Well, good morning again to all of you.
My name is Tommy, one of the pastors here.
And we're starting a new series this week.
It's only going to go for the next three weeks.
And we're going to be looking basically at the DNA of Church of the Advent, Advent DNA,
our core mission, our core values, what we care about.
So why are we doing this?
Well, this is the kind of thing that is really good for churches to do periodically.
And so most churches that you are involved in are going to do this from time to time
just to kind of remember what we're all about.
But in particular, I think over the last few years,
our church has been through an extraordinary amount of change in a relatively short period of time.
And any time a church experiences a lot of change in a short period of time,
even if it's really good change, it can still be very destabilizing.
And it can create a lot of confusion.
You know, there are people who are a part of our community
and have been for years who may look around and feel like,
wow, this is a very different church.
I never thought we would be meeting in this neighborhood.
You know, we've had seven homes over the course of our life as a church.
And this is far away from where we started, which was in Columbia Heights.
So people might look around and say, wow, this feels very different.
There are other people who have only joined our church since we went online during COVID.
And maybe this is your first time worshiping with us in person ever,
even though you felt like a part of the church for a year or more.
So we've gone through a lot of change.
And anytime that happens, it's really important that we take some time to clarify,
again, who we are, what we care about, where we're going.
So that's what we're doing here.
And I'd love to get that first slide up if we can do that.
And because I'm going to use slides just to kind of clarify what we're talking about
to make sure that everybody understands it.
We're going to be asking those questions of who we are, what we care about,
and where we're going, Advent DNA.
So I want to put our mission up on just to let you know what our mission as a church is.
Our mission is essentially this.
We exist to do three things, to join people to God, to one another,
and to Christ's work of renewal in Washington, D.C. and through it, the world.
That's our mission.
Now, this may be new language for some of you, but this is our core DNA.
And while a lot of things have changed, this has not changed.
This is the reason that we started the church 14 years ago.
It's the reason that we're here this morning.
And it's the thing that is going to drive us forward into the future
is this commitment to join people to God, to one another,
and to Christ's work of renewal in this city and through this city, the rest of the world.
And so what we're going to do over the next three weeks is basically break down this statement
so that we understand what it means.
We're going to start this morning with the first part.
Our church exists to join people to God.
And to do that, we're going to look at Isaiah chapter 55.
We are here, first and foremost, as a church because we want to see everyone in the DMV
come to know and love the God who made them.
I mean, that's the main reason that we're here.
We want to see everybody in this area come to know and love the God who made them.
So if you're here and this is your first week, or you're here and you're not sure what you believe,
this is actually a great Sunday for you to be here.
I'm really glad that you're here on this particular Sunday.
So we're going to be asking the question this morning, how does someone come to know God?
What does that entail?
And as I said, we're looking at Isaiah 55 for the answer.
Isaiah was a prophet who lived in the 8th century BC.
And in this particular passage, he's writing about a time to come when God is going to make himself knowable.
God's going to make himself knowable.
This may be a headline that you missed last year.
That would make a lot of sense.
But a certain comet passed by the earth last year, close enough to see with the naked eye.
And so all of these astronomers were saying, everybody, everybody, go out.
Make sure you seek this comet.
Seek to see this comet while it's here.
Because once it's gone, this isn't going to happen again for another 7,000 years.
So make sure you go outside and look up and see the comet.
Isaiah is saying much, much, much more than that.
What Isaiah is saying is there's a time coming when the unfathomable, unknowable, infinite mystery behind all of existence is going to become knowable.
The infinite mystery behind all of reality is going to become knowable.
And not just in the sense that we might know a comet up in the sky.
Intimately knowable.
Knowable like you would know your parents or your spouse or your best friend.
Intimately knowable.
And this isn't just a kind of once every few thousand years kind of thing.
What Isaiah is saying is this is only going to happen once.
So he says when that time comes, everyone everywhere should seek the Lord while he may be found.
Seek the Lord and call upon his name while he is near.
So our question this morning is, how do we seek the Lord?
And that involves three things.
So let's pray and then we'll dive in.
Lord, we thank you for your word.
Lord, we thank you for all of us who are gathered here to receive your word.
And we know that there's one level at which we are speaking and we are acting and we are praying and we are singing.
But there is also the truth and the deeper reality that you are here and you are acting and you are speaking.
And it's your voice that we need to hear.
Lord, I pray that you would speak to us and tell us what we need to hear this morning in the power of the Holy Spirit in the name of Jesus Christ.
Amen.
So how do we seek the Lord?
What does Isaiah have to say about that?
Well, it begins first in verses 1 through 6 with recognizing God's call.
Recognizing God's call in your life.
Most people today think of spiritual seeking as the kind of thing that certain people do if you are that kind of person.
Right?
So if you're a spiritually inclined person, if you're a religiously inclined person, then maybe you would seek to know God or the ultimate reality or the universe or however you define it.
But the assumption there is that there are some people who are spiritual and then there are probably lots of other people, including, I mean, most of the people I would talk to over the course of my week, who would say that they're really not spiritual.
They're really not religious.
Right?
They're just not that kind of person.
What we need to see is that Isaiah paints a very different picture of human nature here.
Isaiah assumes that everyone is spiritually hungry.
Everyone is spiritually hungry, even if they don't know it.
And he says in verse 2, the voice of God says through Isaiah, why do you spend your money for that which is not bread and your labor for that which does not satisfy?
Now, what's he saying there?
Typically, I'm the one who cooks dinner in our house.
Typically, I try to start cooking dinner around 5 o'clock, 5.30 for our kids because I know what's going to happen.
And I've said this before.
And those of you who have kids, you know what I'm about to say.
It does not matter if I start cooking at 4.30 or 7.30.
About 20 minutes before dinner is going to be ready, our kids come into the kitchen starving, begging for junk food.
And we always have the same conversation.
I say, well, I'm making you this great dinner.
Just wait 20 minutes and it'll be ready.
And they say, no, we are hungry now.
And we don't want what you're making.
They want junk food.
Like they want snacks.
Right?
They want chips.
They want candy.
Right?
That's what they want.
And it happens.
I mean, it's like part of our family liturgy.
It happens every day.
And what's happening there is a couple of things.
Right?
Hunger, what they're feeling, is ultimately a good thing.
Because hunger is your body's way of saying, I need some more nutrients.
And so hunger is the message that says, you need to eat because I need nutrients.
So that's a good thing.
Now, what's the problem with junk food?
And this is what we try to explain to our kids every day.
The problem with junk food is, you eat junk food and it tricks your body into thinking
that you're full.
Right?
Your body says, okay, I think we got what we need.
Thank you very much.
But in fact, there's no nutrients in it.
All you got was sugar and fat.
And it temporarily satisfies your hunger, but it doesn't actually give you anything of value.
Right?
And so if all you eat is junk food, you're going to be profoundly unhealthy.
But this is the cycle that plays out.
And basically, Isaiah is saying the same thing when it comes to human beings and our spiritual
hunger.
He's saying that deep down, we are all spiritually hungry.
We have what C.S. Lewis called the inconsolable longing at the very center of our soul.
And what he would say is that that hunger is a good thing.
That longing is a good thing.
Right?
Just like your physical hunger is your body's way of saying we need nutrients, that inconsolable
longing is your soul's way of saying, I need God.
I'm hungry for God.
And this is our soul's way of crying out to the Lord, that inconsolable longing.
But what Isaiah is saying is basically many people do what my kids do before dinner.
Right?
They spend their lives trying to fill themselves up on things that may temporarily take away
the hunger, but will not actually satisfy them spiritually.
So when you ask people, are you spiritually hungry?
Do you feel a God-shaped void in your heart?
Most people will say, not really.
Because they're eating a lot of spiritual junk food.
Right?
So how do we do this?
Well, I think there's a lot of ways that we do this.
Some people deal with this inconsolable longing by trying to escape it or trying to numb themselves
so that they don't feel it.
I know he's in disrepute, but there's some great things that Louis C.K. has said over the
years.
And one of the things that he said is that he says, you know, this is, he thinks, why everyone
is constantly on their devices all the time?
You know, why do we spend so much time on Zillow?
Why do we spend so much time on TikTok or Instagram?
Why are we constantly texting, constantly distracting ourselves?
Well, he would say that we are distracting ourselves to escape the fact that, as he says,
underneath everything in your life, there's that thing.
That, what he calls the forever empty.
And he says that we run from it.
We run from it.
We try like crazy to get away from that.
Well, he's talking about the inconsolable longing.
It's like, this is why we're constantly distracting ourselves, just to get away from that forever
empty.
And he talks about one time when he felt that coming on, and instead of distracting himself,
he just pulls over to the side of the road and lets it come, that feeling.
And he says he just breaks down crying, just weeping.
The inconsolable longing, right?
Russell Brand has written very honestly about his struggle with drugs and alcohol, the actor
Russell Brand.
And here's what he says.
Drugs and alcohol are not my problem.
Reality is my problem.
Drugs and alcohol are my solution.
And then he says, I look to drugs and booze to fill up a hole in me.
Same thing.
He's talking about the inconsolable longing.
So I think there's a way of dealing with this inconsolable longing, this soul hunger,
through distraction and numbing and avoidance.
But I think that there are a lot of us, especially people in D.C. who have, shall we say, much
more sophisticated ways of dealing with the inconsolable longing, right?
For example, I think that one of the most effective ways that we try to satiate ourselves is through
achievement and working hard.
We live in a meritocracy here, right?
It is a full-on meritocracy.
And so, you know, we think that if we can achieve enough, succeed enough, then we will
sort of satisfy that longing.
We mistake that longing for mere ambition, right?
So we have a friend who's a filmmaker, and her ultimate goal was to get a film to Sundance.
And this is a lot of filmmakers, kind of their, you know, one of their main goals is, man,
if I could ever get a film to Sundance, that sort of will prove that I'm really, I've arrived
as a filmmaker.
And she finally did it.
She finally got a film into competition there, and she was so excited, and finally she was
going to experience something that she had dreamed about and worked toward for many,
many, many years.
And then what happens when she finally gets to Sundance?
She's finally there, right?
Thing that she's been striving for forever.
Well, she finds herself wandering around the film festival, sobbing.
Sobbing.
Because it wasn't what she hoped it would be.
That momentary thrill of success, and many of you know this, right?
The hardest thing is not striving for the goal that's still out there.
A lot of times, the hardest thing is actually reaching that goal.
You're finally sitting in the corner office.
You finally got the title.
You finally got the diploma.
And then you realize it's like a momentary sugar rush, right?
Eating some junk food.
And then that goes away, and then you're left with the same gnawing hunger that was there
before.
And everyone kept asking her at the film festival, what's your next project?
What's your next project?
What's that?
Get back on the hamster wheel and keep producing.
You haven't arrived.
You're nowhere close.
Right?
So you start out thinking, if I can just reach this level of success, then I will have arrived.
Then I will feel like I'm somebody.
Then I will feel successful.
Then that hunger will go away.
And then you reach it.
And you realize, man, that was never the thing that I was longing for.
And what you realize is it's never going to be enough.
You're never going to achieve enough.
You're never going to arrive.
That sense of a plateau up there is a myth.
It doesn't exist.
It's just a ladder into infinity.
Right?
And the same is true of anything that we try to use to satisfy ourselves spiritually.
If it's being the smartest person in the room, then you're always going to worry that you're
dumb and that other people are smarter.
You're going to be really threatened by other smart people.
If it's being beautiful and attractive, then you're always going to worry that you're ugly.
There's a wonderful quote from David Foster Wallace that sort of gets at this point.
If it's being a tolerant and inclusive person, if, you know, sort of proving and sort of,
you know, this is kind of really going to make my life meaningful, what that actually does
is it ends up making you more intolerant and exclusive.
If it's your marriage and your kids and you say, well, that's where I really get meaning
in life.
That's what really satisfies me.
That's why I get up in the morning.
What's going to happen is over time, you're going to put so much pressure on your marriage.
You're going to put so much pressure on your kids to be that for you that you're going
to crush them under the weight of your expectations.
They're never going to be enough for you.
You're going to suck them dry.
All right, so anything that we use is ultimately going to fall short.
So the implication of this first point is this.
If you don't feel any spiritual longing in your life right now, don't assume it's because
you are not a spiritual person.
Instead, do an inventory of your life.
How much time do you spend on your devices?
How much money are you spending and what are you spending it on?
What are your eating habits?
What are your drinking habits?
It's how do you think about your career or your romantic life, the person that you're
dating or hoping to date?
How do you think about your wife?
How do you think about your husband?
How do you think about your kids?
Think of all of it and then ask yourself, what needs am I trying to meet with these things?
What needs am I trying to meet with these things?
And then ask yourself the really important question, is it working?
How's it working out for you?
Chances are, what you will find is that under all of this, this is what Isaiah is trying
to show us.
Under all of those things that we try to fill our lives with, you will find, if you strip
it all away, go to a cabin for a month with no phone, no internet, no devices, no distractions
and just sit.
I think most of us probably couldn't last a day.
Some of us with young kids might be like, that's the most amazing thing, I would love to
do that, you know, I think it would be amazing for a day or two, but then you've got 28 more
days.
What are you going to do with all that time?
I think some of us would be terrified to do that.
What you will find is that that inconsolable longing will well up in you, that thing you've
been running from.
It will well up in you.
And what Isaiah is trying to say is this, behind the inconsolable longing, if you listen,
you will hear the voice of God calling to you.
That's the voice of God in your life.
And we see it like a drumbeat throughout this passage.
Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters.
Listen diligently to me and eat what is good.
Delight yourselves in rich food, not junk food, rich food.
Come to me and hear that your soul may live.
That's the voice of God.
The reason that we have longings in this world that cannot be satisfied here is because those
longings are meant to point us outside of this world to the God who made us.
And seeking the Lord begins by recognizing that God is calling to us through our unfulfilled
longings.
The unfulfilled longings in your life are the voice of God inviting you to seek the Lord.
That's the first point, recognizing the call of God in your life.
The second point is this, second thing that this requires, is surrendering to God's ways.
This is verses 7 to 9.
It says here,
Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts.
Let him return to the Lord that he may have compassion on him and to our God, for he will
abundantly pardon.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my
thoughts than your thoughts.
There is a time and a place to ask many, many questions, to explore the claims of Christianity,
to look at the evidence that is absolutely necessary and absolutely appropriate.
But at some point, Isaiah is saying there needs to be a shift.
There needs to be a shift where we stop calling God into question and we allow God to call us
into question.
Right?
There needs to be a turn where we start allowing God to question us, where we stop telling God
what we want from him and we start asking God what he wants from us, where we stop trying
to have God on our terms and we start relating to God on his terms.
And the point here is that, you know, what Isaiah is trying to say is that in order to
know God, at some point we have to be willing to surrender ourselves to God.
That's the only way that a God like this can be known.
And the problem is, I think that runs against all of our nature as human beings.
What I want, if I'm totally honest, what I would prefer is a God I can control.
I want a God that I can define.
I want a God who's going to do what I tell him to do without asking questions.
I want a gopher God.
I want a God who is exactly the kind of God I would prefer to have.
You know, Christian Smith, the sociologist, says that this is the kind of God most people
in the U.S. believe in, including most people who call themselves Christians.
Smith would say, actually, this is how they think of God.
They assume that God is this being who just wants us to be happy, just wants us to be fulfilled.
He's there if we need Him.
But otherwise, He pretty much lets us live however we want.
He's not too concerned with the day in, day out of our lives.
He says this is kind of the U.S. version of God.
And Scripture actually tells us that this is the reason our relationship with God was broken
in the first place.
Back in Genesis, it says that the first humans weren't content to allow God to be God on
His terms.
At some point, the first humans started saying, you know, we would really love to be able
to decide evil and good for ourselves.
And that's essentially a way of saying, we don't want to be subject to your terms, God.
We actually would like to start living and worshiping you on our terms in ways that we would prefer.
And that's the reason that our relationship with God was broken in the first place.
And human beings have essentially been trying to do that with God ever since.
And what you will find is there are a lot of people out there, there are a lot of Christians
who have never really experienced any intimacy with God.
You know, they have the right theology in their minds.
They know what they should believe.
They say the prayers.
They know the Bible.
They know, but they've never really experienced intimacy with God.
And I think that in some cases, that's because they've never really surrendered to God in their lives.
They know about God, but they don't know God because they've never surrendered to God.
And if you wonder, well, is that me?
Am I that person?
There are, I think, some ways that we can get clarity about our own hearts.
You know, if you want to know whether or not this applies to you, here's a question for you to consider.
Think about your own values and your own preferences and your own opinions and your stances,
especially when it comes to challenging issues like human identity or sexuality or money or power,
those things that everybody has strong feelings about.
Think about what you think about those issues and those things.
And then think about the way you imagine God to be.
And then ask yourself this.
Are there places in my faith where I feel tension?
Between my values, preferences, and ideas and what I believe about God?
Are there places where those are at odds, where I'm having to sort of choose God and God's way,
even if it runs against what I would prefer to think or believe or do?
Is there any tension like that in your life?
And if there is not any tension, if you've never felt any kind of disconnect between following God faithfully
and doing what you would prefer to do on your own, don't you think that's an odd coincidence?
In other words, don't you think it's an odd coincidence that the infinite mystery behind all reality
just happens to agree with you on all of the current cultural issues?
Don't you think that's odd?
And it's probably a sign that you're probably worshiping a God that you've made in your image
rather than the God who made you in His image.
And so one of the questions that we need to always ask ourselves as people who seek the Lord is,
am I seeking the God who made me in His image or am I trying to make God in my image?
Is there any tension?
So spiritual seeking, just to sort of pull all this together where we are so far,
is first, it's a response to God's call in our lives through the unfulfilled longings that we experience.
And at some point it requires that we surrender to God's ways,
that we allow God to begin questioning us,
that we allow God to begin defining us,
that we allow God to begin to call us and challenge us in our lives.
And then the question that arises when we begin to talk about surrender is,
well, why should we?
Right?
Why should we?
Why should we trust a God who says and does things that are so confusing?
Why should we trust and surrender to a God who says and does things that are at times blatantly offensive,
that run against the grain of our society?
Why should we surrender to a God like that?
And the answer is found in the third point, which is about God's word.
That the final thing that we need in order to seek the Lord is to embrace God's word.
Verses 10 and 11.
In verse 10 and 11, it's actually 10 through the end of the chapter, 10 through 13.
In 10 through 13, Isaiah makes this, or I'm sorry, in 10 and 11, Isaiah makes this beautiful metaphor
where he compares God's word to the rain that falls from heaven and waters the earth,
causing things to grow and causing life to flourish.
And he says here that God sends his word out into the world and that it accomplishes all of his purposes.
And on one level, this is talking about the word of God that was delivered through the prophets and the apostles
and later written down for our use.
It's referring to the scriptures.
God's word goes out through the prophets, through the apostles,
and it goes out like rain to water and nourish the earth.
But as we continue reading into verses, you know, 12 and 13,
we realize that this is saying much more than that.
Because if you read to the end of the chapter, it's saying that when God's word comes,
the whole world is going to rejoice.
It describes the very mountains breaking out singing.
It describes the trees clapping their hands with joy.
And the reason is because this word, when it goes out from God,
this word is going to heal all that is broken in the world.
It says instead of thorns, you're going to see cypress trees.
Instead of briars, myrtles will bloom.
Instead of sadness, you'll have celebration.
You know, I love the sound of music outside,
and I love to imagine the whole world just filled with the sound of celebration.
Right?
It's not just people playing instruments.
Creation itself is singing and celebrating,
and there's music coming up from the very ground.
Right?
This is an amazing image.
Right?
So this sort of global celebration, because the world is going to be healed,
instead of sickness and death, life is going to flourish eternally.
And you say, what in the world could this be talking about?
What is this word?
And, you know, for eight centuries or so,
it probably just seemed like really wonderful poetic license on the part of Isaiah.
And then eight centuries later, John wrote these words.
The Word, capital W, became flesh and dwelt among us.
That completely changes how we read Isaiah.
The Word goes out and accomplishes all of God's purposes.
John is saying, well, that Word has come out, and it became flesh.
And we have seen His glory.
Glory is of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
John 1.14.
And, of course, he's talking about the birth of Jesus Christ.
Isaiah says the time is going to come when the infinite God of the universe is going to become intimately knowable.
And when Jesus was born, John and many others recognized the time has come.
Now God has made Himself knowable.
Now the Word has gone out, but not like we thought.
The Word has actually come in the form of a human being.
This is the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy.
But, of course, a problem still remained.
There's a contradiction.
If you read Isaiah 55, there's a contradiction in this passage.
Verse 1, God says,
You can come to Me, and you can come without money and without price.
It's going to cost you nothing to come and drink this living water.
And yet, down in verse 7, it says that human beings are wicked and unrighteous because we rejected God.
And the implication of that language is that because of that, we have a debt that needs to be paid.
We're unrighteous.
We're wicked because we've turned away from the God who made us.
So how can both of these things be true?
How can God look at people and say,
Come to Me, it's going to cost you nothing.
This is free for you.
And then a few verses later say,
Actually, there's a major debt that is owed because of what you've done.
Jesus came not only to show us what God is like in terms of His heart and His character,
but He came to deal with that debt.
He came to pay it,
which cancels the record of sin against human beings,
which Jesus did ultimately by dying on the cross in our place.
And what we recognize is the Word has gone out and has accomplished God's purposes by dying on a cross
so that God could say to the world,
Come, all who are thirsty.
Come, drink.
Come, all who are hungry.
Eat rich food.
Come without money.
Come without price.
It's not going to cost you anything.
This is free for you.
Why?
Because it's already been paid for.
It's already been purchased.
Because my Word has accomplished my purposes in the world.
Right?
So if you hold all of this together,
this is why our church exists.
This is the reason.
Because we believe that now is the time that Isaiah foretold centuries ago.
Now is the time when the infinite mystery behind all of reality has made Himself intimately knowable
through the Word become flesh, Jesus Christ.
Now is the time.
It's only going to happen once.
So this is it.
So this is why we are committed to seeing everybody,
every man, woman, and child in the DMV come to know the God who made them.
And then ideally, through the work of churches like ours and many other churches in the city,
that the gospel will go out.
And through the work of the church throughout the world,
one day every man, woman, and child in existence from every tribe, tongue, and nation
will come to know that Jesus Christ is the Word become flesh
who came so that they might know their Creator.
This is why we're here.
It's the thing that animates us as a church.
And this is why, by the way, we have some of the values that we have.
If you look at our values,
and we can go to the next slide to see these values,
some of these values come directly out of this commitment
to see people come to know the Lord, to be joined to God.
We have a value, first and foremost, of gospel centrality at Church of the Advent.
That means that everything that we do,
our tone, our posture, our strategy,
is all rooted in the gospel.
The good news that Jesus has paid the price
so that we can come and eat and drink freely
so that the world can be healed.
Gospel centrality, it's the center of everything that we do.
We also are Anglicans,
not because we hold Anglicanism above Jesus.
Jesus is first and foremost.
But what we see in Anglican spirituality for us
is that it's an entire spiritual tradition
that seeks to immerse us in Scripture,
immerse us in God's Word.
The idea behind being Anglican is that we want to pray Scripture.
We want to speak Scripture together.
We want our days and weeks and months and years
structured by and saturated by Scripture.
And that we structure our time
and structure our months and seasons
along the lines of the liturgical calendar,
which is a ray of reminding ourselves again and again and again
of the good news of the gospel.
And then finally, compassionate orthodoxy.
That is to say, we believe in biblical truth.
We believe that it's essential.
We believe that truth is meant to be proclaimed in a certain way.
You know, songs have both words and melody.
And if you were to speak the words of a song without the melody,
it's not the song.
And in the same way, the gospel has words and melody.
The gospel has truth, but it also has love.
And when you speak the truth of the gospel in unloving ways,
you undercut the gospel.
And so we as a church always want to be people
who are committed to orthodoxy,
but we know that that gospel orthodoxy is meant to be proclaimed
with a tone of love and humility and compassion.
Why?
Because we didn't earn it.
The only reason that we're here and any of us belong to the Lord
is because of grace.
And so that shapes the tone with which we hold to our orthodoxy
and relate to people who disagree with us,
always with a tone of compassion.
So we believe that now is the time when God has made himself knowable
and that now is the time for people everywhere to seek the Lord
while he may be found.
This has always been and will always be a central part of the DNA of Church of the Advent.
Let's pray.
Lord, we thank you and recognize that this is ultimately something that you're doing in the world.
No strategy, no initiative that we might dream up can change a single human heart.
Lord, your Holy Spirit is changing hearts right and left.
Lord, we know that there are many people, maybe some here in this room, maybe some listening online,
maybe some at this big party that's happening in Tacoma Park outside right now
that hopefully many of us will get to go join in a little bit later today.
We know there are lots of people who don't even know they're hungry for you,
but who are nevertheless people who are created by you,
people whom you love, people whom you were willing to die for,
and people who simply need to recognize the God who made them
is already speaking to them through their longings.
And Lord, we pray that we would be people who are bold and loving and humble
and courageous in our willingness to speak the gospel.
Lord, trusting your Holy Spirit to do the work.
Of opening hearts.
We pray this, that we might glorify you,
and that this desire might one day be realized,
that every tribe, tongue, and nation,
people would recognize you as their Lord and King.
We pray this in the name of Jesus Christ.
Amen.