Priesthood of All Believers

Hear the reading of God's Word, and may it be a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If I am a father, where is the honor due me? If I am a master, where is the respect due me?

says the Lord Almighty. It is you, O priests, who show contempt for my name. But you ask, have we shown contempt for your name? You placed defiled food on my altar.

But you ask, how have we defiled you? By saying that the Lord's table is contemptible. When you bring blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice crippled and diseased animals, is that not wrong?

Try offering them to your governor. Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you? says the Lord Almighty. Now, implore God to be gracious to us. With such offerings from your hands, will he accept you?

says the Lord Almighty. Oh, that one of you would shut the temple doors so that you would not light useless fires on my altar. I am not pleased with you, says the Lord Almighty, and I will accept no offering from your hands.

My name will be great among the nations, from the rising to the setting of the sun. In every place, incense and pure offerings will be brought to my name, because my name will be great among the nations, says the Lord Almighty. But you profane it by saying of the Lord's table, it is defiled, and of its food, it's contemptible. And you say, what a burden. And you sniff at it contemptuously, says the Lord Almighty.

When you bring injured, crippled, or diseased animals and offer them as sacrifices, should I accept them from your hands? says the Lord. Cursed is the cheat who has an acceptable male in his flock and vows to give it, but then sacrificed a blemished animal to the Lord. For I am a great king, says the Lord Almighty, and my name is to be feared among the nations. And now this admonition is for you, O priests. If you do not listen, and if you do not set your heart to honor my name, says the Lord Almighty, I will send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings. Yes, I have already cursed them, because you have not set your heart to honor me. Because of you, I will rebuke your descendants.

I will spread on your faces the offal from your festival sacrifices, and you will be carried off with it. And you will know that I have sent you this admonition, so that my covenant with Levi may continue, says the Lord Almighty. My covenant was with him, a covenant of life and peace, and I gave them to him. This called for reverence, and he revered me and stood in awe of my name. True instruction was in his mouth, and nothing false was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and turned many from sin. For the lips of a priest ought to preserve knowledge, and from his mouth men should seek instruction, because he is a messenger of the Lord Almighty.

But you have turned from the way, and by your teaching have caused many to stumble. You have violated the covenant with Levi, says the Lord Almighty, so I have caused you to be despised, humiliated before all the people, because you have not followed my ways, but have shown partiality in matters of the law. Let us pray. Oh, dear Heavenly Father, I pray that you would forgive us for our sins. Father, we thank you that in Jesus Christ, our Lord, his blood cleanses us and washes us free. We pray now that you would not only create a new heart within us, but you would fill us with your spirit to overflowing, opening our eyes, the eyes of our heart, giving a love for your word, through your spirit helping us to discern the truth and apply it to our day-to-day lives, so that you might be lifted up and glorified.

Come. Be lifted up now, and ministered to each one of our hearts. Let me pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

I should have prayed in Jesus' name that the Lord would help me not to cough. Amen. I have been wanting to show this for quite a while now. For those of you who've been to my house, you've seen this.

Some of you have never even seen this before. This is a statue in the church of San Pietro in Vincoli, Rome. Does anybody know who it is? Moses. That's right. And what's so great about Moses is Moses in this picture has horns.

And most people don't know what that means, but I think it's really cool. When I went to Gordon Conwell Seminary, there was a chapel there that was once a Catholic cathedral, and they had these alcoves along the walls, and they would have these statues. And in fact, one of them was Moses with horns. He was only about three or four feet tall, and it came to be that it was a prank that the students would steal him, and they would pass him around, so someone would have Moses in their possession, in their room or in their home, whatever.

And then when they graduated, he would all of a sudden show up on stage or somewhere, and then before you know it, when you were distracted, Moses would disappear and somebody else had him. I thought that was really neat. But it really, over time, came to mean a lot to me. The scripture that I'm going to read to you, I guess I should hold this up to you, is very important. We read it this morning, which kind of stole some glory, so there's a little bit of overlap here, and it's not intentional. It's the providence of God.

I was planning on this, but we read it this morning, so here it is. It says in 2 Corinthians 3, Now we who with unveiled faces are filled with the Spirit all reflect the Lord's glory. We are being transformed into his likeness with an ever-increasing glory which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. In the picture, most people think of this text and think of the veil that was rent or the veil that's over their hearts because of the law in comparison to the Spirit of the Word. But I'm going to read the text again, and I want you to focus on the glory because you see the horns, kind of like the Statue of Liberty, it has those horns coming out of her head. It's glory. And so these horns are representing the fading. See, they're kind of nubby. It's a fading glory of the Old Covenant, the reading of the Word. Looks like Charleston Heston, doesn't it?

Nice and muscular. Let me read the text again to you. This time think about 2 Corinthians 13, about the glory. Now we, who with unveiled faces are filled with the Spirit, all reflect the Lord's glory. We are being transformed into his likeness with an ever-increasing glory which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

That contrast is between the Old Covenant and the New, but it's also contrasting the glory of the presence of God which faded in comparison to us now who are filled with the Holy Spirit and are filled with an increasing glory. Our increasing glory because we are like temples filled with the Holy Spirit. As we become more like him, the light of his glory shines all the brighter in our lives through the power of the Holy Spirit.

So as we grow closer to him, we become brighter lights. Paul said to the Corinthians in chapter 3 verse 16, don't you know that you are God's temple and that the Spirit lives, his Spirit lives in you as well? In 1 Corinthians 6, 19, a very similar statement. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you whom you received from God?

So I'm taking this and emphasizing and I want to emphasize that we are a temple and that we are filled with the Holy Spirit. And when you look at it, if you want to turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 6, there is a contrast that Paul makes there with the people who are in the world. Verse 9, do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived, neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, speaking of that this morning, nor male prostitutes, nor homosexual offenders, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor slanders, swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. That's in contrast and our lives should contrast that lifestyle of the flesh. We should live for the glory of the Lord. 1 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 31 says, So whether you eat or drink, whatever you do, do it for the glory of God.

So where the temples were filled with the Holy Spirit, we should not be given over to following the flesh, but in fact we should give ourselves to living a lives that would glorify God. Johann Sebastian Bach would always put S-B-G, S-D-G, at the end of his works. In fact, he carved it on a couple of organs as well. He was one of our greatest composers and even before starting a composition, he would write at the top of the pages J-J, which is J-su-juva. I'm not sure what language it is, whether it's French or what, but which means Jesus help me. With this simple prayer, Bach acknowledged his utter dependence upon the Savior for all that he did. And then at the end of the composition, he would write those letters S-D-G meaning soli deo gloria, for the glory of God alone. The last of the five solis, as you know them, the first is scripture alone, for the grace alone, by Christ alone, through faith alone, for the glory of God alone.

The five solas there. Everything that we do should be for the glory of God, and based upon our text here in 1 Corinthians 6 that I just read, because he offered himself up for us. He has saved us and made us into a temple and filled us with the Holy Spirit. My point tonight is that as the priesthood of believers, we glorify God by living faithfully for him.

In the past, I... Let me see here. In the past couple weeks, or past couple sermons, I spoke about what is right worship, and I spoke about half-hearted worship of the priesthood. So we're transitioning now into the third and last sermon of this series, talking about the priesthood of believers, the application of the sermon. So it's kind of interesting, I'm not necessarily following the text, because I did that in the first and the second sermon to make the points of what worship is all about, because that's what the priests do. And now I'm taking it and applying it to us, because there's a direct correlation between what the priests failed to do, we are called to do. We are the priesthood of believers.

We have been made to be lights on a hill, not hid, hidden under a bushel. The world which is in darkness through us is going to see the light of Christ, the light of God in and through us. And speaking of the cloud that we just read in our text from Luke, the cloud, like the pillar of fire and cloud that rested over, the cloud that is that rested over Israel in the desert, whose footstool was the ark of the covenant, Israel was a witness to the truth and reality of the living God. So out in the desert, as the million plus people gathered around to worship, there was a pillar of fire and cloud with a covering, so to speak, kind of like at creation, a covering, and the world could observe God's people in worship and recognize that he was a true and living one. Likewise, we are temples filled with the presence of God.

Okay, you think of the tabernacle temple. Now he has made us to be a temple, referring here to 1 Corinthians 3 and 6. We are temples and that light of the Holy Spirit, the presence of God, fills us.

We are that light to the darkness of the world. God fills us not to satisfy ourselves, but to glorify him, solely Deo Gloria. So what I want to do, I'm only going to talk about a couple things, worship and service in the Old Testament, worship and service in the New Testament, and then I'm going to conclude. I want us to see that the life that we live is the application of worship.

Yes, we come to church on Sundays and on Wednesday nights. We might have devotions in the morning, but we go to work every day. We serve God, and this is the point, is I want you to see that we serve God as the priesthood of believers in everything that we do, not just by coming here. Now I focused on that, what is worship? What is true worship? I focused that in the first sermon of the series, but now I'm taking it a little bit step further in application to say it's what you do.

It's how you live. That is service of worship. So worship is not just limited to bowing down and to those gesticulations, bowing down, raising hands, whatever you might think of praising God. They even danced around the golden calf, but however you think of worship, we're adding to this aspect of worship what we're doing here this evening. I'm adding to it.

How can I add to it? Because it comes in the Word. We often overlook this, and I hope that by pointing it out, it's really gonna apply to our hearts, worship and service. In Exodus chapter 20, verse four and five, if you want to turn in your Bibles there, Exodus chapter 20, verse four and five, we're back to the law, and it's important that we see what follows after worship. In verse four, you shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above, on earth beneath, or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them, for I am the Lord your God, and I am a jealous God.

Now, I have the NIV. If you've got the ESV, it says serve, and that's a correct interpretation. You shall not worship nor serve them.

This word for serve is gonna be applicable. We're gonna see, and it has a relationship with the New Testament in the second point, but I just want you to see that Jesus quoted this same text to Satan. In Matthew chapter four, verse nine, Jesus said, or actually, Satan said this, all this I will give you if you will bow down and worship me. But Jesus replied and said, go away, Satan, for it has been written, you shall worship the Lord your God and serve him alone. Now, see, that kinda captures it a little bit more clearly when you're looking from the New Testament backwards. In the Septuagint, the Greek Old Testament, it's the same word for to serve. And so what Jesus is making clear that it's not just bowing down and worship, but it's also living for. We're called to live for God.

Soli Deo Gloria should be our motto for our lives. All right, I wanna give you another text to make this point. Adam was charged in the garden in Genesis 2.15. Turn there, Genesis 2.15, if you want to.

I'll write quick. 2.15, Adam was charged in the garden to guard and to serve. The Lord, I'm reading the text, took man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work and to take care of it.

Wait a second, are we missing something here? Well, no, that's the English NIV translation. But the words are still abad and shamar, to guard and to serve.

It's still the same words. Adam was placed in the garden to guard and to serve. So what does that have to do with? Well, Adam had not yet sinned.

So let's put it in context. After he placed him, after all the creation, he made Adam. He had yet to sin. He was charged with the oversight of the garden. Specifically, he was called in 1.27 and 28 to rule over. A word that I like to use is God's vice regent, or a parallel, another word would be as a vassal. You've got suzerain vassal, king, subordinate king, suzerain vassal.

He's an under king. In fact, Adam was likened to God as he was made in the image of God. So you have Adam who was made on the sixth day to rule over just as God, who was the creator of heavens and earth, ruled over all creation, everything that is. In a way, Adam was the crown of creation and God told him to guard the temple and to serve him.

This was before the fall. Another parallel. We're building here. This is great.

For me, it's great. I hope y'all get something out of this. I know I'm preaching to the choir and everybody loves the Lord here, but I want you to understand the clarity of this so that if anything, it helps you to understand in a deep way what it means to worship God in your daily life. How do you worship God? I'm getting there.

I'm building. A third place that we find this is in the priesthood. The priesthood was charged to guard and to serve. Now we can go back to Exodus 32. If you turn there with me, Exodus 32, verse 26, it says, after the golden calf, Moses had come down from the mountain and he saw that the people were singing and dancing, worshiping around the golden calf. It says here that the people were claiming that it was the golden calf that had delivered them.

Moses was very upset and angry. Verse 26, so he stood at the entrance of the camp and said, whoever is for the Lord, come to me. And all the Levites rallied to him. Then he said to them, this is what the Lord the God of Israel says, each man strap a sword on his side, go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other, each killing his brother, his friend, and his neighbor.

Whoa. The Levites did as Moses commanded and that day about 3,000 of the people died. Then Moses said, you have been set apart to the Lord this day for you were against your own sons and brothers and he has blessed you this day. This is the background for the Levitical ordination. The Levites called to guard and to serve. They were set apart by the Lord, Aaron's descendants, to be priests and in the context of Malachi in the second disputation, these people had forgotten from whence they came in the Lord whom they served and his word.

It was very clear in the word that they were to offer up unblemished sacrifices. In Numbers chapter one, turn with me a little bit further over. Numbers chapter one, and we're gonna look at a couple texts here just to make the point that the text does tell the Levites to guard and serve because I want you to see that because we're commanded to guard and serve as the priesthood of believers. Numbers chapter one verse 53, the Levites are to be responsible for the care of the tabernacle but the word there is once again in Hebrew is Shemar which is to guard. We're called to guard the tabernacle.

Numbers chapter three verse seven and eight. They are to perform duties, this guarding and the whole community by doing the work of the tabernacle and they the Levites shall guard Shemar and all the furnishings of the ten in the meeting and guard the sons of Israel as they serve. So here we have it again, guarding and serving. So we started out with the Old Testament about how we need to add serve to worship. Serve meaning a lifestyle of worship. But now we're starting to see that it actually goes back, this lifestyle of guarding and serving goes all the way back to Adam which is very interesting because Adam failed.

And then you know what happened? If you read the last verse there in that chapter, the Lord put cherubim to guard because Adam had failed to guard. He put a cherubim there to guard access to the tree of life. Then when we look at the Levitical priesthood, they as well failed miserably and so all Israel calls, as the minister goes, so do the people, so to speak. If we up here are leading you astray, watering down the word, compromising, woe unto us because your blood is on our hands. We have this responsibility to be faithful to the word, to be careful in the word, lest we are gonna be held accountable and you are led astray. All right, point number two, worship and service in the New Testament. In between the Old Testament and the New Testament, let me just give you a little parenthetical statement here because it's pretty important. 450 years passed between Malachi and the birth of Christ, our Savior, a period of silence, possibly as it's between the trumpets, a period of judgment, the sixth and seventh trumpet, there was silence.

Maybe this was a period of silence. But in the fullness of time, you've heard the scriptures from Galatians before, God sent his son to redeem those under law by becoming a curse for us. God cursed those who were pronouncing the blessing because they had compromised, but now God condescends, he comes down into the flesh, to become a curse for us that we might receive his righteousness. He came down to fulfill, as we've been talking about in the Sermon on the Mount, to fulfill the Old Testament types and figures and shadows.

The ceremonial law, the civil law. To offer himself up is the perfect sacrifice which all these types and shadows pointed to. God sent him down as well to be, as the author of Hebrews puts it, our high priest. So now, all of a sudden, we're shifting into the priesthood of believers. We had Adam as a priest, and I say this, Greg Beale, who wrote a big, thick commentary on the book of Revelation, was one of my professors in seminary. He also wrote a book on the mission of the church and the temple, and he has a whole chapter in there on Adam as a priest in the garden, which is like a temple, and making that relationship to chapter 21 of Revelation about the New Jerusalem coming down, likened to a temple, a garden temple. And so it goes all the way back to make the point that Adam was a priest. And then you have the priesthood of believers. They failed, but Christ succeeds. He fulfills the responsibility.

Now, remember, it's pretty interesting if you think about it. Adam didn't worship in a physical temple. The garden was the temple, and he obeyed the Lord by guarding and serving, by living his day-to-day life. There was no need to offer up sacrifices yet because there was no sin. Now, Christ has come to pay the penalty for that sin and as a result, making us to be a holy people, a royal nation, a royal priesthood, set apart for him. And as I read in the very beginning, he's made us to be temples filled with the Holy Spirit that we would glorify him.

Why then do we live this way when we should live this way? So worship has to do not only with just this act of gathering together with the saints and praising his name and hearing the Word proclaimed in tithes and offerings and the sacraments and prayer, but it's also in our day-to-day lives. Where is this in the New Testament now? Now we've talked about how Jesus is the transition.

Where is this? I had to ask this question, and I thought about it. It came to me, living sacrifices, but it's supported by one of your favorite scholars and pastors, John Piper. He wrote a nice little article on worship relating to the life of the saint. And it comes from Romans chapter 12, verses one and two.

So turn with me there, if you will. It's very important that we read Romans chapter 12, verse one and two in the context of all that he's done, that is, and Paul begins with the proclamation of the gospel, the gospel which includes both Jews and Gentiles. It was all according to God's plan. His plan to save those who would put their trust and faith in Christ.

They are, those who put their faith in Christ, are true Israel. Now, he ends with the doxology. Oh, the depths, chapter 11, verse 33. Oh, the depths of the riches and the wisdom of knowledge of God.

How unsearchable are His judgments, His past beyond tracing out. Who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been His counselor? Who has ever given to God that He should repay Him for from Him and through Him and to Him are all things? To Him be the glory forever.

Amen. Based upon this, what God has done for us, therefore, I talked about that in Sunday school, based upon this ground, first chapters one through 11, therefore, this is how you should live. I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercies, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. This is your spiritual act of, and my NIV says worship, but the word is the same as what Jesus used in relationship to Satan, service. This is your spiritual act of service. We are made to be living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, to offer ourselves.

Doesn't that have that offering language? It has this Old Testament, Levitical, sacrificial system sense to it, meaning to it, offer. We offer ourselves unto the Lord. So based upon what God has done for us, let us live for Him and being living sacrifice.

It's not just on Sundays and Wednesdays. It's in everything we say, O do. O Lord, I long to honor You, but may my greatest motive be to love the Christ who died for me. Turn with me to 1 Peter. This is the text from which our title comes from and that most of us recognize the priesthood of believers.

Peter, chapter one, I'm not gonna go too deep into it, but I do wanna give you a quick little summary. He says that we have been saved by the blood of the Lamb who is without blemish or defect, verse 19. You see there, the precious blood of Christ, a Lamb without blemish or defect, making that relationship between Jesus, our high priest, who not only is faithful as a high priest, but offering up himself without blemish. He is what the typology of the sacrifices pointed to.

And Peter's making this point right here. He is without blemish or defect. So then he goes on to say, Therefore, do not conform to the sinful way of life, but be holy based upon what Christ has done for you.

He offered himself up for you. Therefore, how should we live? Be holy. Don't do that.

Do this. He goes on to say, You've been purified and born again. Therefore, rid yourselves of the ways of the world, for you are being built, chapter two, verse five, into a spiritual house, a holy priesthood offering spiritual sacrifices. You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God that you may declare, proclaim, that is, the praises of him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light. That word comes in our hymn that we just sang about Ephesians, chapter five, verse 25, I believe it is. The husband is to, as Christ washes us with the water of the word, to make his church radiant.

That word there is doxah, which is glorious, to make her glorious. That's what husbands, we have the obligation to do with our wives, is to wash them with the water of the ministry of the word. We have that responsibility to lead our family in devotions. Are you doing it? Are you reading the Bible with your wives?

Make time to do it. Read it with your families. Your kids are gonna see you reading the Bible, and they're gonna take on to that and realize the importance later on in life. God is glorified in our leadership. God is glorified in our lives as we live for him as living sacrifices. So Peter emphasizes this need to live for God since we've been born again and made a spiritual house hearkening back to temple and the holy priesthood. We are that temple. We've been filled with the Spirit, and we offer ourselves up as living sacrifices.

So I'm gonna conclude here. All that hymn singing took some of my time, but I'm gonna try and wrap it up here. Therefore, as the priesthood of believers, we are called to worship and to serve faithfully in our daily lives. Worship the Lord and serve him only, Jesus said, and the commandment. Paul said to Timothy, 2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 14, guard the deposit that was entrusted you. Guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us. Jesus also said to the disciples and his followers, guard yourself against the yeast of the Pharisees.

Walk in the Spirit, Paul said, and in obedience to the word. Now I wanna end with this one concept. It's called investiture. I've been talking about it in our Sunday school class, but I wanna add to it now just a little bit. I wanna flesh it out just a little bit, investiture. God has vested in us, he has secured us. Are you vested in your job, job security, so to speak?

Are you vested? God has vested, he has secured our salvation. He has purchased us with the precious blood of the lamb. We have been bought and purchased, and so it says there in 1 Corinthians, you know, we should therefore offer ourselves up. He says, therefore honor God with your body.

Investiture is this act of vesting. It's a ceremony essentially of being clothed like a king. What does it make us think of or should it make us think of? It makes us think of the priests in the temple. The priest would wear an ephod and minister before the Lord's presence. That ephod, not only the ephod, actually the layers of clothes were representative of the tabernacle, but he would wear an ephod going into the tabernacle, representing the people of God, making these sacrifices, and then on the Day of Atonement, he would go into the Holy of Holies and offer up this one sacrifice and God would eat it. You wanna know what the sacrifices are?

What they mean, you have to ask the question, who's eating them? In the end, on the Day of Atonement, God eats it. He eats the sin represented there by the priest, which is essentially Christ dying on the cross. That's another point, but we're called to be clothed in Christ. Just as the priest wore an ephod, we are called to be clothed in Christ.

Why? Because back in the garden, just before Adam, after they had sinned, just before they were booted out of the garden, Adam and Eve were clothed. God covered their shame. Before Christ, we're all shameful, but God clothes us in the blood of the lamb.

So what should you do? Go and offer your members to sexual immorality as a result? No, you be holy as he is holy.

Look what he's done for you, for me, for all of us. How now shall I live? This investiture is exemplified in three words. I'm only gonna read a scripture for each one, but three words, clothe yourselves, put on holiness, and offer yourselves up as living sacrifices.

That's what investiture means. We have been purchased by the blood of the lamb. We've been clothed in Christ. So as a response, Romans 13, 14, rather clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature. Colossians 3, I'll read one more.

Colossians 3, 12. Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Number two, put on. This is a conclusion.

We're getting there. Put on. Ephesians chapter four, verse 22. You were taught with regard to the former way of life to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by his deceitful desires to be made new in the attitude of your minds and to put on the new self created to be like Christ in true righteousness and holiness.

You see? So we are now, since we've been bought and purchased and clothed in the blood of the lamb, covered in the blood of the lamb, therefore we should be taking steps to clothe ourselves with these acts of righteousness, with a knowledge of him, so that we would live such a life that would glorify, be a light to all the nations who are watching. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and put on the new self, and put on the new self, which is being renewed in the knowledge of the image of its creator. We are made in that image now. The image has been restored, recreated in us through the Holy Spirit. Just as Adam bore the image of God and ruled over, guarded and served, we now have been made new creatures in Christ. We've been made heirs, and the image has been fulfilled through the Holy Spirit. We bear that image to the world. So therefore, before the world, we are offering ourselves up.

That's number three. Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal bodies so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin as instruments of wickedness, but rather, offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness.

Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness, leading to holiness. Brothers and sisters, we've been transformed. As we read it, sang in that hymn, we've been transformed. God has filled us with the Holy Spirit and given us his word that by faith, we would honor and glorify him in our daily lives, and that is our spiritual service of worship. Our day-to-day lives living for him.

Let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you that you have done all this for us. We were once your enemies.

But you loved us. You were faithful. Even with Jacob, Father, in your promises to him, Jacob I have loved and Esau I have hated, Father, you have been faithful to your promises to save a people, that the gospel would go out to the nations that we are the recipients of, even here in 2022, 21, whatever. I pray, Father, in Jesus' name, that in our lives, Lord, you would be glorified. I pray, Father, that as we live our day-to-day lives, that we would take into account not only temptations that come our way, but choose to be holy. Come, Holy Spirit, and inspire us. Capture our minds in the life that we should live as living sacrifices to bring honor and glory to you, Lord Jesus, in whose name we pray. Amen.