PROXIMITY | Staying, Moving, Waiting with God | Part 2

Hey, hey, hey.

Hallelujah.

>> Hallelujah.

>> How's everybody feeling today,

>> man? Are we ready for the word of God?

>> See how my brain works? It's a little

crooked.

>> Okay, we're good now. Hallelujah.

>> Hallelujah.

>> Man, Carla's alive.

>> Anyone else?

>> You guys listen, man. We we we just got

done worshiping the creator of the

universe.

>> That's right. you know, and we're

getting ready to hear his word.

>> I'm I'm Oh, man. My God. I took my

vitamins this morning. I'm feeling good,

baby. Come on, let's have some church.

>> Amen.

>> Hey, if you're a first- time guest with

us, I want to say welcome. My name is

Benjamin. I have the opportunity to

serve as lead pastor here. And uh man,

we're going to dive into the word. Um I

want to say thank you. Uh we had a lot

of uh I would say essentially all of our

uh leaders that are serving at different

capacity participating in our leadership

summit this last week. Uh I want to say

thank you for sacrifice of time and uh

what a good time with Pastor Troy and

and Jennifer uh taking the time flying

all the way up here from Baton Rouge,

Louisiana to to bless us and to pour

into us. And so can we just give

ourselves a hand for participating and

celebrate Troy and Jennifer?

Well, hey, I want to dive into the word

of God. Before we do, let's pray.

Father, I thank you, Lord, for

>> your spirit in this house, God. Lord,

I'm thankful for your Holy Spirit

dwelling on the inside of us. And

Father, today we don't come with

eloquent speech, but Lord, I'm thankful

for a demonstration of your spirit and

of power. So, Lord, you preach to us.

Father, like a son sitting at the feet

of dad, hearing words of wisdom. Father,

I pray that we sit at your feet today

and let you pour into us, your sons and

daughters. So bless it now in Jesus

name. Amen.

>> Amen.

>> Well, hey, we've been on a journey last

week. We kicked off uh we got a little

wild with some ping pong balls up in the

house of God. My goodness. Uh how many

times you've been to church and had ping

pong balls thrown around? And I'm still

trying to figure out who was who was

aiming for me, man. Some somebody was

throwing them right. It's confession

time. If that was you last week, I

expect you at the altar this week. You

need to repent for trying to hit pastor

in the head with a ping pong ball.

But really, uh, kind of a neat way to to

take a look at, uh, proximity. And

that's our series that we're in. Give

you a quick recap. Last week, we spent

some time, uh, unpacking James chapter 4

James 4 · chapter mention

and verse 8. This says, "Draw near to

God, and he will draw near to you." So,

I want to, uh, see who was listening

last week. Uh, I have a question. Who

draws first?

>> Says, "Draw near to God

>> and he will draw near to you." Who draws

first?

>> Wait, you do?

>> Okay.

We initiate. Amen. And I want you to

hear this. The God of the universe,

the one who hung the stars,

the one that parted the waters,

>> the one that formed you in your mother's

womb. What he says, he says, "If you

draw near, I'll draw near." I don't know

about you, but that excites me. And that

stirs something up on the inside of me.

uh to hear a an infinite all powerful

God, loving God say, "Hey, if you

initiate, I'm gonna I'm gonna meet you

there."

That's that's the good news.

That means that your next step matters.

Amen.

>> You'll either take a step towards him or

take a step away from him. But your next

step matters. is really what James is

saying here.

He's saying that you choose your level

of participation with God.

It's almost like God sets the table, but

you decide how close you're going to

sit.

>> I mean, you've been invited to the

table, but I don't know about you, but

I'm the guy uh that I like to be at the

front of the line.

>> Amen. Anyone else?

>> Yeah. When I was in Israel last October,

man, I was I was right at the Get out of

my way. bunch of pastors and I'm like

I'm pushing through because I want to be

right up front, man. I don't want to be

number 28. There's 28 of us. I don't

want to be at the back of the line.

Yeah. I want to be right up there, man.

I want to be touching stuff. I want to

be feeling it. And that's the way I am

in the spiritual realm, man. I want to

be right up there. I want to be I want

to be sat right next to him. Amen.

>> When when he when he says that thing at

the table, I want to I want to I want to

feel his breath. I want to I want to be

able to reach over and whack him. Say,

"That's good, Jesus."

Yeah.

So, he sets the table, but it's on you.

You decide your level of participation,

how close you're going to sit to the

master.

And last week, we spent some time

unpacking proximity. We said, "Close the

distance.

If there's distance between you and God,

let's let's close that up. Let's do

what's necessary." We said, "Change your

devotion." And then we said, "Chase the

cloud." Oh my goodness.

He's on the move. We got to try to keep

up with him. Amen. Chase that cloud.

>> Say, "Proximity matters."

>> Proximity matters.

>> I want to say this, and if you're taking

notes, write this down. God desires you

more than you desire God.

>> God desires you,

>> more than you desire God. Do we have any

parents in in the house?

Yeah. You know, one of the things we

have a long-standing uh kind of battle

in my home uh that's probably going to

last forever. Uh it's an unresolved

battle of saying I love you more.

>> And I started I said they say I love you

and I say I love you more. And then when

they were little they go uhuh I love you

more.

>> And I'll go uhuh I love you more.

>> Right. Just the other night man I was uh

starting to get late and we just got

some new furniture. new recliner. It's

my wife's recliner, but I was checking

it out. I'm like, "Yeah, it's pretty

comfy."

So, I'm hanging out doing my thing and

uh Zoe comes down and she's getting

water and then she's going I said, "I

love you. I love you more. No, I love

you more. I love you more. I love you

more." And she's everyone's sleeping,

right? And she's going up the stairwell

where everyone's sleeping and we're

hollering at each other. No, I love you

more.

>> No, I love you more. And I can hear her.

She's get tries to close her door really

quick and she says, "I love you more." I

said, "I love you more."

>> Parents, how many know the truth behind

the matter?

>> Yeah.

>> That we love our children more than they

love us. It's almost a capacity

situation, isn't it? I mean, we just we

love you more. All right, let's let's

try to settle this matter in my home.

Parents, by show of hands, who knows

that you know that you love your

children more than your children love

you? Let me let me see some hands. All

right, kids. Look around.

This is the real deal. Trying to settle

it. We even got it on video, man.

Evidence.

And And I want I want you to hear this

that that is by design. God put that

into humanity on purpose to tell the

story of his love towards you. We are

his children. And God looks down and he

loves you more than you love him. And

and man, that's the battle I want to be

in

>> of trying to outlive God, right?

>> He's going to win. I know that. But I'm

going to give it everything I got and

I'm going to keep screaming back. I love

you more. No, I love you more. Psalm 139

says this in verse 17. He says, "How

precious are your thoughts about me, oh

God.

They cannot be numbered. I can't even

count them. They outnumber the grains of

sand."

and when I wake up, you're still with

me. Isn't that beautiful?

This is God's thoughts towards you

personally.

The Psalmist said, "Man, if if I were to

try to number those thoughts, they would

outnumber the grains of sand.

They would outnumber all the grains of

sand on the planet." That's that's every

beach. That's every desert. That's every

sandbox in every neighborhood,

>> right?

I mean, that's a lot of thoughts that

God is thinking towards you.

Can't number them. And they didn't just

start when you got saved.

Sometimes we get this weird idea.

This is the psalmist says this right

after he says in verse 13 that he formed

you in your mother's womb.

You are fearfully and wonderfully made

by him.

I want you to hear verse 16. He says,

"You saw me." me. The psalmist said,

"You saw me before I was born." How does

that even happen? Hey, you ever read

scripture and you're just like, "Wait a

minute. Before I was born, do you know

that God transcends time?"

>> You saw me before I was born, every day

of my life was recorded in your book.

I want you to think about how emphatic

this God is over you. That that every

moment he's got a book and he's writing

it down.

He's thinking about you. Every day of my

life was recorded in your book. Every

moment was laid out before a single day

had even passed.

I'll say this.

Before you were even a three cell

cluster

in your mother's womb, God was thinking

about you.

God had a plan for you.

God was for you and not against you.

got really quiet in the house of God.

Say, "He desires me."

>> He desires me.

>> Man, we got to get this in us.

He desires you.

One of the things I've learned is that

you don't think about what you don't

desire.

You ever noticed that?

You don't think about what you don't

care about.

He's thinking about you. Ephesians 1

says that even as he chose us in him

before the foundation of the world,

before the world was even created, God

was thinking about you. He chose you.

Romans 5'8 says, "But God showed us his

love for us in that while we were still

sinners, Christ died for us." I don't

know what kind of sinner you were, but I

look back at my sin life and I go, "Man,

I was pretty unlovable.

Now, I was pretty hard to love,

especially when I was an atheist.

Especially when I would blame God for

everything.

Anyone else

experienced the unsaved life?

And I was critical and selfish and

sinful and prideful.

You know, if you're prideful, we got a

good class on Wednesday night coming up.

We'll knock that pride right out of you.

Hey,

pride detox.

And somehow we still at times get in

that mentality that God's love isn't for

us or that God's not for me.

Second Timothy 2:6 says,

2 Timothy 2:6

"He gave his life to purchase freedom

for who?"

Not just some.

Not just when you doing good like a good

little boy.

Good little doobie. God loves me

for everyone.

For everyone. He gave his life to

purchase freedom for everyone. Here's

what I want you to get. He chose you.

He desires you. He died for you. And the

gospel message, the good news is not

about you chasing God.

It's about a holy God chasing you. It's

about a loving God in pursuit of you.

Amen.

Someone in here needs to hear this this

morning.

God loves you.

He's for you. No matter what you did,

no matter what you thought, no matter

what you didn't do, God's chasing you

down. He loves you. He's for you. He's

with you. And here's my question. If a

God that holy and that big desires me

that much, why in the world would I live

far from him?

Why would I treat him as optional?

Uh-oh.

Got really quiet.

I'm even sensing at home in some living

rooms, people watching online, it got

really quiet in their living room.

Why in the world can I say this? When

you allow yourself by the spirit of God

to begin to catch just a little bit of

how much he loves you, you cannot fall

in love with him.

We love, catch this, because he first

loved us.

We love because he first loved us. The

problem is is on the on front a lot of

times we're refusing to love because I'm

not lovable. Because I'm too bad. We

come up with all of our excuses why

God's love isn't available for me.

We love because he first loved us. We

love because we we look up and we go,

"God, you love me." And I can't even

begin to to to define this or explain

this or understand this this love that

you have for me and why you would even

love me. I just don't get it, Lord. But

because I feel the love that you have

for me, because I because I know it,

because I'm beginning to catch the

revelation, man, I just fall right back

in love with you. And we begin this

eternal battle of I love you more.

I love you more.

James says, we initiate.

We draw near to God. We take the first

step, and he will draw near to you.

And can I say this? God already made the

first move

in creation. God already made the first

move on the cross. God already made the

first move when while you were still a

sinner, Christ died for you. God already

made the first move.

Now the ball's in our court and we

initiate.

And here's what I

want you to get this morning.

Drawing near is different than staying

near.

Drawing near

is different than staying near.

What's the best response we can give to

his love?

Staying near.

Father, I just want to be close to you.

Number one in your notes this morning is

stay near. Jesus in John 15, and I'll

just paraphrase. Uh I would challenge

you to read the entire chapter uh today

when you get home or sometime this week.

John chapter 15, but Jesus talks about

John 15 · chapter mention

abide in me and I in you. Abide in me

and I in you. He says, "Apart from me,

you can do nothing." Man, those are

those some strong words that Jesus said.

Apart from me, you can do nothing. What

in the world does it mean to abide? It's

not a word that we use regular

in conversation. Means to remain. It

means to dwell. It means to set up camp

in his presence

that I remain in him and he remains in

me.

Stay connected. Jesus in that same

chapter was talking about we're the

vine. He's the branches. He is the vine.

We're the branches. And that we won't

bear fruit

without him.

We're always after the fruit. Man, I'm

hungry. My my my prayer is that I'm a

little fruit factory, man. Look at your

neighbor and say, "Get fruity."

>> Get fruity,

>> man. That love, that joy, that peace,

patience, that gentleness, self-control,

man. My goodness, that's the good stuff,

right? That that comes that's the fruit

of the Holy Spirit. That's a product of

the Holy Spirit. But but man, you you

got to stay connected to the life

source.

He's the vine. We're the branches.

We get to abide, remain, dwell.

Not just weekend visits.

Can I say this? God the Father is not a

divorced parent that's sharing you and

and getting visits every other weekend.

He's with you. He's for you.

He's our heavenly father, our permanent

residence.

Let me say this. Drawing near is a

moment.

Staying near is a rhythm.

Catch the rhythm.

Drawing near is a moment. Staying near

is a rhythm.

Drawing near is that that stepping out,

that salvation prayer.

Drawing near. It's that altar call. You

step out and you move towards God. It's

that that moment when you've kind of

come to the end of yourself. Enough is

enough.

And you and you run to the father like

the prodal. It's that it's that drawing

near. But can I say this? If you stay

near, you don't have to keep drawing

near. Amen.

>> If you stay near, you don't have to keep

drawing near.

Staying near is a rhythm. It's it's

healthy devotion life.

It's fasting. It's prayer. It's

fellowshipping with other believers.

There's this staying near that happens.

See, the spirit itself bears witness

with my spirit that we are the children

of God. I love hanging out with people

that have the Holy Ghost on the inside

of them. Amen. There's this unique

anointing and man, we just I feel like I

had church after we just had a cup of

coffee and chatted a little bit, but I

get down there, man, I'm charged up.

Amen.

You ever hung around sinners too long?

leave there and you're going

>> now I feel depressed.

>> All the doom and gloom and the

depression and the struggle and all the

all the stuff. It's just the

perspective. It's the lens. It's the

it's the darkness. They haven't received

the light. Amen.

Staying near is a rhythm. It's

intentional.

I'll say this. Drawing near, let me put

it this way. Alter calls change your

direction.

Abiding changes your destination.

That that drawing near that that's the

direction change is saying, "Hey, I've

been out over here and I've been I've

been mess I've been I've been separate."

And that drawing near is is kind of that

alter call moment. Man, I'm going to

change direction. But but staying near

uh that abiding is changing the

destination. Where are we going, Jesus?

There's a crossing over in the Christian

life. When you stop only coming to God

because you need something

or when you're desperate or when you're

in trouble. Can I say this? When you

need something and you're desperate and

you're in trouble, go to Jesus. Amen. Go

to God with it. But that's not the only

time I come to him. Matter of fact, I

don't have to scream it from the

rooftops because he's with me already.

I can say, "Oh, okay. God, an issue up

here. Can we handle that?

And God says, "I got you."

>> Hallelujah.

>> I don't have to go, "Oh, that's so

horrible. Where's God? Where is he? God,

where are you?"

Abide.

Jesus says, "Abide." The heart to abide

says that he's my life source. I don't

unplug.

I don't drift. I don't take vacations.

I abide.

So the question I had to ask myself is

I've been in ministry a while. I've

watched a lot of different believers and

kind of how their walk with Jesus went

and God knows the heart of every man. I

don't. But what I've evaluated, I've

seen some that that struggle. It's

almost like they're back and forth and

back and forth. They'll serve God for a

season, man. they're doing good and then

and then something happens and all of a

sudden you don't see him for a while and

then have you guys seen that back and

forth or maybe you've experienced it. I

I was there at one point in my walk with

God and and man that struggle and I've

watched others

be solid

get grounded and rooted and just have

this steady walk with God. And I've

asked I said God what is it what what

what is it that makes the difference?

because I don't want to be in that that

place where I where I'm back and forth

and back and forth.

What God revealed to me is that it's

fear.

The holy fear of God is what keeps us.

Number two in your notes is holy fear.

Holy fear. I want to read a scripture.

Isaiah chapter 33. And I don't typically

Isaiah 33 · chapter mention

use this uh translation. Um I very

rarely uh preach from it, but I was

digging into the original language and

the and man, there's some words in the

original language that have so much more

meaning than we don't have any words in

our English language to translate it.

And and so I'm going to read from the

amplified version, the classic edition,

uh because it really is sharing what the

heart is of the original text, Isaiah

33. In verse 6 says this, "And there

shall be stability

in your times." That sounds good. I like

stability. An abundance of salvation,

wisdom, and knowledge. Catch this. The

reverent fear and worship of the Lord is

your treasure and his.

The reason I dug is because I would read

one translation. It says, "Your treasure

or my treasure." And then I'd read out a

different translation. It's very

respected. It would say his treasure.

And I'm going, "Well, which is it?"

Well, it's both when you really dig into

the original text.

But catch this. The reverent fear and

worship of the Lord is your treasure and

his treasure.

I don't know about you, but I treasure

my relationship with my children. I

treasure my relationship with my wife.

And I hope they treasure it as well,

right?

That

healthy respect. What do we do with

treasure?

And when we're not pirates anymore, we

don't bury it in the sand, do we?

>> You ever do that when you were a kid? X

marks the spot. You're trying to find

treasure. We'd make our own homemade map

>> and then try to find the treasure.

Yeah.

Today, what do we have? We have banks.

We have vaults.

Man, we spend a lot of money on security

systems to protect treasure, right?

Why do we do that? Because it's precious

to us. It's valuable to us. The reverent

fear and worship of the Lord is your

treasure and his.

We protect it.

He protects it because it's precious and

holds value. And let me differentiate

between just regular old fear

and holy fear.

I'll say this. If we don't know him as

father, we only know fear.

But when we cross over and we step into

the revelation of sunship,

we begin to understand holy fear.

Now, uh, Lincoln

was hanging out with me while praying

and preparing these notes and and man,

uh, he he was going to be up here with

me on the platform. He's not feeling

well.

Like legit, he's not playing

sick. He's he's not feeling well. And uh

said, "Buddy, it's not going to work." I

said, "It'll be sometime in the future."

He was all excited about it. But really

what I wanted to share is that you know

uh there's this healthy reverential fear

and reverence is a word that we don't

use much man I was I cut my teeth on KJV

reverence was a word that we understood

right we just had that KJV mentality of

reverence and man we've lost it because

it's not a fear Lincoln uh isn't afraid

of me like I'm going to beat him he he's

not afraid of me like some horror movie

right But he still has this reverential

fear. Uh, how do I know that? Well, when

I walk in the room and he's doing

something he ain't supposed to do, he

straightens right up.

And if he doesn't know I'm there, I go,

"Lincoln." And he goes,

"Yeah,

that's a reverential fear. It's a

healthy fear." Uh some people I've met

you guys uh uh you guys remember in the

90s we used to wear the shirts that said

no fear.

>> Man, I had it all over the place. No

fear. Yeah. Thought I was pretty cool.

Uh but we did have fear, didn't we?

There were some things we were afraid

of.

Reverential fear is different than the

world's fear.

I want to kind of separate these two

fears. Exodus 19 and 20 is some fun

portions of scripture. It's the ten

commandment scripture when God uh speaks

to Moses on the mount and all the people

are kind of a witness to it. And and uh

this is we're going to pick up in Exodus

20 and verse 18. This is just after the

Ten Commandments.

In Exodus 20:18, it says this. When the

Exodus 20:18

people saw the thunder and lightning and

heard the trumpet and saw the mountain

and spo smoke, they trembled with fear.

We're seeing some fear here.

They stayed at a distance and said to

Moses, "Speak to us yourself and we will

listen, but do not have God speak to us

or we will die."

I I read this and I go, "Have they met

the same God today?" No.

because I love speaking to him every

day, several times a day. I love his

presence, right? And what an honor to be

standing there as God is I mean, what

this this display of thunder and smoke

and lightning and oh my goodness, and

there's God. I'd be I'd be like Moses,

man. Moses Moses has it. He's going up

the mountain, right? And why is it that

Moses doesn't have that same fear, that

same tremble? Why is Moses willing to go

up into the presence of God and all the

people are separated? Go, we don't even

want him to speak to us. We'll it'll

kill us.

We see two different types of fear.

Moses responds to the people in verse

20. Moses said to the people, "Do not be

afraid."

In other words, come on in. The water's

just fine. I've already spoke to him.

And do not be afraid. Catch this. God

has come to test you. Say, test you.

God has come to test you so that hear

this the fear of God will be with you to

keep you from sinning.

The people remained at a distance and

Moses we're not buying this while Moses

approached the thick darkness where God

was.

So the presence of God shows up and we

see that Moses understands sunship. Say

sunship.

He runs to the father. And the people

that obviously don't have sunship are

scared of the father.

Moses, I'm sure, was a little taken

back. What? Don't be afraid. What are

you afraid of? Nothing to be scared of.

He says, "God has come to test you

so that the fear of God," Man, I'm

seeing two fears here.

I'm seeing two fears here. That the fear

of God will be with you. What does the

fear of God do? The fear of God will be

with you to keep you from sinning.

See, that that that sunship mentality,

that reverential fear. Let me say this,

you know, it's not just my my father's

still alive and he's probably watching.

Hey, Dad.

Can I say this that uh my dad, man, he

used to drive uh he was always a

phenomenal driver. Always felt really

safe with him. Uh but he would get a

little wild every once in a while.

I remember being on some back roads and

watching dad burn the tires just for

funsies, you know.

Uh but the older he gets that he he

doesn't he doesn't like uh fun and wild

in the vehicle anymore. Matter of fact,

he don't even like driving much anymore.

And so whenever we're together, I drive.

And can I tell you that um uh I'm I'm

not his age. And I I got um you know, I

I travel a lot. uh have lots of

appointments and schedules and things

and sometimes I'm running late from the

office to get across the city to go get

my kids from school at red lights and

and soccer moms and man and I'm driving

a certain way. I got I got stuff to do

and we got to get this and but when

dad's in town,

I don't I don't drive like I normally

drive. You want to know why? Because I

have an honor and a respect

>> for my father.

And if I started driving that way, he'd

bark at me.

When I'm in my father's house, I honor

my father's rules.

Amen. And my mother's rules were not

taken away from mom's.

Even when my father is in my house,

right? There's an honor and a reverence

and a respect.

God has come to test you so that the

fear of God will be with you to keep you

from sinning.

And we've used it in parenting.

Lincoln, if I was standing right next to

you, would you have done that? No.

That's the honor we have of being a

child of God is that he gets to stand

right with us. Do you know how much

easier it is to not sin knowing that

God's with you? But but see, we're

selfish. We're fleshly. And so we don't

want to abide. We like coming on Sunday

morning and getting our little spiritual

fix. But but on Tuesday night, we want

to go out with the boys. We want to go

do this thing. And so we distance oursel

from God so that we don't feel the

conviction of God. I don't want dad to

come to the party with me because I want

to do at the party what I want to do at

the party.

>> I almost started preaching.

>> Jesus said, "Abide with me.

Abide with me. Dwell with me. Invite me

to the party. I'll keep you from

sinning."

And God says through Moses says, "Man, I

I I I want to I want to test you. I want

to do whatever it takes. Here's my

prayer. God, you do whatever it takes to

make me the man of God I've been called

to be. I don't want to drift. I don't

want to waver. I don't want to be in one

month and out the next month. I I want

to be solid. I want to be firm. I want

to have a foundation." Amen.

>> I don't want some little temptation of

the devil to come

>> mess me up.

The devil would love to take me off my

square. I can feel it.

No weapon

formed against me

shall prosper. You want to know why? Cuz

I'm holding dad's hand right through it

all.

And devil, my dad's bigger than you.

Doesn't that feel good? Amen.

>> Devil, my dad's bigger than you.

>> Moses says, "Don't be afraid.

Don't be afraid of God." And then he

says, "You need to get the fear of God."

Two fears. Wrong fear is a type of

terror that makes you run away from God.

Right fear, this holy fear

is an awe that makes you run away from

sin.

God removes the fear that pushes you

away

and through a type of testing gives us

the fear that keeps us close.

Fear of God will keep you from sinning.

What is sin? It's distance, separation.

Say draw near.

says, "The fear of God

will be with you and keep you." Say,

"Keep you."

>> See, the holy fear of God doesn't just

draw you. It keeps you.

It keeps you from sinning. It's the

attribute

that makes you stable, that makes you

strong.

I have this reverence for God. This

understanding

that I'm son, he's father.

Without fear of God, holy fear, sin just

feels like breaking a rule

kind of whatever.

With holy fear, sin is causing distance

between me and the one that loves me.

I travel

quite a bit.

Like to travel.

I was in Israel last fall. Man, getting

ready to go to Israel again. And I have

six other lead pastors or friends of

mine that are going and man, we're

teaming up and our heart is to be able

to bring a an opportunity for you to be

able to go to Israel at some point in

the future. And so, we're working on

that kind of as a team. And uh one of

the guys was chatting with him this last

week. He said, "Man, you got your

passport? you got everything you need

kind of helping? He goes, "Yeah, I've

got everything you need." He says, "The

only thing I'm struggling with is being

away from my family that long." I said,

"Buddy, I get it. I get it. That's the

one thing I dislike

about a lengthy trip. You know, we have

technology and uh video calls and it's

not the same. It's not the same as being

sitting with my wife in the morning

drinking coffee. It's not the same as

getting a hug from my little girl before

bedtime. It's just not the same.

>> Amen.

>> And you'll never really capture the love

of God if you're serving him at a

distance.

Don't fear his presence. Fear his

absence.

You can write that down. Take it to the

bank.

Don't fear his presence. Fear his

absence.

When you catch this, the love of God,

the fear of God, your questions begin to

change you. You stop asking uh how far

can I go? You start asking how close can

I stay?

I I really think the thing that

separates the one that's wishy-washy,

the double-minded, the back and forth

between the steady and stable disciple

that's maturing, I really believe it's

reverential fear. It's holy fear. I

really believe that it's that it's it's

capturing the understanding as much as

we can as humans how much he loves us.

I really think the fear of God changes

things. Proverbs 1 and verse 7 says

this, "The fear of the Lord is the

beginning of knowledge.

We don't even know anything until we

step into the fear of the Lord." It

says, "Fools despise wisdom and

instruction."

Man, I've met some of those guys.

Not going to tell me how to go. Okay,

well then go do it your dumb way.

>> Oh, you met him, too?

>> Yeah.

Listen, one of the things you'll always

as a guarantee, I'm going to be real and

raw with you. Okay.

This isn't a performance.

I've been around those people. I used to

be that guy.

had it all figured out.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of

knowledge. Didn't even know anything

until I captured the reverential fear of

God. Psalms 111 verse 10 says, "The fear

Psalms 111:10

of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom."

It's the beginning of wisdom. All who

practice it have good understanding. So

the fear of the Lord is the beginning of

wisdom. And then there's something we

get to do. We get to practice the fear

of the Lord. We get to walk in this

thing. We get to exercise that.

All who practice it have good

understanding. Proverbs 14:27, "The fear

Proverbs 14:27

of the Lord, catch this, is a fountain

of life that one may turn away from the

snares of death."

My goodness.

Proverbs 19:23, "The fear of the Lord

Proverbs 19:23

leads to life.

Whoever has it rest satisfied.

will not be visited by harm.

Harm won't even come knock on your door

anymore because they see the fear of the

Lord upon your life.

Number one is stay near.

Number two is holy fear.

And number three is crystal clear.

Crystal clear.

Psalm 25

and verse 12

asks the question. It says, "Who is the

man who fears the Lord?

Him will he instruct

in the way that he should choose? His

soul shall abide." There's that word

again.

His soul shall abide in well-being

and his offspring shall inherit the

land. Catch number 14:14. And the

friendship of the Lord

is for those who fear him.

The friendship of the Lord

is for those who fear him

and makes known to them and he makes

known to them his covenant. My eyes are

ever towards the Lord for he will pluck

my feet out of the net.

Can I just say this, man? Will you catch

this? this fear of the Lord, this being

near to God, this presence of the Lord,

it it begins to clear things up for you.

It's almost like clearing the fog out.

Amen.

>> Making it uh a little bit uh easier to

understand because because there's this

there's this mentality of darkness that

I'm when I just can't see really what I

need to see. And so I'm guessing all the

guesswork gets out of it when the when

the glory of God shows up and the light

of God shows up and I can see it for

what it actually is.

It's clarity of heart, clarity of

conscience.

It's obedience.

Clarity about who God is.

He's an all-consuming fire. He's above

all things and in all things. All

knowing and everlasting.

clear about who you are,

what you're called to,

not what your past says about you, not

what culture says about you, but what

God says about you becomes really,

really clear.

Father says that you're chosen, that

you're called, that you're set apart,

you're equipped.

Crystal clear means no double life, no

chronic compromise,

no fog about where you stand with God.

I'll date myself a little bit. Man, it's

You guys know it's supposed to be 55 and

sunny today.

>> Yeah, we can celebrate the Lord for

that. Thank you, Jesus.

We've had a rough go at it with all this

snow and ice and wind and um I I feel

pretty spoiled these days. I got my

truck. I really like my pickup. And I

was pretty adamant about making sure

that we had remote start on this thing.

I'm from Michigan, right?

Air conditioning in the summer, sure.

But the winter time, you know, I like to

be able to start that thing up from my

living room.

Yeah. Yeah. And it warms up and I'm even

I even strategically park at restaurants

so I can go to the glass. I'm like,

"Which window?" And I go to the Yeah.

Like, "Honey, I'm going to the bathroom.

I'll be right back." Then I walk by the

I'm going to warm this thing up for us

cuz it's cold out. Now that I've been

spoiled, I I I've gotten into a cold

vehicle and I'm like, "What year is it?

Good gravy.

This is so cold. Feels archaic.

I'll date myself a little bit. I used to

drive some hoopties. Anyone used to

drive some hoopties? I'm talking about

some rough

>> rough cars. And uh you ever have a

vehicle that the defrost doesn't work?

>> Yeah,

man. Uh back in the day, man, I had this

vehicle didn't work. Anyone here ever

use a cassette tape to try to wipe the

ice off the

You guys remember that? Yeah. Kids don't

get it, right? Or CDs. CDs came out and

they were bigger yet.

>> Yeah, there's an ice scraper somewhere.

Nobody actually knows where. And I had

one the defrost didn't work. And I'm I'm

guilty. I had to roll down the window.

This is how we did it back then. Wait,

it's this way. Roll the window down

because the whole thing's fogged over

and iced over and I'm driving like this

cuz I'm running late trying to get So,

Anyone ever do that?

>> Yeah.

Can I say this?

The presence of God, the holy fear of

God, man, it's like that. It's like that

warmth comes and clears things up. It's

the defrost on your icy window.

My goodness.

It's the sunshine to your rain.

And the issue is is sometimes we get

going through our journey with God and

we're driving through a 2-in square that

we've scraped off with a cassette tape.

And then we wonder why we while we're

running into things or why we ran off

the road again, why we're in the ditch

again and we need help again. It's

because we're not walking. We're not

abiding in that place with the love of

God resonating and shining down and

clearing everything up. I can't even see

to go.

M

makes me think of a song. I can see

clearly now. The rain is gone.

I can see all obstacles in my way.

>> Yeah. If you didn't get anything else,

I'm going to get that song stuck in your

head for the next three days.

>> Yeah, I can see clearly now.

I'm going to ask the worship team to

join me up here.

I want to challenge you to be in a

battle with God.

The I love you more battle.

I want to challenge you to a place of

surrender,

reverential fear, understanding sunship

and daughterhood

in a completely new light.

the love of God resonates in your life

every second, every day

because you're with him. Would you stand

to your feet with me all over this

house?

Thank you, Jesus. Father, we love you.

>> We love you.

>> Thank you, Lord. Saints, could you just

begin to tell them that you love him?

>> I love you, Father. I love you, Lord. I

thank you, God, for life. I thank you

for salvation. They begin to tell them,

saints, I thank you for freedom. I thank

you, God, that that I'm not who I used

to be, God. I'm thankful for an eternal

destination to spend eternity with you,

Father. I'm thankful, God, for even this

moment in time, Lord, with the reminder

that you've given me, God, of how much

you love me, Lord. Thank you, Jesus.

Father, today we didn't come just to

hear some words, God, but we came to

draw close, Father, to stay close, to

get near to you, God. Lord, thank you.

>> Praise you, Jesus. Hallelujah. Father, I

pray over every soul in this room, any

that are at a distance, God, I pray

today would be their change of

direction, their draw near moment.

Father, that they would come to an altar

of prayer, Father, that they would turn

away from whatever is holding them back

and close the distance. Father, I pray

that today, not tomorrow, but today

would be the day, God,

>> to draw near and receive more of you.

>> Oh, thank you, Lord.

>> Father, I pray for us as a people, God.

Thank you.

>> That we would no longer drift.

Father, I thank you, Lord, that we can

stay near

>> Lord, that we love because you first

loved us.

And so, Father, now we worship you in

spirit and in truth.

Thank you for it, Lord, in Jesus name.

>> And God's people said, "Amen." I'm going

to ask our prayer team to come forward.

Our altars are open. I want to invite

you to come bend a knee before God as we

worship the Lord together.