SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the Lookout Weekly podcast.
SPEAKER_01: Church of the Lookout is in Boulder, Colorado, and our vision is Jesus abiding in his presence, growing in his family, and living on his mission to transform the world with awe-inspiring love.
SPEAKER_01: Visit us online at the lookout.church.
SPEAKER_00: So if you have your Bibles this morning, here's what we're going to do.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to open up the scriptures today.
SPEAKER_00: And we're going to start in 2 Samuel chapter 6.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, if you're a guest with us, let me catch you up as we come into the sermon this morning.
SPEAKER_00: For the last few weeks, we've been talking about this theme of the heart of worship.
SPEAKER_00: And this word worship, it means a lot of things to a lot of different people for you.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it just has to do with the time that we spend singing on a Sunday morning or in your car as you're going to work.
SPEAKER_00: It could have to do with, you know, just the whole expression of what happens when we come together as the people of God.
SPEAKER_00: But I just believe that a return back into the essentials, the foundations of what is worship and what is the effect it has on our lives and on the world that we lived in.
SPEAKER_00: This is the invitation of this series, the heart of worship.
SPEAKER_00: And so this morning I'm going to start with the passage.
SPEAKER_00: I'll explain what's going on here after we read the passage together.
SPEAKER_00: So we'll start in 2 Samuel chapter 6, starting in verse 12.
SPEAKER_00: And it was told King David, The Lord has blessed the household of Obed Edom and all that belongs to him because of the ark of God.
SPEAKER_00: So David went and brought up the ark from the house of Obed Edom to the city of David with rejoicing.
SPEAKER_00: And with those who bore the ark of the Lord had gone six steps, he sacrificed an ox and a fattened animal.
SPEAKER_00: And David danced before the Lord with all his might.
SPEAKER_00: And David was wearing a linen ephod.
SPEAKER_00: So David and all his house of Israel brought up the Lord, brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting and with the sound of the horn.
SPEAKER_00: As the ark of the Lord came into the city of David, Michael, the daughter of Saul, looked out of the window and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, and she despised him in her heart.
SPEAKER_00: And they brought in the ark of the Lord and set it in its place inside the tent that David had pitched for it.
SPEAKER_00: And David off offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And when David had finished offering the burnt offerings and the peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord of hosts, and distributed among all the people the whole multitude of Israel, both men and women, a cake of bread, a portion of meat, and a cake of raisins to each one.
SPEAKER_00: Then all the people departed each to his house.
SPEAKER_00: This is the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks be to God.
SPEAKER_00: Let's just take a moment to pray this morning as we open up this passage.
SPEAKER_00: God, I thank you today that you're near to us.
SPEAKER_00: I thank you that you have a way of speaking to every heart.
SPEAKER_00: You know right where we are.
SPEAKER_00: So I bless the proclamation of your word today, God.
SPEAKER_00: I thank you for your scriptures as they speak to us.
SPEAKER_00: And I ask that you would, by your spirit, show us what we need to see.
SPEAKER_00: Invite us even a little closer to your heart today.
SPEAKER_00: And it's in Jesus' name we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: So in this passage, this might, if you've never read this passage, there's a lot going on here.
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: There's layers upon layers.
SPEAKER_00: So if you want a shortcut to the life of David, just go on Amazon Prime and watch House of David, all right?
SPEAKER_00: It's going to get you at least the first part of his life.
SPEAKER_00: This is the kind of the second part of his life.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, this is really when David became king, um, he uh he made some reforms.
SPEAKER_00: The first thing he did is he said, the first thing we must do is we must go get the Ark of God's presence, which is was lost, it was somewhere else, it was captured by the Philistines.
SPEAKER_00: He said, we need to go get the Ark of God's presence and bring it back into Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: And so this is the scene of what happens when he does that.
SPEAKER_00: And he makes, once again, he makes worship the center of their communal life.
SPEAKER_00: He brings the Ark of the Covenant back into Jerusalem, and he knew that this was the way that God always intended to be at the center of their lives, not at the fringe of their lives.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody speak to me.
SPEAKER_00: That's what God always intended.
SPEAKER_00: That's when life is lived its best, when God is at dead center.
SPEAKER_00: So as a king, he brings the ark, he brings back the ark, and as he does so, we see he offers exuberant sacrifices, dances with all his might before the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: He is wildly misunderstood for all of these things, but he doesn't care because he knows in his heart what is happening here is good, and this is what we need to do.
SPEAKER_00: And his plans, here's the thing is like what's happening here is revolutionary, but it's not new.
SPEAKER_00: As David brings the ark back to the city, it's because he had enough insight and foresight to know God's initial design and his ultimate purpose for human beings to rule and reign with him on earth.
SPEAKER_00: And so deep in the heart of David is this ancient storyline.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, we're gonna get a little bit closer back to the heart of this storyline.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, and that's what we're gonna talk a little bit about today.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna go Bible geek on you for a little bit, all right?
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna have to hang with me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna use some phrases and some scriptures that you're gonna be like, oh, that's interesting.
SPEAKER_00: But this is this is very important for us because we cannot understand worship and the power of worship until we we understand the full arc of the storyline of God and what that means for us here and now.
SPEAKER_00: All right, you guys with me?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: So in this passage that we just read, there's all of these little hints and clues that there's something going on here.
SPEAKER_00: We like to call these Easter eggs that are just hidden all over this passage.
SPEAKER_00: That if you have eyes to see, if you know what's going on, you know the story that's actually being told.
SPEAKER_00: And so um as as David is bringing back the ark of God, he's bringing it back into a new high place in Israel called Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: Every six steps, he stops.
SPEAKER_00: It says, every six steps, they they all stop and they make a large sacrifice to God.
SPEAKER_00: So what does that mean?
SPEAKER_00: So they take six steps, and then on the seventh step, sacrifice, six sacrifice, six sacrifice, this rhythm of six and then one, six and then one.
SPEAKER_00: The phrase ark of God and ark of Yahweh in this chapter are both used exactly seven times each.
SPEAKER_00: Ark of God and Ark of Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so some of those are clues already of what's going on here.
SPEAKER_00: That it's not just about what's happening, it's about calling back to an ancient story.
SPEAKER_00: We'll get into that.
SPEAKER_00: Another clue in here is as David is coming and bringing back the Ark of God.
SPEAKER_00: It says he's wearing a linen ephod.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, which seems like to you and I, it's like, oh, this he's wearing blue jeans, he's wearing, you know, whatever.
SPEAKER_00: He's you know, it it doesn't seem like much, but a linen ephod was worn by who?
SPEAKER_00: By priests.
SPEAKER_00: And it's not a it's not an insignificant clue because as David's coming in, he's saying something new is happening.
SPEAKER_00: We're reclaiming something that has been lost.
SPEAKER_00: And David is coming back in, not only as king, but as a priest, and that that matters, and we'll get into that here in a second.
SPEAKER_00: As soon as the ark of God is brought back into the center of Jerusalem, what it what happens there?
SPEAKER_00: So a few things happen.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, he they offer a huge sacrifice to God and say, This is your this is your place, this is your home.
SPEAKER_00: Be welcomed here.
SPEAKER_00: But then it says this he says he blesses the people and he extends a blessing over all the households.
SPEAKER_00: And then lastly, he distributes food, all kinds of cake, uh, all kinds of meat.
SPEAKER_00: It's like go home with some meat and some cake.
SPEAKER_00: See, he's a good king right there.
SPEAKER_00: He's sending him home with food, but that all this all sounds wow, what a good guy, but the all is hearkening back to something else.
SPEAKER_00: David is acting as both king and a priest, which matters because this whole scene is recreating the whole environment of the Garden of Eden.
SPEAKER_00: So, what was the Garden of Eden?
SPEAKER_00: The Garden of Eden was a high place.
SPEAKER_00: This is in Genesis chapter 1.
SPEAKER_00: You start the Bible, it starts in a garden, a garden of God's delight.
SPEAKER_00: And it's a place where heaven and earth were overlapping.
SPEAKER_00: And he creates all of creation, then he places Adam and Eve in the garden to live in communion with him, to be one, to have relationship with God, completely unhindered, right?
SPEAKER_00: And it was a place marked by wholeness and completion.
SPEAKER_00: And that's that's why he created for six days, and then on the seventh day, he rested.
SPEAKER_00: It was a Sabbath rest, and it was this circle and the cycle of everything here is good and it's whole and it's complete.
SPEAKER_00: So this number seven marked, you know, the the environment of so in Hebrew scriptures, when they use numbers like that, it's usually not insignificant.
SPEAKER_00: It's always kind of, we're just kind of laying some clues that this is telling an old story, that the number seven is calling us back to the garden.
SPEAKER_00: The garden was a place of blessing, abundance, adoration, and communion.
SPEAKER_00: That Adam and Eve were placed there not only to live in relationship with God, but to extend that blessing out.
SPEAKER_00: That they were, in other words, they were priests in the garden.
SPEAKER_00: They were put in the garden to be representative of God's image on the earth.
SPEAKER_00: That's why they were put there.
SPEAKER_00: That God was so delighted in them, and he said, Go from this place and cultivate the land, subdue the earth, multiply, be fruitful, go from this place out of the communion that we live in.
SPEAKER_00: And I want you to go through and go into all the rest of the world.
SPEAKER_00: And we know that that didn't quite happen like that.
SPEAKER_00: That a few chapters into the Bible we read that there was a rebellion, there was a deception, and sin entered the human condition.
SPEAKER_00: That's why we deal with so many things that we're still dealing with today, because sin and brokenness are part of the human condition.
SPEAKER_00: And so, through sin, Adam and Eve were exiled from Eden.
SPEAKER_00: They had to leave this garden of communion with God, the first sacred space.
SPEAKER_00: And then because of that, the divine presence becomes inaccessible to humans unless God chooses to make it available.
SPEAKER_00: And so, as we go through the storyline of Scripture, he chooses to make his presence available through priests, people who would act as the gateway between heaven and earth.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: And so God raised up certain priests in the storyline who would be mediators between God and the people.
SPEAKER_00: There's all the people, here's God, and there's priests who would kind of become in between.
SPEAKER_00: And on behalf of the people, they would offer sacrifices.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and and they would they they would mediate that relationship so that God could be near his people.
SPEAKER_00: But but ultimately, there's only so many sacrifices that need to be made until an ultimate sacrifice would need to be made so all the people could come into God's presence.
SPEAKER_00: And that's essentially what God's ultimate desire, even though there were priests that came to be between the people and God, God's ultimate desire was to restore the original plan that all people would become priests living in direct communion with God.
SPEAKER_00: That was the plan.
SPEAKER_00: And this plan shows itself over and over and over through all of the scriptures.
SPEAKER_00: And this is the promise that he gives Moses up on Sinai in Exodus 19.
SPEAKER_00: Starting in verse 5, God says, Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is mine, and you shall be for me, you shall be to me a kingdom of priests.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody say kingdom of priests.
SPEAKER_00: A kingdom of priests and a holy nation.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna double-click on this for a second.
SPEAKER_00: Kingdom of priests, all right?
SPEAKER_00: This whole phrase, kingdom of priests, it's kind of a it's a bizarre one, all right?
SPEAKER_00: Let's just be honest.
SPEAKER_00: Like if you're just coming into the Bible for the first time, you're like, wow, that's a lot to take in.
SPEAKER_00: Kingdom of priests.
SPEAKER_00: But this is so critical to understanding even what we're doing.
SPEAKER_00: What are we even doing on earth?
SPEAKER_00: Well, what God is doing is he's calling to himself a people that we would become a kingdom of priests that has never changed, that has never stopped, and has everything to do with what God is doing on earth today.
SPEAKER_00: So priests live in communion with God.
SPEAKER_00: Kings extend the dominion of God, the rule and reign of God.
SPEAKER_00: That's what happens.
SPEAKER_00: Priests live in communion with God, kings push that rule and reign out to the far reaches as far as they can.
SPEAKER_00: So a kingdom of priests means the whole nation of Israel is called to represent God to the world, to mediate his presence, his holiness, and his blessing to the nations.
SPEAKER_00: And ultimately, this the fulfillment of this came in the person of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: As he was our high priest, as the scripture said, he came and he offered his own body as a sacrifice once and for all to atone for the sins of the entire nation, the entire world.
SPEAKER_00: So that God can restore the promise of Eden, the Edenic plan of let's get back, let's let's the movement back towards communion with God for all who call on his name.
SPEAKER_00: In 1 Peter, here's what Peter says.
SPEAKER_00: He picks up on this as well.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 2, verse 9.
SPEAKER_00: This is one of my favorite passages in all of the scriptures.
SPEAKER_00: He says, But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into your marvelous light.
SPEAKER_00: So even Peter's calling the church forward.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Listen, don't forget who you are.
SPEAKER_00: You're a royal priesthood.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, a kingdom of priests that has happened.
SPEAKER_00: A holy nation.
SPEAKER_00: You're God's own treasured possession.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: So you can sit on Sunday morning for an hour and sing songs.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: You're a royal priesthood, so you can be a nice person on earth.
SPEAKER_00: You can be a little nicer than your neighbors.
SPEAKER_00: All glory to God.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: No, that you may proclaim.
SPEAKER_00: That you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
SPEAKER_00: Who has been called out of darkness into marvelous light this morning?
SPEAKER_00: Come on.
SPEAKER_00: That is not something we whisper, that is not something we hide behind, that is not something we're ashamed of.
SPEAKER_00: It's the only message that fills our lips and our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: I once was in darkness and now I'm in light, not because of my own doing, but because of him, the beloved Son of God, beautiful, that who gave himself fully for us to the point of death, so that we could be reconciled in relationship with the Father.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And this storyline continues that even in Revelation, the final chapter, the final, I shouldn't say chapter, the final movement of the scriptures, Revelation chapter 1, starting in verse 5, to him who loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood.
SPEAKER_00: And has made us kings and priests.
SPEAKER_00: To his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: To him who has washed us in his own blood.
SPEAKER_00: He has made us, me, you, if you're willing to accept it.
SPEAKER_00: A king and a priest.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: I never thought of myself as a king and a priest.
SPEAKER_00: But apparently that's what he's thinking of me.
SPEAKER_00: A king and a priest.
SPEAKER_00: To his God and Father, to him be the glory and dominion forever and ever.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: David Fritsch in his book Enthrones, which talks about the Tabernacle of David, he has a quote that says it like this.
SPEAKER_00: These are the two core identities and callings of every believer.
SPEAKER_00: Our priestly calling is to live in constant communion with God, but our kingly calling is to partner with God to expand the borders of Eden across the earth.
SPEAKER_00: So if you're wondering, like, what are you called to?
SPEAKER_00: That's what you're called to.
SPEAKER_00: If you're wondering, like, what's my purpose on earth?
SPEAKER_00: That's your purpose on earth.
SPEAKER_00: Is to live in full, deep, loving relationship with the God of heaven and earth.
SPEAKER_00: And then whatever happens, whatever overflow of that, just let that spill out into every part of your life until the whole world looks like Eden again or heaven on earth.
SPEAKER_00: Are you guys with me?
SPEAKER_00: And so it flipped everything on its head that, you know, the the priests weren't just the priesthood wasn't just for a few select people, it was for all of us.
SPEAKER_00: So when I say the word priest, it's a difficult one because like there's a few images that come to mind.
SPEAKER_00: Let's see the photo of priests here.
SPEAKER_00: So that this is probably what comes to mind.
SPEAKER_00: This is like when I say the word priest, this is what comes to mind, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Kind of a specific wardrobe, a specific posture, kind of a demeanor, just kind of a you know um uh a way of a way of being.
SPEAKER_00: But according to the scriptures, here's what priests look like.
SPEAKER_00: It looks like ordinary people, it looks like men and women and and and children, and all across the world.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody gets to enter the priesthood.
SPEAKER_00: So all right, just imagine, all around the world right now, God is making for himself a kingdom of priests.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody say, I'm a priest.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, I'll say it like you mean it.
SPEAKER_00: You didn't mean it.
SPEAKER_00: You're not sure yet.
SPEAKER_00: I am a priest, we are priests.
SPEAKER_00: Alright, you're gonna have to work on that when you go home because it's true.
SPEAKER_00: And why does this matter?
SPEAKER_00: Why does it matter that we are a kingdom of priests?
SPEAKER_00: What David knew was that God always wanted the people who had unhindered access to him and from that place could bless the world.
SPEAKER_00: It matters because in worship we are invited into a first hand encounter with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: This matters because you are invited to a firsthand encounter with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And it was like Marie was saying earlier during worship, there's so many things that we do that become so familiar that we forget that all of this is about seeing him face to face and not allowing somebody else to become a mediator.
SPEAKER_00: That already happened through Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: You don't need a mediator, and so we're living in this time where we still want worship leaders and pastors and powerful people to be the voice of God in the world.
SPEAKER_00: No, you don't.
SPEAKER_00: I am here to tell you.
SPEAKER_00: I'm the guy with the microphone here telling you you need to go straight face to face with him.
SPEAKER_00: That's what you need.
SPEAKER_00: You don't need a mediator to tell you what God is thinking or feeling.
SPEAKER_00: You go straight to God.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Jesus purchased is access back into the hidden places, the holy places with God.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because you can't give what you do not possess.
SPEAKER_00: We so so many of us so badly want to bless the world, but the only way to live a life of overflow is when we're spending time being with him face to face because that's what he paid for.
SPEAKER_00: We can sing songs about God, but the revolution is singing straight to him because he's right with us.
SPEAKER_00: We don't talk about him as if he's not in the room.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is our high priest made a way for us, and because of that, the dwelling place of God is no longer in a box.
SPEAKER_00: The tabernacle of God is now in the hearts of those who call on his name.
SPEAKER_00: That you have become the tabernacle and the dwelling place of God.
SPEAKER_00: The dwelling place of God is now with man, which means he's not somewhere else.
SPEAKER_00: He is right here by the power of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: God dwells inside of you.
SPEAKER_00: You are the new ark, you are the ark.
SPEAKER_00: Forgetting that his very glory is inside of us.
SPEAKER_00: And we come and we we do just enough to feel just a little bit closer to him, but man, guys, the waters get really deep.
SPEAKER_00: The waters get really deep.
SPEAKER_00: It's our responsibility to go to the full depth.
SPEAKER_00: With him because that's what he paid for.
SPEAKER_00: Just take one more step.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to figure everything out.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to be perfect.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to even know what this whole Christianity thing is all about.
SPEAKER_00: Just take one step closer to him because he's inviting you.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, Come seek me.
SPEAKER_00: There's more to be found.
SPEAKER_00: Seek me while I may be found.
SPEAKER_00: There's so much more.
SPEAKER_00: You get it?
SPEAKER_00: How often do we settle for second-hand spirituality when he says, Come encounter me for yourself?
SPEAKER_00: The heart of worship is about clearing out the clutter to get straight to the one.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, may it be so.
SPEAKER_00: That we don't live lives that just talk about you somewhere else, but we can speak and proclaim the excellencies of him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light.
SPEAKER_00: Come on.
SPEAKER_00: So in worship, as a kingdom of priests, we're invited into a first hand encounter.
SPEAKER_00: And listen, if you've never had a firsthand, maybe you just you're like, I don't even know what you're talking about.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, it's available today.
SPEAKER_00: Just ask, just ask.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't even have to look crazy.
SPEAKER_00: It's just ask him because he's real and he's alive.
SPEAKER_00: But from worship, we open the door of his presence into the world.
SPEAKER_00: From worship.
SPEAKER_00: So in worship, we come face to face with him.
SPEAKER_00: But from worship, we open the door of his presence into the world.
SPEAKER_00: And again, God did not come so we can become nice Christians with nice church or church services.
SPEAKER_00: He came so that what happens in the sanctuary, the sanctuary can overflow into our cities.
SPEAKER_00: Do you guys hear me on that?
SPEAKER_00: So that what happens in the sanctuary doesn't stay in the have you guys remember that phrase like from Vegas?
SPEAKER_00: Don't raise your hand if you go to Vegas.
SPEAKER_00: But do you guys know the phrase about what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas?
SPEAKER_00: It's like the opposite for God.
SPEAKER_00: What happens in the sanctuary cannot stay in the sanctuary.
SPEAKER_00: He came to say, he's like, I was already in a box once.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't like it.
SPEAKER_00: It was too small.
SPEAKER_00: We did away with that.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: He's like, I need more spaciousness.
SPEAKER_00: He deposited his spirit inside of us.
SPEAKER_00: We're all now mobile carriers of the presence of God.
SPEAKER_00: You are a mobile home.
SPEAKER_00: For God.
SPEAKER_00: He's like, I'm good with that.
SPEAKER_00: I go where you go.
SPEAKER_00: I'm a mobile home.
SPEAKER_00: That's that's spacious to me.
SPEAKER_00: That gets me out.
SPEAKER_00: I don't feel cooped up, right?
SPEAKER_00: So we carry the presence of God with us.
SPEAKER_00: He does not want to be kept in a box, he does not want to be kept in a sanctuary.
SPEAKER_00: So his plan, listen to this, his plan is to make for himself a people who are acquainted with his very presence and move into the world to introduce or reintroduce those in our neighborhoods, cities, and nations to the goodness and mercy of God and what it looks like to live under his loving reign and rule.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, guys.
SPEAKER_00: We get to be the sneak preview.
SPEAKER_00: That's what it's supposed to be.
SPEAKER_00: You guys, you know, you ever watch a sneak preview, a trailer for a movie?
SPEAKER_00: It's like a one or two minute trailer of the full movie.
SPEAKER_00: The life of the believers of a royal priesthood is we're living lives.
SPEAKER_00: It's like a sneak preview of the world to come.
SPEAKER_00: That we can actually embody and proclaim that this is what God has made possible in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: This is what God has made possible in his kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: And we want to show you and invite you in.
SPEAKER_00: Come for the full screening.
SPEAKER_00: Come for the full thing.
SPEAKER_00: It's a taster of the kingdom to come.
SPEAKER_00: That doesn't mean our lives are perfect.
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't mean we screw it, we don't screw it up.
SPEAKER_00: We do.
SPEAKER_00: And we have to be honest with the fact that our lives don't often look like a sneak preview of the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: But they could.
SPEAKER_00: And through the power of the Spirit, they can.
SPEAKER_00: He created us to be partners with him, extending his rule over creation.
SPEAKER_00: This does not mean taking over.
SPEAKER_00: So let me just clarify this.
SPEAKER_00: When you talk about dominion over the world, there's schools of thought that think, no, Christians need to go out and just take over everything.
SPEAKER_00: That's not what we're talking about.
SPEAKER_00: That's not what the scriptures teach.
SPEAKER_00: But it does mean extending the influence of the kingdom of heaven to every place our feet tread.
SPEAKER_00: Every place our feet tread.
SPEAKER_00: There is something built inside of us that we have an innate desire and craving to explore, to cultivate, to develop, to build, to restore, and to renew.
SPEAKER_00: It's hardwired into us because that's how God made us.
SPEAKER_00: We're created in his image to extend his heart into all of creation.
SPEAKER_00: And how much do we need that right now?
SPEAKER_00: How much does our world need those who have been with God to come and shape the atmospheres of our schools and our neighborhoods and the places he sent us?
SPEAKER_00: And this ties everything into what happened this week.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a separate conversation.
SPEAKER_00: The world needs those who have been face to face with God to move into environments to change the atmosphere and say, this is not a place of death, this will be a place of hope.
SPEAKER_00: And that happens as we come under the influence of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: There are young people craving to have a first-hand encounter with God's presence.
SPEAKER_00: And yeah, we can pray all day, God, go over there and bless them and get them.
SPEAKER_00: But the responsibility from Eden is no, you take the blessing and you go find them and extend the influence of God into their lives.
SPEAKER_00: He called us to go do it.
SPEAKER_00: He's not going to do it for us.
SPEAKER_00: This is the partnership with God, to co-laboring with God.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I want, I'm going to show you what's possible so that I'm going to send you out to the ones who need to hear this, the ones who need to know of unconditional love and grace and mercy.
SPEAKER_00: He's like, Don't send me back to that.
SPEAKER_00: Don't pray that I just go do that.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to give you what you need and the resources you need to go find that young person that needs to know that they are loved and seen and known and there's hope, and they don't have to give into a spirit of death or suicide or anxiety or depression or any of these things that just can so easily bind us up.
SPEAKER_00: I believe that God wants those who are marked by the presence who know how to go affect the atmospheres of the places that he sends us.
SPEAKER_00: See, David knew this because he experienced this first hand.
SPEAKER_00: David went into the court of King Saul, and while Saul was tormented by spirits, David was a one who had a first hand encounter with God, and as he played a new song, all of a sudden those spirits started to flee.
SPEAKER_00: He was one who came in as a priest, and out of the communion with God, there was no competition in that environment.
SPEAKER_00: That even as he just played his music, evil spirits and unclean spirits started to dissipate in the same room.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, who believes that's possible?
SPEAKER_00: Do you believe that's possible?
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter if you're not a musician.
SPEAKER_00: Do you believe it's possible that when you walk into the room from being face to face with God, that everything in the spiritual realm is exposed and unclean things, people that are bound up by demonic powers?
SPEAKER_00: Do you have faith to believe that God wants to send you into those environments to change the atmosphere so that heaven can have all the influence in a room through whatever he's given to you, whatever work he's given to you.
SPEAKER_00: That's the invitation of a heart of worship.
SPEAKER_00: Is a heart of worship is that we're gonna practice being with him so that we can practice extending him everywhere we go.
SPEAKER_00: So what does this look like?
SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna have I'm gonna have the worship team come back up and we're gonna spend some time in worship here, but the purpose of priests in the scriptures, here's let me just summarize a few things and what the invitation I think is for us today, okay?
SPEAKER_00: The purpose of priests was to mediate God's presence, to offer sacrifices, to be teachers and witnesses, and then to intercede for the people.
SPEAKER_00: It was to keep the altars lit and the fire burning on the altars.
SPEAKER_00: But in a New Testament, like where we're at, like we don't do those things in the same kind of way.
SPEAKER_00: So it's kind of hard to make the transition.
SPEAKER_00: What does this mean for us to actually be priests?
SPEAKER_00: Number one, though, our role as priests, living in relationship with God, is to keep the fire of our own hearts burning for Him.
SPEAKER_00: To always find something new to offer Him.
SPEAKER_00: Every day and every moment.
SPEAKER_00: They used to sacrifice the blood of animals, we don't do that.
SPEAKER_00: You you and I are now the sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: And we offer Jesus was the high, he was the ultimate sacrifice, but now that means that you and I just get to give our lives, and our responsibility as priests is to keep the fire of worship burning in your hearts every day.
SPEAKER_00: To proclaim what he is and what who he is and what he has done to the world.
SPEAKER_00: That is part of the priestly duty, just to open your mouth and testify of what he is and what he's done.
SPEAKER_00: To pray on behalf of the people.
SPEAKER_00: The priests used to be a mediator, just one person on behalf of God and the people.
SPEAKER_00: We don't need that one person anymore.
SPEAKER_00: All of us are priests, so now we as priests can pray on behalf of the whole world.
SPEAKER_00: Say, God, do what you want to do in Rwanda, do what you want to do in Boulder, in Utah, in Minnesota, in Evergreen.
SPEAKER_00: God, we ask and we're gonna we're gonna come to you on behalf of the world.
SPEAKER_00: Come and let your kingdom come into this place.
SPEAKER_00: That's what priests do.
SPEAKER_00: Priests extend blessing to every human heart in the whole world because we we have seen him and we know what he's like, and we're not content to talk about him on a Sunday without proclaiming him on a Monday.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody talk to me this morning.
SPEAKER_00: This is who we are: a kingdom of priests.
SPEAKER_00: The way that we practice is by going with him where he is, is even in worship, declaring who he is in his heart for the world.
SPEAKER_00: The unconditional love to come to him without any reserve, just like David dancing before him as a priest and a king.
SPEAKER_00: David said, This is what I was made for, this is what we were made for, and I will do it, and I will become even more undignified.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna look even a little foolish, it's gonna look a little weird, but I don't know what else to do because this is what God is doing, and we get to be a part of it.
SPEAKER_00: So let's stand together.
SPEAKER_00: Today, Jesus, as we as we examine the scriptures and we remind ourselves of this large line of this mysterious story, that what you're doing is that you're inviting us to be a royal priest at a kingdom of priests that that live in relationship with you and extend that relationship.
SPEAKER_00: God, I thank you that this morning we can start now by just fueling the fires of worship.
SPEAKER_00: We can soak the fires of worship.
SPEAKER_00: And I pray for every person in this stream, whoever feels stuck, maybe even disconnected from you.
SPEAKER_00: I just ask that that ends right now.
SPEAKER_00: I just thank you, God, that as we as we share this space together, God, you want to make a way.
SPEAKER_00: You have made a way where there was no way for us to have complete access to you, God.
SPEAKER_00: I thank you that you've paid for our sin, you've paid for our wrongdoing, we have a hope, we have a future, and we have eternity with you, Lord God.
SPEAKER_00: I thank you that that starts now.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you, Father, for the manifestation of the kingdom of God in our hearts, that we see it, we feel it, we know it, we walk in it, Lord God, not just for our own sake, but for the sake of the world, God.
SPEAKER_00: I thank you that your heart is to bless the world when you start with us now.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name, we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Let's sing together.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, listen, I want to do something before we end.
SPEAKER_00: If you're sitting here right now and you just there's a craving in your heart, I just want to know God.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe for the first time, but I just need to reconnect with God face to face with him.
SPEAKER_00: And I need some, I need others to just join me and pray for me.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're willing to just even acknowledge that, I just feel like there's a special grace here today for others to come around and try just to just to pray for each other here.
SPEAKER_00: So it just across the room.
SPEAKER_00: Does anybody feel just you're you're in this place right now and you're like, man, I would love just a fresh touch from God, just right where it's been a while, and maybe I just need to reconnect with the face of it.
SPEAKER_00: If that's you, just put your hand up in the air, just across the room.
SPEAKER_00: Anyone here?
SPEAKER_00: Just put your hand up in the air.
SPEAKER_00: That should be that should be several of us, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Okay, over here.
SPEAKER_00: Who else?
SPEAKER_00: Who wants a fresh touch from God?
SPEAKER_00: Over here?
SPEAKER_00: In the back, everybody, just get your hands up in the air.
SPEAKER_00: There's no shame in this.
SPEAKER_00: This is good.
SPEAKER_00: You're just thinking, I I I'm I'm hungry and I have a need.
SPEAKER_00: If you're around the people with the hand up in the air, if you're a friend type of person and you're willing to do this, this is what we do in the church.
SPEAKER_00: We don't just talk about these things.
SPEAKER_00: We want to actually practice them and do them to extend a blessing.
SPEAKER_00: If you're around somebody with their hand up in the air, just put your hand on their shoulder and just begin to bless them in the name of Jesus in your own words.
SPEAKER_00: You have done a great thing.
SPEAKER_00: You are mining, you are holy, you are Lord of heaven and earth, and we are yours today, God.
SPEAKER_00: And as we go from this place, I thank you that we go with a renewed identity, that we are a kingdom of priests.
SPEAKER_00: You have made a way to know you, to be loved by you, and to move into this world.
SPEAKER_00: And I thank you to bless every step that we take, every word that we speak, that it will be marked by heaven in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Go in the peace and the strength of the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: You are his.
SPEAKER_00: Love you guys.
SPEAKER_00: Have an awesome day.
SPEAKER_00: Go be blessed.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.