How To Find The Secret Place

The title of the message is How to Find the Secret Place. How to Find the Secret Place, Psalm 91. Oh, I took that picture.

Aubrey, you were with me, I think, weren't you? In the high Sierra Mountains. Anybody know where that's at? Above Mammoth? I'm not going to tell you exactly where because I enjoy a nice quiet vacation up there. You might find me.

Just when you think you can get away, huh? I remember one time, Aubrey will remember this, I rarely take off my shirt because it's just embarrassing. But we were at this hot creek, or what do they call it? Hot springs. There's nobody really around.

I take off my shirt and get in. And this family comes over and they go, oh, hi Pastor Shane, we listen to you on the radio. Oh, yeah.

Nice to meet you too. So, I'm scarred for life. How to Find the Secret Place.

You guys are getting me off track. This is such an important topic, though, I don't want to minimize it. I've actually been learning this a lot lately, I'd say more so over the last few years, that the Christian walk is not easy.

And many times we can hold bitterness in. And resentment. And we want God to get us out of a situation soon.

Or we want deliverance. We want a breakthrough. And you get tired of waiting on God.

Have you ever been there? Or we get a little attitude with God. And why is this happening? And it can really prevent a deeper relationship with the Lord. Because it's hard to go deep with God and be filled with the Spirit if we're contentiously contending for the faith.

If we're contentious and grumbling and complaining. It's such an important topic, but there is a place. How to Find the Secret Place.

There is a place you can go where God will meet you. What we're trying to do is reignite the Psalms, correct? The book of Psalms reignited. Standing on the promises.

So the promise tonight is He who dwells. This is a promise from God's Word. And this is what I love.

I've never found a promise of God that has not come to pass. Or that has let me down. Now some things haven't yet come to fruition, but that doesn't mean the promise is null and void.

And tonight's promise is He who dwells. And I love how it doesn't say might or if it works out. You take your chances, flip a coin.

God's Word is clear. He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. Memorize that verse.

It will help you throughout the years. As you're going through difficulty, Lord, I need to dwell in that secret place. The image is so encouraging because Jesus talked about this as a hen gathers her little baby hens.

I don't know what they're called. What do they call it? Chicklets? Chicklets? That sounds like gum. Chicks, okay.

Chicks. I wanted to have a serious message tonight too. And we'll get there.

But the shadow of the Almighty, it's like even sitting under God's shadow, under His covering. And there are seasons or times the Bible talks about where you can actually, you can go outside of God's guardrails of His safety and protection. I've always found that verse interesting that talks about an unbelieving spouse.

If the believing spouse stays with them, and I won't get into the exact language and different things because it just came to me. I haven't read it in probably a year. But that home is sanctified.

The children are, there's a covering. It says because of the believing spouse. It doesn't mean the unbelieving spouse is saved, but there's a grace there.

There's a covering there that God says that's one of My children there. I'm gonna cover that house. And to me, that's a very encouraging verse.

And Jesus talked about, oh, I wanted to gather you as a mother hen gathers her little chickens under her wing. Isn't that a beautiful picture? And you just have God just covering you. And so that's what it means.

Safety in abiding in the presence of God. There's safety in abiding in the presence of God. And again, to clarify, God's presence is everywhere.

His presence is at a Taylor Swift conference. Technically, I mean, He's everywhere. God's not here.

He's everywhere, correct? But there's something that happens when His manifest presence is revealed. Like they call it the Shekinah glory of God. When the temple's boring, the priests are going through the motions, but when His presence came there, it was already there.

And I can't quite explain it. No theologian can. But there's something dynamic, special.

You remember it forever when God touches you. And that's why I believe feelings are okay as long as they align with Scripture. God created us as physical beings to feel and experience Him.

That's why when they were in the upper room, the Holy Spirit came upon them, they didn't just sit there, oh, this is interesting. There was exuberance. There was joy.

And the word dwells is interesting. It means to remain in a place or to inhabit a location or to take a seat. He who dwells in the secret place, He who takes a seat.

Think of your prayer closet. Think of that place where, because I don't know about you, but I've got to have some place, somewhere to go where I turn off the world and begin to seek God. Because your thoughts are going everywhere.

Some of you, you might drive for a living. I believe that semi-truck can be a secret place. Right? That Kenworth, that Peterbilt, that Freightliner.

I lived that. It was God spoke to me on heavy equipment and driving and even up in the mountains. And wherever you find that place, that secret place, God will begin to minister to your heart there.

For they shall not be ashamed who waits for Me. Isaiah 40, 23. You will not be ashamed when you wait for God.

That's why the enemy wants to discourage you. That's why the enemy wants to knock you off track. That's why as you're pressing in, you're going, this isn't working.

I've been waiting on God and look what's happening. Oh, don't lose heart. Don't lose heart.

Because you will not be ashamed who waits for Him. In other words, nobody's going to make fun of you at the end of the day or the end of the week or the end of the year. As you're waiting on God, as you're persevering, even your family sometimes mocks you.

Friends, coworkers, where's your God? And you will not be ashamed if you wait on God. When you dwell, He abides. When you dwell in His presence, He abides.

And that's why we're looking at Psalm 91. And it begins with, He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. And then verse two, as I'm seeking the secret place, as I'm abiding, I will say to the Lord.

Guys, again, I want to remind you, I've been guilty of this. Sometimes you just skim through the Bible and read this before and my mind is on other things. Anybody relate? It's like, what did I just read? I don't really remember.

15 minutes has went by, three chapters, and I do not know what I read. If I close my Bible, I couldn't remember where I was at. It's bringing those thoughts captive.

But this, as we look at the Psalms specifically, it's not just church history or different things, but these are prayers. These are people speaking to God and God in return speaking to them. If you change your mindset on that, they can become very powerful, very encouraging.

And so they said, I will say to the Lord, He's reminding Himself, God, You are my refuge and You are my fortress. My God and Him I will trust. And I don't know exactly how it works.

I'm not into name it, claim it, positive confession. Don't say you're sick when you're really sick. You know, we can get kind of weird on those types of things.

However, there's something powerful and profound in reminding yourself who God is. He's my fortress, He's my strength. I will trust in Him.

It does something to your mind. And I remember even in secular training when I would train cell staff, remember Zig Ziglar or Tony Robbins? Is he still around, I think? You know, and that Norman Vincent Peale guy. And I mean, a lot of those things, Stephen Covey, Seven Effective Habits for Highly Effective People.

You know, I would go through all that training and it made a difference when you would tell yourself, even at the secular level, you know, I will not procrastinate. I will get this done. I will not procrastinate.

I will get this done. No stinking thinking. I'm going to be... And you put things up on your refrigerator, right? That you want to purchase.

There's something to where the mind goes, your feet follow. How much more biblically, how much more scripturally when we anchor our mind to God's Word. And so He's just saying, you're my refuge, you're my trust.

Refuge is what you run to. A fortress is what protects you. And I will trust in you alone, Lord.

Surely God, you will deliver me from the snare of the fowler. How many of you have ever built a snare? Maybe just a few of you. I have.

Build little things, you can catch animals. They go right in, put a little piece of cheese in there and a string and they just got it. The box falls on them and you got it.

It's a snare. And so that's what happens to believers with the enemy. People are laying a trap for us.

You see what's going on with our nation? All kinds of snares out there. It's just getting insane. Don't spend too much time on social media.

And God will deliver you from the snare of the fowler. In other words, the hunter who is hunting you. And from perilous pestilence, from sickness.

And He shall cover you with His feathers and under His wings you shall take refuge. His truth, here's the key though, His truth shall be your shield and your buckler. Buckler was another piece of, we don't use it much today, but it would be something that armies would use for protection.

The shield was also for protection. And that's what truth is. Truth protects you.

Guys, get this down in your hearts. Young adults, tell teenagers, truth is what protects you. When you know the truth and you obey the truth, that's where the protection comes from.

For the beginning of wisdom is the principal thing that Proverbs talks about. And all you're getting, get understanding. Get wisdom.

She will exalt you. She will promote you. She will send you down the right path.

She will have you avoid the traps of the harlot and the lust of the flesh. When you abide and follow the truth, it's powerful. You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that walks in darkness, nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday.

In other words, when you are abiding, basically the more time you spend with God, the stronger you become spiritually. So anytime I try to talk with people about fear or anxiety, and I know you can't just say concentrate on Scripture. Maintain on Scripture.

It should all go away. I know there's strongholds. I know there's demonic oppression.

I know sometimes, I believe there are chemical imbalances sometimes. I mean, there's an array of different things that can happen, but the bottom line is the more you seek God with all your heart, with all your strength, the more you get full of the Spirit of God and you dwell in that secret place, the more fear will back away from you. Correct? The more I watch the social media, the more I realize I'm not going on a plane again for a while.

And I'm supposed to go to Florida at the end of this month with Morgan. And I don't want to go now. Because that's all I'm doing, right? It's fear, fear, fear, fear feeding that fear.

Or I abide in the Lord. Hey, we've got living trust. Morgan's mom has all the passwords.

We're good. They might not be good, but you know, we'll see Jesus. So you just have to, you have to, that terror by night, that fear, the anxiety, you either fuel it or you quench it depending on where your thoughts go.

You can't be in the secret place and dwell with the Most High God and allow these fears to dominate. And I love this verse. Many of you may have memorized it.

A thousand may fall at your side and 10,000 at your right hand, but it shall not come near you. I mean, look at the context. The pestilence that walk in darkness nor the destruction that lays waste at noonday.

A thousand may fall at your side. It could be from sickness. It could be from terror.

And people are just falling over. They're dying, but it shall not come near you. And this is a good reminder.

The sea could not stop Moses. The wall could not stop Joshua. The giant could not stop David.

The army could not stop Hezekiah. The devil could not stop Jesus. And failure is not final.

When you're with God, when you're walking according to His Word, although things might not happen like you want them to happen or think they should happen, we actually don't walk by sight. I think that's one reason why we go through challenges is because we have to trust God, even though this doesn't look like what I had in mind. And then it says, only with your eyes show you look and see the reward of the wicked.

In other words, you will not experience, verse eight, you will not experience the calamity and the destruction of the wicked. You will see it, but you will not experience. God will protect you.

And why is this? Why is this person protected? Verse nine, because you have made the Lord who is my refuge. The psalmist is saying He's my refuge, but you've made Him the Lord. Even the Most High, you've made Him your dwelling place.

You know what I want to remind you tonight is very rarely, I don't know if I could even find one, do we read in the Bible where it says, do these things when you feel like it? Correct? I looked. It's actually often the opposite. That new song that's out now, the hard-fought hallelujah.

Sometimes it comes easy, that hallelujah, but sometimes it is hard, that hard-fought hallelujah, pressing in. Hard-fought. And so to find that dwelling place, to seek God, and you hear me say this a lot, but it's a good reminder, and sometimes not all of you are here every time I say it, but you've got to fight for that secret place.

You've got to go to war. You've got to go to battle. You've got to fight against your flesh, because your flesh actually pulls you away from that secret place.

Nor shall evil befall you, nor shall any plague come near your dwelling. Now this is an interesting verse. For He shall give His angels charge over you to keep you in all your ways.

In their hands, they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone. Who else remembers that verse? Well, if you don't, Satan quoted this verse. How many of you did not know that Satan quoted this verse? Lucifer, the deceiver, quoted this verse, and he quoted it to Jesus of all people.

Basically, tempting Jesus. Brought Him up right to the, I think it was the pinnacle, the height there, the temple, or maybe off the cliff, I'm not sure exactly. I don't remember.

But he said, just throw yourself off. Prove that you're God. Show off.

Remember, he uses just three things, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and pride of life. That's all he uses. That's all you have to watch out for.

Easier said than done, isn't it? Throw yourself off. He quotes the Bible. Here's why you have to take context into the verses of Scripture.

Don't take things out of context. Anytime, what the devil is basically saying is test God. Show off.

Show off. Show the people who you really are. Test God.

You never want to do that because the heart is right, correct? He got you with the lust of pride, the pride. Pride of your heart. Show off.

And when Eve, right? She saw the food, the fruit there, pleasant to the eye, good for food, and desirable to make one wise. Pride, pride. What about the verse? You'll take up a serpent and you will not be hurt.

Have you ever seen those Pentecostal churches down in Alabama and Tennessee? They pull out that rattlesnake and they're quoting that Scripture and I just cringe. Guys, that's stupid. That's not, oh, Lord have mercy.

Void of the Spirit. Taking Scripture out of context. That's testing God.

I'm gonna grab a rattlesnake, God. No, because now you just discarded wisdom. That's not wise.

The verse is talking about if you're out, you're doing God's will, you're out in the desert or wherever, pick up something and here, a snake bites you. I mean, if that happened to me, I'd be claiming that promise all the way to my truck. And you shall tread upon the lion and the cobra, the young lion and the serpent, and you shall trample them underfoot.

Now this is pretty cool, I believe. Verse 14. This is God speaking.

Because He has said, and you can't see it because all the words are capitalized, but in the translation, He is actually lowercase, meaning us, because He has set His love upon me and me is capitalized. God is saying, because you have set your love upon me, what will I do? I will deliver Him. I will set Him high because He has known my name.

Guys, again, we're standing on the promises. I believe that's a promise from God. If you don't, I don't know what to tell you because Scripture is inerrant.

It's inspired. It's the Word of God. Basically, to me, it wells up inside of me because you've set your love upon me.

I will deliver you. I will set you high. I will be with you.

You won't go around the storm. You'll go through it, but I'll hold you together. And that word in the Hebrew is interesting, that word, He has set His love upon me.

Think about setting a broken bone. That doesn't feel good. And that's why I said earlier, I'm realizing that a lot of this pursuing and seeking God, it's warfare.

I don't feel like it. I don't want to go to church. I don't want to open my word.

I don't want to pray. And we press in, and that word actually means, He has set His love upon me. It means to fix something, to put it into a firm foundation, to stabilize it, to secure it.

So when you say, when you have this firm love towards me, when you stabilize your heart towards me, when you fix your heart towards me, again, even when you don't feel like it, when you do that, I will respond, and I will guard you. I will shield you from the enemy. And God says, He shall call upon me, and I will answer Him.

I will be with Him in trouble, and I will deliver Him, and I will honor Him. That word honor basically means respect. Can you imagine God saying, I will respect you.

With long life, I will satisfy Him, and I will show Him my salvation. So a couple things I want to glean from this. The secret place.

What we're talking about tonight. The secret place. God's presence and His covering is found through passionate pursuit.

Okay? Never will you see a half-hearted approach to seeking God encouraged in the Bible. It's a passionate pursuit. Come on, let me get a witness.

How many of you did not want to come to church tonight? Earlier today? Oh, okay, yeah, I know there's more, so you don't have to say anything. But there's a passionate pursuit. Some of you did, and you're looking forward to it, but sometimes, you have to pursue God, and it's a passionate pursuit.

And I love Charles Wesley was John Wesley's brother. He wrote hymns. One of his famous hymns, the lyrics are powerful.

The title is, Oh, for a heart to praise my God. Oh, for a heart to praise my God. Some of you need to cry that out tonight.

Some of you need to wake up from that slumber. Wake up from that spiritual slumber. That lukewarm living, that boredom.

And God's not boring. The King of the universe, the living God. When we go to worship a living God at a living church service, there should be passion and desire.

Oh, for a heart to praise my God. Give me a heart to praise my God. It begins with desire.

Shane, I don't have desire. Sometimes I don't either. So pray for it if you lack it.

I love that prayer. God, I believe, but help my unbelief. How honest.

God, I want to desire this, but I don't. Help me desire this. I want more of you.

The discipline of diligence determines your destiny. The discipline of diligence. Those are not the same word.

The discipline of diligence. What is diligence? If you diligently seek me, you will find me. He's a rewarder of those who diligently seek.

I'm getting to Wednesday. I'm getting to Sunday. I'm getting to prayer meetings.

I'm turning on the worship in the morning. I'm getting in my Word. I'm disconnecting these apps that are distracting me.

I'm disconnecting the TV for a while, and I'm pressing into you, God, like never before. I'm getting rid of these relationships that are just destructive, and they're drawing me away from You, and I'm gonna be diligent. I don't feel it right yet, but Lord, give it time.

I'm gonna keep pressing in and pressing in and pressing in. I almost brought a video. Maybe I will.

They have, I don't know who did this, who has this much time on their hands, but they have this running water, and it just shows, maybe it was fake AI, I don't know, but it shows how much it'll wear off of a stone after five years and 10 years and 25 years. That water on a stone? Who's gonna sit and watch that? But it's the diligence and the diligence and the diligence. Your faith of tomorrow is gonna be built on what you're doing today.

You wanna be strong in this culture? It starts today. It started yesterday. Why? Because that diligence.

You ever see it when people just have a meltdown and they lose it? It's because the diligence wasn't maintained. Often, the enemy came in and put them to sleep, spiritually speaking. I talked about this Sunday.

Number your days, or even last Wednesday. Number your days. Rule number one, God can't be number two.

Rule number one, God cannot be number two. And then also, as you're finding that secret place, don't discount the power of personal inconvenience. Pursuing God is not convenient.

Oh, I wish I would've known that 20 years ago. How about you? This hurts. This is hard.

This is challenging. But pursuing God, it's not convenient. Just in the same way, convenient stores normally aren't healthy.

You gotta go to the farm and plant those organic potatoes, and water them, and water them, and onions, and water, and water. It's not convenient. Pursuing God is not convenient.

Your flesh must submit to you, but often, we submit to the flesh. So, I'm gonna give you three tips to the pursuit, and I'll be out of your hair. How's that? How to find the secret place.

Number one, to find the secret place of Psalm 91, you need a deserted place in Matthew 4. Secure a deserted place. Now, most of us can't just go find a deserted place out in the Arabian Desert there where Jesus was out of Jerusalem. But how often do we read that He left and went to a... He never prayed to the Father, hardly.

I mean, He'd teach the disciples to pray, and they recorded some prayers. But He would go away to pray. He would find that deserted place.

Secure a deserted place. And to find the secret place, you need a deserted place. Deserted, what Jesus was, that word actually meant free of obstruction.

Free of obstruction. So whatever is obstructing me is not helping me spiritually necessarily as far as finding that secret place and pressing into God. For example, as much as we like corporate worship, this is not the secret place.

This is corporate worship. And we come together. Fellowship, iron sharpens iron.

It's biblical. It's wonderful. But if you're just counting on this, all you come is Sunday and Wednesday, try eating twice a week.

How you doing? Two meals a week, that's all you get. You'll go for a while. We've got some storage.

But eventually that storage depletes and you go into starvation mode. And that's what happens to us as well. We need to find that secret place, that deserted place.

So maybe for some of you, it might mean reinstalling, making that prayer closet again. The closet, a closet is a great prayer closet. Can be.

Get rid of that 82 pairs of shoes you don't need. We've got so much clothes. How about you guys? Like four daughters, a son, I mean, it's like I've never seen more clothes in my life.

Get rid of those things that are distracting you. Or some might, you know, you've seen me film videos. I love to just go walk in the Mojave Desert.

You say, oh, how can you be in California, Mojave Desert? I love it. I love it. I love the beach sometimes, but I get sticky and it's like humid.

I like the hot Mojave Desert. Scorpions and rattlesnakes and things. Quiet Joshua trees.

But of course a lot of that was instilled I think when I was young. As long back as I can remember, the oldest memory I have was being three years old and I looked over the car seat. Back then, your seatbelt was your mom doing this.

And looking over and seeing my brother who was just born and we were at the, it's a California Bank and Trust on 50th Street West. It was actually a bank back then too. And she would take us into the desert with a Chevy Blazer, four by four.

We'd have pancakes as a little kid. The Joshua, so I love all that. And that was back when the Blackbird was flying over, SR-71.

And just all those memories. And so I just love, I have to find that place. Go on a walk.

I've went and set my truck for an hour. Put on worship, put the seat back. If you want it bad enough, you'll find it.

And men that are listening to this, you should watch the little ones and let your wife get out. Go take that break. Let them find, because the more they find a secret place, the more you'll be a happy person.

The more any of us find that secret place. Secure, secure it tonight. Ask the Lord, Lord, where do You want me to spend some time with You? Number two, honest self-examination.

Honest self-examination saying, Lord, I am dry, I've become worldly. I lack passion for You. Why is that so important? Because it's part of the healing process.

It's finding that secret place. You can't find the secret place in He who dwells with the Most High when there's rebellion against God. That's repentance.

And just as an encouragement to you, I know you probably hear it enough, but if you're drifting, guess what? We've all been there. All of us have been there. The key is to not go too far.

Recognize it. Self-examination, confess it. It's good to say, Lord, I've been worldly.

I'm confessing the sin of prayerlessness tonight. My prayer life is dried up. I've been pursuing other things and not You.

Lord, I want to pursue You again. Honest self-examination is so important. Also sent out or we're sending out something about the Welsh Revivals.

Duncan Campbell wrote, conviction triggers. Conviction triggers off intense prayer and repentance towards God, but also confession and restitution towards man. Once sin has been dealt with, the presence of God releases an overwhelming outburst of praise.

And that's what happens. You want that praise back? Examine your heart. Is there anything stifling it? And then, of course, we could go on to lots of different things, but this will help as well.

Number three. Number three, let's get a little convicting. I haven't talked about fasting in a while, so I'm gonna let you have it tonight.

Choose a full heart over a full stomach. Remember when they wanted to call that quail? And they just craved the quail and craved the meat? Remember that? And God actually judged them for it? And people died? Do you know something interesting? The place where they were buried, that valley, is actually called the graves of the lusters. Ate themselves right out of the promised land.

Now, of course, food is good. It's God-given. But the secret place is for spiritual appetite.

Have you thought about that? The secret place is for spiritual appetite. So, just as a personal observation, I mean, there's not a chapter and verse. I mean, we could break it down for a little while.

I could find a lot of different things. Rarely, I mean, I don't even know if I have. Maybe there's a few exceptions, but rarely you have to go into that time of worship in that secret place not full of food because they're competing appetites.

And the secret place is a spiritual appetite. Really, fasting is exchanging one appetite for another. I have this appetite to eat this flesh, to fulfill it.

Not necessarily bad, but Lord, You're a greater appetite. And we've seen, I can't eat before I preach. No way.

Man, we're gonna have a powerful prayer meeting at this church in November. We're gonna meet an hour after Thanksgiving. Not happening.

L-tryptophan kicks in, right? Amino acid, and you're sitting there on the couch. But see, there's nothing wrong with feasting, but there's a priority. There's a place.

And the secret place and intimacy with God, it's a spiritual appetite. And feasting on food fulfills a carnal appetite. So it's really the choice between the two appetites.

And I would encourage you to consider fasting from time to time. There's always a connection between overeating and the stimulating of lustful desires. That's been well-documented since the 1800s.

I've got books on it. Especially meat and things like that, the animalistic nature and things. Even the Daniel fast, that's why I was against a lot of those things.

Not only was the food sacrificed to pagan kings and different things, but there's a connection with overconsumption and the stimulating of lustful desires. A book I often read once a year, it's called God's Chosen Fast by Arthur Wallace. He said, when we cannot say no to that second helping of food we like, though we don't need it, when we are forever having snacks between regular meals.

I just read this this week and I'm like, that's, man, why do I have to eat all the time? But you know, for some of you, it's a comfort. It does release, it's a comfort. Many of us are comfort eaters.

And that's what I do, man, I go, peanuts, hour later, some chocolate. It's like, that's not good, it's not healthy. We weren't designed that way.

But when we crave special foods and we snack all the time, when food is an ever-present temptation to which we constantly yield, then it is clear we are in bondage. And that's true. However, with every topic like this, you have to make sure you find a balance because if you get too into, I don't remember the term, it started with an A, asceticism maybe, something like that about the monks and just food bad, fasting good.

And it was just constantly, the skinnier you were and the fasting, and you get really a messed up view about it. It's a work and that's why it became, people have a bad view about it because it's like, no, no, I can't eat, don't eat. But where God says, I gave you food, be thankful, but make sure it doesn't control you.

You control it, it doesn't control you. And one way to put the regulator on is through fasting because that's what it is. It's time saying, nope, mm-mm, hello.

Do I want this tonight? No, I want chocolate and peanut butter. I want to go eat a big dinner tonight. But I'm going to choose not to because I want that secret place tomorrow morning.

Remember, it's all about competing appetites. It's all about competing appetites. The flesh must submit to the secret place.

That's what I'm getting at. The flesh must submit to the secret place. As I talked about Sunday, define the secret place.

If you truly desire it, everything else can wait. This has to be the priority. Did you catch this? You pursuing God has to be the priority or you will never find that secret place.

There'll be hints here and there, and don't get me wrong, you'll be a good person and you'll read the Word, but God's got to be the all-consuming passion. He's got to be the pursuit. And even when I fall off course or when He's no longer the priority some days and you get back on track, everything else has to wait.

That's why I love that song that we did. I think it was on Sunday. I think we even have the lyrics.

Everything else can wait. I've come to seek Your face so everything else can wait. I'm here for You.

I want to just be here at Your feet. Just be here on my knees, here in Your presence. I'm complete.

Jesus, You're all that I need. Guys, don't allow past brokenness to cause future pain. You can't change where you've been, but you can change where you're going right now.

Right now, right here in this place. Right here in this place. Let God mark you.

Let God mark you. And say from this day forward, Lord, I want that deep and intimate relationship. I know it's not going to be perfect.

I know it's going to be a hard fought hallelujah from time to time, but I need that secret place. Lord, I want to find that secret place. And as I read last Sunday again, the lyrics, it said, Help me remember there was a time when I knelt at the altar with tears in my eyes.

Here I am now with hands lifted high. Help me remember that time. Can you imagine if the Lord would just help us remember that intimacy we once had or that intimacy we desire? Guys, remember, fire doesn't fall on an empty altar.

Fire does not fall on an empty altar. The fire of God, especially in the Old Testament of course, it wasn't until that sacrifice would hit the altar, then the fire of God would come. Same thing in the temple.

His presence, His manifest presence. What does it have to do with the New Testament? Well, I like what Paul said in Romans, present your bodies as a living sacrifice. Maybe we should consider that tonight.

Lord, help us find that dwelling place, that secret place. Is God good even if you don't get the breakthrough you've been praying for? Is He good even if your prayers are not answered the way you thought? That job, that career, that status, that recognition, you've got to get to a point where you say, God, You're good no matter what. I love the words of Job.

Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him. Can you imagine getting to a spot like that? Lord, though You take my life, I will trust You. Though I get a debilitating disease that might take my life, I will trust You.

God forbid, somebody close to me, a child dies, Lord, I will trust You. Blessed be the name of the Lord. For He gives and takes away.

Blessed be the name of the Lord. And I do want to encourage you. Something I don't share too much.

I don't know if I have, but I don't know if it's a struggle, like something I struggle with, but I realize this is not an apology at all, because people might think it is. It's more of just stating the facts. I'm well aware that many times these messages are heavy.

Hello, I live it. I've got to preach it. So I never want people to feel like, oh, that's heavy.

Man, I could never be that spiritual. Oh, I could never do what he does. And you just leave here discouraged.

That's not my goal. But I think, especially in the church today, the problem isn't that we raise our standard and miss it, it's that we lower it and we hit it. And the Bible is pretty clear on raising that standard.

Be holy as I am holy. Hello, that's a pretty high standard. Make no provision for the flesh.

No provision? Lord, come on. Because it always errs on the side of drawing in deeper, going deeper, pursuing God even more. So be encouraged.

This is not to beat you up and I've got to do this. Actually, everything I just talked about, the reason it's hard for me is because the flesh is like pulling a hundred pound dumbbell. That's why it's hard.

Pursuing God is not hard. The filling of the Holy Spirit and the joy of the Lord, those things to be sought after, to me, it's not, oh, I've got to follow all these rules. I've got to get up and read my Bible in the morning.

Holy cow! You're looking forward to it. You're looking forward to pursuing God and hearing from Him. It's not easy.

That's the difference between rules is you've got to do this versus relationship. I get to do this. You've got to change your mindset because this should not be discouraging.

It should be very encouraging because on the flip side, one of the things I will never understand, I'll never understand why God called me to preach. I know Billy Graham asked that question too. But just so I never understand the amount of lives that are changed by hearing the truth.

Mike, you come up every Sunday with tears in your eyes. It's incredible. A lot of you do too.

So the hard messages for the receptive heart, they change lives. That's the only thing that keeps me going. They change lives.

For every person complaining it's too hard, you've got 12 others saying I need this. If I'm feeding 10 kids and 9 are growing and one isn't, it might not be the cook. It might be the food.

You're not willing to take. So don't be discouraged. Don't be discouraged.

Let this encourage you. You can get back up and keep fighting. The message, the Word of God, when it comes alive, the Word of God is sharper than any double-edged sword.

You know that, correct? It discerns the thoughts and the intents of the heart. So once the Word sometimes hurts us, sometimes heals us, sometimes convicts us, sometimes energizes us, sometimes gives us direction or wisdom, as it's doing that work in our hearts, then we go into worship. And if the Word of God was the surgery, the worship is the sewing up of the wound.

And the worship begins to bring it all together. So we don't just say, hey, let's just tack on a song at the end because we've got some extra time. This is a time where really we can apply in our hearts what we heard in our ears.