SUNDAY MORNING WORSHIP

Sagamore Hill Baptist Church

February 26, 2006

Rev. Billy Taylor

PREPARING FOR A NEW WORK OF GOD, Part 1

Joshua 3:1-6

Introduction

We have been talking about God doing something new, God doing a new work here at Sagamore Hill Baptist Church. If we are praying that God does a new work in our church, then we need to begin making preparations for this new thing God is about to do.

Did you know that God is always doing something new? When God spoke to Moses at the burning bush, Moses asked: "What are You?" "Who can I tell the people sent me?" God said; "Tell them I am sent you."

God is still the great "I AM". When you’re I AM, you’re always in the present. He didn’t say, “I WAS.” So many Christians today and so many churches today are living in the I WAS – the GOD WAS. Look back through the Bible, and you’ll find all the things that God was and God did. But what is God doing NOW?

Is God really doing something now? Does God want to do something now? Our God is an infinitely creative God. He always is doing something new. If we look at creation, we see an infinite creative God.

God could have made a cow, a horse and a dog – and stopped there. But he made the elephant and the lion and the alligator and hippopotamus and a million other animals. He is the infinitely creative God.

I spent a couple of years ministering at a church in West Texas. West Texas is full of rolling plaines. You can look out arcoss the plain and see, well nothing. No trees, no mountains, no nothing. I heard once that if you live in West Texas, you can send your son off to school a hundred miles away, and watch him the entirie time. But even in the midst of this vast nothingness, God was incredibly creative. If you take a closer look at those open plains, you see literally thousands of different types of plants. From wild grasses, to wild flowers, to cactus. Even in West Texas, God was infinately creative. The infinately creative God, expresses Himslef in a creation. God did not wind up this world like a toy top, spin it off and then just watch it slow down. He is not the God of I WAS; He is the God of I AM. Our God is always doing something new.

God is also doing a new work in us. The infinately creative God, expressing Himself. Just look at yourself. Do you realize there are over 6,000,000,000 people in this world? 6 BILLION people! And do you know there is no one like you?

God could have just made one fingerprint and put it on all of us. What purpose in the world does a fingerprint do, and why would he have to have 12 billion different fingerprints? In fact, has there ever been a fingerprint just like yours? Infinitely creative God.

You are special because God has made you individually. The Psalmist said, “Before I ever was born, You saw me in the womb.” You see, God created each one of us to accomplish His individual purpose.

I want to remind you this morning God made YOU. You are not a DNA accident. You are not the outcome of 2 chromosomes. You are designed specifically the way God wanted you to be made.

Listen – if all of us are different and God is always doing something new, God uses each one of us to do something different. Does that make sense? See, if I do something and Brother Don does something, they’re totally different, aren’t they? In fact, if you were to give Brother Don and me the same passage, and we’re supposed to preach from it, would it be the exact same sermon? No! His would be much better than mine! It would be different.

If you and I were to go and to do any specific task, we would do it different. Is that bad? No! It’s the way God intended it.

I had a good friend – and he still is a good friend! – who is in East Texas and a preacher. When he preaches, he rolls his Rs. That’s the only time he rolls his Rs, is when he’s preaching…because he learned to copy another preacher who happened to have an accent and rolled his Rs.

God doesn’t want you to be copying anyone else. When I was in Russia a few years ago, the translator that I had – a young man about 21 years old, very articulate, but with an extremely strong British accent. I asked him, “Where did you study?” I assumed that I studied abroad.

He said, “No, I never left the country.”

“Where did this strong British accent come from?”

He said, “I learned English from a British professor who had a very strong British accent.” And so he picked up that accent. So here was a Russian with a British accent speaking English!

Listen, God made you to do a special work, and He hasn’t stopped. God wants to do a work through you until the day you die.

Now here’s the really scary news to some of you who might think you’ve retired. When God is done doing what He wants to do in you and through you, He’s going to take you home. SO – if you begin confessing, “I’ve done everything I need to do,” guess where next step is? Some of you just had a brand new revelation of all that God wants you to do!

You see, I know that God has lots of things for me to do. And He has lots of things for you to do. And we need to be listening and open because our God is the God of NOW. He wants to do things in us and through us every day.

And He wants to do a new work in this church. Do you believe that? He wants to do a new work in Fort Worth. He wants to do a new work in the United States. If we ever needed a fresh move of God, it is now. We need His presence; we need His move.

Listen, I believe that God wants to do that. I don’t think that God looks down and says, “Well, I wish – I’d LIKE to do a revival, but I don’t know. Maybe next time.” He’s not tired. He doesn’t have a scale that says, “I’ll bring a revival every 50 years or 100 years.” He’s waiting on one group of people. Guess who it is? It’s us.

God is not going to hold back His power or His presence. His desire is that it flow through us continually. And God has done a new work throughout history. You look through the Old Testament – there are always new works. You look at Jesus, His ministry. Did He every heal anybody the same way? There’s no pattern. He spit in the mud one time to heal a guy! That doesn’t seem like the appropriate way. I’m thinking that if you were in the hospital, and your doctor came in with a handful of dirt and went, “(fppst), OK. We’re ready for our…”

You’d say, “Wait a minute!” But see, He didn’t do that every time. Sometimes He said, “Take up your bed and walk.” Jesus was infinitely creative in all that He did because there’s not a pattern, there’s not 5 Laws To Knowing God. It’s a relationship. It’s allowing His presence to be free.

But when we begin to allow God to do a new thing in our lives, there will be opposition to it. You look at every major revival that’s gone on, there was opposition to what God wanted to do. Reese Howell was a man who was very influential in the Welch revival but was opposed. Charles Finney, one of the great US evangelists and very involved in the Great Awakening here in the United States – there were preachers who came to the edge of the town to say, “Finney, you can’t come into our town.” They opposed what God was wanting to do.

And listen, there will always be opposition. And do you know what? Do you know where most of the opposition comes from for God’s new work? Take a guess. From those whom God had DONE a good work in.

The greatest danger we could have is to look back and say, “God, You did such a great thing back then,” and live back there. Because when the new thing comes, we’ll miss it.

Who was David’s greatest opposition? Who was King David’s greatest opposition? Saul. And who was Saul? He was God’s FORMER anointed. See, God wants to do a new thing. And we need to be careful that we always have our ears open to the new thing that God wants to do, so that we don’t miss it.

Dave Watson said, “Christian work is continually crippled by clinging to the blessings and traditions of the past. God is not the God of yesterday; He is the God of today.” Listen to this, “Heaven forbid that we should go on playing religious games in one corner when the fire and cloud of God’s presence has moved on to another.”

We began the service this morning with that song, “A new anointing.” I want a new anointing in my life. I don’t want yesterday’s. How long did the manna last the people of God? Just a day. God had to do a new thing every day for how many years? 40 years that they wandered in the desert. Every day a new thing.

What if they’d held on to the old manna? Nothing worse than old manna! I’m not even sure what it tasted like, but I’m thinking old manna wouldn’t be very good. It’s stale; it was rotten. You had to have today. And it’s a picture of God’s new work in our life and in our ministries and in our churches every day.

Take your Bibles and turn to Joshua, chapter 3. We’ve spent quit a few years talking about Joshua in the last few months. Let me just tell you the secret. Here’s my secret. Listen up real carefully. Here’s what I’m trying to do. I want us to get so thirsty for the presence and the power of God, that we would do ANYTHING for that to happen.

That’s the secret. That’s why we keep talking about it. We’re going to keep talking about it until we get thirsty enough about it. That’s why.

Now that I’ve told you my secret, you’ll know where we’re going. I want us to be so – see, if you get thirsty enough, what will you do? You’ll do anything. If you get thirsty enough, you’ll trade anything, you’ll do anything just to get a drink of water. If we get thirsty enough, if we get hungry enough for God’s presence and His power in our lives, we will do whatever it takes to get it.

A thirsty and hungry man is a desperate man. God wants us to be desperate for Him because when we find Him, we find everything.

Look at Joshua, chapter 3, starting at verse 1. Then Joshua rose early in the morning, and he and the sons of Israel set out and came to Jordan. And they lodged there before they crossed. At the end of three days, the other officers went through the camp, and they commanded the people saying, “When you see the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord your God, with the Levitical priests carrying it, then you shall set out from your place and go after it. However, there shall be between you and it a distance of 2,000 cubits by measure. Do not come near it, that you may know the way by which you go, for you have not passed this way before.”

Then Joshua said to the people, “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.” And Joshua spoke to the priests, saying, “Take the Ark of the Covenant and cross over ahead of the people.” So they took up the Ark of the Covenant and went ahead of the people.

Here’s a couple of phrases that we want to key in. Tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you. Tomorrow how many of you want to see God do wonders among us? I do! So we need to get ready. We need to consecrate ourselves. We need to prepare for the work that God wants to do in us tomorrow.

Let’s talk about a couple of things. First is, let’s talk about the Ark for minute. Just to remind you, the Ark was in the Tabernacle in the Holy of Holies. The Ark was a big golden box with two angels on the top of it.

The Ark represented three things. First, it represented the presence of God. Wherever the Ark was, there the presence of God was. It was not only a symbol, but it was literally the presence of God. So when the Ark went into the Tabernacle, the presence of God went into the Tabernacle.

The second thing is that the Ark represented the promise of God. What was inside the Ark? The Ten Commandments. Now we thing the Ten Commandments are, “Don’t do this, don’t do that, don’t do this, don’t do that, don’t do this, don’t do that, don’t do this, don’t do that, don’t do this, don’t do that” – 10 of them.

But really, the Ten Commandments are the ten covenants or represented the covenant between God and Israel. God was saying, “I’m going to be your God. And here’s how I want you to operate. Here are the Ten Commandments I want you to follow.” But it represented God’s promise for Him to be their God.

Israel had exclusive access to God at that time. They were the chosen people; they were the people of God. The Ark represented the presence of God; it represented the promise of God. But it also represented the mercy of God.

What was on top of the Ark? The Mercy Seat. Every year the priest would come in and sprinkle blood on the Mercy Seat. And when they carried that Ark, they could see the stains of the blood on that Mercy Seat, and it was a reminder that their sin had been removed.

This is what they were following. The children of God were following the presence of God. The children of God were following the promises of God. The children of God were following the mercy of God.

When we talk about the presence of God, what do we mean by that? George Barna, who happens to be a researcher for the Christian church in general, says that the average church member has not experienced the presence of God in the last year. I think he’s wrong. I think the vast majority of us have not experience the presence of God period – that it’s so alien and foreign to us that most of us would not even know what it is when it comes.

The presence of God has three elements or three different manifestations. Let’s look at them right quick. The first manifestation is His omnipresence. Can you go where God is not? Can you go to the moon and not find God there? You can go anywhere.

Here’s what the psalmist said in Psalm 139:7, Where can I go from Your Spirit, and where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in Sheol, behold You are there. If I take wings of the dawn, if I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, even there Your hand will lead me, and Your right hand will take hold of me.

David the psalmist was saying, “If I go to the moon, or if I go to the deepest crevice in the bottom of the earth, if I go deep into the ocean or to the highest mountain, God, before I get there – You’re there.” In fact, he really says, “If I go from heaven to hell, You will still be there.” Our God is an omnipresent God. That’s one element of His presence.

The second is His indwelling presence. In Matthew 18:20, Jesus says, Where two or three have gathered together in My name, there I am in their midst. You see, we have His presence in us. And when we gather together, He’s here with us. So He’s not only everywhere, but when believers gather together, His presence is more concentrated.

There’s a third area. That’s His manifest presence. That’s when God really shows up. In 2 Chronicles 5:13, Solomon has been dedicating the Temple. When they dedicated the Temple, they began to have the sacrifices. And the power and the presence – the manifest presence of God – falls so strongly.

Here’s what the Word says. Then the House of the Lord was filled with the cloud so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud; for the glory of the Lord filled the House of God.

What a wonderful testament to our church if people would says, “The glory of God fills Sagamore Hill Baptist Church.” That would be a whole lot better than, “They’ve got good preaching,” or “They’ve got good music,” or “They’ve got a great Sunday School.” No, “The glory of God fills that place.”

We have good church, not when the preacher doesn’t fall off the platform or stumble on his words, not when all the music works the way it’s supposed to. We have good church when God’s manifest presence is evident.

I’ve been in those times where His presence has been so strong that all I could do was lay on my face because I sensed His presence so strongly. How thirsty are we for that kind of presence of the Lord?

Why does it matter? Because of this. When you get the presence of the Lord, you get everything. The joy of the Lord comes from the presence of the Lord. The anointing of the Lord comes from the presence of the Lord.

In Psalm 116:11, the psalmist says, You will make known to me the paths of life. In Your presence is fullness of joy. Do you need joy? If you do, then all you need is the presence of the Lord. In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.

When we get into the presence of God, He will empower us. When we get into the presence of God, it will give us new joy, new peace, new life. When we get into the presence – the manifest presence of God – it will radically transform our lives.

So how do we get there? In this case, they followed the Ark. Joshua tells them to move 2,000 cubits in front of the people. Now what does that mean? A cubit is about 18 inches. So he was saying, “Move out about 1,000 yards in front of the people.”

That’s a pretty far distance. A thousand yards! “Go way out there!” See, if you’re in West Texas, you can still see 1,000 yards. That’s no big deal. In here it would be a little rougher. But imagine you’re out in this wilderness area, and it’s way out in front of you because it’s leading the way. The Ark was the presence of God, and it was leading the people to where God wanted them to be.

If we’re going to experience His presence, we’re going to have to follow AFTER His presence because God is always doing a new thing. And so if He’s doing a new thing, yesterday’s thing isn’t going to work. No, it has to be today’s thing because He’s doing a new thing. So we have to follow after His presence.

When the children of Israel were going through this time, when did they move? They moved when the Ark moved. When the Ark stood still, what did they do? They’re going to stay still. “How long are we going to stay?”

“Don’t know. Whenever the Ark moves, we’re going to move.” Every morning, I imagine every man got up out of his tent and looked out to see, “Nope, the Ark’s not moving. I guess we’re staying here today.” The next morning, “The Ark’s not moving. I guess we’re staying here today, honey.”

“Hey, they’re breaking camp where the Ark is. It’s getting ready to move. Honey, pack up the kids, pack up the tent. We’re moving.”

“Where are we moving?”

“Don’t know, but the Ark’s moving so that’s where I’m going.”

When we get into our Christian life to a place where we say, “I am going wherever the presence of God is going,” that’s when we’ll begin to pursue Him. When we will pursue Him. When you say, “I want the presence of God more than anything else. I’m going to pursue after it.”

Why? One reason, Joshua said, “Because you’ve never been this way before.” You see, it’s easy to ‘do church.’ You’ve been teaching Sunday School for 20 years, how hard is it to teach Sunday School? You’ve got your manual; you’ve got your resources; put it together, you have church.

We know that we’re going to have a certain number of hymns, a certain number of choruses, we’re going to have church. The Preacher’s going to talk about this long – hopefully – we’re going to do this, we’re going to do this, we’re going to do this. So this is how we do church.

But God said, “I’m doing a new thing! I want to do something new. I want to do something that you don’t know what’s going to happen next because you’ve never been there before!”

A preacher friend and I were in Germany a few years ago. And being two preachers in a car, we were lost because at some point someone gave us a map, I’m certain. Why would we follow that? So we’re trying to find this hotel in a country we’ve never been in before, in a city we’ve never been in before, on streets we’ve never been on before. And the guy beside me said, “This is looking good. It’s looking familiar.”

I said, “Terry, what are you talking about? How can it look familiar? We’ve never been here before! This is all brand new!” Some of us are that way, though. We’re going to make good time whether we know where we’re going or not. This particular friend of mine is the only guy I know who could paint in a traffic jam. If he got in a traffic jam, that guy would take the first exit. Now it might take us 45 minutes longer, but we would be moving the whole time!

You see, some of us are very interested in moving. What matters is that we’re moving. But where God’s leading, that’s unimportant – but we’re making good time. We’re moving.

We want to move ahead of God. We want to say, “Hey, don’t just stand there! Let’s get stuff going! Come on, let’s get it moving! Let’s make it happen!”

“But the Ark’s not moving.”

“I don’t care! Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go!” Some of us say, “We’ve been going this way for a long time, and I know the Ark’s going left, but it looks so nice down this way. And this is the way we’ve been going. So let’s just keep going.”

Our church has never been where God wants to take us. Do you know that? That’s two things. One is, that’s scary. But guess what? 20 years ago, our church had never been where God was taking us. And 40 years ago, guess what? Our church had never been where God was taking us.

When this building was built, this church had never built a building like this before. It was new territory, it was new ground because God is always doing a new thing. When they built this building, nobody had built one of these buildings before on the east side. It was brand new, so it was a new thing.

Where God is going to take us is going to be a new place and a new thing. But listen, we’ve got to follow His presence amidst it. If we move ahead too fast, we’ll get too close to the Ark. Can you follow someone when you’re in front of them? I have some friends who would try. My brother’s that way. He is a born leader. He may not know where he’s going, but he’s leading. Some of us are that way.

If you’re in front of something, you can’t follow it. And God’s saying, “Hey, back up! Put some space – follow My presence. Follow My Ark.”

Others of us, “I’ve been standing here, I’ve been camped here quite a while. I ain’t going nowhere. I ain’t doin’ nothin’ because I’m happy.” I understand that. As much as I hate to admit it, I’m getting old. My hair is starting to turn gray! And I like things the way they are sometimes. I don’t was to mess with it.

God’s always doing a new thing. Because we’ve never been that way before, we’ve got to search after Him. We can’t run ahead; we can’t lag behind. We’ve got to have our eyes fixed on His presence above anything else.

The other is, you’ve got to follow after the Ark because you’re going to come to the Jordan. Now the Jordan River at this time was in flood stage. It was a wide, rushing river, and they had to cross it. Imagine crossing it with a couple of million people. It wasn’t like 25 people camping out. Imagine moving the city of Fort Worth. It was a big job, and they came across the Jordan and said, “What are we going to do.” God had a plan.

Every one of us is going to face a Jordan River. Everyone in this room will face a Jordan River. It’s deep, it’s dangerous, and it’s rushing. Some of you are facing Jordan Rivers this week. Some of you just got out of the River. And some of you can see it right in front of you. But all of us are going to face a Jordan River.

We’re going to come across that situation and say, “It’s too high, it’s too wide, it’s too strong. What am I going to do?” We have to have His presence to cross over.

You see, when the presence of God crossed over across Jordan, what happened to the waters? They piled up. They stopped. What would have happened if the people – if you were in that group that got ahead of the Ark? When the guys carrying the Ark touched the River with their feet, it began to divide. Now if you’ve been ahead of them, what would have happened to you? You’d have got wet! You’d probably drowned.

You can’t get ahead of God. You’ve got to be right with Him. You’ve got to be following after His direction, after His lead because it’s a dangerous time. It’s a dangerous time because we are in the middle of a war. All of us were born into a war, into a battle. It’s a spiritual battle. We wrestle not…the Bible says in Ephesians we wrestle not against flesh and blood.

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against rulers and powers, against world forces of darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in heavenly places. We are in the middle of a battle. We have an enemy. And without the presence of God, we don’t have the protection of God.

Do you understand that when our church made the decision to do all that God wants us to do, we declared war in the spiritual realm? And the spiritual realm noticed.

A few months ago, I remember on a Sunday morning, we came to the front and we said, “Right now, we declare spiritual war. We declare that we are going to do what God told us to do.” Do you remember that? It was about a year ago.

Let me just let you know, spiritual forces took notice that morning. They’ve come against us, and they will come against us. But as we walk in the power and the presence of God, we will overcome because our fight is not in the physical – it’s in the spiritual. And when we are empowered by His presence, we have power in the Spirit over the spiritual realm.

We have to fight the fight through the Spirit. And all the time, the devil whispers in our ears – in accusations against us, against our brothers and sisters, against all sorts of things – he whispers in our ear. And he whispers in my ear.

Most of the time, Satan does not come against you with this giant flaming sword. Most of the time he sneaks up behind your back, leans forward and whispers in your ear, “How could you be a Christian and do that? Look at that person over there. What do they think about you? You know, that person – what they said was this, but they really meant this. Do you know I heard this?”

His attack is as he whispers in our ear. And if we understand where the source of that is, then we can overcome it. But so often we go, “Hey, I wonder if that’s true?” Sometimes we listen to that, and we think, “You know, that’s right. How could I be a Christian? God must be mad at me. God must not like me. He’s so ashamed of me. I’m such a lousy person.”

Do you think that comes from God? It comes from the pit of hell. Our Father is madly and deeply in love with everyone in this room. There’s nobody He’s ashamed of. He loves you. He wants you in His presence all the time. And when we hear those words, let me tell you it comes from the pit of hell. It comes from the other side. It comes from the spirit world, from the kingdom of darkness.

When we get that thought in our mind that says, “What did they think about that?” and we start being offended. Where does that come from? The old devil whispering in the back of our mind – as opposed to saying, “No, no, they just had a rough day. No, they were just grouchy…they were busy...”

“No, no, no, they don’t like you! They’re holding a grudge against you.” Do you understand where that whisper comes from?

Church is a lot like a bank. You’re going to get out of it about what you put in it. In fact, there’s a story I came across between 2 guys – one named Jim Smith and one named Ron Jones. Jim went to church one Sunday morning. He heard the organist miss a note and winced. He saw a teen talking with someone else during a prayer. And he thought certain that the usher was watching to see how much he put in the offering plate, and it made him boil.

Five times – actual count! – five times he caught the preacher in the slip of the tongue mistake. And during the invitation, he slipped out the side door, all the while muttering to himself, “What a waste of time!”

Ron went to the same church, to the same service. And he heard the organist play an arrangement of “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God,” and was stirred to worship by the majesty of it all. A special mission offering was received, and he was glad that his church was doing what they could do to help people around the world.

He especially appreciated the sermon that Sunday morning. It really spoke to a need in his life. And he thought, as he shook the preacher’s hand and left, “How could anyone come here and not feel the presence of the Lord?” Both men were in the same church, in the same day. And they both found what they were looking for.

You see, Satan’s attack is quite often whispering in our ear. But it’s spiritual attack. And when we have the presence of God in our lives and when we’re following after the presence, when we’re pursuing His presence with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our might, and we’re moving when it moves, and we’re stopping when it stops, we will overcome the spiritual attack by His presence.

You see, Sagamore is going to change Fort Worth not by good programs, not by good music, not by good preaching, not by good organizations and vision. Sagamore Hill will make an impact on Fort Worth as the glory of God is released in this place.

Here’s the bottom line. We have got to get desperate enough to say, “God, whatever it takes in my life for the glory to fall, that’s what I want. Whatever it takes. If that means make it right with somebody; if that means make it right with something else; if that means leaving something behind. Whatever it takes, God, whatever it takes for Your glory to fall, that’s what I want.”

The old revivalist said, “If you want revival in your church, draw a small circle, step inside it and don’t leave until everyone in the circle is revived.” You see, His glory will fall corporately as His glory begins to fall personally in our lives. As His glory is released in my life and we gather together, His glory will be released in this place, and His presence will be released in this place.

I want you to bow your heads for just a moment. The question this morning is this, twofold. One is, have you experience the presence of God? And the second it, how desperate are you for His presence? Not, did we have good church today. That is so unimportant. What matters is did the presence of God fall in this place?

What matters is, is the presence of God so evident in my life that when I meet people, when I see people, they automatically sense, “There is something unique about that person because there’s an aura, there’s a presence about them that seems to be different.”

That’s what I want. I want that presence. I want His power and His presence in my life. That’s what will change Fort Worth. That’s what will change our culture. Not a new Supreme Court ruling. What will change our culture is when we as the church become all that God wants us to be, through His presence and His power.

This morning, I would ask you this simple question. How desperate are you for the presence of God? In a moment we’re going to have a time of invitation. And the most thing I would ask you this morning is just that – how desperate are you for His presence.

You may right there in your seat just want to say, “God, whatever it takes, would You begin showing me what I need to do for Your presence to be released in me?” Maybe you need to come to this altar and say the same thing.

Maybe some of you are experiencing that Jordan right now, you’d want to come and pray with Johnny and me. That’s why we’re here. Whatever it happens to be. In a moment, we’re going to stand. I don’t want you to sing. I want you to just stand with your heads bowed and your eyes closed.

As we sing this little chorus, you spend some time just with you and God. If you want to come forward, come forward. Use this place as an altar. Whatever God speaks.

I’m going to pray, and then let’s stand. Then I want you to stand with your heads bowed. Lord Jesus, would You come here to this place? Would You come and fill us with Your presence? Lord, would You release Your presence in this place, God?

Father, would you make us so absolutely and completely desperate for you that we would care what time it was, what we’re doing, and what our plans are. What would matter is that You would be released in this place. Father, come with Your presence. In the name of Jesus we pray, amen.

Let’s stand together. With your heads bowed, just listen as they sing…