[music] Go now. [music] [music] [music] [music] [Applause] Amen. Come on let's give the Lord a
hand. Come on church. Say Jesus! Can I have all of y'all stand
up, we want to say hello to all of our campuses, San Ysidro, San
Marcos, East and City Heights and you guys in Juvenile Hall,
what is up. I am so jacked up today. Quick announcement. I wrote a book on racism. It comes out September 11. In every race conversation it's
always about us versus them. You have two choices. The book is called The Third
Option. And the third option is that we
honor what we all have in common, the image of God. Everyone of us have the same
image of God, and not superior to one another. The book is how we get back to
that. It comes out September 11th, which is a
Tuesday, that Saturday, September 15th, we will have a two-hour
conference to preach on it and get into discussion. The event is two hours and talk
about discussion and discuss race and have leaders on the
stage, declare unity. This event is free to churches
and organizations around the country. If you know a church and have a
relationship with a church other than here and appreciate you to
send them to araceforunity.com and get information for the
event. We are encouraging black, white, and
Hispanic because most churches are one ethnicity. 97% of churches are that
way. We are encouraging them to get together. And after the event is over,
there is an optional discussion. We are going to get people in groups to talk
about race and questions and guidelines and discussions safe
and peaceful and informative. That is optional at the end, and
did you see that, araceforunity.com, we want to
change the country. We can do that. Amen. Come on. Lord thank You so much for Your
goodness, thank You for being God. Thank You that no one in this
room is God, and thank You that no one that we know is God,
praise the Lord. And thank You that You are the
same yesterday, today and tomorrow, and pray that You
challenge us in Jesus' name, amen. Give someone a high-five. If you are wondering who this
is, I will tell you here in a minute. Let's see your Bibles. On the count of three, lift your
Bibles and say word. Word -- We have some friends from
Kentucky, y'all from Kentucky, usually when I say on the count
of three, we are having trouble with three. One, two, three. Ready? One.
Two. Three. Very good, turn to Hebrews 4. We do this every week, I don't
know what is going on. I want to pronounce a yes on
your life before we start. Second Corinthians 1:20 says
that the promises of God towards us is yes. Say yes. Say yes, God loves me. Say yes, God has a plan for my
life. Say yes, I am a child of God. Say yes, I have nothing to worry
about. Amen. You have nothing to worry about,
and the Bible says don't worry, amen. The number one objective of us
meeting together is to enter into the presence of God. It's not to hear a sermon, it's
not to worship. It's not to fellowship. It's not to learn the Bible. It's to enter into the presence
of God. All of those are tools to get
into the presence of God, we talked about this last week. And we learned last week that
the presence of God is the face of God. The same word for presence is
face, everyone say face. We need to be in God's face. When I was practicing for my
sermon in Spanish, which I did five weeks ago or so. I was practicing with some
pastors here on staff and I had to do FaceTime because I wanted
to see their face as I were talking to me. I needed more information than
in my ear, I had to see it and feel it. And the presence of God is the
face of God. Look in your notes. It says that the presence of God
is God's favor expressed through God's face. Everyone say face. It's through his face. I want to read some verses to
you, because it's very important to distinguish between being in
a room where God's glory is and God's peace and the spirit of
God is flowing it. It's a difference of that in our
own mind and being in his face. I talked about last week that
you can walk around and put your hand to your face and symbolic I
am in God's face. I mentioned last week, I met my
wife and we were dating, if she was in the room over there and
in her presence, that wasn't good enough, I want to be in her
face. Amen. Say amen to that. Psalm 1:15 says... Matthew 18:10-11 says... So I want you to imagine being
in God's presence is being in God's face. Being in his face. Consequently when God turns his
back on you, in other words, if you do stuff that God doesn't
like, and you say God help me or bless my sin. Here's what God does, put your
feet up -- sit, sit. Put your feet up, there we go. Watch this. Deuteronomy 32:19 says... You can be out there sinning and
say, God help me. Now when I say God help me, when
you come humbly and repent, he will shine his face in you. If you ask to bless your sin,
he's not going to bless your adultery. God called you to truth and not
going to bless your lies. He's not going to bless your
dishonesty. There is people that die and not
go to heaven and face God, and hey, I went to the rock, I never
knew you, because all along he wanted you to seek his face. Everyone say face. Four things. His face represents the organs
of expression. When I look at God's face I see
his eyes and facial expression and in the Bible the same word
for face is the same word for presence. If you are in the face of God,
their face is the personality. It's God communicating with you,
tell me what you are thinking and speak to me. Often going after God's hands,
God give me something. Give me a wife or man or wo-man,
a woman that can go whoa at. You know that's what it meant in
the Bible, when Adam saw Eve, he did whoa -- No, God said I want you to come
after my face. I was holding my grandson's
face. I have this thing with him and
one traditional thing we do and I kiss his head, he's four years
old and has a buzz and I say kiss that head, and get his
face, and put it right here, this is Grampy and me and you
are boys. We are friends. I am your guy. Grampy is my guy. Be in God's face. So when you look in God's face
he's communicating to you through his expression. Number 1 in your notes, look at
number 1. The presence of God is his favor
expressed through the living words spoken by the mouth of
God. Spoken by the mouth of God. Hebrews 4:12... All day long you and I are
hearing garbage about our life. We are hearing what we can't do,
what we will never be, that we are too ugly, too tall. Thank you short. Too light, too dark. Your hair is too kinky or too
straight, or teeth too crooked. All this negativity, can I get
amen. When you come here no negatively
out of that mouth but only living words of peace and
optimism. And the Bible says that God's
words are living and acting and life giving. When God created the earth, let
there be light and all the water over there and land here and it
happened. May there be bugs on the earth
-- I don't know why we did that but there was bugs. And may there be animals that
can swim and fly and animals that can run and swim and
animals that can only run, and so it was. God's words speak life to you
and organization to you. Why are you over here looking
for someone to speak something to you, and all you need is in
the mouth of God in his face. God speak to me and tell me what
you have on my life, day and night. Look at the screen, say I
declare. I declare you are speaking life
over me. Say, I declare you are speaking
affirmation over me. How many of y'all need
affirmation today? Raise your hand if you need
affirmation today. Guess where you need to go? You don't need to go over there. You don't need to go over there. Now God can speak to you through
people, most definitely but be sure that you are looking in
God's face and hearing God's voice through someone. Because the devil can masquerade
as an angel of light and you may think you are talking to
adversary. And have you heard someone say I
am the devil's advocate. Why would you be the devil of
advocate, this is the advocate, devil, what do you want me to
tell this person, without the devil, don't be that person. You want to be affirmed by God. Because God has incredible
thoughts about you. Say, I declare you are speaking
affirmation over me. Say I declare, that you are
speaking clarity over me. How many of you need clarity? Oh, my goodness, the devil is
the author of confusion, this is never confusing. Only give you clarity and speak
affirmation over you. Imagine going to someone every
day and they can tell you something clear about your life. And unravel confusion in your
life. The devil wants you to be
walking around in confusion and wasting time and opportunities. God says, do that. Do that. Clarity. Say, I declare, that you are
speaking organization over me. I need to teach you how to say
organization like you from Nigeria. Say organization. Say organization. Say, I declare, that you are
speaking organization. Over me. Over me. It has to come from here, say
me. Say, I declare that you are
speaking hope over me. Every single day God speak life
on me. Speak organization over me. Speak clarity over me. And every single day you got
people in your life, the reason you need to go to an rGroup,
because you have people in your life group and they can speak
life over you. Number 2, the powerful vision
and perspective of the eyes of God. Right here, those eyes see
something that my eyes don't see. God's eyes have vision for your
life that you don't have, that nobody has. God sees in you stuff that you
don't see. How many by shows of hand have
ever see your heart. I am not talking about on a
sonogram screen. I seen that. Boom, boom. That can be anywhere. How many of you have actually
seen your heart? None of you. How many of you have seen your
stomach. Actually seen your intestines. How many of you have seen
anything about your body under your skin? God said, when you were in womb,
he knit you together and you are marvelous. And he knit you together with a
purpose and he gave you gifts and talents are that are
unseeable. They are not physical. He gave you interests that are
not physical. You can't see them, even if
someone cut you open, you couldn't see them. Look at I Corinthians 13:11. The love chapter, it says... We see dimly and I don't
understand the whole thing but the more that I read the Bible
and walk with God, it's clearer, but then in the end... There is going to come a time
that you see face-to-face what he sees now. Because you don't see everything
about your life, but he sees everything. He sees your future and how your
past can be turned into gold. And he see who is you should
being doing business with and not business with. And sees the potential of your
gifts and if not messing around what your service can be and how
your spiritual gifts can flourish. This is funny, I was 23 years
old before I was saved and the San Diego Chargers sent me to
elementary school to speak. I was not a speaker and I took
it reluctantly and scared to death. And I remember standing there,
hundreds of kids came out and had big signs welcome, San Diego
Chargers and took an hour for the kids to get organized. I was like, this is not going to
take long. And I probably talked I don't
know, two or three minutes. I was sweating because I was so
scared to death, that wasn't my deal, that wasn't my gift. I didn't see it. I wasn't saved and didn't know
God's plan in my life. And I am not a speaker, and God
is you don't see what I see, it's not what you see, what I
put in you. It's not something that you will
make, it's already there. Three weeks ago a guy comes to
my house. And that was in 1983. That happened. Three weeks ago a guy comes to
my house to move some stuff. And he goes, you miles
McPherson, yeah, and you came to my elementary school when I was
in La Jolla as a kid, and no, no, how do you remember that, it
was encouragement. And I was like, you have no idea
what God is seeing in your life. What you think is a mess, I
thought that was a mess. And I felt so bad, I apologized,
I know you took nine hours to get out here and 40 weeks to
make that sign but I got to go, because I am scared. God said, I see something in you
that you don't see, because I put it there. God sees something in everyone
of you that you need to ask what it is. Say, I declare, you see a
blessed future for me. Say, I declare, that you see me
as forgiven. I say, I declare that you see me
as accepted. God ain't mad at you. For all you English majors, God
isn't mad at you. God has no attitude towards you. He wants to forgive you. God is not asking you to prove
something to him. God is not asking you to earn
something from him. He just wants you to hug him. He just wants you to get in his
face. He wants you to stop wandering
over there looking for what he got right there for you. That's it.
It's not complicated. It's not complicated. We went out to dinner the other
day with my son and his wife and their son. And my son's mother-in-law and
my grandson and my grandson was sitting in this restaurant. When he walked in the front
door, we were at the other side of the restaurant and he could
see us and he comes running through the restaurant. And gives Grammy a hug. Cool. But only half the job is over,
you need to come over here. And sometimes I get a hug and
sometimes I got to buy it. And like, go give Grampy a hug. Ugg, you better give Grampy a
hug, I got my hug. God can't earn anything, that's
not the deal. God sees you. Say I declare. Whisper it say, I declare. Say, I declare. Late-night radio voice say, I
declare, that you look at me with loving eyes. You want to love me. You want to love me. You want to hold me. You think I'm gorgeous. Say it.
Say it. Say, I declare that your
perspective on my life, listen to what you are saying. Say, I declare that your
perspective on my life is better than my perspective on my life. Oh, come on, give the Lord a
hand. Come on now. [Applause] How many of you want to have a
better perspective on your life than what you have? Guess where you go, right here. Tell me, let me see what you
see. I want to see what you see. Show me what you see. Show me. God. When my wife and I were dating
we went to visit my grandfather and my grandmother. My grandfather, he was the
coolest guy I ever met. All of my grandparents are from
Jamaica but he's the one that held his accent his whole life. The strongest. He and one of my grandfathers I
never met but he was just cool. And I remember him sitting on
the couch with my girlfriend with his arm around her. My grandfather was smooth. I want to show you a picture one
day, when I do my testimony one time, I will show a picture. He had a nightclub and a band in
Jamaica, like the big band, like Ricky Ricardo, and he was cool. And he was sitting there with my
wife and he had met another girl before that, before I met my
wife. And he was sitting there and he
said, this is the one. It was unsolicited. I see it. God already knows. You don't have to figure it out. He already knows. Number 3, the presence of God is
expressed through the thoughts of hope in the mind of God. You need to know what God thinks
about you. Jeremiah 29:11... He is never thinking evil on
you. To give you a future and a hope. I am doing a series in August
which I am so excited about. I love science. So I am studying the brain. And the series is going to be
called, mind your business. It's about how we think. And the brain is so complicated
and I don't want to get too much into it but I have to drop this
nugget, because it's relevant to what I am talking about now. Your mind is separate than your
thoughts. Your mind is separate than your
brain. They work in concert, but what I
mean. With your mind you can step
outside of yourself and evaluate your thoughts. Oh -- say amen, did I lose
y'all? Okay, so with your mind, you can
step back and go, Miles, what are you thinking and why are you
thinking that. And your thoughts are responding
and I don't want to think that thought. So your mind is your ability to
actually evaluate yourself and your mind can get counsel from
the world and agree with that nasty thought. Or your mind can get counsel
from the mind of Christ and what God is thinking about those
thoughts. By the way, your thoughts come
from external stimulation or stimulus, and if a memory from
your brain that you accepted in the past and something happened
to you and you got a thought and stored in the long-term memory. That is a thought. And when it comes up to guess
what happened and what you need to think about, your mind has
the ability to say no. Are you following what I am
saying. 50,000 thoughts we have each
day, 70% are negative and 90% are repetitive. And we are not going to talk
about how to shape your brain and thoughts, and in August
check it out. However know that God's thoughts
towards you are only good. What about when I do something
bad? He wants to forgive you. What about when I am mad at him,
he loves you anyway. What about when I am constantly,
constantly cursing God. Oh, he will discipline you but
do it in love and restore you to a right relationship. That's what he is thinking. That's what he is thinking. And he says, I know the
thoughts, Isaiah 58 is saying, my thoughts are not your
thoughts. God doesn't think like you. Often we judge people based on
what we would do. In other words, if you are
resentful to someone and jealous of somebody, you are doing that
based on your perspective on how you would handle what they are
going through. It's all through your filter and
you are projecting that on them. Think about it, how many of you
have, and raise your hand. There is a celebrity on
television that you have all of this negative vibe towards and
you never met them. How about raise your hand. Let's try this. Now if your hand is not raised,
I hate to judge you but simply don't believe you. Try one more time, you have
negative towards someone you never met, school or job and
that's in your heart. That's in your heart. You know what God says, my
thoughts towards you are awesome. Look what it says Isaiah 55... What is God thinking towards
you? Where do you find that out,
right here. Right here. Let's say, I declare that your
thoughts towards me are precious. Say, I declare that your
thoughts towards me are many. If you try -- if I told you to
write down all the good things about yourself, I think, this is
my theory and guess and you write real fast and get to about
seven and then you realize -- man, okay, more. You might not get to 20. You will get to seven or 10
really quick, that is just my theory. I haven't tested it. But you are not going to get to
100. You can't think of 100 good
things about you. Okay, I walk straight. Okay, you can write that down. Okay, I can smile. You know that God's thoughts
towards you are endless. Why? Because he formed you in the
womb and said you are marvelous. Everyone give me your hands and
say, I am marvelous. Say I declare, say I declare,
your thoughts towards me are higher than my thoughts. I declare that your thoughts
towards me are constant and good and never evil. Say constant and good and never
evil. So why are you going around here
looking for someone to tell you something good, ain't nothing
wrong with that but why aren't you saying God I want to see
what you are saying with me and meditate on your life and future
and past. Say I declare, that your
thoughts towards me give me a hope and a future. Being in God's presence is being
in God's face. It's looking in his eyes and
focusing on what he is saying through his word, through
prayer. Through actually telling him,
father I'm in your face. Last one. In the presence of God, it's his
favor expressed. By the way, remember I am saying
the presence of God is God's favor. That's his blessing. His affirmation. Think about this, there is a God
who only wants to bless you. By the way, we will get to this
in the series on the mind, mind your business. We are going to learn that your
brain physically is only wired for positive. It is not wired for negative. That means when you think
positive, your brain actually works better than when you think
negatively. I am going to drop that on you. Why? Because God's all promises
towards you are yes. Say, give me a Benz and five
wives, no, five wives is not good for you it would kill you. You need one. And he will only do what will
bless you. Are you following what I am
saying, the favor of God is expressed through the
compassionate listening ears of God. You know that day and night that
the devil is accusing God you as a fraud and hypocrite. And devil said to God, Job is
only [inaudible] financially, and God said Job will never
curse me. And he said, you can take
everything he has, and Job says, God gives and takes, blessed the
name of the Lord, I will never blame him for wrong. Why that conversation? You can ask God that. But I can tell you what, day and
night the devil is accusing you. And if you sat down and wrote
down hypothetical discussions and what could the devil say
about me, you could write a list longer than positive attributes. Yeah, I am a liar and arrogant
and can I get amen. I think I am all of that -- that
amen was weak. Say amen if I will telling you
the truth. Amen. See how sinful you are, I get
it, I will telling you. And we could write down a bunch
of garbage, and God would say, I hear that all day long from the
devil, I only want to hear from you that you are sorry and we
are good. But when you try to justify and
you try -- they did this to me and they did that to me. This is what I will do, I don't
want to hear that. But God, they did this. I don't want to hear it. Why? Because God made us in his image
and gave us the ability to humble ourselves before him and
seek him. And have a relationship with
him. He's proven over and over again
that he is a really, really, really good God. Think about this. This is probably, I don't need
to go further than Genesis 2 to know that God is good. There was a guy, named Adam that
had no woman in his life, and he said, God I am kind of lonely. Can you hook a brother up? And God said, absolutely. Sit down. I will bring you a mate. And brought him a gorilla. He said I'm good. Kind of hairy. So he brought him a giraffe. Nope, I ain't feeling a giraffe. Brought him a porcupine, no,
kind of prickly. Brought him a dog, nope. None of that is good enough for
you? Put him to sleep, knocked him
out. While he was asleep, think about
this for a minute. Fellas, think. You wake up and there is a naked
woman there. This is -- I'm not joking, in
the Bible. Genesis 2, you need to read the
Bible. God said, Adam, there you go. Adam populate the earth. Really? Say amen if that's a good God. God said, what more do I need to
do to prove to you. Now some of you were looking for
somebody and you didn't wait long enough for the woman. So you went after the dog. Oh! [Growling] Fellas, ladies, same thing
you went after the dog as well. Are you following what I am
saying and he's sitting -- somewhere. Say, I declare that God is good. Psalm 116:1 says, I love the
Lord. Say I love the Lord. Say, I love the Lord. Because -- [laughter] Because he has heard my voice. And my supplications. You get on your knees and you
cry out to God, guess what God is going to do? He's going to listen. He's going to say, I'm
listening. God, I'm sorry. I'm listening. Will you forgive me. Oh, I hear you, yes. That's what he does. Let's declare. Say, I declare... How many of you want to hear
great and mighty things you do not know? Oh, my goodness. Come on now, right here, right
here. Come on now! [Applause] Take your communion cup out. If you do not have one, raise
your hand. Wherever you on on the campus,
raise your hand. The one thing that can separate
you from the presence of God, and the one thing that will keep
you from his face is your sin. Your unforgiven sin. Raise your hand. Ushers we have some in the
middle over here. Jesus died on the cross. That our sins would be forgiven. And that we would have access to
the presence of God. And if we confess with our mouth
that Jesus is Lord. and believe in our heart that God raised Him from the dead, we will be saved. When we take Communion, what we are telling God is God, we understand the
Gospel. We understand that You died for
us. And rose from the dead. And we have given our life to
You. So before we take communion, you
do not want to take communion unless you have asked Christ to
be your Savior. We want to give you that
opportunity to speak to a God that loves you and has plans for
you, for a future and hope. As our eyes are closed and our
heads bowed, if you would like to ask Christ to be your Savior,
in the privacy of your heart, I want you to pray this prayer
with me. Dear Jesus, I believe you died
for my sin. I believe you rose from the
dead. I believe the penalty of my sin
is death. Please forgive me of my sin. Come live in my heart. Fill me with the spirit of God. I want to be born all over
again. Thank You God. As our eyes are closed and heads
bowed, and lift your hand so I can pray for you, very high. God bless you.
God bless you. God bless you. We see your hands all over the
place. God bless you. We see you upstairs. Lord, thank You for all of these
people, thank You for Your faithfulness, thank You for Your
goodness. In Jesus' name amen. Let's give those people a hand
clap. [Applause] Jesus took the bread and broke
it and said, this is my body that was broken for you. When we take this, we are
acknowledging that he was nailed to the cross that we know that. And we take this acknowledging
that he did it for us. Lord, thank You for your death. Thank you for allowing sinful
man to crucify You, beat You, whip You. Deny you. Falsely accuse You. And we take this acknowledging
your sacrifice that as You died for us, we must surrender for
You, in Jesus' name, amen. All throughout the Old Testament
when the Jews wanted their sins forgiven they had to shed the
blood of an animal. And God was teaching us without
bloodshed there was no forgiveness of sin. And then Jesus came and said, I
am the lamb that will be slain one time. Because my blood is sinless. The blood of the animals was
sinful. I will die and shed my blood for
your sin one time. This is the blood of the new
covenant. This represents that our sins are forgiven once and for all. That His bloodshed was
sufficient to forgive all of our sins. Lord, thank You so much for
dying for us and shedding your blood for our sin. Now I will ask everybody in all
campuses and all microsites watching online, to bow your
heads and close your eyes. A minute ago many of you prayed
to ask Christ to be your Savior. You raised your hand. In a minute I will ask you to
stand up, if you want someone with you to stand, tap them on
the shoulder. Grab their hand. However you want to communicate
with them and ask them to stand with you and encourage you. But some of you in here need to
walk into the presence of God. You have been drifting around in
your faith and you need to get in God's face. You need prayer.
You need encouragement. You need to physically walk away
from your old life. And as the sermon was
progressing through worship. The announcements through the
message. God was speaking to you. And He was saying, I need you. I need you. To walk away from your old life. I need you to surrender to Me. And you know He was speaking to
you. He was saying things to you that
I was not saying. Had nothing to do with what I
was saying. But as clear as I am talking to
you now, you heard Him speak in your heart. But when I ask people that asked
Christ to be your Savior, I want you to stand with them. And if you want someone to stand
with you, tap your friend or girlfriend or boyfriend, who you
came with, and let them know that you want their
encouragement. You need to say, Lord I need to
make a commitment, I have asked to You to be my Savior in the
past but not walking with You. Today I need to make a
public statement that I belong to You. As eyes are closed and heads
bowed in all campuses, in a minute, I will count to three. And if any of those reasons
state true to you. If you want prayer, or asked
Christ to be your Savior, or healing, whatever it is. You want encouragement, I will
ask you to stand on the count of three, in all campuses and there
will be someone there to pray for you. If God spoke to you during that sermon and you want to ask Christ to be your savior, it's as simple as A-B-C. Admit and accept that you are a sinner. The Bible says all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, Believe in your heart that Jesus Christ is Lord, that He died for your sin and rose from the dead. Then confess yourself a sinner and say, "Jesus, please forgive me of my sin." If you would like to ask Jesus Christ to be your savior, just look at me right now. Pray this prayer with me in the privacy of your heart, knowing that God knows you and loves you very much. Say, "Dear God, I believe that I am a sinner. I know the penalty of my sin is death. I don't want to die and go to Hell. I believe that Jesus Christ is Lord, that He died and rose from the dead for my sin. I confess myself a sinner and ask Him to forgive me of my sin. Jesus, please forgive me of my sin and fill me with the spirit of God. In Jesus name', amen. If you prayed that prayer, if you just asked Christ to be your savior, we want to know. We want to email you some resources. If you just prayed that prayer with me, to accept Jesus as your savior, click on the link that just appeared. We want to send you some free resources. God bless you and we will see you in Heaven.
