Living In Awareness | Ps Stephen Cawthorn

[00:00:01] Speaker A: Welcome to the Numa Church podcast. Wherever you are in the world, we are so glad that you've joined us. Our prayer is that this message will reveal more of who our heavenly father is as we grow deeper in intimacy with Jesus. Enjoy the message. Awesome. Thank you, Pastor. You guys can take your seats. I'm so excited to be here today. I really am. Puma Melbourne north. How you going? I'm so excited. I love church planting. I love the fact that you guys are four weeks old. Four weeks. Turn the person next to you and say, hey, you're four weeks old. It is amazing. I absolutely love it. I love it. Hey, can I just take a moment and just honor Pastor Glenn? Pastor Lyn. These guys are incredible. You guys have got the best you seriously have got the best pastors. These guys are incredible. They are world class leaders. World class pastors. I've known probably Pastor Glenn and Pastor Lyn for probably about four or five years. I think we met when we were pastoring a church in Perth and they were pastoring a church in Perth and I met up with them and immediately there was this sense of connection and just the heart of the father, the heart for the kingdom. And here we are now, Melbourne at Numa Melbourne, which is amazing. Which is absolutely incredible. And I think you guys have got the best pastor. He is seriously a world class leader and these guys are incredible mothers and fathers in the faith, and you guys are really blessed to have them as your location. Pastors. Awesome. So four weeks old. I love church planting. It is so amazing to be part of a brand new church planted in the northern suburbs of Melbourne. And I know that you are full of faith and full of excitement about what God is doing. Small beginnings. But I look around, I'm like, this is not that small beginnings. I mean, most churches start with just a handful of people. Man, this is great. I mean, look around, it's so good. And the church is not the leaders. The church is not the leaders and the worship leader and the people who are serving the church is you and me. It's everybody. You are the. So, you know, the church is the body of Christ, which really means that we all play a part in the body of Christ. We all play a part and we all get to use and serve and use our gifts in the church. And so it's really important. Can I encourage you right off the bat to get involved, to roll your sleeves up. Everybody roll your sleeves up right now. Roll your sleeves up. But, I mean, church doesn't happen automatically. It takes people. It takes you and me to get involved. Roll your sleeves up. Serve, get involved. Use your gifts. Use your gifts for the extension of God's kingdom. And that is the exciting part of being at a church plant. I've been in part of church planting for a number of decades now, and I've been blessed to be a part of 13 new church plants, which is really exciting. And so I know what it's like starting off, launching out. We were part of a church planting movement called Harvest Net, which planted a number of churches across Perth. And there's nothing like just a small group of people getting together and having faith and having vision and believing that God's going to do amazing things. And so it's really, really encouraging. And the great news is you're a part of a wider family. You're a part of a larger, global, apostolic family. You're so blessed to have that apostolic covering as Numa church as well. And obviously Pastor Corey and Pastor Simone and the whole global leadership team and I get the privilege of visiting all the locations and hearing and seeing and being a part of what God's doing right across the globe as far as numer church. Really, really excited. Exciting. So as you can see, I'm just bursting at the seams. I'm like, yes, church planning, it's amazing. It's really, really exciting. So roll your sleeves up, get involved. There's nothing like church planning. And four weeks old, you guys are doing incredible for four weeks old. Turn to the person next to you and say, hey, you're doing incredible. Doing incredible. Encourage one another. That's what the church does. It encourages one another. Amen. Well, turn in your Bible to Matthew, chapter eleven. Matthew, chapter eleven. And before we get into the word this morning, I want to again, just being a brand new church in this location. I mean, we're all new, but a lot of us have been involved in churches before, we've been involved in building the church or different churches before, and that's really exciting. But sometimes what happens when a new church gets born? We bring all of our preconceived ideas. We bring all of our. We did it like this, we did it like that. And you sort of bring it all together in this mishmash and you go, right, we're planning a church, but at times it's really important to lay some of those preconceived ideas down and go, okay, God, I'm going to come not with expectation, but with a sense of expectancy. Expectation means I know exactly what it's going to look like. And this is what I want it to look like. But expectancy is like God. I'm just willing and open to see what you're going to do this morning, what you're going to do in this church. I just want to be a part of it. And that's living with that sense of expectancy and that's really important. So many times we come to a new church and we go, right, we want the pastor to be like this, we want the service to be like this. We think it should be like this. But how many know it's so important just to come with a sense of God. I want to serve. I just want to be planted. I just want to do what you want me to do. That's that heart that we're looking for. As far as a new church, you know, our vision, I love it. It's written up here. Our vision is to plant 200 new churches across four global hubs that carry a spirit of revival to disciple cities and nations. Oh, I love that. I love that. So you might come with. I think we should do it like this. No, we've already got a vision. We have a mission statement to expand and to extend God's kingdom. And we also have our cultural values, which I love these cultural values and I want to speak this morning in regards to one of them. So I hope you've got that in your Bible. Matthew, chapter eleven, verse one. Let's read. When Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in their cities. Now when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, are you the one who is to come or shall we look for another? And Jesus answered them and said, go and tell John what you hear and see. The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me. And then in verse twelve, he goes on and he says, from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force. And then right over to the last two verses of that chapter, it says, come to me, all who will labor, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. For I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Come on, let's just close our eyes and let's just pray. Lord, we thank you for your word, Lord, that comes and brings clarity to our life. Lord, we thank you for your word that heals us, that transforms us. Holy spirit, we just welcome you here right now. We know that you're already here. Your manifest presence, Lord, that you're ministering to people's hearts and people's lives right now, Lord. And this morning, as we gather around your word, speak to us, Lord, bring clarity, Lord. Give us something to repent about, Lord. Bring alignment to our lives, Lord. Bring transformation and bring healing to us, Lord, as we gather around your word, we pray in Jesus mighty name. Amen. Amen. Well, this morning I want to talk to you about awareness, about having awareness. Now, this is really, really key, having awareness in our lives now. We talk about this society right now. Everybody's so self absorbed and everybody's so narcissistic and everybody, all they think of, of themselves. And the Bible says that all seek their own. Philippians two, chapter two, verse 21. It says, for all seek their own and not the things of others. For all seek their own, not the things of others which are of Christ Jesus. But living with this sense of awareness is living, being fully alive, fully conscious, having perception and understanding of God, of yourself and of others. It's having this recognition and being attentive and sensitive to the Holy Spirit. We've been given the Holy Spirit. If you've been baptized in the Holy Spirit, you have the Holy Spirit in you for your sake and upon you for other people's sake, the Holy Spirit's been given. The same spirit that raised Christ from the dead lives and dwells within us, within you and me. If you're a believer this morning, the same spirit, wow. I mean, we could just park there. The same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead lives and dwells within us. We can finish right there. But it's so important to live with this sense of awareness, of the presence of God right now. I really sense at Numa church, and this is what we've been speaking about right across the locations and what God's been highlighting to Pastor Corey and the leadership team is this sense of the presence of God making the presence of God our priority. Making it our priority. Certain people come to church and they think that church is about this, church is about that, church is about this. But ultimately, this is the house of God. We want to be a people that host him well, that host his presence well, obviously, we come together, we gather together, and we get encouraged and we hear the word of God. But ultimately, we're here to seek his face. We're here to minister before him and to host his presence. And so it's so important to live with such an acute awareness and sensitivity and attentiveness of the presence of God in us and upon us and around us. And you know what? It's not just for Sundays. It's not just for the gathering of the saints. It's for you and me. Every single moment of the day, we get to live with this awareness of his presence. The Bible says in Psalm 139, David said, where can I go from your presence? If I make my bed in hell, there you are. If I'm in heaven, there you are. Everywhere. The presence of God is there everywhere. The question is, is our awareness? Are we aware of his presence? So how do we come more aware of God? I'm glad you asked, because that's what I'm going to talk about today, because it's so important. I don't know about you, but I want to live with such an acute awareness of God. I want to live with an acute awareness of his presence in me and upon me. Every moment of the day when I'm dealing with situations, when I'm going through challenging things and stuff that happens in my life, I want to know, what does heaven say? What is God saying to me? What is the presence of God leading me into right now? So how do we become more aware of God? Number one, we repent. Jesus came, and the first thing he said was, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is here. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. This word repent, sometimes we think it just means, oh, we've got to cry and be sad for our sin. That's one measure of it. But repent literally means to change our thinking, to change our mind, to change the way that we think. So often we think, okay, I've got to do this. I've got to do that. Hang on. A lot of it is renewing our mind. Is renewing our mind. Hang on. We have the spirit of God in us and upon us. We can live with this acute awareness of the love of God, this acute awareness of his presence in our lives. When Jesus started his ministry, the first thing he said was, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Then he performed signs and wonders and miracles. And when he sent out the 70 disciples to go, he gave them the shortest sermon ever. He said, repent. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Then he said, heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers preach the gospel. That's the simpleness of the message of the kingdom. Amen. Change the way you think. Change your perspective. Shift your awareness. Shift your awareness. So often we see in society, people just live so unaware of what God is doing. Or even as believers, we can become more aware of the enemy. We can become more aware of the negative. We can become more aware of the challenges and the obstacles and the enemy's works instead of more aware of what God is doing. That's why testimonies are really important. That's why the power of testimony is so important. Sharing the good news what has God done in you this week? What has he spoken to you about this week? What are the testimonies? And if you haven't got any testimonies, go and borrow some. Go and find some. Go and feed yourself with what God has done and what God is doing in people's lives, it's so important. That's that massive shift that needs to take place, that shifting of our. So here we see in this scripture, John the Baptist. I mean, John the Baptist, Jesus says in that scripture, he was the greatest, the greatest man there ever was up till now. John the Baptist, he preached, he was the friend of the bridegroom. The Bible describes him as he was the one who prepared the way of Jesus. He was the one who first recognized Jesus. When Jesus came, he said, behold the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. He was the one who first recognized him. But now here he is and his disciples, and he's in prison and he's going, hey, disciples, go and ask Jesus, are you the one that was to come? Are you the messiah? Are you the one? I mean, what happened to John? What happened to him? I mean, he was the one that recognized Jesus. You know what happened. He was in prison. He was in prison. He was more aware of where he was in the natural and the negative in his life than he was of the signs and wonders and miracles. His awareness was not on heaven's reality, but on the situation that he was in. How often this is such a reflection of our lives. I love reading scripture because I use it as a mirror to read into my life. It's like how many times when I'm going through difficult seasons, struggles, challenges, obstacles in my life and I become more aware of them. And I've taken my eyes off Jesus. I've taken my eyes off his solutions. I've taken my eyes off heaven's reality. I've taken my eyes off the presence of God. I've taken my eyes off the fact that I have the spirit of God in me and upon me. And I'm more focused on the natural and the small r reality rather than the big r reality of who I am in Christ, of what's available to me. Whenever you focus on what God hasn't done, you undermine your own confidence and faith in the Lord and his promises. Whenever you focus on what God hasn't done or the negative, whenever you focus, you're undermining your own confidence and faith in the Lord. Most people are more aware of their problems rather than on God's solutions. How true this is of us. Let me go one step further. Most people are more aware of other people's problems rather than realizing that God has shown them so that they can be a part of the solution. This is this whole idea of honor affirming value and covenant family. We get to see the gold in each other. We get to encourage each other. We get to pull out what God has deposited in each person. We don't get to point out their negatives and point out their issues. No. We get to be part of the solution. We can be more aware of our weaknesses and other people's weaknesses than his strength. Here's the point. What you are most aware of, you carry. You're conscious of. It affects your language, how you speak. So don't be enamored by the enemy in his work. Be more aware of the presence of God. He's in us and he's upon you know, Jesus was more aware of his father's voice than the voice of the enemy. When Jesus came on the know, obviously the enemy tempted him, but he always quoted scripture, and he was more aware of the voice of his father. It says in John, chapter five, verse 19, most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of himself, but whatever he sees, the Father do. For whatever he does, the Son also does in like manner. So Jesus lived with such an acute awareness of the Father's voice, he lived with such an acute awareness of the Holy Spirit that that was the loudest voice that he listened to, that he was most aware of rather than the negative, rather than the know. He was more aware of the Holy Spirit and opportunities for heaven to break in. Amen. What you're most aware of, you will host. That's why sometimes when you see a depressed person, you can see it on them. You can see that depression on them. And when you see someone who's full of the Spirit, you can see it on them. You can see the spirit, the presence of God on them. I want to be a person where people see me and they go, oh, the presence of God is on him. He's full of the spirit. Don't you want to be that? I want to be. You want to be a person that carries God wherever you go, because what you're most aware of, you host what you are most aware of, will change the atmosphere around your life. And this is where faith grows. Faith grows with an awareness of the spirit of God in you. For every problem, there's a promise. And so there's such a beautiful invitation that God has for us. Whatever situation, whatever problem you're facing, God has got a promise for that. God has got heaven's reality. Heaven has got an answer for that issue. Self awareness as a Christian is being aware of where God is at work in you. Now, this is really, really crucial. We talk about awareness, awareness, living with an awareness of the presence of God, living with an awareness of heaven's reality, living with an awareness of the presence of God and the spirit of God in you, but also having self awareness as well. Now, self awareness as a believer is being aware. God, where are you? At work in my life? What are you doing in my heart right now? What are the things and the issues and the invitations that you have for me as your child right now? Because you know what? God is always at work in our hearts. He is interested in growing us, in maturing us, in forming us, in fashioning us. He's always interested in renewing our minds. Spiritual growth, that's so important. We all want to be spiritually growing. And so part of spiritual growth is having this awareness of God. Where are you working in my life. So how do you live with a great awareness of his presence in your life? Number one, you live in response, not reaction. Now, this is a good one for us. This is where the rubber hits the road. How do you respond when someone pulls out in front of you in traffic, like on the way coming here this morning? Like, oh, no. Live in, react. Live in response, not reaction. Listen to this. Two Corinthians, chapter 13, verse five, says this. Examine yourselves to see whether you're in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you unless you fail to meet the test? It's so important, this element of self reflection with the Holy Spirit. It's not self help. It's not self help. You're doing it with the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit, where are you? At work in my heart. Examine my heart. See if there's wicked ways in me. See if there's issues in me, these reactions, what's happening? Why am I reacting? And I love doing this at the end of the day where I'm like, I'm spending some time in the Lord. I'm reflecting on the day, like, okay, God, where were you with me today? And where did I resist you today? Where did I react? And then I'm like, oh, yep, I reacted to that. Yep. I got overly emotional about invest, that's allowing the Holy Spirit to put his finger on our know. Self awareness is the first step in personal and spiritual transformation. Jesus said, this the best in Matthew chapter seven, when he talked about, you're trying to take the log in the other person's eye out. Sorry, the splinter in the other person's eye. Meanwhile, you've got the log in your own eye. We think that scripture is all about judgment. It's all about don't judge others. And yes, there's an element of that, but really that scripture is about self awareness. It's about, okay, where are the logs in my own eye? Where are the issues? Where are the splinters? Where are the things that I'm reacting to? It's beautiful because God is interested in your growth, your transformation, your healing. Part of the christian walk is about denying that part of our lives that is just not bringing healing and peace fruit. Amen. What's the log? What's the spec? You know what a spec is? It's a reaction, a frustration. An outburst of anger, of annoyance. It's very quiet in here. When you have any of these happen, it's actually not about the other person, it's about you. You know when people say, oh, you're just pushing my buttons? Well, they're your buttons. They're your buttons. That person, they pushed my buttons. They're just triggering me. Well, that's your triggers. It's your buttons. That's what God's dealing with you about, that go on that journey of God. What are you pushing on here? Why do I feel like this? Do I have this sense of you don't love me or that, this sense that I'm not worthy or I'm out of control? Because here's the point. Every irritation is an invitation. Every irritation, every frustration is an invitation for you. It's an invitation for wholeness, for growth, for real transformation. And God tests us like this. God does this. Lord, would you created me a clean heart. We're singing, God, would you test me? Lord, I just love you. I just want to give you my whole heart and then he puts his finger on something. It's like, oh, yep, okay. There's an area in my life that I need to react better. I need to respond better. Amen. Just helping someone here. So living from heaven's reality is having an awareness of the dove, of the Holy Spirit, in you and upon you. You know, when Jesus was baptized, John, chapter one, verse 32, John the Baptist, he saw this and he described, the heavens opened, and the dove came down, and the dove rested on him. And the Bible says this interesting phrase, and John says, it says, the dove remained, remained on him. The spirit of God remained on him. The presence of God remained on him. There's an invitation for you and me. How would you live if you had a dove on your shoulder? You would walk carefully, wouldn't you? You would live circumspectly. You would live with such an acute awareness. God's with me. The dove's with me. I don't want to grieve the Holy Spirit. Jesus never grieved the Holy Spirit. I don't want to quench the Holy Spirit. And so part of our walk as believers is living with this sense of awareness of the dove on us. Amen. How would you live and walk if you had a dove on his shoulder? Carefully. Jesus, he only lived according to the father's voice, the spirit's direction, heaven's awareness, not the enemy, not frustrations, not emotions. Not enamored by the enemy. But he responded with heaven's reality when he saw the enemy's effects. And it's not putting your head in the hole. There's a lot of issues. We're dealing with situations, and there's a lot of negativity in the world. And the enemy is at work. And our assignment is to destroy the works of the enemy. So we've got to be aware of what he's doing, but most and foremost, and our priority is being more aware of what heaven's saying. What's God saying? It's the posture of our heart, the big r reality of where we're living from. Because what you dwell and meditate on will affect your atmosphere, your demeanor, your behavior. Listen to this. Ephesians, chapter two, verse six. Paul alluded to this, where he said, you are seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. So that's how he said it. He goes, hey, come on, guys. This is our positional reality here. We are spiritual beings. We have a body, we have a soul, but we are spiritual. This is where we live and we operate from. This is where we get to bring the kingdom. We get to expand the kingdom in our own hearts, in our own lives, in our own families, in our world. In the northern suburbs of Melbourne. Come on. This is where we are seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. So whenever you're facing a challenge or a major issue or a situation, take a moment and remind yourself, hang on, hang on, hang on. Where am I sitting? Where am I sitting? What am I most aware of? Aware of the Holy Spirit, aware of his presence. And part of this is training ourselves, becoming more aware of him rather than our problems. We've got to walk it out in real time. What does the presence say? Number two, we live with an awareness of his presence by prioritizing his presence over principles. Now, this is a huge thing because I was brought up some of my background, so I'm one of ten. So actually, no, I got that wrong. I'm one of. I've got ten brothers and sisters, so fairly large family. And we were all brought up in a christian environment, a christian home. We were brought up reading the Bible. We read it morning and night. And it was quite a religious sort of fundamental religious upbringing. The interesting thing about it, there was no holy spirit. There was no presence of God. It was just scripture. It was just religion. And so we were taught the Bible, and we were taught the things of the Bible. But I didn't get born again and filled with the spirit until I was 19. So my early years were all about religion and who loves religion here? Religion doesn't save anybody. And we were taught about the principles of the Bible. And while they're good, principles of scripture are really important. It's important to read scripture. What does scripture say about specific issues and things? And what is God speaking to me about through scripture? But it's more important to live with an awareness of presence over principles. You might think, hang on, this is heresy. Hang on. Jesus said, you search the scriptures to think that in them you find life. But they actually point to me. So the scriptures point to a living, vibrant relationship with Jesus. So that is living with presence over principles. Amen. And in this scripture here in Matthew, this is such a beautiful picture. Jesus says the kingdom of heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force. So what he's saying then is that the kingdom of heaven, it means you got to push through, you've got to fight the good fight of faith. You got to pray in the spirit. You got to go for it. You got to expand the kingdom and take the kingdom by force. But then further on in this scripture, right down the end he says in verse 29, he says, hang on. Come to me, learn from me. Take my burden upon you and I will give you rest. Be still and know that I am God. Just rest. So hang on. What is he saying here? Is he saying push through, fight? Or is he saying rest? Is he know it's time to just strive and know, expand the kingdom? Or is he saying, just be still and know that I'm God? Which one is it, Jesus? Have you ever thought that, Jesus, which one do you want me to do? Do I need to push through or do I need to just rest? That's the point. The point is it's a relationship with God. It's a relationship with Jesus. It's like holy spirit. What are you leading me into right now for this particular issue? Do you want me to push through or do you want me to wait on know? It's really interesting. Late last year, God showed me this really clearly. We were leading our church and we felt this shift in the spirit that God was leading us, both Allie and I, into a new season. But we didn't know what it was. And so we started exploring. We started sort of pushing doors and let's go over here, let's do this. And all these options started happening, and I'm getting excited. And then the Lord spoke to me. He said, steve, be still and know that I'm God. Stop pushing down doors. Stop looking for opportunities. I'm going to give you direction. You just have to be still and wait. And so I'm like, okay, in this particular instance, I had to be still and know that I am God. I had to come to him and lay all my striving at his feet. That is the importance of living a life of presence. Living a life of an awareness of his presence. Amen. Presence over principles. And finally, a life of intimacy. A life of awareness is a life of intimacy. Intimacy with Jesus. Cultivating that quiet time with the Lord, cultivating your own time with the Lord that your own reflection time. I love this time of the year and I've been doing this at Numer church. We don't do KPIs or end of year stuff. We do reflections. We do, okay, I sit with some of the pastors and let's reflect back on the year. Where has God been at work in you? What are some of the things that you've grown in this year? What are some of the things that God is speaking to you about this year? And it's so important to live a life of reflection. And it's really good this time. Of the year as we sort of come into Christmas, the end of 2023. We're about to go into 2024. I mean, that's incredible. Where did this year go? But some of us, and this is what I want to speak to you this morning about, that some of us have had a bit of a tough year. It's been a year of change. It's been a year of shifting. It's been a year of some struggles. And it's good to sit down with the Lord and say, okay, God, where have you been this year? What have you been doing in me this year? What have I learnt this year? These are good things to do. I love doing this at the end of these reflection moments, and this cultivates that sense of awareness of his presence. God, where were you this year? What were you doing in me this year? How were you growing me this year? How were you at work? In my heart this year? It's so important to cultivate those times. Without any sort of reflection, there can be no spiritual growth. That's why you do it with trusted people as well. That's what I love doing with trusted people, having feedback, it's good. That's why we have some amazing leaders here as well. It's so important to sit down with someone and do those reflections and, okay, God, where are you at work in me. We all need each other. Amen. We all need each other. And I want to pray for some people here this morning as well because I really sense, as I was praying for you guys this morning, as I was praying this week, and I was just saying, God, what do you want to say? What do you want to do here this morning? I really feel that God wants to heal some people here. And as you look back on this year, and as you reflect on this year, there's been some tough stuff, there's been some difficult moments. There's been some real disappointments. And God wants to come and heal those disappointments. He wants to come and heal those things. Disappointment happens because you have expectation. I thought this year was going to be like this. I thought it was going to be like this. I thought my life would look like this. You create these expectations and we all do it. But then you come to reflect back and it's like, didn't really work out. That didn't really happen. And if you're not careful, that disappointment can make your heart sick and it can really erode your hope and your sense of faith and belief into the future. Because you know what? God wants to do so much more with you, you and me. He's got so much good things in store. He's a good God. He's got a plan and a purpose for each and every person here. But you know what? If we don't deal with that disappointment as we reflect back, we don't deal with those things that have been really hard this year that can hinder us from moving forward. So we have to deal with them. We have to go. God, I want to bring this to you. I want to bring you my pain. I want to bring you my disappointment. I want to bring you this issue that I've had this year. Where were you, God? And it's okay. It's okay being real with God. Amen. It's okay going, God, this year sucked. This year. There were some things that happened that really affected me and it's okay. Bring it to the father. Bring it to Jesus. The Bible says that he came to heal the broken hearted. That means he comes to heal those broken pieces in us, those broken dreams, those broken expectations. He comes to heal them. And there's been many times in my life where I've had broken dreams and broken expectations and just brokenness. And it's like, God, it hasn't worked out this year. And, Lord, I need you to come. I need you to come into my heart. I need you to touch that area of my heart. I need you to bring healing. I want you to stand this morning as we close, the presence of God is here. He's already here. But the key is just to be aware of him right now. It's not about me. It's not about the person next to you. I want you to just close your eyes right now because I'm trusting that the Holy Spirit is going to speak to each and every person here right now. He's already speaking, but he's going to put his finger on some stuff right now. And I want you to say, God, just make me aware right now. Where are you working? Where are you moving? What do you want to heal? What do you want to heal? What do you want to touch? And you know what? You can trust him. He's a good father. He knows exactly you. He actually knows you better than you know yourself. And he sees it all anyway. And his heart is not to condemn you. His heart's not to blame you. In fact, his heart's to do the exact opposite, is to bring you in close. Maybe you've struggled with an area of sin or an area of you feel like it's been a real weakness in your life. God wants to bring you in close. He doesn't push you away. He brings you in close. Brings you in really close. I've got three teenagers. One of them, a number of months ago, did something really bad. And I felt the temptation to go in there and be angry, but the. No, no, Steve. Bring them in close. Bring them in close. Bring healing and freedom and forgiveness. Of course there's consequences, but bring them in close. And I just feel that for some people here today, that God's inviting you in close because he doesn't condemn. He doesn't pour guilt upon you. In fact, he wants to remove that guilt off you as well. And so I just want to open the altar right now. If God's been speaking to you, just become more aware of his presence right now. God's been speaking to you. You would just love someone to stand with you right now. You'd love someone to pray with you right now. Maybe there's some healing that you need in your body right now. Maybe as you reflect back, there's some healing that you need in your soul right now. Your soul is feeling a bit weary or a bit weak or bit battle scarred. Jesus is here to heal. He's here to minister his healing power, his healing presence right now. So come on, why don't you just respond right now? I just want to encourage you to respond. We should all be down the front actually saying, God, we need more of you. We want you to touch every heart, every part of our lives, every painful place of our lives. Would you come with your healing Lord? So come on, let's just spend some time worshipping the Lord. Just doing business with the Lord. [00:41:32] Speaker B: Thank you for joining us. We hope that you enjoyed today's podcast, and we realize that not everyone has had the opportunity to respond to the good news of the gospel. And for this reason, in all of our services and platforms, we want to extend to you the opportunity to follow Jesus. The Bible teaches us that we have been created for a relationship with God. However, sin, which is essentially disobedience, independence and disbelief, or are simply missing the mark, entered the world and separated us from God. Romans chapter six, verse 23, says that the wages of sin is death and a debt was owed. And the Bible tells us that he, Jesus, demonstrated his love for us, that while we were still sinners, he died for us. Jesus paid the penalty for our sin. John 316 says, for God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. God so loved the world that he gave us Jesus that whoever believes in him will be saved. All that is required of anyone is that they believe in Jesus. The son of God who came, lived, died and rose again so that we could be forgiven, made right and given the right to become children of God and to have life forevermore with him. Today you can begin a relationship with Jesus. To believe in him is to simply to respond with faith in our hearts and confess with our mouths that he is Lord and we do that through a simple prayer. Follow along with me dear Jesus, I believe that you are the son of God. I thank you that you love me and came to forgive me of my sin. I repent from my old way of life and I turn to follow you. I receive the free gift of eternal life and I ask that you fill me with the Holy Spirit so that I can live a life of following after you. I thank you that I am born again as a child of God and that I am a new creation in Christ Jesus. Amen. If you prayed this prayer for the first time, we would love to connect with you and connect you to your next step and the local church in your area. You can contact us on our website at Numa Church thanks for listening.