That was a great uh great time in worship this morning, as always. And I love how uh Jamie was singing. Um we were actually she she got us to declare. I don't know if you guys noticed that, but one of the words was my house will be filled with glory. Amen. Say that. Say, my house will be filled with glory. This church will be filled with glory. Amen. That was so good. I love I love that. Oh, it's been a little while since I've been up here, so I hope you guys can uh give me a little bit of grace. Uh, I have no idea how this is gonna go. I have no idea how long I'm gonna speak. My wife told me if I start going too long, she's gonna start doing this. So I'll be watching her, and uh I did set a timer just in case, but anyway. Last week was uh well, I had a great week. I made a uh another trip around the sun. Woo! Not gonna tell you how many trips I've made now, but uh was thinking uh thinking uh I was thinking about my dog, and uh we're actually birthday twins right now. We're about roughly the same age. If if if you go with uh what they say about dogs, uh every one of our human years is like seven for them. So we're both middle-aged guys, and uh I was thinking, you know, uh I wonder how long he's gonna live. Is he gonna live a long, happy, healthy life? My wife's got her hands up, she says yes, and actually reminded me of a story. A couple of years ago, we were camping in Banff. And uh it was a great time. We love Banff. The mountains is is my happy place anyway. And uh we had rented a camper, and uh we were you know just at our campsite, and I was outside doing something, and my wife was inside, and uh me and me and the dog, me and Griffin, we were outside, and all of a sudden my wife flies to the to the door and her eyes are huge, and then she she runs out of the camper, grabs Griffin, back into the camper without a word. I was like, what is going on? What what was that all about? And I turn around, and about 15 feet from me by that microphone is a black bear walking through our campsite. And I was shocked, not because of the bear, but because she came out and grabbed the dog. She protected the dog, she didn't even say a word to me. I was really shocked, and then I was even shocked, even more, because right behind her, my daughter came out of the camper, she ran down to the picnic table, grabbed something, and ran back in. What did she grab? She grabbed chocolate. I could not believe. And I could I kind of understood, you know, Griffin, we love Griffin so much, but chocolate? I was like, if I were here, I'd want to protect the purchaser of the chocolate. Anyway, so Griffin, we're the same age. He's gonna live a long time because of my wife. All right, so today um I want to talk a little bit about something found in 2 Corinthians chapter 3. And uh if I can do it right, I think it'll help us a little bit, maybe with our relationship with God and maybe our relationship with those around us. Uh I don't know about you guys, but that's something that I always need uh help with. Amen. So we'll start with a well-known verse in 2 Corinthians chapter 3, verse 18. And uh I'll just read it. I'm reading mostly out of the New King James today. I have no idea, other than this one verse, I really like the way it says it. I probably should have switched to another version for the rest of it, but I didn't. So you get the new King James today. Amen. So we'll start in verse 18. It says, But we all, say all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. That's a great verse, and uh, I'm sure you guys have heard it uh a number of times, uh, and it's a powerful verse. And the verse itself is somewhat explanatory. Uh, it doesn't take you know, rocket science, you know, a scientist to figure out what it means. You know, we're being transformed into the same image, and that image being the image of Jesus. Amen. We're being transformed, right? From glory to glory as by the Spirit of the Lord. So I started to look into a little bit, and uh the word that Paul uses there changed. Uh, some versions might say transformed. The Greek word there is metamorpho. Now, I I really like this because when I looked into it, it actually means to change into another form, to transform, and also to transfigure. Say transfigure. And then it has a reference, and it actually references Matthew chapter 17 when Jesus was on the Mount of Transfiguration. You guys hopefully remember that story. Jesus goes up and he's spending time and he's praying, and all of a sudden, I think it was James and John that were with him. Uh, and all of a sudden, he was changed before their very eyes. He began to, uh his glory began to shine through, and uh he suddenly became as bright as the sun. And uh it was quite an experience, if you could imagine that. Those guys wanted to, you know, put up something, some kind of monument there, you know, to mark the occasion that they could always remember and and that kind of thing. But this word actually is the same word that you and I are being transformed into that same image. So that's kind of neat. We are being transfigured, changed into another form. Okay? The same image of Jesus from glory to glory. So the idea is that we get to become just a little bit more like Jesus as we get into another level of glory. And again, it's it's it's pretty easy to understand. Um, and most Christians understand this, especially when they consider where they came from. Amen. How many of you remember before you were saved? Let me see your hands. You can remember, remember what you were like. Uh, there was definitely a change. Amen. And and probably some people noticed a change in you. Some people might have said, you know, what happened to you? You know, your countenance is different, you you look different, you sound different, you've got a you know, light in your eyes, that kind of thing. Um and and and some people it would be a lot more uh dramatic of a change, amen. And that would depend on what your life was like prior to giving your heart to Jesus. Amen. A little while ago, uh I was on uh I think it was uh on Facebook, and uh I saw a testimony of uh a guy from Brazil that was uh in a gang, and they said he was the most tattooed man in all of Brazil. 95% of his body was covered in tattoos. And uh he even shaved his head so that he could tattoo his head. And the tattoos, they weren't nice-looking tattoos, they were like uh, you know, skull and crossbone, you know, teeth and eyes, and really dark. And uh, and then the before and then the after was after he got saved and gave his heart to Jesus. Uh, you know, everything changed. Uh, and actually he went through a very painful process of getting all of these tattoos taken off of his body. Um, but you could just look into his eyes, even without tattoos, and you could see, well, something major happened to this guy. This guy who was in gangs, who was, you know, in drugs, and and and everything that came with it. Uh, you know, people like that, they have a real huge change. Amen. Sometimes people don't have quite as much a change, you know. Uh, for myself, I grew up in in a Christian home and uh, you know, it was in my teens, you know, I kind of kind of did my own thing for a little while. And then uh when I came to Faith Alive, uh, I think I was around the age of 17 or something like that, you know, I encountered God here and realized that I that this was what I was gonna do for the rest of my life. And so I, you know, I didn't have a super big, you know, dark to light change, but the neat thing is that you you it doesn't matter because I was destined for the same hell without Jesus anyway. Amen. And that and that's the same with you, and it and and maybe you've been here for for years, maybe you've got kids now. It's the same thing for our kids. Amen. Everybody needs to make that decision to follow Jesus and to develop a relationship with him, amen. So, anyway, so we came into this thing, you know, called the kingdom of God. We were transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light, uh, and things changed. Amen. How many, you guys, things changed, right? But how many people could say that you didn't exactly reach perfection? Anybody? If I got if I got people, anybody out there that, well, let me see any hands that you, when you got saved, you were completely perfect and everything was just, you're just glowing like a light bulb like Jesus. Anybody, any takers for that one? No, me neither. Amen. There were changes that happened, and uh, but you know what? There's still changes that have to happen. Amen. So, you know, I was when I got saved, when I got born again, you know, that there was definitely some change, but you know what? I found out over the years that, you know, there were things in me that needed to still change. And even today, I'm like, Lord, why do I still say things like that? Why do I still react? Why do I still get upset? Why do I still, you know, uh, and and it just reminds me that, you know what? We still need to have another level of glory. Amen. So now, in order to really understand and get a better grasp on everything that uh that Paul is talking about here, we need to go back and we're gonna read through uh starting from verse 4 in 2 Corinthians chapter 2. So back in verse 4, it says, and this is this is basically Paul, he's talking about uh himself and those with him who are ministering, and uh just kind of giving uh people a reminder of who they are and and and what it is that they're doing. So, verse 4 he says, and we have such trust through Christ towards God. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter, but of the spirit. For the letter kills, but the spirit gives life. Say life. So Paul's talking about who they are, and and he's starting to say, hey, you know what? We've learned to trust God, we've learned to, you know, to move in the things of God. We've actually become quite sufficient because of God. And then he says, you know, it's nothing that we've done, but it's everything that we've gained from him. And then he reminds them that we're ministers of not the letter. And what is the letter? Who can tell me what the letter is? The law, right? The law of Moses. He says, We're not we're not ministers of the letter, but of the spirit. For the letter kills, but the spirit gives life. So not too not too difficult to understand that. Um yeah. And then we move up to verse 7, and it starts off with this but if the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away, how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious? For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory. For even what was made glorious had no glory in this respect, because of the glory that excels. For if what is passing away was glorious, what remains is much more glorious. Okay, so we're gonna we're gonna go back to the verse, uh beginning of verse seven to to something that you know I just think is just amazing called the ministry of death. How many people want a ministry out there? Anyone want a ministry? How would you like to be known as someone who has the ministry of death? Wouldn't be my first pick. How about you guys, right? Uh what do you do for a living while I'm in the ministry? Oh, that sounds great. You know, what what what's your ministry? Ah, you know, uh, the ministry of death. Oh, that sounds nice. Well, it's not so bad, you know. It's uh it's it's all right, you know. Um in fact, uh since we're here, I could pray for you. Nah, I'm gonna pass on that. Ministry of death, right? What's the ministry of death? And why did why did Paul call it the ministry of death? What's the ministry of death? The letter does what? The letter kills, right? Okay, so we here's what Paul's saying. He's saying, under the old covenant, under the ministry of the letter, the law, the Mosaic Law, uh, basically, it was something that could not change people on the inside. Amen. So, and and as Pastor Barb was actually getting into some of the stuff, I thought that was interesting too. She was she started talking about how under the old covenant things were so tough. And they were pretty tough, right? You you had uh 613 laws that you had to follow as a children, as the children of Israel. That's a lot. And 365 of them were the do-nots, and 248 were the do. So there was a lot of things that you were not supposed to do. And if you did some of those things, guess what you had to do? You had to do something else to fix what you just did, which weren't supposed to do. Now you gotta do something else to fix that. Right? And yeah, a lot of times it it involved, you know, some kind of sacrifice, some kind of offering. Uh, you know, even if you were, if you shorted God on your tithes, you had to you had to give extra money over and above your tithes just to make up for it. So, those of you who didn't tire this morning, if you're under the old covenant, guess what you gotta do, right? Gotta give extra, that's right. But but it was uh a terrible system because what happened is it left people sin conscious the whole time. They had the weight of sin, it was upon them, they were reminded of their sin. Uh I mean, everyone was around them. I mean, you had 613, everybody's trying to obey all these laws. Guess what? You're gonna have some people pointing the finger at you when you broke a law, right? There'll be people looking for other people as they're trying not to break all these laws. But it was a terrible system because what it could not do is it could not remove sin. All that it could do was cover sin. Say cover. The only thing it can do, just cover it, cover it up. And uh, you know, you guys know this the uh how once a year the high priest would go in and would sacrifice a lamb and that kind of thing. And uh then there was when they would release, I think it was a lamb that they released into the wilderness, right? That they pronounced all the sin upon it, and you know, was it a goat? It was something. I don't know, it was an animal of some kind. The scapegoat, that's right. Thanks, Pastor Brent. But uh, but the old system, it wasn't a good system because in the end, nothing on the inside could change for those people. How many people are glad that we're not under that old system? Amen. Yet in Romans chapter 7, we find out that it says that the law was good and that the law was holy, which kind of makes your head tilt a little bit. You know what, you know, what do you mean? Uh Galatians chapter 3, verse 24 says that the the Mosaic law was a schoolmaster. What's a schoolmaster? It's somebody who teaches, right? So basically what's happening is when God instituted this these laws and these things for his people to follow, um, it wasn't a it wasn't a bad thing. It was a good thing. They were able to see that, hey, God is a holy God, right? God, you have to live a certain way before God. You can't just do your own thing. You can't break all of his laws without consequence, right? You know, God, if he's going to be approached, you know, you have to approach God certain ways, right? And so so everything that was set in place wasn't bad. In fact, it says that it was holy, it was a good thing. And and because it was a schoolmaster, guess what it was doing? It was teaching the people of God that they were in need of something greater. Amen. You guys with me so far? We're doing okay. So here you have a group of people walking around day after day, year after year, always being reminded how sinful, how dark, how condemned they were. Uh, you know, of course, they could they could get things covered, they could get, you know, they could get uh all the sacrifices and things, um, but they could not get relief from the weight of sin. Okay? Now we have Moses goes up and spends 40 days in the glory of God, comes down the mountain reflecting that glory, and the Bible says that his face was shining like a light bulb. And I I don't even know. Can you guys picture that in your mind? Somebody whose face is just glowing? That's difficult, you know. It wasn't it wasn't that, you know, passing by someone, you know, on the street, you know, that it looked like you know, they passed under a light and their light and their face lit up. No, the the light was actually flowing out of him, out of his face. So much that the children of Israel said, Hey Moses, why don't you do us a favor? Can you put a veil over your face? It's too difficult for us to look at. And that that troubled me for a long time. You know, like I I kind of think it would be neat to see somebody glowing like a light bulb. How about you guys? Right? Just you know, sit there and stare at them and like, wow, that's so cool. You're glowing. That's awesome. But uh in this case, I think what was going on was it was such a reminder to the people who God was and God's holiness, and that they weren't measuring up, and that that Moses, Moses was the only guy that was actually allowed to go up the mountain. I don't know if you guys knew that. But they were actually told, you know, you can come near the mountain, but don't even touch the border of the mountain or you'll be stoned, right? You'll be put to death. So Moses was the only guy allowed to go up. So, you know, they got these different things going on. They got this weight of sin, they've got, you know, this covenant that they're trying to keep, they're failing. And then they got Moses, and he's shining. He got to go up the mountain, he got to be with this holy God. They weren't allowed to. Um, so in any case, if you know, maybe that's the reason, maybe there's other reasons, but for whatever the reasons were, they asked Moses, hey, Moses, can you cover up? So I find that interesting. Right? So back to 2 Corinthians chapter 2. Verse 12 says, Therefore, since we have such hope, we use great boldness of speech. Unlike Moses, who put a veil over his face, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the end of what was passing away. Paul makes a mention and says that this was passing away. I think it meant two things. Number one, I think it was because obviously Paul was under the new covenant, and what was back then was something that was no longer, right? So even in the time of Moses, it was something that was temporary until Jesus came on the scene. So it was passing away. But the other thing that I think Paul meant there was that Paul was saying this glory that Moses had was also something that passed away. And in the Bible actually says that when Moses came down from the mountain, that it did begin to diminish, that glory began to depart, began to go away. Now, he would still meet with God in the tent of meeting. The glory of God would come down in the cloud and he would speak to Moses as a friend face to face. And uh I believe that you know when he had those encounters, that the glory would begin to get stronger again. So the Bible's not really clear on how long he wore the veil, if it was the entire life or what, but it was for at least some time. And I find that interesting because that glory and that covenant, both of those things pass away. And I think this is what Paul's trying to get to was he's saying, hey, the big difference between what Moses experienced and what we experienced was Moses experienced a glory that came from the outside towards him. But now we get to experience a glory that can come from the inside outward. Amen. I mean, let's face it, we don't have the opportunity to spend 40 days and nights up on a mountaintop. Amen. You know, we've got responsibilities, we've got kids, we've got all this kind of stuff. So we we couldn't even do that if we wanted to. But Paul's trying to tell everybody that, hey guys, guess what? Under this new covenant, if you get to a newer level of glory, this can begin to increase inside of you. Yeah, you you started at a level of glory when you got transferred out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. But guess what? There's newer, deeper, stronger levels of glory to be had. Amen. What we have today, they could not even have, it was not even possible under the old covenant. Under the old covenant, the people of God were not holy enough, and they never could have been. Amen? Couldn't get there. Why? Because they had that sin issue. Covered, not washed away. Amen. But under Jesus, through his final sacrifice, now we have God living on the inside of us because of the righteousness of Jesus. So again, and we know this, it's not because of anything that we've done, but it's because Jesus was righteous his entire life, that he, as the sacrificial lamb, the last one, now he made the way for us to be able to have this dwelling of God on the inside of us. Verse 14 says, But their minds were blinded. For until this day, the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ. But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. Nevertheless, when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. Okay, so not only did they have this sin consciousness, this weight, they were also blinded, right? They had a veil over their eyes, they couldn't see, they couldn't understand the things of God until Jesus completed the work of the cross. The same thing happens today to people who are not born again. Amen? Bible, Paul said somewhere that the things of God are foolishness to people who are perishing, right? To the people who are not believers. Uh what we do is foolishness. Giving you give 10% of your money to a church? Are you kidding? Right? Sunday morning, I'm going golfing. What you're going to church, right? Uh I mean, the list is huge, right? Things that that just don't make sense to the world. And the reason is because they've got that veil. The veil is still there. They cannot see, they cannot understand. Right? All they can do is just look at us and just and just shake their head. Amen. We're getting through lots, but we're getting somewhere good. Amen. So now we're kind of getting back to the very beginning. Once people put their trust in Jesus, that veil is removed, their eyes become open to the glory of God. Their eyes are of their understanding are now understanding the things of God, um, to being filled with God, having God come and make his home inside of us, all of a sudden, everything changes for people who become born again. And that's a good thing. So say everything changes. Everything changes. Well, not everything, right? Back to where we started at the beginning. Yes, we're made new, yes, we're born again, but somehow there are things that still manage to bubble up to the surface. Okay? Things that need changing. So now we're back at verse 18 where we started. It says this it says, but we all with an unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, we're being transformed. And what does that mean? It means transfigured, right? We're being changed on the inside. We're being metamorphoed into something that looks more like Jesus, something that sounds more like Jesus, something that reacts more like Jesus. Amen. And that means we're changing bit by bit according to the level of glory that we experience. And, you know, I said this before, we get we get to the first level of glory, I believe, when we get born again. But we can't stop there. Amen. We have to be transformed from glory to glory. So there are more glories, more levels of glory to be experienced. Stronger, deeper, more glorious. Um, Revelation chapter 4 uh says that there are four creatures that surround the throne, and 24 elders surround the throne of God in heaven. And, you know, they're there before his glory. They're there before his presence and his awesomeness, right? And yeah, he's shining like the sun. And they're there bowing before the Lord. And it says that they cry out, holy, holy, holy, right? The whole earth is filled with the glory of the Lord. And they just they just keep crying out, holy, holy, holy. What's going on is they're seeing a greater glimpse of the glory of God. They're getting new, fresh, powerful waves of glory coming at them again and again and again, and they can they just can't stop. Amen. So God is so vast and so glorious that that even as we live on this earth, there are new, constantly new levels of glory for us to attain. I was thinking uh of a story just as we were in worship. Um, you know, there everybody in the kingdom of God is at a different level. Uh level spiritually, maybe you've been saved for years, maybe you're new, um, maybe you've got lots of the word and lots of understanding. Maybe you're just learning, maybe you're kind of fresh to all this stuff. Um, but there are people that operate at different levels of glory. And I was reminded of the story of Smith Wigglesworth, who was, I think he was in New Zealand, I think he was preaching. And uh before he got into the service, he met with the pastors, uh, all the surrounding pastors that had gathered for these great meetings, and uh, and they were praying together. And uh and each of them took their turn praying. And uh when they were all done, all of a sudden Smith began to pray. And they said that as he began to pray and open his mouth, that the glory of God began to pour into that room. And it began to get so thick and so heavy that one by one, these ministers of the gospel they they they found themselves, they had to get to get out of the room, they could not take the weight of the glory of God that was pouring in. And he continued to pray, and it got stronger and it got thicker, and suddenly he opened his eyes, and he was the only one standing in the room. And I and I love that story because it it talks to me about how how vast the glory of God is and what it is possible to walk in as we live on this earth. Amen. The how do you get to new levels of glory? How do you get it? I wrote down just a few things. Uh I promise I'm not gonna keep you too long today on a day like today where it's so beautiful outside. I think it would almost be the unpardonable sin if we went long. So I don't want any of you holding that against me. So I just got a few things to just to go through. Um, the first thing that we need to know is that the glory of God is not cheap. Amen? Not cheap. It's not something that you know just comes just because we think it would be a nice idea. Um it's something that that we have to work at, that we have to set our eyes upon, and that we have to go for. Matthew chapter 7, verses 7 and 8 kind of give us uh a bit of a picture. And Jesus was talking, of course, about praying. You know, he said you have you have to ask, seek, and knock. Amen. There are things that we have to do in order to get to a new level of glory. Um now, as I say these things, I'm talking about if you're in your personal relationship with God. I know that there are places sometimes that we can go to get touched by the glory of God. And uh that happened to us uh years ago. Well, we went down to the States to a church that uh was in a move of God and revival, and uh, we experienced new levels of glory. And uh and it was nice because you know what? It was it was something that was prepared for us. And it was something that was there. We didn't have to go down and and work for it. We had to be open for it, right? We had to, we had to desire it, we had to want more of the glory of God or the presence of God. Amen. Um, but aside from that, I mean it was a place that had kind of prepared uh a buffet of the glory of God. And I remember standing one time in a service down there, and and it was an incredible feeling. It was in the earlier days. Um, I think it was uh, I think Eric was leading worship, and he had a he had a one strum on the guitar, and hands in the building went, you know, shot up. And all of a sudden I found my hands were shot up in the air, too. And and you know what? He just there was kind of a wind of the spirit that that just happened to be in there. And what the reason that it struck me so much was because I remembered back when I was 15 years old, I was canoeing up north on the Churchill River. And as we were canoeing, we were getting close to a forest fire that was just just off the river. And the closer we got to that forest fire, the wind actually picked up. And because the wind was rushing into the fire, and all of a sudden there were white caps, and we were paddling and we were baling water out at the same time. And but you could just feel like the all the all the air moving towards this fire. And it reminded me of that when I when we went to this church, and and because it just had that same movement of the Spirit of God, it was like the wind of God was rushing through and rushing up to heaven, and uh, and it and it was awesome. How many people would like to be in a place like that? Amen. Amen. So you can you can get it from somewhere else, but sometimes, you know, personally, you've got to work this thing out. Amen. If you want to get to a new level of glory, so so it's not cheap, and you gotta be hungry, you gotta ask, knock, and seek. Number two, I wrote down, is we have to stop giving up levels of glory for bowls of lentils. Amen. If you guys remember, that's a story about Jacob and Esau in the Old Testament, uh, and it's referenced in the New Testament, Hebrews chapter 12. But uh Esau gave up his birthright for a bowl of lentils, and I think that we as Christians do that a lot. We settle for the current level of glory that we've got because we too many times will give in to our own desires for other things, and we can't separate ourselves long enough for us to get to a new level of glory. And for you and me, it's probably not a bowl of lentils. Any lentil lovers in here? Oh, I did see a couple hands. Okay. All right. Uh, I like to read that and say it was a bowl of chili, right? Lentils, boring. Chili, okay, chili, maybe. Um, but we we we don't do that, but but we can do that with all kinds of things in our lives when our desires get out of hand and when we allow them to replace our desire for God. If all of a sudden our desire for God begins to wane, guess what else can begin to wane? The level of glory that we'd like to be walking in. Amen. So we have to we have to make sure that we we keep our desires in check. We have to allow God to reveal more of himself to us. Amen. Let me say that again. We have to allow God to reveal more of himself to us. Now, again, this is something that takes time, and and this is this is why we worship long here at Faith Alive Family Church. This is why we come on Thursday nights. This is why we come down for prayer, and we get prayer a lot. Amen. People who have been in this church for a long time, that's kind of our our mode of operation, is is you know what? If there's somebody praying at the front, we're gonna come down, we're gonna get prayer. Amen. We're gonna come in, we're gonna push in, we're gonna reach for more of God. We're gonna we're gonna do what we can because we know these things that we've set in place are conducive to a level, another level of the glory of God. And, you know, I there have been times uh that I remember in our church where I've been flattened out on the ground at the front, just flattened. And I felt like I weighed a thousand pounds. I felt like I was being pushed into the ground, and I didn't know if there was an angel standing on my back or what. But you know what? You know, I've experienced you know some levels of the glory of God. And and when you get into the glory of God, it does. It gets heavy, it gets it gets thick and it and it and it begins to change us. Amen. But when we get into those moments, it gives God a chance. This is the first time I preached on this pulpit. I keep looking to this spot right here for a bottle of water. And just realize now it's under here. I'm very dry, so just excuse me for a moment. God loves to dwell in the presence of his people, and this is one of the easiest ways to experience a greater level of the presence of God and the power of God. Amen. One of the easiest ways, you have to show up. You have to be here when the doors are open. Amen. You got to come early and stay late, and you gotta soak up as much of the presence of God as you can. These are all things that we learned over the years, right? And when we do that, we can have an encounter with God where all of a sudden God shows up in a greater way. He reveals another level of his own glory. So that's kind of the third way that we can that we can get to another level of glory, right? Show up, be here, push in, right? Uh, another way is to actually allow God to reveal who you are. And this is kind of a scary one because I don't know about you guys, but I don't always like to know and have God do that to me. Because, you know, sometimes it's like, well, you know, Lord, you know, I don't know if I want to, you know, deal with that area. I don't know if I want to, you know, let go of that attitude or if I want to, you know, and the list, again, can be a long list, but you know what? It's important for us to do that because what's happening is that's that's like the refiner's fire, right? When God comes and begins to scoop things away from you, things that are keeping you from getting into a deeper level of glory. So it's necessary and we have to do that. Sometimes it can happen outside of a church service. Has anybody ever had that happen to you before? Where God has spoken to you somewhere about you outside of church. Does it only happen in church for you guys? Anybody? Outside of church? I find it happens quite often when I'm talking with my wife and my kids. And when I say talking, I don't mean you know having always a nice discussion. I mean, you know what I'm talking about. When you get into the heat of the moment and and uh and and someone someone's pushing your buttons or you're pushing their buttons, amen. And uh and all of a sudden you walk away from that and and God just refuses to point the finger at them. Anybody ever have that happen? This just happens to me all the time. And uh, you know what? God, he never takes her side, never takes my kids' side. Like never. I mean, he always does, he always takes their side, never takes my side, right? So, so these are these are things that we can do. And I've actually learned to listen to God in those moments where you know, all of a sudden he starts to deal with me, and it's like, yeah, okay, yeah. Okay, I was a little short, yeah, yeah. Maybe I am a little grumpy. Maybe I, maybe I'm this, maybe I do need a touch from God. Maybe I should go pray, you know, all these different things. Maybe you need to let go of this, maybe you need to, right? So allowing God to deal with us is another way that we can work towards getting into a better, stronger level of glory. I love uh Isaiah, the prophet Isaiah, who encountered God. You guys remember what he said? This is the prophet of Israel, right? This is the top dog. This is the big Kahona. A prophet gets before God, and what does he say? He says, Woe is me, I am undone. I'm a man of unclean lips. I'm like, what does that make me? Amen. But you know what? That kind of thing can happen when we get with God. Why do we need to reach new levels of glory? Why do we need to be changed? This sounds like a lot of work. Why would why would somebody want to do that? Why would we want to attain a new level of glory in God? Help me out. I'm asking questions. Take a risk. Why would we want to do it? Draw closer to God, yeah. What else? Why is it important that we that we walk in stronger levels of the presence and glory of God? To be able to change, I heard over here. What was over here? Be better disciples. Yeah. You know what? I I think one of the reasons is for the people around us. This is plain and simple as that. I know that there, you know, are times when people come into our church maybe for the first time, and uh they feel something that we may take for granted. They might come in here and be like, wow, no, this is great. And you know, we're kind of like, well, yeah, I guess so. I mean, this is 11, it's 1203. My apologies to everybody. Um, but you know what? Uh they come in here and they experience something that they haven't experienced before. Amen. So to me, that's one reason. It's for people who come to this place that need a touch from God, that need, you know, they that need to experience God, that need to be lifted out of their doldrums. How about your co-workers at work? Amen. How many times has a coworker, you know, said, you know, that they're in pain or they're going through something, or maybe, you know, they maybe maybe their marriage is falling apart, or, or, you know, you name it, right? Those people need us to have a stronger level of the glory of God. They need us to look and sound more like Jesus. When we talk to them, you know, we, you know, it's not good enough for us to just be able to say, you know, oh, gee, you know, that's rough. You know, I really feel for you. How about having the words of Jesus coming out of our mouths and say, hey, you know what? I found hope. I found a person who is hope, a person who can change your situation. Amen. Amen. And here's another one. How about how about for our kids? We talked about the old covenant. Um, I'm almost done, so I might as well call the band up. You guys can come out real quick. Just about done. I love to talk about kids. I think about kids a lot because my wife and I, we work in the school next door, and uh, you know, we've we've got three of our own kids that have come through our school and been in our church since since the womb. They've been here. And uh, you know, we're you know, they're they're doing well, and uh, you know, we're we're very happy. Um, but part of the reason that I think that they've done well is because of what's in this church and and the things of God, the move of God that we have attained to at different times. I know that that my kids have been touched by God numerous times. I was thinking of the my my son, I think, in the old church. He was uh I think he was five years old, something like that. And uh there was an altar call, and uh, you know, we're worshiping and and uh people are moving forward. All of a sudden I felt this little tug on on my shirt. I look down and and he says, he looks up at me and he says, he says, Dad, can I get prayer? I said, Yeah, of course, buddy. Yeah, of course. What do you what do you what do you need prayer for? And uh, and and and he told me what was on his heart, something that he was dealing with, and he wanted God to take at five years old. And uh, you know, it it it kind of shook me, number one, that that kids that young can experience that. You know, we we kind of I think religion kind of makes it difficult for kids to, you know, to reach God sometimes. Sometimes we think that it's more of a an adult thing, you know. We don't realize that it's the same Holy Spirit that can speak to them, that can touch their life. Amen. One thing we have to remember about kids is that kids are just like us. Amen. They need a savior, they're not born under the new covenant. How many people know that? They're not born. They when they're born and you're holding them in there in your arms, they're not born under the new covenant with a relationship with Jesus, with the glory of God. Right? This is the same as the rest of us. We were all born into sin. We all needed a savior. And sometimes I think what can happen is kids can grow up in church, and if they don't get that touch of God, if they don't start moving and having the Spirit of God, the glory of God begin to touch them, I think we kind of abandon them to the old system of the do's and do-nots. And I think that they can it can be burdensome on them growing up and and being, you know, always being corrected, always being chastised, always being disciplined because they screwed up, they did this, they did that. And in fact, I think a lot of times, if they don't get that touch from God, if it does not become their own, I think that they can walk away. And I think I think it's happened lots. And in a way, I understand it. Amen. I mean, you know, we talked about how difficult it was for the children of Israel. The whole reason that they were under that system was to do was to be shown that you need a savior, that there is a better way, there is a better covenant. Amen. Let's all stand up. Thanks for listening this morning. I did go a little bit longer than I wanted to, but uh it's still it's still fairly early. I think that there are people all around us that need us to look a little bit more like Jesus, need us to sound a little bit more like him. And there's something that we have to also remember, and it's it's that if we stop at a level and we don't push on for more of the glory of God, a greater level of glory, I think that we can actually run the risk of going back under the do's and don'ts. How many people know in Galatians chapter 3, Paul's talking to them, and he says, Who has bewitched you? He said, Hey, you guys, you you were made, you were made righteous and perfected by the Spirit of God, and now you want to go back? Now you want to live without the level of glory of God. And uh, I don't know about you guys, but I don't want to do that. I don't, I think there's too much for us to lose, to not attain and not go for more of God, more, more of the glory of God. And I'm just talking, you know, personally in our lives, you know, that there are levels, but you know what? Of course, everything personal becomes corporate when you gather together. Amen. You know, I've been I've been lifted many times coming in here. And there have been times when when uh when we've gotten together um and we've lifted other people, and and that's great because other people were able to experience it. I remember our young adult group when my wife and I were uh running the young adult group. We got together with another young adult group and we had a retreat out of the lake, and uh, you know, we worshiped and we prayed and we sought God. And uh the people from the other uh young adult group were like, wow, this is amazing. God is so good, the presence of God is so strong. And we were just kind of over on the side, and we were just we were sucking wind because we were pushing so hard and and trying to cultivate and trying to do all this stuff. Um, but what was what was happening was there was kind of a there was kind of a balancing that I what I what I would call balancing of the presence of God. We kind of came down a little bit, but at the same time, they were kind of coming up so that we were all kind of together moving as one. Does that make sense? So the the same thing can happen in here, that if if we individually let go of our push and our and our drive for for more of God, I think corporately we can kind of you know start start to settle down a little bit too far. Amen. So I'm saying these things to say that it takes you and it takes me, it takes all of us together. Amen. Amen. Father, we just thank you for today. We thank you for Lord for this wonderful church, Lord. These people that are are hungry for you, Lord, they love you. Lord, we're here, we're worshiping while three-quarters of our year is in snow, Lord. We're here worshiping today, Lord, because we put value on you. We put a high price on who you are. And Lord, we just we just want to give ourselves to you today, Lord. Maybe, maybe for the first time, maybe for the thousandth time, Lord, we want to give our hearts to you. Let's just pray this together. Say, dear Jesus, I thank you for the price you paid. I thank you for being the final Lamb for taking away my sin on a cross so many years ago. I put my trust in you and the work that you did, and I invite you to be Lord of my life. I invite you into my heart, and Jesus, I'll never let you go. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. If you prayed that for the first time today, you know what? I want you to tell somebody about that. Tell somebody here at the church, let them know. We'd like to know, we'd like to connect with you and uh and just encourage you in any way that we can. And uh other than that, um, I don't have a real big altar call uh for for prayer warriors to pray over people, but I will open the altar if if if this morning, if it spoke to you at all, if you think that in your life that you could reach for another level of glory, if you if you think that it would be worth it to begin to set yourself apart, maybe just maybe just a little bit more than you did last week. I'm just gonna invite you to the front to just come and worship for just a few moments. When we do this, when we respond, you know what happens? The Spirit of God comes and he seals the word in our hearts. He comes down and and he takes that word and he just seals it so that it just it doesn't float away on us. Amen. It's our act of faith. That's why we come down to the to the front. We step out in faith when we do this. So, Lord, I just thank you. Holy Spirit, just come and move amongst us today. Come and touch us today. Come and take this church, Lord, to new levels of glory in you. Come and take us to new levels of glory personally, Lord. Father, help us to set aside our bowls of lentils, the things that pull at us. Help us, Lord, to set aside some time for you, to work on our desire for you, to work on our hunger for you just a little bit more, Lord. Because, Lord, there's too much at stake. God, there's too much at stake. There's too much, Lord, to lose out on. Lord, we want our kids, Lord, to know you. We want our kids to experience you. We want visitors to experience you. Lord, we want people to be healed, Lord, in this place. Father, we want our coworkers to hear a word of hope. Lord, to experience the presence of God as we're in the workplace, Lord. We want them to see a light shining from our eyes, Lord. So, Lord, we just thank you for today and we ask, we ask, Lord, that you just seal us today. In Jesus' mighty name.