QBC Prayer Gathering 07/21/2024

Intro

In my personal time with the Lord, I have been reading out of Leviticus and Numbers. As I prepared for leading this morning’s devotion, I asked God what verse or passage that He wanted me to share with you that could serve as a call for us to recognize Him for who He is and give us great reason why we show up for these prayer gatherings every other week.

Sunday mornings can feel predictable, almost as predictable as going to work or school. We show up here around 9am or so. Gather for prayer and hear someone talk and then some of us share requests. After that we catch up with friends and get ready for service. Service begins, we sing four songs with some scripture readings in between followed by our catechcism and pastoral prayer. We hear Marc preach for 45 minutes or so and then call it a day.

It is good that we have rhythms, and it’s even more good that we make these Sunday mornings a priority, but we shall never forget the purpose or reason why we gather and bring forth our requests and praise for God.

Text

So the passage that I had stumbled upon as I was surveying Leviticus for our gathering comes from Leviticus 26:1-2,

Leviticus 26:1–2 ESV

“You shall not make idols for yourselves or erect an image or pillar, and you shall not set up a figured stone in your land to bow down to it, for I am the Lord your God. You shall keep my Sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary: I am the Lord.

Leviticus and Numbers are arguably two of the hardest books to get anyone to read because they are all about the Old Testament Law that God gave for His people Israel to obey. While difficult, there is so much beauty in the law that is easily overlooked.

The phrase that appears twice in these two verses, “I am the Lord” appears 49x times in the book of Leviticus. In all of the Old Testament Law, this phrase appears 76x. So of those 76 times that phrase appeared in the Law, 49x it’s here in Leviticus. God in His law, wanted to make it clear for His people who He is. He is the Lord.

In verse 1, the first command out of Leviticus 26 is about not making any idols that would take the place of God in our lives.

AW Tozer, a well respected pastor and theologian described idolatry as this in his book The Knowledge of Holy,

“The essence of idolatry is the entertaining of thoughts about God that are unworthy of Him”

When we abandon to think about God or even worse replace God with something less, we are saying unknowingly to ourselves that whatever thing that we made or brought our attention is the new lord of hearts.

Pastor Aaron a few weeks ago preached on the fear of man and even now Pastor Marc is preaching out the book of Ecclesiastes. Their teaching like here in Leviticus should serve as a reminder of just how temporal and powerless everything in this life is. We have a communion with the Lord of Lords and that should be of the greatest value to us. And what’s awesome about God, is like how he delivered His people out of Egypt in Exodus, we bear testimonies of deliverance.

Moving to verse 2, the second law described is in relation to keep the Sabbaths and reverence the Lord’s sanctuary.

In the new covenant, the temple of God that exists is existing in the form of our own bodies as Paul described it in 1 Cor. 3:16

1 Corinthians 3:16 ESV

Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?

Warren Weirsbe in his commentary on Leviticus says, “Our bodies are the sanctuary of God and we must be careful to use them.” Like how the Israelites needed to be careful when entering the tabernacle, we need to aspire treat our bodies carefully as we roam around this world. Why? Because the living and breathing Spirit indwells within us! How awesome is it for us in this new covenant age to read the words of the Old Testament and celebrate the fulfillments of God’s promises.

Conclusion

We can enjoy God for who He is as our Lord and secondly, we have unlimited access to Him by the indwelling of His Spirit.

He is the Lord our God and how great is it to be here this morning in the fellowship of His people bringing praise to Him.

So as we turn to Him in prayer, would we be reminded of how important this is and How great He is. Because He is Lord and we do have unlimited access to Him.