The Roar of Justice: Exploring God’s Heart for Setting Everything Right

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Vanessa Hawkins
Good afternoon. If you are here, I am assuming that you are here to learn about the roar of justice, exploring God’s heart for setting things right. Okay, you’re in the right place. Good job, you made it. All right, so welcome. I’m Vanessa Hawkins. It is my absolute delight to be here with you today. I’m going to try really hard to stay with this mic. I’m not used to the handheld. I do a lot of moving. All right, but I’m so glad to be here. And if you have your Bibles, I am going to encourage you. I know that this is a breakout, but we’re going to do maybe a 30-1000-foot flyover of Amos and discuss justice and God’s heart in it. All right. Now, for those of you who have printed Bibles, I would tell you that Amos lived somewhere between Joel and Obadiah. Somehow, I don’t know that that would be very helpful. So I’m gonna say, lean hard into that that table of contents, guys. Lean hard into that table of contents, and figure out where that guy lives, Amos. All right, let’s open with the word of prayer. Gracious God, you are the one and only just and true judge. You are the judge of all the earth, and you always do what is good and what is right. And so, Lord, would you teach your people? Would you teach us your heart for justice? Open our eyes now that we might see wonderful things in this portion of your scripture. It is your word, and it reveals your heart. Reveal it to us today. We pray, Amen. All right. So I just want to begin. I’m going to name the elephant in the room because when we are talking about justice, just in this polarizing tenor of our cultural moment, it just complicates just about any discussion on injustice. Right? Let’s let’s just name that. That’s real. That’s real. And fear and injury, frustration, those things can produce many loud voices, but you may have recognized by now that the loudest voice isn’t always the voice of truth. And so, to really understand justice, it’s necessary that we understand the heart of God, who is the righteous Judge. So now, if justice is something that is optional for God, then you know what-it should absolutely be optional for us. But if it is His primary value, the very outflow of His heart, then it becomes necessary for us to understand how He thinks about it. And so, our role in participating that is also to understand what justice means, so that we can know how to live that out as faithful followers. So, how then do we think rightly about justice, recognizing that there are competing ideologies all over the place? How do we begin even to discern the heart of God for justice amidst the craziness that is our world. Well, we should first start with a good working definition of what it is, and it’s helpful to know that justice and righteousness are often used interchangeably throughout Scripture. Justice is, in its basic meaning, just means to treat people with equity, and so it involves punishment for wrongdoing, but it also involves defending the rights of those disadvantaged systemically, you know, of those who are that scripture talks about often the poor, the the orphans, the widows, and the immigrants, all right. And so, to think rightly about justice is necessary that we consider the heart of this righteous judge. So, but in this quest to understand justice, we often hear a few verses that often we have a pretty short repertoire of verses in our arsenal when we’re talking about justice, and we’ll lean hard into seek justice, love mercy, walk humbly with our God. Micah 680. that’s good. Don’t hear me say it’s not. That’s a good one. That’s a good one. Or for some of us, but let justice roll down like a mighty river, and righteousness like a never-ending stream. Right. Amos 524, and while these passages certainly reflect the heart of God for justice, they’re mere tributaries that flow out of a mighty undercurrent of justice that courses throughout the whole of Scripture. And so I wouldn’t have us to be scripturally impoverished.

Vanessa Hawkins
So in isolation, these passages can appear as just kind of isolated thoughts, instead of what they really are-this one continuous flowing stream from the unchanging character of a just judge through the whole of Scripture. All right, so now the book of Amos is an outflow of that very mighty undercurrent, and as this unlikely shepherd prophet expresses warnings to Israel and surrounding nations, we hear the heart of God expressed for all people and for all times, not just eighth-century Israel. If we listen closely, we hear what he values, we learn what he detests, we hear his desire for the flourishing of all humanity, and evidence of his righteous rule over every nation. Amos challenges us to think sober-mindedly about justice, as he echoes from the heart of God to those who are willing to hear. Are you willing to hear today? All right. So the book of Amos begins with a brief one-verse introduction of the prophet that sets us in the sandy soils of Judah, where the prophet hails, where he lived, and Israel, where the prophet prophesies. Amos commuted to work, lived in Judah, prophesied in the northern kingdom in Israel, and starting at the verse at verse one, the words of Amos, one of the shepherds of Tekoa, the vision he saw concerning Israel two years before the earthquake, when Uzziah was king of Judah, and Jeroboam son of Jehoash was king of Israel, and from the from this very introductory verse, he wastes no time introducing God as a roaring lion. Look with me at verse two. The Lord roars from Zion and thunders from Jerusalem. Now, several years ago, my daughter sitting here on the front row traveled with me to Malawi, Africa. We went on a missions trip. Now, Malawi is this country nicknamed the Warm Heart of Africa, and it’s named that because it’s a peace-loving nation that has never been in a war, right? And but the people are also so very warm and hospitable, and so they affirm that reputation of being the warm heart of Africa. It’s well earned. We can attest. But after completing our mission work there, we traveled to Zambia, which is Malawi’s eastern neighbor, and we went there for a safari. You know, to have a bit of fun with the work, and but that’s where we met Ginger. Ginger was an albino male lion who was popular among safari leaders for his distinct coloring and his clear dominance. And on the day of our safari, we just happened to catch Ginger with his mane drenched in blood. Uh huh. I was kind of glad Ginger was full. Yeah. So his mane was drenched in blood because as evidence that he had been indulging in a fresh kill, right? And so on an ordinary day, we learned Ginger’s roar could be heard up to five miles away. Can you imagine the ferociousness of that roar? His thunderous roar served as a warning to all who could hear that crossing that boundary of his domain was crossing at their own peril. In the book of Amos, it’s the Lord who’s roaring, putting all the nations of the world on notice that the earth and all of its fullness belongs to Him. It was His domain and that cruelty towards any image bearer made in in people made in his image. That his roaring was announcing his imminent judgment. So now, for many of us, it’s uncomfortable to consider what a good and gracious king that he could also be a roaring lion, angry, dangerous. Why can’t he just be meek and humble, Jesus, Lamb about that we hear about elsewhere in Scripture? I kind of like that God, right? He’s he’s easier and and nice and. And warm and fuzzy, but it’s Ansem who is this 12th-century monk that invited me to think differently about that. And he frames it this way: He says, “God is never at cross purposes with Himself. He says, “No attribute of God is in conflict with another. God’s compassion flows out of his goodness, and goodness without justice is not goodness at all. Packer puts it this way: He says, “God’s wrath is His right and necessary action towards moral evil. His wrath is always judicial. It means it’s the workings of a good and righteous king. Cruelty is always immoral, and it is the object of God’s wrath. God is incapable of being cruel.

Vanessa Hawkins
So then, why is this God angry? Why is the Lion roaring. Well, this is where right understanding of the role of prophet is helpful, lest we perceive God to be this heartless, angry killing machine. Prophets like Amos acted as the mouthpiece of God, and usually signified by the prophetic formula, “Thus says the Lord, or declares the Lord. They speak as the very voice of God, crying out to a people to turn from their wicked ways and back to the God who loves them. Prophet called God’s people to repentance, to turn, and that’s what we’re talking about this conference: turning. And when repentance was ignored, the Lord, the holy and righteous Judge, declared judgment on His people. The lion roars, and so in the first three chapter, God Himself brings specific charges or woes, as the prophets sometimes call it against the nations, that give us clear insight into what he values, what is of utmost importance to him. Let’s look at just a few of those charges, and so he starts with neighbors to Israel, and if you read through those walls, what type of charges does he bring against them? Crimes of cruelty and oppression, crimes of kidnapping and trading entire people groups, not remembering the covenant of brotherhood, crimes of murdering the unborn for convenience and profit, crimes of greed and corrupt systems of government. All of these are crimes against humanity and the sanctity of all people made in the very image of God. I don’t know about you, but I want a God who is angry about that. I I want a God who cares so deeply about people that to crush them is intolerable to him. I want the lion to roar about that, and so it’s worth noting that Amos forces us out of our political constructs of conservatism and liberalism, as he presents for us right on the same page of Scripture God’s disdain for injustice and oppression, as well as His hatred of violence towards the unborn, He doesn’t let us separate it into neat little categories, does He? He doesn’t do that. He doesn’t allow us to default to our separate camps, but forces us to see the Lord doesn’t abide by our own dichotomies and this false these false divisions of our making, with justice and biblical values being somehow separate from each other, you can’t separate them. God does not, and so He cares about both, which extends to the sanctity of human life in all of its stages and forms, from womb to tomb, and so that’s instructive for what we are to care about as well. His charge against Judah, though, is slightly different from Israel’s other neighbors. He charges Judah with rejecting the law of the Lord, not keeping his statutes, and being led away by the lies after which their fathers walked. Judah had been given the law; they knew the truth, and they had rejected it. And it’s interesting that he doesn’t give them a pass because their fathers didn’t walk with the Lord. That the fathers followed lies. There’s a level of responsibility for knowing and following the truth for themselves, inheriting wrong traditions and ideologies does not excuse us. Right, so having parents who follow wrong teaching does not give us a pass, and it didn’t give them a pass. The word has been given in such a way, plain enough, that they could choose to reject it or. To follow it, and the same choices before us. Judah knew the truth, yet chose to reject the law and the lawgiver in disobedience. Now the charges against Israel are the most extensive. Look with me at Amos two six. They sell the innocent for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals. They trample on the heads of the poor and on the dust of the ground, and deny justice to the oppressed. Father and son use the same girl, and so profane my holy name. They lie down beside every altar on garments taken in pledge in the house of their God, and they drink wine taken as fines, unjust government. And like with the other nations, God’s judgment is to go after their prideful self-sufficiency and their power. He says in 214, the strong shall not retain his strength.

Vanessa Hawkins
But what’s noticeable about these charges and judgment, other than the lengthiness of Israel’s, is that the Lord reminds them of how faithful He’s been to them. He reminds them in two nine through 12 how He has destroyed their enemies on their behalf and and brought them out of bondage in Egypt. How He led them 40 years in the wilderness, raised up prophets among them. He says to them in three, chapter three, verse two. You only have I known of all the families of the earth, and I want you to know this word yadah for to know. This isn’t a casual kind of knowing. This isn’t an acquaintance type of knowing, but it’s a deep, intimate knowing of a covenant God with a covenant people. God says to them that of all the families of the earth, I’ve only known you. I’ve only had this special relationship with you, and and you have broken covenant with me in all of these egregious ways. So now I am coming after your power. I’m coming after your strength. I’m coming after the very idols that you thought would satisfy you. So St. Louis was our home for about 25 years, right? STL. Our children were born and raised there mostly, and our home was one of those neighborhood gathering spots, the place for cookouts and bounce houses, climbing walls. We were that. We were that those neighbors, and inevitably, with all the little feet that pass through our space, on occasion there was an infraction of the rules, just on occasion, and for the most part, they were minor infractions that just required a quick redirect, and we were back to to playing right, and play would resume. But occasionally, when the rule breaking got severe enough, it warranted a family chat when the guests left, and we talked to our children about the rule they had broken to hear these precious little voices respond, but everybody else was doing it. To which we would respond, “You are not everybody else. You knew better. These children had walked with us every day of their lives, had been taught the rules of our household, knew us with a depth of intimacy that other guests did not, and only they knew us that way. And this is precisely what the Lord is saying to Israel when He says, “You only have I known. You know truth because I’ve given you my word. You know my love because you live in it daily. You know obedience because I’ve given you the boundaries of the law. You know me in ways the other nations do not. You only Have I known the Lord’s judgment against Israel’s neighbors for each of the charges was to send fire to come after their strongholds or their places of prideful self-sufficiency and power? Now his judgment was to burn down their idols and to remove their defenses. He repeatedly threatens to tear down the altars of Bethel, and the altars of Bethel were synonymous with false worship. And so, this ritualistic worship that had no heart to it, just actions, worship that said all the right words, gave a healthy offering. Played beautiful music, but their liturgy did not lead to right and just living. Look at what the Lord says in Amos 521 concerning that. He says, “I hate, I despise your religious festivals. Your assemblies are a stench to me, even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Though you bring fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them. Away with the noise of your song! I will not listen to the music of your harps. God’s people are doing worship, right? They are going through all the right motions, yet their worship is a stench in the nostrils of God. Let that sink in. He despises it because their living proves that their worship isn’t real. Their hearts are far from Him. Isaiah 2913 says it this way: The Lord says, “These people come near to me with their mouth, honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules that they’ve been taught. Jesus picks up on this same thought, 15 seven, quoting Isaiah. He says, “You nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition, you hypocrites.

Vanessa Hawkins
Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you that these people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain. Their teachings were merely human rules. Write liturgy, write programs at your church. All the trappings of worship, doing all the right actions means nothing if our hearts are not in communion with the Lord. And what does the Lord offer as the antidote to their empty worship? Look at Amos 524. Here’s the one you want to commit to memory. Some of you got it already. All right, say it with me. But let justice roll down like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream. He calls for there to be an outpouring of justice, such that justice among his people is the norm. God injected his concern for justice into the very heart of worship in Scripture, in passages like Deuteronomy 2719, where he says, “Cursed be anyone who withholds this justice that’s due to the immigrant, the fatherless, and the widow. Then all the people say, “Amen. Jeremiah 22 and three says it this way: It says, “This is what the Lord says: Do what is just and right. Rescue from the hand of the oppressor the one who has been robbed, do no wrong or violence to the immigrant, the fatherless, the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place. Justice inextricably flows out of a heart that is in communion with God. It is the outflow of that relationship. I can’t be in real communion with God and not care about what happens to you. It’s it’s just not possible. And to worship God is to love Him more than my comfort, more than my stuff, more than my reputation, and it’s to have my life centered Around another worship isn’t a Sunday activity. It’s a lifestyle of communion and repentance, communion and repentance. This call to let justice run down was a call for Israel to return to their covenant God. Not once, but again and again, so that this mighty stream of justice would flow from His heart down through His people out into the world. This then would be the evidence of real worship. Now, I’m struck by how gracious our God is that even while He is announcing judgment, He is telling His people how to get back to His heart. That’s gracious. That’s gracious. He tells them five four seek me and live 514 seek good, not evil 515 hate evil and love good, establish justice in the gate. This call to hate evil is not a passive kind of hatred that allows us to just kind of look from a distance and say, “Well, that’s too bad. No, it demands something of us. It requires. Us to actively push back evil and establish justice in our own spheres of influence, being a restorative presence wherever we find ourselves. For those of you who need to hear it in the New Testament, I know some of y’all you’re not quite convinced about this Amos guy yet. So for those of you who need to see it in the New Testament, I got you. Paul picks up on this concept in Romans 12 nine when he says, “Let your love be genuine. Abhor what is evil. Hold fast to what is good, and see our abhorrence of evil. And let’s be clear, injustice and cruelty towards any people group is evil. That our abhorrence of evil can never be just internal. It does no good there. It’s both actively hating evil, actively clinging to what is good, all at the same time. Our actions have to align with that-not just our thoughts, not just our stated beliefs, because you know what, our actions have a funny way of showing what we actually believe, right? I don’t want you to miss the kindness of the Lord in creating space for repentance, even in the midst of judgment. And I do think it’s a fundamental misunderstanding. I think of the prophets and of the Old Testament when we see God as one who is angry or who is always full of wrath. Well, first of all, His wrath is always righteous, but His judgment, even in His judgment, He’s calling people to repentance. The judgment isn’t an end to itself. The judgment is because he wants them to come back to him because he is the place of flourishing.

Vanessa Hawkins
That’s the whole point. But listen to how he recounts to Israel the severe mercies that he gave them just for the purposes of bringing them back to himself. Look at chapter four, verse six. He says, “I gave you empty stomachs. Wait, what? That doesn’t sound like something I want you giving me. He says, “I gave you empty stomachs in every city, and lack of bread in every town. Yet you have not returned to me. He says, “I also withheld rain from you when the harvest was still three months away. I sent rain on one town, but withheld it from another. One field had rain; another one had dried up. People staggered from town to town for water, but did not get enough to drink. Yet you did not return to me. Many times I struck your gardens and your vineyards, destroying them with blight and mildew. Locusts devoured your fig and olive trees. Yet you did not return to me. I sent plagues among you, as I did to Egypt. I killed your young men with sword, along with our your captured horses. I filled your nostrils with the stench of your camps, yet you did not return to me. I overthrew some of you as I overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It’s like that should have been a clue to you. You were burning. You were like a burning stick snatched from the fire. Yet you did not return to me. We hear this haunting refrain, yet you have not returned to me. And all of these, if you read Deuteronomy, you see the the covenant that God makes with Israel. They are all coveted promises of things. He always helps them in battle. He causes them to prosper. All of these things, he said. Now, when this stopped happening, it should have been a signal to you to come back. Yet, sadly, you did not return to me. I remember, I remember being as hard-headed and disobedient as Israel. They might have been better money managers than me, because in college, woo, y’all. I mean, I wasn’t just kind of a bad money manager. It was like feast or famine. It’s like either I just completely had it going on, or it was bad. You know, nothing in between usually. And so, but you know, being a good Sunday school girl, when so when things got really tight, and I was living alone, my first apartment-I think this is my second apartment-but it was my first apartment that I was, you know, having to to do as a co-op student, which meant I went to school a semester and I worked a semester, right? And so I just remember being so incredibly far behind on my bills, and so I said, “You know what? I’m not gonna. I’m not gonna go home like you know maybe my sisters and brothers did. I’m gonna just figure this thing. I’m gonna go to the Lord. I’m gonna fast and pray.” Sounded noble to me in in my head, and so I was like, I’m gonna just fast and pray, and the Lord is going to provide. So I began my fasting and praying, and in comes my sister Lisa, and I said, Wait a minute, Lord, she’s broke like me. Why you, why you sending her? Send one of the established ones, not, not her. And I’m like, oh well, at least she’s a good distraction. You know, she’s a good distraction. So I left, left her at the apartment, went to the store, and when I came back, she’s on the phone, and and I begin to hear, oh, she’s talking to my dad. And then I heard her say something like, “And Dad, her bills come to $825.13. This nosey sister has gone through my bills, tallied them up and has given my dad a number for what I need. I was utterly embarrassed because what the what the you know while you know prayer and fasting is a great activity, but what it was really covering up for me was a heart of pride. I was too proud to ask for help, and y’all gotta know. Okay, so my I got some some people on the on the front row, so they can check me on this. So my dad wasn’t much for a phone conversation. He got on and he got off.

Vanessa Hawkins
He just handled business, and he had this James Earl Jones kind of voice that was really foreboding, right? So if he said your name, it felt like the walls were shaking. Yeah, he was that dude, and so he tells Lisa put her on the phone. I go, so I get on the phone. Hey, Dad. Hey, baby girl. But no pleasantries after that. No pleasantries after that. He went right in, and he said, “How? Who do you think you are? That you would be somewhere in need, and not call your father. If it wasn’t anger, it was hurt. He’s like you were supposed to know when things got hard and you couldn’t handle it to come back to me. Who do you think you are? Jesus says, “Yet you. God says here in Amos, “Yet you have not returned to me. The Lord has given them severe mercy. You know, some of those mercies are severe. Some of those hard times are severe mercies that call us back to where we’re supposed to be, back to the heart of a righteous God, and He had allowed severe mercy after severe mercy, and yet they didn’t come back to the One who had given them everything. They had not returned to Him. Finally, the Lord concludes with verse 12. He says, “Therefore, this is what I will do to you, Israel. And because I will do this to you, Israel, prepare to meet your God. In other words, prepare to do battle with the one who has been protecting you. Prepare to do battle for the one who has fought for you, the one who fed you with manna, the one who caused your crops to prosper, the one who has caused you to increase and give you success in battle, it says, “Prepare to do battle with Him. Israel’s destruction is sure. How sure is it? God swears by Himself. Now I don’t know if you understand the significance of God swearing by Himself. When we’re in a courtroom and we swear, we swear by who? God. What? We put our hand on the Bible and we swear by God. But hear this: God has to swear by Himself because there’s no one higher, and so He swears by Himself the bleakness of their coming destruction-it’s sure-and he laments over them. He’s not happy about it. He’s sad. When I’ve had to spank my children, and I have, I’ve had to go into the other room and cry because I didn’t want to hurt them? I wanted them to not do things that were harmful to them, right? And so hear this word, Israel. This lament I take up concerning you: fallen is virgin Israel, never to rise again, deserted in her own land with no one to lift her up. It’s a bleak picture. This is what the sovereign Lord says to Israel: Your city that marches out 1000 strong will only have 100 left, and your town that marches out 100 strong will only have 10 left. This is like God is reading Israel’s obituary to them while they yet live. That’s how certain this judgment is. He is lamenting as though he is at their funeral. Israel’s destruction is sure, and there’s no help for him, for her. And then Amos eight 910. He says, “In that day, declares the sovereign Lord, I will make the sun go down at noon, and darken the earth in broad daylight, I will turn your religious festivals into mourning, and all your singing into weeping. And I will make all of you wear sackcloth and shave your heads, symbols of shame and grief. And I will make that that time of mourning for an only son, and the end of it like a bitter day. The sun going down at noon in the morning for an only son alludes to this greatest bitter day in history, the day when God proved His heart for justice one and for all, putting to death His only Son, that His justice would forever be satisfied for those who are in Christ. He became sin who knew no sin, that we would become His righteousness, evidence of His justice. We are indwelt by the One who has accomplished justice on our behalf.

Vanessa Hawkins
Those who are in Christ never again have to worry about being cast into eternal darkness, but are called to participate in the work of setting things right wherever we can. And in the final verses of Amos, we are given this picture of divine restoration that all of creation is moving towards. I know you’ve been waiting. Here’s the good news. Here’s the good news. There is good news. Amos 911 says it that in that day I will restore David’s fallen shelter. I will repair its broken walls and restore its ruins and will rebuild it as it used to be, so that they may possess the remnant of Eden and all the nations that bear my name, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when the reaper will be overtaken by the plowman. As soon as they get the crop in the ground, it will be ready to harvest. And the planter by the one treading grapes, new wine will drip from the mountains and flow from all the hills, and I will bring my people Israel back from exile. They will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine. They will make gardens and eat their fruit. I will plant Israel in our own land, never again to be uprooted from the land I have given them. That’s a picture of restoration. That’s why we want the lion to roar, because that roaring means that someday evil and injustice has an end, and that lion roaring signifies that. Amos paints this picture of the age to come-a day when all curses are removed and covenant blessings are restored, a day when drought and famine cease, unending prosperity is just the norm. A day when uninterrupted peace and the turmoil of war has been silenced. Oh Lord, I long for that day. A day when the land rips with fruitfulness, and God’s people enjoy lavish abundance, just as they once did in Eden. Now, I’ll be honest: there are sadly some injustices that don’t get righted on this side of glory. And in light of come, but we we live not in light of that. We live in light of the coming restoration of all things, right? That’s our hope. That’s our hope. Praise God for satisfying His justice in the crushing of His Son, because He was crushed. We don’t have to be. And when we are tempted to look with despair at the injustice of our current cultural moment, I want to encourage you to behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, the one who was crushed on our behalf to pay the sin debt that we owed, we can’t consider a crucified, dead, and buried Jesus and somehow think the Father is not serious about handling all injustice. You can’t look at Jesus and believe that, because he is serious about justice. He is also serious about our participation in it. So hear that also as a call. It’s not good enough for us to understand the scriptures about justice. We have to participate in this work. It’s Jeremiah. Who says that he is the God who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth? And when I got hold of, oh, that’s the work he’s doing right now. And so we look and think, oh, just you know, injustice has won, but God is working in the things that we don’t even pay attention to, and he is working justice and righteousness, he we are on our way to that Amos nine scene of restoration, and he is inviting us to participate in that. Now the woes he expresses through Amos display his priorities towards justice and injustice, and what our priorities must necessarily be, but may the Spirit of the Living God give us wisdom and an enabling grace that justice would roll down through each of us and out into the world around us. Let’s pray, gracious God. Without you, we don’t even understand justice, and we certainly don’t understand your wrath. We don’t understand your character, but Lord, I pray that by your Spirit, that you would teach us who you are. That you would teach us that you are the God who despises injustice. That is not just something you tolerate, but you are at work righting those wrongs, and that someday you will make all things new.

Vanessa Hawkins
And so, Lord, until that day, I pray, Lord, that you would give us an unction, that you would give us the desire to participate in that work wherever we are. Give us creative ideas of what it is that’s our work, that our hands should be set to do, that we might participate in your making all things new. We love you, our God and King. We give you praise in Jesus’ name. Amen.