Right. So if you've got a Bible, if you
want to find Malachi chapter 3, so it says verse chapter chapter
3, verse 16, it says those who feared Yahweh.
And I'm just going to pause that because I'm actually reading
from the Liv and in the NIV, probably like most of your
Bibles, whether you're reading the NIV or the ESV or whatever
Bible translation you use, it will probably say then those who
feared the Lords and the Lord is in capital letters.
And I know I've said this before, but I'm going to just
say it again that I like using Yahweh because Yahweh is God's
name. It's his personal covenant name.
And when in, especially in the Old Testament, when we see the
Lord and it's all capitalised, it's, it is a replacement.
It's what those who have translated the Bible into
English, I didn't actually check.
I don't know if any of you know this.
If you've got Bibles in different languages, I don't
know if other languages do the same thing, but in English,
Shagan's give me a nod. So I'm going to go with that.
That's our translators choose generally to translate the word
Yahweh into the Lords. And I'm not going to get into
why that is right now, but I like saying Yahweh because
there's power in God's name. There is power in declaring
which God we are talking about that we are talking about
Yahweh, the covenant gods, Yahweh who who stepped into
human history and became the man who we call Christ Jesus.
We're talking about that got I mean, I was talking to Isaac a
couple of months ago about. So Isaac works with, with
footballers who have a faith in, in Christ.
And I remember you saying that if you ever watch TV and a
footballer or an athlete who is a Christian, they do really
well. And they're, so they're
interviewed and they might say sometimes like praise, praise
God, praise God. And the authorities, those who
are over what we are able to see on telly, they're, I mean,
they're not ecstatic, but they're quite happy with someone
saying praise God because to be honest, we all know which God
they're talking about, but they could be talking about any God.
But when they say, I want to just thank Jesus, I want to
thank my Lord and Saviour, that's when that gets cut.
That's when you don't see it because Jesus, there is power in
his name. When he is declared the
authorities, the principalities of this world, they tremble,
they fear, and so therefore they want to rid his name.
They're quite happy for us to talk about God or or the
universe or or we just we just want to pray.
But as soon as we say Jesus Christ, they are fearful, they
tremble. Think of the the the the people
in in Jesus when Jesus walked the earth, the people who are
filled with the unclean spirits, who would the spirits were
terrified when Jesus walked in the place they were terrified.
No other gods, no other spiritual being creates so much
terror in evil than Jesus Christ.
There is power in his name. So therefore when we pray, we
pray in the name of Jesus. You don't need to say in Jesus
name, end your prayers, but we pray in his name.
We pray to him and I encourage you, use his name, use his name,
use his name because there is power in the name of Jesus.
So let's read it. It says so every time in my
Bible it says the Lord. I'm replacing that with Yahweh.
So then those who feared Yahweh talked to each other and Yahweh
listened and heard. A scroll of remembrance was
written in His presence concerning those who feared
Yahweh and honoured His name. On the day.
When I act, says Yahweh Almighty, they will be my
treasured possession. I will spare them, just as a
father has compassion and spares his Son who serves him.
And you will again see and distinction, see a distinction
between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve
God and those who do not. Surely the day is coming.
It will. It will burn like a furnace.
All the arrogant and evil doer will be stubble, and the day
that is coming will set them on fire, says the says Yahweh.
Not a root or a branch will be left to them.
But for you who Revere my name, the sun of righteousness will
rise with healing in its rays, and you will go out and frolic
like well fed calves. I love that sentence.
Then you will trump, Then you will trample on the wicked.
They will be ashes under the soles of your feet.
On the day I act, says Yahweh Almighty, remember the law of My
servant Moses, the decrees and laws I gave to him on Horeb for
all Israel. See, I will send the prophet
Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of Yahweh.
He will come, He will turn the hearts of the parents, their
children, and the hearts of the children to their parents, or
else I will come and strike the land with total destruction.
Let's pray. Lord Jesus, we thank you.
Lord God, that you are an awesome God.
Jesus, there is nothing that you cannot do Lord God, I thank you
that you have won every single victory.
Lord Jesus, I thank you that you have done it all.
You have paid the price, Lord Jesus, and I thank you that you
have enabled us. You beckon us into your
presence, that you listen to us, that you are concerned with with
with what we're thinking, what we're doing, Lord Jesus.
And I pray that today you would set us on fire again, Lord God,
that we would truly understand again how amazing what a
privilege it is to be called your treasured possession, to be
called your delight, the apple of your eye.
Amen. Amen.
I don't miss this. I'm just going to read that
first line again. It says those who feared Yahweh
talk to each other and Yahweh listened.
He heard not only that a scroll of remembrance was written in
the presence concerning those who feared Yahweh and honoured
His name. See here we are given a glimpse.
We're given a window to look into the throne room of heaven.
And what we see is that when you speak, when you utter your words
of concern, when you say, Jesus, Jesus, what's going on?
Jesus, I'm really worried about what's going to happen tomorrow.
Jesus, I'm going for that job interview.
Lord Jesus, there, there's stuff happening at my school.
Lord Jesus, there's, there's people who I'm really worried
about. He doesn't ignore you.
He doesn't just get on with everything else he's doing.
I mean, we worship of gods who created the entire universe.
The Bible teaches us that the the only reason why the the
earth goes around the sun and the moon goes around the earth
and the whole universe keeps in its its position is because God
sustains it. He does it.
I mean, the, the reason why the grass grows, the trees grow, the
reason why why why there's plants and animals is because
God sustains them. The reason why you're able to
breathe right now and your heart is still beating is because God
is sustaining that. And whilst he is doing all of
that, when you come and you used to come to him and you say God,
I don't like this God, I'm worried.
He cups his ear, he bends down and he listens to you.
He listens to you. Not only that, he writes it out.
He writes our church. What are you worried about?
I mean, it starts to come out on our worship at the end, but what
are you worried about? What are your concerns?
See me. I was.
I don't know if anyone else can get, can sympathise with this,
but the other day I was, I was scrolling social media and I'm
seeing a load of stuff come up in my news feed about what the
government's doing, what's going on in the world.
And you know, I don't know if any of you've seen this, that
the government's trying to put through this Islamophobia law
where it's going to be illegal to talk about anything negative
about Islam, which also can mean that is Muslims can come up to
Christians and say, you're offending me and you must stop
doing what you're doing. And I'm, I'm starting to, to, to
starting to worry what was going on Gods.
And then I kind of came to my senses and I was like, I can't
change anything by doing what I'm doing.
Really. I have little ability to change
anything anyway. So I threw my phone away, put on
some worship music, worshipped gods and just started telling
him, Jesus, I don't like this in our culture.
Jesus, I don't like this Lord God, I pray, Lord Jesus, for
your blessing over my family. I pray for your blessing over
our nation, Lord Jesus. And you know what it felt really
good if I felt that kind of burden that weight lifts.
Is he church? God hears.
He hears your worries. He hears your concerns.
He hears your pain, your frustration.
You are not alone in your suffering or your worries.
It says that he writes them down and he doesn't write them down
because, you know, we need to write down that today's Mother's
Day, otherwise we'd forget it. But it's not, he's not like
that. This isn't, this isn't about God
being forgetful. I've got so many plates that I'm
juggling at the moment. I need to write down what Ben is
saying. Otherwise I'm going to forget
it. No, no, this is a, this is a
window into the fact that God is saying it's, it's a poetic
imagery. It's saying that God, he cares
about what you say so much that he is writing your prayers down.
He's filling a book with your prayers.
It's just like in Revelation, John has this image of our
prayers, of the things that we're saying to God being like
drops of incense filling a bowl. But one day that bowl will be
full and he will empty it. One day that book that he is
writing of our prayers, of our concerns, of our, of our praises
will be full. And Malachi writes, on that day
I will act. They will be my treasured
possession. On that day, I'll act.
And they who's they? It's you, It's me, it's His
church, it's his chosen people, it's those who He has loved.
See the Creator of the universe, the one who has architected
every single atom, who has placed every single proton and
neutron electron in its place. He chooses broken, flawed,
sinful, filthy men and women like you and me and he says you
are precious to me, you're precious to me, I want you, I
value you, I want to enjoy you. See in Christ.
So This is why Jesus came. Jesus heart came so that he
could obtain you, so we could have you, so that he could
forgive you. See, the Bible tells you it's
just that the only God can forgive sins and Jesus over all
of us. He says if you come to him in
repentance, you are given forgiveness by his blood.
We are washed clean, we were washed pure, and in the Old
Testament they were washed pure by the blood so that the high
priest could enter in. Once a year into the Holy of
Holies, we have the blood of Christ that comes over us, not
so that we get to enter in, but actually so that the Holy of
Holies comes and dwells within us.
The Holy of Holies comes into us.
God himself, the Spirit of Christ, dwells in US.
So you are not a burden. You are not something that God
tolerates, that he wishes that he had something else.
No, you are something that God treasures beyond anything else.
Maybe imagine right now something that you feel like I
could not live without. I treasure this so much.
I love this so much. Multiply that by Infinity and
that is how God feels about you. God treasures you, God loves
you, He wants you. So my question is, if God
treasures you and he has made himself on offer to us, why
would we treasure anything other than him?
Why would we look to put our satisfaction?
Why would we look to be satisfied by anything else but
him? You see, this is what Malachi
has been rebuking the Jewish people for the for the for all
four chapters that they have grown cold, that they've grown
weary of worshipping their God. We looked it straight away in
chapter 1. We looked at how that how that
they had become half hearted in their worship, that they had
brought blind and lame lambs to him.
We saw that that they had they'd broken their marriage covenants,
that they didn't love one another.
They didn't love the poor. They weren't pursuing justice.
We saw that they trusted in their money, in their
possessions, in their talents over God, so much so that Yahweh
would say, will you rob me? Will you rob me?
But listen, their sin, their disobedience, their growing
weary of God wasn't due to lack of effort.
See, God doesn't come to us and say try harder, do better.
No, no, no, their, their, their, their sin, their lack of
trusting in God came from the fact that they had forgotten
what it meant to truly gaze upon the beauty of Jesus, to gaze
upon the beauty of their Lord and savour to, to, to bring a
habit of awe and wonder of their gods.
See, some, some of us are caught up in sinful habits, sinful
patterns, Some of us are caught up in worry and anxiety.
And Jesus is telling us this morning not to do better, but to
gaze upon him, to gaze upon his glory and ask that wonderful
hymn it says as we turn our eyes upon Jesus, as we look on his
wonderful face, the things of earth will grow strangely dim in
the light of his glory and grace.
Church, when did you last gaze upon the face of Jesus?
When did you last gaze upon him? Drink him in.
When did you truly encounter his presence?
When did you get lost in wonder of the majesty of our gods?
When did, when did the scales fall off your eyes?
And you saw how truly magnificent, how wonderful this
treasure that is on offer to us, this Pearl of great price.
See, when we encounter Jesus, when we gaze upon his face, it's
not about trying harder to improve ourselves.
We just change, we just become more like the one who we
treasure well as we bathe in his presence, as she says, in the
light of Jesus Christ, in the light of our the glory of our
God. Worry goes, worry goes when we
when we bathe in the richness of his beauty, our appetite for him
increases and a desire for sin decreases.
It's really simple maths. See our our desire, our desire
becomes rather than to satisfy, satisfy ourselves.
It becomes that we want to bring glory to Jesus.
Who wants to be satisfied? Who wants to find joy?
Anyone. A few of you well done.
I do. But the problem is, isn't it
that we look for it in all the wrong places?
We even today, we're going to forget and we're going to, we're
going to try and look for joy in how many followers we've got on
social media. We're going to have to, we're
going to look for joy in, in who's commented on stuff that
we've done, who recognises the things that we go.
We look for joy in job promotions or money that we're
getting in or children or or whatever.
All can bring us joy, but it's fleeting.
I ask you again, do you want true satisfaction and true joy?
Yes, true joy, true to satisfaction is found in only
who? Jesus.
So we all know it. Let's practise it.
We all know that true joy and true satisfaction comes from
only Jesus. So I ask you again, when did you
last spend time give yourself over to gazing at the face of
our Lord and Saviour? When did you do that?
See. Because when we spend time with
him, we want to give him glory. And the truth of scripture is
that the more glory we give him, the more satisfied, the more joy
we feel. We feel we are filled with more
joy and more, more satisfaction. The more we worship, the more we
give joy and the more we we we thank our Lord and Saviour.
Anyway, it's what and the Westminster Catechism wrote,
wrote down 400 years ago that the chief end of man is to give
glory to God and enjoy him forever.
It's what we were made for. John Piper, you know, modernised
it and said God is most glorified in us when we are most
satisfied in him. Do you want to bring Christ
glory? Put your hands up if you want to
bring Christ glory. Yeah, it's bringing Christ
glory. Bring him glory.
The more we glorify Him, the more we worship him, the more we
we dedicate our time and our money and our possessions for
his glory, the more wonderfully satisfied and full of joy we
become. See, See God, He is completely
beyond our comprehension. And when we realise that nothing
that we pursue on earth can even come close to Him, can touch His
glory, He and He alone is the answer to every single longing,
every single groan, every single every, every single shortfall
that we feel in our lives. When we realise that He is the
answer to everything, but most wonderfully of all that He has
made a way that we can come and be with Him, that he is
available to us. How wonderful.
See, this is the cry of Malachi. This is the cry of the four
chapters of Malachi. It says you have been chosen,
you have been chosen, Church, you have been chosen.
That God's goodness has been revealed to you and he is the
greatest treasure that we could possibly imagine.
And that treasure has been available to you and that you
are his treasure. See, we are his treasure not
because you're impressive. We are not his treasure because
we have done impressive things. We are not his treasure because
we might do impressive things. He doesn't pick us up and go,
oh, just a bit of spit and Polish.
You'd be beautiful. No, no, no, no.
He looks at you, he saves you, he places this spirit inside
you, the most infinitely valuable thing in all of the
universe, and he looks at you and loves you because he chooses
to love you. How, how, when we get this deep
inside us, how can we? How can we, as Malachi says, how
can we offer blind and whatever lame sheep as worship?
How can we be half hearted in we are worship when we see the
infinite value of gods, you know, how can how can we do
anything but give our all for him who gave our us everything?
Surely anything less than giving God our all is an insult.
It's an insult to Him. See.
How can we stand back and throw insults?
How can we critique God's church, his bride, from the
sidelines when she is who God loves above or anything else?
How can we do that? How can we try and pull down
other Christians, pull down His bride?
Surely when we grasp how amazing God is, how wonderful He is, we
want to get on board and love who He loves.
Love His church. Build her up, desire for her and
those Christians around you the best that they can possibly
have. How can we stay silent in the
face of justice or not speak out truth and love Christ?
He loves the broken, He loves the down hearted.
So therefore, how can we not speak truth?
How can we not love those who are broken, love those who are
oppressed and vulnerable, the widow, the orphan, and share
with them the good news that is Christ Jesus?
How can we withhold our time, our money, our possessions, our
talents from Him? You see, when you invest in the
Kingdom, it's the only thing in the universe that you're not
going to lose. Everything else that you invest
in, everything else you buy, everything else you spend your
time on will rust, will get mouldy, has an expiry date to
it. Jesus Christ investing in him
and his Kingdom. There is no expiry date.
So in in 100 years, no one is going to care how expensive your
clothes were today. No one's going to care how many
people liked the latest TikTok video you had.
No one's going to care what type of house you had.
But in 100 years time, and I say 100 years time because probably
unless we've got some really longevity in this room, we're
all going to be dead. OK?
Some of them might be, yeah. But in 100 years time, OK, we
will be in heaven unless he's come back and we're reigning
with him on earth, we will be with him.
And the only thing that will matter is, is what did you
invest in the Kingdom right now? What did you invest for Jesus?
What do you invest for his church, for his Kingdom that he
says gains interest and produces glory forevermore?
The church, He says, He says this is serious.
He says surely the day of the Lord is coming.
It will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evil
evil doer will be stubble and the day is coming and the day is
coming. We'll set them on, set them on
fire, says Yahweh Almighty. Not a root or a branch we left
to them. Just pause them there and see.
See, this is serious. See, no one is forcing you to
submit to Jesus Christ. No one is forcing you to follow
Him. No one is forcing you to live
for His Kingdom. What he's saying is, is for
those who pursue other things. Yes, there's joy, but it is
fleeting. He likens it to stubble, which
is when you, when you bring in the harvest, you, you have all
these stalks of grass and you collect in the grain and the
stubble is the stalks which are leftover.
It's the dry bits of grass which has no use other than to be
burnt and thrown away. And that's where he says, all
these fleeting joys that we look for, everything we looked for
that isn't building the Kingdom, it's going to be stubble.
It's going to be burnt away at the end.
So no one's forcing you. But what are you choosing?
To live a life for him or to live a life for yourself?
He says. He continues says, But for you
who Revere my name, the Sun of Righteousness will rise with
healing in its rays, and you will go out and frolic like well
fed calves. So we have two choices, to live
for ourselves which leads to destruction, or to live for
Christ, to Revere him, to esteem him, to idolise him, to exalt
him, to worship and adore him. And when we do that, when we
adore King Jesus, when we live for him, it leads to unbridled
joy, satisfaction that has no ends.
I mean, I don't suppose you've ever met a miserable Christian?
I see. Again, I'm talking about like a
real mood sucker. It just like sucks the joy out
of A room. Jesus said we shouldn't be like
that because because that when we're like that, the the reason
for that is it's an outworking of the fact that we're not
spending time adoring Christ. Now, I'm not saying as a
Christian we shouldn't get sad. You know, there's times to be
sad. We've lost someone, something
tragic happens. That's good to be sad.
But actually, Christ says that, that through the pain, through
the suffering, there is a joy that goes beyond understanding.
Now I say, have you ever met someone?
I mean, that's a bit like, that's a bit impersonal, isn't
it? Have you ever been that person?
I mean, believe it or not, I have.
I know it's shocking, but I have.
I've been that person and I can blame it on being tired, I can
blame it on, I can blame it on feeling my body's in pain, I can
blame it on all sorts of things. And yes, they are real.
Yes they do. It does hurt and it does.
It can bring you down, but ultimately that's not the reason
for me lacking in joy. The reason for me lacking in joy
in those moments is the fact that I have failed to adore
Christ. Think of Jesus.
I mean, ever since I've had Emmy, this is just flabbergasted
me about Jesus. Jesus, when he was crucified, he
had been up for hours and hours days, You know, he was
exhausted. You know, we think, well, well,
I'm just in a bad mood because I'm tired.
Jesus was tired. I'm I'm just in a bad mood
because, because because it because I'm in pain right now.
Well, Jesus was definitely in pain.
I'm just in a bad mood because XYZ them over there, they said
some stuff which has really annoyed me and got me down.
Oh, yeah, Jesus might have felt that too.
But Jesus never lost that joy. He never sinned because he never
failed to adore the Father, to draw his strength rather than
from his circumstances, but from the love of Gods.
I see, Church, We need to be a people that build in a habit in
our lives of adoring, adoring our Lord and Saviour through all
circumstances. See, each one of us has been
called. Each one of us has been chosen.
If some of us have never been chosen for anything, Some of us,
you know, you went through the whole of school sports, no one
wanted you on their team. Some of you, you've been passed
over for promotion. Some of you've been passed over
all sorts of things. No, you know, you feel like no
one really wants you, OK? God wants you.
God desires you. Before you did anything, good or
bad, he said. I want you.
I want you to be my child. I want you as my precious
possession, that I can adore and enjoy.
That you can adore and enjoy me, He says.
He says that when we get that, that we have been chosen, that
we are His, that he treasures us.
He says the result of that is that we become like frolicking
calves. I love that it's, it's the image
of a calf like jumping around in a circle and feeling like if
you've ever seen that, it's an amazing, amazing image.
Our dog does this. Nala does it when it's dinner
time, we keep her dinner in the garage and she will she runs,
she bolts it out of the house when it's dinner time and she
literally just jumps, you know, all four legs off the floor
right around around the circles. It's just just just
uncontainable joy that she's going through that she's going
to get something to eat. And this is what this is what
she's saying. This is what Malachi saying that
when we get, when we adore, when we spend time in the presence of
the Lord, that we we are filled with such joy, such satisfaction
that we can't contain it, that it just comes out of us.
That even when we're going through horrific circumstances,
the joy of God persevere penetrates through that.
You see, I've said that I said that quite often worry, worry
can steal our joy. But then there's other things
that God says can steal our joy. One is laziness.
Throughout Scripture, it talks about the sluggards.
I mean, when you gaze upon the wonder of Christ and you're
filled with joy like a frolicking calf.
I mean, how can you be lazy? How can you worry?
Because because God is in you and you're just the way you can
see it in someone, You can see in someone who's spent time with
God. They're just like, I'll do that,
I'll do that. That's going to cost you.
Yeah, it doesn't matter. I'll do it.
I want to do it because the love of God is so, so penetrating
into their very core that they just can't, can't hold it in,
you know, another one, another one that that God says can
steal. Our joy is when we look to
place, when we look to, to place our satisfaction in ourselves.
It's the sin of Babel. I want to, I want to make a
name. I want to be great, not for God,
but for myself. But how, how can we, how can we
do that? How can we live for ourselves
when we've seen the wonder of our King?
See, Jesus, actually, he doesn't tell us that there's anything
wrong with wanting to be great. Actually, Jesus tells us that
it's good to want to be great. It's just there's a problem with
what we think is great. I mean, for example, like this,
this, this, this passage, and quite a lot of Malachi is
talking about a particular person 400 years later, who
would live, who'd be born about six months before Jesus was.
Anyone know his name? John.
Yeah. John.
It's John. Jesus said about John.
No one born of a woman fitting for Mother's Day.
No one born of a woman, and that's all of us is greater than
John. And see, Jesus.
Jesus, it commended us to be great, but John wasn't great
because he lived in a desert and he wore camel clothes in 8
bucks. May thank God that wasn't what
made him great. John was great because he led
people back to the presence of gods, because he was at that
voice in the wilderness shouting the way, saying come, come, come
and meet your Saviour, come and me are gods.
So he was that one who was who through Christ was turning men
and women towards one another far as to sons, sons, to
fathers, daughters to mothers. He was that one.
You see, that is how we are great.
It's actually Jesus goes on and he says John is the greatest,
but actually those who are those of us who serve for the Kingdom,
those of us who are least in the Kingdom, they will be greater
still. See church, we are called out.
You have been chosen. You have been called out of this
world so that others. This is this how I'm ending it.
This is how Scripture ends it that we are called out not so
that we could have some sort of holy huddle and have a nice time
enjoying Jesus. We are called out so that others
may be called in. Jacob right at the beginning of
this chapter, not at the beginning of this book.
God says I loved Jacob, I chose Jacob but I didn't Esau.
But actually the whole reason for him choosing Jacob, who was
flawed, who was a pathetic human being, let's be honest, God
chose him. God chose to show him love, to
show him favour so that the nations would be called in and
worship their gods. Let that be an encouragement to
you. Doesn't matter how amazing you
or unamazing you think you were. Jacob was probably worse.
OK, but we have been called in so that others may see, so that
the world may see, so the nations may see.
They may see you in good times, they may see you in bad times,
and they may see you no matter what season of life you're in,
joyous in the Lords, and they may cry out.
How can we have what you have? How can we know what you have,
Church? We are not a private club, we
are a rescue party. We are called to go out and find
stubble and introduce it to Jesus who will make it into
gems. We are called to find orphans
and show them the Father so that they may bring glory to Him,
that they may find the true treasure that is in Jesus
Christ. And it all starts with us
learning to treasure our gods. I'm going to pray and I want us
to receive from God right now because I want us to really just
gaze again. I want us to have a hunger for
our gods because this world is evil.
This world is wicked and it seems to be getting wickeder and
wickeder every single day. And the only hope for it is not
made is not well meaning people. It's only hope is spirit filled
believers who are filled with the presence of God, who's who
have, who have, who are captivated by him and show the
world what it means to know A to know a God, to know Jesus who
loves them. So Jesus, God, I pray that you
would fill us right now. God, we are your people and when
we ask you to fill us, you fill us graciously.
Lord God, I pray, Lord God, that you would give every single one
of us an increased hunger to be in your presence.
God, God, let us be a people who make a habit of spending time
with you. Lord God, of being in Home
group, of being here on a Sunday says you say don't give up the
habit of meeting together because when two or three are
gathered there, I am in power in your midst, Lord Jesus.
And I pray, Lord God, you'd make us hungry, that we'd be hungry,
Lord Jesus, to be wherever you are, to find ourselves there,
Lord Jesus, I pray, Lord God, if there's there's anyone here,
Lord Jesus, that's struggling with worry, that's struggling
with, with bitterness, Lord Jesus, with the struggling with,
with laziness, Lord Jesus, I pray, Lord God, that you would
touch them right now, Lord God. And that worry would be gobbled
up, that bitterness would go. Lord Jesus, I pray, Lord God,
that you would take all barriers from us, anything that has been
placed in the way to let us enjoy your glory, Lord Jesus.
Lord God. And we do it, Lord Jesus, we do
it because it is the best. It is the best thing for us.
It's what we were created for. Lord God, we pray that as we
treasure you more, this world would see and know that you are
God. Lord God, that even this week we
would have men and women come up to us and say, what have you
got? I want what you've got.
I want that joy that seems to pour out of you.
Fear us, Lord Jesus. Amen.