Make Room – People of His Presence

This podcast is presented to you by Pastor Jason and Liz Burns in Access Church in Lakeland and Bartow, Florida.

For more information, visit Access.tv.

Let me make the first dad joke of the year.

You've got perfect church attendance, everybody.

You've done it.

Pat yourself on the back.

That was terrible.

All right, let's look right in the camera and say hello to our church family.

You may not know this, but we are one church that meets in three physical locations.

We're broadcasting from South Lakeland to our North Lakeland location, Bartow.

And then hundreds of people join us every week at Church Online.

Come on, no matter where you are, let's put our hands together and welcome our church man to church today.

Man, I'm glad you're here.

Man, it's gonna be a great Sunday, but more importantly, it's gonna be the kickoff of a great year that I believe God is going to use to radically change and transform our lives.

We're kicking off this whole year with a series called Make Room.

And the whole point of this series is we want to make room for God and for the things of God.

And I want you to see this verse.

This is found in the book of Isaiah, chapter 49.

Isaiah 49 · chapter mention

It says this God is speaking and he says, This place is too narrow for me, so make room for me to dwell in.

Now to understand this, you need to understand the context of what's happening.

The people of Israel were in exile.

That literally means they were separated from their homeland where they were from.

They had to feel abandoned alone.

They had to feel like God wasn't hearing them.

And I don't know if any of those metaphors feel like what your 2025 felt like.

But then God speaks as clearly as possible and he says, I want you to make room for me.

The phrase he uses that's so important is this little two-word phrase that says, make room.

I don't know if you've ever noticed this, but you have room for the stuff that matters to you.

You ever notice that?

Like, like you have room for the things that matter to you.

If you want to exercise, you will find time to exercise.

If you want to read, you will find time to read.

If you want to go on a vacation, you will find a way to save the money, save the vacation days, and you will go.

We make room for the stuff that matters to us, and it's really interesting how sometimes what we do unintentionally is we take for granted our friendships, we take for granted our marriage and our family.

And I think it's possible for us to take advantage of God.

And the reason is we think, well, they'll always be there.

They'll always love me, I'll always be good.

And so we make time for other things, and all those things can be good.

I pray you have the best year ever, but but 2026 can be your best year if you'll do this with me.

If you will make room, I want you to see this for God's presence.

I want you to make room for God's presence this year.

Like in every part of your life, in your family, in your relationships, in your work, in your day-to-day, the first of your day, the first of your week by spending time with God in his house, in church.

Like let's just make room for God's presence in our lives.

Now, I want you to know this about your church.

We don't just do church.

Like we don't just show up and have a good service and send you on your way.

We want to empower you and give you the tools you need to actually live this out.

So, starting next Sunday, I want you here.

Next Sunday, we're kicking off what we call 21 days of prayer.

What is it?

It's prayer for 21 days.

That's what we're gonna do.

And it's an intentional start to the year of saying, God, we're putting you first this year.

Now, this is an important deal for us.

If you go to access.tv slash 21 starting next Sunday, we have a daily devotion written for you by our staff.

We have a podcast for you.

We got all kinds of resources because we really do.

We don't just say it, we mean it.

We want you to connect with God in a deep way this year.

I want to add a little layer of challenge to you.

And I'll talk about this maybe more next week.

I don't just want you to pray.

I want you to fast this year.

Fast something.

It doesn't have to be food.

Maybe it's a specific part of food, like maybe it's sugar or bread or carbs.

Maybe for you it's TikTok or social media or I don't know the stuff that gets your time, but I want to challenge you to start this year by saying, God, I'm literally making room and I'm creating space for you to speak to me and to move.

Now, during those three weeks of 21 days of prayer, every Wednesday at noon, we have a special time of prayer.

It's from 12 to 1.

We want you to show up to your location and just come ready to pray.

And if you have an hour lunch break, but you but you only have like takes you 10 minutes to get here, come for 40 minutes and then leave and get to work.

Like, do whatever you can to come for any part of it you can, but let's seek the face of God together.

And then all of this crescendos at the end on February 1st with night of worship.

And if you've ever been to one of our nights of worship, they are moments and places that become like altars, places that we encounter God and we meet God, and it's the kind of place where we can come back to and say, Man, God was in that place and He met me, He changed me, He made me something new.

I want you to make plans to join us for this, all right?

Today we're in a series called Make Room, and I want to challenge us to make room for God's presence.

You ever um you ever met anybody that when you were with them, you're like, man, that person just knows God.

Like, like you know God, like you know him, but they know him.

You ever had this experience?

Well, when I was in high school, what feels like about 700 years ago at this point, I uh had the opportunity to go to Fiji.

And when I was in Fiji, I went with my family and we were doing all kinds of ministry all over the island.

It was this amazing trip.

And we were there ministering with a fellowship or a denomination of churches, and it was led by this man.

Here's a picture of us.

This is me and my dad.

And this is this is him.

This name is Suleyasi Carulo.

What an amazing man, amazing leader.

I believe he's still alive.

I found this picture of him preaching recently.

An amazing, brilliant man.

And Brother Suley had us traveling all over the island, speaking three and four times a day, and he promised us that at the very end of our trip, this like week or 10 days of ministering, he was gonna give us a special day and treat us to a special meal.

Now, if you've ever been overseas, not on a vacation, but on a like legit, difficult missions trip, you know this.

It's so fun, it's a joy to serve, but the whole time you're there, you think about Chick-fil-A.

Come on, and you know I'm talking about, you talk about you think about Pizza Hut, you think about stuff that you wouldn't even normally want to eat, but it just sounds so good to you because you're eating weird food.

On this particular trip, I had eaten octopus, I had eaten this weird plant that I'd never even heard of.

I'd eaten all kinds of weird stuff that I didn't normally eat, but I knew at the end of the trip, Brother Sulli had promised that we would eat a great meal.

We finally get to the end of the trip and we're exhausted, and he takes us to a restaurant that was kind of like an Asian hibachi kind of restaurant.

And we go and there's maybe eight of us or nine of us, and we go and we sit at this round table, and a man with a tall hat comes out and he starts cooking the food in front of us.

And if you've ever had that experience, it's always good.

But when you haven't eaten good food in over a week, it was magic.

You could feel it in the air.

I was so excited for this moment, I was so excited for the meal.

And the chef cooks everything up and he serves it on our plate.

And I am so tempted to sneak a bite.

I am starving at this point.

And then Brother Suley stands up, the man with the tall hat leaves.

Suley stands up and he says, Before we eat, let's offer a word of thanks to our God.

And I thought, okay, bro, come on, pray the fastest prayer you've ever prayed in your life.

Uh when I was a kid, I liked a show called The Fresh Prince of Bel Air.

And there was a prayer he prayed that has always stuck with me.

He said, Good food, good meat, good Lord, let's eat.

You know what I'm saying?

Like, like, pray that prayer, bro, pray it.

And and he didn't he didn't pray that prayer.

In this beautiful, deep, resounding Fijian accent.

He stood and he said, Let's hold hands.

So I'm holding hands.

I can't even sneak a bite when everyone's eyes are closed.

He says, Let's hold hands.

And he started the prayer with our gracious heavenly father.

And I thought, oh, we are going to be here for a while.

And he prayed this prayer.

And I'm gonna be honest with you, at first I was annoyed.

At first I was like, come on, bro, like, let's get to the chicken that's on the plate.

What are you doing?

And a minute or so into the prayer, I was like, oh, this isn't about a meal.

And this isn't just praying, oh God bless this food, to the nourishment of our bodies.

This was let's meet with God before we eat this.

I don't know if you've ever had a moment in your life where you were with someone and it's like they just knew God in a way that you maybe didn't know him.

In the book of Exodus, there's this interesting moment.

Moses, this incredible, extraordinary leader, it says this about him, and this has always been kind of a verse that I'm like, man, I would love it if this could be true for me.

It says in Exodus 33, verse 11, it says the Lord would speak to Moses face to face as one speaks to a friend.

Exodus 33:11

That God would literally speak to Moses, and it uses language that's called anthropomorphic.

It's like to put human characteristics on something or someone that isn't human.

And God would speak to him, face to face.

It wasn't just this one-way conversation of like, oh Lord help me, and oh God, fix my finances, and God, would you help this person?

It's not just a little simple prayer like sometimes we tend to pray.

God and Moses would meet face to face.

And here's the thing I love.

That's available to you, and it's available to me.

That God wants to do this.

We serve a relational God who wants to know us and be near us.

Now I want you to see this because this is important, because if we're not careful, we will settle for a counterfeit or a far less version of the face-to-face kind of closeness that God desires for us.

And I want you to want you to see this.

13 chapters before in the book of Exodus, here's what's happened.

God has led the people of Israel out of 400 years of slavery and captivity in Egypt.

God dramatically rescues them, he parts the Red Sea.

Moses leads the people across the Red Sea on dry ground.

It is this incredible moment, and they're walking from captivity to the promised land.

And on the way, God stops Moses and he says, Let's stop here for a moment.

I want to give you something to give to the people of Israel.

So Moses goes up this mountain, and God has this incredible moment where he hand-inscribes into stone tablets what we call the Ten Commandments.

He gives them these Ten Commandments.

Moses has this moment with God, and he comes walking off the mountain, holding these tablets.

Kind of imagine him walking off like John Cena after a fight.

He walks off the mountain, and there at the bottom of the mountain, there's this moment.

Now remember, there's Moses who was just up on the mountain with God, and then there's all the people of Israel, and this is right literally after the verses about the Ten Commandments.

It says this.

Like, no joke, of course they did.

It goes on.

It says they stayed at a distance and said to Moses, like, yo, hold up, that was cool for you, but you speak to us yourself and we will listen.

But this is important, Moses.

Just listen.

But do not have God speak to us, or we will die.

Okay, Moses, you talk to God and you talk to us.

That's good.

But look, we don't need to talk to God.

Like we'll we'll just listen to what you say.

Moses said to the people, do not be afraid.

God has come to test you so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning.

And I want you to see this.

The people remained distance.

The people kept God at arm's length.

The people didn't want to get too close to God while Moses approached the thick darkness where God was.

The people of Israel made a lot of mistakes.

One of the things I love in the Bible is it's so refreshingly honest.

And it's honest about the mistakes and the low moments, not just the highlights, but the low lights of people's lives.

And the people of Israel made all kinds of terrible decisions and dumb mistakes, but I would argue that this was the biggest mistake that the people of Israel made.

And the mistake was that instead of wanting to have their own face-to-face, direct kind of relationship with God, they wanted to have a relationship with God through another person.

One of the things that's interesting to me that as our church has gotten larger over the years, is I have the same kinds of conversations with people over and over and over again.

So a couple weeks ago, we had amazing Christmas services at our church.

I'm so grateful.

4,000 people showed up.

I'm so grateful for the dozens and dozens of people that put their faith in Jesus.

It was awesome.

But after all of our services here in South Lakeland, I was standing in the lobby and I had this uh conversation two or three different times.

It was interesting.

I had people come to me and they said the same thing.

Listen, um, this is either my first time here or I've come the last few Christmas Eve services.

I love it.

This church feels so alive.

I'm Catholic.

And they told me that like the reason they like to come here is because it's always different.

It feels so fresh and it feels so alive.

And then they would say, but I'm I'm Catholic and it just feels so stale and it's the same thing over and over and over again.

And I had one person say to me, Do you like, do you believe what Catholics believe?

And I said, Well, some, actually a lot, but not everything.

And they said, Well, what do you not believe?

And I said, Well, let me make it really clear.

I'm a Bible guy.

Okay, like I just I believe the Bible is true.

I believe it's the inspired, authentic, authoritative word of God.

I believe the Bible.

That's what I do.

And so, like, if the Bible does it, I do it.

If the Bible doesn't do it, I don't do it.

Like, so for that reason, like we don't, we don't pray to Mary.

It's like not in the Bible.

And I was trying to have this like really quick but deep conversation.

And I said, but can I tell you what is my actual biggest concern for Catholics?

My biggest concern is the whole religious structure of Catholicism is built on there's a man between you and God.

So, like, you're you're not encouraged to read and know the Bible for yourself.

You are told to follow a man and let the man be the intermediary between you and God.

And I said, you can see how that can get all kinds of messed up, right?

Like you can see how wonky that can get.

You can see how a person could inject into that their own agenda, their own morality.

They could interject into that whatever their own personal biases are.

And I'm just like a Bible guy.

So I want to teach the Bible and say, you read the Bible for yourself.

Like, here's my understanding of it.

You read it and you hear from God.

Like the same Holy Spirit that speaks to me as I study can speak to you.

He wants to be a personal God to you.

And this is important for you to hear, church.

I want you to hear this.

God wants to speak to his children.

Period.

Like, end of sentence, let's wrap this up and go home.

God wants to speak to you this year.

But I want you to hear the difference between people who hear and don't hear from God.

Here it is, ready?

It is desire, not ability, that determines whether or not you hear God's voice.

It's your desire, not just your ability.

You have to want this, you have to desire this.

The people of Israel, we just read, they didn't want to hear from God.

They wanted Moses in the middle.

Fast forward in your Bible to Jesus.

There are moments where Jesus is out teaching, like um, like it comes to mind Luke chapter 15.

Luke 15 · chapter mention

There's a moment where Jesus is teaching, and before he gives these three beautiful parables, it says that the religious leaders, the Pharisees and sinners gathered to hear him speak.

Who would you think has the better ability to hear from God?

The Pharisees.

They were educated, they knew all the things of God, but very often Jesus rebuked them because in their minds they didn't want anything to do with him.

And then these sinners, these people who were nothing like Jesus, they liked him and they listened to him.

Remember, remember what we just read a moment ago, Exodus chapter, uh, Exodus chapter 20?

Exodus 20 · chapter mention

That the people saw Moses on the mountain with God.

There were all these dramatic, demonstrative moments like lightning and thunder and sounds of trumpets.

And Moses comes off the mountain and they're like, hey, look, you stay in the middle, we'll just do whatever you say, but we don't like, we don't need to hear from God ourselves.

And they use this phrase because if he speaks to us, remember this, we will we will die.

Like, how dramatic is that?

We will die.

I think a reason a lot of Christians never hear the voice of God for themselves is there's this fear in them.

This fear that God is going to call them out on something or he's gonna zap them dead in some way.

One day Jesus was talking, and I love this.

This is in the book of John, chapter six.

Jesus said, the spirit, the Holy Spirit, gives what?

Not death.

He gives life.

The flesh counts for nothing.

Jesus said, the words I have spoken to you, they are full of the spirit and life.

Like the words of God, the voice of God, the scripture, which is the written word of God, all of the words of God always lead us to life.

So why is it you're scared?

What hesitation do you have in asking God to speak to you?

There's this interesting verse.

If you struggle with that sense of like confidence or this real desire, in the book of Hebrews, I love how it says this.

It says, Let us then approach God's throne of grace with what?

Say this loud, with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

Okay, so I want you to see this, okay?

God invites you.

He doesn't just tolerate it, he invites you to approach him with a holy sense of confidence.

Now I want you to want you to see this.

This isn't cockiness, it's not that.

It's confidence.

The best way I can understand this for myself is this.

Um, I have three amazing kids.

Love my kids with all of my heart.

This last week, some time off has been what my soul needed.

I loved my time with my family.

Can I tell you something?

I have a daughter, she's 11, she just owns me.

That girl owns my whole heart.

I love her so much.

And I don't think there's ever been a day in her life where she was hungry, and she thought to herself, I can't ask my dad for that.

He'll get mad at me, he'll yell at me.

I don't think there's ever been a day when she's been hungry and needed something to eat, and she thought to herself, he's too busy, he's too important, he has too many employees.

She never thinks any of those things.

Why?

Because I'm her dad.

Are you with me?

And what do good dads do?

They provide, they meet needs, they do all of it with love.

And so she never comes in fear, she always comes in confidence because she knows the heart of her father.

He'll always love and provide for her.

Okay, so when the author of Hebrews says, Let us approach the throne of grace with confidence, it's not cockiness.

It is seeing yourself as a son or daughter of God, and you can go to him with what you need, and you can go to him in a certain sense of authority because you're in relationship with him.

Here's the problem.

I want you to get that, but here's the problem.

A lot of us, we want the benefits of that.

Here's what I would say.

I think a lot of us, we want to be related without relationship.

Like I want to do just enough to get into heaven, but I don't want to have to like really truly live this out.

Like I want the benefits of a relationship with God, the benefits without the commitment.

Like I want all the blessings that God offers me.

I just don't want to like reorient and change my life around what God asks of me.

I want all the benefits of being in God's family.

I just don't want to act like I'm in God's family.

What if this year, for a whole year, you made this priority?

I'm gonna be a person of God's presence.

I'm gonna hear his voice.

In advance of even hearing from him, I'm choosing to say yes to whatever he asks of me.

And I want to listen to him.

Let me tell you what you will find when you do.

This is so important.

In the book of uh Matthew, Jesus was talking one day and he said this.

He said, For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.

Now I've taught this verse so many different ways.

And can I tell you how I normally teach this verse?

You ever had a moment when you did something and it was like something just came out of you, and you're like, I don't know where that came from.

That's out of character for me.

You've said that before?

Um I know the answer.

I know where it came from.

It came from inside of you.

Because that's who you actually are.

It's kind of like if you had a can of Dr.

Pepper, the holy nectar from heaven, everybody.

If you had some Dr.

Pepper and you crack that can open and you poured it out, what's gonna come out?

Dr.

Pepper.

Not orange Fanta, not lemonade, not Sprite, not a diet soda, for God's sake.

Come on, listen.

Look, if I'm drinking a soda, it's gonna be a real thing, okay?

But you pour it out, Dr.

Pepper's gonna come out.

Why?

Because that's what's inside of it.

Okay, you understand this, right?

Sometimes things happen to us and it presses on us and something comes out of us.

And often what comes out of us is something that we're like, oh, I don't like that.

I don't know where that came from.

Came from your heart.

That's the negative.

Here's the positive.

Also, the good stuff.

I don't know if you've ever had a moment where something happened and like this beautiful thing came out of you, like this beautiful response.

I don't know if there was ever a moment where everybody got scared and you stepped into a moment with courage.

It's because what's in you in moments of pressure tends to come out.

Okay, let's go back to the verse again.

Jesus said, For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.

Okay.

When you hear the voice of God, you're going to hear what God is full of.

Love and grace and joy, strength and peace and mercy, kindness and gentleness, and faithfulness.

You're going to hear the heart of God.

Let me tell you why this matters to you.

I never want you to settle for a relationship with God that's based on me.

I never want you to settle for a relationship with God that's based on the faith of your parents.

I never want the only time you hear the voice of God to be when you come to church.

Here's the reason.

If you never hear God's voice, you won't have the faith to follow him for yourself.

You need to hear the voice.

You need to prioritize the presence of God.

You need to prioritize getting face to face with God because that's where and when and where he speaks to you.

Anybody ever had this experience where like you were in school, like think way back to being in school, and you're like second grade, and the teacher taught everything you needed to learn about whatever second graders learn, and they said, Okay, let's take a moment, let's play a game.

The game is called telephone.

Remember this game?

And the teacher would whisper to someone in their ear, they would say something like, Um, I love a Big Mac and fries and Dr.

Pepper to drink.

And they whisper it to the first person, and that person hears it, and then says it to the next person, they hear it, and they say it to the next person, to the next person, and you get like 15 kids deep, and at the end of it, what the person says doesn't even match what the teacher originally said.

Anybody experience this game before?

It's because the more generations it goes through, the less accurate it gets.

And I never want you to have that kind of relationship with God where you're depending upon hearing the voice of God by coming to church or tuning into a podcast.

No, no, you need to hear the word of God for yourself.

Paul in the book of Romans said it like this: he said, so then, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.

So let me say it as clearly as I can to somebody today.

Ready?

Secondhand hearing will never give you first hand faith.

Period.

Okay, let me tease it out a little bit more.

We're just flowing today.

In the book of John, Jesus is walking on the water.

This is one of his most famous miracles.

His disciples, they've just finished some miracles.

They're literally the disciples are on the boat.

Jesus comes walking across the water, and there's this storm that's raging.

And Peter's in the boat and he sees Jesus and he's like, Am I seeing this right?

Or did I just eat some weird fish?

Like, what is this?

And he says, Jesus, is that you?

Jesus says, Yes.

And Peter says, if it's you, can I can I come walking to you on the water?

And Jesus says, Yes, come.

And Peter steps out and he has this miracle.

He's one of two people in the world who have walked on water.

It's this kind of amazing experience.

But but tease this out with me.

What if Jesus was walking on the water?

And Peter says, Hey John, is that Jesus?

John's like, maybe.

Peter says to John, John, you think I could like walk on the water?

If I'm John, I'm like, of course you can walk on water.

Because why?

Because I love doing stupid things to my friends.

Sure you can.

Would the miracle have happened?

I don't know, I don't, I don't think so.

Like, some of you, God has some walk-on-water moments for you this year.

Some moments when you are going to be called into a moment to step in and do something miraculous.

Yesterday, my family was at the International Plaza Mall.

And I don't know the whole story, but there was an elderly man sitting in one of the motorized wheelchairs, like a store down from where I was standing.

And there was a sweet lady.

I don't know who she was, I don't know if they were related.

I don't know the story, but she was bent over with her hand on his back, praying for him.

I don't know the story.

We can fill in the gaps a hundred different ways.

I just know that that doesn't normally happen to normal people in a mall.

I got good news for you though, God didn't call you to be normal.

Period.

Like, like there's gonna be some moments of divine courage required for you.

And it might be a moment where you're like, I don't understand this.

I'm in a mall, there's lots of people around, but God says, pray and watch a miracle happen.

Like, you don't get that by going to church and thinking, okay, I need to go to the mall today, Lakeland Square Mall.

I need to pray for protection and go to the Lakeland Mall.

Doesn't happen like that.

You should pray for protection, but it doesn't happen like that.

That's secondhand faith.

You need some firsthand I hear from God.

And let me kind of end with this.

You need to hear this.

God has got a lot to say.

He's God, he has all the brilliance, all the wisdom, all the intellects.

God knows everything.

He's omniscient.

That means he knows it all.

Why wouldn't you consult him?

If you have your notes, I want you to write some things down for me.

Because God has a lot to say, and I don't want you to miss it.

I want you to see this.

God has a lot to say about wisdom.

He wants to give you his wisdom.

You never have to make another decision based on your own intellectual capacity.

In the book of James, chapter one, James, the half-brother of Jesus, said, if any of you lacks what?

Wisdom, all you have to do is ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.

Look how simple this is.

If you lack wisdom, come on, anybody else?

Me.

All the time.

If you lack wisdom, all you have to do is ask.

How do you ask?

By speaking.

And God will give it to you.

How do you get it?

Listening?

It's that easy.

Second thing is, God has a lot to say about counsel.

And I don't know how you roll, but like stuff happens to me.

I have pains and hurts and issues and challenges.

I have betrayals.

I have people stab me in the back.

And I don't have the time, energy, and money to spend an hour every day with a therapist.

But I have capacity to spend time every day with my God.

Look at this in the book of John, Jesus is talking, and he says, But the advocate, and he's talking about the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things, and will remind you of everything I have said to you.

The Holy Spirit wants to, that's the Holy Spirit of God.

He wants to speak to you, counsel you, and give you what you need to get through this life.

Here's another thing that God says a lot to say about.

God has a lot to say about his heart.

This is something I need you to hear.

If you want to change the world, find what breaks the heart of God and give your life to that.

Well, how do you find it?

Begin to hear what he says, what is on the heart of God.

In the book of John, Jesus is talking, and he says, I no longer call you servants because a servant does not know his master's business.

Instead, I've called you God of the universe, who spoke the whole world into existence.

Who, if he just made it and left us alone, we'd be like, you're worthy of praise.

But he spoke it into existence and he calls you his friends.

He says, for everything that I've learned from my father, I have made it known to you.

God wants you to know what's on his heart.

He wants what he cares about to be the thing you care about.

So how do you do it?

Conversation, listening, hearing.

One last one, and this is a question I get more than anything else.

What about what about my future?

What about my plans?

Do I take this job?

Do I move my family here?

Do I do this?

Do I accept this?

Do I not?

What do I do?

God has a lot to say about your future.

Look at what Paul writes in First Corinthians chapter 2.

1 Corinthians 2 · chapter mention

He says, However, as it is written, what no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived, the things God has prepared for those who love him, these are the things that God has revealed to us.

Like he wants to show it to you how by his spirit.

The spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.

God wants to speak to you.

A message like this can feel a little like, oh, what do I do with that?

How great, great, great.

How do I apply this to my life?

And I like to challenge myself to be immensely practical.

I want to give you four practical things you can do today.

Starting today, to be a person of God's presence, to have that face-to-face close relationship with God.

Number one, I want to challenge you.

If you have a desire to hear his voice, slow down.

Because nothing that matters in life happens in a hurry.

And we are so busy, so consumed.

Like confession.

I pull my phone out at a red light.

Like I act like I'm a Batman.

Like the world needs me.

Cut it out.

Slow down.

Number two, I want to challenge you.

Engage the scriptures.

Don't you dare say that God isn't speaking if your Bible's closed.

God speaks to us through his voice.

Through his word.

Let me just take a quick rabbit trail on this.

God's voice will never contradict his word.

I've had people say things to me and it's like, no.

I had a guy tell me one time, God told me it was okay for me to live with my girlfriend before we get married.

No.

Had a man tell me one time, God told me not to get a job.

No.

No.

Got other examples.

They're all really bad, but the answer is no.

Engage God's word.

Number three, I want you to pursue godly relationships.

You become like the most influential voices in your life.

If you want to hear the voice of God, hang out with people who hear the voice of God.

Last one, I want you to ask God to speak with humility.

Ask God.

The people of Israel said, God, if I hear your voice, I'll die.

God, if I don't hear your voice, I'll die.

So here's the whole message in a question.

Do you have a desire to listen?

Do you?

This is off notes for just a moment.

1 Samuel chapter 3.

1 Samuel 3 · chapter mention

I think it's verse 1.

It starts with this phrase.

It says, And the word of the Lord was rare.

For whatever reason, what was happening in the world around them, God just wasn't speaking.

And Samuel had this ability, kind of like a like if you're old enough to remember analog radios, where you had to turn a dial, and you'd hear some static, but but eventually you'd get it just right.

And if you were driving, you'd sometimes you'd have to adjust just, but you'd you had to actually tune in.

First Samuel chapter 3, and the the voice of the Lord was rare, but Samuel had this way.

1 Samuel 3 · chapter mention

I think it's like 19 or 20 verses later, it says about God, and God never allowed the words of Samuel to fall flat.

That's the kind of stuff that happens when you have a face-to-face, close relationship with God.

Okay, so look at me.

There's lots of good stuff for you to do this year.

Okay.

Lose that weight.

Go for it.

I challenge you to do it.

I'm starting carnivore tomorrow.

Do it.

Lose the weight.

I'm with you.

Okay.

Get that new job.

Ask that girl out.

Invest in a deeper, intimate relationship in your marriage.

Chase that dream.

Do that trip that you've put off for years.

Do all the stuff you've planned this year, but don't you do any of that before you do the most important thing, which is to make this year the year you go after the presence of God.

Can I get a good amen?

Amen.

Would you bow your head and close your eyes, church fam, at all of our locations?

I'm gonna pray for you.

God, may this be the year, not a year where we just hear a hype message about going after our dreams with all we've got, though there's nothing wrong with chasing our dreams.

May this be the year that we go after what matters, which is you.

God, my prayer is at the end of this year, we will say about ourselves that this was the year that just like Moses met with you face to face, like a friend meets with a friend, that access church will be full of thousands of people who say this was the year.

26th was the year I met with God face to face.

God, for some of us, we need to reorient our schedules.

We need to change some stuff in our lives, we need to slow down, but may we speak to you and may we make room for you to speak to us.

God, I thank you that it's it's not our ability, it's our desire that determines whether or not we hear from you.

So, God, may we have a holy, inconsumable desire to hear your voice.

And may we thank you for it, God.

Your head still bowed and eyes still closed at all of our locations.

You might be hearing the voice of God right now, and it's the Holy Spirit prompting you.

Maybe you're here and you would say, Jason, I don't even know if I'm in a relationship with God.

Like, how do I take that first step?

It's really simple.

It's by making the decision to surrender your life to Jesus.

It is to say, Jesus, I want you to be the Lord of my life.

So you save me and you change me, you make my life new.

If you're here and you've never started following Jesus, or maybe you just walked away from doing that, I'm gonna give you a moment right now to follow Jesus.

And I want you to have three seconds of courage right now.

If you would say, Jason, I I don't know if I'm following Jesus, but today I start or restart.

Would you raise your hand right now if this is you at all of our locations?

Thank you here.

Thank you.

Awesome, thank you, thank you.

Wow.

I love this because this moment's for you and God.

I want to invite you to pray with me.

Listen to me.

Praying a prayer changes everything, but it's only when you mean it with your heart.

I'm gonna pray out loud and I want you to repeat after me out loud, but but don't worry, we're not gonna let you do it alone.

Our church stands with people who are making this decision.

And so today, if this is you and you want to follow Jesus, our whole church is gonna pray this out loud with you.

Would you say, Jesus, I make this decision.

I give you my life.

Save me, change me, make my life new.

Jesus, I accept your gift of salvation and forgiveness.

And from this day forward, I choose to follow you.

I love you and I give you my life for the rest of my life.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Come on, let's celebrate that, everybody.

Love it.