WEBVTT 00:00:00.320 --> 00:00:03.279 So uh Christy and I've been watching this show on Netflix called Cheers. 00:00:03.439 --> 00:00:04.480 Anybody watching Cheer? 00:00:04.639 --> 00:00:06.000 Have you made your way through Cheer? 00:00:06.160 --> 00:00:11.279 So uh Cheers the show who knew who knew that I was gonna be so into competitive cheerleading? 00:00:11.359 --> 00:00:30.719 I mean I that would not have been my guess, but you get in this show, it's six episodes, it's on it's on Netflix, and you get into this thing, and it's about Navarro Junior College, and and they have this incredible cheerleading coach and cheerleading team, and they've won all these you know national championships, it's about them preparing up for nationals. 00:00:30.879 --> 00:00:34.000 Daytona, Daytona, like if you've seen it, it's all about Daytona. 00:00:34.079 --> 00:00:35.119 Daytona's coming. 00:00:35.280 --> 00:00:39.039 And so, but then as the show goes on, it becomes more about Coach Monica. 00:00:39.200 --> 00:00:42.719 So if you've seen it, if you see, you know, you know Monica, it's all about Monica. 00:00:42.799 --> 00:00:43.200 Here she is. 00:00:43.280 --> 00:00:59.759 I mean, she's been there for 24 years, she's won 14 NCA junior college divisional championships, she's won five uh national, grand national titles, which apparently is a very big deal because she's the reigning national record holder. 00:00:59.920 --> 00:01:00.799 She's a big deal. 00:01:00.880 --> 00:01:02.079 Now, I won't ruin the show. 00:01:02.159 --> 00:01:05.040 I'm not gonna tell you this because you've got to go on a cheer journey. 00:01:05.120 --> 00:01:10.000 You don't know it, but you've got to go on the journey because you're gonna fall in love with Jerry. 00:01:10.239 --> 00:01:11.760 Anybody's fallen in love with Jerry yet? 00:01:11.840 --> 00:01:16.799 Ladavius, you're gonna fall in love with them, you're gonna fall in love with Lexi, you're gonna fall in love with Morgan. 00:01:16.879 --> 00:01:19.920 I'm pretty sure Chris and I would adopt Morgan at this point. 00:01:20.079 --> 00:01:22.560 If Morgan's out there, ever hears the sermon, let us know. 00:01:22.640 --> 00:01:24.159 We'll just send you some money for something. 00:01:24.239 --> 00:01:28.079 Like we just love her, um, ready to help her out in any way. 00:01:28.239 --> 00:01:30.560 And here's what happens by the end of the show. 00:01:30.640 --> 00:01:35.920 You get toward the end of the show, and they're headed towards Daytona, towards nationals. 00:01:36.079 --> 00:01:46.799 And the feeling you start to get, at least the feeling I started to get was no matter what happens in Daytona, and it's a big deal, especially if you're in the show, episode five, it's a big deal. 00:01:46.879 --> 00:01:48.400 I mean, you're on the edge of your seat. 00:01:48.560 --> 00:02:00.719 No matter what happens in Daytona, you do have this sense and this feeling that whether they win or whether they lose, they've already won because they have monica. 00:02:01.359 --> 00:02:09.199 And that's what this show does is you just fall in love with this coach because she's this person who demands their best. 00:02:09.520 --> 00:02:17.360 I mean, absolute demands their best to perfection, and then she loves them in their failure. 00:02:18.000 --> 00:02:19.280 Like, I think we all want that. 00:02:19.360 --> 00:02:36.240 We'd like a like a monica in our pocket, you know, like she wakes us up in the morning, she demands our best all day, she do you know, she believes in us and our potential, and yet she's with us all the time, never leaves us in our failure, in our inability. 00:02:36.639 --> 00:02:37.039 Right? 00:02:37.439 --> 00:02:39.120 I think we would all love that, right? 00:02:39.280 --> 00:02:45.280 Someone who affirms our worth no matter what, stands by us, forgives us, she's with us. 00:02:45.599 --> 00:02:49.039 And this Joshua story we've been in, it's our fourth week in it. 00:02:49.120 --> 00:02:55.840 This Joshua story, like every other sermon series we do here, that's what this is reminding us of that we actually have this with God. 00:02:57.280 --> 00:03:01.120 So to catch us back up on Joshua, if you haven't been with us, it's our fourth week. 00:03:01.199 --> 00:03:07.759 And so Joshua is this story of the people of Israel in the Old Testament, and they had been in slavery in Egypt. 00:03:08.159 --> 00:03:11.759 And then they're delivered by some different miracles that God provides. 00:03:11.840 --> 00:03:22.080 They're delivered out of that slavery, and then they go into the desert, and they should have traveled to this desert in about three weeks or so to get back to their land, Canaan, modern-day Israel, that area of the world. 00:03:22.159 --> 00:03:23.360 And it should have taken three weeks. 00:03:23.439 --> 00:03:42.960 It took 40 years because they just settle down, they wander around, they go into some apathy, they just don't care, they get lazy, and so they're in that wandering for 40 years, and then God speaks to Joshua and says, Hey, it's time, y'all gotta move over into that land which is representation of rest and peace. 00:03:43.919 --> 00:03:48.400 And so that's where this story picks up in Joshua 3 and 4, and it's about these priests. 00:03:48.639 --> 00:03:56.560 They're priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant into the river and the river drying up for the people to pass through. 00:03:56.800 --> 00:04:00.960 Now, my education of the Ark of the Covenant came from Raiders of the Lost Ark, right? 00:04:01.120 --> 00:04:17.600 1981, Indiana Jones, and I grew up watching that movie with my dad, and I can remember as a little kid, I can I can remember the scene in the cave where the Nazis they had stolen the ark and they open the top of the ark and the cloud comes out and it fills the cave. 00:04:17.680 --> 00:04:23.360 Here it is, fills the cave, and then like lasers shoot, and their faces start to melt. 00:04:23.439 --> 00:04:25.920 Like that was my education into the Ark of the Covenant. 00:04:26.000 --> 00:04:31.199 I just knew, okay, so apparently this had some historical symbolism and it was powerful. 00:04:31.279 --> 00:04:32.480 That's just what I knew. 00:04:32.560 --> 00:04:34.399 And that's what we actually see in the Old Testament. 00:04:34.480 --> 00:04:35.439 It's this box. 00:04:35.600 --> 00:04:36.639 That's what the ark is. 00:04:36.879 --> 00:04:43.600 It's this box throughout the Old Testament that is the representation of the very presence of God with people. 00:04:46.000 --> 00:04:50.399 And it moves around with the people, but it's the very presence. 00:04:50.480 --> 00:04:53.759 These people understood the presence and the power of God. 00:04:54.399 --> 00:05:02.560 So Joshua 3.4 says, for the people to follow this ark, but it says very interestingly, it says, hey, stay back 2,000 cubits. 00:05:03.120 --> 00:05:06.480 So that's half a mile, like if you do the conversion, it's half a mile back. 00:05:06.639 --> 00:05:10.720 So uh be around the presence of God, but you can't get too close. 00:05:10.879 --> 00:05:11.839 That's sort of the message. 00:05:11.920 --> 00:05:13.839 You've got to be half a mile back. 00:05:15.519 --> 00:05:19.600 So we jump back in, we jump into Joshua 3, verses 5 through 8. 00:05:19.759 --> 00:05:26.639 Then Joshua said to the people, consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you. 00:05:26.879 --> 00:05:31.519 And Joshua said to the priests, Take up the Ark of the Covenant and pass on before the people. 00:05:31.759 --> 00:05:34.959 So they took up the Ark of the Covenant and went before the people. 00:05:35.199 --> 00:05:43.120 The Lord said to Joshua, Today I will begin to exalt you inside of Israel, that they may know that as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. 00:05:43.279 --> 00:05:52.079 And as for you, command the priests who bear the Ark of the Covenant, when you come to the brink of the waters of the Jordan, you shall stand still in the Jordan. 00:05:53.920 --> 00:06:02.800 So point number one is people hunger for God's presence, but need God to reveal himself to them. 00:06:03.439 --> 00:06:06.959 People hunger for God's presence, but need God to reveal himself to them. 00:06:07.120 --> 00:06:08.079 And here's what I mean by that. 00:06:08.240 --> 00:06:13.279 How many times have you just known you simply needed to go and be quiet with the Lord? 00:06:13.519 --> 00:06:24.480 Because you've had a busy schedule and a busy day and a rough day and stuff happened or stuff's going on in your life, and your heart is busy, and you just knew you needed to go and be quiet with the Lord? 00:06:25.279 --> 00:06:32.079 Maybe to pray or read some scripture in a journal or just breathe deeply for the first time that day. 00:06:32.720 --> 00:06:35.920 But instead you grab Ben and Jerry's and you watch cheer, right? 00:06:36.079 --> 00:06:37.439 I mean, we know this, right? 00:06:37.600 --> 00:06:38.560 We we do this. 00:06:38.800 --> 00:06:39.759 We do this. 00:06:40.560 --> 00:06:42.560 But if you had gotten quiet, right? 00:06:42.639 --> 00:06:53.680 Like how often, how often God breaks through our stubbornness or our selfishness, and he makes himself known to us, we start to hear that still quiet voice that's inside. 00:06:54.160 --> 00:06:57.120 Maybe you can even look back before you were a Christian. 00:06:57.519 --> 00:07:07.839 And you you can you can see how you were hungering for God, but you were chasing down that satisfaction in ways that it would never fill the hunger. 00:07:08.399 --> 00:07:10.240 And we could list those off. 00:07:11.120 --> 00:07:14.399 Romance, success, I mean, even religion. 00:07:15.680 --> 00:07:26.160 And you can see, perhaps you look back and you can see how God began to reveal Himself to you, breakthrough after breakthrough, into your stubbornness or your faithlessness or your selfishness. 00:07:27.199 --> 00:07:31.759 And God just coming in his grace to you to say, here's who I am for you. 00:07:32.160 --> 00:07:34.160 Maybe you remember Acts chapter 17. 00:07:34.319 --> 00:07:38.480 Paul he goes to Athens, and there's these people in Athens that are religious. 00:07:38.560 --> 00:07:41.199 They're wanting to know God, they just don't know quite how to do it. 00:07:41.279 --> 00:07:47.360 And Paul comes to them and says, Hey, uh, men of Athens, I see that you are very religious. 00:07:48.240 --> 00:07:51.120 I even saw this monument to an unknown God. 00:07:51.920 --> 00:07:55.439 And then Paul says, I would like to tell you about that unknown God. 00:07:55.759 --> 00:07:58.480 Because that God made himself known in Jesus. 00:07:58.959 --> 00:08:03.360 That's what Jesus is, the manifestation, the fullness of God for us to know. 00:08:03.680 --> 00:08:06.240 God making himself known to us. 00:08:07.759 --> 00:08:10.800 And verse 5, Joshua tells the people to concentrate themselves. 00:08:10.959 --> 00:08:16.240 So these people would have, they would have gone, they would have done some like religious, ritualistic cleansing and stuff like that. 00:08:16.319 --> 00:08:19.279 I mean, religions still do this sort of thing around the world. 00:08:19.600 --> 00:08:23.040 Thinking that we have to cleanse ourselves. 00:08:24.079 --> 00:08:33.919 Now we don't believe that because we believe God Himself and His grace provides our cleansing, our forgiveness, and that's what Jesus is, our sin put upon him and his righteousness given to us. 00:08:34.159 --> 00:08:35.519 Such good news. 00:08:36.080 --> 00:08:42.960 But even back then in this Joshua story, what I discovered this week as I studied it, and it was like, oh man, that's so brilliant, how wonderful this is. 00:08:43.200 --> 00:08:50.240 Even then, for those people, this was not about something qualifying them to get this blessing of the land. 00:08:51.360 --> 00:08:56.240 Rather, this was about them being prepared to receive what was already promised. 00:08:56.399 --> 00:08:58.000 Now, if you didn't pick up on that, that's fine. 00:08:58.080 --> 00:09:00.000 Here's the application to us. 00:09:00.399 --> 00:09:13.279 It means your spiritual practices, coming to church, uh quiet time, prayer, meditation, scripture reading, journaling, giving, worship. 00:09:13.919 --> 00:09:19.519 Those spiritual practices, they're not to merit grace, they're to grow in grace. 00:09:20.000 --> 00:09:28.879 For us to discover and root more deeply into what we already are, what God has already promised us that we are His beloved. 00:09:30.000 --> 00:09:31.360 And we're growing into that. 00:09:31.519 --> 00:09:39.120 So this ark passes through the people, it goes into the Jordan River, the river miraculously, a miracle of deliverance. 00:09:39.279 --> 00:09:45.279 It dries up to allow the people to pass from this wandering state into this state of peace and rest. 00:09:45.919 --> 00:09:47.600 Who doesn't want that? 00:09:49.519 --> 00:09:52.879 I mean, whose heart in here this morning is not wanting that? 00:09:53.039 --> 00:09:54.879 I mean, think about the history of these people. 00:09:55.039 --> 00:10:05.840 They were enslaved in Egypt, delivered out of that into a state of wandering, and then delivered out of that into a place of peace and rest. 00:10:06.000 --> 00:10:08.000 Who doesn't want this deliverance? 00:10:10.399 --> 00:10:16.159 And by the power of the Holy Spirit in us, God's presence, that powerful presence, they know it in the ark. 00:10:16.240 --> 00:10:19.600 We know it inside of ourselves by God's Spirit. 00:10:20.240 --> 00:10:27.360 The Spirit of God is wanting to deliver us from slavery to wandering, but pass that into places of peace and rest. 00:10:28.159 --> 00:10:30.320 That's the Christian journey. 00:10:31.360 --> 00:10:38.559 Joshua 3.11 says this behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is passing over before you into the Jordan. 00:10:38.799 --> 00:10:39.919 So there's our word again, right? 00:10:40.080 --> 00:10:40.480 Behold. 00:10:40.559 --> 00:10:42.720 It keeps popping up for us the past few months. 00:10:42.960 --> 00:10:48.399 Point number two is this we are called to behold the presence of God. 00:10:49.919 --> 00:10:54.240 So that word behold, it means to linger or gaze upon. 00:10:54.879 --> 00:10:59.039 So this week I was I was looking through some old pictures and this picture popped up. 00:11:00.240 --> 00:11:04.080 So this is this is Christy and I were 15 years old. 00:11:04.240 --> 00:11:07.519 Uh the girl under my right, and you can see, I mean, ladies' man, right? 00:11:07.600 --> 00:11:09.600 I mean, how smooth was I at 15? 00:11:10.480 --> 00:11:21.519 The girl under my right arm was Elizabeth, and she married our friend David, and then Christy, it took 10 more years of these smooth moves by me like this to woo her in and finally marry her. 00:11:21.679 --> 00:11:27.039 And I saw this picture, and I just stopped, right? 00:11:27.200 --> 00:11:32.159 I mean, every once a while you run into a picture or a scene or an image and you stop and you gaze upon it. 00:11:32.639 --> 00:11:32.960 Right? 00:11:33.039 --> 00:11:36.080 You just want to take it in, you just want to linger for a little bit. 00:11:38.159 --> 00:11:49.440 Behold, the presence of God is not just around you, it's not just 2,000 qubits in front of you and unable for you to be near. 00:11:49.840 --> 00:11:50.720 No, no, no, no. 00:11:51.039 --> 00:11:55.759 The presence of God as a child of God surrendered to Jesus is in you. 00:11:55.919 --> 00:11:57.600 1 Corinthians 6, 19. 00:11:57.840 --> 00:12:08.159 Or do you do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God. 00:12:08.480 --> 00:12:16.080 So God's presence takes up residence in you in the form of the Holy Spirit. 00:12:16.720 --> 00:12:19.200 I can remember moving into my first dorm room. 00:12:19.360 --> 00:12:24.159 Dame Dana dormitory residence at Barrie College. 00:12:24.480 --> 00:12:32.240 And my buddy John and I, we showed up with our stuff, and we'd opened that door, and when we opened the door, you'd be maybe you lived in a dorm room the first time you opened the door. 00:12:32.320 --> 00:12:34.240 It's not impressive, right? 00:12:34.720 --> 00:12:39.759 It's like old carpet, it was cinder block walls that were like paint was chipped. 00:12:39.840 --> 00:12:43.519 I mean, the bunk beds are stacked at the back of the room, there was two desks. 00:12:43.600 --> 00:12:44.080 That was it. 00:12:44.159 --> 00:12:45.360 There was nothing else. 00:12:45.600 --> 00:12:47.120 Very unimpressive. 00:12:47.360 --> 00:12:56.159 Not to mention, you know, the room number is 420, and I don't know if you know what that means, but if you know what it means, who knows what's happened inside of this room. 00:12:56.879 --> 00:13:00.399 And we move all up into this dirty old room. 00:13:00.879 --> 00:13:01.200 Right? 00:13:01.919 --> 00:13:03.600 We moved the beds to where we want them. 00:13:03.679 --> 00:13:07.360 We stacked the desk, but you couldn't move the desk out of the room. 00:13:07.440 --> 00:13:08.559 You weren't allowed to. 00:13:08.720 --> 00:13:12.639 So we just stacked them in the corner because who needs a desk in college, right? 00:13:12.799 --> 00:13:16.720 We needed a couch, so we put a couch in there in the place where that would be. 00:13:17.679 --> 00:13:21.120 We had a big TV, and back then a big TV was a big TV. 00:13:21.200 --> 00:13:22.799 It wasn't just wide, it was deep, right? 00:13:22.960 --> 00:13:24.879 It was like three feet deep. 00:13:25.360 --> 00:13:32.720 And we didn't have a remote for it, so we had a big stick that could reach from the couch across the room. 00:13:34.720 --> 00:13:38.639 We took up residence in that room, right? 00:13:39.440 --> 00:13:42.320 And it didn't matter the condition of the room. 00:13:43.200 --> 00:13:44.159 Didn't matter. 00:13:45.360 --> 00:13:47.039 We took up residence. 00:13:47.360 --> 00:13:49.360 Because we we were moving in. 00:13:52.000 --> 00:13:54.399 The room was the passive agent. 00:13:55.440 --> 00:13:56.320 Just with an open door. 00:13:56.559 --> 00:13:57.679 And it wasn't perfect. 00:13:59.039 --> 00:14:02.879 See, God, by the means of the Holy Spirit, takes up residence in you and in me. 00:14:03.679 --> 00:14:07.840 In our perfection, it takes up residence. 00:14:09.600 --> 00:14:23.919 And the Holy Spirit begins to lead and guide and convict and clean up some, and you discover other stuff that needs to be cleaned up, and the whole time you're so thankful that God views you as purely righteous and beloved because of his grace. 00:14:26.000 --> 00:14:29.200 And I think there'll be some awe involved, like these people in Joshua. 00:14:29.279 --> 00:14:32.879 I think there'll be some awe involved, but it'll never be at a distance. 00:14:35.120 --> 00:14:37.120 The story continues in Joshua 4. 00:14:37.279 --> 00:14:39.759 The Lord has Joshua, he instructs 12 men. 00:14:39.919 --> 00:14:52.799 He says, Hey, as the men pass through, have 12 men pick up a stone, get to the other side, build a monument, stack up these stones, because what's gonna happen is your children are gonna see those stones, and they're gonna ask, hey, what are the stones for? 00:14:52.960 --> 00:14:53.679 What are those stones for? 00:14:53.759 --> 00:14:54.639 What's that monument for? 00:14:54.720 --> 00:14:59.759 And then you are gonna get to tell them this story of God's faithfulness to his people. 00:15:00.480 --> 00:15:02.639 The power of his presence. 00:15:03.840 --> 00:15:07.039 Point number three is this we desire to grow in awareness. 00:15:07.600 --> 00:15:08.960 We could say sensitivity. 00:15:09.200 --> 00:15:16.960 We desire to grow in awareness to the presence of God, but we rest in the promise of the presence of God. 00:15:17.600 --> 00:15:18.639 Here's what I mean by that. 00:15:18.799 --> 00:15:27.200 Years ago, I worked in the business world, this was just after seminary, and before I started to work for churches, and I was wondering, what am I going to do with my life? 00:15:28.000 --> 00:15:39.440 And there were more days filled with feeling like God was absent than days filled with feeling like God was so present with me. 00:15:40.240 --> 00:15:48.320 And so I was so easily filled with like sort of a franticness or a self-obsession, like, oh no, what's wrong with me, and what's wrong with my faith, and what do I need to do? 00:15:48.399 --> 00:15:48.799 You know what? 00:15:48.879 --> 00:15:51.759 I was just emotionally volatile, was the reality. 00:15:52.080 --> 00:16:04.480 And it would have been so incredibly wonderful to recognize, like, yes, I was desiring the awareness and sensitivity to God, but I needed just to rest in the promise of God's presence in these days where I was so emotionally volatile. 00:16:05.120 --> 00:16:08.080 That would have been incredibly peace-giving to me. 00:16:10.080 --> 00:16:14.000 When Tim Keller taught on this, author and pastor, here's what he said. 00:16:14.080 --> 00:16:15.200 I can't explain any better. 00:16:15.360 --> 00:16:16.879 Nobody can explain it any better, Tim Keller. 00:16:17.039 --> 00:16:18.799 Anyways, here's what he said. 00:16:19.519 --> 00:16:29.840 The sense of his absence, the dissatisfaction with his absence, is an evidence that he has touched you. 00:16:30.320 --> 00:16:40.480 In other words, a sense of his absence, a longing that the absence be gone, a sense of his absence is a sense of his presence. 00:16:41.600 --> 00:16:43.440 Now you wouldn't have guessed that. 00:16:43.840 --> 00:16:48.480 But after you kind of think it through a little bit, you go, oh, that actually, that's actually true. 00:16:48.879 --> 00:17:03.360 So even the sorrow that the feeling that God has left you, though he hasn't, but the feeling, the sorrow of the feeling that God has left you, and you're not growing in that awareness, that sorrow is a sense of his presence. 00:17:04.880 --> 00:17:16.480 Because while we're emotionally volatile and faithless at times, he is steady and faithful, and he says to his children, I'll never leave you, I'll never forsake you. 00:17:18.160 --> 00:17:22.559 One last thing for our hearts to ponder this morning, Joshua 4.19. 00:17:23.599 --> 00:17:33.119 The people came up out of the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and they encamped at Gilgal on the east border of Jericho. 00:17:33.200 --> 00:17:36.720 Now, this is one of those verses you you read in the Bible, you think, no big deal. 00:17:36.799 --> 00:17:41.200 I just keep cruising along until I hit something that feels really applicable to my life. 00:17:41.680 --> 00:17:43.519 But there's a phrase in here that matters a lot. 00:17:43.599 --> 00:17:52.559 Now, here's the point this is a story, and it's our story, about God's pursuit of us and God's presence with us. 00:17:53.519 --> 00:17:56.319 So this phrase, the tenth day of the first month. 00:17:56.480 --> 00:17:58.799 Now that's not just like random history. 00:17:59.440 --> 00:18:05.359 On the same day, 40 years earlier, these people were in Egypt in slavery. 00:18:06.079 --> 00:18:16.319 And this was the day where God comes and says to them, Hey, slay an animal, an innocent animal, take the blood and spread it on the doorpost of your home. 00:18:16.559 --> 00:18:26.160 And I'm to come and bring judgment over those who are enslaving you, and those that have blood over their home, I will pass you over. 00:18:27.200 --> 00:18:39.839 And so we get this celebration called Passover in the Old Testament, because death passed them over, and they're delivered out of Egypt, out of slavery, and then they're moved into this state of wandering. 00:18:40.079 --> 00:18:49.599 So 40 years after that, there's this other day, this day we're reading about here in Joshua 4, where they are, they pass over the Jordan. 00:18:50.400 --> 00:18:53.839 They pass from that wandering state into a place of peace and rest. 00:18:54.079 --> 00:19:01.119 1,500 years or so later, Jesus shows up in Jerusalem at the time of the Passover feast. 00:19:02.240 --> 00:19:04.000 And he's crucified. 00:19:05.839 --> 00:19:08.880 And his blood for us is the Passover. 00:19:09.359 --> 00:19:11.039 There's no judgment on you. 00:19:11.279 --> 00:19:15.200 The judgment skips you over because of Jesus, because of God's grace to you. 00:19:15.519 --> 00:19:18.160 God is not sitting in judgment over you. 00:19:18.799 --> 00:19:29.279 So we don't have to keep sacrificing ourselves to religious merit or worldly merit, that we can live a life, a life by grace through faith. 00:19:30.640 --> 00:19:40.480 And this is all about our journey as Christians from slavery and wandering to places of peace and rest. 00:19:41.039 --> 00:19:44.720 You see, God gives us image after image after image in the Old Testament. 00:19:45.200 --> 00:19:51.279 Image after image of slavery to liberation, guilt to righteousness. 00:19:51.440 --> 00:19:53.200 It's image after image for us. 00:19:53.359 --> 00:20:01.119 This side of Jesus is image after image for us, for our hearts to behold Jesus greater and greater. 00:20:01.680 --> 00:20:02.799 Let's pray together. 00:20:03.599 --> 00:20:06.079 God, thank you for your grace and your peace. 00:20:06.880 --> 00:20:10.720 Help our hearts to behold you even greater this morning. 00:20:10.880 --> 00:20:16.000 There's so many of us that are enslaved to things that will never deliver us. 00:20:16.319 --> 00:20:19.200 They will never deliver us to places of peace and rest. 00:20:19.279 --> 00:20:21.839 And this morning, may we confess those. 00:20:23.759 --> 00:20:27.519 May we repent of those and the kindness that you give us. 00:20:28.559 --> 00:20:32.640 For so many of us this morning, we live in places of wandering about. 00:20:34.400 --> 00:20:42.960 Would you, by means of your Holy Spirit, would you draw us to pass over into places of peace and rest? 00:20:44.960 --> 00:20:57.599 And would you help us see that even in the continuation of a life and a journey in you that is not perfect, would you help us see even the feeling of your absence is your presence is there? 00:21:00.720 --> 00:21:11.200 Help us to live our lives not based in our emotions or our merit, but in your promises to us that are stable and secure and faithful. 00:21:21.359 --> 00:21:27.119 Would you help us to move into places where we're rooting deeper into our great wealth in Jesus? 00:21:29.440 --> 00:21:33.279 Moving in greater awareness of your love for us. 00:21:35.279 --> 00:21:36.720 We pray this in Jesus' name. 00:21:37.119 --> 00:21:37.759 Amen.