Book of Psalms - Psa. 20, Vs. 1-3

All right, welcome this morning, glad to have you here. Hey there, Sammo. We are going to be in Psalm chapter 20 today. And there's only nine verses. Whether or not we'll get through all nine verses is yet to be seen.

We do have a lot to share and a couple of tangents I wanna go off on. So if we don't get through all of it, we'll finish it up next week. I do believe we can get through all of it in two weeks, I think, but there's a good chance we'll get through all of it in one week.

So let's start with a word of prayer, which will be appropriate since this is a prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you that it's truth. Lord, we ask that you help us to receive this word and to think about it, help us to understand it.

And if you would just shed new light on it for us, Father, so that it sticks. Lord, we love you. It's in your name we ask these things, amen. All right, so Psalm chapter 20, verse one. This, by the way, before we get into the verses, this is a prayer by a king for a king.

It is an example of David basically saying things that he wants himself to hear, but not just himself, because he's not praying to himself. I don't want you to get that idea out of this. Essentially, David often will say things that he himself needs to hear.

He says it to others. He says it to the Lord. And in this particular chapter, we're gonna see him praying to his king. But as a king, this is certainly a prayer he would hope that his servants would pray for him.

And so in a sense, it's not just by him, it's for him as well. And I think when we read through this, we will see that why this scripture in a couple of different ways, from a couple of different perspectives.

One, we are the servants. David himself sees himself as a servant. Even though he's a king and he knows he's the king, he's gonna pray from the perspective of a servant. And of course, this is inspired by the Holy Spirit.

So the author is indeed writing to someone else, right? And so while David is the penman and he's writing these words, he is writing them for the Lord. And it's kind of this strange, seven layers down thing that you can go through this chapter and you can put yourself in any one of the perspectives and learn something from it.

One of the things that I think is important about this, the fact that it is a prayer by a king for a king, and to his king really, is that because even though he's a king, he prays as a servant, what does that require for a king to pray as a servant?

To be humble, right? And 2 Chronicles 7 .14 tells us, if my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray, you remember that verse? And then it goes on to say, and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

So we have here a perfect example of that. We have a king praying like a servant. He's humbling himself. Humility is the precursor to an effective prayer. I want us, as we go through chapter 20, to not just read the prayer, because the prayer is truly an opportunity for the one praying to ask the Lord for multiple things, which we'll see.

It's all of this, like, we want help, we want protection, we want deliverance, we want provision. But as we go through this chapter, I want us to not just think of what we're asking the Lord for, but what is the precursor to the things that we are asking?

When God gives to us, we see God's sovereignty on display. He's in control. He's the one that provides. He's the one that takes care of everything. He clothes the flowers of the valley. The lilies of the field.

But what we often don't realize is when we're asking for that activation in our lives, there is a side where we are responsible for. And as we read through this prayer, if we'll think from that perspective, we'll see the prayer in a whole new light.

Can we do that? Sound good? All right, so the idea of this prayer is that a king is about to go into battle. Or could be that the king is about to be crowned, which means battles will surely follow. So the prayer is a prayer of preparation.

It's a prayer of, well, multiple things, but it's a prayer that is anticipating conflict in the future. This is something that David writes, we should pray in the times of trouble. So as David writes these things, it's something that he himself would hope others would pray for him, but he is praying it to his king.

It is a prayer he might would send to an ally king or maybe an heir king like Solomon, right? This might would be a prayer that he would send to his son, of course, we know he wasn't with his son much longer after he made his son king, but that's the kind of king he would be sending these prayers to.

It'd be for the king that he serves or for the king that he is allied with. So let's start here, Psalm chapter 20, verse one. To the chief musician, the Psalm of David, in matters of the king, of course, the chief musician would be employed here, so that's why it goes to the chief musician.

This is a kingly matter and a kingly prayer. Verse one, the Lord hear thee in the day of trouble. Okay, so when that dreadful day of trouble is upon the king, may the Lord hear him. See, that's one perspective, writing to the king, right?

I'm writing to the king, king, in that day of trouble, may the Lord hear thee. As a humble and faithful and loyal servant, we could pray that for our king, right? But what if you are the king, right? You're not just praying to the king.

It may be a prayer that you would like to see prayed for you in the time of trouble. Pray that the Lord will hear my prayers. All right, so this is a two-sided coin. Everything we see in this chapter is gonna have two sides to it.

This is the Lord hear thee in the day of trouble. So let me show you what I mean by two-sided coin and what has to be a precursor to the ask. For the Lord to hear you, what has to happen? You gotta speak, right?

For the Lord to hear you, you must first call out. It requires for us to cry out to the king, which means this prayer is not only one hoping the Lord will respond, but also that in that time of trouble, the king would call on the Lord in the first place.

If you are a servant in a kingdom, would you not hope that your king would cry out to God in a time of trouble? We think of living in America, right? This is our earthly kingdom, so to speak. We would hope that our leaders who think themselves kings, they're actually supposed to be our public servants the way we've set up our government, but they think themselves kings, they act themselves kings.

And in some cases, they may even call themselves kings. By any stretch of the imagination, we put them in authority over us, or rather God puts them in authority over us. And so we do subject ourselves to the higher authorities here in America, which we are to do as Christians, but we would pray as servants to those kings that the Lord would hear them in a time of trouble.

We want that, but we also want them to call unto the Lord in the time of trouble. For God to hear them, we are implying, please call out to the Lord, right? The next part of this verse says, the name of the God of Jacob defend thee.

Got a question for you. How does a name defend you? Any ideas? Okay, using his name holds the enemy at bay. Why? What's powerful about a name? Okay, so the Lord's name is strength. Like that, it's true, absolutely.

I thought I saw a hand in the back. Do you have something to say? Yes, sir. Indeed he is, he is claiming a promise is made to Jacob. How can he do that? How can he claim the promise that's made to Jacob?

There it is, all right. It included the future generations of Jacob of which David belongs, right? So how does a name defend you? Well, ask any of the powerful people in the world how their name defends them.

The Clintons, the Obamas, the Bidens of the world. They're first ones that come to mind in which they would probably need protecting because they've done some things that otherwise would get any of us in a lot of trouble.

But because they have a powerful name on earth, they are protected by that name. Now, what's required? What's the precursor? Relationship. What is the thing that makes someone with a powerful name vulnerable?

Is there something that can make them vulnerable? If they have the name, right? They are related, but what could make such a person vulnerable? How about estrangement? When someone is estranged from the family, the enemy sees that as an opportunity to attack.

If you are not on good terms with the family, you may still have the name. And it may, even just because you have the name, it may actually at least cause others to pause before attacking. But if they see, oh, he's not in good graces with the family, he's not connected to the money, speaking in early terms here, he may actually be vulnerable.

You may be able to get him. Why do you suppose it is that currently the one who is mostly in the news for lawsuits in the Biden family is not Joe Biden, but rather his son? For this very reason, because his son, while he does still have the name and is probably still to some degree protected by that name, there is a vulnerability there because he is not in right relationship.

Of course, it's kind of hard to be in right relationship with such a messed up family to begin with. But that's the point, is that when you are not in right relationship, you find yourself at risk. So the precursor for the one being defended by the name of the God of Jacob is right relationship, because there is relationship there, right?

There is still promise in that name for this King, and this is a good family, by the way. I don't want to go too far with the whole Biden analogy here. This is a name worthy of protection, right? This is a name worthy of relationship, and the promise that was given to Abraham is far superior and far more powerful than the money that protects the Biden name, I should say.

But think of the prodigal son. Did he find himself at risk when he was estranged? He did, and when he returned into the father, he was back in the fold and it was safer for him there. He even said, it'd be better that I just go back as a servant, right?

He understood that. And so when we read the name of the God of Jacob, defend thee, it's not just a prayer for defense. It's not just a prayer for protection, but it's also a prayer that the King, in this scenario, would have right relationship with the father, right relationship with the name bearer.

Now, for David to be writing this as a servant, who does he serve? He serves God, the King. He knows that these prayers are gonna be answered, as we'll see later in this chapter. Like these are not, oh, I hope that God is in right relationship.

Oh, I hope that God is able to defend. None of that occurs with David. There is total confidence in this prayer, as you'll see. But if this was a prayer for another earthly King, that would certainly be part of the hope, that the right relationship would be there with God.

As a King goes into battle, there are certain things he must do prior to going into battle to ensure victory, which we'll see here in just a minute as well. So this is not just a prayer for protection, but also for deepened relationship.

Let's move on to verse two. Send thee help from the sanctuary and strengthen thee out of Zion. This is the next part of verse two. So the first part was the name of the God of Jacob, defend thee, or rather, no, that was verse one.

This is verse two here. Yep, I just had it wrong in my notes. Send thee help from the sanctuary and strengthen thee out of Zion. There's two things here. Send thee help from the sanctuary and strengthen thee out of Zion.

What in the world does it mean, help from the sanctuary? Okay, I like that, it's where God is. The sanctuary is the most sacred part of any religious building. The sanctuary of the tabernacle had three main components.

You had the court, the holy place, and the holy of holies. Each of these places signified a holier place than the last and required a deeper level of cleanliness to enter. At the court was a place of sacrifice.

This was the starting point, right? It signified Christ's death on the cross. They didn't know this back then, right? We know this looking back now. Christ's work gave us a better understanding of the sacrificial system.

Blood had to be shed for the remission of sins. And in the Old Testament system, this was the first step toward help from God. It helped to ensure that you were right with God. Now, fast forward to this side of the cross.

Who is the sacrifice? The sacrifice represented something in the Old Testament system. Who did it represent? It represented Jesus. So Jesus provided the blood, which shows that this first step towards receiving help from God actually comes from God.

This first step comes from Him. It's His blood. So help from the sanctuary, if you will. That is a gift. The Old Testament people looked at the sacrifices as something that they did. We look at it as something Jesus did for us.

Next was the holy place. In the holy place, there was a table of showbread, a seven-branched lampstand, and the altar of incense, each signifying God in a very specific way. Let's start with the showbread, or the bread of presence, as it's sometimes called.

It reminds us of God's presence with us or with man. The bread pictured somebody. Who did it picture? Jesus. I am the bread of life, right? Bread is something that you eat, and indeed, they would eat the showbread.

What is that picture? Christ in us, an internalization of Christ. Yes, this internalization is supposed to have a transformational effect on the person that Christ lives within. Now, here's one of my tangents.

I've been nerding out over some Hebrew, and I've talked about it twice already this week. I'm gonna go for a third time, because some of y 'all haven't heard it, but this may take just a moment. It's very important for us to understand this piece, I think.

It's really gonna give us a really great perspective on this idea of having help from the sanctuary, okay? The word for love in Hebrew is spelled in the Hebrew alphabet, aleph, hey, bet. Aleph, hey, bet, I think is how you say it.

That is the first letter, the fifth letter, and the second letter. So if you were to take the number values of those letters, it would be one, five, two. I don't wanna get into the numerology too much, although there's some really interesting things there in the numerology.

It shouldn't be used for doctoral purposes, but it's just amazing how exact the Hebrew is. The word hey, or the letter hey, actually has a meaning in and of itself, and that is to give. Each of these letters means something, right?

So that's what's cool about the Hebrew alphabet. Each letter means something. Kind of like in our alphabet, we have the letter I, which it can mean something in and of itself. I would say I, and I mean me, right?

The letter A can mean something in the English alphabet. It can mean something singular, like a dog, a cat. So it has meaning in and of itself, but not all of our letters are that way. What does N mean?

To the Nth degree, Dave. Oh, yeah, to the Nth, or something like that. Like we don't, P or L, right? We don't just have a letter that means something with every single one of our letters. The Hebrew alphabet, however, is that way.

Every single letter actually has a meaning in and of itself and those letters describe the words that they compose. So in other words, the Hebrew word for love being comprised of aleph, hey, bait, aleph is always connected to God.

It is the first letter. It is always connected. It's a spiritual connotation to this letter, but it's always connected to God. Hey means to give or gives, and bait means house, which seems kind of strange.

Like how does that describe love? Because if you were to just take the literal meanings of each of those letters, aleph, hey, bait, you would say God gives to the house. Okay, well, we can maybe kind of get something out of that, right?

Okay, well, God does provide, but it's cooler than that because when you look at the letters and what they mean, you'll see that, oh, by the way, I'm hearing myself. I'm getting a little feedback over here.

You'll see that the type of giving that happens is such a complete giving that one, if you take those numbers, one gives to two. It's such a complete giving that there comes a point in time where the giving is so much that you cannot distinguish between the one and the two.

So the person who gives, gives to the point where there's now no, they give of themselves to the point where there's no distinguishing between them and the person they're giving to. That is a picture of what love truly is.

That's why marriage is depicting love. And we hear the two become one flesh because they become indistinguishable because there should be so much of a giving from the one to the other that they become one.

That's what Jesus did for us. He came from heaven to earth, spiritual sacrifice, lived a perfect life on earth for 33 plus years, mental sacrifice, and then died ultimately on the cross, physical sacrifice.

He gave every part of him, every part of himself. And he did that for us. And now it is Christ who lives in us, right? Picture of the showbread. But if the word love means God gives to the house, know ye not that ye are the temple of God.

You are the house. God gives to the house. He gives to you to the point in which there's an indistinguishable dynamic that happens. It is no longer I who lives, but Christ who lives within me. You see?

So like when we have this picture in the temple of the showbread and Christ internalized, look at the next piece of furniture in the temple, the lamp stand. The lamp stand is made of pure gold, which is the perfect substance to represent the divine nature of God.

It is beaten into the form of a lamp, signifying the son of God being made flesh, taking on a human form. And then you have the seven flames atop the candles of the lamp stand to signify the seven spirits of God, ultimately the spirit of God.

But those spirits are described later, I think it's in Revelation. So you have a picture of the triune God in the lamp stand. The Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. Starting with the showbread, internalizing Christ, now you have a picture of the triune God.

And when man is transformed by Jesus, he looks more like Jesus, ultimately bringing him into the fold of the triune God. Doesn't make us God, don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to say that we become God, but what did Christ pray?

That they and I are one, even as you and I are one. When the Father looks at us, what does he see? The Son, who gives to the house to the point where all he sees is his Son. We are commanded to let our light so shine before men that they may see our good works and glorify, not us, but our Father, which is in heaven.

So that's a picture of after internalizing Christ, after Christ being inside of us, us looking more like the triune God. And then ultimately you have this third piece of furniture, the altar of incense, which is there to remind the children of Israel to pray and through those prayers grow closer to God.

How does our help come from the sanctuary? It comes from the radical transformation we receive from the work of Christ. He dwells inside us, transforming us and causing us to be positionally righteous, giving us instant access through prayer to the Father.

What's that third part of the tabernacle? You had the court, the holy place, the holy of holies. The third chamber, holy of holies, being the place where man was accepted into the very presence of God.

Not God's presence with man, man's presence with God, a little bit different, right? Coming to where God is, not just having God be brought to where we are, but us being made worthy and acceptable to step into his presence, to step into his chamber, to come into his house.

Not just God with us, where we are, but man with God, where he is. This brings an interesting twist to a familiar verse, by the way. If the show bread, the lamp stand, and the altar of incense picture this process of Christ being internalized, transforming us from the inside out to look more like God and making us holy and acceptable, and through our prayers, growing us in relationship with him so that we can then be accepted into his chamber.

Listen to this verse, Romans chapter 12, that we're very familiar with. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice. Remember the court? Living sacrifice, holy, wait a minute, holy.

That's what the holy place does to us. It puts, Jesus internalizes, transforms us, makes us look like him. And what's the next part? I present your bodies a living sacrifice, there's the court, holy, there's the holy place, acceptable unto God, that's the holy of holies.

You see it? Which is your reasonable service. But it's the work of God. I mean, it's not that we do this, all right? The sacrifice was made by Jesus. He does it. Then you have positional righteousness as a result of the work of Christ.

So this verse, send thee help from the sanctuary, it has to do with positional righteousness. As David writes this, thinking of his king, he knows his king has positional righteousness. But David himself, hoping that his people would pray this for him, he himself prays for that positional righteousness, that he would be transformed by God.

Because he is the humble servant, but he sees himself not just as a servant, but also as the king of God's people. He has this dual purpose. We are the same way, we serve God, and yet we're supposed to be the king of the assignment he puts us in here on earth.

Good example, that Romans 12 is a good example of being God, because it says, by the mercies of God. Yeah, by the mercies of God.

That's God's. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present yourselves, or your bodies, a living sacrifice.

Which is your reasonable service. So it's the sovereignty of God.

The responsibility of man, the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man seen side by side there. Isn't that cool? That's a good point, Pop. All right, let's finish out that verse two here. And strengthen thee out of Zion.

So we just had an example of positional righteousness. We got our Pentecostal in the back, back there. Jack, he's like, hallelujah. I love it. And strengthen thee out of Zion. So we just had a picture of positional righteousness.

The Lord send thee help from his sanctuary and strengthen thee out of Zion. This is an interesting phrase here because Zion is the name of the holy hill in Jerusalem. It is a place which David captured.

It is often referred to as the city of David. The word Zion means parched place. But if you'll recall in Psalm two, we hear I have set my king upon my holy hill of Zion in chapter two of Psalms. So Zion, the word means parched place.

It is a place of a desert. And yet when the king is on that holy hill, when he is in charge, that place of desert becomes almost like utopia. Like it is a transformed place. This is a place that is naturally parched.

It is naturally a desert. But when the king is on the throne, it flourishes. It turns into a flourishing place of holiness. Now, the geopolitical warfare that goes on in the world today over this real place on earth, this hill, has been raging.

This war has been raging since biblical times because it signifies the spiritual battle for righteousness. You have Israel and Iran fighting over this place all the time. That is a physical geopolitical picture of what it actually represents.

It represents the desert of your life, which when God is in charge and on the throne, when the king is sitting on the hill, it flourishes. When he doesn't, it becomes a desert. What we are seeing here in the second part of verse two is a prayer for help, or in verse two as a whole.

Let's read verse two one more time. Send thee help from the sanctuary and strengthen thee out of Zion. So it's a prayer for help for the one who is positionally righteous from the walk of Christ. And it is a prayer for strength for the same person who is experientially righteous in his walk with Christ.

So we actually have both sides in that one verse. The Lord send thee help from the sanctuary. That's a picture of the positional righteousness. That's something that that king cannot do in and of himself.

His God has to do it for him. But the experiential righteous part, the king must capture the hill. And that's how we are. We have positional righteousness. We bear the name, right? So there is some protection there which would cause our enemies to pause.

But then we must be in right relationship and we must capture the hill and take ground in that name because that is what strengthens us, right? We receive help from the Lord and we activate that help in our walk for strength.

How appropriate is it that the positional was mentioned before the experiential? Because Christ's work has to proceed our own. Verse three, remember all thy offerings. All right, so this is still, may the Lord remember all thy offerings and accept thy burnt sacrifice, Salah.

All right, so the difference between offerings and burnt sacrifices is that the burnt sacrifice is a total loss to the giver. When they would do offerings, they would retain part of the animal that they offered.

And that part of the animal was eaten. They gave something to the giver, which is kind of cool. So the offering was like a gift to the Lord, right? But the burnt sacrifice was a total giving up of something.

It was showing total commitment. It was showing a total loss to the giver and a total gain to the givee. Jesus, of course, is pictured by that burnt sacrifice. He gave everything for us, a total loss to Him and a total gain for us.

And really, He did it for the Father. He gave Himself to the Father for us. So He did it not just as a total loss to Himself, but a total gain for us and a total gain for the Father. Now, the law of first mention gives us a glimpse into proper sacrifice.

When was the first sacrifice? First sacrifice mentioned in Scripture. It's gonna give us an idea of what proper sacrifice looks like. Yes. Genesis. Genesis, yep.

In what account? God split an animal and covered it in steel.

Yes, when God made the first sacrifice for man, which I think is interesting. The very first sacrifice was not from man to God, it was from God to man. He made a sacrifice of blood, which by the way, blood is a picture of the physical.

Again, going back to Hebrew, if you look at the Hebrew word for man, it is aleph, dalet, mem. Aleph, dalet, mem, which is to say spiritual and physical. So it describes what man is. He's a spiritual, physical being.

Dalet is blood or physical, right? So God's first sacrifice was to sacrifice the physical to right the spiritual. Think about what that means for us. Go back to the Romans first. I beseech you therefore brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your what?

Bodies, physical, a living sacrifice, burnt offering, completely giving up the physical, right? Holy, acceptable unto God, spiritual. Later, Cain and Abel both make sacrifices to the Lord. Cain's is not accepted.

Why is it not accepted? He sacrificed something physical, but why is it not accepted? Because his heart was not in the right place. For a king's pre-battle sacrifice to be accepted, his cause would have needed to be aligned with God's.

His heart would have needed to be in the right place. He would make a sacrifice and he would look to his spiritual advisors for some sort of indication that the sacrifice was accepted. Did I do it right?

Do I have a worthy cause? What say ye? Does the Lord accept my sacrifice? This was incredibly important to kings before going into battle, because if the sacrifice wasn't accepted, he may just go and lose in battle.

Why don't we do that these days? Why don't we, before going into anything in life, any kind of conflict, any kind of endeavor, maybe just an adventure to gain, why don't we pause and ask the Lord, is my heart in the right place?

Is my will aligned with yours? Because if it isn't, I could go and try this thing and it may even seem like a good thing. But if my heart is not in the right place, this seemingly good sacrifice or this seemingly good endeavor may be for not.

It only works if I'm in right relationship with you. So verse three, remember all thy offerings and accept thy burnt sacrifice, salah. It's not just a prayer for God to accept an offering. It's not just a prayer for God to remember the offering.

Flip side of the coin is, it is a prayer that the king would be in right relationship and have his will aligned with God's. Even Jesus, who we know was in right relationship at all times with the father and knew what the will of the father was, even he in the garden said, not my will, but yours.

So if Jesus needed to pause and ask the Lord, am I doing this right? Is this what you want? Why wouldn't we? And then of course, my favorite, one of my all time favorite words here is salah, which there is no actual meaning to the word.

It's a musical connotation, which gives a dramatic pause. And so when you read salah, anywhere in scripture, there's a dramatic pause and that dramatic pause means something. It gives a new kind of feeling to the verse every time.

Sometimes it's a dramatic pause of praise, like, wow, this is amazing, right? Other times it's like a heavy pause, like, whoa, like this is important. Here, this is super important. I pray that the Lord remembers your offerings and accepts your burnt sacrifice.

I pray that you have your will aligned with his. Did you hear it? Whoa, like that, that's important. All right, we may have to end on verse four, which means we're not gonna get through this whole thing this week.

That's okay. Actually, we may just end there because that might be a better spot to end. We will, we'll wrap it up there. Next week, we'll go from verse four to verse nine, part one, I guess. Part one of Psalm chapter 20.

What predates, I don't know. What is the precursor to all the prayer requests? Maybe that's a good title for this chapter. What's the precursor? Because we're gonna see lots of requests and they're all good, but what's hidden in each and every request is a responsibility of man piece.

And so, that is verses one through four. Anybody have any thoughts before we wrap it up? Yes, sir. I love that. So the outer core is our flesh. The holy place is our soul and the holy of holies is the new man connected with Christ.

That's a, man, I wish I had thought to say that. That's a really good way to put it because that's really what it pictures, isn't it? We sacrifice the deeds of the flesh. We look more and more like Christ.

And ultimately, we come to a place of being holy and acceptable unto God where we get to go into the holy of holies. It's really cool. Thank you, Pastor David. That's a good thought. Any other thoughts?

God made the first sacrifice for man. Yeah, so God, when he made the physical sacrifice, he went and covered man with that sacrifice, which of course is another great picture of Jesus who covers us in his blood.

And the physical is sacrificed for the sake of the spiritual. Good stuff.

Anything else? So was the name. Where you're getting. It comes down to protection and relationship?

So in order to have protection of the name, let's say Clinton, you'd have to be a Clinton, right? To have protection of the name of the God of Jacob, which is far superior to any earthly name, you gotta bear the name of Christ.

You have to be in relationship with him. Or else you don't have that protection, yeah. That's how the name of the God of Jacob defends thee. Pretty cool, right? I'm having fun with this chapter. It's a good one.

And we'll finish it up next week. All right, well, let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for all the amazing analogies that you put in it. It's just mind boggling how many of them you have in just this one chapter.

You can just read and read and read forever, I think, and never get to the bottom of all of the depth of wisdom that's in there. Lord, help us to be more like you. Help us to sacrifice the deeds of the flesh and to offer our bodies a living sacrifice for you that we may be holy and acceptable unto you.

Father, we want to be in the holy of holies with you. And we have the opportunity to do that in our daily walks if we just hold your hand and let go of the flesh. Lord, we love you. We thank you for the responsibility that you give us.

Help us to be better at it. It's in your name we ask these things, amen.