The God We Worship

I read a pretty cute story this past week, it was about two brothers. They were about 10 and eight, and they were just trouble. Like these dudes, these little dudes were just trouble. They were in trouble all the time, fighting and trouble at school. They had a tendency to like to take things that weren't theirs, whether that was at school or whether that was at stores. And so they just had sticky fingers, you know, those kind of kids. And the mom finally had enough, and she had heard about a pastor in town who did pretty good with some discipline of young boys. And so she said, "Will you see them?" And he said, "Yeah, I'll see them, "but I wanna see them one at a time "with the oldest being first." And she said, "Okay." So they brought them to the church. Pastor brought the older son in there and the other son was like way, way, way down a hallway for quite a ways near a door. And so the older son is sitting in there, the 10-year-old with the pastor, and the pastor just pauses and looks at him and says, "Where is God?" Little boy just kind of looked at him. Didn't say anything at all. Just sat there. Pastor raised his voice just a little bit and said, "Where is God?" Little boy was now flush-faced, and his eyes were wide open. And he was just kind of sitting there, and he didn't say a word. Finally, the pastor raised says his voice a little bit higher, and with his long bony finger, says, "Where is God?" That little 10-year-old ran straight out of the office, ran all the way down the hallway, grabbed his little brother and said, "We gotta get outta here." Little brother said, "Why." And he said, "We're in huge trouble. "God is missing. "And they think that we did it." I did the same thing. I read that, and I just started cracking up laughing. And then I paused, and I thought to myself, there may be something we can learn from that. I wonder at times in the American church if people show up, and they wonder if God is missing. I just wonder that sometimes. If they look around at the people that are there and they may just think to themselves, this feels like any other consumer event, and I'm not sure that really God's here. For some, when they come to a worship gathering it really kind of boils down to this. Did they sing a few songs that I like? Check. Was the speaker pretty engaging? And if so, check it off, successful Sunday, move on with my life. The truth is, we're asking the question, did we encounter God? Did we really worship? I mean, this was a worship gathering, right? Did we really worship God? Was God missing? Now, you and I both know that it's not God who's missing. It's we who are missing at times when we come before him. When we truly worship God sometimes has a way of wrecking our lives, undoing us, of surprising us, of maybe even reorienting our lives, or maybe even calling us to something. Maybe something great, maybe something really little, maybe something really hard. But we have to understand that that kind of thing when we truly worship can happen and listen carefully, it can happen today. That today that could happen in your life. That God could undo you. That God could reorient you. That God could wreck you in all kinds of good ways. That God could call you to something. That could happen today because we are in the presence of God. And to be in the presence of God is not nothing. It's something. And it's something that we should pay attention to because when we gather to worship, listen, everything is at stake when we worship because everybody everywhere worships someone or something. So everything's at stake when we worship. But for far too many people, worship has become a self-centered venture. Really it's about how we feel. It's not about who God is and what God wants. It's more what we get out of it. But the question is, do we really want to see God? Do we really want to know God? Do we really want to hear God? Do we really want to be changed by God? That's why I'm beginning this series of messages that I'm going to do on worship with an experience that Isaiah had. That I'm not gonna concentrate as much on Isaiah as I am on God because that's the experience that he had. It's found in Isaiah chapter six, if you have a Bible, and I would encourage you to find one, whether a hard copy or a digital copy and look in Isaiah chapter six. You're gonna wanna keep it open even through the entirety of we do, because I'm gonna walk through this passage of scripture and we're gonna get to see what Isaiah saw. What a privilege it is. It may have been just a day like any other for Isaiah and Isaiah ends up probably in the temple itself. And he has a vision of God, it's as if the curtain comes down, and we get to see behind the veil at what is going on. Do you know how much of a privilege it is for you and I, to be able to see what Isaiah saw? I'm not focusing on this passage of scripture, because I believe we're going to have the same exact experience that Isaiah had, but that we need to be able to learn from what we are seeing that Isaiah saw, because what happens here to Isaiah is that he goes to the temple on a day like every other day. And what very well happened to him is that he got wrecked and he got reoriented, and he got called. And that may happen to you today. So let's look at what is revealed in this passage of scripture that we can begin to understand. Here's what it says in verse number one, "In the year that King Uzziah died, "I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne, "and the train of his robe filled the temple." Again, Isaiah goes on a day like any other, and he gets a vision like no other, a vision beyond his imagination. I don't imagine that Isaiah woke up that day to the sound of roosters and then maybe cleaned himself up and did a couple of chores around the house and went to the temple, expecting that the curtain was gonna come down and that he was going to be able to see into the heavenly realms and see a vision beyond his imagination. But at least Isaiah, listen to this, at least Isaiah had the good sense to be in a place where he knew God's presence was. And I wanna encourage you in this, if you don't have the good sense to be in the place where God's presence is, don't expect to be able to see and experience God in ways like Isaiah did. If you don't want to gather yourself around the word of God in your life, don't expect to see God as clearly as you could. If you don't have an intention of being a part of a worship gathering, now you're all here, so that's great. But if you don't have an intention about being a part of God's people where God gets involved in the midst of his people, then don't think God's gonna shape you like he could. God can do whatever, and he can meet us alone, that's for sure, but let's make sure that we find ourselves in places where God can meet us. This life that we lead is not meant to be just isolated and solo, right? So many of you, there's a number of you watching us online. And I thank God that we have this kind of technology, particularly when we go through things like a global pandemic. It was really helpful for us to be able to still minister, and feed, and communicate, and love, even through the vehicle of technology. And we're so glad, and we wanna keep it because it's obviously a robust opportunity to reach people. Many watchers from out of state, many watchers from out of country. Some people are on vacation and wanna stay connected to what we're doing. Some people are homebound and wanna stay connected, right? We want all of those things. But, listen, if you have been watching online and it has become just you, and your coffee, and Jesus, and your pajamas, I'd ask you to rethink it. I'd ask you to rethink that. I don't say it to guilt you. I just say it to help you rethink it, 'cause that's not what we're designed for. And we wanna be finding ourselves in places, yes, God can speak to us individually. And yes, God can move in our lives individually. And He can surprise us at a variety of different ways in a bunch of different places. But it's amazing what happens when God's people get together and begin to worship God, what God does in the midst. And by the way, you can't practice the one another's of scripture, love one another, serve one another, care for one another. You can't practice those alone with just you, Jesus, and your coffee. You gotta be among, right? So Isaiah has the good sense to be where he knows God's presence is. And this is set in time. It says in the year that King Uzziah died. Now, you and I, we read that, and we're like, okay, whatever. But the thing is that the death of a king in Judah was a tremendously big deal. You and I don't know what it's like to live in a world where there's a king, right? We have presidents and congresses and those kinds of things, right? And some of you're going, sometimes we have presidents that act like Kings. You said it, not me. I put words in your mouth. That's just what I do, I have the microphone. Listen, we don't know what that's like. Do you realize that people's security and their prosperity, like their protection, and all of those things came because there was a king that was on a throne. And if you had a bad king that usually went badly for the people, and if you had a good king, that went really good for them. And so here we see this vision is set in time in the year that King Uzziah died. Now, let tell you just a quick snapshot of Uzziah. He reigned for a long time, and he was really successful king as kings go. It was about 50 years, 52, I think, to be exact, according to some of the Old Testament there that Uzziah reigning. And he was really successful agriculturally. He was really successful militarily. He was very successful economically. And you know what that meant for people? It meant for people that they had security, and they had prosperity, right? All of those things. Protection against their enemies. And then he died. You and I don't quite understand how that feels to a people, but it feels significant. But it's interesting that as that is happening in the year that King Uzziah dies, Isaiah is going to the temple and he's going to minister before the Lord. And he gets a vision, and the vision is a great reminder. It's as if it's this vision to remind him of this. It looks as if, and it's clear as if that Judah's throne is empty, but the throne of heaven is occupied by the one who fills the temple with his presence, the most high God. And then in verse number two, here's what we see, "Above the most high God were seraphim, "each with six wings. "With two wings, they covered their faces. "And with two, they covered their feet. "And with two, they were flying." Now this phrase, seraphim that's used here, these are unique creatures that I'll talk about in just a moment. But what we see here is we see God seated on a throne and above him are these seraphim, right? With six wings that they have. It doesn't tell us how many there are. There could be an enumerable number of them. I don't how many there are. But they are all around the throne of God. This is a picture of what the Old Testament calls, the divine council of God. It's not God who needs counselors, who's going, Hey, seraphim, what do you think we should do about this? God doesn't do that. But this is referred to in the Old Testament as the divine council. So, for instance, if you read in job chapter one, you would see the divine council of God. If you looked in Jeremiah chapter 23, you'd see the divine council of God. If you listen to what the Psalm has said in Psalm 82, it says, "God has taken his place in the divine council. "In the midst of the gods, he holds judgment." This is a picture that we have, right, of the seraphim that are around the throne of God and from their perch right there, they can see that the whole earth is filled with the glory of God, because they have that perspective. What's interesting about the seraphim is that they are actually, that word itself means fiery ones or burning ones. So these are creatures that are, they have six wings. I don't know how humongous they are, but they are literally looking like they are blaze. Imagine that for just a second. Imagine it's just a day like any other day, and you're just walking down the street and you meet one of these, an ablazed seraphim, that's probably humongous, that has six wings. You know what you would do? You would fall down in sheer terror. Most human beings, when they are confronted just by, listen, if just by messenger angels, maybe not even seraphim, but messenger angels in the Bible, most humans that are confronted with angels fall down on their faces if to worship, because these are such awesome creatures. But if you fell down on your face before the seraphim, they would have nothing to do with your worship. They would tell you to get up on your feet because they would know exactly who created them. They know exactly who God is because they're around his throne. And this is what we see as the veil kind of starts to come down right here. These seraphim have six wings. With two wings, they cover their face. Do you know what that's a picture of? Reverence. I want you to think about this for a moment. The seraphim have been created by God and they are created sinless. They are there around the throne of God, sinless, not tainted by sin, as we know it. And yet they still have to cover their faces in reverence at the glory and holiness of who God is. Think about that. Sinlessness does not even allow them to look upon God. They've covered their faces because this is a picture of reverence. And then they covered their feet with two other wings. In the original Hebrew language, that actually speaks a little more directly. But let me say what this picture is. It's a picture of humility. It's a picture of modesty. It's a picture of unworthiness. The seraphim know, we are creatures that have been created by the one, the most high, who sits on the throne. So with two wings, they cover their face in reverence. With two wings, they cover their feet in humility. And with two wings, they fly. What's that a picture of? Service. They are ready at any moment to do God's bidding as God says, whatever it is God wants, they are prepared to be able to do it. So what we're doing is we're looking now with Isaiah behind the veil, and what we're seeing is we're seeing true worship that's happening, and we're seeing it by way of the seraphim. But what's interesting is this. Is that as Isaiah sees what the seraphim are doing in worshiping God, Isaiah mirrors what they're doing. You would imagine you would do the same, wouldn't you? If you were to see behind the veil and you would see the kind of worship that's happening in the heavenly realms, you would just mirror what you see because that's worship. And that's what Isaiah does. And that's where we need to pay attention today. Because what happens is our worship of God should embrace those characteristics that we see in the seraphim. Our worship of God should first of all embrace reverence. This should be a part of the nature, of how we worship God, reverence. And you actually see it in Isaiah. Look at what Isaiah is looking at, in verse number three and four. Here's what it says, "The seraphim we're calling to one another. "'Holy holy, holy is the Lord almighty. "The whole earth is filled or full of his glory.' "And at the sound of their voices, "the doorposts and thresholds "shook and the temple was filled with smoke." The seraphim are crying out. Holy holy holy. Well, what does it mean that the seraphim are calling out holy holy holy. Well, the phrase, holy, is a phrase that describes not attribute of God, but essence of God. You see, God has a number of attributes. There's a lot of them. God is good. God is merciful. God is powerful. God is wise. I could just start to name a bunch of attributes of God, but holiness is his essence. In other words, God's goodness is a holy goodness. God's mercy is a holy mercy. God's wisdom is a holy wisdom. This is about essence more than it is about attribute. What does that mean? That means the idea of God's holiness is that he is completely other than everything else that he has created. There is nothing in the cosmos that has been created by God that is like him. It's no wonder that later on in the book of Isaiah, God says to whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal, says the holy one. That's what the holy one says. The one who is completely, other than everybody everywhere. And that, listen, that's what the angels are calling out to one another. I find it interesting that what the angels are doing is they're worshiping because really holiness is about essence, more than it is about attribute. And it's about worship more than it is about words. Isn't it interesting the angels are not calling out. Good, good, good, is the Lord almighty. Strong, strong, strong is the Lord almighty. Those things are all true, by the way. What they are saying, however, is holy, holy, holy is the Lord almighty. They are consumed by the essence of God, which is completely other than anything else there is. They're not just describing characteristics. They're describing God's very nature. That needs to sit on us when we think about our worship of God, because what happens when we truly worship is that worship goes where language can't. That's what happens, is as if we've gotten to the end of the world and we've run out of places and words, and we just have to fall on our face and acknowledge God in his very essence, who is holy, holy, holy, completely other than us. I want you to take a moment and imagine this holy transcendent God, as we have him represented here in Isaiah six. Just pause and think about him. It's good for our souls, by the way, Not even sinlessness looks on him. He dwells, as we looked at last week, He dwells in unapproachable light. Think about that. And then think about how ridiculous it is when human beings, human beings, will use language of negotiation when it comes to relationship with God. I've had real live grown-up adult men say to me, well, me and the big man upstairs have an understanding. What are you talking about? Or when I die, and I get there, we'll have a conversation. And me and my buddy upstairs, we'll come to some resolution. Do you negotiate with the sun? Do your eyes try to negotiate with the sun? Your eyeballs standing 93 million miles away from the sun on earth, can't even look into that orb of fire for a moment before your eyeballs burn out of your head. Are you gonna negotiate with the sun? There's no negotiating with the sun. The sun does what it does. Do you think you're going to negotiate with the God who made the sun? As if you can somehow bend his arm behind his back and make Him do what you want Him to do. There's no negotiating with God. We come to God on his terms only because he's God. He's holy. He's completely other. We too, like the seraphim, should have our faces covered. I can't imagine when Isaiah sees this, and he hears holy, holy holy, is the Lord God almighty. And the Bible says that the doorposts of the temple are shaking, my guess is that's not the only thing shaking, Isaiah is doing the same thing as he reverences God, 'cause this is God we're talking about. But our worship of God must also embrace humility. Not only reverence but humility. This is what happened in Isaiah's life. When Isaiah hears all of this and sees all of this, what an incredible, incredible vision of God he sees. Listen exactly to his response in verse number five, he says, "'Woe to me,' I cried. "'I am ruined.'" Some of your translations say, "'I am undone, for I am a man of unclean lips. "And I live among a people of unclean lips. "And my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.' "Then one of the seraphim flew to me "with a live coal in his hand, "which he had taken with tongs from the altar. "With it, he touched my mouth, and he said, "'See, this has touched your lips. "Your guilt is taken away. "And your sin atoned for.'" Isaiah's overwhelmed with the vision that he sees. And it overwhelms him so much that he cries out woe to me. When Isaiah says woe to me, or woe is me, is an ancient way of calling down a curse on your own head. He's basically so overwhelmed and so undone that he doesn't know what to do, but realizes that he is in a bad spot because what he says is, I am ruined, I'm undone. I'm a man of unclean lips, and I dwell among a people of unclean lips. Do you know what happened to Isaiah? Listen to this, he unraveled in the presence of God's holiness. He unraveled. That's what sinful people do. We unravel in the presence of holiness because with that degree of unadulterated purity, and light, and glory, we recognize how dirty, and helpless, and sinful we actually are. And we also recognize the people that we're around are in the same predicament. It is a stunning realization for Isaiah and it humbles him significantly so much that he says, I am undone. I am ruined. I am unraveled. And you know, when you read the Old Testament, most of the time, when people have a vision of God, what they come unraveled about is their creatureliness. In other words, their humanity, their humanity in the presence of a God who is completely other than them, so much more awesome that they don't know what to do with themselves, and they unravel because of their humanity. Isaiah goes a step further. He doesn't just unravel based on his humanity. He unravels based on his sinful humanity. And he recognizes that he is a person of unclean lips and his people have unclean lips. So here's Isaiah, completely helpless, completely ruined, completely undone, completely can't do anything about it. And what does God do? He sends one of these fiery ones who takes a tong and goes to an altar in this vision where there's a live coal and he takes it, and he brings it to Isaiah's lips. And he touches Isaiah's lips with a painful mercy that brings cleansing. What a picture of the gospel. Where did that live coal come from? Well, if we look back into the book of Leviticus, we can find that out, and it says this in Leviticus 16, "Aaron, the high priest, "shall bring the bull for his own sin offering "to make atonement for himself and his household. "And he is to slaughter the bull for his own sin offering. "He is to take a censer full of burning coals "from the altar before the Lord "and two handfuls of finely ground fragrant incense, "and take them behind the curtain." In other words, where this live coal came from was the place where the blood offering was offered. And here we have this foretaste for us that look back now with the lens of the gospel. And we recognize that just like Isaiah, the place that all of us are, in the presence of holiness, is that we are undone. We are ruined. We are unraveled. We are sinful. We are enemies of God. We cannot save ourselves. We are hopeless, and we are helpless, yet what God has done is He intervened on our behalf that while we were yet sinners, Christ came and died for us. Born of a Virgin, lived a sinless life, went to a cross to take upon himself, the wrath of God, to experience the painful mercy of God, that through his resurrection, paying for our sin, that now by faith in him, we can be reconciled to the Father for the glory of God. This is the beauty of the gospel right here in Isaiah for all of us. Which should mean when we understand the beauty of the gospel that we walk with humility, and walk with repentant hearts. There should be no such thing as an arrogant Christian. Now I realize that pride is attacking us on every front all the time. The fiery arrows of the enemy are always laced with pride. And we are always tempted to rely on self, to do things of our own benefit, to do things for our own aggrandizement, right? This is just the enemy at work all the time. But those of us who understand the nature of who God is, those of us who understand the state we were in those of us who understand this extraordinary, painful mercy and genuine sacrificial love of God on our behalf expressed in Jesus Christ will not walk with arrogance, but will walk in humility because we have been saved by grace. We have been saved by the mercy of God, because we didn't deserve what we have now access to. How glorious and holy is God. And how loving and how sacrificial is he? Humility, reverence, and then service. Again, we're mimicking right now, what the seraphim were doing. Covered their face, covered their feet, and then wings to fly, ready to serve. This is what Isaiah is mimicking as well because after this entire revelation look at what verse number eight says, Isaiah says, "Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "'whom shall I send and who will go for us?' "And I said, "'Here am I. "Send me'"? This is extraordinary because as Isaiah is cleansed, as his lips are cleansed, and his guilt is gone, he hears the council, the divine council. And he hears the Lord's voice saying among the divine council where the seraphim are, who shall I send? Who will go for us? That statement, when he makes it, who will go for us is not a Trinitarian statement. It's a statement that he's making among the divine council. There's many other Trinitarian statements we can look at, but this is just him speaking to the divine council, who will go for us? And it's as if Isaiah says, Will I do? Will I do God? I'm here, send me. He overhears God saying, who will go for us? Who can I send? And he says, I will. Here's what's so remarkable about that. Listen to me, brothers and sisters. Here's what's so remarkable about that. Isaiah volunteers before he knows the assignment. You hear me say at the chapel often, put your yes on the table before God asks the question. That's what Isaiah did. Why did Isaiah volunteer before he knew the assignment? Because he'd seen a vision of God. He knew the God that he was there to worship. And he thought to himself, whatever this God wants, I will do. He didn't even know the assignment. Was it a great assignment? Was it a little assignment? Was it an easy assignment? Was it a hard assignment? Let me go ahead and answer the question for you. The hard assignment. Keep reading. God said to Isaiah after he volunteered, without knowing the assignment, "He said, 'Go and tell this people,'" the people of Judah, by the way, which he has been holding court in the divine council about Judah's guilt. And he says, "Go and tell this people, "'Be ever hearing, but never understanding. "Be ever seeing, but never perceiving. "Make the heart of this people calloused. "Make their ears dull and close their eyes. "Otherwise they might see with their eyes, "hear with their ears, "understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.'" You're like, man, that seems really hard from God. Yeah, but what God was talking about was not that this was inevitable with the people, But that this was simply what they were going to choose to do because they had already been hardening themselves. They were already people of unclean lips. They were already people who were hardening their heart toward God. And now God is saying, I'm gonna send a witness in among them. And if they keep resisting, what it's going to do is keep hardening their heart. Here's what I want you to understand. If you keep showing up under the sound of this mouth right here, I'm gonna keep on preaching the gospel. For those that respond to the living gospel, your life will continue to grow in the likeness of Jesus and those who continue to rebel against it, your lives will become increasingly hard. That's what the gospel does. That's what it does. That's what Isaiah's task was. You're like, man, that doesn't sound like a ton of fun. Fun? Of course, it's not fun. You think if your assignment was go and preach to these people and just as a heads up, they're not gonna listen to you. They're just gonna become harder and more rebellious. That's what's gonna happen with them. They're not gonna listen to you. Thank you, right? Here's the thing, brothers and sisters, listen, when we get a vision of God, we know that God knows what he's doing. We know that God has a plan for what he wants to do in the world, and in the earth. We know that whatever it is that God wants to use us to do, it's a part of his wise counsel in doing it. And it doesn't really matter whether it's unicorns and skittles or whether it's really hard because God gets to make those determinations. It's God who makes those determinations, not us. You see, too often, worship is about us. Hey, Nick, sing me one of those songs I like. Hey, Jerry, entertain me for 40 minutes. Bless me if you can. Hope you brought your A-game today. Worship's not about us. It's about God. And when we worship God, understand this, when it's ultimately about Him, we don't start, listen, we don't worship so that God can make all our dreams come true. We worship to say we surrender and whatever you want, do it with me, whatever it is, because you're worthy. I'm here in this thing that we call life on this place that we call earth for a brief time. Some of you don't know how brief your time is. It's always briefer than you think, by the way. You'll think, well, I'm gonna live to 85. Talk to someone who's 82. See what they tell you about what that feels like. Don't waste your life, young men. Young ladies, do not waste your life. Well, I'm just gonna kind of do a bunch of stuff that I wanna do, and it doesn't really... Listen, don't waste your life. You don't know how much of it you've got. You don't know. Serve God. Say yes to him. Whatever it is He wants of your life, it doesn't matter. Whatever He wants, He is good. He is wise. He knows better. Whatever it is He wants, let Him do it. It may be hard, yep. Let Him do it. This life is this, but eternity is eternity. It's forever with the ends cut off. We are made for then. That's what we're made for. So whatever He asks of us in this brief life that we have, let's just do it. Let's just surrender. That's what Isaiah was doing. That's what true worship actually looks like. Jot this down. True worship is first about who God is and what God wants. That's what we're talking about. True worship is first about who God is and what God wants. Do you know, that's even clear when Jesus teaches us how to pray because when we're praying, we're worshiping God. Listen to Jesus. He's teaching us how to pray. He says, pray this way, "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name." What's He saying to us? God is holy. There is no one like Him. And what does He follow it with? Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. That's what we're talking about. That's what true worship actually looks like. It's first about who God is and what God wants. It's not just about us. So, let me ask you a couple question. I know I've been exercised about all of this, but I'm passionate about you knowing Jesus and living out the reality of the beauty of his life in your life, because it matters to the mission of God, because I don't want you to give in to the idolatry of self, because it toxifies your soul. It doesn't testify to who God is. So, let me ask you a couple of questions. When's the last time that you have been undone in His presence? Have you made God what you want Him to be? Instead of submitting yourself to the revelation of who He is, who He is, not who you make Him to be, not who you want Him to be, who He is as revealed by Him in His word. Have you treated God and worship like a consumer does commercial goods? Have you used God to try to get what you want? Or have you worshiped truly by surrendering yourself to saying I volunteer before I know the assignment because I know the God I serve. Here's what I want you to do for just a couple of minutes. I want you to just ponder and think and reflect with your Bible open, in silence, about the holiness and the beauty of the God that we serve. Let Him speak to you. Let Him wreck you if He needs to. Repent, as you need to. Let Him reorient your mind. Let Him speak His truth into you because listen, it's beautiful when He undoes us, and I'll tell you why. His undoing is for the purpose of redoing. That's why God didn't reveal himself to Israel and Judah to destroy them. He revealed himself to redeem them. That's what God wants to do. His undoing is for the purpose of redoing. It's not just to wreck you. Let him have His way. If you're here and you have yet to ever surrender your life to Jesus Christ, to understand that you are a helpless sinner that cannot save themselves. And that will be judged rightly by a holy God, But that you now cast yourself on the mercy that God has initiated out of his love for the world in Jesus Christ. That while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us so that we could be reconciled to God. This holy, this God who is completely other than everything else, want you, wants to know you. Wants you to be with Him for eternity. And He's made every provision for you to do that by His grace. But you must put your faith in Him, turn from your sin, and trust in Jesus as the only one that can save you. And if you need to do that this day, when I dismiss you in just a moment, I'm gonna ask you to just walk straight across the atrium, into the fireside room. We'd love to take a moment and just talk to you. Pray with you, send you home with something that's gonna help you in this journey of faith. There's no more important decision you'll make in your entire life than the decision to know and trust Jesus. If you're watching online, you go to the chapel.com/knowingjesus. We'd love to connect with you in that way. Maybe you want to spend a little more time in God's presence. Well, when I dismiss you in just a moment, we're gonna keep the music down in this room, and if you want to sit in your seat and just sit there with an open Bible and pause and reflect, you can do that. If you wanna come down here and kneel and pray, you can do that. If you want somebody to pray with you, you can go by the fireside room and somebody be delighted to take a moment to pray with you there. Father, I pray this you'd have your way in our hearts because we recognize that it is a rare, rare opportunity for us to be able to look behind the veil. To see you being worshiped. To see the response of Isaiah. To know our response. You set the terms for worship, we do not. We wanna be a people who worships you as the Holy One, with the reverence of our hearts. Who have a humility because of what we recognize that you have done on our behalf, what we don't deserve, how unworthy we are, yet you have loved us into relationship. And we wanna be prepared to say yes and true worship prepares us to say yes before we even know the assignment. Thank you that Isaiah said yes before he knew the assignment. Thank you that your apostles said yes, not knowing the assignment was going to be as hard as it was. I pray that we would be a people that would say yes because you are worthy of it. May we live our lives to demonstrate your worth, I pray in Jesus name. Amen. I love you, folks.