It Is Well | Presence - Pastor Britt Silcox

We close the It Is Well series by redefining God’s presence as personal friendship that holds our joy steady even when life stays hard. We look at Abraham, Moses, and Jesus’ words in John 15 to show how closeness with God reshapes prayer, suffering, calling, and everyday choices. 

• Defining God’s presence as relational closeness, not a mystical idea 
• Naming the cost of distance with God, from empty worship to crisis-driven prayer and accusation 
• Tracing the Bible’s throughline of God wanting to dwell with us 
• Learning trust, surrender, and radical obedience through Abraham’s friendship with God 
• Seeing Moses refuse the promised land without God’s presence 
• Moving from fearful obedience to sharing God’s heart through intercession 
• Hearing Jesus call us friends, not servants, and reveal the Father’s intentions 
• Finding help in Romans 8 when we do not know how to pray, the Spirit interceding in weakness 
• Connecting calling to places of pain where prayer partners with God’s work 
• Choosing God as the reward, asking for His glory and receiving joy over heaviness 

Transcript

Welcome And Series Recap

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Welcome to the Rock Family Darm. For more information about our church, please visit therockfamily.com. Now join us for a message from our special guest speaker.

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The last Sunday of our It Is Well series. I hope that you have not missed a single one. But if you did, you can go back and re-watch Pastor Christian Opened with Perseverance. I'll just give you the nugget there that every hero of the faith had to go through hard things. But the good news was there is a beautiful measure of grace. A very specific measure of grace that only comes to those who walk through and endure. The second week was on patience. Pastor Scott did a great message there about punctuation. The story is not done until you know where the punctuation is. Go back and read that one or listen to that one. Prayer. That was my favorite message, babe. Four ways that God is forming us in prayer. I say all this to say sometimes it's Mother's Day and we're just ready to skip over and forget what God has been speaking. But I want you to know that the messages that are coming to this house are not us coming up with good ideas to speak into you. In fact, I'm so excited about today because I know that I know that I know that God has something He wanted to feed you with. So you remember Psalm 23, the Good Shepherd. What does the Good Shepherd do? He leads the sheep to green pastures, to still waters to eat. And so we're the Undershepherds. He tells us what food he wants you to eat, and we present it today. So I'm excited about this.

Honouring Every Woman In The Room

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Before we jump into all that, I do want to honor my moms, all of the moms in the place today. In fact, I would like every single woman to stand up. Every woman in this room, I want you to stand up. Yes. Yeah, I said every, I said every. I said every. I still see some women not standing. I didn't say mothers, I said all women. I want to remind you of the value that God has put on you. I want to remind you of the treasure that is within the earthen vessel that you are. I want to call you and charge you to recognize that He has placed assignments on you. Young and old, those of you that are biological mothers, those of you that are foster mothers, those of you that are mothers to be, and those of you that are spiritual mothers, every single woman in this place, I charge you, you're gonna have to fight for the fear of the Lord to be your standard. Hear me. You're gonna have to lay hold of God's word, not be discipled by your algorithm. The enemy wants to steal, kill, and destroy, and he has put you here. He has filled you with everything that you're going to need to accomplish his will on the earth. He has put people in your hands, some biological children, some not. You're gonna stand before the Lord, and He's gonna ask you how you stewarded the people that He entrusted to you. So I pray a blessing over you today. I pray that the fire of God, that the passion of God would rise up in you to lay hold of what God has assigned you to do. Amen? Amen. You can sit down.

Women’s Events And Book Giveaway

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Since I have all the attention of the women, this is my perfect time to let you know that June 5th, we have a She night. And Pastor Alex Seely, I believe we have a screen here. Pastor Alex Seely, she is a general. If you have not sat under her ministry, ladies, come out. It's gonna be free of charge. I want you to invite your friends. She's actually um releasing one of her new books, which is um, I assume she'll be speaking on, but who knows? She's very just whatever the Lord wants her to do. And then also, I want you to put on your calendar our women's conference September 10th through the 12th. And then I'm about to talk to y'all too, so just give me five more seconds to handle this business with the ladies. I do not have time to tell you the story of the women's conference, but the theme is wildfire. It's gonna feel and look a little bit different. I want you to choose in your heart to commit to those three days, to be in this room, to come under the presence of the Lord, to hear what God is saying to the women of this house. Why is it gonna be different? It's because you're not gonna see a bunch of pictures posted up. You're not gonna see a lot of videos posted up to try to lure you to come in the room because the Lord said, I'm looking for a mature bride who wants to be here, regardless of the personality, the name, the face. God has something for us. I'm very excited. So get on the app and sign up for those two things. And I'm gonna give these two books out. This is Pastor Alex's um new book. I've got two copies. So, one, I want a woman you are not a mom yet, but something stirred inside of you, and you said that I will answer the assignment. Somebody, you're not a mom yet. I wanted to give you this book. Just run down and get it. And then the other one is I want a grandmother who says, you know what, my kids are out of the home, but I recognize that I'm not supposed to sit and be in comfort and just be hanging around thinking my work is done. There is persevering prayer to be done. All right, where's where's my I'm not a mom yet? There you go. That's Pastor Alex's new book. Okay. Ready, set, all right. Let's do this.

Why Presence Beats Circumstances

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Today's sermon, the closing sermon of the series is on presence. Presence. Now, if you read your Bible, you've read that word a lot, the presence of the Lord. And so we're talking about things that don't make sense to the world. See, the world is going to tell you that when the storm stops, when depression is over, when sorrow is no more, that's when you're okay. But I came to tell you something that the world does not understand. It doesn't matter what you put in the fill-in-the-blank here, in God's presence, there is a friendship with God that is so deep, it doesn't matter if it's persecution, if it's suffering, if it's losing a loved one, if it's miscarriages, if it's barrenness, if it's divorce, fill in the blank, even those places, your joy cannot be stolen. We're gonna talk about that today. Okay, so when I wrote that word presence down, I just started to think about that because um what does that really mean?

What Does God’s Presence Mean

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And and maybe you're new to being in church, maybe you're a young person, and like you hear these like Bible words, you hear these churchy words sometimes, and you're just like, but like his presence, like how do I know if his presence is here? Has anybody ever just asked yourself, like, how do we know? Is it when the music gets a little bit louder on Sunday? Is that when his presence comes? How do you know when he leaves? Is he here now? Is his presence here or did he leave? Right? So this word presence, it's like we we we know kind of the idea of it, but we're gonna break this down today. It's not a bad question to ask, it's a good question today. And I know a lot of you moms, you got a Mother's Day card today. And I am pretty sure, or you're getting one at lunch. I am pretty sure that none of your cards said thank you for your presence in the delivery room. Right? Right? In fact, I just I just had to bring some of mine that I got this morning. I also want to say, I don't know about you, but I love the handmade cards. Because I can give you my debit card to go spend $7.99 on a Hallmark card for me. I bought that for myself. But when I get a homemade card, and I just need to brag, I gotta brag on my oldest. He's an artist, I don't want to embarrass him. My favorite flower is the blue hydrangea. So he drew that. It's a pop-up card, so we put the extra work in. I mean, I was just feeling so loved today. Dear mom, thank you for everything you do for this family. Thank you for taking care of us. Thank you for always putting us before, before people. People don't know how hard you work for our family, and I appreciate the sacrifices you make. Okay. Okay. See, everybody thinks that moms want flowers or fancy gift cards. I'm just telling you, I'm gonna put the secret out there. We wanna know what you think about us. And we love coupons for chores. I went ahead and planted a seed. I said, Mama doesn't want you to buy her anything. I want the refrigerator and freezer cleaned out, like all the old food and the crystals out, and I want your closets organized. That's all I want. So on your card, on your card today, we're talking about presents because this is actually the picture. See, when a relationship is meaningful, it's important, it's valued. We don't use words that are just concepts. It's not just a way out there kind of thing. Oh, thank you. Mom, where's she? Mom, thank you. All these things he wrote about me, I could write about you, right? And so that's we're talking about relationships, okay? And relationship with God and his presence being so much more. It's about history, it's about stories. Think about the links that you go to to preserve memories with the people you love. Think about how you celebrate each year so that you don't forget the things about the people that are close to you. You spend your time, your money, your resources, you make sacrifices, don't you?

From Awareness To Closeness With God

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How sad would it be for you to live your life, viewing God's presence, as some faraway mystical theory, an idea where you know you're aware of this God of the Bible, but you don't experience closeness. You know, that kind of looks like people that show up even here today. You hear song lyrics, you repeat song lyrics, but you don't sing it to Jesus. You're just repeating. A relationship that's aware of God but not close to God looks like a prayer life that really comes to life when a big life decision is ready to be made, and you think, God, if you're out there, could you show me what to do? A relationship that's distant looks like when crisis hits, that distance that was there between you and your creator now turns to accusation. God, why didn't you show up? See, these are things believers do, believing in God, aware of God, but not what followers, friends, sons, and daughters. It's not how they respond. And if we keep this distance between us and God, we're gonna forfeit, we're gonna miss the primary narrative of scripture, the overarching theme of your entire Bible from beginning to end was that God wanted relationship with you. Not once a week. He wanted to dwell with you, be with you. So beautiful. From Eden, right all the way back to the garden, from all the patriarchs in the Old Testament, the cloud by night, the fire by day, the tabernacle, the temple. However, much of the Bible that you have read, it is woven from beginning to end, from Jesus to his disciples, all the way to Revelation, when he's gonna make the whole the world new again and make it right, and we're gonna be reconnected with God, all of creation. All he ever wanted was unbroken friendship and relationship with you. Oh, you mean the pastors? No. Oh, you mean the elders? No, those of you in the back balcony in the shadows that I can't even see your face. He did it all because he wanted relationship with you. So, why does God share his presence with us, his friendship with us? It's because he wants friendship with you. God wants friendship with you. And this friendship is gonna change the way

The Bible’s Theme Of Friendship

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you live. Maybe that's the spoiler alert. This friendship is gonna change the way we live. So we're gonna look at some friends of God in the Bible, and we're gonna start with Abraham, okay? In James 2, it said that Abraham believed God, and he was called a friend of God. There's something about this when I have read these scriptures, it just jumped out to me the reality of the creator of the universe. I just got back from an amazing couple of days with my lovely husband at the beach, walking on gorgeous white sand, one of those, God just he just moved heaven and earth. There was not a piece of seaweed, there was not no seagulls pooped on me this time. I mean, it was just like still and crystal. And you look at the number of grains of sand, and it says that's the number of thoughts that he has for you. And if you just picked up one tiny grain of sand and realized this God that made all of this wants friendship with us. So Abraham gets this special privilege. Everybody see when people get something special, and you're like, well, why'd he get it? See, I live in a kid world, and in kid world, this sounds like, no fair. I mean, like, sometimes you're like, seriously? Like, no fair, Jude got an award for playing basketball. Well, he's on the basketball team. Um, you're seven, so like, but the sad part is adults, we laugh because the kids do it. How do how do we handle when others have the favor of the Lord? That's just a side note. So, how did how did Abraham get this special privilege? We're gonna look at three things very quickly. We see trust,

Abraham’s Trust Surrender Obedience

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we see trust in his life, we see surrender, and we see radical obedience. What about trust? Okay, so what is that? You remember God asks Abraham to leave everything, everything familiar, his family, his comfort, his security to follow him to an unknown destination. He had to trust God. He didn't have all of the Bible stories that we have, the proven track record of how God comes through to lean on. He had to believe. He had to put his trust in God, he had to surrender. Remember, he and Lot, they're about to pick out the land for their inheritance, and Lot wants the good one, and he has to surrender, knowing, God, whatever portion you pick for me, it's gonna be good. He had radical obedience. Remember, long, he's in these final days when God finally brings a son, a promised son, a son that they had desired their whole lives. And what do we find out? That God comes and asks him for. And you begin to recognize what is pulling in your life. So we're looking at his radical obedience, we're looking at his surrender and his trust. And then now let's look at Moses.

Moses Refuses Promise Without God

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Moses is another one in Exodus chapter three. He's called a friend of God. It says the Lord speaks to him face to face, just like you would with a friend. It's the same trust, the same surrender, and radical obedience all through the life of Moses. He trusts God that he knows best for the things that he can't even see for himself. And God, I just I felt this during worship today. I just overwhelmed during that last song. You know, that God wants more for you than you want for yourself. More than you think you can do or would ever be able to do for him. He sees that in you, and he calls it and draws it out of you. He's so good. Same with Moses. And so here, God's called him to lead the people out of Israel. He's doing the signs, the wonders, the miracles. He's made a way. Like God is doing the work, and Moses is leading the charge. And he says, in Exodus 33, he's like, the land's there. It's filled with milk and honey. It's gonna be a good place. All the things that I promised for you are there. He's like, but there's this one thing I'm not going. I'm not going with you into the land. I know that's what we talked about, but things have changed. You'll have to go back and read the story to read it all. But I love this about Moses. Because Moses is a friend of God. What does he say? He refuses to go to the promise without God. Without God's presence, without God's friendship. See, if it was just about this ethereal presence, well, he's everywhere. God is everywhere. So I could easily go into the land that you have prepared. You said you've already sent an angel to wipe out all of the enemies that are gonna be there. Praise God. So your presence is clearly there because you're everywhere, God. But because Moses was a friend of God, he's like, No, that's not good enough. I'm not going without you. I know what it feels like to have the light of God shine on my face. I know what it feels like to feel your warmth, to be able to reflect that warmth back to people. I'm not interested in the good land. I'm not going without you. Friends of God would rather be left in a wilderness with God than have success without Him. So when everything's falling apart for you, let's talk about you. Friends of God, we don't run to temporary fixes. We get face to face with God. I hope you know what I'm talking about, but if you don't, today's an invitation for this. We come closer to Jesus, we find our resting place there and say, God, don't pass me by. Look on me with favor. Don't pass me by, God. You know, He's the only one that hears you when you pray, right? So we don't need to go looking to any other thing. But a friend that sticks closer than a brother. But friendship with God isn't just about what we surrender. Let's talk about this.

Friends Carry What God Carries

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My second point, friends of God share his heart. Friends of God share his heart. This is when you move from I obey you, because I'm scared of you, to I begin carrying what you carry. Have you ever had a friend? Like I I hope you don't have friends like this. But any good friend, if they see you coming in with all your bags of groceries, I don't know about you, moms, I like to do one trip from the trunk, which is almost never possible. So I mean, I've got them here. I'm here. It's actually like cutting the skin. Every every finger has got a bag. A good friend doesn't just watch you carrying all that heavy weight and just let you do it. What does a friend do? Can I help you? Like, give me some of that. Give me one of those, right? That's what friends of God do. They begin carrying what he carries. I've got some scriptures here. We're gonna look again at Abraham. In Genesis 18, God is about to have to judge Sodom and Gomorrah because of their unrighteousness and because of what's been going on there. And it says that. That God says, should I hide what I'm about to do from Abraham? Because they're friends, God's actually gonna share in advance the plans of his heart so that Moses, so that Abraham has an opportunity to get involved. That's crazy. It's absolutely crazy. It's crazy that God would disclose what he's about to do to Abraham. I love this little part of scripture. I'm reading so much, that's why I'm not reading it, but I hope that you'll be like, wait, I don't remember all the details of that story. And you'll actually go home this week, and in your private time, in your Bible time, you'll go back and read these stories. But I love this part because this is where Abraham negotiates with God. Y'all remember this story? Anyone read some good business books on negotiations? Abraham, he knew exactly what this was. I'm gonna read verse uh uh 23. It says, Abraham drew near after God is disclosing what he's going to do. Abraham draws near to God. He says, Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there's 50. If there's 50 righteous in the city, will you then sweep away the place and not spirit for the 50 righteous? So he's beginning to negotiate with God. God has a plan. God has to bring judgment here. And Moses, Abraham, I keep saying that, and Abraham is stepping in in the middle of this. And I love it because it, you know, have you ever read the story? He actually goes down from 50 to 45. Well, what if they're all the way down to five? If I feel like it's us ladies when we're on Facebook Marketplace looking for that deal, I have so many tricks that I could share with you after. If you just you've been paying regular price almost anywhere, please stop. Please stop doing that. Like you have to learn the art of the deal. You've got to learn how to just, you know, not look so interested in it that you look desperate. And then just kind of, my dad taught me this. You know, you just gotta kind of throw it out there and walk away. Just see what comes back to you, right? Abraham is at such a friend of God that in a place where God is about to bring judgment, that he is working it out with God. It's wild. It's wild. Why? Why is he able to do this? Because they're friends, they're covenant partners. Abraham's empowered to participate in God's moral governance. That's crazy. Let's look at Moses. Moses is in a similar place. Remember, he's a friend of God too. He stands and begins interceding for Israel. We're gonna look at Numbers 12. He says, My servant Moses, he's faithful in all my house. And when I speak to him mouth to mouth, clearly, not in riddles, he beholds the glory of the Lord. I love this verse because so many of y'all, you will travel across the world. You will pay $300 to go to a conference hoping to get a word from the Lord that is probably a riddle. Or you could be his friend. Yeah, yeah, it takes a while. It's not an on-demand genie in a bottle, magic eight ball. Right? Moses went up the mountain for 40 days, and the people got a little tired of waiting for his word. Because God decides how long it takes. I wish it wasn't so, but it is. I choose friend. Also love prophetic words, not against those, just trying to keep us balanced here. So we pick up where we left off here. This is Moses is interceding for Israel because remember, he shows him the promised land, and then he says, I'm not going. Remember, we just talked about this? Exodus 33, verse 6 says, The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, the Lord the Lord, a God merciful, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. He keeps his love for thousands of generations, forgiving iniquity and sin, by no means clearing the guilty. I love this in verse 8. Moses bows his head and he says, God, if I have found favor in your sight, please will you go in the midst of us? Please go with us. God even told him, I'll go with you, but I'm not going with them. And he still stops and says, No, Lord, no, Lord, if I have found favor with you, go with us. Go with us. We're taking notes, okay? You're like, where are you going with this? I want you to be taking notes of what friends of God look like, how they operate, how they're not selfish, how they care about what God's trying to do on the earth. Friends of God are brought into the conversation. Servants just receive instructions. That's all they do. But friends hear the heart. We hear God's heart for faithfulness, for love, for forgiveness. And you know, it's just not for Moses and Abraham. Who's this for? Who's it for? John 15. Jesus

Jesus Calls Us Friends Not Servants

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talks to his disciples. Jesus says to them, He says, Greater love has no one than this, and someone lay down his life for his friends. Jesus is telling his disciples, it wasn't just Moses and Abraham. Like, I'm gonna lay my life down for you because I call you friends. You're my friends if you do what I command you. So no longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what the master is doing, but I have called you friends, for I have heard from my father. All that I have heard from my father, I make known to you. See, God wants to reveal his intentions to you. If you're bored right now, and if you're bored with your walk with the Lord, we got some distance going on. Okay? Because friends with God, God actually shares what he wants to do. And let me tell you, he's not boring. Okay? So so many of us have been in religion so long, and we have become good enough to be able to check the boxes that we're not living the life that God intended. We're not living with passion, we're not living on fire for the Lord, we're not living, hearing what the Father wants to do on the earth. And he says, that's not why I laid my life down. I laid my life down for you to call you friends. See, a stranger can easily misunderstand or misread the moment. Have you ever heard this? Oh, you know, every generation said that God was coming back. And you know, and he hasn't. So it's just like it's just like this gaping hole, like maybe he will, but you know what? It just no, no, no, no, no. See, friends of God don't misunderstand the delay, they don't misunderstand the timing because you understand God's intention. What is God's intention? To seek and save all that are lost. If he delays, it's because he wants not one more to perish. He's waiting for us to bring the gospel to the ends of the earth. The third point, friends of God are called to participate, called to participate

Groaning Hope And The Spirit’s Help

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with him. Ladies, we just finished. If you were in the she group, thank you so much for hanging in there. We did the book of Romans. And when we got to Romans chapter 8, we came on this line here. And I had to say, ladies, I hope you read the fine print. I hope you read the fine print of Romans chapter 8. There's all these scriptures in there that we put on t-shirts, but right in here, verse 16 and 17. He says, You're my child, and you're my heir, co-heir with Christ, if you indeed suffer with him, so that you will be glorified. Everybody say glory, future glory. He says, the sufferings of this present time, they're so temporary, they're so small compared to the eternity of glory that he has stored up for us. He's like, don't even compare it. They don't even work on the same scale. You got to separate the two. And then verse 26, he says, the Spirit helps us, helps you in your weakness. When you don't know what to pray for, anybody been here? Your heart is grieving. I could look around here because I know a lot of the stories. Your heart has been grieving. This has been a year of hard things. And the spirit helps you in your weakness. When you don't know what to pray for, the spirit, read this, the spirit intercedes for you with groanings too deep for words. This is not even talking about a prayer language. This is just talking about when you have an ache and a wail within you, that the Holy Spirit in you, as friends of God, begins to intercede for you. And it says, He who knows and searches the heart, who's the one who knows and searches the hearts? He knows the mind of the Spirit. Because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to God's perfect will. So the thing that you can't even muster up to pray for because you don't know how to pray, you just want the ache to go. When you partner with God, when you participate with God, the Holy Spirit in you is already interceding on your behalf, knowing the heart of the Father, knowing the good plans, the good purposes, his perfect will for you. And the Spirit is interceding with you in that place. We're called into participation with the Trinity. Creation groans. We read that in this chapter. Creation is groaning, the world is broke, it's sick, there's destruction, there's pain, there's harm, brokenness. Creation groans, waiting, waiting for the return of Jesus. The spirit groans in you, waiting for the return of Jesus. And we, friends of God, we groan and we hope. We groan and we hope because we have a hope. Did you know that? See, we he doesn't leave us in the groaning. You're like, that doesn't sound very fun. No, no, no, nobody signs up for this. Things come in your path. Sometimes they're personal, sometimes you're a bystander, and it still affects you in a deep way, and you feel pain, you feel sorrow, you feel loss, and in that place, you intercede with the Holy Spirit, and hope begins to come on the inside of you. It is the most beautiful transaction between you and the Trinity because you're friends of God. Friends of God grieve over the same brokenness that He grieves for. That lament wall out there, as we prayed over those, some of those were personal prayer requests, and some of those were just things that people feel the weight of in the world. Human trafficking, right? Drug addiction. People were writing things on there that they want to see God's light break in on. So they left it on the wall before the Lord and allowed intercession to come. And I love, we love Ephesians 1. It's one of my favorite verses. We always like the part about the eyes of my understanding being enlightened. Does anybody else like that part? Yes, Lord, enlighten me. I want some blueprints, I want some strategies for innovation. Where's my engineers out there? He does that. He does that. The friends of God, he actually shares blueprints and plans with, right? But it also talks about that you would know the hope of your calling. The hope of your calling. I always wondered what that meant. I'm gonna be honest. Christian said something last Sunday, and he talked about when he had shared that story, and the little couple came up after, and it was causing them anxiety. He's preaching on how to prepare, prepare your heart for perseverance. I do this with my kids. When I know we're about to do something that they don't like to do, I say, prepare your heart. We're gonna walk in here and you're gonna have a smile on, and we're gonna we're gonna have a good attitude, right? So Christians talking about prepare your hearts because we're gonna have to persevere in prayer. There's gonna be some things coming, and a little couple comes up to him after and said, Oh, that that caused anxiety. We just, you know, we've got a baby on the way, and it just made us worry and fear. And he was able to pray with them. But the preparing of your heart isn't to bring anxiety, it isn't to, oh God, just let it pass over me. I don't want to have to go through anything. Like the preparing of your heart is to clarify your calling. We all want to know our calling, right? You sign up for a masterclass, or is this your third or fourth? Just download to me what I'm called to do, my unique identity. Right here, we learn about our calling. We get clarity

Calling Meets The World’s Pain In Prayer

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on our calling. I want to read this quote from N.T. Wright. When Jesus breathed his spirit on his followers, he said, As the Father has sent me, so I send you. And where has the father sent him? To the place where the world was in dire pain so that he could take it upon himself. Our vocation, our calling, your calling by the Spirit places us right now where the world is in pain so that we can be in prayer right there. I'm telling you, don't miss these moments. It may be at your job, it may be at your neighborhood, it may be with your own children, it may be your children's friends. When that stab hits, that A kits you of something that is not right in the world, and you can just flutter it off and go about your day. Or you can stop right there and say, right now, Holy Spirit, I partner with you. I intercede right now for the perfect will of the Lord. Holy Spirit, intercede through me and actually see something that God wants to do on the earth manifest here. We don't understand how that works. Wait, I mean, I didn't have to start a nonprofit to end human trafficking. No, and thank God people have been given blueprints to do that. Your role may just be partnering in a moment in prayer when something comes to mind. You pass a street sign and you just feel, you know what? There could be some of this going on in this neighborhood. God, I just pray right now over the destiny of children. I'm just telling you, the Holy Spirit wants to move in you look just like that. It's wild. It's wild, and sometimes you'll doubt yourself. Like, did I just make that up? Like, that was very random. Like, I mean, I don't really know. Like, I mean, I didn't, I don't have like super intel or data that this is going on. Just just trust that he said your calling, your calling is actually to bring hope through intercession where the world feels pain. Just trust that. Sometimes the spirit will position you at the place of pain in the world, not because God has abandoned us, but because friendship has invited you into participation with him. Our intercession and the spirit groaning for God to make the world right is how we become the conduit through which God works his purposes on the earth. This is big. I don't even fully understand it, but I know when I read this, it's right. Have you ever stumble on something and you're like, I don't even think my brain can take all that in. But deep down you know. You know this is truth. This is truth. This is what's on the inside of me. This is what

The Reward Is God Himself

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God put on the inside of you. Alright, band, if you want to come up, I'll give you plenty of time. My next point, the last point here is that friends of God learn that the reward, they reward all your labor, all your serving, all your time with Him, all the things you've surrendered, all the moments that you fell down, you fell down. You fell to temptation, you fell in the pit, but you didn't stay there. You let the Lord dust you off and pull you back up, and you started again. All of these things, the reward for that was Him. The reward was friendship with God. You know, instead of just wanting God to rescue us, that's what believers do. But friends of God want more than just a rescue. We want to experience God so close that we know him. I'm gonna read verse 17 of Exodus 33. The Lord tells Moses this the very thing that I told you I would do, to go with you. I'm gonna go with you. Because you found favor with me. Does anybody want to find God to find favor? And this part right here, God tells him, I know you by name.

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I don't know why he messes with me.

SPEAKER_01 39:42

It wreaks me. I think God would say to you, I know you by name. But he says to me, Bret, I know you by name. I want things for you that you can't even imagine. You don't believe enough in yourself that you could ever be a part of it. But I see. And he says that over you, I know you by name. And Moses responds, show me your glory. He doesn't bring a wish list, he doesn't bring the details of the car, the house, the vacation. He says, God, all I want is for you to show me your glory. And the Lord says something pretty cool back. He says, Moses, I am going to make all of my goodness pass over you. And I'm gonna proclaim my name over you. So yeah, I know your name, Moses. But I don't think you're ready for this. I'm gonna make my goodness pass over you, and I'm gonna speak my name. We're too casual with his name. Maybe you hadn't gone through anything where you had to call out to his name. Maybe you've been so strong you can do it all by yourself. Up to this point, you've just been able to muscle through, but I'ma tell you I haven't. But when I feel like I can't go on, I can call on his name. His name is higher than every name. His name is a rank and authority and power. And if he's willing to let us call on the name, to run to his name, why would you doubt him? Why would you think that he's not capable? Why would you think he's not able to remove the distance between you and him? And to bring you into friendship. It was never about being worthy. Well, Bray, you don't know. You don't know who I am. You don't know what I've done. You don't know my background. It was never about that. It was that he moved heaven and earth to draw you into him. It's a doorway, it's an open doorway. You just have to go through it. You just have to say yes, God. I want to be friends with you. I want to know you like that. I want to trust you like that. Thank you. God, find favor here. Find favor in this church, God. Put your name on this church, God. Show us your glory here, God. Let your goodness pass by here. Over the city, God. Over the city, Lord. Proclaim your name. Proclaim your name. Proclaim your name, God. Proclaim your name. Anybody got heaviness

Joy Over Heaviness And Altar Moment

SPEAKER_01 43:06

in the room today? Proclaim the name of Jesus over that. Heaviness has to go when Jesus comes. Three more scriptures. Psalm 25. The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him. And he makes known his steadfast love. Psalm 16, he'll make known to you the path of life. See, there's a lot of paths being offered to you right now. Your algorithm is incentivized to lead you down the wrong path, and he says, I have the path of life for you. And in my presence, in my friendship, his fullness of joy. Who destroy? Who destroy? Stand up right here. Who destroys? You say, I need joy today. Right now, Lord, we cast off heaviness. We cast down heaviness. God, we receive the joy of the Lord. Right now, I want you to make an altar. Make an altar right there where you are, standing up. Make an altar between you and Him. Say, God, I want to be your friend. God, I want to be close to you. No more head knowledge. I want to experience you. I want to encounter you. God, I want you to take me to the secret place. God, I want you to show me the things that you see in me that I can't see in myself. Lord, we love you today. We praise you today. We honor you today, Jesus. We're undone by you, God. Lord, we receive joy. We receive joy. We receive joy today. Not because the situation's fixed. Not because the prayer has been answered. But because we are your friend. We are your friend. And you shine your light on our face today. Shine your light on our face today, God. Thank you, Lord. I'm talking to you today. Something jumped inside of you and said, I want to know God like that. I'm talking to you today. If you want to come to this altar and pray with somebody, our altar team will be here. Sometimes this is new, and you just want to pray with somebody, but you don't even have, so you can do this right here in your chair. You say, I don't want to just be forgiven. I want to be a friend. I don't want to just be saved but still distant. I want to be stirred for what stirs God. Ask Him for it. Ask Him for it. Say, God, I want you to stir my heart for what stirs your heart. Religion has to go in this place. It's a facade. It's a counterfeit. Do you want the real thing? Do you want the real thing? There's one thing though.

Exclusive Friendship And Choosing God

SPEAKER_01 46:30

Friendship with God requires an exclusive relationship. It's exclusive. So he says that friendship with the world means you're an enemy of God. So you gotta decide which one you want. It's not the people of the world, it's the ways of the world, the cultures of the world, the idols of the world. You gotta choose. Do I want to be God's friend or do I want to be a friend of the world? And let me tell you, there's not one thing that you will ever walk away from that is worth trading in what he has for you. There's somebody in here today, God's already put something on your heart that he's been holding his hand out saying it's not good for you. It's not my best for you. I need you to put it right there. I need you to let go. And I need you to trust me that I have something better, that I have more for you. Let my goodness pass over you. Let my favor shine on you. But fear will tell you this is too scary. I thought I wanted this. Oh, then you started talking about him asking me to put stuff in his hand. This is too hard for it. This is too scary. That's the voice of fear in your life. That's not the voice of your friend and your father and your savior who says, You can trust me. You can trust me. I give good gifts to my children who ask. So today you're making a choice, a line in the sand that says, I'm not gonna come again. It just be a worshiping Sunday subject to a king I don't know. Today, I'm choosing friendship.

Closing Service Times And Connect

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We hope and pray this message was encouraging and impactful. Join us live on our website or Facebook on Sundays at 9 and 11 a.m. You can stay connected with us on Facebook and Instagram at The Rock Family. Have a Jesus filled week.