Practicing The Presence of God

Should I keep going? Als up? Obviously, I'm the youth pastor.

All right, okay, so I thank you lord. I needed that.

I have a funny to tell you. And if you're

in first service, pretend like you haven't heard it before. Yes,

you better laugh. Okay, okay, Just so y'all know, I

am a notorious bad joe teller. But I've practiced this

now three times. So A mother went to wake her

son for church one Sunday morning. When she knocked on

his door, he said, I'm not going, why not, asked

his mother. I'll give you two good reasons, he said,

One they don't like me and two I don't like them.

His mother replied, I'll give you two good reasons why

you will go to church. One you're forty seven years old,

and two you're the pastor. And that's for Justin. He

is forty seven. All right, Well, uh huh almost. Oh

that's good. All right, I'm gonna pray m okay, thank

you Jesus. I'm gonna pray this again because I mean it.

I am weak, you are strong, you are big, and

I am small, and Jesus you are in charge of

it all. I am a lamb in your massive arms,

and you are my shepherd, King, and I'm asking you

to lead me, to guide me whatever direction you want

to go, whatever it is you want to do, I

might end up being just as surprised as everyone else,

and I'm okay with that. Lord. Would you just open

our hearts to whatever it is you want to say

this morning, May our hearts be fertile soil for your

word to be planted, and for whatever word that maybe

is already there, for it to be watered. And maybe

if it's been watered for a while, maybe today it

takes deep root and it grows. Thank you King, Amen. Amen. Oh,

so I'm going to be talking hmmm. Actually I'm not

gonna say what I'm talking about cause I'm not quite

sure yet. There's a lot of directions it could go.

So Ben and I had a pastor years ago that

we had come out of a season of being a

part of a church where it was a lot about

doing and it was good doing. It was we were

doing good things, and I was like, something is just missing.

I love these people, I love this church, I love

being a part of this community, but something is missing.

It's like I don't feel like I'm really getting to

know Jesus. It felt very like a transactional relationship. I

felt like there were these certain things that I needed

to be doing in order to be good with God.

And I don't think that was all the intention of

the leadership at that church, but that's what the culture

was becoming. And so I met this pastor and his

name was Pastor Billy. He's not with us anymore, but

he is with Jesus, and I know he's super happy

about that. And he came into my life, into mine

in Ben's lives in a very tumultuous time, in a

very difficult time. And for three years he would meet

with me. Him and his wife would meet with me

every single week and they would sit on my back

porch and they would spend time with me. And I

remember thinking, I want to be like Pastor Billy when

I grow up, because he just gave me room to be.

He didn't put burdens or pressure on me. He gave

me the gift of his presence because he knew the

gift of the presence of God. And a lot of

times when he would talk or when he would be

with me, he would sit quietly before responding. He would

close his eyes. Sometimes his wife would be talking and

he'd just have his eyes closed, and then he would

open up and he might say just a few words.

And he was the best at practicing the presence of

God of anyone I've ever met. He would go and

retreat into this secret place in his heart that was

reserved for him and God alone, and I learned to

do that. I remember I had to get some surgery

done on my heart, not direct surgery on my heart,

but I had an electrical issue, had for most of

my life, and so I ended up having to go

and get an ablasion done, if you know what that is.

And I remember being terrified, absolutely terrified. So Ben might

remember this. But on the car trip there, my mom

and Ben took me on the car trip to go

get the surgery done, and I had my Bible in

front of me. I kept my nose in the word

like I did not stop. I was listening to worship

music in my ears. And because I was scared, I

was afraid, and I wanted to be in that secret place,

and so I was. I stayed there with God. And

as they were taking me back to surgery, I still

had the earbuds in the headphones in and they just

took them out, like as you know, after they put

me to sleep, they took them out, and I just

focus on the presence of Jesus in order to have

peace because I was so scared, and I learned that

from Pastor Billy. He showed me what it looked like

to go to that secret place, and I would do

that so many times. I have done that so many

times when I'm hearing someone talk, or when I'm afraid

or I don't know what to do. I learned how

to have a relationship with God from Pastor Billy, and

God has always met me there in my heart. And

knowing this about Him, that I can come into his

presence at any time has changed my life. It's changed

my life. I wouldn't be standing here if it wasn't

for my relationship with Jesus. I also tend to be

a very anxious person, especially lately, and I'm gonna blame hormones.

It's just a thing. It is. It's difficult. I've been

struggling a lot lately and I felt very weak. And

what I found is I don't have to fight that

it's okay that I'm weak, because when I'm weak. Jesus

is strong, and he has made a way for me

to be with him at any time, to draw on

his strength, to draw on his joy at any moment,

at any time, and I take full advantage of that.

The amazing thing is it's so simple to be with Jesus,

and yet it is difficult, you know how some things

are simple, very simple to do, but very difficult to

get there. And because of the anxiety that I struggle

with in my life, a lot of times I'm thinking

about myself. I'm thinking so much of myself that I

forget to think about God. And if I will just

step back and remember, oh, I can just be a

child in this presence. Once I can do that and

maintain it, even for a few minutes, I will feel peace.

I will feel peace. So I do want to talk

to you about his presence, but I really just want

to I want to introduce you to Jesus. I want

to introduce you to Jesus because He's a reason we're here.

We forget that, I forget that He is the reason

that we sink. He is the reason that we are

not in line right now with doves and goats and

looking at each other's offerings to see how bad of

a sin that person had. Thank God, I'd probably have

to be in line for what accidentally said to Sean.

That's a goat. He is the reason. And we got

to remember it's not what we've done, it's what he's done.

We love because he first loved us. God is not

Bill Vanderbush said this. God is not asking you to

love him. He's asking you to let him. God is

not asking you to love him, asking you to let him.

And do you know why God can be so brave

in doing that? If I could say that, because he

knows that once you get a taste of his love

for you, you will be forever changed. Once you get

filled up with Jesus and you get a revelation of

his love, you will not be able to help but love,

be unlovable, give your life away. It is a product

of our root system. And I love that. I love

that because when I feel like I'm doing too much,

I can step back and I can let myself be loved.

We can't love beyond our ability to let God love us.

We can't love beyond our abilibility to let God love us.

If you struggle to love people, if you struggle. If

you struggle with sin, and a lot of our sin

has to do with how we treat people, it's because

you don't know how much you are loved. I really

believe that. What does first Sean say? How can we love?

How can we is it? How can we love a

brother that we can see? Now? I can't think of it.

Oh my gosh. If someone knows where that is, tell me,

because it's coming to my mind, but I don't have

time to look it up anyway. I'm just I'm kind

of talking here because I'm trying to bigger on which

direction I'm going. Oh, because there are so many good

things to tell y'all. This morning when I was like, Lord,

what would please your heart? This is like, sorry, it's

super hot, Mike, what would please your heart for me

to share? And instantly I heard him say, this is

my beloved son and whom I am well pleased listen

to him. I was like, oh, And then I went

and looked it up. The amount of transfiguration. There's three

different versions of it, pretty similar, but I believe it's

Luke's version where it says that the disciples fell asleep

as Jesus and Elijah and Moses were talking, and then

suddenly Peter woke up and he's like, oh, we'll build

a We'll build a whatever, an altar for y'all, or

a shelter. We'll build a shelter for y'all. And then

God says, this is my beloved son, and who am

I'm well, please listen to him. It's kind of like

petersh And how often do we just get so anxious,

so anxious and our doing to try to do enough

to earn God's love? Am I doing enough? Am I

doing enough? Or we get avoidant. I'm never going to

do enough, So I'm just not going to talk to

God and we hide. It's usually one or the other.

It's like that with people too. We get the same way.

But what if it's really true? Sorry, there's feedback on this.

What if it's really true that we can rest in

His love for us and operate from that place? What

could that change in our lives? Jesus talks about in

Hebrew entering into a real rest. He says, Jesus, I

mean I'm saying inspired, right. Jesus didn't like actually write Hebrews.

But it also talks about how Jesus was the sacrifice

once for all time for our sin. He took care

of that, So that's not in the way anymore. Now

we get to be in God's family. We get to

be in God's family. Do y'all know that from the

beginning he wanted a family. He wanted he wanted children

to commune with. He wanted Adam and Eve to be

his family. And when they sinned, did he say, oh,

I'm I gotta go away from I gotta go away

from you? Actually no, he said where are you? Where

are you? They were hiding? Where are you? He was

looking for them? And when we are screwing up in

our lives? Do we think that God goes away from us?

I want you to think of this, Jesus, the express

image of the Father, sent to show us what the

Father looked like. Who did he hang out with. He

looked at that sin and brokenness in the face, and

he said, I will love you into wholeness. So why

do we those that have received Jesus, and he's living

inside of us, his present dwells with us at all times,

think that when we screw up, that we can't just

talk to him right in the midst of it, right

in the midst of it. Okay, what's up? Do it stop?

Stop popping? Is that better? Yeah? I think that's better.

M I got okay, is that better? Yes it is, yes, yes.

So what if we just began to practice lingering in

his presence and got still and quiet? You know? I

love this. In Exodus thirty three, where it says I'm looking,

it was Moses's practice to take the tint of meeting

and set it up some distance from the camp. Everyone

who wanted to make a request of the Lord would

go to the tint of meeting outside the camp. Whenever

Moses went out to the Tintive Meeting, all the people

would get up stand in the entrances of their own tents.

They would all watch Moses until he disappeared inside. As

he went into the tent, the pillar of cloud would

come down and hover at its entrance while the Lord

spoke with Moses. When the people saw the cloud standing

at the entrance of the tent, they would stand and

bow down in front of their own tents. Inside the

Tintive meeting, the Lord would speak to Moses face to face,

as one who speaks to a friend. Afterward, Moses would

return to the camp but the young man who assisted him,

Joshua's son of Nun, would remain behind in the tent

of meeting. Two things stick out to me there that

the Lord spoke to Moses as a friend. And then

there's all these people, the same people that said, oh, no, Moses,

we don't want to go up to the Lord. We're afraid

you go up for us. They stood outside their tents.

They didn't even go up to the tint of meeting

to be close to his presence. And Moses went inside

and there he found a friend. And here they're looking thinking, oh,

we're too scared. Moses knew God as a friend. And

then Joshua hung out afterwards to linger where the presence

had been. I just think that's amazing. And then a

few verses down, this is right before God reveals himself

to Moses. How he says, I'm I'm going to cover you,

and I'm gonna walk in front, and you're gonna see

me from the back. I'm not saying that part here

I want to, But here he says. Moses says, you

haven't told me whom you will send with me. You've

told me I know you by name, and I look

favorably on you. If it is true that you look

favorably on me, let me know your ways so I

may understand you more fully and continue to enjoy your

favor and remember that this nation is your very own people.

Then the Lord replied, I will personally go with you, Moses,

and I will give you rest. Everything will be fine

for you. He's attaching his presence to rest. He's telling Moses,

I will personally go with you. This is the amazing thing.

These prophets in the Old Testament. There they knew about

the ark, right, there was an arc that was built

after this time or before this time, around this time,

there was an arc that carried the presence of God.

But now we carry the presence of God. Can you

imagine how much they would have loved to see the

day that God came to dwell within his people. And

now we have been given this gift to have Him

with us, And do we take advantage of it? Do

we take advantage of practicing His presence at any moment,

at any part of the day, in any situation that

we could ever be in. I don't always I'm not

coming down hard on you, guys. I'm kind of coming

down hard on the whole church, me included. I get

so distracted. I get so distracted personally. I look at

myself too much. I'm going to Colossians, Jesus, we need you.

My calautions always gets lost in my Bible. It does.

I've always struggled with it. I thought it marked it.

It's very funny. Just a second there it is. You

are loved in Christ. You are forgiven in Christ. You

are redeemed in Christ. You are accepted in Christ. You

are adopted. You are grafted in to the vine. He

is the vine. You are the branches. He is the

bread of life. He is the wine. He sets a

table before us in the presence of our enemies, and

he is the feast. He is the soil. He is

a shepherd, he is a king. He is the bridegroom,

and he's also the bride price. Do y'all understand what

he's done for us, the way that he made through

his own body on the cross. He was torn open

to give us a new in life giving way into

the most holy place where once only priests that had

been cleansed could walk into. We now have bold access

into the throne room of God. And it is not

based on merit. It is not based on how good

you are today or how good you plan to be.

It is based on the goodness of God. He hasenabled

you to share in the inheritance that belongs to His

people who live in the light. If you're in Christ,

that's you. For he has rescued us from the kingdom

of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of His

dear son, who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins.

Just listen to this about Jesus really quick, because it

is so good. Christ is a visible image of the

invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is

supreme over all creation. This is the one we have

access to right here. For through him God created everything

in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the

things we can't see and the things we can't see,

such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world.

Everything was created through Him and for him. He existed

before anything else, and he holds all creation together. Christ

is the head of the Church, which is his body.

He is the beginning, supreme over all who rise from

the dead, So he is first in everything. For God

in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ,

and through him, God reconciled everything to himself. He made

peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means

of Christ's blood on the cross. This includes you, who

were once far away from God. You were his enemies,

separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions. Yet now, yet, now,

those are really good words. He has reconciled you to

himself through the death of Christ in his physical body.

As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, presence.

He did it. He has brought you into his own presence.

He did that. It is a reality. It may not

be your reality, but it is a reality. It's more

real than you know. He has brought you into his

own presence. And you are holy and blameless as you

stand before him without a single fault. Catch that, guys,

You are holy and blameless as you stand before him

without a single thought. What is keeping you out of

the throne room? What is keeping you out of the

throne room? Why are you hiding? Why are you trying

to earn his love? He has already done it. He

has already paid the price, He has already opened his body.

He has already made a way, only he could do it.

This was God's place from the beginning of creation. Not

gonna pretend like I understand that, because I don't totally

and I don't care, But it is the truth. God

wanted a family and he wanted you in it, every

single one of you. He wants his presence to be

known within you so that you can carry it out

into this world that is so screwed up. Yes, yes, Jesus,

and you carry him and you become a place of

presence for others that need him. You don't even have

the same as you can be like pastor Billy and

just sit there be this place that people can tabernacle

under this place of presence, it says, But you must

continue to believe the truth and stand firmly in it.

Don't drift away from the assurance you receive when you

heard the good news. That's what happens. We drift away,

We forget, We start to feel like we have to

earn it again, We feel guilty, we mess up. We

have this treasure in earth and vessels to show that

it is God's power and not our own. Jesus is

the treasure. Jesus is the treasure we can carry in

all that you're trying to do to look like the

super Christian to earn his affection. I'm speaking myself. Just

you know, all you're trying to do and all you're doing,

he's asking you to be. And if you can learn

to be with him, everything flows out of that place. Everything,

everything you struggle to parent, it's gonna flow out of

that place. Presence you struggle in your marriage, go to presents. God.

I'm not feeling loved by my spouse right now, but

I'm gonna just let you love me. I'm gonna let

you love me and fill me up because right now

my spouse is struggling and they can't love me the

way I need to be loved. They're human. So God,

would you just fill me with your love and I

forgive my spouse and I release them too, you and

I trust you with them. Can you tell I've prayed

this prayer? Sorry, and then you can be full of

His love to share, to give without resentment, without bitterness. Oh,

it's so good, It's so so good. Can you just

let God love you some of you? I'll tell you

if you struggle to let other people love you, if

you struggle to receive hugs. If you struggle, if you

struggle to let people give to you, if you struggle

to receive, you probably struggle to receive love from God

because God's going to use his body. God uses his body.

We're his body, so we're the ones doing the things

that people are praying. Oh Lord, would I just need

to feel your love today? Well, he's gonna say, Lisa,

go hug Kim. She needs a hug. It's that simple

it is. We're his body and He's going to use us.

So those of you that struggle to receive, you need

to do better at that and ask the Lord. You

don't have to like just do it, Just say Lord,

would you just help me to receive? Would you help

me to be a good receiver? Because you've got to receive.

You cannot give out what you do not have, And

if you want to be loving, you got to be

filled with his love. So much of Christianity can be transactional.

It can be we go to God to get our

sins forgiven, and we go to God to get what

we need, but we forget about their relational part. We

forget that our King longs to hear our voice. I

really love a song of Solomon where it says the

bridegroom is saying, let me see your face, let me

hear your voice, for your face is lovely. In it

says that there appeared a rider on a white horse

whose name is Faithful and True. And I'm skipping a

few things, but it says that his eyes burn with

flames of fire. Have you ever let yourself look into

the eyes of Jesus? It said, for the joy set

before him, he endured the cross, despising its shame. You

are his joy. You are his joy. What we don't

understand is we have a pretty okay. We're usually okay, okay.

I can believe that Jesus loves me, but that he

likes me that I'm not sure about that. Jesus likes you.

Jesus likes you just like a mother who maybe doesn't

like some of the behaviors of her child. I'm not

speaking from experience, because but she likes being with her child.

You know, you can separate the behavior of a person

from who you know that person to be. And God

looks at our hearts, and he sees your heart, and

he also is outside of time, so he sees the

good things that he created you to do, and he's

proud of you. He's proud of you because he's not

just looking at you in a moment, and also like

he's looking at us through the blood of Jesus, which

is amazing. Don't get that either. I'm going to read

you another scripture. It is weird going from first service

where you have fifteen minutes, to second service, where you

have a bit longer than that. It's nice. So Second

Corinthians three eleven, I'm gonna go further down. Sean was

touching on this earlier three fourteen. I'm sorry, tewod Corinthians

five fourteen. Since we believe that Christ died for all,

we also believe that we all have died our old life.

He died for everyone, so that those who receive his

new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they

will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them.

So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point

of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely

from a human point of view. How differently we know

him now. This means that anyone who belongs to Christ

has become a new person. The old life has gone

the new life has begun, and all of this is

a gift from God, who brought us back to himself

through Christ. And God has given us this task of

reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ reconciling

the world to himself, no longer counting people's sins against him,

and he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation, so

that we are Christ's ambassadors. God is making his appeal

through us through me today, I speak for Christ when

I plead come back to God, come back to God.

For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the

offering for our sin so that we could be made

right with God through Christ. God wants his family, He

wants you. Don't keep yourself from receiving God's love. It

is simple. Jesus paid the price. You don't even a

child can understand this. Jesus paid a price that we

could not pay so that God could have his family back.

It's not like God. It's not good caught bad cop.

It's not like God's Oh they're going all right, go

pay that price for their sins so that they can

be in my presence again. Like it's hard to I

didn't practice this as you can tell. But sometimes we

look at it like good caught bad cop, Like Jesus

is the good cop and God's the bad cop. But

this is God's God. In Christ, there are one. This

is their idea to get us back through the blood

of Jesus. The price has been paid, You are forgiven.

But you have got to let him in. You have

got to let him in, come back to God. I

want to share a snippet of this from you, from

the practice of the practice of the presence of God.

Brother Lawrence. I don't know if you've ever heard of him.

This was a man that he was young when he started.

He was in the war I think in England or

somewhere over there, anyway around World War two, I believe. Anyway,

he had a life changing encounter with Jesus and he

decided to devote his life to servanthood and to pursuing

the presence of God. So he would do menial tasks

that none of us would want to do, and in

the midst of them, he would practice the presence of God.

While he was washing dishes, shining shoes, probably cleaning toilets,

he would practice the presence of God. And this was many,

many years. Okay, he got to where he could all

day spend time with God. I struggle to do it

for thirty minutes, but he did it all day and

it made his tasks a joy. Anyway, I want to

read part of this to you because he really struggled

at first about sin and his sins, and that he

was overcome by it. And so for about ten years

he really struggled to feel like God wanted him at all.

But he just continued to practice praying. He would just

keep praying, keep talking to God, keep conversing with him.

He said, I have given up all but my intercestory

prayers to focus my attention on remaining in His holy presence.

I keep my attention on God in a simple, loving way.

This is my soul's secret experience of the actual, unceasing

presence of God. It gives me such contentment and joy

that I sometimes feel compelled to do rather child things

to control it. This King, who is full of goodness

and mercy, doesn't punish me. Rather, he embraces me lovingly

and invites me to eat at his table. He serves

me himself and gives me the keys to his treasury,

treating me as his favorite. He converses with me without

mentioning either my sins or his forgiveness. My former habits

are seemingly forgotten. Although I beg him to do whatever

he wishes with me, he does nothing but caress me.

This is what being in his holy presence is like.

My day to day life consists of giving God my simple,

loving attention. If I am distracted, he calls me back

in tones that are sorry, supernaturally beautiful. If you think

of me, remember the grace with which God has blessed me,

rather than my typical human ineptitude. He says, his former

habits were forgotten. This is the power. This is the

power of the cross. This is the power of our

resurrected Savior, and the fact that His presence lives with us.

We I say this, sometimes we can live holier by

accident than we ever try to on purpose, when we

pursue letting Him love us. I'm gonna probably close with

this one. So in Hebrews it says this Hebrews eleven nineteen.

And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter

Heaven's most holy placed because of our good deeds. No,

I didn't like what you do. You do that because

of the blood of Jesus, by his debt death, Jesus

opened a new and life giving way through the curtain

into the most whole place. And since we have a

great high priest who rules over God's house, let us

go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts,

fully trusting him. For our guilty consciousns have been sprinkled

with Christ's blood to make us clean, and our bodies

have been washed with pure water. Let us hold tightly,

without wavering, to the hope we affirm, for God can

be trusted to keep his promise. Hot pitch your bag.

There is that better. Here we go. Jesus open anew

in life giving way. If you have never said yes

to him, I want you to know that He's already

paid the price. If you are far off from God

but you believe in him, I want you to know

that he wants to meet with you again. He misses you. God,

the creator of the universe, misses your voice. It is

so simple to have a relationship with him. You can

talk to him about anything at any time. You can

say these kids are driving me crazy. Jesus, I need

your grace. I don't know why I'm using kids as

an example. I'm sorry. I'm with kids a lot. They

don't drive me crazy at all. Even the most menial

task can become something that you find joy in if

you do it with him. You never know what he

might show you. There is an invitation today for you

to come into the most holy place, and that invitation

stands day after day after day, and you don't have

to stand in line. It's available. Now. Is there a musician?

Can you? Would you mind? Thank you? Michael? Will you

put up the picture of the I'm not sure which one.

Let's see what comes up. Hmm I like that one.

Mm yeah, leave that. I've got a few more minutes.

I've really been studying. Sorry you can, it's if you

want to play, that's fine. I really been studying Psalm

twenty three, and I thought I was going to really

preach on Psalm twenty three and John ten today. I

highly encourage you to go look at those scriptures. They

give me so much comfort. What I have found is

that I am a weak sheep. I'm a lamb and

I am weak, and that is okay, because you know

what my job is is to follow my shepherd, to

follow him, and I just say, Lord, wherever you lead,

I'll go and help me not to wander away, because

I do sometimes I like to do things my way.

But there is no safer place than we could be

than right up there on his shoulders. There's no better

place for us. And the amazing thing is he provides food.

It says, he feeds, he nourishes, he nurtures, he protects,

he satisfies how he longs to satisfy us with his presence.

So if you do not feel like you've ever said

yes to Jesus, or you want to say yes to

him again, I really want to invite you up here.

Would you be brave and come up here? This is

an invitation to step into the most holy place to

say yes, or to say yes again. That's okay, you

can say yes as many times as you want. I've

said it lots this. It can be a time to

realign and like a starting place, the starting overplace. The

beautiful thing is you don't have to catch him up

on anything. He knows. There anybody else that wants to

come up. I'm going to give another moment. There's no shame,

There's only goodness mercy that follows you all the days

of your life. There's only healing, there's only hope. There's

only one that walks with you through the suffering and

the pain. You'll never be alone again. You never have

to feel alone again. He's always with us. It's Rod

and staff, comfort and guide us. He sets a table

before us in the presence of our enemies. He annoints

our heads with oil. Runs over Lord. I pray for

those that are standing here today that have been brave

and come forward, And I just thank you for giving

us this new in life, giving way into the most

holy place. Thank you for your presence, Jesus. Thank you

for showing us your eyes that are flames of fire

burning with passion and love for us. Thank you for listening.

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