Pursuing God
So this morning, what we're gonna do is we're gonna start, we're gonna start, I guess you call it a series, although it's not really a series. I'm gonna share with you some things that as I've been, preparing my own heart as your pastor to lead in 2025. And I've as I've been asking the Lord in prayer, to give to give some wisdom and discernment and vision and direction for 2025, where he would have us go, what some of, like, the spiritual realities are that maybe I've failed to see or I'm not seeing, that he would bring some revelation into my heart, so that we could lead, lead appropriately, apply the word of God correctly, and pursue the things of the Lord that he desires for us to pursue in 2025 and, of course, beyond for, you know, for this next season. So this this message today is, kind of the beginning of that revelation, and and we'll hope to set some direction for where we hope to go in 2025. And what we're asking the lord, or what we're what we're what we're asking the lord to come and essentially make his presence known among us as we seek his, face.
Cameron:I'm gonna start with reading a short section of Psalm 24, which as I was had been praying to the lord to give us to give me at least so I had some kind of, like, direction of his spirit. What, lord, what, is there a scripture that kind of defines where you desire or, like, where where you want us to to, like, place our feet this year? Or where you want us, like what what is what what are what is what is the scripture that we're gonna have as a foundation or rootedness as we move forward? And, it was a a few days later after praying that, consistently that, the lord brought me to this. And, and I think it defines it does define where we're gonna be going at least for the next month and then, talk a little bit more about what we're doing past that.
Cameron:Psalm 24 verses 3 through 6. Who may ascend the hill of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place. He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear by what is false. He will receive blessing from the lord and vindication from god, his savior.
Cameron:Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek your face. Oh, God. Oh, Jacob. Yes. Yeah.
Cameron:Heavenly father. We desire to ascend the hill of the Lord. We desire to stand in your holy place. Give us, lord, clean hands and a pure heart as we abandon the idols of our lives and speak only what is true. Lord, vindicate us.
Cameron:Bless us through your savior, Jesus Christ. And, Lord, make us to be a generation of people who seek your face. We wanna seek your face, Lord, make your presence known here in Jesus name. Amen. I wanna build for you a little bit or talk to you a little bit what has been what has been on my heart.
Cameron:And, I will I will say first I will I will say as a qualification to that, preachers, we are not built to preach what is on our hearts, What is just our opinion? K? If you stick with me here for a few minutes, I hope that you will see that I'm we're we're we're we're building we're building to something, but there's a few things that we I I I wanna say, to get us there, first that you know, when I, I I discerned a call into pastoral ministry, I would say, like, it was somewhere roughly in between my junior and senior year of high school And, I felt as though that the this was a calling that the Lord had in my life. But like any person, whether you're a teen or you're an adult, when you're thinking about going into some kind of career or job that you don't have any experience with, you really don't know what you don't know. Right?
Cameron:It's impossible to know what you don't know, but then when you come to know it, like, you realize how much you didn't know about what you thought you knew back then. Right? And I think a lot of times when you have someone where at least it was my case when I was going into ministry, The idea was that, well and this is the the thing is this is this is there's a lot of truth to this. Is that I just need to study the bible really hard. I need to know the bible better than the people in my church because if I don't know the bible better, how can I be a pastor?
Cameron:Right? And so you go to you go to undergrad and then you go to you go to grad school and seminary and you study the bible and study the bible and study the bible and study the bible and study the bible. You get all the information you can possibly get, because that is kind of, like, prototypically where like, the pathway that that pastors take. Right? Or that they that they're supposed to take.
Cameron:It's an understanding of or what we, what we kind of like the the the term is, like, we learn pastors learn how to do exegesis, which is which is a a fancy word of saying, like, we look at the scripture, we interpret it according to its context, its culture, its language, its format, and then we pull out of that interpretation application that is appropriate. K. We use the scripture in our best in our best understanding and apply it to the context that we're in. Alright? And that is a huge part of what pastors, should do and do on a regular basis.
Cameron:That is a huge part. Probably the largest part of my job as your pastor is to rightly handle the word of God. Okay? So what I wanna do is I wanna I wanna I I think everyone knows that that is oh, yeah. That's what that's the job of a pastor.
Cameron:That's what a pastor does. But there are other things, I would say less important but connected to that task that, are are important but not as important as rightly handling the word of God. So the first one that we just talked about, the job of a pastor is to exegete or interpret the scripture. What does God's word say? What does it say?
Cameron:And not only what it what does it say, but what does it mean? Right? Because sometimes those two things are not they're not equally the same all the time. Right? What what is said, even Jesus was like, I tell things in parables so that some people won't understand them until the time is right.
Cameron:Even Jesus was like, we keep the truth veiled a little bit because there is a time where truth is is to be revealed, and there is a people to which, to whom the truth is to be revealed, and it will be revealed in due time. Right? And so we interpret or exegete the scripture. What does god's word say? But that's not the only thing that we interpret or exegete.
Cameron:We also interpret, or exegete the culture. We need to have at least some kind of understanding of what is going on in the world. Like, what are some of the prevailing ideologies, patterns of thought and thinking? What are some of the, societal norms? What is the culture doing?
Cameron:Where is the culture going? What is on the surface of the culture? Right? But also, not just what is on the surface of the culture, but what is underneath the surface of the culture that is what what spiritual dynamics are at play under the surface of the things that we're seeing manifested in the world today. And to have some kind of understanding, like I said, not as important as the exegesis or interpretation of the scripture, but connected and still important.
Cameron:So we exegie and interpret the scripture. We exegy and interpret the culture. Right? And the third is that we exegy and interpret the congregation or the people to whom we had that have been entrusted to us by the Lord. What is going on in and around the people?
Cameron:What is the spiritual dynamic of the body? What is the what is the spiritual thermometer or barometer of the body in which you serve. Who are the people what are they bringing what are they bringing with them? What's going on under the surface of their lives? The interpretation of the culture and the interpretation of the congregation allows the preacher to approach the truth of God's word with a mind of, hopefully, creative application so that the truth of God finds its resting place, right, in the transformation of both the culture and the people for where they for for for for what is happening in the spiritual realm in their lives.
Cameron:So we need to be we we ask the lord, lord, what is what is going what's going on in the world? What's going on in the spiritual realm of things that I cannot see? What is going on in the hearts and lives of the people that I'm ministering to and amongst? What is the, like, what is the, what's the spiritual barometer or temperature of the room and the place? Now some of this can be done through training.
Cameron:We said you, like, you go to school and you learn the biblical languages, and you learn you learn about culture and history and theology, and you read theology from throughout the, throughout in history. And and so you can get some of this with schooling. Right? Like, you you just learn how to do, stuff like that. Some of it, honestly, can only be done through time.
Cameron:Meaning meaning, sometimes it just takes time to understand the people that you're serving or the culture that you, that you're serving in. Right? Take take for instance, like, we we pastor a church so that, is, like, our size, 250 people or so. Right? Pastoring a church of 250 people in Jamestown, New York is different than pastoring a church of 250 people in Los Angeles, California.
Cameron:Right? Why? Because the cultures are different. There the people are different. The spiritual issues remain the same.
Cameron:Right? But the dine cultural and people dynamics are different. And so for you to take Cameron Linehart, which grew who grew up in Randolph, New York, and take him over and plop him down in Los Angeles, California, it would take me a long, long time to understand that culture in a way where I felt like I had a, a pastoral voice to speak the truth of God's word into it in a way that they could hear and understand. Right? But the fact that I have, like, born here, raised here, lived here all my life, understand people in Chautauqua, Cattaraugus, Warren Counties.
Cameron:Right? Because we are of the same kind of, like, fabric. Right? That time as that that time thing has created a, is a is a is a benefit to the the ministry. But listen.
Cameron:You can go and you can get all of the scriptural training that you want, all of the theological training that you want, and that's a really, really good thing. I am I am pro that. You can spend a lot of time with the people to understand the culture, to understand the needs, to understand the region that you live in. But it doesn't matter how much time you spend, and it doesn't matter how much training you have. None of it pales in comparison to having a hunger for revelation from the Lord.
Cameron:To have a hunger and a desire and a pursuit to receive from the Lord, revelation of wisdom, revelation of revelation of his the truth of his word, revelation of the spiritual life and dynamics of the people and the culture around. None of the training, none of the time on the job, none of the experience, none of being one of the people is as important or as powerful as the development and pursuit of a hunger for a revelation from the lord so that we hear from the one who is the god and father of our lord Jesus Christ. One of the most profound desires of my heart, truly, one of the most profound desires of my heart and pursuits of my life is to be a pastor that rightly handles the word of God. I mean, that handles it with accuracy and integrity and, humility is one of my most profound desires, and pursuits of my life, is to be a pastor that rightly handles the word of God, that loves the people that God has placed in front of him, you, my the congregation that I serve, and inspires them to live, love, and serve like Jesus.
Cameron:It's the one of the one of one of my deepest passions and pursuits of my life is to be a pastor who rightly handles the word of God, who loves the people that God has given me to serve and inspires you to live like Jesus, love like Jesus, and serve like Jesus. It's one of the greatest honors of my life to do so, where it's second only to the honor of, like, loving my wife and loving my kids, is to is to is to is to pursue the work that the calling that god has placed on my life as a pastor. And I will tell you that I don't just love the calling, and I don't just love the job. I love conduit. I love I love you.
Cameron:I love the people. I love the heart. I love the culture we have here. I love the passion for mission. I love the rawness and the authenticity of our lives together.
Cameron:I love the joy that we share. I love the morning that we share. Right? I love the I I I love the pursuit of God and the hunger for God that we share together. And listen, I believe that that this, that even, is given as a gift from the Lord.
Cameron:Because candidly speaking, there would have been times that would have been practically all just a lot easier in my life to go sort twisted 2 by fours at Home Depot. Mhmm. K? But I I truly believe that the Lord has placed in me, like, a burning desire and hunger to pursue his presence and his power and his holiness and his glory here in this place with you, his people, called by his name. And I want what is God's best for us as a people together.
Cameron:At the same time, understanding that I don't always get it right. I want to see victory in your life. I want to see freedom from sin in your life. I want to see salvation. You come to faith in Jesus Christ and grow in your intimacy with him.
Cameron:I wanna see, I wanna see your capacity to love grow. I wanna see the development of the the fruit of God's spirit in you just blossom and for you to use that fruit in your I wanna see you becoming more loving and peaceful and patient and kind and gentle. And I I wanna see the the fruit of the spirit, bloom in you. I wanna see you loving God more and loving others more. I wanna see your relationships healed.
Cameron:I I want to see and experience miracles in this place. The miracle working power of God. We are not cessationists that believes that that, like, the the the power and miracle working the miracle working power of God is something that happened, only in the scripture, but it doesn't happen now. No. I I I believe that the same God that performed miracles in scripture performs miracles now.
Cameron:And I believe that the same spirit that works in the power of those who have faith in Jesus Christ is ready and willing and active to move upon our faith. I wanna see mighty moves of God and manifestations of his spirit. I want us to experience unreasonable generosity with the people around us. And they're like, why is that church just, like, so incredibly generous? It makes no sense.
Cameron:Like, yeah, I want I want generosity to flow out of this place in such extravagant ways that the world does not have a category to place it in, to pursue and grab onto a self emptying humility that makes us the, like, selfless servants of those around us where we're constantly running to the back of the line, lowering ourselves so that God may exalt others. I wanna see freedom and joy and peace, all of these things. And listen, we are seeing and experiencing many of these things. We are experiencing all of these things in some measure. It's not that they're absent from our body.
Cameron:It requires, in many ways, that we point them out and recognize them and bring and shine a light on them so that we may bring glory to God as they're happening. But it's not as if these things are completely absent from our body or our life together. All of these things we experience at least in some measure. I wanna pursue all of these things and more. But the problem often becomes, that we do pursue these things in substitution of pursuing the god that brings them.
Cameron:You've heard me say that kind of a bunch lately because it's been something that god has been, like, forcing into my own soul. The, like, the the the biblical image of or the biblical, like, words or passages of pursuing god, specifically pursuing or seeking his face, which is a biblical euphemism for the pursuit of God's actual presence. Not merely a knowledge of him, but the experience of his presence in our life. This is like the difference between reading someone's autobiography a 100 years after they have passed on and knowing of the person and being someone who lived with the person. Having experienced his presence, his life, all that there is to know about his character and identity.
Cameron:Alright. It is the difference between a pursuit of knowledge about someone and a pursuit of his presence with us. And I'm here to tell you, church, that abundant life is found in the presence of God, not the knowledge of God. It is found in his presence. Paul, the apostle Paul, was was he was ready not he wasn't ready.
Cameron:He was actively, like, whatever it is that hinders me from the presence of Christ, I lay it down. I walk away from it. I crucify it with Christ that I might live with him, that I might know him. In Philippians chapter 3, one of these really, well, really one of these famous times that he says this. He says, he says it like this, Philippians 3.
Cameron:He said, but whatever was to my profit, I now consider a loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus, my lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish that I may gain Christ. Paul was like, whatever was good about my life, whatever accomplishment I had, whatever whatever accolades I would have, whatever plan and purpose and vision for I had for my life, I recognize now that it compared to the surpassing knowledge of knowing Jesus Christ as my lord, all of those things, every other pursuit of my life is just absolute rubbish. It is garbage.
Cameron:I consider it a loss. I wanna put it behind me. Paul was satisfied with nothing other than the presence of god in his life. He had the knowledge of god and he recognized it as powerless. See what happens in the church and remember when I was talking about we need to exegete the scripture and the culture and the congregation A little bit of this is, a little bit of this is my pastoral assessment or exegesis or interpretation, both of the culture of Jamestown and Western New York, but also, in some ways, the culture of our church.
Cameron:K? We must be careful not to make our pursuit a pursuit of things that are adjacent to God, that are good in and of themselves, but are means to the end of pursuing God himself. Because what happens is when we pursue things that are adjacent to his actual presence, they actually can become idols in our faith, and we miss by a half a degree the actual presence of the Lord. Let me say, pastor, give me some examples. How about this?
Cameron:Knowing Christianity, but not knowing Christ. How many of us could give a theological lecture on any topic that you want. Know know the chapter and the verse have been brought up in the church. Sunday school your entire life, every single bible study you can possibly get to, never miss a day. You know a lot about Christianity, but you are living in absolute bondage of an unsurrendered life.
Cameron:Jesus is your religious like, he's your your religious, he's like a wise religious figure, but he's not your Lord. He's a religious role model. But unlike a guy like Paul, who had laid down everything in his life and considered them rubbish to be found in Christ. We have settled for knowing a lot about Christianity, for being set free by the person of God in Jesus Christ. And connected to this is that we seek is this, is that something adjacent is the search for knowledge of the holy, but not intimacy with the holy.
Cameron:We we want we want knowledge of the holy one. We want the information. Right? But intimacy requires the vulnerability of our heart that requires the surrender of our own lives, that requires that we humble ourselves, drop our pride, and and and come to the place of of, like, hands in the air. I am undone in the presence of god, my savior.
Cameron:I am unable to save myself, so I let go of all that has been entangled me so that I would just not just know the holy, but that I would pursue intimacy with the holy. Adjacent to these things also is, we pursue becoming more moral, but not necessarily becoming more loving. We we we come we come to Christianity with this idea that it's gonna make us a better person. It's gonna give us the motivation that we need to stop doing all of the bad things and start doing all of the good things. That our faith our faith, our Christianity is about the things we do and about the things we don't do.
Cameron:And see, here's the issue, is that is that this is so adjacent to the truth that it's hard to distinguish the difference. Right? Because no one is out there, at least not your pa I'm not as your pastor being like, hey, Don't worry about what you're doing or not doing. Just go go ham. Go out there and do whatever you want.
Cameron:Doesn't matter as long as you become more loving. It's not what I'm saying at all. In fact, the whole theme verse of our year in Psalm 24 is, lord, give us clean hands and pure hearts. We're laying down our idols, and we're speaking only what is true. It's a reformation and a transformation not just of our mind, but of our soul and of our actions and of our words.
Cameron:It's a reformation of it all. But the reality here is is that we can become we can we can pursue becoming just a better person, but not necessarily a more loving person. In the eyes of the world, they're such a good family, such a good guy, such a great lady, but I have people that I hold that I hate. Right? I mean, we you can become more moral and less loving because you can use your morality as a weapon against others, Especially those that are not like you.
Cameron:This was the parable of, the good Samaritan. When Jesus was asked, you know, when he made the proclamation the fulfillment of the law is to love your neighbor as yourself, and then he was asked, well, who is my neighbor? And then what did Jesus do? He went into this long parable about the definition of what a neighbor is. You wanna know what it means to love your neighbor as yourself as the fulfillment of all the law?
Cameron:Here's a parable. It's a parable of the good Samaritan where the exam the good example of that parable was the man who loved the person that the world says he should hate. Loved the person least like them. Least separate from them. Could not be more different than them.
Cameron:The religious men had all of the morality in the world and it did not make them an ounce more loving to the neighbor that Jesus was describing. And so we can pursue morality, even religious morality, and miss becoming more loving. And this is why it's such a great danger. Okay? This it's a great, great danger because it is it is the it is these types of practices that draw, that do actually draw us into deeper intimacy and pursuit of God himself that can then become the pursuits that we go after.
Cameron:What do I mean? Like, things we need to be reminded that things like reading our bible think really clearly here with me. Okay? Don't close your ears to what I'm saying. Open them.
Cameron:Things like reading of your bible, praying, being a part of a small group, attending the class on a Wednesday night or practicing the way or whatever, serving conduit kids on the food truck and hospitality, right? The parking lot, security team, whatever, serving all of these things. They are not means in themselves, but rather a way in which we encounter and are drawn into the mystery and power and glory and holiness and presence of the one true god. But if we treat them as the end goal, we will always miss the presence of god. If we treat them as a means to develop greater intimacy with him, we approach them with the purity of desire and we will meet God in his essence and in his presence as we as we enter into these practices.
Cameron:Like, I know that this may sound and be maybe a little vague at times. Like, I'm trying to make distinctions where there isn't, really a difference. But I promise you that there is a difference. And the fact that it is sometimes difficult for us to see the difference is a big part of the problem and indicative of our lack of lived experience in the actual presence of god. Take Moses for example.
Cameron:Perhaps more than anyone in all of scripture, obviously, with Jesus being the exception, perhaps more than anyone in scripture, Moses lived in the presence and power and glory of God. Like, front and center to his life. Moses saw the glory of the Lord and he saw power of the Lord and he saw the presence of the Lord. He saw in moments of deliverance and he saw in moments of judgment and he saw in moments of provision. He was front and center to God's very presence.
Cameron:He saw it all. And in ex several times in exodus, I'm gonna we're gonna reference Exodus chapter 33 right here. Moses and God were having a conversation, in Exodus 33. Again, let's really start around verse 14. And the lord the lord replied, to to, to Moses, my presence will go with you, and I will give you rest, the Lord says to Moses.
Cameron:Hey, my presence is going with you, and I will give you rest. And then Moses said to him in verse 15 of Exodus 33, I mean, if your presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? Listen to this, church. K?
Cameron:This should cut us to our heart and drive us to our knees in such passionate hunger and pursuit of God's presence, like may perhaps anything else. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all of the other people on the face of the earth? Moses is like, what else defines us as the people of God other than your presence, Lord? If your presence does not go with us, We're not going because we have no identity outside of your presence.
Cameron:It doesn't matter what we do. It doesn't matter where we go. It doesn't matter who we are. It's your presence that means everything, Lord. It is your presence that brings us our identity.
Cameron:It is your it is your presence that makes us who we are. We don't and can't be established as your people without your presence among us. God's presence with the people was a mark of their identity. It was a collating factor in who they were. They were a people because of God's presence with them.
Cameron:This is no small admonishment, but I want you to hear it. When is the last time that the manifestation of God's presence, which cannot be denied or confused with something else, defined our gathering together. If Moses was like, lord, your presence is what defines us as a people together. It is your presence. The the question that I I would ask myself as your leader, us as one people, as one body, is when is the last time that the manifestation of God's presence, which cannot be denied or confused with something else to find our gathering together?
Cameron:I mean, like, well, I mean, I think, like, I I think that there was God was present with us here or the
Cameron:I mean, I think so. Like yeah. I understand that sentiment.
Cameron:There are moments where I feel god's presence or see god working in someone's life. I know god is there. See the presence of the Holy Spirit. See healing. Right?
Cameron:See testimonies. I believe that God is present in the proclamation of his word. Right? But when when was the last time that we were absolutely undone with the manifest presence of God in this place? Where where where where the presence of god was so real and tangible and present in, like and and, like, manifest in the moment that we were completely undone.
Cameron:Because those moments cannot be confused with something else. And listen, this is not an admonishment as much as it is a call from your pastor to prepare to enter into a year, a year long season of consecration where the repeated refrain of our gatherings and the restated focus on all of our programs and ministries is to be the generation that seeks the presence of God. That will be that is our focus. That will be our focus. That will be the consistent refrain of our lives together.
Cameron:Lord, make your presence known in this place. We desire nothing else, Lord. We need nothing else. We want nothing else. Our only hunger, our only thirst, our only desire is to know your presence.
Cameron:Father, bring your presence here in this place. You may may be asking the question, okay, pastor. Well, I'm with you, but how? Well, I can tell you that in, many ways, we will allow the Lord we will allow the Lord to lead us and tell us when and how to pursue him and develop a continued hunger for his presence. But I also know very, very clearly that the lord is leading us in these two ways that we will that we will pursue with a joyful abandon this year.
Cameron:Number 1 is we will pursue God in prayer. I wanna be clear what I mean. Not a prayer ministry, although that might happen. Not simply the starting of a prayer night, although I can certainly see that happening as well. But a contention in the heavenly realms to assault with prayer the spiritual obstacles to prayer until the lord establishes prayer as a cornerstone of the culture here at Conduit.
Cameron:Let me say it again, maybe in a little bit different way. Not simply adding a program of prayer to our life together as if you need something else on your calendar. But to take seriously that the reason prayer often fails in our lives is not for a lack of understanding its importance. But because the act of prayer is an act of war where we enter into a battle with an unseen in the unseen spiritual realm with an enemy that seeks to assault us with obstacles to developing a hunger and thirst for the Lord. And so pursuing God in prayer will start with contending in the spiritual realm.
Cameron:In the process of prayer, in the process of worship, that the lord would tear down the the spiritual obstacles that have been set up by the enemy to keep us from pressing into calling on the name of the Lord? I mean, like, what do you I still don't know what you mean, pastor.
Cameron:It's okay.
Cameron:We'll try it like this. How many how many of you think that prayer is important? K. How many of you think you pray enough? Everyone thinks it's important.
Cameron:No one thinks they pray enough. Right? And when you come to that realization, what you really need need is, like, you know what? I really just need, like, a couple hacks to make prayer easier in my life. Right?
Cameron:I need I just need a couple hacks. Like, I need to learn how to rearrange my calendar and schedule so that prayer is easier. Right? And so we we lower we lower prayer, right, from a spiritual from from like a from a spiritual, practice of, like, not playing, but like operating in a spiritual realm to something that we need to, like, dumb down to fit into our calendar. Right?
Cameron:And then, because most of us are relatively, motivated, we may we may, we may pray differently or more for a couple weeks or a month or something. We might make it work. Right? And then what happens is that somehow, magically, we lose motivation or interest or we get tired or we we don't we can't pray at that time of the day anymore so we don't. And we don't we don't reestablish the pattern or the discipline in another way.
Cameron:And we think, well, I'm just an unmotivated person and Jesus is mad at me because I don't pray enough, and I'm not a good Christian, and I'm weak in my faith. What we and we go through all of these really practical things, right, of why we don't pray enough. Right? Failing sometimes to recognize that the enemy of our souls is doing everything that he possibly can to keep us away from intimacy with the father. And so spiritual obstacles begin to pile upon our lives, in our mind, and in our souls, and in our circumstances to do absolutely everything the enemy possibly can to keep us from praying.
Cameron:Because because Jesus says, hey. Look. When the children speak, the father listens. And there's nothing that the enemy wants wants more than to cut us off from intimacy with the father. It's the very first thing that we must do to develop a culture and heart of prayer in our body is to ask the Lord to tear down the obstacles that keep us from developing a hunger and thirst and pursuit of him in prayer.
Cameron:We very rarely ask the Lord in prayer to help us to pray. We just think that prayer is just something that you should do. This was the disciples' number one question about prayer. When it came to prayer, they were like, hey, lord. Teach us how to pray.
Cameron:Like, what if we began to ask you, lord. Teach us what it means to pursue you in prayer, to develop a hunger and thirst and passion for prayer. The second thing that we're gonna do, k, is we are going to pursue God in Sabbath. This is another form, I think, of congregational discernment, cultural discernment here, where I've come to see this in our life and in your lives, that most of us here live such chaotic, anxious, distracted lives that we have literally abandoned the idea that God's gift of Sabbath is applicable to us and our families. And then we wonder why we cannot discern the voice of the lord.
Cameron:Why we don't experience the presence of god. Why we don't experience the rest and peace of god. Because we have denied the gift that he has offered us that makes room for his presence and restoration to occur and happen. Why am I so anxious? Why am I so chaotic?
Cameron:Why am I so distracted? Why do I feel so far from the Lord? Why can't I hear the voice of the Lord? Why can't I experience his presence? Because the time and the place that he said, hey, consecrate this time for me.
Cameron:Consecrate this place for me. I will come and meet with you. I will be your rest. I will give you my peace. I will give you my presence.
Cameron:All of it is yours. I'm giving you myself in these moments. We'd be like, yeah, but it's not really practical. I got kids. That is a lousy excuse.
Cameron:We will commit to Sabbath expressions both individually and corporately and make space in our lives for god to show up. Here's something that I'm more and more convinced of. I don't have to be convinced of it. His word says it. Right?
Cameron:God comes where he's wanted. God shows up where he's wanted. Jeremiah 29, I think it's verse 14 or something, right after the famous passage of, for I know the plans I, have for you, declares the Lord. Plans to, plans to give you a hope and
Cameron:a future. What does he say? Let's turn there so you don't
Cameron:oh, yeah. Here it is. Verse 14, 13, 14. Listen. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.
Cameron:Oh, love that verse. Right? Everyone? Verse 12, then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me.
Cameron:When you seek me with all of your heart, I will be found by you, declares the lord. The lord comes where he's wanted. Sabbath is the gift that god has given to us that makes space for us to experience his presence. We will, together as a body, pursue God in prayer, and pursue God's presence in Sabbath in 2025. I'm gonna read once again Psalm 24 as, we prepare to go into a communion, which will be for us a, a, passage of scripture that we that we study here the next few weeks.
Cameron:Who may ascend to the hill of the Lord and who may stand in his holy place? That's where I wanna go. I don't know about you. I wanna ascend the hill of the Lord. I wanna stand in the holy place.
Cameron:So who will go there? Who will stand there with him? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear by what is false. It is he who will receive blessing from the lord and vindication from God, his savior. Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek your face, oh god of Jacob.
Cameron:Heavenly father, we desire to be a generation that seeks your face. Lord, we want to ascend your hill, stand in your holy place, Burn out of us, Lord, everything that makes our hands dirty and our hearts impure. Tear down every idol of our lives and bring conviction of your holy spirit against every word that is false from our mouths. Make us fit to receive, lord, blessing from you. Make us to be, lord, a generation of those who seek you.
Cameron:Seek your face. Lord, we want nothing but your presence here at Conduit. Lord, we want nothing but your presence here in Jamestown and Chautauqua County and beyond. We want nothing more, lord, than to experience the power and majesty and holiness and glory of your presence, lord. Do not send us anywhere without it.
Cameron:Lord, come and show up, lord. We make ourselves ready for you in Jesus' name. Amen.
