SPEAKER_00 0:02

If I were to ask you what is worship, how would you answer? In today's message, Pastor Wei explores the place and purpose of liturgy in our Anglican tradition and reveals worship to be about so much more than a song.

SPEAKER_01 0:20

You know, when I first started attending church, uh, I'll grow up in church, uh, but I became a Christian in my in secondary school. Um, and I started attending the youth ministry here. Uh I have no concept of you know church culture, styles of worship in church and all. All I knew was what was going on in the youth service, right? And and uh back then it was I mean what we will probably now call a contemporary church service, right? We have songs, we have offered announcement, then we have sermon, we then we have more songs, and then we kind of end it there. Um and in my memory, we seldom come for uh main service. I may be wrong, but in my memory we seldom come. Oh, maybe just maybe it's because I slept through so many of the main services that I don't even remember anything, right? But every time we come, uh I mean some of the younger ones will go up to the balcony. Last time it's not so nice and it's not so open, right? It's quite deep, and uh there were chairs with these like foldable tables. So we just fold it up and then we'll just uh take a nap. Um uh yeah, the young ones, please don't learn from me, okay? Um but but um I did that because whenever we come from main service, um there are just parts of this service that is, I don't know, kind of dull, kind of boring, you know, makes me fall asleep. And and I didn't understand a lot of things. I didn't understand why sometimes we need to stand up, then sit down, then kneel, then say something, then stand up again. You know, I I couldn't understand any of this. Um when I was going to uh do my theological studies, um I went to a Bible college in Singapore called uh Trinity Theological College, um, went for the open house, went for the chapel service, and it was the same thing. No, it was actually um back then I thought it was actually even worse. They were even they had even more words, even more things to say, even more standing up and sitting down and kneeling and all that, right? And I told myself actually that I'm never I'm not gonna come to this college. I really don't like this. Um I mean, God had his plans, I suppose. I in the end was sent to uh TTC anyway. Um and I mean I thank God for that for various reasons. And one of the reasons really is it pertains to worship and just having that opportunity to actually learn and understand why we do the things we do in a service like this. Um why we do the things we do in, I mean, in my mind, why we what we will call the traditional uh style of worship. Yeah, so I actually grew in my understanding of uh especially the Anglican worship, right? The Anglican liturgical worship. Um so the two words liturgy and worship. My guess is that most of us feel like we know one of these words very well, and we are struggling to articulate or to make sense of the other, right? Uh again, in contemporary church culture, people tend to identify worship with the songs, right? That's the first thing that comes to mind when we say worship. Because um, you know, that's when we are singing, when we are praising the Lord, when we are blessing him, uh, that's when we're getting into the thick of worship, right? The thick of things, right? When we're entering in his presence, we adore him and all that, right? That is worship to us. Then this liturgy part, I mean, it's just like the parts that we say things, read words, recite some stuff. Um, and to us, it is traditionalist. To us, it is ritualistic, right? Boring, lifeless, stifles the spirit. You know, why is it so restricted? You know, why are we so like like contained by these uh forms and these words? Um I think defining worship and liturgy had this way have done has done quite a lot of harm, I think, uh, and and caused a lot of confusion in the church. Um the the so-called traditional liturgical services versus contemporary or the so-called non-liturgical services is I think not really helpful. Um way to look at the word liturgy, it's just it just means formed, right? Um it just means formed. And um so not people some some sometimes make the argument that uh even the non-liturgical service has forms, right? Because you come to church, I mean it's not like the the it's not like today we we sing song first, then we preach. Next week we we preach first, then we sing song, then the following week we'll collect all for three first announcements, then we sing song, preach five minutes, swing song, five minutes. Like we have an order, right? So that there is always this sense that every as every Sunday you come, you know, we know that we'll sing for, say, 40 minutes, we'll preach for 45 minutes, and then we'll we'll pray, maybe we'll have autocall, then we have closing song, right? There's some sense of form. Um even if it's a simpler form, right? Um and in some sense that is true. All services have a form to them. In that sense, all services have a liturgy, so to speak. Um but I think reducing liturgy to just forms uh undermines what liturgy is really about. And I think, at least in my opinion, it impoverishes our understanding of worship. Um if you have been with us for a long while now, you uh and by now will know that uh the Anglican Church is is uh the Anglican church service is liturgical, right? As a church, we worship liturgically, and so on the screen you see that the liturgy is the concrete expression of our faith, of our belief, and of our worship. Liturgy expresses our faith and our worship. And so actually, the worship is not just the songs, worship is not just me now preaching the word, worship is not just liton celebrating the Eucharist. Every part of the liturgy is worship, every part of it is worship. So let's think about the the word liturgy for a while. Um, what is it, right? Um the literal meaning uh is that it is the work of the people or the public service. Yeah, uh in a church's public service, it is used to refer to our corporate worship, the work of us, the work of the people here, our service unto the Lord. Yeah, so all of us are involved. It is our common worship to the Lord. Um, it is not something that we first came up with, right? Uh, in the liturgical understanding, uh, it was not men who first decided, yeah, I think it's a good idea if a few of us come together on a on a given day just to worship the Lord, you know, and all. Um, we come because God is the one who initiates worship. Just as in the Old Testament, God is the one who calls people out to worship him, New Testament the same. So we are the people who are called out, right? Uh called out to worship God. We come by his invitation into his house to worship him, to offer him praise and thanksgiving. Um, so some uh like to say that the act of worship on a Sunday morning is not when you when you step in here and then 8 30 we start service. The act of worship starts when you are getting ready, when you're trying to wake your children up, trying to rush them, get them to brush their teeth, dress up so that you all can come to church. Right? That process of coming to church is your is the is the act of worship on a Sunday morning. We come by God's invitation. And so, liturgy, the worship service, is a way for us to respond corporately to God's uh self-revelation, to what he has done, what he is doing, and uh what he will do with us. And so this type of church service uh has often be called, like I said, the liturgical service. And so, what does liturgical worship look like? Uh this morning we're we're we're we are looking at Nehemiah chapter 9. Um, of course, I don't think Nehemiah chapter 9 is a prototypical liturgical service, right? It's not meant to give us a complete or comprehensive understanding of what liturgy is. Um, but I think it does show us uh some elements or a movement in a particular worship service. Um, and I I think uh it will be good for us to just draw some some things from from uh Nehemiah chapter 9. Um that chapter shows us uh what happened at a service where the people of God were in common, as they came with one heart and one mind to worship the Lord. These are people who were scattered for many years, right? They were exiled, they were the temple was destroyed, they were just kind of everywhere, right? It took them a while just to gather the people, it took them a long while with many hurdles just to rebuild the walls and rebuild the temple. But here in Nehemiah 8 9 onwards, um they finally come together and they are worshipping the Lord in a service. So Nehemiah 9 is a worship service. Um, it was actually also a time of spiritual renewal for the people of God uh who were now gathering. Uh they have not read the book of the Lord together for a long time, uh, they have not offered sacrifices for a long time. Um, and so they came together to pray, to read the word and all. And the the prayer recorded in Nehemiah 9, uh actually, the the chapter is a lot longer than the verses we we read today, right? Uh, it is probably the longest prayer in the Bible, the longest recorded prayer in the Bible. Uh it was a lot of confession, a lot of talks about fast, a record of fasting, repentance, prayer, followed by uh the covenant, uh a renewal of the covenant in chapter 10. Um so let me just go quickly to verses uh 1 and 2. Um Nahemiah chapter 9, verses 1 and 2. Now on the 24th day of this month, the people of Israel were assembled with fasting and sackcloth with earth on their heads, and the Israelites separated themselves from all foreigners and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. Um it is interesting that that uh it records that they were not just fasting, even their attire was special. They were wearing sackcloth, right? Um I don't think I've ever touched a sackcloth before, uh, but I think I have touched like burlap or like um, you know, sometimes like some low-quality linen that's just very scratchy, right? Um sackcloth is kind of like that. Probably worse. Um it's it's meant to be scratchy, it's meant to be uncomfortable, right? Uh and that's kind of the whole point. It wasn't a fashion statement, it wasn't trendy at the time to be wearing sackcloth, right? But wearing sackcloth symbolized their penitent heart. Wearing sackcloth is a sign of their mourning, of their craving. It was a sign that they were coming together as a people who were lowly and contrite before the Lord. Um I mean the closest that we have to this kind of thing is maybe we will wear black to someone's uh funeral wake. Right. Uh that the kind of making sure that our attire matches the the situation. Yeah, but they were wearing sackcloth um with the intention of making themselves uncomfortable, right? Because that is their embodiment of their grief. And they wore it as a way of giving up their worldly comforts, a sign of them wanting to surrender themselves to God. So fasting, sackcloth, dirt on their heads, right, um would symbolize their mourning and their repentance. Um and so they were they were spending a lot of time confessing for their sins and for the sins of their fathers. Right? Verse 3 says that they stood up in their place and they read from the book of the law, of the Lord, their God, for a quarter of the day. Right? Uh and I think it refers to the daytime. So three hours. Three hours they were just reading the book of the law, right? Another three hours they made confession and worship the Lord, their God. Um nowadays, even one and a half hour service is already very long. And we are calling we do everything in the service, you know. Here, three hours just reading the book of the law. Um in the previous chapter, actually it says that that uh they were reading the book of the law and someone was giving the sense of scripture, someone's doing interpretation, right? One might say someone was doing the the exposition, the the preaching of the word, right? But just think about it, three hours of reading and maybe interpretation, helping you understand what the book of the law meant. Three hours, and then we move on to three hours of confession, of uh worship. Um, but that was the worship service then, right? Um and and and and so we we see slowly we see uh a kind of a movement, right? They come penitent, repenting, confessing their sins, then they read the book, they worship God. Um, and then um yeah, here comes the the difficult uh verses. Uh verses 4 to 6 on the stairs of the Levites stood uh Jeshua, Benai, Chemile, uh Shemaniah, Bunai, Sherebiah, Benai, and Chennai. And they cried with a loud voice to the Lord their God. Then the Levites, Jeshua, Kemel, Benai, Hesheb, Beniah, Sherubiah, Hodiah, Shabbaniah, and Pathethiah said, Stand up and bless the Lord your God from everlasting to everlasting. So here they are they're asking the people now, the Levites, the people who were kind of the worship leaders at that time, so to speak, right? They were asking the people now, stand up and bless the Lord your God from everlasting to everlasting. Blessed be your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise. Verse 6 says, You are the Lord, you alone. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all your hosts, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. And you preserve all of them, and the host of heaven worships you. Um, and I kind of thought I I think that it is maybe equivalent uh to our lay readers. Um, not not not entirely, but like sort of the role of the lay readers, right? They come uh today. Uh Vanessa was the one uh lay reading for us and and and calling calling us as a church to come, to pray, to pray the collector of purity, to to confess our sins together, and then to stand up to to to to uh and call cause for worship. Um and and in note this whole thing, um, if you read through the the the rest of the the chapter, right? It was just recounting history, right? How they have been uh faithless, but God was faithful in their lives, right? Recounting all the failures and all the sins of their fathers, right? But how God was faithful each and every time. And so they were praying that Lord will once again show their grace and mercy and do for them what they have uh what he has done for their ancestors. Um, and so we kind of close with with with uh verses 32 to 37, and I'll just kind of read uh a part of it. Uh verses verse 32 now, therefore, our God, the great, the mighty, the awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love, let not all the hardship seem little to you that has come upon us, upon our kings, our princes, our priests, our prophets, our fathers, and all your people, since the time of the kings of Assyria until this day. Uh later on they pray, Behold, we are slaves this day. In the land that you gave to our fathers to enjoy its fruit and its gifts, behold, we are slaves. Right? Looking towards God for their situation now. And its rich ill goes to the kings whom you have set over us because of our sins. They rule over our bodies and over our livestock as they please, and we are in great distress. Uh if you follow through uh to to the last verse and then all the way to the next chapter, it leads to the people once again making a covenant, an oath with the Lord. Um, and and this time saying, you know, they want to respond to God's greatness and God's goodness, and they want to keep uh the covenant with him. And so we can see like that. There's this kind of this movement, this uh well, so sort of structure, so to speak, right? In Nai Maya, they gather, they confess their sins, they read the book, uh, they worship, and they recount history, they remember what God has done for their lives, and they plead with the Lord to come and do it again. And then they make a covenant saying that this is the way we want to live our lives, this is the way uh we will proceed from here, that we'll walk in your in your ways. Um, and even though, again, once again, Nehemiah does not give us the full scope of what liturgical worship is, it was never meant to kind of set up a uh a liturgy for us today. Uh, within this passage, we see elements of the liturgy in a worship service. And uh, what is on screen right now is actually um the the structure of our liturgy today, the shape of our worship service. Yeah, I'm not gonna go through every single one of them, but you you will see that there are four major movements, right? Uh the entrance or the gathering, right? Uh where we where we did just now, we we we come together, you know, there's a there's a greeting, there's uh a prayer for us for us to to it's a call of worship, call to worship, we have songs, we have confession absolution, right? Um, and then we move on to the proclamation of the word, reading of the word, the preaching of the word as I'm doing now. Um later on we'll read the creed and um and and uh we'll move on to the Lord's Supper, like the Eucharist, uh the Thanksgiving giving, right? Um like like what the one of people in Nehemiah did, right? To recall or to remember what Jesus has done for us. Um and then we have the dismissal. Yeah. Um and I thought to I thought I thought it'd be good for us for us to kind of go through some of the key points under each of these movements, right? Um and trying to draw from again from from uh Nehemiah chapter 9. Um and the first thing that we do in church here, right, is to uh confess and to repent. If I can have the next slide, please, thank you. And and it illustrates a truth found in 2 Corinthians chapter 7, verse 10. For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation, right? Godly grief produces repentance. Um confession and absolution, um acknowledging that we are sinful people, right, is is getting less and less popular, so to speak. It's like a dirty word that nobody likes to talk about sin, nobody likes to say that we are sinners, right? Um but we have it in our liturgy and we do it every Sunday because we acknowledge or recognize that before a holy God we are lost. Before a holy God, all our sins, all our failures are exposed, they are not hidden. Nothing is hidden from the all-seeing God. So our our in our first prayer this morning, if I if I read it out, I think you will immediately recognize Almighty God, to whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hidden. Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may worthy, perfectly love you and worthily magnify your holy name through Christ our Lord. Amen. We acknowledge that sins are found in thought, word, and deed. And they are committed in all kinds of situations, through negligence, through weakness, through our own deliberate uh effort. And only with confession, only with confession can we receive God's forgiveness, repent, and be made right with God. Right? It's a way of saying every time we come on a Sunday service, recognize our own brokenness, recognize that we have sinned, we recognize that we uh are not great. We we we have no way of saying that we are righteous. Right. As we stand before Holy God, we need healing. We need we need uh absolution, we need God to come and make us right again. So Proverbs uh chapter 28, verse 13 says, Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper. But he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy. And I think interestingly, it is precisely because we believe in the faithful God that we dare come and confess our sins, right? We can boldly confess and we are assured that He will forgive us and cleanse us, right? So in our liturgy, we quote directly from 1 John 1 chapter verses 8 and 9. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just and will cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And so our starting point is this to come uh before the holy God with a humble and contrite heart, just as the people in Nehemiah uh chapter 9 did. Uh, and repentance leads to a spiritual revival in us. In our word, in our service, then we kind of move on from this first portion to this the second portion, right? The word. Um, and the the reading of scripture has always been around. Uh, Paul tells Timothy uh this that until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of scripture. It's taken for granted that every time they meet for a public service, uh an example, scripture. Will be read. Devote yourself to the public reading of scripture and to exhortation to teaching. Right? And so once again, even in Nehemiah chapter 8, chapter 9, and all, there's this importance, there's this weight placed on the reading of the book of the law and to uh and to the and making sense of it to the people. Right? In many accounts of uh the book of Acts, right, uh they all revolve around Jesus' uh death and resurrection. So in the New Testament era, then in post-resurrection, in the time such as now, in light of what Christ has done, right, preaching always uh places Christ at the center, right? Uh it is always gospel shape for us, right? Um it revolves in the end revolves around Jesus' life, death, and resurrection and what that means for us. Um in the early church, this became one of the two central elements of a worship service, right? The word is always being read and always being preached, right? That's one one part of the the central uh element. Right. Uh the second one will of course be the Eucharist, the Holy Communion, um, instituted by Jesus Himself, of course, in Matthew chapter 26. Uh, and and so like the people in Nehemiah's time remembering all that God has done for them, we also every time we celebrate the Lord's Supper, we remember what Jesus has done for us, how he broke his body, how he shed his blood so that we may be made whole. He was broken so that we will be whole. He died so that we may have life. Uh, as we go through the celebration of the Eucharist, we recount God's faithfulness with us, right? We recount his mercy and his grace so that we may receive freedom from the slavery of sin and be brought near to the Father through Christ. Um, and interestingly, as we talk as we are talking about coming together, uh having a common worship, this is this is the point where our oneness is really manifest, right? Uh, we say this though we are many, we are one body because we all share in one bread. At this point, when we celebrate the Lord's Supper, we manifest our essential being as the one body of Christ. So having been nourished by the word and nourished by the Lord's Supper, uh, we are then sent out. Um just as we um at the beginning, when we come to church, right? There's a sense that we are coming out of the world and into the church, out of the world and into the presence of the Lord as the church to worship Him, right? We we at the beginning we come out of the world, come into the church, we worship God, and at the end of the service, we are sent out, we are sent back out into the world. Yeah, um, to return to the world in order that we may bless the world. Um having been forgiven and cleansed, having been nourished by the word of God and uh uh uh in the Holy Communion, we now set out as God's kingdom people in the world that does not know or worship God. Um Ephesians 3 3 10 puts it this way, so that through the church, the manifold wisdom of God might be made, might now be made known. Um so worship at the end, when when when uh little Reverend Daniel comes out and gives the benediction and all that doesn't mean that worship ended, right? Service is over, right? So this week, but not worship is over, go and have your food, and then we can we can live off from here, right? Uh worship does not simply terminate when service ends, but worship carries on into the new week. That is the sense of the liturgical flow. We come in, we come into the church, come out of the world, come into the church, worship the Lord, and now being filled with the spirit, we are not sent out into the world where worship continues so that we may show uh Christ to the world. Some people put it this way, so that we we may be Christ to the world, so that we live in the power of the spirit to carry out the worship and mission of God throughout the week. And fundamentally, then this is really the shape of uh our worship or the liturgy of our worship. Um and it definitely brings kind of a balance to the way we worship. So we don't over-emphasize one thing and then uh uh neglecting something else. Right? If you see church is throughout church history, there's always the tendency of us to oversize something uh over-emphasize something, whether it's the music, whether it's the the Holy Communion or it's just the preaching of the word, um, there's always, you know, we are always lopsided, right? A liturgy helps us kind of balance out everything and kind of hold everything in place. And um I want to quickly go through two key principles of liturgy, right? Having seen, like there's this movement, uh, gleaning from Neo Nehimaya, and also kind of understanding how how we worship, why we worship this way, right? There are two key principles for us, I think, to kind of appreciate the liturgy a little bit more. Um and the first the first thing is is this um yeah, this very chim Latin phrase, um lex orandi, lex quidendi. Um later on, I mean that there's lex vivendi kind of bracketed, right? I'll I'll come to that later. But lex orandi, lex quidendi. Um translated into English, it means the law of prayer is the law of belief. Okay, the law of prayer is the law of belief. Um, actually, the formula works both ways, right? What we believe is shaped by our practice of worship or our practice of prayer. What we believe establishes the way we worship.

unknown 28:10

Right?

SPEAKER_01 28:11

They are inextricably linked. Um they inform one another, and we cannot separate them. Right? We cannot we cannot uh just emphasize one without the other. Right? For us, for the Anglicans, for for any any church with a liturgical background, right, uh prayer and and worship are linked together. Doctrine shapes liturgy, and liturgy shapes doctrine. How we pray, how we worship, what words we say, what words are sung must be informed by biblical and sound teaching. And what we believe about about God, all our teachings about God, the church, the world, and ourselves can be gleans from the way we worship.

unknown 28:57

Right?

SPEAKER_01 28:57

So that's what that's what this formula is is is about. Um later on, someone added this this uh next line, like Lex Vivendi, the law of life. A law of prayer, law of belief, law of life. It points to us, uh points us to the fact that worship and belief must be embodied and it must be lived out. It must be manifested in the way we live our lives. Worship and belief cannot be separated from how we live. Right? We cannot come to church, wow, worship God, we had such a wonderful time of worship, wow, it was me so ministered by the Lord. Wow, the preaching, I mean, maybe not this Sunday, but the preaching was very good, uh, and so on. Oh, I feel so, so, so ministered, I feel so full, right? And then we go out of church and then we don't live, uh live out what we learned today. The liturgy uh has this sense or this understanding that when we come and worship God, we what we will go out a different person. And we are sent out to live out what we have learned, what how and how we have worshiped. So law of belief, uh law of prayer, law of belief, the law of life. Um, that's why in our liturgy, after communion, right at the end, before we are dismissed, we will all collectively pray this, right? Almighty God, we thank you for feeding us with the body and blood of your son Jesus Christ. Through him, we offer you our souls and bodies to be a living sacrifice, right? I think drawing from Romans chapter 12, verse 1. And we say this send us out in the power of your spirit to live and work to your praise and glory. So law of prayer, the law of belief, the law of life. If you if you pay attention to what we are saying, while we are reciting, while we are praying uh in the service, we allow the words to kind of just sink into our hearts for a while. You know, we begin to see that that that that in the service we are we are being brought through this this this movement of coming penitent, humble before the Lord, allow him to kind of cleanse us, make us whole, nourish us, feed us, fill us with his spirit, and then sending us our so that we may be Christ to the world. That's the first thing. Um the lax or end, let's create and let's vive ende. The second thing is uh this phrase that has been used for for liturgical worship, which is um um this principle of uh having a fully conscious and active participation. Um and actually what it points to um I think to begin with, the liturgy is designed to be participatory. Liturgy is designed to be participatory. Um just like I say, you know, I used to not understand why we stand up, sit down, or kneel down. Uh yeah, why even kneel down, right? Um why why do this, why do that? Why ask us to raise our hands and so on and so forth, right? These are ways for us to participate. And in fact, kneeling is such a thing that we don't do nowadays that we don't quite understand what's the what's the point in kneeling down, right? But it's to be humble ourselves before the Lord. If it's intercession, to humble ourselves before the Lord, knowing that He is the one who can answer our prayers. And so we kneel before Him. Um there are moments throughout the service where we are called to pause in silence, or to respond to a call of worship, or to sing unto the Lord, or to kneel and pray, or to stand and proclaim God's glory and goodness, or to sit and hear the word of God, to affirm our faith by reciting the apostles or Nicing Creed, to go around and offer a peace to fellow brothers and sisters, to come forward to partake in the communion at the Lord's table. Every Sunday, God invites us to worship Him with our heart, soul, mind, and uh strength. God calls us to participate in worship, right? That is really at the heartbeat of the liturgy, right? To be participatory. Um, but I mean we can we all understand this though, that our body is here, but sometimes we are just absent in our spirit, right? I think Chinese quite quite like certain but uh the person is here, but the heart is not here, you know. Um we can just zone now and stare blankly at the screen. I've done that so many times. Just just just look stare, wait for them to end, and then that's it, right? Or just bumble along. Oh, we do not presume to come to this your table, merciful, or trusting or just. Amen, amen. Then we move on to the next thing, right? Um and understand this liturgy can be down. Liturgy, liturgy can seem uh boring, and and and this is something we are not interested in, right? Um and and and we don't see a part, uh we do see a point in participation, in actively doing something during public service. Uh, whether it's praying or singing or paying attention and all, right? Sometimes we just don't see the point. But because liturgy is the work of the people, in some sense, all of us have a part to play in the service. Um, you know, there was a time in when I was like really this. I mean, I I look like I am still disinterested in exercising, but there was a time when I was really disinterested in it. Um when I went to JC, right? Um some some girls were running faster than me. Not to say that all girls are slow or whatever, right? But but but it like, you know, I I was I was running really slow. I couldn't do a pull-up until maybe I was 18 years old. J JC uh year two. Um and I was just like really, really rabbit in in terms of my fitness. Um I mean I kind of try to do something about it, and I I try to pass my IPPT. Because I don't want to go to the army earlier, but I mean if you fail, then you have to go in a bit earlier. Um that didn't matter anyway. I got passed E and then it was just a club. So it really didn't matter whether I passed an IPPT or not. Um yeah, so I went to a sedentary uh uh work in in NS and all. Ironically, as a club, I had so much time uh to queue that I decided to start running. Um I was, I mean, it was not supposed I was not supposed to do it. Because past E, but right, your medical status is you're unfit, unfit for combat, unfit for service, unfit for running, unfit for a lot of things. So just stay in the office, right? Um but I I got bored, you know, so I started running. I started running more and more. Um you know, people were kind of telling me, hey, I you look like you you enjoy this. I mean, I didn't really enjoy that at uh at the beginning, but you look like you enjoy it. Why don't you just join us? You know, I started participating in more and more runs, joined officers in their training, uh managed to manage to uh ask for permission to go and run the army, half marathon. Um year one, I was one of the water boys. Man, I hate this so much. You put water out and it just snatches from you, water just splashes over you. You are the first to be there and the last to leave. Uh I hated AHM. Um second year I managed to get to be one of the runners. I get to be one of the snatch water from from people. Um but but but you know, all these things happened, and and like I I when I started participating in it, something I used to hate so much, something I used to be so disinterested in, the more I participated, um, the more I understand, understand why. And the more I enjoyed it. Uh at one point I even managed to go and run this this the standard chartered uh marathon with a team of NS. I can't remember how it worked. I think it's the one one of the Battalion or one of the schools decided to send a team. Uh they asked me along and okay, lah, let's go. Um yeah, that there was a period when I um kind of got into it, really committed myself into it and participated. Um of course you can see from my size now that I've hung my my hung up my running shoes already. Um yeah, I had the dead board even before I had a child. Um but I think in the same way, right, like there's this there's this sense that um when when we choose not to participate in the service, right? We can come, we can just kind of go through the motion, we can live, right? But when we choose not to fully participate in it, um not only will we not understand what is going on, we will not be fully appreciative of it. And in some sense, it becomes detrimental to our health, right? Our spiritual health, that it will kind of slowly deteriorate. Um Paul says this in in in or says something similar when he tells Timothy this, right? Well, bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. And the worship service, um, uh brothers and sisters, the worship service is really for us to um it's designed, the liturgical worship service is designed for us to come, participate and fully respond to the Lord. Right, to fully respond to God, to what He is doing here in service and what He will do with us in the future. Um and so worship can be transformative, every part of the service can be a transformative experience and beneficial for our spiritual health uh only if we are willing to participate in it. If liturgy is the service of the people, then all of us here have a part to play in worshiping and in glorifying the Lord as one body, in loving Him with our heart, soul, mind, and strength. And so uh to conclude, if yeah, I would like to encourage us, uh all of us here, uh, even those watching at home, yeah, if you're able to come, come and let us gather in the house of the Lord to worship God. Come to be bodily present and to participate with the body of Christ. Come knowing that you are invited by God to leave the world behind as you enter into the assembly of worshippers, to be physically present so that we can be fully conscious and active in our participation in the service. And as we come, let us take our cue from Nehemiah chapter 9, which we just read this morning. Um, but really in the light of the gospel now given to us, we come to the Lord with humble and contrite hearts, confessing and repenting of our sins. We come to hear and receive God's word for us. We come to commune with Jesus in the Lord's Supper as we remember what He has done for us. We receive the power of the Holy Spirit as we are sent out to live and work for God's praise and glory. And even later in the rest of the service, you know, let's slow down a bit. Okay, maybe we cannot slow down. Um, but but let's try to allow the words of the liturgy to sink into our hearts and minds as we pray, as we read, as we continue to grow in the world of prayer.