The Desperate Need to Experience God — Shane Idleman

The Desperate Need to Experience God

What I want to get back to, and what I hope the church and Christians came back to, is this message. The desperate need to experience God. The desperate need to experience God. I will tell you right now that not everybody will embrace this message.

But if you're the 5 or 10 or 15 that do, it will literally change your life. Because there's nothing more important than experiencing God. You might say, well Shane, don't all Christians experience God?

Well, you'd be surprised. Many go through the motions, but they're dying inside. I like what Leonard Ravenhill said. You can have all of your doctrines right, yet still not have the presence of God. And that happens a lot of times.

We can have all of our doctrines right. And I call it the angry Pharisee. You can be an angry Pharisee. You see this all the time. Actually, this is why. The angry Pharisee is what gives those struggling with homosexuality a bad view of the church.

And you can be an angry Pharisee. You have all of your doctrines right, but you've never experienced the presence of God in your life in a powerful way. And that's what I want to talk about. Matthew 17.

The Transfiguration and Christ’s Glory

Now after six days, Jesus took Peter, James, and John. I'm sorry, did I say 16? Matthew 17? Matthew 17 verse 1. Now after six days, Jesus took Peter, James, and John, his brother, led them up on a high mountain by themselves, and he was transfigured before them.

His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with them. Then Peter answered and said, Lord, Lord, it's good for us to be here.

If you wish, let us make here three tabernacles, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

Hear him. And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their faces and were greatly afraid. But Jesus came and touched them and said, Arise, and do not be afraid. When they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only.

So let's stop there for a minute. In order to truly kind of see what's going on here, we have to look at verse 28 of the following chapter, 16. Jesus, six days earlier, Jesus said, Assuredly, I say to you, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.

And many people reading that might think, wait a minute. He's talking about the disciples, that some of them are not going to die until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom. Most people picture Jesus coming again.

That's going to be a ways away. What's he talking about here? Well, a lot of it has to do, anytime you study, you obviously want to look at the context. You want to look at what they call historical consistency, grammar.

You want to look at the Greek. If you're in Hebrew and the Old Testament, you want to look and study and see what's really being said there. And everything he's saying is true. But the word there that's interesting is kingdom.

His kingdom. Kingdom, actually, if you look up in the definition, means royalty, royal splendor, his majesty, his greatness. So what Jesus is saying before this happened six days earlier, he's saying there are some who are standing here who shall not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his royalty, and in his splendor, and his majesty, and his greatness.

And that's what they saw on the mountain six days later. So he said, you're going to see me in all my splendor and all my majesty. But when your face is as bright as the sun, when your clothes are shining, and God speaks, this is my Son, hear him.

You saw Christ in all his splendor and in his glory. As much as possible, without the human body exploding. I mean, if God really revealed himself, man could not handle it. And so they saw Christ and who he was in all his glory.

And I truly believe that it changed these three individuals from that day forward. They're no longer wondering, who's this guy? Could be, is he Elijah? Is he this? Just before this, this is what Peter said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father. But I think once they finally see this, they see a whole new side of Jesus before. This is in his glory and his majesty and his splendor and who he is.

Peter’s Tabernacles and the Hunger for God’s Presence

Now we could talk about the separate booths for a while. Peter said, let's make three booths. Probably representing the festival, the tabernacle and booths. I think there's some Jews still today, the more orthodox, still leave a spot at the table for Elisha and different things.

But they remember this time in the wilderness of 40 years where God protected them. He was their provision. He brought them food. He was their protection. So that was the festival that they celebrate.

The festival of booths or of tabernacles. So I think that's what Peter was alluding to. But that's not really the point I want to get to. The point I want to get to is the desperate need to experience God.

There is fear. There is apprehension. And there is uncertainty about deeper experiences with God. And I'm sure there is in some of you in this room. When I just say that word, deeper experience with God, some people are like, oh, where's he going?

Man, Shane, I thought you weren't like the guys on TV. This hyper Pentecostal. Well, trust me, there are deeper experiences with God that you should seek. The more you draw close to him, the more you'll find him.

The more you seek him, the more you'll find him. And what I mean by deeper experiences of God is God is everywhere. We know that, right? God's here. God's when you go home. God's in your car. He's omnipresent.

He's everywhere. But there's a difference. When God visits his people or when God overshadows or when God's presence is so strong that you can feel that there's something here. You can cut it with a knife.

There's God's presence. Many times there's tears. There's worship. He's breaking you. He's drawing you. And it doesn't happen a lot. I've only had three, four, five times in my life where it was so strong.

I remember I was preaching. There's a church in San Diego called The Rock. And I was at their men's conference. And I couldn't even get up to preach. It felt like there's a thousand pounds on me. And I began weeping.

And God's showing me what my life was in my 20s. And now I'm going up there to preach. And just the weight of his presence and just filling that place in the worship. You can't really explain it. It's like telling somebody, I went skydiving.

And they say, oh, that was nice. Well, take him skydiving. You cannot even. Number one, you're not getting me up in a plane jumping out unless it's out of gas and going down. But if I were able to do that, you feel that.

There's no way you could transmit. Let me tell you, we're up there 10 ,000. You can't. You have to experience that. Same with people who go to the land of Israel. Oh, Shane, you've got to go in. Experience that.

So that's what I mean by a deeper move of God. I believe as Christians draw closer to him. See, we miss it nowadays. The books I read 100, 200 years ago, these guys had the deeper and women had the deeper Christian life.

They'd spend an hour or two in prayer and seeking God. They would take hikes in the mountains for half a day just once a month to seek God. And his presence was so thick and so real in their life. Where's that at now?

We want to scurry through church. We've got a corporate mentality of giving, giving, giving, hurry, hurry, hurry. We're all addicted to caffeine. We're always in a hurry. We're this, this, this, this, this.

Everybody's in a hurry. God's presence to seek him requires waiting. Those who rush ahead will renew their strength. No? What's it say? Those who wait upon the Lord, waiting and serving him will renew their strength.

Being Filled With the Spirit

Now, there's three terms I want to talk about on this, a deeper experience with God. It's almost like, no analogy works, but this will give you some kind of an idea. When you go home tonight, if it's dark out, the electricity to turn on your lights, everything is already right there.

You don't see it, but are you aware it's right there? The electricity that just needs that switch to ignite that light bulb. It's right there. But once you hit the switch and everything lights up in your house, that's the difference between knowing God intellectually and experiencing God spiritually.

That light comes on, and you have to talk about him. You have to experience him again. You have to seek him. It's a high that you won't have a hangover the next day. It's that seeking God and that being drawn to more and more of him.

But there's three terms when I talk about the deeper experience with God that people sometimes get confused with. The first one is being filled with the Spirit. Ephesians 5 .18, See, we have choices every day to be filled with the Spirit or to be filled with the flesh.

To be filled with the things of God or to be filled with the things of the world. We have choices every day. And the deeper experience with God starts here, being filled with the Spirit of God. Because what you're filled with overflows.

So if I'm overflowed with God's presence, if I'm overflowed with the things of God, it's flowing out of me. I'm experiencing it. And that's one advice I'm giving to people now is don't get hooked on the media all day long.

Don't get hooked on news. Don't get hooked because you're not being filled with the Spirit. You're being filled with, a lot of times, the things of the world, even Christian articles. If they draw us into a position of fear and anxiety and, well, the world's coming to an end.

God's going to judge America. We're just feeding that. We're just feeding that. We're just feeding that. That's not being filled with the Spirit. Unless you can figure out a different way. But when I look at the news, I don't come out of there a better husband and a better father.

It's like, oh, what's going on? How am I going to do this? It's panic mode. And I know I talk about this a lot, but you've got to keep at things many times before people finally get it. And you have to just keep reminding them and reminding them that we have choices to be filled with the Spirit or to be filled with the flesh.

And if we're filled with the flesh, the Bible calls it quenching and grieving the Spirit of God. The whole point in saying that is you cannot experience the power and presence of God if you're filled with the things of the world.

You will not be sitting watching ESPN, your favorite team, and suddenly be filled powerfully with the presence of God. And get on your knees and weep and pray. Maybe it does. I'll probably get an email.

But for the majority of us, that's not... See, the presence of God comes after the sacrifice has been on the altar. Present your bodies as living sacrifices, holy. What is your reasonable service to God?

When the sacrifice hits the altar, then the fire falls. That's when the change takes place. So being filled with the Holy Spirit is a very good thing. I would encourage you to seek that. Say, Lord, I want to be filled with your Spirit.

I want more of you. Because here's your options. Filled with the Spirit or filled with the world? There's a middle one? No. Because when I'm not filled with the Spirit, guess what I'm filled with? The world.

That's why this peace, love, joy, contentment, long-suffering, gentleness come out. Or does anger, irritability, mood swings, just tell them off, get them back, arrogance... You want me to keep going here?

Okay. But that's what happens. We're filled with one or the other. When it comes to experiencing God, it all starts here. You have to make choices that begin to fill you with the Spirit of God. You have to.

Because God rewards the heart that seeks Him. He is a rewarder of those who seek Him sometimes. A few of you know that one. He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. It's in that diligence. And yes, it's hard.

Actually, that's the reward. God's presence is the reward of working and travailing and fasting and praying. And, Lord, I want more of you. I want more of you. His presence is that reward. But we want to avoid all this and get to the presence.

He says, no, it reminds me of a person trying to lose weight that runs 50 feet. Why are you back in 20 seconds? Oh, I ran 50 feet. You've got to go about an hour, five times a week. Let's look at your caloric intake, your eating.

The same thing applies in the spiritual. Same exact thing. Do you realize people come here and say, oh, I want to come and hear Shane speak. No, the whole point of this church is not to come here and hear Shane speak.

The whole point of this church is to point you to the cross, to get the presence of God in your heart, for me to walk down that stage and for you to look at Him and Him alone and leave here high and lifted up with the presence of God in your life, in your heart.

That's all I do. That's my job, is to point you to the one who has the answers. That's it, to point you to the presence of God. So that's why we talk about repentance. That's why we talk about humility.

That's why we talk about brokenness and truth and loving God and the fear of God so you can be filled with the spirit of God. Anything outside of that is a lukewarm Christianity that bears no resemblance, no resemblance to Jesus' sobering call to repentance and discipleship and following Him and carrying your cross.

What Christianity do we embrace? That's being filled with the spirit. Because I talk about that word sometimes, people are like, oh, isn't that word associated with weirdness? Well, no, it's associated with being filled with the spirit.

The Anointing and Spiritual Brokenness

Emotionalism and immaturity is associated with weirdness. So don't be scared of that word. I would actually encourage you to embrace that word. The next word on this presence of God is anointed. Anointed.

Just saying that word will make some people cringe. Oh, man. Anointed. Well, let's see what the Bible says. Luke 4 .18, speaking of Jesus. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. Upon me. If we had time, we could actually talk about the three different ways the Holy Spirit works.

There's three prepositions in the Greek language, para, which is like paracletus, to come alongside. There's en, E-N, where He's in us. And then there's epi, E-P-I, where it's an overshadowing, overpowering, upon a person.

And that's what's happening here. The Spirit of the Lord is upon Jesus Christ. So everywhere He goes, it just flows out. I mean, of all the Bible, this is one of the things I would have loved to have been at.

This church service, where Jesus is sitting down. He comes up. He picks up the scroll of Isaiah. He opens it. And He says, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. After He reads it, He says, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me to preach the gospel to the poor, to mend the hearts of the brokenhearted, to bring recovery and sight to the blind.

This scripture has just been fulfilled in your hearing. Then He sits down. Because the Jews knew what that meant. Did He just say that? Did He just say that the Spirit of the Lord is upon Him? That God has anointed Him?

See, here's the thing about anointing. You can have two different people, right and left. That'd be your right, left, right, you know. Two different people. Same Bible verse. They're going to say the same exact thing.

One person puts people to sleep. One person sets people on fire. What's the difference? Schooling? Intellect? Knowledge? Anointing. Anointing. When God anoints a vessel, you just speak and it's got God's power in it.

That's anointing. God has anointed Jesus Christ. And then God anoints people that are obedient and surrender themselves. And say, Lord, I just want to be that vessel you can use. Because really the anointing doesn't fall on a prideful, arrogant man or woman.

It doesn't fall on a person who's got it together and doesn't really need God. And they're going to walk around anointed of God. The anointing comes out. It's like, how do they get perfume out of a flower?

They squish it. The oil out of an olive. What do they do? They press it. Olive press. Have you heard that? It presses. So that's where anointing comes from with somebody. The more broken and humble they become, the more anointed they become.

Because now you're doing it and going in God's strength. That's where the anointing comes from. The anointing is directly tied to brokenness and humility. So if you want to experience the presence of God, you better get on your face before God.

You better get on your knees and cry out and say, Lord, I need you. You are everything. Draw closer to me. Fill me with your spirit. Break me so that the anointing can come out. That's not a fearful word.

Everybody in this room should be wanting to be anointed by God. You don't have to do it just to preach. Would you rather have your mom be anointed or your mom be filled with the things of the world? Or you want an anointed father?

Anointed father leading his home? Or a dad that's addicted to porn and loves ESPN? The presence of God makes all the difference. The presence of God will change your house. It will change your home. It will change the church.

Because often people, you know, we've got to do this program. We've got to do this program here. We need this. I say, no, what we need first is the presence of God. What we need is the presence of God.

And then from that, everything will flow up because then God's in it. Does that make the difference? The presence of God. Just two or three days ago, we had a baseball practice for all-stars at a park in Palmdale, East Palmdale.

And we got on the field, and within 30 minutes, there came out on the grass out there a softball team. And they looked like, man, I don't want to say anything to these guys. You know, like, hey, it's our field.

Get off. You know, it's not going to fly with this group. Tattoos is an understatement. Tank tops, big, man, and they're out in the grass, right? You know, I'm shagging balls, and the kids are out there, and they're out there.

I'm like, oh, what am I going to do here? You know, and then they're spreading out a little bit more, and their balls are coming this way a little bit more. And, oh, Lord, this is not going to be good.

We only got, I can only see eight parents there. There's 12 of them. You know, this is not a good thing. And they're playing good. I mean, it's like he's hitting the ball hard. It's just like they got it down.

And they're getting close. I'm like, I don't want to get hit by a softball. And the kid's going to hit the baseball, and I've got to go catch it. It's going to hit one of them. I'm really in a pickle here.

I remember the guy, he was right there, and I looked over to him, and I said, hey, you guys play pretty well. Are you on a team? He goes, yeah, we've been playing together for a while. We're on a church team.

And he says, we're with Victory Outreach. And I said, oh, you guys are all Christians? He goes, yeah. And I said, me too. Praise God. Praise God. And then now he's getting the ball for me. I'm getting the ball for him.

It's just wonderful out there. The whole atmosphere changed. Why? Why did the atmosphere change? The presence of God. They had the power of God. You could see there was a brokenness. There was a gentleness.

Let us help you. Let us help you. The presence of God changes everything. That's what you need. I could end the service right now. Let's go into a time of prayer and worship. That's what you need, the presence of God.

God’s Presence Changes the Atmosphere

I'm hungry. I want to get out of here. Well, we wonder why we don't experience this. Do we honestly think that a comfortable Christianity is God's path to being filled with the Spirit of God? That changed everything.

I'm like, oh, I'm not worried at all now. And he came over, shake my hand, give me a hug. And they're throwing balls. And I, hey. It was wonderful. Everything changed right then. Right then. I mean, we either get off the field or, you know.

And then they got farther back. And it all worked out. Because God's presence. Who do you want living next to you? Somebody filled with God's presence? Or somebody filled with anger, hatred, rage? God's presence makes all the difference in the world.

In the Old Testament, Moses couldn't even enter the tent of meeting because the cloud of God's glory settled in. The priest could not even perform their services many times because the cloud of glory was there.

Isaiah’s Vision and the Transforming Presence of God

In the year that King Uzziah died, Isaiah writes that he saw the Lord high and lifted up. And the train of His entire robe filled the temple. And the smoke of God's glory, His presence, shook the entire temple.

That's when Isaiah said, who am I? I'm a man of undone lips and I live among a people of undone lips that have rejected you. And they took the coal from the altar, touched His lips. And Isaiah experienced God.

He was a different man from that day forward. Listen, when you experience God, you have to go back to that. You want more of that. You keep after that. You keep seeking Him. And it doesn't happen all the time.

There are weeks and months that are rough. But God's presence and trusting in God doesn't always rely on a feeling. I think He's teaching me that pretty well. Are you going to seek me even when you don't feel like it?

Because that's a true test. It's easy to get on your face and worship God when you're just filled with the Spirit and the presence there. And then reading. Many of you know I like to read revivals. And even this topic is very controversial.

I don't know if you're aware of it. Talking about revival and deeper experiences of God. You've got conservative churches that will say that you're hyper charismatic and you just are way off track. And then I would say, well, you're a dead cemetery.

Who's more off track? Because you have to have the Spirit of God. You can have sound doctrine without the presence of God and you have nothing. Because it's the truth and the presence of God that that's where the power is.

You will never see a church that removes truth and has power. They'll have a lot of numbers sometimes. Cults have huge numbers. But the power is in the truth with the love and grace together. Sound doctrine, the power of the Holy Spirit.

That's where the truth comes from. And so God's presence. I would encourage you that during worship, it's different for everybody. People think you don't actually have to act any certain way. The heart has to break and repent.

The whole job of Ronnie and the team leading people into worship is what I just said. Leading people into worship. So when you sing, Yahweh my creator, what does that mean to you? When you sing amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.

When you sing those songs, those old hymns, nothing but the blood of Jesus. When you sing those, what does that mean to you? Those who have spent time in the presence of God, it means everything. They cherish that more than anything.

The old rugged cross, all those things that just bring His presence back. That's why worship is so important. Worship and prayer actually bring in the presence of God in a way that just preaching alone doesn't do.

Worship, Prayer, and a Receptive Heart

There are many times, people have me go. I've got places, sometimes I'm speaking from a year, year and a half from now, booked up already. But I tell them, is there a way to have worship beforehand? They say, I might be able to get a quick song in there.

Let me back off the sermon a little and get the worship in there. I've had times where I just come up after a lunch meeting, everybody's full, and I'm like, oh wow. This is going to be interesting. Later, you can feel God's taking over the message.

But there's something that worship does by opening up the heart. Because what worship is, you are acknowledging who God is and who we're not. And the heart says, Lord, I thank you. You saved me, you redeemed me, you're my rock, you're my salvation, you're my everything.

I'm worshiping you. And then the heart opens up and now it's receptive to the word. Now it's receptive. Now your prayers change from give me, give me, give me to Lord, just help me. I want to be this, please change this person.

Everything changes by worship and experiencing God. And there's also three groups of Christians on this point. Those who say, I want more, like Peter. Lord, it's good for us to be here. And then there's some, I'm not sure.

This group is not willing to do what it takes to experience God. And the third group is that this is just pure emotionalism. So without God giving them a Damascus Road experience, they will never have a deeper experience with God.

Because they think God is just this. I've got this. I've got sound doctrine. That's all I need. I don't need to talk about deeper experiences with God. Well, don't you want to experience the book you're reading?

Don't you want doctrine to come alive? When it says, love my wife as Christ loved me, I want to experience that. I want this to change me. And here's a mark of a carnal Christian. We say that word often.

Carnality, Holiness, and the Choice to Seek God

Do you know what a carnal Christian is? It can be me if I'm not careful. Carnal comes from the word carnality. It's the carnal nature that still exists within a believer. So when we come to Christ, we repent, He's our Lord, He's our Savior.

There's this little something still here that's not quite redeemed yet. The flesh is not redeemed. The flesh will destroy you. Be killing sin or sin be killing you. John Owen, the famous Puritan, wrote, and it's so true.

That flesh wants to kill me. Carnality. So if I give over to the carnal nature, if I give over to the carnality, where's it going to lead me? Away from God. So a carnal Christian is one who's being led by their flesh, not the Spirit.

And that's why I say you can tell it in their Facebook post. You can tell it in their attitude. You can tell it where they go on vacation. You can tell it what they do on their downtime. You can look at their checkbook.

You can look at their calendar. And they will tell you if they're on fire for God or not. The majority of Christians are not experiencing God. They are carnal. And that should be a wake-up call to say, Lord, is it I?

Lord, is it I? Because I don't want that. Most experiences with God always begin with seeking Him. And a word I like to use with experiencing God is engulfed. Do you know what that means? To sweep over, to surround or cover something completely.

So when you want the presence of God, nothing else matters. He is a priority. He changes your agenda. When God's a priority, you'd be amazed at how your life changes. You'd be amazed. When God's a priority, how your life changes.

Recently, my son made all-stars. Guess how many travel ball teams want him to play? Four so far. Oh, you just missed weekends, Sunday games. Oh, Sunday practices. Yeah, that sounds like something that's going to be real beneficial for our family.

Not. When we look at it, it begins to pull us away from God. And you teach the kids sports is more important than God. Now, are the people that do that and can balance it? Sure. If they're not a pastor, probably can.

But I've seen also a lot of families destroyed by not prioritizing things right. Every parent thinks their son's going to play on the Giants. And I want to say, half of your pitchers are going to have their arms thrown out by the 13.

Come look at my surgery. The other half are going to give up baseball or 25%. And when you get to college, you're like, whoa, these guys are good. And then you try to make it to the double-A, single-A, triple-A, let alone the pro.

I mean, this is major stuff here. And people take it so seriously. And that becomes a priority. I see it all the time. Maybe I'm just living in that. It's just like, do you have a clue? Is God anywhere in your life?

A lot of these people are Christians. When church fits their schedule. That's the difference. When church fits their schedule. It changes everything. When Peter experienced God's presence, he went from Jesus, let's make three booze, to on his face before God on a mountain with his face in rocks.

So overcome by the power of God that Jesus said, come up. Don't be fearful. He changed everything. He had his own agenda. Let's do this. Let's do this. And then God says, this is my son. Listen to him.

And the power of God overshadowed that place. And he fell on his face. And his whole agenda changed. That's what the presence of God does. That's what the power of God in your life does. It changes your agenda.

Sin, Holiness, and Saying Yes to God

There's a deep conviction of sin. There's a deep conviction of holiness. That's why I'm so concerned about the churches nowadays all over. When I go speak at different ones, they don't want to talk about sin and holiness is outdated.

What? You don't want to talk about sin and holiness is outdated. Actually, the closer you draw to God, the more you see your need for the Savior. You see your need for holiness. See, to me, why holiness isn't weird, holiness to me just means I'm drawing closer to God.

Lord, I don't want to watch those movies where I'm going to lust at women other than my wife because I want to be filled with your spirit. I'm not going to watch those movies that pull me back into the occult and darkness and horror shows.

I'm not going to watch ESPN where I'm all into sports three hours a day. I can quote the statistics of my favorite player, but I don't know a scripture to save my life. That's the truth. That's what holiness means to me.

To me, holiness means, Lord, I want to live my life in such a way that I'll be drawn to you and to your presence. Because to me, saying no means saying yes to God. No, I can't go there and I don't do those things.

Why? Because, Lord, I want more of you. More of you. And people tease me. You don't have cable? You don't watch this? You don't watch that? I'm like, I don't know. I'm reading three, four, five books a month and I'm waking up filled with the Spirit of God.

I'm on fire for Him. I can feel His power in my life and that's what I want. So I don't do it to be spiritual. I don't do it to be weird. I do it because that does not fill me with the Spirit. It fills me with the world.

And many people think about this. What you go to bed with at night is what you wake up with in the morning. So if there's a lack of hunger for God in the morning, let me tell you where it started. Here's what you all should do.

Go buy a book from E .M. Bounds, any book he has ever written on prayer, and it will convict you to the point you'll be on your knees praying to God before the night's over. And then you'll wake up. Guess what?

You look at your clock. It's still dark out. I've got to get up. I need more of God. So you set the tone. Whenever you feed, that's the wonderful thing about God. It's different from our appetite. When you eat and you're satisfied, you're not hungry.

When you eat more of God, you're not satisfied, and you want more and more and more and more. That's the difference. The more you seek me, the more you'll find me. And the more you'll find me, the more you'll seek me.

So the problem is never on God's end. The problem is on ours. I actually have about 10 more minutes, but I think I just want to have Ronnie come up and just go into a time of worship and prayer. I've said everything I can say.

Seeking God Above Every Earthly Concern

I can't just keep making up this point or do this. I'm just shooting you straight that the majority of Christians, I say everybody in this room, including me, we need the presence of God. We need more of God.

And this is not a beat-up sermon. This is an encouraging sermon saying, listen, we're all in the same boat. If we don't anchor here and search for him, all of our hearts will drift away. Oh, my goodness.

It'll drift away really quick. If we get Netflix hooked back up, watch out. Oh, look at this. I don't have time for that. I've got time for that. I'm going to bed at 11 o 'clock now instead of 9. I'm too tired in the morning.

Everything changes because the world is starting to infiltrate me. Everybody sends me all these videos. Is this the mark of the beast? You know, is this coming? Is this the next this? And this is the blood moons.