Dwelling in the shadow

Welcome to the Cross Power Church podcast.

You're listening to a service from our church in Campbell, TX.

We pray this message strengthens your faith and points you to the

cross. Now let's join the service.

So there's a lot of times whenever or at least

occasionally you really feel the attack of the enemy, you know

where that you know something's not right.

Nothing seems to be going right. And then when you get to church

there before you can ever even start to preach, somebody else

coming up with all their problems wanting them dealt with

right, then you're like, Nah, hang on a second.

The devil's trying to derail something, you know?

And I haven't felt good most of the day.

And I thought, well, I'm not going to quit on this thing.

And I don't really know how it's going to turn out, but we're

going to do a little Bible study and I'm going to do a little

talk and I'm going to try not to preach to you.

But anyway, I do want to, well, I have to do whatever the Lord's

telling me to do. So if you would, a couple of

things I need to preface before we get started.

If you turn over to Psalm chapter 91 and you look there

Psalms 91 · chapter mention

at, oh, we'll look at the first maybe 2 verses.

But in Psalm chapter 91, anybody got a Bible with you?

Psalms 91 · chapter mention

That's good. Too many people you know, don't,

don't have their have it on their phone.

They don't have it physically or either.

And it's like, well, need to have your Bible.

That's your sword. But in Psalm chapter 91, it's

Psalms 91 · chapter mention

pretty famous, you know, well known passage, but it says he

who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the

shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, my

refuge and my fortress, my God, and whom I trust.

I want you to look at that. That first verse says he who

dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the

shadow of the Almighty. You can turn that thing around

and it means the exact same thing, but it's a different way

of saying if you start at the end and read the the last part

of the verse first and you say it this way, he who abides in

the shadow of the Almighty will dwell in the shelter of the Most

High. It's the same concept.

They're both accurate. Problem is, well, we, you and

your ugly sweater get up again. Thank you.

Now you're kind of thin. I need a big broad guy.

But anyway, that's all right. You'll get the point.

So if the sun's over here, right, where is his shadow going

to be? Going to be?

Back over here somewhere, right? OK.

Now, is his shadow likely to be over there at the end of that

row? Is it?

You think it would reach there? If the sun's up here?

Is it going to reach over there? Probably not.

I mean, it's sure not going to be back.

It's not going to be over there. Or what do you got to do to be

in the shadow of the Almighty? You got to get right up close to

him to make sure if he moves, you move.

Because if he moves and you don't move, you find yourself

back over here and you're not in the shadow anymore.

And guess what? Your shelter's gone too.

You got to stick close to the Lord.

He said a while ago, draw close. Draw close to God.

You know what? You've got to draw close to the

Lord, and you got to stay there, OK.

And it's not just be in his. Let me just have a nice word

that's right. It's not just be at the church,

OK? It's not just, well, I warmed a

bench, I came in and I went to service one day.

Or you can be around Jesus and not close to him at all.

You can be around Jesus and not have him in you operating and

effectively flowing through you and doing with you what He wants

to do with you. And sometimes what He wants to

do with you isn't exactly what you necessarily would have

wanted him or thought that he ought to do with you.

Sometimes the things you go through aren't the things that

you would have picked for yourself.

But if you just stay close to him, he'll take care of it.

I don't know who that's to, maybe more than one person, but

I felt like I needed to say that.

You remember in I've got so many verses and so many passes.

I always do. And it's like good night again,

Lord, they're going to think I can never shut up, you know?

But anyway, Genesis chapter 1, God creates, you know,

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

everything. He creates the heavens, he

creates the earth, He creates the, the beasts of the field,

the birds of the air, the, the swarming things in the ocean and

the waters. And, and he creates men, which

is the only thing that he created in his own image.

It's also the only thing that it said afterwards, because

afterwards every time he created something, it said and it was

good. Or I mean, yeah, it was good.

But then whenever he gets to, to man and he creates man, it says

it was very good. OK.

And then by the time you get to the end of that chapter in

verses like 27282627, you've got the, the the Trinity Godhead

saying we're going to create him in our man in our, in his own

image, right. And the next thing that you have

in chapter 2 is the fact that you know, it goes through him,

making him out of dust and whatever and breathing into him,

his his own breath. Now the reason why this is

important is because God created man not to just run around like

the beasts of the field, OK, that they're OK, but that's not

why he created you. He created you as a human being

in his image that he might be able to commune with you, that

he might be able to walk with you, that he might be able to

share with you and hear from you, Right.

And too often, even as the bride of Christ, as Christians who

show up on Wednesday night, even we kind of get in a rush.

It's Christmas after all. And I got shopping to do and I

got cookies to bake and I got whatever I got to do.

And and if we're not careful, we can allow a wedge to to be

driven between US and him just the same way they did in chapter

3 of Genesis whenever they sinned.

And sin isn't just something that created a wedge between God

and mankind back in Genesis. It's something that creates a

wedge between God and mankind right now.

And he said, well, I'm not sinning.

Yeah. But see, there's this passage

over. And I believe it was in James,

if I remember right. And he said, you know, he who

knows what to do and doesn't do it to him, it's sin.

And how many times can you, if you're real honest with

yourself, you say, well, I knew I ought to have done that, but

I, I did anyway. Or I, I knew I should have done

this, but I didn't. And I mean, let's just get real.

We're not perfect, right? I'm not trying to say you're

perfect or we should be perfect, but we should be pressing closer

to the Lord instead of allowing stuff to come in between US and

Him and driving a wedge into that relationship that He called

very good. Now if you turn over to John

John 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1, let's read just a few verses of this John chapter 1,

John 1 · chapter mention

verses one through 5, and I don't know wherever, we'll

figure it out as we go. In the beginning was the Word,

and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

He was in the beginning with God.

So now we know that because of the capital letter there on the

West, yours has got that right. OK, so it's a proper noun.

It's the name of a person, place, or thing.

You should have picked that up in school along the way.

All right, So we're talking about a person, place or thing.

And then whenever we look a little bit further, it calls him

and he uses a pronoun he. So we know that it's a male

individual, and we also know that he was in the beginning

with God, and we also know that he was God.

That's what it says. So we're talking about someone

who is God, but it's also with God.

And the only way you can do that according to is to think of the

Trinity, Godhead, really. And, and you got the Father, God

the Father. And oftentimes that's the way

it's presented in Scripture is when it says God is talking

about the Father. A lot of times that's that's the

case. And so you've got the Son of God

here. And if you read through this

passage, you'll, it becomes real clear that that's what this is

talking about, talking about Jesus in the beginning, he

always was. See, we're talking right now

about how, you know, it's Christmas time and Jesus came

and that wasn't the beginning of Jesus.

Jesus had already been. He always was and always will

be. He's God in the beginning.

He was he was already there in the beginning.

All things were made through him and without him nothing was made

that was made In him was life, and the life was the light of

men. And the light shined in the

darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

Verse 9 Speaking of light, that was the true light.

Now if there's a true light, I'm going to tell you there's a

false light too, OK. And some things you may look

good and, and they're not. And the only way that you can

really discern that is if you get into the word and you stay

there in John 15, what did he say say?

He said, I am the true vine. There's there's the truth again,

I'm there's a fake vine too. I'm the true vine.

And then when you say you're the branches and you're supposed to

abide in me, you got to dwell there.

You got to stay there. And, and even if you say, well,

I was raised in church, I've been in church, you know, every

time the doors are open, I'm here.

I know what the word says. Well, good, you better stay

there. Second you start moving away

from it, you've got a problem. It's kind of like the second you

start moving out of the shadow and moving away from him.

They're both the word. You've got a problem.

And in verse 10, it says He was in the world and the world was

made through him, and the world did not know Him.

He came to his own and his own did not receive him, but as many

as received Him. To them He gave the right to

become children of God. How cool is that?

I mean, that's awesome to those who believe in His name, who

were born not of blood doesn't mean that you were just born a

human. See, there's people that say,

well, I'm a child of God. He made me.

I was being born of blood. This doesn't sage it.

That's good enough. It says who were not those who

were just born in blood, but were the will of flesh nor the

will of man, but of what of God? Well, you might remember

Nicodemus in John chapter 3. He came asking, you know, how,

John 3 · chapter mention

what do you, you know, how do I get to heaven and how do I, you

know, get right with God and, and how, how do I take care of

this issue? And it wasn't just an issue that

he had that he knew, you know, I might not be doing everything

quite right because guess what, in Romans chapter 323, it also

says that for all of sin and fallen short of the glory of

God. So each one of us, at some point

we're faced with the same problem Nicodemus had in chapter

3 of of John, where it's like, OK, you come to Jesus and you

say, how is it? What is it I've got to do to fix

my problem? But if you come to him, you've

come to the right spot and he told him you've got to be born

again. That word again is a nothen in

the original language. And that means from above is

what it means. So when you told him so you got

to be born again. It's not that you got to be born

a second time of the blood. You got to be born from above

through the Spirit of God, OK, and and become a member at that

point, be born into the family of of God.

And that's an awesome thought. Now we get so caught up and we

have, we have it in our head, you know, we've heard that, we

know that kind of stuff. But we're running here and we're

running there and, and we don't really have time to dwell on

that. We don't have time to appreciate

that, hardly have time to just get to church.

I'm doing pretty good just being here.

Don't tell me you have never felt that way.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

Verse 14 and we beheld his glory, the glory of the only

begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

Thank God for His grace and thank God that He is the truth.

Now it's kind of a behind the scenes look at the Christmas

story. It's kind of behind the scenes.

Look what we just read of how an invisible God allowed himself to

be seen. That men, whether from the

richest of men like the Magi, you know, with their treasures,

who came searching for him as they followed the star, or the

the poorest of men who stunk like the sheep out in the field,

the shepherds, it didn't matter who you were.

He made a way that we could be in the presence of God once

again. See, he was creating a way so

that the wedge could be taken away, so that the division could

be separated or that was separating could be taken,

removed and and we could once again enter the presence of God.

In Chapter 7 of Isaiah, verse 17 speaks of his coming at that

time and it it's actually several 100 years beforehand,

but he's Speaking of the coming of, of Christ as a baby and he

he referred to him as Emmanuel, God with us.

So it's, it's really important because see, in the beginning,

if you remember right after man fell in Genesis chapter 3, you

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

find God walking in the garden and they could hear the sound of

his footsteps. How can you determine who it is

just by the sound of their footsteps unless you've spent

some time in their presence? I mean, I can be at work and I

detect certain people's footsteps and I know who they

are because the way they want. I can be at home and I can

detect certain footsteps and know if it's my wife or my son

or whoever, right? But I have to spend some time

with them. That didn't just happen.

And The thing is, they were able to spend time with the Lord.

Somewhere along the way they decided, you know, it'll be OK,

let's just do this. It'll be all right.

It's not all right lately, you know, like I said, we've been

shopping. We've been considering the needs

and desires of others and, you know, getting gifts.

And we've been coming to the idea of Jesus as a helpless babe

and a Manger perhaps more than any other time of the year.

And in his coming, he was motivated by a single factor

that we might know his presence once again, that we might enter

and eternally remain in his presence.

And why would he want that? Because he loves you.

And sometimes it's real easy to listen to the enemy and go He

doesn't love you. If he loved you, he wouldn't let

this happen. If he really loved you, you

wouldn't be in this situation. You wouldn't be facing these

needs. You wouldn't have the problem

like he talked about a while ago and he is lacking money or

whatever, right? Let me tell you what, I've

lacked money too and there was a time and I'm sure everybody has,

but I had a need for 10,000 bucks and I didn't know where I

was going to get the $10,000. Had no clue and I got a phone

call as I was down praying Lord you can speak things into

existence. The phone rang and I answered

the phone and some men had never heard of before or ever heard of

again. Said you have cattle.

I said yes. He said.

I said would you like to come up and look at something, you know,

look like a prospect of sale? And he says no.

I want you to pick two of them out.

I'm going to give you $5000 each.

You bring them down here to Henderson.

Well, I'm not real smart, but I could figure out 5 + 5 = 10.

And that's exactly what I needed.

And I just asked the Lord for it.

And boom, just like that it happened.

Now, sometimes it doesn't happen just like that.

And he test your face, sees if you're really serious or not.

But guess what? It's not just a matter that he

can. He wants to, OK.

And whenever you take that same thing and you apply it over to

health and other issues, it's not just a matter that God can

heal you. God wants to heal you.

I believe that with all my heart.

If that's not true, then you tell me why is it that He took

the stripes for our healing? That wasn't something He just

thought would be fun. He did that because He loves you

and He wants you to do well. Sometimes doing well means you

got to walk through the deep waters.

You might not like it. It might be a little bit scary,

but guess what? He said he'd be with you.

That reminds me. Turn over to to Isaiah chapter

Isaiah 43 · chapter mention

43. We're going to read that.

I told you I didn't know where I was going, but I'm working my

way through this. OK, so Isaiah chapter 43, let me

Isaiah 43 · chapter mention

pull it up real quick. Oh, come on.

It says, But now thus says the Lord who created you, oh, Jacob,

and he who formed you, oh, Israel, and you said, well,

that's the Jacob and Israel. But guess what?

He's not a respecter of persons. If you were grafted in, you're

his child too. We just read about that.

Anybody who believes because has the right to become his child,

right, OK, He's not going to withhold something good from his

child. And this statement will apply to

you just as much as it applies to that.

And it says fear not. I should say not that it says,

but he says fear not, for I have redeemed you.

I have called you by your name, and you are mine.

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and

through the rivers they shall not overflow you, and through

the rivers they should not overflow you.

And when you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned,

nor shall the flames scorch you. For I am the Lord your God, the

Holy One of Israel, your Savior. He didn't say, I'll keep you out

of the fire. Hey, look at the children of it.

You know, the Hebrew children, those young men, Shadrach,

Meshach and Abednego, they had to go in the fire.

But they said, you know, do whatever you want.

I'm going to serve the Lord anyway.

I'm not going to give up just because it doesn't look good.

All right? And when they were in the fire,

there was a fourth man in there with them, right again.

He's not going to abandon you. He's going to be with you when

you go through the fire in the high waters.

And you can say praise God about that or woohoo or however you

want to do it, but that's something you should be excited

about. But see, a lot of times we've

heard that and we've heard that and we just kind of got used to

it. Don't get used to it.

Get excited about it. Keep telling yourself it doesn't

matter what my eyes see. It matters what the word of God

says because he's the faithful and true one.

And He says that He's going through this with me.

So if I go through it, I don't necessarily personally want to,

but hey, I want to be close to him.

And he said he's not going to leave me.

You know, that's what he said to to the children of Israel

started with Moses and and Joshua and all the children of

Israel. And by the time you get over

into the New Testament, guess what?

He says That's you too. I'm not going to leave you nor

forsake you. And that I, I always thought

that was strange. Not leave you.

I get that. Not forsake you.

Isn't that the same thing? A little redundant there?

God, no, it's not. What if you look into the word a

little bit more and figure out what he's saying?

He's saying I'm not going to abandon you or leave you.

And I will never fail you either.

That's what he's saying. And you can't get excited about

that whenever you're facing problems.

I don't know what you, you're dead or something.

You know, that's some good stuff.

Now, his in his coming that we've already read about and

talked about, he was motivated by a single factor.

I said that you might know his presence.

You might enter that presence and remain there and he loved

you so much that it's like a a shepherd who left the 99 for the

one you remember that story. Christ being fully God when he

took upon himself flesh the form of man.

He left all else behind. In Philippians chapter 2,

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

reading first six and following Philippians 26 and following

says though he was God, he did not think of equality with God

like the Father as something to hold on to.

Instead, he gave up his divine privileges.

He took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human

being. And when he appeared in human

form, he humbled himself in obedience to God, and died a

criminal's death on a cross. Therefore God elevated him to

the place of highest honor, and gave him the name above all

other names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, and

in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, and every

tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the

Father. Now he could have sat back there

and said, well, you know, I'd like to rescue some of those

perishing folks, Father, But you know, I don't want, do I have to

get up now and go down there and do that?

Can't I just sit back here on my throne and just say the word?

Can't we just do it that way? I mean, after all, what's the

difference? You know, I don't have to go

down there right now. I don't have to go to church on

Sunday. Why should I have to do that?

I'm just saying sometimes the ridiculous statements that I

made about Jesus at the Father's side on a throne in heaven, that

he wouldn't want to come down and save us and go through what

he went through. He could have made-up some

excuses about why that didn't seem like a good thing.

He could have said, well, not today, Father, how often do we

give these stupid excuses? See, His coming down was to

bring His presence, ushering in His presence, right?

That had been separated. There was a division and He's

bringing His presence in so that mankind can know the presence of

God once again. And He didn't give excuses.

But we do. Well, I don't feel like it

tonight. The weather's just terrible.

Can't we just go Sunday? That's good enough.

Hey, I've read the. I know that story.

I've read. If so and so is going to be

talking that night anyway. We don't need to go.

Yeah, you do. If He's willing to come down as

he did and and go through what he went through to have His

presence with you and available to all, who are we that we

should say we are not denied? He stepped down into the world

to be with you for eternity. In Hebrews chapter 4 verse 15,

Hebrews 4:15

it says that he was tempted in every way, just as we are, yet

without sin. He hadn't sinned before He came

down here because He's a holy God.

He didn't sin when he was confronted with things that

would tempt him and challenge him, just as we are, because

he's a holy God and he was without sin.

So that's the big difference there, is that we've all sinned,

but he didn't. And Paul said that, you know,

the punishment for the penalty for sin was death, but if we

were to die to take that punishment for our sin, we'd be

eternally separated from God because we're not the

resurrection in the life they see.

If he was to die, who can keep God down?

He's the resurrection in the life.

He's not the death. He just died in the form of man

so that we wouldn't have to go through that death, because He

knew I can come back and He knew that we couldn't, right?

And so thank God, He was willing to take upon himself the sins of

the whole world, your sins, my sins, everybody's sins, for

generation after generation. He took it all.

Why? So that you could know His

presence. Because if you have sin, you

can't enter into the presence of a holy God.

God's not going to let sinful things come into his presence

and pollute. So the only way that you can

actually get into the presence of God at this point is to

accept Jesus Christ, to let him receive the free gift, right?

It's what Paul called it, a free gift.

Receive the free gift of salvation.

He purchased it, he paid for it, and he's giving it to you for

free, and all you got to do is accept it.

But once you accept that, everything changed.

You just can't just say, Oh yeah, thank you very much for

that gift. I'm going to set it right over

here in the closet someplace, shut it up, and I'm never going

to do anything with it again. Well, that's stupid.

I mean, there is an obligation for us who believe, who call

upon the name of the Lord and repent and turn from what we

were doing to to not go back and keep on doing it and put put God

in the closet somewhere. We're supposed to be drawing

close to him. James chapter 4 verses 7 and 8

James 4:7

says that real clearly says draw near to the Lord and he'll draw

near to you see, because he knows how people are and he

knows what he's already done. OK.

My desire was to be in the have them in my presence so that we

could commune and fellowship and I could enjoy being with my my

people, right And they can enjoy being with me.

But they messed that up with that sin thing.

But they never worry because I already knew they would right.

And before the foundation of the world, it says in Revelation 13

Revelation 13:8

verse 8 that the lamb slam before the foundation of the

world. Why was he the lamb slam before

the what Jesus already knew that he was going to be the

sacrificial lamb that was slain on our behalf because of our

sins. And and he had a plan.

He's got a plan. He's got a plan that you don't

even know of. Sometimes you you aren't around

to when he came up with that plan.

Guess what? There's sometimes right now you

might be going through something.

You don't know what, you don't understand why it has to be the

way it is. And guess what?

He's still got a plan. I remember years ago coming in

here and hearing Lance talk about, you know, Abraham taking

Isik up the mountainside, right? And he said, guess what?

They didn't understand everything.

And it was probably a rough walk going up that hill because what?

God already had a plan in action and there was a ram on the other

side already being sent up, right?

That wasn't just for Isaac and Abraham.

That's for you, too. He hasn't forgotten about you.

He still wants you to be in his presence.

He still wants that fellowship with you now talking about Jesus

coming and his presence being shared again or renewed.

You know, we hear these days, especially this time of year

anyway, we hear songs like Joy to the World, right?

Well, you got some reason to be joyful, OK, If you accept the

free gift that he was offering you, because then you got

restored relationship, then you have the ability to enter into

the presence of God. You know he didn't say that

every man that was ever created is sitting at the right hand of

the Father, seated in the heavenlies with Jesus.

What he said was that you are as a believer.

But sometimes our vision doesn't look up too well.

We just look around to everything we're going through.

We can't figure out why it's got when we're having these problems

down here on earth, when we got to realize, hey, that's not the

whole story. That's not the whole picture.

The whole picture, if I look at it right, is I'm seated in the

heavenlies by the Father. I'm up there with Christ right

now. We are one, just as he said in

John 17, whenever he gave the great priestly prayer, I'm

preaching and I told you I wouldn't, but anyway, I can't

help it. So when in John 17, what did he

say? He he's praying, if you remember

right. And he said my prayer is that

that just as you and I are one and I'm in you and your and me,

that they would also be in me and me and you and we would all

be in OK. But we kind of just let that go

to the subway side. And we forget that we have that

that favor. We forget that we're his child

and that he's with us and promise never to leave us or

forsake us. We look at the problem and we

go, well, I guess God left me. No, he didn't.

That was the whole point from Genesis to where I've already

come is that that he wants you to be in his presence and him

being your presence, he's not leaving you, not on your life.

He's not leaving you. But whenever he came and we sing

these songs about his coming and hark the herald angels scene and

no, well, no, well, no. Well, write that one.

And, and you know, when I was a kid, I thought, well, that meant

they're missing their L somewhere, you know, I don't get

it, you know, but you know what that really means.

It actually comes from the French.

I think it's Old French around 11 or 12th century.

And they got it from the Latin, OK, from it came out of Rome,

you know, the Roman Empire and Latin in around the 4th or 5th

century AD. And the Latin form of this word

is where we have today, some modern English words that come

right out of the Latin form such as Natal, like prenatal, post

Natal, right? What is Natal?

It's pre birth and it's post birth.

OK. And then you have words like

nation where we are all born from the same place, OK, or

nativity and nativity is a Christmas word that we think of.

Well, it's a little scene. Well, no, it's talking about the

activity nativity, right of birth because the nay part is is

the birth. So it's a compound, I don't

know, it's not a compound word, but it's it's, it's a word

that's derived from both of those we can put together.

And and then you've got Noel and it's comes from the same spot.

And it means birth LEL means God.

So if you go to Bethel, you'll find that in the scripture too,

right? And it's the house, Beth is

house, L is God. So it's the House of God, good

place to be. OK.

And if you look at the word Noel, the no comes from the

birth part. And L is God.

So it's the birth of God. So whenever the angels and they

were singing and we we talk about this, this Noel, what are

we saying? We're saying birth, the birth of

God, not that he was never in existence beforehand, and now he

is, but he was born as a man that he might bring his presence

into a sinful world, that we might forever be able to enjoy

his presence if we'll just accept the free gift that he

gave us. All right.

Praise God. Yeah.

So that first verse of, you know, Noel, kind of reminds you

of, oh gosh, I need to hurry up, Luke chapter 2.

Luke 2 · chapter mention

OK, let's jump over to Luke chapter 2 because I know you

Luke 2 · chapter mention

didn't think John chapter 1 was very Christmassy, OK?

John 1 · chapter mention

And we are kind of talking about God's birth or the birth of

Christ. We're talking about him wanting

and desiring a relationship with us, a personal presence.

And then Luke chapter 2. I'm going to do verse 8 through

Luke 2 · chapter mention

14 at this point, See where we get.

Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in

the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night.

And behold, an Angel of the Lord stood behold before them, and

the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were

greatly afraid. And then the Angel said to them,

do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great

joy, which will beat all people. For there is born to you this

day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord,

and this will be the sign to you.

You'll find a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a

Manger. And suddenly there was with the

Angel, a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and

saying, God, I mean, glory to God in the highest and on earth,

peace, goodwill toward men. Now this is the record of

fulfillment of a promise that was made before the foundation

of the earth. See, he had a plan and we're now

seeing it being fulfilled. Thank God that, you know, I I

don't know about you, but I've had some plans.

Well, it never happened. I had, boy, I had some plans.

I had it all figured out. Didn't work.

God's not that way. So he's not limited by time to

mention he's in the past, he's in the present, and he's in the

future all at once. And there's not a single thing

that he doesn't see or know, right?

Yeah. So if he's got a plan, you can

rest assured it's going to work. Just trust him, draw close to

him and say, where are we? Where do we step today?

Lord, I'm stepping along with you, right?

And stay right there by His side, having accepted that free

gift from this one who is willing to humble himself and

step down from his throne in heaven, become a little baby

that couldn't take care of himself, just so that he could

become a man that would not sin and could take our sin to the

cross. Thank God, What a plan.

That's a great one. He's the only wise and eternal

King who would He had taken upon himself, the former man, for

those who would receive him, for those who would want to be in

his presence. He wasn't placed on a wooden

Manger. That's not.

I mean, maybe it was, I don't know, but it wasn't the reason

he came down. If he was, the reason he came

down was so that he could be placed on a wooden cross so that

he could purchase our salvation and our eternal presence with

him, right? Being eternally present with the

Lord. Look at the 1st 7 verses of that

same chapter. And it says, and it came to pass

in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that

all the world should be registered.

This census first took place while Carinius was governing

Syria. So all went, how many went?

All went to be registered. Everyone to his own city.

It's important you remember everybody's going OK.

Joseph also went up from the from Galilee out of the city of

Nazareth into Judea to the city of David, which is called

Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David to be

registered with Mary his betrothed wife, who was with

child. So it was that while they were

there, the days were completed for her to be delivered and she

brought forth her first born son and wrapped him in swaddling

clothes and laid him in a Manger because there was no room for

him them in the end. So get this picture because it's

it's an important one. You got God Almighty on the

throne in heaven. Always was always will be can do

anything right. What's he choose to do, take off

his royalty, take off his crown, take off his purple robes or

whatever they were and and come down as a baby to be rejected by

most of the world. Now we sing this song, Silent

Night. Holy.

It was a holy night. It wasn't too silent because

what was going on? Everybody had to go and

register. That's why they couldn't even

get in the end. I mean, it was a buzz.

The town was full of people, but only a few actually entered into

the presence of God where the baby Jesus was, and today's not

that much different. I'm sure there were people there

at that time that they knew Scripture prophesied of the

coming Messiah, the Anointed One, which we call Christ, but

they were busy. There were only a handful that

even bothered to try and come. And I'm thinking we can get too

busy and we can be one of those that hey, I was in the city

where he was born. So what?

You weren't in his presence? You weren't searching after him

or seeking for him, but he said, hey, if you knock, it'll be

opened unto you. You know, there's got to be some

seeking on our part. You know, I've heard so many

people say, hey, well, he knows where I'm at.

Of course he knows where you're at.

But he said that you draw near to me and I will draw near to

you. He said that you need to knock,

you need to seek, you need to ask, and it will be given unto

you, right? I mean, there is an expectation

based on the fact that he's already laid it all out, that

we're supposed to be stepping forward to receive the things

that he's got for us. He didn't just force salvation

on everybody. He looked according to Peter.

He said that, you know, God has a desire that all would be saved

and none would perish and God can do anything.

Why didn't you save everybody? Doesn't work that way.

There's an expectation that you're going to receive the gift

that he's set out before you, that you're going to see Kim and

draw close to him. And then the good thing happens,

right? Because he had already.

I mean, he and I say that kind of tongue in cheek in a sense

because in first John chapter 2 verse 2, it says that his dying

1 John 2:2

on the cross was atonement for our sin.

It's the the payment that I was talking about that that we

couldn't pay and he did and it's a free gift.

But it says that it wasn't just for us, us believers.

It's for the whole world. He died and extended the gift

for the whole world and not all the world.

In fact, most of the world won't receive it.

And then the ones who say that they do, sometimes we do and we

mean it. But then there's times we set it

on the back shelf over there and we're busy.

I'm going to tell you what the Lord's calling his church, the

Lord's calling y'all, and me to draw closer to him, to stay

right up next to him in the shadow, in that secret spot,

that shelter spot. Because there's coming a day

very soon, it's already at hand that that people will seek him

and they will not be able to find him.

See, there's windows of opportunity and the window is

shutting. And we can say, yes, I believe

that, but if we really believed it, we would do a little bit

better job about pushing in to His presence and about drawing

others into that same spot because His loves in US and He

loves the whole world. It may be a little bit

redundant, but I feel like I have to read this because

whenever I was thinking about what I was supposed to say to

you, the Lord gave me a word for you.

I want to make sure I say it right, that I don't leave

something out and I'd written it down.

So just shut your eyes for a second so you're not distracted

from something else. Kind of like if you're praying.

And the Lord said, draw close, don't simply make time for me,

but let me fill your days and your nights, let me walk with

you and share it with you. For the day indeed is coming,

and there it's near at hand that men will seek me, cannot find

me. For as it was in the days of

Noah, when people were too busy to listen, too busy to take

time, too busy to turn from their daily routines, that the

door was closed and only a few were protected from the coming

storm. Surrendered to me today all that

is rightfully mine. Surrender it to me all that is

rightfully mine. You.

You are mine, for I have purchased you with a price, and

you are mine. Surrender yourself to me this

day and draw close. Do not allow yourself to become

captive like those who were taken to Babylon.

He is not the Jesus. His desire is to be with you and

walk with you and talk with you. And yet so often it's his

children. We just ignore him.

Oh, we know he's there. I'll talk to him again on

Sunday. He doesn't want that.

He wants you to be with him daily, seeking his face, drawing

close to him and walking with him daily that he might, that

you might not allow the, the, the deep waters and the fires to

triple you because you know that he's with you.

And I know I'm probably preaching to the choir.

Sometimes the choir needs to hear somebody else sing a little

bit too, I guess. But I can't help.

But I got to give you what the Lord gives me.

So I love you. And if there's anybody that

needs special prayer, you can come down here and pray with me.

I'll be glad to pray with you, and I'm sure there are others

too. Thanks for listening to the

Cross Powered Church podcast. May you know that true hope,

peace, and salvation can only be found in Jesus.

If you're near Campbell, TX, we would love for you to join us in

person. You can find service times at

crosspoweredchurch.com.