God, I'm Engaged! Part 1 - Engaging God's Presence| Pr Dr Daniel Kong

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

We hope this message will light up your day.

Just wanted to begin and said that, you know, just now,

when we were singing that song, it brought me back

to It's almost like a time zone kind of a thing,

and time zon sorry, a time walk, time travel kind

of a thing.

You know.

The song that I was listening to or we were

singing just now, it was nothing but the Blood of Jesus. Right,

there was such an old classic song. Now when you

say classic, my classic was two thousand and five classic.

But that song is actually comes.

From a hymn if you know the details, and it

goes to the eighteen hundred, so it's really really classic

and old, right. But yeah, it just brings back a

lot of, uh, you know, special place in my heart

that particular song because there was a time also where

I sort of experienced a little bit of revival in

my life. I was before there was a naughty, naughty

kid born in Christian family but not doing what the

Christian should be doing. Uh, And then you know, I

I rediscovered and reconnected with Jesus again when I was

abroad a loneliness and Jesus found me and that's where

I reconnected. And that's why that song that we sing,

you know nothing but the Blood of Jesus really speaks

volumes when I hear it, every single thing, because it

captures the essence of what, you know, what Joe is

sharing earlier, What the blood does. It really resets cleanses.

And because of that, you know, we we, you know

we there's nothing that he cannot redeem. It's what I'm

trying to say. And and this person here is a

product of that redemption.

Uh.

And yeah, I think it's just amazing that it's just reminded.

I think here the song tears sort of comes down anyway,

All right, let's jump straight into it now. Today I've

actually prepared a message that is, let's start with something

thats okay. Let's start with something that's okay. Can you

please lash up? Uh? The slide that says attending is easy. Okay, Sorry,

I sort of switch things around a little bit.

Now. What I wanted to share here is that.

Sometimes we come to church, or come to any any

form of small groups, even at sell groups, homes and

all that we come and we maybe engage that little

while and then the engagement sort of stops. Then of

course I'm talking about the engagement with our Lord, you know,

and you know what I'm trying to elude here. Engagement

UH is required because that sort of sparks intimacy.

Now do you know what intimacy?

Isa'm not talking about the intimacy that you know, just

you know, reserve for the married people, but the it's

a lot intimacy in a lot of levels to know

somebody is also intimate, right, and that intimacy can only

happen or go to another level whenever we draw close

to somebody and engage with somebody. Can we move to

the slide that says we are made for intimacy? Let

me just explain a little bit. Now, I'm an engineer,

like what Joe is saying. Okay, I'm wired a little

bit different with my engineering physics kind of a background, UH,

and then later in life I delve into a little

bit of UH teaching. So the way I operate and

handle things and process things are a little bit different.

Everything in my mind is like a like a chart.

If this then that you know, If not, then this,

So I need to understand how things work and how

to also apply them practically.

Okay, that's just me. I'm wired. I ask my wife.

My wife is operating a different kind of a dimension.

But this is how I am. So whenever I i'm

even in teaching, I need to know and understand it

very well, or at least to that context, break it

down before I can pass on the no house. Okay,

So when I look at this, for many years, I've

always and again many years of being a Christian.

Like I said, I've been ups and downs a little bit.

But I often hear the concepts being taught in church.

What Concept'm talking about, there is always something that we

need to aspire to be or aspire two words rather,

and what the expression is is to one to draw

close to God, to commune with God, to have intimacy

with God. And I hear the concepts being taught, but

sometimes I cannot get a clear answer how it's done

in the practical sense. Now, of course, in the earthly

relationship is very easy. You know, everything is realized, but spiritually,

how do you operate It's probably I'm trying to say here,

how do you go the next level? So in other words,

if you guys come from a Malay background, like when

I was studying.

What is the what is the.

Example that you can understand and then somehow practice and

replicate catchy, not just the concepts, right, you want to

move beyond concepts.

So I always.

Looked at my pastors, my different church leaders and see

the things that I always wonder, how does that actually happen?

How does it work?

How can I move from there from being just understanding

and actually getting there practicing it? Okay, and this is

what I think it can only happen true. I'm just

gonna site set a little bit. This is all true discipleship.

Many years of discipleship sort of prepared a little bit

of the understanding and also go a bit deeper, because

when you disciple, they don't just tell you, they show

you and operate with you as well. So I've discovered

some practical keys of how to be working with the

Holy Spirit and increasing the anointing in my life. And

also hopefully this is translatable to everybody else as well,

because there is more than just what's happened by the engagement.

You need to go deeper.

There's essentially there needs to be an inner change that

happens and accompanying that engagement to go deeper, so essentially,

what I say is that the heart is also equally

as important as just the engagement itself, because if it

doesn't start right here, the engagement will be a little

bit off understaid not okay, sorry if I'm throwing things

around a little bit. But that's how my engineering brain works, okay.

And that's why discipleship is always very crucial. It sets

the framework to not just pass on knowledge, but pass

on practical wisdom as well, so that for the purpose

of spiritual growth. And we've spent a lot of time

talking about what discipleship can look like and should look like,

but these are some of the benefits of discipleship. Now,

let us examine Jesus for a while.

First.

Now, if you look at Jesus, right, he doesn't appear

to be a very structured type person. At least you

don't conform to some of the rules that were set beforehand.

On the surface, right, he tends to do things quite spontaneously. Right,

people question them people to day like, hey, this is

not according to what has been written here, but why

do you do that? But yet he has a very

clear purpose.

On why he operates that way.

All right, So Jesus is one of those that even

when he's constantly yielding, constantly responding, constantly submitting, working with

the Holy Spirit, there is always an end product of

what the reaction should be. And I believe that it's

always based on the intimacy that he has with Father God,

and that's why it's very guided. Okay, so that's why

I mentioned here we are made for intimacy.

Are you engaged? Is the question here?

That's not the title of the message today, by the way,

I just started to throw this out there for now,

but coming back circling back to the question that through

at the beginning, attending is always easy. Going deeper in

intimacy is.

A different story altogether. It takes a bit more effort.

It takes engagement, and if you do not learn to

engage God personally, we end up like in transition. What

I mean by transition is that it's like coming to space,

renting that space temporary or renting an Airbnb, and then you

move on. Sometimes coming to church could be like that.

You come in, you rent a little bit of real

estate in the context of God's presence, and then you

move on. You do not become more permanent in that

space beyond that Sunday, that one or two hours, and

that is something that I think we ought to look

at it a bit more seriously because otherwise, how different

are we from the others out there? Okay, so next

line haven't started yet, but many will visit. I use

the word visit very loosely. You visit God's presence weekly,

but few actually live there on a daily basis. Okay,

that you process for a while. It took me a

while to to to even come out with this.

Now.

The other question is are we temporary visitors? Are you

just visiting a country? Or are you permanent residents citizens

in His presence?

Okay, food for thought. So today, coming back to.

The slide on the intimacy that we've made for intimacy,

I like to focus on how we can engage the

Holy Spirit so that our lives.

Become more meaningful in an intimate way.

Okay, we'll explore some practical ways of doing this as well,

not just how it can operate God Blessed Sunday services.

We have people like the extreme band, Caro and Team

to bring us to that level intimacy, but what happens

beyond that?

Right?

So again I will hopefully by the end today you'll

walk home with a little bit more equipped and seeing

how it can practically take it on to the next level. Okay,

because that's it isn't supposed to be complex theology, by

the way, right our runter subscriptions, but it's not gonna

suppose to be complex. It's supposed to be real. It's

personal relationship with God. And with that engagement, then you

will be transformed. Right then we can live, love and

serve differently. Okay, So let me just pray before we

carry on, all right, Father in heaven, we pray for

just a wonderful, wonderful service today. I mean, thank you, Father,

for all your servants that have you know, sacrifice, invested

their time, Lord, and energy and effort into giving their

life to serve you. Not just today, but you know,

for the rest of the week. Father, we honor you

this afternoon. Lord, I pray that you help us learn

some of the keys. Lord, they will unlock what's in

our hearts, our capacity to then engage you in a deeper,

deeper level, in a deeper way. Thank you, Lord, and Jesus,

may me pray Amen. Now, when I sort of put

this together, it was a few weeks in the making,

I sort of looked at it and told Jess, I

don't think I can finish this in one okay, so

I actually took it into two parts, so this will

be the first part. So the title of my message

when I take notes is God, I'm engaged.

Now. The word engaged, right, can mean a lot of

different things.

Right, people are very happy when I'm engaged, right, of course,

like I'm talking about spouses engaged to your future spouse

that can engage.

So it's a player of words, I know.

But because there's so much in this today, I'm going

to spend a bit more time just to talk about

some of the contexts of how we are built for

intimacy and how we are to practically make some things work.

But let's put Part two, which.

I'm coming back in two weeks, time to go a

bit deeper in the practical bits. Okay, So that a

little bit overlap, forgive me for that, but I hope

that I can set the pace for part two. H

And some of this material comes from a book called

Hosting the Presence. You can look it up. It's by

Bill Johnson. Okay, it's on kindles. You want to look

at Kindlestore, Amazon or whatever. Okay, if you can't find

in stores I know these days is rather find bookstores.

But anyway back to how we are made for intimacy. Now,

we are made to connect with people intimately. Right, we

are also made to connect with God. One parend say

is that when you connect with God, it's not a

one way. You don't expect it to be just one direction.

You expect something in return, right, uh, and he expects

the same as well. But intimate relationships can be separated

the two categories. Okay, what I call the spontaneous kind

of moments mean to say, if you have a girlfriend

or spouse, you sometimes use touch right, a heart or

even a bff. You know, yo, bro, you know that

is a form of expressional intimacy. Right, spontaneous not so planned? Okay,

that is one way of going deeper. Now, there are

also moments where it's what we're called plan intimacy. Now,

one way I plan is structured times that you set

aside to be a bit more focused in building the intimacy.

Right.

It could be dates, right if you're date the kind

of dates it could be sharing meals together with somebody

you want to go deeper in the relationship again, not

just bgr kind of thing, but just anybody brother to

brothers as well.

Right, it could also be.

Romantic times, you know, that kind of thing if you

wanted to. But all these two categories can contribute to

overall intimacy in the earthly sense.

Okay.

Now, our relationship relationship with God is also similar. Okay,

but how do we do it. It's a bit different

because it's very spiritual, but there's also the same two categories. Yes,

be intentional mean today you cannot leave it to chance

that oh, suddenly you will connect with God. If you

do not pick up the phone or call him or

even engage with him, it will never happens. So the

structured time, I think we sort of understand this could

come in when you do your devotion, when you pray,

when you you know, find extra time to be alone

with Him. Okay, that's the intentional, structured side of things.

And throughout the day sometimes you know there are moments

that God will touch your heart or touch you. Those

are the unplanned ones. But collectively, the switching between the

two collectively adds to how you can engage and continuously

be intimate with God. Right in assent, and the flow

or even the frequency of this would then add up collectively.

And the more this happens either mode, right, the more

you'll be aware of his presence. Otherwise, Again, just like

even being in a home, right, you can be live

in the same household, but you do not engage either

spontaneously or you know, intentionally. He's just renting the room

next door kind of a housemaid, right, and we don't

want that to happen every Okay, so far, okay, So

the question is how can we make it more effective?

Right?

And similar to what we do in the earthly intimacy,

you need to be aware and have to do something

to engage. Right now, what have been my awareness? If

you are always being bought down by different aspects that

takes you or distracts you. We sung about being distracted, right.

If pressures in life come your way, it will rob

you of your intimacy with God first most of the time.

Why because I've got to tend to my wife, I

got to tend to my son, I got to tend

to the different ones. Uh. You know that I'm ministering

to or rather pastoring in my life. But you know God,

I don't see you. Maybe I can skip my date

review And that's what's happened.

Right. Even if there's health things.

Health issues will also distract your financial issues anything even

sometimes ministry issues when you deal with fixing things within

the church, or this guy will how come we do this?

That lady?

How comes she do does that? Why our there like this?

And you will spend the time and this will all

take you away from ultimately pressing in to continue to

engage God. So you'll rob you of your engagement. You'll

rob you with intimacy with God. Okay, I we get

it right now, So how do we all come it?

Any anybody have any ideas?

How do we do this? Again?

It's back to this whole thing. We need to be discipline.

You need to put an extra effort when things are busier.

My family recently went through a lot of ups and

downs in the hospital. We need to spend extra time

just to make it work right. Same thing with people

around us and also with God as well. So with

this discipline effort and these things, you sort of establish encounters.

You know, sometimes when God encounters you, it really encounters you.

And you remember that and every time you need to

draw from the encounter. Again, it's like almost like a

deposit that you can pull and recharge. You charge you

and go, But you need to make time for those encounters,

for those breakthrough moments, for you to store away so

that you can use it more effectively. Okay, Now this

generation calls it on demand the expression, so can we

have an on demand thing that we can pull? But

if you want more on demand resources, you have to

be more encounters. So it balls back down again, and

jurineam Minor balls back down to how much you spend

to engage, encounter and make it work. Otherwise, if you

only have one encounter for ten years, you need to

draw from one and then you'll be wondering how why

am I spiring down this whole?

Right?

So again, the more you engage, the more you are prepared,

the more you can on demand draw from it, and

the more you can build them, and the more you

can do better things and greater things. That's how important

the presence is. And again here at chair Service, you

know definitely we help you collective. There's a church to

engage with the Lord. But some may say, you know,

it's a powerful time today, but does it translate beyond,

not even tomorrow. Can it translate tonight? Some people do

quite that at night? Does it translate there?

Right?

Do we do that at work? Do we take it

into our schools? Do we take it into outside of

the church? A simply a simpler way to put it, Okay,

And that's the question here. So really we ought to

find ways to make it happen. Now I'm coming back

to a few key points right now. Okay, first key

point it really is to look at our stands, our position,

what we uh, our attitudes?

Another way to put it, Okay.

We have to decide here first, not just here, but

here first to make it work. And this is what

I call time for a hard check. Okay, So I

divide into three portions, three areas. You can take down

some of the verses, or then you can look to it.

We'll go to it one by one as well, but

it will be distributed to desire, commitment. Elaborate a bit

about that, and fifth and pursuit. Okay, all right, what

is our position? If the attitude is not right in

these three areas, we will never ever go deeper, you know, God,

let me explain. Okay, firstly, desire, I put a funny

picture there. Okay, what do you desire?

All right?

Now this comes from some but as you turn to

Psalm twenty seven, this talks about King David and his response. Now,

King David, by the way, if you know him, he's

not just your ordinary like modern day king king, right,

he is a king that not only rules, he is

a warrior king or a king that is active in

war times as well. That means it's almost like a

general Come King, come man of God, et cetera, et cetera,

a lot of portfolios. Okay, now you see if you

understand him with that perspective, right when he prays to

the Lord, you would expect him to pray like how

we would pray. God, I cannot understand how to defeat

this army. Please send me a bigger army, natural right,

natural king, right, if if I remember in that position, natural,

or if possible, send me more weapons. If possible, send

me even machine guns or RPGs or whatever it is

to make it work. I mean, I'm joking, of course,

but it is a similar kind of prayer we pray

for a miracle, because he again is battling in the

physical sense, day in, day out.

But look what he prays. Look what he prays.

He didn't ask for any fighter planes, RPGs that I

mentioned to you, not even swords. Okay, what did he ask?

Let's go itsum twenty seven. Uh, sorry that the rates

are not very clear by It's fine. One thing I

ask from the Lord this only do I seek, that

I may dwell in the house of the Lord all

the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty

of the Lord and to seek him in his temple. Okay,

so one thing. He only asked one thing. How many

of us usually pray. We pray like a whole long

list of Santa Claus kind of thing. You know, you

need ask one thing. Amazing, right, the discipline only one thing,

and that one thing is not the immediate need. He's

not the immediate threat that is coming towards him. He

prays for what that may dwell in the house. Now

give you some context as well. His consuming desire, okay,

is to driell in the house. Now during that time,

that era, Old Testament era. Okay, of course God is omnipresent,

is everywhere, but God in that era used to manifest

a lot in the temples quote unquote church better tamper

bacle and all that his presence manifests there. Okay, So

King David wants to chill out or hang out where

the present of God is his only desire one prayer,

and he wants to do that all the days of

his life all you know, not just certain seasons, not

just on a Sunday, all the days of his God

given life.

What a prayer is that man?

And of courseure he praised there every single day? Right?

Amazing?

Of course today in the modern day context, New Testament,

post Jesus and all that, you know, we believe that

God is living in us. We are the church, you

and me, not just the physical church or the company

of believers that come together. We dwell in every single

individual believer. But the question is do we engage although

it's nearby, Last time David had to physically go somewhere

to engage the presence of God. Now we have God everywhere,

presence is everywhere dwelling in us.

But are we and aging? Huh? Right? Interesting? Right? So

he's so passionate, David.

He's innermost desire, his intimacy. He wants that to live

his nessy, to go deeper. He wants to encounter God

and commune with him. That's all he wants. Right, So

this is the first thing. It should always start with

the heart. If you desire it, it will happen. If

you do not desire it, it will not happen. Look

at David, right, he's different because he's a man after

God's heart, and he's also one that really wants that

one thing. They seeks nothing else. Number two commitment. I

purposally put this photograph over here. Obviously, commitment is another

level when we talk about the marriage. Okay, because contextually

also you know, God talks a lot about in this context.

But why I bring this up is because sometimes look

at relationships, even marriages in the earthly sense, sometimes we

think it's a very casual thing. Now the West sometimes

portrayed even a little bit different. They do a lot

of casual relationships, not just where not just marriages, but

when they engage somebody, even friends, it is very casual.

I see you, I won't see you again, I see you.

It's very casual. It's not intentional. Now we live in

a very casual culture. Sometimes we choose to only be

in a relationship or into some level commitment. If for

two reasons, whether it's convenient for us or whether I

can get something from that person. Right, most of the time, right,

I don't want to chill with you if I don't

think I can get any from you, or if it's

not convenient for me.

Right.

So, in other words, casual relationship is always about the

when it suits you or suits us me included, and

where they can get something out of it. So what's

the white And sometimes it starts off like that, and

the moment it's not convenient or there is nothing else left,

you have already absorbed everything to the point that there

is it's all drained out, there's nothing else to give

any more.

You said, I'm out. Isn't like that, right? Relationships? Right?

And again I'm not knocking, it's just general observation in

relationships in this day and age. Now, if we think

about that context and we put God in that picture,

it is very wrong because when God goes in relationship, right,

it's very different for him. Our God with some earlier

is a covenant keeping you know, being his covenant keeping God.

When he friend friend you is not a level.

It is like a marriage kind of level cannot be

broken with some dead as well, so it's a big deal.

Whether it's he initiate or you initiate, it's a big deal.

But sometimes we engage, we go into relationship with God.

But then when it's not convenient or when it's tough, God,

why you? You sort of take a step back. But

God is like what gives men. It's a big deal

for him. And that's what I'm trying to explain here,

because when he enters in, he enters with a different perspective.

He's committed to the very end, just like in a marriage. Okay,

now I'll give you an example. Now when we are

I'm married to my wife. Right, we don't do casual

relationships as as freely as we used to do. Now

what I mean, my dad, I may be hanging out

and chilling out with people, but I try not to

chill with maybe ex close not girlfriends like lovely with

the girlfriends, but close friends of opposite gender. Okay, why

because it's also guiding my marriage? And also maybe perhaps

she's also not cool with it. I mean, I know

I wouldn't be cool, too cool with it if he

hung out with all the BFFs male bfs from before.

I don't think I'll be comfortable for too long, even

though there's a trust and all that. I think, but

it's not comfortable. Now imagine this right, when God is

in a relationship with you, you hang out or chill

out or give a different level of commitment. And he's

a God. That is why it whenever goes readship is

it's always covenant. It's very covenantal What will he feel

if you? If you and I can be jealous in

the earthly sense, what more can God feel? And we

you know, we read about God being a jealous God.

This is exactly what it is to him. When you

break that commitment is almost as good as akin to

an adultery. That's how he sees it, because you're breaking

a relationship. So that's why I'm trying to explain to you,

when we commit to God, you must understand the perspective.

He's very serious about this, So let's not joke about it.

And again, jealousy is not always a bad word. There

could be good, healthy jealousy as well. Okay, in this context,

he wants to continue that covenant. He has to keep

the covenant that he will be jealous to the very end,

jealous of your time, jealous of your even to your spouser.

You always have to love God more than your spouse,

like it or not. Right, So we gotta take it

seriously because he takes it seriously. All right, But that's

not how the world sees it. Right now, let's look

at Luke ten I'll go a bit deeper here. This

is the story. Of course, we know this story quite well,

story of Marta and Mary. Right, um, you'll know the

story right by the way, got to do good to everything? Fine, right, okay,

Now you look at this story, right, Marta or rather Mary,

in this story, chooses to engage, to listen, to connect

with Jesus. Right, So, essentially, in a nutshell, she chose intimacy.

But Marta chose the other thing. She chose to be busy,

chose to be I mean serving. Now, serving is not wrong,

don't get me wrong. Okay, Serving is important, can can

can be good as well, but you must always serve

with intimacy as your foundation. You can be serving with

the intimacy, and that's just not as a good service

as if you had intimacy, and your serving is a

product of intimacy. They confusing everybody. Now, okay, all right,

let's look, let's att bit deeper. Let's read forty one

Marta mata. The Lord answered, you are. You are worried

and upset about many things, but the few things are needed.

To be more specific, indeed, only one is important. This

is what Jesus teaching right, Only one is important. Mary

has chosen what is better and it will not be

taken away from her. Now, if you look at this,

you understand serving, as I mentioned, comes from a flow

of intimacy. If you do not have that even outside,

just to understand this, when you serve, or give or

minister with intimacy in mind or with love, somebody say

your love, so genuine your service, so genuine people can

see it. Right, So it's very important to have that intimacy.

Now again, Mary has done it right because she focused

on the more sustainable, long term stuff, which is the

eternal value. And here it says that the eternal value

cannot be lost.

Right.

She focused on engagement. She prioritized spiritual nourishment. Can sound

a bit how I put it, can sound a little

bit selfish, but she wants to be nourished. She wants

to absorb the presence, and she's not worried about the

temporal things. Service can sometimes also be temporary as well.

About the matter focus on.

She focused on the other aspect, the thing that's not

so sustainable, and you see after that, she became.

A little bit more resent reasonful. Right.

In fact, the way she she say things, the words

that came out, there's a lot of self pity, a

lot anger and sometimes you wonder, right this lady Christian

or not?

Right?

She's serving, doing all the right things, but the end

product and I think one of the things that we

do not realize, right she says, she's very lonely as well.

Why because I think she failed to connect or engage

you Jesus. So again this is also a warning for us,

because that's why we need to really invest in engaging

God all the time, because we can be doing this

thing on autopilot without the fullness that's intended to be.

All right, And if you look at this, commitment is

really a choice, right, you need to decide to do it.

If you don't engage, you don't decide to engage, you

will not engage. And let's look at this in terms

of what happens in the natural and how does it

trusted to the supernatural I think there's a lot similarities

as well. There's a lot of parallels, right because just

like how you need to make time. Firstly, what they say,

you need to have the desire right. Secondly, you need

to decide, or to be more specific, to commit to

this because you and I know, just like in a

natural sense, if you do not have the desire to

connect with a fellow friend or a peer, and you

do not commit to that relationship, it will never suddenly

drop down from the sky right.

What more, with God?

Right, without the desire, there will be no intimacy God.

Without the commitment to build that relationship with God, it

will never happen as well. I mean he will reach out,

but it will never be as frueful as its supposed

to be.

Now you see, you also know.

That myself and my wife sometimes we schedule a lot

of things great intentionally we fill up our clean because

now this got all this said? Or do you to

help us, you know, do things a bit more systematically.

We share the same calendar and we book time with people.

Now why is it important? Because we commit to certain people,

we want to invest in this discipling those people as well,

and we go through our rounds. Why because there must

be a desire, it must.

Be a commitment. It's not easy. But what drives is

because of these two things.

Now, in saying that as well, we also categorize our

kids in there, so we also schedule time for kids.

We don't neglect them because why they are so humans

they need the time.

So again, why do we do that.

With the kids because we are committed to growing that relationship.

If they're not important, whatever, So if we say God

is important, we need to also commit the time to

really go deeper and engage. And as I said earlier,

all these things, the first two it's all the heart,

because he'll decide not to do it. You'll never come

to fruition, right, you never come to pass. So remember,

there needs to be desired engaged with God. And secondly,

they need you need to remain committed because sometimes it's

easy to start but hard to progressively carry on. It's

not easy. But one thing that really drives and motivates

is the third point there, which is that He will

reward us. I mean, I'm not saying that we should

always look at a character only, but this is a

bonus as we diligently seek him have faith and continue

to put you know, continue to pursue, he will reward us. Okay,

I put in this photograph over there with somebody climbing.

Actually put in another photograph of a child's running. But

one trying to say is that pursuit. You know, it's

something even climbing, right, it's not something that is achievable

once you know what you don't see, what you don't

see in the rest of those people that continuously pour

in into it, it's all the failures as well. So

why do I put faith and pursue? Because faith is

only the very first step, you know, if you can

think of it like games are I used to play

games or the game anyway.

It's like second level gaming.

First level is just to prepare to engage you me

low level boss, the higher level boss, right, is really

to pursue because pursue means to continue to run. After pursue,

you chase, right, you keep climbing, you keep persevering, and

it's not easy. But why do you do this? Because

there is a purpose. You understand why you are doing it,

and this is the reward and the goal I'm talking about, right,

And where does this come from? If you look at

Hebrews eleven. It says here, all right, teaches us that

we must believe God exists, that he rewards those who

casually approach him diligently seek him. And that's why I

say it cannot be a casual relationship. It is diligently

seeking him. It doesn't say casual at all, but sometimes

we go into it with that casual perspective because we

are so used to casual and that is the danger here.

All right, So your is smile at the thought of

people casually coming to church, right, but we want, we

ought to know that to go deeper, you need to

really have a genuine effort to pursue, to commit. I'm

gonna put some some quotes over here. Albert Einstein says

said this before. It's not that I'm so smart. It's

just that I stay with the problems longer. What does

it mean, keep on doing it? Ben Franklin, Energy and

persistence conquers all things. All right, Again, these are just

some famous quotes that are not you know, people of faith,

but you know there is some level of truth there

as well. Okay, So what I'm trying to elude here

is that there is a power in focus.

Actually I just realized that. Yeah, power focus classes.

Yeah, anyway, you look at this photograph x TV. Right.

Gab tried to correct this photograph.

Then later I told him I intentionally put it like

this because the word focus is she there, but you

can't really see it because you have to focus to

see the word focus. There is a power and focus.

So he fixed my thing that I tell you unfixed it. Yeah,

But what I'm trying to say is that if focusing

is one aspect in your leadership with God, to make

it work, because you know it needs to happen to transform,

it's worth you dropping everything.

And make it work. It's some praise here. So you

need to remain focused.

And if this principle is true, just like how we

learned it at what's your homes last week, you have

to not be easily distracted. You need to seek God diligently.

And what does it mean without any focus on any distraction,

Focus your eyes on Him, focus on the word focus.

You will not see.

Anything else that always tend to rob you of that.

Otherwise we can be in the risk of being the martyrs.

We focus on the wrong things right, But the most

important thing is really you know, seeking God diligently. Now,

I'm quite sure some of us have heard different ones

from our church maybe had some help scarce.

Not too long ago.

I mean, I'm going to use maybe one of I

mean mentioned names, but one of them. When he had

that healthcare, he decided to turn things around very quickly

and inten intensively make changes in his lifestyle, of course,

to to to ensure that, you know, he preserves life.

But there need to be immediate adjustments. Now, what is

what is that actually is actually focused? When you know

something is important, you need to do something immediately. So

the questions if you do not do it, is it

because we do not realize it, We're ignorant. We need

a wake up call. There is a question here. But

of course, to make changes, there's always a price to pay,

and that's why circling back again, you always have to persevere.

The pursuit is not easy.

Level two, big boss, you know, next level stuff. Some

times people don't do it because they don't understand what

needs to be done. Or it could be they realize

what price they pay and therefore they flee away from

paying that price because it's too costly, right, Or sometimes

they want to choose to remain confused.

But I hope that you.

And I will know and recognize the importance of this,

because it's actually a bigger problem than the problem itself,

the problem, the problem of not ignoring God or not

building a relationship with God, or not engaging with God.

It's actually a problem when you do not do what's required,

not so much the problem itself. Okay, now, some people

will say, how do you then do this? I'm going

to the practical stuff right now. Does it mean I

pray more?

Yes? And no, I guess doesn't mean I begin to read.

The Bible more? Yes, you know as well. Okay, how

exactly do I pray? I used to ask myself that question?

How do I pray? Do I have to you know?

Do certain things? Check certain boxes? How do I read

cover the cover? Or do I go through?

You know how?

And sometimes people don't know. That's why they.

Don't do it.

Like it's like seeing a lot of homework piling up right,

I don't want touch it because I don't know where

to start. It's something like that. I'm sometimes cripple like that.

I don't know how to begin. My son, my younger

side like this, So much work I don't do never

gets done. But at the same time, you also recognize

that you need to start somewhere right otherwise, you know, know,

So let's explore some practical approaches. Okay, and again, like

I said, I'm going to cover everything because I've got

a lot more. But again, circling back is really the

hard issue. Like we say you have to ensure desire

is that you have to be hungry.

You have to be committed.

It's tough, you think, Charles just random we get up

every day morning at four or six o'clock just to

just for the sake of your your housemate, know right,

it's not easy. His commitment their days he hang out

with me, he's like late and he's like, I don't

know how tomorrow get up. But commitment, right, it has

to happen. If you study the Bible, the text right,

all the Bible greades right.

Have always made the decision.

They're not great because of the background that they come from.

They have desire and they have the tennacity. They want

to do it. They want to deepen their Look at Daniel,

he remained faithful, praying three times a day, even though

the world hasn't don't do it.

He opened the window and do it.

Some more because that's his custom, right, Moses, what do

you do? He spent forty days on the mountain.

We've gone. It's easier. It's not commitment.

Now, dude, back then got no I don't know, no, no,

no motorized no what they gotta the cable car whatever

it is, you know, to go up there. So like Kio,

you know, forty days you know, on the mountain, and

like David Short, God's presence every day, not just some day,

every day. Even Nihimaya when he was constantly building the walls,

he was constantly communing with God. So bottom line is

it is discipline. And this is where discipleship can help

because you're the ones that are walking alongside you. Is

going to help you do this better or do this

more effectively. It's just like a gym buddy, right, How

do you know jim is more effective and you got

a buddy with you.

Right, somebody will.

Yell at you you can't do two more, right, and

you just do two more you three. But otherwise on

our own you're like, you know, so, yeah, have the

desire commitment, but you cannot do it. Call a friend,

get somebody to help you out. Now, let's look through

some biblical patterns of this. I'm going look to Psalms

because Salms is very good for this. Like I said,

I will not be able finish all the things that

I do Part two, But let's just finish off with

Psalms one hundred and Psalms ninety five. I've go to

fetch up Psalms right now. This is a sum of thanksgiving. Okay,

let's read this together. Verse one, make a joyful shout

to the Lord.

What does it say? Shout?

You know, you know how rowdy service supposed to be,

or how rowdy even if your personal worship is supposed

to be. You shout, you know, sometimes you're like home,

we need to wake up my neighbors or my pet.

Dog or whatever.

Shout you know, joyful, right, and it is only for

some people. You read carefully right to the Lord, all

you lends, which means everybody, not just the not there's

the jewels in our lives. Yeah, he's sharned by the fault.

Also shout, but all of us are to do it right.

Serve the Lord with gladness, come before his presence with singing.

Right, don't come. But oh man, you know sometimes we

feel like that.

You know, it's tough day, tough week, tough man, tough season,

tough whatever. Right, come before him his presence, say the

word presence with singing, Know that he know that the Lord,

he is God right. Gonna jump to verse four, enter

into his gates with thanksgiving, We praise, be thankful, bless

his name, for the Lord is good, His mercies is everlasting.

His truth endures to all generations, even if it's a

bad voice. I'm not gonna mention names, but some of

us know some names.

You know, get.

What it's just the term turn death. Correct, They still

give their best because this is what is required. So

what I look at this, this whole sum right.

Is actually.

A process, process engineer, process of encountering. You do this,

you initiate this, you get this, you get there, You

encounter him by doing all this processes right, So what

I want you to do There's a lot of things

over there, but on you to focus on process. If

there's anything that you're stuck with, maybe try it again.

Maybe that's why you're not engaging, because we have not

been doing it.

If David did it, and if Jesus did it.

I think we should do it right. That's way sums

venty five similar ish. So sorry, it's very small. Oh,

thanks all breaking it up for me. Yeah, because it's

sus a similar way. Oh, let us sing to the Lord.

Let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation.

Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, shout joyfully

to him with psalms.

I don't hear a lot of immens here.

Sometimes when we again, when we pray and and maybe saying,

and we worship, it's always very quiet, and you always

wonder why then we are not connected? Right again, I'm

also a very quiet but by nature I always say

I'm introvert, but but you know, extrovert by requirement, because yeah,

it is what it is. Right Now, come, let us

worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord,

our God, our maker, for he is our God. We

are the people of his pastures, the sheep of his hand. Today,

if you'll hear his voice, don't harden your heart. So again,

it's a process, it's a journey. The Bible is very

clear what needs to be done. I'm running out of

time here, so I'm just gonna wind down to a

close if I can break down to the next slide. Ah,

this is what the process is. If you look through

the two verses that we had earlier.

I know, sometimes we are caught up with emotions.

Our soul is unrest Like I said, a lot of

things in the natural sense will demand us.

And some of the devil is like this, he still

kills and destroy.

True, these little things, right, distract you maybe in the

physical so that you are distracted in the spirituals or

you cannot give your spiritual best right. And you know,

if you say you cannot shout right, I've seen some

people shout for their especially in sports. People go bonkers,

you know. Sometimes it's like they lose it. But we're

supposed to be unashame right when we worship.

But how come you so right?

I've seen parents sometimes shouting and screaming at you know,

those small kids. What what telling matches? They cannot you know,

but to the Lord no. So now praise is important

because praise aligns you, aligns you spiritually, body, soul and

spirit everything comes together.

Right.

So if this is not done, the flow, if you

think of it like a pipe, there's a gem somewhere.

There's a clock somewhere, right, and you wonder why the

spirit doesn't flow, true, it doesn't flow.

To the spirit.

Sorry, always start with praise first, then we go into worship. Right,

we flow in that order, even though in the practical

extreme side way, there's a reason why these are done

in that order. Right, And you will understand. When you're

go into worship, you build the atmosphere, the intimacy. What

happens usually you will find that all of a sudden,

God invades your space. You come so close to you

and you'll cry and tear and get you know, they

given experienced supernatural stuff in that moment. Why, Because God

invades your space in worship, he is engaging you. He

is responding to you when you are engaging him.

So worship is no intimacy, right.

He invades your space and sometimes he does it in

the quiet as well loud, and then suddenly he'll come

in the quiet. But like I said, there needs to

be the sacrifice. That's why it's called sacrifice of praise.

Rights. It's not easy.

Sometimes, like I said, you are in a very palty

mood because of whatever my brother will fighting or whatever.

Sometimes me and my wife argue in that mood, but

you know, you have to bring in the sacrifice of

the move way, even though it's a bad way. You

need to continue to praise. You need to praise and

shout in the natural so that the soul and spirit

can then flow together. And then the spirit of worship

then comes. And the last point there is really when

He speaks to you is when you hear that voice.

It's a spirit to spirit connection. Ready, when he reaches

that level. Okay, when you engage God, he comes to

you through our spirit and you feel it. Sometimes it

flows so freely, like it gushes in like a burst

pipe kind of thing. Why because everything is unclocked up thereaday,

and look, like I said, all these may sound very fundamental,

very principle how we do, but I'll go deeper next

time around on the practical stuff. But once you get

the big picture or why sometimes we do not encounter God,

why we do not have that level engagement that we

yearn for, there may be some unclogging that needs to happen.

Because God communes with us in the spirit. Is spirit

the spirit, So what's blocking that flow? I'm gonna invite

the band to come out right now, I'm done for today.

But the key thing here today is that you need

to make changes. You need to quickly decide, choose even

having the design, to decide to want the desire, and

then you work towards a desire. And of course, like

I said, commitment, when you commit to something, you need

to take it on to the next level. You cannot

just play play with God, because our God is not

a play play God. When he enters into a commitment

is a marriage man. He will not let go, So

do not toy with him. Do not play with him.

You know, when I was pregnicted message, I didn't know

that they were going to sing this song. So when

I was telling Jesse, you think I can asking the

things on there, I realized the song list they put

in this song on the President there was a song

that was keep coming to me. But as we close

the first segment for today, I hope you got something

from this. I know it's all still very very fairy,

some key things there, But next time you meet again,

I think I will go a bit deeper on how

this can be done. I'll talk a little bit about

you know what, how do we worship? You know, Bible

talks about meditation as well. How do we then meditate

and go deeper the practical stuff by wey behavior? But

I don't think I can squeeze it all together. That's

why I thought I would do more justice by having

a part two. Okay, but as we come to a close,

I like to invite you to respond wherever you are,

as the Lord have shown us that there's a pattern

on what needs to happen, right from praise to worship

to deeper intimacy which then leads us to hearing his voice.

This journey can own need be formed if we are disciplined.

And as I mentioned, if you're not disciplined, there is

always avenues to help you be disciplined. So if you're

not in some form of discipling relationship, it's still not

too late.

Those that have, Like I said, we are where we are.

Some of the leaders is because people have invested in us,

people have walked alongside us and allowed us to then.

Be intimate with our Lord.

Like I said, they cannot do that part for you,

but they can guide you so that it becomes sustainable

and workable for you. So from where I stand now,

I'm just gonna issue up a call. I believe the

message has gone forth. I pray that God would meet

you wherever you are in your fresh way today. Like

I said, it's not to be complex. He's just merely

calling out to you. He wants to be intimate with you.

He wants to go deeper with you. Would you say

yes to that? If that's you today, allow me to

pray for you. You just be where you are, say yes

in your heart and I'll lead you to respond. Thank you, Lord, Father.

You see this hearts, the hands in their hearts that

have been lifted high to say, Lord, I want to

respond to your call to go deeper in my relationship

with you. Thank you Lord, because you are a God

who takes this seriously. You know a distant God. You

are a God who pursues us. Even so, give us

the courage, Lord to press in in praise until we

see that breakthrough happen.

In your presence.

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

information on our church, please visit Aschurch Org. We are

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week is going to be a good week. I hit

for you, God, bless