Pastor James Hensley. Come on. I’m finally ready for Reedy. Are you ready? I’m ready but is Reedy ready? That’s what I want to know. Is Reedy ready? Come on, man.
It is so good to be with you all this morning. You can grab your seats and I have had the privilege of prepping preaching in Pimpamoff five times now and can I tell you, I love them. If you have not visited the Pimpama campus and seen what Matt Triegas is doing up there and you need to know that they are representing this house well and and sometimes I I’ve come out of multi-site church and sometimes we fail to understand that that our is actually making a major impact in other locations. Yeah. Because we actually only ever know what God’s doing in our location and I just want to encourage you, Kings Christian Church is such an amazing church.
It is one of the key flagship churches of the Gold Coast and man, I just am so privileged to be here and to be preaching for pastor Ben and Trish this morning is a real honor and to be honest with you, I wouldn’t be in church if it wasn’t for pastor Ben. I was a wild Christian. Uh loved Jesus but did not want to be discipled. Did not want to submit. And Bren Ben broke me like a wild horse.
Sometimes he used spurs. Sometimes he would just and but man I’m so grateful for the impact that that Ben and Trish have made on our lives and really Paula and I got our call to ministry by being under their leadership and under their ministry and Ben and Trisha have been dear friends of ours for over 20 years. And and so you might not know us. But you need to know that we know you and we’re praying for King’s Church and we’re believing. Man I’m so excited and so expectant about what God is doing here in this great church and it’s so good as been mentioned.
We’re from the North Lakes of the North side of Brisbane and we love it up there. It’s awesome what God’s doing in our church and and we’ve had the privilege of leading that church for almost 6 years now and God has really done something special for us in North Lakes which is so exciting and I just love being a part of a church that’s advancing and going forward and taking territory and you know, I feel like every time talk to your pastors. They’re talking about what God’s doing next and you gotta understand when he says, my kingdom will come and my will will be done on earth. That is a continual advancement of taking more territory for the kingdom of God and we’ve gotta have an expansion mindset when it comes to the kingdom and not just be content with our own little services and so, I’m so inspired by what you’re doing and really we’re just believing that we’re going to go even further. Awesome.
Come on. Some of you are sitting there going, what’s wrong with this guy’s accent? There’s a glitch There’s a glitch in this guy’s accent. Where where is he from? And no, I’m not from Ireland. Um obviously not Aussie. Um I was born in California.
Don’t hold that against me and but I was born in California. I was raised in North Carolina and I came out to Australia on the hunt for the most beautiful woman in the world that I could possibly find. I looked all over the United States. She was not there and and so I I came and I looked and and believe it or not, in Mackay of all places. In Macka of all places.
I found the crown jewel of Australia and and pastor Ben married us and so my beautiful wife, Paula, is here and and man and when you see her, she is she is so beautiful and and and so it’s only fitting that that because I’m so beautiful and she’s so beautiful that we would have amazing, beautiful children and because hot plus hot equals hot and and so that way, we’ve got a photo of my family. This is my family and and my son, Judah and Joel and Jamaia and Yana and being a dad of four Kids, well, it’s just the best. Yeah, I reckon if you didn’t have four, you quit too early and and and really, God can still do miracles and and I’m praying that there would just be an increase of the seed in the house. Are you ready for the word? Are you ready for the Trish, there might be one more? No? No more? Let’s get back to the preaching of the word. We’re ready for the preaching of the word.
Come on, I want to share it with you a scripture that I’ve been kind of wrestling with this year. Have you ever opened the Bible and found that that it doesn’t always sit well or it sometimes it’s confusing or sometimes it makes you just scratch your head and go, what did you, what did you mean when you said that, Lord? Well, I found one of those types of passages and it’s found in a conversation that happens between the prophet Jeremiah and God and it happens in Jeremiah twenty-three and I want to look at it together. Maybe you’ve heard this before but as I heard this for the first time, my ears was, man, what is this mean, Lord? He says, am I only a God nearby? Declar the Lord and not a God far away? Who can hide in the secret places so that I can’t see them, declares the Lord? Do I not fill heaven and earth? Declares the Lord And the outlining sentence, am I only a God nearby? Am I not also a God far away? And to be honest with you, I I don’t I didn’t like that. I don’t like the idea of a God who is far away. I like a God who is nearby.
Isn’t he introduced to us as Emmanuel, God with us? Isn’t he my very present help in time of need? Doesn’t he supply all of my needs according to his glorious riches? Then, what are you doing so far away? Yeah. No, I want a God who’s nearby. I want a God who’s right here, right now, whenever I need him to be. And I think this is interesting that God introduces himself to Jeremiah like this because he’s trying to give us some insights into his nature. Of course, he is omnipresent.
Of course, his presence surrounds me all the time. Of course, he he is is with me in every moment. But he’s introducing another side of him self to Jeremiah that I think we also need to dial in on. Which is the idea that he is far away, that he’s greater than our little worlds. Yes.
That that he is the God of the universe that his kingdom is so much bigger than my tiny little kingdom. Yeah. And I think we often know the God who is nearby, the God who comes down into my little kingdom but we don’t know the God who is greater than that in his greater kingdom. Yeah. Scripture regularly shows us that Jesus would withdraw from the crowds and the hustle and the bustle to the getaway into the secret place with God.
Yeah. Of course, we know that God’s presence and power was present with Jesus at all times because he moved in incredible miracles. He knew that God was near to him all the time. But then there were the special moments, special moments where Jesus knew that he didn’t just need the God that was nearby. He needed to withdraw out into the wilderness and find the far away God because that’s where the source comes from.
I think this is an incredible illustration for us because so many of us live only knowing the God nearby. We live only knowing the God who saved me, the God who found me, the God who’s healing me, the God who’s who’s restoring my brokenness, the God who’s providing for me. Surely, his goodness and mercy are following me. They’re all around me. But God introduces himself to us here as the faraway God It’s not where I invite him into my life.
It’s where he invites me into his life. And I think modern Christianity has built a really good case for the God who is near. The God who is for me. In fact, we often talk about God like he’s my personal genie. If I just shunned a Bunda one or two times, the genie will pop out of the lamp and do whatever I want him to do.
Yeah. And we’ve deduced God down into my personal genie who’s just nearby to help me with whatever I’m going through but my life does not exist for God to come in and do whatever I want. No, it’s actually important that I discover the God who is far off. The God who invites me into his life. The God who shows me his ways.
Far too often, my prayers sound like this. God, come in and help me in my ways. But he teaches us that his ways are higher than our ways. Yeah. Yeah.
We pray God I’ve got things on my mind come down into my thoughts. God says no mate. My thoughts are higher than your thoughts. Yes, I can come down into the near moments with you. Or you can come up.
Come on Amen. You can come away with me And I will reveal to you a new way. Yeah. I will reveal to you a new way of thinking. I will download to you things that you didn’t know before.
I’ll start to show you things that you couldn’t see before. Come on sir. When I first got saved, I was so grateful for Emmanuel who came and he found me It was so important that I discover the near God that loved me so much. That he came from heaven to earth to find me. But as I’ve journeyed with the Lord it’s actually in the far away God.
That the new abundant life starts to get discovered. Yeah. I don’t find abundant life when I invite his bigness into my little. I find the bigness or the abundant life that Jesus promises when I put my little into his bigger. Come on.
Yeah. And it’s so important that I keep finding those moments. It’s in the far away God that I receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. It’s in the far away of God that that he called me to Australia and called me to ministry and and it’s in the far away God that he started to heal things in my life that that that I didn’t even know that I needed to be healed from. It’s when I sought the far away God that he started to level me up out of my little situation Hey, the writer of Hebrews in Hebrews eleven six says that he is the rewarder of those who diligently seek him.
Now, I I have a great a grandma, grandma Hazel and it’s well known that Grandma Hazel always has a pocket full of Werther’s originals. And I remember being 7 years old, and feeling a little bit like I needed such a treat and I remember going around the house asking, hey, hey, where’s grandma? Where’s grandma? And and somebody said, one of my siblings said to me one time, oh, she’s out in the gardens picking the tomatoes and and so I went out to grandma. I said, grandma, your tomatoes are looking lovely. And she goes, oh, you’re such a sweet, young boy. Do you want to help me? I said, oh, I’ll help you.
No problems. So, we picked a few tomatoes, put them in the bucket, and then she reaches into her pocket and gives me one of the Werthers originals. I know how to work the system. We often treat God like that. Wow.
Oh, I really need the Lord to do this. I know what I’ll do. I’ll go and seek him and what we do is we actually go seeking him for his hands instead of seeking him for his face. We go looking for the miracle instead of looking for the voice of the Lord that speaks strategy and wisdom and and the more and the bigger things into our spirits. It’s so important.
I’ve learned in my 23 years of ministry that when he says he is the rewarder of those who diligently seeking. He’s not talking about stuff. Not talking about promotion or opportunity or houses or cars or even spouses. I’ve learned in my 23 years of serving the Lord that that the reward is simply more of him. Yeah.
Yeah. When he says he is the rewarder of those who diligently seek him. What he’s talking about is that we get to experience the greatness of his glory. And I just have found that that is the only thing that fills. Yeah.
When you know the presence of the faraway God, you’re ruined for anything else. Everything else is temporary. Everything else is plastic. Everything else fades away but the glory of God and finding him in the secret place is the only thing that stays sustaining in your spirit. Yeah.
And it’s so important that we as the church don’t just know how to show up for 90 minutes on Sunday and seek him. Yeah We don’t know how to sing the right songs to make it feel good. So that we get him close again. We actually have to teach ourselves how to disengage from the hustle and the bustle of everything else in life. To engage him on his terms.
Yes, Jesus. I don’t want God to simply be my God on my terms. That’s how things started out for me. But I’ve learned that my life doesn’t exist for him to come and do for me all the things that come on. Bless my business.
Come on, bless this. Bless, I do this for me. You know, my life exist to serve him in his greater glory and his greater purpose. This is why Jesus says, I must be about my father’s business. Father wasn’t about Jesus’s business.
Jesus was about father’s business. The father so loved the world that he sent his one and only son. Jesus was out working that but he only understood all of that when he got away with the far away God. Yeah. Moses understood this.
In Exodus thirty-three, God invites Moses to go into the promised land. Come on. Finally, we’ve been delivered from Egypt. We’ve been wandering in the wilderness and God says, come on. Let’s go.
Let’s go into the promised land. And this is Moses’s response. He says and and God says to Moses, my presence will go with you and I will give you rest and then Moses said to him, if your presence does not go with us, don’t bring us up from here. For how then will it be known that your people and I have found grace in your sight except that you go with us. So, we shall be separate your people and I from all the people who are on the face of the earth.
Moses understood that the presence of God was even greater than the promises of God. Yeah. Wow. God’s saying, come on, mate. Let’s go into the promised land and Moses is going, whoa.
No. If you’re not coming, I don’t even want it. I I I tell you what, there is a new level of maturity coming to the church where we stop seeking him simply for the outworking of his trinket promises in our lives. Yeah. And we start seeking him for his glory and simply just to be surrounded in his presence.
Yeah. Yeah. Come on. There’s nothing that is like that. And so just with a little bit of time left, I just want to share with you kind of some of the ways that I seek the far away God.
How do you do that? How do you do because you have to understand this is the very thing that we were wired for. I was not wired for Paula. I was wired for God. Paula is my suitable helper that comes alongside me to out help me outwork my purposes in God. We’ve gotta be careful that there are no other Gods in our lives.
Come on, some of us. I’m I’m wired for business. No, you’re not. You’re wired for presence. Yeah.
No, no, I’m wired to make I’m wired to be a mother. I’m wired. No, no, no, no, no. Before all that, you’re wired by God for his glory and for his purposes and for his presence, that his kingdom. Now, now, I get to as I start to spend time with him, I get the download of all the things that he wants me to go and do and that’s awesome.
But there’s nothing more fulfilling than finding the far away God. So, here’s the first thing that I need to do. I need to intentionally seek. Not accidentally. Not haphazardly.
Not depending on the weather. Oh it’s a nice day. We’re full this morning. Why is that? Cuz it’s overcast and a little bit cold outside. God’s manifest presence is available to everyone.
But not everyone finds him. Cuz not everyone wants to intentionally seek. Just a few chapters later God says to Jeremiah in Jeremiah twenty-nine. He says you will call upon me and you will go and pray to me and I will listen to you. That’s the near God.
He hears you. And then you will seek me. And find me. When you search for me. With your whole heart.
I will be found by you says the Lord. And I will bring you back from captivity. Oh it says that he’ll will cry out to him and he’ll hear us because he is the God who is near. Oh don’t take away from that. He is the God who is intimately acquainted with all of your ways and hears the cry of your heart.
He didn’t tells Jeremiah, hey, but there’s another layer. There’s more. Yeah. There’s more to who I am. Come and seek me with all your heart.
That’s a great question for us. Are we seeking God with all our hearts? Or do we seek him in the margins of our lives? Do we seek him first? His kingdom and his righteousness and trust that all the other things will get added or do we we really want to see those other things get added. So, we’ll seek him just enough just to get those couple of other things added to our lives. Find that really confronting In Acts chapter one, Jesus tells 500 people, wait, don’t depart from Jerusalem. There’s going to be an outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
He’s going to baptize you with fire. The Bible says that 120 people waited. Over that distance of time, that length of time, 380 people decided they didn’t want to wait. They decided that they were just quite content with Jesus when he was nearby but the sticking around part and waiting. Oh, I don’t really want to.
Oh, there’s other things to do. Oh, I can’t be just waiting around for God all the time. And so they went about doing their business and they missed out on being in the upper room experiencing the outpouring of Pentecost. If they had only waited, if I was one of the 380 people, I’d be kicking my own butt for the rest of my life going, what was I thinking? Why could I have not just waited for the Lord with an intentional seeking. Wow.
So many people are content knowing their savior, their savior the forgiver, their healer but it’s only in the seeking that you find the mysteries of the father. It’s only in the seeking that you discover kingdom purpose that’s greater than my business or my job. It’s only in the seeking that you find calling and commissioning. Come on. Into the greater things that God has for your life.
Moses loved the presence of God. Such to the point that he said, I know you’re offering me the promised land. But nothing is more important than your presence. Don’t send me. Could you look at your future spouse and say, Lord, she’s amazing.
But I’m not going to marry her. I’m not going to marry her. If it doesn’t coincide with your presence. So many of us look for the opportunity at work. Oh, I really want a promotion.
I want a pay rise. Could you look at your pay rise or your promotion at work and say, hey, I’m not going to take that Lord. If it means that I’m getting further away from you. Yeah, well. How often do we pray for our miracle? We pray, God, we need a miracle baby.
Lord, we’ve been believing for years for a baby, God. We’re just come on Lord. We need a miracle. And then, oh, pastor Ben, we’re pregnant. We’re going to have a baby.
God is so good and so faithful. Hey, Trish. Haven’t seen the Hensleys around for a while. Oh, you know, they got their miracle baby That’s right. The miracle baby that that that took you further away from the presence of God.
Oh, pastor Ben, Pastor Ben, I need a new job. I need a new job. Pastor Ben. Okay, let’s believe. Haven’t seen James around for a while.
Oh yeah, he’s working on Sundays, big hours with a new job. Oh, Pastor Ben, pastor Ben, we’re believing to buy a house. If only we could buy a house, everybody else is buying a house. Come on. Surely, God’s blessed us.
We’re going to buy our miracle house on the Gold Coast. It cost twice as much as everywhere else in Australia. Haven’t seen James and Paula for a while. Oh yeah, they’re doing renovations on their new miracle house. Haven’t seen em in ages.
No, I’m not trying to link the faraway God to Sunday church. But I’m telling you, when you’re hungry for the far away God, Sunday church is a non negotiable. Cuz all I want is him. And I need to be in corporate worship so I can listen to this guy with a weird accent. Give me a bit of a rev.
Number two to live sacrificially. We know in the Old Testament time and time again, it says that the fire of God fell The faraway God fell on the animal sacrifices and we know in the scriptures that we don’t have to do that anymore because Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice for us. But the Bible does talk about living a life sacrificially So many people say to me, James, I can’t believe that God wants my 10% tithe I said, mate, you have no idea. He wants way more than that. He starts with 10percent.
He wants way, way Being a Christian is expensive Being a true Christ follower is expensive. It will cost you everything. Yes, I do. But he who wants to gain his life must learn to lose it. Cuz when you lose it, oh my goodness.
You find it? Yeah. Yes. In Romans, Paul teaches us. He says, I beg you brothers By the mercies of God, present your bodies as a living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable act of worship. Wow.
Wow. A reasonable act of service. Come on, we sit here and we go. 10% Todd. That’s unreasonable.
You want to know how I grew my church? Pastor Ben, I just dropped it to 9% tithes. Every other church in town was doing 10% toss. I said, hey, we gotta be competitive in this market. 9% tides here at Church Unlimited. It’s worked.
We’ve grown really fast. People are loving it. And this, you know, good My reasonable act of worship to live as a living sacrifice What what what is a living you mean you mean that at every moment my life is on the altar? What what my sexuality is on the altar? Nobody could tell me how I do my sexuality Well, my marriage is on the altar. My children, my my my money, my time, How I live? My whole life? Outside of the 90 minutes on Sunday? Is on the old and it’s it’s a reasonable. Wow.
That doesn’t sound reasonable. Well, you don’t know the faraway God. You don’t know the far away God. When you have experienced the glory of God There is only one way to live. Yes.
This is the only way I know. You have all of me. Yeah. You have I exalt you. I exalt thee.
So many of us are singing God exalt me. Now, lift me up, God. All these people are after me and I want this and I will lift me up, God. No, no, no, no, no, no. When you know the faraway God, when you’ve tasted and seen that the Lord really is, who he says he is, and that he’s good? Yeah.
Oh I must decrease that you would increase. Oh God, would you come and have your way in my life my whole life is worship. When I lay down my rights I’m pursuing the faraway God. When I’m surrendering my dreams, I’m pursuing and drawing the presence of the faraway God. When I’m sacrificing my offenses to forgive even they don’t deserve it.
Oh, I’m drawing the presence of the far away God. When I’m serving others or operating in generosity, I’m drawing the presence and his ways are becoming my ways and his truths are becoming my truths and his life is becoming my life. Here’s the third one. This one is one that this church knows really well. So, I won’t drill down on it too well but passionate praise draws the faraway God.
Says that God is enthroned in the praises of his people When we praise, we draw the presence. When we praise, we put our eyes on his glory and not on ours. I I am a pastor but I’m also like you when it comes to coming to church. Sometimes, I’m not always in the mood. Sometimes, I’m actually more interested in the coffee that I’m drinking than I am in the song that I could be singing.
I get that. I know what it’s like to come to church with things on your mind, with family friction, I know what it’s like to come and and not always feel like praising. In fact, sometimes I wish I could have a back row seat instead of having to sit up the front because then people wouldn’t be looking at me. But what happens there is my eyes are only on me and my situation. And I failed to put my eyes on the glory of God.
Whenever you come to church and you’re not interested in singing and you’re not interested in praising or giving thanks, your eyes are simply on yourself. My eyes are fixated on who I am and what I’m going through and how I feel. Instead of putting my eyes on the glory of God. The moment I put my eyes on the glory of God, I can’t help myself. I exalt thee it just comes out of me because that’s what I was created for and the Bible says that when I sing and I declare, it literally draws his presence.
From heaven. Oh. I’ve learned in my life that I have to sing. I have to declare. There’s a story in second Samuel.
About David. And and I like David. Cuz David reminds me a lot of myself. He’s a bit of a bit of a blunder. Make a lot of mistakes.
I look at David and I go yes. I haven’t killed anybody. Didn’t sleep with anybody. Doing better than David. If David was a man after God’s own heart, I must be doing pretty good but there’s a story When they were moving the presence of God in the ark of the covenant.
How many of you glad God’s presence doesn’t live in a box anymore? But they were moving the presence of God and and Uzzah got a little familiar with the presence of God and he reached out his hand and he touched it and he died instantly. And it freaked David out Can I tell you right now that when you get into the glory of God, It’s not always romantic. Sometimes it’s actually scary because you’re discovering the fear of the Lord. And so Uzza reached out and touched the presence of God and he died because he was instructed not to. He disobeyed and David in his freaked out moments said, nope, send this thing over to Obed Edom’s house.
I’m just, I don’t want that around here. It’s too much. Can I tell you when you’re when you’re in a in a bad place, you don’t want the presence of God. Cuz you, man, if I get close to God, he’s going to tell me some stuff and I don’t want to hear it. I don’t want to feel it.
I don’t want to know it. God, you just, I want you back in the lamp Can I unshun Dabunda and get you back in the lamp? Because I like doing me I like doing what I want and this is exactly where David’s at. David’s like, whoo wee. Nope. People are dying around here.
That’s not good. The problem was, the presence of God went to Obed Edom’s house and Obed Edom’s house started to bless, be blessed, and prosperous. David sitting over here going, I’m an idiot. I let the far away God go far away again. He was right here and yes, when the faraway God is right here, gee, it’s it can be a little scary sometimes but flip, look at what comes with it.
Now, Obed Edom has the far away God and look at what’s happening to his house The Bible says, David goes back to Obed Eden’s house and he says, I need that back. Thanks. And it says, he worships ridiculously. Extravagantly. Yeah.
dancing, and praising God in his linen Ephad. And it says his wife starts mocking him David was more concerned in praise about getting the presence of the far away God back in than he even was the opinion of his own wife. We sit back on, oh, what are people going to think if I start to dance a little bit? What are people going to think? Oh, look at all the young people. I remember when I was hot for God once but now I got lukewarm and I sit up the back. Oh, you remember when they were young and idealistic and nothing bad ever happened to them? I don’t know about you but I’ve just learned that that whatever might be going on in my life, I need to passionately praise God.
Whether I’m in my church or I’m in your church because God is the same God everywhere he is and I am a chaser of the presence of God. It is who I am. It is not what I do. It is who I am. Yeah.
Number four active resting draws the presence of God. I’m a pretty active, passionate, outgoing type person. I’m an enneagram type 8. If you didn’t pick that up If you don’t know what that is, I belong in a cult The enneagram cult and I’m not joking Sometimes we pursue the far away God through passionate praise and activating faith and and and surrender and but sometimes we just need to get into his presence and be still. And I’m a really busy person.
And I find this hard. But the Bible says that when Moses would go away into the tent he would engage the presence of God and God would speak to Moses face to face. But eventually that time would come to an end. But Joshua would stay and linger in the presence and I’ve actually learned in my later years of following the Lord that sometimes I actually don’t need to hoot and holler. I actually just need to shut up.
I actually think God hears my voice too much If you ever had those moments, you’re like, ooh, I’m probably annoying you right now Have you ever maybe you don’t do this because you are annoying and but so often we get into the presence of God and we start going this and that and this and that and I want this and come on breakthrough. I think the Lord sometimes says, hey, just be still and know that I’m God. And when you’re still and you’re quiet and you’re not talking, you’re far more inclined to hear. Elijah was like this when he really needed a breakthrough. He needed a rainstorm and it was all, he was all excited about the earthquake and all excited about the rushing wind and and all excited about the fire.
God says, I wouldn’t need any of that stuff, man. It’s the still small voice. And I I’m an active person and sometimes I like to be really proactive for God and God’s actually say, I need a little less of you right now I’ve been told that all my life. Especially in Mackay between the years of 2003 and two thousand and five. Says in Isaiah forty, those who wait upon the Lord will renew their strength Will you wait for God? Will you wait upon him? Here’s the last one.
Invite the worship team to come. The the last one that I’ve learned is is to practice his presence I I’m not when I first became a Christian, I wasn’t familiar with the spirit. I was very fluent in flesh but this whole idea of spirit and supernatural and the far away God, I, this is just, what? I remember being in some pretty powerful youth camps where I started to learn about the presence of God and stuff, man. I tell you what, because pastor Ben went after encounter, I’ve had encounters and now I go after encounter. But for me, there there was baby steps for me.
I didn’t I wasn’t fluent in spirit. I didn’t know how to go and find the far away God. So, I really needed to get practical at presenting near God. Because he’s also that. He’s not just the far away God, aren’t you grateful? Aren’t you grateful that he’s also the near God? But if if your relationship with God is is anything like mine, sometimes you can be quite casual.
About that. There are moments in our marriage where Paul and I go, hey, we need a date. Cuz we’ve been really good business partners raising the kids and sorting the money. But we gotta remind ourselves about the specialness of our marriage. We can get a little bit like that with God where it’s like, well, I live for God all the time.
Go to church, do all the things and and that is the starting point because you need to know the near God first. He introduces himself to us first and foremost as the near God but then he invites us to go away with him a little deeper. And so I’ve learned in my life, I need to get practical about his presence which is daily, on with God. David says, I’ll rise early in the morning and seek you, oh Lord I think there needs to be a daily seeking practical about church. I’m so glad that church is a critical part of my life and a critical part of my family because it’s it’s a weekly checkpoint for my spirit and if I miss a Sunday, even when I’m on holidays, I feel it.
I need to get practical about his presence and become, you know, God’s with me when I’m all the time. I’m just not always aware of it. There’s an old Bethel song that goes, I just, I want to be more aware of your presence. I I always find it interesting when when preachers get up on the stage and they go, the presence of God is here. And I go, yeah, I know mate.
I brought him with me when I come in. Yeah, he never left me. He’s, I brought him. Did you happen? No, I I think we gotta be more cognitive of the fact that the presence of God. Do you know that when you’re angry, the presence of God is there? And when it’s midnight and everybody’s gone to bed and you’re watching your screen by yourself, the presence of God is there.
And when noone else is looking and you can get away with it, oh the presence of God is there and when you start practicing the near God oh man, you start to, you start to just align a few things in your life that that then make you more excited and interested about pursuing. Come on, would you stand to your feet? Pastor Shawn asked me, how do you want to close this service? And he goes, do you want to have a ministry team? And to be honest with you, I think we’re really good at going to others for ministry. And I I was super impressed with the altar. This church has a very strong hunger for the altar and and to have ministry and can I just say, I think that’s so beautiful because that’s a real sign of humility. But but can I be honest? I I actually think that we need to respond by just simply saying, God, I I want more of you.
If you’ve been journeying with the Lord for any length of time, it’s inevitable that you’re going to have moments that are that are hotter than others. Yeah. But I’m challenged as I keep going for God. Am I the hottest I’ve ever been? Am I getting hotter for God? Or is a bit of an off year, off season? And I really wanted the team to to lead us in a song that has really been important in my life. It’s called Make Room.
And make room is really all about the fact that God, I’m making room for you to come and do whatever you want to. It’s a very dangerous song. Because you don’t know what he wants to do. And then and then there’s a part where it says, I’m letting go of all my traditions. Well, some people say, well, no, it’s Australian mate.
We’re not real traditional. Can I tell you, we are traditional What’s your traditional response when you’re wronged? To get angry, to hold on forgiveness. One of my traditional responses is anger Maybe you have a traditional response with alcohol or a traditional response with with escapism or a traditional response with your phone. I’m letting go of all my traditional ways of doing things. And I’m making room for you.
Then he says, I’m letting go of all my religion There was a time where I believe that if I didn’t fall down on the ground, the God wasn’t moving. And then I learned that God could be moving and I could not feel the tingles. It’s part of maturing. Yeah. Come on, what are your religious mindsets about how God operates? Cuz God’s so much, he’s outside of your boxes.
And so as the team lead us in this moment, could would you, would you open your heart and would you allow your heart just to get sensitive before the Lord? Come on, if you’re here and you’ve found yourself in a funky place, you might need to repent. You might need to put your life back on the altar again and say, God, come into my life, make your ways my ways, make your truths, my truths. Come on, some of you might just need to praise and sing and declare. I will make room for you again. Come on, would you lift your hands in this place? Holy Spirit, we invite you right now to come and search our hearts.
We invite you to come and and look beyond the surface. God we we give you access into the secret places of our hearts and and God we thank you that you are near to us. You are so faithful to us. You are so true to us but then you invite us to find you, to draw unto you. And God, even in this moment, we just say, come and, and have your way in our hearts.
Come and set things right that might be out of alignment. Come on, would you lead us this is where I lay it down every burden every crown this is my surrender this is my surrender here is where I lay every lie and every doubt this is my surrender and I will make room for you to do whatever you want to to do whatever you want to because I will make for you Come on, there’s actually some people in here and I sense that you actually need to get out your chair and come and put your life on the altar as a, come on, you need to dedicate your life again as a living sacrifice. If you’re here today and you sense, man, I need to re align. I’ve actually, I’ve got sin in my life. I’ve I’ve been chasing other things.
I’ve had other Gods. Come on, maybe you’ve had money as the Lord, your God, maybe you’ve let footy become the Lord your God, your boat, whatever your things are that have become God in your life, now is the time to pull them down and to cast them at the feet of Jesus. You can’t make room for God and have all these other side hustles that are in the way. He wants your whole heart and so I just want to encourage you as we sing, would you just posture your heart? Your way is better. It’s always better to shake up the ground of all my tradition break down the walls of all my religion your way to shake up the ground of all my tradition break down the walls of all my your way is better was always better before my to do whatever you want to do whatever you to do whatever to do whatever you Holy Spirit, we invite you right now to come and help us.
Help us. God, we get so easily distracted. Our eyes get put on every other thing. Lord, we get worried about stuff and we allow the external circumstances of life to get in the way of pursuit of who you are. Right now, we just lay down every situation.
Come on, I said, even if you’re in the room right now and you’ve been believing for healing in your body but you haven’t received your healing and it’s it’s almost made you a little bit cynical, a little bit hard, a little bit callous. Come on, you need to, you need to even surrender right now your healing. You’ve been believing for God to deliver you and set you free. Come on, you need to surrender that before the Lord. Come on, you surrender.
Some of you are sitting here going, man. It’s hard to pursue. God, when my marriage is like this, come on. You actually need to put your marriage on the altar before the Lord and and that doesn’t mean that you’re giving up on your marriage. What you’re doing is you’re putting your marriage in the Lord’s hands instead of holding onto it, white knuckled.
Come on, we need to do that with our kids. In fact, I sense that there are some people in the room and and you might have children that don’t know the Lord or or they’re not going for God like they should be and it’s so critical that we lay them down. They are the children or a gift from God in the first place and so God, we give back to you our children. We give to you every burden. We give to you every financial problem.
We give to you every squeezing circumstance and we say God that we choose you above every other thing and God, if things don’t work out the way that I want them to, okay Okay. The thing about surrender is sometimes the the the the the sometimes we actually have it in our mind. We have a traditional way that we want God to intervene. Well, this is how it’s going to happen. Maybe.
Maybe. Holy Spirit, we just say, come and have your way. We do realign our hearts and we say we want you above every other thing in our lives. God, help us to be cognitive of your presence and continually keep seeking you, Lord. Cuz you are the great reward that we could ever know.
You know, before I hand back, I I would like to give people an opportunity who don’t know Jesus and maybe you’ve come to church today and and you were invited by a friend or or you were even dragged here and your ear is still a little sore from where you got brought here. I don’t know why you came this morning but I do know this that God designed it so that you would be here today. Because God loves you so much and he actually didn’t bring you here today to bore you or to to condemn you. He brought you here to reveal his loving kindness and his grace and his mercy to you. Some people have said to me, James, I feel so far away from God.
You know, you’ve said, mate, he’s a faraway God and I feel far away. Can I tell you that that that can be fixed with one prayer? The Bible says that the moment we call on the Lord, he comes. He’s faithful to forgive us of our sins. He’s faithful to move in our lives and help us to know him in a real way and so I wonder if there are people here this morning that would say, James, I don’t know Jesus. Maybe experienced religion Maybe I used to know God but but but I’ve gone my own way.
I want to lead you in a prayer right here and right now that can help start bringing you and God back closer together. And if that’s you and you say, James, I need to be included in this moment of prayer. Would you give me a little wave? I’ll see your hand and then you can put it back down again. Oh, come on mate. I see your hand back there.
That’s great. Is there anybody else saying, James, I need to pray that prayer this morning. I don’t want to miss out on this. Awesome. Come on.
Can we pray this together, church? Would you read? We do prayer karaoke in our church. I I so I’m not aware if if you know how to pray and so we’ll we’ll lead you in a little bit and would you repeat this prayer from a sincere place in your heart? Come on, let’s pray. Dear Lord Jesus. Dear Lord Jesus. I thank you that you love me.
I thank you. You proved it. When you went to the cross, and died for my sins. Jesus, forgive me. Wash me clean.
Wash me clean. Help me to live for you. All the days of my life. Amen. Father, I pray right now for that man and anybody else who prayed this prayer, I thank you that you see them and you know them and your presence is coming right now to surround them.
You are not the far away God. The moment we start seeking you, you say we will be found by you and I speak right now the overwhelming presence of your grace to come and and fill this man Jesus name. Amen. Amen. I love you King’s Church.
Thanks for having me.
