GOD! I'M ENGAGED! | Dr Daniel

You're listening to a message to go from acts church.

We hope this message will light up your day.

Intimacy. Okay, now what comes to mind when you see

the word intimacy? It's the question here. But I wanted

to also circle around that particular word because that is

a foundational truth of we as humans are built for intimacy. Okay,

I think it's a fact that we are built for intimacy,

all right, But this isn't just a very nice concept

in the physical. It also translates to the spiritual or

the supernatural as well, because why we are God's creation,

and God made us for a relationship, right and you know,

at the very beginning it was a relationship between us,

or rather man and God. And then later along the lines,

it's only when the human in human relationship you know,

prosper and continues on from there. But it's modeled after

the relationship between man and God in Genesis. And that's

why humans, no matter what, we need that connection. And

the moment that connection is broken, something is amiss, something is.

Not quite right.

And it's crucial to understand that this actually is only

satisfied at least in the context between man and God.

Only God can satisfy this. Okay, So I'm going to

start off with that because the premise, of course, you know,

you're going through a season of discipleship, right, A lot

of it is also human to human discipleship, but we're

also talking about discipleship.

Between man and God.

And of course you're whoever hopefully under some discipleship relationship.

But if you have not talked to Jason, talk to

the leaders here.

We hook you up. But all of us.

As leaders will always point you up to ensuring the

intimacy with God is maintained, because why we are made

for intimacy. All right, So the question here is I

put put put up the slide in are we engaged?

Are we engaged? Of course not just human to human,

but are we engaged with God? Okay, a bit more

background by myself just said I I well, I'm an engineer.

I don't know why you say that, but anyway, I'm

an engineer. I think like an engineer. I've also been

involved in some levels of UH in the education world

as well, so I'm hard wired that way. Whereby with

that background, I need to understand how things work. So

a lot of my UH sharing or going deeper in

the world. It's always around this, like a flow chat

kind of a thing. If yes, then this, if not,

then that, and then it everything has makes sense.

Right, So every time I.

Go into different areas of different topics, I always try

to look for the practical aspects of things as well.

So today it's also a long that time. It's not

just what it is, but how can we clearly implement

this of course, not just conceptual but really as what

we always learned in last time growing up and right

if you remember that, sorry for those who are not Malaysians,

it's just applications that is relevant so that we can

understand and take it further.

Right.

So and uh, growing up, I've always seen different leaders

in the church doing this. Uh, and one always wondered,

how do they build the intimacy with God?

How does it happen? How does it work?

How do you move from here level one to level

you know, you know, three hundred and forty two, like

where they say pasted the Candidis and and and and

and people like. So it's really true the journey of

discipleship relationship that I actually learn a bit more because

again it's not just about hit knowledge, it's really about

working together not just with a human uh uh, you know, discipler,

but also with the Holy Spirit, because we know that

the Holy Spirit is there, is here rather with us

to allow us to then take this further. So the

anointing in life or in my life in general has

increased over time through this personal intimate relationship with God

and of course with the different ones that sort of encourages.

But what I've discovered is that there's.

Always an inner, inner thing that needs to be worked

on to make sure this happens. Let me explain a

little bit more. Okay, So again just the background, this

is how I work. Framework has to be very clear,

otherwise everything falls apart from me.

So and we said this before.

Intimacy comes from God, right, So out of this whole thing,

I hope at the end of it you understand what's

the importance of intimacy with God and how to then

take it further. Why because we are meant for intimacy

and this will change your perspective of how you come

to church, how you view church, how you do life

in church as well, because the church pop quas is

not really a building anymore, it's actually a community. Right.

Sometimes we wonder why we come into church. We feel

like we engage like today, you know, we engage in worship.

But then after that do you take it on further?

Beyond the Sunday is the question here, because the intermacifity

God doesn't just stay in church or in the Sunday

service as we know it.

It goes beyond that. All right.

So I put up this like just to get the

juices going. I put that attending is easy, Attending church

is easy, but into mestics engagement, right, So what I

mean by that is that sometimes we can fall in

this trap of just coming into church like it's a

temporary thing. It's like renting a space on Sunday going

into Monday to Saturday, just as a visitors of God's presence,

of his and in the ara of engagement. So we

move away after Sunday. And that's a scary thing because why,

as you know modern day times, the church, well, uh,

I come to that a little bit more. But you know,

we carry the spirit of God with us everywhere we go,

so it's nearer than before.

But and yet we do not engage. And that's a

scary thing.

Okay, very okay, so far all right, so really the

focus of today is really talking about maybe the principles

of how to focus on the Holy Spirit in a

more meaningful and intimate way and or aka how to

really build a real relationship with God so that we

can live, love and be transformed and serve differently as well. Okay,

very okay, so far, let me pray, Father, God, we

want to thank you for the wonderful servants that have

been serving today, the different ones that are you know,

serving your house today. Father, I want to also want

to pray and honor you. Help us Lord, learn you know,

how to engage you in a deeper and more meaningful

way in justing me pray.

Amen.

And so if you're taking notes, the title of my

message is not what I've shown earlier. The title of

my message is God. I'm engaged now. This word engage, right,

sometimes brings about different things. Usually it's very happy, like, oh,

you know, I'm engaged engaged with somebody, right, a fellow

human being.

But of course this is just a spin of it.

I'm talking about being engaged with God because it's equally

as important. So engaging what specifically, not just Him, but

also his presence, because the presence like I say, it's

always there.

Sometimes you just do not realize.

We realize when the mobile coverage is low, but we

do not realize actually, God's coverage is always there all

the time, but we're just not tapping into it as much.

So circling back again, as I mentioned to you before,

we are made for intimacy, so we are meant to

be connected with god design. Right, sometimes we just do

not I guess, I guess fulfill or take it on

that level now, just like how in the intimacy. In

terms of human relationship, there are generally two kinds of

relationship that I would say that will consider intimate relationship. Okay,

there's a spontaneous kind spontaneous meaning to say, let's say, uh,

you know, human to human, Uh, me and my wife,

we might have, you know, spontaneous relationship, spontaneous intimacy rather

a hand over the shoulder or even a handshake of

a brother. It's not just spouse or girlfriends and boyfriends

kind of context. But that's what we considered a spontaneous,

you know, your arm around your bff kind of relationship.

Right.

There's also those that are more thought true, more plan

more structured in some sense, These are your dates, your meals,

your time, quality time that spend together, your romantic time.

I'll stop there.

All these builds towards taking intimacy to the next level

in the human sense. So some of these also translatable

to how we approach God as well. Right, there is

the intentional kind, your quiet time time set aside, structured

to go deeper into his presence. There is also the

times where it feels very spontaneous, where God speaks to you,

drops something at you. You're not not really focused, but

it comes to you. But this switch between these two

in the spiritual sense, adds and continues to build that

intimacy between you and God. So everything flows, and it

flows when you have more awareness of this thing. It's

not just accidental. It's what I'm trying to say here, okay,

And because of that we also have to become more effective.

We also have to then do a bit more things.

Realizing it is one thing, like I said, you need

to then take it further, otherwise different things would earlier

we uh one of the somebody mentioned about you know,

the thieth is here to steal, kill and destroy. Right,

thank you for that, because sometimes different things will come

subtly stealing your time, stealing your attention, and that is

always very subtle, but you're essentially is robbing you of

your intimacy because if you're going through medical pressures that

would eat you up, that you do not realize that

it's taking away, taking yourself away from where you're.

Supposed to be with God.

As an example, financial issues, kids going bonkers at home,

you know those will distract you as well.

So I find at.

Least true, like I said, disciples, your relationship with the

different ones that have been taking care of me, and

to some extent, through the discipline and of course effort

on your part as well, you will.

Establish different.

Key moments or key breakthrough points that you can always

access to. So like I said, whenever you're thinking down

as an example, you always oh, you know the time

and God came true for me. Those are those breakthrough

points that we tap into, and those moments are important.

The world today that we live in, we call it

on demand, right, they like Netflix on demand? Back then

when we had to wait for a cartoon seriesly to

wait one week later and then it comes to us,

there's no on demand, But how does it on demand work?

The content has to be created first, right, So these

breakthrough moments are important. And how do you build on

these breakthrough moments is that you need to continue to

have relationship with God, right so you can draw from

it from time to time so that you can continue.

So that's what I mean by you need to have

more encounters. You can't just wait for encounters drop to you.

You need to establish these encounters with the Lord all

the time. So, like I said, here in church service,

we have the luxury to have different ones. Thank you

Jade for you know, bringing us into worship. That is engaging,

helping us engage. But how do we then engage after Sunday?

You need to take this further. I mean, she can't

be there to serenade, you know, not joking, joking, but

she can't be there to lead you into worship with

the entire team. You're on your own, right, So how

do you engage at home, at work, and at school

outside the church?

AKA?

All right, And this is where I'm coming from. It's

gonna be a very short message because actually when I

did this, I did it in several parts, or at

least I have severned several parts. I don't NCover everything

in one goal. But today I think I just want

to dive into the at least the general principles or

posture of.

This, the how to parts.

If I ever do come back again, then maybe I'll

go a bit deeper if I do a good job.

Otherwise you'll see me again in like just kidding, joking

Jason earlier that you know, I didn't come back because

I didn't do a good job the last night anyway, joking,

joking right now. So these are the key things that

I've discovered. And it's always to do with the heart.

So I put up this next of skip this one.

Worry about this. What is our stands, what is our position?

Always our posture? Okay, And this has always to do

with the heart, because the heart is where intimacy begins.

You don't say intimacy starts here. If you say here,

something is not quite right, right, And to deepen this

is really talking about intimacy in the context of deepening

your relationship regard. Okay, So I've divided into three things.

You can take down some of these for now. I

will go in deeper one by one. We have to

talk about desire, were to talk about commitment and what

that looks like. And of course the last one here

is to looking at the perseverance to continue to pursue.

And those are some of the key verses that will

be going into a bit deeper every Okay, so far, Okay,

please help me because I'm usually the afternoon shift kind

of people. I'm not used to morning, so I've had

lots of coffee to stay awake, but I need your

help to make sure I survive the morning.

Just skatting says skating. I'm okay, all right.

So first one, desire, all right, Desire Psalms twenty seven

is the key verse here and this sum here it

talks about King David. Now all of us know King David,

right right, very famous in the Bible. We know him

as the king. But I think when we look at

kings in today's modern world, it's a bit different from

King David during his time because King David during the

time it's not just a king.

A ruler per se.

He's also a warrior, a leader, a general, one that

actually has to do work, a not a what's the

what's the expression, not just for sure, not figure hit,

that's the right term, all right. He's not no normal

king he's a battle kings of war, a king. But

you see in this sum here, which you can flash

up right now, when he prayed and when he can

ask for something in the human sense, if I were

in his position, or any king in his position, will

definitely be praying God, please send me some battle tanks,

some airplanes, some RPGs and.

Things like that.

I mean, of course, you know it doesn't exist then,

but along those lines weapons.

More army because they were outnumbered, you know. But what

do he say? What do you pray?

It's very funny, I mean interesting. One thing I asked

from the Lord one thing for us prayer one hundred

one thing is correct, it's one thing.

It's very focused. One thing.

Sorry, the highlights are not rectly in this, but I

highlighted one thing. One thing I asked from the Lord.

This only do I seek, that I may dwell in

the house of the Lord all the day of my life,

to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to

seek his temple.

Right. So the consuming thing for him is only to

be in God's house.

Now, to give you some contexts in that era, God,

of course we know he's omnipresent, He's everywhere but he

manifests in the church in the temple during that time.

So it made sense to David because I want to

be where God is all the time, and if God

is going to show up there, I want to be

there nothing else. Of course, in today's era, you know,

God is everywhere right in the New Testament, and it's

where believers are. So, like I said, we are a

bit more in the luxuria. I state, we don't have

to go and find God in the temple anymore. God

is actually there. But during the time he needs to

be at the temple. Why and it's not just one day,

you know, you look very careful, You're right, three hundred

and sixty five days. You think it's not busier. He's

fighting wars, you know, And yet his desire is to

be with the Lord. He's so passionate about it. Why

Because he lived in intimacy to encounter God's goodness and

to continue to commune and to.

Build relationship with God. He's so focused. One thing amazing, Right,

So if you didn't get my first point. First point is.

Really your desire, You've got to align your desire otherwise, Yeah,

this wouldn't happen Like I said, it doesn't drop from

this kind second thing, and he got three points and

then I'm done.

You can go for lunch. Right. Commitment.

Now, the second thing that you need to build intimacy

with God is the commitment side.

Now, I purposely chose this photograph.

Uh, in case you do not understand this, this is

like two merit wedding bands. Because intimacy, sorry, commitment rather

that we see as as humans is a bit different. Now,

let me explain us. In the modern day world, we

do a lot of casual relationships. When I say casual,

I don't mean you know that that kind of casual

ship we we we do life or maybe befriends somebody

whenever one that's there's a reason why we do it.

If there is something for me to gain from it,

or when it's convenient for me. That's what I mean

by casual relationship.

Okay, the moment it.

Doesn't work out or you know I've completely drained, or

you know, ensure that a person has nothing more to give,

sometimes we take a step. I don't need you anymore

no longer, my bff, et cetera. Because I'm joking, but

you know there's some truth to it. So it's really

the when convenient and the what I can get from it.

That's why I meant.

By casual relationships in today's Well, of course, the West

takes casual relationship into another level, another dimension, and some

of us are also adopting it in our lifestyle here.

But yeah, I need to understand. It's because sometimes when

we think relationships or commitment in a relationship, we think

in that perspective. But it's not when God enters into

a relationship or when he commits to a relationship, right,

he sees it like that. What I mean by that

it is like a marriage. Why because just like in

the marriage, God enters into the relationship and it's a covenant.

Now, what is a covenant? For those of you who

have been to weddings.

So I've seen or hear about, you know, some some

things about marriages, we talk about something that cannot be broken.

It's not a commitment to say when it's convenient or

when I've got something again.

Right.

That's why I always say, if you're not ready for marriage,

don't get married, because once you're in, you're in. There

is no exit clause, right, And God looks at it

that way. So what I'm trying to say, is that

it's a big deal for him. Yeah. So sometimes when

we enter into relationship with God with that human, casual perspective,

God doesn't see the same way. And that's the problem here, Right,

he gets upset because of that. Right, imagine this if

I'm I'm sorry, I'm married forgot Yeah, after marriage, if

I were to go out and hang out with some

of my old When I say girlfriends, I don't mean

like girlfriends felt friends of the opposite gender. Although my

wife trust me, you know I won't do funny things.

But after a while, it's not the healthiest and after

a while perhaps my wife would maybe.

That way around that.

I will feel jealous if my wife hung out with

her previous close friends, I feel uncomfortable. Why because it's

just not right. Right, It's the same way when you

approach that relationship with God. Now, this is jealousy I'm

talking about. Jealousy is not always a negative word, at

least in the context of God's jealousy.

Right. Jealousy is strong passion.

About something that actually belongs to you. You're entitled and

again you're committed to So when you commit to God,

you actually belong to God.

Already and he sees it that way.

So the moment you deviate or the moment you go

somewhere else, say you are drawn by world verse and

other things, that they take you away from that intimacy

that you committed to in the first it's been with.

It violates that covenant to some extent, if I use

a strong word, is as good as adultery in God's

eyes in the context of the the commitment or the covenant,

because our God is covenant to God. So why am

I saying all this is because sometimes the way we

see things is very diluted. God sees it very differently. Okay,

hope we understand that. Now, let's close to some scriptures.

I promise you some scriptures. Luke ten forty two. We

all know this story, right, Mary and Martha? All right?

Everybody knows the story.

All right, Okay, I will read the whole thing because

but one of the important things in this story is

that Mary. The two characters, say, Mary, one of the sisters.

You know that they're very close with God. You can

see they're hanging out together, et cetera, with the Lord.

But Mary chose intimacy, all right, He chose or she

chose to engage, to listen, to connect at Jesus feed

doesn't get any closer in that, at least in the

physical sense. Martha, of course, on the other hand, chose business.

She was serving.

But maybe okay, nothing wrong with serving, by the way,

nothing wrong with doing things, But perhaps there was a

service without an intimacy. And that's the problem here. And

so there's a warning here to say, Marta mata you

have you're worried about and upset about things, but the

things are needed is indeed only one So Jesus telling

us only one thing is more important than anything else.

And what's that one thing? Mary has chosen? What is better?

It will not be taken from the means. Whatever she

has is more important, and she will always carry with her.

And what is this thing?

The better part is the eternal value that cannot be lost.

This intimacy is what he's talking about, all right. So

when Mary prioritized spiritual nourishment or AKA the presence of God,

it's not temporary, it's eternal. And you can see on

the other side the sister, what did she say. Definitely

don't have intimacy, that's for sure. And you see she

came to a boiling point right, talking about when I

say bollying point, white boiling point. She doesn't want to

refer to Mary as by the name anymore, She said sister.

Usually that means like you know already upset a la

the sister. She has a name, but she used sister

all right. There was a lot of resentment for sure,

and can see that she is also manipulating Jesus to

be I don't know, angry if the sister. There's a

lot of self pity as well. There's a lot of

maybe perhaps a little bit of loneliness in the picture

as well.

She's doing all that.

But service without intimacy becomes chore. Yes, why we always

say serving should flow out of place intimacies because of

this reason. And that's why for us we always come

back to the importance of the relationship between you and

God intimacy because everything else will fall into place. So again,

commitment right to set your life apart to build the

intimacy is important because everything that we do will then

fall in line, right, and there will be some parallels

between the natural and supernatural. As we've seen here. We

cannot be disconnected from this without desire. There can be

no intimacy. Just like how if you do not desire

to spend time with your spouse, it will not happen

right without the commitment you can. Also in the physical

you cannot relationship spiritual is the same thing as well.

It will never develop, it will not suddenly fall from

the sky. So if it's the same in the natural,

it's even hard in the supernatural. You think about it

because why not so tangible ma correct cannot really seema right.

So that's why sometimes even as leaders, right as cerven leaders,

we always say, you need to ensure we get our

people to the level of that personal intimacy because we

may have it, but others may not. And that's why

sometimes we say, you know, seasons change come and go,

but as long as you're aligned in intimate with God, right,

whatever the changes may come, we will still be okay,

because why it.

Is not short term, it's long term. It's very important

here all right now.

Me and my wife, our work sometimes takes us, you know,

a bit of traveling involved, and sometimes we've been been

we've been absent parents or will be absent parents soon

in the coming days. But we always try to align,

always try to make sure that they are not neglected

too much, right, But what I'm trying to say is

that in the physical realize the importance because why we

want to continue to build their relationship. And in saying

that as well, me and my wife we also consciously

intentionally schedule appointments with different ones in our in our

service plant to meet, to engage, to to to grow

as well the hazards of the job.

But yeah, you get what I'm trying to say.

Caring for people in the in the pastoral sense, but

we also do the same for kids by the way, right,

and people respect that. Sometimes you say, oh, we can't

because Tuesday already allocated this time with the kids, and

they understand that why because we are committed to the

desires there kids. My commitment is definitely in there, so

we need to do that. And this again translates to

the importance of you doing it without Father God as well. Okay,

so just to recap, you didn't catch all that. Why

do Why do I say? The heart is because heart

is the preparations say, we're not even doing things right.

Your heart must be aligned first. So the heart must

desire right point number one second point desire to do

what sorry, desire to engage. Second point, he must remain

committed to the relationship because he's not playing a fool,

He's serious about it.

Right.

Of course there's forgiveness and all that, but you need

to continuously and remain committed.

It's a covenant.

It just changed the word to covenant now not not committed, right,

covenant that needs to take priority, just like how I

use examples. Now, I put priority to my kids because

I know if I neglected neglect them, Uh yeah, it

will be very hard to to to recover in the

long term. Right, So you need to so making party now, lastly,

last point already, and then we can go and enjoy

our lunch, which I yeah, it's.

This thing called.

We must believe that God will reward us for what

we diligiently seek him. And I put this expression of

faith and pursuit. But personally put this uh uh strange

figure here because you know, we always see of the

success stories, but we often do not see about what

it takes to get or climb that mountain, run that marathon,

and those kind of things. There's a lot of preparation

in Wolf as well. There's a lot of pursuing. So

if you if you like gaming. Uh, this is like

stage two of game or other level two of gaming. Right.

Level one is to prepare, like we said earlier, to

prepare the heart for all those things I mentioned. Level

two or stage two, the stage two boss is really

to engage faithfully and continue to pursue actively, pursue or

other words, run after, keep climbing, keep persevering.

Why because you're driven for a purpose.

You know how businessmen and all that they do not

give up because they hold a dream and they continue

to believe in the dream. If they can, in the

earthly sense be so focused, right, how come we can

be right? So pursue purposefully without wavering. It's what I'm

trying to say here. Okay, you must believe when you

pursue God. Here's the bonus part when you pursue God,

when you defeat the level two boss. Okay, it's a

promise in Hebrews.

Next light.

He is a rewarder of those who casually seek him,

diligiently seek him, so he reward you.

You cannot be casual. You need to diligently seek him. Okay,

So yeah, let's not casually do church. Right?

There needs to be a time where you switch over

to something more serious. You need to go deeper, right

and and even in the surface sometimes when you do

life with people you can see it design is just

not so genuine one, right, you need to take it

up the next level.

God can see it true, all right.

So I remember I was telling you some of the

stories in Australia at the time when I was experiencing revival,

I had a mentor or a discipler who really intentionally

looked into my life and ensure that I grew. One

of the things that I remember he told me is

till to their hold onto it is. He asked me,

this thing, what is important, and if you can and

in fact what's important at least in the spiritual sense,

you need to then take it and ensure that you

can't genuinely just focus on that. So what I got

from that till today is that there is a power

in focusing on things. I'll give you some non non

non biblical scriptures next light. Albert Einstein said this, Okay,

it's not that I'm so smart. It's just that I

stay with the problems longer.

Okay.

Ben Franklin said, the energy and persistence conquer all things,

not some things, but all things.

So famous quotes.

Or focused persistence until breakthrough happens. Next light, I purposially

put this light here. Oh, it's actually very clear on

this one. Okay, anyway, one of my I don't want

to say the focus atually blended in Okay, But as I

mentioned earlier, if if focus is important, we need to

understand what attention needs to be at or in all right,

if you need catch all that already, I think we

ought to just focus on relationship with God. Do that, right,

don't worry about that things for right, everything will fall

into place. If this principle is true, we need to

seek God diligently, seeking Him without any distraction, even if

you fall, even if it's tiring, even if things rob

you and take you away from the attention at that

point in time. Otherwise we will we may risk falling

into the mater realm Okay. Being busy sometimes you're doing

things on autopilot. Sometimes ministry can be like that. Right,

you do it because I do it. I I'm one

of my my different leaders that don't don't just do

it because you want to do it, because you don't

do it. I don't does it kind of a thing,

but you must always continue to then build on that

relationship with God so that it's more sustainable.

Right.

I'm sure all of us have heard this before, you know,

church as we have certain few partners that have had

some health scarce and what do they do and they

have the health scare, they discover something, they discover the problem,

and then they quickly do something or there's an intense,

intense focus on changing their lives.

Are straight away for immediate impacts in their life.

Right, So it could be cutting certain foods, doing certain

activities and if we can do that to experience immediate

breakthrough in the physical, we need to do apply the

same approach for spiritual breakthrough as well. So one point

say is that if you realize that spiritually you are unhealthy,

unhealthy in a sense, you need to do something immediately

and not wait till something is wrong or we have

another scare and then you do it.

Of course, you say it's difficult.

Of course, there's a price to pay, right, There is

definitely a price to pay. Reward is you know, has

a cost to it. We talked about this in discipleship

already kind of fat, right, but what needs to be

done needs to be done. That's what I'm trying to

say here. You must remain focused, you must remain connected,

because that's important. The problem, the bigger problem of the problem,

is when you realize the problem but not do anything

about the problem.

Hopefully, don't confisce everybody.

There are a lot of problems in that statement there, but

you need to do something.

So hopefully, like I said.

After today you realize that there are some ofis or

oportuities of improvement, areas of improvement, you do something about it. Okay,

why because you.

Need to grow. So someone would say, how do you

do this? Do I just pray? Do I just read

my Bible?

Yes, that is all important, but there needs to be

other ways to engage further. And how do you do this? Again,

I don't have time to go through this because my

time is almost up. I'm just going to run through

a few things. Back to the hard thing. It's a

heart issue. So if there is no desire, no commitment,

as I said earlier, you need to work on that.

You need to focus on that. Look Daniel, not this Daniel.

Daniel in the Bible. He remains focused. Right, even though

times have changed. Different kings come along different rules that

forbid him from doing things, and he made it illego.

He still did it. Why desire was there, right, he also.

Committed to it, so regardless, he still did it even

though it may cost him his life. Right, Moses spent

forty days on the mountain We've got. You think it's

easier to go up the mountain. It's not some very

taller than Monkakey. I don't know, but you know it

takes a lot to to get there, right, So that's

not give an excuse David, as we said he said earlier,

he made it a continual commitment every day as much

as he can, even though it's busy. Right, he made

a commitment nehim. I even right he's so busy with

the ball building, He's still have constant community with God.

Sometimes it's spontaneous prayers, sometimes it's planned prayers, planned relationship.

It has to happen.

So I'm trying to say, is that your eyes need

to be locked in. You need to be laser focused.

Like I said, one way, discipleship could be the avenue

to help you if you do not have the handles right.

Just like how you want to do something better.

You do not know.

You train with a trainer, right, If you go to

the gym, you can maybe accidentally get fit, But to

go with somebody who knows what he's doing is a

lot more effective. And of course the discipler can also

then journey with you, push you a little bit, give

me another foreign and it'll be more effective. Right, and

whatever transition you go through, your eyes are on Jesus,

just like in those days they kept their eyes on

the ark, kept their eyes on the Lord. Any dramas

that happens around that, they are not faced. And this

is what I mean by building spiritual foundations to engage

his presence. Okay, sorry, taking a lot more time, two

more verses and then I'll stop here. Okay, we're getting

something from here, all right, Salm one hundred. This is

the biblical approach, the formula. Right, let's read might make

a joyful shout to the Lord. Make a joyful shout.

You know today we shouted, right, it's not a quiet

s if it's meant to be jubilan, it's meant to

say yeah, and we do it because that is what

is done. Right. You serve the lot with gladness. See

this part here come before his presence with singing. So

how to enter this presence?

You sing?

Yes, some of us don't have a beautiful voice like

Jade and all that. It doesn't matter. Sing Turn the

volume louder, drown out your own voice.

It's fine.

You're doing unto God anyway. You're not hearing yourself. Okay,

it's fine.

Know the Lord. So know that God. Rather he is God.

I want to skip the worse for entern into his

case if thanksgiving, and into his court's with praise, be

thankful to him, bless his name. For the Lord is good,

his mercy is everlasting, his truth and yours to all generations.

So what I see here right is is a process engineer.

Engineer. It's a process. You do this, you do that,

you do this, you.

Do that, You'll get there, get it. To encounter him,

you need to do all these periodies.

It's first. So sometimes you wonder, how come I'm not

encountering the Lord? Have you done all that? First?

Shout fast la As an example, let's go to another

another psalm Sai miller thing.

Okay, Oh, let's sing to the Lord.

Let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation.

Let us come before him before his presence, again, his presence,

with thanksgiving. Shout joyfully to him with sounds. Okay, now

let us worship him and bow down. Let us kneel

before the Lord, our God, our maker, for he is

our God. We are His people were saying about this earlier,

pitst pastures the sheep of his hand. Today, if you'll

hear his voice, don't harden your heart. So essentially, this

part here is very clear. When you draw near to

God through these processes, he will draw near to you.

It's a simple, simplistic, short version of what we've just

read over there. I'm gonna land really in five minutes. Sorry,

get very rouled up about this. Okay, so last night

this is the summary of everything.

Yay. Like I said, it's a process. It's a journey.

First part of it. You need to come with gratitude

and praise.

Shout.

I know shouting takes effort, especially in the morning. You

don't awaken neighbors, aren't wait, your kids are babies up

is fine? You find a screaming a toilet, I don't know,

but shout it does. The mumbling doesn't take any effort

at all. And someone say do I have a capacity

to shout, yes, you do. You see people at sports,

sports events or even at your children's are sporting event,

you know, kicking a ball and they're like, ah, parents

are like going bonkers.

Right, you can?

You can, right, my mom, very quiet, lady, gentle lady.

When batman thing can on the TV or actual's screaming

at the screen, you all crazy, right, So you can

you have the capacity to right.

Don't shy away praising until now.

This is important because you praise right, you are actually

setting You're aligning your body, your soul, spirit. You're actually

getting there, working towards there, working towards what, working towards

flowing until the spirit of worship comes in. Now what

I mean by that, No, sometimes we have a lot

of different songs, you know, the songs bring you to

that position, but we shouldn't just be very restricted to

the number of songs that is there. We sometimes keep

doing it until we get there. So one trying to say,

is this a personal one? Sometimes if you're not there yet,

you keep on doing this until you get there. You

do not stop right just now we're saying, uh, you know,

let everything there has breath, Praise the Lord along those lives.

I can't remember the lyrics, but uh, you know, whether

I'm outnumbered, whether I'm all these other things, we still

as long as I have breath, I will praise the Lord.

But sometimes when we are down, we're like tired, right,

And you wonder why, I wonder why. So again you

need to understand because it's the flow. There's a procedure

you need to get there. So continue use songs until

the spirit of worship comes to you.

Again. You're giving him the praise, not yourself.

Right. And you know when change or when things happen, why,

because suddenly in the presence of God is there with you.

I know, always have felt those movements before.

So you keep on edit until he's there.

Of course he's always been there, but it's next level

there there, right, and you want that because that's when

worship switches on to just sounds, it switches to intimacy.

Things will become quieter, you'll break down, you kneel down,

you cry, you don't know what's happened to you. That

is what I'm saying. Intimacy in another level. Why, because

whatever you're offering God in worship is an exchange. That's

why they say sacrifice or worship. You know you're actually

sacrificing something and you're gaining something, and then eventually you

will hear the voice of God Again.

Communication is not one way. Sometimes you fe that we

are just you wait for the response. Right, it will flow.

But it's not just an audible wise someone you here

what it wasn't fantastic. I rarely have that. But it's

a spirit spirit connection that only can happen after all

those things in place. So essentially why I'm looking at

this is like a it's like a it's like a pipe.

If there's a clock somewhere, go up for the up

the line and see what's clogging it. If if this

is God's model, if David followed this model and he

got there, and this is David after God's a man

after his own heart, right of the God's heart, right

he follows the model, I think unless you can be

at that level, I think we shouldn't break the model.

This is like it engineer is fixed fixed whatever's blocking

up there. Yeah, I think I'm done here, right, so

whereship Bank can come up right now a lot of

things that I've covered today comes from this book called

Hosting the presence from Bill Johnson.

You can look it up. You should have time.

But yeah, relationship is back and forth communication.

And it's key.

It's really important because everything that we do, the most

important thing starts off here.

You see.

Mary recognizes this at the very start, and so she

just drop everything and this focus on this, focus on

the long term, focus on the sustainable stuff. Right, otherwise

you'll be tired. You'll be tired. Right, So you always

have to draw from the Lord. As we come to

an end today, I want you to just close your

eyes wherever you are, let the spirit speak to you.

The Lord has shown us. Let's just choose the term.

Pattern, a pattern for you to engage, for you to

take praise, to worship, to intimacy that leads us to

hearing the voice of God. Don't we all want to

hear the voice of God?

So this just isn't a something.

Of course, it's personal for myself for you as well,

but this also forms the foundation of how you are

to disciple others. And I say you do not have

to be a leader to disciple others. All of us

have got an opportunity to influence others.

We hope you've been blessed by this message. For more

information on our church, please visit as church org. We

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this week is going to be a good week. I

hit for you. God bless