Why the Wednesday Night Worship Service is Important

Well, it's been a great week. It's been great to be with the saints at Grace Life in Brookhaven. I am so greatly encouraged. I sent a text to your pastor today and thanked him for everything and said this, that what God's doing here is nothing short of a miracle. It's not happening everywhere. You talk about renewal and revival, there's a sense of that here. God's building His church and He's using the word, the instrument of His word to build His church. He's building His church by using the truth to build lives because the church is not a brick and mortar thing, it's the people.

And that He's building and maturing us as we looked at last night from Ephesians chapter 4. Tonight I want us to take opportunity to go to Hebrews chapter 10. So turn with me right quick to Hebrews chapter 10. And I want to talk tonight and lean on this text to talk about why Wednesday night worship is important. With that I'm also going to include Sunday night. I want to start in verse 19. I just wanted to one last time say thank you for being so kind to Stacey and I, for taking such good care of us.

It's been a joy to fellowship with Pastor Chris and his dear wife and I consider him a dear friend of mine and fellow soldier in the army of Christ. And it's been joyful, the drive down was joyful, the time here has been joyful, meaning you has been joyful. It's been joyful to be able to preach the word, although I'm not worthy of that, but the Lord is merciful and gracious. So Pastor thank you for having us. Thank you for your friendship. Thank you for your fidelity, your faithfulness, your commitment. And Brother one of these days, those scars will no longer be there, but for now the Lord is using them.

You may think why do we even need to talk about something like this? I've never heard a sermon in my life on why the Wednesday evening service is important. I worked on this message because it was burning in my heart some months ago, sat down at my desk and spent hours and hours working in the text of scripture and thinking and praying. I got it all done and I text my friend, Jonathan Sims, I said, "Brother, I'm going to run something by you.

Do you mind proofing a sermon for me?" He said, "I don't mind that I'll send it to him." What he told me, he said, "Brother," he said, "not only is that biblical," he said, "that needs to be preached in every church in America." And I think one of the reasons that he said that coincides with my estimation is that we don't value the midweek service the way that we ought to. So I started thinking about and asking my own self the question, is it necessary, is it biblical to have a midweek service? Should faithful Christians attend the midweek service regularly?

I felt that it was a very important question, pastorally speaking, begin to ask questions, what's the history behind it? And begin to do some background investigation into the matter. So that's what I want to open up tonight, but before we go any further, it's time to read the passage from the Bible that I'm going to be using. I'm going to start in verse 19 of chapter 10. I'm going to read through verse 25. Of course, we know the context here that the Hebrew author is writing to converted Jews that have come out or those that at least have come out of Judaism and the practice of it that are in a certain sense seeing that the gospel is true.

They have embraced in some way this new and living way he speaks about in verse 20. So he says, "Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus by a new and living way which he inaugurated for us through the veil that is his flesh, and since we have a great high priest, a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart and full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering for he who promised is faithful, and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near." Let's have a quick word of prayer and I'll pray for you as you pray for me. Lord, would you open up our hearts to receive the truth of God? Lord, would you stir our holy affections for your great name? And Lord, even for your church that you love and have given your life up for?

Lord I pray that you would help us to grapple with this question about the midweek service in our Sunday evening service. Because Lord, above all else, we want to be faithful to you. Lord, we want to be a people of the book. We want to be a people that are committed and loyal to the Lord Jesus Christ, a people that are in Christ and that Christ is in us, and to please you in all respects. So Lord, help us tonight. We beg of the aid of the Holy Spirit, the one who reveals divine truth to us, and give us teachable hearts, and we might walk out the truth obediently in our day-to-day lives. And we ask it in Christ. Amen.

So the precise history of the midweek service from the research that I've done is largely unknown, lost in history. The Protestants, or faithful Christians like you and I, have upheld and embraced the midweek and the Sunday night service for over 150 years. Some trace the midweek service back to the slaves in the United States who would meet every week for encouragement and for prayer on the midweek. Some attribute it to Dwight Lyman Moody who held noon day prayer meetings on the midweek for revival.

And Wednesday nights may have started out simply as a prayer meeting, but over the course of time have gradually taken on more of a corporate worship service. But does the Bible require it? It's a good question. And I'm going to make arguments tonight. I think the Bible does encourage it. I don't believe that there's any law there that says thou shalt obey the Wednesday night service. One author caught my attention when he wrote it this way. It could be a reflection of the spiritual temperature of this generation.

It could be that as persecution increases and nominal Christianity falls out of favor, the true church will once again see the need for more frequent meetings in order to remain strong in the face of opposition. I think Hebrews chapter 10 gives to us a good reason to uphold the midweek and even the Sunday evening service. The Hebrew author is unfolding this new and living way that's been inaugurated by the death of the Lord Jesus Christ and also the grace of drawing near to God, the grace of holding fast, the confession of our faith without wavering. And then he delves into the importance of stimulating one another to love and good deeds.

All this is accomplished by faithful attendance in the local church. I want you to notice in our text that the assembly is exhorted to meet all the more as we see the day approaching or the day drawing near. I take that to mean as we see the times that we live in becoming more and more turbulent and the return of the Lord Jesus Christ nearing. Now I want us to think clearly about this. The confession of our hope that we just read in verse 23 is strengthened by our faithful assembling. Do you see that? Now think with me to the original audience. We need to understand authorial intent.

We need to think about how this landed and whose ears this landed in its first reading because they were facing stringent opposition. These were converted Jews that had become the bane of the Jewish community. They had been exhorted to not go back to the empty shadows and types that were given underneath the old administration. They were told that those were simply copies of the realities that were manifest and given in the Lord Jesus Christ. We see that in Hebrews 9 verse 23 and 24. But the cultural pressure to return to those Jewish traditions was utterly powerful. Sadly, some did go back to those empty practices. We see that in chapter 3.

And it's really hard for us to capture the heat and hardship that these first century Jewish Christians were experiencing from day to day. That was 2,000 years ago. There's a lot of space between then and now. And I think it's hard for us to really fathom as Gentile Christians in 2025 what these converted Jewish people were experiencing and the outcasts that they were. So we see the historical situation and then now the exhortation that God's people find strength in the midst of opposition in their habitual attendance to the local church.

That in the context of a local church that they will find stability in the midst of contrary winds that are blowing against them. An opposition that's set against them. They will be enabled to press on despite hardship. And while there's not an explicit command for the midweek service, I certainly find strong exhortation for it in our text. So I want us tonight to think biblically about the midweek service. And it's my conviction as a pastor that the Bible points us toward it. But I want you to see it. I want you to think upon it. And I want you to see that this is a rightful and Christ exalting exhortation and conviction.

Because I'm convinced after 30 years of pastoral work that those who neglect the midweek service are more likely to crumble underneath the pressures that we face today as Christians. I'm convinced that those that habitually miss the midweek become weakened in their sanctification and are more easily tricked by the deceptive work of the devil. So this evening as we're coming to the end of our meetings on a Wednesday evening, I want to unpack five supportive truths about the midweek service. And here's my prayer. This was my prayer for you. That this message would help you realign with the Bible driven lifestyle.

The first truth is that the midweek service is important because hunger and thirst desire it. Hunger and thirst for the truth of God is the evidence of a heart enthroned by Christ. What is the centrality of the midweek service? It's the preaching of the word of God. The apex of our midweek at Grace Life prior Oklahoma is the preaching of the word of God. Why do Christians gather together on the midweek? Why? Because our hearts hunger and thirst for what we find there. We find Christ being proclaimed in the power of the spirit. His glories manifested through the word through the proclamation of the gospel of God.

More than that we also love to come and to sing the hymns in our church. We even from time to time will take some of the Psalms from the Psalter and passionately sing the word of God. We also find strength in the fellowship with God's people. It uplifts us, it helps us as we fellowship. Listen faithful Christians earnestly desire these God given graces. The Psalmist penned in Psalm 92 verse 12 through 14, "The righteous man will flourish like a palm tree. He will grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Planted in the house of Yahweh they will flourish in the courts of God. They will still yield fruit in their old age. They shall be rich and fresh.

Planted in the house of Yahweh flourishing in the courts of God." I'm talking about we gather on the midweek because we're hungry and thirsty for that. We want more of Christ. Listen whenever you're thirsty you will drink whenever opportunity arises, won't you? A hungry man will eat whenever food's on the table. Not forced to eat whenever we're hungry. Man I gladly eat whenever I'm hungry. I'm glad that my wife sets the food in front of me. I'm thankful for her label. So whenever I'm hungry I want what's there. I want what's being given to me. You know the Scriptures tell us that the people of God are hungry and thirsty for divine truth.

We're thirsty for what God provides to us. We're hungry and thirsty for fellowship with the other people of God. We're hungry and thirsty to be more and more like Christ. Jesus Himself said this in the Beatitudes in Matthew 5-6, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be satisfied." Brothers and sisters we attend the midweek service because we're hungry and thirsty for what's given there. There's not anything on this earth that could replace it. Television cannot satisfy divine thirst, a thirst for God.

People risk taking a nap, sleeping on the couch, it cannot replace the exegesis of Scripture, the preaching of the Word of God. Friends or family or hobbies, all of these things are eternally inferior. Listen, the treasure of our heart, the Lord Jesus Christ, the one that's captured my soul is present with the church as we gather. It says in Matthew 13-44 and Matthew 18-20. I already quoted this in some other preaching this week, but the Psalmist saw this as utterly important.

"One thing I have asked of Yahweh that I shall seek, that I may dwell in the house of Yahweh all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of Yahweh and to inquire in His temple. For in the day of calamity He will conceal me in His shelter. In the secret place of His tent He will hide me. He will lift me up on a rock and now my head will be lifted up above my enemies around me and I will offer in His tent sacrifices with loud shouts of joy." He must be Pentecostal. "I will sing and I will sing praises to Yahweh." What is he saying here?

The Psalmist is saying that I'm in the house of the Lord dwelling in the house of the Lord, beholding the beauty and inquiring in the temple of God and in the day of calamity I will be concealed in His shelter. In the secret place of His tent He will hide me. That means that whenever I run into a difficult situation that the Lord will have given me strength through the proclamation of the Word of God that's been given in the house of God and I'll be able to face that with joy and with confidence and trust in the Lord because the Word of God brings about faith and trust in our lives. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the words of Christ.

You know I shared this with my people that continual absence, and I'm not talking about if there's providential hindrance as we all have those, but I'm talking about continual absence we just don't see the value of it we just aren't there, is a diagnosis of a spiritual temperature problem. And maybe our hearts are cold. It could be a lack of hunger and thirst, it could be being preoccupied with trite and trivial things in our lives, it could be that lesser desires have conquered the greater desires. Grace Life Church, Brookhaven, listen, those who hunger and thirst will be the ones that are filled. End of story.

It's those who are hungry and thirsty. You know, let me just stop here for a moment. Say pastor, I'm not as hungry and thirsty as I ought to be and I can't fix that and I will say amen. But you bring it to God and you cast that care upon Him and you ask God to light that flame in your soul. You ask God to give you hunger and thirst. Now brothers and sisters, I'll just tell you and I'll give you a little bit of warning, sometimes the way that God creates hunger and thirst is difficult. Sometimes He brings us into a difficult place providentially so that He weans us off of things by bringing us to our end of them to see what they really are.

And sometimes brothers and sisters, it hurts. Sometimes as you're weaning a little child off of a bottle, they aren't happy with you or maybe we're trying to get that pacifier out of that two year old's mouth and they don't like you very much at first. Sometimes as God weans us from worldly things, it can be utterly painful. So pastor, I want to desire God more. Ask Him and say Lord whatever it takes. Whatever it takes. I'm going to go into particulars about this but years and years ago I had a friend that was wrestling with a certain sin in his life and here's how he prayed and he told me this later on.

He said Lord if it cost me my life, if you have to kill me to deliver me from this sin and save my soul, he says kill me. That's getting dead earnest isn't it? That's getting dead earnest. Brothers and sisters, learn to pray this way. Lord I don't love you the way that I ought to love you. Lord I don't have the desire that I ought to have would you in your might and your power create this in me. David did that didn't he? He created me a clean heart O God, renew a right spirit in me, do in me what I can't do for myself. Secondly it's important the midweek service because our weakness necessitates it.

Hungry thirst desires it but our weakness, our innate weakness necessitates it. Here's why I say that the Bible paints a pretty pitiful picture of me. It is honest about my fallenness. It reveals my dependency upon the Lord. It reveals that I'm a weak man in need of much help from God. Listen we need to garner strength whenever opportunity arises for it. You think about David he was the godly king of Israel well compared to his predecessor but David was not in battle as he ought to have been. Y'all familiar with the story? There he was in his disengaged state looking out over the rooftops and he began to see what he shouldn't see.

His weakness overthrew his strength and he sinned against God and he sinned against man and the consequences of that sin haunted him all of his life on this earth. Here's the point David's weakness was deeper and more deadly than he ever realized and I think that's the argument that Hebrews chapter 10 is making that these embattled Hebrew Christians needed their confession of hope strengthened. They needed to be stabilized whenever the ground underneath them was quaking and shaking. They needed to be stimulated to love and good deed. Why? Because they were weak.

There were ordinary people like you and me and the prescription that's given by the inspired writer by the Holy Spirit of God is not forsaking our own assembling together. A similar statement in thought is being argued in verse Corinthians chapter 10 when Paul writes to the church of Corinth. He talks there about the ancient nation of Israel and all their folly that God had made bountiful provision. He delivered them from Egypt. He miraculously makes provision through the sea. They eat and they drink as God's hand feeds them, as God provides for them but then they rebel and they become unthankful. They begin to turn to idolatry.

They fall into gross sexual immorality. God sends fiery serpents to discipline them. Then God in mercy provides a remedy in the brazen serpent which points to Christ and these things are preserved as examples for us Paul says and then he makes this statement in first Corinthians 10-12. After all this argument about how Israel was so weak they're falling into this sin and he gives this, he says this is an example and he says now I'm going to tell you something brothers and sisters in Corinth, let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.

I want you to thank just for a moment upon the myriads of men who succumbed in the Old Testament scriptures to weakness. Samson was overcome by a woman. Why was he overcome? Because he was weak. David was overcome by a woman. Why was King David overcome? Because he was weak. Solomon was not overcome by a woman. He was overcome by many women. Why? Because he was weak. He was overcome by wine. Why? Because he was weak. And you are weak. And I am weak. You are weak. And I am weak. Jesus knew this about his own disciples. He exhorted them then us to the scriptures. Abide in me for apart from me you can do something? No.

Apart from me you can do nothing. What was Jesus saying? You guys are weaker than you even think you are. He says remain in me. Be dependent upon me. Why would he say something that? That's very strong language. They were blind. They were weak. And they were vulnerable because that's the nature of a sheep. Sheep are weak animals. Have you ever messed around with any of those? They're weak. I mean you can flip one in the ear and he'll fall over dead. They're prone to wander off into dangerous territory. They need the strength of the shepherd and Jesus is our shepherd. We're familiar in Matthew of Peter's naive self-assessment.

Jesus had been speaking about his oncoming cross work and his death. He tells them in Matthew 26, 29 that you're all going to be scattered. But then Peter having a false understanding of his weakness pipes up and says even though all may fall away because of you I will never fall away. What if I have to die with you? I will not deny you. And then it says all the disciples said the same thing too. How short lived that was. Not long thereafter Peter denies the Lord Jesus three separate times. His weakness was put on display. You think about what happened whenever the Lord restores him to ministry in the 21st chapter of John.

He recommissions Peter. And what does he say to him three separate times. Peter do you love me? Tend my sheep. Feed my sheep. Shepherd my sheep. Why would this be the Lord's last charge to him? Because Jesus knows the sheep are weak and vulnerable. I am weak and vulnerable. You are weak and vulnerable. And that we need to be here on the midweek sermon to hear the word of the Lord to put on the Lord Jesus Christ to be strengthened because of the innate weakness that runs rampant on the inside of us. The preaching of the word of God is the primary means of grace to build up his people, to strengthen his people. We learned that last night.

To mature the people of God. Our fellowshiping one with another as we've been seeing throughout this week has the aim of building us up. We need to be encouraged. We need to have this courage fortified. If it's those that are aware of their weakness that will seek out that which strengthens them. Then the exhortation is given to meet all the more as we see the day drawing near. Whatever does that mean? Well I believe it's clear. I think that it's the day of the Lord. And I believe that the day of the Lord is preceded by darkness.

Jesus says in Matthew 24, 24, "If possible, even the elect would be deceived." I believe that there will be a season that precedes the second coming of Jesus Christ that will be extraordinarily difficult. And the admonition here is to meet more often and that you will be strengthened by the word of God. You will be strengthened by the fellowship of the people of God. You will be strengthened by the word of God that is the foundation upon which we stand. Third it's important because our sanctification benefits from it. The Lord wants his bride to be ready for the consummation, doesn't he?

He wants a bride that is pure and holy, washed in the water of the word. He expects a bride that will be clothed in white raiment. That's indicative of purity. Paul says that I have labored that I might present you as a chaste virgin unto Christ. This is Paul's burden to present the church as a holy people, a chaste virgin. I quoted this yesterday that it says in Revelation 19, 7 that the bride hath made herself ready. What is sanctification? Well it's that onward work of God in our heart after justification to where we're becoming more and more like Christ.

It spans the time between justification and glorification where we're working out our own salvation with fear and trembling. It's the process by which we're putting on the Lord Jesus Christ and making no provision for the flesh. That we're putting off the old man and putting on the new man. And the word of God is the means that God, the primary means that God has chosen to sanctify his people. John 17, 17. Identify them with the truth, thy word is truth. Romans 13, 14. Just a few references. We put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh. Romans 13, 12. Put on the armor of light and lay aside the deeds of darkness.

Ephesians 4, 24. Put on the new man which is in the likeness of God, been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. Ephesians 6, 11. Put on the full armor of God that we might be able to stand firm. Colossians 3, 10. Put on love, Colossians 3, 12. Put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Sanctification is the result of the word of God washing us as we see in Ephesians 5, 26. Being made clean by the words that Jesus has spoken to us, John 15, 3. Through the truth of God, John 17, 17. So sanctification is occurring as we're hearing the word of God and applying the word of God.

I call this God's primary means of grace to transform us, His primary means of grace. And it's to be pursued. Hebrews 12, 14 says, "Pursue peace with all men and the sanctification without which no one shall see the Lord." Pursue peace with all men and pursue sanctification. That means to be aggressive, be the initiator, lay hold, put on, put off, get busy, be concerned about becoming more and more like Christ. Listen, no man is sanctified simply because of longevity in the faith. We don't conform to the Lord Jesus Christ on cruise control or on autopilot. There's intention involved, there's purpose involved. The bride has made herself ready.

That means that her sanctification was something that was intentional or purposeful. Here's why I'm saying this. Faithful attendance at church on Sunday night, on Wednesday night, on Lord Day morning, week in, week out is instrumental to the Lord's work in our life making us more like Jesus, sanctifying us. Listen, beloved, I argued for this last night in my text that we mature as we hear spirit inspired, spirit anointed exposition of Holy Scripture. As we begin to crave the word of the Lord, we grow in respect to salvation.

Then whenever the truth is spoken in love, which was my last point last night, we grow up in all aspects into Christ, which into Him that is Christ as in Ephesians 4.15. Listen, it's very, very dangerous for us to settle in a rut where the preaching of the word of God becomes sparse in our lives. Here's why. The world that you and I live is very aggressive. The world that we live in is very contaminating. The world that we live in, the world that surrounds us, even the world that is within us, it covertly creeps in, it rewires the way that we think, it's seductively vies for our affections throughout the week.

It chips away at our minds and our hearts seven days a week, 24 hours a day. We're being assaulted by the world. We're being challenged by the philosophy of the world. And the reality is this, that those lies must be countered with the force of divine truth all the more, all the more as you see the day approaching. Paul says the word of God is a sword of the spirit in Ephesians 6.17. And this is one of the most necessary components of the armor provided for the Christian.

So without a copious exposure to the life-giving truth of God, Satan will find massive chinks in our armor and that his fiery darts, his seductive lies will do much harm to us. The word of God renews our minds, Paul says in Romans 12.2. It cuts away at our flesh, the flesh that God hates. It matures us and causes us to grow up. It equips us for the Christian life. And frankly, I have never met in 30 years of pastoral ministry a godly saint that's mature, that's growing, that's healthy, that is not faithful under the influence of the preached word of God on Sundays and Wednesdays and every time there's an opportunity.

I don't believe that God makes them. I don't believe there's such a thing as a mature Christian that's not faithfully setting under the preached word of God. I'll ask myself this question and you can hear me ask it to myself because it might be a little sharp. Do you want Jesus to receive a pure bride? I do. I do. Do you want to grow in grace, Derek? Yes, I do. Derek, do you want to be protected from the schemes of the liar, the adversary? I do. Derek, do you want to be in that wedding consummation on that great day? Lord, I do. Then faithfully set under the preaching of the word, apply the word of the Lord to your life.

Listen, the sermon that's given on the midweek and on Sunday nights and on Sunday morning is a deluge, a fountain, a cleansing fount for this very purpose. The truths that are being proclaimed are for the glory of God and for your sanctification and this is the will of God, your sanctification. Fourth, I believe that the midweek service is important because turbulent times demand it. Look at verse 25, it says, "And all the more as you see the day drawing near." I believe that it's clear this day spoken of is the return of the Lord Jesus for the church.

I believe that this is the consummation of the church age and it's a day for which we are called to prepare. Paul wrote to Timothy, he says, "I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that he is able to guard that which I have entrusted to him until that day." And he says, "Until then, hold the standard of sound words. Stay with it, Timothy. Be drenched with the Scriptures. Keep on pursuing sanctification.

When the Lord Jesus exhorted his own disciples in Matthew 24, 44 that the end of the age is coming." And he says, "Be found ready, equipped, prepare in advance for the second coming of the Lord." Listen, spiritual readiness, if we are to be ready, if we are to be a people that are equipped at his coming, it is the result of the Word of God being preached. And I've already mentioned that I believe tumultuous times will precede the end of the age.

This even warns the disciples that lawlessness and tension will indeed characterize the end of the age that false prophets are going to increase, that there are going to lead many away from the faith, that tribulation will be as never before, natural disasters are going to increase, wars are going to become commonplace, and that Christianity will become repulsive to the nations. You'll be hated by all for my name's sake, it says. And here's the irony of it, the Lord then charges the church to thrive in that kind of an environment.

That means that we are to advance his cause despite some of the worst opposition that's ever been faced in human history to the Christian cause. Matthew 24, 14 Jesus says, after he tells us all these terrible things that are going to happen, "And the gospel of the kingdom shall be proclaimed in all the world." It's like, get busy, obey me, go to the ends of the earth and preach the gospel despite all of this. We're going to take the Word of the Lord seriously. Committing to the local church, Paul wrote to Timothy and said the local church is the pillar and the support of the truth.

Think about this, what is it in history, even in our own experience that strengthened the church in difficult times? It's been the Bible. Think about Martin Luther, whenever he was standing before the Roman Catholic Tribunal, he had been charged with heresy. His life was at stake, but so was the truth. Did you hear what I was saying? His life was at stake, but so was the truth. There had never been such a moment in Luther's life, and there had never been a moment like that in the history of the Christian church, by the way.

Luther was commanded to recant his teaching and writings, and we all are familiar with Luther's famous statement, "I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted. My conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. May God help me. Amen." I mean, here we see Luther standing at Wittenberg, his life's endangered, and he's not budging even one inch. So here's the question I asked, what gave this man that kind of boldness? To face that kind of opposition, it was the Scriptures. It was the Bible. Luther was a biblicalist.

Listen, it wasn't his German blood that emboldened him. It was the Word of God and the Holy Spirit that emboldened him. And here's my argument that tumultuous times demand voluminous Scripture intake, voluminous. That nothing strengthens the soul, nothing gives you an eye wholly resolved like the sword of the Spirit. Listen, a true church like this one is a hydrant of biblical exposition. A true church like this one. It pours out the truth of God to equip the people of God. It fuels strength on the inside of us. It enables fortitude. It sounds resolve in us.

It amasses ability with us and that weakness and fear most times is the result of a poor intake of the mighty Scriptures. Jesus said in Luke 6, 47-9, "Everyone who comes to me and hears my word and does them, I will show you whom he is like. He is like a man building a house who dug and went deep and laid a foundation on the rock. And when a flood occurred, the river burst against that house and could not shake it because it had been built well." Are you listening to what the Lord says? "But the one who heard and did not do accordingly is like a man who built a house on ground without any foundation.

The river burst against it and immediately it collapsed and the ruin of the house was great." So there's a strengthening, a stability, a holy resolve whenever we hear the words of the Lord and then begin to apply them. Listen, it is the one that in the battle that is a victor is the one that has made preparation for the battle. I remember going through tactical training and I was a special operations team leader for 20 years in law enforcement and we would train with all these high end special operations teams from around the world and I remember the 2-2 SAS, Revolutionary Counter Warfare Wing.

I remember their motto was on their label and it says, "Train hard, fight easy." I'll never forgot it. That was four decades ago but I'll never forget that. And if I want to be efficacious, if I want to be used of God, if I want to stand in the midst of tumultuous times, if I want to be able to stand on that day, I need to have prepared. I need to lay the truth up in my heart and the midweek service is another opportunity for me to come and feed on the manner of God's word and to put on strength that I might be able to stand on the evil day. The Wednesday night service is not a micro service.

It is a fountain of life giving truth that will help you and I as God's people to be able to stand firm on that evil day. Brothers and sisters, I don't think the world is going to get better. I believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is going to come in power and I believe that as the Scriptures clearly teach that He is going to burn the whole thing and there is going to be new heavens and a new earth. I believe that the church will be efficacious in its mission and I believe that we are going to go to the ends of the earth by the power of God and preach the gospel to every living creature.

I believe that God is going to bring His elect into the church and I believe that God is going to use the gospel being proclaimed faithfully by healthy churches like this one going to the ends of the earth, even to Canada like some of you guys are going to go this summer. I am talking about the world system, it is always going to be the world system and I believe that culture is going to continually get worse. I don't believe that Donald Trump is going to be able to fix the spiritual climate in our country.

God is going to use His church to get His message to the ends of the earth and we need to be filled with the spirit as we are in taking the word of God and being faithful in our local church to realize that we are soldiers and that we need the word of God to train us. We need the word of God to equip us and that we need to get serious about the mission that He has entrusted to our hands. My final argument is that the midweek service is important. Now listen to this and this is for those that are in covenant here at Grace Life, Rook Haven because in our membership we made a vow and a commitment to honor it.

You know at the church where I pastor Grace Life Church in prior Oklahoma all of our members commit to be faithful to the local church. They stand before the church and they commit verbally to be faithful and that includes the midweek service. We enter into a covenant with each other when we join the local church and faithfulness is one of the tenets of that covenant. Where I serve every member has stood before the church and covenanted before God and covenanted before man to be faithful to the local church that God has planted them in.

We as elders have covenanted to be faithful in study and prayer to feed them, to pray for them, to intercede and that our faithfulness as God's people should drive our commitment. We've committed to our small group ministry. We've committed to Lord's Day worship. We've committed to midweek worship. We've committed to Sunday evening church here and it's part of our membership vows. And listen, please listen, faithful Christians seek to honor the vows that they've made. Faithful Christians. And again, I just want to give a little caveat. I get that there are times that providence interrupts. I get that people get sick.

I get that jobs can require us to go places and to make us work on Lord's Day or on Wednesday nights. But here I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about the pattern of our life is to exemplify faithfulness, to fulfill our vows. The early church did, didn't they? Acts 2.42 says they were continually devoting themselves to the teaching of the apostles and the fellowship and the breaking of bread and to prayers. So unfaithfulness in attending whenever the Word of the Lord is being preached is a neglect of the vows we've made, a failure to keep commitment. Whenever we make a vow before God and we don't uphold the vow, what do we call that?

It starts with an S and ends with an N. Listen to what the proverb writers penned, "A good name is to be chosen over great wealth. Favor is better than silver or gold." Ecclesiastes 5, verse 4 and 5, "When you make a vow to God, do not be late in paying it." He takes no delight in fools. Pay what you vow. Is better that you should not vow than you should vow and not pay. And I think this is probably something that all of us need to hear from time to time, that we shouldn't take our membership vows lightly. And here's why. We need to make a commitment before God and to God and to His church, the bride of Christ, to be faithful.

We're making a vow to God to serve Him faithfully through thick and thin. And it's not trite. It's serious. It's grave. It's weighty. I want you to think about this from the perspective of our God. His son died to purchase the church. And his church is his chosen means to advance his purposes on earth. And unfaithfulness or maybe a cavalier attitude towards the church is an affront to the purposes of God. An affront to the purposes of God. And so it is a serious matter. And we do need to think seriously about this. We do need to think about it with sincerity and gravity.

Michael Horton wrote in his systematic theology that the visible church is where you will find Christ's kingdom on earth and to disregard the kingdom is to disregard its king. Let me read that again. The visible church is where you will find Christ's kingdom on earth and to disregard the kingdom is to disregard its king. And so in closing, let me encourage us to take spiritual inventory of our hearts. And I pray that you wrote down these five arguments that I've made. Think about the commitments that we've made. Consider the brevity of life. Consider the glory of Christ who's the head of the church. Remember he's coming for a readied bride.

And to be faithful. It's just a matter of obedience, isn't it? It's a matter of hunger and thirst. It's a matter of desiring what God has provided for us. It's honoring God with our lives. It's honoring God in keeping the commitments that we've made. And grace life, it's just a matter of being a faithful Christian. Maybe you've grown slack. Maybe you've drifted into unfaithfulness. I just want to say as I end here, the Lord is merciful to those who confess and forsake their sins. He's so merciful. But I do plead with you as I end to take this truth to heart and commit your life to Christ. The head of the church, pursue sanctification.

See the importance. See the value of your pastor faithfully preaching the Word of God. And I know, and I visited with your pastor over lunch about this, just asking to see if it's similar to what his prep time to feed you is compared to the time that I spend to prepare for the midweek service. And it is a labor intensive work to prepare to preach and to teach and to feed the sheep. And that you need to hunger and come and receive what he has prayed and fought in prayer and studied and labored and rightly dividing the Word of Truth out of love for you and the Lord to come and to feed and to come and to receive it. Now you think about this.

If you invited a family over for dinner and you went to the store and you bought $70 or $80 worth of food and you went home and you worked for three hours preparing it and you set the table, you gave the choice, I mean you bought filet mignon and lobster tail, crab legs. Man, that sounds good. And you're struggling financially but you wanted to do your best. Seven o'clock they're supposed to be there for dinner. Seven o'clock comes and they're not there. Seven thirty comes they're not there. You call they don't answer the phone. Seven o'clock at night the food's still sitting around the table cold and they never show up.

How would you feel about that? You say that is really inappropriate. I put so much into that. You know your pastors labor for hours. It can be a 20 hour endeavor to prepare a good faithful exposition. And there's a sense excluding providence. There's a sense by which when we don't show up we're saying that doesn't matter to me. It's just not that important. These things that I got going on in life and the world are more important to me. And that you've got to know the act of grief, Holy Spirit doesn't it? And I'll say we're not doing this to stroke our pastors ego. That's not even in the equation.

We're talking about a man that's been ordained of God to study and to pray and to present the truth and the sheep, those that are in covenant have a biblical mandate to come and to eat the meal. So it can be more like Christ. So that's my argument. That's what I feel is biblical and right. I'll be driving back to Oklahoma tomorrow so your pastor can correct all this when I leave. But I think he agrees with me because I think the scriptures are pretty clear on this. And the reason I preach is not because I think that you're failing in your duties.

I just think that there's a mood in Christianity especially in the western hemisphere where we take the midweek service way less seriously than we do other services. And it was my prayer for the church where I serve for that to be changed. Lord, we thank you for the time that we have and for the opportunity to hear the truth and the truth.