For those of you who are just joining us, maybe have not been a part of our community before,
what is happening here is really the culmination of something that started close to three years ago in prayer and dreaming.
It's a collaboration between three churches, Church of the Resurrection, Church of the Advent, Church of the Ascension,
three other churches in the D.C. area who have a dream to start new worshiping communities together.
And when this whole thing started over 10 years ago, we had the hope that one day we would look at a neighborhood like Brooklyn
and that we would see a worshiping community birthed here that would come alongside the other churches that are doing great work to serve the city and to bring glory to God.
And so we're here. This is our inaugural gathering.
Some of us have been meeting and working and planning this for, as I said, two and a half, three years now.
But this is our first time gathering here as a church to worship, to hear the word of God and to share in the Lord's Supper.
So it's a great time to be here.
And as I was thinking about this and praying about it, I was realizing that one of the things that we need to think about as we're gathering together for the first time is our expectations.
You know, what are we expecting of this?
And now that it's here, now that we're here, what should we expect of this community?
And as we go forward, what will it look like?
So we have to do a little expectation management.
For me, that's very important in my life to make sure that my expectations align with reality.
Reality.
And in the vein of that, one of the things that's central to the life of all of our communities, including this one,
is that we want to allow God's word to shape how we think about these things.
We want to pattern our lives as a community after scripture.
And so that's what we're going to do.
And we're going to do that by looking at the book of Acts today.
Acts is written by Luke, who was a physician and a historian.
And it's wonderful because it gives us some eyewitness accounts of the very first churches as they were being born.
And so if we want to understand and have a sense of what to expect here, it's great that we're able to look there.
And in particular, we're going to look at chapter 16 and the beginning of the church in a place called Philippi.
And what's really cool is that we're going to look at the birth of this church this week in Acts chapter 16.
And then beginning next week, we're actually going to be able to look at a letter that Paul wrote to this church 10 years after it began.
And then we're going to do an in-depth study and try to understand some of the things that Paul had to say to this church 10 years after it began.
But today the focus is Acts chapter 16, the birth of the church in Philippi.
While there's a lot in this passage that we're not going to be able to cover in depth and a lot that is unique to that culture,
there are some things that we can glean in terms of our central question, which is what should we expect?
And this is for people who have been laboring for this long and hard.
And this is also for people who maybe you just kind of wandered in the door because you smelled coffee.
And you're here wondering what this is all about.
For all of us here, there is a need to understand what is this about?
What should we expect out of our time together as we continue to meet?
And so we're going to first look at a couple of things that we should not expect.
A couple of things that we should not expect.
And then we're going to look at a couple of things that we should expect.
Acts chapter 16.
Let's pray together.
Our Heavenly Father, all of our planning, all of our striving, all of our strategizing, all of our effort, all of the setup, all the coordinating,
Lord, all of that is mere human effort.
And if our hope was based on that alone, we would have no hope.
But we know that somewhere in all of this, you are here and that you're at work and that you speak.
And so, God, we pray that you would speak to us now through your word because we need desperately to hear from you.
We pray this in your son's holy name.
Amen.
So Acts chapter 16.
What should we expect?
A couple of things that we should not expect here in Brooklyn as we look at the church in Philippi.
First thing is this.
We should not expect that everything will go according to plan.
I think that we've learned that.
But it's good to be reminded of that.
Right?
If you look at verses 6 through 10 of Acts 16, what does it say?
It says Paul wanted to go to where?
Asia.
I don't know if we can bring it up here.
I don't know if that's possible.
That's okay.
We'll figure that out.
Hopefully, maybe you have a Bible or an iPhone or something that you can look at if you'd like.
But it says that Paul wants to go to Asia and to Bithynia.
But then what does it say?
The spirit of Jesus prevented it.
Now, I wish I could say, you know, well, according to the commentaries, this is what that actually means.
But that's really all we're given.
Paul wanted to go there and Jesus said, no.
And instead, Paul is given this vision of a man calling them to come into Europe and to preach the gospel there.
And when we say the gospel, we mean the good news about Jesus.
And this man says, come.
We need the gospel here.
And so that's where they go.
And there's no reason given.
We have no reason why.
But Paul obediently goes.
And it's good to be reminded right off the bat that God is the one calling the shots, not us.
Right?
That life in the church, life in God's community is like this dance.
And it's a dance between us and God, between human striving and divine sovereignty.
And God is the one leading the dance.
And, you know, anytime you see, you know, if you watch Dancing with the Stars or anything like that, you know, the one leading the dance has to be very tuned in with and aware of their partner.
And yet they initiate the movement and the partner has to be very tuned into and aware of the lead.
And they need to be able to respond in a way where their movement looks fluid and unified.
So Paul has a sense, God is not leading me here.
He's leading me here.
And so Paul immediately yields to that.
And the dance goes on.
So God is always inviting us into the dance.
He's always inviting us to be a part of what he's doing.
And the question that we always have to ask is, how do we respond?
Do we respond?
How much do we struggle before we allow him to lead the dance?
We had three meeting spaces fall through over two years before our fourth attempt.
And we came here.
It felt in many ways like we were wrestling and struggling with God during that time.
And yet as I look at this, I cannot believe that we have such a wonderful space.
I'm actually more excited about the people we get to work with here than the space.
I mean, the stage is nice and all, but the people that are hosting us, if you haven't had a chance to meet them,
Beth and Royale and all of the team that they're going to be working with us, they're amazing.
And I look at that and I look at God and I just say thank you.
Thank you for this blessing.
Thank you.
If this is your life and these are the terms, then where's the invitation?
because the one thing we know for sure is this,
that God is always continually inviting us into the dance.
If this is your life and these are the terms, where's the invitation?
So we should not always expect that things will go according to our plans.
Often they don't because we are not the ones leading the dance.
The second thing we should not expect is this.
We should not expect this to be easy all the time.
You know, Philippi was a proud Roman city.
There was a kind of a noble military heritage here.
Latin was the official language.
It's a European Roman city.
So if you're a Greek speaker, you're lower class.
If you're a Jew, there are hardly any Jews here.
So you're considered lower class.
So Paul, a Greek-speaking Jew, and his team would have been looked down upon
as soon as they crossed the threshold of the city.
And so you see, even though Paul and Silas are Roman citizens,
once they begin to do ministry,
and once people begin to see the kind of work that they're doing,
they're treated horribly.
And you can read about it in verses 19 to 37.
They're dragged into the marketplace to face the authorities.
They're stripped.
They're severely flogged.
They're thrown into prison without a trial.
They're sent into the maximum security inner cell.
And their feet are put in the stocks.
And the persecution only got worse for this church over time.
Things only got worse for a while before they got better.
So the question becomes, why does this happen?
Why does it happen?
You know, when things get hard for us,
a lot of times we will say,
well, this is probably a sign that we shouldn't be doing it.
But not so here.
See, there are surface reasons why they face these issues,
probably cultural reasons.
But Jesus did say plainly that people,
you know, Jesus said,
people treated me this way,
and they're going to treat you this way.
And yet, they persevere,
Paul and Silas in this church persevere,
and it's amazing to look in another of Paul's letters,
2 Corinthians chapter 8,
he actually references this church in Philippi.
And he says this,
for in a severe test of affliction,
their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty
have overflowed in what?
Their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty
have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part.
So, not only did the hardship not overcome the church,
but rather it produced in them a joy
and a generosity and a gratitude
and a worshipfulness.
It's a mystery.
How could persecution and hardship and suffering
make people more joyful,
more generous,
more worshipful?
We'll get more into that next week.
That's the question as we look at Philippians.
Now, let's look at some things that we should expect.
Those are some things that we shouldn't expect.
It's not going to go according to plan.
It's not always going to be easy.
But here's what we should expect
as we move on in the passage.
First thing is this.
We should expect this, friends,
that hearts would be open to God's Word.
That hearts would be opened to God's Word.
The first person we meet here in Philippi
is a woman named Lydia.
She's a dealer in purple goods,
which is the Bible's way of saying
she's a very successful businesswoman.
And she's probably fairly wealthy,
fairly well off,
fairly prominent member of society.
We know that.
We know that she wants a relationship with God.
And the reason we know that
is because, as I said before,
there are not enough Jews in Philippi
to have quorum for a synagogue.
You had to have ten.
They don't have that many.
They have somehow less than that,
less Jewish men anyway.
And so what they did instead,
because they didn't have a synagogue,
is on the Sabbath they would go
and they would essentially have
a time of prayer and Bible study.
So on the Sabbath,
Paul and Silas,
as they always did,
they say, you know,
where are the Jews worshiping?
And they find a small group of people,
sounds like it was mostly women,
reading the Bible together.
And they join in,
and they begin to talk,
and they begin to tell them
about Jesus.
And we know that they were talking
about Jesus in the gospel
because of the very beginning,
the vision,
the man says to Paul,
come and preach the gospel.
So this is what Paul does.
He comes and ostensibly finds Lydia,
finds this group,
and begins to tell them
the gospel about Jesus.
And it says,
it's this amazing thing.
It doesn't say,
Paul made a really compelling case.
Paul's apologetics were watertight.
You know,
Paul gave them
Tim Keller's reason for God,
and they all believed.
It doesn't say that.
Great book, by the way.
That's not a nox.
And God opens her heart
to these words.
And this is a great image
because it's the exact same image
that the Bible uses.
The same language
is used when God opens a womb.
It's the same phrasing.
You know,
in the Bible,
God opens a womb
so that life can be sort of
implanted and grow there.
In the very same language
is used.
God opens Lydia's heart
so that life can be implanted
and grow there.
And it's this great image
of what God does
in Lydia's heart.
And what we see in Lydia
is this.
Lydia already knew about God.
She already had a desire
to know God.
She had an interest,
a curiosity.
She was drawn,
and yet she didn't know
how to actually have
a relationship with God.
And that's the missing piece
that Paul gives her
when he talks about Jesus.
And God opens her heart
to receive this truth
and it says immediately
she believes,
immediately she gets baptized,
and immediately
her whole household
gets baptized.
And she becomes
a huge part of the church.
At the end of the chapter,
we see that she's actually
hosting a church meeting
in her home.
And this is something
that we should expect
to see in this community,
friends.
We should expect
to see hearts opened.
You know,
this is a community
where we can ask questions,
we can share doubts,
we can explore ideas,
and I'll tell you this right now.
Nobody's going to tell you
what to think here.
So if you're here,
if you're new,
if you're not sure
what you believe,
if you're checking things out,
nobody will ever tell you,
hopefully,
I hope nobody will ever tell you
what to think here.
I don't think Christians
should ever tell people
what to think.
But we will encourage
one another to think,
and to think well,
and to ask good questions,
and to ask questions
hoping for answers.
We'll encourage one another
to do the due diligence
of trying to make sure
that our thinking
is intellectually consistent.
And we do want
to encourage one another
to learn more about Jesus.
We want to create a space
where people can read
and also come to understand
God's Word.
and we do that
hoping and expecting
that God will open
some people's hearts
to the truth of His Word.
So when we come here
and when we gather here,
we should expect that
to happen.
We should hope for that.
We should pray for that
when we pray for this community.
That's what happened to me
when I was 22.
Some of you know my story.
I was very much
against the church
and against the institutional church
and against Christians
and had a lot of my own rhetoric
about how they were all hypocrites.
And it wasn't until somebody said,
have you ever actually read the Bible
and read about Jesus?
And I said, no.
And it was because I sat down
and began to read the Bible
with this guy
who was very patient with me
that I came to really begin
to understand
what Jesus was all about.
And it was as though
it just began to come alive,
just jump off the page
against my struggle.
It began to become real for me.
And we should expect
that this will happen here.
So that's the first thing.
We should expect
that God will open hearts
to His Word.
The second thing
as we move forward
in the passage is this.
We should expect
that the oppressed
would be liberated.
That people who are oppressed,
that God would liberate them.
I, as a pastor,
you'll see why in a second,
I particularly love
this little vignette.
Paul and Silas
begin to be harassed
by this young girl
who's oppressed by a demon.
And people have recognized
that she has this condition
and so they've taken her
as a slave.
They've taken advantage
of her vulnerability.
They've made her a slave
and they're actually
making money off of her.
And we think,
well, that's kind of weird,
a demon-possessed girl,
slave,
and how do I relate to that?
Well, we do have
all kinds of examples
of people
in the very same condition.
People who are oppressed
or enslaved
or addicted
and that makes them vulnerable
and people know that
and they exploit them.
Right?
So there are the major examples
like sex trafficking,
like drugs,
like porn,
like the lottery,
like predatory lending practices.
All of these are examples
of people
who are taking advantage of
and exploiting other people.
And they're able to do it
because those people
are oppressed.
They're oppressed by addiction.
They're oppressed by debt.
They're oppressed
by any number of things.
And then many more of us
are enslaved to things
in our lives,
I think probably more
than we realize.
Right?
So what does it mean
to be a slave?
It means you can't say no.
Right?
If you're,
if you're,
if a slave master
tells you to do something,
you can't say no.
If an employer
tells you to do something,
you can say no.
You may lose your job.
But if you're a slave,
you may lose your life.
You can't say no.
So if you can't stop overeating,
you may be a slave to food.
Right?
I mean,
if you,
if you gave something up
for Lent,
those of you who know
what Lent is,
it's a time when Christians
typically try to fast
from certain things.
If you gave it up
for like a week,
you know,
and you're like,
40 days is way too long.
You may be more a slave
to that thing
than you realize.
If you can't stop
overspending,
then maybe you're a slave
to shopping
or consumerism
or materialism.
If you hold grudges,
if you just kind of
hold on to things,
then maybe you're
a slave to anger.
You know,
if you,
if you can't say no
to people
and you feel like
people are constantly
walking all over you
and taking advantage of you,
then maybe you're a slave
to people's approval
if you can't set
healthy boundaries.
But chances are,
if you look at your life,
we probably have things
that come very close
to being slave masters.
So what's needed here?
What do we need?
What does this woman need?
Here's an interesting difference
between Lydia,
the first woman,
the business woman.
She just needs
the truth of God
explained to her.
But this woman
needs something different.
Lydia needed truth.
She needs Paul
to explain the truth
of the gospel to her.
But here's the interesting thing.
And I remember
reading this years ago
and really trying
to get into it.
And it is fascinating
because this woman,
this demon-possessed girl,
she knows the truth
about Jesus.
I mean,
if you read what it says,
she knows her theology
is correct.
Isn't that fascinating?
She's got the right theology,
but that's not enough.
What's more,
here's why I'm comforted
by this as a pastor.
Paul doesn't exactly
handle this situation well.
There's no way
to get around
what it says, you know?
Like when the Greek says
annoyed,
what it really means
is pastorally concerned.
I've been trying
to convince people
that that's true for years.
And, you know,
no, I wasn't angry.
I was just really passionate,
you know?
Paul's annoyed.
He's ticked off.
She's following them
for days,
harassing them,
screaming at them,
drawing huge,
unwanted attention to them.
And finally,
he's like,
I can't take it, Silas.
And he turns around
and he's like,
no of her, you know?
And you can imagine him
just kind of blowing up.
But God doesn't.
So it's not the right theology.
It's not the right
pastoral response.
I think Paul
misfires here.
You know?
He doesn't do,
he doesn't handle it well.
The power of God,
the power of God
was still at work.
You know,
we think so often
that it's about
getting the right theology
or having the right
pastoral response
that we forget
it's not actually about us.
That our entire faith
is based on amazing things
that God does
in our lives.
Things that we can't predict,
things that we don't deserve,
but God entering in,
breaking it,
and doing incredible things.
Liberating people.
Liberating people
who don't have it all together,
who don't even really
fully understand
who he is.
He comes in and says,
be free.
And that's what he does
for this woman.
And it's incredible to see.
So we should expect
the power of God
to be at work
in this church.
Sometimes in,
in,
in step with us,
oftentimes in spite of us,
right?
We should expect
to see people be freed
from addiction here.
We should expect
to see people be freed
from resentment
and anger
and all the things
that we've come to depend on
and love more than God.
We should see people liberated.
And we should come
every week thinking
when we gather together
and when we sing
and when we pray
and when we share this meal
and when we read
from this word
and when we do all the things
that we're doing,
that the power
and the presence of God
are at work here.
And we should expect
that regularly
people will come
and their hearts
will be released.
What we're doing here,
invoking the very presence
of God,
hearing him in the word,
proclaiming and experiencing
him in the bread
and the wine,
we believe in the real presence
of Christ in this meal,
that somehow
as we receive this meal
in faith,
we are receiving
the very presence of Christ
into our being.
I can't explain that.
I don't know how it happens,
but I know that it's
the power of God at work.
So this is the second thing
that we should expect
that as we gather
every week
that people would be
liberated from oppression.
Hearts would be open,
people would be liberated.
The third thing is this,
that we should expect
that relationships
in this community
would be marked
by mercy and compassion.
Mercy and compassion.
So Paul and Silas,
a little later in the story,
they've been beaten
because of this interaction
with this woman,
because she's no longer
financially valuable
to her owners.
They're beaten,
they're stripped,
they're wrongfully accused,
they're put in prison
without a trial,
feet in the stocks,
it's incredibly uncomfortable,
they undoubtedly had stripes
and scars across their back.
God miraculously rescues them.
Earthquake, doors swing open,
right?
The jailer comes down,
what happened,
sees all the doors open,
immediately assumes that
all the prisoners have escaped,
right?
Immediately thinks,
oh my goodness,
I failed in my duty,
this guy's a civil servant,
we know that because,
and we know that he was
a former soldier
because all of these kinds
of jobs,
like being a jailer,
those were only given
to former soldiers.
So we know that he's a man
who really cares about duty,
he really cares about
doing his job well,
and he sees I failed,
so what does he do?
He draws his sword deeper,
because he knows
he's going to be killed
when they find out
that he's failed,
so he wants to do
the honorable thing
and take his own life.
He's about to commit suicide,
Paul comes out and says,
no, no, no, wait, stop!
And he says,
look, we're all here,
nobody left.
What's Paul's concern here?
His primary concern
is the welfare of the jailer.
Can you believe that?
So this is the man
who's responsible
for all of the suffering
that they've endured.
He's responsible
for all of this wrongful,
undeserved suffering
that has come upon
Paul and his team.
And yet when they come
face to face,
and Paul sees the sword
in the guy's hand,
getting ready to kill himself,
I mean, most people would say,
here, I'll do that for you.
Take the sword,
you know, do it yourself.
Paul says, no, no, no,
no need for that.
We're all here.
We stayed here
to make sure that you were okay.
It's an amazing act
of mercy and compassion.
And it says that this man
is so struck
by the mercy and compassion
that he just cries out.
And how does he know
to cry this out?
Well, it says that Paul
and Silas have been singing
and praising God
and singing hymns and psalms
all night,
and it says that everybody
was listening to them.
They're singing about Jesus.
They're singing about salvation.
They're singing about mercy,
all the things that we sing about.
And the jailers heard all this.
And when he sees this act
of mercy and compassion,
he says,
what do I have to do
to be a part of this?
What hope is there for me?
Right now,
I'm at the end of my rope.
I'm about to kill myself.
How do,
how do,
where do I go from here?
Paul tells him about Jesus.
And it says,
he and his entire household
become followers of Jesus.
And they're so excited about this
that it says that the passage
ends with him praising God
that they had believed in him.
You know,
yesterday we were coming back
from a conference
that we had to be at,
some of us,
Dan and Josh and I.
And we were driving
through Pennsylvania.
And as we were driving through,
I was thinking about the events
roughly 10 years ago.
I think in October
it'll be 10 years.
The events in Lancaster County,
Pennsylvania,
when a man named
Charles Carl Roberts IV
walked into an Amish schoolhouse
in Lancaster County
and he was armed to the teeth
and he shot eight girls
and he killed five
and then he took his own life
before anybody could intervene.
You know,
you read a story like this
and it's just,
it's the worst kind of tragedy
you can possibly imagine.
One room schoolhouse,
you know,
armed to the teeth man
against these unarmed kids.
Girls, nonetheless.
Within hours,
you know the story,
within hours,
the Amish,
not just the Amish community
but the parents of the victims,
the families of the victims,
within hours the same day
were reaching out
to Charles' family.
They came to make sure,
Charles' family said,
we gotta get out of here.
They said,
no,
we want you to stay.
There are stories of,
within an hour of the events,
the word of the events
that one grandfather
of one of the girls who died
was overheard saying,
well,
we mustn't harbor anger
against this family.
There are stories
of one of the other fathers
of one of the girls
who died
holding Charles' father
as he sobbed for an hour.
They began to serve
and to care for Charles' family,
the killer's family.
And the Amish community
even set up a fund
to make sure
that they would be okay.
And it radically,
you can read the stories
in the news,
it radically changed,
radically transformed
the Shooters' family.
So you read stories like this,
it's the amazing impact
of the gospel.
It's the same pattern.
These people come face to face
with the family of a man
who caused them
tremendous undeserved suffering,
and yet they respond
not with anger,
but with mercy and compassion.
And here's the thing, friends,
Christian communities
should be marked
by mercy and compassion.
They aren't always.
Some of you bear scars
from communities
that aren't,
or weren't.
But they should always
be marked by mercy
and compassion.
And the reason is simple,
it's because at the very core
of our faith
is a God who
prayed for,
cared for,
attended to our
deepest needs,
and even gave His life
for us
as we were actively
causing Him to suffer.
Right?
And so this is the pattern
of our God,
and so it becomes
the pattern
of God's people.
So we should hope
and expect this
to be true of us.
We should hope
and expect that
every week when we gather,
this liturgy,
all the words,
that may be totally new to you.
Do you know what we're doing?
We are embodying
and enacting
the story of the gospel together.
The story of our sin,
the story of our creation,
the story of our sin,
the story of God's forgiveness,
and the story that God
is restoring
and renewing
this place
and us
right now.
And we are
embodying that story together,
and as we do that,
the hope is
it shapes us,
and it shapes our hearts,
and that we become
more and more
merciful and compassionate
as our God
is merciful
and compassionate.
So we should expect this.
And the last thing
really quickly is this.
The fourth thing,
the last thing
that we should expect
as we gather every week,
friends,
is that this would be
a community
where strangers
become family.
Where strangers
become family.
At the very end,
verse 40,
it says,
Paul and Silas
are getting ready
to leave,
and it says,
they go to visit Lydia again,
and then it says,
they went to see thee,
and in the Greek,
it's adelphous.
It comes from adelphos,
and it's a word
that in this context
means the brothers
and sisters.
The brothers and sisters.
In other words,
they went to see the family.
And you've got to
check this out.
At the beginning
of the chapter,
you have three
incredibly different people.
Successful businesswoman,
oppressed slave girl,
now a former slave girl,
and then a civil servant,
former soldier.
In Roman society,
these people
would have never
commingled.
Totally different
social circles.
Totally different
socioeconomic status.
And yet here,
here,
at the end
of the chapter,
this is the amazing
impact of the gospel.
By the end,
they and many others
have become
brothers and sisters.
They've become
a family.
Total strangers
who turn to Jesus
for forgiveness,
what happens?
They become,
as the Bible says,
spiritually adopted
by God.
They become
God's children,
which means
they become
brothers and sisters.
And I believe
that the early church
recognized
the significance
of this.
As people came
to know Jesus
in their community,
and you can read
about this,
the early historians
and people like,
people have written
and tried to explain
people like Rodney Stark.
As people came
to know Jesus,
they took in
all kinds of people
who didn't have
nuclear families,
people who,
for whatever reason,
didn't have
immediate biological families.
And the church
again and again
and again said,
we will be
your family now
because God
has already made
us into one
great family.
So Psalm 68,
6 says,
God sets the lonely
in families.
Who in the world
is he talking about
if not the church?
We are that family.
And if we're not
that family,
I wonder if we're
failing in our calling
to be the church.
So if you're here
and you're lonely,
if you're here
and you don't know
anybody,
if you're here
and you don't
have a family,
and I mean this
as sincerely
as I possibly can,
we want to be
a family for you.
We want to be
that kind of family.
Even if you do
have a family
and you're here,
you can't cut it alone.
Your family needs
to be a part
of a larger family.
Your marriage
needs support.
Your parenting
needs support.
You need friends
in that.
It's a very recent
modern invention
that we do
all of this alone
as siloed off
nuclear families.
It does not reflect
most of human history.
So as we begin
this community together,
as we begin
this church
worship gathering
together,
what are we expecting?
Well, we shouldn't
expect everything
to go according to plan.
We know that very well.
We shouldn't expect
it to be easy
and at times
it's going to be
really hard.
But we should expect
that people's hearts
would be open
to God's word.
We should expect
that people who
are oppressed
would be liberated
week after week
after week.
We should expect
that our relationships
would be marked
with the same
mercy and compassion
that Jesus
has shown us.
And we should expect
that ours would be
a community
where strangers
are able to come in
and to belong
and to become
family.
So I hope
and pray
as we gather together
week after week
that we would come
each week
with a sense
of expectancy
and hope
and excitement
over what God
might do in our midst.
Let's pray.
Our Heavenly Father,