You're A Priest! 1 Peter 2:9-10

Okay, so we're going to read 1 Peter chapter 2:9 and 10, just to get us started with the study. Because in these two verses is a wealth of, of uh, of cool stuff, and we just want to like unravel it and unpack it and really understand it. So we'll read it first, and then we'll then we'll go into it. So it says here, 1 Peter 2:9, "But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people, but are now the people of God; who had not obtained mercy, but have now, or now have obtained mercy."

So many of these titles that He gives us here: chosen generation, royal priesthood, holy nation, His own special people—these are actually lifted straight from the Old Testament. They would have applied to Israel, but they're given to us. And so the first thought is, why is that the case? Some people think that the Christian church has straight up replaced Israel; Israel is no longer God's—not interested in Israel; He's cast them off forever; He has divorced them permanently, and that's that's the thought, right? Um, but a careful, or even a not careful reading of the scripture indicates that's not the case. Um, Paul writes in Romans about how all Israel will be saved; that there's a time right now when God's working among the Gentiles, but when the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, He is going to be working in Israel, and He's going to do an awesome thing in Israel. Revelation gives us a glimpse of this when it talks about 12,000 from each tribe—not just 12,000 being saved, 12,000 from each tribe being specially used. So how many are saved? That 12,000 are used from that group that are uniquely used as serving God as single people unto the Lord. And um, um, really neat, neat stuff there. So God has not cast off Israel.

So what has happened? How can titles that would have originally applied to Israel be transferred over to us? Well, they're not exactly transferred, you see. We're just grafted in, like the scripture says. We've been grafted in to the tree, you know, and so we don't want to boast ourselves against the natural branches. Sure, He may come and prune off some of those natural branches, but that doesn't mean He's casting off the whole thing. So all Israel is is not lost; all Israel will be saved, as in those who have the same faith Abraham had, and God will do a great revival in Israel in the future. That one day will come; we're looking forward to it. And it may have, may have already started; at least I think the seeds of it are already planted, um, in, in things like Jews for Jesus and in the different ministries that are outreaching to Israel, using the Old Testament to, to minister the truth of Messiah. Very exciting stuff, very, very exciting stuff. Um, so we experienced the fullness of the promises that they were waiting on. And see, at one point, Israel was waiting on God to fulfill those promises. Now God's waiting on Israel to receive those promises. It's a little different at this point. We've received them; we've, we've opened up our hearts to receive them, and anybody who does, Jew or Gentile, gets to be part of this, grafted in, and is now a chosen generation. That's the first title, verse nine—a chosen generation. That word generation is, is a word that actually could be translated as a race, or, um, or at least as we commonly think of a race, you know, a group of people that are all related by some genetic relation, so by blood or a family relation. See, as Christians, we are part of a family, and it's important to realize this. It's like, I not only get Jesus as my savior, I get you as my brothers and sisters. That's hugely important, because so much of the work of God is in our relationships with other people. So much of what God does in our lives is us in fellowship with each other. And you will find that you are just edified in your, in your relationship with God by the close relationships with godly Christians that you have. It's just a natural consequence. And that's what we call fellowship. Fellowship is like friendship, but with a spiritual side to it. That's what fellowship is; it's like friendship, but it ministers to my spirit too. Not just like we enjoy each other's company, but there's something healthy; it does something, you know.

We are part of a family. I remember going to an outreach where they, they did an outreach; they preached the gospel message; they invited people to receive Christ, to repent and come forward. And when they did, they let off some fireworks. But before the fireworks started, they just had this sign that was like some kind of firework thing, you know, where it the letters lit up and burned with fire and then stayed burning. And the sign, as it lit up, it said, "Welcome to the family of God." And I was just like, yeah, like I just, I love that; I totally dig that. You see, getting, um, becoming a member of a church is, is not quite the thing you do when you get saved, you see. When you get saved, you become a member of the church by default; you're part of the family; you're that chosen generation. And so then why would I then go to a local fellowship of believers? Because they're my family. So I, I spend time with my local gathering of believers, and I trust that God's put me in a place where I can get ministered to and minister to others, and that sort of thing. And yes, it's difficult because they're people, you know, they're humans. But I find that it's so, um, essential; it's so essential, um, for God's work in my life. Nobody isolates themselves from all the other believers and becomes hugely used by God; like you just don't see this happen. We get used in context of fellowship. So we're a chosen generation, which is why, um, in Ephesians 4:3, we have this command: "Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." And that's a really interesting phrase, endeavoring, because an endeavor is like when you say you come up with a business plan, and, and you're like, okay, I'm going to travel over to this area, and I'm going to, and I'm going to work; I'm going to do step one; I'm going to do this step two; I'm going to do this step three; I'm going to do this. That's an endeavor. See, it's not just like a trip or a vacation; it's an endeavor; it's like a, a long planned out, often laborious process. And that's what we do when we try to keep unity in the bond of peace with other believers; it's an endeavor. They will wound you; they will hurt you; and not because you're so wonderful and they're so bad, but because we're all just human; we're all, we all fall short for certain, and we still continue to fall short. There'll be those who, who just, you just don't get, you know what I mean? Like we almost have our own private culture, like I've got the culture of me, of my life, what I'm used to, how I handle things and stuff like that. And it's just a little uncomfortable when you get to know people initially. And so, but, but you notice that once you get past that initial get to know you, then they kind of get into your friend zone, and you're like, no, I'm cool; I get it; I'm cool with them. But we can so often be suspicious of those we don't know very well, and stuff like that. And that's this is, um, while it might be safe in one regard, it, it can be harmful to, to our fellowship in the body. So that it becomes the only friends I can have are the friends I have had for 30 years. And you're like, well, we want to hopefully try to keep those old friends, but open our arms to new ones as well; to endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Unity is such a huge thing for us as believers, unless, unless it's a gospel issue, unless it's a major, major issue, unless it's an issue of major sin or something like that, that I'm going to try to overlook so much, and I hope they do the same towards me, to overlook so much, so that we might endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Hebrews 10:25 makes it even more clear; it says this, um, giving advice to believers, it says, "Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together." I mean, this is what the old, the, this, the old way of talking about going to church, because they wouldn't call it going to church, because you are the church, right? So, but they say, "Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together," not quitting the re, the regular gathering of Christians for fellowship, ministry. The word not forsaking, that as is the matter of some. So even back then there were those who would just kind of drop off the map, you know, and, and here I'm not trying to criticize them; it's just that a lot of the people who quit fellowship, honestly, don't know that they're supposed to, to try to make it work. And so I want this teaching out there that says, see, these are what the scriptures say; it says that we should try to keep this; we should, we should make this work, you know; we should do our, our best and try to make it happen, and let go of bitterness, and let go of, even though, even if the wound was genuinely, you know what I mean? Even if it was real, like I got hurt. Like raise your hand if you've been hurt; it's everybody, you know, me; this is for certain; it's all of us. And, uh, I don't want to trivialize those things, but we look to the cross; we look at the sacrifice of Jesus, and we go, you know what? I'm going to work at keeping the unity of the Spirit as much as I can. I can't be best friends with everybody, but I can certainly be friendly with everybody, loving towards everybody, and then let God sort of guide you to bring someone into your circle, or, you know, open, always those open arms to be able to bring in somebody new, that kind of thing, and to restore someone if they've fallen.

And then, um, then it goes on to talk to us, uh, about being a royal priesthood. A royal priesthood. Actually, before I mention that, I wanted one last thing about this chosen generation. The concept of this maybe you will be better, uh, driven home with this idea: We have a promise in the scripture that He will never leave us nor forsake us. God will not leave or forsake me, and He will not leave or forsake you. And if He won't leave or forsake you, then maybe I shouldn't either, you know? Maybe I shouldn't either. It's, I mean, I have friends that move, and you lose contact. That's not what we're talking about; we're talking about broken fellowship, broken, damaged, hurt where, and, and, and I have friends who were, are no longer friends; I can think of, it just actually, I don't think of very few people at the moment, but who don't want fellowship with me. But I know I've done the heart surgery, and I'm open to it; I'm good; like I'm cool, you know? And I even took the step out to, to build that bridge, and you ignored it, and that's okay; I'm not even going to hold that against you. I'm just, I'm here; I'm open for the fellowship; I hope one day that gets restored. And so then, you know, is you're doing your part to keep, uh, peace; you're endeavoring to keep the peace, the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace. So we're that chosen generation; that's our connection to each other. Then we're talked about as being a royal priesthood, which I think is about our connection with God. Those who are in Christ are a part of a royal priesthood. This is also mentioned in verse 5 where He says we're a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. So that tells us even the function of our, of our holy priesthood. So we're all priests. I mean, the high priest is a type of Jesus Christ; He's our ultimate high priest, but we're all priests. So even as I look in Leviticus and I look in the Old Testament, I look for pictures and types; I often see the high priest as a type of Christ, but I look at the priest, and I go, I wonder if there's a type or a representation of, of my relationship with God, of, of the things that the believers do here. The high priest and the priests, because we're called holy, a holy priesthood. This means men and women; every single believer is a, is part of this holy priesthood. And you might go, women too? Women weren't priests. And I'll say, well, yeah, neither were Gentiles, you know, or several other categories of people. Men and women, because everything else in verse 9 and 10 applies to men and women. So why would I not apply this across the board as well? The context is this is all of us, so everything I'm about to say applies across the board, both genders. So this priesthood of believers, this is, that's actually the doctrine, the name of the doctrine is the priesthood of believers; that as Christians we are all priests in a sense. So not in every possible sense you can think of, but in, in the biblical sense here. So I'm going to look at, um, eight things; I categorized them for you; hope you like that—eight things that mark us as priests, or eight things say that we engage in because of our priesthood. Because if you're like me, you be like, wow, we're priests; cool; what does that mean exactly? Like what do I do with that, Lord? And so I was really digging, trying to go, what does the scripture teach on this? So here's the first one. Number one: As priests, we draw near to God. That's number one; we draw near to God, not needing anyone or any one else to draw us near to God except Jesus. That's the first thing. As priests, we draw near to God. There were layers of separation between the people and the Lord, and one of those layers was the priests. The priests could draw near, but not the people. So I don't have anyone between me and God now. Look at this, uh, this as it's taught in Hebrews, which talks a lot about the, the, the priesthood of Jesus and that's implications for us. Hebrews 10:19 says this: "Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus." Now remember the holiest; this term is specifically referring to the holy of holies, that holiest place on earth, except Hebrews makes it clear in the earlier chapters that it's talking about the heavenly sanctuary or the actual very presence of God; like you're entering into heaven; you're entering into the very presence of God, moment by moment through prayer, through walking with Him, through relationship with Him, and finally when we go to be with Him. So it's talking about that. "Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus"—that's all He needs, Jesus—"by a new and living way, which He consecrated for us through the veil, that is His flesh." Now that veil separated you from the holy of holies; it's, it, you know, it symbolizes God being separate from man, but we go right through it, and that's through Jesus; His veil was the flesh, and as He was killed, that veil was ripped; as He was torn, so to speak, it was torn. And that boldness is in us now. And then it goes on, "And having a high priest over the house of God." Now we have boldness; we've got a high priest; we can come; we have a living way through Jesus. Therefore, verse 22 of Hebrews 10: "Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water." Now that full assurance of faith is not talking about a generic faith; it's talking about having the faith to know you are right with God because of Jesus. You can draw near to God. I want others to pray for me, but you know what? I can pray. I want someone else to, to, to give me counsel and maybe share God's will with me, but you know what? I can go directly to the Father for that. I have a direct relationship with Jesus Christ; no one stands between me and Jesus. If they do, they are an impostor, and they should get out of the way. It's just me straight to the Father through the Son; that's what the scripture teaches us. So the first thing of our priesthood is that we draw near to God, not needing anyone but Jesus, and we can do it with boldness, even though we fail, because of His blood; because of His blood. Man, that would save so many believers such issues of condemnation that we struggle with, to get that concept deep into their minds and hearts.

The second thing, the second thing that we have as priests is we are ambassadors. We are ambassadors. So we, we draw near to God, but we also have a ministry to people at being holy priests, uh, of the, of the Father. So 2 Corinthians, um, why don't you go and turn there with me? 2 Corinthians chapter 5; this is the passage that talks about us being ambassadors. It's directly referring to the apostles, but I think it does apply to us; I think it applies to anybody who has had the same experience they have of getting saved and then becoming the light of the world. It says in verse 18 of 2 Corinthians 5: "Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation"—that would be us preaching the gospel, right? Being ambassadors for Christ—"that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself." Um, verse 19's describing the ministry of reconciliation, or it's describing what it is that they're going around preaching—"that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed unto us the word of reconciliation." So He did the job of reconciliation, so my ministry is not actually getting you right with God; it's just the word about it; in other words, the gospel. I preach the gospel; I don't participate in their salvation; I just preach the gospel. Now then, "we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God." For He hath made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. See, we've been given, not my righteousness, but God's righteousness has been imparted to me. So powerful, powerful stuff. So I preach; I, um, they go through Jesus, but I have the word of reconciliation; I bring the message of the gospel. Men, women, every believer is by definition a missionary; it's just your location that is in question. Do I do it here, or do I go overseas, or I do it there, or I do it, but everywhere I go, I, I want to be, uh, living with the gospel on my lips. Now I don't, uh, think that this means that every single Christian is going door-to-door, or every single Christian is every conversation sharing the gospel, but I think that it means that every Christian is, is, is realizing, I am, I am called to preach; I am called to be the one to share the truth of Christ with people, and I am hopefully prepared to just open my mouth and speak the word of reconciliation. Jesus died for you; Jesus became sin that you might become the righteousness of God; Jesus went to the cross for you so you could put your trust in Him and be saved; He died and He rose again. It's that, this is just on the lips of every believer because we've all been saved; we've all been reconciled and been given that word to carry to the world. So we are all ambassadors; all of us, all of us. And I, I do think it's different to have the gift of evangelism; that is a different gift; there are evangelists, and that's more because they're like super gifted in this, and that just like full-time, that's all they do now. Um, that, however, does not mean that we don't also evangelize, and that's the thing; we don't have, we don't just shop it out to everybody else, you know? Every believer teaches; every believer evangelizes; every believer prays, right? Every believer does all these things; some people have a special gifting, and they do that even more, but all of us do it. So we are all being priests who would go and bring people to God; they would be the go—well, I go and I, I tell the world the ministry of reconciliation; they receive Christ, well then they are, they're high priest, or excuse me, they're a priest as well. And so in that sense, um, now I do think that it's pretty much just our job to preach the gospel. I want to mention real quick about, um, the issue of the sinner's prayer, because I, because I just thought it would be interesting to talk about it. And the issue of the sinner's prayer is, is a really interesting thing. I, um, I was raised in my, in my Christian life with this regular idea that you had to pray the sinner's prayer to be saved, and I never did, uh, not to my knowledge; no one ever led me through the sinner's prayer. And the sinner's prayer is, is sort of a, a, a, a tradition that we have, um, where you know, you lead someone through, you know, step one, you know, you apologize to God, acknowledge His existence, acknowledge what He's done on the cross, and then repent of your sin and put your faith in Jesus, and then you're walking them through this in prayer. No one ever brought me through that, so it had me wondering, especially as a teen, um, like feeling doubts about my own security and my own salvation because I don't remember ever doing that. And it was, it was only as I really got more and more into the word that I was like, I think a lot of people never prayed the sinner's prayer specifically; I really do. As I, as I looked into it and found that, you know, I don't see Nicodemus ever actually having that moment, that particular identifiable moment. I see a lot of people coming to Christ and not having that particular moment, and I, and I see the preachments in, uh, in the book of Acts, read through all the gospel presentations, um, and not once. Now it's possible they did this, but never once is it recorded that they said, now repeat after me. Peter was like, they were like, what should we do? What should we do after Peter preaches to them and they realize they're convicted of their sin? They go, what should we do? And Peter goes, repent, and then he just leaves him there, you know? He just kind of leaves him with that, repent, and then, and then, you know, he tells them more and all that sort of thing. But, um, but I, now I'm not against the sinner's prayer either, because I will lead someone through a prayer if I so think the Holy Spirit is leading me to do that; I'm going to do that. But I also think that it can become man's tradition that we sort of force upon, um, uh, our churches and our pastors and our, our ministries is like, you need to do the sinner's prayer more, you know? And I'm kind of like, um, I'm going to do that as often as I think the Lord wants me to do that, but I, I don't want to do it because someone over here is just pressuring me to do that, if that makes sense. And I've had people, I've led in, in the sinner's prayer one-on-one, and I've had others who I chose not to, because I thought, you know what? I don't think that they're sincere, and I'm not going to, going to do this gamly thing where I sort of give them, I think, false assurance, because I've seen that happen, and I don't like the fruit of it. And so, um, I leave it to each individual to make, you know, have the Lord lead you and give you wisdom and stuff like that. And the good news is you can mess up, and, and that's better than doing nothing; that's for sure. But, um, but I do think that ours is the ministry is the word of reconciliation, and even if I just put the word out there and then let people wrestle and struggle with it and think about it, that I've done my job; I have, I think I've done my job; I think that that's what we're called to do. Um, yeah.

So you don't have to have the sinner's prayer, um, yeah. Number, uh, number three on there, or excuse me, um, actually as part of the third and fourth and fifth and going on, we we offer up spiritual sacrifices. That that's something that priests do is they offer sacrifices and offerings, but we offer a certain kind of sacrifice. It said it in verse 5 that we are a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices to God. Right? That was of chapter 2, 1 Peter verse 5. This is different than the Levites. The Levites did not offer up a spiritual sacrifice; they offered up an actual physical sacrifice. So what are our spiritual sacrifices? Well, let's look at one of them in, uh, Romans 12, verse 1. It says that that spiritual sacrifice is our bodies. One of the things we offer is our physical bodies. He says in Romans 12:1, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service." God, what do you want? What's acceptable to you from my life? He goes, "I want your body. I want you to use your body in ways that honor me. Use your time, use your energy, use, use yourself for me. May you be for me." Oh, you want me to die for you? No, I want you to live for me, a living sacrifice, a living sacrifice. In fact, the phrase at the end there is, uh, "your reasonable service." Romans 12:1 it says that me offering my body is a reasonable service. It could easily be translated also your spiritual act of worship because it has the concept of service, but also of worship. And so the translators kind of wrestled with different ways of translating that same verse, but but you offer, you offer, you, and it's important for us as believers, although I think you guys get this, I think you know this, but I'll say it anyway: we don't just give God our heart; we give him our hands, we give him our back, and we give him our eyes, we give him our mouths, and that's an act of worship. That's an act of worship as much one wonderful and glorifying to God as singing songs. In fact, the the song singing is a little bit lessened without that, for sure. So that was number three: we offer our body. That's what we offer. Another, uh, offering we give is, uh, in Hebrews 13:15. It says, "Therefore by him, by Jesus, let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name." So we offer a sacrifice of praise. I think it's super interesting that it's not just called praise, but a sacrifice of praise, because sacrifice implies loss or pain or some sort of struggle. You know, it implies some sort of cost on the part of the person giving a sacrifice of praise. You can worship God whenever you want, wherever you want, but you cannot worship God however you want. That's that's the thing. I can worship him anywhere, I can I can worship him everywhere, anytime, but not however I want. God's got specific things about how he can be worshiped. He goes, Jesus said he must be worshiped in spirit and truth. He must be worshiped in spirit and in truth. But there's a modern confusion that we go through with worship because music is an emotional, uh, thing, and that's a good thing about music; it's a it's a I mean, that's a wonderful thing. I'm glad it's it's not lacking in that, but this unfortunately means can also be used to manipulate, or it can be used in a selfish sense where the music is actually for me and not for the Lord. The music is there to please me, to pleasure me, and people will actually pick a church just based on the music. Does the music make me feel good? Okay, I'll go there. And then you're I I don't know what to say; it's like this isn't about you feeling good now. Worship or praising God feels good sometimes; sometimes it feels like nothing. Why? 'Cuz my feelings are not in touch with reality, and just because God's being glorified and wonderful things are happening doesn't mean I'm going to notice in my heart. My heart might just be thinking like, I didn't get enough sleep, I don't feel good, somebody was crabby with me today, I'm crabby today, I'm hungry, that person looked at me weird, there's a smelly person sitting next to me. I mean, whatever it is, you know, it's it's just these are our feelings are feelings. I mean, they're feelings, nothing more than feelings, you know, as the old song goes. Actually, not really very familiar with that song, but I know that one line, so don't think too much about it because I don't know, I might have just got myself in trouble for all I know. But praise feels good sometimes for you; it frequently does for me, um, but there are other times not so much where worshipping God becomes a sacrifice, a personal, costly, difficult act where worship is spiritual warfare. I can think of one of these times in the Old Testament actually where the army of Israel's gathered together, and then God says, "Now put the musicians in the front and march out now." I think those musicians were probably not like, "Let's let's worship, man. I can't wait. I can't wait to praise God right now." It was just an act of faith and trust, or or there was like a sword behind him making them keep going. I don't know, but was they were just doing it out of an obedience thing, and that that kind of worship is beautiful. I I do not think it's diminished even one ounce from worship where you you you sense the Lord or you have this wonderful feeling. I don't think it's diminished at all from that. I think worship where you feel bland and you feel like and like today we say, "ang, bless the Lord, oh my soul," and I'm telling my soul you're going to bless the Lord, and then I just go, "All right, I worship you, Lord." God's not like, "Yeah, but do you feel the vibes? 'Cuz otherwise it doesn't count. No vibes, no, I'm not feeling, or I am, or whatever. It doesn't matter." The ironic thing is I came to this place over a long period of time because initially I didn't I I had a very self-centered view of of worship, I think, um, at well, or maybe it was just a mixed, it was partly for me, partly for the Lord, you know, and um, and there came a time where worship was extremely difficult for me. I was going through trials and stuff, and I just remember thinking like, "I just don't feel like worshipping right now." And then I got like frustrated with myself, and I and I told myself in my head, "Maybe you do this. Maybe I'm crazy," and I said to my own mind, to my own soul, perhaps I said, "I don't care how you feel; you're going to worship God." The irony is I remember that moment in church; I remember sitting there and then just deciding, "I'm just going to worship the Lord. I don't care how I feel," and that was like a breakthrough moment for me, and I offered a sacrifice of praise. The irony is, as a result of that, developing that habit over time, worship has never felt so wonderful. That's the irony of it is the more I become independent of of having to have the fuel of feeling good, I end up having the result of feeling good without it being the goal at all, and it's it's kind of ironic, and that's just my personal experience, and I couldn't say, you know, necessarily say everybody's going to have that, but but that's been mine. I think it's willful worship, and I think Job is an awesome example of this. This it's just I will to worship God; I choose to praise His name. And so I I um I like Job, who is struck in his body, who he's lost his his wealth, he's lost his children, his wife has has now said, "Just curse God and die," and I don't want to be too hard on her because she lost her children too. I can imagine what she's going through and probably thinking it was Job's fault. He's like, "Well, I didn't sin, so maybe that was the case. I don't know, wasn't my fault. It must have been Job." So she's like, "Curse God and die," and then Job's like, "Bless the Lord." Do you think that was like heartfelt praise in the sense of my feelings? No, but it was another kind of heartfelt praise, like a deeper heartfelt praise where you're like in faith in trust, "I worship you, God, because you are worthy." That's beautiful. So you don't have to feel it, and you don't need to fake it; you just have to faith it. That's worship. You worship by faith; don't fake it, faith it. There is a difference. There is a difference. I think any believer can instinctively know that difference. You know, you know. And so that's that's beautiful. That's beautiful, um, so another one of these sacrifices or or these things that we do for as as our in our priesthood that we have in Christ is doing good, just doing good, um, in fact, it says it in Hebrews 13:16. It's the very next verse from the last one I read. Read it, say, "So not forget to do good and to share," that'll be the one after that, "for with such sacrifices God is well pleased." So again, talking about sacrifices, just doing good is a sacrifice, um, if you're married, you understand this automatically. Your wife's like, "My feet hurt," and you're like, and then you make that sacrifice unto the Lord, and you just you rub her feet, you know, or you're laying in bed and you're just zoned, and she goes, "I'm hungry." That would be my wife, and I go, and I'm thinking like, I'm like, "What I want, what the Lord would want me to do right now," trying to reason through it and find a justification. What do you want? I mean, whatever it is, that we just we bless others, we just do good. It's just doing good, but when you do good as to the Lord and not because because I'm a good person out of arrogant pride of of my wonderfulness, you know, but just as to the Lord, I'm going just do this, Lord. You want me to do this; I'm going to do it out of obedience to you. That is a sacrifice, and that is something that God is well pleased with. It says in verse 16 of Hebrews 13, and I'm going to read that verse again to you because the second one, sharing is in there, but "Do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased." Sharing would be material giving, giving of my material wealth in some fashion or another, sharing the things I have, um, just willing to share, whether it's my food or if it is my actual money, my finances, um, I don't think that Christians are all called to go to become poor and give all their money away. I don't think that that's actually wise; you've just made yourself a burden on everybody else for the rest of your life, you know, if you do that, but we are called to what? Share, to share. I think to be willing to give and and happy to give, to be a cheerful giver, not grudgingly. Proverbs 19:17 says this: "He who has pity on the poor lends to the Lord, and He will pay back what he has given." This kind of takes the self-sacrifice out of sharing, doesn't it? I'm lending to the Lord, and he's going to pay back; he's going to take care of me somehow. Maybe it's treasures in Heaven; whatever it is, whatever it is, Lord, this is nothing. I'm, you know what? It all belongs to you anyway, so am I willing to share? Uh, this can be a little dangerous, I think the older we get because the the it's like we revert back a little bit to some of our childhood where it's like, "Mine, mine, mine, mine, mine, mine, mine, mine," you know, you get like your home and you get your zone and you get your sort of comfort zone that goes on that s tends to get stronger as we get older, I think my observation of it, and and then we end up not wanting other people to be around that zone, so it it can become a way in which we res we resist sharing with people; we resist this. This is interesting how one of the qualifications for leadership in the Bible is hospitality. I never would have thought of that is up. I mean, there's just a handful of qualifications for someone to be a leader, and one of them is hospitable. They're they're good, they're good hosts; they bless others with with their goods; they're just like, "Okay, I take care of you. I'll give you a ride. Oh, oh, you need a place to stay? Oh, hey, why don't you guys come on over? We'll we'll do dinner," you know, you just kind of open your your, uh, your zone to others and bless them with with things. So that's also a sacrifice to the Lord. That's that's a cool thing, um, but there's more. There's more. I got two more. Check that out. All right, number seven: we counsel each other. We counsel each other. I think that, um, being in ministry is something every believer's in ministry, and one of our ministries along with preaching the gospel, drawing near to God, sacrificing, worshipping, um, blessing others, just doing good in general as ministry, um, that we have in our in that priesthood that we have as well as as, uh, sharing with others, but but let me read to you Romans 15:14. Listen to what he says, his confidence about the believers in Rome. I don't think it only applies to them now. "I myself am confident concerning you, my brethren, that you also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to to admonish one another." To admonish, and that word is a packed word; it it means in the Greek there, it's meaning more than just, um, encouragement; it's like encouraging, teaching, or even correcting; it's all kind of in there together because I think it's meant to be generic because we we just do all that kind of stuff with each other. We counsel one another; we counsel one another; we give advice; we give counsel. Now it's folly if you answer an issue before you hear it. A proverb says, so I want to listen to people's issues, hear them out really, but give them advice, uh, at the same time, it's there's mult there's wisdom in a multitude of counselors. So I'm not going to act as though my advice is automatically the best advice on the planet, and everybody should follow it. Hey, there's things that I don't know. I usually let the person decide if my advice is good or not, and then they can decide what to do with it. It's between them and the Lord, but I'm going to give the best advice I can, and that's something we need to do as believers. I really do think that in the area of giving counsel, um, it is something that I've I've always felt really weak at as a as a as a pastor and as a Christian. I always just felt scared that people would actually take my advice, and this has caused me to be really slow to try to tell people what they should do. I mean, I'll listen to them; sometimes I listen to people; they share with me, and I go, "Wow, that sounds really tough. Can I pray for you?" And I don't know what to tell you, know, at the time, but I'm willing to speak that counsel if the Lord gives me wisdom, and I think I have some wisdom there, um, what I what I hesitate from is the person who feels like they always have the best answer for everybody, um, that's why there's wisdom in a multitude of counselors. You know, you want to get counsel; come talk to me. If I have advice, I'll give it to you, but get it from a couple other people too, because then you're really armed with a lot of good advice; you can kind of work your way through it and figure out what is the best course of action here. There's a reason why the king had multiple advisors and that sort of thing, and and we should I think it's just wise for us to do that as well, but go to believers for these things; don't just go to the world. And look at Christians as, "Hey, hey, you fellow priest over here, like, hey, come here. What do you think about this? What do you think about that?" And that's a wonderful thing; that's that's a great thing, and the more we do it, the more people will do it towards us, and the more it just it just ramps up, you know, naturally, um, so number eight, the final one, we have a ministry, last ministry we have as high as priests, excuse me, under our high priest Jesus, is we have a ministry of prayer, ministry of prayer. James 5:16 it says, "Confess your trespasses to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much." And then to drive in the point, it says, "Elijah was a man just like us, temptation just like us, but look, he prayed, and all this awesome stuff happened." And they're like, "Yeah, but Elijah was awesome." Yeah, but you're not listening; he was just like you. You think he was awesome because the prayers, God is the one who answered the prayers, but Elijah had a lot of faith; he had a lot of trust in the Lord, and he was walking with God, so it it's not like secret issues going on and stuff like that that we're hindering or something like that, um, and so we're called to pray for one another. But on that note, I should say many groups, many groups out there, many groups have tried to take away the priesthood of believers, and they want to give it to a select group of people within their church organization, and I'm sure you can think of several groups. I can think of several groups who've done this, and um, those people, those special priesthood people, they they do all the what they do is they they rob from Christians their ministries as priests, and then they pretend that they're going to do it for everybody else. Now that's a problem. They try to stand between you and God. They claim the rights and responsibilities that belong to all of God's people, so they're robbing them from you. If you're the temple of the spirit and the Holy Spirit dwells in you, then how on Earth can you need this guy to draw you near to God? Come on. I am the temple of the Holy Spirit, spirit. I don't need you, not like that, not to get me to the Lord, not to draw me to God, not to hear my confession and draw me near the Lord. This is totally not what the scripture teaches. They even take James 5:16, "Confess your trespasses to one another," and they apply it to them, except they take out "one another," and they go, "the special priests of our organizational group," and they and they twist it to mean something other than what it means. And so they're they're saying you need us to come to God, and notice they don't ever say this really out loud because it would seem arrogant and presumptuous because it's arrogant and presumptuous, and it more importantly, it's unbiblical, so they won't say it out loud. I mean, the pope will come to America, and he'll stand out here and he'll like look like this glorified guy and everything like that, but the whole time he's feigning humility because that's part of the persona they need to put off to get you to swallow the fact that he's saying all of you have to come to God through me, but he's not going to say that out loud because that would seem arrogant and presumptuous, but that's what they believe; that's what they teach. There is no salvation outside of our organizational group, and you need our priests and stuff like that, and that's just not what the scripture teaches. We're a holy priesthood, so that so if they believe it, but they won't say it out loud, and they think it's an essential part of faith, but they won't talk about it, what does that make them? Deceitful, ultimately. That then becomes deceitful and dishonest, and um, and so I think that's unfortunate, which is why a lot of people are confused, even who are in part of religions, and it's not just Catholic. I mean, there's there's a the whole group; there's lots of different groups that do this. They won't be open and and outward about these weird doctrines because they know it would offend people, but that's actually deceitful. I think that any group that isn't like, "Here's our doctrines, boom," right out in front of your face is probably a messed-up group to be part of. If I go, "What do you really believe?" and you're not telling me, then how are you unlike the salesman who just like came to my house, and they're like, "Hey, we'd like to do this to your home, d d d," and it's free, and I go, "What's the catch?" I'm just like a skip-to-the-point guy, right? I go, "What's the catch?" And the guy says, "Oh, there's no catch," and I go, "You're going to spend labor time and resources, and then I'm going to pay you nothing for it," and he goes, "It's totally free," and I go, "What's the catch?" He goes, "There's no catch," and I go, "You know what? The fact that you won't tell me the catch makes me even more nervous. Talk to you later," you know, just close the door and go away, um, I close the door and then pretend I wasn't home. No, I'm just kidding, but you know what I mean? It's like, tell me the catch. And when I get, you know, Mormons that come to the door, Jehovah's Witnesses that come to the door, and they won't be upfront about their doctrines, they won't be just plain, "Here's what we believe." Look, I'm not ashamed of what I believe; I am confident about the doctrines of the scriptures, and I will proudly put them forward because I trust the truth of them. But if you're like secretive and and you know what I mean, if you guys encounter that with people, the moment that they're secretive about their doctrines, that means there's something wrong; that means there's something wrong, um, so the next thing we're called here after realizing we're all believers, we all have this priesthood, or we're all in ministry, so to speak. I mean, God's called me to ministry, and he did; he did the moment I got saved, and sometimes I did that ministry over here, sometimes I did it in church, sometimes I did it out of church, but you're just we're all called a ministry. That's our we're priesthood; that's pretty cool. But we're next we're called a holy nation, a holy nation, so chosen people, the, uh, a group of priests and now a holy nation. That means a community that nation is a is a gathering of people that we all part of the same allegiance; that's the idea, a nation. We have a national allegiance. Jesus talked about how we're all part of the same flock; I think that's kind of the similar idea. We're under the same Shepherd. I have a citizenship from Heaven, which means I live by the by the rules of Heaven and not by the rules of Earth, that I am not under ultimately the the president or even American laws in the United States. I'm ultimately under the Lord; my allegiance is to him, which is why Acts 4:18 to 20, I'll read this scripture to you, but it's where Peter and the disciples, they're preaching the gospel, and the religious leaders who had legal authority, they're not just knuckleheads who show up for no reason; they have legal authority, rightful legal authority, and they come up and they say, "Hey, stop preaching in the name of Jesus." So with their legal authority, with the ability to punish them if they want if they disobey this new rule coming from the law, um, from the from the legal people here, and it says so they so I'll read it to you, Acts 4:18. It says, "So they called them and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus." But Peter and John answered and said to them, "Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than, uh, excuse me, more than to God." You judge. I like their response. How how about you tell me which one's more important, obeying you or obeying God? Why don't you figure that out and then let me know? I mean, it's just an easy answer on this question. "For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard." So my loyalty is to God primarily and entirely. Now conveniently, or I should say for both our benefit and the benefit of the world, we are told by God our authority to yield to the government, but I yield to the government because

I yield to God. Now, it is normal for communist countries and various groups to persecute Christian groups in their midst. But they don't realize that we're told by the Lord to obey the government, even when we disagree, unless they're telling me to sin and disobey God. Then I'm going to walk in obedience. They want me to pay taxes; I'm going to pay my taxes. What if I don't like the taxes, or I don't like how much it is? I'm going to pay it anyway; that's God told me to do this. Romans 12 is a great, extensive teaching on the topic; it says if I rebel against the authorities, I'm rebelling against God's Authority. So unless I have a situation like Peter did here, where it's like, okay, now you're making me pick between you and obeying God, well, that's clear; I'm going to obey God. Obey the highest Authority at all times. Um, so that means disobedience to people so that I might be obedient to God, and that's that's what their example is, and we follow that.

Daniel did that when Daniel was told, "You can't pray except to Nebuchadnezzar," and so Daniel was like, "Wow, now I know I need to pray. Now I've got to pray. I've now that you've said I can't do what I must do, I must do it, and I must do it publicly." And he went out and he stood in public and prayed and got himself thrown in the Lion's Den, and um, and uh, and God used it for a beautiful thing. God used it for a beautiful thing. So, so yeah, we but even when we disobey, we don't like rebellion and oh, start fires and cut people's heads off. We're just like, "We're going to worship anyways," like that's there's our big Rebellion, you know, Christian Rebellion. We're going to worship God anyways, whether you like it or not. We're going to obey the Lord no matter what, because we're a holy nation. My citizenship is in heaven, so I follow the laws of that land and not just the laws of this land. Um, so yeah, I think that's more important to remember, especially nowadays when in America we are dealing with persecution, and there's Christians who are standing up and they're saying, "No, I can't do that because that would be a violation of my walk with the Lord," and so they obey the laws everywhere else but in this one area, like they can't do this, maybe like, "I'm not going to make this wedding cake, this particular one. I'm not going to hire this person to watch the kids," and they're being told like, "Oh, well, you're this and you're that," and they come against and their lawsuits and stuff like that. Like I think we need to stand and obey the Lord rather than man when it comes down to that. It's it's a clear it's a clear thing.

So the next on the list is we are called his own special people, his own special people. So we're a holy nation; we're also his special people. And that word "special," it's translated as "special," but it means means a possession, a possession. So that we see ourselves as being possessed by the Lord, not in a creepy, spooky movie way possessed, as in ownership, belonging to God. God possesses me; I belong to God. I belong to God. I love what it says in Acts 27:23. Um, it Paul's talking, and he's he's on the boat that's all Rocky, and there's all this crazy stuff going on, but listen to what what he says in the way he says it. He says, "For there stood by me this night an angel of the god to whom I belong and whom I serve." Paul's like in prison at the time, right? He's in chains, and he's looking over up over this Centurion, and he's talking to him, and he goes, "There still might be this night the angel of the god to whom I belong." He just straight up belongs to God. I am his; I belong to him. This goes with our offering of our bodies, you know, as a Living Sacrifice. It's like I'm I'm just giving God what's his. This shouldn't be seen as this incredibly wonderful thing; I'm just giving God what's his. I belong to him. We are his special people; we belong to him.

This is why I think tithing is in some ways a joke. Do you tithe? Do you give God 10% of your wealth? God gets it all. Tithing is the issue of asking God, "Where do you want this part, and what do you want me to do with this? This what do you want me to do with that?" God gets it all. I don't just like tithe like I'm paying like the the the down payment that lets me have the rest of my life the way I want. I don't think Christians are required to give a ex a 10% amount. I think we should all be giving to our local Fellowship. I think that that's good. I mean, if we want to um obey the scripture in that, I think we should give. I think the amount kind of depends on the situation, the scenario, and the believer, and I think 10% is a great place to start; it seems like a really great rule of thumb, but but I wouldn't lay it is a law that Christians have to follow personally. Um, but I think we should be giving beyond that. I think that you should, you know, there's other Ministries you listen to, and you're you support because you're ministered to by them, so you you offer them some kind of some kind of support, whatever works for you. Um, there's other things; you maybe you sponsor a child through um Operation Christmas Child or or through KPYanan's Ministry or something like that, and that stuff's awesome, but but it all belongs to God; it all belongs to him. I'm like, "Lord, I'm going to buy a house; is that okay?" because it's your money that we just go to the Lord; it all belongs to him. I'm his possession, so of course my stuff is owned by him as well. Of course it is. Of course it is.

Um, so I'm his. Now, this is not just like a romantic relationship, although in a sense there's there's there's something romantic about our relationship with God, but it's not just like that. This is not just like a like a business deal like where I do my part and God does his. It's something more than that. It's like what Thomas said when he looked at Jesus's wounds, saw he'd risen, and called him "My Lord and my God." I'm Yours, just holy, completely, entirely. I'm Yours, more so than husband and wife. I'm yours from my thoughts to my actions, to my hopes, to my present, to my future, to my stuff; it belongs to you. I'm his possession. The idea of being sold out for Christ, a phrase I wish I heard more; we haven't heard it in a while, you know, "sold out for Christ," you know, I'm fine if you don't say that, but find some way to say it, you know, but just "sold out for Christ," like it's just all for him, like, "Well, you just giving everything over to Jesus?" Yeah, yes, yes, absolutely. How could we be any other way? How could we be any other way? So, um, let's look at uh verse 9 again here in First Peter. He says, "But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people," and you see how like jam-packed all these all these words are, and then here's the purpose of all that, here's the end conclusion of that, why he chose me, uh made me this generation, priesthood, Nation, people, "that you may proclaim the Praises of him who called you out of Darkness Into His Marvelous Light, who once were not a people, but now but are now the people of God, who had not obtained Mercy, but now have obtained mercy." So the purpose is that I might Proclaim or that I might praise him, to Pro to to let out with my actions and with my words to let out how wonderful God is, let out gratitude and thankfulness to the Lord, through my life, to live a life unto the Lord in thankfulness and praise.

Psalm 71:8 says this; I just love this. I love the Psalms; it's so great because I'm a really technical guy, you know, with like this information that, but the Psalms is just like sometimes just like poetry; it's just like, and and here's the heart of it, BL, you know, and then people sometimes get that where they maybe wouldn't have gotten the the the technically accurate definition of something, but Psalm 71:8 says, "Let my mouth be filled with your praise and with your glory all the day." I love that, like my mouth, like filled, like ah, just like coming out, you know, with God's Praise And His glory all the day, all the day that I would just be proclaiming his glory all the day, because my life, here's the conclusion, my life says something about God. My marriage says something about God. How I handle my singleness says something about God. How I am at work says something about God. I want to Proclaim his glory; I want to give him thanks, and I need to take my self-concern that I naturally am born with and naturally live life with, my self-concerned Moment by moment by moment, and I need to replace it with God concern, where I'm interested in his opinion, in his glory, and what he's getting out of this moment that I'm living, where I focus on him. There's a phrase I hear a lot in our culture where we say something something like, "Well, I deserve it," and I always see nodding heads whenever someone says, "I deserve it," and now fill in the blank with whatever it is they deserve, you know what, you know, whatever it's usually some luxury item or some food thing or or some day off type thing. "Well, I deserve it," and and part of me is like, "Well, I I get what you mean; I mean, you worked really hard, and you want to take some time or whatever, and I get that," but at the same time it's just like a weird it feels like it's to me it's like kind of weird. I don't think I could say that and feel very good about myself afterwards. "I deserve it; I earned it; I deserve it." I mean, I I even look at the paycheck the church provides me, um, praise God as Grace as God's grace to me. Thank you so much, Lord. The church is the church, the body of Hosanna is paying for my bills; I am so grateful for this. Thank you, Lord, because I would do this job whether they paid me or not. So I'm really grateful that I have food, somewhere to somewhere to sleep at night because of it, you know, and um, and I I mean to have an attitude of of of thankfulness instead of entitlement and to live our lives unto the Lord. In fact, that's uh Psalm 115:1; I love this scripture too, you probably know it, "Not to us, oh Lord, not to us, but to your name, but to your name give Glory because of your mercy, because of your truth." That ultimately my life, living for God, my life living for God, what I Proclaim about him, he's all these callings he's placed in my life; we read in First Peter here, so that I might Proclaim his Praises. Now that happens in a couple ways; one of them is in the way in which we live our lives physically, so we talked about that, but but you might be familiar with this phrase, "Preach the gospel at all times; use words if necessary." I think it was Thomas Aquinas that that one came from; was it SpongeBob? I don't remember. No. Um, but i' I've heard this phrase used. Now, I love this; I love this idea, "Preach the gospel at all times; use words if necessary." There's something wonderful about that, right? Because we're like, "Yeah, preach the go oh yeah," because the character of who I am is is to Proclaim who God is to people; that's the idea. But there's also, to be honest, I think there's something off about it as well, so I want to mention that just real quick. Um, what you say is important. Um, "Preach the gospel at all times; use words if necessary." Can I just say they're necessary? They are necessary. Nobody learns the gospel by by the way I walk; nobody learns the gospel because I helped my neighbor bring his trash can; they learn the gospel when I tell them the gospel. It is a message, which is why we're told to preach the gospel. That word "preach" is a verbal act; it requires words; it does require words. I just want to mention that that this is proclaiming his Praises is in addition to other things, just preaching the gospel; you are giving God glory; you are witnessing of him when you when you just share the truth of God in any capacity, capity, you're giving him glory. In fact, they would use that phrase in the Old Testament times; they when someone was lying about something and they're like, "Hey, give glory to God," they just me tell the truth. Is when I speak God's truth about God, I'm I'm giving him glory; that's an act to give glory to God.

Now, if you have a hard time with that, um, I think Peter might have been acknowledging that some people may have a hard time with this, praising at hard times, praising in difficult times. I think um most people would; I know I have. But here he goes; he gives inspiration for praising him in all you do and all you are, and he gives it in verse 10, "because at once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not obtained Mercy, but now you have obtained mercy," and if you remember this, that you were lost and now you're found, that you were blind and now you see, that you were dead in your sin and trespasses, but now God has called you, cleansed you, washed you, made you new, given you of himself, given you his precious promises, rescued you from from from sin, not just paid your rent that one time, rescued you from hell, that you will always have a reason to praise God, always, in any circumstance. I remember hearing a radio call-in program where a lady called for a pastor and said, "I'm going through this and this and this," and the pastor was like, "Oh, that's really heavy," it was just it was a lot of heavy stuff; it was legitimate, you know, heavy problems, and but the real problem was at the root of it, not the not the problems, it was the effect it had on her, which was she was depressed; she was just very down and depressed, and so the Pastor said, he said to her, "Can you just can you just praise God for saving you? Can you just right now could you just say, 'Thank you, Lord, for saving me'?" And I thought, "Wow, that's really good counsel for someone who's in that scenario, even if they might not recognize it as really good counsel," and um, and so he said, "Can you can you just say thank you God for saving you?" "Well, yeah, but you know what it's just it," and she started complaining some more, and he goes, "Yeah, but can you," and he just stopped her, "Can you just thank God for saving you?" "Well, yeah, but you know there's," and she complains some more about other things, and finally she gets off the he prays for her, and and they get off the phone, but she never would do it. I think when we turn to love the Lord and worship God with our mouths, that is sometimes when our bodies will follow, that are some when our hearts will follow, which might be why it's so important to just do it even when you don't feel like it and just to praise God no matter what.

So what I want to do with a little bit of time we got left is I want to actually end with just a worship song. I think it'd be really cool for us to Just Praise the Lord. Um, actually the song I'm going to end with and um I don't know if you could you could turn the camera cuz I'd like to put this up as part of the study, but uh I'm using a song uh that I wrote Because I um have the copyright to it, so so I can legally use it. There's better songs, but I'm allowed to use this one legally, so I wanted to do that, but it's a song called "We will praise," and actually the way I wrote it was uh we had had a time of worship, and I was just sitting on stage kind of alone, just kind of playing on the guitar still, and I was just like, "I just want to say thank you to God; I just want to say thank you to God," and just to thank him, and I couldn't think of a song that said that off, you know, off the top of my head, so um in like five minutes I just wrote the song, and so that's why it's so stupid. No, I'm just kidding. Um, but no, I think it's just a it's just a great song for just, "I just want to say thank you, God; you're awesome." So um we're just gonna uh I'm move some things, and we'll we'll have a a song of worship. So yeah, you guys know this song because we do it in the sanctuary, so [Music]. But yeah, I don't know if anybody um tonight has been feeling a little bit um a little bit down or having a little bit of a difficult time uh just focusing on the Lord um or or or maybe enjoying the Lord, or just worshiping him, but um our issues um of sin have been dealt with; our forgiveness is purchased; it's secured. If there's anything else between between you and the Lord, you just bring it to him right now and go, "God, I know this isn't even perfect yet, but I just want to put it at your feet," and then just worship Him. Father, we thank you for the fact that you've called us. Lord, help us to grasp the depth of what it means to be this uh this holy priesthood, a chosen uh family. Lord, help us to know what these callings mean in our life that we might Proclaim your Praises, Lord, in how we live and in the things that we [Music] say. Thank you, Lord, for the goodness that you've shown. Thank you, Lord, for your love. Thank you, Lord, for your mercies ever new. Thank you, Lord, for your son. Thank you, Lord, for the goodness that you've shown. Thank you, Lord, for your love. Thank you, Lord, for your mercies ever new. Thank you, Lord, for your son. We will praise your name; we will sing that Jesus Reigns; we will glorify Our God and king forever and ever. Thank you, Lord, for the goodness that you've shown. Thank you, Lord, for your love. Thank you, Lord, for your mercies ever new. Thank you, Lord, for your son. We will praise your name; we will sing that Jesus Reigns; we will glorify Our God and king forever and ever. We will praise your name; we will sing that Jesus Reigns; we will glorify Our God in king forever and ever. While I was dead, you sought me out and gave your life to me; there is no greater love than this to do what you did for me. While I was dead, you sought me out and gave your life to me; there is no greater love than this to do what you did for [Applause] me. We will pray PR your name; we will sing that Jesus Reigns; we will glorify Our God and king forever and ever. We will praise your name; we will sing that Jesus Reigns; we will glorify Our God and king forever and ever. [Applause] Forever and ever. Thank you, Lord, for the goodness that you shown. [Music] We pray that um this coming week, that tonight, tomorrow, the days to follow, we would just live proclaiming the Praises of him who called us from Darkness to light, because once we were not a people, but now we are a people; we were lost in our sins, but now we are saved by Jesus Christ, and for this reason, Lord, use us as a light to proclaim the truth of Christ to others. Let us glorify you with the way we do we do Life, Family, marriage, work, free time. Show us, Lord, how to live For Your Glory. We love you, and we bless you; we thank you for your word tonight, in Jesus' name, amen.