Presence & Practice | Vision Sunday

Look at your other neighbor and say, Do you have twenty twenty vision? Does anybody have twenty twenty vision here? Raise your hand. Well, that's that's not too bad. I don't have twenty twenty vision. I have horrendous if I don't wear my glasses, I can hardly see any of you all. Alright? And I know many of y'all are like that as well. So this morning, we're talking about vision. Look at your neighbor again and say vision.

Vision. Read me in Proverbs chapter 29. I'm excited for what the Lord has for us today. And then just wanna put a bug in your ear for starting next week, we're gonna begin our journey towards the cross. We're only, like, six weeks out from Easter already.

I know. The year is flying by. Right? And so starting next week, we're gonna begin an Easter series, making our way to the cross, looking at different stories leading up to Easter, leading up to our glorious day where we get to celebrate the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead. But this morning, we're going to cast a little vision, and we are going to remember and have a little fun.

So this morning we'll be again in Proverbs chapter 29, start in verse 18. I'm gonna read out of two different translations. I'm gonna read out of the King James and read out of the new the the NIV as well. We'll start with the KJV. Proverbs twenty nine eighteen to be on the screen behind me.

The word of the Lord says this, where there is no vision, the people perish, but he that keepeth the law, happy is he. We'll read twenty nine eighteen in the NIV. Where there is no revelation, people cast off restraint, but blessed is the one who heeds wisdom's instructions. Let us pray. Lord, we love you.

We thank you that we get to be in your house this morning. Lord, I just simply ask, help us to have vision for you and what you want us to do. Lord, we love and thank you. In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen. Amen. Now, has anybody here ever seen the Hunger Games by chance? I read the books. K? You've seen the book?

Great movies. Great books. This is my daughter, Cindy's Bow and Arrow, and she thinks she's Katniss Everdeen. And this is something that's been in the basement for a while, but this week she said, daddy, I want you to go get my bow and arrow, please. So I forgot to do it because, you know, I forget sometimes. So my wife went down there. Poor me. I should have done better. And she got this for my daughter. Ari and Paisley, would you come up as well?

Y'all stand right here with me. And what was funny though is Simi doesn't quite get the concept of a bow and arrow. So what she was doing is here we are shooter. Right? Yeah. Go ahead and load that up in there. Yeah. And now turn it around. Yeah. Okay. Now hold it right there. Hold it. Don't let it fall. Got it? Ready?

So this was Semi. Semi had her bow and arrow, and she went outside, and she just started pinging the arrows. So you come over here, and I want you to just kinda point me in her direction. Okay? Don't hit her in that forehead. You better back up. She might get you. Okay? So what was funny is Semi was sitting here, and she was pulling this back. But what was funny, she had no target.

She just kind of went outside and she was doing one of these. You know? David, you might need to teach me how to do this next time. She was doing one of these. Right? She's just like shooting the air. Let grab it for her and bring it back. She's just, like, shooting it in the air at nothing. Right? And then load back up again.

And then we went to my mom's shop. I got a fresh haircut on Friday for my birthday. I wanted to look good. Alright? And and and Simi decided to bring this to the hair shop where there are other people. Okay? And there was this very nice older lady, and Simmy had loaded up her bow again. And Simmy's pointing it at her, kind of, and the lady's like, it would be nice if you shot that somewhere else. And I had to do the dad thing like, okay. It's okay, Sid.

Don't put the package. Shoot at the back. Can you please stop shooting at people? Right? And so the problem is let's shoot one more time. Let's see how far you did it. Ready? Pull it back real strong. Ready? Pull it back. Oh, snap. Launch it. You ready? Just like that. Right? Can y'all hold on to that for me? Go sit down. Hold on to it. What was funny is, Sammy was just shooting into the air, and I told her to stop shooting at people. But she didn't have a target to aim at.

Look at your neighbor and say, target. Now I'm not talking about the store at Valley View that you go spend too much money on. I'm talking about a target that you use when you're using a bow and arrow or anything that you're shooting. And here's the thing. I'm not much of a hunter.

I'm not much of an archer, but I do know one thing. If you wanna hit your target, whether that's a physical target, whether that's a deer, whether that's a bear, whatever it is, you actually have to have a target to aim at in order to hit it. Right? That's why Zig Ziglar once said this. Zig Ziglar said, if you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time.

If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time. And this is what this verse in Proverbs 29 is alluding to. Proverbs twenty nine eighteen again says, where there is no vision, the people perish, but that he that keepeth the law, happy is he. Again, an NIV. Where there is no revelation, people cast off restraint, but blessed is the one who heeds wisdom's instruction.

Here's the idea. If God's people don't have a clear vision of what God is saying and what his word is, then we're just going to aimlessly walk around. Right? If we don't understand what God wants us to do, we're gonna feel lost. Right?

This is the idea of sheep without a shepherd. If we don't have a clear word from God, if we don't understand God's word and his word that comes from here, the written word, and the word that comes from his mouth, if we don't understand it, we can't obey him. And then we're just kind of perishing because we have no vision. But the scripture says, happy is he or blessed is the one who understands the law and obeys it. Meaning, if we understand God's word and we're able to see God's word and hear God's word, we're able to go after God's word.

It's the idea that when we have vision for what God has for us and we keep it, we will be blessed. Look at your neighbor and say blessed. I don't know about y'all, but I wanna be blessed in my life. Right? But if we wanna be blessed, if we wanna experience this happiness in God, in this happiness with life with God, we gotta have the vision to do so.

And this idea of getting a clear vision or having a clear revelation of what we need to do and having a plan to go along with that is beneficial for anything in life. Right? If you wanna do better in your finances, you need to have a clear vision of where you wanna go in your finances, and then you need to make a plan, and you need to follow through. Right? If I wanna lose weight this year, then I need to stop eating chocolate cake so much, and my wife let me tell you.

Praise God. I gotta praise her for it. Right? My wife made a delicious homemade double chocolate Oreo cheesecake for my birthday, and it was good. And I ate way too much.

And if I wanna get a vision for my health, I need to get that out of my vision, out of my house, and not eat the leftovers that are there today. Right? If you want if you wanna do that, you gotta have a plan. If you want to have better relationship with your spouse, with your friends, with your family, then you need to be able to see what the problems are. You need to be able to talk them out and then walk it out together.

No matter what we do in life, if we don't have a clear vision of where we're going, we won't get there. How many of y'all went on a road trip and you forgot to put the map on and then you realized I have no idea where I am. Right? Thank God for Google Maps, but Google Maps doesn't work when you're in the boonies. Alright?

A few months ago, I went up to went up to, somewhere in Southwest Virginia, and I forgot that you can't download maps, once you get there because there's no service. So I got in the middle of this place. I was trying to meet some folks there for a church outreach, and I realized I have no idea where I am. I have no phone service to call anybody. I I'm lost.

I have no vision of where I'm going. Thank God for small town Dollar General because I was able to go to Dollar General, get some Wi Fi on my phone, and make a phone call. Hey. Where do I need to go? Can you tell me? Was in Craigsville, Virginia. Point is, if we don't have vision, it's hard to see where we're going. Right? And here's the point of today. Our goal is to simply set our eyes and our hearts on a goal that we can go after together as a church.

Right? To look forward to what God has for us and then go after it together. See some sort of vision that God is leading us towards and then walk towards. And if I'm honest, here's the point. I'm gonna be honest with you. I don't have all the answers how to make our church the most healthy church it can be. I have ideas. I have thoughts. But I don't have all the answers. The board and I have worked diligent diligently over the past few months.

There's a lot of things a lot of questions that we need to answer. There's some stuff we need to fix around here. There's some finances that are thin. Right? I don't have all the answers. We don't have all the answers, but do you know what we do have? We have the Lord. And I am confident in his leading. Now, I've watched over the past six months being able to have the privilege of being the pastor of this church. God provide and god lead over and over and over again.

Dreamer will call me and say, hey, we got this bill coming up. What's gonna happen? I'm like, well, we'll just trust God. Boom. Midnight hour, it comes.

It comes. So I don't have all the answers, and I'm not gonna act like I do. I ain't gonna lie to you, but I have the Lord. We have God, and I believe he's heading us in a direction, and we need to at least start heading in that direction. We don't have to have the exact step the exact steps we need, but we at least need to begin moving forward together.

However, though, before I begin to share my heart and some vision for where we're heading, we have to remember where we came from. We can never forget where we came from. Let's take a moment to look with where we've been. Life Tabernacle began in the nineteen fifties, 1957. The church has been in existence for almost seventy years. I'm 27. Right? Showing my age this morning. Thanks, David. Church existed long before I was ever even a thought.

Right? The church has been here a long time. And since Life Tabernacle has been in this region, first on Jamison Avenue, now here on Virginia Avenue, we have we have had handfuls and handfuls of wonderful leaders. People like pastor Tino and Brenda who led for over twenty five years in the church. Can we just honor them this morning for their leadership over the years?

If it wasn't for them, I wouldn't know the Lord like I do and I wouldn't love Texas barbecue like I do, right? And I wouldn't like the Texas Longhorn dealer probably. Right? They have led this place well, and they're not the only ones. You all have been impacted by the lives of people who have given their lives to this community and to this church.

We've had handfuls of wonderful leaders, hundreds of members, and we've really touched thousands of people in this church and through this church for the past seventy years. And this church has endured hard seasons. Right? And this church has endured good seasons. We have seen it all in the past seventy years. We've seen people saved. We've seen people delivered. We see people healed. I remember seeing my friend, Steve Wade, come up here during a revival once. He was kinda praying like this.

I'm like, what's going on with him? The holy ghost jumping on him or something? And he had cancer, and then all of a sudden, he didn't. I've seen people healed up here up in that old sanctuary. On this campus, we have seen god move and transform lives. And if I were to ask you to raise your hand, it'd probably be everybody here, and let's do it for fun. Raise your hand if you've impacted by the ministry here over the years. Right? Look around. God has been at work for many, many years.

For nearly seventy years, God has used this house to impact the community. And here's what we must never forget. We must never forget this. We are standing in someone else's prayers right now. There have been tears shed.

There has been finances given. There's been lives laid down for what we are sitting in, standing in, and worshiping in this morning. Not just the building, but the community of faith that has been built here. People have fasted for this church. People have sacrificed for this church.

People have believed god for this church. We didn't start this story. I was not around when it started. I wasn't here but we get to continue that story and steward the next chapter and I think that is a beautiful thing that we get to do. Amen? That's kind of where we've been and we could spend weeks on where we've been. We could tell testimonies for months for what he's done. Right? That's a small snippet. That's where we've been, and here where we are now.

Look around again. Look at your neighbor. Say, good morning. Hi. How are you doing? Good. This is us. This is us. We're here. We may be small in some's eyes.

We might have a small church, but you know what our church is? Faithful. We have a faithful church. We have a core group of committed believers who have stuck around when they could've jumped ship, could've went somewhere else, but god has knit together a group of faithful believers here. We have a paid for property, and I and and I did and and I I wanna just talk about how special that is.

I was talking with a guy this week who works at Life Church and Life Academy over in the Hawlins area. They have a great church over there, a great great church and a great daycare. And we were just talking about stuff and I said, we are so blessed to have a paid for property. You know, I said the funds are a little tight, but we have, like, we don't have a mortgage, and that's great. He's like, you don't understand how good you have?

And they have tons of funds coming in, but he's like, it's really stressful because we got a lot handling. I just wanna say, it's a blessing to be standing in in this hands paid for. That feels good. Shout out Dave Ramsey. Let's use cash. Right? No debt. It's a blessing. It's a blessing. Not only not only do we have a group of committed people, a paid for property, people who have served and loved Jesus for a long time, but we also have a church that's still standing.

What I mean is, over the past ten years, especially during COVID, we've seen lots of churches close their doors. It's a sad thing when you get online and you see another church for sale, right? It's sad. And what I can just say, I thank god that he's kept this place going. It's been tight and scary at times, but god has been faithful. And faithfulness, my friends, matters to god. Amen? Amen. God honors faithful people, and God honors faithful churches. It's kinda where we've been.

It's briefly kinda where we are. The question now is, where are we headed? What is the mission of our church? Now look and listen to me closely as I get a sip of water. Look at your neighbor and say, how you doing? Makes it sound less awkward while I'm drinking water. Thanks. Now look, I wanna be clear. We're not here to reinvent the church. We're not here to be flashy.

We're not here to be the most attractional church. We're not here to make waves and how different we can do church. Because listen to me, my friend, the church is not a business to be grown. It's not a business. It's a body to be shared with others. Church is not a business. It is a body. The church is not just a social group. The church is God's spirit filled and spirit born family. We're not just a social entity.

We're you know, they got political parties. We're not a political party. We are God's family here on the earth. The church is not a part of the solution of the world. The church is the solution to the world.

One of my favorite songs by this lady named Jess Ray says, the answer for every question, the balm for every woman. The the church that was birthed by Jesus, filled by Jesus, is the only solution to the problems in this world. Whatever it is, it starts in the church with God's people that Jesus is holding all together. And so we get to have a contribution to the global church because it's not just our church in the world. Right?

We're right here on Virginia Avenue, but there's billions of Christians all over the world. There's Christians down the road. There's Christians down the street. There's Christians who are worshiping in some cave in Iraq because if they were to worship publicly, they'd be immediately killed for their faith. There's Christians everywhere in the world, and we just get to play our part in the greater story right here in the blessed city of Vinton, Virginia.

And why are we here? Why are we in this city? Well, simply we exist to help the lost become found. We exist to seek out the lost. We exist to help make disciples. We are empowered witnesses of the Lord Jesus Christ in this region. We are helping people go from death to life right here in this area. Our goal, my friends, or my goal, I'll just reveal my heart, my goal is not to have the biggest church in the area. My goal is not to have a megachurch. If God brings the growth, praise God.

If the church is small, praise God. I think the numerical growth to a church belongs to God. And let me show you why. In Acts two verse 47, this is the early church. Right when the church was birthed, right when the church was getting started, as the church was walking in obedience, this is what the Lord did. Acts two forty seven. The early church was praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord, say the Lord. The Lord. Say it like you mean.

Say the Lord. Lord. Added to their number daily those who are being saved. You can't twist somebody's arm into salvation. You can't stare them into salvation.

When people come to know Jesus, when people go from death to life, something supernatural happens on the inside. We provide our obedience and sharing the word is God who does the work in people's heart. It is God who adds to the number of the church. Whether the church grows to 500, 5,000, or if it's just 50, it doesn't matter. It belongs to God.

And some people would say, you should focus on growth because numbers equal people, and I understand that to some degree. But in our culture, we can be so obsessed with numbers, so obsessed with how big we can get, and how big we are. I think what we need to focus on is the great commission, making disciples. That is our goal. This is why the famous pastor and Pentecostal theologian, Jack Hayford, once said, and Jack Hayford, if you don't know him, was a great man of God.

Ironically, he pastored a massive church in California, but this is when he what he said when he was beginning his church. He said, my goal is not to build big churches, but it is to build big people. He said, I don't wanna necessarily build a big church. I wanna build big people. And if you build big people, if you grow big people, the growth happens on its own.

Right? We don't have to worry about the growth if we're focusing on the main thing. If we're worried about ourselves becoming more like Jesus, then the growth takes care for itself. Right? So look. Just hear my heart. The goal is not to build a big church, but to build big people. We leave the growth of God. So again, what do we focus on? The Great Commission.

What is the Great Commission? Let me remind you. Matthew twenty eight eighteen through 20 says this. It'll be on the screen behind me. Matthew twenty eight eighteen says this.

Then Jesus said came then Jesus came to them and said, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you and surely I am with you always to the very end of the age. This was Jesus some of Jesus' last words to his beloved disciples, and he simply said to them, I have all authority. I'm gonna be with you. Go into all the world and make disciples.

Go into all the world and tell people about me. Go into all the world and testify to what I have done and watch them go from death to life. And when you watch them go from death to life, thou teach them to observe everything I commanded you. This is the great commission, to make disciples of all nations. We don't wanna make passive followers.

Let me let me take a moment here, and I don't wanna belabor the point. We wanna make disciples, people who are like radical disciples who wanna set the world on fire for God, not just passive people who just attend church and just kinda go through motions. When I lived in Texas and praise God for the city and nation of Texas. It's huge. Right?

I got to attend some of the biggest churches in the in the nation. And here's the thing, though. Just because you raise your hand once and say, I wanna give my heart to God, doesn't mean anything if you don't follow through with your life. Right? Amen.

Right? We have tons of churches in America that are full of people who have raised their hand once and haven't done a darn thing afterwards. They're just kind of have the idea of following Jesus. He didn't want to just people who attend church, people who just passively follow him. Oh, I believe in Jesus but my life looks nothing like him, right?

Jesus said, make disciples. Radical people who are going to obey everything I've said and go into all the world and do what I've said. We're not just creating passive followers, not just cultural Christians, not just people who attend church because it's tradition, but we want to be a type of people and create a type of people who lay their lives down for Jesus and his mission. Jesus said, if you wanna follow me, take up your what? He said cross.

He didn't say take up your comfortable queue and your nice life with me. He says, if you wanna be my follower, if you wanna be my disciple, you need to willingly go die as I'm gonna die for you and you follow after me. That's what Jesus wants. That's what's gonna transform the world. People who are willing to lay their lives down.

This is why the great Dallas Willard, which is a Dallas who is much smarter than me, said this. Let me read you this quote. It's a long quote, but just follow me. It says, the greatest issue facing the world today with all of its heartbreaking needs. Let's pause there.

Can you think of all the heartbreaking needs in the world today? Right? Watch the news for an hour. You'll be reminded. He says the greatest issue facing the world today with all of its heartbreaking needs, all the murders in the world, all the deaths in the world, all the immorality in the world, all the evil in the world, all of it.

He said all the heartbreaking needs. Here's the greatest issue, is whether those who by profession or culture are identified as Christians will become disciples, students, apprentices, practitioners of Jesus Christ, steadily learning from him how to live the life of the kingdom of the heavens into every corner of human existence. The greatest issue in the world today in Dallas Willard's mind is whether are we really gonna take up our cross and follow after Jesus, whether we're really going to be disciples who give our whole lives to Jesus. Look, Jesus is not a hobby. Following Jesus is a terrible hobby because it's not a hobby.

You're supposed to give your whole life to it. It's not like you have work and you got family and you do Christmas and you have fun meals and and you go on vacation and you fit Jesus in. Jesus is the thing. Jesus is the main thing And then out of our discipleship and devotion to Jesus, everything else flows out of that. Right? Wanna be a good husband? Follow Jesus. Wanna be a good sibling? Follow Jesus. Right?

You wanna run a good business? Follow Jesus. It starts with him. He's the foundation of it all, and the greatest issue facing the world today is if we're actually going to follow him in everything he's taught us to do. So if we're not making disciples, we're not fulfilling the mission that Jesus gave us.

If we're not obeying that mandate, we're just building religious organizations full of people doing religious activities who kinda look religious, but on the inside are dead. That's why Jesus was so hard with the Pharisees. They were outwardly really good at obeying the things, but inwardly, they were dead. We don't wanna be inwardly dead. We want the inside outside to be alive as well.

We want to be disciples. And again, we have too many churches with passive consumers, Christians who are still immature even though they've been serving God for decades, and this must change now. It has to change now. My friends, I am a firm believer that the lord is coming soon. Not because I think so.

Because my word revealed the word reveals so. And I have believed from a young age that the Lord's gonna come soon. And he might even come in my lifetime. Praise God. And here's the thing, it is not time to just kind of play around, to piddle, and kind of play with Jesus. We have to get to work now. The days are short. The times are evil. People are being deceived left and right. People are dying and gonna have to depart from god for all of eternity.

Today is the day for salvation in our area and it starts with us giving our whole hearts to Jesus and everything we do and then being witnesses out there to others so they can experience what we have experienced, my friends. It's time to get to work. Amen? Amen. To become disciples. Right. Amen. And to make disciples in the road of valley and beyond. I don't have a sexy vision statement that's just, oh, like, oh, that's good. I like that.

It's to make disciples and be disciples. As simple as that. If we do that, we're good. Amen. If we can fulfill that, we're doing a very good job. And this is the mission of the church and our church right here. Now now that's the mission, to make disciples. But our expression of that mission is gonna look maybe a little differently. Does any of any of you all like going out to eat? Okay. Praise God. And praise God for Mexican food. Have revival over that right there. Okay? Praise God.

I don't know if you ever had Indian food. I love Indian food. Anybody like Indian food? They have they their flavors are the best. Don't even play me. Mexican food is my favorite, but the Indian food takes takes the cake for best flavor. And and and what about Italian? I like Italian. Italian's hit or miss for me. Italian hit. When it hits, it hits. That's good. Right? But you know what else is very special? This is what's special to The United States Of America.

It's barbecue. You can't go anywhere else in the world and get the type of barbecue that is made in this country, like in this country. Right? Specifically Texas. Forget the North Carolina stuff. Forget the Memphis stuff. Forget the Kansas. Give me Texas barbecue. Right? That's different. And here's the thing though. Every restaurant's mission is to what? To serve food. Right? But the expression of how they fulfill that is different.

Right? You go to a Mexican restaurant, which I would recommend you go to Pancho here in the area. They have the best, a rosempoleo, than anybody else. It's a lot of calories, but eat it. If you go to Pancho and you order their food, they're gonna fulfill the mission in filling your belly, but it's gonna be different.

It's gonna be Mexican style food. You go to Nahua downtown and get Indian food, they're gonna fulfill the mission and fill your belly. Right? They're gonna give you good food, but it's gonna be a different type of food. And that same thing is true for churches as well.

We all have the same mission to make disciples, but how we do that is a little different. How we express that is differently. Just to remind you, we are a Pentecostal church, and that's an awesome thing. We're a Pentecostal charismatic church. And because of our heritage, because of where we've been, because of what we experience, our expression, our church is going to look like and feel like and look a little different than other churches in the area, and that's okay.

First Baptist downtown should do their thing. Right? The Catholic church downtown should do their thing. The Orthodox Church in Salem should do their thing. Right?

Any other church should do their thing, for us, we're gonna fulfill the mission to make disciples, but it's gonna look a little different. And as I've been praying for months, really over the past year, asking God, who are we supposed to be, Lord? How are we supposed to fulfill this mission specific to us? There's only two words that the Lord has been just kept whispering to my spirit over and over. And those are two words, and they are this, presence and practice.

Look at your neighbor and say, presence and practice. Let's break this down real quick. Presence. What does presence mean? Yes. Thank you. Come on. I like that callback. Let's go. Presence. Presence in scripture is God's nearness. This is God walking with Adam and Eve in the garden. This is God leading the nation of Israel out of Egypt. And how did he lead them? With a pillar of fire by night and a cloud by day.

God's literal presence went with them as they were leaving Egypt and was with them all their days in the wilderness. This is God's presence among his people. You remember when God fills the tabernacle in the books of Exodus and the glory of God comes down and fills it? That is God's presence among his people. And most, importantly, really, is when we get God becoming flesh in the person of Jesus Christ.

What is what is one of Jesus' names in the Bible? It is Emmanuel. Right? We use it at Christmas time, but what does Emmanuel mean? God with us.

It is a guarantee. It is literal God's literal presence among us in the person of Jesus. And now because of the Holy Spirit, what happens on the day of Pentecost, we now have the Holy Spirit, God's living and real presence in us and with us and around us at all times. It is God's presence. In the book of Revelation, at the very end of the whole thing, the end of the whole story, the whole thing is god's presence coming to dwell and live with us again.

The Bible is all about and full of god's presence. The story of scripture is god wanting to be with his people And through Jesus, again, that happens. But here's the truth. Even though the spirit lives in us, my friends, that doesn't automatically mean we are people marked by his presence. We are all filled with the Holy Spirit.

Yes. If you know Jesus, you're filled with the Holy Spirit. Praise God. But if you don't pursue after him, if you don't continue to pray, you don't continue to devote yourself, you don't continue to study, You won't get to know the presence as much as you could. Even though he's given us his presence, we must continue to pursue him.

And we pursue him through prayer, worship, scripture, etcetera. Look, we're not chasing experiences. We're not chasing after revival culture. We're simply seeking God for God. And the scriptures say that he reveals himself to those who seek them with what?

Their whole heart. That's what Jeremiah said. One of my favorite pictures of this idea of pursuing the presence of God is found in Acts chapter four. I don't know if you remember this story, but let me jog your memory. Peter and John, they were arrested. They were put on trial. They were in trouble because they loved Jesus. What a shame. Right? Now after they're released, they go back to their church, and they begin to tell the church, hey.

This is what happened to us. And they said, oh, no. Let's pray. So as Peter and John and the early church began to pray, and they began to call on God, this is what happens in Acts chapter four verse 31. After they prayed, the place where they filled where the place they were weeding was shaken.

Look at your neighbor and say, shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly. It says, the place was shaken. Back to our history. How many times in that old sanctuary do you remember that place being shaken by the power of God?

Or even in this place, god shaking the place where everybody begins to call out in faith and pursue the face of god and all of a sudden, it's like the place is shaken and a mighty rushing wind comes in and he fills that place. You know exactly what I'm talking about and that's what happens right here in this text. These people who are already filled with the spirit are filled with the spirit again and they speak the word of god boldly. What's going on? How can a cup that is already full continue to be filled if it's already full.

That's the idea. And when we come to know Jesus, it's like rivers of living water. Our cup is what? Overflowing. The idea is that we are spirit filled. We know Jesus. We've experienced his power and his salvation. But as we continue to seek after him and we continue to pursue him, he fills us again. And he fills us again. And he fills us again.

And he fills us again so that we may speak the word of God boldly. This is why when you come to a service, you go to a revival service, and you say, whoo, that was good right there. I feel good. I got I got filled. I got touched by God. That's that idea that we're going to be filled and continually filled because we are pursuing after the presence of god. It's just like a marriage. Right? You get married. For some of us, it was a long time ago.

Right? But you didn't stop pursuing your spouse on the day you got married. That's just kinda when it started. And for Tina, we had to pursue after his wife many times before she would say, hey. I would want a date with you. Right? His persistence showed he loved her. And then they got married, and then he pursued her for years and years and years. We take our spouses on dates. Right?

We buy them fun things. It was my birthday yesterday, but I bought my wife a pair of shoes. Why? Because I can't. Because I love her. Because I wanna pursue after her. That's the idea that we're continually pursuing after God because we love him, we want to be with him, and we want more of him. We want to be people of his presence. People who know God, love God, and pursue God. And my friends, we must pursue God again.

Alright. Because in and I I'm trying not to be critical. There's a lot of churches that have good church. I've had some good church and some good churches, but I didn't feel the spirit. That's not because I I was being insensitive. Perhaps, I missed it. Right? But some churches, we out we outprogram god and god doesn't show up because we don't give him room to move. We have a good service. We sing good songs. Get the whole band. It's great. You know? Great sermon. But you're like, was god there?

He was, but I'm talking about a special visit from the lord. When god manifest himself and he belongs in that place. My friends, we need churches who pursue his presence again. Not for revival's sake, not so that we can feel good emotionally, but because we just want to be with him, because we love him. Look at your neighbor and say presence. It's not only presence, it's practice. Woo hoo. Look at your neighbor and say practice. Practice. As Allen Iverson once said, practice?

Practice? Are we talking about practice? He's a famous basketball player, one of the greatest of all time. He's asking, practice. We're talking about practice. I'm that guy. I don't need to practice, right? Practice. We don't want to only experience god. We want to become like Jesus.

That's what my heart is in my life Because to be a disciple is to follow after Jesus and to become like him. Walk like him, talk like him, sing like him, pray like him, live like him. I want to be like Jesus. This is why Dietrich Bonhoeffer once said, it is only because he became like us that we can become like him. I love that.

Because he became like us, we can become like him. And how does that happen? How do we become like Jesus? Very simple. We pursue his presence, yes, but we also put his words into practice. Right? Let me read this verse to you out of Matthew. Matthew seven twenty four says this. This is right after Jesus is finishing up his most famous sermon called the sermon on the mountain. He says, Matthew seven twenty four, therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into Come on.

If you're with me, help me. Puts them into what? Practice. It's like a wise man or like a wise woman who built his house on the rock. The same goes for the other son. The unwise person hears the words of Jesus but does not put them into practice. Right. And what happens to that person? Well, her house comes following down when the winds come and the storms come be a fool. We're We're be that foundation is Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

That's why James said in James one twenty two, he says, don't be merely, listeners to the word or hearers of the word, but be what? Doers of the word. We wanna hear God's word. I love hearing God's word. But if you hear God's word and don't do it, you're deceiving yourself. We hear and we do. Right? Your your spouse says, hey, Take the trash out. You heard them, but if you don't do it, you're showing that you didn't listen. Right?

We kinda talked about this a couple weeks ago. You hear and you obey. You listen and you do. This is what Jesus again says in the great commission. Matthew twenty eight twenty, he says, in teaching them, he says, in teaching them to obey everything I've commanded you.

You remember, he just talked about baptizing, people coming to know Jesus, coming into God's family, and then after they come into God's family, what do we do? Teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. That's a part of the great commission, and there's a lot that we have to learn to put into practice. But, again, there's nothing in this life more attractive than pursuing after God and becoming like him. I want to be like Jesus.

He was the greatest man to ever live this life. I can look on Instagram or look on TV, and I could find tons of different people to follow, a bunch of different influencers I could give my life to. But when I read about Jesus' life, this is the type of life I want to live. And if I want to live like him, I must be with him and become like him. And that's what the early church did.

Did you know the name of the early church, those early Christians, if you will? You know what they were first called? They were first called The Way. They weren't called the church. They weren't called Life Tabernacle. Wouldn't have been cool. Right? They weren't even called Christians yet. And the word Christian doesn't even appear till later on, and the word Christian was used to make fun of people who follow Jesus. It's a paradox.

The first thing, the first thing people, the church got called was the way. Look at your neighbor and say the way. The way. That's why in the book of Acts, it says that Paul was looking for people who were a part of the way so that he could persecute them. Why were they called the way?

Why? Because their lives were different. Their way of life, how they live every day in their lives was different than the lives of people around them. They live different together. And so to be disciples means to practice the way of Jesus. And as we and we do that together as a family. Keith, would you help me out real quick? So so it's presence. Look at your neighbor and say presence. Look at your other neighbor and say practice.

Practice. And I wanna give you an illustration to put this in your mind today. I'm gonna try not to scuff this up because I think I'm gonna take it back. You gotta save money. Right? You use the illustration. Right. And so this is firewood. If you need it, come holler at me afterwards. I'm not taking this back. Okay? Does anybody get a wood stove? Anybody burn wood? Oh, well, thank you. Alright.

Anybody else? Alright. Few years ago, I was watching a video on YouTube of an Orthodox priest and very similar to the Catholic Church. Okay? And this Orthodox priest was talking about how much he loved the Pentecostal Church. He said, I love Pentecostals. He said, they love God. They get on fire for God. Who likes to get on fire for God? Right?

It's nice when people are on fire for god when you're passionate about something. Right? It's attractive when you're passionate about the thing but he said the problem is, he says, Pentecostals are all fire, no fireplace. He says, they're all about the fire, but they don't have a place to let that fire keep growing. He says, Pentecostals are all about the presence.

They're all about the firewood. They're all about this. They're all about the experiencing God. It's experiencing his presence, which is not a bad thing. He said the problem though is they usually don't have a place to keep that fire burning hot. Right? Because what happens is if I just took this wood right here and I had plenty of it, you know, I just begin to burn it on the floor. Well, I wouldn't do it in here, but you get the idea. Okay? We do it in a field.

Now I just begin burning this in a field. If things aren't, good and if things don't go well, what happens? I start a wildfire, and I ruin a whole region because I didn't have something to contain the fire for it to continue to burning properly. Right? But here's also the issue. If you have a beautiful fireplace and you don't got no fire to put in it, it's kind of pointless. Right? Got this beautiful fireplace that I got in Big Lots. Thank God for Big Lots. Right?

And, but if I don't even put any fire in it, as long don't put a firewood in it, I don't light it, and I don't keep it stuck, there's no point of having a fireplace. I use this illustration to show you this. It is all about presence and practice. If you got your bulletins, go to very bad. On the back of the page, it'll be on the screen behind me too.

That is why we need both. That is why we need both. We need to be pursuing his presence and practicing his way. We need to have fire for God, but we need to have a place for that fire to keep burning properly. Because look, I tell you what, if you keep putting fire in the fireplace and you keep burning it and you keep burning it, it will keep burning.

If you keep firing the fireplace, it'll keep going as long as you got the right conditions and the right wood to keep putting it in. It won't stop. And if we wanna be the type of people who really transform the world, we have to be people who pursue the presence and get fire, but we also have to put that fire somewhere so it keeps burning properly. Presence and practice. We wanna be pursuing his presence and practicing his practicing his way together.

Again, if we're all about presence, then we can really they'll all really quickly into a revival culture church, and that can get super emotional really fast. And and that's not good when you let the emotions go too far. Right? But if we're focused all about, like, spiritual formation and practicing what Jesus says, we become stale and legalistic. Like, well, I better read my bible for forty five minutes today, and I better pray at this time every single day because if I don't, God's gonna hate me.

That's not that's not it. We need to pursue his presence, pursue his loving face, pursue his grace, and then we need a beautiful type of life, a way of life, we can keep that fire going. Keep come on to the peace. So look at your neighbor again and say, fire. I just need another sip of water. You like the new water bottle? The team bought this for me for my birthday. I shouldn't have said that. I've embarrassed you. I apologize.

Alright. Here we go. Let's finish up today. Friends, we need presence and practice. We need fire and formation.

We need presence of God and spiritual disciplines. We gotta have both. And if we pursue after these together with the chief goal of making disciples, I tell you what, just as Jesus said, the gates of Hades won't prevail against it. I tell you what, hell would be a very empty place in this region if we can do this together. We would see this whole Roanoke Valley flipped upside down for God.

If we truly and I'm talking if you think about this, 12 disciples and a few faithful women turned the world upside down. Because after Jesus died and ascended to heaven, they continued to carry the presents and they continued to practice his way. And now there's over billions of Christians in the world. Because of their faithfulness for the presents and practice then, they're sitting in these seats now. Talk about our history.

And if we were to pursue this together intentionally in this region, there would not be enough buildings in this city to hold the amount of people that would come to know God and become to be like God. So that's the biblical pattern, and that's what we're gonna pursue, presence and practice. So what does that roughly look like for us? Because some of you are thinking, what does that actually look like, Dallas? What's the practical?

How are we gonna do that? Right? Again, don't have all the answers, but here's an idea. How are we gonna pursue his presence? We're going to have recommitted personal prayer and scripture readings. One of my favorite stories in the scriptures is in Acts chapter two. You remember when the Holy Spirit falls on the church in Acts chapter two? Falls on that room? Right before they have this, corporate expression of the spirit, it says, cloven tongues of fire fell on each of them. You see that?

Individuals experience God, and then those individuals who experience God, experience God together. Meaning, if we were all to commit to the best of our ability in our stage of life to pursue God six days of the week, when we show up to church on Sunday, we're not gonna have to, like, try to light this again. It's already gonna be burning hot. And then what I know when you put a bunch of pieces of wood together in a fireplace, that thing just blooms together. We have to recommit to pursuing God in our personal lives.

That's one way we're gonna pursue his presence. Another way is through corporate prayer and worship nights. Starting next month, the first Monday of each month from six to seven, we're gonna have prayer right here. Yay. Are you excited?

Are you coming? We're gonna have prayer and worship. Just an hour of prayer and worship to start the month. We're gonna give the first day the first Monday of the month to God. We're gonna come after come into here, and we are going to pursue the presence of God through prayer and through worship.

And and and and additionally, sometime soon in the next few months, we're gonna begin a a a a pre service prayer meeting. Meaning, you show up to service about an hour ahead of time, and we're just going to seek the face of the Lord for what he wants for our services for twenty, thirty minutes, listening to that still small voice. Maybe he might whisper what he wants to do in our time together. Well, the as you look on the schedule, we have different gatherings that we're gonna be hosting and be putting on. We got a a women's gathering and a women's conference coming up in May.

So ladies, oh, ladies, get down on the schedule. And that's not just gonna be a fun time. We're gonna pursue God's presence as women. I won't I'll probably be parking cars or so. I'll be out there. Alright? I won't be here. Right? But we're gonna pursue God through spirit led events and gatherings. We're just gonna create space for us to hear him.

How are we gonna practice his way? How are we gonna also practice what he tells us to do? We're also gonna be looking at at creating small groups or community groups, Little groups that meet during the week who do life together. Right? I love coming to church on Sunday.

It's not enough. It's not enough. I don't see you all enough. The only reason I have gotten to know, like, this dude so well, we've been best friends since college, is because we spend lots of time together. There's no other way around it. The only way to really get to know one another and walk with one another is to do life with one another. Right? Then that's why I'm really excited for our JC bible studies starting here in two weeks. Right? We get to gather together.

We get to study God's word. We get to pursue his presence, and we also get to practice put into practice what he's telling us. We're gonna be starting community groups, small groups. We're gonna be eventually offering bible classes and theology classes. We can pursue his presence and practice his way with our minds.

Right? How many of you all wanna know more about the about God's word. Right? This is a beautiful book, and you gotta study it. And there's also we live in a day and age where there's lots of things said.

It's good for us to think like Jesus. And through classes, we are going to pursue his presence and practice his way through that. We're gonna be doing missional outreaches, shared rhythm of life, and pursuing spiritual disciplines together. And if we do this together, look at your neighbor and say together. That's kind of the key to this whole thing.

That's the glue that holds it all together. That's right. Is we gotta do it together. Because it's not about just dream of doing these things on our own. It's not just about David doing these things on his own. It's about all of us doing these things together. Together. Because why? We're a family. We're God's family.

Literally closer than our own blood. I am closer with all of you than I am with this woman. Love you, mama. Thanks for showing up for my birthday yesterday. She was at my house at 7AM. It was great. Okay? Because she loves me, and we're family, and we all are family. We look different. We like different food.

We like doing different things, but we are all family, and we have to do this together. Would you stand with me my friends? I know today might have been a lot. You probably have questions. I have questions. And I'm an open book. You can ask me anything. But as your pastor, as your friend and your brother in the Lord, these are the two things God's impressed upon my heart. Presence and practice. Pursuing his presence and practicing his way.

To be people who are on fire for God, but people who steward the fire of God. Amen? Amen. Let us pray. Just take a big deep breath because I just said a whole bunch. There's a lot going on, and you probably have a lot going on in your personal lives. Just take a big deep breath and relax with God's presence as we get ready to close.