Experiencing God: Week 2

Well, good morning. Let's do that again. You guys just

said hi to each other, you can say hi to me.

Good morning. So glad that you are here today. Thank

you so much for all your prayers. Last week. I

ended up having a I didn't know while I was

preaching to you guys. Last week I had a bronchitis

and some other virus and and God through the week

and it started feeling better, really good yesterday. So thank

you for your prayers today. We are going to continue

through our series. Now, remember this Experiencing God series. We're

gonna build week after week on top of each other. Now,

I just want to share with you that last week

was all about this. You know, we know about God,

but to truly know God, we have to experience God

at work in and through our lives. And it is

when we go from knowing about God to walking with

Him and God doing a work in our life or

through us. Well, then that experience leads us to a

d understanding and relationship with God. And so the goal

of the series is to set us all up so

that we are walking in a way and in a

posture so that each of us can experience God, encounter God,

so that we can know God in a deeper way.

So last week we started with Hey, it begins with Christ.

Christ is the way It's say, we're gonna build on that.

But before we do that, I just want to again

remind you why are we doing experiencing God? Well, for

me personally, I've done the workbook twice. Now I would

encourage you to order the workbook online and get on Amazon,

but both times I worked all the way through the workbook.

It shifted my understanding of who God was, how I

saw Him at work, how I lead as a pastor.

And today you're going to learn a lot about that,

about how I go looking for where God is at

work and then I want to join him. So it

changed my theology, It changed the way that I lead

a church, and it changed my understanding of who God is.

And so I pray all the same things for you today.

Let's pray and let's dive into God's word. God, we

just thank you, Thank You for the opportunity to worship

You today, to seek your face today. God, we all

got a lot going on outside of these walls. But

for these next few moments, God, let us just let

everything go, get our eyes on you and draw near

to you in the mighty, mighty Name of Jesus Amen.

Henry Blackabye tells this story about a true story about

a church that was very similar to a lot of

churches in well most metro areas, where the church was

big at one point, and then time goes on and

people move out to the suburbs, so the church becomes small.

And this one particular church became very small on the

edge of the city because everyone else had moved out

to the suburbs. And so this small group they were

the last ones at this church, this old church, and

they decided, all right, we're going to shut the church down.

Before we do that, someone suggested that they do a

thirteen week study on experiencing God together. And then at

the end of their study they were simply going to,

you know, shut the church down. They said, well, this

would be a good way for us to close out

these years together. And in that study the second week

they learned a very powerful, powerful truth that that's one

for all of us to understand here today. God is

always at work around you. You understand that I've talked

to you. He was individual's ear and us as a church.

God is always at work around you. So they learned

that and it kind of chuckled because they're like, it

doesn't seem like God's been at work around us for

a while. But they said, you know what, we're gonna

pay attention and we'll respond and do whatever God wants

us to do. The very next week, they were next

to this big apartment complex and the apartment manager came

to them and said, you know what, we have all

these kids, they're running around, they they're not organized, causing

some trouble whatnot. Would you as a church consider running

a kid's program just to love on these families. And

so they got together and said, well, maybe this is

what God is doing around us. So they in faith

started a kids program immediately. Immediately God started the work,

and the next thing they know, some unwed mothers or

being a minister to. By then some drug addicts were

coming to them, even gang members. And the next thing

you know, people started coming to Christ. And a bunch

of people came to Christ, and then within a few

more weeks they had to start other ministries in response

to the people that they were ministering to. By the

end of their thirteen week study, this church went from

closing down to a church in Revival that was seeing

many people come to Christ. Why what was the difference

in the church. They didn't create their own grand plan.

They simply looked to see where God was already at work,

and they joined God at work. See this principle of

joining God and what He is already doing is at

the heart, the very heart of experiencing God. So the

bottom line for our message today, I understand this, God

is at work around you right now. Does that make sense?

Or are you waiting for some special star to fall

out the sky? What do you need? God is at

work around you right now, in your life, at your work,

in your family, in your neighborhood, your kid's friends, your

granted kids friends. Look around. God is at work around

you right now. So if you want to experience God,

three things. One, open your eyes, start paying attention to

what God is doing, look around for his activity. And thirdly,

you got to step into it. You gotta step into it.

Henry Blackabee says out says this. He says, find out

where the Master is working, and that is where you

need to be to find out what the Master is

actually doing. Well, guess what, that's what you need to

be doing. As well. I just want to simply throw

this out that our job as servants of God is

to align our lives with His activity. We don't say God,

follow me, I'm ready to go blaze the trail. No, no,

we align our lives with God's activity. Do you know

that hiring Michael Thickpin and really launching the young adult

ministry was not in our budget? Last year? We had

our budget done, but we started to notice some things.

We started to notice that God was doing a work

among young people, especially in our church. We started to

see a lot more young families coming and staying. We've

had many weeks where we've had to expand the rooms

of our nursery. And I used to joke around and

say you are a fertile group, but really just a

lot more where young people start coming. We start seeing

the makeup of our church services being different. Especially this

service became much younger, and we started seeing young adults

actually coming to our church asking questions about God, being

very curious about God. And so we start to see

God at work. And then so we felt like, all right,

God is doing something here. We need to adjust our plans,

adjust our budget. So what do we do? We had

this budget that had been worked on for months, for many,

many months, and guess what we started doing. Well, we

couldn't go outside of our budget. We had to redo

the whole budget to bring Michael on to give a

generous budget so we can launch this ministry. And here's

what we were seeing God doing even a year ago.

Barna said this. Just a couple of weeks ago. Just

a couple weeks ago, Barner released this. He said, there

is a historic reversal. For the first time in decades,

younger adult Generation Z and millennials are now the most

regular church goers outpacing Oh did somebody go whoo? That's

what it took to get an amen in this church.

You are better than them. Amen. I always wondered what

it took. Okay, Gen Z and millennials, they're the most

regular church goers outpacing older generations who once formed the

backbone of church attendants. This younger group is in revival.

And we started seeing us maybe a year a year

and a half ago, and so we said we have

to adjust our plans, our budget, our marketing, our staff.

We adjusted everything because God was moving in this direction, okay,

And so we simply responded to what God was already doing.

We didn't invent something. We responded to what go I

was doing. And we'll continue to launch new ministries in

the gen Z Millennial area as God continues to awaken

their souls. God was moving here and nationally, so we

adjusted our plans, our budget. The biggest adjustment was Michael's life.

We adjusted his life, said you've got to move here.

And here's the thing. When Michael came, he didn't have

to invent something. He just plugged in and God was

already at work. See, our role is to watch again

for what God is initiating and then get on board.

And this is exactly what the Inner City Church did.

They didn't say, you know, what can we do for God?

They said what is God doing around us? Now? Here's

the thing. Most of our theology and most of our

life is very man centered instead of God's centered. Even

when we asked a very simple question. You have been

trained in the church to ask this question, what is

God's plan for my life? What is God's plan for

my life? What is God's plan for my life? That

is possibly not the best question to ask. The best question,

the right question to ask is what is God's plan?

What is God's will? Not what is God's will for

my life, but just simply what is God's will? What

is God's will in this world and this community, in

this situation. Now where do we get this non self

censered theology. Well, we get it from Jesus. Before Jesus

was beaten, it's slaying on our behalf because of our sins.

Before Jesus went to the cross, he had a conversation

with his dad and he says, father, if you're willing

take this cup from me. He's talking about this cup

of wrath that was about ready to be poured out. And

then Jesus says, yet, not my will, but yours be done.

Even Jesus says, it's not about me. And so we

learned to be focusing on, especially when it comes to

our Christian journey, what is God's will for my life? Instead,

as followers of Christ, we must first ask what is

God's will. So you want to find out what God's

will is for your life, if you want to eventually

end up in a spot where you are in the

center of doing God's will for your life, follow these steps.

One you simply ask God what is your will? You

start following his word, you start living out his word.

God says, don't do this, do this, adjust your life

to this. You simply do it because It's God's will.

And then you follow him, you obey him. So, God,

what is your will? God shows you his will, you

follow him, you obey him. And then when you do that,

guess what, You're going to start experiencing Him at work

in and through you. And then it's simply number four

rins and repeat over and over and over and over

and over again. And then here's what happens. You're going

to find yourself aligned with God's will for your life.

And so, instead of being on this journey of looking

for God's special will for your life, you say, God,

what is your will? Okay, I've read this in scripture.

I see you at work. I can see you calling

me to do this. I'm gonna step in and I'm

gonna obey it. As you obey it, you're gonna start

to experience God, okay, at work in your life. And

as you experience God, you're gonna just keep repeating this,

keep repeating this cycle, and over time you're gonna notice

that your life starts to shift ever so slowly, your career,

your friends, your relationships, your priorities, your hopes, your desires,

your heart and there's all these little shifts. And after

following God, doing his will, obeying him, you're gonna find

yourself that you are smack dab in the middle of

God's will for your life. See God does not say, oh,

welcome to the church at the Crossing tom here's my

will for your life. It's a relationship. Follow me daily,

say yes to me daily, and over time you're gonna

land right in the middle of the will that I

have for you. It takes time, but through that you're

gonna experience God. You're gonna know God at a different level.

And so you'll start coming in to church and you'll

look at people and be like, man, I see something

on that person's face. How are you doing? Okay, You're

gonna walk into work and God's gonna say you need

to go and curse such such Well, I haven't talked

to such sus in three weeks. Go encourage them. You

walk over to their desks. You're gonna say, hey, I

just want to tell you I appreciate you. And then

they start crying. Why are you crying? All this stuff?

Happened in your life. Huh, I wonder why God wanted

to do that. See, God will start walking with you

and leading you and guiding you, and you will be

experiencing God. And the next thing you know, you are

walking in step with the spirit. You're walking in step

with God, and you find yourself in the middle of

doing God's will. And it's not a mysterious thing for us. Thankfully.

We see an example in scripture Jesus himself, I did

for some audacious reason to heal somebody who was desperately

in need of healing. But unfortunately Jesus, I don't know

what he was thinking, did it on the Sabbath. He

showed God's mercy on the Sabbath. And so the religious

leaders are like, you can't do that. You can't do

that good work and help that life and change that

life and dramatically change everything about this person's future today.

And then Jesus responded what he says, says, my father,

first of all, is always at his work to this

very day at I too, am working. So he's doing

two things with this one sentence. One he said, hey,

first of all, you know I do whatever the Father does.

In other words, he and I are one. And by

the way, I just want you to understand that the

Sabbath was made for man. Man okay, So man is

the one who needs a not God. This holiday was

made for you every week so you could rest. No,

God does not need the Sabbath. The Sabbath was made

for you, not for God. So number one, he's letting

them understand, Hey, I and God we are one. Okay.

The Sabbath is for you. The second thing he was

letting them know is how he did ministry. Jesus saying, listen,

I look around, I find out where God is leading me,

what God is telling me to do. I adjust my life,

I adjust my schedule, my priorities, and I join God

at his work. And as a result, God did amazing things.

And see this idea really comes into focus this next

passage here is whats Jesus goes on to say, goes

very truly, I tell you, the sun can do nothing

by himself. Paying attention to this, the sun can do

nothing by himself. Yet for some reason, Christians today and

the Church today, we think we can do amazing things

for God by ourself, in our own power. That is

a ridiculous assumption that is out of man made pride.

It's a ridiculous thought. Jesus said, I could do nothing

by myself, and he said he could do only what

he sees his father doing. Because whatever the father does,

the son also does. For the Father loves the son

and shows him all that he does. Jesus saying, listen,

here's how it work. I adjust my life. I just

my schedule. I see what God is doing, and then

I do it. Now, if you want to join God

has worth three key things you have to do according

to this passage. Number One, understand God is always at

work around you. Get that in your head. Number Two,

you watch to see what the Father is doing, and

then you join him. See the son said, what did

Jesus say? Because the son can do nothing by himself.

Jesus did not invent his mission. He aligned himself with

God's will. Every miracle that Jesus did was an expression

of God's love and what God was doing. When Jesus

healed that man on that day, God was showing him

that he wants to show his compassion, his love, his hope,

his concern, and his power on that man's life. That's

why Jesus did that healing that day number three. Now,

this is big. Relationship is the basis of revelation. What

does he say at the end, The Father loves a

son and shows him all he does. It was because

Jesus had this intimate relationship with the Father that all

these great things happen. He wasn't running ahead on his

own agenda. He was walking a step with the Father.

And so what do we do well, Jesus is our model. Okay,

And again it means we adopt the same approach, which

is simply this. I can do nothing on my own.

I only want to do what I see God is doing. Now,

imagine you as a follower of Christ. How different would

your life be if starting tomorrow morning, you started every

single day like this, good morning, God, Show me what

you want me to do today, Whatever you want me

to do. I will adjust my schedule and my priorities.

Halfway through the day, Do you have anything for me

to in the evening? Lord? Have I done what you

want me to do today? Wow? Like it's almost like

what if he was our lord? You know what I mean?

Like what if we followed him like he was our

king and we served him and said, here I am

what do you want me to do? And I'll do it.

Henry Blackabee tell us another story about another true story

about his church felt like God was calling them to

start some Bible studies and an outreach on a college

campus right next to their church. For over two years,

they had a group from their church that try to

start a Bible study. After Bible study, it did not work.

They advertised, they put money in, they had training, they

had all these events. Nothing for over two years, no

fruit from this ministry. And then he pulled them in

and said, I think we must be doing something wrong.

We're trying to do something for God when God called

it to do this work. We know this. Let's just

make a commitment. He looked at the college students. He says,

all right, this week, I want you to look around

on the college campus, listen and look for where God

is at work and wherever God shows up, stop what

you're doing, adjust your life, and do it well. This

girl came back the very next day, and I'm gonna

read what she said because I love it. I love it.

She came back the very next day. She says, Pastor,

a girl in my class who's known me for two

years suddenly came up to me class. She told me,

I think you might be a Christian and I need

to talk to you. Boy. That could be God moving right.

And then she confessed. Here's what this girl said. Do

you know there's eleven of us girls in our dorm

who've been reading the Bible. None of us are Christians.

Do you know somebody who could lead a Bible study

for us? Could you imagine their surprise and her joy.

These college girls had already been seeking to truth. They

opened their hearts, but they've been working so hard for

two years and nothing. And then all of a sudden,

God opens this door. They looked around and see where

God was already at work. And here here's what happened.

One conversation, open door, and within a few weeks they

started three women's Bible studies, a couple men's Bible studies,

A bunch of kids came to Christ Revival on the campus,

and many of those students went into full time ministry,

all because they stopped trying to invent things and they

just said, God, show us what to do. You lead us.

You know, we experienced something like that as a church

together as a body. A few years back, we sins

that God was calling us to launch a Spanish service.

We didn't have Spanish people here, but God was calling

us through that. So at the end of the year,

we took one of our year end offerings and the

church raised money for a group that did not exist yet.

Over one hundred thousand dollars the church raised. We had

a bunch of people from the church redo the gathering

place made it into a beautiful sanctuary. So now we

had the money, we had the place, but no Spanish

and well over a year passes by, and I can't

tell you how many times I would walk by the

gathering place, like, Lord, I know you told us to

do this. I know you were showing us that you

want this done. God, I know you wanted us to

prepare for this ministry. What are you doing? I flew

to Philadelphia to try to recruit people. I had people

fly in for interviews. Everything I did in my own

power nothing worth. Then one day I get an email

from this guy named Jose Gomes and he says, Pastor

God has told me that I am to come to

your church and pastor the Spanish ministry. I was like,

this guy's clearly a nutcase, because that's you. Guys know

that you don't do business that way, right. God has

told me that I am to come and be a

pastor at your church. It's like very weird to me

and outside of my culture the way things work, and

so I was just like, you know, I didn't really

even really spawn. I was like, okay, well, thanks for

your inquiry or whatever. I remember saying in a bill,

like you think this guy's I got a call from

the state pastor, the Weill high in the state pastor said, hey,

I hear the Jose and his wife Patricia want to

go start a church there and out of that they

want to plant churches. And I said, is this guy

on the up and up? She goes, No, he's a

real deal. You don't understand. He's the real real deal,

And like, really, okay, okay. So I was thinking about

it for a couple of days, and then the next

thing I know, he shows up with him and his

wife and his three kids to this church unannounced. I

think I had a half hour warning. Shows up. So

I'm like, this is weird. So I'm walking him and

his little family around and showed him the church, and

then I showed them I said well, God told us

we're gonna have a Spanish ministry. We raised the money,

we built a building, and he starts looking around, and

then we start talking. Probably within forty five minutes, we

knew that God was gonna do something that was gonna

blow over our minds. They moved here within a few months.

Let me tell you what. Here's what's happened since then.

I want to fast forward just a couple of years. Okay,

all right, I'm gonna fast forward two and a half

years since that time. They just celebrated their one year

anniversary of their launch. Out of nowhere. There's a congregation

of eighty almost every single week, and a lot of

weeks it swells up to over one hundred. Forty people

received the Lord, nine weddings, a lot of marriages, reconcile,

baby dedications, baptisms called the ministry. Last year they planted

five churches. Nine churches were planted. This year, five churches

are being planted right now. And there's ninety students in

their leadership academy this year being trained to be a

pastor out of that work. Can you not tell me

that's not God? I mean, how can you explain this?

You cannot. God led this. God open the doors. God

provided for the ministry, and here we are just responding

and being faithful to what God is doing. So now

let me bring it down from the church to the

individual level. How do you find God at work around

your life? Okay, Number one? If you want to see

where God is at work, look for pain. Look for

where there is a need, and where there's pain. See

God's is drawn to the broken and the hurting. Throughout

the Bible, you always see him helping the poor, the sick,

the oppressed, the lass And see often your deepest pain

is the starting point of God's work in your life.

If you're looking for God here the next couple of

weeks at our church, let me tell you where you're

gonna find him. You're gonna find him at our neighborhood market.

Yesterday there was over one hundred families here. A couple

of weeks ago, we had our shelves emptied. God is

doing a work in our outreach to people in our community.

I'm very, very concerned with what's going on with Snap benefits.

If Snap benefits are not handed out next month, I

don't know what we need to do to adjust, but

we will adjust to help people. But people are in need.

And let me tell you something, a lot of great

ministry happens there. So if you're looking for where God's

at show up to the market. We're gonna be launching

our Immigration Connection Ministry soon. God is going to be

every day showing up. You know, over three to four

hundred people drive from Indianapolis a couple hours up to

get help. We're gonna be the first place helping them

in Indianapolis our Unhoused Ministry. If you want to look

for where God is at work, be an usher or greeter,

because every single week they get to shake hands and

say hello to people who are hurting, who are broken.

Number two, look for where there is hunger for God

or curiosity about spiritual matters. You're gonna find God there.

Just look at our young adult ministry. And let me

tell you something. If you're looking to be where God

is at work, just go to our children or our

youth ministry. God is always hanging out over there. One

he's entertained. But two, God is always around the children,

Always around the children. I promise you God is always

at work with the young, pliable hearts. Number three, look

where your gifts and your passion and intersect with the need.

Look where your gifts and passions intersect with the need.

You know, when I first moved here, I really since

God was wanting us to start a celebrate recovery ministry

of full blown one like we have on Tuesday nights now.

And I looked around and we didn't have a full

blown celebrate recovery ministry in this area. And it just

blew my mind. And every year we're looking for leaders,

praying and just asking God, all right, God, I know

you want to do this ministry. Well, while our hearts

were getting ready for this ministry in the church, our

heart was getting ready for this ministry, God was doing

some things behind the scenes. Let me tell you about

the two co leaders. Sherry, who stepped up about a

year and a half ago. Her background experience an addiction

with family members, very close family members who've experienced recovery

and now walked with the Lord. Part of her career

was interacting with drug addicts and helping them get off drugs.

She ran Cairos, which was a spiritual and kinter retreat

for juvenile corrections. And then our other co leader, Kate,

my old assistant Kate literally the biggest heart on this earth.

I had no idea that her whole family was dramatically

changed because of Celebrate Recovery. She said her family would

not be the family that it is today if it

was not for Celebrate Recovery. And God was preparing these

two women the last few years, and then all of

a sudden, all of it came together. Let me tell

you something. God is at work, let me tell you.

And I'm not shocked by the way, because what as

Ephesians two ten says, See, God often works by preparing

you for the work that He wants done. If he

just too was to say, says, we were created in

Christ for good works, which God prepared in advance for

us to do. So God is preparing you right now

for your future work. Okay, there are things that you

have not even dreamed of or done yet that God

is preparing for you today. And God brought an amazing

group of leaders to get the once we launched this ministry.

Matter of fact, I heard last week our guys group

has grown so big that we're actually having to multiply

a group. Isn't that awesome? Amen? Amen? See, God doesn't

work around us, just gonna open our eyes, adjust our lives,

and follow him. Now here's two keys to recognizing God

at work around your life. Number One, you gotta be

in an intimate love relationship with God. It's all about

the relationship. Start there. Too many people get busy and

move past God the relationships first. Number two, allow God

to open your spiritual eyes. Now, I'm not going to

go much much further into that because Andrew's gonna talk

about that next week, but here's what I want to

do as I close up today. I want to touch

on one very important insight before we head out today,

and that is simply this God, and I want you

all to look at me. This is very important what

I'm about ready to say. God often prepares you before

he works powerfully through you. See a lot of us

we're eager for this big assignment, but God is often

in the meantime working on our character. What does Blackabee say?

He says, God always builds character to match his assignment.

If God has a great task for you, He's gonna

expand your character to match that assignment. So, in other words,

if you want God to do big things through you,

you have to allow God to do a deep work

in your life. You're that. I will say it again.

If you want God to do big things to you,

you have to allow Him to do a big work,

a deep work inside of you. Now. And this is

where we're gonna take a shift today as I close.

If you want God to do a deep work in

and through your life, you have to overcome the Northern Indianapolis,

Hamilton County evangelical lie. There is a lie that has

seat into our culture around here. And here's what it is. Okay, Now,

you see, the vast majority of people around here are

way too discerning to fall into the health and wealth

prosperity gospel. Now what do I mean by that? Well,

if you look at stats, we are the most churched

place in America by far on you know, one church

for every two hundred and eighty nine people were overly saturated,

which means that there is a level of biblical literacy

in our area. And so people when they look at

the New Testament and the Gospel and they see that

the hero of the story, Jesus died and suffered a

horrible death and then all of his followers were martyred

to suffer John that does not speak prosperity gospel that

does not speak health and wealth and all these good things.

Why because we see that our savior and his followers suffered.

So the prosperity gospel, which flourishes in some places in

the United States, has not taken hold in our region

around here. But let me tell you it's been repackaged.

A false gospel has been repackaged, and it has invaded

our region. And it's just as dangerous, maybe even more

dangerous than the prosperity gospel. Instead of the wealth gospel,

we have the cheap gospel. And the cheap gospel goes

something like this, God's ultimate desires for you and your

family to be happy. It's about your happiness. God wants

you to be happy. So you're not gonna suffer here.

We're gonna pray and get this trial out of your life.

We're gonna do this, We're gonna do that. And so

we have sermons series that go like three steps to

a successful career, four steps to a perfect family, five

steps to healthy family budget, three ways to reduce your

stress in life, four ways to have a perfect family

on social media, three ways to become leaders of leaders

in scripture data through that you have. Confronting sin, enduring suffering,

taking up your cross, denying yourself not on the menu

in our region. Why because we want you to be happy.

So you're like, all right, James, what on earth do

this have to do with experiencing God. You sound like

a grumpy old man right now, just going off. Okay,

that leads me to the bad news of this series.

And here it is. Modern day Christianity has been so

focused on teaching Christians how to win at life. We

have forgotten that our Savior called us to lose our lives.

We believe that it's all about winning, being successful, being

happy when God called us to take up our cross

and to lose our life. And so here's where this series,

the concept of experience of God might lose its luster

for you. This is where you might jump out of

this series. But for those of you who want to

experience God, if you want God to work through you,

you want God to do a deep work in you,

You want God to change you, and you want to

know Him on a deeper level, I'm gonna have to

warn you before we go any further in his study.

If you want those things that I just mentioned, it's

gonna be messy. It's gonna be frustrating. Suffering is required,

stress is involved, sacrifices called for. Pain is on the menu.

Persecution might come because of the way you change your life.

Hard work is in the pipeline. Passionate prayers are gonna

come because you need God to help you. Grint is

a must. But God's gonna grow you. God's gonna do

a work in you. God's gonna allow you to experience Him.

But some of those ingredients are gonna be pained, patience,

and be impressed. On all sides. God will reveal himself

to you.

He's gonna show you the great things he wants to

do through your life and through the church. But while

he's doing that, he is not afraid to cut deeply

inside of you and pull out that sin that's been

a cancer in your life.

He's not afraid to allow this world to kick the

trash out of you so that you can finally be

humble enough for God to use you. And he will

allow those dreams you have to be crushed so you

will finally open up your eyes and want the dreams

He has for you. Experiencing God is not a cool gimmick.

On a cool sermon series. It's an imitation for you

to know God deeper, and it's gonna cost you. Our

region and our country. Right now offers a cheap gospel,

but if you want to experience God, you must embrace

the costly gospel. It's the gospel that cost God his

own son. As I close up today, the very next

chapter after this teaching, it shows that Jesus goes out

and he and he teaches all day. He does a

phenomenal job. And then everybody's hungry. There's five thousand plus

so maybe twenty thousand when you count kids and family.

And he takes some fish, some loads of bread, prays

over and there's a miracle. Everybody's fed. There's food that's

left over, and all of a sudden buzz starts. People

are like, this guy might be the guy. He might

be the Messiah. He might be the one that topples Rome.

This guy he's gonna be the one that's gonna cha

everything for us. This he's the man, and he got

all They get all excited. So while they're excited, Jesus

teaches one more time. And let me just paraphrase what

Jesus basically says, to the crowd. He says, if you

really want real life, do you want to truly know God,

then you got to take me in completely. You just

can't follow me for miracles and blessings. You have to

let my life become your life. And you've got to

receive me all the way, my words, my ways, my sacrifice.

And then guess what happens. The crowd goes quiet, like

that's too much. It's a hard teaching. This isn't what

we came here for. I heard there was a free lunch,

and one by one, the Bible says, they all walked away.

Those who had had their hand out to receive bread.

We're now waving goodbye with the other hand. And in

this moment where everybody left Jesus, he turns to his

disciples and it says, or are you guys going to

leave me to? And then Peter said, where will we go?

For you are the one who has the words of life.

And so my question to you today is do you

want to experience God? Do you want to know God

at a deeper level? If so, are you willing to

adjust your life so that you can know God deeper?

Or will you just walk away today? And go on

with your life as is. Let us pray, God, we

come to you today, and here's what I want you

to do. I want you to just simply look at

the Lord, and if you mean it with your whole heart,

say Lord here, I am whatever you want to do

with me, in and through me, I am here. Lead

me and guide me. Some of you in this room

you just prayed that prayer, But you will not experience

God until you lay down that sin that he's already

asked you to lay down, until you adjust your life

to what He's already asked you to adjust your life too.

So is there something right now that God has been

working on you but you have not made that adjustment

to turn to him. Won't you go ahead and deal

with that now? God, we give you our lives, we

want more of you. We don't want to know you

in deeper ways. So we lay down our agendas, we

lay down our sin, we lay down our pride, and

we say we want to only see you. Jesus. Jesus,

show us, show us your way, and we will follow

you