Our Greatest Need | Pastor Noah Ray | Sunday Service

Everybody say, What do you see?

We're not just talking about the values of our church.

Um, we're talking about doorways that God's calling us to step into.

Doorways that God is calling us to step through.

And we're looking at really both the kind of people that God is calling us to become, but also the type of church that God is calling us to become.

How do those are connected?

As we're becoming a people, we're also becoming that in our corporate body as a church.

And uh, Pastor Jeremy kicked off a great message for this series last week.

And if you missed it, go to our YouTube channel and watch that.

Really, over the next nine weeks, we're talking about who we are as a church, our vision and our values.

And I want you to grab your Bibles.

I want you to go to 2 Samuel chapter 6.

2 Samuel 6 · chapter mention

2 Samuel chapter 6.

2 Samuel 6 · chapter mention

Before I get into that and we read the text this morning, we're gonna spend most of today looking at the life of David.

Everybody say the life of David.

Everybody say the Ark of the Covenant.

Now, before we really dive into 2 Samuel chapter 6, what's most important that you know is really 2 Samuel chapter 5, because it sets up what 2 Samuel chapter 6 is that we're gonna read in just a moment.

2 Samuel 6 · chapter mention 2 Samuel 5 · chapter mention 2 Samuel 6 · chapter mention

2 Samuel chapter 5 is an incredible chapter in the life and the history of Israel because 2 Samuel chapter 5 is where David is crowned king over all of Israel.

2 Samuel 5 · chapter mention 2 Samuel 5 · chapter mention

David takes back Jerusalem that had been taken over by the Jebusites.

And in 2 Samuel chapter 5, he takes back Jerusalem, he takes back this city, he's crowned king over all of Israel.

2 Samuel 5 · chapter mention

And in that, as he takes back Jerusalem, he's crowned king, he realizes that one crucial piece is missing.

One crucial piece is missing, and it's the Ark of the Covenant.

Now we're gonna break down this morning what the Ark of the Covenant is, but it was an incredibly important piece to the people of Israel.

So when we get to 2 Samuel chapter 6, that we're gonna really spend all morning looking at, we see David bringing the Ark of the Covenant into the city of Jerusalem, bringing it back to where it was intended to be.

2 Samuel 6 · chapter mention

2 Samuel chapter 6, will you stand with me this morning?

2 Samuel 6 · chapter mention

Stand with me for the reading of God's word.

How many of you love God's word?

2 Samuel chapter 6, verses 12 through 18.

2 Samuel 6:12–18

Verses 12 through 18, this is when David brings the Ark of the Covenant back in.

Now King David was told the Lord has blessed the house of Obed-Edom and everything he has because of the ark of God.

So David went to bring up the Ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the city of David with rejoicing.

Everybody say, with rejoicing.

With those who were carrying the ark of Obed-Edom of the Lord, had taken six steps, he sacrificed a bull and a fattened calf.

Wearing a linen ephod, David was dancing before the Lord with all of his might.

While he and all of Israel were bringing up the ark of the Lord with shouts and sounds of trumpet.

I want you just to, in your mind, imagine this moment.

He's bringing it into the city, and it's not a quiet moment, it's a joyful moment, everybody.

It's a beautiful moment with shouts and trumpets, and the ark of the Lord was entering the city of David.

And Michael, the daughter of Saul, watched from a window.

And when she saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, she despised him in her heart.

They brought the ark of the Lord and set it in its place inside the tent that David had pitched.

And David sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings before the Lord.

And he had finished sacrificing the burnt offering and the fellowship.

Everybody say the name of the Lord Almighty.

This morning, I want to take just a few minutes and I want to speak to us from the topic Our Greatest Need.

Our greatest need.

I want you just to turn to one person around you, and I want you to say, you need today's value.

Come on, let's pray.

Father, we thank you today that your presence is in the house.

We thank you that today is more than just a service.

This is more than just us gathering around people.

Father, we want and we need your presence today.

Be with us, speak to us.

We ask all this in Jesus' mighty name.

Amen and amen.

You can be seated this morning.

One of the things that uh you need to know about me is that I was a 90s church kid.

Do I have any 90s church kids in the house?

Okay.

Any any any kids, any people that were raised in the 90s or around the 90s in church?

Come on, just just there we go.

Okay, okay.

Boy, we got a lot of people.

I'm with family.

Um, boy, the the the church in the 90s was a time to be alive.

We should bring back overhead transparencies.

Kids these days don't know.

They don't know.

They don't know about being in worship and then the words moving down.

Come on, how many y'all know what I'm talking about?

And and and heaven forbid we get them messed up.

90s church kids, it was all about felt boards.

How many of y'all remember felt boards?

Come on, I learned the Bible on a felt board, y'all.

It was baggy clothes, and it was uh what would Jesus do?

Bracelets and and weird puppets, y'all.

Y'all, we had some weird puppets back then.

Some puppets that would not fly in 2026.

Um my childhood uh was based around um what I would consider three key theologians that helped to shape my uh spiritual foundation as a kid.

Some of you will know these, some of you will don't.

You'll have to Google them later if you don't.

The first one um was a show called The Donut Man.

Does anybody know the donut man?

Okay, some of you do, some of you don't.

I got a hand over here, I got one over here.

They're too embarrassed to raise their hands.

Okay.

The Donut Man, you could learn a lot about the Bible from Donut Man.

It was a little weird, but he taught you the Bible.

The second one was McGee and Me.

Come on, is anybody know McGee and me?

Okay, and then the last one, number three, but certainly not least, was Bible Man.

Come on, the nostalgia is just rising up inside of you, isn't it?

It was 90s in the church, and as I was thinking about that this week, I I am thankful for the type of church that I was raised in.

Underneath all of the nostalgia that I began to think about this week, and even some of the stuff as we look back that we kind of seems weird now.

Under the nostalgia, I am grateful for the church that I was raised in.

I'm grateful for the type of home that my parents cultivated in our house.

We I was raised in the church.

It taught me how to love the church.

It taught me how to know God's word.

I'm I laugh at a felt board, but I really did.

I learned God's word from a feltboard, somebody.

Right?

I remember those days in the 90s, and I remember being in church and loving the church and having and God cultivating in my heart a heart for the church.

It was a church that didn't just love the word of God, it was a church that loved the presence of God.

I began to think this week just about moments that have deeply shaped the formation of my spiritual life.

And almost every single one of them was in the presence of God.

Almost every single one of them were moments where I just knew God's presence was in the room.

Have you been in moments like that?

I also began to kind of piece the dots.

All of those moments were before I was the age of 18.

Parents, just think about that.

I remember as a kid watching my parents, they were youth pastors and associate pastors, I remember them responding to altar calls.

I remember my dad on multiple times, two times taking the youth down to the Brownsville Revival.

How many of y'all remember the Brownsville Revival?

And I remember as a kid laying underneath the pews and experiencing the presence of God and not even knowing what it was.

I just knew it was there.

I just knew it was different.

I'm thankful for that.

I'm thankful that it shaped who I am today.

It was a church that loved the Word of God, but it was also a church that, man, valued the presence of God.

And that's why I'm so deeply passionate about the value and the doorway that we're talking about today that God has called us to walk through.

If you're taking notes, I want you to write this value down.

It's simply the presence of God.

That's the value that we're talking about today.

The value of the presence of God.

And here's how we have really defined this.

How we have defined this value for us.

You're going to see this all over the church.

You've heard this before, but we're going to say it again because we believe it with all of our heart.

Is that God's presence is his greatest promise, and it is our greatest need.

I want to say it again.

God's presence is his greatest promise.

Everybody say it's his greatest promise, but it's also our greatest need.

All throughout the Bible we see that God was committed to being with his people.

From Genesis to Revelation, God wanted to be there.

In the garden, God walked with Adam and Eve in the wilderness.

He dwelt amongst Israel.

He told Moses, I will be with you.

He sent us Jesus Emmanuel, which means what?

God with us.

And then Jesus told us, I'm going to send you the Holy Spirit.

His plan was never to depart, his plan was always to be with us.

His plan was to always have his presence available and near us.

But it's not just his great promise that we have to know.

It's that his presence is also our greatest need.

You need God's presence in your life.

You have to have God's presence in your life.

We need more than good ideas, church.

We need more than strategy.

We need more than activity.

We need more than talent.

We need God's presence.

We need God's presence.

We prioritize God's presence because everything flows from it.

Everything that we need.

I want you to hear this this morning, church.

Everything that we need is found in his presence.

All of the questions, all of the things that you're wrestling through, all of whatever you need God to do is found in his presence.

I was reading this week and I was just taken even into the Gospels.

And Jesus needed the presence of God.

Church, if Jesus was dependent on the presence of God, we should be dependent upon the presence of God.

Right?

I want you to see a couple verses in Mark chapter 1 and Luke chapter 5.

Mark 1 · chapter mention Luke 5 · chapter mention

I'm not going to go into great detail into these, but just write them down.

Read through them later.

Mark chapter 1, very early in the morning while it was still dark.

Mark 1 · chapter mention

Jesus was an early person.

While it was still dark, Jesus got up, he left the house, and he went off to a solitary place where he prayed.

Luke chapter 5 tells us that Jesus, again, all the crowds were coming around him.

Luke 5 · chapter mention

But Jesus had to slip away.

And then Jesus often, I want you to write that word down.

I want you to circle it in your Bible if you can.

Highlight it.

Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.

Jesus needed to be in the presence of the Father.

Jesus needed to have moments where he pulled away and he could be with the Lord.

He needed moments where he could get clarity that only comes from God's presence.

He often withdrew.

And if Jesus would withdrew often.

I don't know, we need to do the same as well.

His presence is the game changer.

Jesus shows us what it looks like to live dependent on the presence of God.

All throughout the Gospels, we see Jesus dependent on the Father.

We see it in the Garden of Gethsemane.

I don't have time to break down the life of Jesus and the presence and how he lived there, but he was dependent.

But what we see from the life of David, who we're going to look at this morning, Jesus was dependent on the presence of God.

But we see from the life of David that David deeply valued the presence of God.

He valued, everybody say he valued the presence of God.

Now David was not perfect.

It doesn't take you long to read in the life of David to understand he was not at all perfect.

But David loved and valued God's presence.

He loved and cherished God's presence.

And this morning, I want to show you four ways, four ways that David valued the presence of God.

Four ways that David valued the presence of God.

Number one, David pursued the presence, David honored the presence, David celebrated the presence, and David prioritized the presence.

Here's the first one.

Number one is that David pursued the presence.

If you're taking notes, I want you to write that down.

If you've got your church app, you can open that.

All of the notes are there.

Number one, David pursued the presence of God.

I want you to go to 2 Samuel chapter 6.

2 Samuel 6 · chapter mention

We're going to begin at the very beginning of this chapter.

I'm going to try to take just the next few minutes and cover as much of 2 Samuel chapter 6 as I possibly can.

2 Samuel 6 · chapter mention

We're going to begin in verse 1.

This is an extremely crucial verse for us to understand how David handled the presence of God and how he viewed the Ark of the Covenant.

Here's what it says in 2 Samuel chapter 1.

2 Samuel 1 · chapter mention

David again brought together all the able young men of Israel.

30,000.

30,000.

He and all his men went to Bala in Judah to bring up from there the ark of God, which is called by name.

Which is called by name, the name of the Lord Almighty, who is enthroned between the cherubim on the ark.

For just a moment, I want you to kind of get a few things when it comes to 2 Samuel chapter 6 and the Ark of the Covenant.

2 Samuel 6 · chapter mention

Everybody say the Ark of the Covenant.

A couple things you need to know about the Ark of the Covenant.

Number one, is that for the people of Israel, the Ark of the Covenant was their most prized possession.

The Ark of the Covenant was their most prized possession.

And you may ask, why was it the most prized possession that they have?

And I want you to write this next statement down, really simple, just describes it.

Because the Ark of the Covenant represented both God's presence and power among his people.

The Ark of the Covenant represented both God's presence and God's power among his people.

I got a picture, I think, of the Ark of the Covenant.

And this is what it would be.

You can see the cherubim, the angels there.

In between them would be the mercy seat or the atonement seat where they would sprinkle blood on the day of atonement.

This was the Ark of the Covenant.

This is what David wanted to get back into the city of Jerusalem.

Inside was manna from the desert.

Inside it was Aaron's staff.

And it represented God's power and God's presence for his people.

The Ark of the Covenant really was where God's presence met God's people.

This is where God's presence would meet God's people.

In Exodus chapter 25, I don't have it on the screen, but if you want to write this verse down, verse 25, verse, chapter 25, verse 22.

Exodus 25 · chapter mention

It says, above the cover between the two cherubim that are over the ark, God says to Moses, I will meet with you.

I will meet with you there.

So why did David so badly want to get the Ark of the Covenant back to Jerusalem in 2 Samuel chapter 6?

2 Samuel 6 · chapter mention

Because the Ark of the Covenant represented God's presence, and David wanted God's presence back in Jerusalem.

David pursued the presence of God.

David went after the Ark of the Covenant.

He didn't just let it sit around.

He didn't just assume that somebody else was gonna go get it.

David himself went and got the Ark of the Covenant.

Number one, because it was Israel's most profitable.

Possession.

They needed it.

So David was committed to establishing the presence of God in Israel.

But here's the second thing that you got to know about the Ark of the Covenant.

Not only was it their most prizion, you need to know number two is that under the reign of Saul, under King Saul, the Ark of the Covenant had been completely neglected.

Saul had no intention to have the presence of God at the center of Israel.

Saul had no intentions of going and making the presence of God what it should be for the people of God.

As a matter of fact, and you read in 1 Chronicles chapter 13, 14, and 15 is the story of 2 Samuel chapter 5 and 6.

1 Chronicles 13 · chapter mention 2 Samuel 5 · chapter mention

It's just retold in a different way.

And here's what 1 Chronicles chapter 13 says.

1 Chronicles 13 · chapter mention

Okay, I want you to see this because this is so important for you to understand.

1 Chronicles chapter 13, it tells the same story of how they're going to get the ark back.

1 Chronicles 13 · chapter mention

And it says this it is time, this is David speaking, to bring the ark of our God.

For we neglected it during the reign of Saul.

I want you to get this because the ark wasn't just representative of a gold box.

The ark was representative of what?

The presence of God, the power of God, the person of God to be with his people.

And under the reign of Saul, verse 3 says, For we neglected it during the reign of Saul.

So verse 4, the whole assembly agreed to this, for the people could see it was right, it was the right thing to do.

The ark was an afterthought.

The ark was something that was not cared for.

And David made it his life's mission that he would get the ark back to Jerusalem.

He pursued the presence of God.

So what happens in verse 1 is David assembles these men to go and get the ark back.

And what happens is he doesn't just assemble 10 men.

He doesn't bring together a thousand men.

He doesn't bring together 10,000 men.

He goes and gets 30,000 men to get the Ark of the Covenant back.

Can you imagine this for a moment?

30,000 people to go get the Ark of the Covenant back.

They were not going to war, they were simply going to get the Ark back.

They were getting the presence of God back.

Why was he doing that?

Because he was trying to communicate to the nation of Israel how important the presence of God was to God's people.

He took 30,000 people to get the Ark of the Covenant back because he wanted to show them we will be a people that prioritize the presence of God.

And can I tell you, in our world today, in our families, in our marriages, in our lives, it has to be the same way.

We have to be a people that pursue the presence of God.

We have to be a people that go after God's presence.

Why?

I want you to write that down.

Why?

Because what we value, we intentionally pursue.

What you value in your life, you intentionally go after.

What is most important to you is what you value most.

And David, at the beginning of 2 Samuel chapter 6, he made it a priority to let the people know we're going after God's presence.

2 Samuel 6 · chapter mention

We will be a people who value the presence of God.

Number two, number two, David honored the presence of God.

Everybody say David honored.

2 Samuel chapter 6.

2 Samuel 6 · chapter mention

I want you to see this really quick.

2 Samuel chapter 6.

2 Samuel 6 · chapter mention

Verse 6.

And when they came to the threshing floor, now they're bringing the ark back of Nakon Uzzah reached out and took hold of the ark of God because the oxen stumbled.

The Lord's anger burned against Uzzah because of his irreverent act.

Therefore God struck him down.

He died there beside the ark of God.

Then David was angry because the Lord's wrath had broken out against Uzzah.

And I want you to see this.

And to this day that place is called Perez Uzzah.

And David was afraid of the Lord that day and said, How can the ark of the Lord ever come to me?

They're taking the Ark back.

As they're taking it back, it stumbles.

Uzzah tries to protect the ark.

He does what looks right in the moment.

And because an imperfect person touched a holy thing, God killed him right there in that moment.

Okay?

Now here's what happens is we see in verse 9, I want you to see this in verse 9.

This is a key verse for you to see.

David was afraid of the Lord that day and said, How can the ark of the Lord ever come to me?

That word afraid does not mean he feared.

That word afraid does not mean that he was scared, although he may have been a little scared.

The word in the Hebrew there of afraid is the word Yah.

Okay?

And what it means is it means to revere, to deeply respect, or to stand in awe.

It doesn't mean that David was afraid, like he feared for his life.

What it meant was that David in that moment had a newfound respect for the presence of God.

David had a moment where he he revered God at a whole new level.

He understood in that moment.

I think David had a realization in this moment.

Oh, okay.

This is who God is.

This is who God is, and he responds in awe, and he responds in reverence.

And it got me thinking this week about how we handle the presence of God.

Because I believe this that we can be comfortable in the presence of God without becoming casual about the presence of God.

We can be comfortable in the presence of God, but also still treat the presence of God like it's holy.

Like God is in the room.

God doesn't want robots and God doesn't want us to become legalistic about it.

But there is a place where we understand we can be comfortable and we can experience God, but we also don't treat God as casual when he's in the room.

Or when we're driving down the road or when we're spending time with the Lord.

David honored the presence of God.

Familiarity with God should never produce a casualness towards God.

We can be familiar with God and still celebrate his presence and honor his presence and understand that he is a God who wants to be communicated with, but he is still holy.

How many of y'all believe that, church?

He is a holy God.

So David pursued the presence of God.

David honored the presence of God.

David was in awe of the presence.

Number three, David celebrated the presence of God.

Everybody say, David celebrated.

I'm going to read through some of this.

I won't be able to hit all of it.

Verses 11 through 16 is when David is bringing the ark back through after Uzzah.

And it says in verse 11, the ark of the Lord remained in the house of Obed-Edom.

Skipping down, now King David was told the Lord has blessed his house, Obed-Edom, and everything in it.

We'll come back to that in a second.

David went to bring the ark of God back to Obed-Edom.

And when those who were carrying the ark of the Lord had taken six steps, they began to sacrifice.

David is dancing before the Lord with all of his might.

While he and all of Israel were bringing up the ark of the Lord with shouts and the sound of trumpets.

As the ark of the Lord was entering into the city of David, Michael, the daughter of Saul, watched from a window.

And when she saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, she despised him in her heart.

Oh, what a sight to see in this moment as David has fought for the presence of God.

He's pursued it.

He's gone and God took 30,000 men to go and get the presence of God.

Now it's coming back.

He's watched this man die as he was trying to stop the Ark of the Covenant from falling.

Then it goes to the house of Obed Edom for three months.

And after that three-month period, it begins to come into the city.

And as the presence of God, the Ark of the Covenant, is coming through the city, it wasn't a golf clap.

It wasn't people yawning at it.

It wasn't a casualness.

It was trumpets and it was celebration and it was a moment that David wanted to bring intentionality back to God's presence.

It was a sight to behold as the whole city gathers around.

And they're taking in this moment as something that they had neglected for decades is finally being brought back to the place that it was originally supposed to be.

And David takes a moment where he celebrates it.

And he honors God and he worships God.

And there's a couple reasons why I believe that David celebrated like he did as he's shouting and dancing, and as the king himself is shouting and dancing.

I believe there's a couple reasons, too.

Reasons.

David celebrated like he did because God had been so faithful to him over the years.

David danced and David worshiped and David celebrated because God's faithfulness to him had been so real.

David and the Lord had a history.

David and the Lord had been through some stuff.

It was all the way back to David in the fields with sheep when nobody saw him.

His worship is was a response to the goodness of God.

I put this in my notes.

David's public joy in 2 Samuel chapter 6 was rooted in a private history of walking with God.

2 Samuel 6 · chapter mention

It was rooted in a private history of him walking with God.

Long before the crowd saw David dance in Jerusalem, God had seen David worship in a field.

Long before he was bringing the ark back into the city.

I believe that David had danced like that in a field when nobody was watching.

David had learned to cultivate what it looked like to have private celebration and to honor God in the private moments before it ever happened publicly.

So David just celebrates because of God's faithfulness over his life.

But here's the second reason I believe that David celebrated like he did.

Because David was setting the spiritual tone for the people.

He was celebrating the spiritual tone for his people.

David had led thousands of men into war.

David had sent out hundreds and thousands of men.

David had fought for families, and David understood that people do what people see.

So David would not stand on the sidelines and celebrate and think somebody else was going to honor the presence of God.

David got in the middle and led the charge, and he was the one that celebrated the presence of God.

He didn't just assume that somebody else was going to celebrate it.

He did it.

He celebrated the presence of God.

The king went first.

Can I just tell you this morning that people are watching the spiritual tone of our life?

People are watching how we live our lives.

Can I just go even further?

Let me speak to the parents and grandparents in the room.

Parents, your kids are watching what gets celebrated in your home.

Your kids are watching what you value.

Your kids are watching what you celebrate.

Because they're probably not going to do what you say, although you already know that.

But they will replicate what they see.

I wrote this last night in my notes.

I was just praying over this.

And I just put our kids don't inherit our convictions.

They inherit what we celebrate and prioritize.

They inherit what we celebrate and what we prioritize.

They notice what we get excited for.

Your colleagues notice what you celebrate in your life and what you make time for.

And David showed us that the presence of God is worth celebrating.

Amen.

He danced, he worshiped, he shouted, he celebrated.

Because God's presence was worth it.

So David pursued it, he honored it, he celebrated, and then number four, number four.

David prioritized God's presence.

David prioritize God's presence.

Verse 17, I want you to see this.

I want you to highlight this.

This is kind of the culmination of this moment here.

Verse 17.

And they brought the ark of the Lord, and they set it in its place.

Think of everything that has led up to this moment.

He's been crowned king, they've taken back over Jerusalem.

He's taken 30,000 men to go get the Ark of the Covenant.

They've brought it in, they've celebrated the presence of God, the Ark of the Covenant.

And then in verse 17, they brought the Ark of the Lord and they set it in its place.

I want you to notice it doesn't say a place.

In other words, David had already designed a place for it.

David knew exactly.

Once I get the Ark of the Covenant back, I know exactly where it's going.

David prioritized, he prepared a place for the Ark of the Covenant.

David, throughout his life, he had constructed buildings for himself, but he had deliberately prepared a place for the Ark of the Covenant.

David wasn't asking God to fit into the kingdom that he was building.

He built his kingdom with the presence and the power of God at the center of what he was going to do.

I love what C.S.

Lewis says, talking about putting first things first and prioritizing the presence of God.

Prioritizing things in our life.

C.S.

Lewis says this.

He says, put first things first, and we get second things thrown in.

Put second things first and we lose both first and second things.

When you put first things first, second things just kind of they'll find their way.

But when we put second things first, everything loses.

You can lose both first and second.

That's what David did.

David put first things first.

Prioritize the presence of God.

And why is it so important that we prioritize it?

Because when God's presence is prioritized, God's blessing follows.

God's blessings follow.

2 Samuel chapter 6, verse 11.

2 Samuel 6:11

When the ark was with Obed Edom in his house for three months, the Lord blessed Obed Edom and his entire household.

Can I tell you that the blessing of the Lord doesn't always result in material possessions?

It's not material provision.

Sometimes it's the blessing of his peace.

Sometimes it's the blessing of his wisdom.

It's the blessing of his conviction.

It's the blessing of his direction, of his joy and his faithfulness in our life.

And that's the blessing that David had.

God's blessing.

Because he prioritized it and he did it the right way.

It brought the blessing of God.

So as we're living out this value, as we're walking through this doorway, the doorway of the presence of God, how do you practically live this out every day?

How do you wrestle through this?

And I think it's as simple, and I want you to see this, that practicing the presence of God begins with learning to live aware that He is with us every day.

Practicing and living in the presence of God is as simple as understanding He's with me every single day.

And if we're not careful, church, we will neglect the presence of God to moments like this.

And we forget that God wants to be with us wherever we go.

And in every moment of every single day in Exodus 33, Moses told God, If your presence, if it doesn't go with me, I don't want to go.

I don't want it.

This week I found myself reading back over a book by a man named Brother Lawrence.

Brother Lawrence wrote a book, or a book was wrote about his life called Practicing the Presence of God.

Brother Lawrence was a monk in the 17th century.

And Brother Lawrence never stood on stages with thousands of people.

Brother Lawrence never preached to a lot of people at one time.

Brother Lawrence, as a matter of fact, was a monk who his main job was he cleaned the kitchen at the monastery.

And his life message was simply this: that God can use you wherever you are, because God's presence is with you.

Wherever you are, God's presence, it can be with you.

He learned that God was with us in every moment, that the presence of God was for the kitchen, it was for the work day.

And he said this.

I want to read this, and then we're going to pray, and we're going to spend just a moment worshiping.

The time of business does not with me differ from the time of prayer.

And in the noise and the clutter of my kitchen, while several persons are at the same time calling for different things, I possess God in as great tranquility as if I were upon my knees at the Blessed Supper.

In other words, God in every moment can speak to us.

I've asked the team to come and this morning we're going to just respond to the presence of the Lord just right where you are.

Will you just bow your heads?

Just close your eyes just right there.

Acts chapter 3.

Acts 3 · chapter mention

It says this, and this is going to be our response this morning, just right where you are.

Verse 19, it says, Now repent of your sins and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, and then times of refreshment will come from the presence of God.

And as the team leads us this morning, I want us just to do something very, very simple, just right where you are, with your eyes closed.

I want us to do what Acts says.

I want us to have a moment of repentance before the Lord.

And then as we repent, I want you to ask the Lord just to refresh your heart right here in his presence.

I think there's something significant when we come to the Lord and say, God, there are areas of sin in my life.

There's areas that maybe I've drifted.

And as we do that, I then want you to say, God, now refresh my heart.

That we repent.

And as we repent, the Bible says that times of refreshing would come.

So as our team leads us for just a moment.