2 Chronicles chapter 7 in the Bible. 2 Chronicles chapter number 7, if you would. I want to preach to you this morning on reclaiming the presence of God. Reclaiming the presence of God. 2 Chronicles chapter number 7. We're going to begin reading in verse number 1. Read verses 1 through 3, and then we're going to skip down to verse number 10. The Bible says in 2 Chronicles 7-1, Now when Solomon had made an end of praying, a fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the house. And the priests could not enter into the house of the Lord because the glory of the Lord had filled the Lord's house. When all the children of Israel saw how the fire came down and the glory of the Lord upon the house, They bowed themselves at their faces to the ground upon the pavement and worshiped and praised the Lord, saying, For he is good, for his mercy endureth forever. Look now with me at verse number 10, if you would. And on the three and 20th day of the seventh month, he sent the people away into their tents, glad and merry in heart for the goodness that the Lord had showed unto David and to Solomon and to Israel, his people. Brother Doug Beamer, would you ask the Lord to bless the preaching group? Thank you for the word of God for us. I just pray now that the Lord be with us and by your Holy Spirit. May each and every one of us here, what we have to say for today, may our hearts and minds be open. And it's all these things. Now, here in chapter number seven, the glory of God shows up, as you see in verse number one. And in verse number two, it says that the priest couldn't even enter into the house of the Lord because the glory of the Lord had filled the house. Now, that's important because down in verse number ten, God's people leave from that assembly glad and merry in heart. Let me say this right here, if you want to have some joy in your life, if you want to be glad and have a merry heart, then what you need is not more pleasure in this world, not more money, not more dope, not more liquor, not more fornication, but what you need is the presence of Almighty God to show up in your life. And what our church needs today, and what the churches across America need today, is to know what it is to be in God's presence again. And I'm sorry to say most of us have no idea what it means. We need the presence of God. Look over with me, if you would, turn to your right and grab Psalms chapter number 16. Keep your finger here in 2 Chronicles, because we're coming right back. Psalms chapter number 16. And no coincidence, but look at verse number 11. 1611. Psalms 1611. Now watch this. Thou wilt show me the path of life. In thy presence is fullness of joy. And at thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore. In thy presence there is fullness of joy. And at thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore. You know what this world is doing? It's running around trying to find joy, trying to find pleasure, but they can't find it because the wages of sin is death. They can't find it because in sin there's just rottenness of the soul. There's just depression. There's just discouragement. There's pain. There's disappointment. There's sorrow. But in God Almighty, there's joy. I'm glad this morning I got some joy. I got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart. They brainwashed me with that in Sunday school and let me say I'm just now at 34 years old starting to figure out a little bit of what that means. It doesn't have anything to do with the things of this world. It doesn't have anything to do with who I am. It doesn't have to do with anything to do with who I've become. It has to do with who Jesus Christ is. And thank God for his joy. I want some joy, don't you? You know what I want people to feel like when they walk in the door of that church? I want them to step out of a very sinful and very depressing and very sorrow ridden world. And I want them to step into a place where there's some liberty, where there's some joy, where some people have some gladness in their heart and their hearts are merry before the Lord. I want them to feel the difference when they walk into this place. But my friend, the problem with most of us is we don't even know in our own lives what it's like to have God's presence. So how can we share it with other people if we don't know what it's like as Christians to have the presence of God? Now, just to give you a little background of what's going on here before we get into the message here in chapter number seven, look at verse number one, Solomon had made an end of praying. Why was Solomon praying? Well, because for 20 years, Solomon had been building and what he had been building was a temple to God. You know the story. His father, King David, had fought many wars and had shed much blood. And even though David was a man after God's own heart, David was the one that God gave the sure mercies of David to. And God even told David that the seed would come through him. And our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, can be traced all the way back to David. And we thank God for that. David was a great man. But God did not allow David to build the temple. But it was in David's heart to do something great for God. And God said, no, you can't. But guess what I'll do? I'll let your boy do it. So David said, all right, Lord, if I can't do it, you know what I'll do? I'll prepare my whole life. I'll give up my own riches. I'll give up everything I've got and I will prepare so that my boy can get a good start at it. And let me say, friend, that's what you and I ought to be doing today with our lives. We ought to say, hey, I might never be what I would want to be. I might never be able to accomplish everything that's in my heart and in my mind. But with God's help, I'm going to prepare so that my kids can go farther, faster and longer than I did. So God's power can show up in our children's lives. That's one of the reasons you ought to be in this church this morning, not just for yourself and that God loves you and God wants you to get something out of it. Amen. But what about your children? What about your children's children? You might you might hate the preacher. I can't imagine why, but you just might. You might get your your feathers ruffled and you might not like the assistant pastor, and I understand that it's OK. I put up with them to a man. But you know what? You might not like certain things about the church, but you ought to look for a place that believes the Bible and that preaches some old-fashioned preaching and believes in old-fashioned morality and, hey, listen, that knows how to love people God's way and preaches Christ so that your children and your grandchildren can have somewhere in their hometown that they can go hear the preaching of God's Word and get something done with their lives. I'm tired of seeing young people. I mean, I'm tired of seeing young people depressed, I understand older people getting depressed. Amen. Older people, yeah, you've been around a while, you see what sin does and you see the effects of it. I understand you getting a little bummed out from time to time, but I'm tired of seeing teenagers and young men in their early 20s and kids even younger than that having depression and discouragement. What does a little kid have to be depressed about? Hey, listen, if you ain't paying any bills, what are you depressed about? Amen. I'll tell you what the problem is. The problem is sin. It's permeating our young people. Younger and younger and younger. And the deeper they get into sin, the more depressed they get. They got no joy. They got no gladness. They got no merriness. And they need God to get some. God will still give you some pleasure and some joy. But God's pleasure doesn't bring with it the wages of sin. God's pleasure brings with it something that satisfies the heart and fills the soul. The devil's pleasure and the pleasure of your flesh will bring with it the wages of sin, and you'll die young, living filthy. You hear what I said? You'll die young, living filthy. That's the pleasure and the wages of sin. David prepared for his son. And let me say, after Solomon took everything his daddy had prepared, and he put it to good use, and he prayed to God as a young man and asked for wisdom, and God poured wisdom out on Solomon. Man, when I study these two characters out, you know what I want? I want the heart of David. I want the heart of David. David's one of my favorite Bible characters. I want his heart in my chest. A man for God's own heart. But you know what I want? The wisdom of Solomon in his early years. Solomon started out right, but he finished wrong. Solomon had wisdom. I want the building ability. I want to be able to build like Solomon could build. Hey, with my life, it's not my desire, my goal to chop people down and run people off. It's not my goal to fight everybody. It's my goal to build something with my life for the glory of Almighty God and the good of the brethren. That's my goal. I like to see God using me to build people, not break them down. Amen. I want some of that. Solomon spent 20 years building. And now he's the temple's ready. But let me say it was a magnificent place. It was just rich. It would blow your mind. You've seen nothing like it in your life. You've seen nothing like it. It was the blessing of God poured out on a nation and on a king. And he had built something magnificent, but that thing was nothing more than a monument. That thing was nothing more than a building. That thing was nothing more than gold. You heard Brother Skipper? God walks on gold. That's what the streets are made of. That's what God thinks of gold. The most valuable thing to you and I means nothing to God. And all that was absolutely nothing until God's presence showed up. You've heard it said before, most great works start out with a man. Then they become a movement. Then they become a machine. Then they become a money. Now, those of you who've been around a little while, you know what I'm talking about. Think back and look back on some of the great men of the past and the works that they did and how 50 years or 100 years later, those works are nothing but a monument. We talk about the great churches of the past. We talk about the great preachers of the past. We talk about the great revivals of the past. They've become a monument. And in order for anything to ever become a true movement of God, it's got to have God's presence on it. If all you got is the man and all you got is the monument, you miss what makes it effective. What makes it effective is becoming a movement of God. Solomon spent all this time building and all that Solomon had done with all of his power, all of his wisdom and all of his riches would have amounted to nothing if Solomon had not first stopped and prayed. In verse number one, Solomon, after all of his work, And tried to get a hold of Almighty God and it was God's presence that made Solomon's work worth Working for and the same things true of this church your marriage and your children Same things true your walk with Jesus Christ. All of your work is nothing until God's presence shows up in it now I know that goes against our modern humanistic culture, but that's the God's honest truth If God doesn't show up your work is nothing Solomon's work would have amounted to nothing if the presence of God had not been required. I want you to look at this prayer. And just for the sake of time, we're not going to go back through there, but read verse number six later, jot down some notes in the margin of your Bible there next to that verse one. Solomon, when he prayed, he recognized who God was. He recognized God's faithfulness. His prayer was not all about his own wish list. His prayer was not all about his wants. His prayer was not asking for things from God. His prayer was true, genuine worship of Almighty God. His prayer got before God and he recognized the faithfulness of God. He called on the greatness of God. He actually recognized God's ability to hear and answer prayer. He told God, I know you can hear me and I know you can answer. Some of you think that's silly. And there are times in my life where I feel like I'm praying and God isn't hearing. But let me tell you something. God hears your prayers. I asked my preacher one time, I'll never forget it. I said, how do you know God hears your prayers? I mean, he said, I just know it. I said, well, how do you know? He said, I just do. I said, well, I know, but how do you know? He said, I just know it. He said, it's not always by the answers, but I've seen enough answers to where I know he's hearing. He said, at this point, I just pray and I know He hears me. That's all there is to it. Hey, it's faith. Without faith, it's impossible to please Him. Some of you this morning, your prayer life suffers because you lack faith that God actually hears. But your God is faithful, even when you're not faithful. And He hears your prayers because He said He'd hear them in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ. Thank God for that. God hears prayers. Tuesday morning, I laid right here, about three feet away from the edge of this, about halfway through this front, front, front, whatever this area here is, whatever you want to call it, I don't know what it is, this spot. I believe right about there. And I said, Lord, I am tired of not seeing people get saved. I said, before the sun sets today, please let me lead somebody to Jesus Christ. I said, I'm just sick of this. And Lord, I know this is your will. I know it's what you want. And I want to rededicate my life to being a soul winning pastor. I want to be an evangelist. I want to be evangelistic with my life. I want to win souls to Jesus Christ all over southeast Michigan, all over metro Detroit, God, all over Southland. I want you to use me to touch lives and people on their way to hell. I want them to know who Jesus is. I want to see somebody saved. God heard my prayers. And not an hour later, I set an appointment on the phone with a missed call from somebody's name. I don't call businesses back. They're constantly calling. I went away for two weeks and got here and there was 28 missed calls and nine messages and almost all of them were salesmen. Good night. I don't call them back. Listen, when it's somebody's local name, I call them back to find out what they want. I set an appointment to go over there and that day I had the privilege of leading somebody to Jesus Christ. God answers prayers. We were out on visitation Thursday night. And some other folks stayed back and prayed and some of those men got together and those women got together and they were here praying while we were out. You want to know something? That night after the service, two people got saved. You know what they were praying? They said, hey, listen, God, we know that you said, he that goeth forth and weepeth bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. You said your words not void. You said the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. Now, God, show us that the gospel works. Show us our labors not in vain. God, get in it and answer some prayers. God, let us see people saved. And God answered our prayer that day before the sun was set. God answered our prayers. Listen, my friend, God will hear and answer your prayer. When God doesn't answer, it's because you're not praying the way God wants you to pray. You think about that. If we'll get praying, God will show up. Hey, he told God how righteous God was in chapter number six. I'm glad of that. I'm glad that I got a righteous God. and that he's holy, and that he's faithful, and that he's pure, and that he's loving, and that he loves me. I'm glad of that. He told God how great God's forgiveness is. He told God how powerful God was. He told God how what a blessing God was, how God had blessed his people. He just kind of just laid it on God, just poured it on God, just told God everything about God that God already knows. You think God's sitting in heaven going, wow, you're kidding me. I'm righteous? I'm holy? I'm all powerful? I've been good to you? What a shocker. Thanks for telling me. God already knows that stuff. And you know God already knows it. So you feel like you don't need to tell him. My three-year-old came up and stood in front of me. I think it was yesterday. And she looked at me. She said, Daddy? I said, what? You're big. I said, you're right, honey, I'm huge. She said, I was really feeling good. I was like, from her vantage point, I probably look big. I feel safe with me here. And I was looking at her, and I was just thinking how cute she is. And she goes, you're big like me. I gotta tell you, this is funny. She got done eating lunch. She jumps up on her chair. She goes, look, Dad! And I looked. She said, I hate a lot, and I'm getting bigger right now! Yeah, honey, it's crazy. Hey, you know what? You say that's silly. I know it's silly, but it made Daddy's heart warm right up, man. I know I'm bigger than her. She's not informing me anything I didn't realize. Man, right after that, when she files that thing up, can I have a piece of chocolate? They're real smart, they know what to do. That's what she usually gets. Ah, sure, yeah. Gloria, you and I ought to be doing, we ought to be telling God how great He is. You ought to just try setting a whole week where you're not going to ask God for anything personal. You're just going to tell God all week how good God is. It's going to tell God in the good, in the bad, in the up and the down. God, I've had some rough times and I haven't always understood what you were doing. God, you've been faithful. God, you haven't always poured everything on me that I wanted, but you know what? God, you've always blessed me. God, you know what? I haven't always seen your power. I've seen some bad and frustrating times, but you want to know something? You've always proven to be powerful in the end. Just pray. Well, this church needs some prayer warriors. Some prayer warriors. At least the people are going to get their feet on the street and witness. You better believe it. But that witnessing is nothing but a monument. We go soul winning. We're a spiritual church. It's nothing but a monument without the prayers of God's people getting in it and God's presence showing up in your life. In order for us to reclaim the presence of God, we need to learn to pray. You see, God's people had God's presence here. We saw the first part, but later on in the chapter, God warns them and says, if you turn and if you rebel and if you walk away, here's what you got to do to get it back again, because, you know, and I know that they lost God's presence. They had it here at the beginning, directly in answer to prayer. God showed up and God's people had joy and God's people got excited. But let me tell you something. Look down at verse number 13. If I shut off heaven, that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people, that's the same God who blessed them. That's the same God who gave them joy. That's the same God who gave them riches. That's the same God who did wonderful things. That same holy God hates sin. And God might not hate you, but God hates your sin. And if you die without Jesus Christ, you will suffer the damnation and judgment of Almighty God forever in the lake of fire. You say, Preacher, I don't like that. Everything you've been saying so far has been nice. It made me feel good. But hey, listen, the truth is the truth. And you might not like it, but this book said it. And God won't bless me if I don't tell you the truth. I've got to tell you the truth. And the truth is, without Jesus Christ, that same loving God is going to turn around and judge you for eternity. You know what God says? God says He's angry with the wicked every day. And He hates the sinner. That's not the kind of message you're supposed to give out today, but that's the message of the Bible. A man who will turn his back on the love of God, a man who will turn his back on Jesus Christ, God's only begotten Son, who God gave to wash away the sins of the whole world, the perfect, sinless Son of God, dying on that cross with my sins on Him. Greater love hath no man than this, than that a man would lay down his life for his friend. That was God's son he gave for us. And when we turn our back on God's son for anything, be it dope, be it fornication, be it lying, cheating, stealing, be it religion, highly moral, religious, upstanding person who rejects Jesus Christ for their religion. You go from the great love of God right into the lap of almighty God. Isn't that a scary? Christian, when you and I know the presence of God and have experienced the presence of God and turn around and walk away from that thing, you may never, you will never lose your salvation. You know that you're God's child forever. My daughters are my daughters and they'll be my daughters for the rest of my life and the rest of their life, no matter how our fellowship gets. We can have a fellowship that's broken. They might never speak to me again until the day they die. I might write them out of their will and leave all the money to the church. Or all the debt, whatever it is. Hey, listen, listen, they're still my girls. You're still God's child if you truly got saved, if you meant it from your heart and trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior to turn from your sin to the Lord. You got saved. One of the young men Thursday night said to me, I'm just done. I give up. I surrender. I quit. That's it. That's it. If you're done with yourself and you turn to Jesus Christ, you're saved. Listen to me, friend. You, as a Christian, can rob yourself of God's blessing on your life. You, as a Christian, can put yourself in a position where God's judgment comes instead of his love, where God's judgment comes instead of his presence. A problem has to be realized if we're going to reclaim God's presence. Look at verse 14. He says, OK, if I shut up rain, if I stop it, if I send a locust to devour the land, If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land." What a powerful verse. You see, the problem has to be realized. I want God's presence. I've experienced it a couple times in my life, and I'm not a charismatic. I'm not talking about all that silly stuff. I'm not talking about a 900-foot Jesus. I'm not talking about epiphanies and angels showing up to you. I'm just talking about knowing the presence of God. I'm talking about having a home that is just kind of, it's kind of alive. How do you explain it? I remember many times when I was working full-time, I'm working full-time now, but working in the world, and I'd walk in the door, and I would just be like, all day long, and the hubbub, and the go-go-go, and the top dog, and the lying, and the frustration, and the manipulation, and just the constant being in the center of the world, and being around all that. And then walk into my home, and guess what? It ought to be a haven. It ought to be a Christian home where the presence of God is. And that starts with the kids. It goes to the parents, husband-wife relationship, parent-children relationship. That works on every level. Every member of your home ought to be contributing to what makes that place the place where God shows up. I remember walking into my house and just feeling it. I'm home. What a great thing. What a great thing to pray and to actually know that God's listening. You can actually think, you know what, if Barack Obama stopped by right now, I'd tell him to sit down and wait because I'm busy. I got the ear of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. I mean, it's so real that the phone actually gets shut off. The ringer is turned off. Everybody else in the world gets shut out because you're with God. I'm talking about the times when you've been out and you see God set up an opportunity to witness and you recognize the presence of God in that thing and the convicting power of God's spirit working on the person you're talking to. I'm talking about when you get bad news and things aren't quite going your way, but there's peace down in your soul because you know God's in control and he's still on the throne and everything's all right. I mean, you've just got the presence of God in your life. And you know what that's like. But the problem is, friends, we all are prone to wander. I imagine since last Sunday, some of you are much farther from God than you were seven days ago. We come in here, but what I want in this church, I want to see God's presence showing up every single week. I get excited about Sunday. I come in here excited because I'm expecting God to answer my prayers. I'm looking for God to show up. I want to come into church. I want to see God's presence. And God gives us some of those times that we thank the Lord for it. But what happens is then we do what we ought not and our hearts become proud. He says, if my people, which are called by my name, you see, the problem in Israel was not the lost people. It was not the sinners. It was not the don't dealers. It was not the homosexuals. It was not the wicked fornicators. Hey, the problem in Israel was not the drunkard. It was not the news media. It was not the politicians. The problem in Israel was God's people had gotten proud. And when God's people get proud, God pulls his presence back. And when God pulls his presence back from his own people, what's the hope of the world? Who's supposed to be a light? The world? The politicians? Some of you are all worked up about this upcoming, you know, election. I don't know why you're getting worked up about it. I was talking to the lady at Walgreens last night. It was last night, or the night before, Friday night. And I said, you know, we somehow, I don't even know how we got the conversation going, but started talking about the politicians. And I said, good night, you're just voting for the lesser of two evils, really. I said, what we need is somebody who will just get up there and say, this is what it is, this is the principles, this is right and wrong, this is what I'm going on, you don't like it, talk. I don't care, don't vote me in. I said, I'll vote for that guy. She said, yeah, absolutely. Why don't the people just tell it like it is? I said, I don't know, but you know what? She started talking about teleprompters. I said, funny thing, me and the assistant pastor at our church, I hadn't told her who I was or anything yet, I said, me and the assistant pastor at our church visited another church at one point, and guess what? They have two teleprompter screens up there for the preacher. She said, what? I said, yeah, believe it or not, even the preachers of America Aren't just telling it like it is anymore. She said, I believe my church. I said, that's right. I said, our preacher needs to get out that Bible. He's get along with God and he's get up there and give God's people God's message, whether they like it or not, from a loving heart and a sweet spirit. Absolutely. But an uncompromising, loving message. So God's people can get right and we can impact this country the right way. Right then, just like the devil, five customers showed up behind us and she said, you're right. Can I help you? You know what, folks? God's people need to get right. You want to make a difference in your country? You get right. You want to make a difference in your family? You get right. If my people, which are called by my name, the gospel hasn't lost its power, has it? Sinners are just more wicked than they ever were. Really? More wicked than Sodom and Gomorrah when God rained fire down from heaven because he wouldn't take it anymore? Come on now. Come on, now there's no new thing under the sun, brother. Read Genesis chapter 6. You want to get freaked out. Some of the stuff you watch on TV was going on in the Bible 5,000 years ago, 6,000 years ago. You know, 5,000 something years ago. Stuff was going on. Some crazy stuff I won't even mention in Nick's company. You say people are so wicked nowadays they don't want it anymore? Hogwash! They haven't heard it! We need to be people who will humble ourselves and get busy doing a job God gave us to do so we can make a difference with our lives. If my people, which are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, what do you say? Then will I hear from heaven who will forgive their sin and will heal their land. I love America. I don't care if you... I don't think you ought to preach patriotism. Then fine, move to another country. Hey man, pack up and move. You don't love this country? Get out. Our country is represented by people. Amen. They're represented by people. I love the people. I love the souls in America. God called me to be a missionary to the United States of America. There's no difference between me and Brother Vogelpoel, Brother Klein, and Brother Rubin. There's no difference between me and any of the missionaries we support or any of the missionaries that come through here. God called me to be a missionary to America. Amen. I'm a soul winner in America. And I love my country. And I want to see God bless her. I want to see the money flowing freely like it has in the past. Why? So we can get the gospel of Jesus Christ to the world. So we can be a blessing to other brethren who aren't as fortunate as us in other countries. Hey, not so we can get rich. Not so we can build big buildings. Not so we can be powerful. So we can get the gospel of Jesus Christ out with all of our power. So we can get it done for God. I want God to bless her. You know how He's going to bless her? You know how He's going to bless this church? You know how He's going to bless my home? Me, humbling myself, seeking God's face, and praying, and turning from everything that displeases God. Everything. If it's wrong, get it right. Amen. Just get right with God. Well, why do I need to stop doing it? You know what you need to stop doing. Ask your question. If Jesus walked into the room at any given moment, would you be ready to say, Please stop! There you are! Have you walked in while you were watching a movie? Let's put it right down where the rubber meets the road, okay? If he walked in while you were watching a movie, what would your reaction be? Mute? Off? It's a good question. I'm just asking you. I'm not saying get rid of your TVs. We have one, we got Netflix. Praise God for a babysitter when Grace is gone. Girls asked me the other morning when she was on the way out the doors, 730 in the morning, can we watch a movie? I said, no, no. She's gone. She tried her and I said it on purpose so she'd hear I was teasing. Hey, thank God for the babysitter. Amen. But listen to me. Listen to me. You got to be careful what you watch. Yes, it goes that far into every area of our life. Be clean. Be holy. Hey, listen, if you will, God will show up. Then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. You know what Samuel said to Saul when Saul was suffering the judgment of God? He said, when thou was little in thine own sight, did not God choose you and set you up to be king over the earth? I believe God can take a little church like this, a little family like yours, a little person like you, and if you'll be humble and little in your own sight, God can do great things with you. I'm convinced of it. There's not a person in this room God doesn't want to do something with. This church is a church God wants to do something with. Go over to Revelation chapter 3. Keep your finger here in 2 Chronicles. Revelation chapter 3. Look at verse number 14, last book in your Bible, Revelation chapter 3. And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, These things say of thee, Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot. I would that thou were cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth. That's Jesus talking. Oops. So much for the fancy little picture religion likes to paint of an effeminate Jesus who's got no guts. Because thou sayest, I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing. Does this not sound like the United States of America in 2012? No, it's not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire that thou mayest be rich, and white raiment that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thine nakedness do not appear, and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten." So a good pastor will do the same thing if he loves the people. Be zealous, therefore, and repent. Now watch this, verse 20. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come into him and will sup with him and he with me." You know what happened right there? God promised, Jesus promised that God's people would reclaim Jesus' presence if they just opened the door. The funny thing is, he's gone through a list of seven churches here in Revelation chapter 2 and chapter 3. None of those churches had a building but the last church. The only one where a door was mentioned is the Laodicean church where people are rich. You know what we got nowadays? Build these big fancy buildings. All this fancy architect to attract the attention of people around us. Hey, if God blesses us, we're going to build a building. We're going to make it clean and nice and presentable to where the multimillionaire driving by can say, those people care. And that's a nice place. That's a clean looking place. And the person that's the lowest on the totem pole and homeless can walk in there and not feel like, well, this place is ritzy and I shouldn't be here because I don't have a three-piece suit. Strike a balance, man. Amen. Let me tell you something. It ain't all about the fancy building. Solomon built a fancy building, but until God's presence showed up in that thing, it was nothing but a monument. I refuse, by God's grace, I refuse to be the pastor of a monument. Amen. I refuse to be the pastor of a bunch of people who are lukewarm and don't see their need to do more for God and to buy some things from Almighty God that are spiritual and get something done with their lives for God's glory. Hey, listen to me. You've got your whole future ahead of you. Make sure you sell out, not to sin, but to Jesus Christ, that God's presence can show up in your life and show up in our church. What are you going to do if you refuse to pastor a bunch of people that want... I don't know. Pack up and go to the Philippines, man. Run around bare feet. Praise God, that would be great. I would love preaching in Bermuda shorts, a t-shirt and bare feet. That would be fun to me. I've been fitting in with the culture, brother. Praise the Lord. Amen. Hey, listen. We don't need to be lukewarm. We need God's presence and God's power in our church. I want you to see the last thing. Verse number 16. The purpose for reclaiming God's presence. Not only must prayer be recognized and the problem be realized, but the purpose for reclaiming God's presence must be at the forefront of our minds. Look at verse 16. For now have I chosen and sanctified this house, that my name may be there forever, and mine eyes and my heart shall be there perpetually. You know why you and I ought to seek to have God's presence in our life? Because he's chosen you and ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit and that your fruit should remain. I told God a while ago, I said, Lord, you know what? You didn't choose to give me any sons and I'm over it. I'm thankful for my girls and I'm not just over it. I rejoice in it. I'm thankful for my girls. And I said, well, you won't be much sweeter to me than having a boy of my own. Hey, man, the first time the word love shows up in the Bible, it's the love of a father for his son. The heavenly father for his son as well, that's the love it's compared to the love of an earthly father for his son was the first time the word love showed up in your mind. You know what to me would be more important? and even having my own birth son? What if my own birth son grew up and didn't serve God and became ashamed in the name of Jesus Christ and died and went to hell? I'd rather God not even give me one, to be honest with you. Let me see that happen. I told the Lord, I said, you know what I'd like to see, Lord? I'd like to see you just give me hundreds and hundreds of spiritual sons and daughters. Let me lead some young men to Jesus Christ. Hey, if they get some young men saved, they'll get their wives saved or their girlfriends saved and they'll get their children saved and they'll get out there and they'll preach and they'll start churches. And hey, listen, that'd be great, man. Praise God for it. God, please give me some some spiritual sons. You know why? Because God's chosen me and God's chosen you to go and bring forth fruit. Not just fruit in soul winning, not just fruit in evangelism and reaching others for Jesus Christ, but spiritual fruit in your life. Righteousness and hope and peace and joy and long suffering and gentleness and goodness and faith and meekness and temperance. Hey, the fruits of God's spirit. You've been chosen. You ought to seek to reclaim God's presence in your life so you can bring forth the fruit God ordained you to bring forth. God wants us to bring glory to the name of his son, Jesus Christ. That my name in verse number 16 may be there forever. When you got saved, you were of the bride of Jesus Christ. He's your bridegroom. And guess what the bride gets? The groom's name. You are not your own. You're bought with a price. If you're born again this morning, you belong to Jesus. Now I belong to Jesus. Jesus belongs to me, not for the years of time alone, but for eternity. We need to be a people who are consumed with glorifying God. A people who are consumed with letting everybody know that anything good in me, anything you see in me that you say, I want to be like that, that's because of Jesus Christ and the new birth that I've got in Him. It has nothing to do with me. It has nothing to do with my church. It's all about Jesus Christ. and thank God for Him, bring some glory to His name. That ought to be the purpose for reclaiming the presence of God. The purpose for praying for God's presence in our home, so that our children can see, hey, God Almighty is wonderful, and my parents love Jesus, and my parents believe in God, and my parents are going to follow God, and there's some security in that. There's some purity in that. I'm safe here, because Mommy and Daddy have God's presence in their life. Grandparents, your grandchildren ought not see a miserable old person. Oh, real quiet. They ought not see a miserable old person. They ought to see an old person walking around singing the hymns of the faith and rejoicing with a merry heart, with some gladness in their soul. There ought to be something on your face that your children and your grandchildren look at and they say, that's beautiful and I want to be like that when I'm old. I can't wait to be old. It must be great to be old. Hey, you can build that relationship over time and the maturity that you get with age. There ought to be something to that that's deep and that's real and that has some practical wisdom that can draw those kids in. You can't drive it into their head. You can't drive it into their brains. You can't force them to see it your way. But my friend, you can be a powerful, powerful testimony of the presence of God if that's what you want. And there's something about that presence that just attracts a hungry soul. Is that what you've got? I want you to look at verses 17 and 18. If you will consume yourself in Christ, here's the conclusion. As for thee, if thou wilt walk before me, as David thy father walked, and do according to all that I have commanded thee, and shall observe my statutes and my judgments, then will I establish the throne of thy kingdom, according as I have covenanted with David thy father. Saying this will not feel the a man to be a ruler in Israel. Friend. If you will take care of God's business. If you will consume your life and getting God's presence, then God will take care of your business. See, we got it all backwards. We try to put ourselves in a position to where God will answer our prayers and take care of us. We seek God in our prayers for what we want, what we desire. But if we would reverse that thing and put God first and his presence in our life first and nurture that thing. Then God will say, OK, now all of you need all that you want. There you go, I'll take care of you. You know what, I think our church is going to grow. And I think it's only going to grow so long as we put God first and meeting with God first and glorifying God first and he'll take care of us. Your family? Well, it's my wife, my husband, our kids. No, put God first, and God will take care of the rest.