True North | Week 6 | Pat McCalla

The instructions to build a tabernacle.

Now if you've read the Bible before, you've probably read about the tabernacle which eventually will become the temple. And you're probably, like many, going, I don't know what that has to do with us today though. I mean, don't have tabernacles or temples anymore. Some may go, well, the church is kind of the tabernacle and temple. No, it's not.

So what does the tabernacle that God instituted three thousand five hundred years ago through the instructions he gave Moses on the top of Mount Sinai, what does that have to do with you and me three thousand five hundred years later? Everything as we're gonna see.

So let me back up. We're gonna put a picture of the tabernacle up on the screen. There's 50 chapters by the way in the Bible that speak about the tabernacle. Don't worry, I'm not gonna try to cover 50 chapters

But clearly this is something that means a lot to God. And and he gives the instructions to build a tabernacle. It would look something like this. And he tells Moses, I want you to build this tabernacle and I want you to put it in the center of the camp.

Million and a half people, 12 tribes, I want you to put it in the center of the camp. I want you to put it in the center of the camp. I want you to put it in the Good.

You guys are a good crowd. I want you to put it in the center of the camp, and then you're gonna you're gonna set up camp around it. But he doesn't just tell them, you set up camp wherever you want. He goes, no. I want you to set up camp exactly how I give you instructions.

So one tribe is supposed to set up camp here. One is supposed to set up here. One is supposed to set up here. I'm gonna circle back to that later because I want you to hang on to that thought. So God said, I want you to build a tabernacle, and I want you to put it right in the center

of your camp, and then you're gonna set up camp exactly how I tell you. None of this is an accident. See, if you've read this part of Exodus, you probably get to these 50 chapters and there's so many details and and you may be reading them going, oh my goodness.

He tells you exactly how to build all this stuff and it gets a little overwhelming at times, but there's no accident with any of it. And so this is what the tabernacle would have looked like, was right in the center of the camp. But if you went inside of the tabernacle,

now we wouldn't get to do that, a normal Jew wouldn't even get to do that, only the priest could go into the tabernacle,

which would later become the temple, You would come into the holy place, and on the left in the holy place, you would have the menorah, the candles. On your right, you would have the table of shewbread. Jesus connected himself to this. He said, I am the light of the world. I am the bread of life. Then you'd have the altar of incense.

And once you went past the altar of incense, you went into the holy of holies. Now not many couldn't go into the holy of holies, not even a priest could go into the holy of holies. Only the high priest could go into the holy of holies once a year on Yom Kippur, the day of atonement.

And the high priest would go in there, and you can see on the screen there that you would have in the Holy of Holies, the Ark of the Covenant, and he had cherubim, two angels that had their wings covering the mercy seat. And the high priest would go in there once a year, and he would take an offering,

and he would sprinkle the blood offering on the mercy seat. Why blood offering? Because life is in the blood. Remember, sin brought death, and so he would sprinkle blood on mercy seat, but remember what God says in Hebrews then, Jesus

went into the holy of holies when he died on the cross, he in a sense went into the holy of holies and paid that price for us once for all. Once for all. That's why you may be going, why don't we do that anymore? Because Jesus did it for us. Isn't that good news? You should tell them thank you right now. Yes. We

never ever ever will have to do that again because Jesus did it for us. Now I wish I had time to unpack all the details of that, and it wouldn't be a boring conversation about some furniture. It's much deeper than that. Oh, it would be so good, but I don't have time.

But let me Okay, maybe I'm just gonna do one. Can I do one? One, okay there's a few that said yes, rest of you're gonna have to listen anyway, alright. So let me just do one, alright. So I went on Moses' Instagram page and I pulled this picture off, okay. So

this is what, when you walked into the holy place, this would be on the left side. Now that's a very good replica of it, because it wasn't just a candle. If you've read this in Exodus, it wasn't just a candlestick.

God actually gives very specific details. He said, I want you to take solid piece, about a 100 pounds of gold, and I want a craftsman to pound that one piece of gold into something that would look like that. And he actually gives specific details. He says, I want it to be highly decorative that has seven branches, seven lamps, nine flower blooms, 11 fruits, and 22 cups.

And you would read that, I would read that sometimes, be go, why all the detail? Because God loves truth, goodness, and beauty. You see,

church leaders for two thousand years have talked about the value of those three things, truth, goodness, and beauty. In fact, it isn't just church leaders for two thousand years, the Jews spoke about truth, goodness, and beauty

for thousands of years. In fact, it isn't just Jews and Christians. Plato, the philosopher, talked about truth, beauty, and goodness, that if you look around in our world, you will find truth, beauty, and goodness, and it's the fingerprints of God on our world. Yes, we live in a broken, evil world. Turn on the news, go through social media today, and you're gonna see all kinds of bad news. But if you look, you will also find truth,

goodness, and beauty. Here's one of my challenges. I started doing this a few months ago, and it's been powerful. Almost every night when I'm laying in bed and I'm about to fade off into sleep, I ask myself two questions. The first question is, where did I live out truth, beauty, and goodness today?

Where did I speak truth today? Where did where did I bring goodness today? We we serve a good, good father. Where did I do good today? Where did I bring beauty into this world today?

Just as it could be the smallest deed, but it's a great way right before you fade off to sleep to just ask that question. Second question I ask myself, where did I see that or experience it?

Where did I see truth today? Where did I experience goodness today? Where did I see beauty today? Man, I would encourage you, just for seven days would you do that? Just before you fade off into sleep, ask yourself those two questions.

I'm telling you, will change your perspective because again, all you gotta do is scroll through social media or watch the news and you're gonna be overwhelmed with all the evil and grosses and badness of this world. You're gonna see rape and pillaging and politicians that are lying as they have been forever,

thank you. They said it, not me. Yeah, You're gonna see all of that, but but if you watch, you will see truth, goodness, and beauty. And even all these years ago, when God was telling them to build this tabernacle,

he said, you know what? I want you to do this very specific way. Why? Because God loves truth, he loves goodness, and he loves beauty. I wish I could talk about the other things. I don't have time. Here's the question I wanna ask today, why?

This is what I wanna answer today. Why? Why 50 chapters in the Bible about the tabernacle? Why the tabernacle in the first place and what does this have to do with you and me all these years later?

So before we jump into that though, how many teachers do we have in here? Raise your hand, teachers. Okay, I see some teachers right. Can we just thank the teachers right now? Man, they've had a tough year and last year. Teachers, I'm gonna make you happy today because we're gonna talk about English. Woo hoo. Grammar.

Yeah, there's not many saying yay. Yeah, we're gonna talk I'm gonna make you teachers happy today. So in order for us to understand what I'm talking about today, I need to give you definitions, an English definition and a Hebrew definition. Because remember, the older testament was written in Hebrew

thousands of years ago. What you probably are reading is the English translation of the original Hebrew. So the first word I need to define is an English word. It's ineffable. I spoke at a church a couple of months ago and I introduced this word to them because last year I was reading a Jewish scholar and he kept

describing God as the ineffable God. And I didn't know what that word meant and finally after about the fourth time I read it, like, I should look this word up. So I looked it up, and ineffable means too great or extreme to be described in words. Isn't that a great word for God?

So when he says an ineffable God, he's saying a God who is too great or too extreme to be described in words. That's our God, isn't it? We will spend all eternity learning new things about our God, and we will never exhaust, we'll never come to the end of knowing God. He is too great or too extreme

to even express, to describe. We're talking about a God who needs nothing or no one. Now think about that with the big idea. God desires to be with us more than we desire to be with Him. What? An ineffable God who is too great or too extreme to even be described?

A God that needs nothing and no one wants to be with you and me more than we even wanna be with Him? What? Hang on to that. Here's the Hebrew word we need to understand. It's the mishkan. Mishkan, it means to dwell or rest or live in.

It's the word that we translated into English, tabernacle. So whenever in your English Bible you read the word tabernacle, you're actually reading what was the Hebrew word mishkan.

And here's where I want you to see it because most of us, if you've read the Bible very much, when you think of a tabernacle or a temple, you're thinking of a structure or a building. And yet the word mishkan actually means dwell with or live with.

So now let's jump into Exodus chapter 25. We're going back to the story. Here's all these million and a half people standing around this mountain, thunder and lightning, Moses up there forty eight, forty nights. He finally comes down. He got the 10 commandments, he also has the instructions to build the

tabernacle or the Mishkan. And look what he says, Exodus chapter 25 of verse eight, skip down to verse eight, he says this, have the people, this is God talking to Moses, have the people of Israel build me a holy, holy simply means set apart, have them build me a set apart, a holy sanctuary, why? Why would God want that?

If you've been here at Rock Point during the series, Bill has done a great job describing how stupid these people are. A bunch of whiners and complainers. If you and I were God, there's no way we would have put up with these people. We would have been like, just send a lightning bolt, wipe them all out.

Every time God did something for them, was better in Egypt. We had vegetables back there. Well now you have Frosted Flakes every day and they'd whine about it. And God is saying, I want you to build a tabernacle, a Mishkan. I want you to build a tabernacle, a set apart place for me. Why? Why? So I can live among them.

Why would God wanna live among them? Aren't you glad we've changed?

Why would God wanna live among us? Why would an ineffable God, a God who is too extreme or too great to even describe in words, a God that needs no one or nothing, why would he want to be with us?

Look at the next verse, verse nine. God goes on, he says, you must build this tabernacle, Mishkan, this dwelling, and its furnishings exactly according to the pattern I will show you. See, here's what God is saying to them. He's saying, I want you to have this set apart place, this Mishkan,

this tabernacle, this dwelling in this Where in the camp? In the center of the camp so that the million and a half people, the 12 tribes, anytime they can turn and look to the center of the camp and they can physically see that their God wants to be with them.

Wants to be with them. And this God wants to be with you and me. What? Now I see some of you sitting there going, So

let me help you out. Maybe this will help. Let's fast forward fifteen hundred years. A guy named John who spent three or four years with Jesus, the last three or four years of Jesus' life, John was with him almost every moment of every day. John saw Jesus walk on water. John saw Jesus change water into wine.

John saw Jesus heal lepers and lame people and blind people. John saw Jesus bring people back from the dead. Can you imagine seeing all of this? John saw Jesus die. John saw Jesus come back from the dead. And so John as an eyewitness sits down and he starts to write an account of this. He goes

back to the beginning in John chapter one, and he starts to talk about the beginning of the story. We have the book. It's John. It's in our Bibles in the New Testament. And he starts to talk about the enormity of when this ineffable God that we can't even begin to describe

compressed himself somehow into a human embryo and took on human flesh. But here's what he does. This is what's significant.

Most of you can take a nap for sixty seconds. All you theology geeks, stay with me for a second. You're gonna love this because here's what's happening. Two hundred fifty years before Jesus comes, the Septuagint is written. The Septuagint is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament. So by that time, a lot of the Jewish people were speaking Greek, not as many of them Hebrew, so they translated into Greek. When John sits down and writes the book of John, he's writing it in Greek, but here's the significant thing. How does John translate the Hebrew word mishkan,

tabernacle?

Because what's interesting is John translates it, and he's the only one in the entire New Testament that will use that word, The only one. Paul doesn't use it. James doesn't use it. John's the only one. Alright, everybody wake up now. That was the theology nerd people that you were excited about that, but now you're back with me. So watch this. John now is describing what happened two thousand years ago when this ineffable God that we can't begin to describe or explain somehow comes to earth and compresses himself as a human. John chapter one verse 14, it says, So the word, the revelation of God,

Jesus, so Jesus became human and made his home, except if he was writing in Hebrew, he would have said, and made his mishkan with us. Here's how it would literally read. And so Jesus became human and tabernacled with us. He knows most of his audience are Jews and he's trying to connect it for them

because they would be like, oh, you mean the way God did fifteen hundred years ago when he gave us directions and his presence was right in the what part of the camp? Right in the

Displaying that God desires to be with us more than we desire to be with him. And then why does God come to earth and take on flesh? Why would he do that? Well, because he wanted to mishkan, tabernacle with us because God desires to be with us more than we desire to be with him.

Remember how I said that John's the only guy that used this word? Paul doesn't. He wrote most of the New Testament. James doesn't. John does, but not just here.

John will actually use it four more times in the book of Revelations, the last book in the Bible. It talks about when John sees the future, what's gonna happen in the end,

and John will use this word four more times. Let me just read to you the verse where he uses it for the last time. Revelation chapter 21 verse three, it says this, I heard a loud shout from the throne. This is future,

this is when Jesus comes back someday and makes all things new. No more divorce, no more death, no more lying and deceit and rape and pillaging, and all of that is gone for how long? Forever. So that's what he's saying. I heard a loud shout from the throne saying, look, God's home is now among his people. He will

Okay, but if he was writing in Hebrew, he would have said, he will mishkan. Because the Greek word, did he use it? He will mishkan. He will tabernacle with him. He will mishkan with them and they will be his people. God himself will be with them.

God help us get this. Oh, help us get this. My friends, do you understand the significance of this? That this from cover to cover displays this amazing truth that this ineffable God that we can't even begin to describe, a God that doesn't even need us, He wants to be with us. In fact,

to help us get this, let's take a little Rock Point field trip, okay? So I got a time machine

sitting right out there in the lawn. We're gonna go load up in that time machine, stop by the coffee shop, grab some of your coffee drinker, grab a quick coffee, okay? Because it's gonna take a while because we're gonna run through a lot of history, alright? So go load up in the time machine and we're going back now. We're going way back. We're going way back to the beginning. Not quite the beginning, because in the beginning, you know, before there was the beginning of time, there was just God, and he's always existed.

Okay, so there's just God, he's always existed, and then somewhere in eternity past, he decides, okay, I'm gonna create beauty, and goodness and truth.

And so He creates everything we see, the galaxies and the universe and the stars and the sun and the moon and the planets and earth and the creatures of the sea and animals, and then He creates the pinnacle of His creation, not angels, but

us, human beings. He creates us in his image. And then he's a yes God, not a no God, so he says yes to everything in the garden, this perfect beautiful place, full of truth, goodness, and beauty, and he says, you can do anything. You can eat anything. You're gonna have anything in here. Just no to the one thing. But since Adam and Eve are a lot like you and me, they decided they wanted the one thing that God said they couldn't have. Even though he's a yes God, not a no God, they wanted the one thing that he said no to. Aren't you glad we've changed?

And so they eat the fruit, and then sin enters the world. But watch what happens. Genesis chapter three, look what happens here. This is where we see from the very beginning of the story, we see that God's heart is to Mishkan, tabernacle,

dwell with us. In Genesis three verse eight, it says, when the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden. Now let me pause there for a moment. Seems to indicate that this was just a normal thing that God would do. I believe it was the pre incarnate Jesus. That that every evening he would come down and he just he just wanted to chill with Adam and Eve.

Isn't that cool?

He just wanted to like walk through the garden with them and be with them and hang with them and talk with them and point out things. He just why? Because God desires to be with us more than we desire to be with him. So it seemed to be just a normal thing that God would come down and just hang with his people, just be with the people that he created. But this this time, Adam and Eve are a little ashamed because they just sinned. They're feeling the shame of sin and so look what happens. Keep reading. So they hid from the Lord God among the trees.

Then the Lord called to the man, where are you? I always thought that was a stupid question.

I know some of you are worried that I just said that about a question that God asked. Like you can't say that God asked a stupid question, but let's just be honest. He's an all knowing God. Like God has never said, wow, I didn't see that coming. He knows everything.

So he's not down there playing hide and seek with them, where are you? He knows exactly where they are. So why does he ask the question? Because he wants them to recognize that they moved. He didn't move, they moved.

He came down to do what he did every night with them. He came down to do what God desires to do with you and me, to just be with us. Why? Because God desires to be with us more than we desire to be with him. Where are you? He wants them to know you. They moved.

So from the beginning of the story, we get this idea that God just wants to be with us. Climb back in the time machine. We're gonna go forward thousands of years to that mountain again. It's shaking. Moses comes off with instructions

about the tabernacle. Let me read that verse that I read earlier again. Exodus chapter 25 verse eight. It says, have the people of Israel build me a holy, a set apart sanctuary, why, so I can live among them, so I can tabernacles with them, so I can Mishkan with them.

God desires to be with us more than we desire to be with Him. Take it back in the time machine. Go forward about fifteen hundred years to a little cave in Bethlehem, and there's this little baby, and we're gonna stand in that little

stable, and we're gonna be in awe like his mom and dad and the shepherds were that first night, and we're gonna look at that little baby, just a little wrinkled up baby. And we're going, what? And that's God. That's God. That's the ineffable God that we can't even describe.

The words won't even describe. That's the God that doesn't need anything or anyone, and he's this little wrinkled, pruney baby, and we're just standing going, how what? What? And John tries to describe it and he says, John one fourteen, so the word Jesus became human and made his

home or mishkan or tabernacle with us. He he compressed himself into that little baby. Why? Because God desires to be with us more than we desire to be with him. He wanted to just come and be with us. Why would he do that?

Whining, complaining Israelites, why would He wanna be with them? Why would He wanna come down to earth and be with those? They ended up dragging Him to a cross and crucifying Him. And you and me,

we haven't changed, have we? Yet God says to you and I, I wanna be with you. Climb back in that time machine now, we're gonna go forward about thirty years. In fact, we're gonna take a quick little stopover in Cana.

It has nothing to do with what I'm talking about today, but it's just a cool stopover because some of you are out of coffee now, and we're gonna go get some really good wine because in Cana, he turns the water into wine, remember? So if you love wine, you're gonna taste this wine, and I'm gonna just smile at you and watch you go,

because it's the best wine you ever had, okay? Has nothing to do with the story, so we're gonna get back on the time machine now, and we're gonna go forward a little bit more, okay? And now we're gonna get to the last night of Jesus' life. He's sitting with the disciples in the upper room. He's gonna be crucified the next day,

And Jesus is telling the disciples, I have to go because I'm sending something better, someone better. And I gotta admit, this part of the Bible, I struggle with this part of the Bible for so long because I don't understand how it could get better than a flesh and blood God.

I don't understand how it could get better than than than me taking a walk this evening with a flesh and blood Jesus right next to me. And I can actually touch him and I can look into his eyes and I can hear him verbally speak to me. How do you get better than that? And yet Jesus is telling his disciples, I have to go because I'm sending someone better.

Well, remember when God compressed himself into that human, he also took all the limitations that we have as humans on himself. He was still fully God, he chose not to use some of his attributes. So he felt the limitations that we do. So if Jesus wanted to go from Jerusalem to Capernaum, he had to walk.

You see God is omnipresent. He doesn't have to walk, he's everywhere all at once. Okay, but Jesus had to walk. So Jesus is saying I'm gonna send someone better.

I you're probably like me, you're like, how can you get better than a flesh and blood God? Here's how you get better. Watch this. In John 14, Jesus talking to them says this, verse 16, and I will ask the father and he will give you another advocate,

counselor, friend, helper. There's different ways that you can say that. He's talking about the spirit of God. I will give you the spirit of God who will, when? Never. Never leave you. You see, if Jesus is with them over there when Jesus took on the limitations of humanity, if he's with them in Jerusalem,

he can't be with us in Phoenix. So he's saying, I'm gonna send something better, the spirit who will never leave you. Watch this, he goes on. He is the Holy Spirit who leads into all truth. Teachers, you're gonna love me here because I want you to watch for the prepositional phrase, okay?

Some of you are going, don't know what a prepositional phrase is anymore.

I know, this is a long time ago for most of us, like seventh grade English or eighth grade English. I'm gonna tell you what the prepositional phrase is. Okay? Preposition is like in, on, with, around. Okay, it's a word like that. Alright? So watch because the prepositional phrase that Jesus uses is so significant, k? The world cannot receive him, meaning the spirit, because it isn't looking for him and doesn't recognize him. You didn't miss the prepositional phrase, don't worry about it, here it comes. But you know him because he lives, preposition,

with you. Now and later will be preposition, in you. What? I think the disciples looked at Jesus just like you're looking at me because I see most of you look at me going, I don't get it.

Like you seem excited, I just don't get it. See, the disciples wouldn't get it either because they didn't know exactly what Jesus was talking about. They would because the next day Jesus would die on the cross, he would rise from the dead three days later, four days after that he would ascend into heaven. He would tell them, wait, that spirit I told you about, he's coming. Ten days later, they would be in Jerusalem

and all of a sudden, Holy Spirit would come in a profound, powerful way. And what he's saying is for you and I now, if you have put your faith and trust in Jesus, God through the Holy Spirit isn't just with you, he's in you. You know how bad God wants to be with you? You don't know what I've done bad. Doesn't matter.

You know how bad God wants to be with you? So much so that he didn't wanna just be in the center of camp anymore. He didn't wanna just be with you. Now if you put your faith and trust in Jesus, he's in you. The spirit of this ineffable God that we can't even begin to describe with words. This God that needs nothing and no one, He wants to be so close to you that He's in you.

Wow. Okay, jump back in that time machine. We gotta go and just look at this verse one more time. Revelation 21 verse three. Oh, we're gonna look at this again. God help us get this. I heard a loud shout from the throne saying, look, God's home is now among his people and he will, Mishkan, live,

tabernacle with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. From cover to cover, this story is about a God that we can't even begin to describe or understand who wants to be with us more than we wanna be with him. Can you put that picture back up of the tabernacle?

Here's what I'm hoping God does with us. For the rest of your life, every time you see a picture of the tabernacle or the temple or you hear the word tabernacle or temple, I hope you will connect the dots and go, it wasn't just a structure. It wasn't just a building. Mishkan, tabernacle, dwelling.

He put that right in the middle of the camp. That right there, every time you hear the word tabernacle or temple or read it in the Bible, every time you see a picture of it, would you remember that that right there displays how much our God wants to be with us. Not just with us, but in us.

Remember I said to hang on to that idea, how specific God was with all the details about how they camped? So here's what's interesting. He put he told them, I want you to put the Mishkan, the tabernacle, right in the center,

and then I want you to set up camp this way. So one of the things he says is, I want you to see the doors right there. He says that the doors oh, don't don't play that yet. Don't go back. Go back. Don't look. Everybody hide your eyes. K?

So so the the the doors there, they're they're facing east. God gave special instructions for those doors to to to face east. You know who was supposed to camp right outside of those doors on the East side? The first tribe? The tribe of Judah. Why is that important? Who came from the tribe of Judah? Jesus.

Jesus said, I am the door. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father but by me. There were no accidents.

And in fact, God tells them very specifically where each one should go. Now you can play the video. Watch this. I want you to see that's the tabernacle right in the center and watch as this pans out. It's like 1,500

before Jesus ever came. Every time they would set up camp in the wilderness, they would set up their camp in the shape of a cross.

Because God knew that someday, in order for him to truly Mishkan Tabernacle dwell with us, he would have to hang on one of those. It was the only way to make it happen. Because we're just like the people of Israel. We're just like the people that dragged him to that cross.

And so two thousand years ago, Jesus hung on that cross to to ensure that for the rest of eternity, if you choose to accept him, you can have mishkan, tabernacle. He would dwell not just with you, but in you. Remember the question that God asked in the garden? Where are you? I think it's what Jesus is asking you and I today.

Where are you?

If you feel far from me, Jesus is saying just like he told Adam and Eve, if you feel far from me, it's not because I moved, you moved. Because I desire to be with you more than you desire to be with me. In fact, I did everything that needed to be done to make sure that you would be with me for eternity.

Some of you in here or watching online, when you answer that question, where are you? You recognize that you've never actually put your faith and trust in this Jesus. And that's what you need to do right now. Why would you not? Why would you not trust this ineffable, indescribable God

who needs no one or nothing but wants to be with you and paid the price for your sins? And so for you, maybe right now in your hearts, in your minds, in your souls, can just

agree with me in this prayer. This prayer doesn't save you. Prayers don't save us. It's our faith that saves us. And so you're just verbally doing what your soul and spirit is doing. And you can just agree with me in this prayer and say, Jesus, I don't want to live life anymore without you. And so right now, I commit my life to you. I ask for for your forgiveness, for you to be my savior,

and I accept that free gift. I want to experience this this Mishnah, this tabernacle, this dwelling of you, not just with me but in me. And so from this moment forward, God, I recognize that I am now your son or daughter.

For the rest of us, would you would you hear Jesus asking you, you, no one else, he's just asking you, where are you? My friends, if you feel like you're two feet away or five feet away or a thousand miles away from Jesus, you moved, not him. And so would you run back to those open arms of Jesus? Why wouldn't you?

God, thank you that you is an affable God that we can't even begin to describe. The creator and sustainer of this universe, the king of all kings and lord of all lords, the one who needs no one or nothing. Love us so much. That you wanted

be with us even more than we want to be with you. And so we thank you for that truth. And God, I pray that all of us in here that we would just run back to your open arms now. Wherever if we're two feet away, if we're a thousand miles away, God, would we run back to your open arms? We love you, Jesus.

And all God's people said, amen. Hey, would you just worship this ineffable God right now with this next song?