Rooted in Worship

Rooted in Worship

week in our rooted series. And we’re looking at the final rhythm of rooted, um, we’re gonna be talking about worship and this may be the final rhythm of the series, but it’s arguably the most important rhythm to get worship. And I was thinking about this from the context of my own family and experiences. This thing is kind of doing a little, little dance on me. Um, it’s distracting me a bit, but hold on to it by the grace of the Lord, I’ll hold on to anyway, thinking about this from the context of just short example illustration with my own family. Um, when I travel and I’m away from my wife and kids, one of the things we like to do is to facetime each other, you know, facetime, my wife, facetime, the kids talk to them, ask them how their day is going. Let them tell me what their other sibling did wrong in my absence. All that good stuff, right. Um, but just to kind of let them know that I love them. I’m thinking about them though. We’re, you know, geographically separated from one another and I’m so thankful for the technology to be able to do something like that. But it would be foolish. It would be crazy to think that I am no, I’m now no longer needed in the house and with my family because I can simply just facetime them, I don’t need to live there anymore. I don’t need to, um, wake up, be around them, deal with them in present in person daily because we have this technology now and I think that’s relevant because in recent years, uh, a lot of people have been wondering whether or not the Church is essential and the Church is essential. It is the most essential institution in the sense that it is the only eternal institution. I mean, family is the building block of a society and a church is made up of families and individuals. But when time is over, when christ returns, when he comes back, the one institution that is going to remain is the church, the body of christ the people of God. That doesn’t mean that we neglect our families or that we neglect all the other institutions. It’s simply just illustrates the point that Church is essential. It’s essential. It’s important. And not only is church essential and important, the regular gathering of the Church together is important. That is very important to God. That is something that whether we recognize it or not, it’s something that primarily defines a church. The fact that we assemble and meet together. It’s not the only thing that the Church does, but it primarily defines the Church. The Church is a an assembly of people, a meeting together. And when a church stopped assembling, stops meeting together, it ceases to be a people. Some of you are like, yeah, I don’t know about that one. Just stick with me here. The assembly. The meeting together. Regular gathering of the people of God in the presence of God together is essential. It’s important. It’s a rhythm. We want to be established and it’s a rhythm. We want to walk in for all of our days, including our eternal days. Turn with me to hebrews, Chapter 10 We’re gonna read verses 19 through 25. We’re gonna look at what the passage has to say regarding some of the things I’ve laid out for you in terms of worship Beginning in Verse 19. Since therefore brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain that is through his flesh. And since we have a great priest over the House of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith. With our hearts sprinkled clean 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 stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day, drawing near us, pray father in Heaven. I thank you. That’s your word as your word to us, your people. It involves instruction on how we are to God come together to assemble in your name and how that’s been made possible by the Gospel of the Lord, Jesus christ God. I thank you for that. I thank you for your word. I thank you for the gospel God, I thank you for your people who have come here today to hear from you to be in your presence. I thank you for the young ones. Lord, I pray that you would give their young hearts the ability to grasp big truths about a big God who wants to meet with them while they’re here in this place today. And God, I pray that each and every one of us would Lord settle the issue in terms of what it means to be a church and to be your church and our purpose in this world. I pray that that would become clear through the teaching in jesus name. Amen. The author of Hebrews remains a mystery today, but the point of the letter is very clear, Jesus is greater than moses. Jesus is greater than the angels and that’s a reference early on in the book of Hebrews to the giving of the law to the establishing of Israel as the people of God, Jesus is greater than moses and angels. Jesus is better than the Tabernacle. He is better than the temple which was constructed for the people of God for the purpose of worship, Jesus, his blood is better than the blood of bulls and goats because his blood offered once and for all settles the issue for eternity for the people of God, Jesus is better as the high priest than any human high priest because he sat down to the right hand of God, our father, and he lives to make intercession for us always, Jesus is better. That’s the point of this whole book, the letter of Hebrews that Jesus is better and the author was making this point because there were people during that day who were turning away from jesus, some drifting back into Judaism, others drifting towards strange and weird gnostic religions. And the author saying, no, jesus is better and not only is Jesus better, Jesus makes worship better, which is the context that he is arguing from every single one has to do with people, the people of God and how they approach God, how they worship, about how we are to worship God. So in our passage, we see Jesus, he is better. He makes worship better. He makes it possible for us to come boldly before the throne of God’s grace. That’s hebrews 4 16 verse 19, it says that we have this confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus verse 20 says that by the new and living way that he opened, Jesus opened for us through the curtain that is through his flesh, by offering his own body on the cross. He is better. He makes worship better because we can now approach God in this open way, this new and better way verse 21 he is a great priest over the house of God. Again, the coming together of the people of God, for worship is the head he is the priest he is, it is his body verse 22 it says, let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance with a heart sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. This verse shows us that faith comes through grace and it leads the believer to a place of designed to worship God and he’s able to do so with assurance that he is accepted in christ because he believes the blood of christ as atone for his sins. And then he publicly declares this allegiance to christ in baptism and he’s eager then to join in with the other baptized believers and worship this God. So jesus is the link between God and man. He makes it possible, he makes worship better, He is better than anything else and worship is the context. He is the link between God and man. He is the link between heaven and earth. That’s significant because sin creates separation between God and man. Sin makes heaven seem like something completely far and distant from us. And yet in jesus, we are able to have a taste of it to have a foretaste of it in our coming together worship. So he makes worship better. Now, up to this point, trying to give you a little bit of context to the book of hebrews help you to see how jesus makes worship better, why worship is so important. But I haven’t defined for you what worship is. Some people think worship is simply the songs that we sing. Worship includes singing some small minority, swing it to the opposite side and then say worship is only has to do with the preaching of the word all of that. Others would say worship service. It means ministry, it means service. Worship Blue Sky, that’s all little things. Worship is the purpose of life. That’s what you need to understand. Worship is the purpose for your existence. You were made to worship God. God commands your worship, you were made to worship him and God is glorified through your worship of him. Worship is the purpose of life Matt Merker an author. He’s a he’s actually a worship leader. He said this, he says there is no one hebrew word in the old testament or one greek word in the new testament that translates exclusively as worship because the idea is so pervasive scripture calls all people to love, serve obey, Exalt magnify, sing to ascribe worth two and bow down before the one true God. Worship simply put is the purpose of life. Worship encompasses all of life and all of life is to be lived for the glory of God. However, there is a special call to worship God. There’s a special call from God to the people of God to come together in the presence of God and worship him. It’s a very real reality that worship involves every aspect of your life. But yet there is still a special call. It’s important to God is significant to God that he and his people gathered together that my friend is worship everything involved. In terms of the preaching, the singing, the administering of the sacraments, the fellowship, the serving the giving, all of that God says is to happen when we regularly gather him and that is worship and he calls us to it. He commands us to do. Now if you were to take with me a quick fly by overview from this of some key evidences of this special call to worship in the bible, starting first with the garden of Eden. We know God created in six days and on the seventh day he rested and many of you see the seventh day the call to rest is just an opportunity to be a couch potato, sit around, eat as many potato chips and chicken wings and watch as much football as you can. But that’s what it means to sabbath. No, that’s not what it means. Yes, there is a rest from ordinary work. There is also a summoning calling the people of God to meet face to face with God and in the garden of Eden, God met face to face with Adam before sin entered the world Later on. As we read through the book of genesis and Exodus. And even in the book of judges and onto the profits there for Samuel and 2nd Samuel, we might see something mentioned um relating to altars, altars were If they were honoring God, they had to be of a simple design. God didn’t want no fancy, you know, elaborate altar or a high place for which the altar was was to be constructed. No, he wanted a very simple design. It was for the purpose of sacrificing animals. Why? Which is what we read in hebrews 10 because of sin. We need blood. There needs to be the shedding of blood to atone for the sin. So the animal sacrifice is what made it possible for them to come before God in worship. So they made altars they constructed very simple alters. Sometimes the altars were memorial stones where they would set them up as a reminder as a memorial to the fact that in this place at this location at this particular time, God met with his people. God showed up God did something they encountered the living god. So we see alters reference, we see the Tabernacle when moses goes into Egypt and God rescues the Israelites from the Egyptian slavery. Over a million people leave Egypt and God gives to moses when he’s on the mountain, not just the law, but he gives him the blueprints for the Tabernacle, he says, make sure that you do it exactly as I’ve been, as I have instructed you to do it because it is a copy of heaven. And so he constructed this mobile tent, this mobile church and whenever the Israelites would march through the wilderness, the ark of the covenant and the priest would be out in front showing that God is leading his people and then whenever God would say stop and and they would settle on the place right in the middle of the people would be the Tabernacle, acting this idea that God is in the midst of his people, he said the nations were to observe that and say what other people has their God so near to them. So the Tabernacle and indicated the presence of God in the temple being like the Tabernacle, but permanent in its location being a copy of heaven. Again indicating the presence of God. Well here’s the thing. So they would bring animals and they would make sacrifices in the Tabernacle and then eventually in the temple, but only one person could really go into the holy of holy places. That’s what Hebrews is saying, only one person could go and he was the high priest and he could only go once a year and he had to carry blood for his own sin and for the sins of the people to have access to the very present presence of God. Now, jesus makes everything better. He makes worship better. He entered into the presence of God with his own blood for us so that now we all can come into the presence of God, believe in it, fellowship with him. Lastly, we have the synagogue many different locations. Synagogues. They came about after the exile of Israel from the land because of their disobedience to God, the corrupting of the worship of God, the refusal to allow God to lead and direct their lives according to his ordinances, his commands. They couldn’t keep his commandments. So they were sent into exile. But while they were in exile, there came about this invention called the synagogue. And when you think about a synagogue, it was simply just a very simple gathering place that allowed the people of God to come and hear the word to sing songs of praise to encourage one another. It was very much word center. It is the inspiration for the new testament Church. The new testament Church draws its example, you know, its patterns from the synagogue. Jesus himself was a frequent visitor of synagogues teaching in the synagogues. So the synagogue model ironically became a huge influencer on how churches began to become constructed until, you know, we get to the Middle Ages and things like that. But um, all these examples that we see, they might simply be little words here and there that we’ve read in a book or seen just as a minor detail in the background of a story. All these things are tied to the worship of God with his people. So let’s just quick kind of fly by overview of that worship throughout the bible centered on the special meeting between God and his people was the meeting of God and his people. It was not necessarily about the building, wasn’t building centered except for the old testament where you had the temple, right? The new testament, it just totally shatters that paradigm. Now we become the temple of the living god, we become the temple of the living god. We gather together for the body of christ. He’s the head when we come together with the temple of the living god, his spirit filling the place. When we gather together in his name, God desires us. God is blessed by this God commands that we do this and it ought to be our desire to do this, jesus was committed to seeing this come about. This flies smack into the face of individualism, where every person thinks that man, you know me, me by myself, me on the couch listening to my favorite preacher, listening to my favorite music, that that’s church, that’s church. Now look, man, that’s good, you can be encouraged there, you can gain some wisdom there, you can learn some things there, but that’s not what jesus said he was building, I’m sorry, you’ve got to take that up with him, that’s not what he said, he was building. I get it, there are times in a in a christian’s life where providentially he’s hindered she’s hinder and it can’t be in the regular gathering with the people of God. And when we gather we recognize that they’re not here, that pulls on our hearts, we have a longing for them to be with us and we then take that as an opportunity to care for those who are providentially hindered from being in the assembly. I’m talking about those who may be sick or who are, you know, debilitating certain things, hindering them from coming together to meet. But an individualized thinking that me, my bible and my favorite bible teacher or my favorite, you know, worship playlist that’s doing church, you know, me filling up my bathtub and oh there’s water there and there the kids, I’m gonna baptize them, that that’s doing church, you know me breaking bread and wine in my home, you know, that’s me taking communion. No that’s not what Jesus said, he was building, It’s an assembly of people coming together. He says it in Matthew 1618 he says I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. The word translated as church is Iglesia, it means the assembly, the meeting. He says I’m gonna build my assembly, you know, he uses this term, which by the way was a term that the Greeks and the romans used to describe their sessions, their political sessions when their political leaders gathered gathered together to decide the fate of the city or the nation, they would assemble for these very important meetings and jesus said, I’m going to build my church, my assembly. And when they are built up in christ the gates of hell shall not prevail against them when they scatter. So they gather, then they scatter. But that assembly is important. It’s very, very important. Church ceases to gather. It ceases to be a church. So from our passage in Hebrews, I’m gonna give you three points, I’m gonna land this plane. I’ve already alluded to these three points. This that God commands that we worship together. God commands that we gather to worship together and worship him. That’s the first point. The second point is that we were made for this. We were made to worship God. And the third point is that God is glorified in our worship. So God commands that we gather together and worship him. Hebrews 10 25 says, do not neglect, let me say that again. Because some of you didn’t hear that. That was a command. Do not neglect, do not neglect meeting together as some are in the habit of doing so. God commands that we gather on the Lord’s Day for the purpose of worshiping him Furthermore. When you look at the first four of the 10 commandments, the emphasis is on worship. The first commandment have no gods before me, teaches us that the object of true worship is God alone. The second commandment that you are not to make graven images or idols. It teaches us that the manner of true worship is in spirit and truth. You know the only the only images that God gives to his church. The Lord’s table, communion, water baptism, you and I that’s it. Those are his images, you and I made in his image the table, the image of the Gospel, how we participate in it, Water baptism, Our union with christ christ makes our worship better, Our worship important. 2nd commandment, The manner of true worship, which is in spirit and truth. The third commandment don’t take the Lord’s name in vain. This addresses the attitude that God desires from us in worship, God desires a reverent attitude. God desires that we come in, leaving behind all the cares. And it may be hard and sometimes it is hard to come to worship. Life is hard. There are all kinds of challenges and circumstances that we have to deal with. And yet we come to this place of worship because we believe that God is worth. We believe that when we come to worship him, that we have access to the real true living hope that any other person in our shoes does not have access to. Yeah, it hurt difficult at times. It can be frustrating everything going on in your life. You coming saying God must be worshiped. You declare hope, you declare what Ephesians. I mean, hebrews 10 says a confession of a great hope. But there is a God who is remaking and renewing all things, all things starting with us all, the creation being renewed, being remade. You gathering together is a testimony that you are for the purposes of this world. You are an example of the new creation coming into this broken world, not that you’re perfect, not that you have it all together, not that you don’t have real pain, but you’ve got real hope, You’ve got real hope. So. The third commandment addresses that attitude. The fourth commandment, I’ve kind of alluded to this one, just remember the sabbath to keep it holy. It addresses the appointed time for worship. But we set aside a day for worship. Now in the old testament, it was the first, it was the last day of the week where they set aside that day for worship. In the new testament, we see this change, We see the language to the Lord’s Day being introduced, referencing the day in which jesus was raised from the dead. That becomes now for the christian, because of our belief in the gospel number one, number two, because we know that God has ordained that that jesus would be raised from the dead. That every time we gather on the day the Lord’s day that he was raised, that we testify to this new life, this new hope, this new creation say that he overcame death and we gather to celebrate that to be encouraged by that to draw mutual encouragement and edification from that. So God commands that we gather together and worship him and that we do not neglect this privilege, Isaiah 43 20 says, for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people, the people whom I formed for myself, that they might declare my praise, yet do not call upon me O Jacob, You’ve been weary of me, O Israel, I was saying he made us, he commands us to come and worship him, says that the Israelites that Jacob that they were neglecting that psalm 1 22 1 says I was glad when they said to me, let us go to the house of the Lord. Hey, we’ve been commanded to gather in his name and man, it doesn’t burden me, makes me glad. What the psalmist says, let’s go john 2 17, the disciples observing jesus and his behavior in the temple as he draws up a he he makes a whip and he drives out the animals from the temple because they were trading and selling and and and and and and trying to profit off the worship of God. And jesus upset at this, driving animals out overturning the money tables and all that kind of stuff and I would have loved to see that because that’s not jesus meek and mild. The Pastor says that is jesus, who it would be remembered that he would, that he had zeal for the house of God. Deal consumed deal for this place of worship. This place where the people would gather to meet with God. God commands it. And it’s our desire to worship him because we were made to worship him. We were made in the image of God and so we give glory back to God. Glory from the hebrew word kebab means heavy and God’s infinite perfections, its glorious attributes, they are gloriously heavy. He made us in his image to reflect him to reflect his his goodness. Now sin mars it, but jesus reclaims it. He restores it back in us sanctification allows it to show even more in our lives. We grow in christ, we were made for this. We were made to give him glory, describe glory to him. You know, human beings are going to give glory to something. We can’t help it go. Big red hey, root for the huskers. But we made to give glory. God 1st. God, above all out above all, we give glory to our favorite technology. We give glory to our favorite apparel. We give glory to our favorite actors, movies, whatever the case may be, we give glory to things. We can’t help but do that because we were made to give glory. Sin leads us to miss prioritize who gets to go first, You’re made to give the glory to God 1st hear it in the psalmist response in psalm 27 listen to his his response at this command to worship God. And from this response you can almost sense his D. N. A. Just crying out he says you have said seek my face, my heart says to you your face Lord, do I seek? I want to know you be in your presence, I want to be with you. My God made me Psalm 86 9 says all the nations you’ve made shall come and worship before you lord and shall glorify your name. All the nations every people group made for his glory made to worshiping through the preaching of this gospel. You are sending out of militant Gospel witness. Don’t be alarmed that I use the term militant by the way the Saints who have gone into heaven. They are called church triumphant. The Saints who are still here on earth, they’re called church militant because we have a commission, we have a commission, we gather and we get that commission from our Lord. We go out we are the church militant and the nation shall be brought to his throne. They should worship him and give glory to him. Revelation 15 4 says who will not fear O. Lord and Glorify your name. I love that. That’s the language of heaven. We see your glory. You rightfully deserve all the glory. Looking down at the earth, who shall not fear and give you glory for you alone are holy all nations will come and worship you for your righteous acts have been with you. So God commands that we worship him, we were made to worship him. And when we understand that the church, the church is called an assembly, we do more than assemble, but we are no less than this assembly. And when we assemble, oh man, it will lead to the nations being brought to christ, jesus will build his church That leads us to the 3rd point, God is glorified by the true worship of him. You see in Hebrews 10 verse 23 it speaks of the confession of our hope and in verse 24 speaks of stirring one another up to good works and love. God is glorified and is glorified when we come together and we confess the fact that we believe in the resurrected jesus christ and we believe that he is making all things new, that there will be a new heaven and a new earth someday and that we have a taste of it now we confess that to a dying, hurting broken world. If you were to read on in Hebrews, you’ll get to this chapter, they call the chapter of faith right? The Hall of Faith where all these believers died. Looking forward to the day when christ would come to the day when christ would build and renew all heaven and all earth with the glory of God, with all God’s people being united to God in christ. When we, when we gather, we testify to that reality, we remind one another, we testify to the world that that is coming. That that is a reality. You know what else is coming. When you when you look back at hebrews 10, there when we get to verse, it ends in a very, you know, peculiar way right? It says, it says that we are to not neglect meeting together as is the habit of some but encouraging one another. All the more as you see the day drawing near. So again, it’s a command to meet. It’s a reference to this assembly. It’s it’s also hidden in there and implied in there is this reality that we are the new creation and we testify to that when we meet then it says the day drawing near, what does that mean again, Jesus will return and the day drawing near is a day of judgment, is a day of judgment breathe further on. He unpacks those who are falling into sin, not obeying God, who are turning away from Jesus, the jesus who is better than all these other options in the world, but jesus who makes worship better than them turning away from him. So when he comes to to to to consummate his kingdom and to finally to finalize the coming together of heaven and earth will also be judgment on the enemies who turned away. And so when we gather, we testify to this fact that he will return that he is making all things new that we are a part of the new creation. And it is a reminder that you were not in here. You’re called to worshiping your called to know him. There is a place where you can go and meet him and learn what he requires of you. You don’t do that. There is a day, there’s a day drawing near, there’s a day drawing near where there will be no more time left on the clock, No more time to get it right, no more time. And so the church is a testimony to the glory of God and that it testifies to the blessing that we have in christ also judgment those shown this christ and so when we gather it’s significant. It’s powerful. It is, it is a witness to the earth. It is a witness to those in heaven because christ joins heaven and earth. You know something that really you know might make you a little uncomfortable. But it’s true, it’s a fact when you look at the old testament, you when they design the Tabernacle and the temple, there’s all these, you know, usage of angels being here and like guarding things and then paul makes a reference to it in Corinthians about the angels. Well that’s because when we gather to worship there is more than what meets the eye, there is truly a joining together. Whether it’s the true worship of God, the true worship of God, there is a joint together of God’s people in heaven and God’s people on earth, God’s creatures in heaven are there. And so if you could imagine it on the day of the Lord, on the day of the Lord, the throne room pulls back the curtains and all over the globe, these lights start to pop up and the heavenly creatures are peering in and they’re looking at each lie right, there is a true place of worship. There is a true place of worship. There is a true place of worship. Now as they sing, you guys, you guys over here in heaven, you join in when they sing, you guys join in and there’s the symphony of praise that rises before the throne. So we show up, we hand in our pocket. I don’t really like this worship song, I don’t want to sing it. Not my jam, you need to go to the next one, you know, and we don’t get it. God is glorified Psalm 22 3 says yet you are holy enthroned on the praises of Israel and say you’re enthroned on the praises of those who sing. Well, you were enthroned on the praises of the pastor, You are enthroned on the praises of your people, the praises of your people. You can’t get that by yourself at home with your Ipod or Spotify playing. We’re not saying that you shouldn’t do that. You should, we’re saying that there’s something special about this gathering. You cannot miss the significance of that. And if you do, I’m I’m guessing you haven’t read the Book of Revelation which talks all about the gathering, the Worship, the Assembly. I use this illustration In the 1st service. Imagine trying to light a fire with one charcoal. It’s not what it’s designed for. Right? You need a collection. You need to put them together. You need to make them touch one another close proximity and the fire lasers. That’s what happens when we come together. God is glorified in that Ezekiel 37 26-28 says I will make a covenant of peace with him. It should be an everlasting covenant with him. That’s Jesus Christ what he did for us. And I will set them in their land and multiply them and will set my sanctuary in their midst forever. My dwelling place shall be with them. Notice I didn’t say my dwelling place would be with the individual. God loves you as an individual knows you. He even knows the number of hairs on your head. But he has a people. I mean that’s like asking me, hey dan, you have five kids, which one of them do you love? I love them. And the times when I’m most at odds with one of them is when one of them is at odds with the other one wrongfully because I love them. He says, my dwelling place shall be with them and I will be their God and they shall be my people. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord who sanctifies Israel when my sanctuary is in their midst forevermore. First Corinthians 14, we get a glimpse of a church service. Now the Corinthian Church is kind of wonky. They do something strangely, Paul wrote two letters to them because they can’t get right. You know what I’m saying? They just can’t get right. So two times he has to write to them to get them right. But look at what he says as it relates to their gathering coming together. What then brothers. When you come together, each one has a him a lesson, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. And this is the point. Let all things be done for building up God is glorified when you come together and gather in his name to worship him. And when you build one another up, when there is mutual edification taking place, how does that happen? Well, in this context, the service needs to be intelligible. But there’s also a sense where we are serving one another. We’re giving to one another. We’re making time for one another. We’re letting each other know that hey, I’m praying for you. Hey, how’s that thing going in your life? Because I’ve been praying for you, encouraging others man. So thankful for what you did. So this rhythm of worship may be the last rhythm of the series, but it is the most important one. Church is an assembly first informal, then she becomes a militant people. She always gathers regularly to worship her golf gathers worship him and it’s a gathering of heaven and earth, jesus being in the center, father being glorified, being thrown on the praises of people. For some of us, church may not be that high of a priority. Ask you to look at the scriptures, it needs to be, you know, when I sit down to eat dinner with my family, there’s not one meal that kind of, I think about it like, Oh yeah, that really made us a family. It’s a regular practice shaped me. That’s what it’s like with worship. So is worship your priority secondly, if you feel like worship is a priority, Let me ask you this, are you here for the mutual edification of others? Are you here to serve as well as to receive or do you come as a consumer? What can I get? Rather than I’m here with the people of God to receive from God and to give, give back to God and to his people. Let all things be done for the building up. Let’s pray Father in heaven, thank you for your word. Thank you jesus for making worship better. Thank you for being the true mediator between heaven and earth between God and man and for this service this morning. I pray God. The worship of you would not be esteemed lightly God. That would become a new fervor in our hearts. As we think about all that you’ve done to bring us back to the father, all that you call us to, and all that you promised to give us their hearts be warmed, strengthened and encouraged by these things in jesus.