An Encounter with Jesus: A Foretaste of Glory

Thanks Daryl. Good morning, Venture Church. Good to see you. Good

morning to those of you joining us online. We're glad to have you here

too. Do you guys have a good holiday weekend? It was good good,

it was great weather, it was fantastic. We're glad that you decided

to join us this morning. This is the right part of what this weekend

is all about. It's good to see the House of the Lord full.

On a Sunday morning during holiday. I was thinking about like a breaks this

week as I got ready for this message. And I don't know about you,

I'm gonna confess something. Probably I was gonna say from my childhood.

I'm gonna tell you it's real about me right now, but especially in my

childhood, every time like a good vacation or a good break or summer or

a long weekend was over, I was devastated still a little like. I

was never one of those I'm just I'm not sad it's over. I'm just

glad it happened kind of people. I was just like I thought, I

loved that. I love the freedom and being with people that I care about

and not being I don't know what the pressures of third grade were, but

they were apparently intense, right, you know, like just like that,

not being under pressure, experiencing tangible joy, having the time to be with

people I love. You know, can you relate to this? You can

you think of a vacation where when it was over it was really hard,

or a break like when you got back, like, oh that was tough.

Have you ever noticed you feel like the like the more authentic version of

yourself when you're there, like, oh, this is who I am when

I'm not under all this tremendous kind of like me, I like how I

move in these spaces. So as a kid, I was really just wrecked

anytime these would come to an end. And it was in that kind of

space of childhood heartbreak that my father help me understand a principle that is carried

with me through my entire life, and I want to share it with you

this morning, he said, Christian, I think what's happened is that on

vacation you've tasted something really good, something right, like something fundamental about what

life is supposed to be. And what you have isn't pain so much that

it's gone, but you have an ache or a hunger, pain for what

is to come it's easy because life is being recovered Jesus and God ares like

the hope we have is of a renewed heavens and earth. And what you

just experienced a little tiny bit of is a foretaste of the good that is

to come. And for me, like it helped me, even as a

kid, reframe loss or fear or anxiety or current circuit. Help me reframe

it like I know, I can see what's coming and it's good, and

that ache turned from a sad thing into a good thing. It's right to

ache for the good that is coming. It's right to ache for the truth.

And so I was able to frame this, and I hope you can

get that is Sometimes this can be a foretaste, can be a hunger pain

for what is to come. And it's important because we're in the middle of

this encounter with Jesus' series and today's encounter with Jesus is a foretaste encounter the

disciples. And because it's recorded for us, those who read it get to

experience this foretaste and those who receive it, for them it is transformative.

They get an image, Oh, this is what is to come, this

is what we're doing, This is what this is about. This is what

we are going to embody, and there's an important counterbalance for them. I

think we need to be reminded that of our principle over and over throughout this

series, and that is these encounters changed those who experienced them, and they

are meant to change us too. We are participating in the education of these

disciples with their rabbi, and we are learning in the same way to be

changed to their experiences, in particular this foretaste experience. Now, let's set

the scene a little bit, and we, as the pastoral team, would

like to admit to you the chronology of these encounters with Jesus. If you've

been here for all of them, we are all over the place, like

sometimes it's the last few days of his life. Sometimes it's the beginning.

We've tended to move around. Well, this morning we're back. We're going

to be in Matthew chapter seventeen, if you want to look, We're going

to be back in the kind of peak of the intensification of his ministry.

He starts and it grows in kind of public nature that reaches this p where

he's facing a lot of pushback, and then he sets his face resolutely to

go towards Jerusalem. And we're in this season of like high intensity. So

we're about a year from what Sean taught on in the Clearing of the Temple

or Morgan taught on the Figs last week. We're back in this season where

the disciples are starting to figure out who is this rabbi, who is this

person we're following, what does it all look like? And it is a

again I suggested to you just a few weeks ago, it's a kind of

a shocking season for them as they figure out what this looks like, who

is Jesus, and what is the work that they are participating in. So

in this week, we're about to get to Matthew seventeen, but I's going

to set the context. So it's a season of intensification. It's a particularly

intense week. So if you were to open to Matthew chapter seventeen and just

flip back to chapter sixteen, we're in a season here where Jesus is beginning

to say clearly to his disciples, I have to go to Jerusalem and die.

My mission is to go to Jerusalem and die. And he's peppering it

with this hope that I will be resurrected. In Matthew chapter sixteen, some

of you are familiar with us, Jesus says, I have to go to

Jerusalem and die. And Peter, who I love because I appreciate that he's

always putting his foot in his mouth, I understand this. Peter says,

essentially, not on my watch, right. I don't think this is a

good idea of Jesus. I don't think you should do it. This is

the week where Jesus looks right at Peter and says, I rebuke you.

He strongly rebukes Peter and says, this is actually what I have come to

do. And then he intensifies it. He says, not only will I

go to Jerusalem and die, but everyone who follows me will pick up their

own cross. To follow me is to die anticipate in my death and my

life. So I would call that intense. They're beginning to understand who who

are we following, what are we doing? And I think it is reasonable

to assume that they feel conflicted, perhaps confused, excited, scared, thrilled,

like all of these feelings would be mixed together well in the midst of

this week. The week starts with uh, I have to go to Jerusalem

and die, not on my watch. Peter rebuked, and then Jesus takes

them on this bizarre, really long walk. So they're on the west side

of the Sea of Galley. We've talked about that before, and Jesus says,

hey, we're going to take a walk. It's a thirty mile walk.

Like, who's cool with a two mile walk? Hey, you want

to walk a couple miles. I'm down thirty miles like this, why are

we doing this? So we walks them from the west side of the Sea

Galley all the way up to says Area Philip by thirty miles in each direction.

Now we've said a few times, if the rabbi is taking you somewhere,

he is teaching you something. So he takes them all the way up

to Sayesrea Philippi. Now what you don't some of you may not know,

is Sayesarea Philippi is historically and had been for some time, the site of

very grim accult and demonic worship. And I mean grim like I will not

unpack it, but it is. It's actually it's vulgar, it's hideous.

Like I want you to imagine a place can just pause. Now this is

a fun game. Imagine a place that you think of as totally sold out

to evil. Like imagine a location or a city. Don't say Seattle,

not true, but like, imagine a place that you think that place is

completely sold out to evil. Now multiply it by a thousand. It's way

worse than you can imagine. And Jesus says, hey, you know where

we're going today on a thirty mile walk there, I'm gonna walk you into

the very center of where evil is embodied and participated in our community. Now,

Also, what he's doing is he's taking them up into the tribe of

Dan, into the location and right next to the heart of where Jereb Boham,

who is the split off king who early in history took ten tribes to

the north and left the two tribes in the southwark he set up a counterfeit

Jewish religion. So not only is it the center of grim occultic worship,

but they're going into the heart of this non sanctioned counterfeit Jewish religion locations this

particularly tense place. Some even said that it was called there's this big pit

that they rumored it was the gates of Hell like a dangerous and demonic place.

I want to tell you, like when we take Israel tours there,

I still feel profoundly spiritually oppressed in that place, like I feel the darkness

long after this. It's dedicated to all kinds of new sorts, of de

worship and darkness. It's a dark place. And Jesus takes them there,

and this is where he says, who am I? And Peter makes this

profound declaration. Remember he just put his foot in his mouth. But in

sixteen sixteen he says, you are the Messiah, the Son of God.

In that spot is where he says it, and Jesus responds in verse eighteen,

he says, Peter, this is true. And he says, Peter,

your name is Peter. Like rock on that rock, on this confession,

I will build my church. Listen, think about where he's standing.

And the gates of Hell will not prevail against it. Jesus takes them to

the center of the darkest place they could imagine, and he declares that his

mission is on the offense. He says, like, I am now going

to begin my mission of reclaiming territory that belongs to God. Do we have

that? Because I want that in your head, the mission of reclaiming what

rightfully belongs to God. Now, I think I just want to say again

for the disciples and for us, they're beginning to think, hey, we

were maybe thought we were following a miracle working rabbi, but now maybe I

think we are following y Shuahamashiak like the Messiah, who is the King and

the embodied Jehovah God. And that's you know, alarming and exciting. So

this week of just intensification, and again we've had the two miracle feedings,

we had the issue on the lake. The air is crackling, and it's

conflicted. It's full of excitement, and it's full of danger. This is

where our encounter takes place. You got. I know I can't load it

up for you, but I want you to feel like a little loaded up

with tension because they are so into that loaded space. It says within that

week we're gonna pick it up in Matthew chapter seventeen, and you're probably thinking,

go ahead and read it, but I'll get there in a second.

Because Jesus is gonna take kind of his inner core. That's that's Peter and

James and John, He's gonna take his inner core in the midst of this

intense week, and he's gonna take him up on a mountaintop. Now you

don't have to imagine too much to know that a mountaintop is isolated, but

in the Jewish mindset, mountaintops are where you go meet with God. So

there's this like they've got this imagery in their mind already as they head up

on this mountaintop and Jesus is taking them, clearly something's happening, and so

they're already getting what I would call like major Sinai vibes. So do you

do you mount Sinai? In the desert wanderings, Moses goes up on a

mount Sinai and he meets God sort of in a way back of God face

to face, has this experience or sees the Ten Commandments. So they have

this, They have this framework of on a mountaintop meeting with God and they

get up there. They're on the you know, kind of a mountain of

divine revelation. And is this as we're gonna read here in a moment.

As this encounter picks up, Jesus is transfigured and hise his personage who he

is begins to look like all of the images they have in mind about what

God looks like on Sini. So we are he grabs these divine mountain cues

and then we get this clear imagery of the Jehovah God that they know from

Sinai. And just to make sure things are perfectly clear, so nobody misses

the reference point, Moses and Elijah show up. Moses at Sinai where God

met, Now Moses on the mountaintop. Elijah with God on sin I.

Now Elijah on the mountaintop. So this is the kind of encounter that we're

talking about. In this scene, you're gonna notice God is audibly talking to

Jesus. This is important because we have embodied Jehovah. We have like Jehovah,

God speaking to embodied Jehovah, God who is not the same one.

Right, So you've got the Father and the Son, this audible voice wild

Jesus is showing himself to be God in the flesh. Okay, passage everybody

ready, I'm finally there. Cool Matthew chapter seventeen. If you open your

Bible about two thirds of the way through, if you're new to the Bible,

I always invite you to use the front. I love bibles in print

because I'm old. I invite you to write in your Bibles and be there.

But if you have a digital Bible, bless you in Jesus name.

Pull that out. So Matthew chapter seventeen, now I want you to hear

this with all that in your mind, says after six days, Remember this

is in this week of intensification. Jesus took Peter, James, and John,

the brother of James, and led them up on a high mountain by

themselves. So now all the spider senses are tingling. Something's going on there.

He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and

his clothes became as white as the light. Just then there appeared before them

Moses and Elijah. Talking with Jesus. Peter said to Jesus, Lord,

it is good for us to be here. True, if you wish,

I will put up three shelters, one for you, one for Moses,

and one for Elijah. While he was still speaking, listen, a bright

cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said, this is my

son whom I love. With him, I am well pleased. Listen to

him. When the disciples heard this, they fell face down to the ground,

terrified, right response, But Jesus came touched them and said, get

up, do not be afraid. When they looked up, they saw no

one except Jesus. As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus instructed them,

don't tell anyone what you seen. Now. He's gonna load it up

until the sun of Man has been raised from the dead. So this is

incredibly intense experience for them. A couple of things that I want you to

notice as you participate in their education. Again, I've said that there's this

in the mind of these young hebrew men. They're picking up because they're inculturated.

They're picking up all of these Sinai references. Right on a mountaintop,

voice of God, this imagery of Jesus becoming the embodied Jehovah, looking like

their scriptural descriptions of what God will look like. Now a cloud lowers and

covers them, and a voice comes from the cloud. Now, even if

you haven't read the Book of Exodus, maybe you've seen the movie. So

as Israel is wandering through the desert, they are led day and night by

a pillar ofmur herber right, cloud filled with fire. So they have in

their mind this imagery of this pillar of cloud. And here again we've got

the pillar of cloud that descends and a voice, this embodiment of God saying,

this is my son whom I love. I am well pleased with him.

Listen to him now, I love a couple things about This is a

clear declaration of what they're to do in this moment. This is also verbatim

the words that God spoke at Jesus's baptism at the beginning of his ministry.

So when Jesus is baptized into water and ministry, God speaks this benediction over

him. As Jesus is preparing to be baptized into his death and his glory,

God speaks this benediction over him. This is who he is, this

is what he's doing. Now again we get a participate in the disciples kind

of like mind blowing moments as they understand who this is and they are able

to look back at Moses and Elijah, at the images of Sinai, at

the understanding of what God would look like as he's revealed in many Old Testament

prophets, and they're like, this is Jesus is looking just like this what

we get to do as believers in the full revelation of the Hebrew Scriptures and

the New Scriptures that are written for us, is we get to know that

it also looks forward. It also captures what we read about Jesus in Revelation.

Now, most people Christians and non Christians like know the Book of Revelation

because it's strange. But in the Book of Revelation there are all these images

of what it will be like when Jesus comes to fulfill and complete his mission

on earth. And I want you to just hear. So he just read

that He's got this shining radiant like the sun. It's bright white. It's

hard to describe you. Radiant in every way. Listen to Revelation, chapter

one, verse twelve. This is John writing John, who was on the

mountaintop. I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me,

And when I turned, I saw seven golden lamp stands. And among the

lamp stands was someone like the son of man of this loaded language, dressed

in a robe, reaching down to his feet, with a golden sash around

his chest. The hair on his head was white like wool, like blinding,

and as white as snow, and his eyes were like a blazing fire.

His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was

loud, like the sound of rushing waters. And his right hand he held

seven stars, and coming out of his mouth was a sharp, double edged

sword, and his face was like the sun, shining in all of its

brilliance. When I saw I fell at his feet as though dead, same

language as the mountain. Then he placed his right hand on me, and

he said, do not be afraid. I am calling you to participate in

this thing that I am doing. And so, friends, I think what

we have here clearly in this encounter is a foretaste of Jesus' resurrected glory.

It's a good experience of what is true and what is to come. They

get to see who is like they've had this very earth bound experience with Jesus

so far. Right, this is the Jesus who gets tired, This is

Jesus who gets hungry. Right, this is Jesus who's subject to all the

things that any human being would be. But for a second, they get

to see the other side. They get to see Jesus as he is,

as he has been, as he bodies now and as he will be,

and he sees this like vision, this good thing again, like a kid

who's seen something good and aches ra And now they get to hold this truth,

they get to ache for it to come. And I'm gonna suggest to

you it is the counterbalance they need for what is coming. Jesus gives them

a foretaste of what is true, because they are going to witness his gruesome

death, and it's it is gruesome, and they're going to enter in a

season of question marks about whether or not any of this was ever even true.

Imagine the kind of like doubt that fell into that space. And then

they're gonna hold this when their own lives are difficult. Peter will shift gears

and become a brave leader of the church, but he is going to face

much in the way of conflict. James will become the first martyr of the

Church and give his life for the cause of Christ. John will become this

profound and persecuted theologian who we've just read here in the Book of Revelation.

So they need this foretaste. They get to see, like, they get

this good thing that they can hold as a truth and an ache Here's who

Jesus is. Here's what this is about, Here's who I am. Like

in the midst of everything that's coming, I hold this to be fundamentally true.

Like I don't know about you, like how often things go sideways in

your own life, But if you were a Christian and you've had some some

picture of who Jesus is, this is the thing. This is the good

hope, the foretaste that we hold onto. And in the midst of every

hope or joy or distraction or depression or darkness or physical pain or question mark,

this truth we hold to be true. And see, the beauty of

the scripture is is that it's held for us. Like I'm gonna say to

you, I pray that the Lord God will meet you face to face like

that you will, which is both wonderful and terrifying in its own way,

so that you can hold this on your own. But I want to say

to you, this recording of it is enough testimony for all of us.

This is truth about who Jesus is. It's a real vision. I'm gonna

give you a strange illustration, and some people might not like it, but

I think it makes the point really well. And again I am not I'm

not suggesting anything, and I'm not validating the experience. I'm just gonna tell

you because I want you to know why it happens. They have begun to

treat people who have painful and absolutely terminal illness they're going to die. They

begin trying testing this, treating them with psilocybin, which is the active ingredient

of hallucinogenic mushrooms. Again, not suggesting, I'm not validating. I just

want you to know why. And here's why they do it, because the

majority of the people who undertake that experience wake up and say, I met

the love of God face to face, and now I am not afraid.

I I mean, I know this is like happens over and over again.

I'm just saying what they believe they saw. Now, they still are sick,

they are still going to die, they still have to undertake the scary

procedures, but most of them will say I'm not afraid because I've seen something

more true than the thing that I am living right now, and it lasts

like it doesn't go away, which I just find fascinating. And I just

want you to hold this idea real truth, like concrete truth can hold you

in the midst of all kinds of daily and long serving circumstance, foretaste of

what is true. I quickly think it's worth pointing out. And actually a

friend, a fellow scholar here, Joshua, had recommended this, and I

really like it. Which is asked this question, So why are Moses and

Elijah there? I think this is a great question. Now I've already said

there's big Sinai vibes right, and so it's clear that Jesus is in the

midst of showing his disciples something which is great. They get these big so

we know that Moses had an experience with God on Sinai. We know that

Elijah had an experience with God on Sinai. Moses was in the midst of

very difficult leadership challenges. Elijah was running and afraid. Both of them meet

God. They get this foretaste of God on Mount Sinai to understand who they

are. Both of these men, Moses and Elijah are also in their own

way foretaste of Jesus, like both of them are setting up so that we

can anticipate who Jesus is. But I also just love this point that Jesus

is in the midst of his own trial. He is being faithful to his

own mission. How meaningful would it have been for this faithful Jewish rabbi to

meet himself with Moses and Elijah on Sinai on his way to Jerusalem. Now,

I'd love to say more about this, but I'm going to send you

to our What's Next page this week. It's excellent, It's always excellent,

but please this week, if you haven't tried it, open the app,

go to our What's Next page. There's a lot more to explore, and

I want you to unpack these themes a little bit more, and the questions

around why Moses and Elijah were there. The questions that we have to ask

at the end of each one of these messages is, so, what do

we do with an encounter like this? What do we do? How are

we change? If the challenge at the beginning is they were changed, we

should be changed. I do think I should enter a little caveat right at

the beginning of this a little disclaimer, as we ask ourselves what does this

mean for us? I just want to push back and say a little bit

something like, it's not always about us. This passage is about who Jesus

is and that's the point. So if you only walk out of here with

like, what's the point of this? Jesus is exactly who he said he

was. He's the fulfillment of everything that was promised. He's the promise of

everything that's coming. And that's pretty good. But if you had to ask

yourself a question, so, but what is you know? How am I

changed? Let me give you a couple real quick. These are quick too.

Number one, I just want to say to you, like I would

say, I'm going to testify. Scripture testifies. Many other people would testify

here, I would testify with my whole life. This is absolutely true.

This is who Jesus is, this is what life is about. This is

what we're doing on the face of the earth. And so you can ask

me, and you can ask ourselves a very good question, what is your

life all about? Like what do you what are you up to? Like?

What are these all these days and all the comings and goings and all

the grocery shopping and you make the food, you cook the food, you

clean the food. What about all the work? What about the thing that

you bought or lost or sold or wanted or went or came back from what's

this all about? Because this is true, you get to ask, we

could ask ourselves a fundamental question, what's life about? Because we are being

invited to understand that it is about God the Father restoring the whole world to

himself through Jesus Christ, the Sun, through the power of the Holy Spirit,

and that that frames up everything else that we're doing. Every disappointment,

every backward step, every sickness, everything that we hope for, all these

get framed up in this fundamental truth. It leaves me wanting to say to

you, like the invitation to you is testify. I have experienced as much

as I can say God in person, and it has radically changed my life.

And I know that story for lots of other people, and I pray

I will end praying that you have that in your life. But I want

to say it is not absolutely necessary, because it is true right here like

this, this is true. In fact, one of my favorite theologians,

a guy named Craig Bloomberg favorite theologians on Matthew says, and I'm gonna paraphrase

in ways that he might not like, but he'll never see it go something

like, look, these three got a foretaste that they needed to carry them

through. They got a foretaste of who Jesus was, and we too can

live in a foretaste. We just dare not demand it because we already have

it, but we can seek it, we can follow it, we can

live by it. He has so many good questions, like if this is

true, we can walk through illness faithfully and pray for a miracle and both

can be okay, they both fall under the true ruth of this foretaste of

what it's like. I don't have the time, but I just want to

say, like this short period, this little classroom of life where we get

to learn to trust Jesus, this is gonna be hardened into this tiny diamond

in like millennia after millennia after millennia of just restored life with the Father and

the Son and the Holy Spirit. Don't miss the chance to live by the

truth now, because it can never be replaced. I said earlier that Jesus

said to his disciples, Hey, look, my mission is not a defensive

mission against evil. I'm on the offense. These things rightfully belong to me.

I am taking them back. Come with me. He took them to

says Maria Philippi, so he can say, because I can just imagine saying

Jesus saying I'm taking back everywhere, and they're like, well not everywhere.

I mean, you're not gonna go to Las Vegas, right, and Jesus

like, oh, let's start there. Let's start right where you think we

should. And so we get to act. Can I have that slide up?

Take the invitation to actively participate in the mission of reclaiming territory with Jesus.

I've just read this great story this week about a fifteen year old Italian

boy named Carlo Acutis. Now he's just recently died of leukemia fifteen years old,

but he's going to be the first millennial saint declared by the Catholic Church.

And it's because from his earliest age he totally dedicated himself to the work

of God. He's just known to have lived a life of radical dedication to

Jesus. And when he was about to die, they asked him, Carlo,

are you sad that you're dying? And here's what he had to say.

I'm happy to die because I lived my life without wasting even a minute

of it on anything unpleasing to God, I just I have wasted a zillion

minutes, but I want to live in the foretaste of what is true.

Finally, I must say to you, the Father God actually gave a takeaway

for this message, and it was crystal clear. In verse five, he

said, listen to Jesus. So can I give you that takeaway? Listen

to Jesus. How listen to Jesus? Prioritize reading scripture, prioritize being still

and talking to the Lord like I don't know about you, but like the

enemy of my time with Jesus is a phone in my hand. I got

so many people say to me, I'm never hearing from God. I'm like

this because your phone is never out of your hand, like you are making

constant noise. It's hard to hear the voice of God and the sea of

constant noise. Prioritize making space to listen to Jesus. I think these encounters

with Jesus should change us. This one's a real doozy. One of my

favorite things about taking people to Israel on these tours. It's a great decide

apple ship opportunity. But I think a lot of people go thinking, ooh,

when I get there, I'm gonna get like Holy Spirit goosebumps. You

know, I'm gonna get to Bethlehem and Jesus is gonna show up. Now.

I want to be clear. Bethlehem is cool, so Tony's family home.

You're gonna love being in Bethlehem. But Jesus is not more president in

Bethlehem that he is in Mill Creek, Washington. It's not. The wow

factor on these spaces is a wow And I really want to go and I

want to disciple you there. But what I love to watch happening is a

much slower burn when the light bulb begins to turn on and people go and

I'm gonna use this phrase correctly, so nobody get mad. Oh my god,

this is real. This is real. This person was here in these

places. I am pledging my allegiance not to an idea, but to a

person who is God. Ideas are easy. Jesus is a revolution. And

this is my hope for every Christian that they would have this moment where they

go, oh, this is really real. And when really real clicks on,

everything else begins to find its place. Friends, I urge you to

let these encounters with Jesus raise questions for you raise joyful anticipation for you.

You don't need to have your own massive encounter with Jesus. Many other Christians

have called it the beautiful vision. Do you remember the apostle Paul went from

murder to evangelists because he had a beautiful vision of Jesus on the road to

Damascus and Acts chapter nine. Many other Christians have written about the beautiful Vision.

But I do want to end by just praying this over you. In

fact, can I just have everybody bow their head for a second. Sometimes

we have you raise your hand. We're not trying to get a count or

something. It's just an act of courage to say, I want to participate

in this. You don't have to do it, but I want to praise,

and I won't even be looking around. But some of you in here

either need a first time vision of who Jesus is or you need a fresh

one. You need to see again, here's who Jesus is. I'm following.

Would you give me favors? I pray would just slip your hand up

if you need a kind of a first time Lord, if you're out there,

I want to see who you are, or if you need a fresh

like I am tired right now and the things are getting me down. I'd

love to see you fresh again. But just raise your hand up right now,

if you've got the courage to do that, and then I'm going to

pray over us. Lord Jesus, you see every heart and man. You

love all of these people. You know all the circumstance of their life.

You are good, you're faithful, you're present, You're true. Lord.

I pray that you would, out of your goodness, pour out your holy

spirit, and those who are seeking your face would find themselves looking at you,

and then like peace and joy and anticipation when they fall down over them,

and then it would set all the other things that are part of their

life just in the right context. I pray, God, give a fresh

vision of who you are. I pray it in your faithful name, father,

son, and Holy Spirit, and all the people get to say to