Thank you for your presence, Lord, that is
so real in our hearts.
So real, Lord.
Thank you for your word that is unchanging,
infallible, and that faithfully, when the Holy Spirit
is teaching us, faithfully leads us to you,
to your Son, and to your wonderful ways.
Lord, I pray that you'll help us to
continue to hear your heart, to hear your
word, and that we might be changed and
transformed, Lord, into passionate lovers of Jesus Christ.
Oh God, please make this thing a love
affair.
Deliver us, Lord, from understanding you in any
other way other than a lovely God who
is deeply in love with us and who
seeks that we might be deeply in love
with him.
Help us to see, Lord, this love.
Lord, help us, Lord, because we know that
we have never seen perfect love on earth,
and we don't really understand it or know
what it's about.
And oftentimes, Lord, we come to you with
wrong ideas that we have gotten from the
world or from imperfect role models, and we've
got to get delivered from them, Lord.
Help us today, Lord.
Give us a baptism into your love.
Give us a baptism into your word.
Lord, your word is the only reliable source
that we have today that can teach us
the true nature of your heart, the true
nature of your Son, the true nature of
your ways.
God, help us today to be able to
receive from your word, through the Holy Spirit,
a proper view of who you are and
what you have done and what you seek
to do in us and through us by
the power of your Son, Jesus Christ.
Thank you, Lord, for the testimonies today, what
Norman shared and how we are so prone
to rejoice at an initial encounter with you.
But as we develop expectations that aren't met,
our joy can turn to anger.
Rescue us, Lord.
Help us today, we pray in Jesus' name.
Amen and amen.
The Lord is a passionate, loving God.
Do you know him as a loving God?
Do you know why God created the family?
God created the family because the family is
God's earthly means by which he reveals himself
to us.
The family is a wonderful thought in God's
eyes, in God's heart, isn't it?
A normal family or a biblical family is
a picture, a vivid description, a vivid picture
of what God wants to be in our
lives.
Take, for example, when a child is first
born.
Now, if you're living—now, by the way, the
reason why the family is under attack is
because Satan knows.
Destroy the family, and you've destroyed the essential
place that God has ordained to begin the
process of him revealing himself to the human
race.
Destroy the family.
That's why our families are under attack.
But just think for a moment with me
as we begin to look into God's word
and touch on a number of issues today.
Just think about the family.
In a normal family, when a baby is
born, what is your first instinct?
You want to touch your baby, right?
Then what do you want to do?
You want to kiss your baby 10,000
times on its forehead, right?
Don't you just love to kiss your baby
when it's born?
I'm looking at these little newborns here and
how vivid it is.
Isn't it just a natural instinct?
And you want to cuddle your baby.
You want to love your baby.
Listen, you want your baby to be intoxicated
with love.
Now, you know there's something about that that's
got the handwriting of heaven all over it,
doesn't it?
Parental instinct.
Take that newborn baby, love it, kiss it,
embrace it.
A mom's instinct to put the baby on
her breast and to watch an amazing thing
begin to happen with baby that is breastfed.
You know what that is?
There's an eye-bonding contact that begins to
take place when baby begins to be breastfed.
What is happening here?
It is a bond that is being developed,
the bond of love, the bond of love.
This is a vivid picture of God's ways
in relation to what he wants to do
with us as our Father in heaven.
He wants us to understand that as a
mother and a father would adore and love
their child and want to embrace it and
want to love it and hug it and
just envelop it in its love, in their
love.
So that's exactly what God wants us to
do.
And you know it's statistically true that in
countries where the natural, normal instincts of parenthood
are either illegal or stifled by horrible laws
and rules, that children grow up and they
have a distorted view of life.
That there's something about being loved and being
embraced that is a vital part of a
normal, natural maturing process, something about it.
And likewise, God's love for us is essential.
We have to pray, God, help me to
understand your love, because love brings healing.
God's love, understanding God's love brings healing.
It brings security.
It brings a sense of significance, understanding that
if God loves me, then
I don't have to believe the lie that
there's no value in living.
I don't have to believe the lie that
there's no value.
And it's in the family setting that we
grow together and learn together and we become
vulnerable and we share each other's hearts in
the family setting.
And the reason why the church is so
important is because the church is to either
amplify or make up the lack of a
true family identity that some people may have.
For example, Jesus came to seek and to
save that which is lost.
Sometimes people become saved to have lived in
foster homes all their lives, and they've never
understood what it was for some.
Sometimes girls never understand that they don't understand
what it is for a man to be
able to embrace them in purity, because they've
never seen a man who loved them.
Some children have grown up and they have
seen nothing but raging fathers and unfaithful mothers,
and it has hurt them.
And they come to know Jesus, and they
see God loves them, and they're very excited
about it, but they still don't have a
real good understanding of that love because their
mind and their memories and their whole upbringing
is bombarded with what they were and what
they went through.
And that's why it's so vitally important, and
that's what we were touching on.
That's what you were touching on, Mike.
That's why if the community aspect of Christianity
is moved, removed, then we're turning it into
something that is not God's intention.
We're really turning it into a picture of
a dysfunctional family in the world, because dysfunctional
families in the world are simply families that
don't have the capacity to grow together in
heart relationship one with another.
That's what a dysfunctional family is.
It's not a family that is less than
perfect because we're all imperfect.
It's just dysfunctional means you can't function in
heart relationship one with another.
And so the church has become dysfunctional because
it doesn't want the family aspect, members one
of another, accountability, transparency, making room in our
heart for others that are different than us.
And so we want a Christianity that doesn't
require that of us, just like the dysfunctional
family in the world wants a family that
doesn't require the need to work through issues.
And when a natural family exchanges the meaning
of a true biblical family for a worldly
family, everything starts breaking down.
But what do we do to deal with
the breaking down?
We start drinking the wine of this world,
which helps us ignore what's really happening and
gives us a false high in joy.
And then we start kissing one another and
hugging one another like my dad did me.
But the smell of being superficial, the smell
of a false kind of joy and security
is in it because we're really not dealing
with heart issues.
And this same spirit that is seducing the
families is trying to seduce the church to
create a Christianity that is shallow.
I've been friends with a brother in another
country for many, many years.
I met him back in 94.
And recently, and Carl will like this because
it has to do with something we mentioned
a few weeks ago.
Recently, listen carefully now, listen carefully.
Recently, he wrote me and said one of
the reasons why, because we were interacting regarding
the thought of being near, we hear.
As we were talking about last week, the
nearer we are, the clearer we hear.
But remember the third word, near, clear, and
fear.
So sometimes we're reluctant to draw near because
we know that if we're near, we're going
to hear.
And that's true in our relationship with one
another.
I might be reluctant to get too close
to my brother Lorenzo because I know if
I get too close, he might start telling
me some real struggles he's going through, and
that might obligate me to care for him.
And that might cramp my style.
It might force me to have to say,
I should go see Lorenzo tonight.
But I want to, and it's going to
throw me into a real conflict.
So I'm going to be friends, but I'm
not going to get too near.
And that's the way it is with our
walk with God too.
We want to mention his name.
We want to come and sing songs here.
This isn't too threatening, is it?
This is all right, huh?
Everyone can pretty much stay in their own
world here.
Now does that mean we should throw this
whole idea out of gathering?
No, there's a place for it.
But if this is our Christianity right here,
we've lost it, brothers and sisters.
Okay.
So the brother was talking about, we were
talking through email about being near.
We hear, but we're, we fear what we
might hear.
And he said, Phil, I fear that I
might hear not God telling me he's called
me to be some superstar.
I don't fear that.
I fear that God might be telling me
to make room in my heart for a
motherless or for a childless widow.
Where's the glory in bearing in your heart
the sorrows of a childless widow?
Where's the glory?
Where's the superstar mentality?
It's not there.
Making room in your heart for a widow
is going to cramp your style big time,
isn't it?
It's going to cramp all your desires to
live a life that satisfies who?
You.
And so that's why we're reluctant to get
too near.
We're reluctant to get near to God.
What did getting near to God do to
the early church?
They lost everything because they got so near
to God.
They started hearing what was important to him.
Now this goes along with what Norman was
saying.
You might at first hear the Lord and
it might sound real good, but you get
really close to him and you're going to
really understand what he's saying.
And it's a life like his, a life
that empties self for others.
And so we're reluctant to get near to
God because we're afraid that what we're going
to hear is going to be too costly.
And that's the same reason why we don't
get near one to another.
If I get too near to Colette, not
physically, because I can be physically near to
her and be far away from her.
Is that right, Daisy?
That's right.
I can be physically near to this brother
here, even sit next to him, but I
might not have any clue what's going on
inside.
So if I get too near to Colette,
I might hear something that indicts me.
I might hear something that she's saying that
forces me to have to what?
Reconsider.
Change.
Say I'm sorry.
Acknowledge pride.
Acknowledge insensitivity.
So I think I'll put extra hours into
my job.
Uh-oh, watch out.
Should I go here, Lord?
No, I'll read my Bible more.
Can we actually get into God's word as
a smokescreen to be avoiding reality?
Oh yeah.
Getting into God.
It looks so good though, doesn't it, Norman?
Looks so good.
But God sees what's really going on.
You're avoiding reality.
What are some other ways we avoid reality?
Hobbies.
All because of what?
Near.
The nearer to God's heart, the better we
will hear God's heart, which results in what
we fear we might hear.
So brothers and sisters, what we're hearing
today from the Lord is very simple.
Don't be afraid to draw near.
We won't hear if we're not near.
And we don't have to fear to draw
near.
We should fear not drawing near to God's
heart.
Let me ask a question now, brothers and
sisters, all right?
Listen carefully.
What are you aspiring to draw near to?
I recently read of a young child who
was born mentally ill or mentally retarded.
Listen carefully, please.
And the parents couldn't do anything with the
child.
Couldn't do anything with the child.
And then the thought came to the parents,
let's buy a video, a VCR.
And they bought the VCR and they bought
a video, several videos, of a character in
Europe.
It's almost like Charlie Chaplin here in America,
a comedian.
His name is Mr. Bean.
And what happened is they put the child
in front of the TV, and the child
just watched Mr. Bean all his life.
Now the child is 19 or 20.
And unbelievably, according to the testimony I read,
the child's mannerisms and actions are identical to
Mr. Bean.
Identical.
Because all his life, all his life, he
had his heart focused and his mind's attention
on Mr. Bean.
He became just like the thing that his
eyes were fixed upon.
He became just like it.
That's all he knew.
Exactly.
And so the lesson of the story is
we become just like the thing that's got
our attention.
Just like it.
What's got your attention today?
Set your things, set your heart on things
above, not on things of earth.
What's got our attention today?
Let's just bow our heart for a few
moments before the Lord.
Father, we're amazed at your love.
We're amazed at your grace.
And we're challenged by your word.
We're challenged by your word today, Lord.
We're challenged by your spirit calling us to
draw near to you, to draw near to
your heart together.
Lord, we're challenged by your spirit's call that
we might become a community of believers, a
family.
We're challenged, Lord, but at the same time,
we fear because we know, Lord, that it's
a costly thing to draw near to your
heart and it's a costly thing to draw
near to one another's hearts as we walk
in your light.
It's costly, Lord, but I pray, Lord, that
you will help us to drink of that
wine from heaven that will empower us to
do this very thing.
Lord, we're amazed at your presence.
Brothers and sisters, he's here right now.
And I sense in my spirit he's here
to draw us closer to his heart and
to free us from the fears that we
have to draw close to his heart.
There's healing here as we draw close to
his heart and acknowledge him as the source
of everything.
I just want to make this invitation.
Anybody here who would be able to say,
yes, Lord, I feel that you are calling
me by your word to know you, to
know your love, to know your forgiveness, to
know what it is to be close to
your heart, to be embraced by your love.
You may have never come to know Jesus
Christ.
And today you might be recognizing your need
for him.
You might be saying, yes, I need him
today.
I don't know of this love that you
speak of.
Or you might know him as a couple,
as a family.
But you've seen the battle that it is
to get close to his heart.
And you've seen the fears that you have
of getting close.
But today you want to draw near to
his heart.
Anyone who would want to say yes to
that, let's respond by standing up and all
coming together and asking the Lord to help
us draw near.
Anyone at all who wants to stand together
with other brothers and sisters.
Maybe you're a family, but you know that
it's not trying harder that's going to do
it.
It's drawing closer to him, drawing closer to
him.
Everyone together, let's, perhaps you have said yes.
I've actually heard the Lord, as I'm, as
I've drawn close to him in the past,
tell me to make room in my heart
for other people.
But I've lost that because I get so
busy doing my own thing.
But today God will renew that call in
all of our hearts.
Let's just sing this together, this first verse,
or and then we'll pray together.
All right.
Anyone who wants to come and stand, please
feel free.
Go ahead.
Brothers and sisters, listen carefully, please.
Everything that we need right now, everything in
our lives, the answer is found in drawing
near to the heart of God, near to
his word and staying there and listening to
his heart and his word every day.
Everything near to the heart of God.
Father, you see that we have gathered here
and that we are responding, Lord, to your
call of love this morning to get near
to your heart.
I pray, Father, in the name of Jesus
Christ, that every single one of us who
have stood up would find in you the
power and the courage to draw near to
your heart, to draw near to you and
your word and to be able to hear
your heart and to be able to hear
the heart of others.
Who here wants to say, Lord, I want
to get closer.
I want to get nearer to your heart
so I can hear the heart of my
family better.
Every wife here, every husband, every single person.
I want to get nearer to your heart
so I can hear the heart of my
children.
I want to get nearer to you, Lord,
so I can hear the heart of my
brothers and sisters.