Presence – What it Aint Pt. 2

Ladies and gentlemen, let me present to you Joseph, the newest Canuck fan.

Yay!

Feel sorry for you buddy.

Okay, I don't like this Victoria thing. Half the church is empty.

So we continue with last week's topic. Last week we talked about presents, what it ain't.

But then when I looked at the notes, I'm not sure whether it's the right title, so I've left it this way.

Presence, what it ain't, or perhaps what it is, or whatever. So if you want to give a title, you can.

So we said last week that on one hand, and I won't recap the entire thing, I'm just touching on the beginning.

We said last week that on one hand, periodic awareness of presence was never God's design.

On the other hand, we can start feeling the pressure of being aware of God's presence to the point where it will begin to smell of guilt.

It will begin to feel like nothing is ever enough. Failure will become something that we'll have to get used to,

because somehow this idea of becoming aware of the presence of God gets to become a monster on our back.

We don't want that. So the intent was, how can I seek out the presence of God and not drown in the exclusion of all the other things in life?

Because otherwise it will be, oh, I've got to be aware of the presence, and then you drop a cake you were baking on the floor.

You don't want that kind of guilt. You want to be able to flow with God, because God made everything in the secular and the sacred.

And you don't want to get stuck pursuing one thing at the expense of another, because that's not how God intended it to be.

We said that last week. So some of the ways we can develop this is first, love the awareness of the presence of God.

Love the awareness of the presence of God. Love the awareness of the presence of God.

Love the awareness. Think of someone that you really love. And even though you're not talking to the person, you're aware of that person.

Remember, the presence of God is God himself. When we talk about the presence of God, we're not talking about a feeling.

We're talking about him. But because he is not visible, because he's not audible, that's why we are even giving this term called presence to him.

Because he's invisible and inaudible. Otherwise we wouldn't even use the word presence.

But just as you become highly aware of someone you love, one of the first things that would help towards living life with God while we're doing everything else is to love the awareness of God.

You see this in newly married couples or old married couples that are in love. That they're aware of each other even when they're busy doing stuff.

I'd say to you that people are aware of dogs that way. Where you have an owner who loves his dog and they're aware of the dog.

If you can have that kind of a relationship with dog, then it's very possible with God. We won't go there.

So this idea of loving the awareness of the presence of God is critical.

So if you take away this word from here, when you go into I love the presence of God, awareness becomes easier.

So the question is, do you love the presence of God?

And the answer could often be no, or not important, or indifferent, or not yet.

And that's okay. But one of the problems with Christians is we never start where honesty begins.

We always start with Christian-ese. Start where you're honest.

If you're indifferent to the presence of God, admit that you're indifferent to the presence of God.

Or no, I'm not in love with the presence of God. I know he's there. I know he lives inside me. It's a truth. It's a fact.

I know it in here. But no, I'm not in love.

Start at the place where you're starkly honest and build from there.

Christian-ese is such poor foundation to build on.

Because as I begin to love the presence of God, I become aware of him even when I'm doing other things.

And sometimes I want to be married just so I can prove to you that this really works.

But it's too high cost to pay. So we will continue as we are.

But I remember times when I'd be so highly aware of this person that I really liked

that I would tell her, hey, I smelled your perfume in the elevator. It wasn't somebody else.

It didn't smell like you, but my God, it reminded me of you.

How crazy is that? I was so aware of her.

She didn't break my heart. Don't worry. Didn't write any songs, no poems, no nothing.

It was a healthy relationship.

The point is this. Once you love the presence of someone, you're not going to be able to get away with it.

But once you love the presence of someone, you're aware of that person even when they are not next to you and even when you're doing other stuff.

It's just very natural.

Next one.

Love the presence of God. Next one is enjoy. Enjoy the presence.

Enjoy the awareness of God.

As in, do you really enjoy it or is it a chore?

Is it like, what was that little thing we had to take care of?

Otherwise the alarm would go off on your watch?

Some little toy that, what was it called? Was it Pokemon?

Yeah, yeah, that thingy.

Yeah, it's a pet and you had to feed it or you had to do something. Yeah.

What was it called?

Tamagotchi.

Yeah. For those of you who are younger, you wouldn't know what we are talking about.

But Tamagotchi, you had to continuously feed it. You had to pet it. You had to do things.

And it became a pain until you threw away your watch because Tamagotchi was on your watch.

But the point is this. I must enjoy my awareness.

Do you enjoy your awareness? Do you enjoy taking care of God?

That's such an odd way to say it.

Do you enjoy taking care of God?

Abraham enjoyed taking care of God.

He recognized that the three guys coming into his tent were God and two others.

And he enjoyed taking care of them.

Like he had the entire, I mean, the family had just finished cooking breakfast

and everyone had settled down for a lazy siesta in the hot Middle Eastern sun.

And then Abraham sees them and now he gets excited.

Now everybody has to cut calf and make more cake and bake stuff.

The entire, ooh, someone's completely missed the start of the service.

But welcome anyways.

We were church shopping.

Okay.

Put an offering in there before you come further.

We are church shopping in Burnaby too.

Okay.

Yeah, we might go there. Yeah.

So enjoy the, so if you don't enjoy the awareness,

if you don't enjoy taking care of God, this is going to be difficult.

Abraham loved being a host to God.

Abraham loved being a host to God.

The activity he went into, the whole household was frantic to now please the one who was there.

Do you enjoy taking care of God?

We don't even phrase it that way, right?

Because we are the ones who are always taking care of.

We don't think of taking care of God.

If you enjoy it, then we go to the third place,

which is do you parent your awareness of God?

Do you parent your awareness of God?

Do you parent your awareness of God?

Hey, if you love your child and you enjoy your child, you will parent your child.

If you love your child and you enjoy your child, you will parent your child.

As in, now you'll be aware of when your child is at the edge of a cliff.

You will be aware when your child is picking things off the floor and this time it's an earthworm.

And before you can put the earthworm in your mouth, you'll prevent it.

So when you parent your, do you parent your awareness of God?

If you love God and you enjoy God, you will parent your awareness of God.

As in, when you realize that you're flagging off or when you realize that you are wearing off,

you will be able to see it and you will be quickly able to parent your awareness of God.

I mean, parents, like you should see as he walks in,

there'll be times when he'll be nodding off on his chair

and suddenly he'll become aware that Joseph is his aunt and he'll shake himself awake.

Or he'll watch the Avs play and suddenly it's back to normal.

So that's what I mean by parenting awareness, where as you flag off or as you begin to lose interest in the awareness of God,

can you parent it back? But you cannot parent it back unless you love God and unless you enjoy taking care of God.

Many can pick on this phrase and say, Jacob, this is blasphemous.

It's not. Hosting God means enjoying having him in your home life.

We must think in these terms because a God without emotions or feelings is not possible to relate to.

Always remember, he could have made this entire world black and blue, two of my favorite colors.

I was late today because I wore these pants.

And then I don't know what matches these pants because I know what matches black and I know what matches blue.

And I wore these pants and I had to change three times because every time I looked, it looked like a rainbow.

So God could have made everything black and white, but he didn't. Why?

Because he provokes emotions even through colors and the things he does.

So parent your awareness of God. And finally, if you can do these three, then you must share your awareness with others.

Only then can you share your awareness of God with others.

Love, enjoy, parent, share. Now you get to share it with others.

Where you are aware of God's work in someone else's life, they are aware of God's work in their lives.

Where you are aware of God's work in someone else's life, they are aware of God's work that he wants to do in your life.

You begin to share the awareness of God.

Then the prophetic becomes sharing the heart of God, not the will of God.

Because the heart of God is the will of God.

You begin to share the heart of God. You're able to convey to somebody else the heart of someone you love and that you have begun to thoroughly enjoy.

The prophetic takes on a different nature.

Those that can convey the heart of God in the prophetic are the ones that are really prophetic.

Because it's not words anymore. It's the very nature of God you're conveying.

Any questions?

Okay.

Awareness must lead to oneness. We said that last time.

Awareness of God must lead to oneness with God.

That is the goalie. It's not I want to be aware so I can know what to do.

I want to be aware so I can figure out the future. I want to be aware so I can be powerful.

No. Awareness of the presence of God must lead to oneness with the presence of God.

Awareness of the presence of God must lead to oneness with the presence of God.

So awareness must lead to mutual experiential conversations.

Mutual experiential conversations, engagement, arguments, walking together.

Bargaining for Sodom.

Asking for hills where the anach dwell.

For a mantle or double portion.

Should involve all this. Awareness of God is mutual experiential reciprocal conversations.

Can you imagine how rich a people will be when they do this?

Or how rich you will be when you do this?

This is why David says, better is one day in your courts than a thousand.

This is why David says, better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere.

Because for him the courts were where you meet the presence of God.

That's why he says, better is one day. I'd rather be a sentinel standing at the entrance of your temple than anywhere else.

Because better is one day than a thousand elsewhere.

Because for him the presence was everything.

Stop using the child as an excuse to leave the service.

As in presence must be experienced. It must be mutual. It must be experienced.

It must make you laugh and weep and feel under pressure and feel relieved.

Any real relationship with somebody has to be experiential.

It can't be prayers. This is when you start praying unceasingly.

It's not just praying for something. You'll find your prayer times are very different.

Struggle is okay. We said this last time.

Yahweh's relationship as a groom towards Israel was always as a groom that was dealing with a struggling bride.

And that's okay. He's okay with that.

He's okay with that.

So struggle is okay. Struggle is okay. Please, please embrace that.

Please embrace that. Please don't think that struggle is not a good thing.

You are struggling to embrace the presence of an invisible God.

Come on, man.

You should be committed as an institution.

But we go down this route and struggle with it.

Grapple with it. You will win.

We said this last time. God is the one who desires this.

You think he won't respond? He's a whisper away.

You let your circumstances overcrowd this and you lose.

You let presence always overcrowd the circumstances.

Why do you think Enoch disappeared?

Why do you think Enoch disappeared?

How did a man do that in the Old Testament?

In Genesis 5.24 it says,

And Enoch walked with God and then he was not.

A man in the Old Testament, after the fallenness of the world,

was able to connect with God, with a corrupt spirit.

He didn't have a new spirit.

What kind of love was it?

What kind of enjoyment was it?

That a man who does not have a regenerated spirit,

who did not have the Holy Spirit,

loved Yahweh so much that he walked with God and then he was not.

Sometimes oneness with God will make you not because he becomes very evident.

I'm not saying you'll be raptured.

It'll be like you are not because he is.

Go ahead.

Just thinking, how did you differentiate one man with God with the New Age as one person?

Yeah.

The problem with everything New Age is that God is not outside of creation.

He is always in creation.

That's one of the significant differences between Christianity,

the God of Christianity and the God of every other religion.

Every other religion has God not separated from the universe.

Our God is out of this universe, separate from this universe,

and we relate to Him by His Spirit.

In all New Age philosophies and theology,

God is part of the tree, part of the stone, part of the animal, part of the cockroach.

That is how He becomes a part of us.

It's almost like our Atma, which is our soul, dissolves into the Parmatma,

which is the ultimate God.

We dissolve into Him.

Here there's no dissolving.

Here we are separate, but He allows us to partake in His divine nature.

With every religion, and some things in Christianity God has preserved,

He won't give it away.

There are things that Satan uses as counterfeit, but there is a limit.

Remember, Satan is always in accountable rebellion.

He cannot do what he wants.

There is a philosophy he can come up with, and then God will say,

You can't cross this line.

He won't dare, because He's a created finite being.

So there are certain lines God draws, and this is one of the lines He's drawn,

and no religion dares cross that.

Fascinating.

Presence is attentiveness and curiosity.

Presence is attentiveness.

These are essential elements of presence.

Presence is attentiveness and curiosity.

Without these, it's very hard to walk into the awareness of the presence of God.

Presence is attentiveness and curiosity,

which is why circumstances are used powerfully by the world,

by the flesh, and by the enemy to have us flailing and drive us out of presence.

You see it every morning.

Everybody here has a desire to connect with God at some point during the day,

but what happens? Circumstances take over.

Flailing happens.

Messages come. Sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, bosses, job, money, bank account.

I refuse to look at my bank account in the morning

because it can either encourage me unnecessarily or discourage me unnecessarily.

The first thing you behold in the morning is usually what sets you up for the day.

If you don't behold Him, and if you behold anything else,

it'll bring you to a place where you're seeing face to face something

that'll bring you either to shame, ruin, fear,

or it'll bring you into a place which is glory to glory, strength to strength, faith to faith.

When we wake up in the morning, if the first thing that you want to connect with

is your schedule, your roster, your job, your things that you have to do,

then that is what then begins to govern.

Because in 1 Corinthians 3, 18, and I'm extrapolating the scriptures,

which is another nice way of saying I'm taking it out of context, is this.

It says, whatever you behold, that you become.

Whatever you behold, that you become.

So what do you behold in the morning?

And then you can't figure out why your entire day is run by what you behold.

We need attentiveness and curiosity to dive into presence.

Moses was curious about a burning bush.

He was at work. He wasn't worshipping. He was at work.

And he sees a burning bush. He had seen many such burning bushes.

It's a normal occurrence in the desert where bushes just burst into flame

because of the heat and stuff like that.

But here was a bush that was burning differently.

He could see it at a distance and it was burning, but it wasn't being consumed.

There was curiosity, attentiveness.

One of the things I do, and I'm marvelous, this is something I was taught years and years ago,

where I'll be driving and I'll see a tree or I'll see a sign.

And it means nothing.

All God wants me to do is look at it and register it and put it in my library.

Four years later, I'll be prophesying on someone.

And God will show me that tree or that sign, and I know exactly where he wants to go.

Attentiveness to the things of God must be done without trying to understand them.

Man, some of us are so messed up because of our intellect or our scheduling that we miss out.

Both trying to understand something and trying to put things within a time frame

will ruin attentiveness and curiosity.

This is why kids have wonder.

Because the two things kids don't have is a schedule to follow and what is the other one?

Intellect.

I have to understand everything. It's not important to them.

Days of wonder. That's what young children are, days of wonder.

And in case you think that, no, but we are grownups, Jesus got pretty indignant when they stopped bringing children to him.

The word says, and Jesus was indignant that they didn't allow the children to come to him, Mark 10.

And he said to them, let the little children come because of such as made the kingdom of heaven.

In my grownupness, I must preserve some childlikeness, not childishness, childlikeness.

Days of wonder. That's what takes us to this place of attentiveness and curiosity.

Don't let your understanding and your schedule rob you of the most important thing in the world,

which is awareness of the presence of him who you thirst after.

Because once we have this and this, you'll find that he is the ultimate distraction.

He is the ultimate distraction.

Look at the Bible. Look how easily he caught people's attention.

He is the ultimate distraction.

Every time you think, oh, every time I worship God, I feel so distracted, remind yourself he is the ultimate distraction.

You begin to think of him like that, he has a way of pulling you right back.

He is the ultimate distraction.

See, we don't think like that. We think that we can easily be distracted from God.

You don't think that about your wife. You found out that it doesn't work.

Doesn't matter whether you like the Avs or like the Canucks.

When wifey says come, you come.

Look at Mike. He is absolutely nodding his head and agreeing.

I don't mean that in a nasty way. I'm just saying that when we are in love,

the one that we love is the greatest distraction. And are you telling me that you do not love God?

You wouldn't survive in this church if you didn't love God.

Simply because it's too long.

We love God. We must see him as the greatest distraction.

He has the ability to draw me back. Your child is sometimes your greatest distraction.

Remember, attentiveness and curiosity is more about appetite.

What you have an appetite for, you'll always be curious for.

Be a child. Days of wonder. Days of wonder. Days of wonder.

C.S. Lewis said that the real work

is to attend or pay attention.

The real work is to attend or pay attention.

The real work is to attend or pay attention.

To come awake.

And to remain awake.

He was talking about the presence of God and he says that the real work is to attend or pay attention.

To come awake and to stay awake. To remain awake.

Get into the habit of it. You'll enjoy it.

So the task of paying attention is demanding.

Even when you're in love, it is demanding.

It is demanding. But here's the odd thing.

This is so true.

The greater your freedom,

the greater your freedom, and this is in essence the definition of love.

The greater your freedom from

self-importance and self-concern,

the greater your awareness of others.

The greater your awareness of someone else.

Crazy, eh?

And isn't that the essence or definition of love?

The greater your freedom from self-importance and self-concern,

the greater your awareness of someone else.

Mothers do this every week.

Renny is doing this. Iris is doing this.

Derek and Aaron are doing this for their spouses.

The things that are important to you become less important.

Concern for yourself becomes less so that concern for someone else can become more.

And you become aware.

Or they examine your life on this basis

and many things that you hold sacrosanct as,

no, this is who I am, this is my personality, will come crumbling down.

Because sometimes the things we hold on as this is who I am and this is my personality

is simply consumed self-importance and self-concern.

And when that goes,

the awareness of someone else increases. Any questions?

No? Okay.

If you lose awareness of God, where do you go?

Go find him first

in the Father's house.

Where did Mary and Joseph go when they lost Jesus?

They went first to their relatives, then went around looking in the streets, then decided,

hmm, let's go back to the temple. They went back to the temple, they found him there.

They ran to the Father saying, Father,

you found me but I can't find you.

You found me but I can't find you. Please help me locate you.

I've said this before, but in hockey, as soon as a goalie

has to get himself ready, the first thing he does is he looks at where his goalposts are

and then sets himself up based on where the goalposts are because if he loses a goalpost,

he might be too much to one side or too much to the other side. One must locate.

So one of the things we do is locate God.

He finds you easily because he's got a tracker on you. You've got to locate him.

And sometimes it takes time if our mind is crowded with circumstances, but fight through it.

Sometimes you would fight to locate your child. You're in a crowd and you can't see your child.

Your child is walking ahead. What do you do? Everything in you just leaps into fierce

Mother Bear or Papa Grizzly mode and you go rushing through the crowd

like Schwarzenegger to locate your child.

That's how we should plow through circumstances and schedules

and rosters. Man, I hate it when I settle for less because I sometimes settle for less

saying I've got too much to do later. That is like the woman in Song of Songs.

I got into my PJs and I'm wearing my socks. I can't open the door right now.

Fight through it. It's fun. It's a game.

He doesn't lose track of you, but he desperately wants you to find him so that you can enjoy him

and he's enjoying you.

Awareness of God is for our benefit, not for his

because he's aware of you. You're forever present before him.

There's not a moment when you're hidden from him. I will never leave you. I will never forsake you. It's very real for him

because you're 24-7 before him. But this is for our enjoyment,

not for his. It's like, come on, you've got to be aware of me too so you can enjoy this.

But we often postpone it or we look somewhere else

or we have excuses. Sometimes we even hide from his presence. Sometimes we hide from his presence.

Why? Why do we hide from his presence? Adam started the trend,

hide and seek. Great game he invented. We hide from his presence. Why?

Sometimes it's because we feel guilty because we didn't do well yesterday or for the last one month.

Sometimes it's because we like our sin and to go into his presence will mean having to

not like our sin. Sometimes

ages ago

if I wanted to do something sinful, I'd go hide my Bible

or put it in the cupboard or put it away from my sight because if the Bible was there, it was like

I can't go ahead and do what I'm planning to do. So hide it.

So instead of hiding from God, I would hide the Bible.

Because I used to do all kinds of strange things with the Bible when I was a kid. I thought, what if I could just put the

Bible under my pillow and sleep on it?

I'd still know the same words that I knew the day before. It would never work.

So that's just on the side. It was not important.

So we hide from the presence. But we hide from the presence.

We hide from the presence. We hide from the presence.

That's just on the side. It was not important.

So we hide from the presence because of guilt or because we sometimes like sin.

Sometimes it is labor intensive to enter his presence, so why not just avoid the thing?

Sometimes it requires time. Identify what your reason is to hide from his presence.

Sometimes if you, we hide from his presence

we won't get invited into something we don't want yet.

We won't get invited into something we don't want yet.

What if you enter his presence and the Lord said to you,

this morning Jacob will speak to you, do what he asks you to do. You would rather avoid it.

Here's another thing.

The presence of God, if you notice in the Bible, the presence was always for the bride,

for the family of God,

and for the sake of the kingdom. He said if I'm in your midst, know that the kingdom has come.

He said in Revelation 22 that now I'm going to dwell with my family, my presence will be with them.

As a bridegroom, his presence is for the bride.

So if I am not consumed with these,

my engagement with presence is limited.

My engagement with presence is limited.

The more you're consumed with bride, family and kingdom,

the more likely it is that you are able to freely engage his presence, because his presence is for the bride,

his presence is for the family, his presence is for the kingdom.

Have a lukewarm relationship with the family of God, with the bride of Christ, which is the church,

or with the kingdom, and you will find that your engagement is also limited.

And some of us can be satisfied with that because we still have God.

Any questions?

So one of the signs of someone who is really

connecting with the presence of God is that the presence of God

always leads to co-dependence.

The presence of God leads to co-dependence,

and it usually reveals or exposes concealment in my life

and it exposes isolation in my life.

Because the presence of God always leads to co-dependence.

Why? Because the presence of God is for the bride, the church.

The presence of God is for the family, that's where he plans to dwell for the rest of his life.

The presence of God is for the kingdom, because of his presence the kingdom has arrived.

When I do not think highly of these three or keep myself

in a relatively neutered position with these three, then I'll find that, yeah,

sure I'm aware of presence, but I'm not able to engage.

The presence of God always leads to co-dependence, and it exposes my isolation and my

concealment, as in things that I conceal.

Any questions on that?

Yeah, so co-dependence is,

we are supposed to be God-reliant and body-dependent.

God-reliant and body-dependent, that's how a Christian is supposed to be.

You can't be one or the other. If you're body-dependent and not God-reliant,

it's only a matter of time before you become like an anchor that prevents the ship from going forward.

If you're God-reliant and not body-dependent, you will not move forward

because you need a family to survive. This is going to sound odd,

and it's not meant to be what it'll sound like. God ain't enough.

Why? Because Christ is ahead and he has a body.

So whenever we become God-reliant or body-dependent,

it's time is our progress. We have to be both.

So that's what I mean by co-dependence.

At work,

look for presence. At work, look for presence.

Work consumes so much of our time. So how do we handle him at work?

At work, look for presence. How? By, one, recognizing where you've been placed

as a garden. Recognizing where you've been placed

as a garden you are given to tend.

As a garden, you are given to tend.

But Jacob, you have no idea how difficult the place I am at work is.

Well then, one, why did you take it?

Two,

why can't you leave it?

Three,

now that you're there, can you look at it

as a garden that you've been placed in?

Recognize it

as such and recognize it.

If your answer is I didn't have any choice, that's

not a good enough answer for a believer. I'm not saying it's not a good answer.

I'm saying we need to change those kind of answers.

Absolutely.

Which brings in the second point that

can I see, can I include

my work life

as part of my life work?

Can I include my work life as part of my life work

so that hard places have purpose?

Yep.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Some principles that I established in Eden and in Genesis 1

continue. So one of the things God does is he separates

livelihood from work. He says I'll provide for you.

Work is not how I provide for you. I provide for you. I also give you work.

These things have to be clear in your head, Jacob. So that's the first thing

he does. The second thing he does is he puts me to work because he's a God who works. But he puts me to work

in a certain area, a garden. Call it a garden or call it whatever you want.

The place that I'm supposed to choose as work is supposed to be things that I'm

good at, that I was created for. Some of us, it might be

in art, some of us might be in science, some of us might be inventions, some of us might be

math, some of us might be teaching. There are talents that were given to me

even before I was born because all my days are written. But occasionally

we find situations where we don't have a choice so we have to take up something.

We sometimes can't leave it because of circumstances. And then it becomes a difficult place

but now you're there. You have to see that garden as something that you are supposed to tend

or keep while you call out to God saying Father can I have something else that is more suited to

who you made me. Who you made me.

May 1st, 2001, I have a job

that was offered by the Providence newspaper and I have a job for

$550 at a church as a worship leader.

Even in 2001, $550 wouldn't get you much.

And this is my choice. And I'm good at both. I'm good at writing and I'm good at this and I have a choice.

I remember standing, I used to live in Richmond and I felt God saying

go read Isaiah 49 verse 6 or something like that.

Isaiah 49:6

I go read it and it says,

you are saying to yourself I have worked so hard but I have nothing to show for it

but I the Lord say to you that your work is with your Lord and he will be your reward and recompense.

I thought to myself okay so I've got to choose this $550 thingy. But this is what I was made for man.

I do this so effortlessly, so brilliantly.

I mean that in a very modest way. I do.

Why? Because this is what I'm gifted for.

This is what I mean by life work. Life work is a sum total of all the things you really are

and that you were meant for.

When I was a believer, when I was 7 or 8 years old, I remember sitting to this kid who came from an untouchable community.

Nobody would sit with him. My mom would pack me extra lunch

and I'd go sit with him and I'd begin to tell him who he is and how well he can do in life.

It had nothing to do with Christianity. It wasn't a believer, it wasn't anything.

But I had the ability even then to talk to someone and bring out of them what is good in them.

There are certain things you're made for. You don't even have to be a believer for it.

When we become believers, there's a whole new element that is added to it.

Can I see my work life as part of my life work?

Suddenly hard places become a little easier because I'm not there

just to earn a living. I'm there to transform one or two plants in that garden forever.

And that doesn't even mean leading them to salvation.

That just means sometimes conferring dignity and worth on someone or healing a broken heart

or helping wash someone's feet so that they will feel clean again.

This is called purpose. The other one is just called pennies, man.

But we are so obsessed with pennies that places become hard.

Include work life as part of your life work.

And places that are hard will suddenly have purpose.

The other thing is mostly at work we think we are smart enough, qualified enough,

skilled enough to handle it, and therefore we usually don't need God.

And that's why we're called the people of God.

We usually don't need God.

Enough to handle it.

So just remember that if He has planted you in a garden,

He knows how to help you.

So even though you're skilled enough, qualified enough,

good enough, just keep defaulting.

Learn how to default or just defer to Him.

Even though you're skilled enough, good enough, smart enough to do this.

There are five brothers.

I don't know if I'll recall all five.

Hi guys.

I don't remember the fifth one.

These are the five brothers.

One of them will try to get you.

The first one is Maman So.

And these are all related to work or security or stability.

And so Maman is one.

It's a tyrannical master, but a great servant.

So when Maman leads, and if Maman does it, then Kronos does it, which is time.

These things will rob us of God.

The first one is Maman, which is not really money.

It gives us security or stability.

The second one is Kronos, which is time.

Huberus is pride.

Pathos is getting really passionate about something other than God.

And Metrios is mediocrity.

And so these are the things.

These are the cares of the world that choke out the seed of God.

Just be aware of that.

I know guys who overcame Maman, but they got so involved in their work that they did not have time.

They were able to overcome the lure of money.

They became really generous, but then work took over and work was so consuming.

And they were workaholics and they loved their work. It was not that they didn't like their work.

But work became so consuming that they had time for nothing else. Kronos will get you.

The actual symbolic picture of Kronos is a serpent that's curled around the earth and trying to crush it.

And if Kronos doesn't get you, then Huberus, as in pride, tries to get you.

And if Huberus doesn't get you, then it's Pathos where you get so passionate about things other than God.

And then the last one is mediocrity. Complacency will get you.

So that's just on the side.

We said this last time. Just remember that just like in the garden,

the fruit of my labor, as in the work I do,

is a direct result of a recognition of his presence at work.

The fruit of my labor is a direct result of recognition of his presence.

The more we acknowledge him, the more fertile the soil is.

The more the fruit.

So what does recognizing him at work look like?

Or let me talk about the lack of recognition. What does lack of recognition look like?

Do I forget, like in Deuteronomy 6, 10,

do I forget who provided, who sustains, who gives, has a change?

Am I consumed with self-effort or striving?

Do I control or have I yielded control

so that he can do what he wants with my work?

As in no longer am I governed by my work. If he wants to change it tomorrow,

do I see work as security? The moment I see work as security, I replace him.

Is there pride? Is it a big deal to be the pastor of Acts 29?

Is there silence when it comes to acknowledging him?

This is lack of recognition.

Any questions?

That's what lack of recognition looks like. This can happen to me at church

where I forget how we arrived here and think that it is by my

own brilliance that Acts 29 is what it is.

Self-effort, where it's no longer sustained or inspired or sourced by the Spirit of God,

but it is a lot of ra-ra-ra control where everything

is controlled so that I am not surprised, so that I am not

taken aback. Most of us engage in control.

You can do it in church, you can do it anywhere. Security? Is this my security?

If you take this away from me, what's going to happen to me? Pride.

How much pride do I take in what has been built? Silence.

Do I actually acknowledge God when things happen or do I kind of deflect the glory to myself?

How am I outside when I'm done here and I'm outside?

Do I speak of God or do I pretend to be someone else, not a pastor because that's not sophisticated enough?

Any questions?

Not making sense?

Making too much sense and you're stunned into silence.

Okay, stunned into silence.

One has to encourage oneself. There's a verse in the scriptures which says,

And David went into his stronghold and encouraged himself. I shall do what is scriptural.

Thanks. Thank you.

I prefer listening to your wife sometimes.

Same with relationships.

Relationships consume a lot of time. Children, wives, husbands.

Know that companionship, know that he loves being wonderful counselor

in your companionship.

Wonderful counselor in your companionship.

Wonder if Adam really had any problems with Eve before the fall,

but there must have been things that he didn't understand.

There was no sin, but it was not like he was a being who understood everything.

Be a wonderful counselor in places of companionship.

Seek God, what is best for her, what is best for him.

Involve him in it. We try to solve it with self-help books or we go to Jane.

Try getting him first and then go to books and then go to Jane.

I wish I could turn this thing off for a couple of moments, but don't turn it off.

Sometimes the values or the

sometimes the measures that the world sets for us have to be

superseded by the measures that sometimes God sets for us.

For instance, if the world says, hey, your nose should be 2 inches long

and God says your nose should be 2.3 inches long, go for 2.3 inches.

If the world says your baby should be 265 grams on day three

and God says your baby should be 235, settle for 235.

We are so driven by the expert opinion of people that changes every two years.

Mothers find this out by the third baby, then they don't care.

I think that's the problem.

They don't care.

But there are measures I must set for myself and these are measures that I derive from God.

I'm not here to give you medical advice. I'm just telling you there is a person who is much better

than all the experts in the world and it is good to go seek his counsel too

before you conclude where you want to locate yourself.

That's all I'm saying.

There is someone who has a final say with regard to who you are and who is yours.

Either that or you can learn it by common sense 10 years from now.

How do you distinguish between your say, God's say and someone else's say?

Three quick methods. One, if you are pursuing him

he will help you get it right when you get it wrong.

Noisy church downstairs.

What do I mean by that? Let's assume I'm Dilna's son.

For once I'm the younger one. Let's assume I'm Dilna's son.

But my desire is to pursue Dilna, be like my dad. As I begin to pursue him I'll get things wrong.

But because he knows my intent is to pursue him, what does he do? Slap me around? Abandon me? No.

My heart is to become like him. What does he do? Even when I get it wrong he finds ways to get it right.

So it could be sending Derek to help me with something.

It could be waking me up in the middle of the night and telling me how to do things.

So that's one. Always know that the father is more interested in you than you are in him.

And it is his intent to help you get it right. But the one thing that is required is pursuit, nothing else.

I can never imagine me running after God and trying so hard to get it right and getting it wrong and him saying,

Well, too bad, try harder. That is not the nature of a father.

So that's the first one.

Second, ask others.

Verify.

Paul, who could hear God well and who actually saw Christ based on what he says in Galatians,

says, Even though I received what I received from God, I went up to Jerusalem to meet with the Apostles

so that I could verify if what I was doing or running was actually of God or was it my own.

On one hand he says stuff like, I did not confer with flesh and blood.

On the other hand he says, I went to figure out if what I was hearing was right.

Ask others. We do this every day we do this.

When I need to fix a car, I want to ask Derek.

Do you go to people who are experts?

The third one.

If you are not sure,

wait and check again.

And there's a whole checklist that we can talk about another time.

So if you lose your way, your Navi isn't working because it's old

or your Wi-Fi is not working, what do you do?

You find ways to find the closest. If you're a guy, it takes you a while,

but if you're a girl, you find the closest person and ask them

which way is home. If you're a guy, you spend some more time roaming around until you do it.

So these are the three surefire ways to learn.

Almost foolproof.

So work through companionship.

First, with your spouse, with relationships, with the ones that are in the church.

I mean last week there was a time when I

spoke really harshly to the sound guys because they were recording stuff and I told them not to record.

And I stood up here and I said, guys, I said not to record. It was really harsh. It was ugly.

And so then I had to work through that.

I can't just say, I told them many times and the pastor so I have the right.

So then I had to call each of them individually and apologize to each of them personally.

Why am I bringing it up right now? Because you need to hear it.

But my initial reaction was, well, I told them many times.

And then you go to the counselor and the counselor sends someone to point out to you that, listen,

you were harsh last Sunday.

And then you begin to adjust what is required to fix the relationship with Sade, with Jeremy, with Bishop.

Did that last week. And then know that at some point today I'll have to say it publicly

because I treated them harshly publicly.

The counselor has brilliant ways of fixing companionships, much more so with your spouse, which is a critical

relationship with them because it's the only relationship where you become one with her.

Explore your talents, your creativity.

It was given to you so that you could do stuff with it. Not to make money off it sometimes.

Sometimes it's just so, hey, I gave you this ability. So go sing. I gave you this ability. Go paint.

I gave you this intellect. Read something that most Christians don't.

Christians are the most unread people in the world. They only read the Bible.

Can't understand that.

We were given these. We are supposed to be the ones who leave the charge, not follow behind.

Go watch a hockey game. If you haven't watched a hockey game, go to an opera.

Get stunned by the voices there. Go listen to some Bollywood music.

Or if you don't, if you're already Bollywood, go listen to a group that comes and rocks GM plays.

Go expose yourself to things that are art and creative and not be so blooming stuck as Christians.

Go expose yourself to things that are art and creative and not be so blooming stuck as Christians.

Go to a jazz concert. June 22nd to July 28th, TD Jazz Concerts, open air free jazz concerts.

Gosh man, we don't enjoy life.

We don't enjoy life.

We don't enjoy life.

We don't enjoy life.

Gosh man, we don't enjoy life.

Spend some money, dress well. Dress like this.

Dress like this.

Yeah.

Guys, you think I'm joking, but you need to understand

this is what God was trying to teach Adam.

He created an entirely beautiful world with such diversity.

And if he hadn't fallen, I don't know where...

Musk is still trying to send a rocket to Mars. Adam would have done it ages ago.

We were supposed to explore this.

One of the things I...

One of the reasons I mean this very respectfully, not in a dissy kind of way,

one of the reasons I refused to live in Surrey as soon as I came to Vancouver

is because I did not want to be only Indian.

That doesn't mean you shouldn't live in Surrey. It's a great place.

Also they say.

I'm sorry, I just had to slip that in. I couldn't give a straight face.

But we have to get out of this, man.

Our talents, our creativity, your little talents that don't...

Your hobbies. What hobby do you have?

This is a terrible question. What hobby do you have?

If you have one, praise God. If you don't have one, feel bad.

So test your talents, test your intelligence, test your creativity, test your hobbies, test the exertion of free will.

See what is permissive, see what is beneficial.

You will see him laugh at his brilliance through you.

You will see him laugh at his brilliance through you.

He was laughing every time Adam named those animals.

As in, boy, this guy is brilliant. I will call him the same thing that he calls him.

He didn't name Eve Eve.

He waited for Adam.

There is permission.

There is permission. As in, please, sometimes God is saying that I'm standing here so you can see me in case I wasn't tall enough.

Guys, there is permission. As in, there are times God is saying, please try something and fail.

Because I'm not about success. I just want you to try and fail.

Try and fail.

I want to assure you, not every table and chair he made was perfect.

Occasionally, one leg was about a quarter of an inch shorter.

And they would bring it back to him saying, this leg is a little shorter.

Try and fail.

Try and fail.

I'm not wasting my time talking about this.

This is how the awareness of presence begins to touch every area of life.

Run.

It begins to touch every area of your life.

And then you start knowing the presence of God in our little Christian oyster shell.

Making Christian pearls.

We'll stop because I've got another page to go.

All right.

So last few things that you can think of is

take awareness breaks.

Take awareness breaks. As in, when you realize...

There was a reason that Daniel would pray three times a day.

Or was it five times? I don't remember.

Five? Three, five? Five, huh?

He would pray five times a day.

Take awareness breaks.

A and W. No, that would be...

Take awareness breaks three times a day.

I'm going to just take two minutes to become highly aware of you.

Speak in tongues.

If you are able to speak in tongues, speak in tongues. Why? Because it brings an awareness of God.

It charges you up.

Three, try not to be late to places. Whenever you're late to places,

you lose awareness.

Because I couldn't match my clothes, I was late.

I texted...Normally I'll drive like a maniac and shake my head at every guy who's not driving like a maniac

even when I'm late.

Today I decided, no, I'm going to be late. But I refuse to undo this.

So I texted Jane saying, regardless of whether I'm there or not,

you started this time.

I said, okay, being late is your fault, Jacob. You shouldn't have been late. Especially to the church you pastor,

which is terrible. Usually pastors come an hour ahead of the service.

And then I decided, drive leisurely, be aware of God and aware of people. And my God, it was so pleasant.

Whenever you're late...this might sound like a silly point.

But being aware of God affects an awareness of presence.

And you cannot be aware of God without being aware of people.

Just remember that. The moment you're aware of God, he'll deflect you to be aware of people.

Because he's about others. The moment you're aware of God, you'll be aware of people.

When you're aware of God and not aware of people, it is not really an awareness of his nature.

Very odd.

People that are aware of God are always aware of people. Why? Because self-importance and self-concern becomes less important.

Lateness always has you...

It overtakes. It makes you want to be there more than anything else.

That becomes the main concern.

Unless lateness has become a habit.

If lateness has become a habit, then you need a different kind of help.

But if lateness is not a habit yet, then being late to places will always cause you to have only one intent.

I have to somehow get there as soon as I can. And whenever that happens, everything else becomes less important.

I actually read an interesting article about lateness last night.

There were different reasons that all legitimate and somewhat questionable.

But it's not just because you're not aware of people.

No, I didn't say it's about awareness of people. I said lateness has you focused on getting to some place to the exclusion of other important things.

So why not be there in time?

So if it's doing something, then it's not an awareness of people.

Okay.

So these are simple unimportant ways to get better.

Simple unimportant ways to get better.

If I come in here...

We're done. You can switch off the thingy.

Let's say I'm supposed to conduct the service. If I come in here last minute...