Supplication of the Surrendered

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Amen.

I appreciate some of y'all still hugging and congregating, being the church.

Listen, before I introduce to you today, we have a guest speaker.

I wanted to say a word of thanks and appreciation to everyone here that has served in our armed forces.

You know, we appreciate the sacrifices that you've given.

If you've served, could you stand up today?

We want to honor you.

Any that have served, amen, amen, amen.

Praise God.

Thank you guys for the service you've given.

We truly appreciate the sacrifices and we're thankful and still believe that America is the greatest country in this world where we can freely worship our Savior.

So thank you, thank you.

Well, let me introduce you to Pastor John Reynolds.

John was my pastor at Calvary Baptist Church where Heather and I moved from to come here and was our pastor for ten years there.

But even further back than that, uh John was a youth pastor at the church in Middletown, Delaware.

And I was sharing with the serve team, you don't always get to see a senior pastor or serve as a youth pastor, because it's a total different thing, let me tell you.

I saw Pastor John mow the lawn.

I saw Pastor John clean the church building, I saw Pastor John drive a bus full of teenagers.

You have to have a CDL if you're a youth pastor, Joe.

I don't know if you have that, you need to work on that.

Um and so I've seen all of that.

I uh I've seen him take pies to the face at vacation Bible school.

You have to do all that stuff, right?

And um so God brought us to that church when I was in college, and we were fast friends.

And um God opened the door, God called he and Michelle to Connorsville, Indiana, and I was heartbroken.

There I was in Middletown, Delaware, and uh my closest friend in the world in ministry was there.

We were not in ministry at the time, but God uh continued just work through doors, and uh we got to serve for the next 10 years.

And let me tell you, that church has been so blessed to have John, but not only John, everybody knows this.

If there's a good pastor, there's a wife behind him.

Michelle is just a blessing and uh has ministered alongside of him, and now his son Nate, who's with him as well, is interning at the church, and God is prayerfully walking him towards a ministry degree, and he's got his heart surrendered for Jesus.

But let me tell you something the world we live in today, John has been in ministry at Calvary Baptist Church for 18 years.

And that dependability and loyalty sometimes in this world we live in is very hard to find.

And uh he has been as much or more a faithful and loyal friend to me and Heather, and uh I am so appreciative of their ministry.

Would you welcome my friend John Reynolds?

Thanks, Brad.

Well, we are so honored and humbled to be back here at church at CW, and uh I have loved, you know, there's no place as a for a pastor or preacher that you love more than preaching at your own church.

But uh I've had the honor to preach here several times, and and this is our home away from home, is kind of like I don't get to preach anywhere else in Alabama, so uh I'm so thankful for that.

I was so delighted to see um Joe up here uh leading worship today.

And uh I knew Joe BC before Christ.

So anything you want to know about Joe, I mean the good stuff, you come see me afterwards.

But I just could not um I was kind of overwhelmed to see Joe up here leading worship and and uh to know where he came from and and to see his heart and his love for Jesus, love for those teenagers and and love for worship.

It it is a blessing to have an assistant uh youth that can also lead and and and worship as well.

You know, uh I love Rick and uh I was, as he said, an assistant pastor at Middletown, and I remember a day uh we were closing out the service, and we had uh this is years and years ago, and and uh several of the guys that helped lead music toward the end of the service had um had uh departed early that day, and my pastor was gone, I was preaching, and I realized that we as we closed out the service, we used to sung a song and I didn't have anybody.

And Rick was an intern, and I said, uh before the service, I said, Rick, I don't have anybody.

Would you be willing to lead the final song?

And he says, You know, I'm willing to do whatever needs done.

And um so it came time for the close, and we closed it out, and we had a pianist, and that was it, and she played through a song a verse, a whole verse of the song, and Rick stood there with his book in hand, and nothing started.

She played through another verse, and Rick's out there, and I'm below, and I'm well ready to welcome people, and nothing started.

Finally, I think on the third or fourth verse, the pianist just starts blurting out and singing the song, and I realize Rick is so gifted in a lot of things, but I never asked him to do that again.

So, no, we um love Rick and Heather, and I want to say a quick word to you uh on them.

Um uh that God brought them out to Indiana and they served with us, I believe, for nine years.

And uh uh still I would say the saddest day uh of ministry for me was the day they pulled the U-Haul out of Connorsville, Indiana.

I don't think I even helped them move.

I just showed up to say goodbye, and I was so sad.

And uh I remember it's it's my fault.

I I I had seen things in Rick that that uh for years.

I just seen his heart and love for Jesus, and and I I was I I I just couldn't help but tell.

And Rick, I really believe that God has uh a bigger opportunity for you.

Uh and he would always say, No, I love these teenagers.

I'm gonna be a youth pastor for life.

Bless his heart.

And um, and he he God has just gifted him in such a way.

And then him and Heather moved out here and they learned from the best.

Danny and Susan Love It are the best.

They really are.

Uh they have trained many pastors and pastors' wives throughout the years, and they have done a wonderful job uh uh on Rick and Heather.

And I'm gonna tell you this um you have the best pastor.

You really do.

He is one of a kind, and he loves Jesus.

He loves his community, and um, he loves his wife, his family, and he has his priorities in check and in order.

He's a great preacher, he knows how to get to the throne, and I can tell you this.

Um I I hope you keep him for a lifetime, all right?

I really do.

If you don't, it wouldn't be wise, okay?

He is he's a jewel, and uh, I am just honored.

I know the only reason I'm preaching here because I'm his because uh he's my best friend.

He really is outside my wife.

He's my best friend in the whole world, and God gave us a chance to work together.

Some of my I said sad to stay, probably one some of my most fun moments in ministry have been with Rick.

And funny moments have been with Rick.

And uh, and uh I I don't want to share any more of those today, or I'll I'll neglect what I'm really here to do.

So all right.

Well, turning your Bibles this morning to Exodus chapter 33, Exodus chapter 33.

Exodus 33 · chapter mention Exodus 33 · chapter mention

And um I'm so thankful for Heather and their family.

They've treated us like just golden since we've arrived in town uh late Friday night.

Um they were in bed when we showed up.

We were at the door like the clampets, and uh with all of our luggage in hand, and and they woke up, we talked a few moments, and we all went to bed.

But Heather um certainly is the perfect spouse for Rick, and I'm so thankful for her as well.

Exodus chapter 33.

Exodus 33 · chapter mention

I want to share with you this morning, I'm not preaching what I wanted to preach.

Okay, when you go preach, every preacher, when they go preach in someone else's church, they want to preach uh their their most fun sermon, maybe, maybe the uh maybe it's the thing that just makes the most sense and and the things they love to preach the most.

And that's what I wanted to do.

In fact, early in the week, I I wanted to preach what I wanted to preach, and uh God kind of shifted my heart, the Lord confirmed it, uh, I felt like through my wife, and and today I'm just telling you, this message is not what John Reynolds wanted to preach, but I really believe it's what the Lord has sent me here to share with you uh this morning.

A few weeks ago, my son, myself, my wife, we were on a journey traveling, we went to visit some Bible colleges, and we were at a Bible college, and uh during the chapel service, there was a pastor, a missionary that was sharing uh the message that day, and he shared this story that I believe it was in Indonesia.

He had gone to visit some time ago.

We was going to visit and encourage a missionary on the field.

And as he went to encourage the missionary on the field, uh he noticed the pastor at this church had uh around 25, 30 people at his church.

Down the street from this church was another church.

It was what we would call a megachurch.

They had thousands that worship there.

He began to ask the pastor of the church that he ministered.

He said, Could we go and visit this other church?

And uh the pastor said, sure.

So they went down the street, they visited the pastor of this big megachurch, and he asked the missionary, or the guy that was visiting a missionary, asked the the this pastor, this mega church, some questions.

He said, You know, what style of preaching do you have?

He has expository preaching, which was the same thing as the pastor of this smaller church, the missionary.

He said, and then he asked about the music, a lot of it was the same, and he asked about little some different dynamics of outreach, a lot of it was the same.

So the pastor of this mega church was taking them through the facilities, and they were going through a certain portion of the building, which was a long hallway with numerous rooms.

And uh the the pastor of the megachurch said, he said, I really need you guys to be quiet when we walk through this hallway.

As they walked through the hallway, the doors were shut in these rooms, and there were people gathered in each of these rooms, and in these rooms was people, and they heard people that were talking, some were silent, some were just sitting, and they got through the whole hallway, and the the guy that was visiting the missionary said this statement.

They got through there and they asked the megachurch, he said, What in the world was going on in those rooms?

He said, and he said this statement.

He says, You see, in these rooms are people that are just praying and seeking the face of God.

He says, There's never one minute throughout the day that there's not someone praying in these rooms.

And he left that building with that missionary, and he said, If you want to know the difference between that church and your church, that's what it is.

This morning I want to bring the message I've entitled The Supplication of the Surrender.

And I understand this, and that there's some things I've learned throughout my life in ministries, some things I have to learn the hard way, but I can tell you this.

One observation I've made is that the churches that I've seen and observed the most power are the churches where I have seen and observed the most prayer.

And I want you to know today this is not a popular thing, it's not a popular topic.

In fact, I can tell you this in my church, and I told them this a few weeks ago, if I want to draw a crowd, it's usually not by having a prayer meeting.

In fact, sadly enough, in most churches, if you want to, if you want to kill a crowd, you can just say, hey, well, all we're gonna do is meet, we're gonna pray, and that's sad.

That's sad.

And my prayer today is that God would just stir our hearts in a real way this morning, and God would just move in our hearts in a real way today, and God would just initiate something special in the hearts of every person here that we would see the value, we would see the power, we see the the need for more prayer in our churches.

One of the guys that I respect the most, an evangelist I had many years ago in my church, was a man uh that came to our church and and he was a little different.

He was uh he's more a style of Old Testament prophet, in my opinion.

And um, Pastor Rick, I gave a job, like I'm sure he gives all his assistance.

This evangelist had a tendency to disappear every time it was time for him to preach.

Now you never really knew what he was going to do.

Like one service he was preaching, the music was not done.

In fact, they had barely got started.

He just came up and they looked at him and they were done.

I mean, he's his time for him to preach.

Well, he had disappeared and it was time for him to preach.

And um, I had already given Rick the admission, the job.

I said, Rick, you got one job.

You gotta follow him around.

When it's time for him to preach, you've got to, you gotta, you gotta make sure he's in the right spot.

So Rick did his job.

He always did his job really well.

He served with with with uh humility and and he looked around, he was in the music, Rick was, and it was time to preach.

I started making my way up front, and the evangelist is nowhere to be found.

And all of a sudden, Rick realizes what's happened.

He's lost the evangelist.

Rick's running throughout the building trying to find the evangelist, the preacher for that night, and uh he's going through every room.

We have kind of a diverse building, and he's going everywhere looking for him, we can't find them.

All the way on the north end of the building in the restroom that no one can find.

Rick goes into the restroom and he finds this evangelist on his face in the nasty bathroom floor before God in prayer.

Rick makes his way over to him, he's a little scared at this point, and he says, Mr.

Amato, is Rick Amato?

Mr.

Amato, it's time for you to preach.

Rick Amato grabs Rick right by the neck, pulls him down to the floor, and invites him to pray with him.

So finally they made their way out.

But I can tell you this: in my opinion, I don't know in my 18 years of being there that God has used a speaker at our church like God used Rick Amato.

Rick Amato knew how to pray, and he knew how to be used of God.

The truth of the matter is today that we don't see prayer in our churches like we need to.

Today I want you to turn in your Bibles to Exodus chapter 33 if you haven't already.

Exodus 33 · chapter mention

And I want to set the tone, I want to set the pace.

I want you to see what's happening here.

Exodus chapter 33, if you go back to chapter 32, which we won't, uh we see something happening.

Exodus 33 · chapter mention

Moses has had this mountaintop experience with God.

God has given him the Ten Commandments.

He has met with God.

God's moved in his heart in a mighty way.

He's gotten away and he's worshiped the Lord.

He's had this encounter with God.

But while Moses is away, while he is not present with the people, the people have lost their minds.

They have lost their spiritual minds.

They convinced Aaron to make them a golden calf, a golden image.

And the God that they love, the God that delivered them from the uh the Egyptians, um, the God who rescued them was a God that they had departed from.

And Moses comes down off the mountain after having this experience with God.

Mark it down, friend.

Once you encounter God in a real way, you mark it down.

The enemy wants to distract you from what God wants you to do.

And he comes down from this mountaintop experiences and he sees what is happening here.

And we pick up our reading in Exodus chapter 33, and we'll read verses 1 through 6 to get things started today.

Exodus 33 · chapter mention

The Bible says this.

Then the Lord said to Moses, Depart and go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt, of the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying to your descendants, I will give it, and I will send my angel before you, and I will drive out all the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, and all of those ites, go up in a land flowing with milk and honey, for I will not go up in your midst lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people.

And when the people heard this, bad news, they mourned, and no one put on his ornaments.

For the Lord had said to Moses, say to the children of Israel, You are a stiff-necked people.

I would come up into your midst, into the one moment, and consume you.

Now therefore, take off your ornaments, that I may know what to do to you.

So the children of Israel stripped themselves of the ornaments by mount or Father, I come before you today, Lord, and I pray this morning that you would move in our hearts.

I pray our attention right now would not be fixed upon lunch, would not be fixed upon the ball games this afternoon, would not be fixed upon uh the things to do the week to come.

God, I pray that we have an encounter with you this morning.

And God, you know my heart.

This is not what I wanted to preach, but I am humbly coming before you and trying to be obedient to what you want.

So, God, I pray that you would speak through me.

I pray that my voice would be strong.

But God, I pray more than anything I say that we hear from you in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Today I want to give you three steps in seeing the supplication of the surrender.

Three steps to seeing what a prayer looks like and one that is set out and set apart and sold out on God.

The first thing I want you to see in here, and I believe this is true, maybe even of the young believer to the most mature believer in this room, number one this morning, that I see in verses one through six, is we need to focus on faithfulness even after sinful failure.

Focus on faithfulness even after sinful prayer.

Years ago, I preached the message to the book of Judges, and the ongoing theme throughout that book was very simply this.

I believe someone needs to hear it this morning.

Just because we've messed up does not mean we've missed out.

Someone here today is messed up.

In fact, someone here today is already messed up today.

Someone here this morning is going through a rough time.

Someone here.

One thing about every person here, you cannot deny everyone has a past.

Everyone has a past.

But I can tell you this this morning, just because you've messed up, messed, messed up, does not mean that you've missed out.

Today I want to encourage you to focus on faithfulness even after sinful failure.

In verse 1, we see that God still offers his promises regardless of sinful failure.

We see that God has still promised Moses.

The children of Israel had had given God had given the children of Israel through Abraham, through Isaac, through Jacob.

And let me just say to you today, God still has a plan for Israel.

God, hey, they are the apple of God's eye.

God loves his people.

I had a chance to go to Israel this past January.

It's a great life-changing experience.

Hope to take a group back in a couple years.

I'm going to tell you this.

I'm praying that we can go back, but I can tell you this, I'm not worried about a bit about Israel.

God's going to take care of Israel because God is true to his promises.

And we see in the scripture, we see in the Word of God, by the way, you want to go to Israel with me.

I don't know if Rick has mentioned it to you yet.

You're welcome to come.

All right?

I'm trying to take him.

He won't go.

But anyway, um you can come with me and we'll have a great time.

But God still offers his promises regardless of sinful failure.

But we see also there in verse 2, God still offers his security.

Hey, someone needs to hear today, the safest place to be is in the will of God.

And God still offers his security.

Verse 2, I will send my angel before you and I will drive out.

And then there's all these, and I call them the ice, okay?

All throughout the Old Testament, you see all these ice that came against the people of God and came against the children of Israel.

Can I tell you the ice are still coming against the people of God, both in Israel and right here?

But I can tell you this morning, if you are surrendered, you are in the safest place that you can be.

You are in the safest place you can be under the mighty hand of God.

But you see, the reason we need to be faithful, regardless of our sinful failure, is that God still offers his direction.

He says, Go up to the land of milk and honey, for I will not go up in your midst, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people.

How many of you know there's some hard-headed Christians today?

There's some stubborn believers today.

And he says, To go up.

I'm here to tell you this morning that when God speaks, we need to listen.

I'm here to tell you this morning, uh, don't be concerned about what God's telling you to do.

I remember we had a basketball coach in Connorsville, Indiana years ago, it was Joe's coach, and and I worked under him for a small time.

And this is what he says.

He said this He says, Hey, don't be concerned.

He told the tea the players this don't be concerned if your coach is coaching you hard.

He said, be concerned if he's not saying anything to you.

Some of us here today are worried and concerned about how God is speaking to us and maybe challenging us.

Hey, we should be more concerned if God stops speaking.

And here we see in the text here, God still offers his direction.

Oftentimes we get ahead of God, we move forward without God.

David Gusick shared some thoughts in a writing he had, enduringword.com by Lloyd Jones, and he says this to be given every other blessing is of no value if God is not with you.

What is the difference?

What is the value of Canaan?

What is the value of milk and honey?

What is the value of having possessions?

Listen to this.

If God was not with them, he writes, they saw that the realization of the presence of God, having his fellowship and company was infinitely more important than everything else.

Avery and Rogers, you might have heard of them down here in the South.

Love, we're finding that Lord said this.

It is frightening.

Listen to this.

It is frightening to have success, possessions, and protection, but not the presence of the Lord.

My question to you this morning is what is more important to you than God's presence?

What is more important to you than pleasing God?

We're living in an Americanized culture in our world today where life is going 900,000 miles an hour.

And I'm here to tell you this morning, we need to be still and know that He is God.

What is more important than you than meeting with God?

What is more important than you than the presence of the Lord?

Oh, young men, um, middle-aged senior adult men, I'm here to tell you right now, hey, listen, I want you to know this morning the most important thing you can do daily for your family is to pray for them, pray with them, pray over them.

And moms and wives and even single moms, I'm here to tell you this morning, it's important that you understand the value of meeting with God, of speaking with God.

And hey, quit using your past, quit using your past failures as an excuse of why you're not meeting with God.

God wants to hear from you.

He wants you to meet with Him.

He wants to speak with you, He wants to challenge you.

And then verses 4 through 6, we see God still desires idolatry to be purged.

It's all fun and games till you mention this, Reynolds.

But I can tell you this we need to purge idolatry out of our churches today.

We need to purge idolatry out of our homes today.

If you look at the text there in verses 4 through 6, the people of God wanted the promises of God, they wanted the presence of God, but they still wanted the possessions of Egypt.

Someone here today is holding fast to the things of the world while still wanting the presence of God.

Not trying to be too graphic, disgusting, or gross today, but I believe that God had a clear-cut picture through circumcision for the people of God of what needed to be done.

The cutting away of the old for the new.

Can I tell you this morning that there's some things in our lives today in our modern-day churches?

I don't know much.

All I've heard is wonderful things about your church.

But I can tell you where God is moving the most, the enemy wants to bring down the most.

And I want you to know this morning that maybe there's someone here today, and there's some things that need to be cut out.

If you look in the text here, um, James Vernon McGee describes it like this in his commentary.

He writes, these ornaments have always been seen.

They were for the heathen.

In this text, we see it was their earrings.

The example demonstrated the fact that they were still worshiping the gods of Egypt.

The earrings were a sign of it.

Now, listen, if you're wearing earrings today, don't take them out, alright?

Say, oh, I've been obedient to God, alright?

Okay, that's not what this is about.

What this is about is they were still showing the outward signs of the bondage that they had in Egypt.

In our churches today, we have too many people that are showing and living outward signs of the life that they once lived.

Someone today, hey, before you start supplicating to God, you need to surrender yourself to God.

Here in the next few moments, you need to, hey, some of us here today, we want to be better prayer words, we want to be better connectors of God, but yet we're still holding on to the things that are keeping us from connecting with God.

This is, as he goes on to say, this is the third time God calls them a stiff-necked people.

He went on to say, God asked them again to remove the signs that show them that they are heathen and pagan and take a stand for God.

He writes, I personally believe that this is the reason that baptism, water baptism, was some of the most important in the early church.

It was evidence that a person has left the old and was taking a stand for the new.

See, in our modern-day churches, we lose sight of what they were going through in the biblical era.

We got our lights, we got our buildings, we got our people, we got our masses that were meeting, but you remember in that early church they were they they were persecuted to take a public stand in obedience to God for water baptism, publicly professing their faith, may have cost them their lives, but yet they did it anyway.

Maybe, hey, maybe someone today needs to be reminded it's not as so much as verbally proclaiming that we're willing to die for Christ, but to visibly live out a love for Christ.

So we see in the text here today, if we're gonna connect to God, if we're gonna be good supplicators to God, if we're gonna really pray to God, hey, someone today needs to be told and be reminded, hey, forgetting the things that are behind and reaching forth to the things that are before, as Paul said, I press toward the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Focus, focus on faithfulness even after sinful failure.

Secondly, this morning, verses 7 through 11, let's see what the text says.

You guys with me this morning?

Alright.

Don't be falling asleep on me.

You might miss it.

Right?

One of my worst injuries I ever got in church.

I fell asleep in church, cracked my head.

We had pews, cracked my face on the pew in front of me, blood everywhere was just terrible.

Anyway, all right, back to the text.

Verse 7 through 11.

Moses took his tent, pitched it outside the camp and far from the camp, and called it in the tabernacle of the meeting, and it came to pass that everyone who sought the Lord went out to the tabernacle of the meeting, which was outside the camp.

So it was whenever Moses went out to the tabernacle that all the people rose, and each man stood at his tent door and watched Moses until he had gone into the tabernacle.

And it came to pass when Moses entered the tabernacle that the pillar of cloud descended and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord talked with Moses, and all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the tabernacle door, and all the people rose and worshiped each man, each man in his tent door.

We need homes where men will intercede on behalf of their homes.

So the Lord spoke to Moses face to face as a man speaks to his friend, and he would return to the camp.

But his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tabernacle.

Secondly, this morning, we need to prioritize a place of purposeful prayer.

Where's your place?

Where's your place to meet with God?

I graduated from Liberty University, went to Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary during a portion of my time there at work security, and uh good a good portion of my time I worked third shift.

One of my favorite things to do, because we called it low crime time, between uh 3 a.m.

and 7 a.m., there just wasn't nothing going on.

And one of my favorite things to do is to see that sunrise coming over the Blue Ridge Mountains there outside of Lynchburg, Virginia.

I had some of my most meaningful moments with God.

I didn't have the struggles or responsibilities of full-time ministry.

I was just a college student trying to survive, but I'm here to tell you right now, some of my most meaningful moments with God was in that place.

And God taught me the value of having a place to meet with Him during that moment.

And I can tell you this morning that it is so important.

If we want God to take back our homes, we need to do it through prayer.

If we want God to move in our churches, there's a lot of modern-day tools that can be used, not cutting them, not putting them down.

God has blessed this property in an amazing way.

I believe we're standing sitting on holy ground today.

But I can tell you this: all of it's in vain if we're not a people of prayer.

The meeting place should be delivered.

Moses took his tent, pitched it outside the camp, far from the camp.

Why would he do that?

It's already been said how the people of God, the Israelites, had welcomed the pagan heathen things of the world into the camp.

Here's the deal: Moses wanted to get as far from away from that as he could to meet with God.

The meeting place, verse 7, should be free of distraction.

Verse 8, it should be a place that is respected.

The children of Israel were watching Moses and they were watching him meet with God.

I'm here to tell you, uh, dads and moms, um, I can speak from this from experience.

Your children are watching how you meet with God and whether or not you are meeting with God.

Well, I need to get up and get going before they wake up because they're so distracting.

True.

But I have seen in my life the importance of your family seating you meet with God.

Why are we seeing 19 to 21 year olds come through the youth group, 18 to 21-year-olds coming through the youth group through churches, and many of them want nothing to do with God.

They may have even had moms and dads that knew what it meant to meet with God and see God, but kids never saw them meeting with God, and they never learned the value of it.

Friends, I'm here to tell you right now, the people of God saw Moses meet with God, and they saw the value in it, and as a result, God worked in their lives.

The meeting place should be delivered, should be free of distractions, should be respected.

Verse 9, the meeting place should include a conversation.

You know, so oftentimes, what is the biggest barrier people have to pray?

I don't know what to say, right?

I don't know how.

Can I tell you this this morning?

God, the creator of the universe, wants his people to be real with him.

We don't have no problem talking on Facebook, right?

Well, I hope I don't say this wrong.

We say stuff wrong all the time, right?

My phone thinks it's so much smarter than I am.

And it's not.

I'm sorry, it's not.

It makes up words all the time.

There's nothing more embarrassing than being a pastor and some word getting sent that no pastor should ever be saying.

Can I get a witness?

Yeah, it's bad.

Yeah, I I've coached soccer, high school soccer as an assistant for a number of years, and I was messaging one day to the other two coaches that know I'm a pastor and uh and try to be a follower of Jesus and live out a life of love for Christ in front of them.

And and boy, I sent them a message, and it wasn't good.

I had to send an apology.

They thought it was funny.

Can I tell you this morning, be real with God.

If you're hurting, hey, hurt with Jesus.

I think the scripture says to weep with those that weep and rejoice with those that rejoice.

I'm here to tell you right now, God sees your hurt, God sees your pain, God sees what you're going through this morning.

You're living on the mountaintop.

Hey, live a life of praise before God.

I want you to know this morning that, hey, God wants you to talk with him.

He wants you to converse with him.

Verse 10.

And when it's done and it's done before others, it will be contagious.

You know what your pastor needs from you more than anything else.

You know where I'm going, right?

Prayer.

Listen, one thing I love about Rick and Heather is they don't distance themselves from you.

Right?

They want to be with you, they want to be close to you, and I can tell you this don't distance yourself from them.

Don't just pray for them.

One of the most ridiculous things I've experienced in 20 plus years of ministry is, Pastor, I'm praying with you, and I know full well some of those people say that uh aren't.

Right?

But I one thing I can't deny, I can't deny not the ones that say I'm praying for you, but the ones that pray with me.

Can't deny that.

Yeah, I know you're praying with me.

How do I know that?

Because you prayed with me.

It was contagious.

They were seeing it.

They saw Moses meet with God, and hey, they wanted, they wanted themselves what he had.

And I'm here to tell you this morning the meeting place, verse 11, should be special.

The Bible says to the Lord spoke to Moses face to face as a man speaks to his friend, and he would return to the camp.

But his servant Joshua, listen this, the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tabernacle.

This place was special.

This tent was special.

It was the meeting place with God.

I don't know if any of you guys have ever been camping, but some of my worst experiences in life have been camping in a tent.

Seriously.

I married Michelle almost 25 years ago.

And one of our first things we did on our anniversary one year, she went to go camping in a tent.

Bless our hearts.

Apparently she didn't know who she married.

I didn't know anything about a tent.

I didn't know how to set up a tent.

I didn't want to sleep in a tent.

And we went on we went to Cherry Stone uh campground and outside of around Chesapeake Bay, um there in uh Virginia, right uh outside the um the Bay Bridge Tunnel.

Some of you may have been through there.

And it's beautiful.

I loved it.

I I loved that part of it.

We got there, there's so much fun stuff to do, and we did.

We enjoyed our time together, and one evening, it was a beautiful day as I recall, and one evening, about time it was starting to get dark, a storm blew in off that the Chesapeake Bay.

We got in our tent, and baby, that thing was shaking.

I mean, it was moving.

You talking about moving, it was special, and I'm telling you, it was scary.

So we got out of our tent, we got into our car, and bless his heart, there's a man next to us and a state-of-the-art RV, satellite dish, all the works.

They invited us to come over to their RV.

Well, you know, there's some decisions you don't even need to pray about.

My wife is one, oh, we don't want to cause anyone problems.

I'm like, well, no, we're causing some problems.

We're going, right?

We're gonna die here.

And we went over to the RV and we sat in there, and the storm went through, and stuff was being blown everywhere.

And this man had dish TV and there was a ball game on.

Man, I don't know.

I was enjoying the ball game.

Storm blows over, storm goes by, and my wife says, Well, I guess it's time to go back to our tent.

I'm like, the game's not over, right?

So we left, and I it wasn't a good, enjoyable experience.

So when we got to Indiana, one of the things people in our church love to do is go camping once a year.

Well, I figured I became an expert at this point.

And uh Nate was real little, and we were there one night, and we had a camp, it was a great day, great time together as a church family, and there we were in the tent.

And I already didn't like it.

And it got cold.

I I know uh down here in Alabama you're living a dream, but I'm telling you, in Indiana, it's cold.

I didn't think we had any business camp in that coldness.

So I had this grand idea as the leader of our family.

Everyone was about to go to bed, it was getting cold.

I said, honey, if we leave right now, we can go home and sleep in our warm house and be back before anybody ever notices.

I started up the car as quietly as I could.

We got home, came back the next morning, and lo and behold, guess what had visited our tent?

A bunch of raccoons.

I'm telling you, there wasn't nothing special about those camping experiences.

There wasn't nothing special about those tents, but I'm here to tell you right now, there was something special about the meeting place that Moses had with God.

And how do you know, Reynolds?

How do you know it was so special?

Here's the thing I heard a preacher say it like this, it's so good.

He said, whatever was happening in the tent, Joshua didn't want to leave.

You ever had a moment with God like that?

This screen up here says, I was supposed to be done three minutes ago.

I'm here to tell you right now, when, hey, I'm here to tell you right now that when you really meet with God, time doesn't matter.

Responsibilities don't matter.

I'm here to tell you this morning, we need moments like this.

Joshua didn't want to leave, and he didn't leave.

Moses went back to be the leader that he should have been and he left.

I love what Walsh uh Warren Wearsby said, quoting Oswald Chambers, says this.

Every one of us is as close to God as he has chosen to be.

I would dare say if I sat with each of you individually this morning, you would say this, man.

I want to be close to God.

We sung songs about it this morning, and most of you want to be close.

Well, how close do you want to be?

Let me let the old coach come out.

How bad do you want it?

If I'm not mistaken, James 4A says, draw near to God and he will what?

Draw near to you.

Here's the deal.

God's over there.

Oftentimes I want to be close to you.

I want to be close to you, and we're running the other way.

My kids, they gotta be involved in these sports, and and man, I gotta get to the grocery store and I gotta handle my work responsibilities and this, that, and the other.

You know what a lot of times all those things are?

They're steps away from Jesus.

And all the while, Jesus is over there.

Just wait.

Bring it in, right?

Bring it in.

I'm not really a hugger, alright?

If you hug me today, I'll hug you back, alright?

I won't like it, but I'll hug you back, alright?

Joe, Joe saw me.

Yes, we were at Pastor Rick's house yesterday, and Joe and Michaela came over and and uh we had a little nice little hug.

He said, that went good.

He said, that went good.

Hug me like you mean it.

I hugged him like a warm in it.

Can I tell you this morning?

God, hey, I said, let's bring it in, right?

God saying, bring it in.

Bring it in.

Can I tell you every hug from God's a good one?

He wants to embrace you.

He wants, hey, he wants to.

Here's the thing as you take steps away from him, he's still taking steps to you.

Draw near to God, and he will what?

You got it.

You already heard this sermon.

Number three this morning.

Final thought.

Verses 12 through 23.

Number three today, you got to get this.

This is so important.

Acknowledge the attributes of an authentic atmosphere of adoration, of worship.

Now, here's what I want you to know today.

If you go and you Google misconceptions about real worship, you're going to come up with a lot of different thoughts.

And here's the thing all those thoughts are based upon the perception of someone that's writing them.

And I'm not here to give you a bunch of uh thoughts from John Reynolds.

I want you to see in Scripture what real worship looks like.

Verse 12, it involves the right partnerships.

Moses said to the Lord, see, you say to me, bring up this people, but you have not let me know whom I will send, who you will send with me.

Can I tell you this morning?

I think this speaks a little bit to the idea of corporate gatherings.

Anybody sick of hearing people say, I can just worship God on my own?

Can I can you think of anything, any better worship than worshiping with the people that you love the most?

It's a good thing.

Forsake not the assembly of the some of the manners of the thing of yourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another as you see the day approaching.

I'm here to tell you today, God is honored when we meet together.

We're gonna worship God and seeking Him for guidance.

Verse 13.

Show me, show me now your way in your sight, and that I may find grace in your sight and consider this nation is your people.

To seek God for guidance.

A few weeks ago, as I said, one of the Bible colleges we went to visit was in Iowa.

We never went to Iowa.

But we got to Iowa and we visited the college a little bit, and and uh how many of you sometimes think you know it all?

Just me.

Okay, great.

All right, we're real honest around these parts there, Rick.

Turn in your Bible to Exodus 20, where the Bible says, Thou shalt not lie, okay?

So anyway, I thought I knew it all.

We we've been there for some time, and and uh we went around the corner, we were going to do a little visiting there, and we got away from the campus, and my GPS keeps phrasing up.

And we got away and it stopped talking to me.

Well, I felt like I knew where I was going.

So we got away, and Michelle sweetly kindly says, I think we're supposed to turn here and no, we're not.

We're gonna keep going.

So we kept going, kept going, kept going, and we got away from, and and the connection never came back until I got back to a place that that the connection was available.

And what I learned in that not only is not to be prideful, but is this truth that when we lose connection, we lose direction.

I was connected and and dependent upon the GPS to get me where I needed to go.

And when I lost connection, I lost direction.

And I'm here to tell you this morning, there's someone here today, you all have a clue where you're going in life because you've lost connection with the creator of the universe that loves you so much, that's waiting for you to draw nigh to him as he draws nigh to you, and the connection's not there, so the direction is not there in your life.

And here's the deal all we had to do is drive a little bit further to where there was some good connection, and it all came back together.

Can I tell you this morning?

Instead of driving further away from God, draw back into the arms of Jesus.

Verse 14, I'm almost done.

Verse 14, seek God for peace.

And the peace of God, Paul writes, passeth all understanding, right?

If you're not having an active prayer life, you're not having a fervent peace life.

Verse 15 and 16, you see God in different, being different.

17 understanding his promises, verse 18, to see his manifestation, verse 19 to see his blessing.

And then as this text concludes, I want you to see this.

The Bible says this, but he said, You cannot see my face, for no man shall see me and live.

And the Lord said, Here's a place for me, and you shall stand on the rock.

So it shall be while my glory passes by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock and will cover you, and my hand will I pass by, then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.

Listen to this.

We need to worship God in reverence.

If Moses needed to have the right reverence before the face of God, what makes us any different?

I don't think we get this today, right?

Worship God very casually, okay?

Hey, you can be doing anything and worshiping the Lord, okay?

Really, anything.

Really?

But I'm here to tell you right now, there's something special.

Moses had a specific time, he had a specific place that he went, interceded for the people, he met with God and respected God in a real way.

And I'm here to tell you there's something special about seeking God.

We recently learned more about the life of Charles Spurgeon, and one thing that I as I read and I study and I learn more about the life of Charles Spurgeon is how God used him in a mighty way.

But we went to uh a college called Spurgeon College and we got to learn more about his life, and one thing that they said they mentioned often, as they talked about the many ways that God used him, they talked about all the people that were praying for him.

Can I tell you this morning and we close as we close, does the atmosphere of our prayer life welcome worship or welcome a heart of waywardness?

That's my question to you today.

There's an old song called I'll Make My Heart.

It was a Christmas song, I'll Make My Heart of Bethlehem.

A praise place where love can dwell within.

A place where peace and joy within.

And then it says this Christmas in my heart.

My question to you this morning, is your heart a place that God has freedom to dwell?

So as we close this morning, maybe your struggle and your supplication is due to your lack of surrender.

Now listen, if you're here today and you don't know Jesus, you don't know what it means to have a relationship with Jesus, I'm gonna tell you right now, before you think about prayer, before you think about following Jesus, before you think about living the good life, I'm here to tell you right now, the best thing you can do is accept Christ as your Savior this morning.

It's the best decision you'll ever make in life.

There's no surrender until you first surrender to Jesus.

But I I I believe, I believe, I believe there's some here today that are followers of Jesus that have got away from God.

Maybe I'm mistaken, maybe I'm missing it.

But I think there's some here today who, if you were honest with yourself and God, would have to say your prayer life's not what it should be.

And I'm gonna give you an opportunity this morning to run to God.

We're gonna give you an opportunity today to meet with the Lord.

I want to give you an opportunity to pray.

You know, in my experience of prayer, the best way that I have found to learn to pray is to pray.

Right?

Two-year-olds, some of you have two-year-olds, bless your hearts.

You don't have to teach them to talk back, they become masters of it on their own, right?

I want you to know the best way that you can learn to pray is to pray.

So maybe today, maybe some of you this morning have never prayed before.

And we're gonna create some space this morning for you to do that.

Let's all stand to our feet this morning.

Pastor Rick's gonna be here at the front, or maybe as a team to receive people, and that's fine.

But if you're here today and you don't know the Lord, I want you to come and find a team member and let them know you want to receive Christ as Savior.

But maybe you're here today, and it's been a long time since you've connected with God.

Before we sing one song, before we sing one verse, I'm gonna invite you right now to make your way to the altar, make an altar in your seat, and just connect with the Lord.

Guys, when's the last time you prayed with your spouse?

If it's been a while, I can guarantee you this.

If she has a heart for God, she's waiting for you to do that right now.

When's the last time you prayed over your family?

Hey, there's someone here that's hurting today.

When's the last time you took it to the Lord?

You've taken it to social media, you've taken it to people that maybe you're brothers and sisters in Christ, but you've yet to take it to the throne of God.

Why don't you do that right now?

So I'm gonna invite you right now that if you're serious about your surrender, if you're serious about seeking God, if you're serious about your commitment to God, I'm gonna invite you to make your way to the altar and connect with the Lord right now.

I'm gonna pray.

I'm gonna pray over you.

I'm gonna turn it over to Pastor Rick.

Looks like people are gonna sing.

As they sing, I want you to respond.

I want you to respond in obedience to God.

I'm not about getting two, three hundred people to the altar for no reason.

I'm here this morning.

I'm gonna tell you, it was a special time and a special place.

Moses knew how to get to the throne, and maybe today, there's some here today that need to get to the throne.

When was the last time you were at the altar?

Let me ask you that question.

Father, we come before you today.

God, I pray you speak to our hearts this morning.

I pray you move in the midst today, God.

Lord, if there's one person here today that needs you, oh God, I pray they come to talk to this loving pastor that would love to point them to you to show them the truth of the gospel.

Oh God, I pray this morning, I pray that today would spark a movement at the church at CW.

It wouldn't just be a high experience, but I mean a movement.

I pray it would create a culture of prayer.

I pray, God, that the Holy Spirit would pour out his power.

Oh God, I'm mindful this morning of Acts 2 as they visited homes and they met together in the midst of persecution and they prayed, and then we flip over a page or two and see in Acts chapter 4 that some of those same churches and some of those people, same people as they as they prayed, the Bible says the place was shaken.

Acts 4 · chapter mention

Oh God, I pray this morning that the church at CW would be shaken for you.

Move in our midst today, God.

Speak to our hearts and challenge us.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

God spoken to you this morning.

You step out, you come, you respond to the Spirit as He leads you, as we I believe we're going to sing together.

God spoken to you.

Hey, if God spoke to you, don't worry about singing.

You just get to praying.

Make a prayer altar in your seat, make an altar at the altar, wherever the case may be.

Take this moment, you connect with God today.

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