Yes, you may be seated.
Welcome again.
So glad to see all of us here and so excited for today.
We're going to have a really full day today.
As I said at the beginning of the service, a little bit later on, you'll hear more details
about what we're going to be doing all afternoon, and I hope everybody can come.
Even if you're here for the first time and have no idea what I'm talking about, you're
welcome.
Please come.
Please join us.
It's going to be awesome.
But right now, what we're doing is we are coming back into a series that we started a few weeks
ago.
This is the fourth and final week that we're taking to look at the DNA of our church to
remind ourselves why we're here, why we started the church 14 years ago, what we feel that
God has called us to be and to do here in the DMV area.
And so periodically, it's very important for churches to do this, especially when we've
gone through so much tremendous change, which we've experienced over the last couple of
years.
So what I want to do this week is to pull together some of the threads that we've laid out over
the past three weeks.
This is sort of going to draw everything together.
One of the ways that I think we can think about the purpose of our church and really any church
is that we're here to help people live life in three dimensions.
We're here to help people live three-dimensional lives.
And we're going to talk more about what I mean by that.
But if you are here and you're a seasoned Christian, you've been a believer for a long time,
this is going to be an opportunity for us to go back to the core of discipleship.
What is our life supposed to be about?
What are our priorities supposed to be?
If you're here and you're maybe here for the first time or you're maybe tuning in and
you're not sure what you believe, this is a great week for you to be here because this
is essentially discipleship 101, right?
This is spring training for Christians.
This is something that we need to come back to again and again and again.
What does the gospel life look like?
How is it shaped?
How is it prioritized?
So that's what we're going to be talking about, the three-dimensional life.
We're going to be looking at these two passages, these two wonderful passages that Lisa and
Aaron just read for us, Ephesians chapter 4 and John chapter 15, to guide us.
As we talk about this, we're going to look at it in three parts.
The longing for a three-dimensional life, the invitation to a three-dimensional faith,
which we see in the gospel, and then finally the practices of a three-dimensional community,
how this shapes the way we think about church at Church of the Advent.
Let's pray.
Lord, we thank You for Your Word and we thank You for Your presence.
And Lord, we often make the mistake of saying, well, I really hope God shows up.
But we recognize that You're the one who's here, that it's because You showed up that we're even here.
And Lord, our prayer is rather that we would show up, that we would be psychologically and emotionally
available to You, Lord.
We pray that whatever distractions might be tugging at us right now, that You would set us free from those,
that You, as You are able to do, as only You are able to do, would turn our eyes, our ears, and our hearts to You.
Lord, we pray this for our own good and for Your glory.
In Your Son's name, amen.
Amen.
So first I want to talk a little bit about the longing for a three-dimensional life.
One of my great heroes, the late John Stott, who was a pastor and theologian, used to say that everybody
out there, regardless if they're religious or irreligious, that everybody's kind of living life on a quest for three things.
He says everybody out there is looking for three things.
They're looking for transcendence, they're looking for belonging, and they're looking for significance.
Transcendence, belonging, and significance.
Transcendence is essentially the desire to feel like you're part of something bigger than yourself.
He says everybody out there is looking for that in one way or another.
Everybody, likewise, is looking for a place to belong.
Everybody wants to know that there's a group of people out there who knows them, who loves them,
who accepts them, a place where they can feel validated.
And then everybody's looking for significance.
You know, that's one of the main questions in our culture right now.
Who am I?
What's my identity?
Why am I here?
What's the purpose of my life?
Transcendence, belonging, and significance.
So when we talk about longing for a three-dimensional life, that's really what we mean by that,
is that everybody's longing for those three dimensions, right, to be filled,
so that they can feel whole, so that they can feel complete and fulfilled.
And there are a lot of ways, I think, that people go about trying to meet one or more of these longings.
All right, so just to give you a few examples,
a lot of people these days look to politics to give them these things.
And politics really is a source that speaks to these longings.
The best politicians we know know how to make their supporters feel these things.
The best political leaders know how to make their supporters feel like they're a part of something bigger than themselves.
They're a part of a cause that they can give themselves to.
That's transcendence.
The best political movements have a group of people who feel like they're your people.
If you're a part of that group, then you have your people.
You have similar values, similar worldviews, similar way of living, right, that's belonging.
And then the best politicians know how to give people a cause to devote themselves to.
This is your purpose.
This is why you're here.
This is how we're going to change the world, right?
So politics is a great source for this that people look to.
Career is another thing that people look to for these things, especially in a place like D.C.
A lot of people move here, and some of you may fit this bill,
for the sake of career, for the sake of advancement and opportunity.
And so people look to their career to give them all of these things.
Your career can give you a sense that you're a part of something bigger.
It can give you colleagues who support and respect and maybe even admire you.
Career is potentially a place where you can find a purpose to devote yourself to.
A third example would be romantic relationships.
Some people think and hope that a romantic relationship with the right person can meet all of these needs.
Love itself becomes the transcendence, right?
Belonging, all of my needs, might be able to be met by the right person, right?
If I can find and marry the right person, I'll never be lonely again, right?
Even the sense of purpose.
The relationship, you know, and I've known people like this,
where the relationship itself becomes the purpose.
The love is the transcendence, and the relationship is the purpose.
And, you know, even great advertisers know that what they're selling is not really a product.
It's never about a product.
The best brands out there create these three things for their market.
A sense of transcendence.
By buying this product, you've actually entered into a higher way of living.
You've become a part of something bigger than yourself.
You know, I joke sometimes about Whole Foods, and I like to shop at Whole Foods,
but Whole Foods really does that.
There's a sense of transcendence when you walk in.
Like, you have sort of, you know, taken an evolutionary step as a human being.
When you walk in, right?
Like, I've somehow sort of crossed a threshold here.
I'm a better person.
And likewise, with a sense of belonging, you know?
You buy a product, and you feel like you've joined a family,
and there are a lot of brands that will say, welcome to our family.
And likewise, with purpose, right?
There's a sense that this product connects you to sort of a goal, an aim, a telos for your life.
Right?
So the best brands are not about selling products.
They're about selling significance and transcendence and belonging.
Right?
So these are just a few examples.
There are innumerable ways that we could go about trying to meet one or more of these needs.
But none of them work.
None of them work.
And I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this, because I think intuitively, deep down,
we know that they don't work, because we've experienced the disillusionment that comes
with realizing that they don't work.
None of these sources will ever actually satisfy these longings that we're hoping to satisfy.
Right?
So politics may give you a sense of belonging, but that comes through being a part of a group
that identifies another group as the enemy.
So the belonging comes from being one of the good guys.
Right?
Even in the best marriages, I hate to break it to you, you're still going to feel lonely.
You're still going to feel misunderstood.
You're still going to sometimes feel alienated and like you don't belong.
And if you find all of your meaning and all of your significance in something like your career,
you're going to become a workaholic.
And then all of the other areas of your life are going to start to suffer as a result of that.
Right?
So they may feel like they work, but it all comes at a cost.
It all comes with a price.
But the ultimate reason that these outlets don't actually satisfy these longings is because these
are ultimately spiritual longings.
And when you have something that is spiritual, it requires a spiritual response.
A spiritual longing can only be satisfied with a spiritual answer.
And what Scripture says is that the reason that we long for transcendence and belonging and significance
is because we were created to know God,
to be a part of God's family in the world,
and to serve God's purposes in the world.
And when we feel that sense of longing,
that's this vestigial remnant,
this echo of our original created purpose crying out,
reminding us why we were put here to begin with.
That's what we're really after.
Here's the problem.
Right?
Listen to how Paul describes people who live life apart from God.
Right?
The way we talk about sin is to essentially say that sin is living in the world that God made
as though He doesn't exist.
And here's what Ephesians 4 says about this.
Here's how Paul describes people who are living apart from God.
He says,
They're darkened in their understanding.
Then he says,
They're alienated from the life of God because of their ignorance that is in them due to their hardness of heart.
If you're alienated from the life of God,
what this means is you're never going to find what you're looking for.
You're going to look and look and look and look,
and you're never going to even come close.
And the emphasis in this verse is on our powerlessness to do anything about that.
I mean, what Paul wants to drive home is,
you cannot think your way out of this problem.
It doesn't matter how many books you read.
It doesn't matter how many mountaintop insight experiences you have.
It doesn't matter how many retreats you go on.
You can't think your way out of this.
You can't earn your way out of this.
You can give yourself to the best, most noble causes in the world.
Right?
Go start orphanages all over the place.
Right?
You can give yourself to that.
You're never going to earn your way out of that alienation.
And this is why the gospel is such good news for the world.
Because the gospel is essentially an invitation into a three-dimensional faith.
A faith and a way of living that begins to speak to all of these longings.
The gospel says that God wants a relationship with His people.
And so the good news of the gospel is this.
On the one hand, the bad news is you cannot climb your way up.
You can't think your way there.
You can't feel your way there.
You can't have insights that get you there.
You can't earn your way there.
But the gospel says that's the bad news.
The good news is that you don't have to.
That God has actually come down to us.
That He's made Himself knowable.
Right?
And so the gospel says that Jesus came to reconcile people to God.
It says that through His death and resurrection, our sins can be forgiven.
Even though we've lived our lives as though God doesn't exist, that can be forgiven.
Even we can become children of God.
We can become part of God's family.
But it doesn't stop there.
And this is what I really want to focus on this morning.
It goes past that.
In other words, the gospel isn't just about getting saved.
It's not just about getting the ticket punched so that we're good with God.
The gospel is an invitation into an entirely different way of life.
And that's why Jesus says to His disciples in John 15 verse 11,
These things I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full.
To me, that doesn't sound like get saved and you're good with God.
To me, what that sounds like is a life of abundance.
To me, what that sounds like is there's a way of living and a kind of joy that is going to rise up in you
that is unlike anything that you've ever found anywhere else.
I want my joy to be in you.
I want my fullness to be in you.
And I don't know a single person who doesn't want that.
No matter how jaded or cynical you might pretend to be.
Deep down, everybody wants that.
I think.
Regardless of whether you would consider yourself to be religious.
And so Jesus is saying, These things I've spoken to you.
So what things is He talking about?
Well, if you look at this passage in John 15, He's talking about three things,
which are three relationships.
He says, If you want my joy to be in you, if you want my fullness to be in you,
if you want to respond to this invitation,
then there are three kinds of relationship that you need to prioritize.
The first is in verse 1.
He says, I am the true vine.
Now what does that mean?
Well, ask any Jew in that day, What's the true vine?
They'd say, Well, we are.
Israel is the true vine.
It was actually a big golden vine over the entrance to the temple.
Because in the Old Testament, it says again and again that Israel is God's vine in the world.
God is the vine dresser and Israel is the vine.
That means they're the source of God's blessing for all the nations.
But Israel had lost its way.
They had gone after idols instead of God.
They had become like the people that they were meant to bless.
And so God sent a new vine, a true vine, to do what Israel failed to do.
Jesus says, I'm that true vine.
In other words, if you want to find blessing, don't continue looking to Israel in the ways of the Old Testament.
Look to me.
I'm the true vine who provides God's blessing, God's life, God's presence, God's fruit.
So he says, I'm the true vine.
Therefore, in verse 4, abide in me.
That's the first relationship.
The second relationship we see down in verse 12.
A new commandment I give to you.
Love one another as I have loved you.
You're abiding in me.
You're abiding in my love.
And as you abide in my love, begin to love others as I love you.
My love is flowing in you, through you, into the lives of the people around you.
That's the second relationship, relationship with other people who are in the vine, other branches.
And then in verse 5, he alludes to the third kind of relationship.
And he says this several times in this passage.
Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit.
Then in verse 8, by this my Father is glorified that you bear much fruit.
This is the relationship that we have with the wider world, with the people, with society, with the culture outside of the church.
Abide in me, love one another, and then bear fruit.
And you say, well, what does bear fruit mean?
And there are a few places in Scripture we can look at to help us understand that.
Galatians talks about bearing fruit as the fruit of Christian maturity, Christian character.
Right?
You're living your life in a way that is distinct, a way that provokes questions that only the gospel can answer.
That's bearing fruit.
Bearing fruit in Romans 1 refers to conversions.
Right?
You are talking about Jesus.
You're sharing your faith.
And some people are hearing that and responding and coming to faith and giving their lives to Jesus.
So fruit is conversions.
Isaiah 5 refers to the fruit, God's fruit in the world, as the fruit of justice and mercy.
Right?
You care and are involved in doing works of justice and mercy in the world.
That is the fruit of the kingdom.
Right?
And so these three relationships make up the three dimensions of the Christian life.
And a long time ago, I came across this book by a guy named Mike Breen, and he essentially refers to these three relationships as the up, the in, and the out.
And I like this because it's so simple that I feel like my kids could, you know, after a brief explanation and a napkin sketch, understand it and remember it.
And so if that's true, then I might have a good chance of remembering it.
And so that's why I like it.
Right?
The up, the in, and the out.
The three dimensions of the Christian life.
And what we see is that this is the way that Jesus himself lived.
And this is the way he then taught and encouraged and commanded his disciples to live, prioritizing these three kinds of relationship.
The up relationship is your relationship with God.
And again, this is discipleship 101.
If you look at Jesus' life, he regularly, despite the overwhelming need all around him, he regularly separated himself from the crowds, separated himself even sometimes from his disciples.
And he spent time alone, spent time with the Lord, spent time in prayer.
There are certain places like in John 6 where we see that Jesus stays up all night praying to the Father.
Right?
He knew the Scriptures cold.
He knew them.
He could recite them.
Right?
He had a deep relationship with the Word.
At the greatest moments of suffering and challenge in Jesus' life, if anybody could pray extemporaneously, wouldn't you think it would be Jesus?
The source of God's Word?
God's Word in the flesh?
And yet Jesus chooses to quote Scripture.
Right?
At his greatest moments of suffering, he's quoting Scripture.
He worshiped on his own.
He also regularly went and worshiped in the synagogues.
Yet Jesus would go and worship in the synagogues.
And so likewise, we're called to abide in Christ, which means learning to rest in his love and in his delight.
Learning to rest in his acceptance.
Learning to rest in his joy.
That we are his children.
It means praying.
It means reading Scripture.
It means regularly gathering together and worshiping and praising him.
Singing songs that glorify and exalt his name.
It means becoming more and more deeply rooted in our adoption as God's children.
My tendency is to think that when God thinks about me, that he's vaguely disappointed.
I've given him so much.
Look what he did with his afternoon.
Right?
Instead, learning to abide.
Learning to abide.
Learning to realize that every time you come into God's mind, he's filled with delight.
He's filled with joy.
And it's learning to realize that there's never a time when you are not on God's mind.
He's never so distracted that he's not thinking about you and not delighting in who you are and the fact that you belong to him.
Right?
So that's the up dimension.
Learning to abide in.
The truth of our adoption.
Then there's the end dimension.
Our relationship with other Christians in the church.
And you see this also in Jesus' life.
Jesus regularly spent time with a limited group of people.
There was a community of disciples.
Men and women that Jesus regularly invested in.
They followed him everywhere.
They shared life with him.
They slept on the ground with him.
Right?
And then from that multitude of disciples, he selected 12 to become leaders of the new church.
You see this in Luke where he calls them apostles.
Right?
So they become the new church.
The new Israel.
And then even from among that 12, he had three who were his closest friends.
And that's a great way to think about your relationships.
You have the kind of multitude of disciples in church.
And then from that, maybe you have a small group.
A core group that's your 12.
Right?
And then even from among those 12.
Right?
You need two, three people who are in your life who know everything about you.
People who you've really opened up and become vulnerable with.
Right?
We see this in Jesus' life.
We also see this in the life of Jesus' followers.
Developing spiritual friendships with other Christians.
Committing to a local church.
This is one of the biggest reasons we commit to a local church.
And finding people who will encourage you in your faith.
Thinking, man, I need to spend more time around that woman or that man.
Because when I'm around that person, I just naturally am encouraged.
The things that we talk about are seasoned with salt.
Right?
And then finally, there's the out dimension of your life.
That's loving and serving people outside the church.
Right?
This is evangelism.
This is justice and mercy work.
Right?
Jesus, everywhere he went, Jesus focused on doing a couple of things.
He met the needs of the people all around him and the surrounding community.
They went all throughout the region healing people and caring for the poor and the sick
and the lame and the blind.
Right?
Occasionally raising people from death.
And then he also went throughout the region telling everyone who would listen about the kingdom of God.
The kingdom of God is here.
Repent and believe.
Right?
And so likewise, we see Jesus' command to us to go and to bear fruit in the world.
Which means love and serve people outside the church community.
Intentionally invest time in building relationships with people who believe very different things than you.
Learn how to have conversations and find common ground with people who won't even consider the claims of Christianity.
Learn how to build friendships and find common ground with people who are on the other side of the political aisle with you.
Right?
Find people who are very different from you racially, socioeconomically, politically, religiously.
Build friendships with them for the sake of the gospel.
Right?
Care for the sick and the poor and the vulnerable and the oppressed.
In as much as you can do it, tell people about Jesus.
Right?
That's bearing fruit.
And the goal of all of this, the up, the in, and the out, is balance.
It's investing in all three dimensions equally.
Up, in, out.
Because what you'll find is if you neglect one or more of these dimensions of relationship,
your life is going to be thrown out of balance.
As Mike Breen writes, you'll wobble through life.
Right?
Your life will become more flat.
It'll be a two-dimensional life rather than a three-dimensional life.
And so what I like to do, I mean, I've, you know, I've sort of been thinking this way for years
because it's a simple enough tool that it just stays in my brain all the time.
But I regularly am thinking about our church along these three dimensions.
I'm regularly thinking about my own life along these three dimensions.
And so this can almost become like a diagnostic tool to think about your life,
any ministries that you're involved in, your small group, the church that you're a part of,
just to think, where am I?
Am I in balance or am I weighted in one direction or another?
You know, just to give you a few examples,
think about having emphasis on the up and the in but not the out.
What does that look like?
Well, for an individual, this would be an individual, maybe they're very involved in church.
Maybe they love to pray.
They read scripture.
They have really close relationships in the church.
They're very involved.
Everybody knows them.
But they have no relationships with anyone outside the church who are not Christians.
Right?
I mean, a lot of casual acquaintances.
But if you ask them to list off their, maybe their top six or seven closest friends,
not a single one of them isn't a Christian.
They're not spending regular time with anyone outside the church.
They're not involved in any kind of justice or mercy work in the community.
Right?
If you think about a church that's weighted this way,
this would be a church that is really great at worship.
You come to Sunday, it's super vibrant.
The small groups are great.
Culture of discipleship is great.
But they're kind of stagnant.
Right?
They tend to become insular.
They tend to kind of circle the wagons and focus on what's best for them.
There are a lot of people in the surrounding community that may not even know they're there.
They've become ineffective at evangelism, caring for the poor and the vulnerable.
Right?
So that's the up and the end.
Now think about an individual or a church that's up and out.
Person with a strong faith, very involved in outreach,
lots of non-Christian friends, always going to do everything.
Right?
Every new opportunity to serve, they're the first one there.
Right?
So they're the kind of person that everybody would really love.
Right?
Like the kind of person that you might put up front and say,
wow, this person's really an example.
Look at all the things they're doing in the community.
But if you look closely, nobody really knows them.
They have no close Christian friends.
They sort of float through life with no accountability.
Because nobody really knows who they are.
They're really good at appearing impressive.
But there's nobody who really gets access to the real version of this person.
Churches can be the same way.
Churches can have great worship, great Bible teaching,
strong emphasis on evangelism and outreach.
Churches can have great worship, great Bible teaching.
But the people in the church don't really feel known.
They don't feel cared for.
They feel anonymous.
They feel isolated.
There are a lot of needs that slip through the cracks.
There's a sense in churches like this that there's so much emphasis
on reaching people outside the church.
But once you get in the church, you're kind of forgotten about.
You're overlooked.
There's nothing really here for you if you're struggling.
Right?
That's the up and the out.
Third and final example, churches that are in and out.
Or individuals that are in and out.
So an individual who has the in and the out,
maybe they have a mix of Christian and non-Christian friends.
Maybe they're a very social person.
They're passionate about justice.
They're passionate about changing the world.
But they've become disconnected from the church.
They're disconnected from Scripture.
People like this tend to have over time a lower and lower and lower view of Scripture.
They have no real worshiping life.
They're not theologically rooted.
And so they tend to adopt the values of the surrounding culture.
Right?
I've known examples in all three categories.
Right?
I've experienced in different phases of my Christian life all three categories.
Right?
A church that is in and out only.
They're going to have a strong community.
They're going to have a strong focus on ministries of justice and mercy.
But likewise, they're going to tend to hold a very low view of Scripture.
There's not going to be any kind of core theology.
People can kind of come in and believe and adopt whatever values they want.
They tend to care a lot about social issues,
but become in every way exactly like the surrounding society.
What happens in churches like this is because people are disconnected from the gospel,
they're doing a lot of serving.
They may be doing a lot of justice and mercy work.
But apart from the gospel, serving becomes about duty.
It becomes about performative righteousness because you're disconnected from the gospel.
And so what happens is in cultures like this that are in and out but not up,
you have a lot of two things.
You have a lot of very self-righteous people because they're doing a lot of good in the world,
and you have a whole lot of burnout of people who are not doing it because of joy,
but they're doing it because that's what everybody's doing, and it's expected of them.
Right?
And so in all of these ways, these are just examples of how we can get out of balance.
So it's worth you just taking a moment, if you're not doing this already,
and just thinking about your life, thinking about the ministries that you're involved in,
think about our church, and think,
what are the ways that I feel like we might be out of balance?
Because here's the thing, we're never going to get it perfect.
You're always kind of moving this way or that way.
You're always overemphasizing certain things and underemphasizing others, right?
We're works in progress.
And so we're always needing to course correct.
In order to keep things in balance,
it's very important that we have certain habits and practices and liturgies
that reinforce all of these dimensions in our lives on a regular basis.
And ideally, when we come together to do what we're doing this morning,
it's kind of a reset, right?
Any areas that you're neglecting get put right in front of you.
Oh, wow, I'm being brought back there, right?
So ideally, some of the practices that rebalance us would include, first and foremost,
the practice of Sunday worship, right?
Just coming together.
If you think about the anatomy of what we're doing here this morning,
it is up, in, out, all the way, right?
We have a strong up dimension of prayer and praise and scripture and creeds and confession.
We have a strong in dimension of fellowship, passing to peace, experiencing our oneness together.
And then there's a strong out dimension.
You know, we always prioritize welcoming people who are here for the first time
or people who have doubts or questions or don't know what they believe.
And every week at the end of the service, I don't know if you know this,
the dismissal that you'll hear from Lisa, that's your commissioning.
Let us go forth into the world in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Let's go bear fruit, right?
So every week when we're done, you're commissioned to go out into the world to bear fruit.
So Sunday worship rebalances us.
The sacraments rebalance us.
The sacraments, baptism and the Eucharist, are meant to confirm and strengthen our relationship with God,
our relationship with one another, and they tie us into salvation history,
God's mission in the world.
Core groups.
If you're not in a small group, if you're not in a core group,
that's one of the best ways in our church to find that 12,
to find that 3,
to find those people who are going to become more like your spiritual family.
Right?
But ideally, core groups are meant to do all three.
A place to worship God and study His Word,
a place to build spiritual friendships,
and many of our groups find ways to serve in the city.
And then lastly, I've got to mention it because we're doing it next week,
confirmation.
A lot of people still are like,
what is confirmation?
And that's okay.
You know, this is our first time ever doing confirmation.
But if you want to understand the meaning of confirmation and why we think it matters,
it's about the up, the in, and the out.
We confirm your mature faith in Christ.
That's the up, right?
You are committing yourself to this church body and the Anglican communion.
That's the in.
And then the bishop lays hands on you and prays that you would be filled with the Holy Spirit
for the vocation that God has given you in the world.
That's the out.
Up, in, out.
I'm so excited.
For those of you who are going to be confirmed next week, it's going to be awesome.
I can't wait for that time.
And what we believe, just to pull all of this together,
is that as we live this three-dimensional faith,
as we live out this three-dimensional life,
that by doing that in the world,
that the gospel begins to bring transformation to this city.
Because the good news is we're not the only church doing this.
This is not proprietary, right?
This is Discipleship 101.
And this church, or this city, praise God,
is filled with gospel-centered churches
who have people who are doing this exact same thing.
Right?
They may have different language,
but it's the same thing.
And what we believe is that as more and more people become followers of Jesus
who embody the gospel,
that we're going to see loneliness eradicated.
Right?
That we're going to see neighborhoods and workplaces become more vibrant and communal.
That we're going to see racial healing accelerated
until there's no longer a need for racial healing.
We're going to see institutional corruption decrease
and ultimately altogether one day cease.
We're going to see the arts no longer filled with nihilism,
but imbued with beauty and hope.
And what we're going to see is people becoming more and more truly human.
And we're here doing this because we firmly believe, as Scripture promises,
that one day our city will no longer be known as a center of human power and influence.
But this will be a place where Jesus Christ is King and Lord.
Let's pray.
Lord, we thank you for your word and we thank you for your scripture.
And we thank you for this invitation from Jesus, Lord, to abide, to experience our oneness with you.
We thank you that in him we are joined together as one body, as one church.
And we thank you that you've given us a common calling, Lord, a mission in the world.
And we thank you for this vision of renewal that we see in Scripture, Lord.
And we thank you that we get to be a part of it.
Not just on the sidelines, but we get to actually be a part of the work that you're doing in the world.
And I pray that you would bless us as we discern what that calling is, what it looks like for each one of us.
And that you would fill us with the Holy Spirit and give us the courage and the boldness to carry it out.
We pray this in your son's holy name.
Amen.