 Okay, so as mentioned in the last class, we are combining chapter seven and chapter eight as one big chapter. Okay. So we started learning about the presence of God, the importance of it, why it's important and just an introduction. The last class was like an introduction to the class. You know, we look, we started from Genesis, right, and how Moses through Moses, God decides to build a dwelling place. And yeah, that is the introduction, but let's continue on just a little bit. If in case you can't hear me well, if it's too echoey, please let me know. Okay. So again, in the previous class, we saw that presence is the foundation of human connection, right? We connect well with the presence. So we saw that Moses was responsible, he was given the responsibility to build the tabernacle where, you know, God's presence would come in the pillar of cloud and fire, right? So there are two varying manifestations of the presence of God, two varying manifestations. Means there are two ways, there are two characteristics to his presence. Okay, one is omnipresent. That God is omnipresent. Everybody say omnipresent. Okay, so what is the meaning of that? What is omnipresent? Omnipresent, what is it? Present everywhere, present everywhere at one time. That means, okay, present everywhere, present everywhere. Okay. Yeah, get ready, I see your hands raised. Or present everywhere at the same time. On a second, there's something wrong with the output. One moment. Try speaking now, get ready. Present everywhere at the same time. Thank you. All right. So present everywhere, that's what omnipresent is, isn't it? So when we, there are three kind of Greek words that we associate, we connected to God. He's omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent. Okay, omnipotent means what? Omnipotent is all powerful. Omniscient is all knowing, right? All knowing is God of wisdom. And omnipresent is that he's present everywhere. Okay, now, I want you to explain to me, what does this mean? What does present everywhere mean? Jaldi, jaldi. Present everywhere, matlab. Yeah. Okay, one person at a time. If you're talking from the back, talk loudly. Okay, put your hands up and talk. Understood. Okay, that's what I'm asking. You're saying everywhere, but what is everywhere? Where is everywhere? Availability of his presence. Is that what you're saying? Okay. I'm not, I'm not, because I don't know if you're asking question or making a statement. So be clear. Okay, so I see a big question mark on your face. So, okay, simple question. Gertrude says north, south, east, west. Present everywhere means what? I'll keep asking. Present everywhere. It's not a hard question, isn't it? Heaven and earth, Jennifer says, he's present in heaven and he's present on earth. Okay, great. Yeah, he's present everywhere. See, I know what you're saying, but he's present everywhere. But I want you to tell me what do you understand by everywhere? Okay, heaven and earth, correct. No place to hide. Sam 139. Yeah, Esther. Sam 139, remember that verse says, where can I hide from your presence? If I run to the east, you are there. If I run to the west, you are there. If I make my depths, my bed in the depths of the ocean, you are there. If I go up to the heavens, you are there, right? So he's everywhere. Just don't know. Okay, some more. Just take time and explain to me. Just a little bit more. What does present everywhere mean? So he's present. So right now he is here. Where two or three are gathered in his name, he's here. He's here? Okay. At the same time, he's back with your families at home. Yeah, so he's in Bangalore. He's in Chennai. He's in Hyderabad. He's in North India. He's in Australia. He's in America all at once. That's what we mean that he's present everywhere, isn't it? Yes or no? Okay, that's absolutely correct. But he is present everywhere. But that's correct. And that's partially correct. Partially means that half-proof is there. What's the remaining part of that? Because we are human beings. Stop biting your nails, Dad. You're a kiddo. You're just having a moment here in class. Some of your online students should come and just meet us in class in person. It's just very entertaining. So we live in a realm of Earth, right? We all live on Earth. Yes or no? So we are bound by something called time. So when we say everywhere, we think only within the context of time or space. That's why we say that he's in North, South, East, West. Yes or no? It's all bound by time. But God lives outside of time and space, right? He lives outside of time. Are you with me? So let's just say this one line. That's your present, past, future. So when we say that God is present everywhere, he's not just present geographically in America, North America, South America, Antarctica, Arctic, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi. All of that is true. But he's beyond that. He's not just saying that God is present everywhere geographically within this realm, but he is also present everywhere outside of the realm of time. Are you with me? That means he's present in your past. He's present in your present. He's present in your future. That's why Jesus is the only one who can go back to your past and heal your wounds. Understood? Tell me one other person who can do that. In the past, you know, this person hurt me in the year 2012, January. This person, Dan, hurt me. And I'm very offended. I'm carrying this bitterness in me. I was abused in 2010 by my father, by my brother. You know, you're carrying that past wound, isn't it? So Jesus is the only one. Because he's already there, he can touch you and heal you of your past wounds. Are you with me? While you are here in the present, okay, all of this is happening when you are in the present. Now, we are all in the present right now. Let's say life is very hard. You know, I feel like giving up, Lord, life is too hard. It doesn't seem like there's any hope for me. Has anybody made that prayer? Like Lord, I don't know what to do. I don't know what tomorrow holds for me, right? So what he does? Because he's already in your future, through someone or through his word, he'll come back to your present and he'll give you a prophetic word or a word of knowledge. Why? Because he knows where you're supposed to be. Because he's already there. Yes or no? Okay. So, when we say that God is only present, he's not just present geographically. Sorry, I'm saying that again and again. Please forgive me. But he is outside of time. Yeah? What is the first miracle that Jesus did? Water into? He turned the water into wine, right? Okay. Now, we treat it like, it's like, oh, wow, turn water into wine, right? Now, let's just think practically, realistically. How many of you know anything about farming? You know farming? Okay, great, right? So, let's just say, now, the first farmer, he needs the seeds for the vineyard. Yeah? So he plants the seeds. He waits for the rain to come. And the vineyard grows. Yeah? And then he has to wait for the grapes. He has to wait for the grapes to arrive. And then he has to harvest the grapes. Yes or no? Then he has to stomp it, right? All the juice. And then put it into a container. And then wait for the grape juice to ferment, to become wine. Now, I don't know anything about how long it takes. Let's say one year. Yes or no? One year's worth of work. God did it in his vineyard. Everything is already there. He doesn't work in our logic. He doesn't... Time doesn't make sense in his kingdom. Are you with me? For us, it will take one year to make wine. I'm just giving an example. You could do like that. Feeding the 5,000 bread. Anybody cooks? Has anybody tried baking a bread? Okay, so it takes a lot of time, right? You have to put the flour, water, whatever. Put some yeast in it. Let it rest. You have to wait for it to rise. Then put it in the oven, then pull it out. That's just one loaf of bread. It takes time. Thousands and thousands of people were fed because time doesn't make sense in his kingdom. He is outside of time. Are you with me? And when we say that he is omnipresent, he is awesome. Are you with me? I hope you guys are following online. The board might not look... It makes a little sense over here. But that's his omnipresent. And the other side of God is that there are times when he decides to manifest himself. Everybody say manifest. Manifest means to show up. That's what it is, right? To show up. Okay, so he is present everywhere. He is present here. And yet in the Old Testament, we see that God, he showed up like a pillar of fire. He filled the tabernacle with the cloud. Like the glory cloud. Are you with me? So the manifest, the glory of God is the manifest presence of God. I'll say that again and I think you can write it down if you want to. The glory of God is the manifest presence of God. Are you all following? Am I going too fast? Okay. And it is his manifest presence that you and I are called to live in. You and I were made to behold his glory. That's what the Bible says, right? You and me, we were created to be in his glory. And when Romans 3.23, it says, all have sinned and fallen short of his glory. It means because of sin, we can no longer live with him in glory. But Jesus made it possible because of his blood and what he did on the cross. Right? Okay, so let's fast forward a little bit. So in the Old Testament, in the Old Testament they had the tabernacle. The tabernacle had three parts to it. The outer courts, the inner courts and the holy of holies, isn't it? So we'll just briefly look, briefly learn about the tabernacle. If you want to study about the tabernacle in detail, wait till you get to the third year. In the worship ministry, we learn about tabernacle in detail. But this is just an introduction to it. So let's just say a big square. Let's make it a little colorful. Is there a red color? No, right? Is there a red color pen? No, okay. We'll just make one gate with one color. Originally the gate was made up of four different colors. We'll not talk about all that now. Okay, there was altar, there was, and then the table or shepherd, and then there was... I'll just write lampstand. Okay, and the ark of the... So if this was the tabernacle, amazing, no? Beautiful. This is like a tent. So this was the outer courts, right? This is the outer court. You'll get better images of this in Google. Outer courts, this was the inner court, and this one was the holy of holies. Okay, so in the outer courts, this was the altar, altar of sacrifice. It had two pieces of furniture on the outer courts. One was the altar of sacrifice, and the other one was labor, bronze labor. It was filled with water, H2O. Okay. So on the outside of the tabernacle, this is the outer courts. You have the gates. Then you have the altar of sacrifice. This is where the sacrifice would happen, barbecue. Okay. All right. Like barbecue. That's what happened. And this was like a bronze labor. It's like a big hub, which was filled with water. The priests, after performing sacrifice, before entering the holy place, they would have to wash their hands. And all of it has a purpose. We'll get to that later. And in the inner court or the holy place, there was a table of bread on the right side. As soon as you entered in to your right, you will have a table of bread. It will have 12 loaves of bread. And to your left, you will have the lamp stand. And then it was separated by a veil. Before the veil, there was another altar of incense. It was altar of intercession. And then the Ark of the Covenant was kept in the Holy of Holies. Okay. So why are we learning about all of these things? At least just an introduction is we're talking about the presence of God. In the Old Testament, God didn't tell the people of Israel, come in however you want to come. He didn't say that. Whoever wants to come, come. Bindas, come. He didn't say that. He gave very clear instructions to how they should come. And levitical priesthood, you know, Levites, right? They were the levitical priesthood. They couldn't wear anything and come inside. Tone jeans. They had a uniform. Right? It was pure linen. And let's not go into the details. So there was a system, a procedure in how people of God should come into the presence of God. Okay. I want you to understand this very carefully because we are in the New Covenant. You and I have a privilege like no other. We have an incredible privilege. We don't have to offer sacrifices. We don't have to wash our hands. Right? We don't have to carry sacrifices and go like these people used to. But we'll get to that in a minute. Okay. Notice. So Psalm 100 verse 4, it says, I will enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts will. Yeah. Okay. So this is the gate. I will enter his gate with thanksgiving, his court, outer courts with praise. Okay. Now, as you can see, the outer courts was pretty big. It had a lot of space. But as soon as you come into the inner court, the space becomes small. Right? Maybe 10 people could fit in. 10, 12. Max. And when you come into the holy of holies, there was space only for one person. So let's say in the outer courts, 100 people can be there. And the inner courts, 10. And the holy of holies, just one. Now, what I'm trying to say is that you can praise God with 100 people. Right? You can praise God with a group of people. Right? In the crowd. Go to a worship concert. Everybody's jumping. Yes, you. Come everybody jumping, you know. So you can praise him with 100 people. But as soon as you come in to the inner court, or also known as the holy place, the space becomes small for say 10 people. Here, you can, let's say you can serve God with a group of people. Right? You have a team of 10 members. You're running your ministry. So you can praise God in a crowd. You can serve him as a group or as a team, in a team. But you can worship him, only worship him face to face when you're alone. You can praise him in a crowd. You can serve him in a group, but you can worship him only one, on one, face to face. Are you with me? Now, Hebrews chapter 8, verse 5. You don't have to turn. But Hebrews chapter 8, verse 5 says how this tabernacle was a shadow of heavenly things that was shown to Moses. It was a shadow of heavenly things. That means all of this was existing in the heavens. And that's what Moses saw. He gets the blueprint. Now, because of what Jesus did on the cross. Now, let's come, you know, go through from the gate, from the tabernacle. Time and time again, Jesus said, I am the gate in the Gospel of John. If you've read it, you'll know it. Altar of sacrifice is a symbol of the cross. The cross was the ultimate place of sacrifice, where Jesus, right? So, guys, listen, until Jesus' blood hit the mercy seat, the sacrifice that was performed by the priest and the blood that was put on the mercy seat once a year on the day of atonement, right? Was a covering of the sin. It would cover the sin. Everybody say cover, right? So, it was a covering of the sin. But when you read the Gospel, John the Baptist looks at Jesus and he says what for the first time? What does John the Baptist look at Jesus and says for the first time? What does he say? Behold the Lamb of God? Who takes away? Important point, okay? Behold the Lamb of God? Who takes away? Not just covers the sin. Understood? Until the blood of Jesus hit God's mercy seat, it was just a covering of the sin. But it is the blood of Jesus that took away our sins. And this veil was now been torn. This veil is not there. And so, now in the new covenant, we have access to His presence. And the Bible says, come boldly to the throne of grace, isn't it? Bible just doesn't say come to the throne of grace. God is saying, come boldly. That means He's talking about your attitude in the way that you can come. Are you with me? So, we're talking about the presence of God and He has made it available for all of us. All of us. And this is the shadow of Jesus. We spoke about the altar of sacrifice that symbolizes the cross. The water symbolizes the word of God. The word of God washes us. It cleanses us. It sanctifies us. Are you with me? The table of bread. Jesus says, I am the bread of life. Lampstand. I am the light of the world. Thank you very much. Intercession, altar of intercession means I preached who intercedes. Bible says, I preached who's interceding right now for us. Right? And He is the Son of God. So, you see how the altar of the tabernacle of Moses is a shadow of who Jesus is. Yes or no? So, what we call it is the tabernacle, right? So, in the last class, we looked at John chapter 1 verse 14. The word became flesh and He dwelt. In other words, He tabernacled. And the root meaning of that is He pitched His tent. He put a tent. So, Jesus came. Jesus was, He was the tabernacle personified in flesh. The word became flesh and He dwelt among us. Are you with me? So, Jesus, from His throne, from the Holy of Holies, He came out to meet with us. He broke bread communion. On the day that He was on the night that Jesus was betrayed, what did He do? He took a loaf of bread. He broke it. That shows that He wanted fellowship. God of heaven and the earth, the Alpha and the Omega, He left the throne to come and to have fellowship with us. That's what John 1.14 is. Are you following? Yes? So, how do we enter the presence of God? We're talking so much about this, His presence. But let me just pause and look at me. You and I, you and I and those online, we need to become a people of His presence. Are you with me? You and I need to become a people of His presence. How can you read about the story of, say, Moses, which says God spoke face to face with him, or a story about Enoch that says, Enoch walked with God for 300 years and he was no more. How can we read of stories like that and not be hungry for God? How can you not pray, Lord, I want more of you. Lord, I'm desperate for you. Lord, I'm hungry for you. You are the only one who can satisfy me. How can we be silent and how can we not? How can we be so satisfied by being a lukewarm Christian? How can we not be on fire for God? How can we not want to pursue His presence? Like these people did. There were same people like us. There was nothing special about them. Moses was same like you and me. David, everybody was same like you and me. But they were just hungry for God. They were just desperate for His presence. They knew that His presence made the only difference and it is the presence of God that will make the difference in our lives, in your life. If you are not hungry for His presence, don't do ministry. Don't stop right now. Stop doing this degree. If you're not hungry, desperate for God, if you think this is just another time pass for you to get a certificate, don't do it. If you are not hungry for His presence, don't do it. Are you with me? So a couple of the ways how we can enter this beautiful presence of God that we are talking about is one simple, two things is one through the blood of Jesus Christ. There are a lot of scriptures in your notes. If you look at chapter 8, there are a lot of scriptures from Hebrews, from Hebrews chapter 9 to chapter 10. Read the entire chapter of Hebrews 9 and 10. Can you do that for me? Yeah, go through the book of Hebrews is beautiful. We know that. It talks about how Jesus, Jesus was not only the sacrifice. Let me just erase this. What the book of Hebrews will show, what it entails is Jesus. He's not only the offering. He was not just the Lamb of God. He was not just the offering. He was the offering and He was also the Offerer. He's not just the sacrifice. He is also our High Priest. He is not just the offering. He is also the Offerer. What is the difference between offering and the Offerer? Does anybody have 10 rupees? 10 rupees, any change? 100 rupees, 10 rupees. I'll give it back. No one? Oh man, okay. I think I left my wallet. Okay, so offering. Let's say 500 rupees, right? So offering basket comes. I take 500 rupees and put it in the basket. Isn't it? So this is the offering. Who am I? Offerer. I am the one who's giving. So that makes me the Offerer. But Jesus was the offering and the Offerer. He was not just the sacrifice that we speak of on the cross. He is also our High Priest. And you'll understand this when you read the book of Hebrews chapter 9 and chapter 10. Jesus is amazing. He is awesome. He is beautiful. He is holy. He is wonderful. Tell me who else can do something like this? Who can be the Offerer and Offerer? Who can be the sacrifice and the High Priest? My gosh. And all of that is because so that you and I can have access to Him. Understood? He did all of this so that we can be with Him together like it was in the Garden of Eden. Right? So very quickly, just so how we enter the presence of God. One is through the blood of Jesus, through the finished work of the cross. Second simple is through praise and worship. Right? I will enter His gates with thanksgiving, His courts with praise. Okay. Psalm 22 verse 3 it says, God inhabits the praises of His people. Right? God or God is enthroned on the praises of His people. Psalm 22 verse 3. Let's read that. And we'll close with these two verses today. Okay. And I want you to think about it. Are you guys doing online all good? I want to erase this but I don't want to erase this. Okay. Let's leave it. Okay. Cool. So Psalm 100 verse 4 says, I will enter His gates. Whose gates? Whose gates? I will enter His gates. Whose gates? God's gates guys. Why are you thinking so much? I will enter His gates with what? Thanksgiving and His courts with praise. So if I enter God's gates with thanksgiving, if I enter God's gates and courts with praise, and I think I've shared this before, whose gates am I entering when I complain, when I am not grateful, when I am not thankful? Are you with me? So if I enter His gates with thanksgiving, His courts with praise, when I complain, murmur, grumble, being ungrateful, not thankful, I enter someone else's gates. Yeah. Psalm 22 verse 3. If God is enthroned on my praises, if God is enthroned on my praises, who is enthroned on my complaints? It's not a complicated question. Words, right? Words. Everybody say words. Words attract presence. Okay. I'll say that again. Words attract presence. It could be either God's presence or the devil's presence. With praise and worship and grateful heart and thanks, you attract the presence of God. You attract heaven. When you're constantly whining and complaining, wow, my life is like this. Nothing is nice. Bible colleges have to go see all their faces. When you're not thankful, when you're not grateful, when you're constantly complaining, like the people of Israel did in the desert, God was not happy. You attract another kingdom, the kingdom of the devil. And so it is through praise and worship and through the blood of Jesus Christ, we attract the presence of God or we even enter the presence. Okay. So I'll stop here for today. In the next class, we'll kind of resume the practical guidelines. Okay. Cool. Thanks for joining those online. God bless you. Have a good one.