SPEAKER_00: Lord, we thank you for your presence.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for your glory.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for all that you have for us, Lord, in this uh in this time, in this moment, right now.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, thank you for your presence that's already here.
SPEAKER_00: We give you honor, we give you praise.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, all things start and end in you.
SPEAKER_00: All things pertaining to life, all things pertaining to godliness, all things pertaining to faith, all things pertaining to the abundance that we have in you, Lord, it all starts and ends in you.
SPEAKER_00: We give you praise, Lord, we give you praise.
SPEAKER_00: We honor you, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Holy Spirit, come and continue to work in our lives, continue to reveal the deep truths of your word to us.
SPEAKER_00: Continue to unpack more of Jesus in us.
SPEAKER_00: Continue to change us and transform us, that which became flesh and dwelt among us.
SPEAKER_00: We bless your name, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We honor you, we give you thanks.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Warren shared this message last Sunday about talking about the concept of friendship with God.
SPEAKER_00: And I've been thinking about it.
SPEAKER_00: Friendship with God is just one of those things where it's like faith, and faith is one of the components of our walk with the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: The depth of our relationship is the measure of friendship we have with Him, and they're all interconnected, but they don't define each other.
SPEAKER_00: They're all different things.
SPEAKER_00: How much power we have is another dimension of our walk with the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Our capacity to believe and trust in Him is another dimension of our walk with the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Faith is one of them.
SPEAKER_00: If we have enough history with the Lord, it tends to give us faith.
SPEAKER_00: If we've noticed certain upbringings, if we can have certain upbringings and they, by design, allow us to trust God more than maybe other people.
SPEAKER_00: And it's not better than someone else, it's just others may have something different.
SPEAKER_00: Some people find it easy to trust God and just they just know.
SPEAKER_00: I heard a line uh during the week, someone said that if we can just get to a place where doesn't matter what's happening, doesn't matter what the cost is, doesn't matter what we lose or what we're hoping for, doesn't matter delay, as long as we know that God is good and that when I get to the other side, he would have something better for me.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever I've lost, whatever the cost was.
SPEAKER_00: And some people are easy.
SPEAKER_00: It's easy for them to make that journey and trust God and keep going because they have this deep-rooted belief system in place that will just be like, God is good, I know that, and I don't know why the situation is right now, but I know that when I get to the other side, it's going to be better than what I ever imagined.
SPEAKER_00: So, so friendship with God is one of those things.
SPEAKER_00: And if you desire friendship, this is gonna be this is gonna be enjoyable.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a long message, it's not a complex message.
SPEAKER_00: Uh probably can do it in the time that's left.
SPEAKER_00: So I want to continue in that direction of friendship with the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: It's a topic that's dear to my heart.
SPEAKER_00: When I was growing up in India, there was a Christian bookshop in the city, and and I was their best customer.
SPEAKER_00: I would buy a lot from them.
SPEAKER_00: And uh and the guy would be he he would start smiling when he would see me pulling up in front of the shop.
SPEAKER_00: Because I would buy two or three Bibles, I would buy four or five books, I would buy music CDs, I would be looking forward to the next you know, vineyard album that was coming out, because they had very good music at that time.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the books I bought from there was a book by Joy Dawson, and it was known as Friendship with God, Intimate Friendship with God.
SPEAKER_00: And it had a subtitle, I can't remember just now.
SPEAKER_00: But the book, sorry, through fear of the Lord, that's right.
SPEAKER_00: So the book basically walks you through understanding what it means, what is the fear of the Lord, the beginning of wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: And it's not being afraid, it's revenant fear, it's honoring fear, it's a happy fear, it's it's it's not being afraid, fear, it's reverence.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't want to break down the book here, but I remember getting that book, it's not a very big book, it's it's only probably a centimeter thick.
SPEAKER_00: I remember very, very clearly that sort of size, a centimeter thick, and I grabbed it in my hand and I felt something in my being.
SPEAKER_00: And that title, just that title, drew me into a place of friendship with the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And so I was really excited when Warren shared that word last Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: Exodus chapter 34, verse 29.
SPEAKER_00: I want to pray for just a quick prayer for refreshing.
SPEAKER_00: There is change in his presence, there is refreshing in his presence.
SPEAKER_00: If we are tired, there is refreshing in his presence.
SPEAKER_00: If we need that, if we see things that need to change in our lives, there is change in his presence.
SPEAKER_00: And here in Exodus chapter 34, starting from verse 29, says, Now it was so when Moses came down from Mount Sinai, and the two tablets of the testimony were in Moses' hand when he came down from the mountain that Moses did not know, that the skin on his face shone while he talked with him.
SPEAKER_00: While Moses talked with God, something had started to happen to him physically.
SPEAKER_00: He physically started to change.
SPEAKER_00: The skin on his face started to shine.
SPEAKER_00: It's amazing that these tablets were given to him by God.
SPEAKER_00: Not these ones, the one before these were given by God.
SPEAKER_00: And Moses, I don't know if you know the story, but he was coming down with those two tablets that God gave him, and he saw the nation of Israel dancing around the calf there.
SPEAKER_00: And he he got angry and he smashed those two, those two tablets.
SPEAKER_00: He goes, Lord, I can't lead these people.
SPEAKER_00: I can't, I cannot do this.
SPEAKER_00: He was so angry.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord was angry too.
SPEAKER_00: But then the second time the Lord says, Look, I gave you the first tablets.
SPEAKER_00: Now this time you make it yourself.
SPEAKER_00: So he wrote these ones and he was carrying them down.
SPEAKER_00: But as he was talking to the Lord, the Bible says that the skin on his face started to shine, that he did not know that the skin on his face shone while he's talked, while he talked with him.
SPEAKER_00: So when Aaron and the children of Israel saw Moses, behold the skin of his face shone that they were afraid to come near him.
SPEAKER_00: They are afraid to come near him.
SPEAKER_00: Acts chapter 3, this is after the miracle.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 19 onwards, repent therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out.
SPEAKER_00: This process of of repentance, this process of conversion, which is which means change, this process of changing our mindset, just turning around and going in the other direction.
SPEAKER_00: This has the capacity to mop up the stains of our mistakes.
SPEAKER_00: It has the capacity to just take, you know, sometimes we we we drop things in uh in our homes, and then we take a whole bunch of paper towel and we mop it up, and the floor gets clean.
SPEAKER_00: The other day we we were packing up all the leftovers, and it had a big glass container.
SPEAKER_00: You know, the big ones that you can buy from a bed, bath, and table.
SPEAKER_00: They come in sort of inside each other, but the square glass one this high with a plastic lid, big one.
SPEAKER_00: We had that filled up and uh leftovers, and was going in the fridge, but it wasn't sitting right in the fridge.
SPEAKER_00: And next time somebody opened the fridge and this thing slid out, it flew past halfway, and then gravity got hold of it and goes down and smash.
SPEAKER_00: The amount of mess that it made, but I tell you what, what did we get out?
SPEAKER_00: A whole big roll of paper towel, you know, heaps of paper towel and mopped it all up, and by the time we sprayed and wiped the floor, you couldn't tell that something uh was spilt there.
SPEAKER_00: That's the capacity that if we hear his voice and we decide to change our lives, he mops our mistakes up.
SPEAKER_00: Repent, therefore, and be converted, which means be changed, be transformed, that your sins may be blotted out.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know how many people have used blotting paper, but it's pretty much mopping up.
SPEAKER_00: You mop it up so that the times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Times of refreshing may come from the Lord, and it's a multi-step process that Acts chapter 3 is spelling out for us.
SPEAKER_00: Repentance, repentance is nothing but realization that I need to change this.
SPEAKER_00: God doesn't expect us to be perfect, but he does expect us to have the humility, so then we when we see something, we go, I made a mistake there, and I need to make sure that I don't do that again.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever help I can get, I will.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever mindset change I need to have, I will put that in place so that doesn't happen again.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't expect us to be perfect, but he does expect us to have the humility to change.
SPEAKER_00: Repent, therefore, and be converted.
SPEAKER_00: So not just the realization that I made a mistake there, putting something in place, doing something, changing something so our walk is different next time.
SPEAKER_00: That your sins may be blotted out.
SPEAKER_00: And if we do that with God, he tends to mop up our mistakes that we might have made.
SPEAKER_00: So there's no memory of it.
SPEAKER_00: Suddenly we are clean, and we need to get to this place, so we need to realize I made a mistake, I'm going to do this.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone who received anything in the Bible, that was their process.
SPEAKER_00: The younger boy from the father, the prodigal son, as we call him, he realized, he says he realized that in his father's house, even the servants had more than enough.
SPEAKER_00: And then he put a plan in place.
SPEAKER_00: He goes, This is what I'm gonna do.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna go back to my father and I'm gonna ask him that I'm not worthy to be your son anymore.
SPEAKER_00: Keep me as a servant.
SPEAKER_00: So he had he had a realization, he had some steps in place that I'm gonna do this now.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't think this would take me this long, these two verses.
SPEAKER_00: Repentance and be converted, which means to change the way you do it, change the way you think.
SPEAKER_00: Next thing would happen is God will come and do something.
SPEAKER_00: Two steps we take, he comes and does something, which is what he blots out the stains of our mistakes, he blots out the markings of our sins, he blots out and cleanses us.
SPEAKER_00: But he can't do that until we have the repentance and the conversion.
SPEAKER_00: Now, once he's blotted this out, chapter 3 says, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord upon you.
SPEAKER_00: We can't be refreshed in the Lord until we have had that process, until we've gone through repentance.
SPEAKER_00: And you can tell all of us have been in places like that, all of us have known people that as long as we are holding on to that anger, as long as we are holding on to that thought system, as long as we are holding on to that offense, as long as we are holding it, we cannot be refreshed by the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And this refreshing comes from his presence.
SPEAKER_00: I want to pray for this refreshing.
SPEAKER_00: So there are times of refreshing.
SPEAKER_00: That word times can be translated seasons, not just a small moment, but seasons, times of refreshing.
SPEAKER_00: There's times and seasons when the Lord calls us into special engagement with Him.
SPEAKER_00: There are times and seasons when the Lord puts before us and we know for sure that the Lord is changing something in my life, and something is shifting in my life.
SPEAKER_00: And this is one of those moments, this times of refreshing, where joy overcomes us.
SPEAKER_00: Joy comes and fills our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: Joy will overshadow us, peace will overshadow us, and all that happens in his presence, and there's things that we need to do, as I've already pointed out: repentance, conversion, then being made clean, so that times of refreshing may come upon us from the presence of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I pray for these times, for these times of refreshing to come upon us.
SPEAKER_00: I crave for these times of refreshing.
SPEAKER_00: I am always looking into getting into that place of his presence.
SPEAKER_00: And it's not just refreshing, refreshing is one of those things, and the Lord highlighted today that refreshing is something that he wants to take us through.
SPEAKER_00: That's one of the things.
SPEAKER_00: But in his presence there is fullness of joy, in his presence there is life, in his presence there's freedom from sickness and disease, in his presence there is wholeness, in his presence there is hope.
SPEAKER_00: So, Father, we pray that you take us into those places of change and refreshing.
SPEAKER_00: You said to Moses when he put this demand on you, show me your face.
SPEAKER_00: And you said to him that no man can see me and live.
SPEAKER_00: And the fact that his face shined, something in him died and changed.
SPEAKER_00: Physically, even.
SPEAKER_00: Of course, spiritually, of course, in his thinking, in his mindset, in his psyche.
SPEAKER_00: Something physically in him changed.
SPEAKER_00: So much so that Aaron and the children of Israel were afraid.
SPEAKER_00: His face wasn't just glowing the way we think.
SPEAKER_00: Oftentimes, you know, somebody buys a good some maybe some good product, and it's like, wow, it just made made the skin glow.
SPEAKER_00: This put fear in the heart of Aaron and the children of Israel, because he was so physically changed.
SPEAKER_00: And the Bible says that he would from that point onwards, every time he would talk to the children of Israel, he would put a veil over his face.
SPEAKER_00: But when he would go into the presence of the Lord, he would take the veil off and be able to talk to the Lord as a friend, as a man talks to his friend.
SPEAKER_00: And Father, we pray for that change of heart.
SPEAKER_00: I believe that that physical change is even possible.
SPEAKER_00: It happened to one person, it can happen to anybody.
SPEAKER_00: We just gotta have that walk with the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Father, I'm asking for that change to come upon us.
SPEAKER_00: Take us into that season of refreshing, take us into those times of refreshing, those moments where something in our lives changes.
SPEAKER_00: We give you honor and praise, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: What does it mean, friendship with God?
SPEAKER_00: You know, in the Bible, friendship with God, this concept, just this is not just a casual run-in to God.
SPEAKER_00: It just doesn't happen like that.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, God can, God can meet us in a casual sense, that we may just have gone out to the shops or gone out just for a walk, and suddenly his presence comes upon us.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, that's great.
SPEAKER_00: But friendship requires a little bit more effort than just that quiet casual engagement, casual run-in with the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: That casual run-in can be a trigger, it can be a trigger to put us onto this path of trusting the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Friendship requires trust.
SPEAKER_00: Friendship requires love.
SPEAKER_00: Most of us love our friends, people who we call friends, we would love them and we trust them.
SPEAKER_00: Friendship requires a level of honesty.
SPEAKER_00: And the depth of honesty we have with the friends, the deeper the friendship.
SPEAKER_00: And if we if we are not honest, open with our friends, that friendship will remain at that level.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes, you know, we run into people that we we try to be honest and they can't handle that.
SPEAKER_00: So that's a different dynamics.
SPEAKER_00: But for the most part, our friendship with whoever will exist at the level of our honesty and trust and love with them.
SPEAKER_00: And oftentimes we there's a shared purpose.
SPEAKER_00: So the core in us is tuned similar.
SPEAKER_00: So there's common interests, common thinking, common attributes that strengthen that friendship.
SPEAKER_00: And there's a certain delight when you see your friend.
SPEAKER_00: There's a delight.
SPEAKER_00: It's different from love.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, we love our friends, but when we see them, hey, how are you going?
SPEAKER_00: You know, there's a delight.
SPEAKER_00: You could call it fondness in your heart.
SPEAKER_00: Fondness could be similar to love, but you know, friendship.
SPEAKER_00: When we see our friends, I remember growing up, I remember, you know, my long-term friends, I still have them.
SPEAKER_00: I send them one line, and it's as if we it was yesterday.
SPEAKER_00: There's a delight.
SPEAKER_00: And that's one of the things Sarah was talking about.
SPEAKER_00: Um the little little talk, a focus for the home groups, delighting in the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: We start to delight in him when he becomes our friend.
SPEAKER_00: We can't delight in him if he's not our friend.
SPEAKER_00: Because that that feeling of delight is tied to friendship.
SPEAKER_00: You may like certain people.
SPEAKER_00: There have been leaders in this nation that I've really liked, leaders of other nations that I've really liked, men and women, characters of the Bible that I really like.
SPEAKER_00: But that's not friendship.
SPEAKER_00: But friendship requires these few components of friendship, you can call it.
SPEAKER_00: It's a two-way bond marked by trust, love, honesty, shared purposes, and delight in one another.
SPEAKER_00: In John 14, let me just rush through now.
SPEAKER_00: John 14, something incredible happened, verse 23, and Jesus answered and said to him, If anyone loves me, he'll keep my word.
SPEAKER_00: And my father will love him.
SPEAKER_00: I'm telling you, if we, if the father loves us, now the father loves every person on the planet.
SPEAKER_00: That's not the love I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_00: I'm talking about an expressed love, experienced love.
SPEAKER_00: When we get to experience that love, when we know that the Lord loves us, God loves us.
SPEAKER_00: And that happens if we love Jesus, we keep his word, we keep his commandments, we keep everything he says we do.
SPEAKER_00: In that place, the father will love that person.
SPEAKER_00: When the father loves, that person knows that the father loves me.
SPEAKER_00: There are people on the planet, the father loves all of them, but they don't know that God loves them.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe intellectually, if you question them, do you think God loves you?
SPEAKER_00: Yes, yes.
SPEAKER_00: Some of them may even say, Oh man, I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: I've been through all this.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if he loves me.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe.
SPEAKER_00: But the people who who are aware of that love, if anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my father will love him, and we will come to him, we will come to him.
SPEAKER_00: Me and the father will come to him and make a home with him.
SPEAKER_00: That's dwelling together.
SPEAKER_00: If anyone loves me, if anyone, what does what does love me mean?
SPEAKER_00: What's what is that love?
SPEAKER_00: Any if anyone desires me, let's break this up a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: If anybody wants me, if anyone is hungry for more of me, these are the people who will keep his word, the ones who hunger, the ones who want more of Jesus, the ones who who who desire him.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we can get lost in these this one word, and that's why I I read from these translations, which are difficult to understand in first reading, because it makes you go and look deeper.
SPEAKER_00: And the Holy Spirit has a moment to explain it to you in your situation, in your place, right there where you are.
SPEAKER_00: If anyone loves me, if anyone desires me, wants me, is hungry for me, he will keep my word.
SPEAKER_00: That's the first step.
SPEAKER_00: Repentance and conversion.
SPEAKER_00: Changing.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, Lord, I'm gonna do as you tell me to do.
SPEAKER_00: John chapter 6, verse 68.
SPEAKER_00: You know, Jesus over here started to talk about a whole bunch of stuff.
SPEAKER_00: Let me just read it.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, let me read a bit further back.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna read from verse chapter 5, verse 52 onwards.
SPEAKER_00: Then the Jews therefore uh quarreled among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat?
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus was talking, where unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you will have nothing of me and you.
SPEAKER_00: So they they they're arguing among themselves.
SPEAKER_00: Some people are saying, No, no, no, that's not what he means.
SPEAKER_00: Others are fully tied up into what his word, so they are like, How can we eat his flesh and drink his blood?
SPEAKER_00: Then Jesus says to them, Most assuredly I say to you, unless you eat my flesh, flesh, unless you eat this flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.
SPEAKER_00: We need to consume him.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.
SPEAKER_00: For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.
SPEAKER_00: He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.
SPEAKER_00: As the living father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on me will live because of me.
SPEAKER_00: This is the bread which came from heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus revealed himself as the you know, the Jews knew about the manna that fell in the wilderness, and he says, I am the bread that fell from heaven.
SPEAKER_00: That's an amazing revelation of Jesus in that part.
SPEAKER_00: Completely different concept, but I'm just pointing it out.
SPEAKER_00: Not as your fathers ate that manna and are dead, he who Eats this bread will live forever.
SPEAKER_00: These things he said in the synagogue as he taught in Capernaum.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, many of his disciples, when they heard this, said, This is a hard saying.
SPEAKER_00: How can we understand it?
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples complained about this, he said to them, Does this offend you?
SPEAKER_00: What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where he was before?
SPEAKER_00: It is the Spirit who gives life.
SPEAKER_00: The flesh profits nothing.
SPEAKER_00: The words that I speak to you are spirit and they are life.
SPEAKER_00: We have to consume him that way.
SPEAKER_00: If you love him, keep his commandments.
SPEAKER_00: But there are some of you who do not believe.
SPEAKER_00: Excuse me.
SPEAKER_00: For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who would betray him.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 66, chapter 6, verse 65 now.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, Therefore, I have said to you that no one can come to me unless it has been granted to him by my Father.
SPEAKER_00: From that time many of his disciples went back and walked with him no more.
SPEAKER_00: Then Jesus says to the twelve, Do you also want to go away?
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't want anybody following him who don't want to consume him in that way.
SPEAKER_00: His words, his spirit.
SPEAKER_00: But Simon Peter answered him, says, Lord, to whom shall we go?
SPEAKER_00: You have the words of eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: And also we have come to believe and know that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus answered them, Did I not choose you?
SPEAKER_00: The twelve?
SPEAKER_00: Anyways, he changes the He starts going somewhere else from there.
SPEAKER_00: On some levels, Jesus is very clear and very hard and very sure that if we are to follow Him, He doesn't want us to follow Him just for the sake of following Him.
SPEAKER_00: If we are following Him, He wants us to fully consume Him.
SPEAKER_00: To be in that place where He abides in us and we abide in Him.
SPEAKER_00: To be in the place where His life flows in us and He will make it hard for people, He will make it difficult if He needs to be for us to understand and be able to go, what is going on?
SPEAKER_00: And I need to understand and we go back to Him and we go, Lord, help me.
SPEAKER_00: And He may show you straight away, He may show you in a few years.
SPEAKER_00: There's no time limitation to God.
SPEAKER_00: But when He shows if we are humble enough to change ourselves, if we are humble enough to change our thinking, He will put us on this path where we get changed and transformed.
SPEAKER_00: And He will offend us, He won't make it difficult for us.
SPEAKER_00: He made it very clear for His disciples as well.
SPEAKER_00: Do you want to leave as well?
SPEAKER_00: Just so happens that Peter had this incredible revelation.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Lord, where would we go?
SPEAKER_00: The words of life are with you.
SPEAKER_00: So he already had that understanding that his words are life.
SPEAKER_00: And he was already being changed and transformed in a different gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus turns around and says that flesh and blood has not revealed this to you.
SPEAKER_00: But these words have been given to you by my Father at a different place where he asked, Who do you think people think that I am?
SPEAKER_00: And it was the same Peter who gave this incredible response that you're the Son of the Living God.
SPEAKER_00: Friendship is found in the place of the presence.
SPEAKER_00: Friendship is found in his company.
SPEAKER_00: When we commune with God, when we commune with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: As a child, we had a backyard and a courtyard, and the veranda was about a foot higher than the paving in the backyard.
SPEAKER_00: And as a child, I would go and sit there on that one step and look at the night sky.
SPEAKER_00: And I obviously didn't have that thinking at that point.
SPEAKER_00: But come now, and I picture myself as a young child sitting on that, you know, one step with my feet on the paving, but I'm sitting on the concrete of the veranda looking up at the night sky, all those stars.
SPEAKER_00: You look at the picture now and you think how amazing it is that in those billions of galaxies, having billions of stars, each galaxy has, he has found you and me.
SPEAKER_00: We sit here knowing him and knowing his grace, knowing his incredible love for us, knowing his incredible passions of his heart.
SPEAKER_00: As a child, I didn't think that much.
SPEAKER_00: I was just amazed.
SPEAKER_00: There was this measure of God that was drawing upon my heart.
SPEAKER_00: But you think about it now, how incredible it is that that child sitting there, how we're old, six-year-old, five-year-old sitting, sitting on that step, God had started to work in my heart, in my life.
SPEAKER_00: I think it's only fitting that we love him the way he deserves to be loved and keep his word in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: He found you, he found me.
SPEAKER_00: He found our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: Psalms 25, verse 14, it says, The secret of the Lord is with those who fear him, and he will show them his covenant.
SPEAKER_00: His covenant, he will make a covenant with you, he will never leave you nor forsake you.
SPEAKER_00: His presence will over always overshadow you.
SPEAKER_00: That word secret is known as companionship, intimacy, friendship.
SPEAKER_00: The friendship of the Lord is with those who fear him.
SPEAKER_00: That reverence that you are my God and I will follow you.
SPEAKER_00: I will do everything that I need to do to come closer to you.
SPEAKER_00: I will follow your word.
SPEAKER_00: I will make myself known.
SPEAKER_00: I will make your word known to me, and I will obey your commandments.
SPEAKER_00: The friendships of the Lord, he will take you into that place of friendship, he will take you into that place of the dwelling of the Most High.
SPEAKER_00: He will take you in the hope of his presence.
SPEAKER_00: He will take you in that place of knowing him, he will place you in his court where his friends stand.
SPEAKER_00: You know, when we get into that place with God, we've got intimate fellowship with God.
SPEAKER_00: We also have access to unwavering love.
SPEAKER_00: And in the place of trust and obedience, we get into these places of deep friendship with the Father, where the secrets of his heart are made known to us, and the secrets of our hearts is known to him.
SPEAKER_00: That's honesty, like we're talking to a friend.
SPEAKER_00: How do we cultivate this friendship?
SPEAKER_00: Spend time with him, as Sarah said.
SPEAKER_00: Spend time with him, be honest with him.
SPEAKER_00: Anything you struggle with, anything that throws you around, anything that you're that's trying you, testing you, be honest.
SPEAKER_00: Just say, Lord, I need help or strengthen me in this area.
SPEAKER_00: And while he's working over you, love him.
SPEAKER_00: Love him like he deserves to be loved.
SPEAKER_00: Follow his ways.
SPEAKER_00: I just want to read, just prophetically, just want to read something.
SPEAKER_00: These pertain to the affections of our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: Daniel chapter 7.
SPEAKER_00: This is these are the visions of the four beasts that Daniel talks about.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to go too much into it.
SPEAKER_00: Just want to read the first about the first thing.
SPEAKER_00: And I pray that the spirit of revelation flows over each and every one of us.
SPEAKER_00: That would start to unpack and unveil the scriptures in ways that we have not known before.
SPEAKER_00: Father, I pray for every one of us, myself and everyone in this room or in this building, that all of us may enter into a place where the spirit of revelation is flowing over our hearts, showing us deep truths and secrets of your word.
SPEAKER_00: So Daniel chapter 7, verse 4.
SPEAKER_00: Now this is Daniel, let's read it from verse 1 quickly.
SPEAKER_00: In the first year of Belhazar, king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream and visions of his head.
SPEAKER_00: So these were dreams, while on his bed.
SPEAKER_00: So it's it this is how prophetic language is spoken.
SPEAKER_00: So it entangles us in a certain way that we catch certain things.
SPEAKER_00: If you simplify that, you may not be able to get it.
SPEAKER_00: So it's important to just, this is how it's it needs to be.
SPEAKER_00: Then he wrote down the dream telling the main facts.
SPEAKER_00: So Daniel is the one who's writing, and he's writing in third person, and he's writing in a very complicated way, which is incredible.
SPEAKER_00: Daniel spoke, saying, I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heavens were stirring up the great sea.
SPEAKER_00: So something was stirring.
SPEAKER_00: So it's a place of it's a place of change, it's a place of creation.
SPEAKER_00: Remember the fact that the Holy Spirit was hovering over the face of the deep in Genesis.
SPEAKER_00: So when things are stirring in an ocean-like setting, when things are stirring in sea-like structure, something is about to change.
SPEAKER_00: So I saw my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea.
SPEAKER_00: So something is about to change.
SPEAKER_00: And four great beasts came up from the sea, each different from each other.
SPEAKER_00: Now we need to reckon with these beasts.
SPEAKER_00: The first was like a lion and had eagle's wings.
SPEAKER_00: I washed till its wings were plucked off, and it was lifted up from the earth and made to stand on two feet like a man.
SPEAKER_00: And a man's heart was given to it.
SPEAKER_00: That's as far as I want to go today.
SPEAKER_00: He was made, this beast was made to stand on two feet like a man, which means to some degree it was given the capacity to have confidence in its abilities.
SPEAKER_00: And a man's heart was given to it, which means the affections of human hearts, the desires, the things that can contaminate us, the things that can pull us into evil, the things that can pull us away from God, all of those things that we fight with and battle with.
SPEAKER_00: There are more things there, but that's that's what this is saying.
SPEAKER_00: Because where this transitions, if you read that whole chapter, Daniel gets to a place where thrones were set up and the ancient of days was seated.
SPEAKER_00: And we need to get to that place where he is enthroned in our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: But we have to go through these processes where we stop taking courage and virtue in our capacities.
SPEAKER_00: Giftings are great, abilities are great, but when they start inhibiting our walk with the Lord, when we're making them when they make us proud, when they make us arrogant, when we are not humble enough before the Lord, they need to be made low.
SPEAKER_00: Every affection of our heart which is which stands before God, things like the Babylonian thinking, let us make a tower all the way into heaven.
SPEAKER_00: That has to be made low, that has to come down.
SPEAKER_00: And Daniel spells out four creatures that designed before us that these walks that we've got to take.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know how much, I only wanted to share this little bit today.
SPEAKER_00: But it gives you a hint why these type of books are there in the Bible, why these type of dreams are written, they are very relevant because it spells out to us the process that we need to take as an individual, as a group, as a company, as a city, as a nation, whatever.
SPEAKER_00: But these are the processes we need to take to get to that place where thrones are established and the ancient of days is seated.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Father, I pray that you put upon us this capacity, Lord, in us, that we can truly love you, that we can truly come before you with all reverence and honor in our hearts and still be like a child who just runs to you.
SPEAKER_00: Whether we may have that image or not, whether we've we've been um shown that as a child or not, but in Him it is possible to learn that, to be changed, to be transformed, to come into that place of that refreshing in the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Father, I pray for each and every one of us that you give us this capacity that we choose to come into this place of intimate friendship with you, that we're not bound by people's opinions and choices, that you give us all a greater understanding of your holiness, of your purity towards us.
SPEAKER_00: The only holiness that God is moving in is that he gives himself to nothing else apart from you and I.
SPEAKER_00: That's it.
SPEAKER_00: That's the meaning of God being holy.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't struggle with sin, he doesn't struggle with anger, he doesn't struggle with heat that doubt all those things don't even exist in his realm.
SPEAKER_00: The only holiness he walks in is that he gives himself to you and I and to nothing else.
SPEAKER_00: That is him being holy, setting himself apart.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I pray that you teach us true repentance and how to move in it, how to practice it, how to allow ourselves to be changed by that repentant heart, by that repentant mind.
SPEAKER_00: Father, I pray that you take hold of our influences and our choices, that you take hold of our thought lives, Lord, that you take hold of our relationships, and you bring us, Lord, in that place of incredible place of divine wisdom and understanding that comes from you and you alone, Lord, and take us into that place of sitting with you, having our delight in you, knowing you as a friend, and you knowing us as a friend.
SPEAKER_00: Because those are the people who can change society, those are the people who can change our friends, those are the people.
SPEAKER_00: And in some ways, it's not about what we do, it's it's that's irrelevant.
SPEAKER_00: What matters is how close we stand with him.
SPEAKER_00: At the end of the day, that that's all that matters.
SPEAKER_00: All the people who came to Jesus, Lord, we did this, we did that, we we did this for you, we did that, we raised the dead, we healed the sick, this, that.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know you.
SPEAKER_00: The only thing that matters is do we know him?
SPEAKER_00: Does he know me?
SPEAKER_00: Am I his friend?
SPEAKER_00: Is he my friend?
SPEAKER_00: Father, I pray that you take us.
SPEAKER_00: Let there be a new season, a kairos moment, Lord, to come before us.
SPEAKER_00: For this divine door to open before us, and we walk through it onto this path that sets us onto this track that takes us into seasons of friendship with God.
SPEAKER_00: I pray it over myself and over every person in this room.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we love you, we love you, we love you.
unknown: Amen.