The Power of Staying Close - Pastor Denny Rodney Duron

Welcome to SC Church Podcast! We’re so glad you could join us. Today Pastor Denny Rodney Duron shared with us his message:

“The Power of Staying Close"

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Well, how many of you love being in the house of God? You love being together. I love that God is with us when we're alone. God is with us when we're in our house, but God is also with us when we gather in community. Can I get an amen? And I'm believing for God to do great things. Put your hands together for our worship team and for all of our teams for what God's already done today. Y'all ready for the word of God? Y'all ready to hear the word of God? Come on, somebody. I'm ready. Bow your head. Let's pray. God, we love you. We praise your name. God, thank you for what you're doing in this place. Thank you for Shreveport Community Church. God, I pray you bless us and you touch us today. Thank you for what you've already done. And thank you that the best is yet to come. In Jesus' name we pray. And everybody said, Amen. Turn to your neighbor and tell him, man, you're looking good today. Tell him, say you're looking good. Come on. Last week we started a new series in Colossians. And last week we started this series and we talked about that Christ is above all. Can I get a big amen? He's the King of Kings, He's the Lord of Lords. And when our view of Jesus changes, well, everything changes in our life. But not only do we have to have a great view of who Jesus is, we've got to spend time with Jesus in prayer. How many of you love praying in this place? It changes everything. If we're not careful, we can view prayer like one of those annoying customer service phone lines. Y'all know what I'm talking about. Like when you call and they're like, press one if you're an existing customer, press two if you're a new customer, press three if you want to hold all day long. It's like, help me pick the right number. And then you press it and you hear the worst words. Your call means so much to us. Please hold. And it's like 45 minutes, and finally you get someone's voice, and you're like, is this a real person? Are you actually there? And there's they're like, we can help you, but we've got to know that it's you. You give them every information about you possible. You tell them the whole situation, and after they take 20 minutes of your time, they say, I'm so sorry. This is the wrong department. Let me transfer you. Please hold 45 more minutes. You're like a ping pong ball going back and forth, departments, and it's finally like, keep my money, I don't even care. I just don't ever want to talk to you ever again. It's tough. But if we're not careful, we view prayer just like that. We can view prayer as thinking, well, if I just get through to God when God isn't busy, or if I say the magical word, or if I just do it in the perfect way, maybe God will answer my prayer. No, Paul doesn't say this. The apostle Paul says the power is not in saying the perfect prayer. The power is not in the perfect words. The power is staying close to Jesus. Can I get an amen? So that's what I want to talk about today. The power of staying close. So a recap, remember why Paul wrote this letter of Colossians. This church of calls say they're doing good, they're growing, they're seeing miracles, but then something bad happens. There's false teachers. The false teachers say, Christ is not enough. You need Jesus plus, you need a certain schedule, Jesus plus religion. And Paul writes them and just bashes that and says, No, Christ is supreme. He's above everything. Christ is sufficient, he's more than enough. He finished it on the cross. Come on, somebody. Come on. So our view of Jesus changes, but we've also got to spend time with Jesus. So after he shows how big our God is, he doesn't get into situations. Paul, well, he shows us the importance of prayer. And the importance of prayer isn't saying, God, are you hearing me? How many of you know when you pray to God, God hears every one of your prayers? God knows when you're crying out to him. So let's let's hear what uh Paul says. So turn with me to fur to um Colossians 1, verse 3. This is what the Bible says. Verse 3. We always thank God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God's people. Go to verse 9. Verse 9, for this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may have to live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way, bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, so that you may have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light, for he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son, He loves, in whom we have redemption and the forgiveness of sin. Let me get a big amen. Paul shows us we got to go deeper with Jesus. We need to be close to Jesus. And that's the first thing I want to talk about. Prayer keeps me close to Jesus. Let's recap what Paul just said. He said, We hadn't stopped praying for you, asking that you will be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. I love he doesn't start with God get them out of trouble or God kill the false teachers. God just help them. He starts with this God, let them know you more. God let them know you. Prayer, it keeps us close to Jesus, and that's our first step. So it reminds me of the story of Martha and Mary in the Bible. So Jesus was invited to Mary and Martha's house, and there's a party over there, and Martha is just busy hosting everybody, just serving drinks and food and working so hard. And Mary's doing nothing. Mary's sitting at the feet of Jesus, just listening to Jesus while Mary, while Martha is just working so hard, and Martha gets ticked off at Mary. Martha tells on her to Jesus, says, Jesus, tell Mary to come help me. She's doing nothing. And this is what Jesus says. It's not condemning. He says this in Luke 10. He says, Martha, Martha, you're worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed, or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken from her. In other words, he's not condemning her for serving. No, he's saying, don't get so busy serving me. You forget to take time to be with me. You gotta spend time with me in my presence. And in our culture, if you're not busy all the time, you're doing something wrong, right? Like you got to fill up your schedule. You gotta work and then do extra work. You gotta make sure all your kids are doing all their lessons, all the sports events, all the leagues. We gotta serve in church. Keep going. But here is the thing: if you're not careful, you get busy doing things for God and you forget to spend time with God. The first step is relationship with Jesus. We gotta be close to Jesus. Because here's the thing Jesus, He responds when you cry out to Him. How many of you know that's true? God responds when you cry out to Him. I want you to think of it this way There was a little boy, and he was at home in the midst of a huge thunderstorm, and the thunder was going and boom, the thunder hit, and he screamed out, Dad. And the dad was in the next room and said, Son, I'm right here. Do you need me? Said, No, I'm I'm good. Boom, dad, son, I'm here. Do you need me? No, I'm I'm good. By the third, boom. Well, the son starts running to the dad's room. And the dad knew he had already started walking towards his son, and the son latched onto his leg and said, Dad, I know you're here. I just feel a lot better being close to you. I just want to be with you. And the storm is still raging, nothing's changed on the outside, but being close to the Father, it gave him peace. How many of you understand being close to Jesus? How many of you in this place, it's given you peace in your life? He brings us peace. Because here's the thing prayer isn't us trying to convince a distant God to come near. No, it's choosing to draw near to God who's already with us. So this is what James says in James 4 and 6. But he gives more grace. Therefore, he says, God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Therefore, submit to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. That's big. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. So right here, how many of you believe in this place? When you draw near to God, he draws near unto you. You believe that? But in the context of this verse, James is talking to believers that have turned their back on God and are running in the opposite direction. So what he's saying is first you got to humble yourself, you got to surrender, you got to get in prayer, but you've got to repent. Everyone say, repent. Repenting is when you turn from your own way and say, God, I no longer want to live the way that is giving me separation. I want to walk towards you. Because here's the thing: we don't serve a distant God that distances himself from us, just waiting for perfection. No, the gospel that I read is our God pursued us first. Our God loved us first. And while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And you can see that sin is what separates. So in the Garden of Gethsemane, I'm sorry, the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve, whenever they sinned and well, they were shameful. How many of you know God still came looking for them? And it wasn't that God hid from them, they hid from God because that's what sin does. It separates us from God. But whenever we repent, God hasn't changed. Well, we have changed. God is pursuing us. We run to God and God still responds. That is who our God is. And you say, Well, I've got questions. What about my marriage? Or what about my kids and my future? Those are real questions. But what if before your situation changes, what if you get close to Almighty God? And just getting close to God transforms everything. Because when we get the close to God, God does miracles. I'll just I'll give you some examples of how you can get close to God. How many of you know the Lord's Prayer in this place? The Lord's Prayer. Matthew 6, 9. Pray the Lord's Prayer and add what you want God to do in the midst of the Lord's Prayer. Um, Psalm 23, pray the Psalm 23. And you just ask God, God, lead me, guide me, God, anoint me. Find prayers all throughout the Bible. There's this prayer from the early 1900s that people still pray. You can learn this. This is what it says. Cleanse me from my sin, Lord. Put your power within, Lord. Take me as I am, Lord, and make me all your own. Keep me day by day, Lord, walking in your way, Lord. Make my heart your palace and your royal throne. How many of you want God to reside in your heart and you want to be close to Almighty God? We got to get close to Jesus because when we get close to Jesus, we become like Jesus. We are like Jesus. And that's the second thing I want to get into. Prayer changes the way that we live. So Paul says this in Colossians 1 and 10. He says, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way, bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might, so that you may have great endurance and great patience. Paul doesn't say, God, make them comfortable, God, take them out of that situation. No, he says this. So prayer, it's not just an escape. Prayer is preparation. You understand that? It's preparing us for what God has. Have y'all ever um noticed like when people hang out together a lot, they start acting like each other. Like when people hang out a lot, well, they're like one another. I love when my kids bring their friends over the house that they've spent a lot of time with. They have the same little accent, they have the same little inside jokes, they're talking the same. What about old married couples, right? Married couples, they're just they're like the same person. How is that? Because when you spend time with somebody, you become like that person. And that's what discipleship is. The first thing that the disciples did is they follow Jesus. Everyone say follow. They follow Jesus, they were disciples. So when there's a big move of God, it's not like let's just change everything and do it. No, the first thing that we do is we follow when we get close to Jesus. And they followed him, and they wanted the dust of his sandals on their clothes because maybe if I follow Jesus, maybe if I walk like him, I can be like him, I can talk like him, I can do miracles like Jesus. When you're with Jesus, it transforms everything. So here's the question if someone was with you for an entire week, and I want you to think about this, and they did not know that you followed Jesus, but they followed you around for a whole week, would they know that you followed Christ? Would they know that you're a Christian? Just by the way that you prayed or brought up Jesus in conversations, maybe by the way that you talk about people behind their back in a good way instead of tearing them down, or maybe how you respond to the pressures of life instead of giving in, speaking your faith whenever things happen, would they know that you are following Jesus? Because when we spend time with Jesus, we become like Jesus. So the evidence is not, am I praying these long prayers? Like, do I can I just pray really? No, the evidence in prayer is what happens after the prayer. What happens after you say amen? Are you acting like Jesus? And Paul says it this way he says, so as to walk in a manner worthy of God. Did you catch that? Paul doesn't just pray that they'll know more. No, he's praying that they will live differently because of what they know in their private life and in their public life. Acts 4, I love this so much. Um, Peter and John, they're like in a bad situation with a religious crowd and they're kind of in trouble. But then this is what the religious crowd starts saying about Peter and Paul. Acts 4 13. It says, When they saw the courage of Peter and John, and they realized they were unschool ordinary men, they were astonished, and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. How many of you know that's the objective of your life? Not that like I'm polished and I have great things. No, that person has been with Jesus. One of my favorite things to do is go around town and meet new people. And when I'm talking to them, if I feel their spirit, I just like to ask this do you know Jesus? Do you walk with Jesus? And most of the time they'll say, Oh, I love Jesus. I walk with Jesus. And I tell them, I can tell. I can tell you have been with Jesus. Friends, that is the objective. So the objective of these 21 days, it's not, am I gonna pray the most articulate, beautiful, long prayer? It's are you becoming more like Jesus? Are we becoming more like Jesus? And during these 21 days, we can't follow our emotions. Dear God, we can't follow our emotions, right? Because emotions one day, we're gonna feel like all of heaven is opened up and the blessings of God, it's just reigning true. And then the next day, because you're fasting, you're gonna be hangry, right? You're gonna want some sugar and you'll be craving that donut, but you're gonna stand strong. Why? Because don't give up. I'm telling you today, do not give up. Keep going day by day, pursuing Almighty God. Because here's the deal whenever someone wants to like do a diet and like lose some weight or body makeover, right? We've all done that. And the first day in the mirror, you're like, nothing has changed. And then the second day, you're like, nothing has changed. Third day, what is going on? Nothing has changed. And then day 30, you keep looking at yourself, you're like, this is not working. But then you go back and you look at the picture where you started, and you're like, Oh, I got a little game here. I'm looking a little bit better. Why? Because it's it's day by day. You can't give up. You keep going, get close to Jesus, become like Jesus, get close to Jesus, be transformed by Jesus, and then God brings power. Everyone say power. God will bring his power in your life, which you could never do on your own. The power of And that's my last point. Prayer positions me for what God wants you to do. Worship team can make your way up from closing. This is what Paul says Colossians 1 and 11. With all power, everyone's in power. Giving thanks to the Father. He has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints. He has rescued us. He has redeemed us. And he has forgiven us. He doesn't say, hey, go do this. Go finish this. No, he says, look at what Christ has already done in his power. It's the power of the Holy Spirit. And it's not our strength. It's his strength. It's his grace. And during these 21 days, I really believe that God's power is going to do some things. It's going to transform our life. How many of you believe that in this place? God's power is going to move. 21 days. And I know you have needs. You have things you're asking God to do. You're asking God for revival in the students, for God to do a great and mighty work. There's 40 kids, 40 students being water baptized on Wednesday. Put your hands together for Jesus. God is doing a miracle. Doing a miracle during these 21 days. I believe it. You're asking God for a house. You're saying, God, give me a house to rent. Give me a house to buy. You're asking God for a car. Maybe you're asking God to heal your mom, your dad, or yourself. You're asking for your mind to come into alignment with what God has for you. Maybe you just need your marriage put back together. Maybe you need favor in your job. You want a promotion. Can I tell you, I believe with every one of those things that God is going to help you? I want breakthrough in my life. I want breakthrough in this church. How many of you believe we can have breakthrough in our church? We're going to have revival. God's going to do some things. But what about, and what if the miracle wasn't that just our circumstances changed? What if the miracle is that we change? What if the miracle is that we're transformed? That the power of Almighty God, it grips us so much that we believe so much that who he is and we spend time with him? Well, we have the power of the Holy Spirit to face whatever situation and whatever life brings, we are victorious because Christ is more than enough. How many of you believe that in this place? What would happen if hundreds of people grabbed hold of that? Well, we'd see marriages restored, we'd see revival, we'd see this place so excited about what God was doing. So I want to give you some practical ways to do that. And you can put the screen up, but here it is. Everyone say, do something. During these 21 days, do something to get close to God yourself. Do something. So decide today what you want to do. Tomorrow it begins. Not perfection. Every day, get up and do something new. So, one thing I'll give you an idea. Pray every single day. Cry out to God every day in your own way, just like he would talk to me. If you want to come to the church when prayers open, 8 a.m. to 5 a.m. weekdays, or Pastor Bruce does 6 a.m. prayer with Dan Newman, the gate. There's all these different things. Do something. Pray every day. Get in your word every single day. We have a Colossians devotional that is really amazing that I really encourage you. Read that Colossians devotional. Get into it every day. And then the other thing is this our Wednesday night services. So we have three Wednesday night services that are going to be so powerful: a connect night with the men and the women. We have a prayer night and then our big worship night. Do something. Come on. And decide today. And then the other side of this is fasting. Say what is fasting? Fasting is when we take away something we normally hunger for, like we're used to, like take away a meal a day or delete your Netflix account or stop getting on social media for 21 days, and you replace it with time with God. And the goal is this that now you'll start hungering for God consistently in its place. I'm just I'm so proud of our students because they're already on fire. They already started. And our students have like this chat going, and a lot of them have already bought flip phones. And they said for 21 days, we're gonna have flip phones instead of our phones because every time I flip my phone open, it reminds me I'm focusing on Jesus. I'm getting close to him. Whatever it is, do something to get close to Jesus. Um, I really love this picture. There was a little boy and his dad, and they were on a sailboat, and the dad was teaching the little boy how to sail. They're out in the water, the wind wasn't really blowing, and the little boy grows impatient. And he looks at his dad and he says, Dad, how do you make the wind blow? How do you make it blow? And the dad said, Son, I don't control the wind. I don't make the wind blow. And he said, Well then how are we gonna move? Like, how are we gonna get where we need to go? And he said, son, we don't control the wind. It's out of our control. But we set the sails and we prepare for the wind. And when what we can't control, when it shows up, it takes us exactly where we need to go. And I'm telling you, that's what prayer is. That God's spirit, God's spirit is already moving. God's spirit is already doing things, God's power is already there. And what we do when we set the sails and prepare, well, the wind of Almighty God catches our life and takes us places we could never imagine. I love what the Bible says. It says, They that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. Come on, they will mount up with wings as eagles. What do eagles do, baby? They soar. And when they're soaring and they get to a certain altitude, they're not flapping as much. They stretch out their wings and they allow those thermal winds to take them higher than they could ever go on their own. And this is my prayer. These 21 days is preparation. These 21 days is stretching out your wings. These 21 days is setting the cells. And I believe the power of Almighty God is gonna take us to heights we could never imagine. Don't be surprised if God takes you places that just blow your mind. Gotta get close. So I want everyone in here, repeat after me. Say, Jesus, I want to be close to you. Jesus, I want to be like you. Jesus, I want your power. Give God some praise right now, and I want you to stand to your feet. I want you to stand to your feet right now. Thank you, Jesus. We're getting ready to spread our wings, and God's gonna do some great things. God's gonna do some great things. But I want to tell you this: do not be discouraged. If the first day starts and if nothing happens, the first day keeps showing up. Second day, keep on your plan. Do that something that God has called you to do. There's a story in the Bible of Daniel, and Daniel he prayed for 21 days and fasted. Prayed and fasted for 21 days. And it was on the 24th day that he got an explanation from an angel. An angel showed up on the 24th day after the prayer and fasting. And the angel said, I just I want to tell you that on the very first day of your prayer and fasting, you couldn't feel it and you didn't see it. But on the very first day, heaven and Almighty God began answering your prayer. They started moving on your behalf, and your prayer, it is in motion. God has it for you. And that's what I want to tell you. The very first day, God is moving, and God's got great things for you. But in this, you've got to give God your yes. Everyone say yes. Getting close to God means giving him your yes. God say yes. So, what is your yes? Maybe your yes is totally coming to him in humility, saying, I don't know everything, God, but I want you to teach me. Maybe your yes is surrendering your life and saying, God, I'm sick of trying to carry everything on my own. Lord, I want, I want to surrender to you. Maybe your yes is repentance. And repentance is so big because we've been walking away from God and saying, I'm sick of this, God. I'm walking towards you. I want you. What is your yes? Maybe it's praying every day. Maybe it's these 21 days. Maybe it's speaking faith over your family and faith over your life. God wants your yes. How many of you want to give God your yes today and you want to get close to Jesus? How many of you in this place, you say, I want to be like Jesus? Come on, you say, I want to walk like Jesus and talk like Jesus. How many of you are sick of doing this in your own strength and power? You need the power of Almighty God to step into your life. I'm telling you, that's what this is all about. God's power is gonna strengthen you. So if you raise your hand today and if you're ready for 21 amazing days, I just want you to bow your head and I want to pray for you today. Maybe some of you say, I'm not close to Jesus. And I just want to make sure that I've given my life to God. Maybe you want all the things that I've talked about, but you haven't even given your life to Jesus, or you want to rededicate your life, or you want to just make sure. If that's you today, if you say, I want to make sure my life is right with God, say I want to make sure I want to give Jesus my life. If that is you today, raise your hand right now. I want to pray with you. Say, I want to make sure I want to give Jesus my life. Just raise your hand so I can see it. So I can see it. Raise your hand. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, God. This is your moment. Everyone repeat after me. Say, Jesus, come into my life. I believe in you, Jesus. I want to be close to you. I want to be like you. I need your power. Transform my life. I love you, Jesus. God, thank you for everyone that just prayed that prayer. I pray you will show your realness and your love to them right now. Just by praying that prayer, just by all of us taking a step towards God, all of us are close to Jesus right now. We're all becoming like Jesus right now. God, I pray that during these 21 days, it's not perfection. God, I pray we don't get into the lie of God only answers prayers for certain people and certain men and certain women that are powerful. God, it's no man's power, it's no woman's power, it's the power of the Holy Spirit. God, it is your power. God, I pray that young men and women will see your power move. We'll see miracles in our students, miracles in our children, miracles in our worship, miracles in our church. And as we do that, God, we want your strength, we want your power like never before. Help it not to be what we can do. God, this is you. God, you're so big. Help us to see you as who you are. You're in control of it all. You're the Alpha, the Omega, the beginning and the end. And God, we want to get close to you in everything we do. So God bless my friends. Now I pray for all the needs. I want you to think of the needs that you have. God, I pray for the needs in this house. In the name of Jesus, during these 21 days, meet the needs of my friends and family in this place. God, touch them. We pray for miracles. I want you to think of your plan right now. Think of what you're gonna do for these 21 days. God, give them ideas right now in the name of Jesus. On the day before these 21 days, give us ideas and help us to show up, not perfection, but God help us to try to get close to you. And as we do this, God, we know that the best is yet to come in Jesus' name. Right now, I just want you to bow your head. We're gonna spend time with Jesus. Everyone say, I want to be close to you, Jesus. Say, I want to be close to you, Jesus. Don't focus on anything else. Everything's gonna be waiting for you. When you get out of this room, clear your mind, clear your worries, clear the judgments, clear anything that's in the way between you and God right now. It's not about me, it's not about this stage, it's not about the person standing next to you, it's about you and God. Get close to God right now. And as we get close, I want us to worship together. Stay shut away with God right now. Come on, let's have a moment. Thank you, Jesus. Let's worship.

SPEAKER_00 37:18

Thank you for connecting with us today. The first step to a new life in Christ is receiving the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ. If you have never received Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, repeat this prayer after me. Jesus, I believe you died on a cross and rose again for me. I ask that you come into my heart and be the Lord of my life. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Whether you committed your life to Jesus for the first time today or are already on your journey of faith, we would love to stay connected with you. Please visit SCchurch.com and follow SCchurch on all social media platforms. And remember, the best is yet to come.