Seek Me and Live

Heavenly Father, thank you so much

for everyone who's here today

and most of all that you're here.

And God, you're not just our guest of honor.

You are the reason that we're here.

You're the reason that we sing.

You're the reason that we pray.

You're the reason that we stop to hear from you.

God, we long for today,

not just to be another church service,

not just to be another thing in our schedule,

but to meet with you the true and living God.

And so God, for the sake of your son's name,

for our good and for the good of this city,

would you speak to us now through your word?

Lord, speak, Lord.

Your servants are listening.

Would you speak to us through your word?

Speak to everyone, including myself, from your word.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Amos chapter 5, verse 8.

Amos 5:8

He who made the Pleiades and Orion

and turns deep darkness into the morning

and darkens the day into night,

who calls for the waters of the sea

and pours the moat on the surface of the earth,

the Lord is his name.

These words are words of power.

They're words of beauty.

They're awe-inspiring words.

They are an ancient hymn

that the people of God sung.

They're beautiful words.

They're words of hope and meaning and life.

Yet they're also very haunting words.

And I'll share that with you

and the meaning they're in as we go.

So as we've seen week by week

as we're going through verse by verse,

chapter by chapter through Amos,

we see that this is a book

where God is sharing a very sobering message

with his people.

It was a time similar to today

where the middle class

is doing actually very well.

The country of Israel was not at war

with the countries around them.

There's relative peace,

just as we have in our day.

There was headlines about stuff happening

in other parts of the world,

but their home was a place of safety.

Their home was a place of security.

And there were people like us

who were very spiritual.

They were very religious,

just like we are at this church.

They loved the liturgies.

They loved the scriptures.

They loved this stuff.

And into that context,

Amos brings a surprising word.

These words of repentance,

a warning of judgment.

Verse six,

Seek the Lord and live,

lest he break out like fire

in the house of Joseph

and it devour with none

to quench it for Bethel.

Or you who turn justice to wormwood

and cast down the righteous to the earth.

There's such sobering words

just before that in verse five.

Seek me and live,

but do not seek Bethel.

Do not enter into Gilgal

or cross over to Beersheba.

What is Amos talking about?

Bethel, Gilgal, and Beersheba

were these cities that meant so much

to the people of God.

Not to the pagans,

but to the people of God.

These were these places

where they were pilgrimages toward.

They were pilgrims toward these places.

Bethel was a place

where Jacob famously,

he fell asleep with it.

The only pillow he had was a stone.

And he had a dream,

as you will probably remember,

he had a dream of a ladder

coming down from heaven.

This was not a ladder

of him climbing up to heaven.

It was this beautiful ladder

from God of the angels,

of God's presence descending to him.

It was a place where God

was saying to Jacob,

I'm here,

I've come down to you.

This is the same place

where years later,

Jacob would be returning

to the promised land.

He's returning there,

and he encounters God,

and God gives Jacob

the name Israel.

And so for the northern kingdom

of Israel,

who Amos is speaking to,

this is a place

of their identity.

This is a place

where God has named them.

And they would go

on pilgrimages there,

these spiritual pilgrimages.

They weren't going there

to offer their children

in the fires,

as you'll see elsewhere,

God addressing.

They weren't going there

to sacrifice to Baal

or the Asherah poles.

They were going there

because this was a place

where Yahweh had met

with their forefathers.

Gilgal.

Gilgal was the place

when they crossed over

into the promised land.

This was the place

where they built

the altar with the stones,

each one representing

the Tevolf tribes of Israel.

This is where Joshua

led them into,

this was the gateway

into the promised land.

It's also the place

where King Saul

was anointed king.

This was a place

that spoke to them

of the promise of God

to bring them

into this land

that they were living in.

And so then

in the following verses

where he says,

for Gilgal,

verse 5,

for Gilgal shall surely

go into exile.

Everything was good.

They were not at war.

They were not under threat.

And God was saying,

stop going to this place,

Gilgal.

I'm actually going to

bring it into exile.

And then Beersheba,

of all of them,

this was the most holy place.

Beersheba was the place

where Abraham,

standing there,

the pagan king

prophesies over him,

saying,

surely God is with you.

This is the same place

where Isaac,

up until this point

of Isaac's life,

Abraham's son,

God was Abraham,

his father's God.

But it is in Beersheba

where God comes to Isaac

in a dream and says,

I am your God.

And from that point forward,

he is the God of Abraham,

and he is the God of Isaac.

He is your God

and he is there with him.

And this is also the place

where Jacob,

and they're coming years

toward the end of Jacob's life,

he's going toward Egypt,

he's leaving the promised land.

There's an anxiety in that.

And he comes to Beersheba

and this is where God

comes to him and says,

he's going to bless

and prosper them in Egypt.

Do not fear,

he will bring them back.

And he says the same words,

I am your God.

And so Beersheba was this place

where it stood

for the people of God

as a reminder

that God is not just

the God up in the heavens,

that he is there here with us,

that he is our God.

And so the people

would go on these pilgrimages there.

These were people,

they weren't the ones

flipping about religion.

These weren't the ones like,

ah, whatever.

These were the ones

who actually took

their religion seriously.

They loved their religion.

And as they would go,

they would sing hymns

up on their way

to these sacred places.

And the words we have before

so that I started with,

this is actually,

it seems,

this is one of the hymns

they would sing on their way up.

He who made the Pleiades

in Orion.

Sorry, I can't sing it for you.

I don't know the tune.

He who made the Pleiades

in Orion

and turns deep darkness

into the morning

and darkens the day

into night

who calls for the waters

of the sea

and pours them out

on the surface of the earth.

The Lord is his name

who makes destruction

flash forth against the strong

so that destruction

comes upon the fortress.

These are powerful,

awe-inspiring,

beautiful words.

And they're meant here

from God through Amos

as a reminder

of how far

these people are from God.

These beautiful words

are haunting words

because they're placed

right in between

God rebuking the people

for how far they are from Him.

Their lips,

their lips,

they honor God

with their lips,

with their words,

but their hearts

are far from God.

So just before verse 8,

just before this hymn

is placed in there,

we see,

Oh you who turn justice

to wormwood

and cast unrighteous

to the earth.

And just after the hymn

concludes,

they hate Him

who reproves in the gate

and they behoor Him

who speaks the truth.

It talks about them

trampling on the poor,

on them loving

what God hates,

on them hating

what God loves,

on the corruption

and injustice.

Their actions

and their hearts,

their lives are far from God.

So in between all of that,

just right inserted,

is this hymn.

And it wasn't a hymn

that Amos wrote.

It wasn't a hymn

that God was prophesying

to His people.

Rather,

it was God reminding them

of the very words

that they are singing.

And so from all that we can tell

in reading this,

this hymn,

these beautiful,

powerful words,

hauntingly,

are actually said by Amos

almost sarcastically.

In the midst of him saying,

you are a people of injustice,

you are far from God,

as they're pilgriming down,

on their pilgrimage

up to Beersheba.

And in the midst of saying

all this stuff,

and then he just inserts,

He who made the play

of these in Orion

and turns deep darkness

into the morning

and darkens the day and tonight.

He's saying,

these are the things you say.

And what is it,

the things that they're singing?

These are all words,

these are all images

of God being the God

that transforms.

The language of Pleiades

and Orion

is referring to

the constellations

that are most visible,

the turn of the seasons.

So they're singing of God

who changes the seasons

and turns deep darkness

into the morning

and darkens the day

and tonight.

This is the God

who not only transforms

the seasons,

but He also is the God

who transforms the day by day,

the day into night

and night by day.

Who calls for the water

of the sea

and pours the mold

on the surface of the earth.

Not only the day by day

and the seasons

and all of this,

but also the one time events

of the sea

flooding up over here

and casting itself into there

and pouring rain over there.

This is the God

who is in control

of all the events

of our time.

The Lord is His name

who makes destruction

flash forth against the strong.

Not only the God

over the seasons

and the days

and the nights

and the weather,

but also the God

over the destruction

of cities

and by its correlation

also the rebuilding of them.

This is the God

who transforms.

This is the unchanging changer,

the one who changes us.

And yet,

it is placed right in the middle

of these words from God

saying,

you are a people,

you're so spiritual,

you're singing hymns,

you're going on these pilgrimages

to these places

where I've done

great things in the past,

yet you do not change.

The balance here

of describing their sins

in verse 6 and 7,

of describing how far

they are from God,

then they insert the hymn

about change

and yet they're unchanged

as it goes into verse 10

and verse 11

and verse 12

and verse 13,

speaking to them

of their sin.

And the image here

is that they're marching down

to the place

where they're remembering

what God has done

in the past.

They're singing these hymns

and then they're marching

back home

having sung those hymns

and they're completely unchanged.

It is haunting these words

of God being the changer

and yet he not changing us.

It's as if a friend of yours

was to say,

hey, you know,

earlier today

I was walking

across Rito Street

and a Mack truck

just came and smashed me.

It was crazy.

I was on my back

and all the wheels

went right over me

and man,

it was scary.

And you're like,

and then you went

to the hospital

and they're like,

no, no,

I just kept walking.

I had things to do.

You'd be like,

well, you really were hit

by a Mack truck?

Really?

I don't see any bruises.

I don't see any broken bones.

You're still alive.

I don't really think

this is the case.

And as they're singing

of God being the one

who transforms seasons

and days and nights

and the waters

and destruction of cities,

they're singing of God

being the one

who changes and transforms

yet there are people unchanged.

God through Amos

is saying,

really?

You're a broken people.

You're wealthy,

you're safe,

you're secure,

you're spiritual,

but your hearts

are so far from me.

Have you really,

do you even know me?

You see the love

and the pain in God's heart

as he's looking at these people

who, again,

they're so sophisticated

and yet so far from him.

Verse 4 and 5,

seek me,

seek me and live.

Do not seek Bethel,

don't enter into Gilgal,

cross over to Beersheba.

You're going

on these great pilgrimages,

you're singing these hymns,

but you're not seeking me,

God is saying.

You're seeking the stuff of God,

you're not seeking God.

And the stuff of God,

as precious as the hymns are

and as wonderful as it is

to go to these places

and to remember

what God has done,

God is saying through this,

I'm here to not just,

be the God of Abraham,

Isaac, and Jacob,

not just be the God

that anointed Saul,

not just be the God

that brought you

into the promised land,

I'm here for the promise

for you.

I'm here to be your God,

God is saying,

not just your father's God,

I'm here for you.

Seek me and live.

It's easy for us to see

the reality of injustice

and the trampling of the poor

and because these are

a people in the past,

it's easy for us to see them

as some primitive people,

some barbaric people,

but these are the people of God.

In Israel at this time,

go look it up,

they're a sophisticated nation.

This was a time of

relative prosperity,

of safety,

of security.

The economy was doing well,

things were going well

and they were spiritual people

and not just like some

random pagan spirituality,

they were actually singing

the hymns of God,

going to the place

where God had done things

and yet they weren't

seeking God,

they loved the stuff.

I can remember

I was in high school,

I was going to so many

different church meetings,

I loved church stuff

and I'd go to worship nights

and I'd listen to great preaching

but there was a moment

where it began to hit me

that I loved the stuff of God

but I didn't actually love God.

And I'd see it in the jokes

that I would tell

and the things that I would laugh at

and in my behavior

toward my fellow man or woman,

like I was a church guy

but I wasn't really a godly man.

I loved the stuff of God

but I didn't actually know God.

Just earlier this week on Thursday,

I was driving up to Camp Iowa

and there was a young man

on the side of the road

hitchhiking so he stopped,

he jumped in

and then like 30 seconds

we started talking about God.

I'm not even sure

how it came up

but we were talking about

some stuff

and he was saying,

oh man,

he's 14 years old

and he's like,

man,

I don't get atheistic agnostics,

I just don't get it.

How can they not believe in God?

Just look around us.

It's beautiful out there

near Camp Iowa.

You got just lakes and trees

and he's just like,

look at this,

clearly God exists

and I love church.

And they were chatting a bit

and I said,

okay,

you love church,

you believe in God,

would you say that you know God?

He's like,

I don't understand,

I don't get God,

I don't,

for me it's really,

I just love the church,

like the vibe I get in church.

It's like,

it's where I feel,

I feel so alive there.

I love church.

He's like,

but,

I'll do chat a bit more,

he's like,

yeah,

I don't know God.

I don't pray to him,

I don't,

I don't know him

but I know I love church.

And that,

I see,

I saw myself in him

as a teenager.

I saw myself

and I was,

I would have been one of the guys,

like some of you are,

that you're the one who,

you know,

all the parents want their kids to be you

because you're not swearing

and if you laugh at inappropriate jokes,

it's quiet enough

that nobody realizes

that you think it's funny

and like you're not,

I found,

I loved what God hated

and I hated what God loved

and I came across Amos chapter 5

Amos 5 · chapter mention

as a teenager

and he's saying,

God is saying,

hate evil,

love good,

establish justice

and so there,

far from God,

I just started saying,

God,

help me to hate what you hate

and love what you love

my heart is far from you,

my heart is far from you,

I remember,

I remember being,

some of you know Dominion Chalmers

just a few blocks away,

I remember being there

at a worship service

and everyone was just worshiping God

and it hit me,

I love the stuff of God,

I love the songs,

I love when the bass drum

is just going boom,

boom

and you just feel like,

you just feel your hair

stand up on it

and you're like,

ah,

but it wasn't actually God

that I loved,

I remember just getting

on my knees

and just saying,

God,

God,

you're too precious

to be my parents,

God,

God,

I know my parents know you

and I've heard amazing sermons

of these men that know you

just on my knees saying,

God,

I need to know you,

I know about you,

I need to know you,

I need to know you

and I got up from my knees

that day

and nothing had changed,

didn't seem like God

had heard me,

I just remember getting

the next day in my room

just ominous,

God,

I need to know you,

I need to know you,

I love the stuff of God,

I love church,

I love the conferences,

I love all that stuff

but I don't know you,

I know my heart

is far from you,

I know where no one else sees

and I love what you hate,

I hate what you love,

you have my words

but you don't have my heart,

I give you my time

but I haven't given you my life

and I have to pray

would God not answer

the prayer of a young man

just saying,

God,

hear me

but he didn't

and so I continued

day after day,

God,

I remember being grade 12,

still like,

I think a year later,

I'm in the library at school,

I had a friend outside,

they're doing their thing

and I just would open up

to Psalm 25

and just cry out to God

and say,

God,

I need to know you,

I believed in God

but

my parents,

they knew God

and my pastors,

they talked about him,

I had friends,

I just,

God,

I need to know you

and I can look up my life

and see life unchanged,

God,

you are the unchanging changer,

you're the one that transforms

not only seasons,

you transform hearts,

transform my heart,

I didn't get why

he wasn't answering me,

then I reread Amos 5,

seek me and live,

see God is so much more,

he's so,

he loves you

and he loves me so much,

he doesn't just want us

ever to be people

who simply give him our words,

who just love the liturgy

or who people who are

simply living like polite

or even very kind

and compassionate lives,

that's all good stuff,

that's all very good stuff

but what he wants

more than anything

is our very self

and he wants us

not just to seek him

for a life that's changed,

he wants us to seek him

and so Bethel,

Gilgal,

and Beersheba

were very good things

and God was saying,

seek me,

don't seek church

in the Messiah,

don't seek that,

don't go out searching,

oh you just want to get

that incredible worship experience,

you want to get the field,

God's saying,

no, seek me,

seek me,

know me

and in God not coming through

for me right away

and him not answering

that prayer right away,

he was allowing me

to be able to be one

who sought after him

and sought and sought

and at first really,

I think I was seeking him

more for his stuff

but over time

I began to seek him

and somewhere along the way

he came through,

he will be faithful,

he is faithful

and he will,

he delights to answer

that prayer

and now to stand here,

not just as your pastor

but as your brother in Christ

and to say,

I know God,

that it doesn't matter

what happens,

what trauma stuff

has been thrown at me,

there's a joy that I have

that's unshakable,

there's a peace that I have

that it doesn't matter

what is going on

that there's still a peace,

not just the absence

of pain or anything,

a peace even in the midst

of pain

but more than anything

it's not the joy

that I love

or the peace that I love

or the purpose

God has given me,

it's himself he's given me.

As some of you know,

Jason Byers,

pastor at Celebration Church

and I love his refrain,

the giver is the gift,

the giver is the gift,

the greatest gift

we have from God

isn't the peace

or the joy

or the meaning

or our friends

or our family

or community

or any of the great things

of God.

The greatest gift

we have is the giver himself,

he has given us himself

and that's what Bethel

and Gilgal and Beersheba

had been all about.

Bethel,

the place where

God provided a ladder

not for Jacob

to try to climb up to God

but where God

had climbed down to him

and this

is what separates

Christianity

and the gospel,

this is what separates

the true and living God

from all other religions

and spiritualities.

Every other religion

and spirituality

is about climbing away

to God.

If you,

in Hinduism,

in Buddhism,

if you can just learn

to think right,

if you can just learn

to detach yourself rightly,

you'll be able

to enter into nirvana.

In Judaism,

my family background,

613 laws,

if you do those mitzvahs,

if you do enough of them,

you're going to make it,

you're going to make it to heaven

and Islam is five pillars

and your obedience

to those five pillars

which are all,

like they're very precious things,

caring for the poor,

they're good stuff

but it's by you doing

those things

that you're going to help

the balance of your life,

the good things,

away the bad

and you get to heaven

and every type

is climbing to heaven

and if anyone here

is an atheist,

agnostic,

I want to say welcome,

I'm glad you're here

but your life

is also a reflection

of that same climbing

of the ladder

where it's not through

these spiritual,

metaphysical stuff

but by getting enough success,

by earning enough,

by achieving enough,

by establishing yourself enough,

you're climbing your way

to meaning

and to significance,

to your heaven

but the reality

that you know

is that it doesn't work.

The runs of the ladder

just seem to break every time,

we can't do it,

we can't climb up,

we'll never achieve enough,

we'll never be enough

and so the ladder

at Beersheba

or Bethel

was the ladder

of God coming down to us

which separates Christianity

from all other religions

and spiritualities

of the earth.

There's nothing else like it

where God himself

climbs down to us

where all of us realize

that that balance

is always going to be

skewed against us

that we've never able

to do enough good

to away the bad

and the anxiety

of all of that balance

that Jesus,

that his scale

was fully tipped to the good

that he was the one

that speaks of

calling them to justice

and to mercy,

to love what God loves

and what God hates

and to do good.

Jesus was the one

that did that completely.

The balance completely

in his,

weighed in his favor.

And the gospel message

is that,

that Jesus gives that life,

that gives that

being able to be there

in heaven,

not just in heaven

but being with God

on earth,

that he gives us that,

that he makes us

so fully alive in him.

Seek the Lord

and live.

If you're anything

like I was in high school

or even still,

so much like today,

and when you find

there's a part of your life

where it's not as it should be,

where you need to be

seeking the Lord,

to hear the command,

seek the Lord and live,

it can be so frustrating.

I'm trying.

I'm trying to seek the Lord

and live,

but I find that I keep on

falling in love

with the stuff of God,

but not God,

the liturgy and the songs

and all these things.

How do I actually

have a heart that's changed?

How do I actually

come alive in him?

How do I live?

But the commands of God

themselves are power.

When God said,

let there be light,

it's not like the earth

was like,

oh, snap,

I gotta be light now

and turn itself on.

No, the very word of God,

the very command of God,

let there be light,

is also the creative power of God.

The light received power to shine.

The same seek me and live,

it's the same thing going on

when in John chapter 11,

John 11 · chapter mention

Lazarus is dead in the tomb.

He's been dead for several days.

This is not a man

who can inspire himself

to stand on up

no matter how much he tried.

This is a man who's dead

in grave clothes

and Jesus comes

and says two words,

come out.

And the dead man

comes out of the tomb.

He comes alive.

There's nothing Lazarus

could do to make himself

see God and live,

but in the very call from God,

he comes alive

and he comes out.

The same thing

for the little girl

in Mark chapter 5.

Mark 5 · chapter mention

She's dead in bed.

Jesus kneels down

beside her bed,

takes her hand

of a young dead woman

and says,

little girl arise

and the girl comes alive.

The command to seek God

and live

is an impossible command

for you and I to follow.

We are dead,

spiritually dead.

It's an impossible command

except the one

who commands us

also in this very command,

breathe that life into us.

Now even as he makes us alive in him,

even as he breathes his life into us,

we still have to respond to it.

You know,

the story in John chapter 11

John 11 · chapter mention

would have been very different

if Lazarus lying there in the tomb,

if he's lying there

and Jesus is like,

Lazarus, come up!

And he opens his eyes

and he's like,

oh my goodness,

I'm dead.

This is grave clothes?

Oh snap.

Man.

And just closes his eyes

and continues to stay

living as the dead.

And I know that I've definitely done that

where God is,

he's right there

and he's there,

his grace that enables us

to be able to cry out to him

for life

and receive that life,

to seek him.

And yet we're living a life

where he has said,

live!

And you and I are just like,

in our grave clothes,

staying in the places

where there's death and decay.

And God is saying,

come on out!

The impossible is possible

because of who Jesus is.

And that call,

that call to be

all that God calls us to be,

it's a call not to sound like

meaning and grace apart from him.

That's what the people wanted.

They wanted all the stuff

but they didn't want God.

It's a call to give your life

so fully to God.

Not just to seek the stuff of God

but to seek God.

To seek him and live.

To seek him and live.

And so the haunting words

in Amos chapter 5,

Amos 5 · chapter mention

because of what Jesus has done,

because of his,

not just calling us to live,

but him giving us his life

and making us alive in him,

we can join in this ancient hymn

and sing it,

or read it,

and see the beauty in it.

The beauty of our God.

He,

who made the Pleiades and Orion,

turns deep darkness

into the morning,

and darkens the day into night,

who calls for the waters of the sea,

and pours him out

on the surface of the earth.

The Lord is his name,

who makes destruction

flash forth against the strong,

so that destruction

comes upon the fortress.

As this continues on,

and he goes on

back to the rebuking,

the end of this passage

that Anna read to us,

verse 16,

and it repeats it three times

in one of the names of God.

Therefore,

thus says the Lord,

the God of hosts,

the Lord.

And the translators

and the NIV,

the ESV,

the NLT,

all these ones,

they tame it down for us.

They refer to it,

they refer to God

as the Lord of hosts.

But they're actually,

with the real name of God,

this isn't controversial,

Google it.

It's,

thus says the Lord,

the God of armies,

the Lord.

And he repeats it three times,

the God of armies,

the God of armies.

What's Amos doing right here?

He's saying to the people,

look,

you're so wrapped up in yourselves,

you're so wrapped up

in all your spiritual stuff,

yet you're so dead,

but look to the one,

the one who transforms

and changes

and breathes life.

Look to him,

who is the God of power,

the God of armies.

Look to him.

He is the one you are to fear

and he is the one you are to love.

He is our hope.

The other night at camp,

we're going through,

on Tuesdays and Thursdays,

we have a worship evening

and each night

is a different theme

of a name of God.

So on Thursday,

we're doing God of armies.

And so we're singing,

we didn't have a lot of songs

to choose from

because there's not a lot of songs

about God of armies.

It's such a common name

for God in the Bible.

You need to change that.

We need to write more songs,

Deborah.

But the,

we sang the song,

God of angel armies.

Some of you know it.

It goes,

the God of angel armies

is always by my side.

And we almost didn't sing it.

And when it was done,

I just spoke for a couple seconds

saying,

guys,

the problem with this song

is it makes it sound like this,

the language of this God of power

and might,

the God of armies,

is kind of like,

he's our homeboy.

He's just this thing right beside,

like,

it almost makes it sound like

he's our Cinderella servant.

You know,

Cinderella,

go get my shoes.

Cinderella,

go get my brush.

And it sounds as if

it's just,

we kind of can just

snap our fingers at God.

I don't know about your prayers.

When I listen to my prayers,

it can easily sound like that.

God,

I need you to,

I need you to heal me.

I'm saying,

God,

would you please help me

have a good day?

God,

would you,

would you please speak through me

as I go preach?

I'm just like,

listing off these things

I want God to do.

And it's like,

I'm saying,

the God of angel armies,

he's by my side,

he's at my bidding.

But if you look at the imagery

the Bible uses,

and it's,

go look it up,

it's such a common name for God

in the Bible.

It's again and again,

the God of armies,

the God of armies.

One of the greatest presentations

of what that means

is in the beginning

of the book of Joshua,

just before Jericho.

Joshua,

the leader of the people of Israel,

is,

he's there,

they're near Gilgal actually.

He's there and he's,

he's seeking God.

What should I do?

Jericho has big walls.

I don't know what to do.

And all of a sudden,

there's the most fierce angel

he's ever seen,

or fierce soldier he's ever seen.

Just dwarfs Joshua.

And Joshua does what

you and I would have called out,

like basically,

friend or foe.

He says,

are you for us or against us?

And the response is,

neither.

And he says,

he's the captain of the,

of the armies of the living God.

And he calls Joshua

to come be on his side.

The God of angel armies

isn't like,

isn't on our side in that sense,

but we're on his side.

And in that,

there's such comfort

and strength

and power

and life.

As we don't seek

to make the God of armies

our servant,

but rather we say,

God,

you are,

you are the God

of power and might

who transforms seasons,

who turns the darkest night

into day

and the day into night.

You,

the unchanging changer,

I'm yours.

Would you pray with me?

God,

we confess

that it's so easy for us

to enjoy church

and do all this

spiritual activity,

to sing the songs

even with passion,

to be moved

by the liturgy,

maybe even

convicted by a sermon,

but for us to just

let our seeking of you

end there,

seeking the stuff of God,

but not you yourself.

God,

for some of us,

it's our parents

who know you,

it's our friends

who know you,

it's our pastor

who knows you,

but we ourselves

don't know you.

For others of us,

we knew you,

but somewhere along the way,

you've become a memory.

You've become the God

that was there with us

in Beersheba

or Bethel

or Gilgal,

but we're not walking

with you today.

Lord,

would you help us

to hear

your voice afresh

saying,

seek me and live.

That you're not

commanding us

to do something

that we cannot do,

but that you are

in your very command

empowering us

through the gospel

to live a life

so fully alive in you.

And so God,

would you save us

from ourselves?

Would you save us

from trying to make

you our servant?

Lord,

we want to be

on your side

and we thank you

that because of

what Jesus has done

in his death

and resurrection

in real time,

real space,

that we get to seek you

and live

and live life with you

so fully alive

for your glory.

In Jesus' name,

Amen.