City Central Church Podcast
Glory
Adam Narciso teaches on the glory of God.
But for some time we've been talking about the glory of God here. It's been an exciting topic. It's been central to some of the values that God's shaping in us as a community. If you remember about a few weeks back, I got to preach even from Numbers chapter 2, where God was ordering the placement of the children of Israel in the wilderness. In other words, they didn't have the luxury of just pitching their tent wherever they pleased in the wilderness. But instead God gave a mandate through Moses that all the tribes of Israel were to strategically pitch their tents around the tabernacle, the place of worship and of prayer, ongoing 24/7 around the clock, the place that the manifest presence and glory of God dwelled. And God not only mandated that they were to be in orders of tribes behind their father's houses, but He mandated that they were to pitch their tents facing the tabernacle. And we learn later in that same message that the point of it was that any Hebrew, any Jew could come out of their tent at any point during day or night. And by day time the first thing they would see rising above the tent city, millions and millions of people camping out. The first thing they would see by day time was the pillar of cloud manifesting the glory of God over the place of worship and prayer. And at night time, any time they'd walk out of their tent, the first thing they would see is the pillar of fire manifesting the radiant, brilliant presence of God and glory, resting on a people that were given to persistent worship and prayer. And when God originally designed community, He said community, according to me, has to do with the company of believers who will at all costs build their lives around the place of worship and the place of prayer and the place I manifest my presence and glory on the earth. And so the call on this community to establish persistent prayer and worship is not just so that we would have a good time or have better quiet times, but so that the manifest glory of God would rest on us as a people. And it would be a witness to the nations. The mandate over every family in this community, in this house tonight, is that we would build our lives facing the place that God was. Facing the glory of God, resting on a worshiping and praying people. In other words, we don't have the luxury to build our lives around entertainment, convenience and Sunday morning church. Christ didn't die. We talked about Christ didn't die so that you and I would enjoy weekly church attendance. Dress nice once a week, write a 10% tithe check. Do you know what I'm saying? He shed his blood so that he would have our whole hearts. And he's not content with anything less than that. And so when he establishes community, he says, I'm not looking for another church on the corner. I'm not looking for 100% tithe. I'm not looking for a great faith missions budget. I'm not looking for a great youth programs, children's programs and something for everyone come one come all. Instead, I'm looking for a people that would build their lives around this one thing that my glory would rest on that. And this has been our cry. Brian and Jordan have preached on the life of David, the heart of David, who right when he inherited the throne. His immediate assignment was to find the Ark and to usher at all costs back into Jerusalem and to put it on display before all of Israel. And we will worship before this God. It's incredible. This evening, what I want to do is I want to take it one step further. After we've engaged one week of 24/7 prayer, the first week in our history, come on. We've been praying and worshiping, trying out to God, unbroken gatherings for 24 hours a day for the last week. And we have plans to continue. Amen. Amen. Amen. But I don't know about you, but if you've ever been in a prayer meeting where someone's been praying, travailing, trying out, you know, for the glory of God. And you're just, you have that wonder in your spirit, like, what exactly are they talking about? Okay, so we want to bring the art back into Tacoma. What exactly are we talking about? So we want a fire and a pillar of fire and a pillar of God resting. What exactly are we talking about? I want to build my house or whatever it takes. I'll pitch my tent in that direction. But what are we talking about? And so this evening, I just want to do a little teaching that's helped me understand the different facets of God's glory. God's glory is real comprehensive. We're going to emphasize one significant aspect of His glory this evening. I'm going to do a little teaching. You have notes, right? Because they're going to have notes. You don't have notes, wave your hand in the air. And one of our skilled trained ushers, someone from our usher team will come and give you one of those. The usher team, significant ministry here. There we go. Just so you know, FYI, this is not my revelation. I'm preaching from someone else's book here, okay? For this first part, this first page comes from a book entitled "Lori with Heaven and Bates Earth" by Bob Sorghy, who's an amazing man of God. He's a great teacher. As a matter of fact, I think Bruce hooked it up so that our brother is going to be here in October of this year, ministering in this community. Praise God. He wrote a book called "Lori with Heaven and Bates Earth." I recommend it to everyone for the sake of the clarity. It brings on the subject of the glory of God. What I want to do is piggyback on his definitions of glory according to his insight from the scriptures and then bring an exhortation for our communities. That's how I'm good. So there are multiple ways the Bible talks about the glory of God. And the first way it talks about the glory of God is the glory of God as a verb. For those of you who are not English majors, I don't remember really understanding what a verb was until I learned foreign language. And so up to that point, a just a verb, an ad verb. I remember thinking, "Adjacent was something else, a language tool as well." That's geometry I think, right? Yeah. Adjacent. Anyway, but verb is an action word. Praise God. Two glory. Number one, to delight in, revel in, or take pleasure in. Psalm 105, three commands us glory in his name, delight in his name. We did that tonight as we sang as Daniel led us. Number two, to glory, to boast in or to take pride in. 2 Corinthians 10, 17. He glories, let him glory in the Lord. Jeremiah 9, 23, 24. Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom. Let not the mighty man boast in his might. Let not the rich man boast in his riches. But let him who boast, or glories, boast in this that he understands and knows me. There's, next we see from the scriptures that there's an aspect of glory as a noun. In other words, a scripture uses glory as a noun in different contexts. Number one, signify honor, reputation, dignity, or praise. For example, number one, the glory of a man. Psalm 57, verse 8, David prayed, awake my glory. David was calling forth the dignity and the glory that God had dispensed him in his humanness to wake up and respond to the glory of God. And that's the glory of man, Psalm 8, verse 5. For you were made a little lower than the angels. And you have crowned him with glory and honor. You realize God has invested significant amounts of glory in all of mankind. And we get to be those worshipers who, when we're dull, say, "Awake my glory, wake up!" And our spirit comes alive again. Have you ever had that experience? Wake up! I don't want to sit through another worship service. Wake up! I want to enter in the holy place. Wake up! I want to respond to the one on the throne who deserves everything I have to give him this evening. That's what David had this discipline of doing. Let her be. The glory of God, this is the one of the most biblical uses, refers to honor, praise, and reputation of God himself. We've preached a lot on this. There's been many amazing sermons on defending the glory of God in this house. Isaiah 42 8, the Lord says, "I am the Lord. That is my name in my glory. I will not give to another." You see the different uses of the word glory. You see that. Number 2, 1 Chronicles 16, 28. Give to the Lord those families of the peoples. Give to the Lord glory and strength. The angels tried in Isaiah chapter 6, verse 3. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of His glory. I want to note before we move on in response to that verse that it is true that the whole earth right now is filled with the glory of God in terms of all creation, represents and contains the beauty and the dignity of God because it's His creation. In other words, we can look at creation right now and we can perceive that there's a God who's a creator and he's amazing and he's beautiful. His creation is good. You see that. The glory of God does not cover the earth in the sense that we are going to be looking at tonight and focusing on tonight. So the Bible is clear in that the whole earth is full of His glory right now. It testifies of His beauty. But it's not filled with the glory of God in the sense that we are going to look at tonight and we're going to focus on in a bit here. Number 2, glory the next way it's used is a noun. Endowment of blessing, power, and life, Isaiah 58 verse 8. He says, "Then your light shall break forth like the morning. The glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard." So there's a glory of God that's reserved for the purpose of protecting His people. It shall be your rear guard. John chapter 17 verse 22, "And the glory which you gave me, and I have given them, that they may be one, just as we are one." He said, "God, the glory that you've given me, I have given my people so that they may be one, even as you and I are one." You realize there's a glory that God gives us for the purpose of uniting us as believers in this spirit. Lots of people have a desire for the church to be unified. But we don't realize that it takes a glory given to a people from God for supernatural for supernatural unity to occur. We're going to keep going. Number three, it's the heavenly dimension where the magnitude of God's person irradiates throughout the heavenlies. Psalm 73 verse 24, "You will guide me with your counsel, and afterward receive me to glory, referring to heaven." Letter B verse Timothy 3 16 Paul talked about, "Receive up in glory." And number four, the one we want to focus on this evening. The final aspect away the Bible uses the word glory is this. It has to do with the invasion of God's reality into the human sphere. Say it with me. The invasion of God's reality into the human sphere. Habakkuk chapter 2 verse 14 says this, "It's a prophetic promise. For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters come to the sea." Haggai chapter 2 verse 7, "And I will shake all nations God's promisingness." You see a shaking happening in our world this day. I'll tell you, ever since September 11th, it was like the clock resounded. And God began to shake something that America did not believe could be shaken. And even those few were impacted in that moment seven years ago. It's significant to note that seven years later the number that God seems to like a lot. Seven years later in the same month the U.S. economy takes impacting the nations of the world. Seven years later something of a reverberation from sounding on the earth. God's saying, "I'm going to shake the nations wide and they shall come to the desire of all nations." And I will fill this temple with glory since the Lord closed. So God's promise is I am in this age wanting to shake the nations so that the idols in their hands will fall broken to the ground. And that finally the nations will come and they'll turn to the desire of all nations himself. And then I'll fill my house with glory. Do you realize that the shaking in our nation today is only a prophetic insight to what's to come? That the nations will come to the desire of all nations and he'll fill his house with glory. Praise God. Isaiah 40 verse 5 the Bible says the glory of the Lord shall be revealed in all flesh. Say all flesh. All flesh. Say it again. All flesh. All flesh shall see it together for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. God, I tell you God's determined to make us aware that there's a coming glory yet to break in and invade our natural realm. Mankind is going to be thoroughly abruptly awakened to the might and the brilliance and the power of God when he manifests himself. It's something God's serious about and it's something he wants us to understand. I am intent on taking that which is in heaven, pushing it through the veil that separates that realm and our physical realm. And manifesting it on the earth not just so that you and I would have a good time and have a few revival meetings. And go on God TV TV and Daystar etc. etc. But because I want the nations to see the desire of all nations. And I feel my temple with glory. God wants to once again take that which is reserved in heaven. Push it through the veil that separates the two realms even as he did with Moses and the children of Israel. And rest his glory on the people once again. He's God. This is the glory that Moses tried out to see in Exodus chapter 33 when he said show me your glory Lord. Remember that. In fact why don't you open your word there to Exodus chapter 33? This is a powerful encounter. Moses is speaking with the Lord and he's saying God would you show me your glory? You all know the story it's been preached on many times in far better ways than I could imagine. But what I want to emphasize is in order to really understand the significance of this exchange that Moses had with God. You have to understand Moses' history of his encounters with the glory of God up to this point. It wasn't like Moses had never seen God manifest himself up at this point. He was a man who was well accustomed to the breaking in of God's glory into the natural realm. And so let's take a look at this. It's on the next part of your handout. I think it's titled Moses' history with the glory of God. Bullet point number one. Moses saw burning bush in the desert. It wasn't consumed. God spoke to him in an audible voice ordering him to take his shoes off for he was standing on holy ground. He then was ordered by God to confront Pharaoh and leave out Egypt into the promised land. Leave the Israel out of Egypt. Exodus chapter 3. Exodus chapter 4. He threw his rod down and it became a serpent. He picked it up again and it was a rod. It was God's miracle power breaking in and manifesting in the natural realm. Moses saw this. Later he put his hand in his cloak and when he took it out it was lepers. When he put his hand back inside his cloak and removed it it was restored. Then he saw God release powerful plagues that decimated Egypt while Israel who lived in the same area were protected supernaturally. Blood, frogs, lice, flies, pestilence, boils, ale, locusting, darkness and death. He saw God go before him and the people in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night to give them light so they can travel by day and night. Well Israel was trapped between the Red Sea and the Proaching Egyptian Army, the angel of the Lord, who was by the way leading the people, the Bible says, moved to the back of the people. What did that look like? And the pillar of cloud moved as well and stood between Israel and the Egyptian army. All of Israel gathered at the Red Sea corner, helpless slaves and an approaching, skilled, ruling empire of the world is coming upon you. The glory of the Lord stands in between. In the meantime the Bible says God sent a fierce wind and part of the waters of the sea so Israel could walk on dry land. When Egypt attempted to cross the waters, moved and wiped them out. He saw God make the bitter water sweet and able to drink it mara. He saw God provide bread from heaven for the nation to eat daily. He saw God provide water from a rock enough for an entire nation to drink. A lot of people believe is, hey, three times the size of Seattle, in terms of population, was walking through the desert. And God struck a rock with Moses's rock and a river gushed for it. It wasn't like a little Brita being born. You live in Parkland and you're like, this water's nasty, I gotta use my Brita. It wasn't some Brita part. The rock was struck and a whole valley was flooded with a river, enough so that a nation could gather around the water and drink. Millions of people. Glory. This kind of glory is a little bit more significant than the lady in the back of the church saying, "Look at the river!" Praise God for that lady though. He saw God empower Joshua and Israel to defeat Amalek. Check this out, a tribe who came to fight against him. So a nation of slaves who had no military experience overcame the skilled army. When Israel came to Mount Sinai, this is awesome. God descended on the mountain in thunderings, lightnings, a thick cloud, smoke, fire, and a very loud trumpet blast. The whole mountain trembled greatly. So apparently he didn't need a sound system and a light show. His is way better. They sent it on a mountain. The whole nation heard God speak to Moses. That's when they responded, "Don't let him speak to us!" Stu, the moon. Next point, Moses went up the mountain. Okay, fire, a cloud, smoke, thunderings. A heavenly trumpet being resounded. A mountain shaking and a nation trembling, and one man who has the nerve to move up the mountain. Where the Bible says he lived there 40 nights in the fire of the presence of the glory of God. No food, no water. He came down, killed the cat, made them eat it. The Bible says he went back up for a second round of 40 days and 40 nights living in the fire of the glory of God. All before, he prayed the prayer. It's a significant note that, vividly whenever the glory of God manifests, it's experienced by more than one of the five senses. Smoke, fire. Right? Thunderings. A trumpet sound. So, in other words, it wasn't goosebumps. In other words, it wasn't by faith. I see an angel resting. Hey, I want to see it too. But when the glory of God truly manifested, it was a company of people that were unmistakably could say. That's the manifest presence of God. There was no talk of by faith. Hey, I see things by faith all the time. I'm not trying to tap on those experiences, they're legitimate. What I'm saying is, what I'd like to propose is, perhaps we haven't truly experienced the fullness of glory that God has reserved for his people. Moses had a long history of encounter after encounter after encounter, that which was reserved for heaven, breaking into the natural realm, him seeing it. Live for 80 days and nights without food or drink in the fire of God's glory. Then had the nerve and the audacity to shake his bony little finger that had been broken from fasting for the last two months. Oh God, would you show him your glory? Most people would think in that moment that God would get offended. Moses, after all I've shown you, the rod, the hand, the spread seed, the pillar of fire, water from a rock. I let you come up here to live in the presence of my fire for the last two months. You know, I'm a missionary, I get to ask people for money for a living, you know. And so, as a missionary, you know, I'm learning this, you always strategically make asks because it's like, who did I last hit up? Okay, note to self, don't ask them until I need to, do you know what I'm saying? You're weighing people's generosity. Like, I think I need to not ask them because your concern is always that I'm going to exhaust their generosity and their graciousness to me. Here's Moses, the hand of the Lord extended to him again and again and again and again. He had the nerve to say God, would you show me your glory? There's something about the manifestation of God's glory that awakens a hunger that cannot be satisfied with anything else but more. There's something about the manifestation of God's glory that convinces us that God is so good and he's so generous. He wants to show me more. The experience that I had months ago, year ago, last week yesterday was amazing. But when it's truly the glory, it convinces you. I think he wants to show me more. I remember two years ago, I'd broken both legs, I was in a wheelchair, I was thoroughly pissed off at God. They were just in pain, it was in September, it was still like 80 degrees outside and you're hot, you're like sweaty, you can't move, you know. You sweat on your couch. My wife, before we had a wheelchair, she pushed me around in my office chair and it would get stuck in the carpet. She pushed me off one time and I was an excruciating pain. We had a wheelchair, we had to go to the doctor's seat and I was so robust, she pushed me in my office chair all the way to my doorway. We were the way I'm parking on it, it's like we couldn't just call Kyle Nelson who lived downtown to have a car. I can't move, my wife can't pick me up, you know. My legs are broken, can't wait there. And so I tried using crutches, I'm thinking, well this leg is less broken than this one. Maybe I can use crutches to get to my truck. I stand right up on crutches on her porch and I fall down. Tears spread in my eyes, I can cry though. In that moment she went two doors down where Bishop Freeze lives. When I signed up, Bishop come help me, my husband, he's robusted and disgusting. He's crying. Could you come? Could you come? And that brother came picking me up like this. I'm like, man, took me over the threshold of my man. At least he had my brother some dignity and picked me up like a fireman. He said he had to kick me up like I'm your bride. Come on, Hannah. Places me in my truck. All the dignity sucked out of my life. What was I doing here? Oh yeah, I'm so angry with God. I wanted to get over my anger so I crawled up my stairs. Little had been upstairs in weeks. Crawled up my stairs. I felt I was literally wanting to cuss out loud, you know. Crawled up my stairs on my hands and my knees in excruciating pain. Went in my closet and I pushed all the shoes out of the way. God, I'm so sick of being angry with you. I began to thank you for the time. I began to thank you for what he was doing in my life. And I tell you, I just had a worship service in pitch blackness in my closet. The door shut, Nike shoes next to me. Laying on my back because I couldn't move on any other way. And I tried out to God, I had a one man worship service. And I tell you something, I ain't counting her. God, he touched me. And just amazing things. Doesn't matter to share the details. He touched me. His glory rested on me. There's something that happens when you encounter the glory of God. For the next months, I just walk into my closet and no one was home. Or stroll in there, turn up the lights, lay on the ground and say, God, I can't. Better, better. I know you love it. You're so good. I know you love me. On your word says, even if you, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Heavenly Father, who is good, give the Holy Spirit to those who ask? He's lived for love. And I try out to God. There's something about an encounter with the glory of God that convinces you. He's so good he wants to do again. More, bigger, better. Take me deeper. There's something about the glory of God that changes us. And I say, this is a great need for the hour in our lives to truly encounter the manifestation of God. Something I've had in breaking through the veil that separates the two realms and encountering us in a way that is undeniable. And it's the hungry heart that says, I want that. There's a whole nation at the bottom of the hill who were content to say, don't let him speak to us, just speak to Moses. But there was a man who scaled the mountain and he lived in fire without food for two months. God let us be like that man. God, give us a hunger. God, come upon us with a raging desire for more. Faith to believe that there is more. Not content to live according to the drought and the dryness of our previous experience in our history with you. But determine to believe that what your word says with respect to what you reserve for us is true. On this note, I want to say this, where young people, young people always get a bad rap over issues relating to this. Even in our community, I've thought arguments where they could go something like this. Well, they're just after an experience. They're not rooted and grounded and true. They're just looking for another experience and that's a sign of immaturity. And I understand that argument. I understand the reason behind it. I understand the need to be grounded and true. I'm a proponent of that. Let me ask you this. What good was Moses to the children of Israel? Have you never experienced an encounter at the burning bush? Have you never received the audible voice from God calling him? What leverage would he have with Pharaoh? How do you not the rob, the hand, the plagues? Who are we if we don't experience an encounter God? We become a bunch of theorists. That's right. The truth is not experience is more like a theory. There's something else with that. It's kind of like the voice it says. Are you proposing that we ditch the scriptures and both rattle pursue experiences? My concern is not that we would ditch the scriptures and pursue experiences. I'm proposing that we contend with God until we experience what his scriptures declare is reserved for us. There's something about the emerging generation that's not content to theorize the scriptures. There's something about the emerging generation that's not content to say. Well, he did it some time ago. But today, this is what Christianity looks like. There's something about the emerging generation that says, if I can't experience it, I don't want it. And I tell you something, Christianity that is established on theory is not a faith worth dying for. And if it's not, we're dying for it's definitely not worth living for it. True. But I tell you something, the most attractive focus on the earth is true word-based Christianity. Because word-based Christianity is experienced in this life, is encountered in this life. Yes. And I tell you what, we need to destroy the voice, any voice in us that would be associated with that voice. Man, I don't want to just go after an experience. Because what is Moses without the burning bush? What is Elijah without fire from heaven? Where are the children in here without manna? And water from Iraq? Moses said, is it not that you're going with us that makes us distinct from everyone else? Isn't it that we have the fire and the cloud? Isn't that all that makes us distinct that we get to encounter you and experience you? Come on. I believe this is what God is really wooing us to right now. This is what he's wooing us to right now. I've got a few more minutes here. I'll make you go. Yeah, I'm going to do two things here. Let's look at Isaiah chapter 60. What happens when the glory of God truly breaks in? We're not going to read the whole chapter. But it starts with these words. Arise, shine for your light and his tongue. And the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. In other words, there was a breaking in a glory. A breaking in something of heaven pushed through the veil that separated the two realms and rested on a people. And when that happened, the prophet was saying, "Arise, shine, your light has come." The glory of the Lord has risen upon you. And he says it happened in this context. Behold, darkness shall cover the earth and fix darkness to the peoples. Representing evil, judgment, calamity. Understand something about the glory. It manifests in an environment of black, dark, evilness. When I eat those shake the nations, shake everything that can be shaken. It's all black, when it's all nasty. A big darkness is resting on the people, hopelessness, despair. Arise, shine for your light has come. And that's when I pour out my glory. See, judgment and revival, judgment and glory poured out in the same breath. It will be. Rise upon you and his glory will be seen upon you. A visible reality. And the nation, this is what happens when the glory of the Lord rises upon you. The nation shall come to your light. And kings, the brightness of your rising. Verse 4, "Lift up your eyes all around and see. They gather together to come to you. Your son shall come from afar and your daughter shall be carried on the hip." You see it? The sons of the daughters. The young ones. The youth. His glory has power when it's resting on the people to attract the attention of whole nations. Kings, the sons, and the daughters. God, we need your glory in this house. We need your glory resting on the people. We don't want to party. We want the nation. We don't want to carnival. We want you to have your desire in your heart. We want you to do the desire of all the men. Do you see the cry of God in this? He's eager to look, to break through. Yes, he is. It's true. Then you'll see and be radiant. You'll have supernatural insight, revelation. When my glory is present, you'll see and you'll be radiant. You'll manifest that brilliance. Your heart shall thrill and exalt you before the joy because the abundance of the sea is turned to you, representing mankind and the wealth of the nations. The wealth of the nation shall come to you and he goes on and describes it. I want to look at one more aspect here. Let's go back to Exodus 33. [Silence] And the Bible says, You were sending Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp. Far away from the camp, and he called it the tent of meetings. And everyone who sought the Lord would go outside the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp. Whenever Moses would go, all the people would rise up. Each would stand at the door and watch Moses until he'd gone into the tent. Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent. The Lord would speak to Moses. And when he saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people would rise up and worship each at his own door. Thus the Lord used to speak with Moses face to face as a man speaks to his friend. This is the part I want to emphasize. When Moses turned again into the camp, his assistant Joshua, the son of God, a young man, a youth, he would not depart from the tent. Joshua, you know, he's a young man, he represents the next generation leader. When Moses was dying, God was looking for another man and he found a young person. He represents a New Testament believer, a next generation leader who lead the people into the promised land. And I tell you that Joshua's preparation for being used in a movement was long hours in the presence of God resting in his glory. Let's look at one more. Passes to Exodus chapter 17. We're going to be done here. The first time that the name of Joshua is mentioned in all the scriptures, it's a first occurrence. It's significant whenever there's a first time in the Bible. The first time he says, "Choose for us men who go out and fight with them. Tomorrow I'll stand on the hill." Joshua did, verse 10, as Moses told him, verse 14, verse 13. And Joshua over went on Amalek and his people with the sword. I want you to understand something. That before this moment, Joshua and all of his ancestors for 400 years had no military experience. Instead, they lived as slaves. And the first occurrence of Joshua in the scriptures, God calls on a young man to do a military exploit and gives him great grace, favorite glory. And he overcomes an invading skilled army. Why is this significant? Because in the preparation of a next generation leader, God saw fit to incorporate two critical ingredients. That they would engage military exploits, victories, they would be at war, and that they would spend long hours in the presence of God and worship and in prayer. Why is it that at City Central, our first 24/7 per watch, that those who flocked to the night watches, especially on the weekends, all spending countless hours before God were those 14 to 24? I tell you, it's because God is busier, raising up a next generation, next generation type of leader. The days of a steady youth group diet of pizza and lock-ins are over. And God's raising up a generation, a group of young people who won't stand for that anymore. They see right through it and they say we would prefer to engage a prayer watch than a lock-in. We would prefer to do a mission trip than a music fest. And this, these are the ingredients that God stores in a young person in a generation when he's preparing a mighty move of his spirit. This is relevant to us because we can't expect multitudes of young people being entrusted to us because these same values are sewn deep into the heart. What do they sound like? They sound just like mission in prayer. The same thing we've been talking about. This is why we're doing catalysts this summer, 10 weeks of training. We're taking 25 students. We've got two students from Egypt, a couple from Canada, California, Oregon, Washington, to come and see how we've got one from Switzerland. All coming to Tacoma. Not because we have a fancy building that we own. Not because we have the best sound equipment and light shows. But I tell you, they're coming because we're saying, if you come, we'll give you not a steady diet of government cheese living in a van down by the river. We're not going to place you. We're not taking you to the gorge this summer to go to a music festival. We're not going to have a, you seem to say, we're not going to wild legs every week. Instead, you're going to spend 10 hours at least in the prayer room every week. You're going to have a consistent evangelistic schedule in the city every week. You're going to receive hours of teaching, and you're going to be forced to rigorously apply that teaching immediately. This is what you're saying. By the way, you're paying for it. I had one gap, one gap, bless her heart, she filled out her application. And it said, are you prepared to raise $4,000? How do you propose you're going to do this? She said, my first step is to admit I don't have any power to raise that $4,000, but I'm going to pray. And I tell you the truth. If it means that I have to sell everything I own, I'm going to be there this summer. [Applause] What does the generation look like that God's raising up? What does our training look like? That's waiting there. How do you disciple? How do you shepherd? Follow me. I tell you what, they're not going to follow you home to the office for five days into the YMCA. And then on Sunday to church, they want to follow someone on whom the glory of God can descend and remain. They want to follow you rising early to worship the Lord in your home. They want to follow you into the city central prayer room. They want to follow you into campuses all over Tacoma. They want to follow you to loving broken, the broken, the widows, the orphans of the city. They want to follow you into Raymond Hall. They want to follow you into Sozo. They want to follow you into Sozo kids. They want to follow you in the east side. They want to follow you. They want to follow the one that is living in a way on whom heaven can say amen to that life and rest its glory. The glory of God is the great need of the hour. God's determined to find someone on him, a people that he can break through upon and rest his glory. And this is what we're containing for. And it's worth everything we've got. It's worth everything we've got. If it doesn't come in my life and I live every day for this very thing, it would be a life worth well lived. If it doesn't, if I die Tacoma hasn't seen it yet with my last breath. It will come! [CHEERING] I just want to pray for God. My bookshelves Lord are filled with biographies of men and women who tasted and seen the goodness of God in the land of the living. Lord I'm just telling you right now I'm not content God to read about Lord. I don't want that kind of faith Lord. God I just tell you I must know you as you are God. As you are I must know you. Jesus. Let's just take a moment here and begin to cry out that God would stir this hunger, this passion for his glory. You must see God. You must see God. You must see God. You must see God. Just continue to cry out. You must know you as you are God. You must see God. You must see God. You must see God. You must see God. [BLANK_AUDIO]