Presence

All right. Thank you. That was, greet your neighbor, give him a high five. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

Well, how are you guys doing this week? Second week in October. Wasn't that awesome? I just, I have to be honest with you. God is, we're going to be starting a new series today, and it's basically, it's called The Presence.

And I did not know the songs that they were going to pick and obviously just trying to figure everything out and seeing which way God wanted to go and do that. And yesterday, if you're wondering why my wife is not here, she's probably watching online. She's in Maryland helping a friend who just had surgery. So everybody can say hi to my wife, and she's up there. But I had a chance.

It never, coming back from Maryland inevitably takes me about five hours, five and a half hours. I can't figure it out why. It's just traffic. I left yesterday at 4, at 538. I pulled into my driveway at 938.

Four hours. I went through DC. I cannot figure that one out. I mean, but I will tell you this, and I told, I told the guys when I got here this morning, I said, all four hours of it was just me and Jesus. I just took the time and it just, it just, him and I just, just talking and praying and praising.

And before I knew it, I didn't realize I was on the other side of DC. And then we kept going and kept going. And inevitably I get to, you get to 64 and they're doing some kind of traffic or whatever. They're doing something. Blew right past that.

Blew past like two accidents. Never stopped. And I just, it was so light just coming home, but God is so good. And this past week, he's been really dealing with me about just the presence. And, and I said, okay, God, well, we've got, you know, we're coming into the, to the middle of October and we're going into November or Thanksgiving and then Christmas and then the holidays and stuff.

And I'm like, Lord, what do you want me to do? And one of the things that God says, where's your heart? And I said, my heart, Lord God, is I just want more of your presence. That's all I want. I want to be a carrier of your presence.

So we're going to be doing, um, the next several weeks, we're going to be doing a sermon on his presence. And so we're, we're calling this the presence series, but today we're going to talk about when his presence becomes priority. The, the scripture we've been doing in our life group. If you haven't come to life group, we, I challenge you, come to life group. We go to Palan's Baja girl, um, up at the oceanfront and we're actually walking through acts and acts two is always kind of step kind of stuck in my mind, simply because I always say, you know, I want an acts two church.

So when I sit and I talk to, to TJ and, and, and Leon and Alex, and I go, this is, we're all on the same page. It's like, this is the type of church that we want. This is a type of church that we desire. So I would challenge you this week and in the next coming weeks to spend time in our series scripture of acts two, one through 47. But the, the whole theme of this entire time is we don't want to simply have a church in God's presence.

We want to become a church that is known for God's presence. See, I can, we can be like any, we can be every other church. We can do the process, the programs and the systemology and we can have it all. But the fact of the matter is, is that nothing matters unless we have the presence of God. So this week we're going to start on when the, his presence becomes priority.

In Psalm 16:11, it says, you will show me the path of life in your presence is fullness of joy. And at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. So we're going to build this around the one central declaration, and that is in your presence is fulfillness. So if you're writing down and you're taking notes, some, some scriptures I want you to take note of is acts two, one through four and 42 through 47. Read them throughout your devotional time.

But the central truth of this is that when God's presence becomes priority, hunger becomes the culture. Transformation becomes the evidence and growth becomes the overflow. See, I planted a church. I helped plant a church about, oh, about 20 years ago. And when we talked about planting a church, you talk about, okay, what are we going to do as far as growth?

And, and, and we, we ask our men, we ask ourselves questions like, well, how many people can we get to come? How big can we get? And how good can we make our services? But, but the reality is, is that there's only one question that matters. And it should be, what are we really after?

Because you can have a church full of people and still have a church that's empty. See, you can have great music without worship. You can have great preaching without revelation. You can have activity without transformation. You can have programs without power and a crowd without hunger.

I believe what God God is calling the church as a whole is back to this one important matter, his presence. You can have everything together. You can have the right location, you can have the right process, you can have the right program. Trust me, I get it. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt.

You can have people come in, but if you don't have the right programs, a lot of times they're going to leave. You have to be attractional, but here's the thing. If you don't create a culture where His presence matters, nothing else does. Because in His presence is where people get transformed. I'm not talking about changed.

I can go inside of a closet and change my clothes and come out and look totally different. What God wants to do is He wants to transform you. When you transform something or restore something, it's never the same. And that's what God's presence does and that's what He wants to do to us as believers. There are people out there that they go, I'm looking for a change, I'm looking for a change.

The reality is the church as a whole, the church needs to go, you're not looking for a change. What you're looking for and hungry for is a transformation. Because you don't want to go back to what you did. Because I know a lot of addicts, whether they're hooked on drugs or alcohol or porn or wherever it is, once they taste the presence of God and they know God moves and they see what God does in their life, they never, ever want to go back. Because there's freedom.

And I feel like the church today has lost that. We spent the early part of the 90s and into the 2000s is we polished, we polished the building, we polished everything. We made it look good, sound good, we did everything we could, but we forgot about something. We forgot about God. We said, God, we want you here, but you can only fit into this box.

We'll only give you this much time. I believe today that society and the church as a whole, that society today is looking for transformation and not just change. Because they're sick and tired of living the way that they're living. It's emptiness. Asked an addict.

An addict goes from one high to another. It's the truth. But asked a truly transformed believer, and he stays here all the time, even if he's in the valley. Even if they're in the valley. They walk in victory.

See, Moses said this in Exodus 33 15. He said, if your presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here. Moses understood something here. The promise wasn't enough. The destination wasn't enough.

And the blessing wasn't even enough. He said, God, if you're not going to go, then I don't want to go either. And that's where I believe that God wants to take us. He wants a place where we stop saying, God, bless what we're doing. Bless the process.

Bless the program. Instead, he wants us to start saying, God, let us do what you're already blessing. See, that's a different church. That's a different people. That's a different hunger.

Because we're not chasing the next best thing. Why? Because we walk in every Sunday experiencing. We don't experience anything. We encounter.

And when you encounter the presence of the living God, it changes you. It does things. It leaves you hungry for more. Well, how do we do that? As salt church, you know, and as individuals, how do we do this?

How do we, how do we, how do we, how do we create this atmosphere? Well, number one, you have to make room for his presence. Acts 2 1 says, they were all with one accord in one place. Look at this. Before the fire fell, they gathered.

Before the sound came, they waited. And before the manifestation, what'd they do? They made room for him. There's something powerful about making room for God. Because see, sometimes God isn't absent.

We're just distracted. God isn't silent. We're just way too noisy. And God is, he's not distanced. The problem is, is that we're just way too busy.

And God is constantly looking at us going, will you not make room for me? We got room for everything. Your careers, our children, sports. We got, even when we're in conversation, we're sitting at a restaurant and we're going out on dates. And Colleen and I will do this sometimes.

We'll see this and we'll look around the table and we'll watch people that are on dates. And what are they on? Their phones. We got time for social media. We spend more time on social media than getting into the word.

We got time for everything else. But here again, God's asking, will you make room for me? You can't experience the fullness of God's presence when you've already filled the room with everything else. God says, you say, you sit on your need and you go, God, I need you. I need you.

I need you. And God says, I'd love to help you out, but I got no room because I'm here to tell you, God's not going to take second place. He's just not. See, we need to make room in our morning time. What's the first thing we do?

Evaluate your life. You get up in the morning, throw some water in your face, maybe grab a cup of coffee, and the first thing we do is, what do we do? We reach for? Mmm. Okay.

We got one spiritual person in this house. Woo! See, you got to make room in your home. Husbands, fathers, how are you leading your home? Do you make God a priority?

First thing you do before your kids get up, do you grab your wife and you say, hey, let's say a prayer. I want to pray over you. I want to anoint you today. When your kids get out of bed, do you pray over them? What's your devotional life?

Do you make room for him? How's your prayer life? Is it a popcorn prayer? Is it a, hey, God, I need this, need that, we're going to check the boxes? Or do you honestly spend quality time with him?

You got to make room in your worship time for him. And you got to make time for him in church. You know, we were talking about this this morning, and it's like, you know, it's like we've become consumer oriented. I want to go to church. I'm going to grab my latte.

I want to sit down. I don't want anybody to bother me. We're going to be part of it. I want to sing some nice songs. I want to hear a nice message.

Check the box, and I'm going to go out. Now, you can't be a Sunday Christian and a Monday sinner. You can't. God says, it says in Revelations, he says, if you are lukewarm, I will spew you out of my mouth. I'm just, this is just, this, I'm not, look, I'm just preaching the word here.

Where do you stand? Where do you stand? Do you make room for him? Number two, make him the reason we gather. In Acts 2 and 2 through 4, it says, suddenly, not, it's coming, maybe, in time, it says, suddenly.

There was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting. Then what looked like flames of tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them, and everyone present, not some, not a few, but all who were present were filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability. Understand this, in the presence of God, not some things change, everything changes. See, that's where the church, see, this was the reason for the meeting, but the church has to be careful. See, because we can be so good at doing church, we forget why we're doing church.

See, I have to be honest. See, you know, coming from a church plant and having a few, like, moments, or I don't want to do that, or I don't want to, this is why I love the people that are around me. Because as a pastor, what happens is, is that in the past, I gauge everything on the past. I gauge everything that happened to me in the past. And I'm going to brag on my friend, I'm going to brag on my friend Leon here a little bit, because Leon kind of set me straight.

And he sat there, we had a conversation a couple weeks ago, and he said, hey, he goes, I want to tell you something. He goes, you need to leave the past where the past is in the past. He said, God's got something different, and the longer that you concentrate on the past, you're inhibiting God from doing everything in the future. We understand, he said, I understand where you're at, I get it, I get it. But there is a line, there's a fine line, and we just got to find that line.

Because Jesus was attractional. And immediately, what happened is, is it began to click in my head, and it was like, I'm driving home, and I'm going, well, that was an epiphany. But boy, do I feel like an idiot. Because I've spent, understand this, and I'm trying, look, I'll be totally transparent. I've been spending the last 10 years going, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, and I'm not going to do this, I'm not going to do that.

And if I get a chance to do this, this, this, and this, and this is how I'm going doing it. And guess what, 10 years later, how's it working? It ain't. It's not. Because here's the thing, God says, I'm a fun God.

But you got to create room for me. And what's the reason that you're coming in here? See, we can become experts at producing a service, but we forget to pursue the encounter. There's a difference. A service can be organized and entertaining you.

But encounter, as I said before, is transformational. It changes you. So here's the question. What if we stop asking, was church good today? And start asking, did we encounter God today?

Because that changes the whole dynamics. It changes everything. So number three, it's, and I love what TJ and Ella were talking about. This is perfect. You guys hit it.

The spirit was moving. Loved it. And number three is, do something we're not comfortable doing. Learn how to wait on God. See, in Acts 4, Jesus told them, wait.

Wait. In Lamentations 3 and 25, it says, The Lord is good to those who wait on Him, to the soul who seeks Him. Psalm 62, in verse 5, out of the ESV, says, That's

For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from Him. Why?

Because silencing the noise. We silence the noise. See, the Hebrew word here for silence is dumayah, meaning a quiet trust, a stillness, or a silent waiting. It implies letting go of your own agenda, worries, and striving just to rest in who He is. See, this is difficult for us.

Because as a friend of mine always tells me, he goes, we want things quick, fast, and in a hurry. We put it into the microwave, and instead of it taking two minutes, we hit that 30-second button and going, yeah. And then we wonder why it comes out lukewarm and tastes like, ugh. My grandmother used to make, so we make, well, I'm from Maryland, so if you haven't known, but we love crab soup. Now, not the creamy stuff that you guys make here.

Sorry. I had something in my throat. We make the Tabata base. And so, my grandmother, every Christmas, she would put the crabs away that we caught during the year, and she would make crab soup. And I'd go, oh, Nanny, you know, we're going to have some crab soup.

She goes, no, no, no, no. That's for Christmas. I'm like, what? She goes, that's for Christmas. So, I'm like, man, that's really going to taste bad.

So, she'd break it out come Christmas Eve, and she'd put it in the pot. She'd stir it up, and she'd get it all going, and then she'd go, and she'd serve it. And I'll tell you what, oh, golly, was it so good. And it was in the waiting. It's in the waiting.

How many of you ever had soup, and on the second day, it's always better than the first day? See? See, in this generation, we want instant answers. We want instant results, and we want instant gratification. But God said to wait.

The disciples didn't know exactly what Pentecost would look like. They didn't even know what Pentecost was. They didn't know what would happen, but they knew that Jesus promised it. And because He promised it, they stayed. Sometimes the greatest evidence of hunger is willing to wait.

Anybody can get excited about something that's happening, but hungry people will stay when something is about to happen. People say, God, I'm not leaving until you do what you said you promised to do. See, in Genesis 32:26, Jacob gives that perfect example. He said, then the man said, let me go. For it is daybreak, but Jacob replied, I will not let you go until you bless me.

We choose, we come into church with the mindset that I hope they don't run over today. I hope TJ and Ella don't go off on one of their little tangents, and they go off and we wind up having more worship than we need to. Because I got things to do. And then you wonder, and you wonder why you feel like God's not doing anything in your life. You wonder.

God says, wait for me. Marinate for me. Take that time. Turn your phone off. Put it on silent.

Forget about it. Do one better. Leave it in your car. Unless your Bible's on it. Maybe you need to break the dust off your old Bible and bring it in.

Bring a couple markers. Mark it up. Number four, develop a continual devotion. Acts 2 and 42 said, and they continued steadfast. Here's that word, continued.

Pentecost wasn't the end. It was the beginning. They didn't say, remember the day that when the Holy Spirit came. What happened was is that they continued. They were continuing to move forward.

They kept praying. They kept gathering. They kept worshiping. They kept learning. They kept breaking bread.

They kept pursuing God. Because the presence wasn't the event. It became their lifestyle. God says, I don't want to just change you. I want to transform you into your own different lifestyle.

I want to make you different. I want to make you look different. I want to make you smell different. I want your accountants different. I don't want us to be a church that says, remember when God moved.

I want to be a church. I want Salt Church to be a church that says, God is moving again. I desire that when people, if people go, oh, what do you do? I go to Salt Church. Oh, wait a minute.

You go to that church where I hear that God's always doing something. Amen. Amen. That's what I want. That's what I want.

Because when God transforms you, notice this. When God transforms you, he notifies your face. Because most people that are transformed, they're like Moses coming down off the mountain. And he had that glow about him. And they had to cover him up.

Why? Because he spent time in the presence of God. He didn't rush it. He just spent time in the presence of God. When you spend time in the presence of God and you wait on him and he begins to transform you and transform your lives, you're not the same.

You're not the same here. You go out and what happens is people begin to ask questions. What's different about you? What's different about you? Look, your circumstance didn't change.

Your health maybe didn't change. Your circumstance didn't change. Your finances didn't change. What changed? Your attitude.

Or better yet, your altitude. See when Gideon was in the winepress and he's thinking oh woe is me, when the angel of the Lord stood at the edge of the winepress, what did Gideon have to do? He had to look up. And the angel looked at him and said oh mighty man of valor. He's like what are you talking to me?

Because what happens is we spend too much time thinking about our problems and our situation instead of waiting on God and let God transform us and we can look up. People may look at you and go man you've changed. Did things change financially? No, no they didn't change. Did you get a better health doctor?

No, still kind of work through that. What changed? You look different. The presence of God. It's the presence of God.

Church is not a box that you check off. Your devotional life is not a box that you just check off. Stay in the presence of God. Trust me. Trust me on this one.

God's going to transform you into the person he wants you to be. Number five, let this presence change you. We were just talking about that. It's because when God's presence came, the people changed. In Acts 2.

44 it said now all who believed were together. They became unified. In 45 they said they became generous. There are some Christians out here, they need to notify their wallet. Okay?

God provided you the finances. You can be a good Christian and you can show up and you can check the boxes, but you can be the stingiest person that God knows. They became joyful. Newsflash. And I'm this way.

I get it. My wife looks at me sometimes. She goes, you need to notify your face that you're a child of God. I'm like, really? She goes, yeah.

Yeah. She's like, you ain't dead yet. She goes, you keep acting like that. You might be. I might help God.

See, in 47 they became witnesses. Notice the difference here. Their presence changed their behavior and that's how you know an encounter is real. Because God's presence just doesn't make you feel something. God's presence makes you become something.

And when you become something, people want to know, where are you going? What are you doing? Man, you look good. What gym? How's it?

How many got this? You look good. What gym are you going to? I'm not. Really?

You look good. That's, I go to God's gym. Unfortunately, God's gym comes with a few cookies and some snacks. Shh, don't tell my wife. If his presence only changes how we feel, but we never, it never changes how we live, we haven't gone deep enough.

See, here's the Acts 2 pattern. They gathered, they waited, they prayed, the spirit came, they were filled, they were transformed, and then they went out. And then what did the Lord do? What did the Lord do? He added to them.

He added to them. See, nobody wants to go to church and walk in and see a bunch of sourpusses. Okay? They want to come in, they want to hit the parking lot, and they want to see, man, this church is happening. This is why I send Alex out there.

Even in the rain. Even in the rain. See, understand this. We don't start with church growth. We start with God.

When you mix the two up, it doesn't work. Understand this. The church's greatest need, the church doesn't need another gimmick, another trend, another celebrity, and it doesn't need another program. We need God. When we need his presence, we need his power, we need his word, we need his spirit, and we need his glory.

I am determined along with the team, and I challenge you this for your own home. We need to become intentional about the atmosphere we are creating. It's not about the hype. I don't want hype. I don't want manipulation.

I don't want emotionalism, and I'm not trying to manufacture anything, because I want to make room for God. Because I have determined to me, because I will stand before God, and God goes, what are you doing with the time that I gave you? What did you do? And I go, God, I want to teach your people how to pray, how to worship, how to wait, how to listen, and how to respond. Because we don't want to create an atmosphere that makes people feel good.

I want to create an atmosphere, cultivate an atmosphere where people can encounter God. Because when people encounter God, they become transformed, not just changed. Change is temporary. Transformation is permanent. We need to go deeper.

I can't make anybody be hungry by just going, be hungry. But I can put something before them that makes them want more. And that's where this whole series that we're going to be doing, is that's where we're going. See, next week, we're going to talk about give me more. We're going to talk about spiritual hunger, because I will tell you this, from firsthand experience, once you taste his presence, you don't want to go back.

Psalms 34 8 says, oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Once you've tasted his goodness, once you've had what he has, the world doesn't satisfy you in the same way. Once you experience his presence, entertainment doesn't satisfy you in the same way. Once you encounter Jesus, you can... Sniff out a substitute.

That's why I tell you, and I've said this from the beginning, this church will never be built around me. It'll never be built around any other church we represent. It's going to be built around God. And everything we do will go through the hourglass of what God says. Because this is His church.

Because ultimately I want to see people, I don't want to just see people changed, I want to see people transformed. Because transformed people ministered to other people, and that's how the church grows. Because when people see the evidence of the presence of the Lord that's in your life, they're going to question what you're doing. Get this. If you think you're fooling the world, you're not.

The world can sniff out a fake Christian. And if they don't, the enemy will expose you. And I believe in this day, in this time, I don't know where you are with your walk with the Lord. But I will tell you what. God's looking at you and He's looking at your heart and He's saying, will you create room for me?

Will you wait for me? I don't want to just change you. I want to transform you. I want to have an encounter with you. I want to bless you where you stand.

I want to bless your business. I want to bless your career. I want to bless your family. I want to bless everything that there is about you. Why?

Because He loves you. He loves you. He loves you. I don't, I mean, you know, yeah, I mean, you know, I just don't want to become a church that's just known for great music, great preaching, even though there's a lot of better preachers than me, or great programs, or, or, you know, even have a beautiful building. But I will tell you this, I'm thankful for the building that we have.

I'm really thankful. God, we could, we could be hunting down a place. God, you opened this up and you blessed us with this. Thank you, God. Thank you, God.

I want us to become known because God is here. I want people to walk through these doors carrying burdens and encounter the God who can carry their burdens. I want people to walk in broken and encounter the God who restores. I want people to walk in bound and encounter the God who sets people free. I want people to encounter Jesus.

I want our children to grow up knowing that God is real. I want our young people to know that there's something better than, than, than what this world could ever offer. I want our encounter night packed to the brim. I want people to walk out. I don't care what church, I say this all the time.

I want, I would love to see 75 different churches represented on a Thursday night. I don't care what denomination you go. I don't care if you're independent, Baptist, whatever. I don't care. It doesn't matter to me.

We're here to seek the Lord. We're kingdom-minded. I want God to do something. I want God to use us. I want God to help us impact this community in Virginia Beach.

I want our city to become a place where the presence of God is being carried by the people of God. That's what's important to me. So everybody stand. You, you may have been coming to church. You may have stopped being hungry.

Maybe you've, you've, you've, you've been serving or you stopped seeking, or maybe you've been doing ministry or you've lost the wonder of his presence. But somewhere along the way, you've forgotten what it means to want God. I spent some time with a very close friend of mine this week. And I said, you know, I said, this is, we were talking about church and we were talking about this. And I said, you know, he said to me, he goes, you know, he goes, we've had some people leave our church.

And I said, what were their reasonings? He said, well, they read because they said they weren't getting fed. And we both kind of laughed. And he looked at me and I said, yeah, I've heard that before. And he said, but you know what, honestly, Carl, he said, them being fed isn't the issue.

He said, they stopped eating. They stopped eating. He said, they became consumer mentality. They came in expecting the perfect service, the perfect church, the perfect people, instead of living the expectation of God, I just want to come and be a part of you. So we're going to do this declaration.

And at the end, we're going to, we're going to be doing declarations. I want you to speak this out if you mean it. And we're going to go through this because I think this is where we need to be. We have to make the presence of God a priority in every aspect we do. So when I say this, repeat this after me as loud as you possibly can.

God, you are welcome here. You are our priority. You are what we seek. You are what we desire. You make us hungry again.

Make us desperate again. Teach us to pray. Worship. Wait. Surrender.

Fill us with your Holy Spirit. Change us by your presence. Use us for your glory. We don't want your hand. We don't want your hand.

We want your heart. We don't want your blessing. We want you. Above everything else, we want you. Heavenly Father, I just praise you right now, Lord God, and I thank you for these people.

Father, I don't know where they're at in their walk, Lord God, with you, but I pray that Salt Church would be known as a place for hungry people. That we come waiting and wanting and desiring the presence of God. Father, we're an imperfect church serving a perfect God. God, I pray that you would work in us. May we always cultivate an atmosphere for you.

Lord, be with us today. Help us today. Father, I pray for myself and the people represented here and those online. I pray, Father God, that you would instill in them a hunger, Lord God, that goes deeper than anything that they felt. Father God, that Jesus, that you would anoint them, even in the midst of their trials and tribulations and the situations that they are, that they would desire the presence of you.

Father, I pray that just as Gideon looked up, Father, that the angel looked down and said, that almighty man of God, that Father, you would look down at your children and say, keep your eyes on me. Because I've got this. And the longer you stay in my presence, I'll guide you and I'll keep you. Father, I pray for them. I lift them up to you.

I lift all of us up. Father, I pray that your hand would be on Salt Church. I pray, Father God, that we would do things your way. That, Father God, that it's not about our way, a process, a program, or systemology. Father God, I pray that we would desire and prioritize your presence and that everything else would come into fruition.

Father, thank you for what you're going to do. I praise you and give you glory and honor for everything that you're going to do. Amen and amen. Lastly, I just want to say this. I want God to make us people with whom God's presence dwells.

And that's what God wants for you. He's looking for a place to dwell. So as you go out today, be safe, but go with a hunger. Ask God to do things in your life. Ask big asks.

Because your God is going to blow your mind. Create some space for him. Learn to wait for him. Learn to create room for him. Father, bless us as we go.

Father, bless the church. Bless everything that we're doing. Father, we love you and we praise you. In your name. Amen and amen.

Go with God. He's going with you. Love you guys. Don't be able to man. We will change this.

He's away.