greater things

"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." John 16:33

Last night as Matt preached partly on the foolishness of the gospel to those who are perishing, I felt the sorrow in God's heart, that sorrow that is combined with His great love. In the Austin High School gym there are ever-changing game banners on the walls that the students have painted. As I walk in to pray yesterday morning in the gym before our services, one that has been up on the wall for a while causes my heart to leap. LET'S GO AUSTIN!

I sit on the floor of the gym under the LET'S GO AUSTIN sign as the sound of worship fills our church in those moments while the chairs are still empty. I ask God to break my heart for my city. It's a prayer He always answers. It's not that I like to cry, like to be messed up, but I am addicted to knowing His heart. I want to know that love that can love a million people in Austin individually by name, all at the same time, unconditionally, passionately. I can't even love one person like that. But I have to try. Not by our own power or might, but by His Spirit. Zechariah 4:6 It's His will that we love like this.

Every service we have is full of faces, the gym is packed out four times on Sundays. God is so good to us. He really is. You really can't begin to fathom the love Jesus has for each face. But during the sermon, every time Matt speaks the word perishing, and it's quite a lot, the word pierces my heart. Perishing. The lost in my city are perishing. "Now is the time to be sad and grieve for the lost," Matt is saying and I'm praying "Yes God, do this." I'm begging God to move us in His mercy and compassion.

As the sermon ends and we begin to worship God with the song The Wonderful Cross, I stay in my seat with my head bowed, not because I'm so pious or such a prayer warrior, but because I want to know His heart. I'm not going to stop asking until I know what is on His heart. We are singing the words: See from His head, His hands, His feet, Sorrow and love flow mingled down...Did e’er such love and sorrow meet, Or thorns compose so rich a crown?

And I'm hearing His voice and it's crying "My city, my city." And it's really more than I can take, His love is always more than I can take.

I pray it's more than you can take. And I pray even more than that, that you will know how much He loves you - how much He loves you right where you are in this sea of faces that is Austin, or wherever you are. The great love of Jesus Christ that knows no boundaries, that is higher and wider and deeper than any other love we can possibly know. "For greater things have yet to come, greater things are still to be done in this city..." I'm so believing it! Thanking Him so much!