Experiencing God: Life with God at the Center

And this is the command, beloved, and it's the command that you'll be hearing in your hearts today. The command is, son, daughter, I need you to reorder your life so that everything flows out of our relationship one with another. I am no longer interested in being fit into your life. I want to be first. I want to be first. [01:49:38] (39 seconds)  #MakeGodFirst

Seek first. For many believers, God is important, but not first. God is important, but he's not first. I'm gonna man, I'm a tell you. We we could take two or three weeks just right here. God is important, and I wanna emphasize that word important. He is important. We would say that he's important to me, but he's not first. [01:44:54] (35 seconds)  #SeekGodFirst

You must make major life adjustments to join God in what he's doing. Once he rattles your cage, once he shakes your world up, you got a choice to make. And that's the amazing thing about God. He always leaves us a choice, But we must make a choice, and the choice that we're praying for is that we'll make all the necessary adjustments in our life to rally around what God is wanting us to do. [01:28:24] (34 seconds)  #AlignWithGod

You know, when Jesus said, follow me, he gave no more explanation. Are you with me? I haven't started yet, so you might have to give me a few extra minutes today. But when he said, follow me, there was no more instructions. He just said, follow me. You know, I and I know they had questions just like we have questions, but his command to follow him still continues today. And he says nothing more. [01:08:23] (43 seconds)  #FollowMe

but it came from this unhurried time hanging out in god's presence and a willingness to say yes. You see, when when God comes and when he envelops envelops us with his holy presence, it's not just to make us feel good. It's to spur us on to faith and obedience. What he's looking for, he's looking for your yes without question, without reservation, and immediate. [01:20:59] (46 seconds)  #SayYesToGod

Well, what it is is what we wanna enter into today. And in this series, we want to enter into that place where all of our hearts are burning. You remember Jeremiah's testimony. Do you remember? He said there was like a fire inside of him. He equated it to a fire that was so deep that it was like in his very bones, And then his testimony is that he could not sit still. [01:07:22] (40 seconds)  #FireInMyBones

Experiencing God begins right here today with seeking him above everything else. God's will, beloved, is not a mystery to solve. His will is found in relationship with him. Many Christians spend years trying to find God's will as though it were hidden or lost, but God has never say never. He has never hidden his heart from his people. God wants to be known. He wants to be known. [01:52:06] (43 seconds)  #GodsWillIsRelational

We are always ready to move on to the next thing. But this morning when I was worshiping, I just kept hearing the holy spirit speak to me about waiting, waiting with him, waiting. You know, even in our emotions, we we get in there and we get out of there. But he's calling us into a season of waiting. Waiting is not inactivity. It's it's looking to him like the disciples looked to him when they were in the upper room. And he says, go there and wait because waiting beckons him to come. [01:04:54] (42 seconds)  #WaitWithGod

God speaks by the holy spirit through scripture, prayer, circumstances and the church and we get to discover how that works. Reality five, God's invitation leads to a crisis of belief that requires faith and trust. In other words, we get to a point in this journey where our mind is blown, our world is shaken, and we gotta make some choices. [01:27:09] (39 seconds)  #FaithThroughCrisis

Now, it's important to know because this work that he's doing that he's inviting us into is is predicated on love. It's not because we have to. It's because we what? We what? We want to. There is a difference between having to do something and wanting to do something. And as we take this journey, that dynamic is very, very important because he wants to move some from a have to to a want to. [01:25:46] (43 seconds)  #ServeFromLove

you're worrying. I see it. How's that working for you? How's it working for you? And we all know worry does not do anything but tear us up. First on the inside, ulcers, all kinds of things. Body starts acting up all because of worry. Verse 28. So why do you worry about clothing? I mean, he keeps going, consider the lilies of the field. How they grow, they neither toil nor spin, and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all of his glories was not arrayed like one of these. He said, look at those flowers. [01:38:10] (48 seconds)  #ConsiderTheLilies

And you might be saying, well, yeah. Don't I live in a natural world? And the answer is yes. But who are they talking to? They're talking to a supernatural god. And so when you put natural folk with a supernatural god, by inheritance, by birthright, it puts us in the realm of living a supernatural life, and that's what he was trying to get across to them. [01:41:39] (42 seconds)  #LiveSupernaturally

That's really that's an important distinction because it doesn't mean that we don't leave live principled. It doesn't mean that we don't have principles that guide our life. It means that our life is guided by a living active relationship with God himself in which he could speak anytime in any way to us at any time. He'll never violate his own principles. That's why you can trust him. And it's a different way of living. It's a different way of living that he's calling us into. [01:29:40] (46 seconds)  #RelationshipGuidesLife

This is an invitation into a way of life. A way of life. Now brace yourself. Brace yourself. Hold on to the pew because when God starts shaking your life up I'm just telling you, this is what's coming, and it's not like we can stop it. Because as soon as it's released, we then become accountable to what God is doing and saying. [01:23:16] (33 seconds)  #BraceForGodsWork

Reality three, god invites you to join him in his work. So as he's nurturing that love relationship, he then gives you an invitation, and the invite comes in all kinds of ways. It could come in email, snail mail, platform, IC, you know, all these different acronyms. It can come in multiple ways, but make no mistake about it, he will let it be known to you that you've been invited. [01:26:31] (35 seconds)  #JoinGodsWork

No more delay. No more hesitation. No more fear. No more fitting God in. We're going to wrap our lives just as the children of Israel, their tents encircle the tabernacle, the tent of meeting, because God wanted to visually show them that I will always be at the center of all you are. [02:04:34] (41 seconds)  #GodAtTheCenter

Alright. Here we go. For many believers, God is important, but he's not first. He's appreciated, but he's not the priority. We fit him in, but we don't wanna build our lives around him, and there is a difference. Fitting God in is different than building a life around him. [01:46:11] (31 seconds)  #BuildLifeAroundGod

You see, this is the implications of when we decide that we are no longer going to fit God in, but we're gonna literally reorder our entire lives around God. Why in the world would he want us to do that? It's because he's got serious plans that are part of his redemptive program that includes you. [01:51:08] (27 seconds)  #IncludedInHisPlan

the first reality is God is always at work around you. Powerful phenomena. God is always, say always, at work around you. He doesn't wait to start work when you get up. He doesn't wait to start work when you show up. He's already working. Whether you participate or not, he's at work. [01:25:04] (34 seconds)  #GodIsAlwaysWorking

And Jesus lovingly confronts these disciples in verse 33 and he says, seek first. In the Greek, we would call this phrase an imperative which means it's an actual command. It's not a suggestion. He is commanding the disciples into a different way of life. [01:49:11] (27 seconds)  #SeekFirstAlways