Apostolic Foundations (11 of 12) — Art Katz

Apostolic Foundations (11 of 12) — Art Katz

There's a book called the apostolic imperative. Don't get scared. I'm not going to read it probably just hold it up. It was partially an inspiration for these days. Although I disagree with this eminent Lutheran theologian in a few places, but Considering all the very title itself is worth the price and that it's written by a Lutheran theologian called Bratton is a Statement that something is indeed stirring.

On A chapter entitled the apostolic foundations of ministry. Here's how he begins. The precarious state of the ministry today. The promise of renewal of the church's mission. Depends on the recovery of the apostolic ministry in the church today.

Can you believe that and then? Every church denomination and sect has laid claim to a ministry which in all essentials is apostolic. They all profess that their ministries stand in apostolic succession.

That is because every kind of Christian community lives or dies by its ability to transmit the true apostolic stuff. Whatever that is. So whatever that is is what we have been seeking to speak about in these weeks.

But that this kind of acknowledgment is impinging and touching upon the consciousness of men in ivy-towered Places is a remarkable statement of the recognition that is coming to them of their great need.

So the apostolic imperative is what we've been talking about. For example, what is the apostolic imperative of the church? Toward Israel to move them to jealousy and that by your mercy they might know mercy.

What's the apostolic imperative of the church for the principalities in the palace to unseat them and to? Reveal the fraudulent thing that they are and one day to displace them in the governmental realm.

Hey, we've got quite an agenda. No light task on the things that are apostolic. So if that's the apostolic imperative, what is the apostolic fulfillment? That's what your pastor is going to speak about for three weeks and I want to take a little shot at it Tonight and I want to begin by taking a look at a statement in the book of Hebrews in third chapter and maybe going through Hebrews a little bit to Express what the Lord has put on my heart.

The authorship of Hebrews is disputed by the scholars. I like to believe that Paul is that author? If it proves to be another it's a man of the same apostolic timber the same Apprehension and awareness of of all that was in Paul's deepest spirit.

Paul is the essential apostle and What is apostolic is the picture of the foundation that God intends for the church and the totality of the church? Chapter 3 of Hebrews begins therefore holy brethren who share in a heavenly call.

Consider Jesus the apostle and high priest of our Confession so I want to speak tonight about the conjunction of two words apostolic and priestly. Jesus is the Apostle and the high priest of our confession and we are to consider him in both things.

I want to say by faith that these two terms are inextricably linked you can no more attain to the thing that is apostolic with Independent of what is priestly then you can be priestly without touching the thing that is apostolic.

They are forever linked in the wisdom of God these two great things. Whatever they mean or whatever that stuff is that called rotten refers to that I've caught it. This priestliness is a lost thing to the consciousness of modern Saints.

The only time we ever think of it or hear of it is somehow when we hit a teaching about Aaronic priesthood or Old Testament priesthood or the nomenclature of priesthood or what they wore or what they did or the tabernacle in some kind of historic Description.

It's like a piece of antiquity. It's something ancient and somehow unrelated to the things that are That make up our life. But there's a sense in which Priestliness can be understood that is remarkably relevant.

It's unchanging and it's eternal and it's heavenly. It's the kind of priest that Jesus is that makes him the high apostle the high priest and the apostle of our confession. And if it makes him to a certain to the same degree it makes us.

If we have an apostolic intention, we need also to have a priestly Consideration so I just want to review some things that pertain to the priesthood of Jesus because it pertains also to us who have a heavenly calling holy brethren.

How do you like them apples? I? Like that kind of talk and it's not just apostolic rhetoric. It's not just a kind of fanciful coining of words. Every single syllable syllable of the word holy of the word calling of the word heavenly is fully intentioned by God and we need to receive that into our deepest consciousness we have a heavenly calling holy brethren to be apostolic and to be priestly and For that we're going to receive heavenly Assistance, so I could take you on an excursion through Hebrews just to Develop that a bit.

Entering the Rest of God

And I'm just concerned about the time about entering the rest of God. In chapter 4 Verse 3 for we who have believed enter that rest there's a whole discussion here about the failure of Israel to enter the rest of God because of their disobedience and Because there's their unbelief, but we are enjoined and warned by their failure Ourselves to enter and by faith into the rest that God has promised to the people of God.

So verse 9 says so then there remains a sabbath rest for the people of God for whoever enters God's rest also ceases from his labors As God did from his and that's why the pastor had to say tonight. I don't know what these three weeks are going to be.

I've been touched by this evident waiting on God coming up weak and and not laden with notes and and Feeling your way through by the presence of God for the thing that he wants delivered to enter that rest.

It's an ironic thing, but I can say with certitude and with authority that the tumultuous Conditions that the church will face at the end of the age where our acts will be as Significant as was the book of Acts that described the church in its inception our acts in the conclusion will be every bit as fraught with significance as it was at the beginning if not more so and Yet as hectic and tumultuous as that action is going to be it needs to flow out of the rest of God.

Not out of our anxiety not out of our Apprehensiveness or nervousness or what should we do or should we be doing or we have an obligation? But out it's a it's a paradox. It's an apostolic paradox that out of the rest of God alone and Only will come the most potent and dynamic Apostolic acts at the conclusion of the age.

So entering the rest In which Israel failed is a Is an enormous mandate that is before us. Let's become ungroomed. Let's were jerked by every kind of cause every kind of seeming good thing in which we ought to participate but to be able to rest and To be moved only by the Spirit of God in his time and for his purpose is the place where a whole church must come.

For whoever enters God's rest also ceases from his labors as God did from his. Let us therefore in verse 11 strive to enter that rest and that a remarkable play on words. Somehow it's not going to come by itself.

That kind of rest is not just leaning back in some kind of passivity. There's a apostolic fervency and a passion of concern to come into it or else will not obtain it. And Verse 14 since then we have a high priest who has passed through the heavens Jesus the Son of God.

Let us hold fast our confession. So we have not a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses and so on. But it was tempted in every way yet without sin. Let us then with confidence Draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

And I would do flip-flops. I don't know what I would do right now turn myself inside out if I could Convince you that that is not some kind of Formula that that's not kind of a sleepy incantation. That's not that's not just a familiar verse that we've heard but it's a prescription for life and death necessity in ultimate moments of extremity to find grace to help in time of need.

Counsel and Wisdom in Life-and-Death Situations

Where am I going to find it when I walk the five flights up to that brother's door on December 14th and 15th and knock and Open and and have a word for him and counsel and wisdom and direction. That involves this man's life and the congregation that is joined with him.

Where the issues of life and death are actually at stake where men can disappear and not be seen. Again, where they can be thrown into a dungeon and be lost or be beaten or or what? What kind of wisdom what how shall I prepare?

What shall I say? And how shall we receive it? If you feel that you have a problem, how do we walk out these 12 weeks? What shall he think in terms of the radical things that God might have to say living on the razor's edge as they do?

We need to be able to draw near the throne of grace. That we might receive mercy because therefore we don't receive it. How shall the Jews obtain it from us? And find grace to help in time of need and these times will be increased and become more radically urgent as we go on.

So we don't know how to enter if we don't know how to draw near if we don't have a faith that enters and a faith that can draw near and into the heavenly place if this for us is just a kind of palaver a Rhetoric an empty Kind of talk that is not for us a specific key that can be Actualized and there's an actual entry by faith.

We're not going to find help. So there's so many words about confidence about assurance in verse 11 of chapter 6. So we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness and realizing the full assurance of hope until the end so that you may not be sluggish but imitators of those who through faith and Patience inherit the promises.

The our problem is that we've heard so much that we've not heard. Our problem is that these words have become so familiar that their value has been lost to us. That there is something actual to be inherited that there's something to be endured unto the end.

That there's a holding fast. There's having a full assurance that God really means but for us has been only what should I say ceremonial? Sermonizing words rather than an injunction that spurs us to believe for that in reality verse 17 talks about The promise the heirs of promise and Verse 19 we have thus this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul a hope that enters into the inner Shrine behind the curtain where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf.

Having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Here's where we freak out. Here's where we flip out. Here's where it becomes so abstract so up to the references seem so remote that we drift away.

I hope that's not happening to you tonight. Because before this night is over. I'm going to put before you a charge and a challenge to actually Enter into a place that has prepared been prepared for us beforehand by a high priest who has gone Before and who has made a way of entry.

Through his own blood and by the rending of the veil by the by the tearing of his own flesh Once and for all. Does that mean us and. That this place is the place of faith. That it is the place out of which God would have his end time saints to live and move and have their being.

It is the place of apostolic or authority. It is the place from which we will draw our inspiration and find grace to help in time of need but it's a place in the heavenlies and Yet we have a heavenly calling and yet We're told that we can enter by faith that we could have a confidence in this hope and an assurance until the end either God is playing a game with us and is just verbalizing and titillating us with with abstract terminology or he is meaning something so actual and so obtainable only by faith that if we Verbalize this away.

We have lost the key to the fulfillment of the apostolic imperative. Namely to move and live and have our being out of that heavenly place by faith. Within the veil. It's a hope that enters into the inner place.

So you have a faith that takes hold. You have a faith that's confident. You have a hope that can enter. They did not enter the rest. When God says enter he means something very actual. It's not just an illusion.

It's not a metaphor. It's not just a suggestion. He's talking about a concrete actual entry in a spiritual place by faith and. The issue for us tonight is have we moved from faith to faith? By the ministries that have come to us by the fivefold ministries.

Through the word through our obedience to God and the things that he's shown us in our walk thus far. And we can actually enter by that faith. Into the place that God has prepared for us and in fact in which he bids us enter as Jesus himself did by virtue of his own blood and by the lending of the veil through the piercing of his own flesh and he entered as the Melchizedek high priest a new priesthood a Change the ironic order was abolished when that veil was rent in the crucifixion of Jesus.

It was not just God just drawing something to the attention of a Religious system that has a that had a poet and crucified the one whom he sent, but he was marking an end finish to a whole Ecclesiastical and political thing that had moved so far from God as to fail to recognize him whom he had sent and had crucified him but in the moment that he had given up the ghost the veil was rent from top to bottom it was God's work and It was availed that had covered the holiest place of all.

Behind which only the high priest was allowed in but once a year and that was the blood of calves and bulls. And with that veil was rent. God was saying that priesthood is finished. That blood is no longer valid with the shedding of this blood and with the rending of this flesh.

Another veil has been plotted that the end of which the earthly type is finished. Well, it was only a shadow ever and to begin with to point to the one that is eternal and in the heavens and which. This one who you've crucified is now going to enter not the blood of camps and bulls.

But with his own blood as a high priest that's in the order of now kids that forever once and for all my God. If God is not speaking by his spirit if these are just words. If this is not finding a place in our spirit if we're not laying the hold of this we're missing.

I don't have a word to describe what we're missing. We're missing the consummation if we're just majoring on the atonement for forgiveness of sins and think that that's the whole of what was served in the Crucifixion of Jesus and the shedding of his blood and his ascension on high we're missing the most powerful and eternal Continuing thing that has been made available to us who believe and who can enter that reality by faith.

There's no other way to fulfill the apostolic imperative except from that place you're doomed to frustration and to defeat and Maybe even to the rejection of the faith that you say cannot work that God has put before us Apostolic charge and mandate of the most radical kind and when we sought to walk it out we collapsed and we failed.

Because we didn't walk it out from the place from which God alone Intended that we should from within the veil from the holiest place of all. From the holiest of holy. From the mercy seat from between the wings of the cherubim from where his Shekinah glory and presence is.

Stephen's Speech and Confronting Rebellion

Guys I'm not a wolfing if you believe me for for 10 weeks believe me tonight I'm almost willing to forsake the 10 free which weeks if you but believe this. And Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.

I want to see your incredulity. Dissipate away like like your eyes begin to get more intense like hey is God really meaning this. That this is not metaphor. This is not some just liberal use of words that there's an actual heavenly place that I might enter in the realm of spirit by faith.

Which is the locus and source of my life my animation my energy my wisdom my instruction my power. Even while I'm yet on the earth. Yes, there is. I just finished an assignment for one of my classes and blew the lid off.

I Was low man on the totem pole. I didn't have the advantages of Greek and Hebrew and had to sit there with very bright Seminarians whose Hebrew was better than mine being Jewish and remarkable word studies week after week of such an esoteric kind where every nuance was weighed and and Calculated and so finally I had to give my piece on the final week of that class and my assignment was a critique in an examination of the speech of Stephen that culminated in his martyrdom.

And I realized the opportunity not because I'm I have the tools to do an analytical word study. But I wanted to probe by the Spirit of God. Why is it that this historic recitation you're all familiar with act 7 where he reviews from Abraham the whole history of Israel they're going into Egypt and and Joseph and so on and then at a certain point he breaks off and he said as your father did so do you also you do always grieve the Holy Spirit and.

And at a certain statement at a certain moment they they rush upon him they put their fingers in their ears. They couldn't hear it was there to hear it when he said oh, he said I see the heavens opened and Jesus at standing at the right hand of the father.

And when they heard that they fell into such a rage and fury and And fell upon him and dragged him out of city and stoned him to death. And I never understood why with that statement men should be moved to such a fury until now.

And I'll tell you why. Because the powers of the air That had ruled through a corrupt priesthood to jerk and to manipulate a whole Nation through the corruption of men who were self-seeking and found it necessary that one man should die for the nation That is to say for their system.

Were in a certain moment Brought to realize that the one whom they crucified and saw as the greatest threat to their religious and political power Had now gone from the grave up into the heavens and was at the right hand of the father in the high priestly place.

Which in one fell swoop forever marked a termination to their corrupt earthly priestly rule and when they heard that They rushed upon him and could not bear to hear the revelation of Jesus in the heavenly place.

The powers will move to a fury and reacted in their characteristic violence. Because they knew that their cause was lost and their priesthood and the corrupt rule through it was Terminated for a new priesthood had been initiated through the blood of Jesus and through that eternal sacrifice Melchizedek high priestliness that would be forever.

Thou art a priest forever. It says in Psalm 110 after the order of Melchizedek. Which means for us a better hope through which we draw near to God. In verse 18 The Lord has sworn that says and will not change his mind.

I want a priest forever and this makes Jesus the surety of a better covenant. So in verse 25 consequently He is able for all time to save those who draw near to God through him. Since he is always he always lives to make intercession for them for it was fitting that we should have such a high priest Holy blameless unstained separate from sinners exalted above the heavens.

He has no need like those high priest to offer sacrifices daily. He has no need. I could almost stop right there he's a Heavenly priest he has no need it says another place if he were on the earth, he would not be a priest at all.

And I'm saying these things not only to note the distinction of Jesus, but to denote our distinction. Because if we are in him if we are If he has brought many sons to glory and that he has attained his priestly role by virtue of his sonship.

What does that mean for us that we have entered into that heavenly place through him and with him? Also in the character of this Melchizedek Priesthood so we have a says in chapter 8 the first verse such a high priest one who is seated at the right hand of The throne of majesty in heaven a minister in the sanctuary and the true tent, which is set up not by man but by the Lord and Then it goes on to say in verse 4 now if you're on earth He would not be a priest at all and yet is that to say that that heavenly priestliness has no consequence for the earth.

It has every consequence and significance in chapter 9 Verse 11, but when Christ appears a high priest of the good things to come. Then through the greater and more perfect tent not made with hands that is not of this creation He entered once and for all into the holy place not taking the blood of goats and cows calves, but his own blood.

He entered once and for all. You say art, but That's Jesus. What right have I to enter. And yet the scripture says Enter and find help in time of need. How can I enter? I don't have the qualifications of Jesus.

I'm not that blameless and Unstained and separated from sinners. But God did you enter not on the basis of your own virtue or even your own track record or qualification? But on the basis of his shed blood He entered once and for all.

And one of the questions that's before us tonight Is that we have the faith to believe in the value of that blood as? The father esteems it. Because that blood was so precious in the father's sight it made an entry once and for all into the holiest place of all in the heavens behind the veil.

And we are Invited to enter also not on the basis of our virtue but on the basis of his blood you see how the blood has an application and the meaning beyond the issue of Atonement that few saints have seen or understood in chapter 10 verse 19.

Therefore brethren since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus not our own virtue. By the new and living way, which he opened for us. Through the veil. That is through his flesh.

And since we have a great priest over the house of God. Let us draw near with a true heart in full Assurance of faith with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering for he who promised is faithful. Can you enter on the basis of that promise on the basis of that invitation on the basis of that blood Which opened the way for us a new and living way.

And if I took a poll tonight to ask us How many of us feel that our life now is essentially being lived from that place? That your decisions your inspiration your meetings your strength your encouragement your boldness your spirituality.

Your discernment your sensitivity your knowledge of and the love of God. Stems from that place how many of us will be able to say? Yes, that's where I essentially and consistently live my life and draw my inspiration.

The Tabernacle, the Holiest Place, and God's Presence

In Exodus 25 with the the picture of the Tabernacle that was given Moses on the mount which is the shadow of the heavenly one. Speaks about the holiest place of all and in it in the holiest place is only one piece of architecture.

It's the mercy seat. There's no lamp. There's no candelabra. There's no seven Armed candelabra as is to be found in in the court that precedes it. There's only one thing and it's covered. It's not like the outer court that was open to the sunlight where you could see even naturally and discern certain things.

Pertaining to sacrifice and the issues of atonement. That was basic stuff as you entered into it into the court compound. You could see the brazen Altar and the place of washing and you could see by the light that was natural even the issues pertaining to salvation.

But the issue is how many believers have never gone beyond that place are still fixed in the outer court. They're out-of-court Christians who only know the issue of salvation and that's what they talk about.

They never go beyond salvation and they have no effectual Consequence for the church or for God in their generation and in the world. They're still fixated at the issue of salvation. Fundamentalists to a great degree are described by that.

But there's another course beyond that's called the holy place and there there was a whole an incense burning which is a picture of the Holy Spirit and the table of showbread and. And the seven-branched menorah to give a new kind of light because now you're inside and you're cut off from the natural light.

But you had the light that was burning to show you the issues of the kingdom and the issues of the body of Christ the issues of the church and the holy the incense Altar was a picture of the baptism of the Holy Spirit by which you entered through that veil.

And how many charismatics are fixed there and never go beyond? And the whole issue for them is incense is worship is praises choruses. Satisfied with the terminology of the body of Christ and the issues of church government as if that's the ultimate end and if we've got That straight we've got the whole thing and not realizing there's yet one more court.

There's yet one more court and it's the holiest place of all and there only one could enter in the year a high. For the other places there was much scurrying of priestly activity daily. But in the holiest place of all only the high priest and that was blood.

All right, blemishless sacrifice taken into the holiest place of all behind the veil. No illumination. No candle burning and yet the place was ablaze with the most brilliant light and illumination. From what source from the presence of God himself.

Who is to be found between the wings of the cherubim and by the mercy seat? Because he said to Moses and there I will meet with you. Above the place of mercy and between the wings of the cherubim I will meet with you and I will give you all that is net that pertains In command to the children of Israel, you know what?

I want to say tonight. That's still God's prescription. How do we fulfill the apostolic imperative? How do we find the stratagems? What do we do? There's only one place where we're going to find it. It's going to be where he will meet with us behind the veil in the holiest place of all in the place of his presence in the place of Checking our glory for those who have entered in by faith by the blood of Jesus once and for all.

And who consciously live there consciously have their being there consciously wait on God there. I'm not distracted by by jarring invisible things. Wait for the presence of God wait for the inspiration.

Meet him there there. I will meet with you. I Want to say what the apostolic imperative? Okay, what's the apostolic fulfillment? Fellowship with God in the holiest place of all. Communion with him there.

I will meet with you. It's not that we just get together and I give you a few things that you can say and do. But out of union out of loving fellowship out of intimacy in the holiest place of all. Where my presence is I will meet with you and I will give you all.

That's that's the difference between The Demonstrations of power that will be the marks of false apostles and false prophets and false miracles and lying signs and wonders. All kinds of demonstrations by those who do not know him depart from me you workers of iniquity for I never Knew you.

But then we do great things in your name. But I never knew you. What you did was by the the employment of my name or by a more yet Devious source. But it did not flow out of a union with me out of communion out of the knowledge of me in the intimate place behind the veil in the holiest place of all guys.

God didn't give us a mandate that we were going to fulfill Outside of him. He is the high priest and the apostle of our confession. He's entered a very precious and heavenly place and he wants his church to have his whole life.

It's conduct. It's act emanate from that place and he's entered before us once and for all. Don't let a spiritual inferiority complex keep you up that you don't rate that you're not qualified. God is not looking at your qualification.

He's looking only at his son's blood. Therefore don't throw away your confidence. He who has promised is faithful. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without Wavering so I want to say tonight that there needs to be a new apprehension of the greatness of Christ a new Understanding of the fullness of what was work in his death and the shedding of his blood.

It needs to come to us as an inward Revelation and something that needs to be held in our deepest consciousness. That this is not some fanciful illusion, but something glorious that God has made available For the Saints and this is the kind of thing that will save us from our hang-ups from our self-consciousness.

It's a deliverance from everything in us that has been sickly in which we have looked to ourselves look to our failures. When you come into that presence. When the high priest comes in He doesn't come in with the consciousness of himself.

He could be he's melted in in the consciousness of him before whom he stands. There's a place for us that is so remarkable. For those who can enter by faith there. I will meet with you and give you all Exodus the 25th chapter.

Devotion to Christ Rather Than Religious Zeal

Yet, I want to say that I'm not describing some clinical thing or a technique or a method of how to do it. This is for lovers. This is for those who come into his presence. This is meeting God intimately in the only place where he can be met in the holiest place.

This is devotional and I want to say just a word about devotion in conclusion because God is really Dealing with me in this very area. Where I was deceived the Lord has shown me and where I thought that my zeal for his kingdom or my zeal for his purposes is Tantamount to or the same as a love for and a devotion for him.

It's not you can be carried away by a religious zeal and have very little to do with the person of Jesus himself. In fact what the Lord showed me was that in a way much more deeply than I recognized. I was yet so inherently Jewish that there was something monotheistic in my soul that was repelling the Son of God as Being a kind of Johnny come lately.

I was acknowledging him technically, but I was not plate making a place with him Devotionally as the very incarnation of God in his humanity. That was the basis for union and for relationship. And I was conveying in my own household an abstract God a God of requirement or an ethical God.

But not the palpitating living God in his humaneness and my own humanity was suffering. I've been majoring in the gospel since that time in these very weeks. Drawing close to the Son of God coming to know him Sensing his person.

This is a call for not clinical detachment this is not another methodology of panacea a key and I'll do it the whole thing is predicated on union and Fellowship and the intimate knowledge of him there I will meet with you and Give you all that pertains to the sons of Israel.

So just to read a few things from a precious word on devotion, which is described by this writer as the blending of vehement passionate zeal with love of Abandonment and worship and adoration. Devotion to Christ is the basis upon which end time privileges are bestowed.

It's to these that God will grant power and authority. In a way in because they can be trusted because he knows them because it's not going to be abused or misused. Because this is to lovers who are jealous of his glory and for his honor.

There are things that are reserved for those who love him that will never be shown let alone given to those who? Barge in and think that by a formula or a technique or a method that they're going to have a key to the kingdom.

Devotion means sacrifice. Consecration that is not cold and legal. It's not the abandonment that comes through pressure or the yieldedness that follows severe chastening. We've all experienced that. But that does not in itself constitute devotion.

Devotion is glad. Joyous delight in the will of God be it pain or pressure humbling or exalting. It is the wealth of heart love poured out at the master's feet. Devotion to Christ is the basis upon which end time privilege is bestowed.

Because God's nature is to give those who? Who have moved him by the ardent quality of their love and their devotion? So God has offered us a place by which we can can fellowship with him in that way.

And it needs to come into our faith into our consciousness. We need to see ourselves in that place. Entering it by faith remaining there abiding holding fast being steadfast confident unwavering. You believe that that there's a place.

It's the place where he will meet with us and there I will give you Things that pertain to the sons of Israel to the church commandments inspiration encouragement strength. That we might fulfill the apostolic imperative.

Entering by Faith: A Final Invitation

So I want to end by giving an invitation tonight to actually enter. To enter by faith. I'm gonna have God showed us in the community a few years ago this critical thing. I Had the tape recorder on my chest and my Bible in my hand and I was clicking on and off.

Watching the scriptures as he was going through it and something was building in my spirit. I had lived a Christian life of extraordinary zeal and intensity and we go for God with angels fear to tread and yet I knew that it was a critical area that I in which something was missing in my life in my relationship with the Lord.