 Hey, welcome back everybody and from the break we had a good time Got some water coffee tea Okay Thank you. Thank you. Welcome back Right. So let's just continue from where we left off, right? the act of worship that a woman Displayed was this beautiful It's just a beautiful beautiful act of worship, which will be remembered through the ages to come as well Okay So now when we just let's take a look at the notes page 25 in our notes There's a few pointers there's Says worshipers are givers Okay, worshipers are givers the expensive perfume cost about a year's wages that represented women's entire savings And we spoke about that right And then the second point is Brokenness and tears are true key elements in worship The woman's weeping was an outward manifestation of a heart that was deeply stirred before the Lord right deeply stood before the Lord which We don't know how badly she was weeping It just is weeping so we can we can either imagine that just a few tears rolling down Or she must have just been wailing and groaning You know As she was as she was doing this is crying uncontrollably Right. I'm not sure if anyone of has you know If you've been in a place where you've actually weaped or cried out without any control Right when we've lost some of our loved ones You've seen people, you know this cry and weep out of control, isn't it? So I am imagining that it's not just a gentle tear that's coming, you know, or we say crocodile tears That's not that's not what's happening there I'd like to imagine that she's just wailing her heart out a pouring her heart out, you know, it's crying Weeping, so that's what's happening there and The third point in our notes is The Greek word Proscunio means to kiss the hand towards that's another word for worship right proscunio means to kiss the hand towards to to Reverence or you're paying a homage by kissing the hand to bow to one cell to bow one's self in adoration so That that's another scene that is happening there is that this woman is just pouring out her adoration and all her devotion on Jesus and Point four there and the act of worship may attract attention or defamation from others When David danced before the Lord Mikhail despised him in her heart, you know that True worship sometimes will invoke the criticism of the spiritually barren But real worshipers are willing to pay the price Okay, we learned this in chapter one Of the course is that if we are not the recipient of worship It's not up to us to judge A person who is worshiping at whatever capacity that they are worshiping in Right if we are not the recipients so we shouldn't be You know judging others act of worship. So let let it be what they do is what it is I'm actually reminded of this Incredible story of a very well-known preacher and if I name that preacher you we will all probably know him He was at a conference, you know and towards the end people were getting prayed and one of the women got prayed and She was Laughing out of joy uncontrollably like laughing for a long time Right and then he thought to himself this preacher thought to himself. Okay. She is a little weird and crazy you know and And so this is person next to the preacher she leans towards the preacher and she tells him Do you know that she was a prostitute for 27 years today's the day she got delivered and free I mean a Very good reason for us to not judge another person's worship would be we we we don't know the battles every individual is facing We will never know isn't it? We will never know the battle the other person is fighting What not we will never know what most of the times what the other person is celebrating for Right, so we need to be careful with that a man It's a true worship may attract attention or deformation just like what she did She did not care like, you know, she walked right past through the group of people But her eyes was on the one thing Right. That was Jesus. She was she only cared about him She did not she could not care less about anybody else whose house it was Pharisees house, you know, no, she put her reputation on the line like she did not have any reputation Her reputation was negative But she put all all all down surrendered everything and she just went for it She just went for it because she saw that Jesus was worth it. Amen Finally in page 25 at the bottom The disciples had much head knowledge about worship Having sat at the feet of Jesus for so long, but it took a sinful woman who did not know the theology To emulate being a worshipper before those disciples Spiritual maturity does not exempt one from being a worshiper. Okay, I think we need to read that line again Spiritual maturity does not exempt one from being a worshiper In truth, there should be a greater responsibility on the elders and spiritually mature To worship the Lord and to be examples of worship to others Pastors and church leaders must respond to their divine duty of leading the saints to responsiveness in worship by setting an example By setting an example, amen This is one strange thing that happened just now Alexa responded Excuse me guys, this is very embarrassing. What do I do with that? No, Alexa just responded to me if you're laughing Oh Boy This is like only the second time that's happened. Okay And both the time it's happened when I was sharing And most of the time it doesn't recognize what I say it gives me wrong answers Oh dear what a way to conclude this series session up, okay, okay, let's just move on I hope everybody could take away something from the chapter, right? And just as a footnote, okay, if we were talking about rehab and Tamar Did you know the rehab is mentioned in Hebrews chapter 11 the chapter of faith. She's considered to be One of the heroes of faith That's amazing Please be careful not to put any personal tomatoes during this time. Yes, Divya I will not. Yeah, I don't put any reminders also Okay Imagine I did that personal reminders, of course Okay Awesome, okay Good. Hey, are you learning something? I hope that there's something that you could take away from the last session. Yeah Yes, everybody doing all right Thank you. Thank you Isaac. All right, yes. So now let's move on to the next chapter chapter 7 It is but if we just we do that does anybody have any questions or Does there anything that you want to share? There are no questions will go on. All right Chapter 7 I'm page 26 in your notes is all about Talks about entering the presence of God Okay, entering the presence of God It starts off we're saying the different manifest different manifestations of the presence of God point one being God is omnipresent His presence is everywhere all the time You know Matthew 1820 says we're two or three. I gathered he his name. He is there Okay, that is the only presence And then in point three the second Chronicles 5 chapter 13 and 14 talks about the cloud of glory Filling Solomon's temple and the singers and the musicians lift to their hearts in praise. Okay So when we talk about the presence of God, what is the first thing what what is the one of the most important thing that Comes to your mind when we talk about the presence of God. What does the presence of God mean to you? Come on guys. I'm coming down on that. Okay Holy Spirit. Yeah, all strange stuff has to happen today. Okay, I haven't coming down to earth It's a privilege to be in his presence, right? Yeah presence of God when we say that what does it mean to you? But that that is the question. What is the first thing that comes to your mind? Can I share? Yes, Divya. Yes Yeah, certainly I was reminded of some eight where it says Like what is man that you're mindful of him the son of man that you care for him so the presence of God, you know, that's so much full of love and Purity and you know, just wants to be with us sinners. Yeah, so That's I can't even comprehend the depth of his love To do that to just be mindful of my Nitty gritty, you know details of life. Yeah Thank you. Thanks, Divya Yeah, Rosalind anybody else subwoo Priya. What do you think about? What's the first thing that stands out when you think about the presence of God? Nikki, Dripika anybody John Anything else besides heaven coming down to earth? It's a good no I think as Divya was mentioning, it's it's more like Facility where we get to meet with the king of kings and When we call upon his name, he comes down with his power By all his grace not even considering What has happened in our life, but he manifests in his power And this has we discussed before with While heaven coming down to earth like with all the angels worshipping him the experience that we Get to realize when we see the face of God Yeah Thanks, John. Thank you Anybody else Hey Priya shares when I think about God's presence, it's me pouring myself to him. It's tears for me So the totally says communion with him. Okay presence of God is where we become one with God right, yeah, and I think I mean I I It's very dangerous for us as Christians to become very overly familiar with terms like this, isn't it? I Mean we use it all the time, you know, even if you're leading worship or in churches, you know His presence is your let's welcome the presence of God in our midst I mean we are seeing the truth, you know And we say that with all honesty and you know, genuineness But what I'm only trying to say is that it's we have to be very careful because we use that phrase so often in in, you know, a In our Christian circle, isn't it? You know, his presence is here. Let's welcome the presence of the Lord And there's so many songs about his presence Etc. Etc. But you know, I mean we just want to take things slow and just look at those words Individually when we look at the presence just the presence It's it simply means it That something is present Something or someone it's present. It's it's there with us, right in in your presence, right? It's there and now when we look at the presence of God It needs to add some weight, isn't it? That means the maker of the universe Right the Alpha and the Omega The father of lights the ancient of days from everlasting to everlasting. He is God Right I mean you see Read in Isaiah. He says okay. Look up to the heavens. Who created all of these The one who just parted the Red Sea with the blast of his nostrils The one who sustains the universe Isaiah again says in the span of his hands like about there the entire universe Is like right there he is present Right, uh, and one of the first example there in point one is God is omnipresence means his presence is everywhere all the time It's a classic. It's so easy for us to understand in this context because we are all Uh from different places. We started off today's session by you know, I was asking a couple of them Where are they from? Uh, you know, which town which city are they from? So we are we are connecting on this call from different places geographically physically And to know that he is there He is with you right there It's amazing, isn't it that he's present So he is omnipresent But then there are times where he manifests. He shows himself more tangibly Right, um now I mean, if you even if you've if you've had siblings at home, I mean, you know how it is, okay Me and my sister we were scared of my dad. I mean if he was at home We would behave differently if he was not at home. We would behave differently Okay, how many of you guys have been there? Okay uh So when he was at home, even though we were in our room and he was in a different room Yeah We know that he's present his presence is there And then so if we make some noise or whatever, you know, do something that we were not supposed to do It's a very different feeling when he shows himself up in our room Isn't it then, you know, we are in trouble types Uh, you know, it's it's a similar situation. Uh, we're wherever we are, you know, for let's say we are in a cafe, you know, uh, you know A very well known person, you know, a celebrity whoever right who's in the same cafe Who's having a coffee in a different table, but you also happen to be there having coffee So, you know, the presence is that you are aware of the person's presence But the atmosphere changes when that person or that celebrity walks towards you and stands in front of you and says like, hey How are you? isn't it right so And And as the scripture says right in second chronicles 5 13 like in the as it's mentioned in the notes It says the cloud of glory This filling soloments temple right the cloud of glory. So that was simply means the shakana glory, which means the weight There's a weightiness to his presence. That's very Tangible, right? It's a cloud of heaviness of weight that would come and fill so Um, and so we need to understand this, isn't it? So he's present everywhere and there are times that he shows himself And towards the end of this session, hopefully Uh, we'll put across, uh, you know One key at least and how we can walk in the manifest presence of god in our lives Okay, um, let's move on. Um, the second point there talks about our approach towards this god's presence Now how do we approach this presence of god? Uh, you know, this mighty one this lofty one the holy one of israel, uh, there there's We need to approach you the reverence, isn't it? So and that's what the points there states Okay, we approach the presence of god and can either be through praise Or through worship, okay just to share some of the scriptures that's mentioned there for us is Some 100 verse 4 it says enter his gates with thanksgiving And his courts with praise enter his gates approach, right? Some 95 verse 2 Says let us come into his presence with thanksgiving. Let us make a joyful noise to him with the song of praise Some 42 verse 4 says These things I remember as I pour out my soul How I would go with the strong and lead them in procession to the house of god with glad shouts and songs of praise And multitude keeping festival And uh, let's look at uh, uh, isiah chapter 30 isiah chapter 30 was 29 Isiah chapter 30 We've wasted in the chat section. I'll do that Yes, thank you for sharing that in the scripture Isaiah 30 29 says you shall have a song as in the night when a holy feast is kept and gladness of heart As when one set out sets out to the sound of the flute to go to the mountain of the lord To the rock of israel And finally this is one last quote And finally is one last scripture isiah 3510 says and the ransomed of the lord shall return and come to zion with singing Everlasting joy shall be upon their heads They shall obtain gladness with and joy and sorrow and sorrow and sighing shall flee away Okay, so those are just some of the key scriptures not the only ones some of the script scriptures talking about entering his Presence approaching the presence of god with praise with song which shouts of joy with with gladness right with with musical instruments We enter his kids with thanksgiving and his courts with praise man And the other one as mentioned is through worship First chronicles 16 29 it says Ascribe to the lord the glory due his name Bring an offering Okay, bring an offering and come before him Worship the lord in the splendor of his holiness Okay, bring an offering and come before him Uh in the previous chapter chapter 6 we read about i mean we learned about the difference between spiritual worship and fleshly worship And under spiritual worship. We see that god has called us to be his royal priesthood Isn't it? Yes, um, I hope I'm not going too fast, but In under spiritual worship. We learned that god calls us his royal priesthood now One of the important things that we need to know is that the priests Never went before god empty-handed They never went before him empty-handed And so no as we are called his royal priesthood. We need to know that we are ministers We are ministering unto the lord in his presence And now of course we don't have an offering what we go before him is with everything that we have with our hearts completely surrendered to him So we cannot go into his presence with uh, you know without offering without willing to offer up our hearts and so in surrender To him And then other scriptures. Let's go to uh ecclesiastes actually ecclesiastes chapter 5 verse 1 and 2 it says Guard your steps when you go to the house of god To draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools For they do not know that they are doing evil Be not rash with your mouth Nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word Before god God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore, let your words be few Okay One one more scripture and we will kind of move on Let's uh, this one last scripture guys. I'm sorry for reading a lot of scriptures. Uh sam 132 verse 7 Sam 132 verse 7 it says let us go to his dwelling place Let us worship at his footstool Okay, let us work. Let us go to his dwelling place And let us worship at his footstool a dwelling place is his tabernacle. That's where god lives. That's where he dwells, right? So our approach to god's presence can either be through praise and through worship And so we've learned in detail about you know praise and worship in chapters Two three four and five right um So that goes on to say in the notes that there is uh, No Formula there is no right or wrong way It's only god's way, right? It may be different every time A worship leader must have a deeper prayer life and must cultivate Sensitivity to the spirit of god in order to discern the way of god for each service Okay, and I think that point just kind of highlights uh about us becoming over familiar with the way god works Right, okay. This is how we moved yesterday. So that's how he's going to move today Right, uh, and if you remember one of the definitions of worship, I'm not worship. We started off was Uh, but this person who says every definition is dangerous. Um, and you know Putting worship into a box is dangerous and you know putting god inside a box is very very dangerous saying This is how he will move You know every sunday or every day In uh in our lives it can be very tricky. So being sensitive to the spirit of god leaning in to listen Right leaning into listen to what he has to say um Is very important. So you know our prayers should be If we are leading worship or in general Let me say what you want me to say. Let me sing what you want me to sing. Let me speak what you want me to speak right is would be a good reminder of you know for For us to be on the right track Okay, so I hope you guys are with me so far um And then the third section of this chapter goes on to say the responsibility of ministering unto the lord is the responsibility of every worshipper Right a responsibility of ministering unto the lord is a responsibility of every worshipper. Why because we are all Uh, we are all a royal priesthood now. Okay. It's not just your pastor. Uh, you know your worship leader or your worship pastor Who is a priest and who is called to uh, you know who he's not some high priest He's the only one who has access to the presence of the lord to the throne of grace now It's all of us. We are his royal priesthood. Therefore It is all of our responsibility as well to minister unto the lord that was The priest had two primary responsibilities. His first primary priority was to minister unto him minister unto the lord And the second priority was to minister unto the people So our first priority as priests is to minister unto the lord first develop that communion With him that intimacy with him And out of the abundance of that your ministry towards people should flow Amen, uh, so we prepare ourselves for worship with prayer with word and confession We invest energy, uh, we we need to be self-motivated in our praise and worship Sam 103 says bless the lord. Oh my soul a intrinsic motivation as they call it We worship despite distractions. We worship all week long Um, so that is a call of a worshiper and it's so much in line with us developing uh, living becoming a worshiper right Um, another reminder from the second point of the third section. It says we prepare ourselves with worship with prayer word and confession It's interesting that it doesn't talk about Guitars or drums or learning the songs, uh, you know It says prayer You prepare for worship with prayer word and confession And um, you know the word of god is so important Yes or no Right, uh, you know in this day and age in this generation. Um, as I've mentioned, you know The topic and the subject of worship Uh has become so popular. Uh, you know, you don't really need to There's so much of teaching on worship rightly so and You know the people the the percentage of people telling that i'm passionate about worship Than prayer has increased in the last 15 to 20 years and And I want to just remind us of the importance of the word of god. Okay David as we all know was a passionate worshiper and if We cannot talk about worship on the subject of worship and not talk about david, isn't it? and so, um, you know and in second samuel I can I am not sure if I've shared this with you, but if I have please forgive me So in second samuel chapter six We see, uh, you know david is now Uh, you know the king of israel and juda right? He's He's been he's been anointed as king sol is gone. David defeats the philistines And in second samuel chapter six We see one of the first thing that david does Is to go and bring the ark of the covenant back into israel What he's doing is he's going to you know Bring the presence of god because the ark of the covenant was a symbol that the presence of god was with israel Right now david is fully passionate now. He is the king now He's fully passionate about bringing the presence of god Back into israel and he's doing the right thing He's just very passionate, but we all know what happens in second samuel chapter six Uh verse six it says When they when they came to the threshing floor of nekon Usa reached out and took hold of the ark of god because the oxen stumbled Right, so it tells us that the ark of the covenant was placed on a cart Are you guys with me? Yes, no maybe Okay, good. Thank you It's the oxen stumbled and uza kind of reached out and he dies. Okay the actual word there is he exploded I'm sorry. I'm laughing but But why am I trying to point this out is So david has become king Okay, he's a passionate worshiper. He has full passion for the presence of god And as a worshiper and he wants to bring the presence of god back into israel now Approximately about 400 and 430 years prior to this Okay, god tells something in the book of deuteronomy. Okay, please go with me to the book of deuteronomy in chapter 17 Deuteronomy chapter 17 Okay, tell me when you're there So it's important Okay, deuteronomy chapter 17 Okay, awesome I'm going to read for us from verse 14. Okay, just bear with me deuteronomy chapter 17 verse 14 onwards Once again, remember, this is about 400. Let's say 400 years before second Samuel chapter 6 Okay, it says when you enter the land the lord your god is giving you And have taken possession of it and settled in it and you say Let us set a king over us Like all the nations around us so The word of knowledge that god is giving prophetic is it's amazing. I mean he's god. He knows everything But to give something this instruction like this. He knew That 400 years from now that israel is going to ask a king. So he says when you will ask a king Okay, he's not say you might or you know says you say Let us set a king Over us like all the nations around us Be sure to appoint over you the king the lord your god chooses Okay, here we go. He must be from among your own brothers Do not place a foreigner over you one who is not One who is not a brother israelite that king Moreover must not acquire great numbers of horses for himself or make the people return to egypt to get more of them For the lord has told you you are not to go back You're not to go back that way again Verse 17 He must not take many wives For his heart will be led astray. He must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold verse 18 When he takes the throne of his kingdom He is he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law Taken from that of the priests who are levites It is to be with him and he is to read it all the days of his life So that he may learn to river the lord his god and follow carefully all the words of this law and the and these decrees And not consider himself better than his brothers and turn from the law to the right or to the left Then he and his descendants will reign a long time over his kingdom in israel Okay, so god is instructing Is giving us this command saying that okay when you eventually get a king. This is what the king is supposed to do I mean apart from having Dwellery gold and wives and whatnot one of the key thing god tells us the king Is to make a copy of the law that is the word Of god and keep with him And he is to read it Day and night meditate on it and more sometimes even read it in the prayer Read it in the presence of the priests Now something tells me that david did not do that Had he done that he would know from the law that it the ark of the covenant was supposed to be carried by The levites Isn't it And then david learns that from you know after you know, he goes back after uza dies He's angry with himself. He's angry that this happened and then he goes back and he learns he reads the word He studies the word and says okay the ark of the god of the covenant was not supposed to be care Put on an oxen or a cart. It's supposed to be carried by men who are levites who are from the tribe of levites And so this is just to emphasize the importance of just word of god if david had done that Maybe uza would have been alive You know, he didn't have to die the responsibility of a king royalty And now in the new covenant we are royal priesthood But that comes the importance of us Giving importance to the word of god as well. Isn't it guys? We can't just say, you know I'm passionate about worship worship worship. Oh, I love worship. I love worship. I love worship. I love worship And not say I don't like the word of god Amen, and so let the story of david be an important, uh, you know Remember reminder for us that in in this journey of worship as you go as we become worshiper We cannot forget the word of god Man your love for his word has to keep increasing And finally in this chapter it ends at the bottom with the sacrifice of praise And he grew starting 15 we've looked at that verse Many times talks about the fruit of your lips which is the sacrifice of praise and First peter chapter two verse five again, you know talks about how Uh, we are brought in to the royal priesthood of priest Through jesus christ Okay, uh, can we just uh Are you guys okay to read a couple more scriptures? Oh, you're all okay There's too many scriptures for today Yeah, I would I mean I just want to encourage and go back home and read the scriptures that's mentioned in the sacrifice of praise there, right? And so all of this is in subject of this chapter that's talking about entering the presence of god Right and the last section is talking about the sacrifice of praise Right, so there is a sacrifice that's involved in worship and in praise And uh And I'm just setting the tone before we go into the next chapter Where we will talk about the tabernacle of moses Before A first sacrifice was made right before any sacrifice was made. There's a scripture that says Uh, obedience Is better than sacrifice Isn't it Obedience is better than sacrifice And so one of the first thing that god accepted Expected of a mankind was obedience You know, uh, we see in genesis chapter two. Um, genesis chapter two I think Verse 11, I think I'm finding hard to okay Genesis chapter two someone was it says the lord commanded them not to eat They can eat from every other fruit except for that certain fruit And then coming down to a chapter three verse 11 We see that who told you that you were naked Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from So there is obedience associated with the law the commandment of the lord Right and then in the same chapter When we come genesis chapter three, I'm sorry and genesis chapter three was 21 it says The lord god made garments of skin For adam and his wife, uh and clothed them So god made his own first sacrifice And out of which we made to the skin and clothed them So before sacrifice, what was expected was obedience Right and and that is And it was And that was the only difference Between them adam and eve being in paradise and not being in paradise. I mean paradise as in the garden of union. That's the reference and so uh Okay, uh, I promise just one last scripture. Okay Let's go to exodus chapter 40 apologize guys Exodus chapter 40 Okay, I'm not going to read the entire scripture entire chapter Okay, that chapter starts off by saying Then the lord said to moses Okay, the lord said to moses and there's a set of instruction Look at let's go to verse 16 Okay, exodus 40 verse 16 It says moses did everything just as the lord commanded him Are you with me? Moses did everything just as the lord commanded him. Let's come down to verse 19 Then he spread the tent over the tabernacle and put the covering over the tent as the lord commanded him verse 20 A 21. I'm sorry verse 20. It says he took the testimony and placed it in the ark Verse 21 the last part it says as the lord commanded him and so If you read that chapter all the way down till Verse 33 All the way down till verse 33. It says moses did everything as the lord commanded him. That means moses obeyed Everything what the lord commanded him to do just as we saw in the garden of Eden first got got commanded them not to eat from the fruit And then they break that obi, you know They break that commandment and hence sacrifice comes in and but then looking at this chapter It says moses did everything that the lord commanded and then verse 34 pay attention Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting and the glory of the lord filled the tabernacle The manifestation of his presence Is happening in that place and so I want us to I want to leave us with this one thought today Uh Entering the presence of god beyond the sacrifice anything that you can we can offer and bring before him When we walk in obedience You will walk in the manifest presence of god All our lives Amen so I want to encourage us all with that word And leave us with that word today Thank you all for being very patient Um, let's just pray and we look close. Okay Father we thank you For this time. We thank you for this opportunity that you've given us to learn from your word Holy spirit. I pray that your everything that we heard will bear fruit in our lives Help us to be extravagant worshipers. Jesus. Holy spirit. Help us to see the worth the worthiness of Jesus And thank you for everything you are doing in our lives in Jesus name. I pray. Amen. Amen. Amen Amen guys. Thank you. I'll stop the recording now Thank you everybody for joining in