SPEAKER_00: It's so good to see everyone this morning.
SPEAKER_00: It is much more enjoyable to preach with people in the room than to preach to an empty room as we did last Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: And praise the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: We are now thawed out in South Arkansas, but I don't have to tell you this, we're not completely dried out, are we?
SPEAKER_00: We've got another monsoon storm brewing that's gonna be blowing into town in just a few hours.
SPEAKER_00: Um and as I was reflecting back on our uh week of snow, and the snow just kept coming and coming and coming and coming by the foot, right?
SPEAKER_00: Which is so strange for South Arkansas.
SPEAKER_00: I wonder if you, like me, were on the lookout for this guy right here.
SPEAKER_00: Um and I apologize, I know that photo is so grainy and difficult to see.
SPEAKER_00: So let's go to the next slide.
SPEAKER_00: Here's a close-up of our friend.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Um, did anybody happen to see that's Harry for all the young people in the room?
SPEAKER_00: That's Harry from a movie called Harry and the Hendersons.
SPEAKER_00: My childhood, maybe not your childhood, but it's a hilarious family-friendly movie, so you should watch it.
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: So, did anybody see Bigfoot when all the snow was falling?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, we've got one who says, but maybe it was just your dog walking in the backyard.
SPEAKER_00: Uh a Bigfoot sighting here in South Arkansas.
SPEAKER_00: So once the snow melted and Bigfoot headed uh back north, uh, then the rains they began to fall.
SPEAKER_00: And uh every pond and river and creek was uh very soon just overflowing with water.
SPEAKER_00: And um were you like me and are you on the lookout for this creature right here?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, uh no.
SPEAKER_00: Apologies again.
SPEAKER_00: I know that is super grainy for all of you.
SPEAKER_00: Not a great photo.
SPEAKER_00: So if we go to the next one, a close-up of our friend the Loch Ness monster.
SPEAKER_00: Um see the Loch Ness monster in the midst of the monsoon as you literally had lakes forming in your front yard.
SPEAKER_00: Since I was a kid, I I've been actually fascinated by stories about uh Bigfoot and the Loch Ness monster.
SPEAKER_00: Um Bigfoot and Nessie, they are um part of a set of creatures known as cryptids.
SPEAKER_00: There's other cryptids that you can learn about.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, one of them, her name is Bessie.
SPEAKER_00: Anybody know the story of Old Bessie?
SPEAKER_00: Old Bessie.
SPEAKER_00: We're told that old Bessie, she lives in the depths of Lake Erie.
SPEAKER_00: Another one of these cryptids is the megaconda, and the name says all you need to know, it's the stuff of your nightmares.
SPEAKER_00: It's a mega-sized anaconda that slithers through the jungles of South America.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and did you know that uh Arkansas actually has its own cryptid as well?
SPEAKER_00: Uh the Falcon Monster.
SPEAKER_00: Does anybody know the story of the Falc Monster?
SPEAKER_00: You've seen that movie, The Legend of Boggy Creek.
SPEAKER_00: Um, now, what each of those creatures has in common is this its existence in the world is up for debate.
SPEAKER_00: There's evidence, there's uh photographs, there are mysterious footprints, there's some eyewitness accounts, but the presence of those creatures can't be determined.
SPEAKER_00: It cannot be decided.
SPEAKER_00: And this morning, what I want to do is I want to add a creature to that list.
SPEAKER_00: Well, it's not a creature, it's actually the creator.
SPEAKER_00: Let's go to the next slide.
SPEAKER_00: I want to add God to that list.
SPEAKER_00: Think about it.
SPEAKER_00: Since you were a child, you've been fascinated and intrigued about all these stories about God.
SPEAKER_00: Stories of God parting the waters of the Red Sea.
SPEAKER_00: Story of God and his great power closing the mouths of lions so that Daniel could survive a night in that lion's den.
SPEAKER_00: Stories of Jesus, the only Son of God, healing the sick and feeding the hungry.
SPEAKER_00: These stories of God, they intrigue you, they fascinate you.
SPEAKER_00: But if you're willing to be honest for just a moment, you remain unconvinced with regard to God's presence in the world.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, you remain unconvinced with regard to God's personal presence in your own life.
SPEAKER_00: You don't doubt God's existence.
SPEAKER_00: You believe there is a God, you believe there is a God who reigns on high and created everything, but you're not so sure that God is present with you, always with you throughout the course of every single day.
SPEAKER_00: When David says, If I ascend to heaven, you are there.
SPEAKER_00: If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.
SPEAKER_00: If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there, your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.
SPEAKER_00: Do you see what David does with those words in Psalm 139?
SPEAKER_00: He not only affirms the existence of God, he affirms the personal presence of God.
SPEAKER_00: He affirms the fact that God is personally present with each of his children, no matter the geography of their life, no matter the circumstance of their life.
SPEAKER_00: But for you, the deciding factor when it comes to God's personal presence isn't the declaration of David.
SPEAKER_00: It's all the mounting evidence to the contrary that you see in your life.
SPEAKER_00: I think one big piece of evidence that maybe tries to convince us that God isn't personally present with his children, it could just be the season of life that you're in.
SPEAKER_00: Ecclesiastes chapter 3 famously tells us that for everything there is a season.
SPEAKER_00: And the season of your life in this moment may be a season of loss, a season of mourning, a season filled with weeping.
SPEAKER_00: And in those sorts of seasons, what happens is you feel overwhelmed, inadequate, and you often feel all alone.
SPEAKER_00: That can be the season of your house being filled with young children.
SPEAKER_00: You know they're close to you, but man, they just take up so much time, so much bandwidth, so much brain power, so much energy and emotion.
SPEAKER_00: Can God also be that close to me?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I believe there is a God, but I can't sense him.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm not sure I believe that he is with me.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe another piece of evidence that weighs on your decision is suffering.
SPEAKER_00: You just look around the world, you look around your life, you read news headlines, you see the faces of people at Walmart, you see how people interact with one another out in public, you see people out on the streets, and maybe you just conclude that there is too much pain in the world for a good, good father to be in this place, to be with me, to be personally present.
SPEAKER_00: And still another piece of evidence that maybe uh fights against this conclusion that God is personally present with his children is the sin that's in each of our lives, the sin of my life.
SPEAKER_00: Sin, what it does in the life of God's children is it erects a barrier between us, a relational barrier, a wall.
SPEAKER_00: But also what it begins to do, if left unaddressed and unconfessed, what sin does is it convinces us that God wants nothing to do with me anymore.
SPEAKER_00: God is tired of putting up with me.
SPEAKER_00: God has forgiven all that he can.
SPEAKER_00: He can't look past this in my life anymore.
SPEAKER_00: He's pushed me aside, and I am forgotten by him.
SPEAKER_00: By your estimation, you weigh all the evidence, you just don't think David's declaration adds up.
SPEAKER_00: You think David sounds a little Pollyanna in his statement about the personal presence of God.
SPEAKER_00: But just for a moment, consider the life of David himself.
SPEAKER_00: Consider the fact that David endured some very difficult seasons in his life.
SPEAKER_00: Possibly the most difficult season was the season when King Saul wanted to kill him.
SPEAKER_00: The season when day after day he was running through the wilderness, sleeping in caves, knowing that assassins were following him, wanting to take his life.
SPEAKER_00: Or consider the fact that David in his own life had had his fair share of suffering.
SPEAKER_00: At least two times in David's life, he experiences the unique pain of a parent who is mourning the loss of a child.
SPEAKER_00: And when it comes to sin, old David, he was well aware of the sin in his life, the affair with Bathsheba, the murder of Uriah.
SPEAKER_00: David knew difficult seasons, David knew suffering, David knew sin, yet he still affirms not just the existence of God, but the personal presence of God.
SPEAKER_00: David affirms this: that God is closer than you think.
SPEAKER_00: Today we're continuing this current series, the series called Behold.
SPEAKER_00: The foundation of this series is again a single phrase out of another writing by King David, Psalm 27, verse 4, to behold the beauty of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: This is a series that's all about paying attention to God so that we can be transformed by God.
SPEAKER_00: A series that's about God through his beauty, taking our faith that is often mediocre and turning it into something that is miraculous.
SPEAKER_00: And a critical part of this transformation is sensing, experiencing, living in the everyday reality of a nearness with God, a closeness with the presence of God.
SPEAKER_00: One author puts it this way: he says that spiritual growth, in a sense, is simply increasing our capacity to experience the presence of God.
SPEAKER_00: It's one of the reasons in week one I presented to us the behold challenge to take five minutes every day to behold the beauty of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: All because for your faith to grow, for miraculous faith to be born, you must not only agree with the fact that God exists, you must experience the reality that God is closer than you think.
SPEAKER_00: God must be a personal presence in your life.
SPEAKER_00: And God can be closer than you think, even if the season you're in is this long cold winter.
SPEAKER_00: God, he is closer than you think, even if when you look around your life and you look around your home and read headlines in the world, there is suffering all around.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, God is closer than you think.
SPEAKER_00: He is close to the brokenhearted.
SPEAKER_00: And God, he is closer than you think.
SPEAKER_00: Even if sin is present in your life.
SPEAKER_00: You see, today's sermon is for those of us in the room who are willing to admit that we struggle to grasp just how close God wants to be to his children.
SPEAKER_00: That God wants to be personally present.
SPEAKER_00: He wants you to be aware of his personal presence on a daily basis.
SPEAKER_00: And it's my guess that that describes most, if not all, of us.
SPEAKER_00: We struggle to grasp just how close God desires to be.
SPEAKER_00: And whatever your impediment is this morning, whatever the evidence that is weighing on your mind that says argues against the fact that God is closer than you think, guess what?
SPEAKER_00: He really is that close.
SPEAKER_00: He is closer than you could imagine.
SPEAKER_00: And a biblical character who learned this firsthand is a man named Jacob.
SPEAKER_00: So if you have your Bibles, join me in Genesis chapter 28.
SPEAKER_00: And let's see just how close God truly is.
SPEAKER_00: Genesis 28, beginning with verse 10.
SPEAKER_00: God's word says that Jacob left Beersheba and went toward Haran.
SPEAKER_00: And he came to a certain place and stayed there that night because the sun had set.
SPEAKER_00: Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place to sleep, and he dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it, and behold, the Lord stood above it and said, I am the Lord, the God of Abraham, your father, and the God of Isaac, the land on which you lie, I will give to you and to your offspring.
SPEAKER_00: Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you, and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, I am with you, and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land, for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.
SPEAKER_00: And then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, Surely the Lord is in this place.
SPEAKER_00: And I did not know it.
SPEAKER_00: And he was afraid and said, How awesome is this place! There is none other than the this is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: At the beginning of this story, Jacob leaves behind his childhood home of Beersheba, and he is now traveling towards what will be his new home, the land, the region of Haran.
SPEAKER_00: Jacob's childhood home, Beersheba, the name of that town literally translates as well of the oath.
SPEAKER_00: That name points us to a story told in Genesis chapter 21, where this location receives its name.
SPEAKER_00: When Abraham, Father Abraham, the one with many sons, Abraham is in this land and he makes an oath with a man named Abimelech.
SPEAKER_00: They make an oath there, Genesis chapter 21.
SPEAKER_00: Now, for the purposes of today's message, what is really important to pay attention to is the very next thing that happens in that story.
SPEAKER_00: After Abraham and Abimelech shake on it, after they agree to this oath, Abraham says this in chapter 21 of Genesis, verse 33.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Abraham planted a tamaris tree in Beersheba, and Abraham called there on the name of the Lord, the everlasting God.
SPEAKER_00: So an oath is made.
SPEAKER_00: Abraham grabs his shovel, he digs a hole, he takes a tree, he plants it in the ground because he wants everybody to remember what happened at this place.
SPEAKER_00: I want everyone to remember what occurred in this moment, at this hour, and then Abraham calls on the name of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: That means he's calling God's presence to fall here.
SPEAKER_00: To fall.
SPEAKER_00: Let this tree be a reminder of God's presence coming into this world and at this hour and in this place.
SPEAKER_00: That's where Jacob grew up.
SPEAKER_00: He grew up in the place where the presence of God fell, where that tamaris tree was planted, and now he has to leave it behind.
SPEAKER_00: He has to go away from, in effect, the presence of God.
SPEAKER_00: And that becomes even more clear when you consider the fact that he is going to the land of Haran.
SPEAKER_00: And the word Haran literally translates something like parched.
SPEAKER_00: It's dry.
SPEAKER_00: Well, there is water where trees can grow, where the presence of God is, and he's heading towards a land that cannot support trees, where there are very few wells and where he may still affirm the existence of God, but it sure feels like he is what?
SPEAKER_00: Not sure that God can be personally present with him in that land.
SPEAKER_00: I think it's safe to say that in Genesis chapter 28 and verse 10, Jacob is entering into a new season of life.
SPEAKER_00: It's going to be a long wintry season.
SPEAKER_00: It's going to last 20 years that he will live in Haran before he returns home to Beersheba.
SPEAKER_00: But that's not the only piece of evidence at work in Jacob's mind.
SPEAKER_00: There's also suffering that's present.
SPEAKER_00: The suffering that comes when you have to say goodbye to your family and you don't know when you will see them again.
SPEAKER_00: No FaceTime, no text messages, no telephone calls.
SPEAKER_00: You're living in a foreign land.
SPEAKER_00: The suffering that comes in Jacob's mind, it's also because his very own brother wants to take his life.
SPEAKER_00: His own brother is seeking revenge.
SPEAKER_00: He has a blood debt that he wants to take out on Jacob.
SPEAKER_00: Because Jacob, as he travels, he's also confronted with his own sin.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Jacob had deceived his father, betrayed his brother, stolen that birthright and blessing from Esau.
SPEAKER_00: Think about those factors in Jacob's life.
SPEAKER_00: The evidence is just compounding upon each other.
SPEAKER_00: God cannot be personally present for me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm leaving the land.
SPEAKER_00: God cannot be personally present for me.
SPEAKER_00: There's too much suffering.
SPEAKER_00: God cannot be personally present for me.
SPEAKER_00: I have sinned against my father and against my brother.
SPEAKER_00: But then somewhere between Bersheba and Haran, Jacob is confronted with this transformative reality that what?
SPEAKER_00: God is closer than you think.
SPEAKER_00: So that journey between Beersheba and Haran, it's right at uh about 500 miles.
SPEAKER_00: So on foot, it's a journey that would take several weeks, if not a month, or even more.
SPEAKER_00: He would travel by foot over rugged terrain, and each day he would uh start with the sun as it rose in the sky and he would end as the sun set.
SPEAKER_00: He could not travel under the darkness of night, it would not be safe.
SPEAKER_00: And it was his habit, then after those long days of travel, he would set camp up as dusk began to set in.
SPEAKER_00: He would make a camp and make a bed, and he would what?
SPEAKER_00: He would find a rock.
SPEAKER_00: That was his pillow.
SPEAKER_00: Not exactly a down pillow or whatever your pillow preference might be, a full body pillow for some of you.
SPEAKER_00: It was a hard rock.
SPEAKER_00: You're like, how can he fall asleep?
SPEAKER_00: Well, some of you fall asleep on really hard pews, too.
SPEAKER_00: So don't worry about it.
SPEAKER_00: On this particular night, Jacob's sleeping and he's snoring.
SPEAKER_00: He's had a long day of travel and he's dreaming.
SPEAKER_00: And behold, there is a ladder connecting heaven and earth.
SPEAKER_00: And behold, there are angels coming and going.
SPEAKER_00: And behold, the Lord stood above it.
SPEAKER_00: The repetition of behold, behold, behold, it's our invitation from the Holy Spirit to experience this story through the eyes of Jacob, to experience it through his season of life, through his suffering, through his sin, and to experience the reality that what?
SPEAKER_00: God is closer than you think.
SPEAKER_00: God is so close because there's a direct line of communication from heaven to earth.
SPEAKER_00: There is a ladder.
SPEAKER_00: Praise God for the gift of prayer.
SPEAKER_00: God is close because there are messengers and messages coming from heaven to earth and going back and forth.
SPEAKER_00: And God is close because what?
SPEAKER_00: Well, the ESB says that he is above it, that the Lord stood above it.
SPEAKER_00: Now, when I read that phrase that the Lord stood above it, I think of God standing or sitting at the top of the ladder, right?
SPEAKER_00: God has not left heaven.
SPEAKER_00: God may be talking to Jacob, but he is not close to Jacob.
SPEAKER_00: Well, if your Bible translation is stood above it, actually, what the translators are trying to communicate is this.
SPEAKER_00: They're not trying to communicate a spatial gap.
SPEAKER_00: Like God is above Jacob in space.
SPEAKER_00: But there's an even better way I think you should translate that phrase, and you can simply translate it this way: The Lord stood beside him.
SPEAKER_00: Like not only did angels come and go, but God came and stood beside Jacob.
SPEAKER_00: Just how close is God?
SPEAKER_00: Just how close is God standing beside him?
SPEAKER_00: How close should we imagine it to be?
SPEAKER_00: It's close enough for Jacob to hear the voice of God.
SPEAKER_00: God begins to speak to him, right?
SPEAKER_00: When's the last time you heard the voice of God?
SPEAKER_00: As if he were in the room with you.
SPEAKER_00: Sitting beside you.
SPEAKER_00: Standing beside you, walking with you.
SPEAKER_00: Close enough for it to be a whisper in your ear?
SPEAKER_00: Was he just close enough that he spoke at a room-level volume?
SPEAKER_00: He wasn't using an outside voice, but an inside voice.
SPEAKER_00: And you could hear him.
SPEAKER_00: He was that close.
SPEAKER_00: When God speaks to Jacob, what he does is he uh reaffirms some promises to Jacob.
SPEAKER_00: Promises that were first spoken to Abraham.
SPEAKER_00: Jacob, those promises are for you too, my friend.
SPEAKER_00: And then God, he reaffirms that his presence is not going anywhere.
SPEAKER_00: I'm with you, Jacob, no matter whether you are living in Bersheba or you are camping in the wilderness or you are living in Haran or you're somewhere else in between.
SPEAKER_00: I am with you.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not going anywhere.
SPEAKER_00: I am closer than you think.
SPEAKER_00: This story, when we talk about it, we often talk about it as the story of Jacob's ladder.
SPEAKER_00: And there's even a song that some of us know.
SPEAKER_00: And the lyric of that song says something like this.
SPEAKER_00: It says, We are climbing Jacob's ladder.
SPEAKER_00: We are climbing Jacob's ladder like rung by rung.
SPEAKER_00: That lyric gets the story all wrong, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_00: This isn't a story about Jacob climbing a ladder.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a story about us climbing a ladder.
SPEAKER_00: It's a story about God coming down the ladder.
SPEAKER_00: It's a story about God getting close with his children.
SPEAKER_00: As much as we imagine I want to be with God, God wants to be with his kids more than his kids will ever want to be with him.
SPEAKER_00: He desires that closeness with them.
SPEAKER_00: So he comes down the ladder.
SPEAKER_00: You see, this is not a story of human effort or achievement that describes what's required of you and I to reach God.
SPEAKER_00: This is a story about God's grace and mercy, his pursuit of people as he comes close to us.
SPEAKER_00: And this story, in a very poignant way, what it does is it prepares us for the gospel of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: It prepares us to understand why Jesus came, how Jesus came, and what Jesus did in this world.
SPEAKER_00: You know, the New Testament tells us the story of many men, and one of those men is a man named Joseph.
SPEAKER_00: And like Jacob, Joseph, he has in a very important dream.
SPEAKER_00: And in that dream, Joseph is told that his fiance, her name is Mary, you know the story.
SPEAKER_00: Mary is with child, and the name of that child within Mary, his name will be Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And he will save his people from their sins.
SPEAKER_00: That is God, what?
SPEAKER_00: Coming down the ladder.
SPEAKER_00: Coming for his children.
SPEAKER_00: And what Jesus is able to do through the incarnation is the only Son of God, the eternal word who spoke creation to existence.
SPEAKER_00: When he steps into this world, we realize just the amount of the links that God is willing to go to be with his children and just how close he truly wants to be.
SPEAKER_00: And listen, for those 33 years, Jesus couldn't ignore the suffering of the world.
SPEAKER_00: We're told how Jesus mourns the loss of a friend who dies.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus saw people who were ravaged by disease.
SPEAKER_00: And he himself.
SPEAKER_00: He is unfairly arrested and tried and convicted and then sentenced to death as a criminal.
SPEAKER_00: And when Jesus hangs from the cross the only Son of God, the weight of the world's sin is placed on his shoulders.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, what he does, he endures the seasons of life in this world.
SPEAKER_00: He endures the suffering of this world.
SPEAKER_00: He bears our sin on the cross to open the door for us, so that the latter is still coming from heaven to earth, so that we too might know that God is closer than you think.
SPEAKER_00: But that begs the question: where can you and I experience the presence of God?
SPEAKER_00: Where can we draw close?
SPEAKER_00: Where can God draw close to us in this world?
SPEAKER_00: Notice what occurs near the end of Genesis 28, the scripture I read.
SPEAKER_00: Jacob names this rest stop, this place, somewhere between Bersheba and Haran.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to imagine it, imagine uh you're traveling by foot from here to Literac.
SPEAKER_00: Not as far as 500 miles, it's a lot of pavement.
SPEAKER_00: Uh you can make it a little quicker, but you probably aren't going to make it in a single day, so you're going to have to camp out.
SPEAKER_00: And so you need a no-name place, kind of like Jacob.
SPEAKER_00: And so it would be like you're going to pull off and camp out on one of those unmarked logging roads on the side of 167 North.
SPEAKER_00: Like Fordyce is marked and Hampton's marked and Callion's marked, Sheridan's marked.
SPEAKER_00: All those places are marked on a map, and Jacob stays at a place that isn't marked on a map.
SPEAKER_00: He's not staying at some holy place.
SPEAKER_00: He's in a no-name place.
SPEAKER_00: So maybe in our world, what Jacob reminds us of is God is closer than you think when you're sitting at the stoplight.
SPEAKER_00: God is closer than you think when you're standing in the checkout line, when you're standing in your kitchen, sitting in the classroom, or sitting in your cubicle.
SPEAKER_00: You see, for a child of God, every location in every day is an opportunity for you to encounter the closeness of God's presence.
SPEAKER_00: Here's some ways to kind of organize your day to think about it then.
SPEAKER_00: It's easy to say God is closer than you think, but how can I begin to cultivate that in my life?
SPEAKER_00: And maybe first just begin your day with intentionality.
SPEAKER_00: Recognize that every day is a gift from God.
SPEAKER_00: Every day, every moment, every location is an opportunity to encounter His presence.
SPEAKER_00: Just pray to God, simply, God, on this day, this day you gave me, show me that you're with me.
SPEAKER_00: Let me sense that you are beside me.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe number two would be this to stop complaining and start praising.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, that's not to say that there aren't things in life that deserve a complaint or two.
SPEAKER_00: I spent 25 minutes with Suddenlink on the phone this week complaining to them about my internet service.
SPEAKER_00: Probably not the only one in the room who's done that recently.
SPEAKER_00: But really, what I'm talking about at this moment is kind of a mindset and an attitude.
SPEAKER_00: It's not individual complaints we level against one thing or another.
SPEAKER_00: It's a mindset that focuses on everything that is not functioning correctly in the world and sees all the flaws in everything.
SPEAKER_00: And there's a place for that, but there's also a moment when we have to realize that sometimes an attitude of complaint, what it does is it blinds us to all the small gifts and graces in life.
SPEAKER_00: That as much as things are kind of messed up and broken and annoying and frustrating, God's given us some pretty good things.
SPEAKER_00: Family and friends and food and transportation.
SPEAKER_00: Like just life is a blessing.
SPEAKER_00: There are small gifts and graces in the course of life.
SPEAKER_00: And all of those things are a reminder of God beside us.
SPEAKER_00: And number three, maybe would just be this to turn the simple into the sacred.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, all of us have mindless moments that we experience throughout the course of the day.
SPEAKER_00: Boring tasks that we have to complete at work, routines that you could complete with your eyes closed, unloading the dishwasher, folding the laundry, putting away the laundry, maybe even grocery shopping for a few of the highly skilled grocery shoppers in the room.
SPEAKER_00: Others of us, it takes our complete focus and attention.
SPEAKER_00: So we walk down the aisles.
SPEAKER_00: But instead of getting it done, just invite God into that place.
SPEAKER_00: Invite God into that place.
SPEAKER_00: And then just imagine this.
SPEAKER_00: And I did not know it.
SPEAKER_00: Surely the Lord's in my laundry room and I hadn't seen him ever before.
SPEAKER_00: Surely the Lord's in my kitchen and I was oblivious to it.
SPEAKER_00: Surely the Lord is in this cubicle and I've been sitting beside him this entire time and I didn't notice.
SPEAKER_00: Surely the Lord's in my bedroom, the Lord's in my garden, or on my playground, or on my tranver you are, surely the Lord is here.
SPEAKER_00: And when you discover that God is in these places, then you begin to truly understand what it means to say that God is closer than you think.
SPEAKER_00: Let's turn our hearts to God in prayer now.
SPEAKER_00: And first, let's focus on evidence.
SPEAKER_00: We've talked about this already a little bit this morning.
SPEAKER_00: And what's the evidence in your life that has left you doubting God's personal presence?
SPEAKER_00: I want you to name that evidence to God.
SPEAKER_00: And even just tell God why that piece of evidence makes it so difficult for you to see His presence with you.
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe even regret.
SPEAKER_00: And know this that God is always present and active in the lives of His children, whether or not you see Him.
SPEAKER_00: What are some everyday places where you desire to experience the presence of God?
SPEAKER_00: Be as specific as possible.
SPEAKER_00: And then dedicate that place to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Could be that your living room is that house of God.
SPEAKER_00: Your office is the house of God.
SPEAKER_00: Your garden.
SPEAKER_00: Your car.
SPEAKER_00: And as you dedicate those places to experiencing the presence of God, just remember that seeing how close God is is a learned behavior.
SPEAKER_00: It's something we have to cultivate in our life.
SPEAKER_00: It's going to take day-by-day intentionality, a willingness to see small, simple gifts and graces as his presence with us.
SPEAKER_00: Almighty God.
SPEAKER_00: It's inspiring.
SPEAKER_00: Because I realize, I begin to see just how close you are to each of your children.
SPEAKER_00: God, would you open my eyes?
SPEAKER_00: Open our eyes to see that you are beside us in places we weren't expecting.
SPEAKER_00: In moments when we thought we were all alone, that you are with us.
SPEAKER_00: Rouse us, God, awaken us from going through the motions and making it to realize just how close you are.
SPEAKER_00: And what a God, what a great gift to know.
SPEAKER_00: And humbling to see that you come to us.
SPEAKER_00: You come down the ladder to us.
SPEAKER_00: You send Jesus into this world so we can experience that closeness on a daily basis.
SPEAKER_00: Forgive us, God, for living with blinders.
SPEAKER_00: Let us see.
SPEAKER_00: Let us see you.
SPEAKER_00: In Christ's name we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.