Jackie Hill Perry | Holier Than Thou | September 8, 2024

Jackie Hill Perry is here and we're excited for that we have a new sermon series uh starting next Sunday morning we're going to be talking about how to find joy and peace in Jesus from the book of Philippians but today God has brought jagie here to teach us from his word you know that she is a multi-talented person uh she is a wife a mom of four kids but the reason we wanted her to come today is because she's a theologian she writes books that are rich in biblical Theology and we have read her books

and we have done her Bible studies and so we thought wouldn't it be awesome to have her come here and let God use her to speak his truth to us so welcome Jackie Hil [Applause] Perry um y'all already the loudest service they've had y'all lit what time is it that's crazy ain't even 12:00 um my name is Jackie and I live in Atlanta with my husband of 10 years Preston and our four CH four children and dog um the Lord saved me I love the Bible and I'm just going to teach it is that okay

okay um um what' you say I'm from Australia oh brief straight absolutely so I'm going to pray for us and then we're going to get into it Lord we thank you for today we just even thank you for today that we woke up with new mercies we thank you that we woke up in our right mind some of us might have an anxious mind um yet at the same time our minds are still like okay so we just thank you that you have protected us that you are keeping us that you are with us uh

we pray for this service God that you would help us to receive see from you to hear from you that your spirit would apply this word and power so that we would not be people who look in the mirror and turn around and forget what we've seen But we would believe that we would trust that we would apply that we would obey I pray that you would open up our understanding I pray that you would just give us the grace to love you back we pray this in Jesus name amen um there there's a lot

of baggage around the word holy uh some of us hear the word word holy and we we think of particular kinds of people we we might think of people who dress a certain kind of way people who don't wear pants like I am with holes on their knees you know uh people who dress with you know skirts to the ankles and all the things like even me I grew up around people they ain't even play UNO like that was just too close to gambling that was the kind of thing that I thought about when it

came to Holy others might hear the word holy and not necessarily think of of a particular kind of person but they might feel something they they might feel fear might feel shame might feel skeptical might feel defensive or even curious if you are a Christian or if you have been exposed to the Christian faith and language before you have heard the word holy there there there there's everybody in their mama has some idea of what Holiness means but I need you to know that how we Define the term holy is not and should not start

with who the people you know the experiences you've had or the feelings you feel Holiness Finds Its most precise definition in who God has revealed himself to be in the Scriptures it seems like we are in a world where definitions are always changing consider words like man woman marriage truth love depending on where you are how you feel what school you go to what church you reside in each word might mean different things to different people but when we get to God we don't have the authority to redefine or reimagine him and therefore we don't

have the authority to redefine or reimagine Holiness either why because God is Holy so to talk about Holiness is to talk about God so to get straight to the point that's that's all I'm going to do that's all I'm going to do and I'm going to set you on your way to go get have Chick-fil-A not open you know get something else I I'm just don't you ever get mad when you leave church you be like this is the one day that I wanted Chick-fil-A I'm I'm going to talk about God and His nature because

we need to know him so that we can trust him and in trusting him we will know him if you have your Bibles or if you want to look at the screen turn to Isaiah chapter 6 say Amen when you see it or when you got it I said Say Amen when you see it or when you got it okay 12 of you praise God look at verse one it says in the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon the throne high and lifted up and the train of his robe filled

the temple above him stood the seraphim each had six wings with two he covered his face and with two he covered his feet and with two he flew and one called to another and said holy holy holy is the Lord of hosts the whole earth is full of his glory and the foundations of the threshold Shook at the voice of him who called and the house was filled with smoke and I said woe is me for I am lost for I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people

of unclean lips for my eyes have seen the king the Lord of hosts and one of the seraphim flew to me having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from The Altar and he touched my mouth and said behold this has touched your lips your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for the prophet Isaiah saw the Lord on the throne and he heard the seraphim singing something doctrinal about the nature of God to one another they praised God by saying what is true about him to one another they

said holy holy holy is the Lord of hosts the whole earth is full of his glory I think if the Angels or the beings Were Somehow replaced by somebody within our current cultural context I kind of think the lyrics to their song would be a bit different I think if we I think if we gave someone in from our era the ability to leave Earth into the throne room of God and we say hey why don't you sing about an attribute of God that you think is most important why don't you sing about the attribute

of God that fills our CCM songs why why don't you sing about the attribute of God that you think is most valuable I think out of their mouths would then come love love love is the Lord of hosts the whole earth is full of his glory and if they did that they wouldn't be lying they they would be telling the truth because God is love but I think we have to ask the question of would God Be Love if God wasn't first and foremost holy I mean without righteousness permeating his whole being setting him apart

from all that is self-serving all that is arrogant all that is egotistical and narcissistic if God wasn't holy would God be able to love you at all it is because God is Holy that he is be kind it is because God is Holy that he is humble it is because God is Holy that he is faithful and honest and true it is because God is Holy hly that he is all the things so you can see then why when the seraphim have a song to sing when they have an attribute to lift up when they

have a hymn to write when they have a lyric to pen it isn't that God is love love love it is that God is Holy and notice they don't say it once they don't say it twice they say it three times holy holy holy is the Lord of hosts there's this thing in Hebrew literature where they use repetition to emphasize something you see Jesus use it in the gospels when he wanted to emphasize the truthfulness of his statement and to get the people to pay attention he would say truly truly or or verily verily admit

what I am saying is of most importance black people do it too don't know if you ever met them let's say a person sees somebody at the store and they call their friend they say hey friend I seen David friend is like David who the friend says David David the repetition emphasizes something it it it says this is the most important we thought we were being cultural we were being biblical the whole time so so the seraphim for them to say that God is Holy Holy Holy it implies that the seraphim recognize that God is

not merely holy but he is most holy he is supremely Holy he is completely holy he is utterly holy but what does the word holy even mean we haven't even defined the term the the word the root word of the word holy means to cut or to separate it it conveys the idea of separateness we we see it used for the first time in Genesis 2 when God made the Sabbath day blessed it and Sanctified it made it holy depending on your translation meaning God set that day apart from all other days I like to

use this example from Tony Evans in in being able to wrap our minds around the idea of what separateness means as it relates to the term holy he talks about how in every house there are two kinds of dishes you want you got one kind of dish you use this dish all all the time you got this from uh from Walmart not Target Walmart you know you got these from Five Below somewhere uh like you you just eat fries and ketchup on these dishes when you done with these dishes you throw them in the sink

them dishes could die and you wouldn't even lament you wouldn't get sad or nothing they could just break and you would be okay like those those is one set of dishes you got another set of dishes these dishes don't come out all the time these dishes come out on on on on special occasions you got these dishes from Pottery Barn you got these dishes from Mama and Papa somebody you got these dishes from West Elm they got the little etching all on the edge of them and you bring these dishes out for special things and

when you're done eating the meal you don't even put these dishes back in the same cabinet you don't put these dishes back in the same place depending on your generation you put these dishes in what you call a china cabinet a china cabinet was a cabinet that existed in a different city in another country in the same house and somebody could say why are these dishes being treated so special why why is there favoritism with the dishes and it's because those dishes ain't common those dishes are different th those dishes are distinct th those dishes

are special those dishes are are set apart therefore metaphorically speaking those dishes are holy so when we say that God is Holy Holy Holy the the seraphim are not making rules around Holiness I mean around Justice and wrath and hell they are singing about the basic idea that God is completely set apart from everything there are two categories by which we can understand God's holiness a lot of times people Center Holiness primarily around morals or ethics that God is righteous and he is that God is Honorable and that he is and God is clean and

he is that is one category by which we understand Holiness but there is also another category of understanding Holiness that God is Not Just morally pure but he is also Transcendent Transcendence is when something goes above and beyond another thing I've in my day have seen Transcendent wigs don't know if you ever seen them it goes above and beyond the scalp Okay no Okay now y'all didn't understand that one um just go to the mall for five seconds you'll see a couple Transcendent wigs um when we say that God is transcendent I'm not saying that

he goes above and beyond us primarily in spatial terms but he goes above and beyond us ontologically his being is different from us his ways are not our ways his thoughts are not our thoughts he is the I am that I am he is the Alpha and Omega he is the beginning and the end he is the Ancient of Days he ain't like us and so we are going to observe both God's Transcendence and God's moral Purity in Isaiah's vision of him in Isaiah chapter 6 verse1 it says in the year that King Uzziah died

I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne pause King Uzziah was the king of Judah for 52 years after 52 years his breath left his body he gave up The Ghost and he died and ironically Isaiah the prophet says that the same year he saw one King die is the same year that he saw another king alive and well God's aliveness if that's a word is a part of his Holiness and it's not a part of his Holiness just because like like if you if if Holiness was just on the basis of you being alive

then everybody who has life will be considered holy too the thing that sets God apart from everything therefore making him Transcendent is that God has always been alive did you hear what I said God has always been alive before Uzziah and his daddy God was alive before before Adam and Eve God was alive before Abraham before Moses before Jacob before MDC before Methuselah before Jonah before all the people before time God was alive I'm sure about five of you have had a child come up to you one time and say hey Mommy TI Auntie teacher

um did God create the world and you feel like a theologian and you're like yeah Genesis 1:1 in the beginning God created the heavens and the Earth then they say did God create me and you like yeah Jeremiah God knit you together in your mama's womb and they say then who created God and then you feel like the elevator don't go all the way to the Top If if a kid ask you that question it's it's a brilliant question because it means that they have taken survey of themselves and everything they know and they recognize

that everything has a beginning that everything is made that everything is created but when we get to God because God is transcendent he is the only being that requires a different answer point to anything in the world everything is derivative of something else meaning everything is contingent everything exists because something else exists if you are a painter you need Paint if you are a musician you need instruments if if you got an iPhone you need a Steve Jobs I don't know what Androids needed but I do know that if you have a iPhone you need

a Steve Jobs everything is dependent on something else for it to exist and because we are created every single one of us is inherently dependent Paul said that it is in God that we live and we move and we have our being what does that mean it means that without God you would not be contingent it means that without God you would not be alive contenent without God you would not be able to move but unlike us the reason why God is transcendent is because he does not need anybody to live or to move or

to have his being all God needs is himself that is why the Bush was burning and not confus uh not consumed because God only needed his own energy as a source of life I hope you understand understand what I'm saying God has power that he doesn't have to borrow wisdom that he doesn't have to learn foresight that nobody had to reveal strength that he doesn't have to work for a child might not understand it and you might not e either but if anybody ever asks you who created God the only doctrinal answer you can give

is nobody God exists because God exists do you see why he's so different from you now what what it means for him to be set apart from everything there is truly no one like him as this high and lifted up God is seated with his robe stretching throughout the temple Isaiah observes some Heavenly Creatures around the throne and he calls them seraphim which means burning ones as the temple as he's in the temple the temple begins to shake it's a lot like Mount Si and the temple was moving and shaking which typically happens when anything's

near God because when God shows up things just move including you in that temple with the high and lifted up Lord seated the entire Temple trembles the room fills with smoke and the burning ones say holy holy holy is the Lord of hosts the whole earth is full of his glory and notice in the text that Isaiah doesn't add to their praise he doesn't lift up his hands and worship he doesn't open up his mouth and give God glory it's as if by impulse while the burning ones testify to the holy nature of God beholding

his nature in this Temple all Isaiah can do is confess he says woe is me for I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips when I looked at this text I said why did Isaiah say woe instead of worship and I think it's because not only is God Transcendent in his Holiness meaning he exists differently than us but God is also morally pure in his Holiness meaning he is ethical he is completely good it is hard to imagine a being who can only do right

only be good only speak honestly only think righteously imagine if you can a being with motives that Satan can never influence imagine if you can a being whose behavior and character will never require atonement Our God it sounds too good to be true but truly he is that good our God is ho holy holy holy what's problematic about us is that in our sinful nature because we were born after Adam we've inherited his sin we don't often think right and so we have a tendency to project our nature on to God by thinking of God

as if he was imperfect treating God as if he had the potential to be less than good talking to God as if he had the potential to sin against us we might talk about God like he's unjust just because he allowed a little bit too much suffering to touch us we we read his word and refuse to believe it's true as if the spirit that inspired the scriptures had the ability the capacity the character to lie to you we we we entertain self- condemnation as if Christ's blood isn't as efficacious as the scriptures describe it

but when I talk about a being who who is unjust when I talk about a being who overpromises and under delivers when I talk about a being who is a liar who I have described is actually more Satan than God but who do you think you are Imaging God as when Holiness is disregarded in your definitions of him I'll say it one more time when you imagine God as someone who is less than good you are not imagining God you're imagining yourself this is what happened on Earth with Jesus Jesus was consistently accused of being

a sinner that he part with Satan to cast out demons that that he was a glutton as if Jesus didn't have self-control that he was a blasphemer as if he didn't know how to watch his mouth and in John 8 Jesus responds to the people with a very important question he says which one of you convicts me of sin if I tell you the truth why don't you believe me that's a profound question because no human being on Earth would be able to ask that question and be considered in their right mind because every human

being on Earth has fallen short of the glory of God and therefore everybody can be convicted of sin apparently except Jesus and he sets forth his moral Purity his ethical nature his Holiness as the reason why he is worthy to be believed this is why knowing that God is Holy is is is is necessary for your faith because the things you do ain't just because you were born after Adam it's because the way Adam has affected your belief system is that you are not just bad because you're bad you're bad because you don't believe God

everything you do the character that you have the the moments that you move throughout the Earth all point back to what it is that you believe about him you don't have sex with people you aren't married to just because your l F it's also because you don't believe that God is the Lord of your body there are some of you who have taken jobs that God told you not to take and you didn't do it just because you're disobedient that is a thing but underneath the Disobedience was that you did not believe that God could

actually provide for you at a lower wage it means that sometimes sometimes we think being more holy is just a matter of changing our behavior and and and be becoming a better person when in fact becoming more holy might be interrogating the belief systems about God that are fueling the way I live my life is this making sense to anybody how you behave is directly connected to what you believe about God's nature at the root at the root of all of our sin is unbelief in the word and worth of God and that is is

why it is so difficult for us to be like Jesus sometimes and I have a suspicion that one reason why faith and therefore Holiness is difficult for us is that many of us have experienced A diversity of pain betrayal abuse unfaithfulness dishonesty inconsistency we know we know that this world isn't safe and that's because Sinners live here so so we live in a constant state of self-preservation to protect ourselves from the potential of any kind of pain and I wonder if some of our unbelief underneath some of our doubt is the thought that maybe God

isn't safe either that he might just be like the mother that didn't nurture us that he might be like the father that didn't that didn't love us that he that he might be like the people in positions of a power that abused us that he might be like the friends that did not listen to us or honor us or stay consistent with us and so then when you read the scriptures and you listen to the sermon and you watch the podcast and you see them say something about God that holds symmetry to your experiences when

you see that he calls himself friend when you see that he calls himself Lord when you see that he calls himself father in your unbelief you end up projecting onto God the nature of everyone who has sinned against you but the hope is the Hope is is that if God is Holy it means he cannot sin and if God cannot sin it means he cannot sin against you and if God cannot sin against you does that not make him the most trustworthy being that has ever existed who can you who can convict him of sin

if he told you the truth why don't you believe him the holy God is was a God who was without fault without wrinkle without blemish habc says that his eyes are too pure to look on sin Peter said that Jesus committed no de no sin and no deceit was found in his mouth but there was sin in Isaiah he he was born after Adam after all so for he had a nature that was not holy but sinful dark blemished and in the presence of this holy holy holy holy God there was nowhere for Isaiah's heart

to hide it is so interesting to me that God is so pure that when anything unlike him is near him it becomes obvious how much they're unlike him that's why I have beef with books and sermons and podcasts that tell you more about you than God as if you could see yourself through your own mirror you have to see yourself by looking at God God God didn't do anything for Isaiah to be so terrified God didn't even tell Isaiah he was holy the seraphim sang a song God didn't move didn't stand up didn't adjust his

robe he simply sat and that was enough for Isaiah to see his own wickedness when you answer the question of why woe instead of worship you have to imagine or remember the fact that God's holiness is representative as light God is light and in him is no darkness and what does light do light illuminates light light reveals what is in the dark so when you think about what was happening with Isaiah it means that the Supreme virtue of God's being forced everything in Isaiah that did not look like God to come out of hiding for

some of us for some of us this this Illuminating effect causes us to be defensive unteachable some of us have picked the friends that we pick because we didn't want friends that would illuminate us so some of us hi from the scriptures because we don't want the scriptures to illuminate us but at the point that you run from conviction is at the point that you are running from God's mercy whoo instead of opting for the vulnerability of humility some of us want to maintain the false view of ourselves that we have constructed an in resisting

truth about yourself you might be protecting your image in front of church people but you are also protecting yourself from God's cleansing notice that in the presence of God Isaiah was honest and why shouldn't he be God knows everything he knew that Isaiah was a man of unclean lips and now Isaiah knew it for himself and by confessing the uncleanness of his lips Isaiah was confessing the uncleanness of his heart because the Bible says that out of the abundance of the the mouth Isaiah was seeing God and now Isaiah saw himself that's why Isaiah pronounced

woe on himself when he said for I am lost and I'mma I have a little more time because we need to dig into this idea of Justice when Isaiah said woe is me for I am lost the Hebrew means for I am ruined meaning that in seeing God and seeing himself now Isaiah recognizes what he deserves from God which is Justice what does God's holiness have to do with his Justice everything if God is Holy he must be just and in so doing he must punish Sinners and God's self-revelation to Moses he made it known

that he will by no means clear the guilty because when God when God sees sin he does not see himself him being most beautiful and it confuses us that the same God who is who is praised for his kindness can seem so cruel but God's Wrath is nothing like the anger that we experience by Nature God's Wrath is the outworking of his revoltion against everything that is a contradiction to his very being God cannot be indifferent towards sin because he is too holy holy to do so for if he were to overlook the guilty no

matter how small the offense he would be unjust our society tends to accuse God of Injustice whenever his Gaff Falls too hard for our liking and it's because we have a very low view of sin and a metoc grasp of the nature of God if God is Holy it means he must do what is right he must do what is good he must judge he must lift his sword and bring it down on the guilty but here's the question that should be asked but never is if if God if his Holiness means that he must

judge Sinners if the wages of sin is death why am I still alive aren't I a woman of unclean lips and don't I live in a nation in a county and a city in a neighborhood with people who cannot watch their mouth what would our Twitter timeline say to us on Judgment Day aren haven't haven't I eaten several fruit that God told me not to eat haven't we all fallen short of the glory of God and yet here we are on Sunday morning with clothes on our backs and food in our belly and and breath

in our lungs and a right mind here's the thing we are all actually so used to God's forbearance we are so familiar with his patience that we are more shocked by his judgment than we are by his Mercy when you read the scriptures every time you see wrath you also see Mercy consider Adam in Genesis 3 as soon as they ate from the the fruit God pulls aside an animal Slaughters it and covers Adam and his wife Shan which is the first instance of a blood sacrifice that is Mercy consider Israel in Egypt when when

at the same time that the Egyptians were being judged Israel was being rescued on the basis of God's mercy the blood on the door close was not Moses's idea was not Aaron's idea was not Miriam's idea they didn't even ask for that God delighted and telling them how they could be delivered so that the blood or that the angel of death would pass over them that was a mercy consider lot who was rescued not on the basis of his own ratchet righteousness but on the basis of God's mercy consider Isaiah who even in this text

do you see anywhere where he asked for Mercy look at verse six then one of the seraphim flew to me having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongues from the altar and he touched my mouth and said behold this has touched your lips your guilt is taken away and your sin atone for right after Isaiah confesses his sin to the Lord one of the Heavenly Creatures stopped singing grabbed a coal from the altar placed it on Isaiah's mouth sanctifying it for Holy use but I don't see anywhere in here where

Isaiah asks for that I don't I don't see anywhere in here where he even tried to bargain with God and say hey if I do all the good things if I prophesy good and if I sing good if I go to church every week if I do all the right things then can you bring the C in at tone for me like like Isaiah didn't try to barain with God to earn righteousness by his own works because what could he have done to make himself right with God God's standard is too high he he is

too perfect but what what the thing with here that's happening here is is is the same thing that happened to Isaiah in the throne room is the same thing that has happened to every believer in Christ it is that God initiated Mercy for you before you even asked him to what do you think the Bible means when it says that while while while we were yet sinner Christ died for us you mean 2,000 years ago God already died for me so that when I came to Faith in 2021 when I came to Faith in 1954

when I came to Faith in 2025 that God God had already prepared the way for me to know him God is kind to us in my close I just want to communicate how that happened because if God is the lawgiver and we are guilty somebody still has to die you you just can't be forgiven just because that's an injustice I I wish I would see a guilty person on the stand and the judge says you can go without someone paying the penalty so let's use our Sanctified imagination for a moment thank you for giving me

extra time let's imagine that we are the burning ones and since we were created all we have ever done is worship around the throne and it's not like we were given a script it's just that every time we see God we can't help but take two set of wings and cover our eyes because his glory is too brilliant for us to behold and we can't help but take two other sets of wings and cover our feet because the ground on which he sits is Holy and if we could use the other two Wings to to

worship we would but we need them to fly and as we fly around this Throne all day and night all we do is sing and the song is simple I don't I don't remember which one of us wrote it but we sing it because it's true because when you look at him he is Holy Holy like when he made the heavens he was holy when he made the Earth he was holy when he made time he was holy when he made us he was holy what what better song is there to sing back to God

than that which he already knows about himself that's real worship one day though everything changed we saw one the Lord's feet move and then we saw him start to pull on his robe a little bit and we didn't understand what was happening until we realized that the king that the king that Isaiah saw that he was getting up and we started to fly to one another to somebody tell us what what's going on and so we asked one of the seraps to go talk to Michael the Archangel because Michael be knowing all the things and

Michael we asked him like what is the Lord doing like why is the Lord getting up from his throne and the sarap said the father is sending him somewhere we're like oh he must be going to the other side of Heaven you know because the the RO been on the floor for for eternity so maybe he wants a new one and he said no the Lord is sending him to Earth to become a man do you remember how confused we were because the one before us is the Lord of hosts the one before us is

the Ancient of Days the one before us is the Alpha and Omega the one before us is the creator of everything the one before us is the most high why in the world is he become of one one of them those humans that love everybody else but him those people who ignore him when he calls those people who hide that they know him when they're confronted those those people who sin against him just because they're bored we didn't understand why the Lord of glory the lord of Heaven the Alpha and Omega would get up from

his seat to look to live among men and then the Sarah Sarah looked at us and said the lord loves them so he must become like them he will still be God but he will also be man but don't trip he's coming back in John 12 verse 41 while talking talking about Jesus John says that Isaiah Saw His glory and spoke of him in John chapter 12 verse 41 while talking about Jesus John said that Isaiah Saw His glory and spoke of him the father's Glory no the spirit's Glory no the son's Glory which means

that in the year that King Uzziah died the Lord who was high and lifted up with the train of his Ro fulfilling the temple was a pre-incarnate vision of the Lord Jesus Christ that calls you by name that means that 2,000 years ago the Transcendent one the morally pure one got up from his seat to come and sit down among men and being found in human form he humbled himself to death even death on a cross therefore it is God who is highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name

so at the name of Jesus every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord I'm pretty sure that Isaiah did not imagine the day that one day this same king would pronounce woe on himself becoming lost so you could be found becoming becoming unrighteous so that you could be righteous and this is why we have to get back to the idea that God is worthy of all because who is like him who who who who died for your sins who Who Rose for your life who promised you the Holy Spirit who

who has been good to you morning by morning and day by day who has given you new mercies who has given you a right mind who has delivered you from all types of stuff who has protected you from stuff you did not even ask him to keep you from who has kept you here who has provided for you who has given you a family who has given you feet to walk with who who deserves your worship more than God that is why I will close in saying that if God is as holy as the scriptures

descri describe him then he is worthy to be trusted if God is as holy as Isaiah saw him to be then he is worthy to be waited on if God is as holy as Jesus described why do you call me good only God if God is as good as I believe that he is he is worth all of your heart all of your mind and all of your soul Lord we thank you we thank you for your word we thank you for how it has provided for us a vision of you so that we may

know you so that we may experience you so that we may trust you God I pray you would help us to keep going it can get hard to keep gouging out the eye it can get difficult to keep cutting off the hand it can get tiresome to keep forgiving to turning the other cheek some of us are weary of being faithful and I pray God that you would help us to do as the writer of Hebrews says that we would let lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily entangles and that we would

just run the race that is set before us looking to Jesus I pray God that you would show us what it looks like to look for you whether that's in our quiet time I pray that we would look for you whether that's in our car rides to pick up the kids and drop them off that we would look for you whether that's while we're at work in our cubicle and we just need five seconds to just look for you I pray that we would just look for you I pray God that you would send us

people that help us look at you that you would help us to to cast down every thought that exalts itself above the knowledge of you God American Christians are so comfortable we are so used to you that we've stopped pursuing you so I pray God that you would use every trial every circumstance every difficulty as a means of discipline so that we would grow in righteousness you've been good to us you are being good to us you will be good to us and I pray that by the power of the spirit we will be good

to you in Jesus's name amen