It's awesome when we come in and we actually are pursuing with our heart how the Lord meets us.
Like, his presence is here already.
And that only comes with true worship and true seeking after him.
And as I was thinking about what the Lord wanted to do during prayer today,
it jumped out at me right away.
There's been a couple things that's been consistently running through me this last,
I'd say the last three months really.
And one of them is, and it just happened a couple weeks ago,
is I just vividly get this image in my mind of Jesus on the cross with the two thieves on each side.
And you have one that's mocking him, you know, taunting him.
Then come down, save yourself.
And you have the other just calling him the other thief of fool and says,
Lord, remember me.
So you have two completely opposite pictures on both sides of Jesus there.
The other thing that keeps running through me, which is really what I want to focus in on right during this next few minutes is
being captivated by the Lord.
Being captivated by Jesus.
And what does that mean?
What does that look like for us in our personal lives?
What does it look like for us as a body?
And what does Scripture say about that?
Because at the end of the day, and we'll read it here in a second,
it's, unless Jesus is the pursuit and the foundation of everything,
it's nothing, worthless, right?
So that's what we're going to speak on today a little bit.
And I'll be honest.
Getting ready for prayer is as much as you know the Lord's on something
or you believe you're following what he wants,
it's a weight to carry and preach the word that Jesus set forth.
To share what he's given you.
So I do not take that lightly.
I just want that to be clear.
So anything I say is simply from the standpoint of doing what he wants
and what I want to get out of that for him.
It's not about me, it's not about anything like that.
So thanks guys.
Brian, if you want, it's up to you.
Stand the keys, however you feel.
I'm going to read a couple of Scriptures here
and kind of jump off on those.
And then we're just going to press in and pray a little bit
before we get back into praise and worship.
First, coming out of Philippians 3 verse 8 through 11.
Yet indeed I also count all things lost for the excellence
of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord,
for whom I suffered the loss of all things
and count them as rubbish that I may gain Christ
and be found in him not having my own righteousness
which is from the law,
but which is through faith in Christ,
the righteousness which is from God by faith,
that I may know him and the power of his resurrection
and the fellowship of his sufferings being conformed to his death.
If by any means I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
This is 1 Corinthians, yeah, that's fine.
Verse 2, or chapter 2, 1 through 5.
And I, brethren, when I came to you,
did not come with excellence of speech or wisdom
declaring to you the testimony of God,
for I determined not to know anything among you
except one thing, Jesus and him crucified.
I was with you in weakness and fear
and in much trembling.
And in my speech and my preaching,
you were not, as I move my stick,
you know, you were not persuasive,
persuasive words of human wisdom
but in demonstration of the spirit and power.
And that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men
but in the power of God.
And then one more, chapter 3, 10 through 11.
According to the grace of God,
which was given to me as a wise master builder,
I have laid the foundation and another builds on it
but let each one take heed to how he builds on it.
For no other foundation can anyone lay
than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
So when we talk about being captivated by Jesus,
like that means a lot of different things
but if it's clear in Scripture,
Paul was absolutely captivated by the Lord Jesus.
I mean, we just read, like, unless the foundation is Jesus, right?
There's nothing else in there.
There's nothing that he would rather have
but to follow Jesus, to know Jesus,
the power of his resurrection.
There's no one else that has walked the face of this earth
that could do what Jesus did.
Scripture tells us that.
Revelation talks about how the only one worthy is the Lamb
who opens the scroll, right?
So that's just, to me, that's a fascinating concept of him,
being captivated by him in that sense.
You see it when it comes to the apostles
after Jesus' death in the upper room, right?
There's clearly a pattern there that the Lord laid out
and when you talk about the upper room,
they were doing what for, you know, a week, 10 days, whatever it was?
There's 120 people in that upper room doing one thing,
seeking Jesus, praying for him to come and meet with them, right?
The message of the cross is extremely complex
and foolishness to those that don't believe,
but at the end of the day, it's about one thing.
It's about Jesus on the cross.
He died for us. He was pursuing us
as much as we should be pursuing him.
And there's theologies, there's education that we can get,
but there's only one thing that is salvation
and that's through Jesus.
The message of his power and death
and the resurrection, Satan knew he was defeated then, right?
Like once they thought they won, but at the end of the day,
there's nothing that could hold Jesus back, right?
He went and preached the gospel for three days, right?
Seeking him, pursuing him, being captivated by him.
And when you look at what we're pushing for,
I mean, this church, our body, we'll speak to our body
and my personal life, I'll say.
But as a body, we've been going through something
for the last year, right?
It's been foundation after foundation,
building upon things, going back to, you know,
pastor's series on Christian basics, right?
Then we talked about what? The secret room,
or the secret place, excuse me, right?
Dead to self, now we're loneliness, even tithing, right?
It's about one thing.
We can't do anything in and of ourselves
except be with him, right?
We are nothing without Jesus, nothing.
The sifting that we're going through now, to me,
the sifting, the sifting is that image I keep seeing
of the thieves on the cross, right?
Are we going to go after Jesus?
Or are we going to sit back and be sifted out
and be a mockery and mock him
and at the end of the day, not be there with him
when push comes to shove, right?
We keep talking about the end times revival.
Where does that start?
That starts with pursuing Jesus, the upper room, right?
You see the upper room, you see Peter and John
and walking through the Bethesda,
or the gate of Bethesda, beautiful, gate beautiful, right?
You have pursuing Jesus.
You have the gospel preach, which is Christ crucified,
which, with all the 120 in the room,
the 120 in the room, they were, you know,
I'm assuming they were all believed that Jesus was the Messiah.
When Peter stood up and preached the gospel,
a whole other revelation about what had occurred hit them
and repentance fell on that group.
And then what?
Then revival broke out, right?
Then revival broke out.
Peter and John walking through the temple, beautiful,
or gate beautiful, the man gets healed.
Peter and John, Peter says, it's not me, it's Jesus.
It's Jesus that did it.
Repent, then what happens?
Then revival comes.
It starts with the simple pursuit of Jesus
and knowing Him, pursuing Him.
So what does that look like?
I mean, there's a lot in the scripture that we just talked about.
You see John, or Jesus doing it,
talked about Peter and John there.
Even Jesus, we want to be captivated by Jesus.
We sing about it, we talk about it.
What was Jesus captivated by?
The Father.
And AI confirmed it for me, so we know it's true.
But he was captivated by the Father, right?
As we're captivated with Jesus,
we get to know Him, right?
We want to call Him friend, saying it.
Does He call us friend?
How do you become friends with someone?
You spend time with them.
You get to know them.
What do they want?
Do you share their desires?
Are you more intimate with them, right?
With what you're feeling?
Especially in the husband and wife relationship, right?
You know, we are the bridegroom of Christ.
Scripture, you know, forget which of our pastors have said it, right?
But Scripture starts with the marriage, it ends with the marriage, right?
So when you look at that, who should know us best on this earth?
It's our spouse.
And if you're not married, you know, apply it in your own way there,
whether it's with your personal relationship with those close to you.
But I'm going to speak from my own experience,
which is all I can, and that's with my spouse, with my wife, with Heidi.
You see, when my relationship with the Lord,
and this is something that he revealed to me,
and this is my barometer, if it fits for you, great, if not,
you know, you'll have to work with the Lord on what should help with you.
But for me, if my relationship with the Lord is strong,
if I'm close to him, if I'm hearing him,
I have a lot more patience with Heidi.
I'm a lot more affectionate towards her, right?
I'm anticipating her desires.
I'm preferring her over my own needs.
And when I'm not, that's when what happens.
I get short with the kids.
I'm selfish, I'm quiet, I'm reserved.
Like, that's not what Jesus wants with us.
So for us to sit and pray and ask for him to move,
he's going to be sitting here saying,
great, you show up on Sundays, you want me, you want to be pursuing me,
but you're not interested in me in the rest of the week.
And it's not, and when I say captivated,
it's not every day, every hour of the week,
we're sitting there, we're preaching the gospel.
That's not it, right?
It's what's going through your spirit
as you're working throughout the day, right?
Pastor talked about it a couple of years ago
about praying continually in the spirit, right?
How do we do that? You can't do that with your mouth.
It's your spirit man doing that.
Pause, what's your spirit speaking?
Is it saying when you sit there and sit quiet,
it's saying, alright Lord, what do you want me to do next?
Jesus, is it singing, is it, what is it doing?
That's the intimacy, that's being captivated by him.
And every time you sit through those,
your personal times with him,
it should be deeper and deeper and deeper.
And if you don't believe him, again,
we just saw it in Acts 1.
But the 120 that were there with Jesus,
like Psalm crucified,
the whole new revelation came.
Like we could be sitting in that up room
for the rest of our earthly lives,
and we would not understand
the depth of Jesus and the Father.
We just couldn't do it.
It's funny, so this summer,
we had the chance to go through
the Billy Graham Library or Museum
or whatever you want to call it.
And there's two things that stood out to me with that.
I mean, Billy Graham, on the surface,
a preacher of the word,
he was captivated by Jesus, right,
sharing the gospel.
The other thing that stood out,
how much he loved and adored his wife.
You go through that museum,
it's as much about her as it was with him.
That's that relationship,
the husband-wife relationship on the earth,
that we are the bridegroom of Christ.
It's amazing to see that when the Holy Spirit
starts to point that stuff out to you.
Like the pursuit of him,
the pursuit of knowing him,
wanting to be with him,
and it doesn't happen overnight.
It doesn't.
It takes time, it takes relationships,
it takes a cultivating over that relationship.
When you look, when you're getting married,
when young people are getting married,
you don't just, this is America, this is the West.
We don't just go and,
I'm going to marry my neighbor, husband,
and the dad says, yep, that's who you're marrying, boom,
that's not how it works, right?
We build a relationship.
You pursue that person.
As a man, you pursue them.
I'm thinking about her when we were dating.
I'm thinking about her all the time.
I'm wanting to call her because we didn't have texts.
So it's, I am, it's a messaging, right?
It's, are you, you're pursuing them.
And sometimes it takes a while to get in there.
But then what happens?
You build and cultivate that, cultivate that relationship.
They become to know you.
They anticipate what you're wanting,
what your needs are.
And as, as the husband, leading in that.
And there's a lot of times I fail.
I'm glad Heidi's not here to say amen.
But there's a lot of times that I fail and even with my children.
But so we were on, again, like I said at the beginning,
I'm going to share a personal stuff here around just what I've experienced.
But so this is not about me.
It's to show you as that Heidi pointed out to me this past week.
So we were on, we were on vacation this past week in, in South Dakota.
And, and near the end of the trip, I kind of looked there.
I said, I don't know what has gotten into me.
I said, but I have been talking to a lot of people.
And, and it wasn't preaching the gospel.
It wasn't sharing about getting in their face about Jesus.
It was seeing somebody working at a food truck saying, hey, how are you doing?
And sitting there for 15 minutes and hearing their story and what they went through, right?
It's, it's walking through.
I mean, half a dozen people probably talked to.
Honestly, there's only one person I prayed with.
And it wasn't even, it was for him and his grandson who was going into the military.
And this was a tougher man.
He's like, I never cry and he's crying.
And I like, I rarely, if ever do that.
And that's when I look, I said, what's gotten into me?
And I, I kind of gave my hypothesis and she said, no.
She's like, you've been pursuing the Lord.
You've been getting filled because I was getting ready for this.
I'm on vacation.
When you go on vacation, you don't go on vacation from the word.
You don't go on vacation from Jesus, right?
So I was, like I said, I, this is, this is weighty to share Jesus in front of a body like this.
And so I was preparing and preparing.
And that's when she's like, it was, it was that.
What's coming out of you?
Okay.
What is, what is flowing from your heart?
And it was a genuine care.
And, and here's where I say, we all have room to grow.
So here's, here's the, here's the fun part, right?
Oh great, random stranger at a food truck.
Hey, I'm going to sit and listen to you for 20 minutes.
Get in the car.
Kids are loud.
Right?
What happens?
Dad gets mad.
Dad gets frustrated.
But you know what that instantly pointed out?
There's still a lot of me in here that needs to go.
Right?
There's a lot of me that needs to be crucified.
That needs to be dead.
That needs to go away so I can fill up with more with him.
Because then I have more of him to give out.
And the people that should be getting him first,
should be my wife, should be my kids.
Then it, then it's real.
Then it's not so much of a, hey, it's a random stranger.
I can fake through a conversation for 20 minutes.
And I'm not saying that's what I did.
But you get my point, right?
Then you can get through that.
You can sit there and the people that are around you the most
that know you the most.
They should see what's coming out of your heart.
And it should be that love and intimacy and desire for Jesus.
That's how we move forward as a body.
That's how, that's how revival comes.
It starts with the body here.
And the focus is Jesus.
And the focus is getting after him and pursuing him.
With everything in us.
And like I said, we can be doing that for the next 50 years.
For me.
We can be pursuing that, pursuing that.
And there's still more, there's still more to learn.
You know, what's interesting too,
in the book of Acts, at the end of the story
with Peter and John at the temple,
at the, keep calling it, at the Gate Beautiful.
You know, Peter's going through it and he talks about
the refreshing that comes with,
you know, once we get repentance comes, we are saved.
And the weightiness of sin is lifted from us
and it talks about a refreshing.
And absolutely, you know, it says it's absolutely
talking about from a physical standpoint, your body.
There's just a weightiness that's gone in the physical.
You can feel it. Once, once, if you've been sitting on something
and you've been rebellious and haven't been repentful
for something you know the Lord is dealing with you,
once you ask for forgiveness from Him, it's gone.
If you know you've offended your, you know, a friend
or something like that and you say, look, I'm sorry, forgive me.
You just feel the physical weightiness of that lift, right?
So I looked up that word and I'm like, that's a weird word
to be put in this context of refreshing in the Lord.
And what caught my attention, the last word
in that definition is revival.
That's the only place in the entire scripture
that that word is used.
We're pursuing Jesus. We're pursuing Jesus.
We're also pursuing a new building, but we want,
like, that is the need that is going to be
a result of the pursuit of Him, right?
That is what is needed to fulfill what He's asking for us to do.
Pursuing Him, repentance, then you see the body,
the revival come and the body grow.
And if we're not there as a body, if we're not centered around Jesus,
if He is not our focus, we're going to get distracted, right?
We're going to get distracted with putting up the building,
with all the other things that come with that.
And that's where issues become, because Jesus doesn't become the center then.
Then we're starting to pursue the things that we think He wants us to do,
that we want to do.
We want, you know, I want to lead this, I want to lead that,
I want to do a program. Great.
What's in your heart for doing it?
Is the pursuit still Him?
Is it being captivated by Him?
Is He, like, what would Pastor Mary say?
Like, she likes to break apart words, right?
You break apart the word captivated, you have captive in there.
You're a captive to Jesus.
You are, He is embodying every thought that you have, right?
If it's last for an hour after your devotion time, great.
You know you have more time that you have to spend in there
because there's more of you in there
that needs to get out and be captivated by Him.
And to pursue Him and those desires.
So we're going to stand.
Pray for a few minutes here.
Brayden probably started a little early.
Not yet, but...
And we're just going to sit, however you want.
Stand, sit, kneel.
And what I'd like to, what I'd like us to do,
and I'll pray some too from here,
but I just want each and one of you
to really press into Jesus.
And ask Him, ask the Holy Spirit
if there's just one thing in each of your lives right now,
each of our lives, my life right now,
that is distracting us from pursuing Him.
That we are in the way from Him taking us to that next step
where He wants to bring us individually.
Because as we move forward individually
and we do it as a body, a corporate body
and we align to the pursuit of Jesus
and we get captivated by Jesus
and we realize what captivates Jesus
and that's the heart of the Father.
We will move as one body into that.
So Lord, I ask right now for each and every one of us,
Holy Spirit, show us.
Show us where you, Jesus, are not first.
What is holding me back individually?
What is the thing that I need to make the decision today
that needs to go to get what you want done?
Because, I was talking with a friend yesterday,
when we become believers, when we become saved,
we have free will, right?
But it's still, we don't.
Paul says, we are no longer our own.
We are subject to Jesus.
He is Lord, He is Master, right?
We do what He wants us to do.
We don't have the option to do it.
If we think we have the option,
if we're weighing it yes or no,
we're choosing, do I follow what Jesus wants to do?
Or am I going to be disobedient to what He wants to do
and put myself for first?
So Holy Spirit, I ask, where in my life
am I not pursuing the things that you want me to do?
What do I need to set aside for me?
Is it scrolling through your phone before bed?
Simple things like that?
Is it golfing?
Is it going and watching my favorite movie?
Is it doing this? Is it doing that?
I don't know what it is.
Holy Spirit, I ask that you highlight that to each of us.
Kiro to soku shatrata.
Father, let our pursuit be of your son.
Let your son be glorified in this body.
Let your son be glorified in our day-to-day activities
and our speak in the way we share.
Even things that are common to us, Lord,
that aren't even of your word,
but let your son get the glory in every step that we do.
Kusura batasha.
Jesus, we've come to seek after you.
We're pushing in, Lord.
We want more of you.
We want more of you, Lord.
Candidly, I'm scared to say we want all of you
because I don't think we know what that means when we say,
Lord, we want all of you.
We couldn't handle that here on this earth.
I don't know if we can in heaven,
but we couldn't handle that.
Lord, I want more.
Give me more of you.
Give me more of you, Lord,
where there's less of me,
where my hour, my two hours of patience
and kindness and loving turns into six hours,
turns into a week, Lord.
Let the endurance of your love
flow through my life,
flow through our lives,
where it overflows, where it exudes
and reaches to others,
where we show kindness to each other.
Lord, where we push in,
and then we push into those
who don't know you outside these four walls,
where it's a genuine pursuit,
just to share you,
just to share who you are
and what you've done
and what the cross really represents, Lord.
Let that be the pursuit,
let that be the desire of this body.
Kuratase, Lord.
We've come for nothing else but you.
We've come to let you be that foundation, Lord,
of every aspect of our lives, Lord.
There's many aspects.
There's our church body, our family, our home,
our work, Lord.
You need to be the foundation, Jesus,
of every one of those.
And if we don't think, Lord,
that you care about what happens at work,
you care about me, Lord,
I know you care about what happens there.
Holy Spirit, lead me through those day-to-day activities.
Lead me with words that need to be spoken
and shared in a kind word, Lord.
Whatever it is, let you shine through in this.
Let the pursuit of you,
the pursuit of you and being captivated,
falling in love again with you, Jesus,
on a daily basis, like we saw
in the upper room, Lord,
a daily basis, every day,
a renewing of that, Lord.
Kusotashoto.
Korapesokushoto.
Again, the message of the cross is very simple.
It's very simple, yet so deep.
So deep.
It's so deep.
Lord, let the revelation of what transpired
on that cross, let that grow in us.
Let each one of us,
let each one of us,
in whatever way you need it to be,
show what the cross did,
how the cross defeated everything.
Every knee will bow
at the name of Jesus.
Every knee will bow.
Lord, let my knee be willingly bowing to you.
Let my heart willingly be bowed
and laid down before you.
Sukushorabe.
Kusho.
Jesus, we've come to be here with you.
Far and foremost, we've come to meet with you today.
Come to be with you, Lord, as a body.
Come to pursue you
and nothing but you, that your word
cuts to us.
And we spend time together
and we worship with you.
Lord, let us have revelation with you
even as we're singing, Lord.
That intimate time.
You can have a secret place with the Lord here
when you're surrounded by a hundred people.
You get down on your knees.
Whatever it is, you turn your head to the wall.
Don't matter. You find
how the Lord wants to worship with you.
Will we worship and minister to him
and let the angels minister with us, Lord?
But we want to minister to you today.
Let us minister to you in our worship.
Yes, Lord.
Jesus, we love you.
Let us... we love you, Lord.
We love you. Let that love...
Let the understanding of that love
that you died for on the cross
Lord, give us a glimpse of that.
That we may attain that with, like Paul said with
that we can understand the resurrection
and the death of the cross.
That we can partake in those sufferings with you.
If we understood the suffering that
that you understood, or that you
excuse me, that you went through
both in the physical but the agony, Lord.
When you were pleading with the Father
if there's another way, if there's another way
but there wasn't. He was the only way.
And we see that. He was the only way.
The Father knew it.
Jesus knew it.
And Jesus knew it.
And that's why he went through out of
his love for us.
He was captivated by his love for us.
As much as he was with the Father
he loves us.
And this is the Father's will.
And he pursued that will with him.
He put himself down.
He laid himself down.
The ultimate sacrifice.
For us.