Open your Bible to Matthew, Chapter 11, once again, we're going to pick up where we left off Matthew, Chapter 11, verse twenty eight. Jesus has an amazing gift for us today. He's got an amazing gift that he wants to give you. It's called rest. He said, come to me all that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Everybody say Jesus gives me rest. Now, listen, rest doesn't come from time off from work. Rest doesn't come from having an easy job. Rest doesn't come from vacation. Rest doesn't come from sleep. This is not the kind of rest he's talking about. Although there are many benefits to physical rest, there are greater benefits to the spiritual rest that Jesus is referring to here because he says, I will give you rest. That means you no longer have to labor and work for your salvation. I'm going to give it to you as a gift so that you can have rest. You no longer have to work for your healing. I'm going to give you healing as a gift so you can have rest. You no longer have to work to break the curse. You don't have to go to to to three eighteen dotcom or ancestry dot net or you don't have to try to figure out who your relatives were and who you can't. I mean, think about it. We all grew up thinking, well, I'm Irish or I'm this or I'm Italian or I'm German. And then you realize, man, I got all the problems that the Germans had. I got all the problems that the Irish had. I got all the problems that the Middle Eastern people had. And then all these DNA tests, these DNA programs come out and then you find out that you're not all those things. You just went through all the pain of trying to figure out how to stop being, you know, a jerk from all the way you grew up. And now you learned that you're some new nationality. Now you're twenty five percent this year. Twenty five percent that you're thirty percent that. And you've got a whole nother set of problems now because of what you grew up with, because of those people that you didn't even know were your relatives. So instead of all that, we instead of laboring to try to get free from your heritage or your DNA or what you grew up with is to realize that, wait a minute, you've been born again. And the moment you got born again, you were given a new you were given a blood transfusion. You are now a new creature in Christ. You are now of the blood of Jesus. Now, whatever runs through Jesus veins runs through your veins. The blessing that runs through his veins, runs through your veins now, the healing that runs through his veins, runs through your veins. Now the wisdom that runs through his veins run through your veins right now. Why? Because you belong to Christ. And as he is, so are we in this life. A man first, John, chapter four, verse 16 says at verse 17 says, We have boldness in the day of judgment because as he is, so are we in this world. Whatever he is, we are, whatever he was in this world, healed. We are in this world, whatever he was in this world, free from condemnation. We are in this world free from condemnation. And by the way, you know what else? He was in this world, he was opposed. Sometimes he was laughed at. Sometimes he was hated. Sometimes he was rejected, sometimes. So don't get so upset when people oppose you don't get so worried when you have some persecution. Don't be so nervous. Don't be like, oh, man, I can't believe this person is opposing me. Folks, Jesus was perfect and people opposed him. Jesus was perfect and people rejected him. Jesus was perfect and people persecuted him. Jesus was perfect and people hated him. And you are imperfect and you're like, so upset when somebody's mad at you. People are going to get mad at you. People are going to hate you. Sometimes people are going to reject you. Sometimes people are going to oppose you sometimes. But stop losing sleep over it. That's just the way life is. Whatever drama they're going through is their problem. You've got to stop being the mama there drama. Let them mama their own drama. Stop being stop trying to make sure. Stop trying to make sure everybody likes you. Stop trying to make sure everybody is happy with you. Because as soon as you make this person happy with you, this person is going to be unhappy with you. And as soon as you make that person happy with you, I'm going to be ticked off at you. Listen, we have to stop worrying about trying to please everybody. He Paul said if I'm a pleaser of men that I'm no longer a pleaser of God, listen me be focused on pleasing God and everything else will take care of itself. That's all you got to do, is be pleasing to God and what pleases God faith without faith, it's impossible to please God. And you know where faith comes from, faith comes from hearing God's word. The best thing you can do to please God is listen to God's word, come to church, hear God's word, realize that faith is coming, and then live by faith, live by what you believe. Remember, believing is the difference between what you're, you know, between stress and rest. Every one of us are going to have the same kind of things happen to us in life. But what we believe is going to determine whether we live in stress or whether we live in rest. Can anybody say amen? And Jesus said, come to me. All that are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. You know, it's interesting, he says, come to me, he says, come to me all who are who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. First of all, he says, I am going to do it. Your rest doesn't come from anybody else. It comes from God. He said, I'm going to do it, he said, and he said, I'm going to give it to you. Guess what? Rest is a gift. He said, I will give it to you. And he says, Who does? Who qualifies for this? He said, All who come to me. So guess what? All we have to do is come to him. And by the way, when he says, come to me, he does all the work then to let me show you what I mean by that. Jimmy, come up here for a second. So, so so God says to Jimmy. Stay right there, Jimmy. Stay right there. God says, Jimmy, come to me, Jimmy. Come to me. All who are who labor and are heavy laden. Have you ever labored and have been heavy laden? Have you ever been burdened? So he's he's he's laboring and he's not it doesn't mean labor and rest doesn't mean that we no longer go to work. Go to your job. Do not quit and say God told me to rest. Go to your job, work hard, be diligent. The diligent hand will rule. All those promises of working hard are good things. But what he's talking about is we don't have to work anymore to be saved. We don't have to work anymore to be healed. We have to work anymore to find restaurant after work anymore to be pleasing to God. We don't have to work anymore to be redeemed from the curse. Jesus did all of that for us. So all we have to do, what's our part, Jesus said, I'm going to give you rest. I am going to give you rest. He's going to do it. And he's going to give it to you. It's a gift and he's going to give you rest. It's rest. But what is our part? What does it say? Come on, read the first three words Jesus said, come to me, it's open book test, folks always be always feel free to look in the book and you can take the test and you're going to get 100 percent come to me. But, you know, it's interesting that Jesus says come to me, but he doesn't even make Jimmy do anything to come me. He said, come to me. And you know what? While he's saying come to me, you know what Jesus is doing while he's telling Jimmy to come to me, guess what Jesus is doing? He's coming to Jimmy. In other words, even though even the command to come to him is something he doesn't even make him do, he actually comes to him and then he says he stands at the door and knocks and he said, if anyone will open the door. So now, instead of just coming to hit, Jesus has come to him. He said, come, Jesus said, come to me, but he does it for us. And then he stands at the door, knocks and he says, if anyone will open the door, I will come in to him and dine with him and he with me. So now all this has got reduced. All Jimmy's got to do is open the dang door. There is a package that is being delivered to you. It's called rest. There is a package being delivered to you. It's called peace. There's a package being delivered to you. It's called joy and it's being delivered to you. Jesus uses the words come to me because he wants everybody to think they're actually doing something to do it, but they don't have to do anything to do it because he came to us, he came down out of heaven to this earth. Then he came into your life and he came right up to you. And he's standing at the door and knocking and all you got to do is open up and receive him. And as soon as you do, rest comes. Rest from all of your striving to get your prayers answered, striving to get your addictions to get free from your addiction, striving to be free from depression, striving to get your bills paid, striving to to feel good about yourself, striving to find approval, striving to find peace, striving to be healed, striving. We don't have to struggle and strive anymore. We'll never get to we'll never get to the other side if we do all of the struggling and if we do all the striving, all we have to do is come to him. And really, he's standing right there. He's he's standing literally right here. Sorry to make you feel uncomfortable with you, OK? Please don't call a lawyer anything. I'm not trying to do anything. That's the pastor, you know, is crazy. This guy. I'm already crazy. OK, accuse me of something that I don't already know of. All right, listen, listen, listen, listen. Jesus says to him, come to me. And he's saying it from right here. He's saying he's saying, come to me and he's standing right here. Like, how how much more? He's like, come to me. Like, pretend I'm Jesus and this is you and Jesus come to me. He's right there. All he's got to do is open the door of his heart. Thanks, Jimmy. Great job. And I will give you rest. The opposite of rest is stress, let me read you some things I know I shared with you some things last week, but I got some some other things this week that I need to share with you. Listen to this. So the percent of people who regularly who regularly experience physical symptoms caused by rest, the percentage of people listen to this who experience physical symptoms, negative physical symptoms caused by rest. Seventy seven percent scientifically proven, regularly experiencing psychological symptoms caused by stress. Seventy three percent feel how many people feel they are living with extreme stress. Thirty three percent. How many feel their stress has increased over the past five years, 50 percent. How many people have cited money and work as the leading cause of their stress? Seventy six percent. And how many people reported lying awake at night due to stress? Forty eight percent. So one out of every two people wake your neighbor up because they haven't slept last night because because they were dealing with stress. Then percent of people who say that stress has a negative effect on their personal and professional life. Forty eight percent, that's one out of two employed adults who say they have difficulty managing work and family responsibilities. Thirty one percent because of stress. Percent who cited jobs interfering with their family and personal time as a significant source of stress. Thirty five percent percent of people who said stress caused them to fight with people close to them. Fifty four percent. So every one out of two of us are in a fight with a loved one or a family member on a regular basis. That's really sad. Annual costs to employee employers in stress related health care and missed work. Three hundred billion dollars per year. Percent who say they are always or often under stress at work. 30 percent. One out of every three. So what are the what are the symptoms of stress, fatigue, headaches, upset stomach, muscle tension? These are all the percentages of people that feel these things. The people feel these things because of stress, fatigue, headaches, upset stomach. We're treating headaches. We're treating headaches. But but the but the root is stress. We're treating an upset stomach. You can take all the Pepto Bismullah you want. And I don't know about you, but that stuff makes me sick. Just looking at it. How many know what I'm talking about. It's disgusting to even look at. But people will take all sorts of things to calm their stomach when stress is the root of why they have an upset stomach, muscle tension, change in appetite, grinding of their teeth, changing in the sex drive. You thought it was just because you got married that your sex drive stopped. But I'm telling you, that was a joke. Stress, dizziness caused by stress, irritability or anger caused by stress, feeling nervous, caused by stress, lack of energy caused by stress, feeling as though you could cry. Anybody need a Kleenex right now? Listen to this amazing statistic, I'm sad to hear this, but 75 to 90 percent of all visits to your primary care physicians are for stress related problems. Seventy five to 90 percent, folks, I mean, the very least three out of every four. And at the worst, nine out of every 10 people that go to their doctor are going for a issue that is stress related. Do you think we have a problem here? Why? Because people are dealing with stress. They don't know how to truly enter into God's rest. And when you don't know how to enter into God's rest, you're going to live with the devil stress. You're going to live with the world's stress. You're going to you're going to live with either human stress, daemonic stress or divine rest. I'll take divine rest any day. How about you? Listen to this, so they say so 75 to 90 percent of all visits to primary care physicians are for stress related problems. Job stress is the leading source of stress for adults, but stress levels have also escalated in children, teenagers, college students, the elderly for other reasons, including increased crime in our world, violence and other threats to personal safety, peer pressure that leads to substance abuse and other unhealthy lifestyle habits, social isolation and loneliness, the erosion of the family and religious values and ties to your church. These are some of the things that cause stress. That's why you did a good thing coming today. It's time to stop struggling. Is time to stop struggling to win and just enjoy the victory. It's time to stop struggling to pray. You know, they used to say pray through, you know, just pray through it, push, pray until something happens. You've got to keep praying and you've got to push through it. You've got to, Terry, until the Lord comes. You got a tree there and wait until God you've got to pray and sweat and cry and moan and groan and whine and and just keep praying and keep praying and keep praying. When the Bible says when the Bible says seek and you will find. Yes, there is a translation that says keep seeking and you shall find. But he's not talking about keep seeking the same thing and you'll find he's saying keep living by this principle, keep living this lifestyle of seeking and you'll find asking and you'll receive knocking in the door will be open. He doesn't say you got to keep on knocking and keep on going and keep on going and keep on going and keep on going. And eventually the door will open. I understand there are certain great benefits to persistence, but Jesus is not talking about a persistent effort to get God to answer. Jesus is talking about a consistent lifestyle of being a person who knows when they ask they receive. When they seek, they find. When they knock, the door is open. We've got to get out of the religious mentality that we got to keep on asking and keep on seeking and keep on knocking as if God is only the God to the persistent. No, God is the God to the believer. God is the God to anybody who believes. Believing is easy, believing is simple, he said. We enter into his rest by believing liquid at Hebrews Chapter four, verse three says Hebrews Chapter four, verse three. Check this out for he who has believed does enter that rests we who believe enter that rest. All we've got to do is believe. Believe what? That the works were finished from the foundation of the world. Jesus said it is finished. We talked about believing three things last week that that that it is finished, that God is your source, that he's watching over his word to perform it. He's the performer. We're not the performer. All we've got to do is just remind God of his word. We don't have to remind God of what we're struggling with. We want to remind God of our problems. Who don't you remind remind God of our sins. We have to remind God of our past. Every time you remind God of your past, God says what past? What past he's washed it away. I wish you would hear me. I wish you would believe me. I wish everybody that's here today would say, you know what? I'm in this church for a reason. I came to this church today for a reason. This pastor, he's crazy. I get it. He's nutty. I get it. He's wild for Jesus. I get it. He's probably you know, he's he's probably had a monster energy drink today. Yeah, I get it. But let me tell you something. God anointed him and appointed him to tell me today what I need to hear. You need to believe that God anointed me and appointed me to tell you today what you needed. This is for you. I didn't need this. This is for you. I already did this. I'm already believing. I'm already standing. I need to do it all the time, too. I need to keep believing and standing on God's promises. But I am here to serve you. I was real tired. My alarm went off today in my alarm. Never goes off because I'm always up before the alarm. And some reason the alarm went off and I thought, Oh, that's for sure. Grace's alarm. That's not mine. I must have three more hours. She gets a she gets away earlier. I must have three more hours of sleep. I'm going to sleep and then for some reason looked over at my and there it was. It was my alarm. It wasn't hers because I was so mad she wasn't turning it off. Some I'll stir it up now, I can't even go back to sleep with Bologna because I'm so angry because of her and it wasn't her at all. It was me. It was my alarm. I was so tired that I thought about not coming, you know. It's like the guy, you know, I told you about, the guy that got up one day, they want to go to church and he went up to he was, you know, went up, went to his mother's. He went into his mother's room. He said, Mom, I'm not going to church today. She said, why not, son? He said, Well, because the preaching isn't very good. Nobody there likes me and it's boring all the time. And she's looked at him and she said, Let me tell you, there's some reasons why you are going to church. No one once in a while. The preaching is pretty good. Number two, there are a couple of people that love you there. And number three, you're the pastor. Get going. So I need to hear these things, too, there's no doubt this applies to me, but what I'm trying to tell you is. God knew what you needed today. And God is speaking to you today. And if you'll trust me that I'm hearing from God that I'm preaching. What God has prescribed. Because I've studied this. For decades, and I've found a lot of things that don't work. So you know what, when you say, Pastor, why do you preach on the same seven subjects all the time, like anything you talk about, we can boil it down to six or seven main topics. Here's why, because I've spent years preaching all these other topics and it never changed anybody's life, but every time I focus on these topics, people's lives are changed. So you know what I'm sticking with what changes people's lives, not just some fancy new message or some fancy new sermon. You understand what I'm saying? All right. So not trying to not not trying to be sassy here, but I just am. All right, let's keep going. So look at what he says. So we who have believed you enter that. So how do we how do we enter that rest? How do we experience this rest? Well, we have to remember how do we experience this true reste that God has for us and God invites us to what we have to understand. A little bit of chemistry for a minute. Remember, I talk to you about this. There are two chemicals. There's actually three primary chemicals that cause feelings of pleasure and rest and motivation. And really, one is more motivational. It's an adrenaline chemical, but it works with these other chemicals of serotonin and dopamine. I told you about these. And again, it's important that we realize that science does not contradict the Bible. Now, there are scientists that sometimes contradict the Bible, but science itself, the facts of science, the facts of chemistry, do not contradict the Bible. They very much complement the Bible. And here's what I mean by that. There are two primary chemicals in our brain that create pleasure and peace and rest and joy, their serotonin and their dopamine. So when somebody needs when somebody has an anxiety condition or depression depressed condition, they the prescription that is given to them will include some measure of serotonin or some measure of dopamine. And when a person does drugs, the drug contains some compound, which it's not pure, but it has some compound that does release these chemicals or creates a simulated a simulated version, an artificial version of dopamine and serotonin to cause that person to feel pleasure. That's why people get high. That's why people do drugs. That's why people get addicted, because they're not addicted to the medication. They're addicted to the feeling of pleasure that the medication produces. And God created us to be addicted to feeling that pleasure. But he created us to find that pleasure from him. Psalm 16, verse 11. Let me show you something, some 16, verse 11. Watch this. He said in his present Psalm 16, verse 11. If you have your Bible, look there and let's put that verse up. Psalms, chapter 16, verse 11, you will show me the path of life, he says, in your presence is fullness of joy. Now, he's not just saying he's not talking about some weird spiritual joy that doesn't where you don't even feel anything. He's talking about the fullness of joy, the fullness of joy. In my mind, when I think of fullness, of joy, I'm thinking of laughter. I'm thinking of happiness. I'm thinking if somebody is joyful, they're smiling. You know, if you're if you're like, rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say rejoice joyous in the Lord. Oh, in the in an area that's not the fullness of joy. That's some religious song that you're trying to work up some joy that doesn't exist. He says, in your presence is fullness of joy. And that's your right hand. Look at this and that's your right hand are pleasures forevermore. So who is the author of Joy and who's the author of Pleasure? The Lord himself is in fact, not only is he the author of it, he's the creator of it. Not only is the creator of of it, he's the chemist of it. And he creates the chemistry of fullness, of joy and pleasure forevermore. So if you're not living a pleasurable life, a joy filled life, it's not because you need drugs. I'm not saying to get off of the drugs that the doctor prescribed them because they're buying you time to find the real answer. So make sure to stay on your medication, especially if you're crazy, please. Around me, stay on your medication. Thanks, brother. Don't get offended that, by the way, you know what? There are worse things I'm going to say, you can wait to wait till I say those and get offended at that, don't get offended. Is easy, Babytalk. But look at what he says in your presence is what fullness of what? So guess what? We have an absence of it's not we don't have a joy problem. We don't have a pleasure problem. We've got a presence, a God problem. So what we need to do is we need to know how to tap into his presence. Now, his presence is here. His presence is with us. His presence is in us. But we have a lack of knowledge of his presence because why religious preachers have been telling people, come on, let's press in to the presence of God. How can you press in to where you already are in? Let's say you got in your car today. Let's say you and me got in a car today and I said, come on, let's press into the car. You would kick me out of your car. Come on, let's press into your car. No, we're already in your car. Or how about we drink some coffee? How about we drink some coffee today? Could anybody use any? You can see I've had plenty. But let's say we already drank a bunch of coffee and then I said to you, come on, let's press in and get the coffee in us, let's press it until the cost. Let's press in to coffees, presence and coffees presence in us. We're like, that's crazy, that's nutty, you are out of your mind, we're already in the car and the coffee's already in us, so stop preaching about something that causes the coffee to get in me when I've already drank it and for me to get in the car when I'm already in it. And all I'm trying to say is that's exactly what false preaching is, is trying to tell you. Press in, sing harder, sing louder. Do more, worship more, lift higher, jump higher, jump longer. Count it all joy and then you'll you'll press into God's presence. Let me tell you something. When you got born again, you were instantly brought into God's presence and God's presence was instantly brought into you. We can have fullness of joy right now. Pleasures. Boy, I'd really like to break this down for you. You know what? We got a couple more minutes look at. In your presence is fullness of joy self. How do we get into God's presence? I want to come back to this verse, go over to Hebrews, Chapter 10, verse 19, Hebrews Chapter 10, verse 19. It really settles it once and for all right here, Hebrews Chapter 10, verse 19. Therefore, brethren having boldness to enter the holiest place. How? By pressing in through our praise, by pressing in through our worship, by pressing in with our voices, by pressing in with the volume of our noise and shout to the Lord with a voice of China pressing, pressing, pray longer, pray harder. Is that what it says? Having boldness. To enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus. You know what? And the blood bank you work. You know what, the blood of Jesus was shed once for all, and it will never be shut again. That means. When your mind and heart. Agree that you have been washed by the blood of Jesus, you can begin to experience the benefits of God's presence. Reason the reason believers are not experiencing the benefit of God's presence is because they're following a religious system of pressing in a religious system of praying longer, a religious system of praying harder, rather than believing that I'm in his presence by the blood of Jesus. I'm not I'll never be out of his presence and his presence will never be out of me. The Bible says I will. Jesus said I will. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. That means he's never leaving you and he has never forsaken you. And he is never walking away from you. I am with you even to the end of the world, to the end of the age. And he said in Hebrew Chapter 13. I will never leave, you know, forsake. You put Hebrews Chapter 13, verse five up in the amplified Bible Hebrew Chapter 13, verse five. Let me show you this. Let me tell you what God, how God establishes his presence or how God establishes the reality. The truth to dispel the lie. Because spiritual warfare is not defeating the devil. Spiritual warfare is dis dispelling the lies of the devil. Did you hear me? Spiritual warfare is not defeating the devil. Spiritual warfare is dispelling the lies of the devil that are contrary to God's word that your character or moral disposition be free from the love of money, including greed, avarice, lust and cravings for earthly possessions, and be satisfied with your present circumstances and with what you have for God himself has said. Now, who said this? God himself has said this I will not in any way fail you nor give you up, keep going, nor lead you without support. I will not. I will not. I will not in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake you, nor let you down, nor relax my hold on. You assuredly not. Let me tell you something. If you believe this verse, you'll have peace, you'll have rest, and you'll have joy. Not because I'm working myself up to believe this, it's because this is the truth and all you have to do is just accept the truth, receive it. And take it, this is the truth, this doesn't make it true, you believing it doesn't make it true. It's true whether you believe it or not, you believing it causes you to activate the peace that comes from it. You believing it doesn't make it true, it's already true. I will not, I will not. I will not leave you helpless nor forsake, you know, relax my hold on you. Assuredly not. He's never going to leave us. He's never going to forsake us. That's his promise, he'll never leave you if that doesn't bring you peace, is because you don't believe this promise. But it's true now. It's just a matter of you choosing to believe it or not, the one thing you have control over is what you choose to believe. Nobody has control over you. Regarding what you believe, you can choose to believe this or you can reject it, but I'm telling you, it's the truth and it will make you free when you believe it. Go back to Psalm 16, 11. Some 16, 11. Listen, as soon as Adam and Eve. In some 16, 11, it says, in your presence is fullness of joy and that your right hand or pleasure for evermore, right. So when did this when did this stop? When did people when did man stop having the joy and the pleasure? Well. When Adam and Eve sinned, when they stopped believing what God said in Genesis Chapter three. As soon as they were separated from God, when they when they stopped believing God, they were separated from God. Now we've been reunited to God and nothing can separate us from him. Right, because of what Jesus did. Jesus glued us to God forever. I mean, I'm talking I'm talking Krazy Glue, he glued us to him, remember, though, the old commercial when I was a kid, old commercial, was the guy hanging on the construction site with his hard hat super glued to one of the one of the beams. And he was holding his hands on his on his hat, keep his keep his hands on his hat. And his hat was glued and he was suspended in midair. Super Glue Krazy Glue will will make you stick no matter how high and no matter how bad the fall might be, the Krazy Glue will cause you to stick for good forever. And Jesus love is the crazy glue that sticks you to God for the rest of your eternity. You'll never be separated from him. Not another day in your life. Your awareness of his presence is what determines the level of peace you have. His presence is already with you, but your awareness of his presence, your recognition of his presence. So here's what I'm trying to say in his presence is fullness of joy. So as soon as Adam and Eve were out of his presence, remember, they're hiding with fig leaf, covering themselves with fig leaves. And what was the first condition that they had in their life? They were afraid. And then what was the next thing that Jesus that God said would happen in their life? They would be depressed. So they were afraid and they were depressed. They had no joy. They had no faith. They had no confidence. They had no peace. They had no they were full of anxiety, full of fear, full of shame because they were separated from God. They had no joy and no pleasure. Because when you're separated from God, you have no joy, no pleasure. When you are born again, you are instantly united to God. You are one with him and nothing can separate you from him. But my job as your pastor is to continually remind you of that so that you are you having a sense of his ever present? He's an ever present help in a time of need. He is ever present. He will never leave. You will never forsake you. But you've been told, well, if you did this, if you fell into this sin or if you fell into that sin or if you believe that or said that, then God has left you or gods, you know, kind of in the corner or God is waiting in the car until you get it together. Maybe you jumped, you went into the bar and God stayed in the car. And God no, God went into the bar with you because he lives inside of you. Now, he doesn't want you to go in there. That's not necessarily him leading you, but he's not leaving you. You might be not you. He might not be leaving you, but he's certainly never leaving you. And look at what he says and your presence and fullness and joy that your right hand, her pleasures forevermore and I got to get into this another time, the right hand, you know, Jesus is seated at the right hand of the father. And if we belong to Christ, we're seated with him and so are. So knowing he is with us brings us fullness of joy and knowing where we're seated. Brings pleasure forevermore, let me close with this, John, Chapter six, hang on now. Let me close with this, let me show you this, how powerful this presence of God is. John, Chapter six, look at this. So Jesus is he's. Sends his disciples away after feeding the multitudes they get in the boat. And it says in verse 16, when evening had come, his disciples went down to the sea, they got into a boat, they started across the sea to Capernaum. It was now dark and Jesus had not yet come to them. The sea became rough because of a strong wind, because the strong wind was blowing. And when they had rowed three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat. And they were frightened. But he said to them, It is I do not be afraid. Now I want to make it real clear to you real quick. There were four things that caused them fear in this moment. They were afraid for four reasons. Number one, it was dark. Anybody ever been through a dark time? It says in verse 16, it was dark for 17, it was now dark, so they're in the boat in his dark darkness. They were afraid because it was dark. Number two, there was a great win, not just any win, but a violent, massive storm that suddenly hit. And it was they were caught in a violent storm. So the second reason why they were afraid was because of the great wind or the Great Storm they were in. Anybody been through a storm? Anybody in a storm right now? A financial storm, a family storm, a marriage storm, an emotional storm, whatever storm, health storm, a health crisis. You're in a storm that can cause fear. The third reason why they were afraid was because Jesus was not with them. So any situation minus God is going to cause fear and then any situation plus God is going to bring peace. And then number four, here's the thing I really want to focus on and try to tie this together, they were struggling for hours. They rode for three or four miles. It took them about six to nine hours to row three to four miles. And they were about to drown. They were struggling for hours and getting nowhere. Listen, they were struggling for hours and getting nowhere. This is a picture of the Christian life without the grace of God. We struggle for hours and we get nowhere. We struggle to pray and we get nowhere. We struggle to fast and we get nowhere. We struggle to try to obey God and try to do everything right. And we get nowhere because life was not meant for you to be in a boat struggling and straining at the doors. And if you look at Mark's version, you mark chapter six, verse forty seven, look at what it says, Mark, Chapter six, and then we'll come back here and close. Mark, Chapter six, verse forty seven. Watch this mark. Chapter six, verse forty seven. Now when evening had come, the boat was in the middle of the sea. Where was it. In the middle of the sea. They had been rowing for three to four miles, which took them about six to six to nine hours. And you can go and study this. I've already done all the research. This is absolutely what's going on here. Now, where are they? Where's the boat? In the middle of the sea. Guess what happens in the middle of the sea? You drown in the middle of the sea. Guess what happens in the middle of the sea? There's no shore. There's no shallow end. You're in the middle of the sea. It's now listen, you go study it yourself, but it's a seven mile distance from one end of the sea to the other. They have road three to four miles. So we'll just split that in half and say it was three and a half miles. They had gotten three and a half miles across the sea. And how far is the sea? From one to the other? Seven miles. So guess how far they got? Half way. What does it say the boat was? Where? In the middle of the sea. They got halfway there in the middle of the sea and they're about to drown. Does this make sense so far? Let me tell you something, halfway to heaven is hell. Halfway to healing a sickness. Halfway to blessing is the curse. Halfway to joy is sadness, halfway to peace is distress, are you hearing what I'm saying? I ain't interested in being halfway, you know, halfway on a football field this year at the 50 yard line. Good luck. You can't kick a field goal. It's fourth and fifty. You can't kick a field goal. You can't score a touchdown. You got no time left on the clock. Being in the middle of the field is not a good place to be. I'm telling you, you'd rather be in the goat. You want to be near the goal line. You want to be a how about being at the goal? How about being in the end zone? Why is all the celebration in the end zone? Is because you've already scored you've already scored the points. That's why you spike the ball. That's why you do some crazy dance. That's why you act like a fool. Why? Because you have scored. You have scored. You have scored. You have scored. Guess what? With Jesus, you have scored without him. You're halfway. You're in the middle of the sea and you're about to drown. You're in the middle of the sea and you're in a storm and say you're in the middle of the sea and you've spent all of your energy and all you've done is gotten halfway there. And if you spend all your time and all your energy doing everything you can to get to heaven, doing everything you can to get healed, doing everything you can to be well, doing everything you can to have joy, doing everything you can to have peace, doing everything you can to be free from an addiction, doing everything you can to be to get your marriage fixed, doing everything you can to get your family fix. All you have done is got halfway to hell, half way to defeat, half way to failure, because there is no such thing as getting halfway there. There is no such thing as being halfway saved. There's no such thing as being halfway home. There's no such thing as being halfway healed. There's no such thing as being halfway. Well, let me tell you let me ask you something. If if this last year out of three hundred and sixty five days of the year, half of the days you were happy and half of the days you were depressed as heck. Would you consider that a good life, would you consider that a good year? That every other day you're sick with depression. Halfway there is not is not the goal. And your own effort can only get you halfway there and halfway to heaven is hell. This is make sense to anybody. A strange evening could come, the boat was in the middle of the sea and he was alone on the land versus 48. Look at what happened and what were they. And he saw them put put the native version up there, put put the native version up there. He saw them straining at the source. This is how I see so many Christians. They're just straining at the odds. They're trying to pray. They're trying to obey God. They're trying to be holy. They're trying to honor God. They're trying to do the right thing. They're trying to fix their life. They're trying to fix their life, their soul, their mind. They're trying to fix their bother, trying to. What do you do? And you can halfway there. Which is nowhere. Because the wind was against them. Because without Jesus presence. The wind is against you. Without his presence, the wind is against. Go back to John six, verse 19. John, six, verse 19. And what does it say? I got it memorized, I'm just testing our tech team. So when they rode three or four miles, you studied the map. You'll see three to four miles is halfway across. They were already we already saw in March seven or Mark, Chapter six was forty seven, they were in the middle of the sea. They're halfway across. And they saw Jesus walking on the sea, drawing near to the boat, and they were afraid they should have been afraid when they didn't see Jesus. Now they see Jesus and all of a sudden they're afraid. And you know what? It is kind of fearful when Jesus, you see him. But he's not with you. And God doesn't want you to live where you just see him and hear about him, but he's not with you. So look at what? What happens in verse 20? Look at this. We'll close. But he said to them, it is I do not be afraid. Verse twenty one. And they willingly then they willingly received him into the boat and what happened? What happened? Wait a minute. It took him six to nine hours to get halfway across. Jesus, then they see Jesus as soon as they receive him. And Susan, look at the knive version, it says, and they willingly took him, they were willing to take him into the boat. What did we learn? Grace makes faith, takes grace, makes faith. Come on, say grace, makes faith, takes what do they do? They were willing to take him into the boat. And as soon as they took him, he said, Grab those arms, boys. Come on, give it your go. Push, push, push, push, push, pull. And he got his megaphone out. Disciples, come on, give me 20. Come on, 30. Come on, give me more. Give me more. Give me more. Give me more. No, none of that happened. They were willing to take him in the boat and as soon as they took him in the boat immediately the boat. Reached the shore where they were heading. It was God's presence. What is the shore you're trying to reach to healing? Freedom. Deliverance, what's the miracle you need today? You know what the difference is, we got to stop straining at the doors to try to get to the other side and just realize. That when you willingly take. What Grace makes. Faith takes. Immediately. You're there. Because God is here and when God is here. You're there. Where is their healing? You're healed because his presence is with you, you're delivered because his presence is with you, his presence. He's the chemist and his presence creates the serotonin, the dopamine, the pleasure, the pleasure chemicals that most people are seeking after to reproduce and manufacture God's presence. Activates the pleasure chemicals immediately. Immediately, we've got to stop thinking one day will be in God's presence, if we sing long enough, will be in God's presence, if we pray hard enough, will be in God's presence. No, we are in his presence and his presence as it is in us. And my job is to remind you of that. Every time I see you, every time you hear me, every time I'm with you, every time we connect is to remind you of what's already true. I'm not making it true. I'm making it. I'm making you aware of what's already true. That's my job. Your job is to listen, receive it and then share it with somebody else. Let's stand together.
