God Himself Is Life's Greatest Reward | Creative Church

Bonding to God. And this has been so burning in my heart, because there is a relationship with God that's deeper than the one you have now. It's the relationship you have with God that heals every other relationship. How many of you right now have a relationship in your life that needs healing? Raise your hand, come on, yeah. That relationship will be healed out of your relationship with Jesus. He is the healer. And there is a place in God that cannot be explained. There is a place in God that can only be experienced. Like I don't have the words to preach it. The words to explain it, you have to experience it. We serve an experiential God, taste and see. And there is a nearness that you can have with him that cannot be taught. There is a nearness that you have to encounter yourself. You have to know him for yourself. And there is a bond that heaven, I think, awaits in his longing to form within you that's deeper, hear me then church. It's deeper than religion. It's deeper than routine. It's deeper than some obligation. And James 4 and 8 says, "Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you." "Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you." God is not hiding from you, God is waiting on you. God is waiting on you. And he's not waiting for perfection. Everybody say, "Thank you, Lord," because we're not perfect. Raise your hand if you're not perfect, yeah. You better say amen to that or we're coming to your family reunion, right?

You don't have to be perfect. You don't have to perform. He's not waiting on perfection. He's not waiting on performance. What he is waiting on is proximity, proximity. My kids fight over who gets to sit next to Joanne, not just the little ones, all of them. They all, even in 2017, they all want to sit next to Joanne. The only one that don't want to sit next to her want to sit next to her want to sit because of me is Liliana. She's safe to see for me. This is Daddy's seat. But everybody wants to sit next to Joanne. They're not OK to just be in the room. With her, they're not OK to just sit at the table with her. They have to sit next to her. We've got to get to this place where we move beyond just wanting to be in the room with God, to where our heart longs to be as close to him as I can possibly be. Like my kids, like some of them, the little ones, it's like if they don't get that seat, it's like we go into tears. They don't even want to eat now. You know, it's like, are you serious? And Joanne loves it. She loves it. God loves it when your heart is to be as close to him as you can be. They start thinking about it while we're fixing our plates. They're not in line because they're hungry. You're in line. next to Jesus. You think, well, it's not going to matter. I promise you when you're there, it's going to matter. Everyone wants to spend eternity with Jesus, but does anyone want to spend time with them now? Draw near to him and he will draw near to you. Run to him. Pursue him. He said,

"If you seek me with all of your heart, you shall what? You shall find me." There is a bond, and this is a new invitation. I know many of you are saved, but this is a new invitation today. This is an ancient longing. In the Old Testament, there was a man who discovered this place. His name was Moses. Anybody ever heard of Moses? You went to Sunday school. Moses said in Exodus 33, 11, "So the Lord spoke to Moses face to face as a man speaks to his friend." Face to face. He had a different relationship with Moses. Not as a servant, not as a distant follower, but as a friend. Moses found a place with God that was not just some voice on the mountain. God became a presence that he walked with. When God told him to move forward without his presence, Moses said in Exodus 33, 15, he said, "Lord, if your presence doesn't go with me, I'm not going. I'm going to have you have gone places without his presence." And regretted it. Come on. I'm going to have you have done things based on opportunity. Oh, Lord, all the God of opportunity. Everyone who wants to date you is not his presence. You can be alone and not be lonely. You know how you're not lonely? You have his presence. Every job, even if it pays more money, doesn't mean it's God. Come on. I've watched people up and move across the country for money, lose their family, lose their marriage, his presence. He said, "Lord, if you don't go with me, I don't want to go." Sometimes it's age teaches you that. Once you get through hitting your head enough, come on anybody know what I'm talking about? You get rejected. See, sometimes you get the greatest degree of direction from rejection. You finally figured out where you're supposed to be when they got through slamming doors in your face. You say, "Oh, Lord wants me over here." Learning to host his presence. See, I have to run after... See, even when we do a service, we're after his presence, not a crowd. You know what I've learned about crowds is they leave. He lingers. That's why when you walked in here, you walked underneath a sign that says we're building services for Jesus and inviting people. We're not building services for people and inviting Jesus. You may or may not come. He has to be here. He has to be here. Why did we worship so long? He likes it. Well, I don't. I might leave. We'll miss you. But he has to be here because his presence heals not yours. His presence delivers not yours. His presence saves not yours. His presence provides not yours. His presence is fullness of joy, not ours. We need his presence.

Let's all pray it now. Say, "Jesus, if you're not with me, if you don't go with me, Come on, if you believe it, give God a praise. I need His presence. (congregation applauding) I don't want the promise of God. I want the person. I need you. I don't want just some blessing. I want the bond to be bonded, to have a heart that longs. You got to bond with your children. Your children should long to be with you, to sit with you, to be with you. That's how you know you're bonded. They don't want just the things of you. They want you. Oh, Jesus. And if you keep offering them things and keep offering them things and keep offering them things, at some point you realize those things don't bond you. (congregation chattering) You can buy them and buy them and buy them and buy them, doesn't mean they want you. That's why sometimes God don't give you everything you ask for, 'cause Him giving you things don't make you bond to Him. You got to want Him. When I ask my kids, "You want to go with me?" They say, "Where are you going?"

(congregation laughing) "Do you want to go with me?" I ask Lily on the day, I say, "You want to go with me?" And she's like, "Can we go to Starbucks?" I said, "Do you want to go with me?" (congregation laughing) She's talking about Starbucks. As if, it's maybe... As if Starbucks was your provider, as if Starbucks cared for you, if Starbucks was up with you all night, when you was sick, as if Starbucks. This is how we feel with God, it's how God feels. (congregation chattering) He is our reward. Moses discovered something that most people miss, that the greatest reward of life is not what God gives. It is God Himself. He told Moses, "I am your exceeding and great reward." See, the reward of serving Jesus can't be things. The reward of serving Jesus has to be Jesus. You will sleep when Jesus becomes your dream. That person, he gives rest. That's why he's preaching this, 'cause I want you to sleep at night. I want you to wake up refreshed, so you can be the mom, the dad, the son, the daughter, the leader that God's called you to be, and you're not when you're tired, to be with him. John 15, 15, then Jesus says it in the New Testament.

I call you no longer servants, but what? Friends, Moses, he talked to you as a friend. Jesus says, "I call you no longer servants, but friends," and what Moses experienced in a part Jesus made available in full. God's desire is to be with us, to bond. To know God is to know him, not just know about him. There's a difference between information and intimacy, guys. Come on, amen? There's a difference between reading a book on parenting and being a parent. There's some things that life teaches you that Google and AI can't. God's inviting all of us, not just into knowledge, he's invited us into relationship. God created all of us with a capacity to bond. Success is not gonna fill the void in your life. Come on, guys. There's a space inside of all of you that success cannot fill. I teach some high-income earners in Dallas, and I was in Dallas Friday and yesterday morning, and all kinds of great guys. Got money, business, pulling up in their Aston Martins, and all their cars and everything, and there's a lot to do with it. I'm there to talk to them about marriage. I'm there to talk to them about their family because you can be rich in one area and be poor in another. Come on. It's not just enough to have

money and you lose your children, you lose your marriage, you lose your health, you lose your walk with God. I'm telling you there is a void in you that money cannot fill. There's a void in you that only Jesus can fill. People can't fill it. Church can't fill it. Busyness can't fill it. Success. In whatever stage or platform you're on it will not be filled. Only God can fill it. God can give you peace. You are designed to live connected to God. You can't just have religion. Religion without relationships going to create a distance, not a closeness. You can attend services and not feel him. You can sit and worship and feel nothing. The greatest invitation in your life is to know him personally. Personally, not through just someone else's encounter, but knowing him for your self. Psalms 46 and 10, I'm almost done listening. It says be still. Everybody say be still and know that I'm God. You will never know God if you don't learn to be still. You know who can't sit still? Children. Come on, mom and dad. Okay. Imature people can't sit still. Let me tell you look, kids, like Augustine and Winston, I heard you're going to tell them one time. Can you just sit still? They just can't. Just everything, just all of them. Just everything's got to be everything. Just they can't. If they're sitting over there and I go, come over here. They can't just walk over here. They got to jump on that climb on that go under that tackle their brother and then they arrive. Just sits. I might just sit still. You can see it just like they're going to explode. I watch people in church. Like we go into worship. They're just like they can't be in it. They can't sit still and the presence of God like they don't. If I just said, all right, guys, for the next 20 minutes, we're going to sit in his presence. Most people would feel very uncomfortable because you always got to be doing something. It's hard to do in public what we don't do in private. If you don't worship in private, you'll have a hard time worshiping in public.

If you don't learn to sit still in his presence and wait, oh, Lord, waiting. See, we live in a world that celebrates speed. Your company, your business, speed, speed, speed. We live in a world that waiting is considered wrong. It's a negative to wait. You're inundated with a world that's telling you anything you wait on is like they don't know what they're doing. Speed is the win and you come in here and we're like, we're going to wait on God. And it's like a shock to your system because speed is rewarded, but we serve a God that will wait. Anything you hurry, you will find fault with. If you're trying to hurry the sermon, you can find fault with it. If you hurry worship, you'll find fault with worship. If you hurry your spouse, you'll find fault with your spouse. Waiting. I remember August, not August, Alexander and Nicholas wanted me to leave. We were trying to go and join when ready and they're like, just, let's just go. She'll meet us. I said, no. No, no, no, no. We're going to wait. You can go. I'm going to wait. I said, let me tell you now, you better get used to waiting on a woman. This is life. It's not like you don't outgrow this. Like I like you guys But I chose her and choose y'all And I don't want to go this is what Moses said I don't want to go if he doesn't go with me This is the heart that we have to have towards God learning to wait Learning to wait in his presence Be still and know that I am God you cannot rush intimacy You can't hurry your way into his presence guys Come on hurry up and heal me Come on, just get this over where they got to go. You're not gonna multitask your way into connection with God You're on your phone. Okay. Yeah, I'm coming God. I'm coming you're right there for you to heal me God's not wanting to be one of the things you're multitasking one of the things that you're rushing one of the no Wait, you can't get healed at the doctor without waiting They got a whole room set up for it. They call it the waiting room Bonding requires attention and attention requires slowing down

And the soul that's always moving will struggle to feel God Moses would leave the people and sit in the tent with God Go on a mountain to be away from the people to be connected to God still. This is where God becomes real And in the quiet moments his voice becomes clear Listen to me before we go when the noise phase this world is so loud It's so loud. I mean, it's like constantly constantly constantly in your face Screaming about things Notice me look at me pay attention to me It's fighting for your eyes like the teen came to me the day They're like you just a little video to promote this and I said well sure and they're like it's 15 seconds I'm like fifth. What do you mean to say in 15 seconds? 15 second you're like yeah people won't watch it 50. We serve a God that wants your whole life And now I got a fit in our algorithm Y'all do it God's not changing You got to spend time with him You It changes the rules for no one It's so loud it's like going to a concert anybody's ever been in a concert and you go to the concert and then you leave the concert And it's just you're you're like you can't hear like normal tones Come on anybody know what I'm talking about and then all it's like and you definitely can't hear the whisper But what do you tell the prophet? He wasn't in the earthquake. He wasn't in the fire He was in the still small what God's not gonna have a shouting match with what's going on in your life He's not he is not gonna compete with all the noise and all the nonsense. He's gonna whisper in your ear Listen to me you have to learn how to hear the whisper Whisper's require closeness And you have never bonded with someone that you have not whispered with I

Was watching something the other day we're watching a basketball game and I couldn't hear the announcer Over all the kids and I said turned up and they're like you can't hear that I said no, I can't hear it. You don't have to create shame and all this in the house. Just turn it up Like a minister of shame Evangelist of shame Just turn the TV out I Could hear it. Yes. I know you have young ears "Lord, give me young ears." To hear your voice. Yeah, this is what we need. Before you heard so much. Before you heard so much gossip, so much lies, so much hate, so much negativity, so much. God, give me young ears. That's why the Spirit said, "He that hath a ear to hear, let him hear." At least we forget the last miracle Jesus ever did on this earth was the healing of an ear. Give us young ears to hear again. I want to hear the whisper. I want to be close. I want to bond. I'm not okay to just be in the room. I want to be with you. And when you have that desire, listen to me. Healing comes, joy returns, peace returns, because you're in his presence. Come unto me. This is what Jesus said, "Come unto me." Everybody say, "Come unto me. Come unto me, and I will give you rest." You can't just come to church. You have to come to him. If you go to him, he will give you rest. God is found by those who make space for him. Not those who are the busiest, but those who think he's the most valuable. That's good. And if you attach to him, he'll heal the broken places in your heart. The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart. How many of you have a place in your heart that needs healed? Raise your hand. Write this down. Psalms 34, 18. The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart. God does not avoid broken as he moves to it. God wants to bond with people who are broken. Wherever you feel the most wounded, he draws there. So he's not just a savior. He's a healer. He said, "I am the Lord." That what? Heal if he. I've had a lot of people introduce himself to me as a doctor. None of them ever introduce himself to me as a healer. Jesus introduces himself as a healer. I am the Lord, your healer. And so I want to pray for you. I'm going to, if you felt the Lord touch your heart today,

come on. Give the Lord a big praise. Amen.