Welcome to resurrection church if you're new here welcome my
name is Daniel I am the lead pastor here at res church have.
You ever had a moment where you were you were face?
To face with someone and you were you were just like burying
your soul like you. I mean, you like that
excruciating moment where like you're getting?
Really vulnerable with someone. And and man there.
Is a potential that they're not. Going to return.
That, that, that. It's not going to.
Be reciprocated I I remember the moment.
That I. First looked.
In my wife's eyes when we were dating and said I love you.
And that pause. Is feels like it's never going
to end. You know you're going.
Do they feel the same way? And and and you're.
Face to face, you're kind of analyzing, you know, like, what
are they going to do looking at body language?
And do they feel the same way about me?
You ever felt that? Nobody.
Lord, some of y'all got married. I don't even know how.
You ever feel that? If you've ever felt that, what
is that? Scenario another one, but.
Where you're face to face in this conversation that was just
really. Intimate.
Really vulnerable. I would, I would.
And maybe in the moment. There was a possibility.
That you could be rejected. I I would say if you've ever.
Experienced that? Then you've experienced one of
the most primal, one of the most sort of central feelings that
makes us human, our need. To love and be loved.
To know and be fully known. In fact, the fear of rejection
is so great in our current culture that like there are
people that completely avoid this entire process.
Like I'm going. To have an online relationship.
Who's going to do this whole thing via text?
That way I can like. Because, man, there is a fear of
of rejection. Right there there is a man or am
I going to be accepted? I'm I'm looking at someone face
to face and I'm staring in their eyes and I'm and and it's almost
terrifying but but we also. Want it so much?
I do. I want to be.
Loved and accepted. Here's what I would tell you.
I would say that this is actually both.
One of our greatest human needs and one of our deepest, darkest
fears. It's this.
Question if someone fully. Knows me, Would they really love
me? We were created to love.
And be loved. To be known and be loved.
That's actually what sets. Humans apart from all of.
Creation. You know your dog wants.
To be loved, but if you rub its belly and give it treats, they
don't care if they know it or not.
We do we care? Why do we care so much?
Do you ever wonder? The Bible says that we.
Care because we were actually created in such a way.
We were designed in such a way to love and be loved, to know
and be known. And the reason that it's so?
Difficult and there's so much angst around it is that we.
Live in this this fallen. World.
In which we can never eat like. We live in a distorted world in
which we. Can never really fully see it
the way it was intended to be. A Pastor Tim Keller, in his book
The Meaning of Marriage, actually says it this way.
He says to be loved. But not fully known is
comforting, but superficial. It's shallow.
To be known and not loved is our greatest fear, but to be fully
known and truly loved is, well, a lot like being loved by God.
It is what we need more than anything.
It liberates us from pretense, humbles us out of our self
righteousness, and fortifies us for any.
Difficulty that life can. Throw at us.
We're starting. Today a three-week series on
prayer. This series is called Teach Me
to Pray. And if right now you're thinking
like, if we're starting something on prayer, why are we
talking about like? Romance and and being loved.
I'm glad you're paying attention.
They're they're related and we're going to look at this.
So here's what we're going. To do over the next three weeks
today. We're going to talk about.
Why we pray like like, what is prayer like?
What is it really? Why are we doing this?
Or why are we supposed to be doing this?
And then next week we're going to actually.
Talk about how to do it. So kind of the logistics of
prayer and then in the third. Week of this series we're we're
going to practice. We're going to come in here and
we're going to do. Elder LED congregation
participation, say yay, open mic like we're you're going to be
part of this. We're going to do a prayer and
worship service. There's not going to be a
sermon. Yeah, I know you're you're
disappointed. I am.
We're going to pray. We're.
Going to practice what we preach.
OK, so let's start today with what is prayer.
What is prayer? Why?
Why are we supposed to be doing this and and?
Maybe maybe you joined us today or you're you're you're.
Joining us online and you would, you would kind of consider
yourself maybe a skeptic, A skeptical about Christianity or
Jesus or, or or faith in general.
So first of all, welcome. I'm glad you're here or you're
watching. I actually am really excited to
talk about prayer with you particularly.
Maybe we can clear up some things about this idea of
prayer. I'm excited you're here.
I'm excited you're joining us. So there's a really interesting.
Concept that runs all throughout.
Scripture. All throughout the Bible, in
fact. And it's this idea of.
Seeking God's face and I really want to talk about this idea of
seeking God's face today, what that means.
So we're going to start in Second Chronicles 714.
If you have your Bible, just turn there.
We're going to read that first. This is kind of our foundational
verse for the day if. My people.
Who are called by my name humble themselves and pray.
And these are the important three words.
You can underline this. Seek my face and.
Turn from their wicked. Ways then I will hear from
heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
A similar concept in Psalm 27, eight, there's a psalmist, he's
talking about this command from the Lord to seek his face, and
he says. This you have said, seek my
face, and my heart says to you, your face.
Lord do I seek. Over 100. 50 times in the.
Bible God tells us to. Seek his face, seek his presence
to seek. God, it's a proactive.
Command. We're supposed to seek him and
and and whenever. The Bible is being specific.
It says more than just seek God, it says seek my face.
And so I really wanted to break down.
What does that mean? What does?
What does he? Mean seek my face.
And it's it's actually relatively.
Simple and yet you're going to find this kind of hard and that
is this that. Seeking God's face.
Means that I'm coming to him in. Prayer.
Not to get something from him, but to get God Himself.
So I'm not. After what's in his hand, what
he can give me, I'm after his face, I'm after him.
There's a Hebrew word that we see.
Throughout scripture called Panim, it is the Hebrew.
Word here that we're. Reading for face, but it
actually is translated two different ways depending on
where you're reading it. In Scripture, same word.
So not only does it mean face, it also means presence,
Presence. And this word, whether
translated as face or presence, is mentioned 2100 times in the
Hebrew Bible. So don't think about God's.
Face as like a physical face with eyes and a nose and a
mouth. The Bible is telling us to seek.
Being with God closely, not just wanting God to do something for
me, but to be with God. And so I want to I want to just
look through the texts. Today and look at some different
scriptures and, and I hope what it means is that maybe we
relearn some things about prayer.
Maybe we reset some misconceptions about it.
You know, almost every religion in the world.
Talks about prayer or. Or meditation or incantation in
some method or another. But Christian prayer is vastly
different than almost every other religion.
And the reason it's so different?
Is that only Christianity? Is built around an intimate,
personal God of the universe, a God who knows us, excuse me, a
God who loves us so much that he would send his son to die for us
to make it possible for us to seek him and know him
personally. My earliest memories of prayer
are with my, my parents. They're, they're, they're
phenomenal memories. My mom and dad praying with me,
whether praying before bed or just praying at different times
and teaching me those things. But my earliest memories of
prayer at church are horrible because they were the Wednesday.
Night prayer meeting y'all? Y'all ever been to a small
Southern Baptist country church and then Wednesday night prayer
meeting? As a nine year old, I was pretty
sure it was medically possible to die from boredom.
I was sure I was at the verge. It's just that no one would show
up like most prayer meetings in, in conservative churches.
And there'd be a couple of people sitting around this big
list of, of people that were sick.
And then they would just sit and they would mumble over the same
sets of little words and blah, blah, blah, blah.
And we we'd be praying for so and so who's in the hospital and
so and so and Aunt Bertha's bunions, you know, what is this?
I don't get it. And so I grew up most of my
life. Even most of my Christian life,
not really knowing how to pray, not really knowing what to pray,
not really know why we pray. Like does this even work like?
Maybe maybe you can relate to that.
How come every time I sit down to pray?
My mind starts to wander. Anybody else?
Oh my gosh. And then I'm.
Then I start to get all like. Ashamed like this got ashamed of
me because I can't stay on track because I can't.
Pray the right way am I even saying the right words man,
just. Does this even do any good?
What am I doing? Yet the Bible would tell us to
pray without ceasing. James, 48, would say to draw
near to God, and he will draw near.
To you, that sounds pretty personal.
That sounds. Pretty intimate that does not.
Sound like Wednesday night prayer meeting?
Do you ever think? About that.
Most of us talk about prayer more than we actually pray.
Like, yeah, I'm going to pray about that.
You know, you get the text from your buddy who's like really
going through it and you're like, oh, that sounds terrible.
I'm going to pray for you, brother.
And like, that was the prayer, the text, and.
Then we just go on with. Life like you all realize that
the prayer. Emoji is not the actual.
Prayer. So so like.
For me, maybe if we understood prayer a little bit better,
maybe, maybe it would be. Easier.
Maybe we'd be more. More motivated to do.
It you know, a couple years ago I started to really wonder.
How? How come I say that I believe
that prayer is this incredibly powerful thing of talking to
God, bringing things to God, but my life doesn't look like I
believe that. Like it like if I if if I really
believed what I said. I believed I I would be praying
a lot harder and a lot more and I was just really.
Convicted of like. Gosh, I need to take, I need to
take a better look at this. And then someone gave me a book.
Another pastor friend of mine gave me a book.
It sat on my night stand for like a year.
And I finally got to reading it. And it was about leading through
prayer, like leading a church in prayer and, and how all of
really Christian leadership is dependent on prayer.
And so as I begin to read that, and I begin to do the things in
that book, our elder room entirely changed.
Like like we started to. Build an elder room around
prayer and when we did the church begin to change, we begin
to see God move. We start.
Every Sunday morning, including this morning at 6:30 in the
morning, sitting around tables just pouring out our heart,
praying to God, asking for his presence, asking for him to show
up. We pray for churches
individually by name, by their pastors name for their kids, for
their prayer request. We.
Pray for you, you. Didn't show up here today not
having been first prayed for by a group of people this morning.
Going to the throne room of God with your name on their heart,
praying for you, praying for you.
And so let's let's dig a little on this idea.
We're going to jump around into some different scriptures today,
different quotes, different things to see.
If we can get a. Better maybe a more holistic
understanding of prayer, because prayer has been not only
misunderstood. Now, in 2025, prayer has been
misunderstood. For a long time we.
We have some beautiful quotes from historians and church
fathers throughout the last few thousand years talking about
trying to understand prayer better.
Mother Teresa said prayer is not asking.
Prayer is putting oneself in the hands of God at His disposition
and listening to His voice in the depths of our heart.
Henry Newman said to pray is to listen to the one who calls you
beloved child. To pray is to let that voice.
Speak to the center of your being, to your guts, and let
that voice resound in your whole being, Saint Therese, who was
born in 1873, said. This prayer is a surge.
Of the heart. It is a simple look toward
heaven, is a cry of recognition and of love, embracing both
trial and joy. Been a lot of descriptions
written about prayer we're going to we're going to use this sort
of easy definition today and through our series it's also
going. To be our big idea today.
So if you don't, if you leave with nothing else, leave with
this concept. I want you to really wrestle on
this and chew on this today. Authentic prayer is encountering
God's astonishing presence. Authentic prayer is encountering
God's astonishing presence. Authentic meaning there are a
lot of cheap substitutes encountering because this is
meant to be a face to face relationship, like me staring
into my wife's eyes. And astonishing because every
time we are exposed to the presence of the God of the
universe, we are changed. And I want to show you.
What happens if if? You and I will will begin to do
this, begin to proactively seek God.
I want to show you what happens when we do that.
It happens throughout the Bible. We see it over and over again.
It's happened in my life for many of you, it's happened in
your life. Here's the first thing we have
to get an understanding that God actually cherishes our prayer.
He, he, man, He loves it when we talk to Him.
It's not just a command, it's not a duty, It's not a check
box. He actually desires US talking
with him and we see this. All throughout.
Scripture as prayer is described to us.
If if we turn to the story of the tax collector and the
Pharisee that Jesus tells we would, we would see that we're
going to look at that one next week.
If we look at David and Psalm 51 pouring his heart out to God, we
see this. But I just.
Want you to hear it? There's a story of Jesus in a
region called Samaria with a group of marginalized people,
and he's speaking to a woman who's who's very much the least
of these, very ostracized, and they're having a conversation.
And he begins to describe to her what is about to happen when he
goes to the cross, when he makes a way.
Here's what he says. He says in John 423 and 24.
But the hour is coming and is now here, when the true
worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.
For the Father is look at that Word, seeking such people to
worship Him. God is spirit and those who
worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.
God desires for you and I to seek His face in intimate
conversation with Him. That, that, that.
Means that a lot of the things that you've heard or been taught
about prayer. Are wrong because if.
If that's what God's desire. Really is.
Then prayer. Prayer is not a performance
because that's not what God's asking for.
It's not what he cherishes, not what he's looking for.
You don't have to pray good or pray Gooder.
I don't know how's that work. You're just talking to God.
There are no magic words yet You wait too often.
You've heard somebody pray and you're like, oh, I can't pray.
I would mess it up like it's some sort of spell from
Hogwarts. Like man, if you may probably
not working because I said it wrong.
It's supposed to be like. Wingardium Leviosa.
No, you're just talking to the Heavenly Father.
Let me to get your head around what that means.
You got to go back to the very beginning of the Bible, the very
beginning of the whole creation story.
God has created the first man, the first woman there.
There's a garden. There's no sin.
We haven't rebelled against God yet.
Everything's perfect. The Bible calls that Shalom.
Shalom, perfect peace. And here's what's happening in
that garden. Where everything's perfect.
Just the way it was designed. We're walking through the garden
with Jesus, just talking side by side, face to face
conversations. That's.
Actually how we were created. That's what we were created to
do. The problem comes shortly after
when we rebel against God. When that rebellion happens, it
fractures that relationship, sin and death.
The the the curse of sin falls upon mankind.
Now all of a sudden, it's not so easy to just walk through the
garden with God. We can't.
And yet, and yet we were still created for that reason.
We were still created with that desire.
So so when you look around. And you go, man, something's not
right. Let me tell you why.
Because we were created to walk. With him and all.
Of a sudden, we're apart. From him and so the Bible
continues to lay out this framework, this instruction of
seek me, seek my face. Why?
Because you were designed to need it.
It's nothing's going to feel right until you find him.
Seek my presence. Come find me.
So prayer is this conversation with God that he desires.
The The primary way that we speak to God is through prayer.
The primary way that God. Speaks to us is through His
word, the Bible. We'll talk.
A lot about that next week, and these aren't different things.
This is just the conversation. I just want you to consider that
God has always wanted us to seek His presence.
He's always wanted us to come and talk to Him.
He created us with that very need inside of us and so often.
Your dissatisfaction in life is that there's actually a need to
talk to him, and you're doing other things with that need and
wondering why it doesn't satisfy.
He desires this conversation when we step into that, when we.
Intentionally. Proactively.
Begin to do that. Begin to seek his face.
Begin to talk. To him begin to have.
Those conversations, Here's what happens.
This is .2 in there that authentic prayer begins to
expose my heart. Now here's what I mean by that.
OK, I should define quickly God's presence.
So we're talking about seeking God's presence in the Bible.
There's actually three types of presence.
God. God is present in three ways in
the Bible. And, and, and I want to
articulate some of that difference so that you
understand which one we're talking about.
It says that God is omnipresent and all that means is that.
God is everywhere all the. Time there's nowhere to hide
from God. Secondly, it says that because
of Christ, if we've given our life to Christ, we are what's
called indwelt with the Holy Spirit.
He's put his spirit inside of us and all the time Spirit doesn't
come and go, but but there's a third type and this is the type
we're going to be talking about today.
And it's this idea of the intimate presence of God that
the face to face conversations with God.
Now how? Can there be three types?
That's a? That's a logical.
Question. And so I'm going to give you an
analogy. That I hope is helpful.
How many of you here have ever babysat a toddler or an infant?
OK, like literally some of you are parents and not raising your
hand. I'm just wondering what happens
with your kids. OK, most of us, yes, Now.
If you've ever babysat a kid, a. Small kid, you know that they
they could like sit in the living room floor and you could
be in the room with. Them kind of watching them.
And they could be. Oblivious to the fact that
you're there because there's some amazing thing that has
caught their attention like a. Cardboard box and they could
just be enthralled with that. Thing for like hours and have no
idea you were there and then but there's a moment right where
they turn and they see you and they make eye contact and
they're like and there's a spark of.
Recognition and they're like mom, y'all know what I'm talking
about right? For me, it's it's, that's not
mom, you know what I mean? Yes, everybody with me.
It wasn't that you weren't there the whole time, but something
different happens when they turn face.
To face and make eye contact with you, yes, that's.
The type of. Presence we're talking about so.
It's not that. God's missing.
It's that there's this moment we begin to turn and look.
For God. 'S face that everything changes.
I'll give you another example. How many people here are
married? OK.
That was not a hard question for some of you.
I hope you're not in trouble later anyways.
Now, men. Y'all know you're still
technically? Married when you're at work,
Yes. OK, yes, it's a weird crowd
today. You're still married.
When you're at work, if you're at home and you're doing the
dishes and your spouse is in the other room, you know, cleaning
some floors, you're still married.
OK. Thank you.
But but don't but aren't. Everyone like a good date night?
Come on. Yeah.
Everyone like a good date? Night Yes, trying to grow this
shirts the old fashioned way. It wasn't that you weren't
married and you are married. But there's something about
intentional time. We put our phones down, put the
distractions down. Some of you have.
Young kids. Are like, what's that like?
We turn toward one another, we're face to face.
I'm actually spending time in intimate conversation with my
spouse. Connecting, talking, listening,
enjoying. I'm looking at those beautiful
brown eyes. What's different?
I'm face to face, man.
I'm I'm intentionally seeking the presence of that person into
an intimate conversation. Authentic prayer is seeking
God's manifest presence. In my life now, news flash,
buckle in, we're not in the Garden of Eden.
I know Bakersfield in the fall tricks some people as soon we
take all the photos as we invite all of our friends and they
think Bakersfield's amazing because they haven't been here
in August. We're not we're not in the we're
not in the Garden of Eden. And here's what I.
I mean by that like. Because we're not in the Garden
of Eden. We're not just walking with.
God, through the cool of the evening anymore.
And so to to to seek God. One means we have to be
intentional. 2 It means that. As we draw close to God, as we.
Begin to to turn. Face to face, we get to
experience his presence. Here's what's going to happen.
In the garden. It was perfection.
I could walk. With him with no big deal but
right now? We live in a fallen, distorted
world, so as I get close to a holy God every time I'm.
Going to go, oh, I'm not like that.
It's like the illumination of. Holiness on our life and every.
Time that happens, we're going to begin to.
See. A gap between God's character
and my. Character between.
God's attitude and my attitude between God.
'S power and my weakness between his humility and my.
Pride and there's going to be a gap.
Amen. And it'll.
Be that moment, no matter where you're at.
When you get close to holy God, you go.
Oh, he's not like me. It exposes my heart when I begin
to interact with the perfection of God and so So what will
happen is your heart. You know your.
Circumstances. Your attitude like all.
Those things you're just going to all of a sudden you're going
to go, oh God, is so different than I am.
Now here's the thing. Not, not in shame.
Shame is not from God. Adam and Eve used to walk.
With God naked that. Shame is not from God.
We we did that. So as we draw close to God, we
don't we don't get. Shame because we're not perfect.
Actually, there's this this gentle correction that is the
beauty of Christ, the standard of holiness where we go.
Oh, and the and the third. Thing will happen.
Which is that that exposing my heart to God in humility allows
him to work on it. Now I say in humility why?
Because the moment we begin to see a gap between God and.
Us, we have. To have a recognition I'm the
one that's wrong. We're not going God.
Come down here, get in line. We're going, oh, oh, I have some
things that are not right. There's there's a, there's a a.
Theological concept that we get from scripture called
immutability, immutability, say immutability, immutability, it
means that God does not change. There's no variation.
And and we get that from Malachi 36, from James 117, from a lot
of other verses. God does not change, but I do
Amen. You do.
Amen. You ever had a bad day?
God hasn't. You ever been wrong?
God in God doesn't change. So what happens is I take my.
Broken, warped, Emotional. Self and I seek the face of God,
and as I get closer and closer to a perfect.
God, I go, whoa, I'm not like that.
And that recognition allows him to begin to change me, to begin
to transform my heart, to begin to refine my character moment by
moment, minute by minute, degree by degree, little bit by little
bit. Just like when you're doing
something with a little kid and they get to watch Dad do it.
They try to be like Dad. That's what's happening, right?
You're going, oh, I need to be more like Dad.
And that can be in conviction, that can be in encouragement.
That can be all kinds of different correction.
Let me give you an example. Wednesday night I had a
particularly rough night and and it's just been tough.
And statistically, pastors have one of the loneliest jobs in the
world. 43% of all pastors who consider quitting sight,
loneliness, isolation is the reason they quit.
And I remember Pastor Ray Johnson said he was talking to a
group of pastors and he said be careful pastor because a a
church will use you up and throw you out like a Kleenex and move
on to the next pastor. And I and I thought at the
moment, like, man, that's awfully cynical.
You know, like, and, and I actually, I think I know what he
was trying to say in that moment.
I think what he was saying is like, the churches aren't
malicious. It's just that they rarely
realize the burden that they're putting, you know?
Pastors sit in the spot. Where everyone in their trauma,
in their hurt, in their pain, run to the pastor and when, when
you know when your nose is running, you're not thinking
about it right? You're grabbing the.
Kleenex or your sleeve if you're my kids or whatever, right?
And you just, you just use it. And so inherently pastors end up
with, with a lot of that. And I was just laying in bed
Wednesday night, like really kind of struggling with
isolation, loneliness and talking to God, just talking to
God in the middle of the night, just talking and talking and,
and just pouring out my heart and, and I, I just, I could feel
the Lord talk to me through that and just say, man, you're not
alone. I'm right here.
I have not hidden my face from you.
There are days for a pasture where no human is safe to relate
to. But he is.
He is. And so he's he's.
We're just in the middle of the night.
God is ministering to it. He's just reminding me.
Like, you know, Daniel, you might, you might be a little
emotional. Right now.
And as I draw close to the goodness of God, I'm like, oh,
yeah, I think I'm a little emotional right now.
Not in the shameful way. In a way.
Oh man, God now can correct some of those things in my heart in
the middle of the night, just in a conversation.
Why? Because God, without any,
without any magic words or formal incantations, God can
change me simply by me drawing near and seeking His face and
getting closer to Him and realizing He's so good.
You can encounter God's presence face to face and that that
changes me every single time. That's what it does in this
life. You know all the circumstances
we're going to go through our, our emotions and, and our
reactions and our perspective. They're going to change wildly.
You're just going to go through some stuff.
And here's the thing, we have a heavenly Father who says he has
he Jesus came down and suffered so that he would have
experienced everything that we've experienced, suffered,
struggled, lived, died so that we could have confidence that
when we draw close to him, he's gone through.
He knows exactly what you're going through and his word says
bring that to me. Seek my face, seek me with all
of your heart. Bring that to me and I will give
you rest it in in the Bible, every time we see God, God speak
about his face, it's every time he blesses someone, it says he
shines his face upon them. Where where God's face where his
presence is his joy and satisfaction and peace and
comfort. And when like really horrible
stuff happens, it you'll see it says God hid his face from them
and he turns and and and and all of the evil and ills of the
world flood in and we actually have the choice to seek his face
again and again and again. He says, come talk to me, come
spend time with me. Come worship me.
Come and join me. Won't you come?
That's prayer. That's prayer above and beyond
anything else you understand about prayer.
That's what it is in any fashion.
It's seeking the face of God. And in those moments, in the
authentic, proactive, seeking God's face, He begins to
illuminate our life and our heart, our situation, our
circumstances, and change us in the process.
This is what's happening when we really pray, when we genuinely
seek God's presence, because authentic prayer is encountering
God's astonishing presence. And every time this happens, it
changes us and and the. Ability.
To do this, to just come to God at any moment, it is only
possible because Jesus came and went to the cross and broke down
this barrier between US and God that was fractured, and now we
can freely do this. In the Old Testament, when this
relationship was fractured, God's presence was in this one
little spot in the temple, in this one little place.
And nobody else could go. The high priest could go.
There's a big veil that. That, that, that that was.
A barrier no one could get in and one person once a year.
Could go in, but not anymore. Now you and I have access at any
time in the middle of the night, driving in your car on a walk,
at any point and listen, it doesn't.
Prayer is any moment from a short thought to dedicated hours
of intentionally trying to seek and experience God any moment
when you're seeking God's presence.
And so that might be. Conversational.
I talk to God all the time. That might be angry.
You can. You can be angry and yell at
God. He's a big boy.
He can handle it. It could be a cry of
desperation. It can be a list of Thanksgiving
and things you're grateful for. He could be just worshipping and
appreciating his good. It's all prayer because it's
seeking his presence. And so, you know, I always, I
always want to give you something to do with with the
truths that come out of. Scripture as we.
Preach on a Sunday morning and so here's my my my number one
goal today is actually that you would you would take this
concept, this idea and then it would reshape and refashion how
you consider and think about prayer.
Then it would change your perspective about what it is to
talk to God to seek God to look for his presence.
But let me give you something to do like.
Next week. We're going to actually spend
some real time on, on doing things right?
Like like here's some here's some concrete examples of, of
ways to pray and how to pray. But let me give you give me one,
one challenge for this week as we move into next week here, let
me just ask you this question. What would it look like to seek
God's face instead of his hand and any?
And what I mean by that is this, to seek God's hand is to say.
God, I need you to do something for me.
To seek God's face is. To say, man, I just want to be
near you and. The interesting part is that you
can seek God's hand and miss his face entirely.
We we, we can get into this thing where we treat God like a
like a genie in a bottle. And we do we.
Figure if we rub it and we say the right things, we might get 3
wishes, but if you seek God's face you get the whole thing.
What would it look like in our life if our prayer life begin to
start with? And maybe at some point.
Centre around just wanting to experience.
The presence of God in our life. And, and here's the the crazy.
Thing we were designed. For it, we were designed for it.
You're not actually going to feel real satisfaction until
you. Begin to do it.
What would it look like if every day this week?
You stopped. Before, you just rushed off into
the busyness of life and. You just said for 60 seconds,
sit still in silence. Say God, will you show yourself
to me today? Will you show me more of you
today? Maybe.
Maybe you're. So new to this that it all seems
intimidating. You could literally set an alarm
on your phone and when it goes off, just say God, will you?
Will you show yourself to me today?
Will you show me more of your presence today?
Will you help me to enjoy you more today?
I I just tell you from my own life, it will change everything
about. The way you see God about the
way you approach life, if you will simply slow down and
attempt or just ask for God to show himself to you more deeply,
He will. He's not embarrassed, you're
asking, he's actually. Waiting for you to ask.
He wants to be wanted. Here's the crazy thing.
I. Think you already want to let?
Let me ask this question. How many?
People, if I just asked you if I.
Just came to you after service said hey would you like to
experience God more deeply in your life?
How many people would raise your hand?
Man, like logically we're like, well, yeah, of.
Course. OK, cool.
Let's ask for it every day this week.
Let's just say, hey guy, will you?
Will you help me to experience you more deeply this week?
Just ask now for some of you, maybe, maybe online, maybe you
just kind of got him hanging out listening, what have you.
You're hearing this and. And here's the thing to to ask
God for that to to ask a God to to show himself.
More deeply, to experience His presence you actually have to
know God and and for some. Of you, you've.
You don't know Him, You know about him, you know of Him, you
know somebody that knows him, but you don't know him.
As you see, we only come to God in relationship.
Through belief in Jesus Christ. Without Christ we have no
access, we have no relationship. We have no Heavenly Father.
It takes a surrendered heart. To Jesus.
So if you've if. You've never.
Done that the Bible actually lays out an instruction.
Of what that looks like. In Romans 10/9 and 10, it says
if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, I believe in
your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be
saved. For with the heart 1 believes
and is justified, and with the mouth 1 confesses and is saved.
And so if you've not done this before, but you're willing to
surrender your life to God today, I want to give you an
opportunity to do that. I want to invite you to do that.
Will you please bow your heads and close your eyes as we wrap
up our service? Just a moment, for just a moment
God is calling to you and if you're willing to ask him for
forgiveness and salvation. As we close our eyes and bow our
head, I just want you to repeat this prayer after me.
Jesus, I know I'm lost and I need you to save me.
I'm not satisfied and I need relationship with you, so I
surrender everything to you and I receive your promise of
forgiveness, of adoption, of eternal life.
Be my Lord. Please Jesus, if you prayed that
prayer moments ago, would you be brave and raise your hand for me
to see? Thank you, thank you.
You put your hands down in Jesus name, Amen.
Real quick, whether a moment ago or or maybe sometime in the last
couple weeks, if you surrendered your heart to Christ to call him
Lord. Welcome to the family in in just
a moment. We're going to we're going to
respond to this sermon. We're going to sing a song to
close our service. And in the back there are
tables. The banners say I raised my
hand. Whether you raise your.
Hand or not, if you've. Made a decision to follow
Christ, to surrender to Christ. I want you to go back there
during the song, and I want you to.
Tell someone what happened. We want to celebrate with you.
We're going to give you a Bible and a gift and follow up with
you. We're going to talk about what
it looks like to follow Christ. The rest of you, where you
stand. We're going to sing a song.
Our prayer team is going to come up.
We, we, we love Fran with you and for you for all sorts of
things. What a great time to.
Be prayed for during a series on prayer.
So don't miss an opportunity to have someone pray for you today.
You move as the Lord leads you. We love you.