Published: October 22, 2023 | Speaker: Chuck Hartman | Series: Worship 1 - Part 7 | Scripture: Acts 2:42-47
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we're continuing with our study of worship using acts chap 2 verse 42 as our um kind of our framework uh in terms of what the
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earliest Believers did after Pentecost coming on the the apostles
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teaching and they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles teaching and to Fellowship to the breaking of bread and to prayer so we' we've looked at the two words continually and then devoting literally
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meaning to persist obstinately in and so today we're looking at the first of the four now last week I put the four things that they did up on the board and uh and
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tried to show through our discussion I think it was pretty well understood that these are not four distinct things that we might do each individually and call
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it a worship service it these are four things that worship consists of um but I would say that of the four the first one is the first of
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equals and the reason that I say that is that if we're not informed by God's word according to God's will then we can't do the other three
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correctly the other three are things that we do um as a response to what we have learned about God through his word is that a fair
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statement now the the problem with I shouldn't say the problem but the tendency within reformed churches is is to focus focus on that first one the apostles teaching and to forget that the proper
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response to the apostles teaching is prayer breaking of bread Fellowship so it's even though that's
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the foundation it's supposed to result in a building an edifice and just you know just laying the foundation and often times it seems that that that all we're
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doing is laying the foundation over and over again no there there needs to be the growth of the body as Paul writes in Ephesians building itself up till it
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becomes that he switches metaphors you know that that perfect man in Christ but without the foundation Paul also says in Corinthians that he there is but one foundation and that is Jesus
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Christ not the word growth growth numbers lot people coming in no it is not and I don't think it's
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what Luke is referring to when when he says uh and they grew they grew in the knowledge of the word you know there's definitely um an emphasis in in our
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culture especially in the United States of growth in numbers but again that's that is the influence of our economic
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system um that that the indication of success is growth growth in sales growth in profit and for a church growth in in in people there is the argument that you
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know that if if you're you're not growing then you must be doing something wrong well that's largely up to the sovereignty of God in Jeremiah we
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we read of a a day of small things do not despise the day of small things and I think it's clear through the history of the church church that there have been times of incredible blessing and
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then there have been times of drought when the church has um the the outward church has has truly shrunk and
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that has happened in different regions you know I don't I think I think one safe for me one safe um way of examining
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your own views of Christianity and of the church is and how the church should act and what all these different things is the universality of the
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truth if it's true of the Church of Believers of the Gospel whatever then it's true it's true everywhere okay so much of what is said
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about the church in the United States could not apply to Believers in Iran does that make sense you know we we have
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tailored and that's this has been true throughout history the same in the during the height of the British Empire and Christianity was very much in the ascendant but what was said about
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Christianity then didn't apply for example in India part of the British Empire well if if what we're thinking about Christianity about church about
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anything if if we think well now what would we think if we were living in communist China would would that would that kind of definition of growth
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pertain to a church in China or North Korea no we would not be measuring our success or our faithfulness by hordes of
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people coming every Sunday right so it can't be true here if it isn't true there does that make sense okay and I I
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just find that to be a very good litmus test when you're reading reading something and you especially about the church and church growth if you just simply think what would a believer in Iran think of what I'm reading they
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would think that's not how it works or or what would what would octave be uh experiencing in turkey compared to what we're experiencing in the United States
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it's not the same but the truth to be truth must be the same everywhere so I think that's a good point when we talk about growth um yes we we definitely want to see God
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adding to our number those who are saved um adding people to a church is not necessarily the same as
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adding souls to the kingdom okay because people come to church does not make them Believers um and and so um we're not
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really looking for that we never have um look for that here but
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growth I talked about this last Sunday in the sermon the growth we're talking about here is that growth that will not necessarily add numbers to the church
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but will pass the faith On to the Next Generation that's the kind of growth that we're talking about Yuri similar as if you have a guy sitting in the front
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amen every two words that doesn't make the sermon any more true no no no in fact it makes the sermon a whole lot more difficult would you please shut
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up um all right so let's take a look at what what we're reading here um the attitude of the Apostles is represented a little bit later in Acts chapter 6 when the
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circumstance of the widows and the treatment um and um benevolence for the widows came up and there was some um well some
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discrimination going on between the uh Hebrew and the helenistic Jews concerning their widows um this was brought before the apostles and verse two the 12 summoned
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the congregation of the disciples and said it is not desirable for us to neglect the word of God in order to serve tables so what we see there there is
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um a little bit of of definition um in chapter 2: 42 we have the apostles
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teaching now the way the Greek is is constructed it could it could mean uh the uh the that which the te the apostles were apostles were teaching um it it could mean in other words it was coming from the apostles it
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was there teaching or it could mean that the apostles the apostles were all teaching something there was a consistency among the 12 as to what they
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were teaching and I think when we go to chapter 6 verse two we find out what it is they were teaching so there there have been some who have who have looked at chapter 2
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verse 42 and have said well this is the New Testament because that's what the apostle wrote not not all the apostles wrote
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something that we have and of course Paul was not among those 12 but he was an apostle and so they say well we we only need the New Testament because that's what tells us about Jesus right
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and and that's what we should be teaching in our churches well you go to chapter 6 verse two and you find out no that's not what they were devoting themselves to they were devoting themselves to God's word well God's word
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word at that point was not the New Testament God's word was the Old Testament okay so it's an important I mean it's very subtle they were devoted they should not
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neglect God's neglect God's word well I think by definition then that's what they were teaching okay later on in Acts chapter
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20 when Paul is talking to the elders from myus he uses the phrase the whole Council of scripture he says I did not
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withhold from you any of the whole Council of Council of scripture so what this means is that the teaching of the
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Apostles became the New Testament as they were teaching the Old Testament in the light of Jesus Christ this is what would produce the go
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gospels and the Epistles the New Testament they didn't have it already Okay and they weren't even writing it yet they were teaching it um
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so the way we interpret this at least at Fellowship Bible Fellowship Bible Church is that the the proper adherence to the apostles teaching requires the teaching of the
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Bible okay but how do we do that and and I really don't want to get into a lot of I want to talk more practically about what we do and why we do what we do here at Fellowship Bible Church but we're
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looking at then the whole Council that's a u of
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Testament what is the value and I I'm looking for answers this is not a what's it question what is the value of the Old Testament
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to Christians Bob Christians Bob Chuck Jesus himself
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gave talking about the things that were going on he takes them back to
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starting with Moses and with the prophets he explained to them why what just happened had to happen so there there is a sense in
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which the Old Testament so we look at the Old
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we had the reason given to us why Christ had to had to Die Why why all this had to happen now this is an important point because especially in the modern era there have been many um liberal views of Christ's
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death um as being the admission of of failure um Albert Schweitzer famously said that Jesus was a was a was a failed
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radical and when he realized that his mission had failed and his disciples were deserting him he chose the path of of martyrdom uh in order to to try to one
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one last display of love that might turn the hearts of of the people um absolutely pitiful view of Christ and and his work and one that was absolutely
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devoid of any Old Testament knowledge um one thing that has seriously impacted the the church in terms of its
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understanding of scripture has been anti-Semitism and it is amazing how much anti-Semitism has creeped into Christianity or professing Christianity
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over its 2,000 year history and how that has prevented any type of study for example it it was actually considered a a an ecclesiastical crime
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to learn to learn Hebrew in some places in the Middle Ages that that that was that were grounds of excommunication if you were to learn Hebrew I don't
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understand the understand the anti-Semitism what is it make Christian an seems like just the opposite I don't
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know that there's 's anything that can make a Christian an anti-semite but the anti-Semitism in Christendom was based on the Jews having killed Jesus
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killed Jesus Christ and also based on the just native Prejudice that people have toward other peoples and
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peoples and intensely toward Jews it's not from scripture or Christianity it's certainly not born of the Holy Spirit antisemitism but it's it's more of a
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social response that is then veneered with theology these are Christ killers and when people were not
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encouraged to be in the word on their own they just they believe what they were told and that touched the native
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animosity that people had toward the Jewish people Jewish people um so I mean and that's a that's a a complete study of anti-Semitism but the
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point being that the impact of anti-Semitism even even Beyond even in churches that were not overtly anti-semitic was this idea that the Old
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Testament was for the Jews now you couple that with dispensationalism you've got a you've got a perfect mix now because dispensationalism hermetically seals the
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different dispensations different dispensations that God begins with a promise and ends with some type of judgment and then begins another one now none of these are
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related to any of the others so the Mosaic dispensation which encompasses the Old Testament has nothing to do with Christianity so says the
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dispensational I'm not saying the dispensationalists are anti-semitic please don't misunderstand me but the anti-Semitism of the middleages all up into the modern era impacted our view of
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the Bible and then even among non anti-semitic churches dispensationalism reinforced that to the point that by the second half of the 20th century very few
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Protestant churches spent any time in the Old Testament at all God
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well I think that's why the Jews are whatever people he would have picked would have experienced what the Jews have experienced I think okay so maybe we can thank God that he didn't pick the Italians you know it's like uh
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they've had a rough time you know or the Poes or the Irish oh my word um communion we be with
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beer yeah no we won't go there um yeah I no I think I can't I mean there there's definitely scripture that indicates what would befall the Jews and
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and I think that the fact that they were chosen and and I frankly think that Paul teaches in Romans 11 that God is not done with them that the hardening that has come upon them will be removed and
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they will come back through Jesus Christ but what we have seen happen to them as a people both their preservation and their persecution I think is because they were chosen U and any other people
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would have had the same fate so but anti-Semitism the point being is that teaching the Old Testament has fallen out of Vogue up until really the last 40
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years um we begin to see a return in about the 1970s than the 80s more in the '90s and now it's it's actually fairly pervasive Evangelical Scholars that are
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now going back to the Old Testament and unfolding the full story of God's Redemptive plan okay so another thing
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about the Old Testament is that it's and I'm going to I'm going to say it's it's basically this may be a little bit excessive but I think it's about 95% of
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the story we're FOC focusing on the last chapter okay or or maybe not the last chapter but the one right before the last chapter when when the Messiah comes when the seed of woman comes when all of
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the Prophecies of the Old Testament are fulfilled okay that's the story we have always been told but we don't know any of the background because we've not read the first 25 chapters of the book okay
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so it's about 90% of Redemptive
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Testament and and the Old Testament is not entirely a story it it also has the the Tabernacle the temple the levitical sacrifices the priesthood the the davidic kingdom you know just so many
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different motifs that are all weaving together into the person Jesus Christ we start there right this is not even the what do
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they call them now Spark Notes I mean what many churches we used to call them Cliff Notes I don't know if they're still in publication but um what many churches are focused on are not even the cliffnotes of what God has revealed of
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himself and of his purpose is just Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so but why any of these things happened or what we're supposed to do with it or what is
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existing now that Christ has risen we really don't have any idea because we don't have 95% of the story we've not read it I remember a woman told me that
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she always the last chapter last chapter first and I thought you're a PSY and a writer that makes me so mad I work so hard yeah to get to that
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last chapter yes right um but that's again that's what a lot focus on is the the churches just are going through the
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um the last chapter and and yeah the last chapter is wonderful the last chapter we we realize we win in Christ that's all good news but there's so much more to it okay
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there's there's something um well I mean let me back up when I say there's so much more I I don't want to indicate that there's just so much more interesting matter there I mean frankly
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I love reading history and it doesn't matter how all often I I'm reading about a particular era there's always another angle there's
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always more information my current Venture is to read three different biographies of Oliver Cromwell okay one of them that I'm reading right now me dolin is clearly theologically oriented
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Merl doliner was a leading Protestant Theologian in historian of the 19th century and he is he is treating Oliver Cromwell from the standpoint of the man's Christian Christianity next I'm
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going to read Theodore Roosevelts that's going to be a different angle altogether it's not going to be theological okay so um and then Antonio Frasier is going to be a more modern and I'm you know just
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kind of triangula so much interesting well yeah the old testament's got a lot of interesting stories and often times that's how if it is dealt with at all because we there are some stories we can't not deal with or we'd have nothing
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for Sunday school you know like Noah's Arc you know you got to deal with Sodom and gomorah um okay you know you there's there but they're not just
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stories I think we see the importance of the Old the Old Testament as the church today we're living in a moment of deconstruction which is just hesy but when you listen
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to what these people are it is not true Christianity because they con right of who God is what hision was the fact that he was working
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throughout history to Jes a big snap of some Stu yeah what people are you don't have those have those roots you haven't got anything uh people
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what people are rejecting in terms of Christianity is not actually Christianity Yuri it seems like today yes we're embracing the Old Testament the New
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Testament and that knowledge that that realization can pop us up but what are we what are we not today because people 50
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years notice right right and knowledge puffs up Paul says so knowing the Old Testament and being um audite in in the Old Testament history that's totally
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without any value and as I was saying it it's not just interesting historical stories or even um often times it's used purely for apologetics how do I prove
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that Jesus is the Christ you know you know I'm using the old test or it's being used for scientific battles to try to prove that God created and rather than um
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Evolution without trying to rehash the entire history we' touched on it in another story or other SCH L but part of
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it is the hisory of better word the zist of how scripture ought to be handled and treated
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you know there were one of the things that stuck out to me in some of the things we were do in seminaries they would point back to earlier areas where people worked with the Old Testament in
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a way that they would never let you get away with now well yes you could not you could not they would not be considered to be faithful ex of Jesus and so that
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whole again Z the just the cultural aspect of what you are and are not allowed to do with scripture at any given time impacts all that but also the Old Testament one of the things that I
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so awesome about what God does in scripture is the fact that he didn't give us a Systematic Theology he communicates in so many different ways throughout it so there is narrative
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history there are the prophets that are both prophecy and intense object lessons there are the pongs that are songs prayers of those ways that he
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communicates the same truth from all of those different facets of his nature and what he has done in his people if you drop all of that you
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really just get The Parables and the theology out of the New Testament yeah if you drop the Old Testament you're we talked about this earlier when we first started it if if
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you don't have a a Biblical framework of God then your worship is going to be for formulated and established out of your own understanding and Imagination if you
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happen to be biblical and devoted to the scripture then often times what your worship will look like is as close as you can approximate to the Old Testament levitical worship without the
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blood okay I mean the Roman Catholic Church calls the mass a bloodless sacrifice of sacrifice of Christ because the old the New Testament doesn't give us a liturgy if we believe that we need to
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worship God according to his design the only liturgy we have is the Old Testament and we go back to it to imitate well that's illegitimate as well is that apostasy or is that a
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flat Christian someone who is only is a Christian but only in one aspect of the many facets of God because what I hear Tim say is that the whole Council of
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scripture is like that d I think that what we have experienced in our church and interacting with other believers is that different facets of
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diamond reflect different like they reflect well to different people so if you have a person and we experien this in business you have like an engineer and that's a mindset everyone recognizes it they recognize it in themselves
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sometimes but you also have people who more musically or or something different and that's a reflection I
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think of us being created in the image of God and yet and then when Tim says that he has revealed himself in different ways are those also are those facets of
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his Revelation that will speak more to his children but if you have someone that only says this is the one facet we focus on are they apostas are they making an
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idol yeah are they just really flat and shallow that's a very good question and I don't think it can be answered with one answer yes or no um God God knows our
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frame he he knows if we're wired left or right brain he he understands that you know he he created us he knitted us together in our mother's womb so we he
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has revealed himself in a multifaceted
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certainly there will be S some certain facets that shine brighter to the intellect of certain Believers because that's the way they're wired um whereas others but I don't I
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think when you begin to either ignore or react against the other facets because God will reveal himself fully does that
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make sense you know it's not like okay you're an engineer I'm just to show this face to you this facet no he's going to turn it around and the light of the holy spirit is going to shine off of every
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single facet from his word and as long as it's in his word then we rejoice in the light reflected from that from that facet even on those aspects of God that
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are that that connect less clearly in our minds than others okay um that's true of every one of us
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of us I mean some people can look at election and embrace it others look at it and it's like I know it's true but I don't like it because it seems to leave my mom
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or dad or you know there's different reactions to the different characteristics and attributes of God what would then Verge on apostasy is when we take the stone
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and turn it back to the facet we like and begin to say no that's not my God or that's not my God does that make sense so I don't
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think just because any let's say you know people would view our church as a teaching church I've been told that um does that mean we're apostatizing because we're not doing other things uh
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Aaron I don't know if this is T this Rises to the level of apostasy but it certainly seems like he's a danger in
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that section Timothy as I urged you when I was going to Macedonia remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different Doctrine nor to devote themselves to
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myths and endless genealogies which promote speculation rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith the aim of our charge is love that
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issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere Faith certain persons by swerving from these have wandered away into vain discussion Desiring to be teachers of the law
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without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions for we know that the law is good if one uses it
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lawfully yeah that that's a good reference uh I want I want to also use another example a very current example that I've talked about before and that is what's called the new perspective on
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Paul um since the time of Anselm in the 11th century and then again in the Reformation Paul's teaching on
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justification has justification has become what's known as the forensic Christ died for our sins and in the sight of God those who are in Christ are declared imputed
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righteous that is the forensic doctrine of justification by faith back in the 1970s um a theologian by the name of EP
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Sanders began to once again recognize that Jesus was a Jew Paul was a Jew and began to uh exit Paul's writings from the perspective of of the Old Testament and
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what the Jews were looking for understanding that Christ was the one who fulfilled what the Jews were looking for and realize that justification also means being included
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in the people of God that terminology is used in the Old Testament in terms of you know he who is not circumcised will be cut off okay Paul uses that cut off
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in Romans 11 that idea of being cut off so it's just a different perspective well the reaction of much of conservative and reformed Christianity
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was to declare those who were holding that New Perspective to be Heretics they were heretical because they were said to be
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denying the justification of Faith well in fact they were not at least not in their writings denying that Doctrine they have turned the stone and showed that Paul is a lot more
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multifaceted because his God is if we look at I guess to answer Ariel's question more sarily if we spend all our time looking at one attribute of God
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there won't be long before we have apostatized it it would be almost INE it' be almost impossible to avoid error if we refuse to look at the whole
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Council of scripture and then that error cannot help but lead to apostasy so let me get Tim and then I was just going to say I think that point reinforces one of
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the reasons why we do things that we do here which is to say having multiple Elders preaching at different times which is a Marvel to everyone I've ever told that we do that helps you avoid
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stuck on one facet with one hand saying this is what it means you have the variation of different men being called to bring
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different things out well the alternative is to have silly sermons with Larry every now and then there's a church near us that that has visiting visiting pastors come in and one of them
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is named is named Larry and we drive by on the way home how many of you have done the Veggie Tales anybody know what the Veggie Tales are okay well one day they're driving by
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and James is in the car and he says and now it's the time in our show for silly sermons with sermons with Larry okay so they're doing that now actually silly sermons with Larry Ariel
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all right well in all seriousness though what you just said about focusing on one ASP one facet is really concerning not necessarily within this church I don't
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think but it's a real Challenge and it LEDs cre to the challenge how can Christianity be true when there are
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versions of is that not what the different denominations have done they said this is Christianity and you're looking at something different and we can't be with
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you and therefore we're going to break off no I I I don't know that the different there there certainly are some denominations that have differed fundamentally in their interpretation of
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God and of his work that's that's true um I guess what I'm what I'm trying to focus on here is not so much what others
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have done wrong but what we need to do to do it right uh and not so much concerned of uh I mean I don't I don't know the denominations I I don't think the
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denominations were ever the will of God except in his Sovereign will in which he allows whatsoever comes to pass and he ordains whatsoever comes to pass um and and I don't I don't think I think
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denominations are actually um it may take a long time but I think they're on their way out they certainly mean much less now than they ever did
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before uh I I remember even in seminary um we were talking about eschatology and and I made the comment these are Presbyterians who are intending to
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Pastor Presbyterian churches and we were talking about eschatology and I said you know you do realize that the majority of your congregation is getting their eschatology from Tim Le you know this
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was the Heyday of the Left Behind Books Okay uh Tim La day yeah sorry about that
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um they were you know they're like no no no they're they're getting it from the pulpit no that's that's very naive you know in in our modern world to think that from the pulpit that everybody in
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the congregation is getting their theology their ecclesiology their eschatology from the pulpit no they're getting it now from the blog posts from the talking heads from the the books in the Christian bookstore there's so many
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other sources of knowledge today we're we're actually called knowledge consumers now so um I'm I can't I think that's a serious the complaint against
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the multifaceted nature of protestantism is real but it's it's
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uh condemning because Paul even said we see is in a mirror dimly and and we can admit no I don't know all truth and it could be that that guy over there in that other
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denomination is right I just don't see it yet and if I can we say if I can be convinced from convinced from scripture that that is correct then that's what I need to do so it's more of
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a humble a humble attitude towards seeking the truth rather than an arrogant attitude claiming I found it does that make sense
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uh but it'll it'll continue even before protestantism there there were heated divisions within the Roman Catholic Church between the Dominicans and the franciscans and the
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Jesuits and the benedictines and they had their denominations and still do they just all stay under that one big umbrella and everybody on the outside sees Roman Catholicism when you walk in
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the front door they ask you okay what kind of Roman Catholic do you want to be do you want to be a Franciscan do you want to be a Dominican you know there's your denominations ours unfortunately are all out on the signs um what is a
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difference there difference there between you know we're all looking at the whole Council of scripture We Come Away with different interpretations and that's kind of what denominations are
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doing versus people who don't who cut off pass ignore whole passages I don't think there's any denomination that would explicitly say oh we ignore the Old Testament and don't do anything with
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that there are some that would that have said italc but I feel like we're talking about two different things we we are yeah and and um I think the to to kind
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of wrap it up here what what we're what I'm trying to emphasize here is that what we have in the Bible and even if we got away from I wouldn't mind if we got
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away from the Old Testament New Testament division but what we have in the Bible is is the whole purpose of God the purpose of God if if we were to ask what is the purpose of of My Life as a
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Believer and what is the purpose of the church if they have no reference to the purpose of God then there whatever answer we come up with is wrong it is
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our purpose to walk in line with his purpose and so if we neglect to investigate and learn to the best of our ability his purpose then whatever we
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come up with is going to be false fire it's going to be the offering of ABAB and abue it's not going to be according to God's will so that's why we do
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incorporate the whole Council of scripture but what we're developing here this is something I said we're beginning in Christianity and Western theology beginning to recognize again the Jewish
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roots of Christianity but even more than that there's this word called metan
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narrative uh it's just a fancy word word that means the big story most philosophers and theologians understand that human beings and human
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cultures have a big story you know our big story involves you know George Washington chopping down a cherry tree and admitting it okay um so we have a
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big story we have the idea that that um you know that the the the people who came to the United States were fleeing from religious oppression and they
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bravely came in leaky boats and landed on a rock in uh you know Plymouth Harbor um they couldn't have all fit on the Rock I've seen it it's way too small um
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but you know we have these stories that we then kind of universalize and say these These are the stories that describe that concept known as americanism okay they become part of our
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story even those of us who are IM immigrants of immigrant um stock my grandfather came over in 1921 so my family wasn't even here you know when
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when George Washington got off the Mayflower and all that stuff so this is our meta
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narrative and you have to have one and if people don't have one they'll make one because you we are a people as human beings we have a concept of past present
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and future we're we're never just popped in time without any reference to the past or the future what is our meta narrative that
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subconsciously dictates our worldview and our Ambitions and our perceptions things get filtered through that meta narrative which is why there
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are such diverse cultures in the world these are are peoples who are all humans all descended from Adam but they have different metan
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different metan narratives okay the Christian metan narrative has died in the late medieval early modern
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early modern period and it's being revived in a lot of very good modern writing um and I think from some good pulpits as well an understanding that that our Destiny and
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our identity is intimately tied for example with the events of Genesis 1 2 and 3 you know those are not
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just scientific arguing points they are the not just the origin of the human race but the purpose of it the idea of the image of God the idea of
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rebellion and sin the idea of the seed of woman redeeming that's all it's all in a nutshell and then it's expanded through the rest of script scripture that's our story now a as a a grandson
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of an immigrant I my my grandfather did as well but not as much as I did or my siblings we have embraced the heritage of the United
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States we have not embraced the heritage of Sicily so you know that's true that's why we're called a Melting Pot is that
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most immigrants to our country within a generation two will be as American as people who have been here 9 10 11 12 Generations they'll Embrace that
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Heritage okay um and they'll abandon another one that they had for much longer far more generations of of my people were in Sicily than have been in
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the United the United States but none of my cousins none of my siblings we're we're American okay um that's what needs to happen again to the church it needs to re understand and
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re-embrace its Heritage which begins in Genesis its Heritage which is revealed to us in the Old Testament now there are many other reasons why the Old Testament
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is is so important but um this is I think from from the Viewpoint of Fellowship Bible Church this this is really fundamental that whatever we Mark or I
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happen to say on a Sunday morning in a Sunday school class or a sermon it is a part of a bigger picture picture and it's it's it's always a part of a bigger picture no matter what
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church you're in but what is that bigger picture that's what you should be asking is this bigger picture some type of conservative political movement is this bigger picture some type of social
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movement social activism or are are we about Prosperity that's the bigger picture that God wants to bless all of us with lots of money and big houses and nice cars you see they all have a big
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picture the question for everybody who comes to a church to worship God God is what's the big picture here okay and and if you only ever hear
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from certain passages or certain themes again that's that single faceted aspect that may be true but it's true within the context of
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all the other facets it's not true if it's taken off and presented as the whole well let's close in prayer father we do ask that you would
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guide us in understanding your mind and heart as it were that we might offer up to you worship that is truly acceptable in your sight because we know that that
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is our true blessing that that is true communion when when our hearts Unite with your with your heart in joy and gratitude and
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adoration according to the truth about yourself that you have revealed to us in your word and it is only by the guidance of your holy spirit that we can hope to
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attain to that truth so fill us we ask with your Holy Spirit Guide our steps and our lips For Your Glory and for our
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good we ask in