0:07 I believe the Lord wants to use this church, dear family, for more uh greater things, not greater in the eyes of the world, but for greater things in the kingdom of heaven than he's done so far. I look at what he's done already, especially in the last 8 0:24 years or so. I look at the influence he's allowing this church to have across [snorts] the world. I'm not we don't brag about it. We don't think much of ourselves. But those those evidences, the fact that God is using us this way 0:44 ought to inspire us for greater things. That the Lord will that our response will be Lord this isn't all that you put us here for, right? This isn't all that you gave up Jesus for. There's more. And may we continue that passion for the 1:02 especially for the lost around us. And I don't mean just getting people to come in and say a prayer and and and check the box and feel like one more lost person is said a prayer. We want to make disciples. We want that's what it means to save the 1:19 lost. It doesn't mean just getting them to say a prayer. means that they are saved from sin and they could be sitting in churches thinking they're Christians, still lost. [snorts] So that's our burden. Um, how many of your children know what the 1:35 word even means? When you say something is even, it means it's equal, right? Even. This isn't even. This isn't even. This is even. That means it's equal. Now turn with me to the verse we 1:53 memorized this week. John chapter 10. This is God's will for our lives. 2:11 And this verse that we've been memorized has been convicting me deeply cuz every now and then I come across a verse in in scripture that when I read it slowly and literally and take it 2:28 exactly for what God said, it's like an arrow piercing my heart. And here's another verse like that. In verse 15, Jesus tells us that here's the standard of life he had. The father 2:43 knows me and I know the father. Think about what that actually means. Jesus, the father knows Jesus and Jesus knows the father. That's John 10:15. 3:00 But before that he says the proof that I am your shepherd and you are my sheep is that I know you and you know me in the same way equally. And the honest question I had to ask 3:17 myself this week was if I look at the level of fellowship between the father and Jesus, how well do the father know Jesus and how well did Jesus know the father? And I look at how well do I know Jesus and 3:34 how well does Jesus know me? Is it equal? This is the proof that we are his sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me in the same way that the father knows me and I 3:53 know the father. Jesus came that we might have life. Now this isn't to condemn us. I don't believe any one of us is there perfectly. We will be there perfectly when Christ comes or when we reach the end of our lives. But there must be this 4:10 constant passionate desire, Lord, in the circle of light that you've given me. I haven't seen all things. Now I only see dimly. But whatever I see now, in the circle of light that you've given me within my conscience, is it true that you know me 4:28 and I know you in the same way that the father knew you and you knew the father when you were here on this earth? If that's not so, Lord, I want you to fill me with the Holy Spirit. This is not something I can accomplish. There's no 4:42 way that I can make it by my own strength so that Jesus knows me and I know Jesus by that level. It's only something the Holy Spirit can do. And when I read a verse like that and I see areas in my life within my circle of 5:00 knowledge within the light that God has given me and my conscience and I see Lord that area of my life I'm still holding back. That part of my life is still self-centered. You're not the unrivaled king in that area. I'm still king there and I know 5:19 it. And your Holy Spirit's been convicting me to let go of that and not still be in charge of that, my emotions or forgiveness towards others or love of this world, whatever it might be. Lord, make it so that you know me and I 5:37 know you in that area that you've shown me in the same way that the father knew you and you knew the father. Why did Jesus come? God so loved the world. This is a verse. You see it even in football stadiums. John 3:16. Unfortunately, people don't actually 5:53 list the words. They just put the reference there. Do we know it? God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should have John 10:14:15 true in their life that they may not perish but have 6:11 eternal life. And John 17:3 tells us eternal life is that they may know God this way. That's eternal life. That's why Jesus died. So this I pray we'll take this to heart. And 6:31 that knowledge comes through the presence of the Lord. I'd just like to speak today on recognizing the presence of the Lord continually. See, the presence of the Lord is what God always longed for his people. In the very first book of the Bible, in 6:50 the first few chapters, you read that God made Adam and Eve in his image so that he could spend time with them. and the immediate consequence of sin. You read in Genesis chapter 3 verse 8, right after they had sinned and 7:15 they heard God coming, they were used to being in the presence of God freely. And can you imagine what that must have been like before Eve and Adam took the fruit and ate it? Just the presence of of God there. And it was so amazing. And all of 7:31 that changed immediately when they sinned. And then you see they heard the sound of the Lord walking in the garden in the cool of the day. God was looking forward to that presence, them being in his presence again. And they hid themselves from the 7:47 presence of the Lord. God's desire all along for his people was that they would be they would be in his presence. And that's why he gave them the law. That's why he asked them to build this ark of the covenant which was an indication of his 8:05 presence. Where the ark went, the presence of the Lord went when they were right with God. Um, and in fact that the bread that's inside the ark, one of the things that was inside the ark was called the bread of the presence. 8:21 Bread of the face is the literal word there. That means bread that came directly that has been in the face of God. And I thought about that phrase even as I sought to speak, what to share this morning that what I would put 8:35 forward wouldn't just be some idea, some verses, some thoughts, but they would be bred from the presence. Say, Lord, give me something that you that has been in your presence. Give me a word. Give me an encourage. Give me 8:49 words that are bred from your presence. In Exodus 33, you see that Moses's prayer, see, for the people of Israel, the majority of them with a one or two 9:06 exceptions, they were content that God blessed them materially. When they got thirsty and they didn't have water, they grumbled and complained, and God fixed their problem. When they were hungry and didn't know where they were going to get food, they 9:20 grumbled and complained. God gave them food. When they got bitten by snakes and they complained because of their own disobedience, God solved their problem and healed them. And for most of them, that was their testimony. Oh, I can tell 9:35 you why God is a good God. He's been faithful. Why? What he's done? Well, I had this problem. I lost my job and then he gave me another job. Or I didn't have enough money for this and then he gave me money for that. That's great. God is 9:46 faithful. Or I this other problem. My child was sick and he healed me. It's wonderful. That is the extent of what the Israelites also experienced. And I believe that some of them would sing songs like, "God, you've been 10:02 faithful all my life. You've been faithful." But they didn't dwell in his presence. Moses could also sing, "Yes, you've been faithful. You're a faithful God." But there was a difference between Moses saying, "God, you've been faithful." And 10:16 the rest of the multitude saying, "Well, God, you've been faithful. And as we read in 1 Corinthians 10, for the rest of them, as they sign, God, you've been faithful, but I really don't care to be in your presence. They 10:27 perished in the wilderness. And God has written these things for our instruction upon whom the ends of the ages have come so that we too will not perish. Singing, "Lord, you've been faithful." This is God's will for our lives, that 10:43 we will have eternal life, that we'll know him. And it's I really believe that there will be some who will say, "Well, Lord, you've been faithful. You've done all my material needs for me. You've taken good care for me. You provided everything for 10:56 me and my family. What a great God you are. But I didn't really care to dwell in your presence and to know you. What a tragedy it would be." In Exodus 33, we read in verse 14, this is the prayer I hear from Moses. He 11:18 was saying, "Yes, Lord, you've been faithful, but I there's one thing I want, Lord. I don't necessarily want you to provide water for me and provide mana for me and provide this or provide that for me. There's only one thing I want 11:29 from you going forward. Will your presence go with me?" And dear church family, let this be the overarching prayer of this church. If it hasn't been at least from now, this day going forward, Lord, there's only one thing we 11:41 want. We don't care have these big plans for our jobs or our children or our health or anything like that. Will your presence go with us, Lord? We've got a conference coming up. We don't care. We don't really care if all the logistics 11:54 go well and all the other things go well. Will your presence be there, Lord? Even if the air conditioning fails or the food runs out or whatever, will your presence be there? Then Lord, that's that's all we long for. Exodus 33 12:09 verse 12, Moses said to the Lord, see you say to me, bring up this people, but you yourself have not let me know who you will send with me. Moreover, you have said, I have known you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight. 12:23 Now therefore, I pray you, Lord, you said that you know me and I would know you. If this is true, if I found favor in your sight, let me know your ways that I may know you so that I may find favor in your sight. Verse 14, he said, 12:39 "My presence shall go with you and I will give you rest." And he said to him, "Yes, Lord, that's all I want. If your presence does not go with us, don't lead us up from here. If you tell me, Lord, if you tell me, Santosh, I'm going to give you make sure 12:57 your job is safe this week and you'll have enough money for your children and you'll be healed and uh and your children will be healed and everything will go well with you this week. It'll be a fantastic week materially, but I'm 13:10 my presence won't go with you. On the other hand, you I'm not going to tell you what it's going to be like. You're going to suffer some you're going to experience some loss, some pain. I may not heal you of all of those things, but 13:23 my presence will go with you and I'll carry you through that. May that be our prayer. There's only one thing we long, Lord, and that's for your presence. In fact, you see that later on when they build the ark, if you turn with me to 13:37 1st Samuel chapter 5, God is jealous over his presence. There was a time, if you read earlier, when they had the ark, but the glory had departed. Kabad is the word used here. They still had the ark. The bread was still there probably, but it wasn't the 13:56 bread of the presence. They still called it the bread of the presence. Eli and his sons probably still referred to that as the bread of the presence, but the presence wasn't actually there. The form was there. The ark was still there, 14:09 but the presence and the glory had departed. There wasn't a longing. There wasn't a reverence for God there. The glory had departed. And yet you see that God was still jealous over his presence. And you know the story in in 1st Samuel 14:23 chapter 5 when they when the enemies of Israel take the ark thinking they thought this ark was just an idol. See, they had a bunch of idols. They had Dagon, their great god in their temple. And they saw these Israelites bowing. They didn't 14:39 have an idol, but they had this ark. And the Israelites treated the ark like an idol. They also worshiped in front of this ark. And the Philistines saw that and thought, "Oh, that's their idol." And for many in the world who look at us 14:55 and the way we worship and we gather in meetings and we sing songs and we gather on a Sunday and we have certain language, it's possible. Then they say, "Oh, oh yeah, there's there's Christians. They also worship like all 15:07 the other religions." They bow in front of their god. His name is Jesus. But they see that we see that it's powerless. That Jesus is powerless like the ark was among the Israelites. And so they captured the ark. They defeated the 15:22 Philistines and thought, "We'll take their God, the ark." The glory of God had already departed. And yet God was jealous. Look at this in Isaiah uh sorry 1st Samuel 5:6. The hand of the Lord was heavy on the Ashodites. The people who took this ark, it was 15:40 heavy on them. And when verse 7, when they saw that it was so, they said, "The ark of the God of Israel must not remain with us, for his hand is severe on us and on Dagon, our God." >> [clears throat] >> So this presence of the Lord and and 15:56 desiring in in that the burden on my heart and I hope the Lord will give me grace to express it clearly and plainly not in some kind of mis mysterious way but recognizing the presence of God first of all it begins with desiring it 16:10 and I hope that as you come to these meetings dear brothers dear sisters dear children even you children I hope you're in the habit as you're on your way to the meeting that there's a cry in your heart Lord let your presence be here. 16:24 Oh, children, think what another generation of godly young people will rise up at RLCF. If you've gotten in the habit every Sunday morning or every Wednesday, whether we meet here or in the park or in on Zoom or going into the 16:36 conference where the cry of your heart is, Lord, I want your presence to be there and I want to recognize it. If there's un even one meeting, let me say make a bold statement here. If there's even one meeting at RLCF where 16:52 you went away and did not recognize the presence of the Lord, you've wasted your time. Maybe you heard a good message, the singing was great, you liked the songs, and you felt good, you had some good conversations, you set up the 17:04 volleyball or the soccer net, you had some good fellowship, ate a good food, ate good food, and went back on your way. It was a waste. I know you felt good. I like this church because I I have a good time when I'm with them. But 17:16 the presence of the Lord was not there and you didn't recognize it. That was a waste. And I've been convicted in my heart over meetings that have been a waste in my life. And I've determined, Lord, never again will there even be one meeting 17:30 that I attend. I don't care whether it's here or in any other church where your your people are gathered where I won't recognize your presence. And if the people there don't want the presence, Lord, let it come through me. May I be 17:42 the one who brings your presence there, Lord? Because I'm desperate for it. Because I'm hungry for it. Because I'm thirsty for it. Because I came to this meeting not just to to go to another meeting, but that your presence would be 17:53 there. And the mark of the presence of the Lord. I want to mention two things here. First of all, if you turn with me to Deuteronomy chapter 14, two things I see as the mark of the presence of the Lord. This is true in 18:12 heaven where the presence of the Lord is um his if you can call it his physical presence. It's he's not physical, but he's there. He dwells there in heaven, but he also dwells with the lowly and the contrite of heart. and his presence is also there. But 18:30 there's two things that to me that I see in scripture that signify that you know the presence of the Lord is there. You know that you've been in the presence of the Lord. If you leave that place, you you leave that place with a greater 18:43 reverence for God. And by leave that place, I don't mean you leave the presence of the Lord, but you leave that leave this building, let's say. But the presence of the Lord brings a reverence for him. A lot of people, a lot of Christians 18:56 talk about, "Oh, the presence of the Lord was there. I felt it." Usually, what they mean is the music was especially stirring. It's almost 100% of the time connected with music. When people talk about the presence of the 19:08 Lord, I want to tell you music has nothing to do with the presence of the Lord. Reverence for God, reverence for God. And secondly, joy. So Deuteronomy 14, we read in verse 23, but let's read verse 22. You shall 19:27 surely tithe all the produce from what you sow, which comes out of the field every year. So he he he's teaching them a specific tithe, taking away this 10% of what comes what they sow and comes out of the field every year. And what 19:40 should they do with it? You shall eat it. You shall eat it in the presence of the Lord your God. You you sacrifice this. You give the first fruits to the Lord. And then he says, "Now eat it in my presence as at the place where he 19:54 chooses to establish his name, the tithe of your grain, your new wine, your oil, and the firstborn of your herd and your flock, so that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always." This is the mark of the presence of the Lord in the 20:09 church is a reverence for him. That's a prayer that the Lord we pray often. Lord, give us a greater reverence. Us elders when we meet, we pray for that often. Lord, let there be a greater reverence for you. We don't necessarily want more people. We don't 20:24 want people who come here and say, "Oh, this is a nice church." Conferences where people say, "Oh, this is a great church." Lord, your a reverence for you. Every meeting there's a greater reverence for you. I recognize your 20:35 presence and I long for you and I have a greater reverence for you. And one of the marks I've spoke, we've spoken in this church often of what does it mean to reverence God? But I just want to mention one thing specifically. 20:47 Turn to Psalm 5. Reverence for God brings a greater recognition and hatred of sin. A greater recognition and hatred of sin. That means I recognize more and more 21:04 things as sin and I hate it. The longer that you've been at RLCF children, some of you are grown up here, brothers, sisters. the longer you've been here. Is there a greater hatred for sin? That's a mark that you that you've 21:18 recognized the presence of God here in this church. I hate sin. Those things that I didn't think of as sin, now I hate it. When I say something, I I just blurt it out of my mouth or I text it out quickly because I'm upset. 21:33 5 years ago, before I came to RLCF, I would have thought, "Oh, that's not sin. That's just me speaking what I needed to speak, getting it off my chest." Now, I've been here at RLCF. I've been in the presence of the Lord, and I recognize 21:45 the presence of the Lord won't allow me to speak that way to my wife, to my husband, to a brother or sister in the church. 5 years ago, I could casually look with lust. Now, I recognize that's serious. The presence of the Lord brings a 22:00 greater hatred of sin, a recognition of sin and hatred for it. Psalm 5, it says verse four, "You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness. No evil can dwell in your presence. That means that if I come here with unforgiveness towards somebody else or 22:18 bitterness towards somebody else, a grudge, oh you I don't like you, I don't like this or I holding this against you. I can tell you other people will recognize the presence of the Lord but you won't. And the presence of the Lord might be 22:32 here but it will be like this. He'll skip you because no evil can dwell in the presence of the Lord. No sin. And this is a good time, dear brother, dear sister, before I even go on for you. If there's anything that you know 22:50 that's not right between you and God or between you and another brother or sister in your heart, maybe you've never said anything to that person, but in your heart, you've been holding on some grudge, some bitterness, some 23:03 unforgiveness towards even one person. I want to tell you, you will never experience the presence of the Lord ever until you let go of that. Forgive. Let it go. Don't let that be the reason why things are dark in your soul because 23:18 you're holding on to that sin. Children, if you haven't, if you're not right with the Lord and you know it, the Holy Spirit's convicting you right now, set it right. He wants you to have a clean conscience and he wants you to 23:31 experience his presence all the time. You can have it. Um, and the secondly, second one is joy. If you turn to me back to Deuteronomy chapter 14, a few verses later, he says in verse 26, 23:51 Deuteronomy 14:26, you may spend the money, and this is again this talking about this money that's set aside. He says, "You may spend the money for whatever your heart desires, for oxen or sheep or wine or strong drink or 24:10 whatever your heart desires, and there you shall eat in the presence of the Lord your God and rejoice." This is an other mark that you've been in the presence of the Lord, a reverence for God. And and if you don't have both, 24:25 you've not really understood the presence of the Lord. Some people their meetings are very they talk about the presence, the reverence for God, but it's kind of like a false reverence for God. is very stern and strict and you 24:35 better not no children allowed kick them out if the children make a sound and everybody sits very like afraid of God. That's not reverence for God. Reverence for God doesn't mean that you're afraid that he's going to get angry at you 24:47 because you sneezed or the child your child cried out. Now if your child is a distraction, you consider of others and you go out and quiet them and bring them back. But children are welcome in the presence of the Lord. And there the true 25:00 reverence of the Lord is even with the joy of the Lord. And you know that you've understood true reverence for God because you're more excited to be in his presence. You're more joyful. You can sing freely. You can hold raise up your 25:12 hands and smile and even maybe want to dance a little bit because you're in the presence of the Lord. You're not this stiff person that's just sitting there like this. Now, sadly, sometimes I see some of you like this when we're 25:22 singing. I'm not going to name any names. I'm not thinking of anyone in particular where you sit there and watch everybody else singing. Now, if the Lord's convicting you and that's why you're like this, that's okay. But I want to invite you, dear brothers 25:34 and sisters and children, to come into the presence of the Lord where you're not stiff anymore. There's a joy when we sing. Even if it's a convicting song, there's a joy because I have Jesus. There's there's liberty. There's the the 25:51 spirit of the Lord has come. There's liberty. this freedom, not to be inappropriate, of course, but but to be free where we sing with gladness and we're excited to sing to the Lord. And it doesn't matter what everything else 26:03 sounds like. It doesn't matter if I don't have a good voice, but I've come to know the joy of the Lord in his presence. Now, I think we've gotten better with that. I will say with singing loudly Psalm 16, you know this verse also. 26:18 Psalm 16 verse 11. You will make known to me the path of life. 26:37 In your presence is fullness of joy. You know how I come to understand that verse that maybe I'm outside of the presence of of the Lord at some point and I'm enjoying a great soccer game maybe and I'm playing and we won or 26:55 something like that. I'm trying to think of something earthly and at that moment now it's possible to do that in the presence of the Lord. Absolutely. Otherwise I would quit soccer. I would quit doing anything where I can't do it 27:03 in the presence of the Lord. Everything I do I want to do it in the presence of the Lord. Watch a good movie. Um, go out to eat if you can afford it or play some games at home with your children or whatever it might be. Go work out in the 27:16 gym if you can do it in the presence of the Lord. Absolutely. He just said that. Deuteronomy 14:26. Joyfully rejoice because of the presence of the Lord is there. But let's say you did something and it wasn't in the presence of the Lord or 27:31 you weren't aware of the presence of the Lord and you had this wonderful excitement because something went right earthly wise. You won the game or you got a promotion or you made a little bit more money or or something else. 27:45 Something outwardly earthly good happened. But then you came into the presence of the Lord. What should actually happen? You're even more excited. fullness of joy before you were experienced some something really satisfying. You ate a 28:03 great meal or you had a nice cool drink of something delicious on a hot day. Oh, that felt so good. But then you came into the presence of the Lord and you had even more fullness. Is this a reality? If it's not, brothers and 28:15 sisters, let's press in. Let's come to know the presence of the Lord that gives us a greater fullness than any earthly experience. In your presence is fullness of joy. May this be so. Now Jesus said in Matthew 18, 28:34 if you'll turn there with me, something very significant under the old covenant. If you read in Exodus 33 where we just were, if you go back a few verses, I think it's in verse 9, you read that Moses used to go into the presence of 28:47 the Lord in the tabernacle and all the others would stand at their tents and watch Moses go into the presence of the Lord. What do you think went through God's mind at that time? God who created us for his pleasure, who created us all 29:05 to dwell in his presence like we saw with Adam and Eve and sin brought that gap between us and God's presence. As God looking down from heaven watched Moses entering into his presence because Moses was like, "Lord, I don't care 29:18 about the mana. If I haven't eaten in a couple days, it's okay, but can I go into the tabernacle and be in your presence?" And God said, "Come, Moses. You're welcome. You long for my presence. You deal radically with sin. 29:30 You don't tolerate sin in your life. Come, come into my presence, even under the old covenant. Moses went in and everybody else watched. And sadly, many churches today are still old covenant churches. What do we mean by that? You know, we speak often about 29:45 the new covenant truths. What does that mean? It's really coming to the life that Jesus intended for us to live. That's all it is. But the reason we speak often about the new covenant is because when we look carefully at who 29:56 Jesus is and what he came to give us and compare that to the experience of men and women in the old covenant, we realize that God has something better for us. Hebrews 10, the last few verses says that God had for Moses, "Welcome into my 30:11 presence you by yourself." What is it like under the new covenant in Matthew 18? See, there's only two places that Jesus used the word church. Matthew 16 and Matthew 18. And here when he uses the word church, you read in verse 17 that he mentions 30:28 that word church. And he says, "What is the mark of the church?" He says in verse 20 that my midst, my presence is there where two or three have gathered in my name. Now it's no longer just Moses coming in by himself, but it's two 30:45 or three. And that's why dear brothers and sisters the I want to stress the importance of our meetings of our gatherings on Sundays, Wednesdays, Saturdays, whenever it might be that as a church we have a value for these. If 31:00 you really value the presence of the Lord, you'll recognize that under the new covenant, God has ordained that that presence be experienced to its fullest extents in the presence in the gathering of the saints where two or three he 31:15 doesn't say one. Isn't it significant that God doesn't say if you pray by yourself in my name I'm there with you doesn't say that. Now that can be true. But when he speaks about the church and the things that he wants us to 31:28 experience in the new covenant, he says, "Bring a brother with you. Bring a sister with you. Two or three gathered in my name. There you will feel my presence." So can you feel the presence of the Lord out there playing playing 31:42 baseball? Sure. Can you experience the presence of the Lord in your prayer closet all by yourself? Sure. But ultimately, what is God's plan for your life? that you come to these meetings that we organize that all of us be 31:55 committed into a local body where we gather with God's people so that his presence can be there. There I will be there I am in their midst the presence of the Lord where at least two or three are gathered. And in Hebrews chapter 10, 32:17 we read in verse 25 or 23. Let's read verses 23- 25. Hebrews 10:es 23-2. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering. For he who promised is faithful. 32:36 And I want to, he begins by saying, "Don't waver." That's another thing the Lord's been really working in my heart. The importance of not wavering. There are some things that God wants us to labor in for not weeks or months, but 32:50 years. And I don't mean just two or three years, perhaps 10 years, 20 years. Dear RLCF Church family, especially if you're a part of this local church, are we prepared that we're going to labor together and seek God to fulfill a 33:04 purpose that he has that we're going to see the fruit of 20 years from now? I don't know if I will be here. I'm not even guaranteed tomorrow. But I know that as long as God has me here, I will labor with you for what God wants to do 33:16 in his time. However long that takes. I don't I'm not expecting a oneweek answer or a one month answer time frame. Let us not waver without wavering for he who promised is faithful and let us consider how to stimulate one another to 33:33 love and good deeds not forsaking our own assembling together. He doesn't say okay go into your prayer closet and pray. You read a lot of books that say how much time have you spent in the prayer closet. Nothing wrong with that. 33:47 How much time did you spend with God this morning? I don't read any verse in scripture that says ask that question. But I I I do see this verse that says, "Let us not forsake assembling." Now Jesus did say in Matthew 6, when you 34:03 pray, go and into your close the door into your closet. That's where that phrase comes from. And your God who sees in secret will reward you. But the same Jesus who said that spoke through the writer of Hebrews saying, "Don't forsake 34:16 gathering of the saints." the assembling of the saints as is the habit of some which means what they were believers once upon a time maybe they still think of themselves as believers but they think ah the meeting it's not that 34:28 important yeah if I go once a week it's fine but I know this prayer meeting it's I'm too busy I've got other things on my plate this Bible study not the most important thing to me let us not forsake our own assembling as a habit of some 34:42 but encourage one another all the more as you see the day drawing near. If you really believe that Jesus was coming soon, very soon near, the proof would be is like, I got to go to the meeting. I got to meet with God's people. I got to be a 34:59 part, integrated into his body. I got to meet with my brothers and sisters and pray and and grow. Zephaniah chapter 3, another place where God speaks about the midst. Now, he speaks about gathering here. That means God gathers some. draws 35:16 in and we draw in some. But you read in Zechar in Zephaniah chapter 3 that he also removes. Part of God's work is adding and removing Zephaniah chapter 3. And this is a part that not many Christians will speak on or believe. 35:31 Zephaniah 3, we read in verse 15. Let's read in the middle of verse 15. He reads, "The King of Israel, the Lord is in your midst." This is the presence of 35:50 the Lord. The Lord is in your midst. You will fear disaster no more. And in that day, it will be said to Jerusalem, "Don't be afraid, O Zion. Do not let your hands fall limp." It's another mark, the presence of the Lord. There's 36:03 no fear, not afraid of anything by being there with God's people in the midst. Verse 17, he says it again. The Lord your God is in your midst. A verse that we've heard often in this church, a victorious warrior. There's fullness of 36:16 joy coming out from him. He is exalting over you with joy. He will be quiet in his love. He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy. See the abundance of joy that you see there when God is in their midst. But look at what the context here 36:31 before he says, "I will be in your midst." Look at verse 11. In that day you will feel no shame because of all your deeds. He will take away the guilt and the shame by which you have rebelled against me. For then I will remove from your midst. This is God 36:46 preparing the church for his presence. He we heard about gathering where God adds two or three and more. But he also removes I will remove from your midst your proud exalting ones and you will never again beaughty on my holy mountain. And what 37:04 will be left behind? I will leave among you a humble lowly people. God removes the proud and leaves people who are just humble and lowly. They don't think they're so important. They don't have high thoughts about themselves. They're 37:20 lowly. And they will take refuge in the name of the Lord. The remnant of Israel will do no wrong and tell no lies, nor will a deceitful tongue be found in their mouths. For they will feed and lie down with no one to make them tremble. Shout 37:36 for joy, oh, O Israel, the Lord is in your midst. I want to read one more verse. 1 Corinthians 16. You know the word addiction. Addicted, as far as I know, is only used once in the Bible. There's a lot of addictions in the world. Men and women who are 37:56 addicted to sin, addicted to bad behavior, addicted to substances, addicted to sexual sins. There's all kinds of addictions that you know, we know about. But it's interesting that the word addicted is only used once in the Bible. Now, I'm not trying to make 38:11 too much of a point over it, but it's interesting to me here. This is a good thing to be addicted to. If you found if you find that you're addicted to some things, there's a bad addiction in your life and you're trying to be freed from 38:25 it. Let me give you something good to be addicted to which will help free you, I believe, from the bad things that might you might be addicted to. We read in 1 Corinthians 16 verse 15. Now I urge you, brethren, you know the 38:43 household of Stephanus that they were the first fruits of Aaya and that they are addicted to the ministry of the saints. What a wonderful addiction to have. They're addicted to serving the saints. Addicted to serving the saints. That 39:02 means I can't help it, brother. I have an addiction. There's an opportunity to serve my brother. there's an opportunity to serve my sister, to pray for my brother, to intercede, to come and be a help in the church, to be there. I don't 39:12 need to have uh a ministry outwardly, but I'm addicted to serving is a good addiction to have. And if I pray that [snorts] increasingly at RLCF, we will see that this addiction, an addiction to come to the meetings and be 39:27 of service to others, whatever it might be, not just thinking of myself, it's an addiction to serve others. It's a wonderful example. I want to meet Stephanus. No, it wasn't just him. His wife and his children too. It's great. 39:42 Stephanus said, "Family, wife, children, we're going to be those who are addicted to serving." And the children came along and said, "Yes." And you look at the little children helping. They're excited to be of service. What a wonderful 39:55 testimony. I have almost no doubt that all of Stephanus's children are there in the kingdom of heaven. Not one of them was lost. Why? Because he was addicted. He'd made a decision as a father. My family is going to be addicted to 40:09 serving the church and God said, "You take care of my family. I'll take care of yours." It's wonderful. It's a the promise the Lord gave me many years ago. I came here not for what I would gain out of this, not for any personal 40:21 benefit, but that the Lord would get the most out of me and my family. I praise the Lord that we're there. We're getting there. We'll continue on that way. And as we end, I want to read here some things that I uh I read recently about those who put this 40:38 into practice and how God moved in their lives. Many of you have heard about Evan Roberts, the Welsh revival in 1904 and we hear about what God did in that year and that revival really transformed Europe. It spread all over. We read even 40:56 Basil Malof this last week and how the consequences of the revival in Wales influenced him when he went there and experienced some of it. And then he God took him to Russia and to Latvia and to the Russian people and that spread there 41:11 far beyond what God did just God just did in Wales. But you I want you to hear something here. And as we read, I'll read two or three testimonies here of those who received what God had intended for them. And if he can do it for one or for 12 or 41:28 for 120 like on the day of Pentecost, he can do it for us. Brothers and sisters, please listen carefully. You children, I think you'll like that. See, for Evan Roberts, this is from his own words. For 13 years, I had prayed for the 41:44 spirit. 13 years. Some of you might feel like you've been here a long time at RLCF. I wonder has it been 13 years? Some of us it it has been. But Evan Roberts, this is preceding the Welsh revival. He says for 42:00 13 years he had prayed for the Holy Spirit. How many of you know how old Evan Roberts was when uh when the Welsh revival hit? Anybody happen to know? He was 24. Somebody do the math and tell me how old was he if he was praying for 13 years 42:20 when he started praying. Somebody tell me. We still need some math practice. I think 11. 11. I read that this week. Now, he doesn't say that he was 11, but I did the math. 42:38 Lord, you laid a hold of an 11-year-old boy and for 13 years he prayed, "Lord, I want to be filled with the Holy Spirit." You know, some I I remember times when I prayed said I said, "Lord, I've been praying for a month. I haven't received 42:52 the Holy Spirit and I gave up." And then, "Lord, I've been praying for 6 months, nine months, a year." Would you pray for 13 years beginning at the age of 11? Some of you are 11 years old here. I won't have you raise your 43:07 hand so you're not embarrassed because the ones that should be embarrassed is us who are way older than that who don't have a burden to pray. But I pray that even if one 11year-old boy or girl hearing this message will get a hold of 43:19 him and say, "Lord, if you could do it for Evan Roberts and transform the world through him, because at the age of 11, you got a hold of him and he said, "Lord, I'm going to pray for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Even if my parents 43:30 aren't praying for it and the other people around me in my church are not praying for it, I'm going to pray for it." Let's continue reading. For 13 years, I had prayed for the spirit. And this is the way I was led to pray. One 43:42 of our church elders had said one night in a meeting, remember to be faithful. What if the spirit descended in a meeting and you were absent? Remember Thomas? Remember when Thomas for whatever reason wasn't there and Jesus came? Now, God was merciful and 44:02 Jesus came again later. But what do you think went through Thomas's mind when he missed that? Remember Thomas, what a loss he had. I said to myself, these are Evan Roberts words. I said to myself, I will have the spirit 44:18 and through every kind of weather and in spite of all difficulties, I went to every meeting. See, this is wasn't wasn't just Evan Roberts saying, "Lord, fill me with the Holy Spirit, but I'm too lazy to go to the meeting because I've got other 44:31 things that I need to go to." I went to every meeting many times. Listen children, this is an 11-year-old boy. This is a 24 year old man writing looking back many times on seeing other boys out on their boats on the lake. 44:46 Now, for us, it might be boats on a lake. It might be playing baseball or I drove by the soccer field and saw those kids having fun. Many times on seeing other boys out on their boats on the lake, I was tempted to turn back and 44:57 join them. But no, I said to myself, remember your resolve, Evan. And on I went. I went faithfully to the meetings for prayer. Throughout the 10 or 11 years I prayed for revival. It was the spirit that moved me to think this way. 45:15 In one meeting, the preacher prayed that the Lord would bend us. The spirit seemed to say to me, "That's what you need, Evan, to be bent." As I continued to pray, I felt a living force coming into my bosom. This grew and grew and I 45:30 was almost bursting. My bosom was boiling. What boiled in me was this verse. God demonstrates his own love toward us. That's Romans 5:8. And so I fell on my knees with my arms over the seat in front of me. Holding on. The 45:47 tears and perspiration flowed freely. I thought blood was gushing forth from my head. I cried out, "Oh Lord, bend me. Bend me." Then suddenly the glory broke. After I was bent, a wave of peace came over me. I could hear the people around 46:05 me singing. I hear thy welcome voice. As they sang, I thought about the bending that will happen on the judgment day. And I was filled with compassion for those that would have to be bent on that day. And I wept. Henceforth, a passion for leading the 46:22 lost souls around me to full salvation became the burden of my heart. From that time, I was on fire with a desire to go through all of Wales if possible. And listen to this. I was even willing to pay God for the privilege of being sent. 46:40 See, most Christians want to go if God will pay them. Lord, I'll go. Will you take care of my needs? Here was Evan saying, "Lord, you've lit a fire in my heart. I'll pay you to send me. Now, God doesn't want you to pay him, but he 46:52 wants you to give up all. John Wesley wrote, "About 3:00 in the morning, as we were continuing in prayer, the power of God came mightily upon us, and many cried out with exceeding joy." I wonder if there was somebody at 11:00 p.m. that said, "Rose, 47:10 I got to go to sleep. I got to get out for work in the morning. I'll see you guys at the next prayer meeting." And at 3:00 a.m. the power fell. Christmas Evans, remember hearing about him some months ago? Christmas Evans, he 47:23 writes, "I was weary of a cold heart towards Christ and towards his sacrifice and towards the work of his spirit. I was weary of a cold heart in the pulpit when I preached, a cold heart in secret prayer, a cold heart in Bible study. For 47:41 15 years previously, I had felt my heart burning within as if going to Emmas with Jesus before the Lord filled me with the Holy Spirit. That's just a few examples. I encourage you, brothers and sisters, if what I've read challenges you, find 47:56 some of these testimonies of godly men. And God may not, we're not looking to write for people to write biographies about us. But I'll tell you this, I want what the early apostles had. I want what men of God like Finny and Moody and and 48:10 Wesley and um Christmas Evans and Evan Roberts had a genuine experience of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Not going on and saying, "Yeah, I'm praying. I'm praying. I'm praying." But nothing's happening. But the Lord to bring us to a 48:24 point of desperation where I'm willing to give up everything and and like I said, that does mean sacrifice. That does mean gathering with the saints, valuing the prayer meetings, valuing the Bible studies, not just it being a 48:36 Sunday morning attendance [clears throat] checkbox. This is the life God wants for us, brothers and sisters. I don't know if 100% of our at RLCF will come to experience it, but I pray that it'll be so. My prayer has no longer been, Lord, 48:51 add more people to this church. It has been, Lord, let everybody who is in this church be 100% devoted to you and filled with the Holy Spirit. Let's start there. We're a number. We're a large number. But let's be filled with the Holy 49:04 Spirit. Let's every one of us take this to heart. And then the Lord can add into our midst those who also seek this way. Amen. Amen. [music]
