We seek to worship God in a way we call covenant renewal. Our worship service is meant to re-establish our covenant, our relationship with God, in a certain way. In our worship, we proclaim the Lord’s death, and our relationship to Him. We have been created, preserved and saved by Him, and we are being made like Him in holiness, love and beauty. We seek closer relations with Jesus here. We celebrate this covenant, we re-affirm it, we renew it.
The primary way God gave Israel for doing this was sacrifice. A sin offering was brought first, for cleansing. Then a whole animal was completely burned as a sign of our total devotion and service and consecration to God. And then the peace offering was offered. The fat was burned, the blood was sprinkled before the Lord, to show the death that brings peace, the breast and right thigh went to the priest, and the rest was given back to the worshipper to eat before the Lord. And all this was meant to give peace, that you are right with God, in your confession of sin, in your consecration to Him, in your Communion with Him.
Loved people, we now see the express image of the invisible God in Jesus the Christ, and we have confidence in the shed blood of Jesus to confess our sin, we consecrate ourselves now toward a specific goal of becoming like Jesus, and we commune with Him who has called us His friends and brothers, even His own body and bride. Do you love Him as your own soul? Is your life bound up with His? Then come, for all things are now ready.
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