Ecclesia Princeton

Rhythms Of Grace- Epiclesis- Ian Graham

• Ian Graham

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Pastor Ian Graham looks at what is happening when we pray, “Come, Holy Spirit.”

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Standing In A Larger Tradition

SPEAKER_00

We've been in a series that that is unpacking our liturgy, uh, talking about why we do the things that we do on a Sunday morning at Ecclesia. And one of the things I've been trying to say consistently is hopefully we're not doing anything new, nothing innovative. And I sincerely mean that. That we are a part of a tradition, a great cloud of witnesses that has gone before us that we simply step alongside. Our church is about six years old. We didn't plant the gospel in Princeton, it far preceded us. There are churches down this street. You have Witherspoon Presbyterian Church, which was a historically black church that housed so much of the cultural imprint that Princeton still projects into the world. You had people that were initially enslaved peoples that were freed in the 19th century, that were meeting for worship, that are such a part of the fabric of this community. We meet mere doors from their church gathering. We honor and we step alongside them in the proclaiming of the gospel. Again, the gospel didn't show up when Ecclesia did, thanks be to God. And so we are participants in something. And what I'm trying to unpack is what are the things that we are participating in? Why do we do them? And how are they counter-programming us? Because the other thing that we're often unaware of is that our world is immersing us in liturgies. The philosopher James K. Smith calls these cultural liturgies. Think about like a time you went to a football game, you know, they unfurl the giant flag, or you uh you have the exercises before school starts, when you're in you know primary school, you say the Pledge of Allegiance. All of these have liturgical rhythms to us. And so what we're trying to do is explore those and also see how the rhythms, when we gather as a people, are programming us towards a different way and immersing ourselves in a different story. One of my favorite TV shows is a show about a broken family. It's a show called The Bear. Now, a little pastoral disclaimer: this show is not the chosen. Uh and the chosen is good. The chosen is good. Uh, but it's a lot of swearing. Um, and and frankly, like if you're from a broken family system, I would not recommend this show to you because you might be triggered the entire time. Uh, because they just yell at each other a lot. There's a lot of yelling in the show. Uh the swearing doesn't bother me. I pastor in New Jersey, uh, so that that that part is fine. But if that bothers you, please don't be like, hey, Pastor Ian said watch this, and you're like, oh my gosh, my ears have been assaulted within the first minute of the show. But the show focuses on a restaurant as kind of the central setting and the family that has been the proprietors of this restaurant for a generation. A son who was gone off to train and to uh create his culinary journey and adventure has now come home to to caretake the family restaurant. And that's a great start to any story. The the long-lost son has come home, and now he's trying to put the pieces back together as he finds them. And so this is the premise for the bear, and this chef, Carmi, is the main character, and he is trying to turn this sort of fledgling family mom and pop store into a Michelin-starred experience. And there's a sort of a central symbol in the story of the bear as they build this mom and pop store into a five-star restaurant. They build this swinging door in between the kitchen and the dining room. And in the dining room, everything is is nice. It's serene. You can hear the glasses clinking, maybe a little smooth jazz. The waiters are talking to the tables, people are conversing, it's all very serene. You go through the swinging door, and that's where all the chaos lies. And this is where all of the broken family system is just being completely expressed as the chefs are yelling at each other. There are fires, both literal and metaphorical, breaking out everywhere. And it's complete chaos. And we see the juxtaposition, and what the bear is illustrating is that often the chaos from the back, that even though it's hidden, usually makes its way into the front of the house. And if you've ever worked at a restaurant, you know this is true. Like, back of the house, you're trying to put on a good face and act like everything's fine. You walk out there and you're like, oh my gosh, everything's going crazy. And you go to the table, hi, how are you? And that's kind of what's going on. But one of the things I love about the show, I don't love, I don't love immersing myself in broken family system dynamics. I'm not, you know, watching that and be like, oh, this is great. But there are moments where the brokenness is healed, where it's mended, and you can see glimpses of redemption, and that's what I'm there for. And they they develop this philosophy where they're trying to overwhelm people with hospitality. They're trying to create these wow moments. And one of the things they do is they try to just listen to the guests, see what they are saying, and offer these things they call surprises. And these surprises are awesome. Like in one episode of the show, and this is really where they learn it, the the central figure who's kind of the heartbeat of the show is a cousin named Richie. And he is an agent of chaos, but also has this like bleeding heart. And this person is talking at the table, and she goes, I can't believe I came to Chicago and never got to eat Chicago deep dish. And he has a thought, and he literally runs down the streets of Chicago to a local pizza establishment called Pequads, which is a real place, and he gets a pizza, they take it into the back of the kitchen, the chefs like chef it up, they put micro basil on it, and they bring it out in this Michelin-starred restaurant, a piece of Chicago deep dish pizza. And you see this moment, it's like amazing. In another episode of the show, there's kind of a similar line of conversation. There's a woman at the table said, I can't believe I came to Chicago in the winter and never saw any snow. Again, Richie. He goes and gets some dry ice and all sorts of machinery and you know, the magic of Hollywood. They create a snowstorm in the parking lot. And as the guests are leaving, the restaurant staff says, Hey, come out to the side lot with us. And they walk out to this winter wonderland that has been manufactured. And it's even in that moment the chefs who have been at war with each other kind of walk out the back kitchen door and they're kind of in awe. They're like, wow, look at what we've made, look at what we've done, this little moment of extravagance, of exhilaration that we have provided to these people. And I say all that to say, I think a lot of us probably feel like our lives are like the bear, like the swinging door that is the world that we exhibit, you know, the facade. How are you doing? Great, thank you. But if you could just peel back the door, you'd be like, wow, it's it's chaos. There's a lot, strained relationships, there's a lot of heaviness there. But I often experience it when we're here, gathered as a people. And I think, I think the congregation, which is what we are a part of right now, I think this is such a powerful sign and moment of the kind of transformation that Jesus is enacting among us. When I look at what I am looking at right now, and if I could just transpose my vision and give it to you, I see a glimpse of heaven. It's an incredible thing. And I also see that for this moment, oftentimes there is a slice where everything is in its right place. And I experience this as I stand before you, and I think I see it in your faces, in your responses to God, that you experience just some sense of deliverance, of serenity, of peace, of shalom. And we've been in a series unpacking our liturgy, reverse engineering the things we do when we gather. We started at the end of our service with the benediction, the blessing that we send you out with each week. Last week we talked about the table that we come to as an expression of what Jesus has done and the new humanity that He is creating us into. And this week I want to focus on the prayer that we pray at the end of each sermon time. This is the sermon time. We'll talk about that next week. But at the conclusion of each opening of the word, we pray a prayer that's very simple. We pray, Come, Holy Spirit. In each week, we pray the words, Come, Holy Spirit. These words are no empty incantation. It's not that God's like, oh, they need me now. It's not that he hasn't been present the whole time. But they are an acknowledgement of reality, reality in its truest form, and they're condensing the experience that we've had. Throughout this sermon that I'm going to give, you will have moments where you're like, wow, that's really beautiful. That's really cool. I haven't thought about that before. You also have moments where you're like, what am I gonna have for lunch? What is this guy gonna be done talking? He's still talking. All of the meandering, all of the boredom, all of the glory, all consolidated by the presence of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit gathers the fragments of our lives into something coherent. And he does that. A church service is just life in a microcosm. And today we want to look at what is happening when we pray these words, come Holy Spirit. In the Eastern Orthodox and the Catholic Church, this brief prayer is called the epiclesis and is a prayer of sanctification that turns the elements of the table, the bread and the wine, into the literal body and blood of Jesus Christ. Now, those of you who are seminarians, you can do your own research on transubstantiation in your own time. But essentially, several communions believe that when they take the bread and the wine, they are, through the power of the Spirit, eating the very body and blood of Jesus. Some Protestant communions, Anglo-Catholic and Lutheran, believe in a real presence of Christ, which is a slightly downgraded, modified version of that. But most Protestants, of which we are a Protestant church, that's a very broad umbrella, hold to a symbolic or a memorialist view of the elements, and the Spirit heightens the awareness and the immersion and the participation in the mystery of the table without the need to see it as they physically transformed into the body and blood of Christ. Now, again, research transubstantiation on your own time. Let's have a conversation about it. But when we gather, we are gathering around rhythms of word, spirit, worship, and table. And they all harmonize together when we pray, Come Holy Spirit. The preaching of the gospel, what we're endeavoring to do now, is effective not due to the eloquence of the speaker. It's not about our ability to say things about Jesus well. It's effective because of the faithfulness of Jesus. Because the gospel, as Paul says, is the power of God for salvation, first to the Jew and then to the Gentile. It is what, as Paul goes on in Romans 1, verse 17, where in it the righteousness of God is revealed through the faithfulness of Jesus for our faithfulness. And we are called to live by faith. So when we pray for the Holy Spirit to come, we pray that the gospel would be proclaimed, that it would be something that would be tangible and real and invitational. And we respond by praying, Holy Spirit come with worship, devotion, and repentance. When we come to the table, so all of this, again, sermon, Holy Spirit come, and then we come to the table. We are participating in a feast that is a preview of what will be forevermore. If you read the end of the story, what you find is not the closure of a chapter, but the marriage supper of the Lamb, where we will gather as death has been trampled upon once and for all, we will gather as one people from every tongue, every tribe, every nation. We talked about this last week. But in that glorious setting, our stories, our ethnicities, our cultures will not be diminished. They will be transfigured. The kings of the earth bring their treasures into the new Jerusalem as an expression of worship. This means that the cultures of which we are a part, of which we were born into, are part of the building blocks of God's kingdom that will be forevermore. This is a beautiful, beautiful thing. And we get pictures of this throughout the scriptures. I want to read just a glimpse from Isaiah as the prophet Isaiah poetically sees the kind of feast that you have been invited to and beckoned to take part of. On this mountain in Isaiah 25, the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a rip feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow of well-aged wine strained clear. Sounds pretty good, right? Sounds like a little Michelin star right now. And it's all in the context that he will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the covering that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever. What kind of feast would we have if we knew that death no longer nipped at our heels? Then the Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces. Again, such a tender image. The disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken. It will be said on that day, see, this is our God. We have waited for him so that he might save us. This is the Lord for whom we have waited. Let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation, for the hand of the Lord will rest on this mountain. When we eat at this table, after praying, calm Holy Spirit, we participate in a preview of that kind of feast. What I want to look at today is a couple of things that the Spirit is doing among us when we pray that simple yet so powerful prayer. The first thing the Spirit is doing is it's confirming that the words of the gospel are true. The Gospel is the story of what Jesus has done for us. Paul and his great chapter on the Spirit of God in Romans 8 will be our landing point today. So if you have a Bible, you can just turn to Romans 8. We're going to, at some level, cover the whole thing, now in large sections, so don't worry. If you'd like to hear a further exposition of Romans 8, we did a series on Romans over the course of the past two summers. I believe this section on Romans 8 was uh last summer, so 2024. You can go back and find that on the uh the illustrious podcast. But what I want to do is just look at a few things that are going on when we pray, come, Holy Spirit. Paul writes this Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. How much condemnation is there for those who are in Christ Jesus?

unknown

None.

Gathering As Glimpse Of Heaven

Why We Pray Come Holy Spirit

Word, Table, And Epiclesis

The Gospel’s Power Beyond Eloquence

The Wedding Feast To Come

Romans 8: No Condemnation

Adoption And Heirship In Christ

SPEAKER_00

None. None. How much condemnation do we hold on to? Probably a little. There's none. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and to deal with sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. The gospel that is proclaimed is a free invitation because of the grace of Jesus to turn from our sins and to see that Christ has rescued us, He has ransomed us, He has welcomed us home as his daughters and sons. Paul will go on in Romans 8. He'll say it this way: For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, Abba Father, it is that very spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God. When we pray, Come, Holy Spirit, it is the Holy Spirit of God bearing witness with our spirit that we have been invited into the very intimate and very special confines of Jesus' own relationship with the Father. Jesus prays to God, Abba, Father. And he shares that very special relationship with us by his work, his body, his blood given for us. And if we are children, it's not just that you're given a seat at the table, hey, we've got some stuff for you to provide for you. No. You're given a seat of honor. If children, then Paul goes on in verse 17, then you are heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. I don't know what your inheritance looks like on this side of heaven. But I can tell you very clearly what it looks like in eternity. You are a co-heir with the king of the universe. That's a pretty good place to be. If in fact, and this is not some small print that comes in at the end, if we suffer with him, so that we may also be glorified with him. The presence of the Spirit among us confirms that the Lord is alive, that he's present among us, that he loves you. The Holy Spirit points us to the work of Jesus on behalf of the world and on behalf of us. And I love this part of our service. When we pray, come Holy Spirit, it's a part that we cannot account for. Like I can I can account for the words I'm gonna say to you. Sometimes I say things I wish I wouldn't have said. I see them escape my mouth, I'm like, ooh, there it goes. Be waking up thinking about that one tomorrow. But for the most part, we try to be careful with the words that we say, we try to be careful with the things that we do, the words that we sing. But when we pray calm Holy Spirit, we are immersing ourselves in something that we cannot control. And that's a good thing, especially in a place like Princeton, where we say there is a reality that we cannot account for, but there is a reality that we can bear witness to the presence of the resurrected Lord, the power of the Holy Spirit, expressing the love of the Father. We pray, come Holy Spirit, he confirms that these things that we've said are true. And scripture invites us to immerse ourselves in an alternative story that is the true story of the world. And we'll talk about this next week when we talk about what a sermon is doing. But sometimes, if we're honest, we hear the promises that are given in the scriptures, you hear that there is no condemnation for those of you who are in Christ Jesus, and you're like, yeah, there still seems like a little condemnation. I want to be honest. But the Holy Spirit is confirming and is helping us inhabit that world that may seem so far off, may even seem imaginary to some extent. And it's saying that those words that were spoken, those promises that are yes and amen in Christ Jesus are not just true of the world at large, they are true of you. And the Holy Spirit is confirming that in us and among us. If you are in Christ Jesus, you are children, you are heirs. There is no condemnation. This is the truth of what Jesus has won. The Spirit confirms that. The Spirit also confronts that which is dehumanizing, which is toxic, which is diminishing within us. Paul writes in Romans 8, verse 5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh. But those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. To set the mind on the flesh is death. But to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace. For this reason, the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law. Indeed, it cannot. And those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh. Now, I want to stop here just for a second, because it's a longer section of scripture and you need a break. But also, when Paul talks about flesh, he's not talking about that which is material, right? We kind of hear that, we're like, oh, is that which is embodied, is that bad? It's not what Paul's talking about. Do you want to know how Jesus feels about the material, the embodied? Well, he became material, embodied, incarnate. He took on flesh. So Paul's not saying, hey, your skin and bones are somehow bad. When Paul is talking about flesh, this Greek word sarx, more often than not, he's talking about our faculties, our heart, our soul, our mind, and our strength, enslaved to the power of sin. That is what our flesh is. If you want to use a almost more vibrant picture, Paul will conceive of sin as the realm of Egypt, where the people of Israel were enslaved. And he's saying, this is what sin is. It's not just that you somehow mess up sometimes or you don't follow some arbitrary rule. Sin is a power that holds you in its clutches. You need liberation, you need ransom. And Jesus has given you liberation, invitation to be freed, to be removed from the realm of enslavement to sin and death, and to be transferred into his kingdom of light, as he says in Colossians chapter 1. And so the flesh is not that which is embodied, it is our defaults in the clutches of sin and death. Alright, let's go on. But if Christ is in you, then the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness. If the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his spirit that dwells in you. So then, brothers and sisters, we are obligated not to the flesh to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. The preaching of the gospel and the free invitation of Jesus create a crisis. We see the goodness of Jesus, we see his great love for us, and we are drawn to that light, but almost in the same breath, we are immediately made aware of that which is dark within us. We are aware of our sinfulness. Again, what Paul refers to as the flesh. The Spirit confronts the darkness within us as it confirms that the promises of the gospel are true for us. I think so often we stand here in the place of this confrontation and we sort of make promises. Have you ever done this? Like, God, I'm never gonna do that again. Never again. And then tomorrow happens and you fall into it again. And I think oftentimes that erodes our confidence in both God's power to save us and our response to Him. And uh, you know, if this plays out over a while, it just becomes kind of a cynicism or a listlessness with God. But when Jesus reveals our sinfulness, Ecclesia, He's not asking you to make promises. He's not asking you to stand here in this place and say, God, I'll never fall into that again. When he reveals our sinfulness, it is at once an illumination of that which is broken within us and an invitation to come home. And when we are made aware of our sin through guilt, through the guilt of our conscience, through not living up to the kingdom ideals that we have received from Jesus, it is, yes, a moment where we have to repent and say, God, I am sorry. But that repentance is always the doorway back to God's grace. He's not saying, hey, I've shown you your sin, now take a couple laps and come back and see me. Take some days, you know, and then we can be in touch again, you know, and we'll figure it out from there. That's not what he's saying to you. And I think so often we impose this arbitrary penance upon ourselves, and we say, Oh, I messed up again, darn it. I gotta, you know, kind of stay over here, and then you know, eventually I'll saunter back to God and say, God, I'm sorry. That's not what he wants from you. The moment you are aware of your sin is the invitation to cross the threshold of his grace yet again. To be in Christ doesn't mean you're always gonna do everything right. It means he's always with you. And he confronts that which is dehumanizing within us because it robs us of life. He loves us too much. He is holy, and he has called us to be holy as he is holy. Not so he can compress us into this small, minute mold, but so that we can be who we were intended to be, the sons and the daughters of God. The Spirit confronts that which is broken within us. When we pray, come Holy Spirit, the Spirit confirms the promises of God, it confronts that which is broken within us, but it also contends on behalf of the world. And we, in a reciprocal, harmonizing way contend with God. Just yesterday I was reading about the flashes of systemic violence in the Darfur region of Sudan. Again, the plight of Nigerian Christians has been raised to a national talking point with everyone in the country, from the president of the United States, Republicans in Congress, to Bill Maher and Nicki Minaj, all pointing to the ongoing plight of Nigerian Christians, especially in the northern regions of the country. We've been praying alongside dear people who've been praying for their countrymen and women in Jamaica who just endured a terrible, tragic hurricane. I don't know about you, but when I read the news, I just often feel this residual, resounding heaviness. NT Wright says of the Spirit of God, that if the Spirit of God has filled the world, then most of what the Spirit is doing right now is grieving. The come Holy Spirit, when we pray that, is us taking up the mantle of our vocational call to be caretakers of God's world, not in the obvious ways of cultivation, but in the trusting way of prayer. We entrust the world again to God. We deny ourselves the illusion that we have all the agency and all the power. One of the difficulties with the internet age of which we live is that we are often so aware of so many things that are going on, but we have so little agency. But in that same breath, the agency that we do have is in ear with the one who made and sustains the universe, who in him all things live and move and have their being. We have been invited to join the Spirit's groaning on behalf of the world that is broken, but is being surely made new. And when we pray, come Holy Spirit, it's not just about what God is doing in us individually, it is joining with the Spirit's groaning on behalf of the world. Listen to what Paul says in Romans 8, beginning of verse 18. Again, longer section of scripture, you've been prepared. I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but by the will of the one who subjected it in hope. That the creation itself will be set free from its enslavement to decay, and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. Are you hearing the remnants of the story here? It's not just that there's brokenness in us, there is ambient brokenness around us. The Bible conceives of this as the curse that we see in Genesis 3. Creation itself is corroded, is decaying. We know that the whole creation has been groaning, verse 22, together as it suffers together the pains of labor. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, grown inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope, for who hopes for what one already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know how to pray as we ought. But that very spirit intercedes with groanings too deep for words, and God who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. We pray, come Holy Spirit, we entrust not only ourselves to God, but the world itself, to his careful hands. We ask, we contend for that which the world needs. And we also, in a residual way, ask God for what we need. Now, if you have ever been around a child, you know that children don't always ask for the right things. My kids have probably had five donuts today. Not all of them have been permissive by me, but unbeknownst to my site. That's probably the number they're working with right now. And they'll ask for more. And that's not good for them, I assure you. Half a dozen, not what you want to start with. But they'll ask because I'm their dad. They'll ask because it brings them joy. And I'll say no because I'm supposed to do that, right? Even though it'd be easier for me to just say yes in the moment. So often we miss Jesus' very clarion call to contend with what we know. You've been asked to ask. Jesus says, ask me for whatever you want. John 15, you can read it, is there? He says, you don't have because you don't ask. I mean, that is a very, very sobering call. And I'm urging us as Ecclesiah to be the kind of children who trust our Father enough to ask, even if we're asking for the wrong things, and to trust that He will sand and shape our desires to fit the designs that He has. He will. Transform us from glory to glory day by day. But it starts with an actual real relationship, which, if you've ever been around a young child, usually starts with them asking you for things ad nauseum. And you are shaping their desires by saying, No, that's not good for you. And you're also delighting when you get to say, Yes, that's let's go, let's do this. We contend with the spirit. Catholic philosopher, theologian Hans Erzmann Balthasar, one of my favorites, but his name's always funny to say. He says, Our part is the open, unconstrained, and childlike approach to the Father, neither ashamed nor fearing shame. We come to him with heads held high, as those who have an innate right to be there and to speak. You just imagine that image? You just walk into God's presence like you're supposed to be there. How dare you! Well, Jesus said you could. We may look into the Father's face without fear, his face shining upon you. We do not have to approach him as if he were an aloof monarch with downcast eyes and obsequious gestures. Within the confines of strict ceremonial and a prescribed form of address, the door stands open. And wherever the child of God may be, there too is that open door. The spirit contends. It contends on our behalf, it contends on behalf of this world that is crying out with groans too deep for words. Lastly, the spirit confirms, it confronts, it contends, it comforts us. Jesus in John's Gospel refers to the spirit as the paraclete. This can have the connotation of an advocate, and I love that image of the spirit not only contending alongside of us, but contending within us, advocating for truth in a world of lies, advocating for reality in a world of illusion. But this word paraclete in the Greek can also have the connotation of comforter. I often have the best seat in the house as I stand right here in front of you all, especially towards the end of our service, as I we speak, we receive from the table, we pray, come Holy Spirit, we sing the words of the doxology, we pray a blessing. And the way God's spirit usually moves at Ecclesia, as I've observed over the years, is subtle. If you're familiar with sort of revivalist ideas, usually when the spirit shows up, people start turning over tables and waving flags, and maybe some of you are from traditions like that. We're really glad you're here. But we in allowing the spirit to do what the spirit wants to do here, what I've often observed is that the spirit's response amongst his people here is very gentle. Usually there are tears. And again, it's not that it was some powerful emotive moment brought by the eloquence of the speaker. It's just like God's, he loves his people. And he's here and he's moving. And I get to see God move. We saw this at the Asbury Revival. I had several friends that were able to go to Asbury University when the Spirit was moving in a profound way there. And you know what they said was there was this overwhelming peace. And often a peace that would work time. Like they thought they were in this room where the revival was happening for 30 minutes and it was like six hours, that kind of thing. But it was a peace they never wanted to leave. We get glimpses of that here, of what the spirit is doing among us. And what I know is I stand before you as I am honored to carry so many of your stories. I know those of you who I know well, I know there are many of you I'm looking at that I don't know well. And I hope to have that honor at some point. But what I know is when I look at your faces, I know that behind those faces, beautiful faces, are heavy burdens. We carry so much, we carry regret, we carry loss, we carry longing. And when we pray, come, Holy Spirit, we pray, come, comforter. And we, in return, offer all that which is broken in our lives within us and around us to the God who has mended the world. And he weaves them into a warmth, a comfort, stitched together by the wounds in his hands and his feet. He is proclaiming to us that he will never leave us or forsake us, that we are his, that nothing in this world could ever separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Paul spells this out at the end of Romans 8. I'm going to invite the worship team forward as we read this. Paul writes, as he reflects on the reality of the Holy Spirit among us, he says, We know that all things work together for the good of those who love him, who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of the Son. If you're like me, you're gonna get really hung up on foreknew and predestined. We talked about it summer 2024, you go find that. And because I told you not to think about it, now you're gonna think about it even more, but that's fine. You're being conformed to the image of Christ. Focus on that. And those whom he predestined, he also called. And those whom he called, he also justified, those whom he justified, he also glorified. What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who could ever be against us? He who did not withhold his own son but gave him up for all of us, how will he not with him also give us everything else? Who will bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn him? It is Christ who died, or rather who was raised, who is also at the right hand of the God the Father, who also intercedes for us. The voice of the accuser, the voice of the condemnation that is so prevalent in our world has its origins in the demonic, is the voice of Satan. And Paul says that all of that will be silenced in the presence of Jesus who has overcome the world. That not only is the Spirit of God interceding on our behalf with groans too deep for words, also the King of the universe who sits at the right hand of the Father is interceding for you. Which is a fancy way of saying, that one's mine. I love him, I love her, I am for her, I am for him. That's what Jesus is up to. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword or anything else you will encounter in this life? No. In all of these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels, or rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all of creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God and Christ Jesus. It doesn't change every one of our circumstances. It doesn't. But the presence of the Holy Spirit, expressing the love of Christ that is sure and certain because of what Jesus has done, because he loves you, in the midst of broken circumstances, declares to us that he will make all things work together for your good. That he's not taken his eye off of you for one moment. He has numbered every hair on your head, not a strand of your life falls to the ground without his witnessing. He is here for you. And the Spirit of God, when we pray these words, come, Holy Spirit. We weave all of these truths and more into what God is doing here in our midst. And it's a miracle. It's a miracle that God is weaving us into one people from all the disparate places we come from. It's a miracle that God can take the broken fragments of our lives with our broken stories, with our shameful past, and turn them into a testimony of his goodness and his glory. It's a miracle. And it's one that we inhabit. Come, Holy Spirit. Would you fall upon your people, Jesus? Would you proclaim and confirm the truth of your gospel, Lord? Lord, to those who have never, never said yes to you, God, would there be a yes today? Not because we need to urge people towards that decision, God, but because that is the most important decision that we will ever make. You're confirming your words in this room. Lord, may we not stand far off, but come into the party, Lord. Lord, in the same breath, you are confronting brokenness within us. God, you never excuse away sin, but you forgive it. You draw near to it, you take it upon your shoulders. So, God, even those who have been struggling with addiction, with habitual sins for years upon years, who've settled in their desolate lot, Lord, would you show them that you are there in the ruins, Jesus. God, with them. Lord, with them when they thrive and when they fly, with them when they fall, Lord Jesus. May we not believe the lie that our sins can somehow remove us from your presence, Lord, unless we walk away with them, holding on to them, Lord. But when we give them to you, God, we find freedom, God. We find your face has never once wavered from our gaze, Lord Jesus. Would you confirm that in us? God, would you contend on behalf of the world that you love, Jesus? There is so much brokenness that we cannot bear it. God, both here represented in our stories and also in the wider world, or would you groan with groans too deep for words? And would you comfort dear souls, Lord Jesus, who just need you? God, need the touch of the healer, the comforter, the great physician, Lord Jesus. The Son of Man came to seek and save that which is lost, to mend this world that he loves. Come, Holy Spirit. Would you tell us the truth here in this place? We pray these things in your name. In the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit, we pray. Amen. Echosia, we're gonna have an opportunity to respond to God's presence here among us. And this is the part where you get to allow God to minister to you. And again, it's the part we can't account for. There may be some of you who have deep response to what God is doing in your midst. There may be others of you who are like, yeah, I'd really like to feel that. Again, if I could conjure up some experience for you, I don't know if that would be good. But what I can say is that Jesus is alive, he is present in this room by the power of his spirit, and we acknowledge his presence by praying, Come, Holy Spirit. So let us stand and respond and worship to the presence of God here in our midst. Allow him to minister to you in a posture of worship, and in a moment we'll come to the table.