July 27, 2025 - Draw Near to Me! - Pastor Mark Stevenson

[00:00:01] Well, amen. Let's just open this service in prayer, Father. Lord, we thank you that we can come to you and that you want to have a personal relationship with each one of us. And Lord, we just commit this time to you and pray that you open the eyes of our understanding. Help us to hear, Lord, what it is your spirit is saying to each one of us. And I pray that you would give us the strength, Lord, and even the conviction to take what you speak to us and to take it and put it into practice, to apply it to our lives. And we thank you Father, for the relationship you want with each one of us. In Jesus name, amen. [00:00:40] When Galileo introduced the telescope as a tool to peer into the galaxies, his contemporaries did not believe him scoffing. They refused to even look through the device. [00:00:54] Galileo sat alone with his telescope. He was the sole observer to witness the cosmos, a single witness of galaxies beyond anything that had been seen or imagined. Galileo had the stars to himself, undermining Aristotle's previous explanations of the universe. Galileo published his own findings based on what he had seen through the telescope. He wrote about mountains and craters on the moon, spots on the sun, satellites that orbited around Jupiter and stars that were never known existed. [00:01:33] These are monumental discoveries and would shape future space exploration. [00:01:39] But they fell on ears refusing to hear and eyes refusing to see. [00:01:44] Galileo's peers mocked him and his toy and adhering to Aristotle's descriptions of the universe and what they had held to for so long. [00:01:56] The illustration here of Galileo, as I put that down, it tricked in me or you know, made me think of seminary. [00:02:07] And seminary you say. For the first couple of years that I went to seminary, it was up there as to one of the most difficult and sometimes the most frustrating things that I've had to do in my life. And it was difficult because I was stubborn. Like Aristotle's followers. [00:02:28] I had my mind so set like I was as a younger guy. I was very strong, strong willed and my mind was really set. It's amazing what God can do to us because I'm not quite so strong headed anymore. [00:02:43] And even going through seminary really helps open you up and think, okay, maybe I don't know everything, you know, I was so sad in my thinking. I struggled to open, to be open enough to hear other ideas and the ideas, you know, because I'd already had so many ideas set in my own mind and the questions they would ask are obviously going to be asked in a way to provoke thinking and think. I did. [00:03:09] I had to stop and I had to ask Myself and even pray about, what is it that's so frustrating to me about these courses? [00:03:18] I knew what I thought I knew, and I didn't. You know, the bottom line was I didn't want to be deceived. And in my young life, I was at a Bible study, and I heard about a pastor that had been. Had left the ministry and went and joined a Jehovah's Witness church. [00:03:35] And I remember as a young believer thinking, man, oh, man, if a pastor can't make it, I'll never make it. I felt like I won't make it. [00:03:43] But God did a miracle. It's amazing. And he provided me the answer, how to give me such courage and confidence that I will make it. [00:03:53] And by his grace. And really the whole crux of how I'll make it, he says, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life. [00:04:02] We were in Vancouver, and a friend gave me a tape that said, just as I was leaving, he said, hey, take this. This is great. And the title of the message, why Great Men Fall. [00:04:11] That's how God works. You know, he knew my heart. He knew I needed. I needed discomfort, I needed direction. And he gave it to me. [00:04:18] And it's amazing. He wants to work in all of our lives like that. [00:04:24] Much of what was being challenged in me, I was being forced to figure out what I believed. And I had to learn how to articulate what I believe, not only what I believe, that's a good thing, but then to turn around and take that and articulate that, try to get that out and explain what you believe to these profs and your defense of what you believe. And I was so stubbornly set in my mind, just like Aristotle's group, that it was extremely hard for me to dig down deep and see what it was that the scriptures were saying on the surface. Because, you know, we can read through the Bible and we can go through it and through it, but if we don't stop and do some study in the Scriptures, it's amazing how many times what we see on the surface. There's lots more to it that's being said. [00:05:09] Well, I pushed myself through seminary and through all of this because I didn't want to end up, you know, like, at the end of my life, I just feel like I can't stop learning. I've got to go. I've got to, like, not necessarily go and learn now all the time, but I've still got to keep learning. [00:05:28] And I felt like I needed to push myself through seminary, get that completed, because I had started it for one thing, but to get completed because I didn't want to be at the end of my life and be off course. [00:05:42] And I know that, you know, it's our relationship with the Lord and it's the reading of the Word and the Holy Spirit in us that guides us, but we can be led astray. And I just wanted to be as grounded as I could in the Word. And this is one way that would help me to do that. [00:05:56] You know, we can go through church, we can come to church here every Sunday, Sunday after Sunday, all of our lives, and doing a lot of good things. And at the end of it, really not understand what the Gospel of Jesus Christ is really all about. [00:06:13] And as hard as it was to go to seminary and learning how to learn and learning to read and the challenges that the things that were so dear to my heart, like to really challenge them and say, okay, is that really so? If it is, why? [00:06:29] It was one of the best things that I ever did in my life, one of the toughest and one of the best. [00:06:35] And many times I just thought, why am I doing this? Because it was so difficult. But amazing rewards in that kind of a thing. [00:06:43] And so I want to encourage you. We have great courses here, which is amazing for a church, but we have courses that are taught at a Bible college level from Pastor Paul and Pastor Paul Reich, Karen Lesher and others. And if you have a chance to take any of them, they're great to get you thinking and for teaching you the word of God and how to interpret the Word. Pastor Paul does a course on how to interpret the word, and it's such good stuff. [00:07:11] Never be afraid to be challenged in your thinking. [00:07:15] We need to work hard at pursuing the Lord. And there's a great challenge to Solomon. It says in Solomon, my son, learn to know the God of your ancestors intimately. [00:07:28] Worship and serve him with your whole heart and a willing mind. [00:07:33] For the Lord sees every heart and knows every plan and thought. If you seek him, you will find him. That's a great promise to us. [00:07:45] This leads us to where we're going in this message. This morning, in a way, I was reading through Deuteronomy, chapter 29, Like I was reading through Deuteronomy, but I got to chapter 29 and a verse there just jumped off the page at me. [00:07:59] You know, Israel had been walking at this time with the Lord, been following the pillar of cloud by day, fire by night, and eating manna. And then after 40 years, they're on the edge of the promised land. And it says here, but to this day, the Lord has not given you minds that understand, nor eyes that see, nor ears that hear. [00:08:23] And I thought, wow, that struck me. [00:08:27] Struck me. How is it that these people who have walked with God for the past 40 years witnessed the miraculous signs that they witnessed in so many ways, and yet they did not have minds that understood, eyes that saw, or ears that could hear. [00:08:44] And so let's read through these five verses here. In Deuteronomy 29, it says, Moses summoned all the Israelites and said to them, you have seen with your eyes, your own eyes, everything the Lord did in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh and all his servants and the whole country, all the great tests of strength, the miraculous signs and amazing wonders. But to this day, the Lord has not given you minds that understand, nor eyes that see, nor ears that hear. [00:09:14] For 40 years, I led you through the wilderness, yet your clothes and your sandals did not wear out. [00:09:20] Yet you ate no bread, drank no wine or other alcoholic drink. But he provided for you food so that you would know that he is the Lord, your God. [00:09:30] After 40 years of wandering through the wilderness, the Israelites completed their journey from Egypt. And they stood on the precipice of the promised land. [00:09:42] A long awaited, highly anticipated, amazing Promised land stands before them. [00:09:49] It had been promised to them for the last. They've been hearing it from generation to generation for the past six to 700 years. [00:09:57] And for Moses, this is bittersweet. [00:10:00] For he himself, he's about to die. He's not being allowed to go into the promised land because of an early incident that he disobeyed God and he struck the rock at Meribah to get water from it instead of speak to it the way that God had commanded him to. [00:10:17] And so he pleaded with God to let him go in and to see this promised land. And Deuteronomy 3:25 says that, Please let me cross the Jordan so I can see this wonderful land on the other side, the beautiful hill country and the Lebanon mountains. [00:10:32] But the Lord was angry with you because of me, and he would not listen to me. That's enough. He declared, speak of it no more. [00:10:40] So Moses, from then on, he didn't get angry and pout and frustrated. He just said, encourage the people to go in and possess this land, occupy it and the land that God had promised to their ancestors so long ago. [00:10:56] He reviews their journey from Egypt to this time at the edge of the Promised Land, reminding them in simple language of the terms of the covenant that they had made between Them and God at Mount Sinai. [00:11:11] Now this word covenant, the word covenant is an agreement enacted between two parties in which one or both promises under oath to perform and refrain from certain actions. [00:11:22] You know, so most of Deuteronomy is this covenant is Moses explaining the covenant to them before they're going into the promised land. [00:11:30] It's the agreement that they had with God and they had made at Mount Sinai. And Moses reminding the people that if they keep God's law, he will continue to bless them with peace and prosperity as he promised he would in his part of the covenant. [00:11:45] And we see Jesus summarizes this whole book of Deuteronomy, basically the law up in this one verse when he says that and you must love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, with all of your mind and all of your strength. [00:12:01] And that right there is the key to the Christian life. [00:12:05] If you want to be blessed of God with the peace that passes understanding regardless of your circumstances, seek the Lord with all of your heart. [00:12:13] You know, take that verse, memorize that verse, meditate on that verse and put that verse into practice like it's. This verse is quoted at the beginning of Deuteronomy. And Adam read it here with the child dedication. It's just the best verse. And talk about it when you're walking down the road. It's just gotta be a part of your lives. You don't talk about it with your kids and you're living a different life. [00:12:38] You're talking about what you're living. You're talking about what you're experiencing in life. You're talking about how God answered the prayer that your family was praying about the week before. [00:12:47] You're talking about it when you're laying down with your kids. You're talking Bible stories to them. You're talking about with your kids, about what God's doing in your life. [00:12:55] That's talking about it in all those things. When you're walking down the road. It's a part of who you are. That's what the kids catch. [00:13:03] So the question I was asking, how is it that Israel could see God provide in the ways that he did for them over that 40 years? And yet they didn't understand. [00:13:13] God provided them with manna, a miraculous bread like substance that appeared each morning, sustaining them throughout their 40 years in the wilderness? Every morning they got up to a miracle. God providing this manna on several occasions. God provided water in miraculous ways in the wilderness. And God led the Israelites through the wilderness by a pillar of Cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, providing guidance and protection for them. [00:13:42] You know, how is it that these people can be at the edge of the promised land having all these amazing experiences and after 40 years walk with God like this and not have minds that understand, ears that hear, or eyes that see? [00:13:58] You know, I noticed these kinds of verses like Proverbs 21 here as I've been walking through. And these verses always catch my attention. [00:14:08] This one says that the king's heart is like a stream of water directed by the Lord. He guides it wherever he pleases. [00:14:17] The NIV says that the heart of a king is in the hand of the Lord and he turns it whichever way he will. [00:14:22] And I remember reading that verse and thinking, lord, turn my heart towards you. Turn my heart. You've got my hand in your heart, turn it towards you. [00:14:31] And Ephesians, Paul prays for the Ephesians and he says that I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope he has given to those he called his holy people who are rich and glorious in inheritance. [00:14:49] You know, Paul prays for the Ephesian church opened the eyes of their understanding. [00:14:54] And it's texts like these that shaped my prayer life over the years. [00:14:59] And, you know, I started to pray like this, and I still pray like this today. Turn my heart towards you, Lord Jesus. You know, because we, unless he turns our heart towards him, he can do that, and I want him to do that. Turn my heart towards you, Lord Jesus. Give me a mind that understands. Open the eyes of my understanding. Give me a heart that longs for you, Lord. Give my kids a heart that longs for you. Give all of your people hearts that long for you that they might understand. [00:15:30] Turn all of our hearts towards you, Lord Jesus. For apart from you, we can do nothing. [00:15:36] And so why is it that God had not given these people minds to understand, ears to hear, eyes to see? [00:15:44] As I read through and was reading through these verses and meditating and thinking about them, I could see what was going on here, that the people didn't have minds to understand because they refused to allow God to speak into their own personal lives. [00:16:01] In their fear, they stood at a distance and they pushed Moses forward on their behalf. [00:16:07] They never had their own relationship with the Lord. And we see this. It started, we can go back another back 40 years. Now they're on the precipice of this promised land. We're going to go back 40 years when they're at the base of Mount Sinai and Exodus 19:1 says, exactly two months after the Israelites left Egypt, they arrived in the wilderness of Sinai. After breaking camp at Rephidim, they came to the wilderness of Sinai and set up camp there, at the base of Mount Sinai. And then Moses, he climbs the mountain to meet with God. And God told Moses, okay, now tell Israel, you have seen all that I have done to the Egyptians. [00:16:50] Obey me and keep my covenant. And you will see my own special treasure from among all the people. You will be my own special treasure from among all the peoples of the earth. [00:17:01] You will be my kings and priests, my holy nation. [00:17:04] We hear Peter say that for you are royal priesthood, a holy nation. [00:17:10] So Moses returned and told the people everything that the Lord had commanded him. And all the people responded. Together, we will do everything that the Lord has commanded. [00:17:21] Then the Lord told Moses, go down and prepare the people for my arrival. Consecrate them today and tomorrow and have them wash their clothing and abstain from sexual relations. [00:17:32] Now, this word consecrate. To consecrate means to set apart for sacred use, to make holy. In this context, God's instructing Moses to consecrate the people, to set them apart, make them holy in preparation for their encounter with him. [00:17:50] Be sure they are ready on the third day, for on that day the Lord will come down from mount to mount on Mount Sinai. Sinai, as the people watch, mark off boundaries all around the mountain and warn the people, Be careful. Do not go up on the mountain and even touch its boundaries. Anyone who touches the mountain will certainly be put to death. [00:18:12] No hand may touch the person or animal that crosses the boundary. Instead, stone them or shoot them with arrows. They must be put to death. [00:18:23] However, when the ram's horn sounds a long blast, then the people may go up on the mountain. [00:18:31] Moses did all that God had commanded him to do. And on the third morning, third day, thunder roared and lightning flashed. And a dense cloud came down on the mountain. And there was a long, loud blast from the ram's horn. And all the people trembled. [00:18:46] Moses led them out of camp, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. [00:18:52] All of Mount Sinai was covered with smoke because the Lord had descended on it from the form of fire. Smoke billowed into the sky like smoke from a brick kiln, and the whole mountain shook violently. [00:19:05] And as the blast of the ram's horn grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and God thundered his reply. [00:19:14] And then we see the people's response. Here it says, when the people heard the thunder and the loud blast of the ram's horn. And when they saw the flashes of lightning and smoke billowing from the mountain, they stood a distance off, trembling in fear. [00:19:27] And they said to Moses, you speak to us and we will listen, but don't let God speak directly to us or we will die. [00:19:35] And Moses trying to encourage the people, he says, don't be afraid. Moses answered them, for God has come in this way to test you and so that your fear of him will keep you from sinning. [00:19:48] God cares about sin in our lives. And you know, I think that in living in a dispensation of grace where God says, come to the throne of grace and receive mercy in your time of need, you know, like we've got to be aware that God does care that we sin. He does care that, that we're willingly going and thinking that nothing of it. We've got to think of it because we can be thankful that we've got that throne of grace to come to. [00:20:17] But God does care and we can't be flippant about the sin in our lives and praise God that because of Jesus we're no longer bound by sin. [00:20:26] It has not got its hold on our lives. [00:20:30] And this is where this, the rubber hits the road in this passage here. [00:20:37] God has drawn the people to Egypt, to this place of Mount Sinai to reveal himself to them. But they back away and they say, you speak to us, we will listen, but don't let God speak to us or we will die in the 40 years of the wilderness. They never did develop a relationship with God. [00:20:56] And I believe that God was desiring a relationship with each of them. You know, it's interesting, Joshua, he's Moses right hand man for a lot of years. But you know, he would go with Moses to the tabernacle. Moses would leave the tabernacle, but Joshua would stay in the tabernacle. He was a man after God's own heart. There was only two guys of all the people that come out of Egypt, there were two guys that were men of faith who stood out and had a confidence in what God was doing and wanted to claim and inherit what God wanted them to inherit in the the promised land. And it's Joshua and Caleb. We see an event taking place in the Book of Numbers when Joshua And Caleb and 10 other men have just gotten back from scouting out the promised land. This is about a year and eight months after they have been taken out of Egypt. They're at the promised land. God was leading them into the promised land and they've stopped, they've scouted it out They've come back and they're going to give a report. [00:21:54] Joshua and Kateb, they come back and they're filled with faith and fire, and they want to go in and take this promised land. [00:22:02] And there's 10 other men with them. They saw the same things that Joshua and Caleb saw, but their hearts were filled with fear. They saw with their natural eyes. They didn't have the mind of God. They didn't have a heart that could trust the Lord. They didn't know God. [00:22:17] They influenced then these guys. These 10 guys influenced the community of Israel, and it had a negative effect on them. Numbers 14:2. It says that they rose their voice in great course of protest against Moses and Aaron. If only we had died in Egypt or even here in the wilderness. They complained, why is the Lord taking us to this country only to have us die in battle? Our wives and our little ones will be carried off as plunder. [00:22:47] Won't it be. Wouldn't it be better for us to return to Egypt? [00:22:51] See, that's, you know, in a sense, it's a picture of us. We get saved, and we're following the Lord. We're walking in the spirit, and we come into some obstacles, and, you know, we haven't learned how to process and go through these difficulties, you know, the way that God would have us to go through them. And then our first thought is, I've got to go back. Remember, as a young believer, you know, trying to live by faith and it's so difficult, and then flipping back to my natural way of handling things, but knowing that God wanted me to do something different. But, you know, as we grow and mature in our walk, we learn that if we just keep on walking with the Lord and keep on pressing in with God, we'll learn that his ways are right and they are good and they do work. [00:23:32] And so they says, why is it that the Lord has taken us to this country only to have us die in battle? Thinking in the natural, yes, but thinking in the spirit. That what God was saying, no, our wives and our little ones will be carried off as plunder. Wouldn't it be better if we returned to Egypt? Then they plotted amongst themselves. Let us choose a new leader and go back to Egypt. That's amazing. Hey, amazing. After all they've been through coming out of Egypt, and they're at this place. And the Lord said to Moses, how long will it be for these people to treat me with contempt? Will they never believe me, even after the miraculous signs I have done among them? [00:24:14] And so this, you know, is a picture and shows. This is how they responded to every obstacle and difficulty they had through the wilderness. For the 40 years they walked through there, the 38 from here on, they never did develop a mind to understand, eyes to see or ears to hear. [00:24:32] So they saw every difficulty through natural eyes, and their mind set on what they physically saw, heard, and felt and thought. And this caused them grief all of their days. [00:24:44] And I can understand their thinking because I think, you know, we all have moments in our lives where we're struggling and we're having difficulties. [00:24:52] And as we're growing in our relationship with God, we're learning to walk this walk of faith. What does it mean to walk this walk of faith? What's my responsibilities? What is God's responsibilities in this situation? Scripture says wisdom is found in the multitude of counselors. That's why we have each other to communicate with the talk. Okay, I'm going through this difficulty. We have Stephen ministry. We have mentorship, discipleship, mentors. All these things can help us as we're walking through life. When we're difficult, we're going through a difficult season. You know, our pastors can help us, okay, give us a little bit of guidance and get some wisdom and try to do things the way that God would have us do them, you know? But I can see them being frustrated because they know that God knows they need food and there is none. [00:25:36] And Moses, he's reminding them. He says, yes, he says, he humbled you by letting you go hungry and then feeding you with manna, a food previously unknown to you and your ancestors. He did it to teach you that people do not live by bread alone. Rather, we live by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. [00:25:56] You know, we all go through things that seem unreasonable to us and can get quite frustrated because of that. It just doesn't make sense. It's like, why would God allow this to happen to me? Where is he in the midst of all of this? [00:26:11] We know that God could do something about our circumstances. If he wanted to do it, then why doesn't he? [00:26:16] Can we be content in all circumstances? [00:26:20] The Apostle Paul in Philippians, he says that I know how to live on almost nothing. Now he's the Apostle Paul, and he's preaching the Gospel. And look at the impact he's had on the world over the last 2,000 years. And he's at times going with nothing. Like, just read in Corinthians and you see this little list of things that he had to endure. I know how to live on almost Nothing. And with everything, I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with full stomach or an empty and plenty or little. For I can do all things or everything through Christ who gives me strength. [00:26:58] If these people were more focused on the Lord than they were their circumstances, they would have been able to persevere these circumstances so much better. [00:27:08] Not unlike us in our lives today. You know, the children of Israel faced a number of difficulties throughout their journey and through the wilderness after leaving Egypt. And as we live life, there are difficulties that we're going to be experiencing as the years are added to us. And God also tests our faithfulness like he tested the children of Israel's faithfulness. So we're coming into these obstacles in our lives. We can't get through frustrated and think that God is not in us. This is not of God. You know, when we're going through circumstances that we have no control over, we have to trust the Lord. He's working on us and developing us and testing our faithfulness. [00:27:47] And so the problem we see here is that these people pushed Moses forward to have God speak to him, and then they would do what he said. They didn't want to hear God speak to them themselves. [00:27:58] Forty years later, a new generation of fighting men are at the promised land there, and God has not given them a mind that understands. They never developed the relationship with the Lord and were content to just let Moses speak to the Lord. It's like, you know, this can happen to us today. You know, we can go through church, we can come here every Sunday of our lives, and we can receive this great preaching. You know, that our pastors preach here like we do and be content with that and not feel like we have the need to go and to press in to speak to the Lord. We've been. Our souls have been filled, our hearts have been filled because of the breaking of the bread on Sunday morning. [00:28:40] But we have to, you know, get to know the Lord personally. We have to have a relationship with him so that we can understand who God is and what God's about and allow him to teach us how he speaks to us. [00:28:54] You know, we can go to church every Sunday and end up at the end of our life and not have ears to hear, eyes to see, or a mind that understands. Yes, I know we have the Holy Spirit, but we've got to communicate with the Holy Spirit. We've got to have a relationship with the Holy Spirit. I've been at the hospital many times with people, and I, you know, you go to share the Gospel with them, and you can just tell they have not got eyes to see. [00:29:21] They don't have minds that understand. Do you think you can leave it till the last minute? I dare to differ with that. You know, like when the Lord says, today is the day of salvation. It's like when he's speaking to you and you're being stirred to receive salvation. Today is the day. You don't know on your deathbed that you're going to be able to receive or even understand the gospel of Jesus Christ. The way that the Holy Spirit is drawing. [00:29:48] When he's drawing you is the time for you to respond. [00:29:51] And it's quite a thing to be with people in that state. And you can share with them and you can see they're not getting it. It just doesn't register. [00:30:02] But you share and pray as they're sharing. And you never know when you leave, maybe tweaks, something goes on. But we need to be like David. You know, like, we go through life and we trip and we have a problem. Well, David had a real problem. He took a man's wife and then had the man killed. Like, you'd think, okay, that's it for him. You know, like, just get rid of that guy. [00:30:27] But he repented of that. [00:30:30] And he said, create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me. Do not banish me from your presence and do not take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and make me willing to obey you. [00:30:46] You know, I want to encourage all of us this morning to have and develop a heart that longs to speak with God. [00:30:57] We were never meant to walk through this life apart from our relationship with the Lord. We're never meant to walk through this life alone and separated. [00:31:07] From the very beginning, God designed us for relationship, intimate, ongoing, sincere relationship with him and with other people. [00:31:17] Yet often, how often do we stop pause to speak to him? [00:31:24] To desire communication with God is to acknowledge our dependence on him, is to say, I need you, not just in crisis, but for every breath that I take. [00:31:35] This desire grows not through obligation, it grows through love. [00:31:41] A love that characterizes the beauty of being heard. God wants to hear from us. And when you're speaking to God, you're developing this relationship. You know that he's hearing from you because he witnesses with your spirit. And there's a piece to that, to know that you're known, that you're heard, that you're having a relationship with God the Creator. [00:32:05] So I want to encourage you today to ask God, to reignite your desire to talk with him. [00:32:12] Whether you connect with him through prayer, through reflection or through stillness, open your heart. [00:32:21] He's always near, he's always listening, and he's always ready to speak. [00:32:27] You know this great scripture. You can take this scripture and you can write it down, you can put it in your hat and you can meditate on it. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. [00:32:40] So I would just have us bow our heads as we close this service. [00:32:44] And I want to invite you, Holy Spirit, to come into our midst here this morning and have your way in our hearts, Lord, I pray that you would show us, Lord, if we're standing close to you or we're standing at a distance, show us, Lord God in our hearts, Lord, if we're content to just go to church Sunday morning because there's good preaching that goes on Sunday morning or it's good worship time. We love the music or the fellowship, the friendships are all safe in the church. Lord, show us, Father God, where we stand with you. [00:33:20] And I want to just challenge you as we're praying here, that the Father desires for you to come to him. [00:33:27] He has made a way for you to come to him. [00:33:31] And if you're not seeing yourself up close to him, I need you to say, okay, Lord, why am I not close to you this morning the way that I want to be? [00:33:40] I want you to imagine in your mind leaning toward Jesus. [00:33:45] Holy Spirit, help us to see what we need to see. [00:33:51] The Heavenly Father is perfect. [00:33:53] He's caring and he's compassionate. [00:33:57] You know, there's a number of things that can stop us from standing before the Lord and wanting to listen to him, like shame and pain and hurt that's happened in our lives. [00:34:07] You know, these things can stop us. But Jesus has suffered an incredible death that we could be healed of these things. And Isaiah 35, 3:5 says, but he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. [00:34:23] He was beaten so we could be whole. [00:34:26] He was whipped so that we could be healed. [00:34:32] So, Holy Spirit, I pray that you would show your people, all of us, include myself in this, Lord, show us what it is if we are not close to you, Lord God what it is. [00:34:45] And Lord, we take what it is and we hand it to you because you have taken the abuse so that we can be set free. [00:34:54] Even rebellion. Lord God, Father, we give it to you and we say, come into our lives. [00:35:00] Help me to know you, Lord. [00:35:03] Help us to have a desire to walk with you. [00:35:07] I pray that you would just go with us today, Lord God and I pray that when we leave here, we'll never stop thinking, Lord God, that you want to speak to us, that it's not good enough to just go through the motions of everything about Christianity. But we need to have, first of all, a relationship with you. [00:35:26] And so we commit our lives to you. And pray Jesus, be Lord of our lives and lead us and guide us and give us a desire, Lord God, to be in your presence. [00:35:37] And I pray that you would show Lord, everybody how they can do that. [00:35:43] And I just pray blessing on your people. And I just speak peace, and I just say amen. Amen. [00:35:50] God bless you this morning as you go.