Title: Let’s Build an Eternal Foundation
The precept for 2024 is ‘A Church that Arises to Rebuild the Foundation of Faith and is Fully Devoted to Spreading the Word of Redemptive History’. Today, we will share the grace on what foundation we must build.
Apostle John said in Rev 1:5-6 that the reason God opened the door to salvation for us through Jesus Christ and led us to the path of salvation was to make us a kingdom of priests. Apostle Peter also says that you are God’s chosen people, a royal priesthood, and a holy nation (1 Pet 2:9-10).
Moving to the Old Testament (Exo 19:5-6), God says that the purpose of calling the Israelites out of Egypt was to form God’s kingdom of priests and to create holy people. So, we can understand that making us a kingdom of priests and holy people is God’s will and God’s plan for us. We can know that this plan has existed since the beginning and is God’s will that will not change until the end of this world.
A priest is a person who offers worship. In the Old Testament, we learned from Book 9 of the History of Redemption, ‘The Tabernacle and the Ark of the Covenant,’ that priests entered the temple of God in the morning and evening to look at the lamps. Then, what was the rule of sacrifices (Num 28:1-3)?
The priest was to offer burnt offerings twice a day, morning and evening. If any other sacrifices are to be offered, they will be added to this. The founding pastor has already written the different sacrifices in detail, and they will be published as 12th book of the HOR series.
The founding pastor said that if we are to become a kingdom of priests, then we must examine whether we have this kind of life of worship. If you can’t worship in the morning and evening, shouldn’t you worship at least once a day?
Some people may say “Since the coming of Jesus, the era of the law has ended. Why are you talking about the law and saying that we should live like priests in the Old Testament?” Also, some people may think ‘God told us to live as we please for six days, and come to church and worship only once a week, on Sundays.”
Of course, we who live in the New Testament era do not need to offer sacrifices in the Old Testament way. However, we must understand that the importance of worship was further emphasized in the New Testament, not weakened.
Would Jesus bothered to go out early in the morning to pray, knowing that He only needed to worship once a week? The founder of early morning prayer and early morning worship is Jesus. If He didn’t need it, why did He bother creating it? (Mark 1:35)
If gathering once a week is biblically correct, why did the founding pastor organize so many meetings and worship services? When your faith is young, it is great to only observe Sunday once a week. However, as your faith grows, you realize, ‘Ah, I thought only Sunday is the Lord’s Day, but the truth is the whole week is the Lord’s’.
For a priest, worship is the basic. This is the most important condition. Second, there must be a prayer (Zechariah 12:10). Prayer occurs only when God pours out the spirit of prayer and opens the door to prayer.
We have learned that praise is a prayer with a melody. In other words, praise is prayer, but praise also opens up the way to advance into deeper prayer.
It would be a bit disappointing to end after 20 minutes of praise and only 1 minute of prayer. There is no choice on Sundays because there is a set start time for other order of service. I hope we can pray fervently for 3 minutes, or for 5 minutes at least at the end of praise. To do that, please come into the temple when we praise, and stay focused (Eph 6:18; Col 4:2).
Lastly, a priest must have bodily dedication. It means you have to sweat. We don’t know where are the people whom can be evangelized.
So, don’t you feel sweaty as you have to search here and there? Imagine renovating a church building, you will be sweating too (Zechariah 14:7). So how do you do all of this?
The Holy Spirit must be with you (Isa 32:15; Eze 11:19; Eze 36:26).
A willing spirit mentioned is a life lived with the Holy Spirit.
The founding pastor defined the life of a priest this way
- Those who remember God’s grace
- Those who obeys God thoroughly
- Those who sincerely admire and revere God
- Those preparing for service with consecration
- Those who lead a holy life
- Those who lead an exciting life
I believe that when we received the priestly mission and live as priests, our life in 2024 will be blessed with such an exciting church life.
The Lord's Covenant Church Malaysia 