VALUE OF HIS PRESENCE

VALUE OF HIS PRESENCE
How Valuable Is God’s Presence To You?
Have you heard the saying: “If you keep doing what you have always done, then you will keep getting what you have always gotten”? The time has come for change.
This house, Bread of Life Church/Ministries, has been a blessing to many since 1974, and God has blessed, visited, and dwelt among us in amazing ways. I want to say Thank You to everyone for your faithfulness; many of you have been with us for many years. We have seen a lot of change take place and a lot of people come and go over the years. We have enjoyed the presence of God together and have gone through wonderful heights and challenging lows. God has been faithful. Amen  However, there is a problem. We have allowed complacency and a “come if you feel like it” attitude to prevail, giving little value to gather together as God’s people on Sundays,
Wednesday nights, or Saturday morning prayer. We have been lax in our discipline, allowing consistent tardiness. We have been lax as a congregation to think and believe it is acceptable to expect God to show up at our house on time when many of us do not show up
at His house on time, which is a lack of respect to God and the father/pastor of this house.
The time has come for change. We have lost our cutting edge and traded it for a statusquo mentality. This is not acceptable, and that is not to be our legacy. We are called to more than that. Jesus has paid a great price and we have paid a great price to settle for
anything less than His best. We have allowed circumstances, economics, and challenges of all kinds to take priority over the Kingdom of God. After all, the Lord is the only one who can fix the problem.
From now on, Sunday mornings we will be starting at 10:30 a.m. whether or not the Worship Team has practiced or whether you are on time or not. There is expectation that someone from each household be present on Wednesday nights and during special events
like the Feast of Tabernacles. God will honor those who honor Him. We are praying for the glory of God to come forth. We are praying for revival in the land. However, revival will not come until we do what He has called us to do.
So I ask again: “How valuable is God’s presence to you?” If His presence has value to you, then you will honor Him and be in position for what He wants to do. When we are late to the house of God, then that means we believe we are more important than God.
Another thing I need to address is: “What is the purpose of our worship?” Our worship is to glorify God, to bless Him, to thank Him for all He is and all He has done and all He is going to do. Some people think that the worship is for them and about them, about how
they feel or if they even want to worship and sing to God. We are commanded to worship the Lord with all our heart. There are over one thousand scriptures that address singing and worship, so something mentioned that much in scripture should get our attention. It is not always about what song we are singing but about who is the song for. Is the song for you, or is it for God? A love song is for the one you love. We 2 are aware that there are some songs that need to be retired, so we will be going through our song box and removing some old songs. The challenge is that some old songs have great meaning to some people and to others they are just old songs. We will have to find the balance. HOW VALUABLE IS GOD’S PRESENCE TO YOU?
2 Chronicles 7:12-18: Then the Lord appeared to Solomon by night and said to him: “I have heard your prayer, and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice (house of worship). When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
“Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to prayer made in this place. For now I have chosen and sanctified this house, that My name may be there forever; and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually.
“As for you, if you walk before Me as your father David walked, and do according to all that I have commanded you, and if you keep My statutes and My judgments (My ordinances and instructions I have given you), then I will establish the throne of your kingdom, as I
covenanted with David your father, saying, ‘You shall never fail to have a man as ruler in Israel.’”
IF MY PEOPLE….
(1) will HUMBLE THEMSELVES. We must get rid of pride, spiritual bigotry, prejudice, discrimination, conceit, vanity, and selfish and self-centered attitudes. (2) and PRAY. We must open our mouth and heart, exercise faith (Hebrews 11:6), and call out to God. Why is it we will call out to everyone else except God? We need to call God first.

(3) and SEEK MY FACE. Seek to be in God’s presence, seek His approval not man’s.
Most people only seek the hand of God, but it is God’s face we need to seek. Some people only want man’s approval, but it is God’s approval that is most important.

(4) and TURN FROM THEIR WICKED WAYS. Turn from evil and hateful, spiteful, selfwilled, undisciplined, and lawless ways.
Then God says: (1) I WILL HEAR your prayer; (2) I WILL FORGIVE your sin; and (3) I WILL HEAL your land. Do you have any land that needs to be healed? Land being your health, home, family, job, community, and church. HOW VALUABLE IS HIS PRESENCE TO
YOU?  What are you believing to see God do for you and your family? What are you believing God to do for Bread of Life Church? Before every great revival, there is a time of  repentance. We need to take the time to seek God’s face and pray for forgiveness and ask  Him to heal our land, our families, our finances, our church, and our city. Now in faith let’s get into our position for what God is about to do. In Luke 1:17, John speaks of “making ready a people prepared for the Lord.” Are you ready? Are you prepared? Are you in position for His outpouring?  (1) Are you ready to be used of God? (2) Are you ready for the power of God to flow through your life? (3) Are you ready for the demonstration of the glory of God? (4) Are you ready to reveal the Son, Jesus Christ? God doesn’t want your ability; He wants your availability! We fool ourselves when we think it is us doing the will of God. No, it is God in us and not we ourselves. Make yourself available and see what God can do with your insecurity and inadequacy. Broken soil produces crops—broken clouds produce rain—broken grain produces bread—and a broken alabaster box produces a fragrance that God cannot withstand. The Lord is eagerly searching for those who are ready. He is looking for those who have a perfect, prepared, positioned heart toward Him that He may show Himself strong on their behalf. 2 Chronicles 16:9: “For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole 3 earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him.” Philippians 3:13-14: Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.