Reverence & Fire (Pastor Aaron Trelfa, 07/23/22)

upwards of 13% of the United States population, adult population, this doesn't

include the children, but upwards of 13% of the American adult population is on

some form of antidepressant medication. Did you know that? 13% that's rather high.

When you break it down to the genders, women, about 18% of women in the

United States are on some form of antidepressants. We have, and forgive me

this, some of this is my opinion and I'm going to get into the article, we have

for decades now been told that the need to take antidepressants, SSRIs, is so is

because clinical depression is related to low serotonin in the body. Have we

heard that messaging? A report came out this week that says this, scientists have

called into question the widespread use of antidepressants after a major review

found quote no clear evidence that low serotonin levels are responsible for

depression. Many people take antidepressants because they've been led

to believe their depression has a biochemical cause, but this new research

suggests this belief is not grounded in evidence, says the study's lead author

Joanna Moncrief, a professor of psychiatry at the University College

London and consultant psychiatrist at Northeast London NHS Foundation Trust.

She goes on to say it is always difficult to prove a negative but I

think we can safely say that after a vast amount of research conducted over

several decades there is no convincing evidence that depression is caused by

serotonin abnormalities particularly by lower levels or reduced activity of

serotonin. The new review of existing studies found that depression is not

likely to be caused by a chemical imbalance and that people should be made

aware of other options for treating it. Obviously we want to make sure that I am

not a medical professional, I am not an MD, I am not a psychiatrist, if this

counts for you this is not advice to cold turkey stop anything, talk to your

doctor. I find this to be a rather fascinating development in the medical

world because they go on to say I want to make sure I find it. Other studies,

other studies looked at the effects of stressful life events and found that the

more stressful life events a person had experienced the more likely they were to

be depressed showing the importance of external events not necessarily your

internal chemical imbalances. Now why am I talking about this as a pastor? If we

are to take seriously this new study and again I am I am NOT an MD if we are to

take seriously this this study though what it tells me as a theologian what it

tells me as someone who looks to the Word of God for guidance in my life we

can find instruction for how to find joy in the middle of turmoil. This is not an

admonition to quote pray it away but if it is more likely that external causes

are a result of depression instead of a chemical imbalance as a part of clinical

depression then I would encourage us as people of faith as people who find our

joy not in the changing winds of what goes on in society but rather in the

fixed point of Jesus Christ then perhaps it gives us options now because what

this tells me is that if so many people are looking for a pill to solve their

problem when the studies seem to say that it's not the solving of those

chemical levels that will fix the problem it is coping with external

factors it seems that as a society we would be well off to consider options in

how to better cope with tough times. I think as a people as I look around as I

have conversations with men and women and people across the demographics

what seems to come through is that our society is really good at helping people

escape. You take a pill to take care of a symptom not always the underlying cause.

Watch more screen time to help you escape that's why people go to the

movies. Escapism. Look through social media so you can find out how happy

other people are on Instagram and by looking at their happiness it can help

you feel a little better or a little worse because you wish you were that

happy. That actually seems to be the the prevailing trend. This is a fascinating

study to me because it helps me consider that rather than looking

for a now questionable route for for coping mechanisms as a man of faith as

a people of faith we can look for other ways of coping ones that perhaps don't

have such negative side effects. Some of those side effects are rather lengthy

and rather severe. I am I am just simply sharing this take it for what you will. I

find it interesting I find it fascinating and it it leads me to think

that maybe we can find a longer lasting peace in the Prince of Peace. This is not

again just a throwaway for people who who struggle with it. I can empathize to

to a point. This is not just a pray it away kind of thing but it is at least

adding something to the conversation if you will. Let us now look at our message

for today to put us back on track though let us offer up one more word of prayer.

Heavenly Father we thank you that you are always there that you look on us in

favor that you incline your ear in our direction. So we pray that you would do

that right now for us. This we pray in your name amen. If you'll excuse me

for a moment.

With the rain at my house the other night apparently one found a new

home. Do we have my picture up? We try to do this last minute. Okay can y'all see

that? Have we seen this picture before? How many of us have seen this one

already? Oh most all of us very good. So for those who don't know this was the

very first image that was transmitted and received by the new James Webb

telescope. The James Webb telescope puts the Hubble to shame if you will. The

Hubble is fantastic this is phenomenal. I am really intrigued with what's coming

through on this telescope because the ability how far out from Earth it is, the

size of it, the detail of the images that it is collecting from the universe or

at least what we see as the universe is astounding. Clear and crystal high

definition good resolution all things considered and we are now getting a

glimpse into corners of the universe that previously hadn't even been seen

before. What we see here, I am not an astrophysicist so I have to take other

people's at their words, what we see here are stars and galaxies and nebula tens of

billions of light years away or hundreds of billions of light years away. The most

recent picture, I don't have it but you can find it, I think it came in yesterday

or the day before. It's a fuzzy little red globe looking thing that they say is

the oldest known galaxy that they have found so far. I have to take a lot of

people at their word and how they calculate light speed in years and so on

but this new red galaxy image is supposed to be about 400 billion light

years away. So to the astrophysicists that are studying these things they say 400

billion light years is about when we think the Big Bang happened.

I'm using their terminology for this. This is an interesting photo because

let's put this into perspective. If you laid on your lawn on a dark summer

night and you looked up at the heavens you would only be seeing a portion of

our one galaxy, the Milky Way. The Milky Way galaxy is about a hundred

thousand light years across. These are multiple galaxies ranging anywhere from

50,000 light years across to about a million light years across and there's

multiple of them inside of one image. In case you're asking about the one that

looks kind of like the star David, that the the rays that are shooting out is

because this is a composite photo because the telescope uses multiple

lenses to bring together its images. So those rays are just from where the

lenses are touching each other on the edges. So it's just it's just a part of

the lighting. To put this into perspective that one image would be if

you went to a beach and you picked up a grain of sand and you held it out at

arm's length and you looked at that grain of sand, that's the grain of sand

compared to the rest of the known universe. And there are lots of galaxies

and nebula and constellations etc. in this one grain of sand held out at arm's

length compared to the rest of the universe. That is vast my friends. That is

huge my friends. Who are we in that is what comes to my mind. Because if this is

that picture, well you would have to be a speck on that speck to maybe be one of

the galaxies and then inside of that galaxy you would be another speck to

get down to a planet like ours. So you're a speck on a speck on a speck of an

image like this and then you break that down even in a smaller to like who who

am I? I've wrestled with that question as I look at that and I've I've wondered

what other people think about this. You can find well-known international

astrophysicists that will say this is interesting because we can see back into

history close to the Big Bang and this is what it looked like and this is what

was going on because you have to factor in the differencing of time for how long

it takes light to just get here. You know so the telescope is actually

collecting light from that many years ago. When I look at it oh and and to

most international astrophysicists are also very devout atheists and so some of

them have said things like when I see these images I have to remind myself

that this is nothing more than a reflection or a transmission of a

cluster of ones and zeros that represent an image taken out in space and it has

no deeper meaning, none. This is just cool but in the big scheme of things.

Nothing bigger, nothing deeper, nothing broader. To the Christian, to the Bible

believer, we might see something like that and we recall what David writes in

Psalm 19. To someone who has a belief that we are not some cosmic accident but

that there is a God in heaven who kick-started the universe whenever he

wanted to and he spoke it and then at some point he thought he'd come to our

little speck of a speck of a speck, take what was chaos, put it into order, speak

into existence light and earth and grass and animals and then not speaking

mankind into existence but kneeling in the dirt and with God's own hand shaping

the first human body, breathing in the breath of life and then I like to

imagine a handful of hours later the second human being comes around. That

brings to mind when we see these images, David in Psalm 19, the heavens declare

the glory of God and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours

out speech and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech nor are

there words whose voice is not heard. Their voice goes out through all the

earth and their words to the end of the world. In them he has set a tent for the

sun which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber and like a strong

man runs its course with joy. Its rising is from the end of the heavens and its

circuit to the end of them and there is nothing hidden from its heat and all of

that speaks to us of the glory of God. A God who saw fit to look on that speck

of a speck of a speck and not only shape you but then when when our earliest

parents thought to reject him, God saw fit to send his only son so that you

might have eternal life. Who are you? And maybe a more important question is who

is God? Who is God? What is our thoughts about, what are our thoughts about God?

Who is he to us and what is our relationship to him? This image, I hope

it's still up there I'm not pointing at a blank screen, that image brought those

thoughts to my mind and it made me wonder how am I to respond when I ponder

those questions because what your beliefs are about God should shape how

you respond to him. What you believe about God, what you believe about your

relationship to him should affect how you interact and behave toward him. Which

is why today we are looking at reverence and fire. Which is why today our verse in

Hebrews chapter 12 at the very end and I hope you have your fingers still there

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

or it's open on your app. That's why this question about worship that is acceptable

with reverence and awe should be considered because when we wrestle with

those big eternal weighty questions who is God and who am I to him and then what

is my response to him, what is our conclusion? This verse takes us through

many things we're gonna talk about three of them today. These two

verses are so jam-packed you could do a month's worth of sermons on them and

their weight of meaning. We're gonna look at three main points. One, let's put this

into context because it comes to our first point. When you consider your

relationship with God you have to ask why is he, why and what is he doing for

you? Well the Bible tells us that God loved you so much that he sent his only

begotten son to live to die so that you might have eternal life. Well that's not

just so you can feel good about something, that's not just so it can be

hopes and dreams for some far-out-distance millennia-in-the-future

kind of reality. It's not purely so we can think about prophetic eschatology

the end-of-times study. It's not just so we go through the mundane rigor morale

of today thinking that there won't be a blessing until the tomorrow's tomorrow.

Because what we read in our first point is therefore in verse 28 of Hebrews 12

let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken.

Leading up to this verse we read about the Israelites experience if you will at

the mountain of Sinai. We read about how it was shaken when God's presence was

there. We read about how the Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant sprinkled

blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. We read about in the

context of what all of Hebrews is talking about is that there is something

better than that God is giving to you. The best that this world has to offer,

the best of the sacrifices that were a part of the Old Testament, religious

ceremonies, Jesus is the better blood. The best that our kingdoms can offer with

the grandeur, the spreading out of David's kingdom and the splendidness of

Solomon's riches and the glory of the temple. Well we know that all of that was

raised to the ground. God is saying that there is something better than that. When

we think about Daniel chapter 2 and we see the statue that Nebuchadnezzar

Daniel 2 · chapter mention

dreamed and you've got the various metals building and building, what's the

last one? The rock carved without human hands. It grows into a mountain that will

last forever. When we think about the things of this earth, when we look at all

around us, when we consider some of it's rather impressive. You ever seen a really

impressive building or a sculpture? You've got these, I mean just beautiful

buildings. I think of the Taj Mahal as a beautiful building. I think Notre Dame is

a beautiful building. I think of some of these these edifices that humans have

erected either in memory of or in glory to or just because. And then I remember

that all it takes is the right kind of storm or the right kind of earthquake or

the right kind of rowdy crowd and they can all come crashing down. I think of

the greatest nations that have ever stood throughout history. We think of

Egypt. We think of the Mayan Empire here in the Americas. We think of Greece and

how far Alexander took it in his brief lifetime. We think of the might and the

strength and the power of Rome and even how Rome and Grecian philosophy and

ideology impacts us today. We think about the rising of the United States right on

time when God said the United States would come onto the scene and it would

be this mighty power and it would influence other nations and it would in

a good way spread civil and religious liberty around the globe. That's a good

thing. But if we keep reading into the into the Word of God we find that the

kingdoms of this earth, the monuments that we erect for ourselves, the the

manner of government that is set up, some fantastic, others wickedly evil, doesn't

matter, it all comes crumbling down. It all comes crushing down. When the things

of this earth are looked at as if they were stable, God is saying, no I'm going

to shake them. When I come I shake them. The context leading up here keeps our

mind on Mount Sinai and I want to try and keep our mind on Mount Sinai. When

the nation of Israel was laid out at the foot of that great mountain, delivered

from slavery, the promise of a land that they are going to inherit not of their

own but God's going to give it to them. And God says prepare yourself I'm going

to come down and meet you. There was a shaking. That ground rumbled. That ground

trembled. There was thunders and lightning. It shook when God's presence

came and when God comes again, when Christ comes again to take us as his own,

there's going to be a shaking of the nation's perceived might. And by that I

mean there. Whatever we set up when Christ comes, when God comes, it shakes

and it crumbles. But who is God to you? How do you answer that? Well God is your

Creator. God knew you before you were formed and he has a plan for you. That

plan is to get you home to heaven. Along the way we learn valuable lessons but

ultimately that plan is to get you home to heaven. God saw fit on this speck of

a speck of a speck to love you enough that all of heaven was embodied in the

person of Jesus Christ who lived, ministered, died that sinless life just

so you can be redeemed by his blood. How do you quantify that? I can't. And it

doesn't end there because God has promised that this kingdom he's going to

establish it's for you. You get to be a part of it. You get to go through the

record books. You get to judge angels. You get to see how God has has moved and

and bent his energies just to save humanity. And what else can you do but

throw your crowns at Jesus feet and just say praise the Lamb. But you don't have

to wait until those final scenes to start receiving the kingdom now. That's

what this verse is saying. Let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that

cannot be shaken. That structure is in a present participle. That means now and

ongoing. Right now you have the opportunity of accepting by faith that

kingdom of God. You have right now that opportunity at receiving by faith the

joy that comes with the presence of the Holy Spirit. You have right now the

opportunity of receiving by faith a peace that surpasses understanding. And

right now you have by faith the opportunity of an unshakable relationship

with the saving God that will sustain you through the great shaking when God

comes back. Right now don't think that these promises are only for then. Right

now this can be a part of your life. Do you want it? Do you want what God is

freely offering to you? Do you acknowledge that you can't have it in and

of yourself? It is only that free gift of God. Do you recognize that it is because

God is your creator, your Redeemer, your sustainer, your Savior that you can even

have this opportunity? Well then who are you and what do you do back? When you

recognize that God is so sovereign that this is his footstool, when you recognize

that nothing happens unless God either does it or deems it allowed, when you

recognize that, when you believe that, when you accept that, that shapes what you

think of God and then you go, he is so far above me how can I bring him so low

to me? And that's why our next point is to the verse goes on, therefore then and

thus then because of the receiving the kingdom, because of God's good gift to us

that cannot be shaken, let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence

and awe. You see God is up there and we are down here and his sovereignty is so

high and his holiness so pure that he gets to tell you how to worship him. The

acceptable worship is according to his instruction, his dictates, his manner of

request if you will. I was, it's been a long time since I've seen this as a

child I used to, I used to see these shirts there for a while and my youth I

guess it was kind of the beginning, maybe the beginning middle of this, we want to

get away from a hard legalism and a stiff rigidity when it comes to our

religion. I'm okay with that, we don't need legalism, you can't earn your way to

heaven and I also think that we should be joyful as Christians, we have a hope,

we have a love, we have a peace, we should not look sad and beaten down

because we have saving grace, right? Can we take it too far? I think we took it

too far when I walked into a store one time in the mall in Jonesboro, Arkansas

and I saw hanging from the shelves, Jesus is my homeboy. I said, I get, I get

that Jesus is our brother, the Bible says that. I get that the Bible talks in terms

of a friendly relationship with us, He is kind and gracious, He is long-suffering

towards us, He carries us in those moments when we need to be carried but

in the same way that I tell my 14 year old boy, I am not your classmate from

school, don't talk to me like I am, that's not a made-up story, he's not here so he

can't defend himself. I have to tell my son there is a difference between me and

your peers at school, I do play with you, we go to an amusement park or we hike

through the woods and we play board games together and we eat together and

we we fellowship and we are a family but I am not your schoolmate, you'll talk to

me with a little bit different kind of tone, you'll use a different language,

you will use proper language, don't muddle slang in your conversations

with me because I am not that, I am your father. We have this relationship but

there is a distinction between me and them. We have a relationship with our

Savior Jesus Christ but He is distinctly different than the person sitting next

to you and we need to remember that, we need to remember that that He might be

God and man totally and complete but Jesus Christ is still pure, perfect,

sinless, holy in a way that you and I are not and so to relegate Jesus Christ down

to my homeboy is to bring him into an area that I would suggest we don't dare

do because when we know who God is and we know where He fits in the universe

and we realize the weight that it cost heaven to pay for our sins then then we

desire that our worship be with reverence and awe and acceptable. There's

no other way of doing it. To do otherwise is to assume something that is not ours

to assume. To do otherwise is to forget our place in the universe or our place

in the plan of redemption. Just so you know, a little taste for the future,

we are not today going to look at the minutiae of the what's and the how's

when it comes to reverence today. That's next week. I'm here next week preaching

we're gonna look at that a little bit more in depth but today we're setting

the foundation for it because you need to understand first before you wonder

about the how's is that who you are who he is and that you should. You should be

worshiping in a way that is reverential, fearful, in awe of God for who He is

compared to your relationship. When you come before Him, when you pray and you

lay out your your heart before Him in your own devotions you're gonna speak

more plainly. Be open with Him, be raw with Him, there's nothing irreverent

about that. Now tell Him your frustrations. You can read when the

prophets express their frustrations to God in a rather raw and real way but

then in reverence understand that how He responds back to you is understood for

what it is. Your God is speaking back to you. That doesn't mean that it's open for

debate, that means that it is God speaking back to you. That means that when

we come to worship God, when we come to give Him praise, when we come to when we

come to sing glory to He who is holy, we don't take on the same attitude as if we

were going to a rock concert in a large arena. There is a difference. When we come

before the God of heaven and holiness and we have in a real sense invited His

presence, we don't just mean it with empty words. We mean it because we mean

it. It's real. God has said I will be with you when you gather together to

worship and that's an attitude that we need to remember. We don't just take it

for granted. We don't just cheapen it. We hold it in a high regard because we

should hold God in a high regard. So now let's look at our third point, our last

verse and this is where we're going to play with a little bit of the original

wording in the Greek. For our God is a consuming fire. There's the reason for

why we come before Him in awe and reverence and an acceptable worship according to

His dictates. Our God is a consuming fire. So we want to look at this in two main

contexts. One, if we look before it, it is in the context of God is a consuming fire

with regards to judgment. If we see yet once more indicates the removal of

things that are shaken, that is things that have been made in order that the

things that cannot be shaken may remain, we are in judgment. Right now, presently,

God is judging the record books to see who is faithful to Him and who is not

faithful to Him. God is a consuming fire when it comes to an end time event. God

is a consuming fire in that His holiness cannot have sinfulness enter its

presence without the sin being consumed. When God descended upon the mountain at

Sinai, He had to instruct them put bounds around the mountain so that no one comes

near it. If they came near it, these were a sinful people who hadn't made

themselves right with God. They were just going to be consumed. God's presence

weighed so heavily on that mountain that even the priests were told don't step

foot beyond this point. Pure holiness consumes sin when it enters the

holiness's presence. Do you still have sin attached to your life or have you

cast it off? And I don't want to make it sound super complicated because God has

said if you repent and you confess your sins, I am faithful and just to forgive

you, to cleanse you of your sins. Elsewhere, you find that He takes those

sins and He casts them as far away into the deepest trench that you can possibly

imagine. In there, there might be a black hole. I don't know, there might be a black

hole. God cleanses you so thoroughly that the last speck of sin gets cast into the

farthest black hole. And you need that through the merits and righteousness of

Jesus Christ or you cannot enter into the presence of this consuming fire. I

mean you can't. That's just the reality of it. So I want to encourage you

that if there is something still lingering in your life, go to Him for the

forgiveness. Ask for the cleansing and then by faith trust that He has and live

your life as the new creature, that new creation. That's the other part of it. You

don't get to from that point forward listen to the tempter's

doubting word and says God hasn't forgiven you yet. No, you claim the

promise. Yes, He has. You be quiet. Yes, He has. Now my worship is acceptable.

Now I can come to Him because He is faithful. He is just. I can worship Him

in awe and in reverence. When we look at Sinai, God meant it when He

said it don't come near the mountain. And then the people responded with fear

because they knew who they were compared to God. Sometimes we want to shy away

from fear and only talk about fear as meaning awe and reverence. Sometimes fear

is just fear. Sometimes fear is understanding you in relationship to Him.

Sometimes fear is I am harboring a sin because it's my own little pet that I

like to pull out at times to make me feel good. That's my sin and I really

don't want my sin to depart from me. I'm gonna hang on to it. Well when God says

if you come near me with that pet sin still attached to you, I'm a consuming

fire. The Bible tells us there will be people who will shake in those moments

when they realize it. And that sin becomes more important to them than

their faith in Jesus Christ. I hope you don't have a pet sin today. I hope you

don't. The second meaning to it, so one is just simply that. God is a consuming

fire. Have you gone to Him for a cleansing? And then two, it's not just in

the sense of judgment. Not just. There is this idea of forgiveness and don't

presume. What do I mean by that? If we remember that this is a relationship to

the Israelites, you can keep your finger here in Hebrews, you can turn to

Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy chapter 9, we read that in Moses' final sermon to the

Deuteronomy 9 · chapter mention

Israelites before they pass over into the promised land, he's taking them

through their history. He's reminding them of things and he's giving them

blessings and cursings and assurances and so on and etc. It's a great read. It's a

great book. Learn a lot from it. Deuteronomy chapter 9, beginning with

Deuteronomy 9 · chapter mention

verse 1, the heart of it is verses 3 and 4. Here, O Israel, you are to cross over

the Jordan today to go into dispossess nations greater and mightier than you,

cities great and fortified up to heaven, a people great and tall, the sons of the

Anakim who you know and of whom you have heard it said, who can stand before the

sons of Anak? Sounds a little bit like God is promising them an unshakable

kingdom from something that is about to be shaken, doesn't it? I'm about to give

you something that you can't have in and of yourselves but God is giving it to

you. Can we see some parallel? He goes on, know therefore today that he who goes

over before you, that's God, as a consuming fire is the Lord your God. He

will destroy them and subdue them before you so you shall drive them out and make

them perish quickly as the Lord has promised you. God is the consuming fire

to the enemies of God's people. In other words, it's in your benefit that God be a

consuming fire. God's consuming fire is what goes before and takes care of these

nations, this sin, the enemy of souls so then you are ultimately free from it. But

we have a little warning. When God does these things for you, do not say in your

heart after the Lord your God has thrust them out before you, quote, it is because

of my righteousness that the Lord has brought me into possess this land.

Whereas it is because of the wickedness of the nations that the Lord is driving

them out before you. Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your

heart are you going into possess their land but because of the wickedness of

these nations the Lord your God is driving them out from before you. God is

a consuming fire to others but then don't presume that it's because you are

good. God is a consuming fire to sin and Satan and hurt and death and

destructions and nations that rise against the people of God and then he

gives you that kingdom that cannot be shaken and remember that it's not

because of your righteousness again it's because of his. That's why we worship

with reverence and awe. Everything cycles back around to how mighty and

sovereign and good and great and glorious and holy God is and he's doing

all of this for you. So in return we praise and we give thanks and we serve

and we worship and we and we respond to him with with reverence with awe with a

humility with a desire with a desire to not act presumptuously or to lower him

down to our sinful standards but rather we long to be elevated up to his

standards. We long to be elevated up to the heavenly courts we long for our

thoughts to be directed towards the light and out of the darkness and when

we enter into his presence when we come here to worship when you take time in

your bedroom or your study or wherever you happen to have your morning

devotional enter into his presence with reverence and awe. Open up the Word of

God whether it be privately publicly individually or corporately and take on

that attitude of reverence and awe. He is so good. What can we do besides to

respond with reverence and awe? I am so glad that we live in an era where we

don't have to traverse nations to get to a singular temple in order to

worship God. God has promised through the presence of his Holy Spirit wherever

you are you can enter into worship with him. I am so thankful for that. We are

not tied down we are set free. I am so thankful for that and so I want to

encourage you today as we as we end remember that one you can today by faith

through receiving a kingdom that is not to be shaken. God's kingdom a kingdom of

grace and peace and love and joy that can be yours today do you want it?

Accept it by faith ask for it plead for it. When you know who God is do you then

want to respond to him with reverent awe-filled humble worship? Do you want to

remember who he is in relationship to you? Do you want to do that? I encourage

you to do that whether it's here or at home worship him with reverence and awe

and then two remember that we don't always like to think about it but God is

a consuming fire. Ask for the forgiveness accept that it is real in your life and

then remember that God's consuming fire is intended for your enemies. God's gonna

go before you he's gonna prepare the way he will be warmth in your light as he is

a destroying fire to the enemy of souls. Look forward to that and respond with

reverence and awe. Let's pray. Heavenly Father we thank you for your word we

thank you for we thank you for the encouragement and the exhortation that

we can find in it. Lord I pray that as we have come before you today I pray that

we have not been so distracted that our thoughts have become irreverent. I pray

that as we have come before you today that we have had a desire to acknowledge

you as our Lord and Savior. I pray that that attitude not end with this closing

prayer but this evening and tomorrow and the next day as we enter into your

presence with praise and worship as we read from your word I pray that it would

be with reverence. I pray that we would worship you in acceptable ways. Lord

please inspire us go with us go before us let us know of your love and then

help us show it to others. This we pray in Jesus name. Amen.