WEBVTT NOTE Podcast: Acts 29 Vancouver Episode: Getting-Personal-with-God Publishing Date: 2022-07-17T06:00:44-07:00 Podcast URL: https://acts29.ca Episode URL: https://acts29.ca/getting-personal-with-god/ 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:13.440 Father, you are so good. 00:00:13.440 --> 00:00:17.000 You are a good, good Father. 00:00:17.000 --> 00:00:27.920 Just that you have adopted us, chosen us. 00:00:27.920 --> 00:00:35.360 While we were yet sinners, you gave your Son to die for us. 00:00:35.360 --> 00:00:37.640 You've withheld nothing. 00:00:37.640 --> 00:00:41.120 You have poured out your whole self. 00:00:41.120 --> 00:00:48.120 You've poured into us your Holy Spirit. 00:00:48.120 --> 00:00:49.520 How marvelous is this? 00:00:49.520 --> 00:00:53.800 We just praise you and we thank you. 00:00:53.800 --> 00:00:58.640 And we know that you are this morning wanting to encourage your people. 00:00:58.640 --> 00:01:01.840 You are the God of eternal encouragement. 00:01:01.840 --> 00:01:12.440 You are always looking to strengthen and encourage everyone whose heart is true to you. 00:01:12.440 --> 00:01:17.960 So we thank you what you're going to do this morning. 00:01:17.960 --> 00:01:19.680 We praise you. 00:01:19.680 --> 00:01:20.000 Amen. 00:01:24.800 --> 00:01:28.880 Thanks, Jane and crew, for leading worship. 00:01:28.880 --> 00:01:36.520 The Bergmans, whenever they come back from visiting here, they always talk about, 00:01:36.520 --> 00:01:39.920 the worship is so awesome at Acts 29. 00:01:39.920 --> 00:01:40.800 We just love it. 00:01:40.800 --> 00:01:43.200 And we're singing, mighty to save. 00:01:43.200 --> 00:01:51.440 And I all of a sudden get whisked back into this memory that I had of the very first time I went on a trip with Jacob to Africa. 00:01:52.400 --> 00:01:59.800 And we're sitting in in Mushiri's vehicle driving through the streets of Kenya. 00:01:59.800 --> 00:02:06.120 And the three of us are belting out, mighty to save, out the windows of the car. 00:02:06.120 --> 00:02:07.600 And I just remember that moment. 00:02:07.600 --> 00:02:09.240 It was just so awesome. 00:02:09.240 --> 00:02:15.480 So I was kind of entering that when we were singing together. 00:02:15.480 --> 00:02:19.360 I, the Lord wants to. 00:02:22.960 --> 00:02:29.320 Exhort us today with something that most of us already know. 00:02:29.320 --> 00:02:32.360 But he he does this in his word all the time. 00:02:32.360 --> 00:02:38.800 Right. In first John two, he says, I'm not writing you an old command. 00:02:38.800 --> 00:02:40.400 I'm writing you a new command. 00:02:40.400 --> 00:02:42.640 But I am writing you a new command. 00:02:42.640 --> 00:02:45.280 And I mean, I am writing you an old command. 00:02:45.280 --> 00:02:46.520 That was with you before. 00:02:46.520 --> 00:02:48.440 And I'm speaking again fresh. 00:02:48.440 --> 00:02:50.240 And this is what he's doing. 00:02:50.240 --> 00:02:55.800 He's inviting us to get personal with him. 00:03:02.000 --> 00:03:04.840 He's a personal God. 00:03:04.840 --> 00:03:08.800 We've heard that it's almost cliche. 00:03:08.800 --> 00:03:10.880 Christianity is not a religion. 00:03:10.880 --> 00:03:13.280 It's a relationship. 00:03:13.280 --> 00:03:14.120 You've heard that line. 00:03:14.120 --> 00:03:15.080 It's not a religion. 00:03:15.080 --> 00:03:16.080 It's a relationship. 00:03:16.080 --> 00:03:25.160 And you can say it so frequently that you actually become religious in saying it. 00:03:25.160 --> 00:03:28.440 And you can start to forget about this. 00:03:28.440 --> 00:03:32.320 The fact that our God is a personal God. 00:03:32.320 --> 00:03:41.800 And his desire is to have personal relationship with each and every one of us. 00:03:41.800 --> 00:03:46.440 I was five years old. 00:03:46.440 --> 00:03:47.680 It was Christmas time. 00:03:47.680 --> 00:03:54.240 I had been given the castle Lego set as a little boy. 00:03:54.240 --> 00:03:56.440 And I was so excited. 00:03:56.440 --> 00:04:02.440 And I ripped open all of the bags of Lego pieces and dumped them on the floor. 00:04:02.440 --> 00:04:04.040 You're not supposed to do that. 00:04:04.040 --> 00:04:08.680 You're supposed to take it a step at a time with the instructions. 00:04:08.680 --> 00:04:10.240 But I was just so excited. 00:04:10.240 --> 00:04:14.040 And I dumped these Lego pieces all over the floor. 00:04:14.040 --> 00:04:15.360 And I start working on this. 00:04:15.360 --> 00:04:16.840 And I got my green plate. 00:04:16.840 --> 00:04:18.080 And I'm going to do the walls. 00:04:18.080 --> 00:04:20.760 And there's this piece. 00:04:20.760 --> 00:04:24.280 Ironically, it's the cornerstone. 00:04:24.280 --> 00:04:24.920 I know that now. 00:04:24.920 --> 00:04:25.720 I didn't know it then. 00:04:25.720 --> 00:04:31.520 But it was this tall corner pillar thing that goes in the first row. 00:04:31.520 --> 00:04:34.040 Do you think I could find that piece? 00:04:34.040 --> 00:04:36.040 Could not find that piece. 00:04:36.040 --> 00:04:37.240 It's all yellow. 00:04:37.240 --> 00:04:38.760 It's a gold castle. 00:04:38.760 --> 00:04:40.280 And I'm going through this whole thing. 00:04:40.280 --> 00:04:43.640 And I'm just getting flustered because I want to build this thing so much. 00:04:43.640 --> 00:04:45.200 And I'm five years old. 00:04:45.200 --> 00:04:49.280 And after searching and searching and searching and searching, and I couldn't find it, 00:04:49.280 --> 00:04:58.760 I close my eyes and I say, Jesus, if you're real, help me find my Lego. 00:04:58.760 --> 00:05:04.000 Little kid crying out to God. 00:05:04.000 --> 00:05:05.960 And I open my eyes. 00:05:05.960 --> 00:05:07.760 And it's like there was no other piece. 00:05:07.760 --> 00:05:13.600 It's like all the pieces had been pushed away from this one cornerstone piece. 00:05:13.600 --> 00:05:15.680 And it's right there. 00:05:15.680 --> 00:05:24.760 And that memory has stuck with me my whole life that God is a personal God. 00:05:24.760 --> 00:05:28.560 Who we cry out to him. 00:05:28.560 --> 00:05:30.640 And he never fails. 00:05:30.680 --> 00:05:37.280 When you cry to him from the depths of your being, whatever space you're in, 00:05:37.280 --> 00:05:40.800 he answers and he responds very personal. 00:05:40.800 --> 00:05:46.880 This is so important for us to know, to be reminded of, because we live in a world where 00:05:46.880 --> 00:05:51.440 as we're going out and encountering people, as we're going out and sharing the gospel, 00:05:51.440 --> 00:05:53.760 you will come into it more and more and more. 00:05:53.760 --> 00:05:59.640 People in our culture and in multicultural, people talking more and more about the universe. 00:06:01.640 --> 00:06:05.440 Have you heard that? 00:06:05.440 --> 00:06:15.320 People talking more and more about an impersonal force or even a higher power. 00:06:15.320 --> 00:06:20.640 And when I have these encounters with people and I'm building relationships with people 00:06:20.640 --> 00:06:24.880 and I'm talking with somebody in the gym and they're saying, yeah, like, I just had this 00:06:24.880 --> 00:06:30.920 impression this morning and I'm listening to the person and I know it has on it the 00:06:30.920 --> 00:06:37.040 sound of my father's voice and the person is attributing it to the universe. 00:06:37.040 --> 00:06:47.880 And I tell the person, the universe doesn't give a rip about you. 00:06:47.880 --> 00:06:50.520 Because the universe is not a person. 00:06:50.520 --> 00:06:53.000 And I don't say that to diss them. 00:06:53.000 --> 00:06:59.760 I then speak of the father who spoke that word to them because he knows them. 00:06:59.760 --> 00:07:05.520 He has every single hair numbered on their head. 00:07:05.520 --> 00:07:09.640 He's a personal God. 00:07:09.640 --> 00:07:14.760 And he wants to meet us where we are at personally. 00:07:14.760 --> 00:07:19.680 You look story after story after story in scripture and you see this. 00:07:19.680 --> 00:07:30.200 You see Nathaniel sitting under the tree, disillusioned. 00:07:30.200 --> 00:07:31.880 Somebody comes running up to him. 00:07:31.880 --> 00:07:33.520 We found the Messiah. 00:07:33.520 --> 00:07:36.000 Come, we're pretty sure it's the Messiah. 00:07:36.000 --> 00:07:38.240 You got to come. 00:07:38.240 --> 00:07:39.920 And he's just sitting there. 00:07:39.920 --> 00:07:43.360 He's like, can anything good come out of Nazareth? 00:07:43.360 --> 00:07:49.320 It's like, you know, he's just disillusioned. 00:07:49.320 --> 00:07:55.800 And then when he meets Jesus, Jesus tells him, I saw you when you were sitting under 00:07:55.800 --> 00:07:58.320 the tree. 00:07:58.320 --> 00:08:01.080 What? 00:08:01.080 --> 00:08:04.760 He is a personal God. 00:08:04.760 --> 00:08:05.920 I saw you. 00:08:05.920 --> 00:08:11.200 You're going to see even greater things than this. 00:08:11.200 --> 00:08:18.560 But fast forward a couple chapters, three chapters, and you get Jesus encountering the 00:08:18.560 --> 00:08:22.800 woman at the well. 00:08:22.800 --> 00:08:25.240 And he says to her, go get your husband. 00:08:25.240 --> 00:08:28.480 She says, I don't have a husband. 00:08:28.480 --> 00:08:31.200 And Jesus says to her, yeah, you don't have a husband. 00:08:31.200 --> 00:08:35.840 You've had five husbands and the man you're living with now is not your husband. 00:08:35.840 --> 00:08:37.080 What you've said is true. 00:08:37.080 --> 00:08:40.080 And she's like, what? 00:08:40.080 --> 00:08:45.760 How do you know me that personally? 00:08:45.760 --> 00:08:51.720 He's a personal God. 00:08:51.720 --> 00:09:01.480 And he actually says in that passage, he's dialoguing with this woman who becomes, in 00:09:01.480 --> 00:09:04.400 the Gospel of John, the very first evangelist. 00:09:04.400 --> 00:09:06.600 Do you know this? 00:09:06.600 --> 00:09:12.880 In the Gospel of John, the very first person to go out and tell people about Jesus is this 00:09:12.920 --> 00:09:17.240 Samaritan woman. 00:09:17.240 --> 00:09:23.280 And she comes running into the town and she says, he told me everything I ever did. 00:09:23.280 --> 00:09:24.280 Like he just knew me. 00:09:24.280 --> 00:09:28.800 He just, the guy just knew me. 00:09:28.800 --> 00:09:36.960 And that word, that spoken word, come and see, because this guy knows me personally 00:09:36.960 --> 00:09:39.280 and we've never met before. 00:09:39.280 --> 00:09:44.680 She speaks that word into the Samaritan village and they're all intrigued by it, right? 00:09:44.680 --> 00:09:49.240 They come running out and they want him to stay and he actually stays in this Samaritan 00:09:49.240 --> 00:09:54.680 village where he shouldn't have been, but God sent him there. 00:09:54.680 --> 00:10:00.280 And he stays there for three days and at the end of it, they say, we no longer believe 00:10:00.280 --> 00:10:02.680 just because of what you said. 00:10:02.680 --> 00:10:04.920 We believe, now we know. 00:10:04.920 --> 00:10:05.920 We know for ourselves. 00:10:05.920 --> 00:10:06.920 Why? 00:10:07.000 --> 00:10:11.880 Because we have personally met and we have personally heard this Jesus that you told 00:10:11.880 --> 00:10:18.960 us about. 00:10:18.960 --> 00:10:24.960 This is one of the things that separates. 00:10:24.960 --> 00:10:31.120 It separates Christianity. 00:10:31.120 --> 00:10:38.960 Because God's a personal God who is all about a personal relationship. 00:10:38.960 --> 00:10:41.240 And it's tragic actually. 00:10:41.240 --> 00:10:54.800 It's tragic when Christian movements have put together the principles of the kingdom 00:10:54.800 --> 00:11:03.600 And then all they go out with to speak the gospel is principles of the kingdom. 00:11:03.600 --> 00:11:07.400 You know what I'm talking about? 00:11:07.400 --> 00:11:15.560 Like God never ever ever intended us to come to Christ simply on the basis of the four 00:11:15.560 --> 00:11:17.680 spiritual laws. 00:11:18.560 --> 00:11:24.880 Now God in his grace has used powerfully the four spiritual laws at times to meet people 00:11:24.880 --> 00:11:29.120 personally. 00:11:29.120 --> 00:11:39.160 But his desire is not that we put together this sheet or this tract or this thing and 00:11:39.160 --> 00:11:40.560 we come and we give it. 00:11:40.560 --> 00:11:47.320 His desire throughout scripture is that those who have a personal encounter with Jesus go 00:11:47.560 --> 00:11:53.600 and tell everybody and they can't stop telling everybody this is what's happened to me. 00:11:53.600 --> 00:12:00.320 I mean have you ever wondered why it is when you read in the gospels you're reading and 00:12:00.320 --> 00:12:03.680 Jesus does this powerful miracle and he says don't tell anybody. 00:12:03.680 --> 00:12:06.720 Have you seen that? 00:12:06.720 --> 00:12:09.600 What? 00:12:09.600 --> 00:12:11.900 Others can't figure it out. 00:12:11.900 --> 00:12:17.740 If you want to become popular you've got to make an appearance. 00:12:17.740 --> 00:12:22.620 And they're telling him this and Jesus is going around doing miracles and he's saying 00:12:22.620 --> 00:12:24.620 shh don't tell anybody. 00:12:24.620 --> 00:12:26.820 Shhh don't tell anybody. 00:12:26.820 --> 00:12:27.820 Don't tell anybody. 00:12:27.820 --> 00:12:30.900 And you get to Mark chapter 5 and he's been telling people don't tell anybody. 00:12:30.900 --> 00:12:38.700 You get to Mark chapter 5 he encounters somebody who has an entire legion of demons inside 00:12:38.700 --> 00:12:43.700 of him. 00:12:43.700 --> 00:12:53.700 And Jesus frees this man who was living among the tombs who was in complete bondage and 00:12:53.700 --> 00:13:00.540 Jesus with a word delivers this man and the next scene we see is this man who had been 00:13:00.540 --> 00:13:07.580 completely demonized is sitting in his right mind fully clothed and he's sitting with 00:13:07.660 --> 00:13:12.820 Jesus there and what does he say? 00:13:12.820 --> 00:13:20.620 It says he pleaded with Jesus that he might remain with him. 00:13:20.620 --> 00:13:28.340 This guy's mindset is I just want to be with you Jesus and for the first time in the gospels 00:13:28.340 --> 00:13:35.580 he says I want you to go and tell all that the Lord has done for you. 00:13:35.580 --> 00:13:37.520 Why does he say that? 00:13:38.460 --> 00:13:52.460 Because here is a guy who the only thing that he wants is to be with Jesus. 00:13:52.460 --> 00:13:57.600 Derek preached several weeks ago about making disciples you recall? 00:13:57.600 --> 00:14:00.240 Go back and listen to it again. 00:14:00.240 --> 00:14:06.520 He gives this whole list of everything that a disciple is and if we're going to make disciples 00:14:06.520 --> 00:14:11.440 what you know these are the important things and I was listening to it for a second time 00:14:11.440 --> 00:14:18.800 and that point jumped out of me in Mark 3 he called these who would be with him and 00:14:18.800 --> 00:14:22.920 sent out with him. 00:14:22.920 --> 00:14:33.680 Personal relationship many of you many of you are in this church because God met you 00:14:33.680 --> 00:14:36.080 personally. 00:14:36.640 --> 00:14:42.360 Many of you are in this church because God spoke through Jacob or through somebody else 00:14:42.360 --> 00:14:49.840 here a very personal prophetic word where this prophetic spoke into your spirit and 00:14:49.840 --> 00:14:56.960 something came alive inside of you and you were like this is really real. 00:14:56.960 --> 00:15:05.840 Is that true? 00:15:06.600 --> 00:15:19.840 I remember the first time I came to an NAB conference I was being asked to be the pastor 00:15:19.840 --> 00:15:24.720 of one of the churches in the NAB conference and they sent me to this conference to see 00:15:24.720 --> 00:15:33.440 what the NAB was all about and I went to a lunch meeting and Jacob was the guest speaker 00:15:34.040 --> 00:15:41.600 and here's little me with my bachelor's degree from Briar Crest and my master's degree from 00:15:41.600 --> 00:15:48.920 regent and I'm sitting there at this pastors conference and I'm listening to Jacob for 00:15:48.920 --> 00:15:56.880 the first time and I'm thinking he knows the living God. 00:15:56.880 --> 00:16:00.200 He knows the living God. 00:16:00.960 --> 00:16:08.160 He knows God in a personal way that I want to know God. 00:16:08.160 --> 00:16:17.880 I must know him personally like Jacob knows him and I said he's going to be the one to 00:16:17.880 --> 00:16:27.840 introduce me to the living God and so I started bugging Jacob all the time. 00:16:28.000 --> 00:16:33.000 I'm pastoring and I'm running into problems and I'm calling him help me and he's talking 00:16:33.000 --> 00:16:41.160 and the first time that I went on a ride I had to go to another conference and I needed 00:16:41.160 --> 00:16:47.800 a ride and Bob Kron put me in the same car with Jacob and we went and did three hours 00:16:47.800 --> 00:16:50.680 together and that was the first time we actually got to talk. 00:16:50.680 --> 00:16:56.420 I hadn't really talked with him prior to that and for me and for my life that three hours 00:16:56.500 --> 00:17:05.180 in that vehicle was more important to my life than my master's degree because I was 00:17:05.180 --> 00:17:15.740 getting introduced and I was meeting not just Jacob I was meeting the living God. 00:17:15.740 --> 00:17:24.180 Like I didn't know I had never been taught that you could hear God. 00:17:24.180 --> 00:17:25.180 That I heard God? 00:17:25.180 --> 00:17:35.140 Yeah, but it never even really registered really in a way that actually stuck right 00:17:35.140 --> 00:17:41.140 because I never grew up in a church that taught that you can hear God. 00:17:41.140 --> 00:17:50.220 In fact many churches will say you can't hear God you can only read the word and the word 00:17:50.260 --> 00:17:54.540 itself says you can hear God. 00:17:54.540 --> 00:17:58.100 Go figure right? 00:17:58.100 --> 00:18:04.820 So I had heard God personally before but it didn't register right? 00:18:04.820 --> 00:18:16.700 I remember after high school I moved to Saskatoon and it was Thanksgiving weekend 1994 and my 00:18:16.780 --> 00:18:21.260 roommates had all gone back home we'd all grown up in the same church and I was staying 00:18:21.260 --> 00:18:27.020 there and I was invited to go to a party that weekend and I knew exactly what kind of party 00:18:27.020 --> 00:18:32.980 that would be and my Mennonite upbringing would not be approving of me going to that 00:18:32.980 --> 00:18:37.620 kind of party. 00:18:37.620 --> 00:18:44.460 And I'm sitting on my bed and I got this invitation to go to this party and I'm thinking to myself 00:18:44.780 --> 00:18:47.300 nobody will know. 00:18:47.300 --> 00:18:54.820 Like all my roommates have gone back home to our hometown nobody's going to know. 00:18:54.820 --> 00:18:59.820 That was a line being spoken I wonder where the source of that came from. 00:18:59.820 --> 00:19:05.780 Nobody's going to know you can go nobody will know. 00:19:05.940 --> 00:19:18.660 In that moment something rose up inside of me that said no you are my God not just my 00:19:18.660 --> 00:19:26.340 parents God you are my God and in that moment the spirit of God descended in the room and 00:19:26.340 --> 00:19:32.660 it was like literally like I was being hugged and held by the spirit of the living God and 00:19:32.660 --> 00:19:39.660 there was something that happened there I would call it the baptism of the Holy Spirit 00:19:39.660 --> 00:19:46.180 where from that moment literally all I wanted to do was read the word of God all I wanted 00:19:46.180 --> 00:19:53.500 to do was go to church and any church in the city that was worshipping that was singing 00:19:53.500 --> 00:19:57.300 I just if there was a worship night I was there and I was just singing my heart out 00:19:57.300 --> 00:20:00.580 to this God that I had met. 00:20:00.580 --> 00:20:08.580 And all of a sudden my colleagues at work that I loathed because they were so foul mouthed 00:20:08.580 --> 00:20:14.740 and debaucherous and I had grown up in this legalistic culture that made me just go ugh 00:20:14.740 --> 00:20:20.780 but the spirit of God had grabbed a hold of me and now all of a sudden I just love my 00:20:20.780 --> 00:20:26.740 coworkers and not only that I like them and it was the most bizarre thing and one day 00:20:26.740 --> 00:20:31.860 I'm sitting at home reading because I'm just voraciously reading and I'm reading the sermon 00:20:31.860 --> 00:20:38.460 on the mountain and it's and Jesus says right there anyone if anyone comes and asks you 00:20:38.460 --> 00:20:43.860 for money just give without expecting anything in return and I read those words and as I 00:20:43.860 --> 00:20:51.020 read those words like just seconds later the doorbell rings and it's this 40 some year 00:20:51.220 --> 00:20:57.820 old guy who was a driver at the Pizza Hut where I worked and he came in and he said 00:20:57.820 --> 00:21:05.060 I need $350. 00:21:05.060 --> 00:21:11.880 All I had in my account was just pennies or just dollars past the $350 and I needed it 00:21:11.960 --> 00:21:16.880 for the rent the next week. 00:21:16.880 --> 00:21:25.680 And rationally I should have said no but the spirit of God said what did I just speak to 00:21:25.680 --> 00:21:30.080 you in my word? 00:21:30.080 --> 00:21:36.720 And I tell this guy come here come here I want you to see what I just read this is in 00:21:36.720 --> 00:21:45.720 the Bible the God that I worship just spoke this to my heart before you walked in the 00:21:45.720 --> 00:21:53.840 door and so I'm not giving you the money I am but it's him who's giving you the money 00:21:53.840 --> 00:21:59.200 and this guy was just like so he did pay it back a week later when I didn't demand that 00:21:59.200 --> 00:22:02.880 he paid it back but he paid it back a week later because this is the living God we're 00:22:02.880 --> 00:22:06.140 talking about. 00:22:06.140 --> 00:22:14.980 But here's the thing you have these experiences you have these encounters along the way and 00:22:14.980 --> 00:22:19.540 then you're reading the word and you see it's real it's there all of a sudden the thing 00:22:19.540 --> 00:22:24.820 that you couldn't see in the word before you now can see and you see it all over the place 00:22:24.820 --> 00:22:29.660 and it becomes a principle and you start to see there's a principle that here is a living 00:22:29.660 --> 00:22:34.980 God who speaks and acts the same way that he did in the Bible and then you teach it 00:22:35.220 --> 00:22:42.940 as a principle you teach hearing God and did you know that hearing which is intended by 00:22:42.940 --> 00:22:54.100 its very nature to be very very personal all of a sudden hearing becomes a principle and 00:22:54.100 --> 00:23:01.580 you can start teaching about hearing and you can start hearing and doing it as a principle 00:23:01.820 --> 00:23:12.340 and it starts to lose the personalness of it do you know what I mean? 00:23:12.340 --> 00:23:28.060 And so God comes to refresh and he comes to say you've heard me speak and you've even 00:23:28.140 --> 00:23:34.740 believed it and you've even taught it but I want you to know I'm a personal God and I want you 00:23:34.740 --> 00:23:35.900 to hear me afresh. 00:23:35.900 --> 00:23:53.180 Jesus says of the Pharisees do what they say but don't do what they do. 00:23:53.180 --> 00:24:03.140 He said do what they say because they're teaching the principles they're teaching the law of Moses 00:24:03.140 --> 00:24:10.740 they're teaching this stuff so you need to do what they say but do not do what they do. 00:24:10.740 --> 00:24:19.500 Why? He says don't do what they do because they'll teach you all the principles but there's 00:24:19.500 --> 00:24:25.700 this thing called the kingdom and there's a door and you have to open the door the door opens and 00:24:25.700 --> 00:24:32.180 you go through and you enter life in the kingdom and it's life in abundance and it's living God 00:24:32.340 --> 00:24:38.660 kind of life that fills you from the inside out to overflowing and he says these guys will teach 00:24:38.660 --> 00:24:45.900 you all the principles but they don't actually open the door and let you in they don't even go in 00:24:45.900 --> 00:24:46.780 themselves. 00:24:59.420 --> 00:25:09.820 And what God would say of Jacob your house church leaders what God would want to say is don't just 00:25:09.980 --> 00:25:23.740 do what they say do what they do because they enter they enter Jacob enters. 00:25:23.740 --> 00:25:43.020 And there's a knowing of God that happens where you know the principles and they're right and they 00:25:43.020 --> 00:25:51.260 are true principles and then there's a knowing of God that the Father deeply desires for us where 00:25:51.500 --> 00:26:01.580 it's his heart is wide open and your heart gets open wide and there's this personal personal 00:26:02.380 --> 00:26:12.300 meeting it's like in John four at that woman on the well encounter he says believe me woman an hour 00:26:12.300 --> 00:26:17.820 is coming when you'll worship the Father neither on this mountain in Samaria nor in Jerusalem but 00:26:17.820 --> 00:26:23.900 an hour is coming and it's now here when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit 00:26:24.460 --> 00:26:32.460 and in truth yes the Father wants such people to worship him in the message it says this that's 00:26:32.460 --> 00:26:41.260 the kind of people the Father is out there looking for those who are simply and honestly themselves 00:26:41.900 --> 00:26:48.220 before him in worship that's the kind of people the Father's out there looking for those who are 00:26:48.220 --> 00:26:56.300 simply and honestly themselves simply and honestly themselves 00:26:58.940 --> 00:27:07.660 simply and honestly themselves if you're having troubles with this go into the Psalms start 00:27:07.660 --> 00:27:13.980 reading in the Psalms until what is on the page is echoing what is in your heart and then say it 00:27:13.980 --> 00:27:24.300 out loud to God you know there's 70 percent of the Psalms are yelling at the heavens are sad 00:27:24.300 --> 00:27:29.100 laments are angry at come on where are you 00:27:29.100 --> 00:27:38.060 and what does God say of David he's a man after my heart how do you become a man after his heart 00:27:38.060 --> 00:27:45.100 you open up your heart and you say to God here I am and this is what I'm struggling with and you 00:27:45.100 --> 00:27:52.300 tell him and he meets you right there but if we think oh it's it's not right it's not appropriate 00:27:52.300 --> 00:28:01.100 for us to talk to God that way we start to backpedal and all of a sudden there's this gap 00:28:01.100 --> 00:28:08.140 and the Father's just saying come I already know you I already know what's going on inside 00:28:08.140 --> 00:28:11.420 will you just come express it say it 00:28:11.420 --> 00:28:23.820 I was teaching at Briar Crest Bible College and it had been eight years of us being married and 00:28:23.820 --> 00:28:29.820 not having children not being able to have children once we started it was difficult and 00:28:31.260 --> 00:28:38.460 we had two miscarriages and and then we were diagnosed with a third miscarriage and 00:28:41.420 --> 00:28:50.700 like my my life was just compartmentalized I'm I was leading a house church I was a Bible College 00:28:50.700 --> 00:28:56.460 professor over here and I'm studying his word and I'm going into the classroom and I'm teaching 00:28:56.460 --> 00:29:05.580 people about God and meanwhile over in this compartment I am angry at him because I believed 00:29:05.900 --> 00:29:11.660 I believed at that time that he was the one responsible for our babies dying 00:29:14.940 --> 00:29:20.860 and I'm like tight-fisted towards him over here and over here I'm teaching others about the God 00:29:20.860 --> 00:29:30.860 of the Bible and then we've I fly out to teach on Vancouver Island this course for five days in a 00:29:30.860 --> 00:29:37.340 row eight hour days and Penny was in the guest house having this miscarriage and all the symptoms 00:29:37.340 --> 00:29:47.660 that come with it and my students who were younger than me one day they say how come how come Penny 00:29:47.660 --> 00:29:51.420 isn't how come your wife doesn't want to come to class and meet us and I just kind of lose it 00:29:51.420 --> 00:29:57.900 because I was just just holding on by a thread and I tell them what's happened well we've had two 00:29:57.900 --> 00:30:02.540 miscarriages and this is the third miscarriage we've had or that the doctor has said we're in 00:30:02.540 --> 00:30:09.580 the middle of a third miscarriage here and if she doesn't pass the fetus this weekend then we have 00:30:09.580 --> 00:30:23.900 to go back on and have a DNC again and these these kids just said no no sit down and they sat their 00:30:23.900 --> 00:30:30.460 professor down in the chair and they surrounded me and they began to pray over me over us prayers 00:30:30.460 --> 00:30:35.820 that I had not yet heard I had not met Jacob at this time prayers that I had not yet heard and they 00:30:35.820 --> 00:30:46.060 begin commanding life commanding resurrection life to this baby and they're praying with faith 00:30:46.060 --> 00:30:52.300 that was just a theory to me not it wasn't even on my radar I didn't even think you could actually 00:30:52.300 --> 00:31:00.940 talk to God like that and these kids were praying like this and I leave that prayer room they said 00:31:00.940 --> 00:31:08.060 go back now and be with your wife in the guest house and I'm walking back through the woods 00:31:09.180 --> 00:31:18.700 and I and I'm just overwhelmed and I fall to my knees and I um I just cry out in repentance I say 00:31:18.700 --> 00:31:24.620 I've been teaching about you at a Bible college I've been telling everybody that you're the God 00:31:24.620 --> 00:31:33.100 of resurrection and I actually haven't known you that way or even believed that you are and I just 00:31:33.100 --> 00:31:39.820 I just said this I haven't even believed in you and in that moment 00:31:39.900 --> 00:31:40.400 and 00:31:44.140 --> 00:31:52.940 it was just so evident that he wasn't angry with me he just said her name is hope 00:31:59.740 --> 00:32:07.340 like the living God spoke and said he bypassed my whole confession you know it's kind of like 00:32:07.340 --> 00:32:12.460 the prodigal son who's got the whole speech worked out and he's running back to the father 00:32:12.460 --> 00:32:21.340 and the father just shuts him right up and says get in here and he says her name is hope and I 00:32:21.340 --> 00:32:26.540 go back to the guest house and I say I don't even still don't have the faith yet and I say to Penny 00:32:27.740 --> 00:32:32.460 no matter what happens the baby's name is hope 00:32:33.340 --> 00:32:40.860 and we fly back and we go and we ask for another ultrasound and whoa 00:32:42.620 --> 00:32:52.380 the baby's alive and now I have a 16 year old daughter named hope and four others that came after her 00:32:52.700 --> 00:32:55.500 and four others that came after her 00:33:01.580 --> 00:33:05.420 but you have these moments of encounter 00:33:07.820 --> 00:33:15.580 where you know he's really real and he's personal but he he literally doesn't want us to live 00:33:15.660 --> 00:33:25.580 from encounter to encounter he literally wants us to live every day hearing him every day knowing 00:33:25.580 --> 00:33:35.420 his presence with us every single day he's so so personal if time was given 00:33:35.420 --> 00:33:46.380 with an open mic in this group to the personal stories where God personally spoke where God 00:33:46.380 --> 00:33:53.740 personally answered we would we'd be sitting here for a long time as the stories just came and came 00:33:53.740 --> 00:34:03.580 and came and came and he's he's saying he's saying if if you were introduced to me by by principles 00:34:03.580 --> 00:34:09.980 I want you to know me personally and if you've been going from encounter 00:34:10.620 --> 00:34:16.540 to encounter with big gaps in between I want you to know me personally 00:34:20.140 --> 00:34:23.900 Miguel and sorry your wife's name again Danny 00:34:25.900 --> 00:34:31.580 what kind of marriage would it be if Danny only talked to you once a month 00:34:33.820 --> 00:34:35.820 that'd be sad eh 00:34:40.540 --> 00:34:49.020 such a personal God when you're when you're when Danny is is trying to learn English 00:34:50.860 --> 00:34:56.460 I have such compassion for people trying to learn another language you can feel so alone 00:34:56.460 --> 00:35:05.420 so alone you're always on you're trying to always be processing and it can you can feel so alone 00:35:05.420 --> 00:35:14.940 you know but the but the personal connection that she's she would be able to have with Miguel 00:35:14.940 --> 00:35:19.900 by speaking the same language can you imagine that that personal connection by speaking the 00:35:19.980 --> 00:35:26.940 same language you want to know how personal our God is book of acts we're reading it in the 00:35:26.940 --> 00:35:33.580 group with Chad it comes to Peter going to Cornelius's place 00:35:36.540 --> 00:35:43.260 and Cornelius is a Gentile and as Peter is preaching they start speaking in tongues 00:35:43.260 --> 00:35:49.020 I've read this passage over and over and over my whole life like I've read it and this time when 00:35:49.020 --> 00:35:55.420 we're doing that as a group with Chad on the new meeting I'm reading this passage and all of a 00:35:55.420 --> 00:36:01.900 sudden the Holy Spirit opens my eyes to see that the language that these Gentiles were speaking 00:36:01.900 --> 00:36:11.180 was Hebrew when you read it now you'll see it the language they were speaking was Jewish 00:36:11.180 --> 00:36:20.540 think about that that God's wanting to include these Gentiles personally into the kingdom so he 00:36:20.540 --> 00:36:28.140 has them speak in tongues what tongue it's it's a tongue that the Jews who are with Peter understand 00:36:28.140 --> 00:36:37.740 and they go huh they're talking my language they're one of us isn't that incredible that God in his 00:36:38.140 --> 00:36:46.300 personal nature would know how deeply language how important language is for personal relationship 00:36:46.300 --> 00:36:55.100 this is why he does this with us he speaks your language everybody has a different love language 00:36:55.100 --> 00:37:01.820 but there's times when the father speaks your love language and you know that you know that you know 00:37:02.460 --> 00:37:10.460 that was God there's no other and I don't even need to argue with anybody that was the living God talking to me 00:37:15.340 --> 00:37:22.780 and what do we do we come up with apologetics and we try to argue people into the kingdom 00:37:23.100 --> 00:37:25.900 and we try to argue people into the kingdom 00:37:30.700 --> 00:37:34.460 and all you're going to can do if you can if you can convince them all you're going to do is 00:37:34.460 --> 00:37:41.340 convince their mind and Paul says I'm not going to use worldly philosophy to convince people 00:37:41.340 --> 00:37:48.140 because then your faith is based in the wisdom of men and it is going to falter but if I come 00:37:48.140 --> 00:37:56.060 with the power of God and he speaks with power to you right where you're at then your trust is 00:37:56.060 --> 00:38:03.260 going to be in God and not in the wisdom of man and what do we do we do apologetics where we argue 00:38:03.260 --> 00:38:09.020 and we try to convince people's minds the word apologetics comes from a Greek word apologia in 00:38:09.020 --> 00:38:13.900 the New Testament you go and you look it up this blew me away you look it up in the New Testament 00:38:13.900 --> 00:38:21.180 every time it appears it has nothing to do with arguing systematically to try to get somebody to 00:38:21.180 --> 00:38:28.460 believe you Paul stands up in the court and this is his apologetic so I'm walking down the road 00:38:28.460 --> 00:38:37.420 to Damascus and all of a sudden this light just and I meet the living resurrected Jesus and he 00:38:37.420 --> 00:38:42.380 changed my life and I've been on a totally different course and that's his apologetic 00:38:42.380 --> 00:38:43.820 how can you argue with that 00:38:48.540 --> 00:38:55.340 and this is what God wants for because he doesn't want us arguing people into the kingdom he wants 00:38:55.340 --> 00:39:02.060 us released to go to the book of acts early on you're going to go and you're going to 00:39:02.060 --> 00:39:07.980 proclaim what you have seen and heard him do for you personally 00:39:07.980 --> 00:39:09.580 right Marcus 00:39:12.700 --> 00:39:14.700 so personal 00:39:17.100 --> 00:39:22.380 one of my favorite stories of how personal he is how much time do we got Jillian when's the 00:39:23.580 --> 00:39:25.580 I'm already past 00:39:28.620 --> 00:39:32.620 there's a there's a I won't take a lot 00:39:33.580 --> 00:39:35.020 there's a I won't take a lot 00:39:37.500 --> 00:39:41.340 there's this couple who does ministry in Vernon such a blessing 00:39:43.820 --> 00:39:48.060 and our church they're not a part of our church but we wanted to honor what they do in our city 00:39:49.100 --> 00:39:54.700 and together as a church we were like we want to honor this couple and so we wanted to give them a 00:39:54.700 --> 00:40:00.700 Christmas basket and you can buy big Christmas baskets at Costco and we thought no we don't want 00:40:00.700 --> 00:40:06.380 to do that we want to make it personal we don't want so we want to go and buy it ourselves 00:40:07.420 --> 00:40:13.740 so we took and we went we had a budget and we had this basket and we started going through the store 00:40:13.740 --> 00:40:19.580 and just filling up the basket with whatever we felt we were supposed to put in there and one of 00:40:19.580 --> 00:40:24.860 the things we felt we were supposed to put in there was some really nice coffee and some pottery 00:40:24.860 --> 00:40:30.060 mugs I have a thing with pottery mugs so we wanted to put it in a pair of pottery mugs and we wanted 00:40:30.060 --> 00:40:36.540 to put some nice cheese and nice gloves could be really good right so I I want to get the pottery 00:40:36.540 --> 00:40:43.420 mugs from my my favorite potter in Vernon she's an older lady who's been doing it for years and I 00:40:43.420 --> 00:40:49.580 call her up I say can I come to your studio and um and so she takes me into her garage and she's 00:40:49.580 --> 00:40:56.060 just got shelves and shelves of old like stuff that she's like go through it she's like just be 00:40:56.140 --> 00:41:02.460 warned some of it's like 30 years old and I'm rooting through all these pottery mugs that are 00:41:03.740 --> 00:41:08.460 because I'm not using buying a whole set I'm just getting two of them and I get two of these mugs 00:41:08.460 --> 00:41:17.420 put in the basket we send it off to the people I get an email back of thanks and they say we don't 00:41:17.420 --> 00:41:24.860 even feel like this is a gift from you or from your church we feel like this was a gift from God 00:41:26.780 --> 00:41:35.820 because everything in the basket is the stuff that we love to get and here's the kicker 00:41:37.420 --> 00:41:44.380 when we got married 23 25 years ago we were given a set of pottery mugs 00:41:46.060 --> 00:41:47.180 and two of them broke 00:41:49.420 --> 00:41:54.220 and the mugs you gave us are the replacement the exact replacements 00:41:56.540 --> 00:42:05.820 you just think about the nature of God and how personal he wants to be with us 00:42:06.060 --> 00:42:07.580 he wants to be with us 00:42:23.900 --> 00:42:25.260 I bought a car yesterday 00:42:28.380 --> 00:42:32.460 and we try to do everything by hearing 00:42:32.620 --> 00:42:41.580 I come a few weeks ago and was waiting outside Evan's apartment Jacob's apartment for a meeting 00:42:41.580 --> 00:42:46.460 with Jacob and I had about 20 minutes so I just went walking through the dealership 00:42:47.500 --> 00:42:54.540 and I stumbled upon this car in the dealership and the the budget like it's the only car in the 00:42:54.540 --> 00:42:58.860 whole dealership that's within our budget and it's beautiful and nice and I'm like 00:42:58.860 --> 00:43:04.940 this would be an awesome car but the time crunch and everything I couldn't make it happen and 00:43:04.940 --> 00:43:10.780 Penny and I decided no we're not we're not going to and I had met the guy and chatted with the guy 00:43:10.780 --> 00:43:16.780 and started connecting with him not just as the guy who's going to sell me the car but as a person 00:43:18.380 --> 00:43:20.780 that God has his eye on this person 00:43:20.940 --> 00:43:27.100 and began asking him his story and hearing his story and hearing and realizing wow God you want 00:43:27.100 --> 00:43:36.380 to connect with this person but I had to run and we weren't going to buy the car and Penny said 00:43:37.100 --> 00:43:43.580 God has always taken care of us in the area of vehicles and and Eric if we're supposed to have 00:43:43.580 --> 00:43:49.340 that car go to the dealership and ask him to buy it and he said yes we're going to do that 00:43:49.340 --> 00:43:54.060 if we're supposed to have that car God will make it work and I'm thinking to myself this car is 00:43:54.060 --> 00:44:03.500 gone tomorrow and that car was gone tomorrow and I told him I said I told the guy if it if it's 00:44:03.500 --> 00:44:10.140 supposed to work it'll happen and he's like good good good this is going to be gone tomorrow 00:44:13.660 --> 00:44:18.860 and then we're we sell our car in Vernon and we're driving I'm driving with hope and 00:44:19.340 --> 00:44:26.300 we've borrowed a vehicle and hope says to me one day dad like when are we going to get a car 00:44:26.300 --> 00:44:30.940 what how are we going to get a car 00:44:33.420 --> 00:44:40.620 she asked that question we stop at a stop sign and the car in front of me on the license plate 00:44:40.620 --> 00:44:44.460 has the first name the name of the sales guy 00:44:44.460 --> 00:44:51.660 and I said to her that's crazy she's like what dad that's the name of the sales guy that I had 00:44:51.660 --> 00:44:56.140 this connection with over that other car I think we're supposed to buy from him 00:44:57.980 --> 00:45:04.460 I tell Penny this story and this is just a few days ago here and I'm supposed to come and we 00:45:04.460 --> 00:45:11.020 don't have a car for me to get here and I decide Penny says well just look on the internet and see 00:45:11.020 --> 00:45:14.940 if that dealership has any cars that'll work and I said I've been looking and there's nothing 00:45:14.940 --> 00:45:21.980 it goes look again and I look again and there's a car that's identical identical to the car I had 00:45:21.980 --> 00:45:30.940 been driving three weeks earlier I buy a one-way ticket in faith that I'm going to get that car 00:45:30.940 --> 00:45:38.780 when I come I show up I go to the dealership the guy remembers me he's like I remember you 00:45:39.420 --> 00:45:47.180 he's like I remember you and and I say I want to get this car it looks identical to the one 00:45:47.180 --> 00:45:51.820 that you sold three weeks ago he goes it's actually the same car 00:45:54.460 --> 00:46:01.980 and he said that uh the person just couldn't get their financing so they had to they pulled it off 00:46:01.980 --> 00:46:05.980 while they were just trying to sort out the three weeks go by and then they have to post it again at 00:46:05.980 --> 00:46:07.100 a lower price now 00:46:10.140 --> 00:46:16.780 for me it still wasn't about the car and it's still not about the car it's about the guy and I'm going 00:46:17.340 --> 00:46:20.860 that morning when I go to pick up the car yesterday morning I'm going to pick up the car 00:46:21.580 --> 00:46:28.300 but before I'm sitting and I'm just seeking the Lord and I'm asking father tell me because we can 00:46:28.380 --> 00:46:38.620 feel pressure to share the gospel and God doesn't want us to feel pressure anytime you feel pressure 00:46:39.260 --> 00:46:41.740 you're operating out of a performance mindset 00:46:45.820 --> 00:46:50.060 my friend Caleb just said that to me a few weeks ago and I was like whoa that's so good 00:46:50.060 --> 00:46:56.780 should have been mine anytime you feel pressure you're operating out of a performance mindset 00:46:57.580 --> 00:47:02.780 so I just said God what do you want me to know about going to the dealership to get this car 00:47:03.500 --> 00:47:11.820 and takes me to Psalm 34 verse 2 and it says just boast in the works of God and the humble ones will 00:47:11.820 --> 00:47:19.500 hear it interesting verse boast in the works of God and the humble ones will hear it 00:47:20.140 --> 00:47:28.620 and what do I do I walk into that dealership and I just say we prayed for a car and my wife said if 00:47:28.620 --> 00:47:36.060 God wants us to get that car he'll make a way for it to happen and I tell the guy I saw your name on 00:47:36.060 --> 00:47:43.420 a license plate and I bought a plane ticket in faith that we would get this car and he's just 00:47:43.420 --> 00:47:48.140 shaking his head and he's like the first time I met you I felt that there was some sort of connection 00:47:48.140 --> 00:47:53.660 that's something and you said well if it's meant to happen God will take it and and I'm thinking 00:47:53.660 --> 00:48:00.620 no this is gone tomorrow but I still thought something there was something here and he takes 00:48:00.620 --> 00:48:08.780 me into the person who has to do all the paperwork and she starts asking me questions about why did 00:48:08.780 --> 00:48:13.900 you fly with a one-way ticket I did it in faith she drops her pen drops her paper she goes tell 00:48:13.900 --> 00:48:18.700 me more and I just tell her the whole story I just told you and she's just sitting there listening 00:48:18.700 --> 00:48:22.700 and she's she's just shaking her head and she's getting tears in her eyes and she's saying like 00:48:22.700 --> 00:48:29.500 this is thank you for sharing that this is like this is like and she started laughing 00:48:31.020 --> 00:48:36.060 and it was exactly like the verse and the humble ones will hear and rejoice 00:48:36.060 --> 00:48:44.620 He wants this for us every day every day knowing you know Penny my wife said to me once if under an 00:48:44.620 --> 00:48:53.980 old covenant before Jesus came and died on the cross and gave us his holy spirit if under an old 00:48:53.980 --> 00:49:04.060 covenant Moses could speak with God face to face with the Lord and the Lord said to him 00:49:04.060 --> 00:49:09.260 speak with God face to face like a man speaks with his friend 00:49:14.780 --> 00:49:17.580 then why can't we even more so 00:49:19.740 --> 00:49:25.900 under a new covenant God is a personal God 00:49:34.860 --> 00:49:35.820 and when we get this 00:49:39.660 --> 00:49:45.500 and this happens to Jacob all the time he's got thousands of stories he's never shared with 00:49:45.500 --> 00:49:53.500 anybody because it's just between him and his Abba but when we get this and it's really personal 00:49:54.540 --> 00:49:59.420 we're going to stop going to God just to inquire of the Lord like David did 00:49:59.660 --> 00:50:04.060 we're going to we're going to it's not just going to be I need to make this big decision about a car 00:50:04.060 --> 00:50:11.020 help me it's going to be so Jesus what's on your heart today 00:50:13.900 --> 00:50:16.060 father what are you wanting to do today 00:50:20.860 --> 00:50:24.060 father what nation is on your mind today 00:50:24.060 --> 00:50:29.660 and the questions like and when you don't have a question he'll he can even give you one 00:50:30.380 --> 00:50:33.340 recently and I'll end with this I promise 00:50:34.940 --> 00:50:39.660 recently he says to me I mean it's my morning quiet time and he says to me 00:50:40.860 --> 00:50:42.620 ask me the hardest thing I ever did 00:50:42.620 --> 00:50:49.980 what I'm not talking audible voice here I'm talking I'm not talking imagining okay 00:50:50.700 --> 00:50:58.060 imagining imagination projects something and tries to attach reality to it 00:50:59.100 --> 00:51:04.620 faith recognizes what's actually there as real okay so there's a difference 00:51:04.700 --> 00:51:08.940 he speaks to me and he he says ask me what's the hardest thing I've ever done 00:51:08.940 --> 00:51:13.260 and I said well Jesus obviously the cross he said ask me 00:51:17.740 --> 00:51:22.540 and I say okay what's the hardest thing you've ever done 00:51:23.580 --> 00:51:27.020 and I said okay what's the hardest thing you've ever done 00:51:27.020 --> 00:51:34.140 and I say okay what's the hardest thing you've ever done 00:51:35.900 --> 00:51:39.100 he says the hardest thing I ever did was wait 00:51:45.260 --> 00:51:53.100 and I was like what do you mean talk to me and he takes me to Psalm 74 verse 10 00:51:53.100 --> 00:52:05.260 and the psalmist is crying out and he says this is me crying out saying how long oh lord will your 00:52:05.260 --> 00:52:13.260 enemies scoff how long is everybody going to drag your name through the mud and the father 00:52:13.260 --> 00:52:21.260 Jesus says the hardest thing I ever did was wait for my father to say now's the time to go 00:52:21.740 --> 00:52:27.580 because he so wanted he saw what everybody was believing about his father all the lies 00:52:27.580 --> 00:52:33.180 people believed about him for years and years and years under the old covenant all these prophets 00:52:33.180 --> 00:52:38.220 who were saying pieces and bits of the puzzle and they're giving all these piecemeal bits 00:52:38.220 --> 00:52:44.220 and people aren't getting the right picture and they think oh he's just angry at me all the time 00:52:44.220 --> 00:52:49.660 and Jesus is like I want them to know my father I want to vindicate his name 00:52:49.660 --> 00:52:55.820 and he had to wait for thousands of years before he went to the cross to say if you really want to 00:52:55.820 --> 00:53:08.620 know what God is like here I am you can't get this stuff out of a theological textbook you can't get 00:53:08.620 --> 00:53:17.500 it out of a commentary you can only get it when you're in relationship with a person who's not 00:53:18.220 --> 00:53:26.220 in relationship with a personal God and it's not you driving the ship it's his holy spirit 00:53:26.220 --> 00:53:33.420 inviting you to say come I want to show you who I am I want to show you my face my ways my nature 00:53:35.260 --> 00:53:39.660 and this is what he wants for each one of you father we thank you 00:53:42.380 --> 00:53:44.700 I just praise you that you're such a personal God 00:53:47.500 --> 00:53:56.140 you know every single person here you know what they came carrying you know what their week's been 00:53:56.140 --> 00:54:04.540 like this this lofty knowledge is too wonderful for me to attain but we praise you and we thank 00:54:04.540 --> 00:54:14.780 you that you're so deeply personal we thank you that we have been discipled into a relationship 00:54:14.860 --> 00:54:21.740 with you and we are being discipled into a relationship with you and and we're allowed 00:54:21.740 --> 00:54:27.500 to ask you questions and we're allowed to wrestle with you and you wrestle with us and we can actually 00:54:27.500 --> 00:54:32.700 have this relationship with you I'm just so grateful and it's really hard at times because 00:54:33.660 --> 00:54:40.380 you're invisible it's not easy to cultivate friendship with somebody's invisible but you're 00:54:40.700 --> 00:54:46.540 to cultivate friendship with somebody's invisible but you're so faithful and you're always trying 00:54:46.540 --> 00:54:53.820 to nudge always trying to speak in innumerable ways you have not withheld yourself so we pray 00:54:53.820 --> 00:55:02.860 by your holy spirit we pray that you would nudge us this week with with our knowledge of these 00:55:02.860 --> 00:55:09.900 principles that are so strong and so true we pray that you would breathe into each one of us 00:55:10.460 --> 00:55:18.620 this week just freshness of personal personal encounters and relationship and conversations 00:55:18.620 --> 00:55:26.460 with you that that our going out to speak to the world would be the sharing of the stuff that you 00:55:26.460 --> 00:55:36.460 just told us and that you would just bring people to yourself because you are the truth 00:55:36.460 --> 00:55:42.460 I thank you father thank you for what you're doing in this body we trust that you will bring home 00:55:42.460 --> 00:55:46.620 every single person who was sent out from here that you would bring them home safely 00:55:48.780 --> 00:55:52.540 amen 00:56:06.460 --> 00:56:21.180 now okay um so I'm going to ask Diana to come up in a minute um but something I want you guys to 00:56:21.180 --> 00:56:26.460 keep in mind is we can come to a service we can come in listen to worship we can come and hear 00:56:26.460 --> 00:56:33.580 a teaching but every single thing that happened today was planned by God and so I don't want you 00:56:33.580 --> 00:56:38.220 to think that the church service started when we started singing the church service didn't start 00:56:38.220 --> 00:56:42.860 when we started listening to a sermon the church service it's not all little pieces it's all supposed 00:56:42.860 --> 00:56:47.980 to be connected together so I want you to go back to the very beginning what did vedisha talk about 00:56:47.980 --> 00:56:53.900 at the very beginning what was God saying what was God trying to engage each person here in doing 00:56:53.900 --> 00:57:01.020 worship what was God saying while Eric was teaching this isn't an encounter to an encounter but this 00:57:01.020 --> 00:57:08.860 is walking hand in hand with our father every day throughout every day and he knows every little 00:57:08.860 --> 00:57:13.820 thing that's happening I'm I'm going to share something that uh when I was I had figured out 00:57:13.820 --> 00:57:18.380 kind of what today would look like and then last night I was saying God God is there anything that 00:57:18.380 --> 00:57:22.860 needs to be changed for tomorrow and he said yeah you need to include vedisha so I said okay well 00:57:22.860 --> 00:57:27.420 what am I supposed to ask vedisha to do I could I give her a verse should I ask her for a word 00:57:28.060 --> 00:57:31.900 and God had a really funny question I thought okay how in the world am I going to send this 00:57:31.900 --> 00:57:38.620 to her in her text and he said he said you all you need to do is ask vedisha if there's something 00:57:38.620 --> 00:57:43.500 she feels he's told her this week she's supposed to share on Sunday but okay that's kind of like 00:57:43.500 --> 00:57:47.500 a really awkward question to send her but what's the worst so I kind of figured out how to make it 00:57:47.500 --> 00:57:50.940 word so it would actually make sense and she went text back and say sorry Jillian what are you asking 00:57:50.940 --> 00:57:57.420 me um and so I text vedisha and a couple minutes later I got a text back saying hi Jillian yes 00:57:57.420 --> 00:58:02.940 there's something that I'm supposed to share and and so then I said okay God where am I supposed 00:58:02.940 --> 00:58:11.020 to put it so even in how God lines up every single thing throughout not just a Sunday service but a 00:58:11.020 --> 00:58:16.300 Sunday service is okay how do we come in practice what we've learned so that we can then go back out 00:58:16.300 --> 00:58:20.780 into the week Sunday otherwise we can become a Sunday service to a Sunday service 00:58:22.140 --> 00:58:28.220 but we're not called to live Sunday service to Sunday service but throughout my week how am I 00:58:28.220 --> 00:58:35.180 living out how am I understanding how am I discovering how to walk this every day so that 00:58:35.180 --> 00:58:40.140 it's otherwise a Sunday service can become an encounter but how every day throughout the week 00:58:40.140 --> 00:58:45.900 am I walking hand in hand with my father so I'm going to ask Diana to come up and close and then 00:58:45.900 --> 00:58:51.820 I'm also going to ask her to send us out because we have come gathered together as Christ bodies 00:58:51.820 --> 00:58:56.700 and now we're sent out into the world and then in a week we'll come back during the week we'll 00:58:56.700 --> 00:59:02.780 gather back together but we are sent out into the world 00:59:02.780 --> 00:59:09.660 so 00:59:13.580 --> 00:59:16.300 Fidisha I want to talk to you later I miss what you said 00:59:19.100 --> 00:59:19.660 um 00:59:23.100 --> 00:59:27.660 I'm going to pray and then we'll I'll give you a charge or whatever it is that Jillian wanted me to 00:59:27.660 --> 00:59:34.860 do father I'm just so grateful for Eric and the message he brought today 00:59:36.300 --> 00:59:43.420 thank you father that he's reminded us that you were really big on relationship we know that 00:59:43.420 --> 00:59:50.620 amongst ourselves we know that with you sometimes but father I just pray that we would become 00:59:51.180 --> 00:59:58.060 aware of the relationship that you want us to have with you 24 7 so that even when we're sleeping 00:59:58.060 --> 01:00:03.820 when we're in relationship with you but but even more than that when we're out and about 01:00:03.820 --> 01:00:07.580 encountering people and walking in the world that we're in relationship with you 01:00:08.540 --> 01:00:13.020 and father thank you that that we've now got permission to stop performing 01:00:14.620 --> 01:00:19.260 and we're freed now because of the words that erik has reminded us that we're free to just 01:00:19.260 --> 01:00:26.300 share our stories of our walks with you because we all have stories and they're good ones father 01:00:28.300 --> 01:00:35.740 so I just thank you father and I want to charge all of you now this is no longer the prayer this 01:00:35.740 --> 01:00:44.700 is now the charge and I give it to myself as well the charge is to be alert and aware of God in 01:00:44.700 --> 01:00:50.780 every situation and aware of the call to relationship not to performance 01:00:51.980 --> 01:01:05.660 and come back with stories next week please and you're free to go