The reality is, for those of us who are saved, we are always in the loving presence of God. The question is no longer God please be near me, God please come, no longer this cry of fear and abandonment, but a cry of sonship and adoption. Abba, Father, I am your child, as I grow, would you open my eyes to see and hear of where you already are all around me.
It goes from you come close to me and you die, to I come into you and you truly live.
That is the final covenant. This is the covenant that Hebrews 8 speaks of as having made the previous one obsolete. Those lives that we saw in Acts 2, so filled with the wonder of God, so thick with His presence that even unbelievers favoured and revered them. We’ll talk more about Acts 2 and being His people tomorrow, but that is the full invitation from God today, that's our destiny as His children. His spirit in us, flowing through us, so that we may see that His presence, His hand, His love is already all around us.
Some of you, you've experienced all of this. As the psalmist said you've tasted and seen that the Lord is good! Testify! Encourage! Walk along side! Don't keep it to yourself, that's the reason us alumni are here.
Some of you have stood in front of that torn curtain for a while now. You've been feeling unworthy and undeserving, busy trying and trying to beg and qualify for His presence. Well, let me share with you a little secret, trying to open an already opened door doesn't do a whole lot. Seriously, try it. Perhaps you've already noticed that for all your efforts and ministry and learning you seem to be at the same plateau with God. He is inviting you tonight to stop striving after what has already been gifted to you. You didn't earn your salvation, you certainly aren't going to earn your intimacy with Him. Pray that cry of sonship, receive what He's been wanting to give you if you'd just stop trying to pay for it.
Let Him love you, let yourself be undeserving of it, that was always His point.
Some of you see that torn curtain and you don't really know whether you want what's inside. You're thinking, what if in there my desires die, what if my dreams die, what if my plans die. So you keep God at a distance. You go to church meetings, learn all the ideas about Him, serve a little bit maybe, but never letting Him move you beyond mere churchiness. I could say all sorts of things to try to persuade you and what not but I'm just going to say this, it is simply not possible to follow God at a distance. The Israelites tried that already, and look at the OT, look at what happened to them.
More importantly is this which I can say with 100% certainty, that your old self will die. Your old self will drain away, your new self will begin to pour in. As the apostle Paul said, I consider all the things that I had garbage in light of Christ. What's behind that curtain might be so different but yet so much better than what you could possibly plan on your own.
Some of you have no experience of what I'm talking about at all, that torn curtain might as well be a brick wall. You know some stuff about God that other people have told you, or that you've read or listened to somewhere, for years even, but you've never interacted with God, He's never really acted in your life, and even if you prayed it feels like it vanishes into thin air. If the spirit of the God of the universe entered into you, well you really didn't know when it happened or even if it happened.
For you guys I encourage you to ask God tonight where am I with you? Don't rely on affirmation from yourself or from other people, think about it, your yes’ their yes', they don't mean anything! I don't care if you're Calvinist or Arminian, predestination or free will, even atheist or agnostic for that matter, but I think we all agree that no one else's affirmation of eternity matters except God's. Maybe you were too scared or too distracted to say anything before but tonight, ask Him!
Every time I prayed over retreat, I just hear God saying, I would love to meet them, I've been waiting to touch them. As we enter into a time of worship and prayer, I really hope this will be a time where you let your guard down in God's presence, whether this is your first or the hundredth time.
The alumni are going to come around, ask for you name, lay hands, and pray over you. You don't have to share deeply or pray extra hard or anything like that, just sit and receive. If you do have something specific you want to share with them, give them a tap.
As you worship, I encourage to be a child, free to dance, free to love, free to shout Abba, Dad. Pour out your heart to Him, welcome Him, and ask Him to open your senses to my God, my lord, my saviour, my father.
Where are you with God? Are you willing to receive and walk in the fullness of His invitation, His final covenant with us?
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