Alright, so let's start. The Day of Atonement was a constant reminder that God is holy and that sinners and God cannot dwell together. It also reminded Israelites that sin was constantly in their midst and needed constant and repeated cleansing. So, Day of Atonement was sort of like spring cleaning.

All the other days, they kind of cleaned here, cleaned the living room, cleaned the bathrooms, but it's almost kind of like the way we had at church about a month ago. We had everybody come together and we're just cleaning house, like from top to bottom. So Day of Atonement was kind of like spring cleaning at the tabernacle.

But they didn't just clean the tabernacle, they cleaned all the priests, in particular Aaron as he was preparing for this day. So all the sacrifices was a constant reminder to the nation of Israel that they needed to be atoned for in order to be in the presence of God.

But in particular, on the Day of Atonement, it was a reminder to them that even with the sacrifices there was this sin and uncleanness that was being piled up. And what does it mean for the nation of Israel for sin to pile up? How would they have understood an uncleansed and unatoned for sin in the presence of a holy God?

Judgment, right? So this wasn't just they needed a clean house because they wanted the tabernacle to look nice or to be clean. It meant that at the Day of Atonement, it was a wrath of God that's being stored up against the nation of Israel had to be cleansed and wiped clean so that every year they can start over.

So imagine what this did, what this was supposed to do for the nation of Israel. If you were constantly reminded that your sins needed to be atoned for and once a year there needed to be this massive cleaning, cleaning out of the nation of Israel, cleaning out of the temple, right?

What did that teach the nation of Israel? If you were an Israelite living at this time, what do you think that would have taught you? You don't need to say it. I just want you to, I just want you to like let it digest. Put yourself in their shoes.

What would these sacrifices have caused you to think psychologically? Hmm? The need for a savior? How about even before that? That's true, but even before that? That we're dirty, right? Which led to need for a savior, which ultimately led to that. So an Israelite did not have to be told, they didn't have to have Bible study to tell them, hey, all I've sinned, I fall short of the glory of God.

Let's look up the book of Romans and study how sinful we are. They didn't need to be taught that. It was part of their culture, right? They had to constantly be cleansed, ritually cleansed. They had to take baths, they had to clean the garment that they were wearing, and even the tabernacle where the sacrifices were being made had to be cleansed once a year to completely clean it out.

Because if they didn't do that, the presence of God would destroy them. So think about when Christ comes, that all of this is embedded in them for the purpose of showing them physically, you are a sinner. There is no Israelites who could have missed that. That you are a sinner who is constantly sinning and in constant need of saving.

So take that to the New Testament where you have the Pharisee and the tax collector who is coming before God praying, and the tax collector is praying, thank God I'm not like him. So it kind of gives you context in how blind the Pharisees and Sadducees were. It wasn't just like, well, I can understand why they could have missed that, but in the context of everything that God did with the nation of Israel, how could they have possibly missed that they were in need of a Savior, considering everything he was doing.

Leviticus 16 begins by reminding us how Aaron's sons died. So if you remember at the very beginning, it starts off by saying, reminding us, the Lord spoke to Moses after the death of two sons of Aaron when they drew near before the Lord and died. Now why does he begin with that?

This happened in chapter 10. Five chapters have already gone by with all these different instructions. Chapter 16, the Day of Atonement, begins by reminding them, remember when Aaron's sons Nadab and Nebu died? For what reason? Why did they die? Because they didn't follow instruction. They didn't come before God with reverence.

They just considered what they were doing as common. They were very nonchalant in the way that they approached God. So chapter 16 begins by warning for what purpose? To pay attention, right? Because the consequence of not paying attention and being nonchalant and irreverent toward these things would lead to what?

To death. This wasn't just a slap on the hand. This wasn't just somebody walking around with a ruler and hitting you on the head and saying, "Hey, pay attention. This is important." He's saying, "Remember Aaron's son." These aren't just any people who came to the temple. The first two priests, Aaron's, the high priest's two children, they died because they didn't pay attention.

So in other words, if you begin chapter 16, he's saying, "Pay attention to this because God is about to show up. And if you don't follow these instructions, there's going to be dire consequences." So this is not a day where people were kind of jumping around and celebrating and high-fiving one another.

This is a day at the end. Remember at the end of the chapter, what are the Israelites called to do? It is a day of what? Do you remember? At the end of the chapter, the day of atonement is called the day of... Starts with an A. Affliction. So again, we'll get to that later on, but the day of atonement is called the day of affliction.

And so again, even though the end result of it will lead to celebration, the day of atonement was meant to be a somber time, to remind them that sins needed to be atoned for. A sinful man cannot nonchalantly enter into the presence of God. So what we do Sundays, when we actually come into the presence of God, human beings, by our natural selves, without being covered by the blood of Christ, we would be walking into a death sentence.

That's exactly what he's trying to teach them in chapter 16. Without the blood of Christ, coming to God, seeking God out by our natural state, is walking into a death sentence. It's just that mankind just does not know that. Every human being, when he dies, he's going to meet his creator.

If he is not covered by the blood of Christ, chapter 16 reminds us, he's walking into a death sentence. Because sinful man, unprotected in the presence of a holy God, leads to utter destruction. That's how chapter 16 begins. Moses tells Aaron not to come to the holy place inside the veil or they would die.

And he repeats this several times. If you do this, you will die. Remember when the children died. Because God will appear to them in a cloud, it says in verse 2. So yes, God's presence was with the nation of Israel, but on the Day of Atonement, his glory was unlike any other days.

He was going to appear before them. And that's what this Day of Atonement was for. It was to prepare for the coming of God. So I'm just going to give you some pictures of what the tabernacle or tent of meeting looked like. And I showed you this at the beginning of the study.

But again, you're not going to be able to see it. But again, that's the tent of meeting. That's the sacrifice where the horns were. And inside of it, I think I have the next picture, is divided into two parts. This is actual temple, right? So you have the outer side, and then it's divided by the curtain in the middle.

And then on the other side, you have the Ark of the Covenant, where the mercy seat and all this other stuff. So when in the middle of chapter 16, it tells them to sprinkle with blood, all of this stuff is taking place inside the Holy of Holies, where only Aaron was able to go in once a year.

So everything behind that curtain was never seen outside of Aaron once a year. So this was the Ark of the Covenant. And on top of that is called the mercy seat. And symbolically, that's where the Messiah was supposed to come and take his seat. And that's what the Jews understood the mercy seat to be.

So it was a place for preparation for the king to come, the Messiah to come, and take his throne. The normal high priest garment would have looked like that to the right. It was very colorful, had a breastplate, the umim and thumim was all part of that. But the garment that is mentioned in this text for Aaron is very plain.

There's no color. And we'll get to that in a minute, but the reason behind it was that this was not a day of celebration. This was a day of mourning, a day of affliction. So he was calling the nation of Israel to repentance. And that's why the high priest, as he represents God to man and man to God, that he himself had to be humbled.

He himself had to be cleansed. So you would think that on the day of atonement, if there was any day that he would be really dressed up in pomp, right? That he was like, "I am the high priest representing God." You would think that this would be the day.

Instead, on the day of atonement, when God appears, he's like any other man. And he is humbled and he's dressed in garbs of repentance. These are the instructions that God gave Aaron. They had to first bring a bull for sin offering and ram for burnt offering. The sin offering was given for the purpose of general cleansing, right?

If you became unclean because you touched something holy, the sin offering was given for the purpose of cleansing. Bull offering was for the purpose of atonement, the burnt offering. So God calls for both of them. Aaron is to put on priestly garment and tie the linen sash around his waist to prepare for action.

You saw the garment that he was wearing, the white, and he says to tie his sash around. And anytime you see that language in the New Testament or the Old Testament, it basically meant that the priest was ready to work, right? So the preparation, even the garment that God told him to wear was a sign of repentance and mourning and affliction.

And even the way that God told him to kind of get ready to tie it around his waist was in preparation for what was about to happen. Aaron is to take two male goats for sin offerings from the congregation and ram for the burnt offering. So the two goats on the day of atonement are the primary figures.

But there were other offerings that were given. The reason for the other offerings was for the preparation of the offering of the two goats. Let me say that again, just so that you kind of get a grasp of what's happening this day. So, when you think of the day of atonement, you probably heard about the two goats.

But it wasn't just the two goats. There were other sacrifices being made that day. And the reason for that was that before the two goats were sacrificed and one being released, there had to be preparation. So Aaron needed to be, his sins needed to be atoned for. And then the blood of the goat and the bull needed to cleanse the tabernacle itself.

So even before they get to this sacrifice, there needed to be cleansing. Cleansing of the man handling all of this and cleansing of the place where this was going to take place. So in other words, there's seriousness. Every time they gave sacrifices, there was seriousness. But here, everything that they handled needed to be absolutely crystal clean.

And even the sacrifices of these two goats needed to be done in a place where thorough cleaning already took place. The bull is to be offered for the sin offering for Aaron himself. So even before he gives the offering for the nation, he himself needed to be atoned for his own sins in order for him to even handle the offering.

He used to take the censer full of coals of fire from the altar, two handfuls of sweets and incense, this is straight out of the text, beaten small and bring it inside the veil and put it on the fire before the Lord. So he's supposed to take the ashes from the altar outside and bring that in and begin to spread it and to cover the mercy seat.

All this is done to cover the mercy seat as a testimony to Aaron. And all of this was so that when Aaron entered in, that he would not die. And over and over again, as I mentioned, he says, this is being done so that Aaron would not die. This is being done so that people would not die because God is about to come.

He is to take the bull and sprinkle it with his finger on the front of the mercy seat on the front of the east side seven times. What God tells him to do, this captures the thought behind the Hebrew word for atonement, kippur, which means to cover. So the word for atonement in Hebrew is kippur and the word literally means to cover.

So if you notice, if you read chapter 16, it says that the tabernacle needed to be atoned for. So typically when we think of atonement, we think about sin, like a human sin and God comes and he takes away their sin. But the word literally just means to cover, right?

Which is interesting because in the Old Testament, the idea of atonement was simply to cover. So something was filthy, so blood came and covered it to protect it from God's glory, right? The New Testament idea of atonement goes deeper than that. The New Testament idea of atonement is that our sin is not merely covered but removed or taken away.

Isn't that interesting? Doesn't that give us insight of the Old Covenant and the New Covenant? In the Old Covenant, the blood of the goats and animals, all they did was cover temporarily and they didn't have any power to actually atone for sins. The New Testament idea of atonement was actually removal.

Does that make sense? So in the very word for the word atonement, because when you read chapter 16, I'm hoping that you ask that question, how or why is a tabernacle need to be atoned for because they didn't commit any sin. But the idea of atonement in the Old Testament is simply to cover, right?

To be cleansed, God is coming, so everything needed to be covered by the blood. We come to the New Testament, the blood of animals, all they could do is cover but not atone, mean take away sins. I thought that was really interesting. Then the two goats are to be taken to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting and this is where the central part of the Day of Atonement takes place with these two goats.

Lots are cast to pick one goat for the Lord and the other lot for Azazel or literally a scapegoat. So some of your translation, I think ESV just has it Azazel, right? What does the NASB say? Does the NASB use the word Azazel? Look at verse 8 or 10.

Huh? NASB just says scapegoat. How about NIV? Okay, ESV has Azazel, right? Am I the only one? Because I'm not sure if I have the updated version of ESV. It's okay, so ESV has Azazel. So the reason why some of you have scapegoat and the ESV has Azazel is because there is a debate as to the meaning of this word.

Literally it means scapegoat. So the NASB, NIV has translated it what that name means. ESV kept it Azazel because there is a discussion that it might be a name of a demon, which I'm going to get to in a little bit. I'm not going to spend a whole lot of time.

I remember the first time I went through this, we talked about this in detail, but I think maybe two of you were here during that time, so you might not remember, okay? But I'll get to that in a minute. But the word Azazel, or literally a scapegoat, was the other one.

The one that the Lot fell for the Lord's use is to be offered as a sin offering. So among the two, they drew lots and the one was to be sacrificed and killed. And with the blood of the goat, he is to bring it into the Holy of Holies and sprinkle it on the mercy seat.

So the sacrificed animal that was given to the Lord was brought in and the mercy seat was cleansed or covered through its blood. And then after exiting the Holy of Holies, Aaron is to take some of the blood of the bull and some of the goat and put it on the horns of the altar all around.

And this is outside. So first he covers the mercy seat and then he comes and he sprinkles it on the altar, all the sacrifices taking place. So again, all of the blood and all of the sprinkling was meant to make it holy, to cleanse, right? So it was like an annual spring cleaning that's taking place with the blood.

Aaron is then commanded to sprinkle some of it with his fingers seven times to clean and consecrate it from the uncleanness of the people of Israel. What made the tabernacle unclean? People. It wasn't the dirt. It wasn't the animals. It wasn't, you know, I mean think about how many sacrifices were being given.

The mercy seat was never touched because nobody ever goes in there, right? So it wasn't because it was dirty. It wasn't because it was touched. It wasn't the dirt on the human hands. It was man's sin. And from God's perspective, the filth of man's sin was constantly piling up.

And even in their sacrifices, it wasn't enough. So once a year, the sins that were piled up, he would come and he said, "In order for me to come, you need to clean the house." So again, the reason why the tabernacle needed to be cleansed was the presence of man.

It wasn't the goat. It wasn't the dirt, right? It was sinfulness of men. And I think if you've read Holiness of God, R.C. Sproul does a great job explaining, right, that everything else in the universe abides by God, but the only hands that rebel, only creation that rebels against God is mankind, right?

Everything else in the universe does exactly what God tells us to do. Only mankind rebels against God, right? So it was man's dirty hands. It was man's dirty presence that needed to be cleansed from the tabernacle. And so that's what the Day of Atonement was teaching them. The other goat for Azazel is to be used to make atonement for Israel and be sent away into the wilderness to Zezel.

Literally the word means "escape goat" or "scapegoat." Aaron is told to lay both his hands on the head of the goat to represent the sins of Israel and confess over it the iniquities of the people of Israel. So the act was that he would lay both of his hands and by doing so it represented that all of the sins of Israel was being laid upon this scapegoat or Azazel.

So the goat, the scapegoat or Azazel that bears the sins of Israel then will be sent away into the remote wilderness to Azazel. Let me just briefly touch upon this. The meaning of the word Azazel is not certain. The word may signify a removal or dismissal. Some believe there were elaborate Jewish traditions saying that he was a demonic being that the Messiah would defeat.

Azazel may simply be referring to this goat's function of symbolically removing sin from Israel. So basically some Jewish tradition pointed to the fact that Azazel was a demonic figure that one was given to the Lord and the other was given to the demons. And again, depending on which commentary you read, you'll get different stories.

So the fact that ESV left the word Azazel may mean that the interpreters kind of leaned toward possibly being a demon. So this is not some weird view, right? Even though it may have been the first time for you to have heard it, in fact it is more common than you think.

It is not the most popular view. The most popular view is that the word Azazel simply just means it's a description of the function of that goat, right? But there are legitimate scholars in legitimate theological schools that believe that it was a name of a demon. So one was given to the Lord and the sin of the nation of Israel was given to the rightful owner, okay?

Which kind of correlates to the New Testament when Paul says that the God of this age is Satan, right? And that his dominion is over all who sin. And so when the scripture talks about how he delivers us, he transfers us from what? The dominion of darkness into his son's kingdom.

So that imagery is not new, right? We see that in the New Testament. If that is true or not, it really doesn't change anything, right? Whether Azazel simply is talking about the scapegoat or whether it's talking about a demonic figure who has dominion over all that sin, all that is sinful, either way the meaning behind the scapegoat or Azazel is that this sin, the sins of Israel is taken away and cast out because of the sacrifice of the other goat, right?

That's where we get the term, at least in English, the scapegoat comes from. It's specifically from this. So imagine every single year, right, the nation of Israel was gathered together at the tabernacle watching this ceremony, right? Two goats are chosen. So after they do thorough cleansing, Aaron takes a bath and he puts on the garment that typically he's probably seen with this really gaudy garment, but on that day of atonement he wears a very humbled garment and then he goes in, he makes sacrifice, he takes a bath, he goes in and cleanses the inner sanctuary, comes back out and he cleanses the outside and then he takes these two goats and it's this whole drama of drawing the lot, you know, and then one goat is sacrificed and then its blood comes and takes it out and then the other one he lays his hand and then a man is chosen to take this goat and travel far distance.

In fact, it's not in the scripture but Jewish tradition says that a man took the goat about ten miles away from the camp and then the goat was released to wander off until it could not be seen anymore. This signified that the sin of Israel was gone and the day of atonement was considered complete.

Whatever the meaning of Azazel is, the picture is pretty clear. Because of the sacrifice of one, the sins of Israel will be taken away. I mean, how could that not be pointing to Christ? And this was embedded into their culture year after year, this drama. It wasn't just taught, it wasn't just said, this was something that they saw every single year.

One, that we are sinners. There's no Israelite, no Israelite should have been confused about their sin. I mean, it was pounded into them. You will die. Aaron, supposedly the holiest man of Israel, as a high priest, at least on paper, he said he's going to die. If his sins aren't atoned for, when God comes, he's going to die.

If he enters into the inner sanctuary, he's going to die. If he makes sacrifices, he's going to die. If he doesn't follow instructions, he's going to die. If they were that vulnerable to the holiness of God, what about the rest of Israel? So imagine this drama being played out year after year, which is embedded in them, all for the purpose of preparation for the coming of Christ.

So the fact that they missed him, despite all of this, it kind of gives us a different picture of just the blindness, just how blind they were. Aaron, after it is all done, re-enters into the camp, right? And then he couldn't just re-enter. He had to take a bath again and go through the cleansing.

And the one who actually handed the goat, Azazel, who took him out, in order for him to return, he also had to go through ritual cleansing. And then all the meat and everything else that was sacrificed had to be taken outside the camp and basically burned outside the camp.

I didn't mention it here, but the guy who took it out also had to go through ritual cleansing to enter back into camp. So every aspect of the Day of Atonement was, God is coming. If there's any kind of uncleanness of any kind, you're going to die. That was the message given on the Day of Atonement.

So that's why it was called the Day of Affliction. It was when God came to afflict. So the last part of it, chapter 29 to 34, again, it says that this day was given as a day of affliction. And then it says in verse 30, "It is a day to be cleansed for all their sins." And then he calls it, in verse 31, "It is a Sabbath of solemn rest." Which is interesting because I would think that if there was any day that they would have not rested, it would have been this particular day.

He mentions over and over again that if there's any sin in you, you will die. If you don't cleanse, you will die. If you don't cover yourself, you will die. And yet, this day of Sabbath is called a solemn day of rest. In the Scriptures, the Sabbath always looked back.

So the Jews understood the Sabbath was what was lost at the creation. When Adam and Eve, when God entered His rest on the seventh day, when Adam and Eve sinned, that Sabbath was broken. So every Sabbath was a reminder to them that that's what they lost. The rest that they can only find in God was lost.

But it also points to the future, that the Messiah was going to come and He was going to restore this Sabbath. So again, when Jesus says, "All who are weary, I will give you this rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me." A Jew would have understood that very differently.

It would have had a lot more meaning than just, "I get to go home and relax." Because Sabbath was what they understood. Sabbath was what was lost in creation when they sinned. And then it was Sabbath that was to be restored. So this day of atonement is called the Sabbath of solemn rest, was to point back and to point forward for the coming of Messiah.

And every year when they did this was for that purpose. You see how this day was so significant and now every detail of it was for the purpose of preparing for the gospel. The gospel makes so much more sense. It becomes so much more richer when you understand Leviticus, and especially chapter 16, where Christ was sacrificed in order that you and I could be set free.

I want you to read Hebrews chapter 9. I'm just going to read this with you. Chapter 9, 11 to 28, because the author of Hebrews reminds us that Christ fulfilled this day. "But when Christ appeared as high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent, not made with hands that is not of the creation, he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of blood of goats and calves, but by means of his own blood." So clearly this is talking about the day of atonement.

All the other priests who came before him had to do this repeatedly and he had to be cleansed to get in. But he goes into the real tent by his own blood, securing eternal redemption. So the day of atonement wasn't done once. It had to be done every single year because it wasn't enough.

It was just a foreshadowing of what was to come. When Christ came, the redemption was real and it was permanent. "For if the sprinkling of defiled persons with the blood of goats and bulls and with the ashes of high first sanctifies for the purification of the flesh." Stop right there.

So again, this is all pointing to chapter 16. "How much more would the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" If all of this ritual was for the purpose of cleansing and all of it was simply a shadow, how much more when Christ comes and he does this with his own blood?

"Therefore, not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood. For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats with water and scarlet wool and hyssop and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, 'This is the blood of the covenant that God commanded for you.' But in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels used in worship.

Indeed, under the law, almost everything is purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins." And this is again, this is embedded in the culture of Israel, and in particular the Day of Atonement. "Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.

For Christ has entered not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own.

For then we would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for man to die once, after that comes judgment.

For Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him." All of this, right? All of this is pointing back to chapter 16, that Jesus Christ was fulfilling this.

So all of this drama was to point to the fact that Jesus, the real high priest, the real sacrifice was going to atone in the real tabernacle of heaven. And so our sins have been redeemed as a result of what he has done. So the first time he came, he came to deal with sin.

He says the second time he comes, he comes to redeem. And so all those who believe this, who genuinely believe that this happened to me, that Jesus covered my blood, and that's why it says, what does it say? All who are eagerly waiting for him. Only those who believe that this happened for him would be eagerly waiting for that redemption.

And that's why the Holy Spirit is called what? A deposit. You put a deposit because the owner, the person who put a deposit is going to later on come to claim what is his. Only those who believe this, now you can confess it, you can come to church and you can go through all the motions, but only the ones who really believe that this is his will be eagerly waiting for him, right?

Because our salvation is not complete until he comes. We only have the deposit of what he has done. So everything that we are doing now is just a taste. The reality of redemption is going to come when he comes. So a man or a woman who makes this their home can confess that they believe this, but by their action, they do not.

And that's why it says repeatedly over and over again, those who eagerly wait for him. Because with him comes redemption, right? This is what was embedded in the nation of Israel year after year after year after year, right? I don't know about you, but it just makes the gospel that much richer.

It didn't just come randomly. That God has been preparing not only Israel, but us, that all of this so that we can have this understanding, right? This drama would give us a picture of what he has done. So when Paul says, "In view of this mercy, to give your life as a living sacrifice," like all of this comes into play for a Jew, right?

So three questions. Why do you think some people have a hard time accepting God's forgiveness for their sins? How does a difficult time accepting God's forgiveness affect our worship and life in general? That's pretty straightforward. What is the worst sin you have been forgiven for? So I'm not asking you to actually confess, right?

I'm just asking you, if you can think of it, what it is. You don't have to share with the group, but how did that affect the way you gave worship to God? So in your mind, do you remember a time when you were really weighed down by the guilt of your sin, and when God forgave you, when you repented and you felt forgiveness for that sin, how did that affect you?

How did that affect worship? How did that affect fellowship? So I'm asking you to share that, even if you don't want to share the details of that sin, but if you can remember what you felt like when you were delivered and forgiven. In what way does our sin affect the church?

So the whole drama of the tabernacle on the cleansing, it wasn't just an individual sin. The tabernacle needed to be cleansed. The sin, it wasn't just the sin of the individual, the sin of Israel had to be taken out, right? Away from the camp. So sin, at least the way God describes it for us, is not simply personal, it is collective.

Our sins affect the community. Sins of other people affect the community, right? And that's exactly what it says in 1 Corinthians 3, 16, right? We are the temple of God, right? Collectively. In what way does our sin affect the church? What prescriptions are given for cleansing of impurity when it comes to corporate body?

And use specific verses, right? If you can, if it's relevant. Alright, let me pray for us and then I'll have you guys get into your smoke. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much. For there's so much more to our salvation than we even know now. And the more we open your word, we understand the depth of what you have done and what you are continuing to do.

And we know even now, Lord God, we're only scratching the surface. Help us, Lord God, to be eager to know. Lord, this foolish world that we live in, the more we experience it, the more we are disappointed. But yet, Lord God, we dig into your word, your living word.

There's so much, Lord God, of your grace and your love and your mercy and just how deep it goes. Help us to be a church, Lord God, that really loves you. That we will not be satisfied with superficial, elementary understanding of our faith. But help us to dig, not simply for knowledge's sake, but so that we can understand you, your heart and what you have done.

That all that we do may simply be a reasonable response. Bless the time that we have in our small group, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.