some of us may have heard and definitely all of us know this name but John when he was a young boy he was raised by his mother who also passed away when he was just 7 years old and after that he was taken to Sea by his father who was a ship captain and over time he got involved in some dangerous trade action activities along with other ship people but John's life because of all this pain that he went through from his young life was filled with rebellion and he became known for his cruelty vulgarity and utter disregard for human life at one point he even became a slave after being captured in West Africa in the 1700s but it was in 1748 during a perilous Voyage back to England his ship was caught in a violent storm and desperate and fearing for his life looking at these massive powerful waves that were about to topple his ship that he called out in desperation asking God to save his life and miraculous l ly right after his prayer the storm subsided and he survived and this marked a new beginning in his life by then he had begun to get involved in slave trade transporting slaves from Africa to the United States and this singular moment of being exposed to the power of God kindled a spark of worship in his heart that transformed his life trajectory and the song he wrote is the song which is well known it is the most sung Christian worship song of all time titled Amazing Grace and we have that song today because it was written by someone whose heart was touched by the magnificence and the Splendor and the power of God and turned into a Heart of Worship so we want to look at the word that was read to us we are at the last chapter of the book of Exodus we have completed two books of the Bible and I've titled my sermon today as transformational worship from ritual to Renewal you know up until the time of that transformational moment in John's life he was going to church he did all the ritual things but really there was nothing that had transformed in his heart you know worship is a deeply transformative experience and we are looking at Exodus as I said you know the three parts of Exodus the first part talks about the grand Exodus of Israel from Egypt the second part talks about God giving the old Covenant the law the 10 commandments and this third part is entirely filled with description of how the Israelites ought to worship God and if you're reading through this entire book you will see just after Israel experienced this dramatic rescue they had a spiritual slump by building an idol they went back to wanting prosperity and a god of prosperity more than the presence of God so here at this point God is instit in worship and the right place for it so that the Israelites can have an opportunity to experience Revival we all need Revival in our lives isn't it and worship is the key to Revival if you look at all the great revivals that have happened in the history of the church one Central aspect of the Revival was a deep sense of worship kindled by the proclamation of God's word uh you know I've shared the statistics before um of uh one of my professors at Fuller when he surveyed thousands of Christian leaders and biblical leaders came up with this alarming statistic that three out of four Christian leaders or leaders in general will fall and fail and one of the ways that which we can prevent ourselves from experiencing this falling or failing is to have consistent regular periodic moments of spiritual Revival and worship and the key to experiencing a a habitual Revival in our lives is to have a consistent personal and corporate worship worship is the engine that fuels this revival in our lives you know one of my neighbors Mike he's a Navy veteran and his hobby after he was retired was um taking old cars and rebuilding them and I watched him build this um classic Mustang which is the very first Mustang he said that was made and I remember seeing this sitting in the corner of his garage as a piece of junk metal with almost nothing on it and I saw him work at it and the first thing he did to give life to this was to rebuild its engine from scratch and later on as he went on he started adding all the exterior parts and the glossy finishes and the last touch was a a beautiful white leather seat that he put on it and I remember the day he went for a drive hearing the Roar of his engine but you see if you do all the other things outside and not have the engine that's a pretty useless car so we can have all the bells and whistles we can look like we are wonderful Christians coming to church doing all the things that we ought to do but if the engine of worship is not fuel in us we will not be able to experience this revival in our lives so God wants Israelites to experience a Revival right after they have come out and before they embark on this 40-year desert Journey they have no idea that they're going to stay for 40 years in the desert and there is one thing they are going to need in the desert experience and God knows what that is which is to worship and Abraham Isaac and Jacob their lives were marked by acts of worship they always worshiped God built altars when God did something sacrificed and that had become a lost art for the people of Israel during slavery sociologists say every 500 years there is a seismic shift in the world order in ideology and philosophy and all of that and and you this is perhaps one of the earliest shifts after 460 years God remaking world history and one of the central things and the pivotal things of that was worship so far God has revealed who he is to them and now he wants to reveal how they have to worship Him aw toer said we are saved to worship God all that Christ has done for us leads us to this one end worship prepares us for eternity you know Jesus when he meets The Samaritan women says that those who worship God must worship Him in spirit and in truth and so now he unpacks here how this worship can happen so there are five things you're going to look at from the text that was read to us today the Primacy of worship the provision of worship the pattern of worship the preparation of worship and the power from worship the Primacy of worship verse one of Exodus 40 says the Lord spoke to Moses saying on the first day of the first month month you shall erect the Tabernacle of the tent of meeting you know it's a little uh important to understand the timeline of when this happens in Exodus the first month refers to mid-march to Mid April uh and uh that's kind of like today so it's very coincidental we are getting to do this we could probably call this the Tabernacle Sunday I don't know if they have this or not it's just God's Providence it happens to be this day so this was when their New Year sort of began and we saw that a year ago just as they had come out of Egypt it was on this day God gave them the Passover so year later now God is telling them to set up the Tabernacle and all they had been doing in the past several months after the Passover was detailed instructions that God gave to build this Tabernacle where they can worship this entire work was done in less than a year because God knew that worship comes first before anything else and so God institutes what proper worship is for his children here is the first sneak peek in the entire Bible where we see God's desire and design for worship he alone decides how he should should be worshiped and when he should be worshiped and this also is to remind them when they start a new year we have this verse that says and we use this in our prayers your mercies are new every morning isn't it and in the same way this is a fresh start for the nation of Israel and worship reminds us that God's Mercy is new and available for us in every new chapter every new phase and every new day of our life and the reason is that you and I are going to keep messing up as we see with the lives of Israelites and those who are reading it before they're entering Canan are going to recognize that they still kept doing some of the things that their fathers did and so we need Mercy if we don't have worship as Central to to our personal lives and corporately when we mess up we will end up doing either of two things we can end up either beating ourselves up and live in the land of guilt forever or completely suppressed and Harden and ignore and try to fill something else and go after that and worship centers us that we can experience God's mercy in our daily life worship is the key to transformation because when we stop worshiping we will start idolizing you know when Moses was gone up to be with God on the mountain as he was receiving this and the Israelites stopped worshiping they can't just be neutral they had to create something and they started idolizing and that's what ritualistic worship can do to us but true worship is a transformative experience when done in the right way so my dear friends let me ask you this question do you have worship as a primary thing in your personal lives to set aside a time of day a place of day we've spoken about that several times you know Martin Luther was one of the great reformers that God used in this past Millennium we can say and he is known to have famously said this that I have so much to do that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer you know Luther prioritized personal worship to prepare himself to be used by God in great ways secondly we're going to look at God's provision of worship God didn't just command them and say I want you to worship he also provided everything they needed for worship God provides all that is needed for worship for the people of Israel he provided them the people he provided them a place he provided them the things first of all he gave them Moses and Aaron who were the ones who were interceding for them praying for them caring for them shepherding them and some of these principles continue till today even in the modern church today God gives elders and deacons you know that's why we we had our elders today and and and just to refresh our memories these are people God calls to specific offices it's not the people and something great about them but it is the office that God has instituted through which people can be led into worship Elders in particular you know Moses is the one who institutes Elders of from the advice of his father-in-law Jetro because one man cannot provide spiritual care for everyone and so in our churches today in reformed circles we have what is called teaching elders and ruling Elders that God gives every Church the teaching Elders are called pastors these are people who will dedicate their full time to studying God's were by going to a seminary and also spending all of their time in praying and caring for members of the church and ruling Elders are those Who oversee and care for shepherding and praying and visiting and the ministries of the church so that worship can be possible he also provided the place through which people can worship and all the things they need to build this Tabernacle you remember this list that was read it sounds boring but it was very meticulously given there several chapters are spent in God telling Moses how each of these elements that go into the most holy place and the holy place and the courtyard have to be and just by looking at the list of it a question pops up in our mind all of them required to have some exotic materials the holy place from the holy place to the most holy place to the courtyard all the wooden frames had to be covered in Gold the dress that the priests wore had to have precious stones in them so the question arises how did people who were in the desert who were slav for 460 years you don't make a lot of money when you are a slave how did they have all this gold where did they get all these precious jewels and ornaments that God was now telling them to give to build the Tabernacle these were not wealthy startup businessmen who made it big and had a fortune to use isn't it you know how they got them they didn't earn it they didn't work for it we read about this briefly God promised them that he will give these were the things they got from those who held them a slave the people of Egypt when they were leaving the nation of Egypt in a hurry God told them to ask the people who were enslaving them and they will give them gold and jewels and everything they were going to need so all the things that they had were given freely to them they were carrying gold and precious stones and ornaments in this desert they had this with them for one year so the first thing God tells us from what I gave you I want you to give them back to me so we can put this Tabernacle do you think God really needs all these flashy gold and ornaments there is a spiritual significance for it in terms of uh the sanctity and the Holiness it communicates God doesn't live in temples we know that so why did God ask the nation of Israel to give everything he first of all freely gave them isn't it because he wanted them to know the first thing about worship is starting from your heart the things that we have and our attitude towards the things that we have are a great test of the condition of our heart hearts for worship giving is an essential aspect of worship God says give and it will be given unto you isn't it shaken and doubled and multiplied how do you feel when you give you know in our church we have a core value we do not ask anyone to give we believe it's a personal decision between between you and God but it is a discipline and God cares about how you give I don't need to know none of us need to know how each of us give but God is looking at your giving heart are you your giving is a is an indirect metric of your worshipful heart it reveals what are you really attached to in life isn't it and much more than what you give or how much you give is how you feel like when you give and that's why in the New Testament we see God loves a cheerful Giver because a cheerful giving doesn't just happen easily the Reason God wanted them to give was to test if they are worshiping The Giver or the gifts we sometimes tend to Hope hold too tightly to what we have thinking somehow we own it everything you have is not something that belongs to us the true owner of all of this world and universe is God himself just like the Israelites didn't own anything it came to them from the nation of Egypt and that's why later on when he institutes the tithing God says okay even if it's not just right 10 % of giving I know it's a sad reality across all churches that only 20% of people in the church give more than 80% for the functioning of the church across all churches and the actual number of people who even give 10% of their income is less than 3 to 4% of people in every church now that shows something about our heart because worship is not just about receiving it's also about giving the Israelites were given all the riches but they had to be first willing to give back to God you know John rockafeller was one of the wealthiest men in history he's the first billionaire in the United States in the late 18th century and early 19th century he was the first one to have a net worth of $1 billion he made it through oil and gas industry but what people don't know is that he was also a very committed Christian and do you know how much money he gave away in his lifetime they estimated that he gave away $500 million in his lifetime and this is what Rockefeller said he said I never would have been able to tithe the first million dollars I ever made if I I had not tithed my first salary which was $1.50 per week through his giving he showed what he really is worshiping his generosity reflected his belief that his wealth was God's and not his own one of the challenges I lay before our young people is when you get your first jobs try this try giving away not 10% % not 20% not 50% give away 100% of what you get your very first job you got and watch how God provides and one of the mentors challenged me to do that and I did it and I can tell you it was beautiful it's so freeing to see how and where God provides for you and it's not just something only for missionaries or pastors or the special spiritual people you can experience that too you can never give away so much that you will end up ever in want from God because when you give freely you tell God I'm worshiping you than what you have given it's very hard in the Silicon Valley isn't it where we are so stuck with stalks and all of those things and this is a model that many wonderful Godly men practice you I've shared before how Pat geling the former CEO of Intel did the same gave 50% away of what he makes to philanthropy and he challenges all the other CEOs we live in the wealthiest part of the world and guess how much the wealthiest people in the world give less than one% Cory ten Boom some of you may have known her story lived in Amsterdam she was the daughter of a watchmaker she was the first licensed watchmaker during Nazi times when they were invading Amsterdam and so her house had a hiding place where she would hide refugees who were fleeing from the Nazi S as soldiers and in order to care for them she went to extraordinary lengths to provide and give them things and eventually she ended up getting caught by the Nazis and was in concentration camp and God saved her life and she wrote a book called The Hiding Place and she says this hold everything in your hands lightly otherwise it hurts when God PR your fingers open so my dear friends sometimes we think worship is about music and songs and you know sermon and prayer but worship the metric for worship is your giving and how you are giving when you are worshiping the true God you would be able to give freely and joyfully and cheerfully not just for our church but wherever you see outside worship transforms us reminds us that we don't worship the gifts but we keep worshiping The Giver third we look at the pattern of worship God created worship to be the primal thing the primary thing in his children's lives he also provides everything we need to worship and now he also gives the pattern for worship when you read verses 3 to 8 and again verses 16 to 33 and you look out for the most repeated phrase from which you can try to identify what was the core uh theme that God was talking about the phrase that comes again and again is Moses did all as the Lord commanded him as the Lord commanded Moses as the Lord commanded Moses he did all those things God has to be worshiped the way he wants to be worshiped he gives Specific Instructions on where to worship and how how to worship you know John Calvin other reformers called this the regulative principle of worship we're talking about corporate worship year and it also applies to your personal worship where Calvin spent enormous amounts of time removing human centered elements in corporate worship and what this regulatory principle of worship means is everything we do in worship has to be regulated and guided by God's word that's where we find our reason for doing everything we do in corporate worship Even in our church and that's why we constantly keep trying to see if we are staying true to that especially in the last 20 30 40 years as you look at the scene of Evangelical Christianity particularly in North America there is this sad tendency and deviation of worship moving towards a man Centric emotional feelings oriented therapeutic aspect the regulative principle of worship doesn't give any emphasis on having smoke screens and laser lights and things like that you know if you just evaluate the Contemporary worship songs I wonder how many would pass the regulat principle test most of the songs can be differentiated from non-Christian pop culture songs which are all about pacifying our hearts and doing self therapy sadly churches have come to prioritize entertainment over reverence true worship is about encountering God and not just enjoying the performance John Piper said this beautifully he says worship is not a gathering worship is not singing worship is not merely a feeling worship is the echo of God's worth in the heart of God's people whether it is Corporate worship or even our personal worship and that's something for us to ask ourselves is My Worship merely an emotional experience we're not ruling out emotions because God wants us to worship with them with all our heart mind soul and strength has to be holistic but if it is only one or the other then the question arises are we worshiping God the way he wants us to worship so if you look at the things that God commands Moses to do and he did you see where he starts Moses starts setting up the Tabernacle first in the holy of holies and smack in the center of the holy of holies was the Ark of the Covenant and what was inside the ark not a trick question the Ten Commandments and the eventually the Mana and Aaron stuff but right at this point was just the Ten Commandments the word of God you know the worship the starting place of authentic worship the most reliable source from which we can experience worship personally or corporately is God's word that's the focal Central ultimate place of worship and right on top of the Ark of the Covenant was The Mercy Seat where the blood was sprinkled because that is the essence and the core and Central thing that was meant to be a focal element where it is God's word providing an opportunity for people to experience the mercy of God and we will see later on that's where the cloud of God's presence descends you know when we lived in Germany we had traveled to different cities and if you ever go to Europe every city Prides itself in the unique architecture of their churches is gothic or neogothic or Renaissance and you can walk into each of these churches and yeah you can admire the external uh features of architecture which are Splendid sometimes took 200 to 300 years to build but when you walk in you can see from the architecture what they were trying to communicate is a central element of worship you would see in some of the earlier European churches the pulpit or the place from which God's word was proclaimed is usually made to be in the side of the church in in a raised situation or a place and it was not the central part and when you look at it there will be other stained glass windows and and sometimes and mostly it was the sacrament That was supposed to be the center of worship you know fast forward a few centuries and you can walk into any church and see what Hasen happened especially in the last 10 20 years the first thing that went away was the pulpit people replaced I'm just talking about architecture we're not trying to judge anyone here but you're just exegeting a church from its architecture and how the place of worship is set up they wanted the pulpit to go away they brought the rock band experience right there and Pulpit was just a movable stand that can be placed in and out so it's least disruptive to worship am I not not true you just exited yourself where the where it's dazzling music and flashlights are the key and God's word isn't but then if you look at some of the later European churches post reformation and especially in England you can see that the pulpit is at the center and the congregation usually sits around the pulpit because they wanted to say well God's word is central for us thankfully we have our pulpit in the center I was thinking about it when I was doing it but I like this in fact we want a bigger one so I have more space just to plug for our Deacon board there but even personally isn't it and and right after worship was the whale nobody can enter it was the most holy place and even for the high priest to enter he had to go through elaborate rituals you can read about that later on and right in front of the whale was the Holy place and in the Holy place so the most holy place was a 15 cubic feet Cube and after that was this Most Holy place was 15 ft tall and 15 ft wide and 45 ft in length and it had three elements it had the table which had 12 Lo of bread that was symbolic of God saying hey I am the provider for all the 12 tribes of Israel it had the golden lamp stand which had seven lamps and the priests were tasked to continually keep those lamps burning which was to symbolize to the people of Israel that God's presence is always with them and then they had this place the table of burning a golden altar of incense which is where after the priest sacrifice they would come and offer their prayer for the people and even right after the holy place there was a screen that separated the Tabernacle from the outside world and then you had the courtyard and the courtyard had the place where they would sacrifice animals and then they had a bronze Basin where the priests would first wash themselves before they could sacrif I animals and then the courtyard had the boundary with another screen which was saying this is separate from the world so this is how God instituted Moses how he has to set up but when people actually experienced worship they did it in the reverse order so they would leave the worries and things of the world and when they enter worship you have the Psalms remember enter his gates with Thanksgiving in my heart and his qutes with praise so there was that demarcation of preparation of entering into worship and right when they enter in they would bring their animals based on what are the things that they had done and they need atonement for and would offer it to the priest and they would sacrifice it right there and the priests would have washed and prepared themselves and then he would take it on behalf of the people into the holy Place offer it on the in the table of incense prayers on behalf of the people and once in a year he could go into the most holy place and they said a rope would have to be tied in case he did not do what he was supposed to do that he would get killed and they had to pull him outside that was how the emphasis was on worship you know worship is a transformative experience so when they right when they enter in they experience Joy with thanks giving and then they experience washing and cleansing and and and receiving forgiveness and Grace what do you think that does to your heart so freeing isn't it worship transforms guilt to forgiveness and entering the holy place and seeing the bread and the lamb transform our heart from doubting and questioning to trusting and remembering God's provision and his presence and the altar of incense is always there for the people to remember that through prayer they can pour out their fears anxieties and doubts and experience peace prayer is a central part of worship you're going to hear more about that next week worship can transform our sorrows and worries to joy and peace and finally the holy of holies being in the very presence of God is Ultimate Bliss and that's why perhaps more Moses writes in Psalm 91 he who dwells in the shelter of the most high will abide in the shadow of the almighty and David prays in Psalm 47 I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever you know all these Saints knew what it means to be in God's presence says one thing I ask from the Lord this only thing do I seek that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to do what to Gaze on the beauty of the Lord Lord and to seek him in his Temple is that something what you desire my dear friends God's presence experienced through worship transforms Us From the Inside Out it tells us that you and I are accepted you and I are loved you and I are forgiven that's what the Israelites would have every day wherever they went and we you and I have even much more than that through Christ Christ which we will look at shortly as these were foreshadowed in him next we'll move on to preparation of for worship you know in verses 9-4 the word that keeps repeating is God says after Moses prepares all these things the one word that keeps repeating says anoint anoint anoint with oil anoint the Tabernacle and all its furniture anoint the burnt offerings the utensils the Basin the sand stand anoint the priests you know the word anointing with oil was meant as a significance was this is going to be set apart for something special a specific purpose God cares that we prepare our hearts in worship that you don't walk into worship arbitrarily know we spoke about that before as well Sunday mornings tend to be the most chaotic times isn't it but how about you prepare from Saturday night in a family prayer Lord prepare ourselves to enter into worship with joy and Thanksgiving and rather than letting other things come and crowd and pull us away in our lives you know we all know the story of famous Olympic runner Eric little you know ER Eric little famously refused to compete on a Sunday because of his commitment to Worship in the race that he was most qualified and was Desiring I think it was the 100 met Sprint or something and he refused it because it came on the Lord's day which stood as a bold testimony and eventually God honored that subsequently after that in the relay he participated and they were able to win the goal but that's not something what what Eric little was proud about he later on served as a missionary in China and this is his famous quote he said when I run I feel his pleasure this worshipful heart spilled into what he was doing in his daily life so my dear friends let me ask you do you prepare yourself to come to worship do you prepare yourself to face each day as you go in and lastly we're going to conclude with the power that comes from worship you know verses 34- 38 says then the crow covered the tent of meeting and the glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle and Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it and the glory of the Lord fill the Tabernacle throughout all their Journeys whenever the cloud was taken up from Over the Tabernacle the people of Israel would set out but if the cloud was not taken up then they did not set out till the day it was taken up for the cloud of the Lord was on the Tabernacle by day and fire was in it by night in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their Journeys what the Tabernacle meant to the Israelites was God's presence and guidance in life the Tabernacle enabled them to experience God's presence always and let him guide them but despite all this despite God using Moses to meticulously put all this together and build even he could not enter when the glory of God descended on the Tabernacle but you and I have someone who's greater than Moses it was to him that all these things in the Tabernacle like we read in the catechism question was pointed to he was the lamb who was slain before the foundation of the world it was his blood that was SP that was sprinkled that cleanses us from all our sins he it was his body that was broken on the cross he is the Jesus said I am the bread of life it was his spirit that is constantly present right now and intercedes with us and for us even when we cannot pray with groans that cannot be understood and it is his spirit that enables us to enter God's presence the whale was torn when Jesus overcame death and was resurrected that not just Moses that you and I can now have access into the holy of holies to go right into the presence of God through someone who is far greater than Moses Jesus Christ himself what more can we ask for that's the essence and the glory and the awesomeness of worship and John's gospel Begins by saying John 1:14 that Jesus tabernacled Among Us Jesus is the Tabernacle and he is in us in our hearts and what are you and I expected to do is to enjoy God's presence and move with Jesus go where Jesus is taking you to whenever the tent the tab when the cloud moved the Israelites moved and whenever the cloud descended they pitched their tents and stayed there and if if your life and my life and it's transformed by worship it will reflect that transformation by having daily Revival we read that our body is now the Temple of the Holy Spirit Romans 122 says present yourselves as living sacrifices before God and worship enables us to experience this Rich Union to reflect Christ in all areas of Our Lives when we have this kind of a worshipful experience it transforms our hearts our desires and we read in several passages in the New Testament it helps us to put off our old self and put on the new self worship is the fuel the engine that drives that it helps us to change our attitudes towards money towards things towards people and it moves us to actions to move where God is calling us to move and leading us to do so my dear friends prioritize Worship in your personal lives and corporate lives check yourselves to see if your worship is according to God's word and God centered or your word and your you centered and ask yourself your heart's metric for worship through giving when God it asks you to give do you give cheerfully or you're still holding back to Earthly treasures and prepare yourself for worship daily and corporately with reverence approach god with reverence and make worship a lifestyle let it shape how we live how we work how we interact with others and carry Christ into the world world and I want to close us with prayer and I call this the Tabernacle prayer um you know in the New Testament The Sermon on the Mount Jesus gives us a pattern of prayer called The Lord's Prayer and we pray the Lord's Prayer every Sunday but this can be something practically very helpful as a tool even for your personal prayer the prayer some sometimes becomes very hard our minds are distracted and we get carried away but I do this sometimes one of my mentors taught me this early on is if you want to focus on prayer you can use the Tabernacle and how God gave Moses this blueprint as a way to engage in prayer and I'm going to do this and model it for us and I want to pray this for our whole church as we prepare ourselves for this communion we are going to imagine in our prayer like we are going with the Israelites we are entering into um the Tabernacle Courtyard we are going to spend time at the place where the uh offerings are made we're going to spend time in the cleansing part we're going to enter into the holy place we're going to look at the table and the lamp and the burning incense and then finally we are going to enter into the most holy place and I'm going to pray and you can use this in your own personal prayers as well shall we pray a gracious and merciful Heavenly Father we thank you Lord for leading us in our lives and drawing us to you from a life of Slavery to sin and things of this world to freedom and joy and we want to enter your presence God by giving you thanks and praising you and worshiping you and as as we draw near to you we recognize our hearts sinfulness things that we had done this past week especially the times we got angry on our loved ones the times we coveted one another's things the times we were jealous about our own friends or our peers for something they had and we see all these things in our heart and we want to bring them to you Lord we know that if you were to punish us for these sins that we cannot take them but we thank you that your son Jesus was sacrificed on the cross for us and we thank you Lord that you wash us and cleanse us much more than water can because of the blood of your son Jesus Christ and we come into your presence Lord not with our goodness or greatness or righteousness we come into your presence having been washed clean by the blood of the lamb and we look at the cross at the body of Christ that was broken for us we are so grateful to that Lord and his body provides nourishment not only spiritually for us but you are providing every day for us our daily bread what we need physically May that remind us Lord that we don't have to hold on to these things and let fear and worry and anxiety take us down about what will happen to our jobs or our children or our future because you are our bread of life father we thank you Lord for your Holy Spirit who is within us whose presence illuminates our hearts and minds and sheds light when we read your word every day father that we can recognize who you are and the things you are speaking to us and we thank you Lord that your Holy Spirit enables us to pray and we when we pray we know that we are not praying that Jesus Christ our high priest is interceding on our behalf and my behalf even right now oh how wonderful it is Lord that you have given us someone greater than Moses and all the high priests he is our high priest who is interceding for us and and your Holy Spirit helps us to pray sometimes it is hard to pray Lord when we have a rough day when there is a challenging situation in our life it's very difficult to pray but we thank you that your Holy Spirit helps us to pray and that you are interceding for us and praying for us and that is such a blessing and we worship you father and we thank you for your word Lord that is life your word that was written but even more your Incarnate Word your son Jesus Christ whose blood was shed on The Mercy Seat so we can receive Mercy but more than that Who removed this whale that is thrown and we can now come into your presence we can feel your presence father we just don't come as broken Sinners but we come as Bel beled sons help me and help us to experience your presence in a special way not just this morning but every day when we come before you help us Lord to examine our hearts and lives to see that our bodies are the Temple of the Holy Spirit help us to live as living sacrifices help us to follow you where you lead us us and and guide us so we can glorify you