Low Batteries

Well, I don't know how you guys have spent the last 161 days, but I imagine it's not how you planned it at the very beginning of 2020.

There've been a lot of good opportunities.

I'll say for us as a church, we've painted almost every wall in the building.

That's been great.

We wouldn't have been able to do that otherwise.

We've had a chance to really knock out some projects that we had had on our list for a long time.

We never would have had the chance to do that if uh if we if we had the weekly rhythm we we've had.

So I'm grateful in a sense that we had a little bit of a break.

But at the same time, there are a lot of things I spent the last 161 days, 23 Sundays doing that uh I really didn't want to do.

That's not how I would I would spend my time if I had that option.

For example, prior to the whole COVID thing, all the lockdowns, I didn't realize how many things in my house need to be recharged on like a daily basis.

Like when you have four kids and school ends in March and there's nothing going on, everything's canceled, and it's like the hottest summer you can remember.

Uh your kids are just inside, they're just using electronics, often your electronics, and about every 10 minutes for the last five months, I've had a child come up to me and say, This is dead.

I need you to put new batteries in this, please recharge this.

And and it's like a constant thing.

I'm always dealing with low batteries at home.

It's funny, my my favorite situation, the best, is when my oldest son comes up to me and says, Dad, I need to borrow your charger for my iPad.

And just so you can understand what that statement actually means, he doesn't have an iPad.

All right, it's my iPad.

It's just that what happened was a year ago, uh, I upgraded, I got a new one, and I don't even have a computer, I just use, I just use tablets.

And so I got a new one and I kept my old one, you know, just to have a backup and maybe use it for some other things.

But he just assumed, being my child, that, oh, if I got a new one, the old one's mine.

Because that's the way, that's the way children think, right?

They claim things.

And those of you who have young children or you don't have children yet, but you want to and you're gonna pursue that one day, uh, everything you have will be theirs, whether you like it or not, whether you even give it to them or not, it's it's it's theirs.

So just know that.

And so when he says my iPad, he means my iPad.

And when he says, can I borrow your charger?

What he actually means is, can I take your charger, Dad, and can I plug it in in a place in the house that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever, and I'm gonna forget where I put it so that when you need to charge your stuff, you have to move furniture around to find the charger that I borrowed.

That's what he means.

That's the best.

The worst, though, is when one of your children brings you your phone that you didn't know they had.

And they're like, hey, someone's calling you, and it's like an important call that you've been waiting for, that you've scheduled out, and you say hello, and within 10 seconds the whole thing dies because your kids had your phone for like two hours with the brightness all the way up on the screen playing a game, and they didn't even think to ask your permission or or check on that.

And so they bring you the phone and you can't find a charger because your 10-year-old borrowed your charger to charge his iPad, right?

You can't find a charger anywhere in your house, so you have to go into your car, turn your car on, let it let it charge in your car for a while, and have the whole conversation there.

That's that's the worst.

I've spent a lot of time this last few months dealing with low batteries.

And that's actually what we're gonna talk about today.

Low batteries.

That's the title of the message.

And just so you know, no one's gonna see this coming.

We're not talking about actual batteries.

It's a metaphor for you, for all of us.

What do we do when we're drained?

And no matter what we try, we seem, we can't seem to find a charger that works.

I don't know if you've dealt with low batteries in the last few months.

I don't know if you've seen anything happening in the world or experienced anything personally that maybe has been a little draining.

But I've I've spent the last four or five months really dealing with with low batteries, as I'm sure many of you have.

And this morning we're gonna talk about what it looks like to recharge.

My prayer is that for all of you here, for all of you at home, that this morning is a recharge for you.

Because hear me when I say this, there is there is a kind of charge, there is a kind of power and energy that you can only get from God.

You cannot get it anywhere else, you cannot find it anywhere else, the world does not offer it.

But when you spend time in the presence of God, you get filled up in a way that you just can't experience anywhere else.

And this morning, we're gonna we're gonna focus on that.

We're gonna we're gonna focus on the fact that we have the ability to be in the presence of God, not just right now, but all the time.

And when we get drained, when we're exhausted, when we're tired, when we're confused, when we're worried, there is one source for the power that we need.

It's Jesus Christ, and that's it.

So we're gonna talk about what it means to get recharged.

I want to open up Jeremiah chapter 17.

Jeremiah 17 · chapter mention

This is kind of a foundational scripture for us at His Hands.

We share it a lot.

And by the way, I'm reading all of this off the His Hands Mobile app.

If you want to follow along, you at home, His Hands Mobile app.

It's upgraded, now it has worship, all kinds of stuff.

So if you want to listen to the His Hands Worship team, which by the way, have you guys forgotten how good our worship team is?

I mean, come on.

They're so talented, they love the Lord so much, they've they've worked so hard, and now you can listen to the His Hands Worship team anywhere you are.

It's pretty awesome.

So, Jeremiah 17, 5 through 6, this is what the Lord says.

By the way, I'm a Jesus follower, and I know many of you are as well, many of you watching your Jesus followers.

And so anytime that the Lord is talking, we got to pay attention.

And one of the things I love about Jesus, and he's so different than any leader that we see in this world, he's so different than most of the politicians and leaders that just live in this wishy-washy, non-committal, generalized statements like we gotta make change happen.

What does that mean?

Change?

You know what I mean?

We need to do something about this.

What is the something?

It's something, and we're gonna do it, right?

Jesus isn't like that.

When God speaks, he speaks in certain terms.

He speaks in very certain terms because he knows the truth, because he is the truth.

And so just notice how certain these terms are.

This is what the Lord says.

Cursed, it's a strong word, are those who put their trust in mere humans, who rely on human strength and turn their hearts away from the Lord.

They are like stunted shrubs in the desert, with no hope for the future.

They will live in the barren wilderness in an uninhabited, salty land.

Translation If you rely on anything short of God, if your source for whatever power you need to power through life is anything other than God, you will be dealing with low batteries your entire life.

It's not a hypothetical.

It's just saying, look, if you have any source that you're relying on other than God, eventually, maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow.

Hey, maybe you're a person that has incredibly high bandwidth and you're just a driven human being and you're smart and you're capable, but at some point in time, you're gonna use up all that you've got.

And you're gonna be drained, you're gonna be tired, you're gonna be exhausted, you're gonna be frustrated, because that is what happens.

These are certain terms, that is what happens when we rely on ourselves.

Susan Craig is one of the founding leaders here at our church.

And uh, and Susan used to say this thing all the time.

I'd never heard anyone, really honestly to this day, I've never heard anyone say it but her.

And she said, one of our biggest struggles in life is dealing with good flesh.

There's a term in scripture for just human nature, human wisdom, human creativity, human energy, and it's the term flesh.

When you see flesh talked about in scripture, it usually has a negative connotation.

It's not saying that we're negative, like our physical bodies are negative, not at all.

It's just saying that us on our own, in and of ourselves, that's flesh.

And flesh always disappoints.

What this was saying really is that when you run on flesh, you run on fumes.

Period.

End of story.

When you run on flesh, you run on fumes.

But Susan would say that our biggest challenge is actually dealing with our good flesh.

All of us know what bad flesh is.

We don't need to go through a list of bad flesh.

We've all got it, we've all experienced it.

We all have those those negative tendencies, those things that we know we know it's wrong, or we know it's not helpful, it's self-destructive, we know it's not, it's not anything productive, we just kind of go there because it's how we cope.

That's like bad flesh.

That stuff is obvious.

But Susan would say that that our biggest challenge is learning how to deal with the good flesh.

A lot of us, we have we have good flesh, we're smart, we're driven, we're creative, and we have high bandwidth, we can handle a lot.

It takes a lot, maybe, to stress you out.

And sometimes when you have good flesh, and honestly, up to a certain point in life, you've been fairly successful just doing it on your own.

You're like, hey, I mean, I've done it my way.

I have relied on human strength.

I don't feel like a stunted shrub in the desert.

I feel like life's going pretty well.

Just wait.

What this is saying is that if we rely on our flesh on just us, if that's the source of power, yes, we might be able to have a really successful year.

You might be able to have a really successful decade, 20, 30 years even.

But if you want to have a successful life, if you want to get to the finish line and be able to say, yes, I'm where I hoped to be.

I've lived the life that God created me to live.

I've done it.

If you want to get there, you can't rely on flesh.

You will run on fumes, you will not make it, but if you rely on the power of God, it's a whole different story.

And that's why we keep reading Jeremiah 17, verses 7 through 8, say, but blessed, it's the opposite of cursed.

Jeremiah 17:7–8

Blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence.

They are like trees planted along a riverbank with roots that reach deep into the water.

Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought.

Their leaves stay green and they never ever stop producing fruit.

That's what life is like when you live deeply rooted in a relationship with Jesus Christ.

Now, sometimes, honestly, as Jesus followers, we forget that.

Sometimes we forget the strength that we have at our disposal.

And we need to be reminded of that.

But this is the truth.

A life deeply rooted with Jesus.

A life relying on his strength, not our own.

That's what it looks like.

A tree planted so close to a river that it never runs out of water.

It doesn't matter what the circumstances are like, doesn't matter what the weather's like.

It could be it could be rain, it could be sun, it could be a drought, it doesn't matter.

The leaves stay green, fruit, it's still produced because it's got a source.

If we run on flesh, we end up running on fumes, but when we rely on God, when we truly and totally just put all of our trust and all of our hope on God, it's a whole different story.

That's why Isaiah chapter 40, verses 28 through 31 say that the Lord is the everlasting God.

Isaiah 40:28–31

I love that it says everlasting.

We're talking about low batteries.

There's lots of batteries that try to describe themselves as everlasting, you know?

But no, no, no, no, no.

The Lord is the everlasting God, He's the creator of all the earth.

He never grows weak or weary.

God never, He's never tired.

Like I'm a father, I'm tired all the time.

I mean, I'm just being honest.

I love my children so much, but there's so many times that they walk into my room at night at a certain time, and I'm like, no, I'm done.

I'm just done.

And like I have to find something, you know, especially when I rely on myself.

But I'm tired.

But our father, our heavenly father, he never grows weak.

He's never weary.

That means you never go to God with a problem.

He's like, what now?

Please let me sleep.

Please, I've had a long day.

God never thinks that way because he never runs out of energy, he never grows weary, he's never weak.

No one can, no one can measure the depths of his understanding of his understanding.

That means that he never doesn't know what to do.

Like he's he's never perplexed.

You will never come to God with a problem.

And he scratches his head and goes, I just don't know what to tell you.

You're gonna have to figure this one out.

That's never what he thinks because he's he has such a depth of understanding, it never runs dry.

He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless.

So if you're here today, or if you're watching from home and you feel a little weak or you feel powerless, good news, our God gives strength to the weak, our God gives power to the powerless.

That's what he does.

It's just what he does.

It says, even youths, youths, I don't know how to pronounce that, even kids will become weak and tired, and young men will fall in exhaustion.

But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength.

They will soar high on wings like eagles, they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not grow faint.

When you rely on him, when you put your trust in him, that's what life is like.

At least that's what it's supposed to be like.

And that's the challenge we often have as believers is we have these promises in Scripture that are given with certainty.

You know, there's there's no wishy-washiness there at all.

It doesn't say, hey, he might give you strength, and he might give you power.

And you know, you might fall and you're exhausted and you've got nothing left, or maybe he'll give you a little extra today.

That's not what it says.

It's it's certain, it's a promise.

And one of the biggest challenges we have as Jesus followers is to kind of bridge that disconnect for the promises of God, which are powerful and certain, and then yet I'm not experiencing this.

I'm not I'm not feeling this promise.

What's what's wrong?

How can I bridge that gap?

That's like the constant thought process we have to have as believers.

Clearly, if God has promised something and I'm not experiencing it, well, I either one of two things needs to happen.

I need to go to God like David does often in the Psalms and say, Hey, God, I'm doing my part.

I thought you said that you were gonna give me strength.

I thought you said you were gonna give me power when I'm I'm weak.

I feel weak and weary right now, so what gives?

What gives God?

You need to do it, and often what you find when you do that with God is He reminds you, and you're like, Oh yeah, I should probably spend time with you, you know?

And like, Lord, I know I haven't like prayed very often, and Lord, I know I haven't been in your word, and I haven't really been thinking much about you.

And yes, Lord, I've been completely distracted by other things, but where's the power?

You know, like that happens so much in my life.

We live in such an interesting time, guys.

And I'll be honest with you, in in some ways, in some ways, we should be grateful that we're alive right now because we live in interesting times, we live in unprecedented times, at least in terms of our lifetime, and that means we live right now in a time where we have tremendous opportunity, tremendous opportunity to show the whole world around us who our God really is, and that when the world is uncertain and when the world is burning down, and when the world doesn't know what to do, we've got a God who gives us strength, and people should look at Jesus' followers and be like, How are you calm?

How in the world are you not freaked out?

How are you not worried?

It's like I have God, and He's alive and He's real, and you can have Him too.

But that has to mean, yeah, but in order to have that, we've got to be connected to Him.

It's really simple.

See, that's that's that's the thing about life is if you want to have a great life, you just have to master the simple stuff.

Like this, the simple stuff.

It's like if you see someone who's in tremendous physical shape.

So, you know, not me, um, but someone else.

Someone who wouldn't be like sweating up here because maybe they've gained the COVID-19 or maybe not.

Maybe it's all just the camera that adds this way, who knows?

Um, you know, so not me, but you find someone who's in just tremendous physical shape, if you go up to that person and say, How did how do you look like that?

They're gonna tell you stuff you already know.

They're gonna say things like, Oh, I I really watch what I eat and I exercise every day.

And you're like, Oh yeah.

Okay, so like the the basics, yes, the basics every day.

If you find someone who's doing really well financially, and I'm not talking about maybe someone who inherited a ton of wealth, but like someone who's just been successful and financially they're in good shape.

And you say, What do you do?

They're like, I don't spend more money than I make.

And I budget and I invest, and you're like, oh yeah, I've been meaning to do that.

You know how often in life we spend years meaning to do things we already know how to do?

It's amazing, isn't it?

I'm done meaning to do things.

I want to do the things that that God has said to do, the the obvious, the simple things, and that's that's where success in life comes when you just do the simple stuff over and over and over again.

And there's this one simple principle when it comes to us and God that that we so easily forget.

We find it in Psalm chapter 16, verse 11.

Psalms 16:11

You will show me the way of life, granting me the joy of your presence and the pleasures of living with you forever.

The presence of God, just being in the presence of God is everything.

You want to know how to get charged up, you want to know how to feel full, how to be done with running on low batteries, it's just being in the presence of God, just being being near Him.

Have you ever been near God?

Like in a way that you could feel it, and you knew it wasn't in that moment like a faith thing, like you knew this is real.

This is real.

Did you feel tired in that moment?

Did you feel exhausted?

Really, oh I'm gonna take a nap right now.

I can't even know, right?

You you're like, I can do anything, I can run through a wall.

Because the presence of God is energizing.

The presence of God is just what it is.

When you're in the presence of God, you have power.

Because God has so much power, it cannot even be contained.

It just can't be contained.

That's that's why there's there's moments, there's just moments in the story of Jesus where we get to see his power sort of like, whoo.

We have to realize that Jesus didn't live in his own strength, his own power.

He lived completely and totally through the power of the Holy Spirit, the same spirit that we have.

Because when Jesus came to earth to live as one of us, he laid aside his natural power, you might say, his power that he just always has as the Son of God.

He laid that aside and he came to earth to live as one of us.

And so everything Jesus did, he did through the power of the Holy Spirit, which means that in the life of Jesus, we get to see just how powerful the Holy Spirit actually is.

Because Jesus just lived relying completely and totally on the power of the Spirit.

And there's certain moments where you sort of just get to see it kind of like overwhelm the people who are around.

One of my favorites is when Jesus gets arrested, and the soldiers come up to Jesus if you don't know the story, and they say, Are you Jesus of Nazareth?

And he says, I am.

And they all fall down, right?

It's just like a little glimpse of, like, oh wow, that's power.

When you're in the presence of God, there's power, and is power available to you because it's actually meant for you.

That's the beautiful thing.

God did not, He did not create us to be self-charging individuals.

We often live that way.

But the simple truth, the simple spiritual truth that we've got to get a hold of, remember, success is just doing the simple things, is we just we need to be in the presence of God.

Because if you don't spend time in the presence of God, then when you get drained, when you're running low, you're gonna look for something else to charge you.

But nothing else is meant to.

Nothing else is meant to.

Every other charge, it's like it's it's fleeing.

Even even like the best parts of life, even the stuff that you're like, pinch me, is this real?

It might fill you up for a little bit, but it doesn't last very long.

It's so easy for us, I think, to to look to other people to be God for us.

It'd be really weird if you walked up to someone and said, Hey, would you be God for me today?

I I'm gonna have I'm just gonna have you be God.

So you're you're responsible to give me everything I need.

You're responsible to meet all my needs to answer all my questions.

Okay, are you good with that?

If any person ever came up to you and said that, you'd be like, No, I do not want that job.

Please don't make me do that.

But so often we do that to the people around us subconsciously, because instead of just going into the presence of God when we need something, instead of just going into his presence, when we need to be filled, we just turn to someone around us and be like, You, you, fill me up.

Honey, you go to your spouse.

There's so many times where I've had a stressful day, and I'm like, Oh, I just I'm gonna go home, and you know, I'm just gonna walk in, and and and Megan's just gonna have everything prepared for me.

You know, and there's gonna be a clean house and obedient children, and you know, and and food, just good food on the table, right?

And then we're gonna eat dinner, and the kids are gonna go to bed quietly, and then she's just gonna grab me and kiss me and say, I've been waiting to kiss you all day long.

And if she would just do that on a daily basis, I'd have everything I need.

And Megan, I know you're watching right now, and I'm sorry that that's not.

I'm sorry that I have that expectation.

I do.

Sometimes I have that expectation, and I get home and everything's crazy, and the kids are crazy, and the house is a mess, and you're trying to figure out dinner, and you know, some kids throwing milk on the floor, and you just look at me like you have no idea what this day has been like.

You have no idea.

So glad you're here.

And I'm like, oh, I thought you were here for me.

I mean, there's just times where we look to other people and go, ooh, they're gonna fill me up, they're gonna meet my needs.

And it's like we're we're subconsciously asking that person to be God, and it always disappoints.

Because people weren't actually, they weren't designed to do that.

Like, like you are, I know those of you that have people in your life, whether it's a spouse or a child or a friend, that just it's such a great relationship.

Understand that's a gift, and God has given you that person to compliment you, but not to complete you.

There's a difference between having someone who compliments you.

And having someone who completes you.

Jesus is the only one who can complete you.

Everyone else, they're just a compliment.

But he completes.

And if you go to anyone else or anything else and expect it to be what fills you up, you will be so disappointed.

You know how frustrating it is when you need to charge your phone and you find a charger, but you don't know that that charger doesn't work?

Like somehow it's the brick's gone dead or the wire, something's wrong, and you plug your phone into it, you walk away, and like 30 minutes later you come back and your phone's still dead.

Like, isn't that like infuriating when that happens?

Well, that's what we do in life all the time.

We keep trying to plug into things that aren't going to give us what we need.

Now, at least that charger was actually originally designed to do that, and so you have a right to be mad because it's not doing what it was designed to do.

But if you go to anyone else or anything else and expect it to fill your life, you have no right to be upset when it doesn't, because it wasn't designed to do that.

There is only one person, there's only one person who is designed to fill you completely and totally, to charge you up.

His name is Jesus, and he loves you, and he's available to you.

He's available.

You can be in his presence.

We have to be in the presence of God.

This is the simple thing we've got to master.

We have to be in the presence of God.

And I'll start here.

Being together is a big part of that.

It's a big part of that.

That's why it's so nice to be together.

Because when we're together and surrounded by other believers who have shown up to worship God, and if you're here and you you're kind of just checking it out, we believe that God is real.

And we believe that he loves us.

And we believe that he can do anything because we've experienced it.

Raise your hand if you've experienced the power of God.

We've experienced it.

And so we're not ashamed.

We're not, I'm gonna tell you this for the rest of the history of his hands.

We're not gonna like soften the blow.

Like he's real, he's alive, he loves you, you need him, he has power, he's the only hope that you have, and you gotta give your life to him because he's it.

He is it.

There's nothing else that comes close, nothing at all.

He's it.

We believe that.

And and how irresponsible of us would it be if we actually believe that, but we failed to tell you that.

That would that would just be so silly.

For us to be like, no, no, you keep trying.

Have a good week.

They're gonna have a terrible week.

They don't know Jesus, it's not gonna go well.

Like, that's it would be wrong of us to do that.

No, you need him.

If you're watching this at home and you don't know Jesus, he completes you.

He does more than compliment you, he completes you.

You need him.

So, how do we get him?

Right?

I mean, obviously we have a relationship with him, like many of us in the room are like, I believe in him, but how how do I how do I have this charge that you're talking about?

How do I have this energy that that seems to be eluding me?

It's just spending time in his presence.

It's just what happens when you spend time in his presence.

So I just want to leave you with two very simple principles very quickly.

Like this will change your life.

It will change your life and it'll change it fast, to be honest with you.

Just just be in his presence.

Two things.

Number one, make room.

Make room.

Jesus shows up when invited.

Sometimes he shows up when not invited.

He has that right.

But even then he's he's polite, right?

Like scripture says, I stand at the door and knock.

Revelation chapter 3, verse 20.

Revelation 3:20

I stand at the door and knock.

He's not kicking it down, he's polite.

But but I'll tell you this, if you invite Jesus over, so to speak, he shows up.

When you make room for God, when you carve out time for him, you say, hey, 15 minutes, God, 15 minutes.

I'm gonna shut off every distraction.

I'm setting this side a time, I'm setting this time aside for you, I'm protecting it.

Will you meet me here?

If you do that on a consistent basis, I will tell you, he will meet you there.

Because he wants it more than you do.

He desires to be connected to you often more than you even desire to be connected to him.

That's the beautiful thing about our God, he loves us.

So he shows up when he's invited.

That's one of the reasons worshiping together every Sunday that we get to, it's so powerful because like we invite him here, and he's he's he's good on that.

He says in his word, in fact, that when two or more gather in my name, I'm there.

So this is a big part of it, but but it's not just here, it's all the time.

It's every single day.

Again, it's that simple stuff.

You see someone who's physically fit, they do the simple stuff.

You see someone who's financially well, they they do the simple stuff.

You see someone who's spiritually just connected and they're full of joy in life, and you're like, what do you do?

And they're like, I pray.

I spend time with God every day.

I open up his word and I read it, and I expect him to.

I don't do it out of duty, I don't do it because it's what I'm supposed to do.

I'm not checking a box, but like I want to, I make time for God, and he honors that.

It's a promise, by the way.

James chapter 4, verse 8.

James 4:8

Come close to God, and God will come close to you.

It could not be more clear.

Draw near to God, and he draws near to you.

That's the second thing.

Just draw near.

Make time, make room, and draw near.

I think it's very important for us to remember that we have the ability to approach God.

And it's easy for us, I think, at this point in history, in the history of our faith, just like it's easy for us to take for granted what we're getting to do right now, although I have a feeling we're never gonna take this for granted again.

It's so easy for us to take for granted the fact that we can approach our God.

Like most important people, you can't really approach them.

And it's weird if you do, right?

Like if you see someone who's really important, usually it's not okay just to walk up to them.

Oftentimes they have like walls of security that do not let you do that.

Like if you if you saw the president or some leader of another nation, you couldn't just be like, hey, president, like run up to him, shake the no, it's like someone would stop you.

That wouldn't happen.

Because you can't approach important people.

Now you want to go back to the time of scripture, the New Testament, and you're in Rome, you want to approach like the emperor?

No, good luck.

That doesn't happen.

You don't get to approach a king except under very special circumstances, and God is on a whole different level.

And I'll be honest, the people in the Old Testament, they knew that, they understood that, they understood how holy God was.

You can't just like go into his presence.

Are you kidding me?

They had all these crazy things they had to do just to be near the presence of God, and it was serious stuff.

It's like, oh, if you even want to get close to the presence of God, you better make sure that you're good.

You better make you better be very careful approaching God.

They had this part of their temple.

It's called the Holy of Holies, it's where the presence of God dwelt.

And there's this giant curtain.

And when I say curtain, I don't mean like some thin curtain.

I mean it was thick, it was feet thick.

Giant curtain that that separated the Holy of Holies from the rest of the temple.

And only one person got to go into that room one time per year.

That was it.

The high priest once a year.

Because you just don't get to go be in the presence of God.

But when Jesus died on the cross, a few different things happened.

There was basically an eclipse, it was really dark.

Everyone noticed that.

Dead people got out of their graves.

People notice that when it happens, zombies, you know, it's crazy.

Uh no, right, it wasn't like that, it was for real.

But but this one, so huge, that curtain that separated the Holy of Holies, the presence of God, tore from top to bottom, not bottom to top, because it wasn't us that did it, but top to bottom.

And that was a symbol that from that point on, God can be approached.

Because of what Jesus did for us, he can be approached.

So you got you got to make room for God, you gotta make time for God, but then you gotta approach him.

Like draw near.

When you're at home by yourself, draw near to God.

Go, ooh, what do I want to do right now?

Netflix.

I've watched the entirety of the office so many times.

I don't need to see it anymore.

I know what happens.

But it's so easy for me to be at home.

I'm tired, I'm like, what do I want to do?

Like, I'll just I'll check out.

Nothing wrong with that from time to time.

We need to be distracted and entertained.

That's fine.

But but in those same moments, if I would just draw near, if I would recognize, oh God, you're you're here.

Because he's always near.

You know that, right?

I hope you know that he's always near.

In fact, it's so interesting in scripture.

When you read stories about God speaking from heaven, we always picture like heaven, like he's way up there, and it's a loud, booming God voice, like, hey, because he's got a shout, because he's talking from heaven.

Sometimes translations are a little bit muddy for us in our language because that phrase from heaven in the original language actually just means from the air.

Like the thin air.

It would be just as accurate to say God spoke from the thin air.

In other words, like right here.

Why?

Because he's always near, he's never far away from you.

You might feel far away from him, but you're not.

And if you would make room, make time for him on a daily basis, 15 minutes, 10 minutes, whatever it is, and then when that time comes, if you in your heart would say, I'm here, you take a step.

If you need to do it physically, do it physically, but take a step and recognize that you're in the presence of a holy God who loves you, who has made a way for you to be in his presence every moment of every day, and he has power available to you.

He has he has the power that you need to forgive that person that you need to forgive.

He has the power that you need to put up with that person that you live with.

He has the power that you need to endure at your place of work.

He has the power that you need to forgive yourself for the mistakes that you've made.

He has the power you need, he has the power that you need, he always has the power that you need because he never runs out.

And if we would just make room and then draw near and say, God, I'm here, I'm in your presence, I'm approaching you, and I may not understand you, I don't know how this works, I can't explain it.

And sometimes, Lord, I don't even feel it, but I have faith right now.

I trust you, I need you.

Fill me, God, fill me.

You be the one that charges me.

I'm plugging into you, you be the one that gives me my energy, my strength, Lord, because I don't ever want to run out.

And I'm holding you, God, to your promise that when I trust in you, when I put my hope in you, I will run and not grow weary, I will walk and not grow faint.

I will never fall because you're with me, you pick me up, you carry me when I can't walk.

You give me all the power and the strength that I need, and it's you and you alone, Jesus, and I put my trust and my faith in that completely.

When we live that way, we've got power.

I'm gonna stop now because I'm sweating.

Happy Sunday.

Let's make sure that from this moment on, this doesn't become routine.

Let's remember, and again, guys at home, this applies to you.

That when you're in the presence of God, you're in the presence of power.

And it's not power that you run from, it's power that you plug into.

Because it's meant to fill you.

Let's pray.

Father God, thank you so much for every person watching at home, for every person in this room.

Thank you so much, Lord, for giving us a family.

Lord, we need you.

Because we have low batteries all the time, and we need you to fill us.

Lord, we need to connect to you.

We need to be in your presence, Lord.

So I pray that you give us all the just that small amount of discipline that we need, not even a ton of discipline, just a little bit.

To set 15 minutes a day aside, to guard it, to protect it.

And Lord, if we have a loved one that we lived with, that we live with and they need it, that we would all we would protect their time.

That we would think of them and look to them and say, hey, I want you to go have some time with God, and I'll protect it, and I'll make sure that nothing bothers you.

But Lord, that we would have the discipline to do that.

And when we're there, when we've made the time, when we've made the room, that we would draw near to you, that we would step forward in our spirit and say, I'm here to meet with you.

I'm here to hear from you.

I'm here to worship you.

I'm here to learn from you.

I'm here to love you.

Because I know that you love me.

Jesus, give us that ability.

Give us that discipline.

Help us do it every day so we can experience the power that we need from you.

So that we never run on fumes because we're not running on flesh.

We pray all this in your name.

Amen.