We come to the end of the 15 Songs of Ascents. We'll cover both 133 and 134. 134 much quicker on this day, our anniversary Sunday. Please hear the Word of God as we read Psalm 133 and Psalm 134, Songs of Ascent. The first of David. Behold how good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. It is like the precious oil upon the head running down on the beard of Aaron, running down on the edge of his garments. It is like the dew of Hermon descending upon the mountains of Zion. For there the Lord commanded the blessing, life forevermore." In Psalm 134, Behold, bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord, who by night stand in the house of the Lord, Lift up your hands in or to the sanctuary and bless the Lord. The Lord, who made heaven and earth, bless you from Zion. This is the word of God. May God, by His Spirit, teach us and convict us according to His will. This morning, you may be seated. Well, as I said, we today bring the 15 songs of ascent to a close with the 14th and the 15th of those psalms. And as we said before, these 15 psalms are pilgrim songs that were sung by Jewish pilgrims as they made their way from wherever they were up to Jerusalem during one of the annual feasts of the year. And these psalms are descriptive of the Christians' joyful yet difficult upward pilgrimage in the world but not of it, as a true citizen of heaven. These are discipleship songs collected into 15 psalms together in the middle of this altar as sort of a hymnal to encourage Christians to pursue Christ on their way to their heavenly Jerusalem. Together, and we do emphasize the word together today, together in their long obedience in the same direction. And the first four of these psalms showed the pilgrim distressed in the world, then he looks to the hills, then he looks to the temple, then he looks to God Himself in 1.20-1.23. Then the next three of these psalms in 1.24-1.26 show the pilgrim looking back then to see what God has done in the past so that he can look to God Himself to trust Him now. And then in 1.26, he looks back again to see the joy that he once had and he says, God, bring that back. Then in the middle of these 15 psalms, in 127 and 128, there are two psalms that combine this trusting and the service of God as a top priority with the centrality of the family as part of their stewardship and joy. And then the four psalms leading to these last two, in 129 through 132, I think there's a logical progression. You have the imprecatory Psalm 129, balanced by then the penitential Psalm of 130, which we looked at this morning at the beginning, leading to a contentment Psalm in 131. And that leads then to the restored focus on the priority of the journey. God's presence and His people. And so Psalm 132 we saw last week looks to the ark of God, the ark of the covenant, which symbolizes God's presence and the anointed of God, the Messiah, who fulfills all that the ark stands for. And so then now, with 133 and 134, we're at the end of the journey with a renewed focus on God's presence and His people. And these final two songs of ascents are small in size, but they're immense in importance as they deal with the unity of the brethren and the worship of their Lord. The unity of the brethren and the worship of their Lord. If you want to make it more catchy, it would be the beauty of unity and the worthiness of worship. It seems fitting for considering and exhorting these things on this, our anniversary Sunday. As from our inception, the emphasis of our church has at least been tried to be to be a united, loving church family. and unitedness and a love that would flow out of a love for God's worship and His Word and His Son. So in your bulletin you will see two outlines, one for each psalm. I won't go through all the details of those. I will say that with Psalm 133, we'll first look at the exposition of those three verses, then we'll look at some applications of those verses as well. That's the general outline of that. And then we'll close with Psalm 134 with some thoughts on worship from Psalm 134. So first of all, looking at dwelling in unity in Psalm 133, seeing first of all the exposition of these three verses and then six applications taken from James Montgomery Boyce's commentary. In fact, the whole message from Psalm 133 steals from James Montgomery Boyce's chapter on Psalm 133. I think he does a wonderful job. So we can try to look through these three verses of Psalm 133. First of all though, Psalm 133 is a beautiful poem that celebrates the goodness and the blessedness of the unity and community of the saints before God and for one another. One commentator says, Nowhere has the nature of true unity, that unity which binds men together, not by artificial restraints, but as brethren of one heart, been more faithfully described, nowhere has it been so gracefully illustrated as in this short note. In these three verses, the first verse of this psalm amplifies and defines this unity and community. The first verse amplifies and defines this unity, and then each of the two remaining verses are poetic pictures of this unity. And the overall purpose is to quicken the saint's heart and His will to pursue and to enjoy this unity. Quickening His will to pursue it, but quickening His heart to enjoy this unity that is the gift from God to us. So verse 1 of Psalm 133, we read, Behold! You should underline that. Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. There's no exclamation marks in Hebrew, but there probably should be in the English. Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. And so the emphasis is on the unity here. And we see behold and blessing and brethren is the three things I'd like to look at. The behold and the blessing is the amplification, but then we get to the part where he says brethren, now we're actually defining what we're speaking of. So this first verse amplifies the importance and the blessing of biblical spirit-enabled unity. So the saints will then determine to pursue it and desire to experience it. And he starts out with, Behold, which means look. He's getting the reader's attention. And then he says, How good and how pleasant. And both of those hows are in the original, specifically. The double hows, if you will. Keep your attention fixed on this. Don't look away after I said, Behold, this is important. And why is this unity important to behold and to contemplate and to pursue? Well, this unity that he speaks of reflects who we are and who we serve. And maybe it should be said the other way. This unity that we're to be showing reflects who we serve, but then who we are as his people. God is a God of order and peace. and reconciliation, and purpose, and holiness, and unity. Himself is a triune God. And we are to reflect this, to show it forth, the same peace, and reconciliation, and single purpose, and purity, and unity ourselves. We are not to display strife, and enmity, and bickering, and sin, and disunity. as the body of Christ, the whole is greater than the sum of our parts. The whole is greater than the sum of our parts. And honestly, the individual parts are pretty much worthless unless they're serving together as and for the whole. We need each other in this way. And just like the human body, which the Scripture uses as a description of the body of Christ, just like the human body, our beauty is only there when we represent Christ with our individual parts and personalities and placement flowing together in unity and grace. Think of a human body that the parts aren't working together. It's spastic. It's not very attractive. Maybe it's like some of my kids describe my attempts to dance. When they say, what was that again? You're so stiff, but then things move so uncharacteristically, I don't know what to make of it. That's what our unity, that's what our church body is like if we're not seeking to have unity in our community in Christlikeness. And our unity is so important because it's one of the most important tools for our witness for Christ. It's the love and unity of the body of Christ. Jesus himself in John 13 says, A new commandment I give to you, that you what? You know this. You love one another. As I have loved you, that's a high bar that you also love one another. And by this, all will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. So behold, look at this. This is important. But then see such great blessing, which is to be an attraction to us, maybe for our wills to behold it and say this is something we want, but now for our hearts to desire this. See the blessing. Behold how good and how pleasant it is. How good and how pleasant, he says. The word for good here is the same word for good that you see all throughout Genesis 1. And what do you see in Genesis 1? You see God's creation. After day one, it's good. After day two, it's good. After day three, it's good. At the end, though, what is it? It's very good. Why? Because all things were created and fit together as they're supposed to be. I think that's a perfect example of the unity that we should have in the local church. How good it is and how very good it's meant to be as we fit together as we're created to be. And so our unity is important because it's intrinsically, it's inherently good. And so we are to pursue it with our wills for God's glory. But then he says, how pleasant! The double how, how pleasant it is. That word for pleasant means it's delightful, it's sweet. Both to God and to us. And also for the world if they don't hate us instead because of what we represent. But you see people being brought to Christ because of the delightfulness of the body of Christ. And the Spirit of God uses that to convict and to draw. How pleasant it is. An example of this is when we sing in parts. The sum is beautiful and delightful, and the whole is greater than the parts. The one song that comes from it. And so unity is a blessing to be experienced as a gift. And so we're meant to pursue it with our hearts for its enjoyment. And so we see the beholding of it. We see the blessing of it. Then at the end of this verse, for brethren to dwell together in unity, we see the definition of it. I think it's important. A very brief definition. For brethren to dwell together in unity. This is the definition of this unity. First of all, the word brethren means something. In particular, in the New Covenant light, the brethren means we are people who have the same Father, saved by the same Savior, sealed by the same Spirit, compelled by the same love of Christ, both ours for Him and His for us, with the same goal and purposes for Christ and identity in Christ. We are brethren. And that's why the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Because what brings us together is greater than anything that we know. And what about these brethren? It's a key phrase for brethren to dwell together in unity. To dwell together. This is the key, I think, of this psalm. To dwell together. That means we must live together. We must abide together is what that word dwell means. We must live and abide together and dwell together for true unity and blessing. It's interesting, Psalm 132 spoke of the ark, which represented the dwelling place of God. God with us. And now we get to Psalm 133. Now we're speaking of the dwelling place of God's people. In a sense, we are to be with us in the midst of God's presence. And we cannot have unity if we are apart. How can we be together when we're not? We have to gather together and spend time together and live life together. If we don't purpose to spend time together and life together, we can have a lack of fighting, because we're just not rubbing shoulders enough to get annoyed at each other. But that's not unity. That might be a ceasefire, but it's not peace, which is proactive. It might be a lack of disunity, but it's not unity, which is something much greater than just not fighting. If we don't gather together and spend life together, we might have nostalgic feelings of affection, but it's not unity. Not a biblical unity. We must be physically together, dwelling together, to know Christ like Christ honoring love and unity. We have to dwell together, to abide together, to experience and know each other's annoyances and faults and weaknesses. We have to spend time together to be annoyed at each other, to recognize how we're different. Why? Because then we can bear with one another. and pray for one another and build one another up in humility and love and patience for each other's sake and for Christ's sake, loving one another as Christ loved us. We have to dwell together to find out each other's strengths as well and encouragements. For my sake, I need you. For my sake, for my family's sake, and for Christ's sake. So yes, we spend time together on Sunday. It's the Lord's Day. You don't have a choice. But also we spend time together on Wednesdays. It should be a priority. In hospitality. In real time with one another. And yes, it will cost you something. It will be some duckies you have to put aside. Check the tape from last week. There's going to have to be some priorities set and maybe some things will be cast off because it's going to cost you something, at least time. But love and service and actually anything that is good will cost you something. Isn't that true? But behold, the Scripture says, behold, look at this, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. It's worth it. And we're reminded of Acts 2 in the early church, which was not perfect. You just have to read beyond Acts 2 to realize it wasn't perfect. But yet, you see this wonderful picture in Acts 2 that they continued steadfastly, which means they were together constantly and steadfastly in spite of one another in the apostles' doctrine, the teaching of the Scripture, in fellowship, in the breaking of bread as both the ordinances, but I think as well as having meals together, and in the prayers, which I think is prayers, but also the worship of God together. That's living together and dwelling together in a biblical unity. That's the definition. And so what do we have in verses two and three? Well, we have two poetic pictures of this unity that when you first read it, you think, what? I was listening to Sinclair Ferguson speak of this, and he was making up a story how if you'd be walking out of the church and a reporter would come and say, what's this like in there? Well, it's like oil being poured on your head and coming down your beard and onto your clothes. Oh, really? That's what Christian unity is like? Well, yeah, and it's also like dew on the mountain, and it goes from one mountain to another. It's just great. It really wouldn't register. It wouldn't register very well on the sign out front. But these are wonderful poetic pictures of the blessed unity and community that the psalmist is trying to get across. And in verse 2, he says this, it is like the precious oil upon the head running down on the beard, the beard of Aaron, running down on the edge of his garments. The first one's a poetic picture of unity. Picturing the anointing of the high priest when he's anointed with the special sweet-smelling oil that if you look at Exodus 29-30, there's specific instructions about what's supposed to be in this oil. It'd be wonderful, but it's God-directed. Speaking of the aromatic oil that was poured out extravagantly on the head of the high priest, in this case Aaron, and it ran down his beard and onto his sacred robes. And in the same way, the unity of the people of God is spread by the Spirit of God, the oil representing the Spirit of God. I think the oil is also representing the love that goes from person to person within the body of Christ, but in particular, the Spirit of God. And it's like a rich perfumed aroma that is pleasing in the nostrils of God and sweet to the participants. And then in verse 3, We have oil in verse 2. We have water in verse 3. It is like the dew of Hermon, descending upon the mountains of Zion. For there the Lord commanded the blessing, life forevermore. This is the second picture in verse 3. It's like the heavy dew that would fall on the majestic Mount Hermon, bringing life and refreshment. It's a picture of the abundant downward flow of refreshing dew that symbolizes life and refreshment of the unity of God's people. And the use of both the spreading oil and the flowing water pictures the Holy Spirit's role of empowerment unto enriched blessing of the unity of the brethren. I specifically said oil and water rather than oil and dew because you know that oil and water I don't mix. But, unity with oil and water is only possible by the spirits working in and through His people. Both in regenerating them individually and enabling them to mix together. And Christ by His Word and Spirit unites His oil and water saints into the unity of His body for His glory and for our benefit. That's an exposition of those three verses. I'd like us to look at six applications of these verses. In particular, looking at the two pictures in verses two and three. And you have the six points listed in your bulletin. I won't read them all at once, but they are in your bulletin. Again, these are from James Montgomery Boyce. I think he does very well with this in his commentary. First of all, looking at these, one application is that unity is a gift from God. Unity is a gift from God. It's a gift from God who is above. Both the anointing of oil and the falling of the dew was from where? It was from above. The anointing of Aaron was done at God's direction. His way, with His authority, and any blessing it conferred was from God. From above. And even the dew that falls on the mountain, it's from God's rule and sovereignty as well. And the repetition in that verse of running down, running down, emphasizes the blessing of the anointing that is from above the priest, from God. And James Boyce comments on this, he says, we are sinners, and one of the first sad marks of sin is that it separates, creating disharmony and hostility. It takes God to overcome sin and to bring harmony again. A real unity, at least an all-lasting unity, is from Him. That doesn't mean we just sit back and meditate and wait for Him to do things. No, God does use means, by the way, and so we're to prayerfully seek humility before God and before one another, that by His Word and His Spirit, we would seek unity in the body of Christ for His glory. So unity is a gift from God above, but secondly, unity is for the small and great alike. It's for the small and great alike. In verse 3, when it speaks about the dew of Hermon, Mount Hermon was the highest mountain in Israel, while Zion was not very high. So can you picture big Mount Hermon and kind of small Zion off to the side. But the dew from above is for little Zion as well as for great Hermon. It falls alike on both mountains, just like the oil covers all parts of the beard and the robe as well. And so Boyce comments on this. He says, when a country, a church, or even a family is at peace, it benefits not only the most prominent or most important persons, whoever they may be, but also everyone. All are blessed, especially the small, the unimportant, and the weak. And likewise, disharmony hurts everyone. Perhaps those who feel more important think it doesn't matter, but it does. It hurts everyone, themselves included. So it's from above. It's for the small and great. But thirdly, unity's blessing flows from one to another. Unity's blessing flows from one to another. In verse 2, with the anointing of Aaron, it was a blessing from God for him, but he as the priest in turn would bless others as a result. And the flow of oil running from head to beard to the edge of the garment suggests such a flow of blessing. From one to another. And even the wonderfully fragrant oil would have blessed people wherever Aaron went. From one to another. In a similar way, when the brethren are in unity, it's a blessing wherever they go. With the fragrance, with the aroma of Christ. And they tend to win people to their unity and spread it all the more. It's a gift from God above. It's small and great alike. The blessing of unity flows from one to another and forth. Unity is a foretaste of heaven. We often speak of worship being a foretaste of heaven, but you recognize our unity is a foretaste of heaven. In verse 3, at the very end, that kind of maybe odd verse at the end, "...for there the Lord commanded the blessing." It means from Zion, just like at the end of Psalm 134. Life forevermore. That final phrase, for there the Lord commanded the blessing, life forevermore, speaks of life forevermore, looking to the perfect unity and worship in heavenly Zion, not merely earthly Zion. Our good and pleasant unity on earth is a foretaste to heaven. So we can rejoice and even get a bit of heaven now as we strive for unity within the body of Christ. It should be an encouragement. Fifth, our unity can be found in the church, and really the church alone. Our unity can be found in the church. Jesus saved His people from sin, and He brought them into the fellowship in the church, and He calls them into the local churches to see that unity, and He prayed for the unity of the church in John 17, and He continues to pray for His people as He intercedes for us. And in John 17, starting in verse 20, Jesus prays before he goes to the cross. I do not pray for the disciples alone, but also for those who will believe in me through their word. It's always a comfort to know that Jesus prayed and recorded it in scripture for me 2,000 years ago. I pray for those who will believe in me through the disciples' word, that they all may be one. As you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that you sent me, and the glory which you gave me I have given them, that they may be one just as we are one, I in them, and you in me, that they may be made perfect in one, and the world may know that you have sent me, and have loved them as you have loved me. This is not an artificial or enforced unity, but it's a unity based on a common participation, common binding to Christ and identifying in Christ, an immersion into Christ and his gospel. It's analogous to the unity that is in God himself. And lastly, yes, unity is a gift from God above. It's for the small and great alike. Its blessing flows from one to another. It's a foretaste of heaven. It's found in the church. But lastly, unity will be perfected in heaven. It's a foretaste of heaven, but it will be perfected in heaven. Again, that final phrase, life forevermore. It's commanded from Zion. That final phrase again speaks of God commanding blessing of life forevermore from heaven. It's like what we'll see at the end of Psalm 134 where he says, from Zion there's blessing. Speaking of the heavenly Zion, not the earthly Zion. A place where Hebrews 12 says is a place of the joyful assembly of just men made perfect by the blood of Christ. And Revelation 21, and really 22 as well, calls it the New Jerusalem, where there will be no sin, no evil, no pain, no death. But as well, there will be no disharmony. Because the desire of every one of God's redeemed children will be for God's glory and for the glory of the Lamb without distraction. And knowing our unity on earth is a foretaste to heaven, But that this perfect future unity is assured in Christ, it should cause us to pursue and maintain the good and pleasant unity in Christ and for Christ now all the more. As we pilgrims pursue Christ together, making Him known on our way to our heavenly Zion. If we didn't have another psalm, It would be a perfect place to end. But we have to cover Psalm 134, as we saw the beauty of unity, the dwelling together in unity, but then quickly, and it is small, with Psalm 134. Now, it logically then moves from the blessed unity that's a foretaste to heaven, to the blessed worship that's also the foretaste to heaven. In Psalm 134, is a fitting transition from the end of Psalm 133 because we just spoke of the eternal unity from heaven. Now we're looking to the heavenly worship as well in Psalm 134. And Psalm 134 is a fitting end to the Songs of Ascent because we end at the temple observing the worship of God and looking to our heavenly worship all the more. And actually, Psalm 134 is a fitting introduction to the remainder of the Psalter, because from this point on, and by the way, we'll go back to Matthew 16 next week, don't worry. But from this point on in the Psalter, the focus on the Psalter, starting with Psalm 135, is the praise and worship of God. Even Psalm 134 has many similarities with Psalm 135. What we see here is the pilgrims are seeking God's presence in Psalm 132, in unity and humility and holiness in Psalm 133, and now coming to worship God aright in Psalm 134. And so you can divide these three verses in blessing, blessing, and blessing, because each of these three verses speak of blessing. The first two, blessing God, but the last one is actually blessing from God. And as we read it again, Behold, bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord, who by night stand in the house of the Lord. Lift up your hands in the sanctuary and bless the Lord. The Lord who made heaven and earth, bless you from Zion. So in verse 1 we see there's blessing from the house of the Lord. Blessing from the house of the Lord. He says, Behold, so again He's saying, look, this is important, pay attention, and worship is no less important than unity, is it? He says, bless the Lord. What does it mean to bless the Lord? Maybe some of you virgins don't say bless. to be thanked or praised. But to bless the Lord, it seems odd. We get blessings from God. How do we bless the Lord? Well, the idea of blessing the Lord, it's to praise and worship God as the sole source of all blessing, both earthly and eternal blessing. So we bless Him as the sole source of all blessing, both earthly and eternal blessing. And he says, all you servants of the Lord, and we need all the great and the small in unity, worshiping in unity. That's why we need Psalm 133 to have Psalm 134, who by night stand in the house of the Lord. By night stand in the house? What is this, who? Who by night stand in the house of the Lord? Well, specifically, it probably refers to the priests and the Levites who had served in the temple around the clock. Maybe around the sundial would be more appropriate to say, but those who would still be in the temple even when the worshipers go home. And it's possible many commentaries would think this is what's going on. This psalm would be sung as the pilgrims would be leaving to go back home, looking back at the temple and seeing the worship of God was continuing without them. It causes them to rejoice that God would be blessed and worshipped even in their absence, because that's what they desire more than anything else. But I think it also looks forward to the day when pilgrims would start being planted around the world as the gospel goes forth, and worship continually happens throughout the Lord's Day. If you can picture the world as a turning orb, as the sun rises and sets, we have worship and songs as the earth goes around. As people are waking up, they get up and worship from this place, and then the time zone changes, this place and this place. So it's looking forward to that time when there'll be pilgrims around the world, worshiping God continually on the Lord's Day. But I think it especially looks forward to the day when Christ returns and fully redeems His church and purifies and unifies her and there's continual worship forever in perfect unity in heavenly Zion. And there, there is no nightstand because there is no night because Christ is the light and the only needed light. I think a key word here is in verse 1, when it says, "...who by night stand in the house of the Lord." The house of the Lord. And we learn from Psalm 132 that this ultimately means the church, the house of God, the house and the church of the living God, the spiritual house that is built up on Christ. 1 Timothy and 1 Peter tells us it's ultimately the church that's the house under King Jesus' rule and reign. And so we now, as a spiritual house, do not need a physical temple. For we the church are the temple, as living stones are fit together in Christ by the Spirit. May we servants bless and worship our Lord from this house, which is His house, as His house. So there's blessing from the house of God. And in verse 2, there's blessing with hands. Verse 2, lift up your hands. What kind of worship is this? How are we to bless the Lord? Lift up your hands in the sanctuary and bless the Lord. He spoke of the hub, now the how, lifting up our hands to the sanctuary. It can be either in the sanctuary or to, I kind of like the word to better in this case, but we'll see. But lifting up our hands, we don't do that so much here. Lifting up our hands, but you would see that even in 1 Timothy 2, that men are called to lift up holy hands in prayer. It's a manly thing to pray, men. The idea is that we lift up our hands, it symbolizes our complete dependence upon God. We're lifting up empty hands to the Lord, because there's nothing we can give Him, and there's nothing He needs. There's nothing we can give to contribute to earn merit. In fact, they're empty hands that are lifted up to God, anxious to receive something from Him, because He is our only source of blessing. He's our only object of worship. When it says, in the sanctuary, I think it's to the sanctuary. It speaks of the holy place and most probably the most holy place where the Ark of the Covenant was and where the mercy seat was, which we saw last week. So I think it's a picture of lifting up empty hands towards the mercy seat, the only way to approach God and worship by the atoning blood that was shed for sinners. And ultimately, this is Christ. He is the mercy seat. We lift up empty hands to Him and we look for the blood of Christ to forgive us and have all blessings flow from that so we can approach God and we sometimes sing, nothing in my hands I bring only to thy cross I cling. It reminds me of Psalm 28, the first two verses, which we can sing some of us. To you I will cry, O Lord, my rock, do not be silent to me, lest, if you are silent to me, I become like those who go down to the pit. Hear the voice of my supplications when I cry to you, when I lift up my hands toward your holy sanctuary. So it's a blessing from the house of God. It's a blessing with the hands that His people give. We have nothing to bring you. We depend on you. But then verse 3, it's a change. The Lord who made heaven and earth bless you from Zion. Our worship is to be in unity as the house of God. It's to be in humble dependence upon Him with our hands lifted to Him. But it has to be addressing God as He is. Our God is the sovereign Creator and Maker of heaven and earth. who rules and blesses from heaven. The Lord who made heaven and earth bless you from Zion. And as we bless Him in proper worship, He in His sovereignty blesses us from heavenly Zion. This speaks both of His position in heavenly Zion and His promise of our eternal home there as well, where there will be perfect unity and perfect worship forevermore. That's Psalm 134. And so as we close and as we prepare as well for our annual covenant signing, it seems fitting to have these two psalms be what we look at in the word to settle our minds and to quicken our hearts before we renew our commitment together as a church and our covenant signing. And then before we return to the communion table we missed last month, before we return to the communion table together, united around Christ and His table, lifting out our empty hands, remembering Christ and His work and in our dependence upon Him and His grace. So, brother and sister, may we, as the house of God, built upon Christ and for Christ, may we see the importance and the blessing of our unity in Christ and for Christ, May we seek such unity because it is good? May we desire such unity because it is pleasant? May we seek Christ together in His Word, by His Spirit, for His glory, for His gospel, and for souls' sake? May we humbly, sacrificially seek to dwell, to live, to abide together in unity with renewed priority, regardless the cost? And may God grant us a greater foretaste of the unity and worship in heaven during our pilgrimage here together on earth to encourage and to strengthen us until we reach the heavenly Zion and fully realize our citizenship in heaven, a citizenship that has been effectually won and guaranteed by the mercy seat of Christ himself. Let's pray. Dear Holy Father, we do thank you and we praise you and we bless you. Lord, you've saved us through Christ. You've sealed us by your Spirit. Then you've brought us into a home in the house of God, in the church of God. You brought us into a particular home in a local church where we can rub shoulders together and live together and be aggravated at one another, but then love one another and bear with one another for your glory and represent Christ all the more, not as individuals floating around, but as a whole. united, fit together as living stones for Christ's glory, and really for our great benefit. We thank you, Lord, that as we are united together, we represent Christ, we can be a witness for Christ, we build one another up, so then we do come to worship together. The worship is all that much more glorious, not because of us, but because of what you are doing with us. Please help us to see the importance and the centrality of our unity and our worship of you, all because of Christ. and please build us up in our unity and our worship that we would represent Christ in our individualized lives, yes, but most certainly together for your glory and for the salvation of souls. We pray, Lord, that those who are outside of Christ, even today, they would see the beauty of Christ that's represented, at least on paper, in his people and his worship. And Lord, they'd be convicted of their sin. And they'd come with empty hands, lifted towards you, towards your mercy seat. And Lord, they'd repent and believe and exchange their sin for the righteousness of Christ and have access to you, O God, and be a son or a daughter, no longer an enemy of you. Oh, may it be so. It's in Jesus' name we pray, Lord. Amen.