Faith: If You're Not Going, I'm Not Going

Hallelujah. Awesome. You are. Hey. We're a part of the great body of Christ. Everyone here is needed.

Everyone is important. Everyone is significant. Everyone has a gift, a talent. You have something that God needs, and that's what we're building right here. We believe that we're taking the kingdom culture to the earth, and we need to make disciples. Real simple.

So we gotta take the kingdom culture of God into South Florida, into all the earth, and make disciples. And that's what we're doing, and that's what we want you to be a part of. This is what we're building, and this is the teams we're building because we got... We're on mission, man. We have we have things to do, people for you to reach, gifts and talents that you have, things... People that need your voice, that need your touch, they need your smile, they need your presence, they need your, hello.

How are you? They need, and only you have a language that can communicate to them. It might be a language you speak. It might be what you do. It might be the gift that you have that God wants to use to reach this area that is over 90% not in church, people that need Jesus. And so you're in the right place.

Everyone here is significant. Everyone here is important. Everyone here is needed. And and, you know, I love Ephesians three twenty. It says he's gonna do super abundantly above all you can dare ask, think, or imagine. So just imagine what God's about to do in your life.

And, so, guys, we're in a series today. I wanna talk to you about faith. We're in week two of our faith series. Can... And, can you imagine if you got everything you ever prayed for, everything you ever wanted? You know, the marriage you wanted, the relationship you wanted, the breakthrough, the job, the house.

It's a danger. Could you imagine if God gave you all of that? If if he was saying, here it is. It's all yours. You can have everything you want, but without me. Would you take it?

I know. It's the it's the good viable answer. I know. But I think a lot of people are yeah. Like, give it all. I got the car, the job, the the real...

Everything, and without the... Okay. I... Sign me up. It's a dangerous question because I think, honestly, most people want what God wants or what... No. Let me say it like this.

Most of us want what God can give us more than who he is. I I think a lot of our prayers, and I... And I've understood this myself. It's a lot of it. I I... Lord, move. I wanna see your hand. I wanna see...

Act. Do these things for me. All these special things. I think the door's open, honey. Can we... Close the door?

And and and I think we we get more attracted to the creation of things than the creator of himself. You know, people worship the creator or the things he creates and not the creator. And so I... You can want God's hand so badly that you forget his face. Or you can just so badly want to see what he can do, and we forget, wait. It's all about him. Really, my life should be completely all about him.

Amen. So last week, we said faith didn't just believe he exists, but, in James, it says faith moves towards him. And as you draw near to God, he'll come near to you. Now I understand this. A lot times we wanna draw near to God because I want what he can give me. You know, please God, if I know...

If I make time and I chase him and I and I... It's because I really need him to move in this specific way, but I think we gotta get to a place where it's just like, no. I just wanna be with him. That's what it has to be. Like, all this faith and everything we believe is not about what I can get from God because he's gonna give me everything I need. He's gonna take care of me. You're his child.

You're the king's kid. You're the nobility of God. You're a daughter of God. You're a son of God. You're a part of the family of God. You've been adopted by God.

You've been made righteous with God. You've been saved by God. You've been delivered by God. You've been... Everything has has been given for you. You are a part of a of a heavenly family, and and he is the great father that we can say, Abba Father.

And he never... You know, it's... He he he never denies you entry into his presence. He never says, no. You can't come. He never...

It's like my dog. He always comes to me no matter what. You know? And and that doesn't matter how bad the the the dog can... It could make my house dirty. It can do all of these bad things sometimes where I can get angry with it, but he always just comes back.

He loves me. My dog loves me. And I feel like God's like that with us. It doesn't matter what you've done. It doesn't matter how angry you got or things that you get messy and you get dirt in the house. It doesn't matter what dirt's in your life.

God's always just... He keeps... He's... I'm here. I'm at the door. I'm knocking.

Let me in. Let me come in and let me sit and dine with you and let me know you, and I wanna be with you throughout all mankind. All God wanted to do was to be with his people and be with you and spend time with you and talk to you just like Adam and Eve, just like Moses and Joshua, just like Daniel. All these guys in the bible, they all just wanted to be in his presence. They all wanted to know him. They wanted to find him.

They wanted to talk to him. So this week, I wanna look at a guy named Moses. I was just reading through the book of Exodus this weekend. The backstory of Moses is, you know, he brings the children of Israel out of Egypt. Right? He parts the Red Sea.

He sees 10 plagues come in. I mean, 10. Amazing. Acts of God. You know, gnats, flies, hail. I mean, all kind of people dying.

I mean, blood... Water turned to blood. It was incredible. All these things, locusts, and it's even cool to see when this would... Even darkness that lasted for a few days. But in Goshen, where the children of God were, none of that touched them.

Livestock would die, gnats, locusts, all these things would happen, but with the children of God, none of that affected them. I I can't imagine what that must have been like. It's complete darkness, but then you go over to where the chill... There's light? What? This is incredible acts of God that he sees Moses.

And he's down and, you know, he delivers the people. They go through the the Red Sea. What an act of that must have been like to see... To walk on dry land and see the water standing up. I don't know. And, they they go forty days, and they they get to this mountain, and and most...

They set up camp, and Moses goes up to the mountain for forty days. He's up in the mountain, and the people freak out. Where's God? I mean, after all they saw, manna from heaven, water come out of rock. I mean, the the Red Sea part, the plagues. I mean, they see the plunder of the Egyptians.

The Egyptians give them gold, silver, jewelry. It's amazing. Yeah. They get gold, silver, jewelry, and clothes. It talks about clothes, if you like clothes. So and and and he and he...

God, they take it all. They they walk out, and and then Moses, they set up camp, and he goes up on top of a mountain. And he's gone for forty days, and the people freak out. You know what they do? They take all their gold, and they melt it, and they make a a cow because they feel like, well, God's been silent. I haven't heard from him in forty days.

We're kind of flipped out. So then what am I gonna do? I'm gonna create something I can worship. This is something the culture was used to doing all the time. They would... It's like they do in India.

They worship rats and stones and bricks and they they worship anything. And all these tribes and all these nations all did that. They worshiped other gods. And so now all of a sudden, we don't see God for forty days and Moses is gone. Let's melt everything that we have and let's make a cow. And then let's worship the Lord.

Right? And because they're... Where's Moses? Where's God? We can't see him. You ever feel like that?

I can't see God. I don't hear God. I don't know what's going on right now, God. They melt everything down to something they can see. See, when we get tired of waiting on God, we build something you can see. We build a following on Instagram.

We we build a relationship. We build a bank account. We build a career, a reputation, whatever it might be, because we wanna hold on to something because God feels it's too quiet right now. I don't know what's happening. I don't know what direction to take. I don't know what I'm doing right now.

I feel kinda lost. I'm... I don't see God right now and what's happening, so I gotta find something, create something, look to something that I can see. And this is what happens in Exodus 32, and it breaks God heart... His heart. Look what happens.

In Exodus 33 verses one through three, it says, the Lord said to Moses, depart. Go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought up out of the land of Egypt to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying to your offspring, I will give it. Look what God says I'll do. I will send an angel before you. So I'm gonna send an angel. I'm gonna drive out the Canaanites, the America...

Them... All the parasites out. You see all those names. And I'm gonna go up to the land flowing with milk and honey. You go up. Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey.

But I will not go up among you, lest I consume you on the way. For you are a stiff necked people. You know, earlier we asked, like, would would you take... Because this is what these guys were faced with. Hey. Here comes the land, the the promise, everything that you've wanted, everything I promised to go.

I'm gonna give it all to you. I'm gonna even send angels ahead of you. I'm gonna give you everything you want. I'm gonna even send my own angels to go do this, but I'm not gonna go with you. It's a dangerous question. You can have the land.

You got the angels. You got the victory over your enemies, milk and honey, everything, but I won't go. And most people will take the deal and throw a party. Let's go. Yes, DJ. Oh, we got it.

And some of us, we've built a life like that. Like, our whole life is just built on that deal. The career is working. Things are moving. The business is growing. Bills are paid.

Hey. At least the bills are... Thank god we we paid bills this month. It's November 1. We made it. Oh, no.

It's the first. Oh, God. We're gonna make it. And you haven't heard God's voice maybe in years. You got the land, but you lost the Lord. So success without God isn't a blessing.

It's a warning because you can't confuse what God gives you with God himself. And he'll bless you. He'll take care of you. He'll make things happen. But the gift was never to replace the giver. The things that he has given you, the things that he has allowed us to to have and enjoy because he talks about, hey, enjoy this earth, enjoy eating, enjoy each other, enjoy everything in life.

I've given it to you to enjoy, but not at the expense that we forget the one that made it all for us. And it's so easy to do because we don't see him with our natural eyes. And that's what these guys did. They all... For forty days, he's gone. I don't see him.

Oh, we gotta we gotta make something that we can look at. Bye. Right? Bye bye. Bye. So this is what Moses did.

Moses made a place. He created a tent, a meeting place. It was called the Tent Of Meeting, a meeting spot that he would set up everywhere he'd go, and he'd go meet with the Lord. Now it says in Exodus thirty three seven, it says, now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, far off from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting. And everyone who sought the Lord would come out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp. Look, it says, he used to.

Moses used to take the tent. This wasn't a one... This is this is this was the habit. This wasn't a... This wasn't some emergency plan. Oh, Lord.

Something's happened. Throw up the tent. No. It's something that he always did. This was a habit. This is just something in his DNA.

This was a rhythm that Moses had with God. And everywhere, he went, he would put up this tent. He had a place. He had a rhythm. He had a place he would walk to to get outside the noise. It was to get away from that phone, get away from the notifications, get away from the people, whatever.

He placed a tent that he would go and meet with God himself because he wanted to talk to God. He wanted to be with God. He he created a meeting place, the tent of meeting. Hence, the phrase indicates what it's about. Right? Exodus thirty three eleven, thus says the Lord.

Thus, the Lord used to speak to Moses. Look at this. Face to face as a man speaks to his friend. When Moses turned again into the camp, his assistant, Joshua, the son of nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent. That's interesting. So look at that, face to face.

Right? Face to face with God, Moses. That's why he go have a conversation with God as a friend, and that's what God wants with you. He wants to meet with you. He wants to spend time with you. He wants to know you.

He wants you to know him, not just what he can do, not just his hands, not just his gifts, not what we're begging for, needing in life, but he just wants you to know him. And that's where Moses would meet. Look at Joshua, a young man. He didn't leave the tent. So you got... And look who takes over later.

Joshua takes over later. The young man, it's like he's learning the rhythms and the routines of what Moses, the man of God, is doing who's all the time meeting with God. Now you got Joseph, who's his assistant, that's all the time doing the same thing, and he's lingering. He's staying back at the tent of meeting because he's like, man, he's doing it. I'm gonna do it. And, of course, he probably loved to do it.

I I wanna be in the house of... I wanna be in the presence. I want I wanna be with God. I mean, come on. Where else is there to be? There's nowhere else to be.

And and he would not depart from the tent. And so... And then later, Joshua would be the next leader in charge. Amen. So presence isn't an accident. It's an appointment.

Presence... The presence of God isn't something accidental that we just kinda walk into. It's... No. These guys made it an intentional thing. They took a tent.

They would construct it. They'd put it outside the camp. They'd make sure that... And and they would continually go to go meet with God. Seek the Lord. Seek God.

That's what we've been talking about. Seek him. Make time for him. Get in his presence. Make it intentional. Make it, hey.

I gotta know this. I gotta know my God. I gotta... I got... I wanna know him face to face. I wanna know this.

It says in Psalms one zero three, I think it says, Moses... It says, the the children of Israel knew his acts, but Moses knew him. He knew his ways. I wanna know him. I don't wanna just know... I don't wanna just see the 10 the 10 plagues and and the the c part and and all the cool acts.

I wanna know the one that does the action on my behalf. That's what I wanna know. So you don't stumble into the presence of God. It's an intentional position that you put yourself in. You seek. You shut the door.

We talked about last week. Shut the door. Right? Shut the door. Get into God. It says in Matthew, it says, shut the door and pray, and the Lord will reward you for making time for him.

Seek him. So they would do that. Make a place. Make a time. Business owners. We have meetings on our calendar.

You all have jobs. You all... I gotta be at this workplace. I gotta be here. I gotta go to there. I gotta go to the gym at this time or else if I don't, then I'm not gonna make it.

Then I'm gonna be unhealthy, and then I'm be lazy, I'm become a slob. So I can't... I gotta go to the gym, and then I I know I gotta I gotta buy a certain amount of food. I have my healthy grocery list and my unhealthy grocery list, and I can only get something on the unhealthy healthy list on Sunday when they have the Dunkin' Donuts. Honey, can you zoom in on that? I think I didn't zoom in on that.

And... You know what I mean? So you gotta... You know, we have all these things that we decide that are important appointments that, hey. I gotta be there at 9AM at work every day, and I have to be there. Oh, I gotta get there a little early.

Oh, there's gonna be some traffic, so I gotta get... Oh, it's raining in South Florida. That's like it's snow, so I really gotta go because no one's seen rain around here. And so we we have all these things. I I work at Starbucks. Did you work at Starbucks today this morning early?

You had to be there, like, 4AM, 5AM, 6AM. You had to be there. You were there. You made it. You know? Intentional.

We know how to be intentional when we want to be. School school schedules, we... Oh, we gotta be there for that class. We gotta this. We gotta do the same thing with the Lord. Like, make time for him.

Like, if I opened up my iPhone and looked at my Google Calendar, your iCalendar, whatever calendar you got or whatever you use in paper, when's the time that we really meet with the creator heavenly host, the one that's in charge of all the armies, the one that made it all, created all made, called it good? What you linger in, you'll lead from. Some of you want Joshua's assignment, but you won't stay in the tent like Joshua did. He would not depart from the tent the tent. We need to position ourselves. What do I need to do?

Look. This is what I've been doing. I'm like, man, I gotta I gotta be with the Lord. Because when I'm not, there's no peace. When I'm not and when bad things happen, now I'm afraid. And and it's it's just a domino effect of of badness.

But when you're with the Lord and you make time with the Lord and you're seeking the Lord and you're in the presence with the Lord, it doesn't matter what happens. When the scripture says things like when you get bad news, your heart's not shaken. Why? Because I know the Lord. Because I've been with the Lord. I've been seeking the Lord.

When these big decisions come across your desk, you can make them because you've been with the Lord. You had the wisdom of God. You've been listening to his voice. And you know when things come to your mind, oh, that's the Lord or versus that's not the Lord because then it... You know, you've spent time with him. And that's what we have to do.

That's what you will do. That's what we are doing. We are people of faith, and we know he exists, and we know he's a rewarder of those that diligently seek him. We thought about Hebrews eleven six last week. He exists, so he is God. He is alive.

He is living. He is the prince of peace, the mighty God. He is the first and the last, the alpha, the omega, the rose of Sharon. He is your refuge. He is your rock. He is your strength.

He is awesome. He is mighty. He's fighting your battles. He is the king of glory, and we must make time for him. He created us and gave us everything that we have. Atheists, when they study the the the eye and they see all the trillions of atoms and things inside your eyeball, they are left to the result of there is a god.

I mean, god created all this. Everything that's happening in this world, the beautiful rain, the fish that swim, everything, the things that we love to enjoy, he made it. Fashion, clothes, he made it. Gold and jewelry, he made it. I mean, when the children of Israel leave, God tells them, like, three or four times in the scriptures, hey. Go ask for the gold and the silver and the jewelry and the clothes.

So, I mean, God wasn't opposed to any of those things. He actually made it for us to enjoy. He just doesn't want you to worship the things that he made you enjoy. He wants you to worship him. Yes. That's all.

And that he be all that we are about. And then as we are, when you seek first the kingdom, then he gives you everything else you need. And he says the Gentiles or the people of the world chase everything they need. Instead, you need to chase him, and he will give you everything you need. Amen. That's what people of faith do.

Because if I'm not a person of faith, I just chase the almighty dollar, and I love money. No. You don't need to love money. He gives you the power to make wealth. He gives you these gifts. He gives you everything to enjoy, but he wants you to enjoy him.

This is what Moses did. See, we read about how... At the beginning as we started to talk, God told Moses, the land is yours. It's here. I'm gonna send an angel, but I'm not gonna go. This is Moses' negotiation response, the refusal, we'll call it.

He said, if you're not going, I ain't going. Here's the moment. Moses goes back to God as we keep reading, and he starts a negotiation. Exodus thirty three fourteen through 15. He says, and he said, my presence will go with you, and I will give you rest. And he said to him, if your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here.

Read that again. If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. See, Moses is standing in the wilderness, not in a house. There's no land. There's sand everywhere. And God just said, hey.

There's the promised land. It's flowing with milk and honey, and there's a bunch of armies, but I'm gonna send my angel ahead. He's gonna defeat it all. I'm gonna give it all to you, but I'm not gonna go with you. But I'll send you my angels, and you're gonna have it. And Moses says, no.

Nah. Nah. Nah. Nah. Nah. No.

No. No. No. No, sir. I'd rather stay in the desert with you than go into the promised land without you. He knew his God.

Like, I mean, if you don't know God, I just want what he can give me, then you go without him. But Moses knew who he... See, faith would rather have his presence than the promise. It's all about his presence. Faith would rather have his presence than the promise. And look at why, Exodus thirty three sixteen.

For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight and your people? Is it not in your going with us so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth? Basically, it's like, hey. If you don't go, there ain't no... There's no distinction between the rest of the world. They all got armies.

They all have gods they worship. If you don't go with us, there's nothing that distinctions us. The only distinction that the children of Israel got on their side is the heavenly host, the king of kings, the lord of lords, the god of armies, the great I am is behind them and with them, and they follow him wherever he goes. That is the great distinction that they have. And Moses is like, that is... That's it, Lord.

Not our talent, not our building. Everyone else builds buildings. You've seen it all around the world. Not our money. Every nation has land. Every nation has armies.

It's all about his presence. We need his presence. We have to have his... You have to have his presence. Our church must have his presence. We could do all these things that act, look, sound, but if he ain't there, then what are we doing?

We have to have his presence. Amen. Amen. The only thing that makes your family different is his presence. The only thing that will change your marriage is his presence. The only thing that will help you through life as hard as it will be, because it will be hard, is his presence.

You knowing your great God and being in his presence. You need his presence. If you're not going, I'm not going. So before you get... Let's get practical. What does that look like?

Well, before you sign the lease, you talk to him about it. That's it. Before you take up that next job that looks great, you say, Lord, do you really want me to take this job? I'm asking you because I'm gonna believe that you're big enough if I... If if if not, that you'll... I will have peace. But if I don't have peace, then I'm not going.

Amen? Amen. The practical side... Because look. Now you have to understand. This is the old the old days.

The presence was in a tent. The new days, his presence is in you. You are the temple of the Holy Spirit, and his presence now lives on the inside of you. So I've talked. There's jobs that I thought looked great on paper, but I didn't have peace. There's investments I made with people that if I look back scripturally, it wasn't lined up.

It was a get rich quick, which all scripture says nothing happens quick. All but God eyes gotta be God. It's God. And then it's a man that you trust in the Bible. So you don't trust in man. You trust in the Lord.

Right? God, if you're not going, I'm not going. Before you say yes to a relationship, you ask the Lord. Lord, is this right? I remember when I was dating in in college, I dated a person that wasn't with the Lord. And I fasted for three days.

I almost died. And at the end of the three days, the Lord's like, it says in my word already not to be yoked with light and dark. Oh, I know. But I was hoping that... Yeah. Yeah.

I've already said it before. I almost died fasting. It was crazy. It's like, what am I fasting about? Before you launch it, post it, buy it, quit it, stop and ask God, are you going with me on this? If he's not in it, it doesn't matter how good it looks.

I'm telling you, if he's not in it, it don't matter how good it looks. As the the... Yeah. And sometimes we just lose, and then we start over, and then this is what we have to believe, that God will take care of us and prosper us. And he is good, and we make mistakes, and he ain't gonna punish you for your mistakes because he says he removes his transgressions from his sight. He wipes away and blots out everything you've ever done wrong, that you're the righteousness of God, and you're gonna make mistakes.

Like, my kids make mistakes and like I've made mistakes, but he's not there to punish you or hurt you or keep you down. No. He wants to promote you. He wants to bless you. He wants you to have a great life. But you must learn, one, we need to be with him.

We need to seek him. We need to make time with him. Amen. If he's not in it, no matter how good it looks, I'm not going. I'd rather be in the the wilderness with with with God than in the promised land without God. Because a desert with God is better than a palace without him.

But wherever he is, that's the promised land. Wherever you go with God, that is the promised land because he's with you and in you. Amen. Amen. Because God is with you. When Moses asked for more in Exodus point four, the glow presence changes you.

Exodus thirty three eighteen. Moses said, please show me your glory. See, Moses had... He saw, like, all the plagues. He saw the water come out of the rocks. He saw the Red Sea's part.

He saw a manna from heaven. He saw the acts of God, but he's like, man, I wanna see your glory. Like, I wanna really know you. He's not asking for land. He's not asking for stuff. He's not asking for more jewels and more diamonds or gold.

He wants more of God. And he puts him in the cleft of the rock, and he passes by him, and he says, watch what happens when he comes down the mountain. Exodus thirty four twenty nine. When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand, as he came down from the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his faith shone because he had been talking with God. He didn't know. He didn't post about it.

He didn't announce it, but everybody could see it. Everybody could see that he had been in the presence of God. You don't have to announce that you've been with God. People will see it everywhere you go. They will see that you are with God, that there's something about you. They they will see it.

Because when you're in his presence, when you're with him and you're in your your job, you're at your work, you're in your church, your school, you're you're you're making moves in careers, whatever you're gonna do. Because you're with your creator, because you're with him, people are gonna see there's something different about this person. He's on time. He doesn't complain. He's not a gossip. Man, he looks over things.

He... He's he's always speaking good and not negative. Will see it. Amen. Amen. They will see you.

They will see that you've been in the presence of God. And the more you spend time with him, man, people are gonna see it. People will see it. The peace you show, the patience you show, your marriage will show it, the way you treat people will show it. That's why it's so important in marriage or in life. You can tell when you're getting cranky and angry and you're upset all the time and...

I... You could just go back to... Have you been with the Lord lately as a husband, as a wife, both, as a as a single person? Everything's irritating you. Everything's... Have you been with the Lord lately? Well, the more you're with God, the less any of that stuff really affects you because you're with the Lord.

You spend time with the Lord. You're seeking the Lord. You're hearing his word. He's ministering to you and your heart. He's he's he's he's giving you things that you could only get from him. No algorithm.

No doom scroll. No phone. No notification, no AI tool. Nothing can replace him. Nothing. No Oprah TV show for us from the eighties and nineties.

No Netflix show for us Gen Zers. None of that can really give you what you need. Only he can give you the peace and his power and his presence only comes from him. And people will see it. You won't have to announce it. They'll just...

He walks in, oh, Jesus just walked in because Christ is in you, the hope of glory. Amen. Look at Hebrews eleven twenty seven. It says, by faith... Because we're talking about faith. This is how faith endures.

Hebrews Hebrews tells us what Moses kept going, what kept Moses going. By faith, he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king. For he endured as seeing him who is invisible. He endured as seeing him who is invisible. Moses wasn't strong because his situation was easy. I don't know about you, but if you read the book of Moses, there was nothing that was easy for him.

I stutter. I can't talk. Why are you choosing me? I'm 40. I'm too old. I mean, he's he...

I mean, he's old. Oh, I'm too old. Well, Moses was in his eighties when he's in front of Pharaoh. He's not too... You're not too old. You're not too young.

Joshua was young. No. He had been with God. He was strong because he had seen God. He endured the kings and the pharaohs and all the stuff that life brings you because he knew the invisible God. See, people built a calf because they needed a God they could see.

Moses didn't need a calf. He's seen the real thing. And when he had been in his presence, you stopped needing idols. You don't need idols because you know the great God, the great I am. So here's the question. Here's the question again.

What if God gave everything, everything, and didn't come with it? Moses said no. And here's the good news. You don't have to go up a mountain to get what Moses got. When Jesus died on the cross and behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. God tore it from its side.

The presence that was hidden behind a curtain is now open to you. Access granted. Hallelujah. And Jesus made a promise Moses could only dream about and behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. God is with you. He has not forgotten you.

He doesn't leave you. He hasn't forsaken you. He's a father even to the fatherless. You know, even when you're a sinner, he still forgave you. He forgave you even before you thought of sinning. Before the foundations of the world, he still decided to love you and give his life for you.

Even before you were born and would do all the things that you knew... He knew you'd do wrong. He still decided, I'm a die for Romina. I'm a die for Josephina. I'm a die for Alessandra. I'm a die David.

I'm a die for Ron. I'm a die for Mateus and Jessica. I'm a die for these guys, Carlos. And I'm I'm gonna give my life. And behold, I am with you always. Always he's with you.

You came from another country. He's still with you. Don't matter what country you live in or where you go, he is with you wherever you go. Wherever you find yourself now, wherever you go, God goes because God is inside of you. You are the temple of God, and the thing that Moses had to set up and run to is now set up on the inside of you because of Christ in you, the hope of glory. Put your hope back in God.

Put your faith in God. In a person, his name is Jesus. Amen. Amen. I'm with you in the hospital, in the courtroom, in the empty apartment, in the business that's struggling, in the comeback. I am with you always.

I am with you. Faith would rather have his presence than the promise, some people. But if your presence doesn't go, I ain't going. I rather have him than anything. Amen. Amen?

Amen. Let's close our eyes. Let's bow our heads. Let's close our eyes. Father, I just thank you today. I don't know where you're at.

Some people might be in this room, and you've been chasing the promise your whole life. It's the success, the relationships, the next thing, and you've never actually had him. His name is Jesus. The scripture says Jesus is the way, Jesus is the truth, Jesus is the life. And today, the curtain is open. Access granted.

If that's you, if you've never surrendered to Jesus, this morning is your moment. And I wanna pray with you in this place right now. And I want you to just open your heart to God and say, Jesus, I don't just want what you can give me, I want you. And you just speak to him. Say, God, I believe you died for me on the cross. I believe that you rose again.

Forgive me for chasing everything but you. Come into my life this morning. Be with me, Lord, always. I give you my life. Today, I surrender. I surrender all, Lord.

I surrender. If you prayed that for the first time, were you... And welcome home. Welcome home. He's with you and he's not leaving you, but welcome home. Now everyone in this room, some of you are in the middle of a big decision right now.

A move, a job, a relationship, a launch. You've been planning it without asking him. If you're ready to say, God, I won't move without you. Just lift your hand. You're saying, I I... As a sign of declaration to God, Lord, this morning, everyone in this room, with the lifted hands, lifted heart, we will not move without you. We will not take the next step unless you go right now.

Father, I thank you everyone in this room. I pray at the sound of my voice. Lord, we choose your presence over promise. Lord, we choose to go with you this week. Lord, we choose in every meeting, in every decision, in every conversation. Let let people see on our face that we have been with you, Jesus, is our prayer.

In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. Guys, this is what you gotta do this week. The seven day seek challenge. This week, we've talked about last week. You know why we repeat things?

Because a lot times we say things and then we walk out and we forget things, so then we say it again. And then and then because we heard it again, maybe this time it plants and it's like, oh, wait a minute. I need to do that. Ten minutes, twenty minutes, five minutes, but something every day. Number one, you shut the door. The seek challenge, e e k.

Shut the door. Your tent... A meeting some some some place, some time that you make where you're gonna go, a chair, a place. I remember when I was driving, I was working at the airport one time in a shuttle bus. Every time we had a break, I would just pull out my bible, and I would make time with the Lord. And I learned, like, when I still didn't get tips, I'd still, like, praise the Lord.

God, I thank you anyways. So I... That guy didn't give me a tip, but I still... I love you, and I praise you. And I'd make time in those breaks in the shuttle bus and spend with the Lord. Shut the door. Make a time this week to really seek the Lord where you're not distracted, where there's not the phone.

I mean, the phone is horrible. You gotta put the phone in another room. You gotta take the phone and the computer, and sometimes I just leave them in my room and I go outside in my backyard or... And you just you just gotta put it away. And you shut the door and you make time with God. You take your bible, you take a journal, and maybe you put on some music.

And as you seek the Lord, as you get with God, it will change every time. Sometimes, it'll be a time of just worship. Sometimes it'll be a prayer. Sometimes it'll be times you're on your knees and you're... Maybe you're requesting things and asking him of things. Maybe sometimes it's just sitting in silence and saying, God, I'm here.

Speak to, I need your help. Lord, whatever you wanna do today, do it. I'm yours. Lord, I wanna know your voice. Sometimes it's just reading scripture, and it'll change every time. But when you go shut the door, express your heart to him.

Talk to God like a friend. God, I'm here. Face to face like Moses. And then listen. Amen. And then e is exalt him.

One worship song. Sing it out loud. Sometimes the Bible says make songs, hymns, and spiritual songs to the Lord. Sometimes just singing to the Lord, to him, and exalt him. And k is keep his command. Love one person on purpose this week.

Maybe something and someone's not so lovable, but love people. Amen. My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest. Amen. Amen. Amen.