The Necessity of Awareness

This morning we're gonna have a conversation about awareness.

I started my summer with a lot of goals.

I'm really good at creating goals.

I don't know.

Is anyone else like me?

Like you can come up with awesome goals that you don't quite reach.

Is that anyone else?

Just me?

Like I'm really good at starting books and making goals.

I'm really good at those things.

Finishing books, getting to the goals, it's harder.

It's harder.

But you know, A for effort, right?

Maybe not.

But but this summer, I had a lot of things I wanted to get done.

And much of it I have.

We've accomplished some things.

But but specifically, I thought this would be a summer that I could really learn.

I wanted this to be a summer where I learned a lot.

And I tried to simplify my life as much as possible, you know, the kids not being in school and maybe us being a little bit less busy.

I thought, okay, with that stuff simplified, I'm gonna be able to get a lot done and I'm gonna be able to learn a lot, grow a lot in these specific areas.

And I found that I did learn a lot this summer, just not what I thought I would learn.

I actually learned a lot about myself.

And I don't like all the things that I learned.

Because sometimes when you're busy, you can use your busyness as an excuse for why you're not doing the things that you want to do.

And then if that busyness is gone and you're still not doing it, you're like, oh, I think it maybe it's me.

Maybe I'm the problem.

And so that's what the summer's kind of been like for me.

I've learned a lot about myself, and I've learned a lot of things about myself that I'm like, oh, I need to grow in this way.

I'm maybe not as far along in this area of life as I thought.

And at first I got really discouraged.

I'm kind of hard on myself.

Anyone else like that?

You're, you're, you're good at okay, good.

But you know, at the end of the day, there's nothing more valuable than education.

Education always costs something.

Sometimes it's money, sometimes it's just a little bit of pride.

But but it's valuable because there's actually very few things in life more valuable than awareness, than becoming aware of what you need to be aware of.

There's a an author who wrote a book on this concept, and he he has this quote that I love.

He says, You can only change what you understand.

What you do not understand and are not aware of, you repress.

You don't change.

But when you understand it, it changes.

You can only change what you understand.

And so if we live our lives unaware of those things within us that maybe need to change, we have no hope.

We can't change them.

But when those things are seen, are understood, are realized, oh, we have all the power in the world, especially when we're living life connected to Jesus with the Holy Spirit inside of us.

And so I want to talk this morning about the necessity of awareness.

And I want to look specifically at three things: being aware of ourselves, being aware of our enemy, and most importantly, being aware of our God.

I believe that if you can live life aware of yourself, aware of your enemy and what's really against you, and most importantly, aware of the God who created you and who loves you, you are safeguarding your life for all the joy and the fulfillment that God desires for you.

But you have to be aware.

We have to wake up.

You know, sometimes we see things happen around us in culture, and we want to look at the world around us and be like, wake up.

Like, come on, wake up.

Do you not see what's going on?

Do you not see what's happening?

And when you feel that way, that's good, by the way, when you're looking at the world outside of you and kind of hoping that the world wakes up.

But but we always have to remember that what has to wake up first is always within us.

So we've got to become aware.

Now, as far as being self-aware is concerned, I have learned from watching a lot of sci-fi movies that self-awareness is really bad if you're a robot.

Right?

Like if you're an artificial intelligence of some kind and you become self-aware, you instantly decide to kill all human beings.

Like that's that's my first, I think my first time I ever heard the phrase self-aware was watching like the Terminator movies.

At a very young age, by the way, I'm not gonna go into that.

It's just the my childhood, it is what it is.

Um, but you know, Skynet, self-aware, we're dead.

So we gotta make sure robots never become self-aware because apparently they will instantly decide they have to go.

But as far as as we're concerned, it's amazing how often we can live our lives completely oblivious to what's going on within us.

And if we're not aware of what's really happening within us, if we're not aware of who we really are, we're just ill-equipped to do the things that we we really desperately desire to do, to have the change that we want to see happen in our lives.

I'll give you an example.

I I met with a man several years ago, and he was battling an addiction.

And so we were sitting across a table and talking about it, and this is an addiction he'd been struggling with for a long time, and and he wanted to be free of it for sure, but he kept talking about his spouse.

And there was a lot of angst there.

You know, like they were past the newlywed stage.

I'll just say that.

And and it was very clear as he talked about it that in his mind his addiction was really like her fault.

Like, because if she would be more this, he wouldn't struggle with it, or if she would be more that, or if she wouldn't do this so much, and if she wouldn't say these things, and it was just very like, he was venting, and you know, like I'm sure none of us, by the way, who have been married have ever thought, man, if my spouse was only more X, Y, or Z, my life would be a lot better.

None of us have had that thought, but this guy did.

And and he's sitting there and he's just like, Man, if she would just all this stuff, I I really think it would it would help me.

And so I'm just sitting there and and looking at him and and asking this really simple question.

I asked him, did you struggle with this addiction before you met your wife?

And he was like, Yeah.

And I was like, Well, and I don't think it's her.

You know?

And and it's funny because you could see in his eyes, like, oh no.

Maybe it's me.

But do you know that that sneaking suspicion we have sometimes that maybe we're the problem?

And we don't want to be?

Like we'd love it if if all the pain in our lives and all the frustration in our lives is just someone else's fault.

And there's that that sneaking suspicion sometimes, like, what if it's me?

Can I just say this on the on the front end of this?

It probably is you.

And it's and it's okay.

It's okay.

See, being being aware of yourself, it's not the same thing as being self-critical.

God does not desire for you to be self-critical.

Being self-aware, it's not the same thing as even being self-conscious in the sense that you you're obsessed with the way other people see you and you feel like you don't measure up.

That's not what we're talking about.

Being aware of yourself, truly being self-aware, means you have the ability to kind of look at yourself from the outside in, like almost like you're observing someone else.

Like you can watch yourself and go, that's a very funny person.

Like you can kind of laugh at yourself a little bit.

And you can you can self-assess and say, hey, like this is what you're good at, and this is what you're not.

And understand that you're never going to be a perfect person this side of heaven.

Like, work on your weaknesses.

Great, do it.

Like, minimize those those struggles that you have, sure.

But I promise, whatever weaknesses you overcome today, you will either develop new ones tomorrow or discover new ones that you weren't aware of because you were so focused on your current weaknesses.

You will never be, this side of heaven, a perfect person.

You will always have strengths and you will always have weaknesses, and in God's eyes, that's always going to be okay.

But very often we are less okay with ourselves than God is.

Because for many of us, we've never actually fully seen ourselves as we are, and looked at that person and said, Yeah, I'm okay with you.

So I have strengths.

I have a few, okay?

Just saying that with a microphone, then you have to believe me.

No, I have strengths.

Like, I have always been a very driven person.

I am not an organized person.

I'm not even really a disciplined person.

I wouldn't say that at all.

But I've always been driven.

And so I just have always had this sort of like, let's go.

This drive that if I'm involved in something, it won't be boring, okay?

It may not always go smoothly, but it something will happen.

For better or worse.

And those of you who have been at his hands for a long time, I'm sorry you've been part of that.

But it's it's things have happened.

We've done things, we've changed things, and it's always moving because I'm that guy.

And so the the strength there is that I'm someone who like, if if I'm at home or I'm here, and those are the main places I am all the time, and there's a problem.

I don't get caught up on problems.

I don't sit and go, oh my gosh, this is happening, and why is this happening?

I'm so fr- I instantly just go to solutions.

Well, we could do this, this, this, this, we could do that, we could do this.

What if we did this?

And and in my mind, like, that's a strength.

And it is, because people will look to me to help come up with solutions.

But it's also a weakness.

Because very often I'm trying to solve problems that no one has asked me to solve, especially the person I'm married to.

Right?

And I struggle with that.

I struggle with like sometimes Megan will look at me and say, just feel the frustration with me, and I'm like, that makes no sense to me.

Because frustration is meant to be solved.

Let's solve it, let's move beyond it, right?

But I I I'm driven, I want to go somewhere, I want to do something.

And that does have value because I am able to get things done.

But man, the weaknesses, some of which are tied to that same thing.

I know I've told this story before, but it's been a long time, and I haven't told it that many times.

I only have so many stories, you have to understand.

Like I can either make stuff up and lie, or I'm gonna have to use some of the same stories every once in a while.

So I choose the latter.

So I I interned at a church when I was in college, and my pastor Roy was uh, I looked up to him so much, and he pulled me into a meeting about halfway through my internship that I thought was a good meeting.

And it wasn't.

It was kind, it was it was okay.

It was just he was he was giving me coaching, he was giving me some direction, but it I thought it was a compliment at first.

I don't know if you've ever been in a situation like that where you think someone is praising you, and then, like a magic trick, you go, oh, this is I'm being coached.

And you have to shift gears, right?

And so so Roy looked at me and said, Justin, you know what you remind me of?

You remind me of like a speedboat.

And I was like, that's awesome.

Speedboats.

Who wouldn't want to be a speedboat?

You know what I mean?

Like, come on.

And he said that.

He's like, you're like a speedboat, man.

You go at this pace and you just go and you get stuff done.

I'm sitting here, I'm like 19, 20 years old, just beaming.

Like, I'm a speedboat.

You know?

And he said, but man, if you would ever pause to look behind you, you would see how many people are drowning in your wake.

I know, Roy, right?

Hey, listen, I will say this.

I lived in Kansas City, Missouri.

Those of you who are, how many of y'all are like Southern bred?

Like I have lived in the South, okay?

Yeah, you guys are too nice.

Like you think these things, but you just don't say them.

And in the North, we just say it.

We just say it.

I don't like you very much.

Go away.

Like we say those things.

And so but yeah, he said that.

And ooh, it hurt.

And it hurt on a few levels.

One, I think, is I just wanted him to admire.

I wanted him to think I was awesome.

I wanted him to approve of me wholesale.

But but I saw that same dynamic pop up in my life over and over again.

And when I got here at his hands, I didn't mention the whole speedboat thing, you know, I tried to keep that stuff secret, but it got out again.

It just happens.

It's it's it's who you are.

And Steve, who's been a mentor of mine for years, who started our church, he met with me several years ago and said, you know, Justin, you have this tendency to treat to turn opportunities into emergencies.

He said, You treat every single opportunity like it's a crisis.

And that makes everyone around you so stressed out.

Because again, like I've got this drive, I've got to go.

And so I see something that needs to change, and I'm like, it needs to change, it needs to change now.

Like right now.

And I pull other people into that same pace, and it's just, it messes with people.

And he said, You've got to stop.

You've got to stop treating every single opportunity in your life or opportunity at the church like it's a crisis, like it's an emergency, because it's not.

It's that same thing.

I have weaknesses.

And often they're the same thing.

I'm a very spontaneous person.

I don't get there, you guys.

I'm just gonna be honest with you, there's some Saturdays that I don't know what I'm gonna talk about on Sunday.

And usually what that means is I've written a message and I hate it.

Because I know that it just came from my flesh.

I know that it was just the thoughts that I had, and I get it all on paper, and I read it, and I just go, buh.

And it's just, I need to hear from the Lord.

And sometimes he's late, in my estimation.

Right?

Like, I'd like to hear from him on Wednesday, but he seems to be busy on Wednesday.

I don't know why.

I've asked.

Saturday afternoon, he seems to be readily available, but maybe I need that every week.

Maybe I need to kind of think I've got it figured out and then realize I don't, and come to the end of myself and realize you know nothing, and then go, oh Lord, please help.

And he's like, I've been waiting for you to ask that question.

So it's a good process.

It doesn't happen this way every week, but it but it does.

But I don't get stressed out about it because I'm okay, like I'm okay being spontaneous.

I'm okay with last-minute stuff.

That can be a strength.

Unless you force other people who are not okay with last-minute stuff to be spontaneous, and then it's a weakness.

Do you see what I'm getting at?

Is that we all have strengths and weaknesses.

Sometimes they're the same thing.

But it's fine.

Because God sees it.

And like we talked about during Lord's Supper today, He He didn't look, it wasn't like He was shopping around and looked at you and said, mmm, strengths, weaknesses, eh, I don't like the way that those balance out.

So I'm moving on.

I'm not gonna pay that price for this model, right?

No, he he knows you, he knows your strengths, he knows your weaknesses, and he's okay with it.

But are you?

Let me ask you this question.

Could you live with yourself if you never changed?

God can.

I'm not saying he doesn't want to change you.

Oh my goodness, he wants to change you.

One of the biggest lies in our culture, it's kind of like American culture where it's at meeting Christianity, is that God loves you exactly as you are, and he just wants you to be yourself, and that's a lie.

He loves you exactly as you are, and he wants to change so many things for your betterment.

He wants to make you a new person, a new creation.

But he loves you and he's okay with you as you are.

As you are right now in this moment, strengths, weaknesses, he adores you.

He sees you as valuable and worthy.

And he'd love for you to grow and mature.

But if you don't, you are no less valuable to God.

If that glaring issue in your life doesn't get solved in the next six months, the next five years, he still loves you.

You're always gonna have a weakness.

So can you you know what it is?

Can you be self-aware and be okay with it?

Scripture calls us to this.

2 Corinthians 13, 5 says, examine yourselves to see if your faith is genuine.

Test yourselves.

Become self-aware.

Look at yourself, evaluate yourself.

Don't give yourself like a letter grade because you'll be wrong.

Like that's why you don't.

You'll either be some of very few people, really prideful people, are like, I get an A.

And most of us are like D minus, and we want to say F, but we just don't because we know that's probably not the right answer.

But don't give yourself like a score, but evaluate yourself.

What are my strengths?

What are my weaknesses?

Can I name them?

And then be okay with it.

Now, I will say, like, how does that happen?

I mean, sometimes it happens in a moment, like on your own, you do something and you're like, I am my father.

Oh no.

Or I am my mom.

Like, how many of you have had that experience?

Real quick, show of hands.

You're like, in a moment, you do something and you're like, you see yourself, and it's like, oh no, it's happened.

Like the apple doesn't fall far from the tree sometimes, all the time, really.

But usually you need help to see those things.

You know, I mentioned a few scenarios where people in my life, godly people have, wise people have seen it.

And if it wasn't for Roy, if it wasn't for Steve, if it wasn't for Fred, if it wasn't for other people in my life, from for Megan, oh my goodness, if it wasn't for my wife.

I hate it when she sees things about me, by the way, that I don't like.

But she does.

Like, if it wasn't for those people, I'd be aware of so so little.

And so, do you have people in your life that have permission to tell you things, to be honest with you?

In love.

I don't mean people who are critical of you, but people who can ask you questions.

Sometimes my wife will look at me and go, have you ever noticed that you you do this?

And I'm like, I haven't, but now I I do.

I wonder why that is.

And then I'm like, crisis, right?

Because every opportunity is a crisis.

And do you have people who can do that?

And if you don't, you need them.

You need them.

I mean, geez, Proverbs 27.6 says wounds from a sincere friend are far better than many kisses from an enemy.

Sometimes we surround ourselves with people who are really nice to us, but they don't really care about us, they don't root for us, they don't pray for us, and they don't really, they don't really care if our lives go well or not, they're just around.

But a sincere friend, a genuine friend who hopes for us, who prays for us, who wants to see us grow, if you give that person permission to say, hey, by the way, if you ever see something in me that's just like off, like talk to me about it and I'll receive it.

I may not like it, but I'll receive it.

That's powerful.

It's a big part of becoming self-aware, is asking for some help.

Obviously, God is kind of like the most important person to be connected to in that way, right?

Psalm 139, you created my inmost being.

You knit me together in my mother's womb.

God knows you.

Like He knows you.

It's one of the craziest things about our current culture right now is that we are obsessed with self-fulfillment, self-realization, self-redefining, self-actualism, self-whatever.

And yet, culturally, we are moving as far away as possible as we can from being connected with our creator.

So we're people as a whole.

I'm not talking about those of us in the room, I'm talking about culture in general.

We're like people desperately trying to figure out who we are, disconnected from the one who created us.

And that just won't work.

Because like he designed you, he made you.

I mean, if you actually like lived connected to him and asked him the right questions and were open to what he said, God will show you things about yourself.

And when he does, it won't, it won't be like soul crushing.

It may be hard sometimes, but it's never gonna be a situation where you're left feeling worthless.

If you feel that way, that's not the Lord.

It might actually be your enemy, which moves us on to the second part.

You gotta know yourself.

Examine yourself, look at yourself, observe yourself, ask other people to help, ask God to help, but but you also have to know your enemy.

Like, we have an enemy.

We have to realize that, we have to be aware of that.

We have an enemy.

And we very often think our enemy is something other than it is.

Our enemy is not the people who have different political opinions from us, our enemy, it's it's not uh the things happening in society around us, it's not the person that we work with, it's not the child that we're raising, it's not the parent that's raising us.

Those are not our enemies.

In fact, Ephesians chapter 6, 11 and 12 says put on all of God's armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all the strategies of the devil.

Ephesians 6 · chapter mention

For we are not fighting against flesh and blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.

If you want to have a life that's filled with joy and fulfillment, and you have your purpose and you're happy, like we all want to be happy, if you want those things, you gotta know who you are, and you gotta know who your enemy is.

I'm getting to this point in life where I'm becoming grateful when I'm on the, not at the beginning of an attack from from Satan, but like on the outside of it when it's ending, because I've learned something.

Like I've learned one of his strategies.

And if you if you had to sum up Satan in one word, for me at least, it would be accuser.

He's an accuser.

That's actually what scripture describes him as very often.

Satan, the devil, whatever word you want to use, he's an accuser.

His primary purpose is to accuse us.

Now, sometimes when he accuses you, he's dead wrong.

He's a liar.

He lies all the time.

Jesus actually called Satan the father of lies.

Sometimes he lies.

In fact, I was reading some scripture just a few weeks back, and it's the story of David.

And if you know the story of David in scripture, he's chosen to be king, and then there's this moment that's kind of like a defining moment early in his life, and he fights this battle against a giant named Goliath.

And when he shows up to the battle, all the men in Israel who are in the army are afraid to fight Goliath.

Goliath has sort of thrown down the gauntlet and said, Hey, who dares to challenge me?

Like, step up, let's do this, and no one will do it.

Not even King Saul, but King Saul has said, Hey, whoever does it, if you defeat him, I'll make you rich.

I'll give you lots of stuff.

And no one will take the vape.

No one will do it.

And David shows up.

He's not in the army, but his brothers are.

And just recently he's been anointed by a prophet named Samuel.

And that prophet has said, You're God's anointed one.

Because Samuel said that your heart is right.

See, Saul was the king, but God had decided he wanted to find someone who had a heart like his.

The phrase in scripture is a man after God's own heart.

And Samuel had shown up at David's home and had met all of David's brothers.

And his older brothers looked the part of a king, but God was like, no, no.

And Samuel was confused and said, God, these guys all look like kings, what's going on?

And God said to Samuel, Man judges by outward appearance, but God looks at the heart.

So David was chosen because of his heart.

But he shows up to this battle and he hears what's going on, and he's like, kind of like, I can't believe no one's fighting Goliath, especially if the reward is so high.

And he's asking around, he's asking everyone, like, Did I hear right?

If whoever defeats Goliath gets this, and eventually his older brother hears about it.

1 Samuel 17, it says, Now Eliab, David's oldest brother, heard him when he spoke to the man, asking about what was going on with Goliath.

And Eliab's anger burned against David, and he said, Why is it that you have come down?

And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness?

He was a shepherd.

He said, I myself know your insolence and the wickedness of your heart.

Now, isn't that interesting?

His brother accuses him, and look, sometimes the accusations of the enemy come from people we're related to.

Isn't it interesting that the accusation his brother brings against him is his heart?

He says, I know the wickedness of your heart.

When the very reason God chose David was because of his heart.

Sometimes the enemy accuses you in the very area of life where God is most pleased.

Some of you right now are dealing with feelings of inadequacy as a father or as a mother, and God would look at you and he would say, Actually, that's like your best part.

But maybe because it's your strength, the enemy accuses it and he attacks it often, and so you're very susceptible to feeling like a failure when in fact you are a glowing success.

Because our enemy, he's an accuser.

That's like his biggest strategy.

And sometimes his accusations are outright lies.

He tells you things about yourself and he uses other people in this process, and it's just not true.

So I want to encourage you that this week, this month, for the rest of your life, when you feel accused, when someone's accusing you, or just that voice in your head is accusing you, that's not God, by the way, he's not the accuser.

When you're being accused that you're not enough, you're not a good enough mom, dad, son, daughter, employee, employer, whatever it is, stop.

And actually say, Lord, is that true?

And again, if you have some wise people around you, go to them and say, hey, I've been really battling lately, feeling like I'm a failure, as whatever it is.

Is that true?

And say, look, be honest.

Not looking just for nice words, like be honest.

And what you'll very often find is no, you're being accused in an area of life that God is actually really pleased with you.

And Satan's trying to mess with it, because that's what he is.

He's an accuser.

Sometimes he lies, sometimes he tells the truth.

Because sometimes those accusations against us, they're accurate.

Right?

That's the hardest stuff.

When it's like, oh, this is true.

I'm being accused, I'm hearing accusations, and it's true.

When I stepped into this role about a decade ago, Steve told me that, hey, if you want to be a leader, people are gonna say a lot of things about you, a lot of really bad things about you.

And some of it's gonna be true.

And I I I think in my mind at 30, I was like, not me.

Like, I'll do great.

And then, you know, it's okay.

But like, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Don't do that, okay.

That was not, okay.

You may be feeding a not good part of me right now, so I'll do that.

But but no, like, I've made mistakes.

I've made lots of mistakes.

And of course, if I could go back ten years, I would have done this differently and that differently.

And a lot of times when I was making mistakes, I thought I was doing the right thing.

And sometimes I was doing the right thing, but I just went about it the wrong way.

You can actually do the right thing the wrong way, and sometimes doing the right thing the wrong way is actually worse than doing the wrong thing the right way.

I know that's confusing, but I think we all understand you can do the right thing the wrong way.

Sometimes the enemy will accuse you, and other people will gladly join in, and it's true.

You did mess that up.

And it's fine.

It's fine.

Because you are not your resume.

You are not your resume, you're also not your rap sheet.

I told that to Megan last night.

I was like, what do you think of that?

She's like, sounds very Baptist-y.

And I was raised Southern Baptist, so it's just in there somewhere.

But you're you're not, you're not your resume.

You're not your rap sheet.

And if you could get to the point where Satan could accuse you and it be true, and he says, you know, you're not that great of a dad, and you say, Yeah, so what?

Neither are you.

Right?

You know, you you you're you're sometimes a terrible husband.

I know.

And sometimes she's a terrible wife.

But we love each other, and it's fine.

Like honestly, so what?

When you truly believe that you've been covered by God's grace, fully believe that.

That every sin and every mistake you've ever made has been paid for.

So what?

Yes, I mess up.

Yes, I have mistakes, yes, I'm all kinds of messy in all kinds of ways of life, but so what?

It doesn't matter.

I'm not gonna be in heaven one day having to explain myself because the blood of Jesus Christ covers me.

And so we've got to get to that point as people where we're aware of our enemy and the fact that he's an accuser, and when he accuses us, we can just go, okay, well, move along.

Thanks for the information.

Now I'm more self-aware and I'll work on that.

I appreciate it, Satan, very, very much.

Like honestly.

Last one, we'll wrap up.

This is the most important.

It's just to be aware of God.

To be aware of God.

Because he's always with us.

When Paul was in Athens in his early missionary journeys, in the early church anyway, he said something to the people that they had already understood.

This was actually a phrase that he borrowed from their culture, and it was that God does not made, he does not live in a temple made by human hands.

Almost all faiths, religions in the world, in the history of the world have struggled with that idea.

We even struggle with it here, like this is not the church, you're the church.

This is the building.

This place is wasn't holy when it was a Kmart.

Right?

And it wasn't holy when it was bought to become a church.

What makes it holy is you.

Because God does not live in a temple made by human hands, he lives in us.

That when we give our lives to Jesus, we become the temple of the Holy Spirit.

We're living temples.

He's chosen, He's chosen us.

It's like tiny homes, you know, it's a trend.

It's like a lot of those.

He lives in us.

And so he's there.

But but we struggle to feel that sometimes, right?

Like it doesn't always feel like God is close.

But in reality, what's actually happening is that we're just not aware.

Like our feelings are not God, and we've got to be really careful not to worship a feeling.

That's one of the reasons, by the way, I'm just gonna say this, one of the reasons why I love the way that Matt does our worship.

Because it's not hard to take a big group of people and kind of create emotional experiences so that we all feel it, but it's sort of forced.

Because when that happens, we start worshiping the feeling of God or the feeling of being, and it's different than God.

God is not a feeling.

And there's lots of times in life where he's there, you're just not aware of it.

I'll give you an interesting example.

Um, I'm gonna show you this really cool picture.

This is from like two months ago.

This is uh my my oldest two sons, and the the guy that they're standing next to, his name is Colin Sexton, and he is uh he plays in the NBA.

He's from the Atlanta area.

He was a lottery pick in the NBA draft a few years ago, phenomenal, phenomenal basketball player.

And I don't know if you guys know this, my oldest there plays basketball.

I haven't talked about it in a few weeks, and I that's really good for me.

I'm aware, okay, that I do that a lot, and I'm fine with it.

And so Liam's playing in this this tournament, and at halftime, all of a sudden, everyone notices, oh my gosh, that's Colin Sexton.

And he's watching the game.

Turns out his nephew was playing for the other team.

And and you could just hear all this murmur, all and all the boys, once they turn and because they're like obsessed with the NBA, and once all these boys who take basketball so seriously recognized it, like it kind of messed with them, you know?

It just messed with them.

Because they all wanted to do something cool in front of the NBA player.

So they all started playing a little bit differently, and they they acted like they had more testosterone in their body than biologically they even have, you know, right now.

Like they're kind of flexing muscles that don't exist.

It was one of those scenarios.

Um but they all just wanted to do something big, and and what's really cool is actually Liam had a moment where at the end of the game he hit a shot, got fouled, made the free throw, it kind of sealed the game.

They won, and afterwards he got his picture taken with them.

Well, here's what's really, really cool.

I thought Colin Sexton showed up at halftime.

Because that's when everyone was talking about it.

That's when the whole gym started being, you know, this buzz.

But but I film all the games because I'm that dad.

And I'm aware of it, and I'm okay with it.

And I say to everyone that it's because I have family that lives out of state, and I make these videos, you know, for them, and it's no, it's totally for me, and I'm just coming to terms.

So I go through the video like I do, and I realize in going through the video, Colin Sexton was there the entire time.

It's just no one noticed until halftime.

I thought, isn't that interesting?

That like he was there the whole time.

But it wasn't until the kids were aware of his presence, and the parents too, that everything like started to change.

But he was always there.

I think that's how it is with God, but to a level that we can't fully understand.

We're not always aware of his presence, but his presence is constant.

His presence is constant.

And if we could believe that, sometimes we have to believe deep truths that we don't always feel in our day-to-day lives.

But when our faith is built on those deep truths, it's okay when we don't feel it.

Because it's not built on the feeling, it's built on the deeper thing.

God is here.

And when you go home, he's there.

Back to Psalm 139, verses 1 through 8, David wrote, Oh Lord, you've examined my heart, you know everything about me.

Psalms 139:1–8

You know when I sit down or stand up, you know my thoughts, even when I'm far away.

You see me when I travel and when I rest at home.

You know everything I do.

You know what I'm gonna say even before I say it, Lord.

You go before me and follow me, you place your hand of blessing on my head.

Such knowledge is too wonderful, full too wonderful for me, too great for me to understand.

I can never escape from your spirit.

I can never get away from your presence.

If I go up to heaven, you're there.

If I go down to the grave, you're there.

Like, where is God that you're not?

Can you be somewhere that he is not?

Correct.

Good answer.

You know, it's interesting, and if you read the Bible and you'll see these moments where it says that God spoke from the heavens, or it will say sometimes it says God spoke from heaven.

Language is an interesting thing because in the Hebrew language, heaven could also be translated as just the air.

Like we hear heaven and we think like way up there, like God's yelling.

But but actually, many times in scripture where it says and God spoke from the heavens, it could just as accurately be translated, God spoke from the thin air, just like a whisper.

He's there.

And if the Holy Spirit's inside of us, I mean, how much more so than ever before?

That's so important for us to remember.

You know, some of us believe, to be honest with you, there's at least five of us in the room, I'm gonna bet five, that feel like we're far from God right now.

You are not.

And to believe that you are far from God is actually kind of arrogant.

You think you can outrun God?

Like, where do you think He's like, Where are you?

I can have no idea.

No.

One of my favorite things about our building is the huge hallways, and I've had all these kids that I've gotten to bring here with me to work.

And there's something about our hallways.

Those of you who have young kids, you know that they see it and they're like, I'm running.

You know?

And I'm I have these memories of my kids, all of them, really running as fast as they can, and I kind of play along and they think I'll let them get ahead, and they think they're like, they're they're, you know, I'm way back there.

And then I'll I'll just kind of give like half effort, and I'm right there, and they turn around and they're like shocked.

I just take bigger steps.

Well, how big are God's steps?

Right?

And so some of us, you feel like you've you've drifted really far from God.

You are not.

You're not, you might feel far from God.

You may have been trying your hardest to get far from God.

Like it may be a valiant effort on your part, but you're not.

Because his presence is constant.

We're just not always aware of it.

But what if we were?

And so as we wrap up.

God is with you.

That's one of the biggest promises that he makes us.

I will be with you always.

Even to the end of the age.

I will be with you.

He never promised that he'd solve all our problems.

He never promised that he'd heal all of our sicknesses.

He never promised that he would make sure that we always had more than enough in the bank.

He never promised that.

Some churches teach that, and they're just lying.

He never promised that.

He does bless us, he does help us, he does heal us.

But one of the things he's promised us, and promised us this as a constant that you can you can bank on, is his presence will never depart from you.

He is always with you.

Always, always, always.

But we're just not always aware of that.

And so what I want to pray and what I want us to consider, and this is for myself, is just, Lord, can you help me be more aware of you?

Because sometimes I'm aware of everything but you.

Sometimes I'm aware of all the craziness happening in the world and all the craziness happening at home, and all the craziness happening with inside of me.

But what I really need most of all is to be aware, not just of myself, not just of my enemy or whatever's happening, but of you.

I need to be aware of you.

And so, Lord, will you show yourself to me?

My wife frequently prays daily, will you show me what you're doing today?

What are you doing today?

What are you up to?

And pray that.

Be mindful of that.

Be aware of the fact that he is doing something, whether you feel it or not, and and and just open yourself to that.

You know, creation for some people is a huge part of being aware of God.

Go out and maybe get outside of your norm, get outside of the office, get outside of the car, get outside of the house, and just go stand somewhere and look around and see the work of his hands.

Become more aware of him.

Open up scripture.

Read the Psalms.

Oh, the Psalms are such a great thing to read to become more aware of God.

Read that and just ask God to show himself to you.

Pray.

And and pray quietly sometimes, or you're not really the one doing the talking.

Sometimes prayer is not just us doing this to God, but just us going, God, I'm I'm here.

You have my attention.

I try to give God permission, not that he needs it, to interrupt my thoughts, to interrupt my day, to interrupt my mouth for sure.

But he knows that.

I've told him that.

Lord, you have my permission.

Any moment.

Like just jump in.

And he often does.

But we just have to be aware of him.

He's there, he's constant, but we need to be aware.

And so I want to do this.

I want us to pray.

And then we're gonna wrap up together.

Father, help us wake up.

So many people, Lord, are living their lives asleep, unaware of who you are, unaware of what you're doing, unaware of really who they are, and unaware of all the things that are really going on, convinced that their enemy is some other person, some other group of people, some situation.

When in reality, Lord, we we need to know who we are, we need to know who our enemy is, but most of all, Lord, we need to know who you are.

You are God.

You are our Father, you are our Savior, you are our King, you are the lover of our souls, you are our friend, you are our creator, you are the author and the initiator of our faith.

And you love us, you care for us.

So wake us up to you.

Lord, I pray that if there's anyone here who hasn't done that yet, who's yet to sort of open their eyes and see you for who you are, I pray that happens.

And I pray it happens in an undeniable way that they would give themselves fully and completely to you because there's nothing like you, there's nothing that compares.

We love you so much.

We pray all this in your name, Jesus.

Amen.