Going Deeper

Kylie Seifert is speaking this morning, and she has more

time this time around. I was telling everybody to listen

quickly for service, but she did an awesome job. If

y'all would extend your hands towards her, so Father, I

just thank you for Kylie. Lord. I just asked that

you would fill her mind and heart with your thoughts,

your desires, your will. Lord, you said that you would

fill our mouths to not worry about what we're going

to speak, but you will fill us. So Holy Spirit,

we thank you in advance for your words Lord through her.

And I just.

Asked that there would be a heavy anointing that just

rests on her this morning in Jesus' name. Amen, Amen, thank.

You, Well, good afternoon. It's good to see everybody. As

justin U mentioned earlier, we had we've spent the last

three days at a retreat and coming up with core

values and vision, deciphering what the Lord wants to do

this year. And as we were kind of pouring out

our hearts, there was a common theme among all of

us and that the Lord was calling us to go deeper,

and so we started really kind of pressing into that

and what that looks like and justin ed text me

late Tuesday to confirm that I was I'm going to

be able to speak today and I was like, oh,

Wednesday is slammed for us, and we just it's our

busiest day of the week. I'm going to be at

the retreat on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and I don't have

anything but together. So I just asked the Lord, as

you know he's done it before, where he has just

downloaded a message to me, and what do he wanted

to say? And this is what is on his heart,

not mine. I'm just a vehicle, and so I was like, what,

I just need you to download something for me. What

do you want to say? And I just really felt

like as we were meeting throughout the retreat that he

just started pouring into me. And it's really just a synopsis,

if you will, of what we discussed. And so I

when I invite you into that, do you mind moving

this over. I'm not ready to turn it around yet,

but if we could have it, please. So we're going

to be talking today about going deeper and what that

looks like and how we can apply that to our

individual lives. And I was thinking, thank you, Yeah, that's

perfect thank you. Last year I was doing a study

and still working through the Old Testament. But as I

was reading through the first few books Genesis Exodus, you know,

we see where God was bringing the Israelites out of Egypt,

and they were before he took them into the Promised Land.

They were in this period of time where they were

in the wilderness, and it was in the wilderness that

God was really teaching them that hey, I want to

be among you, I want to be in your presence,

and really having to teach them what that looked like

because they didn't have a grid for that. They didn't

know what it was like to have God's presence in

their lives, and during all that time from in their

kind of the wilderness, they were missing it radically, and

to the point God was like, hey, we're gonna we're

gonna set some guardrails, We're gonna set some boundaries. Let

me give you some guidelines on what this looks like.

And here, you know, first we see him release the

Ten Commandments. So they had some rules to follow because

they went from being slaves to all this freedom and

not really knowing what honor God, what dishonors God, and

how to apply it in their lives. So we see

the first ten commandments given, and then we see where

God's teaching them. Here's what it looks like. Here's how

I want to be in your presence. And so he

teaches them there were twelve tribes, and so he places them.

Here's here's how you're going to set up your camp.

And in that camp you see in the scripture says,

you know, these tribes, you're going to build your camp

to the east, and these tribes are going to build

your camp to the north, and these tribes you are

going to go to the west, and these tribes are

going to go to the south. And he spreads them

all out, and hey, at the center of all of

that is where the ark of the Covenant is going

to be. Because in that that's where my presence is.

I want my presence to be at the center of

your camp. I want my presence to be at the

center of your lives. So when you wake up in

the morning, you see the tent and you see my presence.

When you lay your head down at night, the last

thing you see is the tent. You see my presence. Mica,

do you have that picture? Could you go ahead and

put that up for me. Here's an illustration of what

that looked like. Do you see what that represents? Isn't

it beautiful that even then, years before Jesus would be

born as a man and walk on this earth, he

was letting us know, here's where my presence is. We

just talked about it, Sean led Us and Communion and

talked about it so beautifully that his presence is in

the elements. His presence is. This is the center. When

we walk in the fear of God and we recognize

what Jesus accomplished on the cross, his presence is in

the center. He's showing us this is where his presence is.

An illustration my presence, and I want to be in

the middle of your lives. I want my presence to

be the center of everything that you do. As I

was thinking about his people being him being in the

middle of his people, his presence dwelling in the middle

of his people, it reminded me of the New Testament too.

And before we go there, I want to go. We're

talking about going deeper. Some of you may have remember

Susan Johnson painted this picture last year turned with me

to some one. When I first saw this picture last year.

The first thing it reminded me of was this one

of the very first scriptures that my mom taught us

when I was a little kid. The first thing I

thought of was some one verse one Blessed is the

man who does not walk in the council of the wicked,

nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in

the seat of scoffers. But his delight is in the

law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates

day and night. He will be like a tree firmly

planted by streams of water, which yield its fruit in

its season. Its leaf does not whither, And whatever he does,

he prospers. The man who delights in the law of

the Lord and meditates on his word day and night,

who doesn't sit in the seed of scoffers or stand

in the path of wicked, he he will be like

a tree firmly planted by streams of water. Have you

ever seen trees planted by water? Some of my favorite

trees in our area are the trees along the Guadalupe.

Their trunks are massive, they stand tall. But the thing

about trees that are near water, you know what their

roots do. Their roots go down deep they go down

deep because roots are chasing after water. So trees that

are planted near any body of water are stronger because

their roots are the deepest. And while trees don't get

a chance or to decide where they're planted, the ones

that we see are planted away from water, their roots

go wide and they stay shallow. And the reason for

that is because they're trying to catch the rain. A

tree that's planted deep has deep roots in the water.

It's not easily moved any wind that comes, a storm

that comes, it's not gonna knock that tree over. But

a tree that has shallow roots that have gone wide

instead of deep, it doesn't even just knock the tree over.

It uproots the tree and lays it over. The Lord

is calling us in this season to go deep. And

the center of that is his presence. Our lives being

saturated by his presence. It's you and me in our

quiet time. It's in our day in and day out.

I long for his presence. I long to see an

outpouring of his presence. I love being in his presence.

Moses said it when he was up on the mountain

meeting with God. But God, I don't want to go

back down the hill. I don't want I want to

stay here. Please don't send me away from your presence.

God was like, they're building a calf, and I need

you to go teach them. But when he would steal

away with God, he would stay for days. And isn't

that what we all long for? We know God longs

to be in our presence, but isn't it, deep down

what we actually all long for. We have His spirit

inside of us, and our spirit cries out for his presence.

But even like Moses had responsibility to lead the children

of Israel, we have responsibilities. We have jobs to be at,

we have families to tend to things that pull us away.

I was just started a book by RT. Kendall. I

believe it's called God's Presence, and he was talking about

God's presence, but he was talking about the different types

of God's presence.

And.

I have found myself crying out for the manifest presence

of God. Thought, it's just I don't want to move

from this place. I love being in your presence. And

I was so convicted and reading that book over taking

advantage of taking for granted and not being grateful for

what he calls the subconscious presence of God, because he's

always present. He's with us when we're not paying attention.

He's with us when we're doing the laundry or running

the errands and buying groceries, whatever it is. His presence

is with us. And I was convicted that I wasn't

showing gratitude for even that presence. Even then, he's so

grateful to be with us. When our roots go wide,

we don't have anything to offer. Our roots going wide

is us saying I'm not going to take the time

to get into your presence for myself. I'm not going

to take the time to dig into the Word for myself.

I just want to satisfied going to church and letting

you pour into me, waiting for the rain, and that's

enough to get me by. But when the trials come

and there's wind coming and the enemy comes, because we

live in this world and there are trials, those trees

don't last, nor are they able to bear fruit in

their season because they didn't dig down into the Word

for themselves. They didn't practice hearing the voice of God

for themselves. They were waiting on other people to feed them.

And there's nothing wrong with being fed. I'm getting some

feedback up here. There's nothing wrong with coming to church

and being fed. There's nothing wrong with reading a book

and being fed and getting revelation drawing from the revelation

that God's poured out. Those are good things. But are

we doing it on our own? Are we spending the

time on our own? Are we going deep? Sometimes? I

know this has been true for me. Are busy, and

when we get too busy, we tend to go wide

instead of really focusing on what matters and going deep.

And I really believe in this season God is saying,

let's just away the busy. He has something in store

for us, and it's there when we go deep. When

I was thinking about how he set up his presence

in the middle of the camp of the children of Israel,

it reminded me of some of the stories we read

in the New Testament. You know, when Jesus was born

on the earth and walking as a man, you hear

these stories of him people getting wind of him talking

and teaching, and there would be thousands crowding around wanting

to know. And I always wondered, hearing those stories as

a kid, how did a crowd of five thousand plus.

How were they able to hear what he had to say?

You know the way there were no sound systems. There

there were no microphones to be heard. I just wonder

and I imagine was it just a trickle effect? You know,

was it like the game of telephone? Or did God

just miraculously make his voice be known and able to

be heard. And I think about these families because it

talks about you know, there were men and women and

children going to to hear Jesus speak thousands walking miles.

I have five kids, and I mean it's hard and

challenging to drive in a car for five hours. Can

you imagine loading up your children and walking on foot

because you have to know what you say? Wow, you're

so hungry to hear the word of God. There were

no tablets, were no electronics, There was no entertainment. They

were just raw and hungry for the word of God

coming out of Jesus's mouth. They probably had blisters on

their feet, They were probably exhausted. There was no food

in toe with them. But they needed to hear Jesus

speak the word of God because they were hungry for

his presence and they wanted to go deep. Are we

that hungry? Are we that desperate? I want to be

that hungry? They left everything to go hear him speak.

You know, there's an example and both Matthew fourteen and

in Luke five. Let's go to Luke five, if you

would please, I'm gonna start in verse one. Now, it

happened that while Jesus was standing by the lake, the

Sea of Galilee, with people crowding all around him and

listening to the word of God, that he saw two

boats lying at the edge of the lake, but the

fishermen had gotten out of them and were washing their nets.

He got into one of the boats, which when I

first heard that, it was like, that's funny to me.

He's preaching to all these people. He sees two boats

people get out, and he's like, I think I'll get

in and make some stuff at home. I didn't ask, hey,

is anyone using this boat? Would you mind? He's just

Jesus just gets in the boat. He gets into one

of the boats, which was Simon's, and asked him to

put it out a little distance from the shore, and

he sat down and began teaching the crowds from the boat.

When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, Peter,

put out into the deep water and lower your nets

for a catch. Simon replied, Master, we have worked all

night to the point of exhaustion. Another translation says we

have toiled, toiling and working all night. Though to me,

when I first heard the word toil, it made me

think of just busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy,

going wide and not going deep. We have toiled all

night to the point of exhaustion. Have you ever been

so busy? You're just exhausted? Have you been in those seasons?

We have worked hard all night to the point of

exhaustion and caught nothing. But at your word, I will

do as you say and lower the nets again. When

they had done this, they caught a great number of fish,

and their nets were to the point of breaking. So

they signaled to their partners and the other boats to

come and help them, and they came and filled both

of the boats with fish, to the point that they

were both sinking when they went shallow. When they were busy,

when they were toiling, and there was no fruit, They

were toiling and exhausted, and they had no fruit to

show for it. But the minute that they went deep,

their nets were breaking. There was a lot of fruit produced,

to the point that it wasn't enough just for one boat,

but it was enough for two boats. And it was

so much for those two boats that they were both

beginning to sink because they went deep. And I think

the end of this is funny because it says that

they got to the shore and then they got other

boats and followed Jesus. These are fishermen, this is their livelihood.

They had two full boats. Do you know how much

that could have been for them? But they left it

all behind and they went and followed Jesus. And I know,

we know that God does everything for a purpose, And

I just wonder, in that moment, was he feeding the

thousands that were listening while simultaneously teaching us the purpose

and the principle of going deep. So he knows all

of our needs. He knew these people came hungry and

they had been pressing in. He also knew they had

physical needs. I just wonder if, in the middle of

teaching his disciples the principles of going deep instead of wide,

did he also have a plan to feed the thousands

that he was teaching. When we go deep it doesn't

only benefit us. So it's not that we have fruit to

bear when we go deep. That fruit isn't just for us.

It's for the people around us. When we go wide,

we're consuming. What do you have for me? I'm too busy,

have got too much on my plate. But when we

go deep, we have something to offer. It isn't that

what we're called to do. There are people who have

I'm not talking about just in the church. I'm not

saying we need to get deep so we can have

more things in the church to feed people. I'm talking

we need to go deep because there are people who

have never heard of Jesus. There are people who don't

have the revelation that you have when you go deep,

and when you go deep, you have the deep fruit

that you're bearing that you can offer to them. It's

called discipleship.

We're called to disciple, you guys, Okay.

Turn with me to Matthew fourteen. I'm gonna start in

verse thirteen. And if you've been in the church for

any length of time, you know this this story. But

Jesus' cousin was John the Baptist, and John had just

been beyond head and it says When Jesus heard about John,

he left there privately in a boat and went to

a secluded place. But when the crowds heard of this,

they followed him on foot from the cities. When he

went ashore, he saw a large crowd and felt compassion

for them and healed their sick. Jesus had just lost

his cousin. He was in grief and needed to go

and be away. But when the people heard, they followed.

But you know what happened. When Jesus saw these people,

he was moved with compassion. He wasn't pushing them away

because he wants his presence to be the center of

their lives, and he knew he was about to give

his life for them and become the ultimate sacrifice so

they could experience his presence daily. Jesus didn't turn away

the hungry then, and he doesn't turn away the hungry now.

Going deeper comes from having a hunger for his presence

and for his word. When he sees somebody hungry, he's

running to meet them. He won't turn you away. Jesus

was moved with compassion then, and he's moved with compassion now.

Jesus wanted to be in the midst of his people

there and when he got out of the boat, and

he wants to be in the midst of his people. Today,

he was in the midst of his people, but when

he walked among the garden among Adam and Eve, and

they got to be and experience his presence. And he's

taking the children of Israel back to that. He's taking

his people from that point to this point, back to

the original intent in the garden, to walk among us,

for us to experience and eat from the real true

bread of life. I asked if we could put the

communion elements up here at the front, because I want

us to see these pictures, these illustrations when he's the

center of our lives. Are we taking that seriously? Do

we have a holy, reverential fear in awe of who

he is, of his presence? Do we understand that he

longs to be in our midst? Are we sensitive to that?

Are we digging deep? Are we going deeper with him?

And in his word? I believe that this is the

season that he's calling us to strip things away that

have caused us to go wide and shallow, and maybe

they're good things. He's inviting us to go deep whoever's

doing sound, I'm gonna walk in front of the the mics.

I have to show you this illustration I saw. Do

we know that he wants our presence and I visualize

it like this. He's just coming excuse me for me.

I have to be right here. I want to be

with you. He's a gentleman, but he wants to be

in this presence.

Hey, I wanted to be with you today.

I couldn't see you.

I have so much to tell you.

I have so much to show you.

Will you come with me today? Will be with me?

Will you spend me? I can't wait to show you what.

I've been waiting for you. I've been waiting for this moment.

I knew you before you're born. I have so much

to share with you.

I died on the cross for you because I couldn't

wait to be with you. I didn't want to just

give to go to a priest. I wanted to be

with you, just like I was with Adam and even

the garden.

Yes, hm.

Hm, man, he loves us. This wasn't good enough for

him anymore.

So he gave it all.

He gave it all on a cross. But he's taking

a steeper.

Mhm.

Would you mind being on the keys. Jesus, we thank

you for your presence, thank you for the way that

you pursue us. Forgive us where we've taken your presence

for granted and too lightly, or give us where we've

been too busy and shallow. Whether if we want to

go deep, deep calls hto deep. We don't want to

miss what you're doing or what you're saying because of business.

We want to be the tree planted firmly by streams

of water that bears much fruit because leaf never withers.

I just want you to take a moment. Would you

allow the Lord to just reveal anything in your life

that he may want to strip away. Maybe it's something good,

but for a season, it needs to put a pause

so you can go deeper with him. Would you just

take a moment and invite the Holy Spirit to show

you what that is, to tell him that you're ready

to go deeper. Holy Spirit, would you just reveal to

us what needs to be paused for now, what you

want to strip away, so that we can go deeper.

And would you give us the courage and the grace

to be obedient.

Hey, there's some people in the room right now. You

don't know, Jesus, I just felt very strongly to get

up here and give an invitation. And if you're ready

to give your life to the Lord, I just want

you to invite you to come up here, and I'm

going to lead you just in a simple invitation that

receiving him. So if y'all respond to this, I feel

like I don't feel this a lot, but I felt

a real urgency on this, and I know the Lord's

dealing with your heart. So stop listening to the fear.

And maybe you just walked away from the Lord and

you need to come back. It's a good time.

If that is you, we give you the invitation.

Come forward.

Lord Jesus said, if you honor me before men, I

will honor you before my father. And right now each

of you are honoring him before men. And he told

the fear of man to go pound sand, and so

I honor each of you for being willing to come

up here and say I'm all in. So just pray

this will, say, Lord Jesus, I surrender all of my rights,

I yield my will, and I give you the control

of my life. So come in and fill me. Fill

every room now, and Lord, thank you for saving my

life literally on more than one occasion. Now, and Father,

would you just baptize me right now with your Holy

Spirit in Jesus thing, so just take a deep breath,

Holy Spirit. Would you just fall on them, baptize them

with your love that they would feel the Father's heart

like never before or in this moment. Lord, Yeah, this

is the other thing I hear. He's a father to

the fatherless. So, Lord, I thank you for my brothers

in arms, because you've called these two to be a warrior,

to be warriors for you, and it's been a long,

hard battle and it's been a long fight. What's your

first name?

Eric? Eric?

I just see like a grandmother. You've had family members

praying for you.

Now now.

And you this is the first time you visited, right.

What's your first name? Hymen? I mean Jimmy. That was

you with the night terms. Yeah, when I started, when

I got hit with that, I looked and I knew

it was you. But that was that wasn't to call

you out. That was for the Father to say, I

know you, says the eyes of the Lord searched to

and fro on the earth. You don't have to keep

being strong. Bro, He's got you. You felt like you've

had to be tough since you were little to try

to protect people. But God made you tender and that

wasn't a mistake. You've thought when you were a kid,

there's something was wrong with you. Why couldn't you just

be harder and tougher that somehow would be easier and

God's mercy in your life. You couldn't get away from

being tender because you're a display.

Thank you for listening.

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