PROXIMITY | Drawing Near to God | Part 1

[music]

Hey, hey, hey.

>> [music]

>> Hallelujah.

>> Grace Summit Church. How we feeling

today,

>> man? Appreciate our worship team. Can we

just celebrate them?

>> Uh, who here, that was your first time

hearing Pastor Dan's singing voice?

Okay. Uh, we're going to have a church

business meeting right now. Who would

vote to hear more of Pastor Dan's

singing voice in the future?

>> All right, motion carried.

I think even online there were some

hands going up in living rooms, Pastor

Dan.

There's an anointing upon your voice.

Praise the Lord. Hey, on your way in,

uh, you received a pingpong ball.

Um, is this the weirdest church that

you've ever been to?

>> Hands out ping-pong balls at church. My

goodness. All right. Hey, uh it's uh

kind of in basketball season. We're not

quite to playoffs yet. Who played

basketball in high school? Let me see

your hands. Who played basketball in

middle school and never did it in high

school? There we go. Hey, there's my

people. All right. Um All right. So,

hey, we got a we got a basket up here.

And look at the size difference, man.

We're going to we're going to take a

three-point shot. And uh front row, you

only get two points. Um but look at

this. how small the basketball is

compared to the

>> the hoop.

>> So, I'm feeling pretty good that

somebody in here can make it. So,

everyone, okay, here's the ground rules.

You have to stay in your seat.

>> There's no slam dunking in church today.

Diving over the pastor to try to get You

can't do none of that. But all of us are

going to stand to our feet. I want to

see your pingpong ball.

And not yet, but on the count of three,

we're going to see who can make it in

the basket.

>> You guys ready? Oh, yeah. You you you

Yeah. You get front row service.

>> Yeah.

Oh, man.

She's so beautiful.

Okay. All right. You guys ready? She's

got two balls, too, man. She's getting

it in.

All right, you guys ready? On the count

of three. One, two, three.

Hey,

who's was it? Who's was it?

>> Bobby, did you I think some of you were

just throwing them at me.

I was feeling

ushers.

>> Ushers, it was Karen. [laughter]

>> All right, you can have a seat. Uh, do

we know who made it?

>> Me.

It was just a Whoa. [laughter]

>> I think that was one of our elders.

[laughter]

All right, we don't know who made it. Uh

because if we knew then we'd we'd bless

you because that's a pretty amazing

thing.

>> All right, but hey, I'm going to take my

shot.

>> Can I Can I take my shot? We still got

one more.

>> I'm I'm going to take my shot. No.

>> All right. All right. So, why was it

hard for all of you but easy for me?

>> Proximity.

>> Proximity. Thank you, sister. Joy.

There's joy in the house of the Lord. Oh

my goodness. Yeah. If you're online,

it's so much better here in person. So,

next Sunday, make the drive. Get here,

man, because we're having fun in church.

Can we just celebrate God in the house?

[applause]

>> Okay. I feel bad cuz now there's going

to be ushers cleaning up ping pong balls

after church cuz they're everywhere.

>> Hallelujah. Hey, why was it hard for you

to make it and why was it easy for me?

Say proximity.

>> Proximity.

>> I want you to hear this. Uh you can't be

discipled at a distance.

>> Amen.

>> Yeah. We're going to dive into the word

of God the next few weeks. We're going

to be unpacking uh this idea of

proximity. Uh before we dive into the

living word, let's pray. Father, we

thank you, Lord, for your Holy Spirit.

Father, I thank you for your presence

resting in this place. Father, we sense

you here. And Lord, we pray that your

voice would be heard above everything

else. Lord, that we would receive of

you, that we would hear you. And Father,

when we leave this place today, Lord,

we'll know that we've been touched by

God. And so, Lord, I thank you, God, for

blessing our time together in Jesus

name. Amen.

>> Same room, same target,

same equipment,

different results. The only thing that

was different was distance. Say

distance.

James chapter 4 and verse 8

James 4 · chapter mention

says this. It says, "Draw near to God

and he will draw near to you."

Draw near to God and he will

draw near to you. Proximity matters

where you are in relationship to God.

Uh it shapes every experience that you

have with God.

Amen.

You know, in the church world, man, we

uh heard lots of different ones define

sin, the original Greek word. And uh the

original Greek was the same word was

used as a marksman's term for archery.

And so they would have their target and

uh if they didn't quite hit the target,

uh that was missing the mark. And so the

Bible uses that word for sin uh very

similarly that uh sin is just to miss

the mark.

Close proximity to God puts you in

position

to hit the mark.

James chapter 4 and verse 8,

James 4 · chapter mention

it gives us a very clear invitation.

And today I want to give you a very

clear invitation

to draw near to God and he will

draw near to you. He will

he will you know I read scriptures like

that and I go you know what is it that

invokes uh the heart of God to pursue us

to come close to us and it's you taking

the first step. Amen.

Look at your neighbor and say, "Draw

near."

>> The question I ask when I read

scriptures like this, because we're very

good at uh hearing some Christianes,

draw near. Draw near to God, brother.

Draw near to God. I go, "What does that

mean? Well, how do I do that? What does

that actually look like?" And so, we're

going to unpack that a little bit. Uh

what it actually looks like today. I

want to give you three moves to draw

near.

Don't answer that. [laughter]

We're in church, man. You got to save

that.

If you're watching online, somebody's

phone went off. [laughter]

We'll have fun with you, too.

[clears throat]

Three moves to draw near.

Number one is close the distance.

Close the distance. Uh, I can tell that

most of you weren't basketball players

in here, [laughter] but did anyone run

track and field in high school?

No, I was a distance runner. Um, I'm no

longer a distance runner.

Yeah, distance walker. I can go to the

YMCA and make some laps, baby. But, but

I'm not running distance like I used to.

But I used to I used to run distance.

And uh I've I I've always had a little

bit of an attitude and a competitive

mentality. Anyone in here? Where are my

people at? Yeah. And so when I was

running in competition and I would come

around that bend and I would see that

guy in the distance in front of me and I

know he's leading me. That that egged me

on like I'm going to catch this dude.

And so instead of that healthy pace, I

would get up. I I'll be chasing that

dude out and I would be closing the

distance. Amen. And so that's what we're

talking about in our pursuit to God is

that we're going to close the distance

today. And in order to close the

distance, we first have to know how the

distance got there. Because the original

design with Adam and Eve that we see in

the garden was for God and man to dwell

together.

There was no distance.

They were at one with each other.

They had direct relationship with God.

And I assume most of us have read the

story of Adam and Eve.

Sin gets involved.

They listen to the devil and begin to

question God and they eat the fruit. And

it's uh still up for debate. We don't

know if it was an apple or an orange,

what kind of fruit it was, but they ate

of the fruit.

Genesis 3 and verse 8.

After that sin,

it says this, "And they heard the sound

of the Lord God walking in the garden in

the cool of the day. And the man and his

wife hid themselves from the presence of

the Lord God among the trees of the

garden. But the Lord God called the man

and said to him, "Where are you?"

I want you to catch this this morning

and see if it relates to you. God wasn't

hiding from them. They were hiding from

God.

God wasn't hiding from them.

They were hiding from God. And God says,

"Where are you?" It's not because God

didn't know where they were. God already

knows that. And if you're taking notes,

you can write this down. That his

question

isn't for his information.

It's for their invitation.

That's why God says, "Where are you?"

And I wonder how often in our lives,

God's reaching out saying, "Where are

you?" inviting us. I was thinking about

this scripture

between services. Blessed are they that

hunger and thirst after righteousness,

for they will be filled.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst

after righteousness.

they will be filled. Draw near to God

and he will

draw near to you.

He says, "Where are you?

Where are you? Why are you hiding from

me? Why are you covering yourself?"

And the voice from God isn't coming like

the heart of an interrogating cop.

It's not the flashlight in the eyes.

Where were you? Where were you on the

night of the 13th? You know, it's not

that hard of interrogation. Let me share

this with you. It's the heart of a

father that just lost their children.

Any parents in here?

Yeah. We had four kids in four years.

And uh so like we just we would sit in

our living room and be like, "Where did

all these little people come from in our

living room?" And uh there were times

that it was a little more than we could

handle. and every we'd lose track of

one, right? This is uh not good

parenting 101. You know what I mean?

Like, yeah, houses have a sizable house

and you can't find one. You guys know

that that heart of panic when you can't

find a kid. Like, where are you? I don't

think God was panicking. I think God is

pursuing. Amen. But that's the heart of

the father. Where are you? I I'm hungry

for you. I I I want to be close to you.

And something has put this distance

between us.

Ever since that moment with Adam and

Eve,

God's been playing hide-and-seek. Can I

say this? Men have been playing

hide-and-seek with God.

Problem isn't

with feeling distant from God.

[clears throat]

It's that man is hiding from God.

And too often

you're in your life saying, "God, where

are you?" And God's saying it right back

to you, "Where are you at?

Where are you at?" Because God is God.

He's immovable.

Amen.

and my heart in righteousness is that I

would align myself through the blood of

Jesus with his grace, with his

anointing, with his blessing. What I'm

not doing is over here in my own mass

saying, "God, can you come over here and

clean this mess up for me?

Where are you? Look at your neighbor and

say, "Close the distance."

>> How in the world do we do that? You

know, I I like to look at what it is

that we're hiding behind.

We don't hide behind trees like Adam and

Eve. We hide behind our own sin,

shame,

distraction.

I said distraction,

image.

Want people to think that I'm okay. So,

I kind of put on Sunday face and fake

it. You guys heard that terminology,

fake it till you make it. I've heard

that used in the church world. I really

don't like that because Jesus didn't die

on a cross so that we can fake it.

>> Jesus died on a cross so we can get real

with God. Amen. So that we can confess

our sins and be cleansed and purified

and made holy as he is holy, righteous

as he is righteous. That we can be in

alignment with God and be blessed by

God.

So you can fake it.

It's got heavy in here, man. You guys

feel that.

Time to get real.

That's why Jesus came.

Repentance isn't some churchy word to

make you feel terrible

about yourself. Repentance is a heart

change.

It's a heart change.

Let's unpack this a little bit. James

James 4:7

chapter 4

verse 7 kind of gives us the whole

sequence here. He says, "Submit yourself

therefore to God. Resist the devil and

he will flee from you. Draw near to God

and he will draw near to you. Cleanse

your hands, you sinners. Purify your

hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched

and mourn and weep.

Let your laughter be turned to mourning

and your joy to gloom. Humble yourself

before the Lord and he will exalt you.

That's the sequence. He says, "Submit

yourself."

Submit has the idea of giving yourself

to uh it's the idea that I'm no longer

fighting God. Amen. He says, "Submit

yourself." And he says, "Resist the

devil." So, I'm no longer fighting God,

but I am fighting the devil.

Submit. Resist the devil.

And I love the scripture here. He says,

"Wash your hands and purify your

hearts."

He says, "Humble yourselves." These are

these are things that we do.

Not that somebody does for us.

Repentance isn't hunting down a hiding

God.

It's us stepping out of hiding and

revealing oursel to God.

I say close the distance.

I want to get real practical for a

minute. What does that look like to

close the distance? I'll speak from my

own personal experience.

I have to name the distance.

I can't be vague and this idea draw near

to God. What does that mean? Close it.

What does that mean?

I have to be able to

take an honest assessment and identify

what is that thing that's causing the

distance. And I have to name it and

listen, I can't repent from what I won't

name.

Name the distance.

Where did I drift?

Maybe it's a habit that crept back in or

a old hurt that I thought I dealt with

and come to find out I didn't.

It's an area of compromise that I just

continue to justify and it puts me in

that cycle over and over again.

Name the distance.

[snorts] So, we're closing the distance.

Number two for your notes is change your

devotion.

After you name it, you refuse it and

then you replace it. You replace it.

The question I ask myself is that area

that I'm easily I can look at and name

it. Maybe it's a distraction. Whatever

that thing is, I I I want to take a look

at it and say, what area that God was

wanting to fulfill in me? Was I

temporarily being filled by this other

thing?

Amen. It helps me to kind of uh take an

inventory and to be able to see what are

the things that are causing the

distance.

giving you homework this week.

You guys know that church happens more

than just Sunday morning.

It's not about uh putting on Sunday face

and lifting your hands here. That's a

good start. But who are you on Monday

morning? Who are you on Tuesday

afternoon? And and and on those in those

moments, are we intentional? Are we in

pursuit of God to name that thing to

repent? Are we closing the distance? Are

we drawing near to God? So, we're

putting ourselves in position that God

will be in pursuit of us and and drawing

near to us.

James 4:5 says this. It says that he

James 4:5

God, he yearns jealously over the spirit

that he has made to dwell in us.

Bible uses some intense language.

He yearns jealously,

not over you, over what he put in you,

his Holy Spirit.

If you've been saved, if you gave your

life to Christ and prayed that prayer

and

forgiven of your sins, the Bible says

the Holy Spirit dwells in you. You are

the temple of the Holy Spirit.

God's not casually interested in you. He

yearns jealously

over the spirit that he made to dwell in

you. You are designed as God's dwelling

place, his home,

the throne room. I love to study the Old

Testament and look at the Holy of

Holies. Do you know that you are the

throne room of the living God?

His holiness dwells in you. And God

refuses to share that space with the

things of the world that destroy you.

He's jealous over that place of holiness

that's within you.

I've heard it said that God only wants

one thing

and that's all of you.

Isn't that true? God only wants one

thing. He wants all of us. Can I bring

this home a little bit? Talking about

our affections and our relationship with

God. Yeah. I'm I'm married and I only

want one thing from my wife. I want all

of her, right?

I'm her man. Just ask her. She snap her

neck. That's my man.

What if she starts sharing her

affections that are designed for me?

Covenant of marriage. she starts sharing

those affections with another

that sacred place.

And that's what's happening in the

spirit. And James calls it out. He calls

uh calls the people that they're in

spiritual adultery.

That those things that are reserved only

for God have been given to another.

He's not jealous of you.

He's jealous for you.

Repentance often times is just changing

our devotion.

You know, if point one is about stepping

out of hiding, point two is about who

you're stepping towards.

Sometimes we think about repentance. We

go, man, it's really what it means is

stop doing bad stuff.

It's really stop giving my heart to the

other things,

to the lesser gods.

to those things that are reserved for

the one true God. James 4:4 says this.

James 4:4

He says, "Do you not know that

friendship," say, "Friendship."

>> Do you not know that friendship with the

world is enmity with God?

We don't use that word very often, do

we? Enmity. You know what I think of?

You can tell I have kids from this. You

guys remember Finding Nemo when he has

to say where he lives and he goes

anemone. Right? When I read

[clears throat] enmity, that's what I

think of. It just means to be an enemy

of God. He says, "Don't you know that

friendship with the world?" It doesn't

say that if you're in covenant

relationship with the world,

it says if you're a friend of the world,

if you're a friend in friendship with

the world, it makes us an enemy of God.

The heart is proximity. The heart is

drawing near. The heart is hunger and

thirsting after righteousness. How do I

get my heart in that place? Cuz because

I've been that kid in church, bored to

tears, ready to get out of here. My

heart wasn't hungry for anything

spiritual. Amen. How do we get our heart

that man, we're just we can hardly wait

for more presence of God, more power of

God, more more love of God. How do we

get to that place that we're that we're

drawing near and then and then as a

result of that, God's drawing near to us

and chasing us down? That's the That's

the destination in our relationship with

Jesus. Amen.

Sometimes we wonder why we don't feel

close to God.

Can I tell you that it's not about

feelings, it's about faith.

We wonder why we don't feel the presence

of God.

Sometimes it's because we've given our

heart to the things of the world.

Sometimes we're in an affair

with the things of the world.

Real repentance is cutting off the

affair.

It's deleting the number.

It's forgetting the address.

We don't go there anymore.

And that's step one. There's an

authentic affair. Step two is now

chasing after my spouse. Let me change

my devotion. Let me change my affections

back to the one that it's designed for

spiritually. That's what James is

confronting.

Spiritual adultery.

Let me say this. Repentance is handing

God back the heart that you've been

handing to other things.

God says, "I yearn jealously over you."

So, we close the distance. We change our

devotion.

I want to go practical

on you for just a moment

and say this. Audit your affections.

Audit your affections.

I'm in here in a business that has

audits. Hopefully none of you are

familiar with the IRS and their audits.

That's no fun. But healthy businesses,

they every so often they have they have

audits. They have an outside source come

in and they'll they'll audit the entire

business. Sometimes it's financial or

other areas and they'll go through with

a fine tooth comb and and look at every

penny spent and who's doing. I mean,

they just go through and they'll they'll

be challenging people uh CFOs and all. I

mean, they'll be they'll be uh putting

it up and going, "Man, you missed it

here and you need to tighten this up and

you need to change that, right?" be

because things are off. And and here's

the heart is that we audit our

affections.

We audit our affections.

What is the place? There's this

subconscious thing that happens

sometimes that uh when we've had a rough

day, where do we run to for comfort?

Is it God or is it something else?

When I have an issue or a problem and I

need direction,

who am I running to for that?

Is it God

or is it someone else?

Who gets my attention?

Does God get my

first

of the day or is God getting my table

scraps

at the end of the day?

He yearns for you.

He's hungry for you. He loves you.

And like a father that is looking for a

lost child,

I believe the spirit of God today is

chasing you down,

calling you back.

He yearns for you.

So, we've seen God isn't hiding.

We are. We've seen that he yearns for

us. The last move that we're going to

make

in drawing near number three is chase

the cloud.

Chase the cloud.

To not just come back to him, but to

keep up with him.

There's this moment with Moses

that really shows me what drawing near

looks like.

You [snorts] guys know when it goes from

just an idea to really getting down in

your heart, getting down in your bones.

I mean, it just ch starts to change

my pursuit of God or my perception of

God.

So, it's a scene where Israel is really

just blown it.

So seeing that we see that these guys

are uh have all these idols, these

golden calves

and uh it's discourage discouraging to

God. Do you know that God has emotions?

God tells Moses, he says, "Hey, I'll

still give you the land,

promised land. I I'll still send an

angel. You'll still win,

but I'm not going with you."

And he gives the why behind the what.

And I love what God just shoots

straight. He says, "I'm not going with

you because these people are stiff

necked." And I'll paraphrase. You can

read it when you get home. He says,

"They're stiff necked people and I might

hurt them." He says, "I might destroy

them." And I want you to catch this

scene that that God has delivered them

out of the hand of Pharaoh, out of

slavery, and they're out in the

wilderness. God has fed them and blessed

them. And now he's taken them to the

land of milk and honey, the promised

land. Amen. And they're in that they are

refusing God and they're making these

these little gods, these golden calves,

and they're worshiping them.

And God's looking at it going, "Man, you

can go. I'll still bless you, Moses.

You'll still win the battle. You'll

still make it in. I'll send my angel

with me, but I I'm not sure what I'm

going to do. These people are really

pushing me.

I want you to hear Moses's response. He

says, "If your present doesn't go with

us, I'm not going."

Some people would take God up on that

offer. Uh, you mean we can still do what

we want to do? We can take our little

golden cast and worship and and you're

still going to send your angel and we're

still going to win and we're still going

to get to the destination that we're so

hoping for, but but you don't have to

come with us, God, so we have to do

things your way.

A lot of people would take him up on

that offer. And Moses says, "Listen, if

you don't go, I don't go."

In other words, Moses is saying, "I

would rather stay here in the wilderness

with your presence than make it to the

promised land without your presence."

>> That's proximity.

That's someone who isn't chasing

outcomes,

but that's chasing God.

I've seen this

in Christianity. You can have progress

without presence.

But I know firsthand it feels empty

every time I get there.

Presence.

I think about a season years ago

I was pastoring and man we our services

like God just started moving in our

services and the presence of God was

there and our worship just kind of hit a

different place you know when the power

of God falls and and man the altars

would just fill up and and God's really

doing things and and as a result of that

we kind of changed the way that we did

church service uh rather than just

having that dismissal at the end man I

mean it was our culture to open the

altars because people are coming whether

I dismiss her I mean it was just God and

healings were happening and all these

different things. Power of God was was

moving and there was this weird shift

and I I couldn't quite put my finger on

it that that God kind of lifted himself

from that and and changed directions.

But we continue to do church that same

way.

And as a pastor, I can tell you when

you're really pushing for the altar call

and nobody comes, that's an awkward

place to be. Amen.

But God wasn't moving on the hearts of

the people. I want you to catch this.

When God rescued Israel from Egypt

and brought them into the wilderness, he

didn't give them a map and say good

luck.

He gave them his presence. There's a

pillar of cloud by day, pillar of fire

by night. Numbers chapter 9 and verse 15

Numbers 9 · chapter mention

says, "On the day that the tabernacle

was set up, the cloud covered the

tabernacle, the 10 of the testimony,

and at evening

it was over the tabernacle like the

appearance of fire until morning."

So it was always the cloud covered it by

day and the appearance of fire by night.

And wherever the cloud lifted from the

tent after that the people of Israel set

out and in the place where the cloud

settled down there the people of Israel

camped.

This is the presence of God. God gave

them a t tangible kind of connection

with his presence. The cloud by day, the

fire by night. And sometimes the

presence would stay in that location for

a day, sometimes a month, sometimes a

year.

Numbers 9:18 it says at the command of

Numbers 9:18

the Lord the people of Israel set out

and at the command of the Lord they

camped.

As long as the cloud rested over the

tabernacle

they remained in camp.

Their proximity to God wasn't about a

feeling. It was about their obedience to

move with God.

Your proximity to God isn't about a

feeling. It's about your obedience to

God. Amen.

When the cloud moved, they moved. When

the cloud stayed, they stayed.

Say, "Chase the cloud."

>> Don't camp where God was and miss where

God is.

I want you to imagine the Israelite

families.

uh you know the cloud clouds moving and

everyone's starting to uproot and move

get their tent stakes up and and they're

getting ready to go and and uh there's a

family that says you know what we kind

of like it here I mean the kids are

settled in uh we like the there's a

river close by I mean they're you know

whatever they they go man we're not

we're not going and and God's presence

and the tabernacle and everything moves

and they say we're not moving how long

before they start blaming God for lack

of blessing.

I wonder how often we get there in the

spiritual realm that you know God is

doing it in this season and man all of a

sudden God starts moving and I want you

to catch this that I hate moving. Can I

just say that like we had my wife this

is how we know uh that God I God had to

speak to my wife and I to move from

Michigan. We And and the funny thing is

about moving is uh when you move, don't

you realize all the extra stuff that you

have that you don't need,

>> right? And if you move often, uh you

start to really trim it back of, you

know, you get all the bed, but after

you've camped for too long, then you

realize, man, we lived in our house a

long time before we moved here. We had

stuff and I'm going, what year is this

stuff from? Like, where did it even come

from? And why do we I mean, our kids

outgrew this for, you know what I mean?

It's just like you have all this extra

baggage. And that's what happens in the

spirit. That's why God keeps us on the

move to keep us a little bit

uncomfortable and it cleans all the

baggage out.

>> Amen.

>> Don't camp where God was,

but be where God is. Some of us are

asking God to bless our campsite when

God moved a long time ago.

Repentance is packing up your campsite.

And the heart is to not get married to a

season that God had you in,

but keep up with where God has you now.

Be a presence traveler. Can I say this

isn't just Old Testament. Acts chapter

Acts 13 · chapter mention

13

verse two says this. It says, "While

they were worshiping the Lord and

fasting, the Holy Spirit said, "Set

apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the

work to which I have called them."

This wasn't a leadership conference that

they're getting the call of who's who's

going to lead or who's going to go or

and they were they're worshiping,

they're fasting, they're Bible says they

were ministering to the Lord. And in

that atmosphere, the spirit of God

speaks.

And then it continues to say, it says,

"So being sent out by the Holy Spirit,

they went.

Calling didn't come from a whiteboard.

It came from a worship service."

One of the things I see is that

repentance is the key.

Through all of this, repentance is the

key. Every great revival

in history that we've seen,

an authentic move of God began with

repentance.

It began with saying no to self and

saying yes to God.

My experience with God is

sometimes God will lead me in a way to

do something just to see if I'm still

obedient to his spirit.

Do you know how many times it's been a

while and I thank God for it that I've

spent the week preparing a message. Oh

my goodness, put hours into this thing

and labor of love and I have this

powerful message all pulled together and

I'm anticipating it and even Saturday

night, man, I'm thinking about this

thing and I've stood up Sunday morning

and God says, "Don't preach that. Preach

this." And I'm going, "What in the

world, God? Why did I spend hours doing

all this stuff?" And he goes, "I don't

know. that was on you, but I'm asking

you to preach this. [laughter]

I'll I'll share my experience. I've gone

both ways in obedience. I've sensed that

God wanted me to preach something else

and I held to my comfort zone and

preached my notes and it was the driest,

most mundane, boring, backwards sermon

you'll ever hear in your life. And man,

if I got that on CD, I'm throwing it in

the garbage can. Some of those old ones,

right? I I've had the other experience

where I'm man I step out in faith and I

just preach because I'm hearing from God

and I don't even have notes in front of

me and the power of God shows up in a

beautiful way in an anointed way that

blesses that changes hearts that heals

souls

obedience is the key. So number one is

close the distance. Number two is change

devotion.

hand God our heart again. Number three

is chase the cloud.

It's repentance. It's pulling up our

stakes and moving with his presence. And

I'm going to say this, repentance uh and

I'm going to ask the worship team to

come. Repentance isn't like uh

punishment.

Sometimes we look at it that way like

it's this mean God telling us that we

can't. Repentance repentance isn't

punishment. It's the process of getting

our heart back with him because God

wants to bless us. Amen.

God's heart is to be close to us.

Chasing the cloud. When God moves, I

move.

Seen different ones hold on to different

things from the past.

Back in 1970,

God was moving Jesus people revival and

souls were being saved. And I'm staying

right here. This is the way God did it.

And I go, "Man, I think God's looking at

it going, I moved 40 years ago.

>> I did that then, but I'm doing this

now." Can I say that there's a fresh

move of God happening?

>> There's a fresh thing that God's doing

in the land. Sometimes we do that with

our own salvation experience. those

first uh few years of salvation, it's

like, man, God just is moving in our

hearts and we're sensing that that thing

and man, we kind of put our tent stakes

down. We we're camping here and God

starts moving [music] and we keep going

back to that those early days.

[music]

God says, "I'm doing a new thing now."

Let's stand to our feet all over this

house.

I'm doing a new thing now.

I'm going to close with this and give

you this

encouragement

that God is not casually interested in

you, but God is hungry for intimacy with

you.

Whatever those things are that are

causing distance between you and him,

can I challenge you this week? Can I

challenge you today? Not someday, but

today

to do business with God, to remove those

things that are causing the distance,

[music]

to come back to your first love.

had a season in my life that man I just

had powerful [music] devotion life every

morning wake up and I actually God gave

me a location to pray. I called it the

upper room and it [music] actually was

an upstairs room and place that I was

serving in ministry and nobody else was

there. That was the thing. I just kind

of wanted to be alone with God. And and

so every morning I go and I walk when I

pray. And so I'd walk around the

perimeter of the room and pray and just

have this dynamic. And God was speaking

to me. And man, I just leave there so

charged up. And I'd sit and read [music]

read the word of God. And you know, my

my ambition was three chapters a day.

But man, I'd find myself 5, 10, 15

chapters later going, "Man, God is

speaking." And I just I'm hung. I love

this. And every morning, morning after

morning, I go back and have this

experience with God. and and then

something shifted in my schedule where I

wasn't all of a sudden allowed able to

do that and and so man life got busy and

all this stuff started happening and now

my devotion life is getting pushed to

the end of the day [music]

so busy in the morning didn't have the

time for it

so I'm quick trying to get it in

I had commitment to God a few weeks of

that and man I'm starting to feel dry

starting to feel like a miss I'm

starting to feel drawn back to that man

my schedule. I just I just couldn't fit

it in. And so God's getting my my table

scraps, not the not the first of me.

And there was a day that I finally was

able to make it back up to that room and

walked in and man, I was getting

emotional and just getting back in that

place and started to walk. And God began

to minister to me.

He said, "I've been here every morning

waiting for you,

but you weren't here.

It's a loving father

welcoming me back.

I don't know who it is or someone in

this room that you've you drifted.

You've fallen away. It's not quite as

vibrant

as it once was. cuz God's calling you

and saying, "Son, daughter,

can we get back to the [music] way that

we used to be?

Cuz I love you and I miss you."

Is God calling out to Adam and Eve

saying, "Where are you?

Where have you been?"

God's not hiding.

Humans [music] hide from God.

Praise you, Jesus. Father, we love you.

>> Yes,

>> God. We thank you, God. We're we're

thankful that we don't just serve a CEO

of the universe, but God, we're thankful

that we serve a loving father,

[music] one that loves us so much that

you sent your own son to die in our

place so that we could be close to you,

so that we could have relationship with

you, Father. So there wouldn't be

distance between us.

Lord, I pray God that you would forgive

us, Lord, of those things that that

we've placed in in that area that you

desire, God, that place of relationship

and intimacy.

God, today we repent of those things

that we run to that aren't you,

Lord. We [music] give ourselves to you.

I give myself back to you today, God.

Not only as Lord of my life, but as

father.

Father, today I position myself as your

son.

God, that we would walk together and

laugh together.

Lord, I thank you for the presence for

your presence in our lives. And Father,

I pray that we would live and move with

you,

that we would be with you wherever you

are.

So Lord, I pray blessing over every soul

in Jesus [music] name. Amen. Our prayer

team is going to be up here. We're going

to close with some worship and I want to

invite you whatever God's ministering to

you. If you need prayer for anything,

[music] if you're in here and you're

going, "Man, I don't even know if I'm

saved after all that. I know it was a

heavy message."

I want to challenge you to draw near to

God today to take that step.

Whatever that step is for you, it might

be right in your seat. It might be

coming to this

these folks for prayer. [music] Whatever

that is, I'm asking you to take that

step of faith today. Let's worship the

Lord together.

[music]

Heat. Hey, Heat.

[music]

>> [music]