you find it because many people will come to this mountain and many people walk away from the mountains say I found nothing other people will find gold inside well find the presence of God inside will find where two or three are gathered in my name i'll be there in their midst that have any two of you agree on earth or anything i will do it for them and especially for us here in the Orthodox Church the pinnacle of liturgical worship is the Liturgy of the Eucharist everything I said applies to all like liturgy like I said all forms but especially now and talk about the pinnacle of it which is the Liturgy of the Eucharist one of our core values here at st sa is transformational communal worship which says this says that we gather to be transformed power we've got her to be transformed by the real presence of god in our midst every time we meet liturgical prayer is not just a routine it is life-giving and it is real it is the center of our life as a family what is the Liturgy of the Eucharist okay which again we just usually say the liturgy will what is the Eucharist what is the Eucharist to the church Michael Jordan is Michael Jordan when he has a basketball in his hand and he's going Tiger Woods is tiger woods with a golf club in his hand like you can meet Tiger Woods in many aspects but the true tiger woods when he's at his like who he is he got it golf club in his hand Roger Clemens throwing that fastball over the plate the church does many events many activities many things going on those are all great but the church the truest church like the true church strip everything away who is the church the church is the Eucharist and the churches we gather around the table of the Lord and at the table of the Lord which by the way takes place here every sunday from nine to eleven before the well every sunday from nine to eleven right here that table or which you see my point in telling you that is is not the table that special is not the stage especially not the room that special the same place to be right now having coffee but every Sunday we got around this table right here and God meets us right here God meets us right here and then God invites us to come and partake of him and we believe that when we come with that one not just we show up not just we show up and the goal not just show up but when we prepare and we invest and we participate actively not like moviegoers but like gold mine diggers that we will receive the true and real body and blood of Christ himself how don't ask me out but I know when I come here well I know when I come this I know that my electrical outlet be full of power one of the early Christian father's st. John Chrysostom says this about the Eucharist he says the Eucharist is a fire that inflames us that speaking about us like lions breathing fire we returned from the altar being made terrible to the devil terrible being like terrifying he says that we come to this altar and there's fire on this altar and the fire comes inside of us and then we leave like people to set the world on fire I love that impression that analogy that we come to be lit up I'm going to light some other stuff up we come empty we come we come with whatever it is that we come with that we all come to this table and he lights us on fire and then from there we going ah light stuff light people like communities with the same fire that we receive not because we not because we are anything like who are we we're nothing but when we come and receive fire we breathe fire my hope and my prayer for two days my hope and my prayer for today is that each one of us would take an honest look at our liturgical life again I'm not just talking about the Eucharist but I'm talking about Eucharist as the pinnacle but really this entire life we said last week that we are to live together shared life together well part of that life sharing has to be to pray together and I'm talking about like I said we're in life group that we take an honest look at the way we pray together and when we are gathering together for dinner with a group of friends who all worship God and all want got in our midst that we would use that time to not just laugh and joke together but to lift our hearts together to God knowing that when to which we gathered my presence I am there and their midst that we would take an honest look at our life in a liturgical sense and see where am i and take ownership of where I am if I come to liturgy the Liturgy of the Eucharist and I don't experience the power of God it's my fault I look in the mirror and I say I need to do a better job and and while say with the Liturgy of the Eucharist is the 3 r's 3 r's that you need to do to receive its read repent and rest that you come on sunday morning you've read the readings for the day so you're not just show up not know what's going on you repent because you cannot come in the presence of god with a truce without a true spirit of repentance and everyone comes at you may not like confess every sunday before you come but you repent every sunday before you come and then rest you go to bed early on saturday night sometimes the most spiritual things you can ever do is go to sleep i truly believe that that we don't come on sunday morning tired we come on sunday morning rested ready to invest everything that we got if i'm in a prayer meeting and I'm unengaged in that prayer meeting I don't say to myself this person prays too long this song was not good I wish this that we don't do that we take ownership and we say the reason I am not eating the presence of God right now is because I am NOT one unity in one Accord in one heart with the rest of the people right here it's my fault it's because I never pray at home and I just magically showed up at a prayer meeting assuming that everything would be totally fine I never invest in prayer at home it is my fault my hope we gather together here at the well and we stand up together to sing to me singing songs it's the same as prayer it's actually better I can pray for maybe a minute but we sing a song you pray for 10 minutes five minutes per song too okay reading spend more time in prayer that's all songs are their prayers that's that's we praise God with our voices whether in flight anything we can to praise god I hope when we got there and we're singing we're not just but we're singing and would joyful and we're praising God and it's a prayer to God and if that's not what you're feeling don't look at the people up here on stage don't look at the people around look inside yourself and said something wrong in here always easier to find excuses versus take ownership myself last verse I'll leave you all with this is my prayer this is my prayer for us like I would love to see this verse fulfilled in us Acts chapter 4 verse 31 it says when they had prayed the place where they were assembled together was shaken again it never said any individual ever prayed in the house was shaken but when they got it together house was shaking and they were all filled with the holy spirit and they spoke the Word of God with boldness now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart one soul if you want to encompass everything that God desires for our prayer life as a body again there's an individual prayer life but I'm not talking about today I'm not saying it's not important but i'm not talking about everything God wants for our prayer life together as a body it's in these two verses right here they assembled together they were one heart one soul the place was shaken they're filled the Holy Spirit and they went out and lit the world on fire by speaking the Word of God with boldness can this be us I can this be us like this I may say yes this can be us but it makes no difference what I say I mean it makes a difference for me like I'm one piece of the body but I'm asking you can this be us can when we stand to pray this be us ken when we gather on Sunday mornings that the neighbors next door feel a rumbling Ken when we finish here on Sundays right now whatever time 1245 can when we finish by 1 45 there's fires out there in Arlington but the people in Puerto Rico say something will happen in here can we light this place on fire I believe we can and I believe God wants us to but I hope you believe it as well because without you it can't happen let's stand together for a prayer now the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit one God amen or do we thank you from the depth of our heart that you gave to us this great promise and you gave us your body to fulfill everything that you want to do in this world lord thank you that you gave us this promise that you are here in our midst now and you are here any time we gather in your name I pray Lord you'd help us to make take advantage of that and and not take it in a passive way of expecting you to come bite us on the nose with your presence but that we would be faithful and diligent to invest in our liturgical life and our prayer life together as a body and I pray Lord you would shake the walls pray you would shake our communities that you'd shake our families that you'd fill our homes our friendships fill our life groups fill them with your power Lord as you filled the Apostles in the early church and you shook the world through them and you turn the world upside down I pray Lord you would do the same thing here with us in this body here I pray these things in the name of your son our Lord Jesus Christ with the prayers of all your Saints here's as we pray thankfully our Father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil one in Christ Jesus our Lord for thine is the kingdom the power and the glory forever amen thanks everybody for coming out again a fiend parking pass
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