 topic that I'm gonna title draw near to God if you have your Bible let's go with me to James chapter 4 and verse 8 draw near to God and He will draw near to you and then James just just goes down I mean he's like cleanse your hands you sinners purify your heart you double-minded I don't know I feel triggered reading those words but it's it's good because that's what the Lord's gonna use to transform us I want you to see this draw near to God I'm gonna mention to you five shifts that have to happen in your life for you to draw near to God shift number one you gotta move from drifting to drawing from drifting to drawing near to God I want you to notice what the Bible does not say it does not say drift near to God remember this nobody drifts to God you will always drift from God but you will not drift to God that's why the Bible says draw near it involves intention it involves discipline it involves decision it involves desire you don't automatically draw near to God having a desire to be close to God is not enough to be near to God the Bible doesn't just say make a decision or have a desire it says draw near meaning I have to take some steps to be close to God all you have to do to not be close to God is this do nothing and you will automatically drift from God why each one of us have a magnetic pool toward sin the world and the devil it says about lot when lot leaves Abraham and it says that lots tents reach to Sodom and then next time you meet a lot in the Bible the Bible says a lot was in Sodom how did he end up in Sodom drifting we drift away from God leave a boat in the middle of Columbia River any river it will never stay in the same place it will drift with the current you must understand the current of the culture is not to be close to God is to be far from God if you let yourself go if you go with the flow if you just simply be and never put intention you will never be near to God desires not enough there must be a decision and a discipline and drawing aeroplanes do not stay in the air without engines and fuel why because there's a law of gravity that pulls them down you cannot stay close to God because just simply saying well if God wants me to be close to him I'll be close to him James says draw near meaning have an intention have a plan have a strategy do something about it and then he highlights four things draw near I believe he speaks of our feet it talks about our hands he talks about our hearts and Jesus and Matthew 15 talks about our mouth somebody say feet so these are things that you do by going to prayer by having a devotional life you are intentionally drawing near to God knowing if you do not make up your mind to pray every day to read God's word every day by default automatically you will get further and further and further from God not because God left you is because the cultural current drifts you away from God that's why James says draw near be intentional set the alarm clock put the Bible next to your nightstand make a decision go to sleep a little bit earlier put the Bible on your phone create a habit and create an intentional life where you draw near to God because it will never happen automatically or accidentally the feet then the Bible talks about our hands our hands meaning we can live through our life drawing near to God meaning as you're driving in the car as you are working you have a choice you can listen to Beyonce or you can listen to the book of Genesis as you are doing something in the lawn you can listen to something that builds you up or something that simply feeds your flesh so your hands as you work in your daily things you can intentionally draw near to God would actually draw further and drift from God and then the Bible says our heart meaning it's not enough to just my feet and I'm going to prayer Jesus says we have to have our hearts be also in tuned with God my motives my heart's desires and then the Lord says these people honor me with their lips but their heart is far from me we gotta pursue the Lord in all these four ways our feet our hands our hearts and also our mouth amen we don't drift to God we draw near to God drifting happens automatically drawing happens intentionally water doesn't stay hot it gets cooler and then colder if you do not keep the heat intensive intensive and intentionality in your walk with God you will get colder cooler you will get colder you will get complacent with time time does not help you to draw near to God if I put a hot water right here time is against hot water it cools it down time is not your friend what is your friend is intention discipline making a decision waking up your spiritual life and constantly putting pressure on your it's kind of like if you're driving you take the the foot off the pedal your car will not stay on the same speed it will slowly slow down and many of us have gotten to the point where our driving speed after God is those two miles per hour and we're like man I really want to be on fire for God press the gas battle draw near God says listen I'm here I never moved you drifted and why we drift is because we have a gravitational pull toward the world we're not just fighting against the world we're fighting against our own flesh so we got to make an intention to draw near to God you cannot have intimacy with God without being intentional if you ever if you're married you cannot have intimacy with your spouse an accident there is being intentional that draws you closer to God we got a move from I want to have a relationship with God too I will draw near to God amen now what we understand is before we can draw near to God this is amazing God draws near God draws us near to himself Psalm 65 4 says blessed is the man you choose and cause somebody say cause come on those of you in second-sanction say cause to approach you meaning God causes me to draw near to him now some of you may think whoa that's amazing does that mean that God just makes me draw near to him no no no God never drives anybody God draws people how does he draw he gives you a thought open the Bible right now you have a free time and you did your devotions and you have a thought that says why don't you practice recreational Bible reading because many of us know what it's like to do devotional Bible reading but have you ever tried recreational Bible reading and you get a thought from the Holy Spirit hey instead of watching this why don't you begin to consume God's word this is God causing you drawing new near to him Jesus says when I am lifted up from the earth I would draw all men to myself God doesn't God will not drive you to himself he will draw you to himself sometimes you're right in that value of decision you're about to do something and you feel this still small voice it's like this voice on the right that says do this and you know it's the right thing to do it's in line with the scriptures in line with the Holy Spirit and you got this little raven this little demon on the side said no don't do it do something else you keep listening to the raven and you can end up being a vulture but if you listen to the dove that's how he draws us he prompts us he gives us impressions he gives us these little he will never yell he will just give you these whispers hey go to sleep a little bit earlier wake up and come to prayer on Wednesday morning hey open the scriptures God draws us when we respond by drawing to him number two shift that must take place is we have to move from condemnation to conviction if you embark on the journey of being near to God I'm gonna warn you right the way you're gonna fail more than you succeed am I the only one all right holy congregation of God nobody fails here sorry wrong church you are going to make mistakes you are going to fall sometimes more than you walk in the beginning stages if you see how children learn to walk they don't end up running marathons they end up accumulating a lot of fallings the Bible says the righteous man falls seven times but he gets up and the scripture says but the wicked falls by calamity meaning all it takes for the wicked is one trip and you can never get up I want to share something with you that is life-changing when as a Christian you draw near to God you will experience setbacks and sometimes you'll experience hardships and your own personal failures you must learn to discern between the condemnation and the conviction in John 16 8 it says when he has come the Holy Spirit he will convict somebody say convict come on I didn't hear say convict so he will convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment now I want you to write this down conviction is specific condemnation is general this is how you discern where the conviction of the Holy Spirit is coming versus condemnation of devil conviction says this you were harsh with your wife in your last conversation condemnation says you're a bad husband and you are messed up so condemnation is general conviction is specific condemnation attacks your identity conviction attacks your issue condemnation is from the devil conviction is from the Holy Spirit condemnation leaves you hopeless you're never going to get better you're a failure you're never gonna change but conviction always gives you hope condemnation leaves you to remorse conviction leads you to repentance so when you have fallen when you have made a mistake when maybe you have not measured up to the standards that you've said for yourself I'm not talking about being nice to yourself what I'm saying is to listen to the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit will come and he will convict you of sin he will convict you of righteousness he will convict you he will specifically highlight and act a word a behavior an attitude a motive he deals with specifics the devil is always in general the moment it's general thing comes on you that I'll never get out of this I will never beat this hopelessness I am a perverted impure person I'm an addict I'm addicted to vaping I'm addicted to this I've tried and all of that is demonic because the Holy Spirit highlights an issue he doesn't bundle all of your problems in one he deals with one specific thing you messed up in and he always gives you light at the end of the tunnel so just follow me you just repent you apologize to that person make it right with that he leads you out from darkness into light the devil pushes you deeper and deeper into the pit because he knows as long as you live in condemnation you will never get out from that place and walk in righteousness let's say you didn't read the word for a while condemnation says you're a loser conviction says you haven't read the Bible in three days pick up your Bible again condemnation says what's the point condemnation says well I'm just a sinner conviction says you're a righteous person who has fell into sin get up repent to run to God turn to him there's hope there is repentance and the Holy Spirit draws you near in Isaiah 1 18 and 19 God says if your sins are like scarlet I'll make him as wide as wool God says if your sins are like red like crimson he says I'll make him a snow and he says come let's reason together God's like come to me but if you're willing and obedient you will eat up the good of the land embrace the conviction of the Holy Spirit to walk close with God every person must discern between a condemnation of Satan and the conviction of the Holy Spirit amen number three the third shift is we must move from concealing to confessing concealing our sin our wrongs to confessing them concealing hiding covering waiting to get caught waiting for somebody to point their finger and say something is wrong here waiting for things to come up without you running and making it right I want you to see what David did and Psalm 32 verses 3 through 5 when I kept silent my bones grew old through my groaning all the day long for day and night your hand was heavy upon me my vitality was turned into the drought of summer I acknowledged my sin to you and I my iniquity I have not hidden I said I will confess my transgressions to the Lord and you forgave the iniquity of my sin David just described what every man and woman a young person feels when they've messed up so we know we drawn you to God we know we heed the conviction of the Holy Ghost but there's a part we need to do when the Holy Spirit convicts you have two things you can do one of them is you can cover it up rationalize it minimize it justify it make excuses not my fault runs in my family my wife may be do it my husband made me do it my portion of this sin is only 10% the person who's 90% is needs to start first you can make those excuses but the Holy Spirit doesn't pay attention to excuses he doesn't care whether it's your children that you need to repent to he doesn't repent he doesn't care if it's somebody that you are over that you need to apologize to what he deals with is sin and something that right you can conceal it and say nope I'm gonna wait until I get caught fired let go off kicked out I'm gonna wait I'm gonna bury deep inside and I'm going to tell myself I'm sorry God but sometimes I'm sorry is not enough because this person you've committed sin is not only God it's against somebody else and this is how you know I'm sorry God is not enough it's when your bones grow old you feel this heaviness and you're trying to talk it out I rebuke the devil that's not the devil that's the hand of God the blood of Jesus washes me wait you didn't just sin against God you sin against somebody else too the Bible says David the hand of God was heavy on him he said as long as I was making excuses and concealing my sin your hand was heavy upon me it wasn't the devil now it was the hand of God because every person that conceals their sin God puts his hand and pressures them why because the sin you're covering is growing bigger and bigger in the dark and God will cause your peace not to be there so you kick that sin out of the closet so it dies in the light because the Bible says the blood of Jesus washes us as we walk in the light as long as parts of my life is hidden in the dark God's blood God's power cannot change me God cannot transform me if I'm hiding it concealing it and if I'm lying about it and so you have to learn to conceal to open yourself up this does not mean you do a video on Facebook hey everybody just wanted to let you know I've been struggling with this sin that is seeking attention not repentance you have to sometimes go to the person that you've sinned against sometimes you have to go to the person that you have done this thing and the harder part to do it is when you didn't get caught when you cheated on the test nobody found out it's when you are an aching and you took the things God says don't take it you put it under your tent and nobody found out and you still victorious you like God must be pleased with it God isn't pleased with it God is giving you a chance to repent before you get caught oh I committed adultery I have an emotional affair nobody's finding out I'm so happy God must be right maybe perhaps your conscience is so dull that you no longer hearing and God is giving you a chance to get right before this secret sin becomes a public scandal I want to challenge you none of us grow and fall out of love with God most of us fall out of repentance with God and when we fall out of repentance we fall out of love none of us in here are perfect we are sometimes fall short he who says I have no sin is lying to himself but if you get better at confessing your sin to God and sometimes dealing with the sin to people that you wronged and you did something again something begins to happen your intimacy with God gets stronger not because you're praying and fasting but because you're dealing with the things that your heart judges you for live with pure heart let your heart have a baby skin let there be sensitivity to the voice of God many of us are too sensitive to everybody else's voice and not sensitive enough to the voice of the Holy Ghost many of us people walk around eggshells because we we snap like an atomic bomb if somebody touches us oh I wish we would have that toward God sensitivity toward God that if we do something and it just like it eats you on the inside like it happened with David and David says but when I came and I brought it to the light and I confessed it to you God and I confessed it to the people that I needed to confess in his case sin with Bashi but he confessed it to Nathan he says something happened he says you forgave me for my sin you washed me a weight was lifted off not because what I did was not a big deal it's because God knows that that sin when you harbor it grows inside and it begins to get bigger and bigger and bigger you didn't get rid of it by keeping it in the dark put it into the light it takes a lot of maturity to do it before you get caught many people repent but they don't repeat it's not really repentance when you get caught it's not really repentance oh I'm sorry you got caught but when you bring it to the light because you got convicted that's true repentance amen number four so you bring it to the light guilt comes that's why we have to move from guilt to grace because you put it out there not every person and sometimes yourself becomes your greatest critic you feel like man yes the weight is off my shoulders but something else comes on me now guilt I'm a bad person it's different a little bit from condemnation because guilt deals with something you actually did yes I ask God for forgiveness but what I do now I'm gonna share something with you John chapter 8 verse 11 she said no one Lord and Jesus said to her neither do I condemn you go and sin no more if you live in guilt you will always try harder to please God and fail the more if you live in God's grace you will train better to please God and you'll become better grace trains us guilt pushes us to try harder you can't clean a dirty window with a dirty rag when you live in guilt there is this overdrive that kicks in that says I'll try harder I'll go for next three days and do a bcd anything coming out of guilt has no power to change you and that's why the Lord not only invites us into conviction and confessing our sin but the moment we confess our sin God gives us not guilt God doesn't change people through guilt guilt does not help us grace helps us grace saves us and Tyrus says through grace we receive salvation and grace teaches us to deny ungodliness God's teacher God's trainer is not guilt and condemnation it is his grace it is the holy ghost for the grace of God the brother salvation has appeared to all men Tyrus 211 teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in the present age first Timothy 4 7 but reject profane and old wives fables exercise yourself toward godliness I'm not trying I'm training when you're in guilt you're gonna try harder when you're in God's grace you'll train better what is the difference between the person that trains is it's not about now it's about the journey see God's grace trains us teaches us guilt pushes us as try harder guilt is the pharaoh's task master that says produce bricks but I will not give you straw meaning produce the results but I will not give you strength try harder but I'm not gonna give you help that's guilt it works for two days first two days you feel good about overcompensating for what you did that was bad you feel good about saying I will undo all the bad by doing good about the second day you'll make more mistakes than you did if you would have not tried at all you get so disappointed with trying that you feel like a total loser why because grace is the worst teacher on the planet excuse me guilt is the worst teacher on the planet if you think guilt can change you and make you better why did guilt led Judas to commit suicide it was shame and guilt he brought the money back to the Pharisees he says I betrayed innocent blood I'm so sorry but see Judas never signed up to a school where the grace was the trainer he ran from the cross he ran from the the person of grace who was Jesus Christ and he said I'll get my life cleaned up I'll return the money that I've stolen I will say a public apology but that's not enough because then the guilt comes in and he eats you on the inside there is only one place they can change you and that is the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ it is the power of the Holy Ghost it can help you to be better than you it can help you break the chains it will help you to overcome your cravings and your loss somebody shout grace oh what an amazing grace that cleanses us what an amazing grace that sets us free and I love the grace of God because it trains me the grace doesn't just give me a gift the grace signs up and says I'll walk with you every step of the way until you run I'll train you in righteousness the guilt says try harder grace says train better and the grace says I'm gonna spot you we're gonna do it together you're not doing this alone I got you we're not advocating sin grace is not an excuse to live in sin grace is the power to overcome sin because he's there guiding you every step of the way he's there increasing a little bit of weight that he says you got it I got you I can do it because the Holy Spirit gives you the power for the very thing that the Holy Spirit convicts you from and you're not doing it alone that's why religion will always say do do try harder Christianity says I will train you I will be with you and when it's weak you know when you're doing bench press and the person is holding it run of you they don't drop that bar on your chest they pick it up for you and that's what the grace of God does it doesn't just save us it trains us that's why when the woman caught in the act of adultery she came to Jesus and Jesus says this he says I don't condemn you go and sin no more I truly believe you cannot walk in holiness if you don't walk out of guilt into grace you cannot go and sin no more until you embrace the place of grace not as an excuse to stay in sin but as the power to overcome that sin the guilt lies to you and says if you just try harder if you just try harder just try harder make new year's resolutions but to see the problem with guilt is it doesn't move a finger to help you the grace doesn't tell you to try harder the grace says train differently I'm your trainer I'm your help I will help you in your weaknesses according to Romans chapter 8 I will help you if you just show up to the gym come into my presence I will help you but Lord I've fallen more than I get up I'm gonna help you we're gonna overcome you're not a sinner trying to become righteous you're a righteous person fighting sin I got you that's the grace grace doesn't slap you when you fall it picks you up when you fall and says come on let's do it again that's grace guilt is not like that guilt eats you alive it first promises this thing that you're gonna do better and better but then it slaps you punishes you it's like a pharaoh's taskmaster make bricks but we will not give you straw we won't help you it's try harder and harder and harder and some of you came from religious churches where exactly that was preached and that was presented and you're tired and you're sick and tired of religion because of that and I'm sorry that the gospel and the power of the Holy Spirit wasn't presented to you but here at hungry jen we believe in the power of holiness but that holiness comes from the Holy Spirit it comes from us being trained by the power of the grace of God we can run to the bloodstain cross and receive help in the time of need because our God our Savior He doesn't just save us He stays with us can somebody say amen lastly that is number five feeling to feeding in order to walk in intimacy with God you must understand that you must shift your life from trying to feel God's presence to trying to feed yourself and God's word from feeling to feeding David Watson said all scripture but no no spirit we will dry up all spirit and no scripture we will blow up both spirit and the scripture we grow up come on somebody touch your neighbor say we need to grow up if you're walking in an intimacy with God you will experience season when you you will experience seasons you don't feel God it's going to be normal this is what you want to do when you no longer feel the spirit feed yourself on the scriptures feed yourself on the scriptures one of the greatest signs that you're walking in intimacy with God is when God starts speaking through his word starts feeding you through the scriptures now I'm going to present something for those of you who are new to Christian faith and maybe a lot of this is kind of strange still I'm going to give you an example the bible may seem boring you see this rice it's uncooked rice if you eat this rice and I have a lot of it here I'm not going to demonstrate it you know I will eat it pretty hard it's not fun so some of you you come to church you see the people read the bible you're like why would you want to read the bible this thing is so hard I get you why uncooked rice a bible is uncooked rice to somebody who doesn't know the holy spirit it has the power to feed you but it won't feed you because you gotta be cooked now here I have cooked rice and this is what feeds you now this tastes different how is the same rice is so hard this in here and you're so good here how can the same book for one person it feeds them lights them up and the other person's like dude boring maybe it's not the book that's the problem I'm gonna share something with you in the new testament the bible uses two words for the word one is called logos somebody say logos and the other one is called reyma somebody say reyma now some of you know somebody whose name is reyma that's different logos now it's greek two greek words we'll give you just a little bit of theology logos is the message reyma is the communication of the message let me give you what logos logos reyma same thing the message the communication of the message logos is the scripture as a whole reyma is the portion of the scripture cooked by the holy spirit to feed you in your situation are you with me logos is what god said reyma is what god is saying right now see this is what god said but this is what god is saying and is feeding my spiritual life but it's the same book logos is the written word of god it's the basis of my faith it's the foundation for my doctrinal belief meaning I don't get cooked rice from some other rock I get cooked rice from this uncooked rice logos the written word of god is the foundation of my faith it's the foundation of my doctrinal belief but reyma is god's spoken word it has heaven's approval to move in the supernatural in my life I want you to rise to your feet reyma imparts life in john 6 63 look at the screen behind me it says it is the spirit who gives life the flesh prophets nothing the words that word there is reyma somebody say reyma the words I speak to you are spirit and life meaning this word quickened by the holy spirit begins to spiritually feed you the reyma imparts faith so when faith comes by hearing and hearing bar there what's the word reyma of god meaning it's god quickening the word that you read and making it cooked rice it begins to feed you it begins to impart faith to you the other person reads the same book and says the most boring book in the bible who wants to read about a guy gave birth to a guy first chapter of book of matthew why would you want to read those names I mean this stuff is so outdated this stuff is so old and everything you can say exactly same thing about rice but when you cook that rice it begins to feed you the bible says the word reyma quickened by the holy spirit as you read it begins to impart faith begins to impart life it feeds you Jesus says no man shall live by bread alone but by every word and that original language there is reyma somebody say reyma that proceeds from the mouth of god it cleanses us that he might sanctify you and cleanse her with the washing of by the word that word there is reyma somebody say reyma peter is fishing all night couldn't catch anything it's a master we have toiled all night and caught nothing nevertheless at your word somebody say reyma meaning at your reyma i will let down the net and the helmet take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit which is the word reyma of god so what does this mean my intimacy with god happens when i'm intentional it will never happen automatically my intimacy with god will happen when i heed the conviction and i reject the condemnation my intimacy with god grows when god deals with something i don't hide it justify it minimize it blame other people i take ownership and i bring that to the light i don't hide it my intimacy with god grows when instead of living in guilt and shame punishing myself feeling sorry for myself i step out of that place to the blood of jesus and i live in god's grace where god's grace is the best trainer in the world god trains me in godliness now my intimacy with god also really gets strengthened when i go to my time with god and the holy spirit quickens this word if you have a bible at home this is what you have you have rice i'm gonna tell you one thing about this rice it will not feed anybody if it stays in the bag a bible on a shelf will never change your life but when you open this up and you put it into your heart and you invite the holy spirit as a holy spirit quicken this he starts cooking it and the words cause start jumping out of the page and he will say god spoke to me somebody will read this saying no he didn't i don't see these words that they're like i don't understand but what you're describing is cooked rice what they're looking at is uncooked rice you're experiencing the reima they're simply reading the logos that's why you can have a phd in the bible and never be born again the same way as you can have a rice factory and die out of starvation because it's not about having it on the shelves it's about the holy spirit quickening it and feeding you imparting faith giving you breakthrough and you live your life in intimacy with god because god spoke you followed and he became alive amen i want to give an opportunity to anybody in this room today who first and foremost maybe has lost their intimacy with god maybe you have fallen into sin you're a christian and you stopped praying you stopped seeking god's face just look at me you stopped living a disciplined life you just kind of drifted you really drifted you drifted now you don't even sense the holy spirit's conviction you kind of find yourself living in shame and guilt you find yourself today honestly no longer confessing your sin barely reading the word and if you do read it's more not of guilt and not of desire really no hunger just kind of feel guilty say like yeah i'll read some so god will put a mark in there and stop bothering me i want to invite you to repent now in this moment i will not ask you to come to the front i'm gonna ask you to come to yourself the bible says a prodigal son came back to himself and said i'm gonna go to my father's house as i was speaking the holy spirit was highlighting one specific things that you needed to do do them for some of you it's too fast or some of you it's to pray some of you to repent or some of you is to put the bible on your night stand and put the phone in the office or some of you he was just highlighting this one specific things do those things and he will keep on leading you and guiding you and i'm gonna pray for you right now just put your hand on your heart say this with with me say holy spirit i desire to draw near to god say i make a decision to come closer to god in this next season to put prayer as number one priority put the bible as most desired book confess my sin and live in god's grace train me holy spirit to be holy as you are holy i give you my heart i give you my life what i am weak give me grace to be strong in jesus name now i want to invite those people in this room maybe your first time in hungry jet you don't know jesus as your lord and savior or maybe this is your second and third time and you do not have a relationship with god you consider yourself probably a very good person or at least better than than the people that you don't like you probably have some religious background meaning the whole religion jesus christ is not something you've never heard before most likely your parents drag you to a catholic church and you were confirmed as a child maybe even got baptized when you were some few days old but when it comes to knowing jesus as your best friend you don't know him it's kind of like you know a lot about joe biden but if you show up at his house you will get arrested and put in jail so you know a lot about god but when you die and go to heaven you're going to be pretty much thrown into the lake of fire because god will say i have no idea who you are meaning there's no intimacy there's no relationship today he's inviting you to have a relationship with him maybe you are here you're not in that category but you're in the category where everything i described you're like i know this i've been to the camp got the t-shirt in fact i was the leader at the church one time but dude if i tell you stuff that happened stuff at church that happened the dramas i was exposed to my dad maybe was a pastor and man did this whole thing i've seen the ugly side of it you've seen the human ugly side of it today i want to invite you to come back to jesus not to the church drama to jesus to come back to him maybe your prodigal son and daughter and you know what that word means prodigal walked away drifted so far out that you lost you're not an accident and hungry gent today in first and second century the holy spirit is drawing you quietly it's not gonna pull you it's not gonna drag you yelling and screaming like your parents dragged you to church because you're not gonna do that it's gonna gently draw you probe on your heart and say he's actually talking to you right now now you can quickly say oh no this is emotional manipulation i'm not gonna do this or you can say holy spirit i'm gonna say yes to jesus