0:07 Morning everyone. It's really really awesome to be here. Really love coming out every time. It's a I've always appreciated RLCF as a really really special church family and sister fellowship of ours NCCF in California. And love coming out every 0:25 year to see the the youth and to see the hunger from young people. And so yeah, I am I have a word that the Lord laid on my heart that I'm also looking forward to hear the prophetic word that God will speak through all the young folks here 0:40 that he's the Holy Spirit is the sheep hear his voice. And so doesn't matter whether you're young or old sheep, we hear his voice. And so I'm excited to hear that. So I'll share something on my heart and look forward to hearing that what you all share 0:52 after. But first just wanted to share something from John 1. And it's a something special about Jesus. It says in John 1 verse 18 No one has seen God at any time. The 1:15 only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father he has explained him. And the verse doesn't say that Jesus was in the bosom of the Father and then he came down to earth. It says who the the only begotten God who is in the 1:29 bosom of the Father. And I uh I wanted to just pre-preempt this with a question is do you have many needs? If if you look at your secret life maybe certain nobody could see what's inside of you what's how you're living at home what needs you have. Do 1:49 you feel uh if if people only knew do you feel pretty needy? Uh maybe there's certain struggles that you've been having for some time. Um and I saw earlier today in this room, there was a boy who was little boy and uh um a 2:08 sister in the church was carrying him. The the mother was carrying this boy. And he had his eyes open, but he was just resting there laying uh in her arms. And he was kind of looking back a little towards my direction and I 2:21 was smiling and he was so cute. I kind of wanted to wave at him. But and so I kind of leaned over a little bit, but he just was focused on nothing basically. And so he didn't see, so he didn't you wasn't going to wave at me because he 2:33 was resting. Um but then a little while later, she had to take him somewhere. He had do something, I don't know. Uh and is it interesting that probably uh in this whole room, he might have been the most needy one. Right? Uh 2:47 but also he was I think he was probably the most restful one, too. And isn't that interesting? That the needy is the most restful. Um and and I think there's something there about Jesus being in the bosom of the Father. 3:04 Uh how the there's something that goes hand in hand with We're talking about seeking God's face in this conference. And it's easy to think, well, we have to be strong and press in and um and to think in the right way about it 3:17 is a little bit along the lines of what I wanted to talk about today. And the in this regard of our pursuit of God, seeking God's face, um I I want to live like Jesus in the bosom of the Father. I want to seek his face, 3:35 but also rest. And and I see that that's God's will for us to have sort of like that little boy did that I saw. Complete need on God, but because of that, complete rest. We have to be in his bosom. We We're seeking his face, 3:50 but laying in his bosom at the same time. So, please turn to Matthew 6. And um I wanted to share basic mainly a few thoughts on related to this chapter. Matthew chapter 6. And we heard a bit about this uh earlier 4:08 in the conference. Verse I'll read from verse 31 through verse 33. Do not worry then, saying, "What will we eat? What will we drink? Or what will we wear for clothing?" For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these 4:27 things. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. There's something about worrying and seeking God that don't go together. And 4:42 he said, "Don't worry. Basically, don't try to control everything and micromanage everything in your life yourself. Instead, focus on seeking me, let me do that part." It's a and it's actually a surrender. It's a it's a way 4:55 of laying down our will because when we we leave it in his hands, we're leaving it up to him to decide what he allows, what he doesn't allow, what happens. Um but that's the only way to rest, really, to not be anxious. It's the only 5:08 way to rest for life is to be needy but to surrender it over to him. And um I was really blessed this week uh and uh I wanted to start by this by sharing a little picture uh of uh So, my gracious hosts in the room that I 5:24 was in really blessed me by having this up on the wall. Uh So, every before bed every time I would see this. Give it to God and go to sleep. That was on the wall. What a great um writing on the wall to uh to meditate on. 5:40 And to see that uh there's such a surrender there and a rest at the same time. Give it to God and go to sleep. I'm It's like you're basically saying, "Lord, I have no idea what I'm doing, but you're God. I'm going to bed. I need 5:55 to sleep now. That's what else can I do? You have to do something. I can't do anything. Uh your will be done." And it That's what it That's what your will be done is saying is none of me, you decide, Lord. And it doesn't mean 6:09 that we're complacent or lazy, but it means we commit it We've transferred the the burden from our shoulders to his shoulders when we've surrendered and prayed about it and committed it to him. And so, I got a lot of I was really 6:21 blessed this week by this uh really uplifted by this. And um And I want to show you what happens when we go to sleep after we commit. We say, "Well, what kind of useless life is that? Committing and then doing then going to sleep." But, here's what 6:35 happens when we sleep. Turn to Psalm 127. When we're trusting the Lord and we surrender it over to him. Psalm 127, verse two. It's vain for you to rise up early, to 6:53 retire late, to eat the bread of painful labors. Here's what happens when you sleep. For he gives to his beloved even in his sleep. To cling to the facts that I have no idea what I'm doing. God has to do something and he will cuz I've 7:11 turned it over to him. Leave it in the hands that died for you. Give it to God and go to sleep. And I was so blessed by that. And so, um yeah, it doesn't mean complacency, but it means I have to trust him. It means seek him first. Let everything else go. 7:25 You can't We can't seek God first primarily without If there's something else I I appreciated one of the brothers in the in the meeting shared uh I think it was yesterday where seeking God and trying to seek something else is like chasing two rats. It's like 7:38 you're chasing one, you almost got it, and the the one comes around and go, "Oh, I think I can get this one." You'll never forget one. Like, you have to choose one thing um and it doesn't mean uh it doesn't mean a legalistic thing, 7:48 but it's to say, "Where's the priority in my life?" It's like, I only want one thing, one priority and um and to rest and to let go. Like that is one of the most restful things, but it's also the the way that Jesus lived in that's what 8:01 I think it means to live in the bosom of the Father. To rest and say, "I'm just trusting I'm here with you. Live and seek your face and your presence." There was a a brother one practical example of this. There was a brother in 8:12 our church who shared I would this story that happened at his work where there was some issue that somebody was blaming him for some huge work issue that went wrong and was causing a lot of problems on the team. And uh he was saying, "Guys, this is uh 8:28 this is not on my side. The bug is not on my side. This is not um what's happening." And they kept blaming him, blaming him. So, he argued back and then he was praying about it. It was going on for some time and it was causing a lot of 8:39 problems. And and so he prayed about it and the Lord said, "Give me room to work." It was like he was trying to control the situation and so because of that he was trapping in all of what God could do. God couldn't really move in the 8:52 situation cuz he was God didn't have room to work. He was he was controlling it. But when he when he got that word he said, "Oh, I'm sorry, Father. I've been micromanaging everything, taking it on myself." So, he's like, 9:05 "I'm just not going to defend myself anymore." So, he decided to do that. Uh and so he would he for a little while he got blamed and bashed and he just kept quiet uh and then one day this coworker of his came up to him uh and said, 9:20 "Well, I don't know if it was through email or in person." He said, "I am so sorry. I discovered the true cause of the problem. It wasn't you. It was me." And and it wasn't until after he let it go that God had room to work. 9:33 And I saw that a A of things in our walk with God are like that, where he can't really work when we're clinging to things. Um when we're not when we're not seeking him first and letting everything else fall into place, then the things can't really fall into 9:47 place. Um and it's like that prayer of Jehoshaphat, the what we really want to do is say um 2 Chronicles 20:12, "We don't know what to do, but our eyes are on you." And so the wait the waiting uh waiting on God I I think is one of the most 10:04 beautiful strengths of the Christian life that we can get through the Holy Spirit. We talk about filling of the Spirit, which is so critical, and one of the main things I think the Holy Spirit does is give us the strength to wait. 10:16 To to surrender to God's watch is one of the greatest things. Um And so but then and we can accept that in theory, and I see that um I I can take the action of giving it over to God and say, "Okay." But then what? What comes after that? You What do you do in 10:34 the meantime? We give it over to God, but then the anxious thoughts start to come arise rising up again. We start to desire to cling again. And um we start having some ups and downs. What then? And please turn to Philippians 3. 10:50 There's been three words that have been I wouldn't say there's any single key to the Christian life. Otherwise, our Bible would be a lot smaller. Uh there's there's many things we need in the Christian life. I'm not going to say there's a single key, but I 11:02 feel here this is one of the critical things for me that's helped me, one of the critical keys. Um and Philippians 3 it's based on Philippians 3:13 and 14. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet, but one 11:21 thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead. I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. He's saying, "I haven't done everything perfect and there's so many much 11:36 mistakes in the past, but I press on." And the word that I comes to my mind I I have for myself is just three words, just keep going. That's how I in the meantime emotions come, emotions go, just keep going. The keep going to the meetings, don't 11:53 withdraw from fellowship, keep reading your Bible, just keep going. Discouraged, up, down, repent, get up, just keep going. You leave the You leave the youth conference, you go home, the excitement dies, just keep going. 12:08 Um that's basically what Jesus said, "Take up your cross daily." That's what I believe that's what daily means, just keep going every day. Um go again, go again. Do what you know you need to do um to walk with God and I remember when I was about 20 years 12:24 old, I was on a camping trip and I was with uh some friends and one of my friend we were at camping by a lake in a tent and uh he caught a fish in a lake and this was around I don't know maybe early 2000s and the fish was really 12:39 small, so he threw it back. But the fish actually had died, so it was just floating on maybe 20 ft on the surface of the water in front of us. And um bald eagles, I don't know if you all know bald eagles eagles were endangered. 12:55 Uh they're uh really beautiful eagle. They were endangered and we saw all of a sudden this bald eagle. I had never seen one in person in in the wild in my life and it just came down and swooped and tried to get the fish in front of us. 13:10 And it was a small bald eagle. And pretty soon it happened again. And we realized there was two small bald eagles that were continuing to try to get this fish that was in the lake floating on the surface of the water and 13:23 every time miss, miss, miss, miss. Uh, and then there's this big bald eagle that came out of a tree, came down swoop, and it grabbed it the first time. And then the two bald eagles followed that, whatever, maybe it's the mama bald 13:41 eagle, followed the mama bald eagle, and I'm pretty sure they all went to eat. And I always keep that picture in my mind of how it is with God. It's like we pretty much in our just keep going, there's a lot of failure. There's a lot 13:58 of miss, miss, miss, but in the end we're going to eat because God's going to provide whatever we need somehow. So, it's less about what we're doing wrong and right, and more about just keep going. God has to train us, but 14:11 he's going to provide. He's going to give us the victory, um, and it's and and in the end we're going to see it was him. Uh, praise God for the allowing us to fail so that we don't feel that we take the credit all on ourselves, um, and to 14:26 show that we have to stay in his bosom. There's nowhere else I'd want to be uh, than in his bosom because uh, I would be at unrest and I wouldn't be eating very well. I would be starving. I wouldn't have my needs met. Seek first the kingdom of God 14:40 and his righteousness and the rest will be added to you. And and the Bible says that um, that yeah, that seek the Lord with all your heart. That to have a hunger for it there. It's a the hunger for for the Lord and and I 14:55 I've had that word impressed on my heart a lot. Seek him with all my heart. And and I believe that one thing I've learned about seeking God with all my heart, I used to just equate that with excitement. Um, but I believe it's more 15:09 related to now it's the hungry ones, the ones who are seeking God with all their heart weren't the emotionally excited ones. They're the ones who had just kept going. It It was proved by the fact that they were doing it 5 years ago and they're 15:24 still doing it today. I don't know how what their emotions look like, but it doesn't really matter because they sought the Lord back then, they're still seeking now. They're hungry. And so, um, that's how I would like to 15:34 encourage all of you is, uh, just keep going and a lot of us are different emotional, different personalities. Um, prove your faith through persistence. Uh, prove your faith through continuing to get up. Um, one of the phrases we use 15:53 in our church a lot isn't, um, it's not we don't we're not trying to produce perfect people. We're trying to produce people who get up quickly. That's what we're we're aiming for because the people who get up quickly will be the ones that God works to make 16:06 perfect. To, um, and, uh, yeah, that's what a real hungry life is for. So, I believe, um, people that come to conferences like this come in cuz they're hungry. You all are hungry for this life. And so, even when you go back, uh, if it if it feels 16:24 like a letdown, you say, "I'm just going to keep going." And that's how that's where the where the truth can take effect in your life, not through the spectacular meetings, but through the daily just keep going. Um, and the pressing on. 16:39 And, uh, but it's, yeah, there there's many many Christians who start fiery but don't keep it up. And, um, I I was blessed a couple months ago I was at, um, having coffee with a brother who started meeting with, uh, our brother 16:53 Sandeep long before NCCF and before I met Sandeep. And he was telling me about the early days when he heard Sandeep first speak at a church and he was hearing these new covenant truths and he was so hungry. God gripped his heart and he 17:06 said, "This is it. This is what I've been looking for." And he came up to Sandeep and he said, uh, "I've been longing for this." He's like, uh, man, and he had so So questions. Uh, and he was hungry. It was so evident. He's But he then he he was kept coming 17:21 up to Sandeep and he was He basically said, "Brother, I just have to apologize. I'm so sorry. I must be like bugging you and you must be getting bombarded with people all the time like this." And Sandeep's answer to him, 17:33 uh, he said, "Sadly, I don't. Sadly, I'm not being bombarded by people." Uh, and I He just assumed because it was so precious that people should be flocking. Um, and it seems like it. But the you know, it's exactly like what the Bible 17:49 says, "The way is narrow and few find it." And we're really blessed that God graciously gave us the vision for this way because not many find it. And we can't take credit for it. 1 Corinthians 4:7 says, "We don't have anything We 18:03 can't look down on anybody cuz what do we have that we haven't been given?" And so, um, you know, I can't judge Christian relatives who are not taking Christian life seriously cuz I've been given so much more than them. Of course, I should 18:14 be living uh, at a higher standard. Um, of course, I should be more gripped. And so, there's no looking down on anybody, but the way is narrow. Praise God for putting, uh, us on this path and let us be faithful to keep going on it. Um, 18:28 and I think that that's what Matthew 6 in Matthew 6, that's what seeking God first and his righteousness will be, uh, that's what it's it's about. Uh, is that the finding that that narrow way and staying on it, persisting in it, and, 18:44 um, holding things loosely, holding God tightly. And sometimes that's a struggle, especially in the young young days. There's a lot of unknowns. I really sympathize. I've been there. Unknowns. What's a career going to look 18:59 like? What's family going to look like? What's marriage going to look like? Where am I going to live? There's a lot of unknowns for young people who are starting out their life. Tempted Temptations to be anxious and to, 19:09 um, Um, the question is, "Am I seeking God first and his righteousness? Um, and it going along is that is don't be anxious. Hold her In other words, hold everything loosely. Don't be clinging on anxious anxious and um and I saw a picture, hopefully it 19:25 blesses you, of what a loose hand looks like and it really humbled me because um, I saw that I needed to grow in the level of how surrendered I was to not be anxious and clinging to things and my one of my children um, a little while 19:39 what um, it was after some meal and they were asking me for a dessert. And we had eaten such a big meal and I um, I don't remember why I said I I don't think we should have dessert right now. Uh, and I just said no. And but uh, this 19:54 this uh, somebody else another relative was around and didn't hear that I said they shouldn't have dessert. So this relative offered this child, "Hey, do you want a dessert? I can get it for you. Well, let's get it." And this child um, 20:08 they could have done a few things. They could have said, "Yeah, let's get it." Right? Disobey daddy. And let's hope he doesn't see. Or the child could have said, "No, daddy said." Could have complained, right? But this child did something totally 20:21 different that I I didn't expect and I see I don't do much with God. This child said, uh, "No, thank you. I don't want dessert." And and I was so blessed to see the the humility of I usually say, "I surrender, Lord. That's fine." 20:37 Um, but to say, "You told me no." Uh, it's not just it's fine. I want to say, "Okay, no. I don't want it either." Um, that's a whole different uh, level that I was lacking and I saw that uh, in my child and I was so blessed by that to 20:51 see um, this the loose hand. When we have the looser we have a hand on God, the more we can cling to Jesus. And I see, "Wow, there's so far um, that I have to go." But I don't want to just say "No, uh, I don't want to just want to 21:06 say fine, Lord. I'm content." I don't want to end with that. I want to say, "Lord, not only will I say no to what you don't want, to to what is not your will, I want to say totally yes, that's what I want to to what is your will." 21:21 And and then to trust you with it. And and that's the such a blessed thought. I think the this Matthew chapter 6 here, there's a when Jesus said another translation of the don't be anxious is the King James uses 21:38 take no thought for tomorrow. And another the word that God laid on my heart was blessed forgetfulness. Blessed forgetfulness, to be able to just take a thought, an anxious thought, some clinging to something and say for I 21:52 forget it. I don't want it anymore. It's like I forgot it cuz I don't want it. But it's easy to forget about things you don't want. It's hard to forget about things you're clinging to. And so the the blessed forgetfulness was a a word word 22:06 the Lord laid on my heart is take no thought for the cares of of tomorrow, the things that the things that are my will, the things I'm anxious about, I want to control, I want to cling to. So that the reason why is so that I can take full thought towards 22:21 God. So blessed forgetfulness, the point of blessed forgetfulness is to have blessed lookfulness towards Jesus. And that's the that's the real goal. We're talking about seeking God's face. Blessed lookfulness. Um that choosing to forget about the 22:37 anxious cares of tomorrow. So I so that for the purpose of seeking God with all my heart today. We heard I was blessed many I think three times this this weekend so or this week so far we heard Psalm 35 4 5, those who lick look on him are radiant. The 22:52 blessed lookfulness of they're radiant because there's not a care they're like that boy who was in the mom's arms. I don't really notice what else is around. Because I'm in the father's lap. And um yeah, and then lastly 23:09 it says uh not only to seek God's kingdom, but it says seek his righteousness. So that it goes it goes hand in hand and um they they go together to seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and the rest will be added to you. 23:25 And in other words, the another sign of that you're being hungry is that you're also hungry for godly life. You're not hungry for religion or um sermons, not even Bible knowledge. You're hungry for a godly life. And if you look at and the thing that 23:41 confirmed that for me is like I struggled with this. Should I focus on a godly life or should I focus on something else? Should I focus on evangelism and saving the lost? That's a really big burden. Like that's important. People are going to hell. 23:51 Like it's important. Um what should I focus on? But I got rest when I saw most of the New Testament is about two things. Jesus and living like Jesus. And that gave me a lot of peace uh when I saw that like such a clarity. The new 24:07 covenant life is and not just living like Jesus outwardly, but inwardly in our character. The new covenant life, an inward life. Um where we're not just doing what Jesus did on the outside. We might not have a ministry like his or 24:20 whatever, but to have a purity of heart like his, a love like his, a um a hatred for sin like his. That's the the hunger um for a godly life to say I want I want a heart that's pure, that's beautiful that I can give to God one 24:35 day. Lay before him and say, "Lord, what can I give you? You didn't need my money. You didn't need my service. You could have done all these things. The only one thing I can give you is a heart and I hope by the grace of God that I purified it 24:46 in a way that was a sweet aroma to you in the end. I can lay it down. Um and to focus on that. Focus on that one thing um to for Jesus. Offer Jesus. Um and I uh yeah, some somebody sometime back who was uh kind of let me know that they were 25:04 drifting. They were drifting from God. As they were talking to me, telling me about their experience, what do I say? You know, a lot of times when people um talk to me, I say, "Lord, please, I don't know what to say." And this time uh I felt the Lord like my 25:19 natural reaction is keep reading the word, keep in fellowship, uh keep listening to sermons, you know, that's usually the way that I've tried to get up out of things, but I felt um seeking the God's righteousness, it goes hand in hand with seeking God. So, 25:36 I felt to say a different answer, and I what I what God laid on my heart was something I want to take for me is I told them, "Can you find one thing that you feel God wants you to improve and work on uh right now? Focus on that. Uh focus on praying 25:50 against that sin, that some un-Christ-likeness. Focus on that." And I felt that was the word that God had for me, too, is if I'm having trouble seeking God, isn't necessarily get up at 5:00 a.m. and start reading my Bible. 26:02 Maybe it is, but um definitely always, if there's some un-Christ-likeness in my heart, I can it's helpful for me to think be hungry for a godly life, to fight um that one thing that that focus Usually, there's a season where God has a focus of 26:17 something I need to be fighting. There's many sins that come up, little things are but a lot of times it's one focus of "Yeah, you're being really impatient and irritable right now. Your anger You need to conquer that." Like uh he like like 26:29 Cain, uh "Sin is at your door, and you must master it." Um can you at least start with that one sin, and then build on from there? Um and so, that helped me to be encouraged to fight my own sin. And um and yeah, the it's it's like that 26:44 illustration of the ice that we we hear of, the the ice pops up, and most of it's underwater. Shave the top layer, then a little more pop up, keep shaving, and fight and uh shave the ice down. Uh um And so that's how God has us fight 26:56 our sins. Usually not overwhelming, here's all your sins. It's like usually one burden. So God is so gentle. His Even his discipline, he's so gentle with us. He knows uh uh we one of the verses, Psalm 103, he knows we're just dust. He's so 27:09 compassionate for us. Um praise God for how merciful he is. Um So yeah, the the the conference is almost over now. Uh and what comes Monday, Tuesday, um it's sort of like the how Peter felt maybe in the 27:28 transfiguration. It is so glorious here. Everything's glowing, Jesus here, Moses here, Elijah's here. And um if you look at that in Matthew 17, it says after that, they were gone, no more glowing, but Jesus was there alone. 27:42 It says uh Matthew 17 uh verse 8, Matthew 17:8. Lifting up their eyes, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone. That might be what your Monday and 28:01 Tuesday look like. Um but can that be just as glorious as today? Um where you're with Jesus, you're you what he's holding you, and you can't live on spiritual highs. Uh Otherwise, the disciples didn't need the 28:20 Holy Spirit. Like they after what they saw, all the miracles, they Why couldn't they live on seeing Jesus ascend to heaven or raised from the dead? They didn't There's something more you need than an an experience of that um is 28:33 really uplifting at one time. You need God every day that uh this uh daily life with Jesus to to keep going. And um Jesus alone is enough. So seek him, seek his face. Um and yeah, seek first his right his the kingdom of God and righteousness, the 28:51 rest will be added to us. So, um yeah, that's been the the burden on my heart. It doesn't come in one day. Keep going. Um and just like the the blind man, he he wasn't healed all at once. Don't get discouraged. Main thing is you'll have 29:07 ups and downs and don't get discouraged. Keep going. And uh it's really been a blessing to um see all of you and I'm looking forward to hear from you what the Lord's laid on your heart. That was what was on my heart, so
