Thank you. I appreciate that song. Love God's timing, don't you? As we think about what she sang about, the presence of God. And here's the ironic thing. People look at Christianity and their perception of it is just a list of rules of do's and don'ts, right? And you do these things You don't do these things and that's what Christianity is about. That's not at all what Christianity is about. It is about a relationship with a holy God that desires a relationship with you more than you desire a relationship with Him. And so we get so bogged down in this do's and don'ts. And I was telling our teens today, I said, you know, we make life so much more difficult than we have to. We say, well, I feel like, or I think this. And so I operate in, in this realm of, you know, what I want to do and my perception of things. And God's like, I've given you a book to guide you. And it seems like we only go to it when, when we've exhausted every other option. We only pray when we've exhausted every other option. And so our, our walk with God is like this, right? Up and down, up and down. I didn't say our circumstances, they're always going to be up and down. But our walk with God should be a relationship that is consistent and constant. Because He's the same yesterday, today, and forever, He changes not. And so as she sang that song, I want to preach on this thought this morning out of Matthew chapter 28, verse number 20, and we'll move around some in the scripture. We've been preaching, our theme for this year is going deeper with God, not just this shallow surface Christianity that it seems like the world promotes of go to church and sing a few songs and shout and run the aisles and there's no change that takes place. And I always go back to thinking about what revival is and probably one of the greatest ones we've ever seen, of course, the Pentecost is one. But as you look in modern history was the great Welsh revival and that was not based on a big name preacher. Most of it was a bunch of kids. Now it would be interesting when you study the word of God it seems like most of what God has done throughout history has been with young people. look the New Testament, look the book of Acts and again we've studied this so I won't belabor it but if you understand Jewish tradition to be a rabbi means that you must be older than the students and so Jesus was 33 and a half when he died on Calvary which means most likely his followers were younger than him which would put them as teenagers or young adults and so then we look at the great Welsh revival and again These folks were praying, God would do something. We looked at the great awakening in our country and there was a presence of God. And so some people got to enjoy it that did not take part in the preparation for it. But there is a group of people that desired it and was willing to make preparations and labor for it. And I think today. In order to go deeper with God, we've got to get past this idea of a checklist of do's and don'ts and sit in the right place and sing the right songs. Those are important. Those things should govern our life as in boundaries, but it does not enhance our relationship necessarily with God. And so we're not oftentimes aware of the presence of God. What we talk about as the presence of God is if we're in a service and God shows up. Well, that sounds good and there is definitely an element where God makes himself more known in some circumstances. But according to the Bible, he resides in me. And so in Matthew 28 verse 20 and the series we're doing on Sunday morning is really kind of a spiritual checklist that we're moving closer to God and Matthew 28 20. Now we often go to Matthew 28 19. And we call it the Great Commission, and it is. And he says that we're to go into all nations baptizing in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I've commanded you. And we stop there. That's the mandate to us, right? By the way, uh, but Jimmy, uh, will, uh, we're having visitation next week. Again, if you don't understand blue team, we need to get busy, right? So make sure you turn your tracking cards in today. If you've handed out tracks or if you've got a guest here today, but we focus that mainly on our obligation. Well. we go on in that scripture he said he said lo I'm with you always even unto the end of the world amen the word amen means so be it I mean that's in other words he's saying listen I'm with you you do what I've asked you to do and I want you to have the confidence that I'm with you always even when you think things are so bad and I think I saw this morning with all this rain that I think it's Tennessee and Virginia and Kentucky and the mountains are having all kinds of flooding. We had flooding, they had fire. I mean, things are going to get worse, folks, I promise you, in this world setting that we live. But here's what the promise he made. He said, I'll never leave you. And that's the presence of God. And so, I want to ask you this question. In your mind, answer it. When was the last time, sensing his presence, you thought God is here? Maybe it was in a church service. Maybe it was in a song. Maybe it was in prayer. Maybe it was studying your Bible. It was that quiet time. But when was the last time you were really aware of the presence of God? See, that's what I think we're missing. We're trying to go through all the things. I read my Bible. I pray. I go to church. monotonous, all mechanical, and it's not a, I want to spend time with God, and it's not I want to know more of Him, it's I've got to do these things to be a good Christian. And my friend, may I say, if that's your vision of Christianity, you're missing out on what God wants. So the Lord may have seen so close that you were almost convinced you could see Him with a visible eye, if that were possible. And I think sometimes we're not aware of God's presence. If we understand the Bible, the presence of God is in our life. It should not be an unusual thing. It's just like revival. We think revival is this unusual thing that happens once in a while in the church and among believers. But my friend, that ought to be the norm, not the exception. And the presence of God in our life should be the norm, not the exception. So if we understand the Bible, it should be a common thing and I'm not saying that we necessarily feel a supernatural presence always because I know that's not the case and as you study your Bible that's not what God's people have always felt but it should not be unusual for us to know that God is here. And the closer you get and the more that you desire to be more spiritually grounded in the things of God, I think you become more aware of the presence of God. That's what we want to look at this morning. So I want to ask yourself, are you sensitive to God's presence? Well, let's look at a couple of things this morning. First of all, I want to deal with this, the dullness of God's presence. In the book of Genesis 28 and verse 16, the Bible said, Jacob awakened out of his sleep and he said, surely the Lord is in this place and notice what he said, and I knew it not. Friend, may I say this? How is it that the God of heaven could be in a place and you not know it? But how many times we have different experiences in church, and I hear this sometimes, Brother Shane, people say, well, you know, I wasn't right with God. I've had people tell me this, that they've been in the parking lot, and because they didn't have things right with God, they got in their car and they went home. And they said, I didn't want to hinder the service. And I thought, man, how proud are you that you think your little mess you're going through is big enough where you're going to hinder what God wants to do? You might hinder what God wants to do in your heart, but the Bible said where two or three are gathered in my name, I'm in the midst. Praise God. We don't need this. Now, I want to say this. I think you ought to come to church, pray it up, confess your sin, write with God, but that's for you, friend. God can do whatever he wants with whoever he wants, however he wants to do it. So two people can come into service and they can hear that choir sing, I've never been sorry. And Miss Sheila, she's singing that song and it resonates with me right now. I'm going, man, I want to know God's presence in my life. But then other people say they're saved and they sit there and go, that did nothing for me. God can be in a place and you not even know it. And the way that happens is because we're dull to the presence of God. Well, how do we get there? In other words, what are the symptoms of that? Well, first, we think less often of God. Let me ask you this. It's the only time you think of God when you're either praying, reading your Bible, or going to church. Now, I don't know your life. I'm not trying to pry into your walk with God, but may I say this? I would venture to say that most people, even those that would say I love the Lord and I spend time in the word of God. Let's say it's an hour. One hour. I pray and read my Bible an hour a day. Well, that's pretty good. But there's 23 hours you didn't. So if you only think of God in that one hour that you pray and read your Bible, that means there's 23 out of 24 hours of the day that you are not really aware of the presence of God. You with me? Because if the only time I think of Him is when I'm studying the Word of God or I'm praying, then 23 out of 24 hours I have no understanding, I have no awareness of the presence of God in my life. Well, if you don't even do that but you say, well, I'm aware of the presence of God when I come to church and you come for one hour a week because that's your responsibility and your duty, you think, man, that's what I'm supposed to do as a Christian, then in all the hours you have in one week, you experience the presence of God one hour out of that. Now, if you're a Chriester, the crowd that comes for Christmas and Easter, And you come two hours a year, then you're experiencing potentially the presence of God two hours maybe. See what I'm saying? In other words, we think less often of God. We pray when we need something. We study the Bible when we want to find an answer about how we can it'll help us, right, or make us feel better, but any other time we're not really aware of the presence of God. Well, that's the reason, my friend, that we don't, we're not sensitive to the presence of God in our life. So we are consumed with other things. And may I say this, the devil will always make sure that you're consumed with other things to keep your mind off of who God is. I mean, you got, Work, you've got kids, you've got ball games, you've got stress in life, you've got power bills and mortgages and you've got the news at 24-hour news site. Wasn't it good back in the good old days when it was the 6 o'clock news and you didn't know what in the world was going on except two times a day, 6 at night and 11? You've got social media, you've got everything. And over here, God's saying, I sure would like to spend some time with you. You're saying, well, I'll try to get around to it, maybe an hour if I can. We're consumed with other things, but then we think of us. We live in such a narcissistic, selfish society. And even among God's people, it's like, well, what about me? I'll try to make some time here. God, how can you benefit me? What can you do for me? And even in our prayer time, that's what we're doing. We're not worshiping God. We're praying, God, meet my need. Take care of this. Listen, I got a power bill coming up. I need you to pay that thing. I won't have any power. We don't understand why we don't feel the presence of God. The person of God is not on our mind daily. And it's not easy. I'll be honest with you, Brother RJ, even as a pastor, even as a preacher, God's not on my mind all the time. He should be, but listen, I'm dealing with problems and I'm dealing with my life. So we think less of God, we think less of His Word, and we think less of His will. You want God's presence, but you don't want to do God's will. So we think less often of God, but then we think less often of God's presence. So Proverbs 15, 3 said, the eyes of the Lord are in every place beholding the evil and the good. Well, if I'm not aware of God's presence, if I'm not thinking on God's presence, and all I think is God's presence is in the house of God or God's presence is in the time I spend in the word of God or pray, guess what I do? I live my life like there's not a real God. Right? And you've heard this and people say, well, if Jesus was here, would you do that? Oh, no. But he is, right? I mean, we're making that statement like, you know, if he were physically here, but he is. And so that leads us to think less of restraining sin. When I was growing up there, you know, there are things that in my flesh as a teenager I would do. because it satisfied my flesh. But if that lady right back there was there, I would have never done it. Sometimes she, I said it before, she'd put the curse on me. Yeah, I'd kiss her, I'd say, I'm leaving. She'd say, you go ahead and have fun, but just remember, the Lord knows what you're doing. Well, you might as well just deflated the whole balloon when you say that. You're like, yes, ma'am. But she was accurate. When you're not aware of the presence of God, you live your life like the only time God is... You know, people say, you shouldn't talk like that in church. You shouldn't talk like that any time. You shouldn't use that kind of language in church. Okay, but you're telling me it's okay to use it at home? Right? It's like the only place God is is in the four walls of the church. I don't know about your God, but mine says that what's built by man's hand cannot contain him. Hey, if brother Johnny and I were riding down the road and he asked me a question and I said yeah, and we had a conversation, you wouldn't think that abnormal. But all of a sudden you're riding down the road and the spirit of God speaks to you and you're going, well I'll just pray in my head. He understands. I don't want people to drive by and think I'm nuts. Right? We think less often of the presence of God so we're not restrained from sin, which guess what sin does? It hinders the fellowship between us and God. It's a vicious cycle, right? And so that leads us to think less of doing good. If I follow my flesh, my flesh most often is going to tell me to do what's good for me, not what's good. And so we don't remember the presence of the Lord is unseen. I mean, if he was, we just said it, if he was visibly here and we'd see him, we'd say, I mean, let me ask you this. If he showed up, if Jesus Christ showed up in this building today and you recognize him with the nail prints in his hand, would you act different than you are now? Some of you, guess what? You probably wouldn't be on your phone during church. I got my Bible on my, come on. Then why is your face blue? Like you're posting on Facebook during church. I mean if he was here, you know what we'd do? We'd worship him. I mean, the choir would say, preach, can we get back up there and sing I've Never Been Sorry? And Miss Sheila would be, and we would sing that congregational singing, and the musicians would play it, man, they'd play it even better than what they've done. And my preaching, I'd just sit down and say, you handle it, you're better at it than I am. But why are we not that way today? Because we don't, well, this is just church, preacher, this isn't God showing up. Then we've messed up. We shouldn't even have come here today. See, we don't remember the presence of the Lord's unseen and though it's unseen, it's more real than anything else. You say, well, I don't think I understand. I don't believe that. Well, I said it before. I'll say it again. Is gravity real? How many would agree with me? Raise your hand. Gravity is real. If you don't think it's real, you're crazy. Is oxygen real? You ever seen it? Amen. Well, I can't see it, so I don't believe in it. Well, then next time they say, you know, your oxygen is low, we're going to hook you up this tank. Say, no, no, I don't need that because I can't see it. Well, that's dumb. But we're saying I believe in gravity. I believe in air and I can't see them. But I don't believe in a creator, I don't believe in a God that I can't visibly put my eyes on. Well, it's unscientific, preacher. So please explain to me what is scientific. Well, science is anti-religion. No, science proves there is a God when you don't distort it. I'll say it again, there is still the theory of evolution. It is not the law of evolution because they've not proven it to be true. I can have a theory about anything I want to have a theory on, but until I prove it to be true, that's when it becomes a law, that's when it becomes truth. So, no, I did not come from a monkey and I did not come from an amoeba. There was not an explosion somewhere on the other side of the universe and all of a sudden everything threw into place. And so therefore, guess what? I can believe that there's a creator. And even if there was a great explosion, explain to me where all the matter that exploded came from. Well, it was just there. So you can believe in matter that was just there, but you can't believe in a God that was just there. See, we think less often of God's presence because we can't visibly see Him. Here's what Christianity has done. They've made God an idea instead of a person. And if God's just an idea, then guess what? I can disprove the idea. And if I can disprove the idea, I can be my own God. You say, well, no, no, preacher. Yes, that's called humanism. You can't tell me what gender I am. You can't tell me what's right and wrong. I determine that for myself. That's humanism. So now we all become gods. So we think less often of God's presence, but then we spend, here's how we fix it. We spend time nurturing our relationship. Psalms 1054, seek the Lord and his strength. Seek his face evermore. Seek. God is reduced to a cold religion, not a warm, loving relationship. So though God sometimes takes the initiative, his presence is something we must seek. Well, here's the thing. You can be in a place and God can be there and you not be aware of it. You say, how's that? I thought he's so big. Well, I'll give you this. How many times you've been sitting in the living room with your wife, right? Or you're sitting there and she walks in and you're either on this or... And she's been sitting there 30 minutes and you go... How long have you been sitting there? About half an hour. I didn't even know you were there. She was sitting right beside of you. You weren't even aware of her presence. Right? Well, you've got to seek out his presence. You say, no, I think I'll wait until he initiates it. That sounds good. That's not exactly scriptural. Seek him while he may. People say, well, you know, they'll say, I found the Lord. And I've heard people say, well, you didn't find the Lord. He was never lost. Hallelujah. Okay. That sounds good. Independent Baptist, but here's seek the Lord while he may be what? It's not about him being lost. He has never been lost. But he does say, seek him while he may be found. Matter of fact, he said, do you remember this? Watch this. Remember after the resurrection, Brother Foy, them guys were walking down the road. Jesus walks up beside them. He talks with them on the whole journey. They didn't even know it was him until he revealed himself. Tell me. Stop looking at all your pop culture Christianity and all the little nifty sayings and get in your Bible and look what the Bible says. We've made a mockery of Christianity because some preacher says something or some meme says something and we'll embrace it like it's theology and that's not even what the Bible said. Oh, you don't seek after Jesus. He's never been lost. Okay, then why do you say seek me while I may be found? But Jimmy, the Bible said my people are destroyed, why? For lack of knowledge. We don't know. So number one is the dullness of God's presence. So we think less often of God, we think less often of God's presence. But we can fix that if we spend time nurturing our relationship. Number two, hang on, we're getting there. I only got three points. I didn't preach Wednesday, so I'm getting it out. Number two is we have to be discerning of God's presence. Well, what do you mean by that? Well, I've got to let God define what his presence looks like. So he gives us the distinctions of God's presence in his word. What are those distinctions? Well, there's the universal presence of God. He's everywhere all the time. Right? There's also the indwelling presence of God. He lives in me. Once you get born again, the spirit of God lives in you. That's the indwelling presence of God. There's the perceptible presence of God. Sometimes God does something supernatural where he reveals himself in a unique way to where it becomes more real in our walk with him. Then there's the heavenly presence of God that he's sitting on a throne and then there's the eternal presence of God. He always has been and he always will be. You say, I don't understand all that. Well, let's just hang on till we get to heaven and he'll lay it out. Maybe the first million years he'll teach us that stuff. Don't let the world and our intellect determine what God's presence looks like. He's everywhere. He was here before you got here. Matter of fact, listen to this. He came in here with you. I've had people say I went to that church and God wasn't there. Sure he was. You're probably telling more about you than you are about him. So we can grieve the spirit of God, we can hinder the spirit, but he's there. So there's a distinction, but then notice the defining God's presence. You say, well, I know what that is, preacher. I know exactly what God, because I know what, no, let's let God define it for himself. In Acts chapter 17, verse 28 said, for in him, we live and move and have our being, in him. All right, Romans 1.20, for the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that we were without excuse. So he reveals himself to us. He's always there, but sometimes... Listen, the morning I got saved, Brother Ken, I've been in church my whole life. I was 25 years old. I'd heard preaching on the cross. I'd heard preaching on everything you'd ever heard preaching on. And for some reason that morning I was in that service and the Holy Spirit of God kept dealing with my heart. And I went to the altar and I said, God, I just want to rededicate my life to the Lord. I was a good independent Baptist. I knew all the lingo. I just, I want to rededicate my life to the Lord. And I went back to my seat and my heart still wasn't settled. I went back to the altar. You know as God if you don't went to the altar went back to your seat and then went back to the altar. And I got on the altar and I said God I don't know what's wrong. I said a prayer when I was a kid. It's like the Holy Spirit but nothing ever changed. Well, if you get born again, you get saved, there'll be a change in your life. If there's no change according to the scripture, you're not one of His. But I said a prayer. Man, stop basing your salvation on your prayer. It's whether or not you believe, trust, right? So I was on that altar. The Holy Spirit just kept, you're not saved. But I said a prayer. I said the prayer. That man told me what to say, I said it. I believe in eternal security. Well, that's good. But if you never had the salvation part, you don't have the eternal security. I believe this. I think a lot of people sitting in our Independent Baptist Church has never been saved. And so they get out and sin. People say, well, see, you can lose your salvation. Not if you really have it. I'm talking about true salvation. So you get this this morning. God will reveal himself sometime. He's always there but sometimes he reveals himself. And he reveals himself to us through nature. I'm going to tell you what, when you think about this thing God gave us called a body and the way that thing works, that's amazing. Then you look out there and you see nature and we've not, let's see what we've learned to do, we've learned to clone some things. But you never learned to create it. I'm about to help myself now. All you can do is replicate what has already been created. Right? You didn't create it. And everything's pointing to the same thing. There's a divine creator, divine creator, divine creator. And we're trying to do everything we can to disprove that very thing. And God's saying, I'm giving you all this stuff to point you to me. Right? And so, listen, you go out, you look at the mountains, you're like, man, here's the bad thing. God, I love the mountains, don't you? Here's what I found though. You go to the mountains, just about every city or town in the mountains, you know what? They got a bunch of hippies and devil worshippers. Isn't that right? Man, you go up the mountains and you say, I love to go to Asheville, you better not go downtown. You go out west, same thing. You go to a lot of them mountain towns, bunch of hippies and devil worshippers, witches and all that mess. Why? Because God's created something beautiful and Satan's trying to destroy the very beauty of it. Right? I love the ocean. I used to hate it, man. I used to hate going out there and getting that nasty sand all over you. And I like just looking at it. I really like looking at it from the balcony. in the air condition. Isn't that good? Amen. But all that God's given us in just a few weeks, guess what's going to happen? Stuff's going to start getting green and the dogwoods are going to bloom and then them stinking Bradford pears, that's Satan's tree. And then allergies are coming, right? Oh, I've grieved it now, I've grieved the Spirit. But the thing is, all those things God has given us to point to Him. But more importantly than that, you say, well, I'm looking up in the sky wanting God to send me a sign, I'm waiting for a sign. Well, you'll keep waiting. So God said this, He reveals Himself not only through nature but more definitively through His Word. You want to know about God? Here's his autobiography right here. The Incarnate Word of God. There's four Gospels that record the life of Christ. Then there's a whole book that tells you about God. Right? And so it tells of his presence and how our perception of his presence is experienced. Look through that. I was reading this morning in Exodus. Moses. Man, can you imagine? Moses goes up on that mountain. He's right there face to face with God. And then he comes down and all of those Israelites were worshiping a cow, running around naked. Moses gets mad. Well, God got mad first. He said, I'm just going to kill all of them. Moses said, no, you can't do that. If you do, you rescue them out of Egypt and it's not going to look good on you if you kill them all. So Moses, what did he do? Went back up on that mountain. Then I saw in chapter 33, they built that tabernacle and they took it outside the camp and Moses went in there, right? And the presence of God was there. See, he went seeking for the presence of God. we're sitting back waiting for but we gotta go looking for right so so we're not imagining God as we expected when I was with me I was gonna I think God's this big grandpa on the sky I think Jesus is this were you get your information from let God explain to us from his word who he is alright so we're defining God's presence but then number three We ought to be desiring God's presence. Well, how do we do that? Here's what I found out. Most of the time, if you don't want to be around people, if they got any sense at all, they understand that and it won't be long till they're like, I'm done. Am I right? I mean, if you want people to come over to eat at your house and you say, well, I guess so, you know. If you ain't got anything anywhere else to go, come on over. And they come over and the lights are off, right? No food. And then they're rude to you. You know, it's like, well, you done eating? It is 6.30. It's about time for us to go to bed. I'm figuring out, probably, you don't want me there. Here's what I found out as a pastor. Sometimes I go, and I've heard it, knock on the door, you see like, it's the preacher, be quiet. I usually just put a track on the door like, they obviously don't want me here. Why do we get that way but then we set God in the corner, right? Don't want you now. Don't want you now. Don't want you now. Oh, I want you now. Right? Then we can't understand. Do you desire God's presence in your life or you just want Him when you want Him? I promise you this, fellas. You married and you don't want to be around your wife? Won't be long, she don't want to be around you. Young ladies, listen to me, look up here at Preacher. I'm going to save you some heartache right here. You got these little nappy-headed boys running around here, these long-haired hippie boys. They're all cool, right? They won't give you the time of day. They treat you like you're trash. And you're just like, oh, he's a football player. You know what he's going to do once you do get married to him? He's going to treat you the same way. No, no. When we get married, it's all going to change. It's going to change. It'll get worse. So if he ain't treating you good now, he's going to treat you good later. Amen. I've seen it. I've been doing this a while. I've got to a place, brother. People come to me and they're like, would you marry us? Why not? I don't think it's going to work out. Preacher, you ought not be like that. I am going to be like that. There's nothing in my contract that says I've got to marry anybody. Why do you all want to get married? We love each other. Nope. Not one time did you say, we prayed about this God's will for my life. That's what I want to hear. I shouldn't have said that. Preacher, we prayed about it and it's God's will for our life. I'm serious, folks. Listen. Mom and Dad, you know what? You ought to stand up and tell them the same thing. You shouldn't put it on the preacher to do your dirty work for you. You love your daughter, sir, you ought to say, that ain't going to work. He's a bum. But she loves him and she might run off. Well, she loves you and listens to you, right? So I'm just saying, I don't know where I got off on that, but that's still good preaching. I know where I was going with that. If he don't want to be around you now and all he wants to do is run off with his friends and call you and come over. Hey, I don't have anything else to do. Can we go out tonight? No! Kick him to the curb! Well, that's what we do to God, isn't it? I ain't got time for you. We need to fit this meeting with me and you, Lord. We got church at 10.30. I'll give you that time. Alright, well, how we go to the place God reveals Himself. Where's that? The Bible. You don't spend time in the word of God, don't expect God's presence. People place a higher priority on seeking the experience over God's word. I want to feel the presence of God. Well, why do you want to feel the presence of God if in his word you don't have enough faith when he reveals the presence of God? I want to feel the presence of God. I'm not saying that's not real, it is real. But why do you want the experience when you've not spent time with Him? You see? We ought to read the Word of God to know God. Then we ought to acknowledge His presence through fellowship. Do you pray? Well, yeah, I pray. What do you pray? Well, I ask God, I make my petitions known like the Bible said. Well, when you look at the model prayer, there was a whole lot more than just give us this day our daily bread. See? Intimacy is developed through communication. God speaks to you through his word, you speak to God in prayer. And then finally, you commune with others who know him. That's why church is important. See 1 Corinthians 6, 19, he said, what? Know you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own. 1 Corinthians 3.9 For we are labors together with God, ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building. 1 Corinthians 3.16-17 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple, him shall God destroy. For the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are. And watch this, Matthew 18.20 He said, For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. you are the temple of God you have the very person of God if you're a born-again Christian living inside of you when you come in that door and I come in that door there's two people that have the very presence of God present together and he said when you that happens I'm in the midst amen that's why church is important we need to be around other people that had the same experience that we have. You say, I don't think you ought to go to church to be a Christian. I agree with you. I'd say this. I'd probably say you don't have to go to church to be saved. See, to be a Christian means Christ-like. And if you studied the word of God when Christ was on earth, you know where he went? Temple. Hebrews, for sainting out these same yourselves together, ought to be at church. Well, God's not up there going perfect attendance. But here's what I found out. People that usually are not faithful to church, right? They're very distant. Well, I worship God at home. I worship God on the lake in a boat. You can do that. But there are certain times where God wants a community of believers to worship him together, right? I mean, you look at the new Testament, the epistles were written to what local churches didn't say the, the book of Ephesians is not written to the Ephesians who are on the bass lake. So when you're not here for Sunday school and when you're not here for Sunday morning, when you're not here for Sunday night, listen, we don't have here for Wednesday night. We don't have those things because the Baptist brethren are going to look down on us if we don't. I did not sign a contract with the independent Baptist somewhere that says that we have to do anything. This is an autonomous body. We decide what we're going to do. We do that to give you a tool. to helping your walk with God. And when you miss Wednesday night, what you're saying is, I don't want to be there. And then that's fine. You don't have to, we don't take attendance. But what I found Lee Robertson said, we need three to thrive. When people don't aren't here Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, here's what I find most of the time. They have more problems. They have less solutions and it seems like they're constantly in this churn of issues. Right? So like a preacher, I need some counseling. We'll come to Wednesday night. Well, I can't do that. Why do you want me to take my time to meet with you when you won't be... Here's the tool, right? But you won't use the tool Just come together, right? Men, you ought to come to men's fellowship. Ladies, you ought to go to ladies. Well, I don't have time for that. I just want to come here, preach and go home. You can do that, but you're never going to get connected with God's people. Right? So God gives tools. So here's the question. Are you sensitive to God's presence? Well, no, I've never experienced it. Well, there's a problem. Either you've never been saved, well, you can fix that this morning. Or you have a dullness because you don't think on Him, right? You're away from God, you can fix that today. Whatever your problem is today, you can fix it. You just got to come to Him. Come to Him this morning. Well, I'll wait. You can if you're here, but you don't know you'll be here. I'll give you this. I'll close. There's always this debate, question, right? Can I get saved on my deathbed? Yeah. I mean, if the Holy Spirit's dealing with your heart, okay, well, I'll just wait, okay? Or some people said, I've had people tell me this. The Lord's dealing with my heart, but I'm gonna wait till next week. Okay, can you sign just this contract? Here's what I'd, if you're that way, I'm just gonna sign the contract, give it to me, attend the service, saying that between now and next Sunday, you won't die. 100%, I won't die. You can't do that, can you? So what happens if between now and next Sunday, when you say I want to get saved next Sunday, what happens if you die? See how serious it is? The Bible said today is the day of salvation. Just today. Just fix it today. Well I don't want to, I want to get things right, God, but young people, I want to do it later on in life because I want to live my life the way I want to now. Sounds like a good plan. There's a lot of people sitting in here today that if they could give you advice, they'd say, listen, Brother Ken, I wish I would have lived for God sooner than I did. Because if I could pull the flesh back, right, and you could see inside of me and a lot of other people, you'd see a lot of scars. A lot of scars, Brother Foy, that I could have avoided if I had just started living for God earlier in life. That's why it's important whatever God's speaking your heart about today, get it solved today. Let's stand together. Let's bow our heads this morning. Thank you for your attention. Ms. Susan's coming to the piano this morning. Heads are bowed. Would you do this by an uplifted hand? Would you say, Pastor, God spoke to me this morning and I don't really know if I died today that I'd go to heaven. And I want you to pray for me. And I say it all the time, me praying for you is not going to save you. But I'd like to pray God would give you some help today. Would you do that if I died today, preacher? I'm not 100% sure I'd go to heaven. Would you pray for me? Is there one? Is there one? By an uplifted hand. Don't be embarrassed. All right. By our testimony, we're all saved and going to heaven. Second question, are you walking with God? Is there a definite presence? Are you aware of the presence of God in your life? If not, you can. That's what he wants. It'd be like this, I'd hate to know that I've been married for 31 years to Miss Ellen. and not know she is my wife. That's what we're saying. I'm saved, been saved for a long time, but I really don't know that I've ever experienced the presence of God. If I'm married, I should experience the presence of my wife, should I not? If you're saved, you should experience the presence of God. It shouldn't be an idea, it shouldn't be just a cold theology. There is a real God who desires to have a relationship with you. Boy, He's so, so kind. He'll never force you. Won't force you to get saved. Won't force you to walk with Him. Won't force you to live for Him. But He is available. heavenly father i love you thank you for the message i thank you for your presence you are so good to us thank you for all you do in jesus name we pray