Traditions: Pursuing God's Presence

Well, good morning, Southeast family. How is everyone? It is a beautiful day. I had such an amazing time—I hope that you did as well—last weekend here at Southeast, as we celebrated the resurrection. This weekend, as the video indicates, we're starting off this new series called Traditions, and we're going to be looking at what God's word has to say about how we connect to him and how we connect to each other, both as the church and as people that are made in his image, image bearers of the most high God. Some of these things might be new to you. And on the other hand, they might all be old to you. Either way, we want to ask this question of why. It's good to ask that question. It's also good to try to answer it. We hope to do that with regard to things like prayer and communion and baptism and Bible reading.

And this weekend, we're going to start out with a subject of worship. It’s so appropriate for us to start this series with the subject of worship, because all of the topics that we're going to be going through and studying are at their core, they are acts of worship. So it's good to start there. Aaron teed up the ball just right last weekend for the subject of worship, with this idea in his message that Jesus was hanging when, when he was hanging on the cross, he was worshiping, and what an amazing message it was. And it probably blew your mind a little bit that concept that Jesus would be hanging on the cross and worshiping. I know that it did mine. He was hanging there, maybe singing, at the very least reciting the words of song number 22 and the Hebrew hymnal. And that is of course the book of Psalms.

And that prompts us to ask this question when things are at their most difficult, do I run toward God or do I run away from him? Have you ever noticed when you go through something traumatic and you go through it with someone else that a bond gets formed that is deeper than any other type of bond? Maybe you've seen or heard stories about this sort of thing? One that has stuck with me is one that I heard a long time ago. It's about this woman named Josephine Harris. She was in the first tower that was struck on September 11, 2001. She was on the 73rd floor, and she was an older woman, but she worked her way down stairwell B, until she got all the way down to the 15th floor and then she just sat down and she decided, I can't go any further. What it is is what it is.

And she's, so she just sat down. But then guess what? Ladder Company Six was coming up stairwell B, and they met her there and they talked with her and they convinced her, no, let's go ahead and find our way out of this place before it gets worse. And they convinced her and they sort of, they started back down stairwell B until they got to the fifth floor. They were almost there. But Josephine said, “I really cannot go a single, not one more step.” And she said, “I'm begging you go on without me so that you guys can be safe.” And they said, we refuse to do that, but I’ll tell you what we will do. They said, “We will carry you the rest of the way.” So they picked up Josephine, and they all were able to walk out and survive that horrific day.

And guess what happened for the rest of Josephine's life? She was very connected to all of these guys from Ladder Company Six. They knew about each other's families. They knew what was going on with the other one personally, because they've walked through this traumatic event and in doing so, a bond was formed and sealed, and the relationship went very deep, very fast. I'd like to suggest that when we worship, it prepares us for hard things that may be coming our way, but if we will worship through those hard things, if we will stay close to our God, as he stays close with us through those that will strengthen, that will deepen our bond with the one that we worship. So thanks, Aaron, thanks for that lob. And now I just have to slam dunk it. But I'm five foot eight, so we're going to see how that goes.

That's called a segue because I do love the game of basketball. I love to play it. And you're thinking, Really? Because if you're five foot eight, but I, I used to be five foot nine. So I got that going for me. That's right. While I've been getting more and more interested in playing more and more basketball, I've literally been shrinking. I'm an inch shorter. And that tells me God does have a sense of humor or at least a sense of irony, but I still love playing the game basketball. And I love watching the game of basketball. I might be a little bit better at watching than I am at playing, but either way, I'm always learning. I learned something that I won't soon forget, as I watched an NBA game about three and a half weeks ago. And there was a guy that came into the game off the bench when his team really needed him.

And so he didn't start, but he produced. He had his own career high in points and assists and played amazing defense. As a matter of fact, if not for him, his team would not have won. They call this person the sixth man, and they even have an award for them at the end of the season. So he was interviewed after the game, and they asked him this question: “ To what do you credit your ability to be ready to rise to the occasion and give such an amazing performance when the coach gave you the opportunity? And when your team really needed you to have that kind of game?” And here was his answer: “I had a high school coach, and he used to always say this and it stuck with me, ‘If you stay ready, you don't have to get ready.’” Would you say that with me?

“If you stay ready, you don't have to get ready.” Luke chapter 12, starting in verse 35, Jesus says these words: “Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, like servants waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks, they can immediately open the door for him. It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. Truly, I tell you,” Listen to this, “he will dress himself to serve. He will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them." Mix that in with your vision of what it looks like when Jesus returns. “It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the middle of the night or toward daybreak.” (Luke 12:35-38, NIV) In other words, if you stay ready, you won't have to get ready. Now I know when Jesus spoke these words, he was referring to his literal presence when he returns. But I believe he's also talking about his presence in the presence. In each moment. What if life is a continual stream of moments when the power and the presence of our God are on display in one way or another? [Singing] Even when I don't see it, you’re working. Even when I don't feel it, you’re working. You never stop, you never stop working.

What if we lived our lives ready to see, expecting to feel it and experience it and linger in it and dwell in it? Now I could spend the next several minutes trying to convince you to engage in a certain set of behaviors that when we come together in this place during our times of worship. I could tell you that if you get up early on Sunday mornings and you start to get ready to prepare your heart, to seek God's presence, that when we come together, it will be a much better experience for you, but also for all of us. I can tell you that if you're willing to make yourself more emotionally available, more vulnerable to God and to the people that you're worshiping with, that that worship experience will become better. That you'll become a better, more expressive worshiper. And that in turn will affect everyone else's experience.

Yeah, all of that is true. But here's the deal. I think most of us, we think of our worship time together. We think of church as a filling station as a, as a gas station. So we go through our week and the world comes at us in one way or another. And we struggle. And our tank gets emptier and emptier and emptier. And by the time we show up on Sunday, we don't just want, we need to be recharged and refueled and fed. And then we do it all over again the next week, right? Deplete, deplete, deplete. And then here I am at church, and boy, do I need to be refueled. But what if, what if we spent time each day in the presence of God? What if we welcomed his presence? What if our days and our homes were filled with an awareness of his Spirit and his movement and his activity? What if worship was a daily thing? And we were each being refueled and refreshed and recharged by his presence all throughout the week? Now what happens when we come together?

What if each of us next weekend showed up under those circumstances? And we got here on Sunday, not looking for a place to be refueled, but looking for a place, needing a place, to overflow because all that God had been accomplishing throughout the week. And we were seeing it, seeing him on the move. Now I don't need to convince you to pursue a set of behaviors to make worship better, right? Now, I don't need to talk you into coming to church. Now, the connection to God and each other becomes unstoppable. Now I realize that sometimes on Sunday, maybe even for some seasons of life, church is that for each of us. We come to this place needing that, needing church to be that. But if you've settled into that definition of what worship is, you're going to miss out on the joy and the strength and the transformation that happens when our response to the presence of God becomes uncontainable.

So stay ready. If you stay ready, you won't have to get ready. This is really similar to what Moses is saying to the Israelites in Exodus, chapter 12. He's trying to prepare them, get them ready, because he's about to lead them out, by the power of God, out of Egyptian slavery. And he's instituting the Passover. He's giving some specifics about the Passover meal. This meal, in which they would kill a lamb, and they take the blood of the lamb and they put it on the doorframes of their houses as a sign to God. And then they'd roast and eat that lamb as a part of that meal. We will pick up in chapter 12. “In this manner you shall eat it: with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand, and you shall eat it in haste.

It is the Lord's Passover. For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all of the firstborn of the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt, I will execute judgment because I am the Lord. The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you or destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.” (Exodus 12:11-13, ESV) To sum up these instructions, there it is again, stay ready. And here's why, jumping down to verse 30, “And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all of his servants and all of the Egyptians. And there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where someone was not dead. Then he summoned Moses and Aaron by night and said, ‘Up, go from among my people, both you and the people of Israel and go.” Verse 33: “The Egyptians were urgent with the people to send them out of the land in haste. For they said, ‘We shall all be dead.'

“So the people took their dough,” listen to this, “before it was leavened, their kneading bowls being bound up in their cloaks on their shoulders.” (Exodus 12:30-34, ESV) This idea of unleavened bread, all of the elements of the Passover meal represented something. And so throughout the centuries, all the people who celebrated the Passover, the unleavened bread part of that meal would remind them to stay ready. Why? Because our God is in the habit of doing great and mighty things. The similarities to what we do when we participate in communion together abound. But that is literally another sermon for another day. Another week, actually in this series, I think it's next Sunday when the subject of communion will be the one that's up for discussion. So let's move forward. Moses leads the people out of Egypt, but Pharaoh changes his mind, and he leads the army out his army out in chase of the Israelites. And God maps out their journey.

He gets them all the way down to the spot on the beach, where behind them, they have the mountains. And there's only one way in, the way they came in. And the Egyptians, the army is coming down to that way. And out before them, they have the sea. And the only way out is through. And you know the story, right? God parts the sea. The Hebrews walked through on dry land. And then the Egyptians tried to follow, and the sea crashes in and destroys them. And God does something so radical, so over the top, to prove that he wants to protect and free his people. So let's look at their response. They worshiped. Exodus chapter 1—the whole chapter pretty much is a song that they sang. It tells us with great detail, what that song was and how they sang it.

They sang it with some instrumental accompaniment. They pulled their tambourines out and began to join in with their instruments and with their voices. But wait a minute, I thought we said that they were supposed to pack light and be ready. Yeah. Be ready to worship because God is about to do something amazing. They left Egypt expecting it, didn’t they? I believe that when the power and the presence of our God are on display, it brings about in us, his creation, the desire, the deep desire, the innate desire to worship. We see that all over scripture, but I don't want to get ahead of myself. Let's jump back in with more instructions through Moses to the Israelites. This summer, we're going to jump forward to Exodus chapter 25. We're going to take a look at the Ark of the Covenant, and you might wonder, What does that have to do with answering this question of why and how we worship God?

Well, it's all about inviting and welcoming the presence of God. I'm hoping all of that is going to be real clear as we go through the rest of this time together. But before we go any further, I want to make something very clear. And that is: I know that there are two arks mentioned in the Bible and one of them is very familiar to all of us. And that's this one. [Picture of Noah’s ark on screen.] Yeah. That that's not the ark we're going to be talking about. So I just want to make sure you know that I'm going to throw around the word ark so much in the rest of this message, I want to make sure that you know that that's not the art that I'll be talking about. It is mentioned, and it is detailed quite a bit in Exodus chapter 25. So we're going to jump in there where God has given these instructions to Moses.

We're going to jump in at chapter 25, verse 10, and I'm going to go fast because there's a lot to cover. “Have the people make an ark of acacia—a sacred chest, 45 inches long, 27 inches wide, and 27 inches high. Overlay it inside and out with pure gold and run a molding of gold all around it. Cast four gold rings and attach them to its four feet, two rings on each side. Make poles from acacia wood and overlay them with gold.” Wow. This thing is going to be heavy. “Insert the poles into the rings at the sides of the arch to carry it. These carrying poles must stay inside; never remove them.” Why? Because God prescribes that that's the only way to move the ark. And that Levis are the only ones to do the moving of the ark. Now, “When the ark is finished, place inside it the stone tablets inscribed with the terms of the covenant, which I will give to you. Then make the ark's cover—the place of atonement—from pure gold.” This is the lid. “It must be 45 inches long and 27 inches wide. Then make two cherubim,” (These mighty angel figures.) “from hammered gold, and place them on the two ends of the atonement cover. Mold the cherubim on each end of the atonement cover, making it all one piece of gold.” This thing is going to be very, very heavy. If the Levites are going to be… I started to get a different vision of what the Levites were going to look like. They must've been swoll. They must have been fit because they had to lift this thing. “The cherubim will face each other and look down on the atonement cover. With their wings spread above it, they will protect it. Place inside the ark the stone tablets inscribed with the terms of the covenant, which I will give to you. Then put the atonement cover on top of the ark.” And listen to this. “I will meet with you there and talk to you from above the atonement cover.” (Exodus 25:10-22, NIV)

That’s God telling us, “This thing represents My presence." So if we had to sum up what the ark meant to the Hebrews, it would be the term God's presence. That's what it meant to them in their context. But if I mentioned the ark of the covenant in our context, what do you think of? What comes to mind? Go ahead and shout it out. Say it again. What else? Indiana Jones. There we go. Yeah. “The Raiders of the Lost Ark.” I knew it. I knew you were going to get it right.

I had no idea of the statement that this movie was making when I saw it back when it was in theaters. Oh yeah, I just told you how old I am. But what a statement it was making. It's a Jewish movie maker, and he's telling a story about the object that represents the presence of God, to the Jewish people. And that object completely destroys a bunch of World War II Nazis that think they can manipulate God's presence for their own gain. I think Steven Spielberg was making a very personal statement about his heritage when he made that movie. And one of the things, the helpful things, that this movie does for us is it gives us a picture literally of what the ark would have looked like to go along with the description we just read in scripture. And there it is [image on screen]. There is what it looked like. 

Just think about how heavy that thing is. Solid gold everywhere. It's fascinating though, isn't it? Almighty God, unbound by space and time, chooses a focal point in space and time for his presence to be manifested. Sometimes the idea of God's presence can feel a little bit hard to wrap our head around. So we have this object and all these stories about it in the Old Testament, that gives us a little bit more of a straightforward, practical way to relate and to understand the presence of God. As a worshiper, here's what I know about the presence of God. It's built into us. As I mentioned earlier, it's innate. It's part of who we are as God's creation. That when we are confronted by the presence of God, we automatically worship. And when I presumed to lead others in worship, all I need to do with all this in mind, is just welcome the presence of God, just welcome his presence. And then welcome people into his presence. And there's a lot of passages that unpack this idea of the ark of the covenant representing the presence of God to the Hebrews. Exodus chapter 27, Leviticus 16 and 24. They all talk about the lampstand that sits in the same place in the same room inside the tabernacle, where the ark is kept. That is, and that lampstand is to be kept burning continually in the Lord's presence, it says. Joshua six, that Aaron preached from several weeks ago, that the Israelites are marching around the city of Jericho with the ark. And it says they're in the Lord's presence. Even the enemies of Israel viewed the ark as the presence of God. In Samuel, first Samuel chapter four through six, we have this really interesting account of how the Israelites try to use the ark to gain a military advantage.

Now their opponent, their usual opponent, right? The Philistines. They get concerned when the ark shows up in the Israelite camp. They basically say, what are we going to do now that the presence of the Lord is in the Israelite camp? The same God who wreaked havoc on the Egyptians. But then they decide, they talk it over, and they say, you know, what, what we really need to do is fight like never before, because otherwise we're going to end up being slaves to the Hebrews. But guess what? The Israelites get a lesson in what happens when you try to manipulate God's presence for your own gain. They lose the battle, and they lose the ark. The Philistines steal it. They take it back to their home country of Philistia, and it sits there for the next seven months. And then the Philistines get the lesson in what happens when you try to manipulate the presence of God for your own gain. First of all, they take the ark, and they put it right in the middle of their temple to their primary god Dagon. They put it right in front of him, and they come in the next morning. And this statue of the false god Dagon is on his face, worshiping, if you will, the true God, the God of the Hebrews.

Now, several things happen after that. And one of them is that all of these kind of diseases, all these kinds of ailments, plagues, if you will, they start to come upon everywhere in Philistia where the ark gets kept. It starts out in Ashdod, and they're like, it's not going well for us. So they ship it over to Ekron, and then it ends up in Gath. And I want you to remember the city of Gath. It's one of the primary Philistine city states. We're going to come back to Gath in just a minute. Now, finally, they ended up shipping it back to Israel, and it ends up in this border town called Beth-Shemesh. Part of the very explicit instructions given in the law of Moses is when it comes to handling the ark is don't. Don't handle the ark. Don't touch it. It even comes as we mentioned with the carrying poles.

So you don't have to touch it to move it. But what do the people of Beth-Shemesh do? They not only take off the lid, but they look inside. If they'd only seen Indiana Jones, they'd know that you don't look inside because your face might melt off. And so, yes, the Hebrews start dying from mishandling the ark. And their response is who is able to stand in the presence of the Lord, the Holy God. So they ship it to the next town over, and that town, if I can pronounce it correctly is Kiriath-jearim and there it sits for 20 years, two decades. At the end of that time, King David has come to power, and he's reigning throughout Israel. And once his, his reign is secure, he decides he's going to rule from Jerusalem. And he decides also, I want to bring the ark to Jerusalem because whatever else you think about King David, he is obsessed with the presence of God. Just read the Psalms, the songs that he wrote.

So David plans. His obsession kicks into high gear, and he has this big plan for this big parade of bringing the ark all the way back to Jerusalem. And yet, in fact, he has 30,000 foot soldiers who ascend on this tiny little town, probably quadrupling the population of it. And he gets so excited and bewildered that he throws the rule book for how to move the ark out the window. Here we go again, right? You know what happens when you do that. People start dying because the presence of God is not to be trifled with. You should pursue it, but it's not to be trifled with. And Uzzah reaches out and tries to touch the ark because the oxen stumble. Wait a minute, oxen. No, it's poles. And it's Levites. That's how you move the ark. And, poof. Uzzah gets taken out. Another one bites the dust.

David's like, what? So he's mad, and he's scared. And he decides it's just too dangerous to move the ark. Okay, now the stage is set, and I'm really excited to introduce you to one of maybe, one of my favorite, characters in the whole Bible that I've gotten to know fairly recently. Second Samuel chapter six verse 10 introduces him. "So David was not willing to take the ark of the Lord into the city of David.” That’s Jerusalem, a portion of it. “But David took it aside to the house of, Obed-edom the Gittite.” There he is. I got the chance to share this story about Obed-edom with some of the guys in this congregation at the men's breakfast in January. Now I get to share it with the rest of you. Obed-edom, the Gittite. So imagine you've just seen all of this stuff go on. Your town is overwhelmed by the party parade that David is bringing to town. The King himself is in your tiny little town. And all that goes on that we just read about happens. And you see Uzzah, and you think he's trying to help beause the ark is about the fall. And then, I don't know if there's a lightning bolt, I don't know what it was, but he gets taken out. 

And then the King points at you and says, Hey, we're going to put that in your house. Yeah. If it wasn't his King making this request, pretty sure it would have been a polite or maybe even a firm, no. No thank you. But it is his King asking. And I don't want to give the impression that David is asking or choosing flippantly or not carefully because he actually is. He doesn't want anybody else dying on his watch or because of his decisions. And the only, remember the only people that can move the ark are the Levites right. That's right. Obed-edom is a Levite. And we know this because he's mentioned elsewhere in scripture, in a genealogy as the son of Jedathed, who is a Levite. Then why does scripture refer to him as a Gittite? And what in the heck is a Gittite? Well, it just so happens that a Gittite is a citizen of the city of Gath. Remember Gath, primary Philistine citystate, a place rooted in polytheism and all the trappings of pagan worship, If you know what I mean.

Now, Aaron has taught us that the way a character gets introduced in scripture is very significant about what that character represents. So if you're a Levite, wouldn't scripture introduce you as Obed-edom the Levite? Unless being a Philistine citizen had become a more apt description of your identity. And yet God's been up to something in his life because he's not living behind enemy lines anymore. He's back in Israel. He's not even in a border town. He's the next town over. And I believe he's on his way home, back to his calling. Chapter six, starting in verse 10. We're going to start there again, just so we can put the whole picture together. “So David was not willing to take the ark of the Lord into the city of David, but David took it aside to the house of Obed-edom, the Gittite.” There it is. “And the ark of the Lord remained in the house of Obed-edom the Gittite," (once more for emphasis, I guess) “three months, and the Lord blessed Obed-edom,” (and look no tag) “and all of his household. And it was told King David, ‘The Lord has blessed the household of Obed-edom and all that belongs to him, because of the ark of God.” (2 Samuel 6:10-12, ESV)

So let's imagine what that might've been like, based on what we know about the context. It's a small town. Obed-edom is probably a subsistence farmer, which means he just grows enough for he and his family to eat. But suddenly the crops are doing so good that he begins to share with the whole neighborhood. And the word gets around. Maybe, maybe his relationships are a struggle, and you know how that goes in a small town, right? Maybe everybody is concerned about his marriage or his relationship with his teenage son. But suddenly those struggles start to fade.

Imagine in the context of God, drawing him back to his calling as a Levitical priest and the focal point of the presence of God is in his living room. In my mind's eye, I see his family coming in one morning to find him on his face before the ark worshiping, whispering songs, listening for God's voice. I imagine a week later, he comes in to find his teenage son bowed before the ark whispering songs, praising God, worshiping, listening for his voice. And you might say that sounds like a lot of speculation to me. But remember scripture says that everything in the household of Obed-edom was blessed. Whatever happened it was so profound that David heard about it all the way back in Jerusalem. And when he hears about it, guess what? The parade’s back on. Whatever happened, it was also so profound that in that parade, Obed decides to move his family.

When David gets their Obed-edom has stuff packed up; his family's ready to go. The presence of God has brought about such a radical change in Obed-edom that he's going to go wherever that presence goes, wherever that ark is, he is going to be. Whatever happened, it was so profound that Obed-edom embraced his calling as a Levite a priest of Israel. Once again, in fact, he became a worship leader in the tabernacle and then the temple, but first in the parade. So the parade’s back on, and here we have an account of some of that in First Chronicles, chapter 15, starting in verse 19. “The musicians Heman," I just think that's a great name for a musician. “Asaph, and Ethan were chosen to sound the bronze symbol Zechariah, Ariel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel,” I can't pronounce all these. “Unni, Eliab, Maaseiah, and Benaiah were chosen to play the harps. Mattithiah, Eliphelehu, Mikneiah, Obed-edom,” There he is. “Jeiel, and Azaziah were chosen to play the lyres.” Modern day equivalent, the guitar. “Kenaniah, the head Levite,  was chosen as the choir leader because of his skill. Berekiah and Elkanah were chosen to guard the ark. Shebaniah, Joshaphat,” We’ll just skip down. “all of whom were priests were chosen to blow the trumpets as they marched in front of the ark of God. Obed-edom and Jehiah were chosen to guard the ark.” (1 Chronicles 15:19-24, NLT)

So he's so pumped up, he's doing double duty. He's playing guitar in the worship band, and he's guarding the ark, making sure nobody mishandles it this time.

It took three months, 90 days of the presence of God in Obed-edom's house, changed everything. Whatever happened, it was so profound that everything also changed for his children and for their children. First Chronicles, chapter 26, starting in verse four says this: ”The sons of Obed-edom, also gatekeepers, were Shemaiah (the oldest), Jehozabad (the second),” on down to the eighth of his sons, “God had richly blessed Obed-edom. Obed-edom’s son Shemaiah had sons with great ability who earned great positions of great authority in the clan. Their names were Othni, Rephael, Obed,” Hey, named after granddad in case my daughter and her husband are listening. “and Elzabad. Their relatives, Elihu and Semakiah, were also very capable men. All of these descendants of Obed-edom, including their sons and grandsons,” Listen to this. “sixty-two of them in all—were very capable men, well qualified for their work.” (1 Chronicles 26:4-8, NLT)

And what was their work? They were Levites, priests of the Lord most high. And in the New Testament, we read that we are a royal priesthood. So I want to challenge you to join me for the next 90 days to do whatever it takes, whatever it takes to experience the presence of God in your home. In the community, certainly. In church, absolutely. But in your home, in such a profound way that everything changes, not just for you, but for generations, generations to come. There's lots of implications. Here are four of them.

1. Daily worship helps us stay ready to celebrate the moments when God comes through.

I'm sure you've experienced something similar to this. And that's why you're here to seek the presence of God. Because you know what it's like when destruction is imminent, when you're enslaved to something, and God leads you out and gives you freedom. We know a little bit about that as a church family, right? Throughout all of the years of Southeast, but certainly in the last four to five years, we've experienced a lot of highs and some of the lows have been very low lows. But I stand before you today, the week after resurrection weekend, and I proclaim that God has done great and mighty things in this church. And this church is thriving. 

And so the question is, how are we going to respond? I think we ought to respond with worshiping with every fiber of who we are and inviting that presence into our homes.

1. Daily worship helps us stay ready to face the hardest of times. And when you find yourself in the hardest of times, if you will worship through those times, the bond that you have with your Father will go deeper and deeper and last throughout eternity.
2. The presence of God ignites worship; pursue his presence relentlessly and continually.
3. When we invite the presence of God into our homes, everything changes—not just for us, but for generations to come.

So important.

As we turn our attention, our focus back toward communion, let's go back to where we started: the Passover, the blood of the lamb painted on the doorframe of the house. Our homes, our families, covered and protected by it. The unleavened bread, which represents his body broken for us, reminding us to stay ready. Let's think about these things as we prepare our hearts and minds to participate in communion together. 

Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread. And after he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

And in the same way, after the supper, he took the cup and he said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” Let’s pray. God, would you give us more and more and more of your presence? That's why we come into this place. But God, as we leave this place, would you give us more and more and more of your presence? Would you do that throughout this week? So that as we come into this place in a week from now, we come with stories of your goodness, of your might, and of your provision for us, your children of the freedom that you lead us out of slavery and into that freedom. Thank you, God. Thank you God for doing that. May we take this time as we sing one more song, may it be a time of overflow of praise to your great name in the powerful name of Jesus? We ask it. Amen.

Let's stand and sing. One more song.

Hey, from here, I have a request. I'd like for you as you experience what God does when you intentionally invite him in to your home, all of the experience becomes your testimony. You know, social media gets used for a lot of things. How about if we use it to share the testimony about the goodness of our God? So let's do that throughout the rest of this series and throughout this 90 days, and may we show up here each weekend of that time, just ready for overflow. Have a great week.