Our Great High Priest and the Living Temple

Oh, crossing family, it is so good to be with you.

I want to welcome those of you joining at all of our different

locations, those of you watching online, and those of you who are

part of our Crossing Inside family.

I also want to welcome those of you joining for the first time

or the first time in a long time.

We are so glad that you are here and I hope that you guys will

take advantage of the new here booth at all of our different

lobbies. As a church, we exist to help

people find, start, grow in an intimate, personal relationship

with Jesus Christ. Our desire is to make this

region the hardest place on planet earth for people to get

to hell from. And in 2014, we opened our first

campus in Iowa in the town of Keokuk.

This campus serves people from all three states.

And this past Easter, they had 1000 people attend on Easter,

which is unbelievable for that church.

For 10 years there have been people from Fort Madison, IA.

There have been people from Burlington, IA there who have

been traveling to this location to attend the crossing.

And then in 2018, we started a location in Monmouth, IL and

since then, people from Burlington, IA have been driving

all the way to Monmouth, IL to attend that location.

However, driving 30 to 45 minutes to find a church that

prioritizes your spiritual development is not sustainable

when it comes to trying to reach your family, your coworkers, and

your neighbors for Jesus. And between Fort Madison, IA on

the South side and Burlington on the north side and West

Burlington, there are 33,000 people in this corner of

southeast Iowa. That is the same population as

what you have in Keokuk, Kirksville and our Mount

Sterling communities. Situated 15 minutes, like

perfectly situated between Fort Madison and Burlington and West

Burlington is a small town called Weaver, Iowa.

And it's spelled horribly because Weaver is spelled WEVER

and that's not how I would spell it if I was in charge.

And maybe I'll change that one of these days in the future.

Well, this past year we have been hosting town hall meetings

and preview services for the people of in that region who've

been attending one of our other locations.

And the last preview service, there were 143 people in

attendance at these little preview services once a month.

For context, a Church of 143 people would make it at least in

the top 25 largest Christian churches in the entire state of

Iowa. And in fact, they also had two

baptisms at the last preview service and which is

unbelievable. And in the middle of all this,

we had a church that was kind of on their last leg and they

reached out to us and said we would like to give you our

building. Therefore, in service to our

mission to help people find an intimate personal relationship

with Jesus Christ, and in light of our unending commitment to

make this region the hardest place on planet earth to get to

hell from, our elders at our most recent meeting decided that

we will be launching our 12th crossing location in Weaver,

Iowa. I can't wait to those of you who

call the crossing home and you're like Jennifer and I, I

want you to know you're, I know you're going, hey, we want to be

a part of this. There will be plenty of places

for you to make a difference. The building needs so much TLC.

And we will be leveraging part of our year end in Your Corner

generosity initiative to facilitate many of these

updates. And Jennifer and I will be the

very first check that goes in because I want everybody in

Southeast Iowa to know that we are in your corner as you try to

reach the people who are far from Jesus and bring them close

to Jesus. To those of you who want to

leverage your gifts, talents and abilities and service of helping

to get that campus up and off the ground, operate long term or

you have a skill set like you're Liam Neeson when it comes to

things and you're going, hey, I want to I can fix this.

I know how to do it. We will give you plenty of

opportunities in service and preparing the facility.

To those of you who are part of the Weaver campus, it's go time.

Thank you for your patience. Thank you for your

participation. Thank you for your prayers.

And I'm telling you what, tell your friends, tell your family,

tell your neighbors, tell your Mama, tell your baby Mama and

your boss to pencil in an aggressive Christmas Eve launch.

We're coming and we're coming fast.

So what I want to do is I want to pray for this location that

I'm going to jump into my sermon.

Heavenly Father, there's areas of this that feel like you've

just opened the doors and it would be silly not to walk

through it. And there are other areas that

are going to require radical faith.

And God, we want to honor you in both obedience and we want to

honor you in faith. God, we do not want to start

this campus in pride. We want to start this campus

because we just want people to know you.

And if you're in it, there's nothing that's going to stop it.

And so, God, I pray that you would be with us, be with the

people who are going to be a part of this journey, be with

the people that are going to attend this church.

God, be with the people who are going to see prayers answered

that they never thought were going to be answered.

God, I pray that we would be a blessing to those communities

and that it would be forever changed.

Not by us, Oh my goodness, not by us, but by your spirit and my

pray. Amen.

I'm going to put my professor hat on again and you're going to

have to hang on because this one's even more complicated than

last week. But I think if you can hang on,

and I mean this, if you can hang on, I think at the end of it,

you're going to see that God is just so stinking cool when he

goes about doing stuff because He is hidden all of these

incredible Nuggets and chunks of scripture that you and I just

don't really appreciate. But if you were a 1st century

Christian and you had grown up in the trappings of the Old

Testament and you started seeing all the things that Jesus was

going to do, in retrospect, your mind would have been blown.

Because what we talked about last week is we talked about the

Tabernacle, about God's desire to get back in relationship and

in proximity with his people. It was here through the law and

through the sacrificial system, which we're going to unpack next

week, that people were able to temporarily be made right with

God. That every time you messed up,

there was a way for you in the short term to have a right

relationship with God. But it was always temporary.

It was never fixed. It was never once and for all

solved. It was never completely handled.

We learned that God eventually moved out of this Tabernacle,

which was a temporary place of worship, into the temple, which

was a permanent place. And then on the heels of that,

Jesus comes to earth, and Jesus is the temple.

He is God in the presence, in proximity to his people.

And when Jesus died, the curtain that separated the holy place

from the most holy place was torn into from top to bottom.

And what that meant is that you and I could now have access to

God because God is holy and we are not.

But God is making us holy, and there is no longer separation

between US and God. But it got even better because

not only was Jesus the temple, but check this out we become a

temple and he we are a place where the Spirit of God dwells.

Let me recap that with Ephesians chapter 2.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but

fellow citizens with God's people and also members of His

household built on the foundation of the apostles and

the prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the chief

cornerstone. In Him the whole building is

joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord

and in Him you 2 are being built together to become a dwelling in

which God lives by His Spirit. God doesn't just make a

Tabernacle and then make a temple and then send Jesus as a

temple. Through Jesus, you and I become

a temple, a place where the Spirit of God dwells.

But not only did God establish a temple, a place to dwell, he

also established a priesthood. The priesthood was a group of

people who would offer sacrifices on behalf of the

general population. They were to represent God to

the people, and they were to represent the people before a

holy God. They were mediators between God

and man. They were a go between

representing both parties. And in charge of all of the

priests. There was a high priest he had

there. All the priests were set apart.

All of the priests were holy to the Lord.

But then there was the chief priest, the high priest, and he

was in charge of all the priests who were in service to God who

had been set apart. One of the ways that the high

priest, the high priest was kind of set apart in two ways.

Not only did he oversee everybody, but he was set apart

in what he wore and he was set apart in what he did.

He had a very specific task to set him apart.

One of the things that was done is he was given a very special

wardrobe. OK, Exodus chapter 28, I

Exodus 28 · chapter mention

believe, make sacred garments for your brother Aaron.

He's talking to Moses here, and Moses is going to make Aaron the

high priest, or God selects Moses to be the high priest to

give him dignity and honor. Remember those words, dignity

and honor. Tell all the skilled workers to

whom I have given wisdom in such matters that they are to make

garments for Aaron for his consecration so he may serve me

as priest. These are the garments.

They are to make a breast piece, an ephod, a robe, a woven tunic,

a turban, and a sash. They're to make these sacred

garments for your brother Aaron and his sons, so they may serve

me as priests. Have them use gold and blue and

purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen.

Now, why does all of this matter?

Well, because the priest had one outfit that was had

similarities, but the high priest had a very special

outfit. And that's why they described

it. And you might be going, hey,

this is one of the cool things. This is a throwaway thing.

I love how God takes people who have a unique set of skills,

gifts, talents, and abilities to do something that nobody else

can do. The entire Tabernacle was

created with specialists. So if you're a quilter and you

have ever taken flak from your family, I just want you to know

God used people who were impeccable with a needle and

thread and fabric to make the place that his people dwelled.

He also used people that were gifted in art and stuff like

that to actually make the garments that were used by the

high priest. So if you have a unique set of

skills, God acknowledges it and actually uses it in some of the

very special places. Now here is an image of the high

priest and instead of dignity and honor, I want you to think

glory and beauty. Those were the those were the

words that are probably a a better version of the of the

translation. They were to look, and I know

for you it doesn't look this way, but they were to look

amazing. You have all these people

walking around in earth tones out in the desert, and then you

have this guy. If he walked by you, you would

go. Something is different.

Now, hear me. Aaron is not glorious and

beautiful. What he's wearing is glorious

and beautiful. We're going to circle back to

this now. The first thing that he was to

do is he was supposed to put on some white undergarments, which

are basically to go from the, the Bible says from the hip all

the way to the thigh. So he wore basketball shorts.

In other words, the high priest wore boxer briefs, and they were

all white, completely white. Whitey tidies probably goes all

the way back to the Old Testament law.

You didn't know that, but Whitey tidies are in Leviticus.

Now. On top of this was a white linen

coat. It was a gigantic robe, OK, And

it had a checkered pattern in it that either made it look like

squares or diamonds. It was just a big white robe.

Now on top of this he was supposed to wear on his head a

perfectly white turban or hat, which is just a white linen hat.

And they were to make a plate of gold and they were to etch on

the on the plate of gold. Holy to the Lord, this guy has

been set apart as holy unto me. You might be going, Clayton.

Why are we starting out with all of this white?

Well, what does a bride wear on her wedding day?

White. Why?

White symbolizes cleanliness, purity, the absence of evil or

sin. The clothes that Aaron is

wearing represents sinlessness. Aaron is not sinless.

What he is wearing represents sinlessness.

Now on top of this, he was to put on a big robe, and this was

a this white linen coat was the robe of ephod, and it was a blue

garment, handmade, and at the very bottom of it had like a

version of a pomegranate. And then it had gold bells and

they were alternating all the way around.

Why does this matter? When the priest was to walk

around in the courtyard, you could hear him.

Jingle, Jingle, Jingle, Jingle, Jingle, Jingle.

Do you want to know why? Because everybody else, guess

what noise they made when they were walking around?

Absolutely nothing. Because this guy is completely

different. Everything about him is to make

you go. This guy is different than

everybody else. And when he went into the holy

place, not the most holy place, but when he went into the holy

place, you'd hear him in there because nobody else could go in

there. And you know what he'd be doing

when he was in there. Jingle, Jingle, Jingle, Jingle.

Every time he moved, you could hear him.

He is completely set apart. Then he had an ephod.

This was worn on top of the row. It was made of blue, purple and

scarlet yarn. And if you were paying attention

in last week or you read your Bible, these are the exact same

colors that are inside the Tabernacle that are inside the

temple. So in other words, he is wearing

the same colors around the people that is found in the Holy

of Holies and in the Holy Place. The High priest looks like the

Tabernacle. The High priest looks like the

inside of the temple. What was hidden from all the

people in the Holy of Holies is displayed to all of the people

when he's walking around wearing the colors.

It was made public through the high priest.

Now on top of his shoulders there were these big gems, one

on each, and they're made of Onyx and inscribed on these gems

were on one shoulder were six of the tribes of Israel, and on the

other shoulder were six of the tribes of Israel.

So he's wearing the people on his shoulders, and then these

Onyx gems are set in a gold setting.

And then he was to put on a breast piece or a chest piece.

And on this chest piece were 12 more precious stones.

And each stone was identified with one of the 12 tribes of

Israel. This is very similar imagery to

the 50 stars on the flag. Everything is designed to point

you to something. So here's what you have.

You have a man who is altogether different, completely set apart.

He is wearing the colors of the Tabernacle on his body, and

carrying on his body are the names of the people.

He is glorious and he is beautiful, and he is holy, and

he is adorned in purity. This is how God is setting up

the High priest. And when all of this is done,

you have one man to represent all people before God.

He is a representative of all people to God.

Now that's his wardrobe. Now I want to talk to you

quickly about his super important task.

And I'm going to wrap it all up at the end and you're going to

go, OK, now I'm tracking with you.

One day a year, only one day a year.

The high priest was to go in and he was to go.

He'd normally minister in the holy place, but one day a year

he would go behind the curtain into the most Holy place, and

here he was to atone for the sins of the people.

He would go into the very presence of God.

And on this day he would offer a sacrifice and he would sprinkle

the blood on the atonement cover on the mercy seat from last

week. And when that happened for the

for the past year, the sins of the people were forgiven.

He atoned for their sins. However, before he could do

that, he had to take off all of his high priestly outer

garments. And all he was able to wear in

was the white turban, the white undergarments, and the white

robe. He would take off all of his

glory, He would take off all of his beauty, and he would show up

as a normal man, wrapped, clothed in purity and

sinlessness. Now, as stated earlier, the high

priest was in charge of all of the other high priests.

So he was the he was the CEO of Priest Inc.

And when his priesthood was established, when he got the

job, there was an ordination into the role and when he was

ordained into the ministry, so were the other Levites.

They were all the other priests were also brought into service

of God on behalf of the people. And during the ceremony, both

groups, both the high priest and the the regular priests went

through the exact same things, but they went through them in

different order. It's going to sound a little

weird, but you, like I said, hang on.

Aaron was washed in the lava and then after that, his, the

spirit, I mean, the, the oil was poured on him.

He was anointed with oil. OK.

After that happened, blood was applied.

To his right ear, his right thumb and his right big toe,

symbolizing that his whole body was now in service to God.

Now that was the order. It went washing, oil, anointing,

and then the blood is applied. But for the priest, the regular,

the, the, the, the employees of the high priest, it was a

different order. They were washed and then the

blood was applied and then they were anointed.

So same things happened but just in a different order.

Now, some of you are way ahead of me because as I talked about

absolutely every single thing that the high priest wore and

the high priest did, you were thinking and if we've taught you

anything here, you're going, I think we're talking about Jesus.

And if you thought that you would be 100% right, look at

John chapter one, verse 14, and we're going to unpack how Jesus

shows up in all of this. The Word became flesh and made

his dwelling among us. He tabernacled, He templed.

We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son

who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Like the high priest, Jesus is adorned in glory.

But Jesus, while the high priest wore white to symbolize purity

and sinlessness, Jesus was pure and sinless.

Let's keep going. Like the high priest who wears

the names of his people on his shoulders and over his heart,

Jesus carried our sins on the cross and has our names on his

heart as he died on our behalf. Like the High priest who looks

like the inside of the temple, Jesus is the temple who makes us

into a temple of the living God. Like the High priest who

represents us, represents us before God, Jesus represents us

before God. Like the High priest who makes a

sacrifice on behalf of the people to cleanse them from

their sins, Jesus made a sacrifice to cleanse us from our

sins. Like the high priest who took

off all of his glory and all of his beauty before he went in to

the temple to to the Holy of Holies to pay for all the sins

of the people. And he takes off all of his

glory and beauty and he is just wearing his white, which is his

sinlessness and his purity. Jesus took off all of the glory

of heaven, and he shows up in human form as a sinless guy who

goes in and reclaims his glory through the resurrection and

ascension into heaven after he provided purification for the

sins of the people. If you want to unpack this in a

really big way when you go home, you can read the book of

Hebrews, specifically chapter 6 and 7:00 and 8:00.

But let's just take a quick look at Hebrews Chapter 7.

Hebrews 7 · chapter mention

The former regulation is set aside because it was weak and

useless for the law made nothing perfect.

Here the author of Hebrews is talking about what is happening

in the Old Testament versus what Jesus is doing for us today.

Keep following with me and we have a better hope is introduced

by which we draw near to God. You and I have a better hope

because we can now draw near to God where we used to not be able

to draw near to God. Why?

Because Jesus has become the guarantor of a better covenant.

There have been many of those priests since death prevented

them from continuing in office. But because Jesus lives forever,

he has a permanent priesthood. Therefore he is able to save

completely those who come to God through him, because he always

lives to intercede for them. Such a high priest truly meets

our need, one who is holy and blameless and pure and set apart

from sinners and exalted above the heavens.

Let me just pause here for a second.

Jesus is able to completely save.

There's a miniature devotional in here for you.

I know that when you look at your soul kind of like I look at

mine, there are parts of your life that you've been honest

about, that you said, yeah, I'm kind of screwed up there and I

could use some help and Jesus, please help me.

But there are probably some some darker parts of your soul, some

darker parts of your past that you're going there's no way

Jesus could ever love me through that.

There is no way God could forgive me for that.

There is no way that I could ever be made right.

I understand the promises that Clayton talks about that are

revealed in Scripture. They're so good for a lot of

people. But there's no way that that

could be good for me because I've what I've done.

Hear me. When Paul is writing about the

priesthood of Jesus, he uses the word completely save all the way

through. Whatever you turn over to him

will be redeemed by him. There is no sin that has ever

entered this world. There is no sin that has ever

entered your life. There is no thought too dark

that has entered your mind that cannot be completely saved by

Jesus Christ and your approach to God.

There is nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing,

nothing that you have ever done, thought, or have considered that

is not redeemed through the work of Jesus Christ.

And if you want to come to God, if you want to have the hope of

eternity and heaven in your heart, there is a way to

experience it. And the way that you experience

it is through the work of our great High Priest, Jesus Christ.

Why? Because he is holy and blameless

and pure and set apart from sinners, and he is exalted above

the heavens. Let's keep going.

Unlike other high priests, he does not need to offer

sacrifices day after day. He didn't have to offer

sacrifices for his own sins and then for the sins of the people.

Because Jesus is like is unlike any other high priest, because

Jesus didn't have to offer sacrifices for himself, because

Jesus never sinned. So therefore, when he sacrificed

for their sins, once for all, when he offered himself, it is

like your sins have already been forgiven in perpetuity because

once and for all he paid it all. He racked up a line of credit

that your sin can never touch the balance.

There's just too much there. There's too much power in the

blood of Jesus. There's too much love in the

sacrifice of Jesus. Now that should not motivate us

to sin more. That should motivate us to sin

less. This is why Paul writes about

Jesus in this in First Timothy. For there is one God and one

mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus

who gave himself as a ransom for all people.

Hear me carefully. There is no one.

Look at your neighbor and say no one.

No one who has the right or the authority to get in between you

and your relationship with God. You have one mediator and that

is the man Jesus Christ. Hear me, You don't need a pastor

to get your relationship right with Jesus or with God.

You have Jesus. You don't need a Bishop because

you don't need a Bishop because you have Jesus.

You don't need a priest because you don't need a priest because

you have Jesus and Jesus is the high priest.

You have all you need in Jesus. Now hear me, God gave all kinds

of offices to the church, just like He gave all kinds of gifts,

talents, and abilities to love and serve and lead the Church.

But when it comes to you getting in a right relationship with God

or you navigating the sins that are going on in your life, you

have direct access to the Father through the great High Priest

Jesus Christ. And anyone who says that you

have to go through them to get right with God is spitting on

the work of Jesus Christ, a work that nobody else could ever do

because there has never been anybody like him.

Jesus is our one and only perfect mediator.

He is our priest. Now stay with me.

Remember the order of Aaron and the order of the other priests

when they were ordained in the ministry.

Watch what happens. Aaron was washed, then he was

anointed, and then the blood was applied.

But for the priests, pay attention now, they were washed,

then the blood was applied, and then they were anointed.

Now if you're a bit of a nerd, the Bible has a uses a lot of

imagery or typology to kind of preview that something is

coming. And anytime you see a oil show

up in the Old Testament, it is pointing towards the Holy Spirit

in the New Testament. Watch this Jesus, our great high

priest, he shows up. And what order did everything

happen in Jesus's life? Well in Mark chapter 1, Jesus

Mark 1 · chapter mention

was baptized and then the Spirit came down on him.

He was anointed by a woman in Mark chapter 14.

Mark 14 · chapter mention

And then he was covered in his own blood on the cross, just

like the high priest. But what about what about

Jesus's followers? Something crazy happens here

too. We are washed in the waters of

baptism. And when we are washed in the

waters of baptism, the blood of Jesus is applied to our lives,

and we are cleansed from all of our unrighteousness, and we are

made holy before the Lord. And the Bible says after you

repent and you're baptized, you will receive the gift of the

Holy Spirit, you'll be anointed, you are baptized into Christ,

the blood is applied, and you receive the Spirit of Christ.

Do you know how great our high priest is?

He's making us priests in service to God.

He's taking people that you would never pick and saying you

can work for me in my house. He's taking people that

everybody else would have written off.

And he's saying you can be in service to me.

You can come into all the places that are off limits for a person

like you, not because of what you've done, but because of what

Jesus has done. On Tuesday, I took my boys.

They hit a couple of golf balls and I was up there with a couple

people from our church and I just asked the guy a question.

How much money would you have lost if, if someone would have

bet you that your entire family would be coming to church five

years ago? He said quite a bit.

The guy next to him is like, I can't imagine how much money

people would have lost betting that I would be coming to

church. And I said, I can't imagine how

many people in Fort Madison, IA would have lost money thinking

that I'd ever be a pastor. That's how good our high priest

is. He takes people that you you've

written yourself off just because you know what you've

done and without you even knowing it on your behalf, God

was anointing you into the priesthood.

Look what it says in first Peter chapter 2.

1 Peter 2 · chapter mention

You also like living stones are being built into a spiritual

house. That's the temple to be a holy

priesthood offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God

through Jesus Christ. But you are a chosen people, a

royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession, that

you may declare the praises of him who called you out of

darkness into his wonderful light.

You and I have the ability to offer sacrifices that are

acceptable to God, not because of what we've done, but because

of what Jesus has done on our behalf.

He allows us to be a part of His redemptive work.

Look what it says in Hebrews chapter 4, verse 16.

Hebrews 4:16

Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended

into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the

faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest

who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one

who has been tempted in every way just as we are.

There is not a single thing that you have faced that Jesus didn't

face. Some of you've been waiting your

whole life for somebody to understand you and the pain you

go through. There's only one who knows

exactly what it's like to go through what you're going

through. It's Jesus.

But the big difference between Him and us is He went through

everything that we went through, except He never sinned when He

did it. Nobody here is raising their

hand on that one. Like, yeah, I've managed all of

it without sinning. That's not us.

Jesus faced the same temptation, but when he faced it, he

overcame it. Let's keep going.

Let us then approach God's throne of grace with you guys.

Say this next word so that we may receive mercy and find grace

to help us in our time of need. When you become aware of all the

things that you've done, the last thing you feel like you can

have is confidence before God. But our confidence does not come

because of what we have done. Our confidence comes.

You see, we have access to a holy God through Jesus.

Jesus understands our weakness. He understands our temptation.

We can approach this God with confidence, not because of what

we've done, but because of what Jesus has done on our behalf.

Now check this The Bible says that when we come into a right

relationship with a God, we are clothed in Christ.

He is our white garment. He is the one.

We are not sinless, we are clothed in His sinlessness,

which means that you and I have full access to all the grace and

mercy we could ever need in our time of need.

We titled this sermon series Decisions in the Desert.

So my question is, will you decide to make Jesus Christ your

High priest? Will you decide to be a priest

in service of God to help other people find him?

Because we're moving to a time of decision.

If you are here today or you are watching online, if you don't

have a relationship with Jesus Christ, if you haven't started

that intimate personal relationship that we talked

about here at the Crossing, you need a high priest.

You need somebody to represent you before God, and it better

not be you. And I want you to know when

you're standing before God, it's not going to be your grandma.

I'll talk to some people like, well, my, my, my grandma really

love the Lord. That's really awesome for her.

But the only association that matters when you are standing

before God is whether or not you are associated with His Son.

Now, we can pass on the faith to future generations, but it has

to be their faith. It's not ours.

And if you're here today and you haven't started that

relationship right now, you will stand before God on your own

account, on your own works, on your own record.

And the only record that God will tolerate is absolute

perfection. And the Bible is clear, and your

conscience is clear, and that you know you have failed, and

God knows it too. And so he sent his Son, wrapped

him in skin to come and not only be a temple, but to make you a

temple. Not just be a priest for you,

but to make you into a priest for him.

And so if you want, you can stand, not on your own account,

not on your own record, but you can stand on the record of

Jesus. You can be wrapped in his

sinlessness. And if you're here today and you

haven't started it, I got to be honest with you.

Why are you putting it off? Why are you trying to hold it

back? You've probably been kicking

this idea around for a really long time.

And I'm not trying to pressure you to get it done today or

tonight. I am trying to pressure you to

start figuring out why you keep putting off the thing that God

sent his son to die on behalf of you.

Like why you keep putting that off.

And I think we should at the very least, start asking some

questions. And if you're here and you're

wanting to do that, in just a few moments, the people around

you are going to stand and sing and some people are going to

come to the steps and pray. And I would encourage you to

walk right over there underneath that screen right next to the

baptistry. Or if you're watching online, I

want you to type it in the chat and someone's going to reach out

to you. Now to those of you who already

have a relationship with Jesus Christ, it says because of what

Jesus has done, we are to hold firmly to the faith.

You're going to be tempted to grab on to a lot of things right

now. You're going to be tempted to

grab a grab on to a party. You're going to be tempted to

grab on to some political issues.

You're going to be tempted to grab a hold of your family.

And I just want to tell you encourage you hold on to him

because he never fails and he has done so much on our behalf

that why would you want to hold on to anything else?

The second thing I'll tell you is that you have been made a

priest holy unto the Lord, set apart to represent God to the

lost in our communities. God wants to use you in service

of Him to bring his lost children home, and we should

carry that responsibility really, really well.

Would you stand with me? Heavenly Father, we need you and

God, you know, every specific need, every hurt, every

challenge, every hardship that's represented in this room and

online at all of our different locations.

God, we just want you to move in our hearts and our lives.

We want you to bring about change that we could never make

and change that we've been trying to manufacture.

But God, you're the one who has the strength and the ability to

bring it about. God, in the areas of our lives

where we're prideful, God, I pray that you'd humble us.

And God, in the areas where we've lost all confidence, I

pray that you would lift us up. Your name I pray.

Amen.