Further Up, Further In

The Lord is calling us into greater holiness—to practice the way of the sons of Zadok, who remained faithful to the Lord despite the drift of the Levites into idolatry. For our fellowship, this means six things, the first four of which we covered in this sermon. (1) First, we must minister to Jesus’s heart. While we have freedom in Christ, it is crucial that we get the order right in this area: love for God always comes above everything else. Because Jesus is a Savior, we minister to his heart most of all when we allow him to save, deliver, and strengthen us. (2) Second, we must bring the good and the bad to God—just as the sons of Zadok brought the fat and the blood. We do this by praying without ceasing, bringing all the day’s joys and hardships out into the open before God. (3) Third, we must surrender, submit, and obey before the Lord. If we will sit before the Lord, he will speak to us—and it is vital that we heed and steward everything he says. In times of doubt, we can trust that his knowledge is greater than ours. (4) Fourth, we must keep our heart in a place of rest by listening for and keeping to Jesus’s portion and pace for our work. Jesus bore the thorns and thistles of toil so that we could experience rest.