The Bible is turned to Hebrews 4. We're going to finish up the chapter here, just these three verses, 14, 15, and 16. They're probably some of the more familiar verses from Hebrews, and so we want to examine them this morning. Basically, my outline would be the reality of our relationship, the character of our high priest, and the invitation to come. And so we'll look at those three thoughts this morning. If you're able, stand with me as we read these three verses. Since then we have a great high priest, I think King James is such a great high priest, who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God. Let us hold fast our confession. We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence or boldness draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in the time of need. Let's pray. Father, what a wonderful invitation. What a wonderful High Priest. What a wonderful reality, Father, that we're in this relationship. And it's by your grace and by your mercy that you initiated toward us that you moved in our hearts and minds to draw us to your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so Father, we thank you for such a gift, such a blessing, such salvation. And so Father, we pray that as we may be familiar with these verses, Father, may your Holy Spirit bring a freshness to our hearts. to the depth and reality of what they say to us and what you say to us. So, Father, may your Spirit move in our hearts with freedom and with power. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. This really begins a section here in Hebrews, and depends on which commentator you look at, extends into chapter 5, chapter 6, or even as far as chapter 8, of Jesus' ministry as our high priest. And there's a distinction, and this is Probably the next step, we've seen that Jesus is greater than the angels. He's superior to the angels. He's greater than Moses as our deliverer. He's superior to Joshua because he brings us into the true rest of God. and where we cease from our effort to be made right with God, and we trust in the finished work of the Lord Jesus. And now he's entering into looking at the sacrificial system and the ministry of the priesthood, the Aaronic priesthood, that was established at Mount Sinai in Exodus. And now Jesus is superior to that priesthood. And as we move through these next chapters, this will unfold to us the extent of his superiority. But this is kind of the introduction of that as our high priest. It's not the first word. Back in chapter 2, he speaks of the Lord Jesus as the apostle and high priest of our confession. As the apostle, he's the sent one. As our high priest, he's our mediator. And it's of our confession, and it mentions this here in this chapter, that we hold fast to our confession. What is our confession? Our confession is acknowledgement of who Jesus is and what he's accomplished for us at the cross. That's the gospel. If someone asks you, I've repeated this many times, but repetition is the key to learning. If I gave you a test, I would be looking for this answer. The gospel is the person of Christ. If someone asks you what the gospel is, we can turn to John 3.16, but this includes, For God so loved the world that He gave His only, what? begotten Son. So it's His person, who He is, that He is God of very God, the second person of the Holy Trinity. But He's the Word that became flesh and pitched His tent among us. And so He added to His nature, human nature, He became the God-man. He added to Himself human nature. And even in, we saw this in this epistle, In verse 14 of chapter two, since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the work of the one who has the power of death. Speaking of Satan. And so Jesus took upon, he took upon himself and identified with us by taking on a human nature and a human body. And part of that reason was so that he could taste death. God as God cannot die. And this is part of the struggle we have in these verses in chapter four. He tempted all points like we yet without sin. In his deity, it was impossible for the Son of God to sin. It's called the impeccability of Christ. As God, there's no possibility that God can sin. But in his humanity, there was the potentiality. that he could have disobeyed the Father, and just like the first man, Adam, he would have fallen into sin, and when he went to the cross he would have paid for his own sins, and he would have been buried and never resurrected. But because he's the God-man and lived that sinless life, he was qualified to be our Savior. So the reality of our relationship. We can't pass over these first few words that are in verse 14. Since then we have. That's again, in these tenses in the Greek language, that's an aorist. It means it's reality now. And it's happened when we came to saving faith in Christ. Jesus is our high priest. He's our mediator. He's our intercessor. And so it's a daily ongoing relationship. Right now, Jesus is our high priest. Right now. Romans tells us he's praying for us. He's lifting us up in prayer in chapter eight of Romans. So there's two pictures of Jesus. Now it says he's went through the heavens. Now that's a reference to the ministry of the Aaronic High Priest, that once a year on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, he would go through, from the Holy Place into the Holy of Holies, he would go through that curtain that separated the Holy of Holies from the Holy Place. I shared with you before the whole structure of the tabernacle, and even the temple, but it is clear, the picture I think is clear in the tabernacle, was a picture of separation. The separation of a sinful people from a holy God. And the worshiper could bring a sacrifice to the gate, only one gate in a tabernacle, Okay, there was a white curtain that was 75 feet wide, 150 feet long, 75 feet wide in this rectangle. And there was one gate facing east that the worshiper could come to that gate with his sacrifice. But basically that's as far as he could come. He could not approach a holy God because our sin has separated us from God. And so he needed a mediator. And so the general priest would come and meet him with that sacrifice. And he would confess his sins on that sacrifice. And the priest would slit the throat of that sacrifice and gather the blood. And then the priest would take that blood to the brazen altar and sprinkle the four corners of that brazen altar with that blood and take that sacrifice and lay it on that altar. And there's various regulations for the type of sacrifice it was, whether it was a sin offering or a burnt offering. All of them have symbolic reasons and purposes for us. But the priest had to do that. The worshiper could not go any farther than the gate. Now that gate, that curtain was seven and a half feet high. And the instructions was to have the various tribes camp in certain order around the tabernacle. And so they would look, they'd see that seven and a half foot high curtain that surrounded the tabernacle proper. Now the tabernacle was 15 feet tall. It was 15 feet wide and 45 feet long. The first section of the Holy Place was 15 by 30 feet by 15 feet. The Holy of Holies was 15 by 15 by 15. Priests by lot, like Zechariah, John the Baptist's father, in the temple, they cast lots, and usually a priest only served in the temple proper one time in his lifetime. And so certain priests by lot could go in and minister at the table of showbread, at the candelabra, and at the altar of incense. And that's where Zechariah was ministering when Gabriel appeared to him. But that's as far as they could go. Now they could go there daily, but before they could go there, here was the brazen altar, and then there was a brazen laver, a big, big brass bowl that was filled with water. Blood sacrifices is a dirty business. And so before the priest could minister in the holy place, they had to go by the brazen altar, which was made from the brass mirrors that the Egyptian women had given to the Israelite women as they left Egypt. And they were melted down and fashioned in this big brass bowl full of water. And the priests would wash themselves in that water before they could go in the holy place. And that's as far as they could go. They went there daily. They ministered daily in the holy place. But not only the high priest, Aaron initially, could go into the Holy of Holies once a year, and he went there in fear and awe and trembling, because he was approaching the mercy seat of God, which God had designated to manifest his presence. That's where the Shekinah glory, the pillar of fire, and the pillar of cloud rested over the mercy seat, which was the lid, the top, of the Ark of the Covenant. Now I've shared with you before my understanding of the Ark of the Covenant and what it contained. It contained three things. What were they? The Ten Commandments, Aaron's rod that budded, and the jar of manna. So the law of God, the provision of God, and the leadership of God. And these three areas is where we rebel against God. We rebel against his law, we rebel against his leadership, and most of the time we're dissatisfied with his provision for our lives. And so my belief is that those three things represented the sins of the people. And the Mercy Seat covered that. But that wasn't sufficient just to cover it. Blood needed to cover the sins. Sacrifice needed to be given. And so the high priest, one day a year, first for his own sin, he would come with a blood sacrifice and sprinkle the mercy seed for his own sin as a covering. Then he would go back out and come back in with a sacrifice of blood to sprinkle the mercy seed for the sins of the people. And that's the only one that could do it, only once a year. And as we'll see in the subsequent chapters, year after year after year after year, they had to be performed. The other ministries in the holy place, day after day after day, they had to be performed. But a writer of Hebrews says, since then we have, right now, a high priest, who has not just passed through a physical curtain into the presence of God, but he's passed through the heavens. As we'll see, the preacher says, into a tabernacle that's not made with human hands, which speaks of the very presence of God. Now is when we understand 2 Corinthians 12, when Paul talks about, I know a certain man who passed into the third heaven. At least, I mean, there's been discussions among the rabbis, as many as seven heavens, they want to say there's seven heavens, but pretty much in Paul's day and Jesus' day, there was a common consensus that there were three heavens. The first heaven, what we would say is our atmosphere. The second heaven, we would call outer space. The third heaven was that place, that dimension, that was beyond all of creation, it's outside of creation, was the presence of God. And so that's what the preacher is saying here. He's gone through the heavens into the very presence of God. And as again, as we'll see as we unpack this epistle, he didn't go there with the blood of animals. He went there with his own blood to present before the Father to cover our sins. And so we have an ongoing daily, we have that right now. Every believer in Jesus Christ has this relationship that we have a mediator between us and God. We have someone who has paid the price for our sins, and he has gone through the heavens, and he has gone into the very presence of the Father. One picture of that is, in his exaltation, he has sat down where? At the right hand of the Father, symbolizing that his securing our salvation is complete. As he cried on the cross, it is finished. And so the right hand of the king was a place of power. It was a place of authority. It was a place of exaltation. And that's where Jesus is right now. And multiple times in here, in Hebrews and Ephesians, he's bringing all things in subjection of his feet. That's going on right now. He's reigning in our hearts right now, but he's also reigning in all of his creation. But the other aspect, his other role, see that's his role as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. But his other ministry toward us is as our Great High Priest, who stands before the Father interceding for us, who stands before the Father as our mediator. Now John refers to him in 1st John as our advocate, the one who represents us. Again, a priest represents the people before God, a prophet represents God before the people. So here Jesus in his high priestly role is representing us. You ever needed a good lawyer? Sometimes they don't succeed, do they? As skilled as they may be, they don't always succeed. But Jesus, our high priest, always represents us fully and completely, and in essence, wins our case as a dependent relationship. Andre Crouch. wrote a song, Jesus is the what? Anybody know what it is? Answer for the world today. It's a dependent relationship. The only one that can intercede for us, the only one that can be our mediator is the Lord Jesus Christ. It is no one else, it's not angels, it's not Moses, it's not Joshua, it's not Aaron, And as we unpack this, Missy asked a question a couple weeks ago. I told her we'll delve into all this as we go through Hebrews. In Psalm 110, God declares that you're going to be a priest forever after the art of Mechizedek. Now, Mechizedek is this mysterious figure in Genesis that came out to meet Abraham as he rescued Lot, and Abraham gave Melchizedek a tenth of what he had had. And as we'll see here, it says he has no beginning, no end, no mother, no father. There's a mystery there that speaks the eternality of Christ. It speaks of his superiority. As Paul tells us, I think it's in Galatians, that in essence, Aaron, who came from the loins of Abraham ultimately, tithed to Melchizedek. And so the lesser recognizes the greater. And so Jesus, as our high priest after the ardor of Melchizedek, who is the king of Salem, and Salem means what? Peace. He's the king of peace. He is superior to the Aaronic priesthood. That's why, again, we'll see here in this letter that the old system became obsolete and God let it fade away, because we trust in Christ. It's a direct relationship. We have a great high priest. This is, I mentioned to someone this week, this is part of the renewed understanding in scripture of the priesthood of believers. Because I don't need the Pope, I don't need Mary, I don't need any saint, I don't need any preacher. I only need Christ. It's a direct relationship with Jesus Christ. And it's a devoted relationship. So, it says, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, and who is he? He's the son of God. So the admonition is, let us hold fast to our confession. Let us hold fast to what we believe. You know, we, I don't even know if it passed. I just haven't paid that much attention to the convention, Southern Baptist Convention, back in last month in June. But there were some that wanted to add to the Baptist faith and message, the Apostles' Creed. Not the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed. And historically as Baptists, we've claimed that we're not creedal people. We don't embrace the historic creeds. But basically, we do. because they were just a structure of what we believe about God and about Jesus Christ. And so this is what we believe about Jesus Christ, that he is God. He's God incarnate. As we see in this passage, he lived a sinless life. He fulfilled the law for us. He was born of a virgin. Therefore he, this is my take, some say that the sin nature is passed on through the seed of man. I don't know if I really believe that, but we're all fallen in Adam. That's what the Bible says. Because of one man's sin, we've all died. So when we're born, we're in Adam. Jesus, just like Adam, was created by a miracle of God by taking the dust of the earth and forming Adam. And in many respects, at that moment, he was just a shell. And what did God do? He breathed in him the breath of life, and he became what? A living soul. So I believe, as an act of creation to form Adam, the first man, in Mary's womb, God did an act of creation. in bringing fertilization to her egg, and God did a work of creation and brought conception into Mary's womb. And that is why Jesus was born, not with an Adamic nature like we are, but he was born just like Adam, was created with an innocence that was tested, and he failed, Jesus was born without sin, and he was tested, but praise God he did what? He passed. He fulfilled all righteousness for us. Yes, Jesus cried when he was a baby, when he was hungry, and the only indication we have of Jesus's awareness of who he was is when he was 12 years old. When they go to Jerusalem for the feast, they went in this big entourage of families together and friends together for protection and for the journey. And so they leave this big entourage and Mary and Joseph pretty much think Jesus is hanging out with one of the family groups or some of the friends. And they get down the road, they realize Jesus isn't there, right? And they go back to Jerusalem, they look all over the place for him, find him at the temple, having discussions with the religious leaders and confounding them with his wisdom as a 12-year-old boy. And what did Jesus say? Essence, he says, should have came here first, because I must be about what? My father's business. So even as a 12-year-old boy, Jesus had a, and I believe it goes back to much earlier, that he had a consciousness of who he was. And he walked, even in his childhood, You know, when Jesus was playing with a toy that Joseph had made him, and Joseph, his half-brother, or James' half-brother, grabbed that toy. Now, I'm speculating here. This is holy speculation. I think Jesus just smiled at him. Now, if it was you or me, what would we do? We'd grab it back, and we'd smack the young one. I was my brother's punching bag for about 14 years until I got to about as big as him and as strong as him. But our last fight that we had, I think I was a senior in high school, and he was a freshman. No, he was probably a sophomore in college. His car was broke down, so he was driving my car. He was working over in Illinois at Cerro Bras in Copper. He comes home one day after work, and I'm at home cooking supper, because I cooked supper until I was in college. And I said, if you put gas in my car? He said, no. I said, you better. He says, what if I don't? And we got in a physical fight, really. We almost knocked over the refrigerator. And that was the last fight we had physically. But I had him. I had him down, because I was as strong as him at that time. But there's a psychological disadvantage. He was my older brother. And instead of really just giving a really good knock on the head, I let him up, and then he jumped me and got me down. But as younger brothers or sisters, a lot of times the senior one takes advantage of us. But Jesus was tempted in all points like we without sin. And that means in his childhood, he had some awareness, I think, of who he was, and he chose righteousness every time. The character of our high priest. He sympathizes with us. He knows our weaknesses. He was not weak, but he embraced the temptations, and the ones that we're most familiar with are in the Gospels, in the wilderness, where he was tempted. Now, none of us have been tempted to turn a stone into bread. Has anybody ever been tempted to turn a stone into bread? Satan did that because he knew who Jesus was. He knew Jesus had the power to turn that stone into bread. Just like he took this kid's Happy Meal there on the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee and turned that little boy's lunch to feed 20,000 people. You see, Satan tempts us at the point of our susceptibility. None of us would be tempted to take a rock and turn it into bread. Now, there have been some people that have taken a rock and made a pet out of it. Anybody remember that? One guy said, this is my stud rock. And somebody said, well, it's not going to work. And some of you didn't get that. That's not original to me. A guy from Illinois told that joke. We're tempted at the point of our susceptibility, and that's why we have to guard our heart and protect our heart, but also we have to turn to Jesus, because he knows what it is to be tempted at his susceptibility. And so we have this great high priest, and we hold on to our confession. We believe who he is and what he's done for us. And we turn to him and know that he is not going to, I don't want to say rebuke us, because he might rebuke us. He rebuked his disciples for lack of faith. But he's not going to dismiss us. He's not going to reject us. He may correct us. He may discipline us when we get to chapter 12, because He disciplines those that are His. But He's not going to reject us. So He sympathizes with us. He understands our weaknesses. And so we can turn to Him. And He suffered in His humanity. He knows what it is to be hungry. He knows what it is to be weary. He knows what it is to be rejected. He knows every need of every heart, and He sympathizes with us. But what qualified Him to secure our salvation is that sinlessness. Let me just refer to a few verses. I'm not going to look them up, just kind of refer to them. In John 8, 46, Jesus stood before the religious leadership and says, which of you can convict me or has convicted me of sin? They couldn't do it. They hated him. I think one of the reasons they hated him, because of the purity and light of his life revealed the wretchedness and darkness of their lives. I heard somebody talk about Billy Graham playing golf with some top-notch golfer, and I don't remember who it was. But they came back in, and this guy said, I'm never playing with Billy Graham again. All he did was preach at me. And the other guy said, I didn't hear him say a word. What this guy saw was Billy Graham's life. And the light of his life was so bright that it revealed the darkness of this guy's life, and he was brought into conviction, and he didn't like it. I think one of the reasons the Pharisees and Sadducees hated Jesus is because the purity of his life revealed the wickedness of their hearts. He said, which of you convict me of sin? 1 Peter 2.22. In King James language, there was no guile. no deceit, no deception in his mouth. The words that Jesus spoke were the words of truth, they were the words of light, they were the words of righteousness, and they were the words of judgment. 2 Corinthians 5.21, we looked at this two Wednesday nights ago. He who knew no sin, he knew no sin, he knew no sin, became sin for us. 1st John 3, 5, John says, in him there was no sin. This passage, tempting all points like we, yet without sin. Over and over again, the testimony of Scripture is Jesus lived a sinless life. Listen folks, that's very important to understand. I read a survey years ago, it could have been 20 years ago, might have been 15, I don't remember. But it says that 87% of evangelicals, those that claim to know Christ, believe Jesus sinned. And if Jesus sinned, we have no salvation, we're wasting our time here, we're wasting our money, we're wasting this building, we just need to close the door, sell the property, and go home. Because if Jesus had sinned, there's no salvation. Now what I say, again, this is a test I would give you. At least two things Jesus' resurrection attests to. Number one would be what? Anybody remember? His sinless life. Because if Jesus had sinned, he would have died on the cross for his own sin, and he would have been placed in the grave, and he'd still be there. And the second aspect is that his sacrifice was sufficient for us to be forgiven. And he was raised, Romans 1 says, he was after the flesh, he was the son of David, but he was raised with power by the Holy Spirit as the son of God. And his sacrifice was sufficient for us. And he's sufficient in his intercession Now we bring the Holy Spirit into this also. Romans 8 tells us we don't know how we should pray. And so the Holy Spirit, who knows the mind of God the Father, intercedes for us and redirects our prayers, refines our prayers, brings our prayers in line with the mind and will of the Father. And so he's interceding for us. Jesus, as our high priest, is interceding for us. What does that say to us? We can keep our trust in God. The Holy Spirit's working in our stead. Jesus is working in our stead. And so we need to embrace them. And that's what this next screen will say. We need to honor this invitation. Let us come boldly before the throne of grace. Let us draw near to the throne of grace. That's an active participle. It means I continually draw near to God. Our sin will do what to us? It'll drive us from God, just like Adam. In essence, God was saying to Adam, where are you? He was giving him an invitation. From Genesis to the end of the Revelation, God starts his interaction with fallen man with an invitation. Return to me. Come to me. Again, read chapter 22 of Revelation. I'll do it for you. Let me find it. Revelation 22, 17. The Spirit and the bride say, come. Let the one who hears say, come. Let the one who is thirsty come. Let the one who desires to take the water of life without price. God is saying, come to me. First chapter of Isaiah. God says, I don't lie. I'm not satisfied. In fact, he says, I hate your sacrifices. But he doesn't stop there. He says, come. Let us reason together. Let us come. Come to me. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as wool. Though they be crimson, they shall be white as snow. God's invitation has come, and so we have this invitation here. And this happens for us as believers. When we're straying from God, it'll drive us from His Word. It'll drive us from Him. We'll begin to neglect the Word of God, we'll begin to neglect prayer, because we're straying, the old-fashioned word, backsliding, and sin will drive us from God. But God's invitation is always, just as we saw in to enter his rest from Matthew 11, come, come to me, return to me. God says to his prophets, return to me and I'll return to you. Humble yourself before me and I will lift you up. And so we're to draw near, and don't run over these words, we draw near to the throne of judgment. Is that what it says? We draw near to the throne of grace. I read a long time ago, probably 25, I imagine it might be 30 years ago, G. Cameron Morgan, who was a great preacher at Westminster Chapel in London for the last half of the 19th century, and I think into the 20th century. He gave this definition of grace. Now, Sunday School definition of grace is what? God's unmerited what? Favor. The acronym, God's Riches at Christ's Expense, okay? We got those answers. But here's an answer that always blessed me. G. Campbell Morgan says, the grace of God is the activity of God in our life. that he initiates that activity, he sustains that activity, and he works in our life, as Paul says in Ephesians 2.13, both to will and to do his good pleasure. The grace of God. One of my favorite passages in Romans 5, where he says, we've been called into this grace in which we stand. I've always pictured that as an arena, maybe just a circle. that when I came to saving faith, Romans 5.1, therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God. And with that peace, we are placed in this arena, this circle, this residence of grace in which we stand. And when we turn to Christ, we're always turning to the throne of grace. And grace is God's giving us what we don't deserve. And we come to the throne of grace. Most of us may be latently default in our thinking, and maybe the deception of lies of Satan. Think if we turn to God, it's a throne of judgment. But as believers, as we hold fast to our confession, when we enter into his presence, we come to the throne of grace. And we draw near with confidence, with boldness. That's not presumption. It's not like some of these word of faith guys that, you know, God's got to do this. You know, you just, no. We come with a confidence and even a boldness. As a child, particularly a young child, would burst into the presence of their father. And their father may be doing something for his job, or doing something important, or mom may be doing something important, but there's such a confidence and such a love relationship and such an expectation that that child just bursts into the presence of their loving father or loving mother. And so that's kind of the idea, I believe. We come with a reverence, we come with an awe, we come with humility, but we can come. The door is open. I've told my children, our door is always open. Now, I know there are circumstances, situations sometimes, my mom's youngest sister, Her daughter, for a period of time, was addicted to crack cocaine. And she stole my aunt's rings and jewelry and hocked them for all that. And there came a point that my aunt said, you can't stay in my house. That didn't mean she couldn't come to the house, but she couldn't live there. I don't know if those things happen. I understand those things happen. But I've told my kids, you're always welcome. My door is always open. My heart is always open. I will not shut that door. And God does not shut that door for us. We come with confession. It says we receive mercy. Mercy. When we come and confess our sin, as believers in Jesus Christ. Now Satan will try to lie to us, even our heart. John says, even if my own heart condemns me, God is greater than my heart because his perfect love has cast out all fear. And John says that fear has to do with torment or with judgment. God's perfect love cast out that fear. And so even when my heart condemns me, and my adversary condemns me. God's word is, we can come to the throne of grace because we have a high priest who has passed through the heavens, who has come in the presence of the Father and presented his blood that covers all our sin. And we have access. Later on in Hebrews, it says, we come through the veil of his flesh. Just like that veil separated the people and even the priest from the holy of holies. You all know, Matthew tells us, when Jesus Christ finished, that curtain was torn. And that's a picture of it being opened up. That we're now in Christ. We have access to the throne of grace. And we can come. And we can bring our sin. In fact, that's all we ever bring to God is our sin. In salvation and in sanctification. That's all we bring to Him. We have nothing to offer Him except our sin. But if we confess our sin, 1st John 1.9, he's faithful and just. Why is God just? What does that word mean? Why did John say God is faithful and he's just to forgive us of our sin? Because Jesus fulfilled that penalty for us. God can justly forgive me and forgive you because Jesus paid the price. He paid the penalty. He paid the punishment. And so we can come and confess our sin. And God is faithful and He's just to forgive us our sin and cleanse us of all unrighteousness. And we draw near with petition. asking God to change us, to work in us, to renew our mind, to give us strength to obey, to give us light to see, give us encouragement, and we find grace and mercy in our time of need. As a time of worship, this stone of grace, one of the most effects of it is it humbles us. Do you really know the wickedness of your heart? And I'm asking myself that same question. A lot of church people kind of get the mindset, I'm a pretty good guy. I'm a pretty good gal. God says our heart is exceedingly wicked and deceitful in our flesh. And when God offers us all this forgiveness, His grace, His mercy, it should humble us before a holy God. And it should produce in us songs of thanksgiving and praise. And so when we come to this throne of grace, we're coming because we're needy. We're coming because we're sinful. We're coming because Jesus is our only hope. And God gives us the mercy. He gives us the grace. He forgives our sin. He leads us in righteousness, and that's where, when we come together as corporately and we worship, that's the power of our worship, is that we are just standing in awe of who God is and what He's done for us in His Son. Let's pray. Father, thank You for Your goodness and Your grace. Thank You, Father, for Your mercy. Thank you that Jesus has passed through the heavens for us. And he's brought his blood before you. And your word says the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us of all sin. Father, help us to come to you. Help us to turn from darkness to light in our daily walk. We ask it in Jesus' name, Amen.