249 ~ REAL FRIENDSHIP RADICAL PRIESTHOOD

Hello, a big welcome to the We Are Zion sermon podcast.

We are a church based out of Chennai, India.

We are thrilled that you tuned in today and hope that you will

be refreshed, revived, and energized by what you hear.

Our desire is that you will live life with a renewed sense of

purpose that stems from a vibrant faith in Jesus.

The year 2025 is 1 where we will be positioned by God to possess

our promise. Today's sermon, Real Friendship

Radical Priesthood is an exhortation for all of us to

grow deeper in our relationship with Jesus while living out our

God ordained purposes here on earth.

We pray that you would be challenged and motivated to give

more time this year to prayer and enjoying the presence of

God. Good morning, everyone.

All right. I have a bit of a Pentecostal

background, so it'll be nice if you can interact with me today.

This morning, Tina and Gershom said that you all are doing the

promise for this year. The word that you got is

possessed to promise, isn't that right?

So and no, who who is a better person to study?

You know, when it comes to possessing the promise than

Abraham, right? He is the icon of all icons when

it comes to walking in the most unlikely, impossible promises of

God, right? You know, most of you are

familiar with the generally you're familiar with the story

of Abraham. So today my message is based on

Genesis chapter 18, and the message is called Real

Genesis 18 · chapter mention

Friendship and Radical Priesthood.

OK, we're going to look at Genesis 1816 to 33 and we're

going to learn a lot from this passage.

A lot. I want to encourage you to just

take your pen and take notes if you want to, because God is

really going to speak to us this morning.

But before we do that, can we just close our eyes and welcome

the Holy Spirit? Father God, we just welcome you

here this morning. We are ready.

Our hearts are receptive and our minds are alert, and we want to

hear what you have to say to each one of us.

Can we all just whisper to the Holy Spirit?

Speak to me today, this morning, individually to me.

Holy Spirit, would you hide me behind the cross as I shared,

and would you come and speak to everyone, Lord?

We come at this time into your hands and Jesus name I pray,

Amen. OK.

Now, I want us to read this passage, Genesis 1816 to 33.

But before we read that passage, OK, I want to give us a bit of a

background, right? How many of you like watching

television? And at the beginning of a TV

show, it'll say previously on, you know, and then they show you

what happened previously. So let's go previously on the

1st 15 verses of Genesis, what actually happened.

And that I'm going to paraphrase for you.

And then we'll read the Bible. Right now.

I wanted to just let your imagination go wild and think of

this beautiful day. It was a hot, sunny, scotching

day in Abraham's life, and he was just chilling outside his

tent, probably fanning himself with a leaf.

And then he noticed three men who had come outside of his

tent. They just suddenly appeared

there. No WhatsApp message, nothing.

They're just there. Ibrahim being the hospitable guy

that he is, he just leaps up and he goes to meet them and he says

hi. And then he suddenly notices

very quickly that one of them is the Lord himself, accompanied by

two angelic beings. He invites them to rest, and

then he quickly runs off and goes to Sarah and says, babe,

time to bake some of that amazing bread that you make

because we've got some guests. Then he goes and selects one of

his best, best calves, and then he gives it to his house up and

says, go cook some food. S they bring this amazing

preparation of biryani and they bring some curd raita and some

milk. OK, this is actually in the

Bible. Read it.

Well, not the biryani, but the curd in the milk.

Yeah. So they cook the meat, the curd

in the milk and they bring it. And then the three men eat this

scrumptious meal they make, wipe their pleats clean and then they

come and one of them says to Abraham, you are going to be a

dad soon, right? You're going to have a child,

you're going to be a father. And this mind blowing because

Abraham is like 1 Tata, right? He's so old, he's so aged, he's

like, but the promise comes alright, are you with me right

now? What is happening is while this

angelic being is promising Abraham, this Sarah is inside

the tent and she's listening. She's eavesdropping sometimes.

Don't you do that when your parents or people are having a

conversation, even at restaurants, which is like

listening what's happening? And this is an important

conversation, right? It's mind blowing.

It's about her own life. So she's eavesdropping.

And when she hears the part about God saying you're going to

have a child, she is. She's too amused.

She says this is ridiculous. OK, Abraham has back problems.

My uterus is all dried up. I don't think I can ever have a

baby. This is completely nuts.

She says what happens is because she says this inside of her

tent, but then the Lord hears her, correct?

You know this story, The Lord hears her.

Is it because she was loud when she said this?

No, because it's God and he hears everything, right?

So he hears her and he goes and tells Abraham.

Guess what? Why did Sarah laugh?

Why did she find this ridiculous?

I was trying to make a promise to her and of course Sarah feels

really embarrassed that she was caught, right?

You feel called out and she's like no, no, I did not laugh.

She lies and says I did not laugh, but the Lord says no, I

heard you laugh. I know that you laughed.

Now. That's it.

That is the story, the back story of what happens in the 1st

15 verses of Genesis 18. Now, can we go to the Scripture

and actually read this passage? So I'm gonna do something

different. Normally, we usually read out

the passage. I want, Caleb, if you can just

play the audio Bible loudly so we can all hear and you can

follow the Scripture here. OK.

Can you all see that? Is it big enough for you to see?

Yeah. Cool.

Then the men rose from there and look towards Sodom, and Abraham

went with them to send them on the way.

And the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing,

since Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty

nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in

him? For I have known him in order

that he may command his children and his household after him,

that they keep the way of the Lord, to do righteousness and

justice, that the Lord may bring to Abraham.

But he has spoken to him, because the outcry against Sodom

and Gomorrah is great, because their sin is very grave.

I will go down now and see whether they have done all

together according to the outcry against it that has come to me.

And if not, I will know. Then the men turned away from

there and went toward Sodom, But Abraham still stood before the

Lord, and Abraham came near. Would you also destroy the

righteous with the wicked? Suppose there were 50 righteous

within the city, would you also destroy the place and not spare

it for the 50 righteous that were in it?

Far be it from you to do such a thing as this, to slay the

righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be as

the wicked. Far be it from you.

Shall not the judge of all the earth do right?

If I find in Sodom 50 righteous within the city, then I will

spare all the place for their sakes.

Indeed, now I, who am but dust and ashes, have taken it upon

myself to speak to the Lord. Suppose there were 5 less than

the 50 righteous. Would you destroy all of the

city for lack of five? If I find there 45 I will not

destroy it. Suppose there should be 40 found

there. I will not do it for the sake of

40. Let not the Lord be angry, and I

will speak. Suppose 30 should be found

there. I will not do it if I find 30

there. Indeed, now I have taken it upon

myself to speak to the Lord, Suppose 20 should be found

there. I will not destroy it for the

sake of 20. Let not the Lord be angry, and I

will speak. But once more, suppose 10 should

be found there. I will not destroy it the sake

of 10 So the Lord went his way as soon as he had finished

speaking with Abraham, and Abraham returned to his place.

Right. Such an interesting, intriguing

passage. No, I found this one of the

strangest passages in the Bible. Right.

I'm from Bombay and we bargain a lot when we go to the market.

We don't buy anything without a bargain.

But bargaining with the Lord about a city?

This sounds so weird and odd. God seems to be on a mission

trip, correct? He first comes and he gives some

good news, a promise to Abraham. And immediately after that, on

that same mission trip, he is now going to go visit Sodom and

Gomorrah. But something happens before

he's going to. He could have just taken off,

right? Why did he have to tell Abraham

what he's doing? But he goes and he tells

Abraham, guess what? I'm gonna go visit these cities.

And these cities are sold. Look at this verse.

Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so is so great.

Because of that, I'm gonna go visit.

What is this outcry? Have you thought about that?

There is something God has heard an outcry from this city and

He's telling Abraham about this. I want you to know this word

outcry, right? I love, I love reading sometimes

the the Hebrew root words because it really gives us the

meaning right of the word. The meaning of that word outcry

is the word Zak, right? And it means a cry, a loud call,

a shout used to describe the screams of the oppressed.

This outcry was basically the the cry of the hearts of victims

of abuse and violence and injustice and neglect.

There's another verse I want us to visit, right?

If you go to Ezekiel chapter 16, verse 49, God says, now this was

Ezekiel 16:49

the sin of your sister Sodom. She and her daughters were

arrogant, overfed and unconcerned.

They did not help the poor in the needy.

They were haughty and they did detestable things before me.

Therefore I did away with them, as you have seen.

Imagine this. I want you to just think of this

picture. People were so crushed under the

oppression, completely disregarded by the leadership,

by those who had power to help. And God heard their their cries.

And he comes down and he says, I need to see this with my own

eyes and I need to bring justice.

OK, Now we're gonna not justice is not the topic here.

But can we quickly detour just for a minute?

Just bear with me while we talk about God's judgment, OK?

A lot of people say, a lot of Christians, in fact, say I don't

believe in a God who judges. I believe God is just very

merciful, very sweet and kind, and he's good and he doesn't

judge. They can't identify with this

vengeful God from the Old Testament.

They say God is a God of mercy. Now mercy is a beautiful thing,

but if you think that God overlooks suffering, injustice,

and brokenness in the world, you're missing the point.

Because real mercy doesn't show a blind eye to pain.

Mercy and justice go hand in hand.

If I show mercy to the perpetrator of a crime,

automatically I'm being in just to the oppressed, correct?

So God shows mercy, yes, but he also shows justice.

They go hand in hand. So that's what God's judgment is

about. When people paint a picture of

God being a very violent, angry God, bloodthirsty from the Old

Testament and bench full. No, no, that is not what it is.

God is a merciful God. You see, many people look at the

story of Sodom and Gomorrah and only think of the fire, the

destruction. But actually this is a God whose

heart is aching for the people that are crying out to him.

I see a God of mercy. Do you?

Yeah. He's responding to real deep

hurt and he doesn't act arbitrarily right.

He doesn't just go off and do his own thing.

He's discussing and involving another person, a close friend

in the equation. He's telling Abraham, he invites

Abraham to stand in the gap. Abraham wouldn't have even had

this whole prayer. Would this whole verse, this

whole section would not be in the Bible if God hadn't told

Abraham what he was about to do, right?

Our God isn't one who sits back and chills while the world is

suffering. He moves towards the world.

I want you to remember this because people paint God to be a

distant. A lot of people who are

questioning the Christian faith will say, oh, but what about

suffering? God just ignores some.

No, no, God moves towards suffering.

He's moved. His heart is moved.

Now coming back to the passage, right?

I told you that was a short detour.

Coming back to the passage, what is Abraham's response when he

hears this awful thing that God is going to do, right?

He immediately engages in a back and forth with God, which we can

call prayer, right? This passage is known as

Abraham's prayer, correct? But it's good for you to

remember while you look at this passage that if we call this

Abraham's prayer, prayer is actually a back and forth with

God, right? Most of us consider prayer as

this activity where we go to God with a grocery list of our ranks

and verbal diarrhea, and we're like, God, this is what I'm

going through. You know, you're just like

vomiting everything in his presence.

We have no time or space to engage in conversation with him.

We don't actually listen. So that's one small note I'm

going to make, but let's come back to this prayer, OK?

This prayer is interesting, and I'll tell you why.

It's the first recorded extended prayer in the Bible.

It's the first time a human has come before God with such a bold

petition. And it's been recorded.

And it's more than just a prayer.

It's not just a prayer. It seems like a negotiation,

doesn't it? Abraham here is acting not just

as a person who's praying. He's acting as a priest.

You know, you go to you go to a Catholic Church and you confess

to the priest. What does the priest do?

He prays on your behalf. That's the concept right here.

Abraham is being a priest. God has invited him to stand in

the gap and be the legal representative of this city.

Now, it's not mentioned in the Bible that Abraham is a priest.

So don't hold a gun to my head and say what you said.

You know, I'm not saying that the Bible says that the function

of the priest is very evident here.

Does that make sense? Actually, if you go

chronologically, Melchizedek is the first mentioned priest in

the Bible, but that's all it mentions, that he's a priest.

The first time the function of a priest is detailed out, it is

here in the life of Abraham. So today we're going to talk

about initially first, OK, there's lots of things I want to

talk to you about. Please bear with me.

And if you're bored, just raise your hand.

But yeah, no one's going to do that anyways.

I'll try to trick you all into doing it just anyways.

So we're going to talk about three things.

The first priest, Abraham the Great priest, and then the kind

of priest that God is calling us to be.

OK, So shall we begin everyone with me alert?

OK, let's go with the first priest.

Can we read verses 22 and 23? The men turned away and went

towards Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the

Lord. Then Abraham approached him and

said, will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked wicked

when we read the Bible? No.

Sometimes you have to read little carefully.

This part really confused me. It says Abraham was standing

before the Lord. What does that mean?

I'm standing before you. Then it says again that he

approached him. How does that make sense?

How can you approach someone when you're already standing in

front of them? Doesn't make sense.

No. Did he go away and then again

come and approach him? No, no, no.

That is why we we have to understand English is such a

limited language. Let's look at what the word

approached actually means in the original.

It is the word Nagash. Nagash means approaching, it's a

technical term which means approaching the bench or

producing a legal argument, right.

Do you know a lawyer stands in, he says he stands in front of

the judge, right. But then sometimes he approaches

the judge with with an argument. So that is the approach, the

word use here. That is what Abraham is doing.

He's approaching God as a lawyer with boldness and fearlessness,

might I add, and we'll talk about this boldness and

fearlessness a little later, OK? What he does is incredible.

Abraham isn't just asking God to save his family.

Just think of this. This whole chapter could have

been 2 verses, right? If God said I'm going to destroy

Sodom, and he could have just said, yeah, my brother and my

cousin and I don't know, was he his cousin or his nephew is

there. My family is there.

Just just. Spare them and then you can do

what you want to do. No, no, no.

Abraham was very clear with his intention.

He says, would you, would you spare the whole city for this,

for the sake of 50 righteous. Doesn't he start with his

negotiation at 50? He says Would you spare the

whole city for the sake of 50 people?

I want you to realise what Abraham is doing.

Please be with me for a minute, OK?

Abraham is trying to do something big here.

He isn't casually bargaining or petitioning.

This is a deep exploration. He's trying to explore the

nature of this righteous God that he's standing in front of.

He wants to see does mercy and justice actually Co exist in

this God? Abraham is saying could you

value the righteousness of a small group of people so much?

Could you would? He's asking God, would you value

the righteousness of 50 people so much that it will cover the

sins of the rest of the city? Does that make sense?

He's not saying spare just the few people.

He's saying for the sake of the righteousness of the few, can

you spare the rest of the sinners?

He's saying spear the good, the bad and the ugly because of

these small righteous people, small group of righteous people.

There's a German academic and Old Testament scholar called

Gerard von Rad, and he's a really rad guy.

OK. He said he has a commentary on

this passage. I love reading Bible

commentaries. He has a commentary on this

passage and this is what he says in his commentary.

I want you to read that. It is amazing how Yahweh's

gracious righteousness dawns on Abraham and increases his

courage as the dialogue goes on until he reaches the astonishing

fact that even a very small number of righteous people could

so please God, so please a righteous God, that it would

stem the judgment So predominant is God's will to save over God's

will to punish. Abraham is basically trying to

see how few people does it, how less does that make sense?

He's bargaining to find out how much righteousness is required

to save the whole city. Is 40 OK?

What about 30? What about 35?

What about 20? You know, then he comes right

down to this verse. He says for 10 people, will you

spare it? And God says something amazing.

He said yes, the righteousness of 10 people is enough to save

the entire city. What an amazing thing God is

saying. We have to understand this, but

then, you know, I called this passage weird.

No, because this happens. God comes down to yes, for 10

people, I will save this city. And then the weirdest thing

happens. Verse 33, when the Lord had

finished speaking with Abraham, he left and Abraham returns

home. How weird.

I hate anti climaxes. You know when you're you're

reading the passage. And you're like, yeah. 5040 yes,

yes, something is going to happen now. 0201510 And then

you're like, what are you expecting?

5. 4321 and guess save right, That's the expectation of this

passage. But no, that doesn't happen for

some reason. Abraham packs up and says OK,

now I'm going home. Why do you have you thought

about that? Why do you think Abraham left

and went home? Come on, guys.

Let's little back and forth. Why do you think Abraham left

and went home? But clearly it wasn't.

No. But did birthday 10 did?

Was he able to count 10? OK, Possible that he just gave

up. He thought 10 must be enough.

What else? Pardon.

The Lord finished talking to him.

That's another. We are just speculating here,

OK? We don't know the exact reason.

I have two more speculations, if you will.

Maybe he was scared that he's pushing God too much because

every time he says don't, if you don't get angry, I'll suggest

one more thing. Like he's standing in the

presence of a glorious, terrifying God, right?

Who's going to destroy a city. So he's little scared.

He's pushing and pushing it. I think he must have thought

I've pushed too much and like you said, 10 is enough and I'm

going back. That's one possibility.

The other possibility is he must have thought, oh, if I do come

down to one, who is the one he has to bank on?

Lot, correct? And even Lot, who's a believer,

he knows his own nephew, his righteousness is limited, right,

to save the entire city. He knows that perhaps that

amount, the quantity of righteousness in Lot is not

enough to save the entire city. And so he gives up and he goes

away. Perhaps he realized there's no

one who's actually as righteous to save the entire city.

Was his negotiation useless? Sometimes I think about it.

God anyways, destroyed. No Sodom.

Was his negotiation useless? No, it's because at the end of

his negotiation, Abraham understands and brings out a

very important life, faltering truth about God.

And this is the truth. God will allow the righteousness

of someone else to save an unrighteous person.

He arrived at this. You know, you do your scientific

experiments and you arrive at a conclusion.

Abraham arrived at this conclusion.

And you know when I'm taking this, you know where I'm going.

It brings us to the next section, the great high priest.

Who is the great priest? God in his foreknowledge,

knowing every person on earth knew that there is not one man

righteous. You know there's a verse in the

Bible. All have sinned and fallen short

of the glory of God. Not one person righteous enough

to stand in the gap. And so he became the one

righteous man who came down on earth and lived that sinless,

righteous life which Lot should have lived, which Abraham could

have lived. Abraham's own righteousness was

not enough, right? He became that righteous man and

lived on earth. But he did two other things.

He also became the one who took the punishment for all the

wickedness in the world and died on the cross.

And did it end there? No.

Then he rose again and became the real high priest who stands

before God and intercedes for US forever.

How amazing is that Common? You know what, it blows my mind.

I think we don't actually spend enough time meditating on the

magnitude of what God did for us on the cross.

He became Emmanuel to become that one righteous man so that

he could die for us. I want us to look at a little

comparison between the first priest and the great priest,

Abraham. Was he a good priest?

I think he was a really good priest, right?

But Jesus was a great priest. Abraham prayed for the

Canaanites. The Sodomites were the

Canaanites, and they had previously attacked him in

battle, but he still prayed for them.

He said, I'm still going to pray for this land.

You know what Jesus did? He prayed for those who were

actually killing him. Do you remember?

He said, Father, forgive them. He prayed for those who were

killing him. Abraham risked his life.

He stood in front of this fear of awesome God, fear evoking

God. He stood in front of him and

bargained for a city. He risked his life by doing

that. But Jesus actually gave up his

life for all of mankind. Abraham did it for a few people,

for one small city, two small cities.

Lastly, Abraham walked away after a point.

He couldn't could he possibly couldn't stand there forever.

But Jesus never walks away and he never goes home till today.

He stands and he prays for us. If you and I have accepted Jesus

as our personal Saviour and we believe in the work of the

cross, you have access to salvation from punishment.

We all deserve to die. Fire has to come from heaven,

and justice killed all of us for the lives that we live.

But because of Jesus, because we've accepted Him in our lives,

this one man's righteousness has saved us all.

How awesome is that? Isn't it awesome?

Can we be content though with salvation is my next question.

What happens after we get saved? Are we getting saved so that we

can attend church every Sunday? Do youth meetings, plan

programs? Sing songs?

It's such a nice, happy life. All the while.

Struggling with secret sins, spending hours, hours scrolling

through our phone, trying hard to make relationships work.

Is that the life that we are called to be?

Just. I've become a Christian now.

I'll just be. I'll just eh, like you know,

make my way through life. No, here's the truth.

Our great high priest calls us to also be priests.

We are called to be a royal priesthood.

We are called to be holy priests ourselves.

I want us to read 2 scriptures right?

Revelation 16 says he made us to be a Kingdom, to be priests unto

his God and Father. This isn't something some

distant idea for a select few. You have to remember this,

before the curtain tore in the temple, priesthood was for few

people. But today it is not an idea for

a select few. It is a reality for all of us

who belong to Jesus. We've been bought into this role

not as passive bystanders, but as active participants in God's

Kingdom. This is the word of God.

Guys, I didn't make this up then one Peter 25.

You're familiar with this verse. You yourselves, like living

stones, are being built up into a spiritual house to be a holy

priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God

through Jesus Christ. This is more than just a title.

We are being called to a purpose.

We are living stones. We are being shaped and formed

into something sacred, something set apart for God.

As priest, we're not just serving the temple.

We're not just offering our lives.

You know, sometimes it's easy to think that if I'm serving in

church, I'm one first class priest.

No, I want to mention something very important.

God isn't looking in you and me. God isn't looking for a

ritualistic priest. He's looking for a radical,

bold, passionate priest. Right.

If you think that helping out in church, attending meetings,

bring being a part of the media team, volunteering, singing,

leading worship, participating in all events, if that qualifies

you to be a holy priest, you're very mistaken.

We are mistaken if you think that there's a call upon our

lives to be holy. And holiness doesn't come from

attending church. It comes from wrestling with God

in the secret place. It comes from saying no to sin,

actively walking away from temptation, from seeking his

face faithfully, coming before him with boldness and appraise.

Remember I told you, we'll come to this topic of boldness and

fearlessness. Let's talk about that now.

Did you notice that there is a frankness and a fearlessness

with which Abraham prays? The audacity, I tell you,

standing before this God in just being, I'm gonna talk to him.

Where do you think that boldness comes from, guys?

Why was Abraham, why did he give himself the liberty to talk to

God like this? Let's explore that thought a

bit. OK, Look at verse 17.

Before even the negotiation starts, God says, shall I hide

from Abraham what I'm about to do?

Remember that? Let's unpack this verse for a

bit and see what God is doing. He's doing something very cool

here. He's basically telling Abraham

how much he trusts him, correct? I saw this meme on Instagram a

while ago, OK, it says your secret is safe with me and my

best friend. You know, when you have a big

come on, you have to relate to this, when you have a very big

secret in your heart, which even you know, you shouldn't be

telling someone, but there's that one special friend who you

go to and you'll you'll say something like, I don't know if

I should be telling you this, but what?

What are you doing when you say that phrase?

I don't know if I should be telling you this.

You're basically, you've already decided you're gonna tell them.

You're basically saying, I don't know if I should be telling you

this to let them know that you trust them.

Correct. No, that's what God is doing

here. God is saying, I don't know if I

should be telling you this, but Abraham, shall I?

How can I hide from you what I'm about to do correct?

Now do you see that God is saying I trust you enough to

tell you the secret of my heart? This is because God considered

Abraham a friend. And let's talk.

We talked about priesthood, but let's talk about friendship now.

I love this verse in James 223. It says Scripture was fulfilled.

That says Abraham believed God and you just counted to him as

righteousness and he was called a friend of God.

You know there are only two people in the Old Testament were

called friends of God, Abraham and Moses.

It says in Exodus. You should go home and read

Exodus 20. Sorry, 33 It says God spoke to

Moses face to face like he did with a friend.

OK, what? What do you think qualified

these two people in the Old Testament to be called friends

of God? I think that's something for us

to think about. Actually, let's think about it

in general. What qualifies people to be a

good friend of ours? OK, I think there are three

qualifiers. I know there are many, but let's

talk about 3 qualifiers, OK? A friend is someone you

regularly meet with. A friend is someone who shows up

for you no matter what, and a friend is someone you trust

deeply. Let's talk about the first one.

A friend is someone you regularly meet with.

Isn't. Face to face meeting important

in earthly friendships. If you have a friend that just

never wants to meet you in person, you get a little SUS.

You're like, are they really my friend, right?

Suddenly you feel there's a distance between us.

Why do long distance relationships?

They're a little tough to maintain because face to face

interactions are very important. Why are face to face

interactions important? You know what, when you meet

someone online. I don't know young people.

I'm not young anymore, sadly, but addressing the young people

here, I don't know what apps you'll use.

Swipe right, swipe left. But after you swipe everything,

you're having a conversation with a person.

At some point you say let's meet face to face.

No, why? It's because when you meet face

to face, you interact with the wholeness of a person.

You get to see their body language, the cues that they're

giving you. You get to hear their voice,

touch them, feel the warmth of their presence, and you're

blessed by that interaction. All your senses are engaged when

you meet with someone in person. Similarly, God wants to meet

with us like that. He wants to engage not just our

mind, but our hearts are all of our spiritual senses.

You know, there's a verse in the Bible says your lips worship me,

but your hearts are far away. Why?

If God didn't care about your whole being, why does he care

that your hearts are away? The problem is our senses are

being busy engaged with many things that are in the world.

And so our spiritual senses are not able to engage with God.

I was talking to Tina and Gershom about this just

yesterday. I love Netflix, guys.

I'm the biggest binge watcher there is, and I love to watch TV

shows. OK, I'm a real, I'm a real fan

of good storytelling, gripping graphics.

And you know, then one you're pressing next, next, next.

And even though in between the episodes, when the screen is

black for a moment, you look at your own reflection.

You know how pathetic you feel, right?

You know, you have to stop watching, but you're just like

going next and next and next. On the flip side, I'm so

fascinated by the storytelling and gripped by media and

content. And on the flip side, I'm

wondering why am I struggling to be in his presence, to spend

long hours waiting and listening to him?

It's because cheap entertainment had become my fascination.

It had captured my, you know, my enamoured me and I couldn't

wait. I didn't find waiting in God's

presence in front of God's Word fascinating enough.

Do you relate to this or is it just me?

It can't be just me. If it's me, then I'm sorry and I

don't want to believe it's just me.

My physical eyes were so captured by things of the world

that my spiritual eyes were not able to see what God is doing.

He wants to reveal himself to me, but my eyes are just

distracted. You know, everyone puts up their

Spotify rapped at the end of the year on social media.

Last year towards the end of the year, I looked at my Spotify

rapped and it was a shameful demonstration of the junk.

I've been listening to some rubbish songs, podcasts that,

you know, entertainment that was meaningless and my spiritual

ears had become deaf. I wasn't clearly able to listen

to the soft voice of the Holy Spirit.

I'm being vulnerable and honest with you guys, OK?

I felt the Lord convict me a couple of months back to abandon

these temporary pleasures and to pursue the secret place.

I've been trying to get up at 4:30 every morning.

I've been doing it most days and spending time in His presence

and waiting on Him. And it's the singular most

difficult thing to do, but it's also the singular most rewarding

thing I've done. I struggled a lot at first.

I wrestled with my flesh. I had to fight it.

But as I started doing it and making it a discipline, I

realized it's much easier if I just keep my phone off for the

last two hours before I go to bed.

I'm less cluttered. My mind is more still.

I go to sleep well, I sleep much better.

And then I wake up and I'm ready to hear God's voice.

I really want to challenge you guys this morning to listen to

God, to meet regularly with Him. The next thing, a friend is

someone who shows up for you no matter what.

You're familiar with this as well, right?

In 2022, in July, my dad had this major heart attack, OK, And

he was so serious. He was admitted in the hospital

and in Bangalore. I live in Bangalore.

He was there and he had to go through a triple bypass.

Now, my kids were just one year old.

They were so small. They were crawling about.

And I'm so close to my dad. It was such a tough time for me.

I was like shuttling between the hospital spending.

I wanted to be the one being there every night, but then in

the daytime be with the kids. And it was such a mental crazy

time. After his operation, though,

everything went well. Praise God.

He was in the ICU. And when he was in the ICU, the

doctor said, oh, he's lost immense amounts of blood.

So we need you all to just call for people to come to donate

blood. And I just put a message out on

my church WhatsApp group, you know that we require blood.

Anyone who's available still come can come.

Suddenly, like in within few hours, so many people from from

church started showing up friends.

Then they had forwarded it to other friends and people just

kept coming. They left work.

Some had like, braved the brutal Bangalore traffic and come from

across the city to give blood. At one point, the doctors came

and said, we've actually got enough blood, but you know, you

can continue giving because a lot of other patients in need

are being helped here. Then after a point, the doctors

came back and said, OK, OK, we've got enough blood now.

Tell your friends they were like, what kind of network do

you have? They're like, tell your friends

to stop coming. I'm saying all this just to say

that these friends, whoever showed up, they dropped

everything else and they came, they turned up.

What happens when you show up for someone is you're saying you

mean more to me than all that was going on in my life right

now. Everything I have left,

everything, and I'm here in front of you.

I've showed up. My question is, do we show up

for God like this when the going gets tough?

You know, life just deals some terrible cards to us now.

Sometimes I'm like Lord, this is like drawfo after drawfo after

drawfo. Have you all played Uno?

When someone gives you 3 drawfores, it's the worst thing

and you feel like life is like that.

You're just waiting for something nice to happen and

it's just like one thing after the other.

Can you show up, show up in God's presence in times like

that? Do we show up when our alarm

rings, we want to hit snows, we just want to go back to bed?

Can we show up? Can we put that off and show up?

Can we show up in God's presence even when we're tempted to go

and do something we're not supposed to do?

To open that Incognito tab to, you know, engage in something

sinful? I want to challenge us this

morning to show up for God no matter what.

Lastly. A friend is someone who you

trust deeply. Yeah.

A friend is someone you trust deeply.

Without trust, friendship is very shallow.

No, an acquaintance, Like if I don't share secrets with

someone, they're just an acquaintance.

I don't go and tell the shopkeeper all my secrets

because he's just someone I know I go and buy vegetables from.

But my friends, I share my deepest secrets with them.

And this was the kind of trust that Abraham and God shared.

Do you remember this verse? The Lord confides in those who

fear him. He makes His covenant known to

them. I want to take a moment to read.

That's the NIV version. I want to read this in a couple

of different versions. The NLT says the Lord is a

friend to those who fear him. The ESV version says the

friendship of the Lord is with those who fear Him.

And my favorite by far is King James.

New King James version says the secret of the Lord is with those

who fear Him and He will show you His covenant.

You know why I like this word verse the best, that word

secret. Let's go back to that root word,

right? The root word of the word secret

is the word sword, which means a confidential conversation, a

private council, a sacred intimacy paints the picture of a

small, tight, trusted circle where deepest matters of the

heart are discussed. I want you to think about this

for just a moment. God, the creator of the whole

known universe, known and unknown universe, He desires.

You and me to be in his inner circle.

How mind blowing is that? Come on.

He wants to reveal his heart, his mysteries.

He wants to entrust us with the secrets of his heart.

You know that song? I don't know if you'll sing it

here. Break my break my heart, for one

breaks here. We sing that now.

And when it comes, that's the. I think it's the bridge of the

song. And we're all belting it in

church. But do we know what breaks

Scott's heart? What exactly breaks Scott's

heart? My husband loves football so

much. He's always playing FIFA on the

PS, or he is. He goes every Sunday

religiously. He'll go to play football with

some guys at church. OK.

When he comes back from football I have to only interact with him

for 20 seconds to know whether his team won or lost.

Because if he's grumpy he's just giving me one word answers.

Then I know, OK, he's had a bad match, but then if he's happy, I

know he's won. You know right?

With people you're close to, you know what bums them out?

You know what upsets them. Do we really know what breaks

God's heart or ara press 1 sided hurried.

This is what breaks my heart. This is what is worrying me kind

of Press. Please fix it God, without

spending time in God's presence. Let's not even presume to know

what burdens God's heart. Let's not even believe we know

anything about what is the outcry that has reached God's

heart. Abraham knew the outcry that

reached God's heart 'cause he walked and stood before God.

We are not walking with God every day.

We will not receive the burdens of God's heart.

You know, sometimes we have become so calloused to the pain

around us. There's brokenness and suffering

around us, but it's all of the place.

You open social media content, we're watching the TV shows.

We've become so numb to actual need around us.

We are so self absorbed and focused on our priorities that

people have just become blurry shapes in the periphery of our

vision. You know lot of this.

Violent content, lot of it numbs us guys.

It makes us numb to suffering. I just want to say there's an

outcry in our nation from broken people, homeless people,

helpless people, marginalised people, violated people, people

who are raped and suffering and children and babies and

orphanages and homes on the streets.

Does this sound even slightly bother us?

I felt the conviction of the Holy Spirit.

Lord, you know. Do we even hear this outcry or

is the sound in our churches so loud that it just drowns out the

music? The music is so loud it's just

drowning out this outcry. We are not able to hear it.

Are we so self absorbed with our own events, our own things, that

we barely lookout and sense what's going on in our city?

Do you all know what the outcry of Chennai is?

This church, this community should be very familiar with it.

You should be very familiar with what that cry is that is going

up to heaven because you are dwelling in that secret place

with the Father and you know the heart of God.

I'm coming to a close now. I've spoken enough.

I just want to challenge you all on a couple of things, right?

The first thing is, have have we fully embraced the depth of what

our great high priest did for us on the cross?

I'm just recapping what Jesus did for us.

Have you fully understood that? If any of you hasn't, don't feel

like you've fully accepted what Jesus did on the cross to you.

Cross for you today. There is an opportunity after

this for us to come before God and just bring our hearts before

Him and come to the cross. Have we cultivated a deep

friendship with God? Or is our friendship with the

world so strong that it gets in the way of us coming before?

God, it gets in the way of our pursuit of the Holy of the

secret place. How do we respond to the call

upon each of our lives? There's a call to be a holy

priest. Have you responded to that call?

Do you carry a burden for brokenness around you?

Do you go? I love that there was

intercession here. Very few churches have

intercession in the middle of their service.

I'm so happy to see that. Do we?

Come and stand. Before the throne room of God

and make bold prayers. Lastly, are we sensitive to the

outcry of our land right? Or are our senses so numbed by

the things we're consuming and consumed with or our own

struggles, problems? Me, myself and I is our biggest

problem that we don't see and hear the outcry in our land

today morning there's an invitation to become real

friends with God and function as holy priest in his presence.

Possessing the promise is that the that's the word right for

this year possessing the promise.

We all want that part right. We want to possess the promise

and become this person whose there's all all of us have an

impossible thing we are praying for and believing that this

year. This is the word.

So I will get it and I assure you you will.

Abraham got everything that God had promised him.

He possessed the promise, but I also assure you that a pursuit

of His presence and a posture of Brer precede possessing the

promise. These two things have to be in

our lives before we possess the promise of God.

Can we close our eyes and look to the Lord?

And I just want to encourage all of us to get into that posture.

Of prayer this morning. I don't know what the Lord is

speaking to you. I don't know what He's.

Saying to your hearts this morning.

But there is a tug, an urge, a pull into the secret place.

I just sense that there are some of us here who have just had

such dry spiritual lives. We've just.

Not at all experienced God. In a long time we've not heard

the voice of God. It's an unfamiliar sound for

some of us, and you're even ashamed to say that to to any of

your leaders, to speak about to any about it to anyone, because

from the outside it all looks great and dandy.

But the Lord is inviting you this.

Morning to come before him and say, Lord, I desire your

presence more than anything. Lord, I desire you more than

anything. Let's quiet in our hearts and

focus on him and say, Lord, we invite you in our hearts.

We invite you to invade and change us.

Lord, we do not want to walk by this entire year.

You have a year ahead of you been refusing to walk by this

year living. Mediocre plane.

Vanilla Christian lives. I want to be on fire for you.

I want your presence. I want your word.

I want your your Holy Spirit to guide me in every area of my

life. There's perhaps some of us

struggling with secret sins that have gripped us that we don't

know how to let go of, but it's shame to even admit it to

someone. There's grace this morning to

bring it before the throne room because he will show mercy.

The same God that shows mercy to all generations is here.

This. Morning and he.

Wants to show us mercy, and He wants us to desire holiness.

He wants us to desire His presence more than anything.

Perhaps we're struggling with addictions.

And not even. Outrageous addictions.

Addictions to our devices, to content, to conversations, to to

humour. That is not healthy.

I don't know what your struggle is, what your what addiction

you're struggling with, but the Lord wants you to be delivered

this morning. Just express your desire in your

own words to have more of him and, and Lord, I come before you

today. Lord, I invite you, Holy Spirit,

to move in our hearts. Move in my heart.

We are so flawed and fragile. We are so weak and weary.

Lord, we are so helpless when it comes to sin.

We are so imperfect, Lord, and we need you more than anything

in our lives. We need.

You. And your presence, we refuse to

move ahead into this year without you, Lord, and without a

strong, deep desire for more of you.

Lord, would you come? Holy Spirit, would you come and

invade our hearts? We invite you, Lord.

Lord, we come before you this morning, everyone here, Father

God, with a desire for something, Lord, a desire that

has consumed us, captivated our hearts.

Lord, the longing, whether it's for a marriage partner, whether

it's for a child, whether it's for healing, whether it's for

mental deliverance from mental health issues, whether it's

deliverance from physical ailments, whether it's

deliverance from sin that we are struggling with.

There is desire in this room this morning.

There is desire for freedom, desire for breakthrough.

And I believe the Lord is here. Some of us have become skeptical

in our hearts. Will the Lord?

You know, some of us are like Sarah.

We, we, we are mocking. It's not even possible.

But the Lord is here to remind you it is.

He is going to come through. You will possess that promise

when you hold on by faith and cling to the secret place.

Lord, I pray that every heart here would be drawn into your

presence, Father God. Every heart here, Father God,

would be set on you. Lord, sometimes it's easy to

make these desires our pursuit, but there is a call this morning

to focus and bring back our desire and rest it only on Him.

And like Abraham was willing to lay down his most precious thing

on the altar, are you willing to lay down that desire?

I know this is just such a weird thought, but the Lord says if

you are willing to give that desire before me and make me

your pursuit, make my presence your pursuit, I will.

Come through for you. That is the promise this

morning. So can we bring our biggest

desires before Him? Is it a job?

Is it clarity in your purpose? Some of us don't know what we're

doing. We're confused about the future.

But the Lord says, bring your burdens to me, bring your

feariness to me this morning. He invites you, whatever it is,

the good, the bad, the ugly. He invites you to leave it on

the altar. I pray this morning my son just

came up and stood next to me and he is such a promise, just like

Abraham, Godhead promised us we'll have children.

And it was just so impossible. And I'm here to stand as a

testimony to encourage you that whatever that impossible thing

is, that God will give it to you.

So can you lift your hands up full of faiths, lift it towards

heaven and say, Lord, I believe. I do not mock you.

I do not, I do not hold any disbelief in my heart.

I wholly believe you that you will come true for me.

Come on, make that prayer your own.

Lift your voice and say, I believe, O Lord, in your

promise. I believe that I will possess

that promise. I believe in these impossible

situations around me that they will break.

There will be breakthrough for me.

I receive it. Declare that I repent, O Lord,

of cynicism, of skepticism, of, of disbelief.

Lord, I thank you, Jesus.

Thank you, Father. Father.

God, would you move? Lord, would you move in our

hearts, not just at this moment through the weak?

Lord, would you move in our hearts?

Would you? Would you really stir us with

desire for you, Lord? Would you stir us, Lord?

It's so difficult. Some of us are struggling to

read the word of God. That's the picture that I got

just now, that we're just not able to study and read the word

of God. But there's an invitation this

morning to fall in love with the word of God.

There's an invitation to come before God and.

Admit these things that are difficult to do, Lord, those of

us who struggle to come before Your Word, Lord, to open Your

word and find it interesting. Our fascinations have been

captured by things around us. Would you fascinate us again

this morning? Would you help us fall in love

with You? There's a call to come back to

that first love. And as we do that the Lord will

move in our lives. Can we just lift our hands and,

and pray and commit this time, not just this time, but this

week into our, into our, into God's hands and say, Lord, would

you continue to confirm to me the word that you have spoken

this morning? I want to invite you to just go

after the service and pray with someone.

If God has moved in your heart this morning, would you talk to

someone and get prayed over because the Lord is here today?

He walks among us, and he. Desires to touch us.

He desires to bless us. Let's commit ourselves to Him.

Lord, we thank you. I know, Lord, that we will, that

this community is gonna see awesome breakthroughs.

This here. And we claim it in the name of

Jesus. We claim it we want to hear

testimonies of impossible things coming through Lord, of promises

being possessed like never before.

Lord. But I also pray that the posture

of this community will always be prayer, that the pursuit of this

community will be your presence. And as we keep our eyes fixed on

you, O Lord, fixed on your things, would you take care of

all that belongs to us, continue to work in our hearts and

continue to stir our spirits. So God, and move in us this

morning. We thank you for your sweet,

sweet, sweet presence, for the sweet fellowship of the Spirit

and the love of the Father that is in this place.

Lord, in Jesus name I pray. Thanks for listening to this

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