The Nearness of God

Well, if you want to open up your Bible to Philippians chapter 4, That's where we're gonna be talking. Before we get into the passage of scripture though, I just wanted to take a second and express this is really an enjoyable thing for me to be able to come and share this, scripture with you guys this morning, especially here at Cornerstone, because it's been such just a meaningful place for me. And, I know even just, just being with you here today and seeing the relationships that God has given to me here at Cornerstone, it was just a really amazing thing and I, and I value those relationships.

and then even being able to be a part of and learn from, men like Pastor Milton and Pastor Mike and Pastor Carlos.

this has been an instrumental time in my life and I feel like I've learned so much here, and grown so much as a person, from the pastors and from each one of you guys, just picking up pieces along the way in both spiritual and practical ways. And, so as I come to the end now of, of seminary and look at closing out this chapter of my life, it's really meaningful to just be with you guys, looking at scripture, and doing that together. So, I hope that it'll be a, a, a blessing to all of you guys as we look at that.

if you, if you want to look there at Philippians 4, we're gonna look at verses 4 through 7.

And it says Rejoice in the Lord always. I again, I will say rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is near.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God. And the peace of God, which is better than all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Would you pray with me? God, I'm thankful for this, passage of scripture.

I'm thankful for the opportunity to be here at Cornerstone today. I'm thankful for the opportunity to, to opportunity to listen to what you have to say to me and to all of us this morning through what you've spoken in this letter to the Philippians. And God, would you please use this time to speak into our hearts. God, convince us of the realities that we read in this passage.

We need to hear from you. God, we could, we could spend the next 45 minutes talking. And it would be useless. It'd be a waste of each one of our time, unless it's by your spirit that we hear what you have to say to us.

So God, please use my words, please use this time together, speak into our hearts, convince us of your nearness. And we trust you to do that work that we are not able to do on our own. And we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

So the sermon that I'm gonna preach this morning is not the sermon that I wanted to preach this morning. I talked to Pastor Milton, about a month and a half ago, we were talking about, April 26th and we're talking about possibly preaching. He said, so what would you want to preach about? And I said, prayer.

It's been on my heart a lot. I've, I, I'm just always thinking about prayer and I've, I've been working on that in my own life and I, so I said, yeah, absolutely. I'd want to share that with everybody else because that's what's on my heart. And, so Pastor Milton said, OK, great.

What passage? I said, Philippians 4 because it's a go to for me. This is a, this is a passage that's been very meaningful to me, so of course I'm gonna turn there. And so, Pastor Milton acquiesced and he said, OK, you can preach on Philippians 4 on April 26th.

So we set it up and, and I started studying Philippians 4, you want to make sure that you've got a good read on what you're gonna preach on and hopefully, you, what you're saying. And as I, as I did that, I started, reading more and studying and meditating, translating it. the passage for me, if you're like me, it's a familiar passage, right? it, it's a familiar passage to you and it always starts with, do not be anxious, right?

So, I, I go there and just, just like usual, do not be anxious, but in everything by prayer and petition, and I kept studying that. But, but my mind kept turning just a little before that to four little words. You see it in, in your Bible there, 4 little words, the Lord is near. And it kept coming to mind, kept coming to mind as I was thinking about the morning and, and I, I spent more time thinking about that.

Why, why does he have it there? And if you'll notice, look in your Bible, it says, the Lord is near semicolon. Right? It's not the Lord is near, period.

The Lord is near, semicolon and those of you English experts out there know semicolon means, let me rephrase this a little bit, let me explain this a little bit. This is a continuation of thought. It's not separated by a period, it's, let's continue this thought. So as I kept looking at that, I thought, man, that's a, that is a game changer.

That changes what this passage says. the same elements are still there, but that is, that is a very important element to look at. And that's what Paul says The Lord is near, so don't be anxious, pray and experience peace. Now, obviously I wanna, I wanna look a little more into that and see what exactly that means.

So, what we're gonna do is we're, we're gonna talk a little bit about the nearness of God and then on your handouts or if you wanna jot down notes, we're gonna talk about three responses to the nearness of God. Three responses to the nearness of God. But first, we gotta take a look at that nearness and see exactly what does that mean. Now, Paul uses this word in goose, you see that in Greek there, several times in his letters and if you're like me, you hear it and you just think of a goose, right?

There you kids in the audience, you can draw a picture of a goose on your notes. But it does, it's not a bird that he's talking about but it is nearness. Paul uses that same word in goose which is near. In Ephesians 2, that's like a, a good go to passage to say what does it mean?

And he talks about Gentiles, those of us who are not part of Israel, he talks about Gentiles being far off and we were brought near. So, and then in several other places, when, when Paul used that word, he's talking about physical and relational proximity. He's saying nearness in that way. And so that's what he says right here is, is he's talking about the nearness of God.

Now, as I think about that nearness. Then I, I personally have to think about what does it mean that God is near to me. If you're, if you're like me, a, a lot of times it's easy to understand God as high and lifted up and exalted. Like you think of God as, as sovereign or in control of everything that we see in nature, outside.

and you see, see God as this distant being and that's, that's the easier way for me to see him. I think that's more natural. And think of God as near is a little bit hard for me. so even this passage, it's interesting that, that God would even point this out in the passage and say Lord is near because it's not natural for me.

That is, that is a message to me to think about God's nearness. So, what, what I wanna do here is we're gonna spend the first part of the morning talking about that nearness. Like what does that mean? What does that look like?

How has he expressed that previously in the Bible? and then once we do that, we'll talk about those three responses, OK? So that's the, the, the roadmap for what we're gonna do. And in order to do that, we have to set the stage.

Who is it that we're saying is near to us, right? So I'm gonna read this passage that's from Isaiah 40 and this is gonna express what person it is that's, that we're talking about being near to us, OK? Isaiah 40 describes God and God's power in this way. Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand?

Who has marked off the heavens with a span, enclosed the dust of the earth, earth in a measure and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance. Who has measured the Spirit of the Lord or what man shows God counsel? Whom did he consult and who made him understand? Who taught him the path of justice.

And taught him knowledge and showed him the way of understanding. Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket and are accounted as dust on the scales. Behold, he takes up the coastlands like fine dust. This is the God that we're talking about when Paul says the Lord is near.

And it's important for us to say, this is the same one. This is not a small person. This is not a small being. This is not like a, a weak person cowering in a corner.

This is a strong man, the one who creates the universe and spins the heavens into being. That's the one that we're talking about here when, when Paul starts this, this section. Now to get a picture beyond that of, of that nearness of God, we have to say, so how has God expressed his nearness previously? you, you might be in a, in a situation in life where it's a strong place in life, where, where you feel like you're in a, in a good place, things are going well, you've got plans and goals.

And God expresses his nearness to people in those situations in, in history and in the Bible too. I'm, I'm gonna run through just a few scriptures. I'm gonna, I'm gonna show these passages right. Right here and I'm going to list a few more.

I should have two columns there. I guess I have 11 missing. And this is just a list of places where we see God expressing his nearness or closeness, OK? So you can feel free to jot down this, these scriptures if you want to go and refer to them later.

I'm gonna go through just a few of these. God expresses nearness to Joshua, as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you. Be strong and courageous.

He says that again in Joshua 1:9. In Deuteronomy 1:29. God says, do not be in dread or afraid of them. The Lord your God, who goes before you will himself fight for you.

In Deuteronomy 31:6, God says, Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them. For it is the Lord your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.

Hebrews 13:5-6. Isaiah 41:10. Fear not, for I am with you. Do not be dismayed.

I am your God. The list goes on and on, talking about God even in that, that position of strength, that God is with you, and that he is near to you. You also might be in a place of weakness right now in life, and this might be a vulnerable stage in life. And to you, God also communicates his nearness.

Psalm 73:28 says, but as for me, the nearness of God is my good. I have made the Lord God my refuge that I may tell of all your works. Psalm 145:18 says, the Lord is near to all who call on Him. And Psalm 34, this is, this is one that I think that speaks most poignantly.

Psalm 34, jot this down if you have a pen and paper. Psalm 34:18-19. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted. And saves the crushed in spirit.

One expression of that nearness beyond just looking at these verses, didactically and just listing them out. We see a nearness in Jesus, don't we? The fact that Jesus chose to take on human form, Philippians 2 talks about Jesus humbled himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men. This is the Almighty God of the universe who weighs the nations in the balance.

And he chose to take on a human form. That's pretty humble, right? That's choosing to take on a pretty lowly form. And that's what God did to be near to us.

Not just in physical presence but in experience. You think about that. Like he didn't, he didn't just come in a a human form but he came in an experience to say I'm gonna experience the highs and the lows. I'm gonna experience the mountain tops and the valleys of your human experience.

Charles Spurgeon was talking about this nearness of God being with us. And he, and he said this, I'm gonna, I'm gonna read this quote to you. says, and that's what you have up here on the screen. It says, there is no pain that rends the heart.

I might also say not one which disturbs the body, but what Jesus Christ has been with us in it all. Do you feel the sorrows of poverty? He had not where to lay his head. Do you endure the pangs of bereavement?

Jesus wept at the tomb of Lazarus. Have you been slandered for righteousness' sake and has it vexed your spirit? He said, reproach has broken my heart. Have you been betrayed?

Do not forget that he too had his familiar friend who sold him for the price of a slave. I would add to those statements by Spurgeon. That Jesus lived a lonely life of righteousness. He never experienced love in a marriage or with children.

He was misunderstood by even his closest friends. And he died a miserable death in the midst of unjust accusations and misrepresentations. So let me ask you, What place you're in right now. Are you in the midst of strength?

Are you in the midst of a difficulty? Is there a disappointment or a sorrow or a loss that you experience? And God is with you, right in the midst of that. Several weeks back, I spent a lot of time in Isaiah 53.

I was studying that passage, starts in Isaiah 52:13 and goes through the end of, chapter 53 and it, and it talks about Jesus being the suffering servant and his experience in human life. And I, and I think that's the most vivid picture that we see of God being near to us. And so I just want to read those few verses and, and whatever place you're in, In, life. I just encourage you, even close your eyes and just listen to these verses and the expression of God's nearness to you.

This is Isaiah 53:35. Jesus, he was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And as one from whom men hide their faces. Even at the horror of what he looked like, he was despised and we esteemed him not.

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. We esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted, but he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was a chastisement that brought us peace.

And with his wounds we are healed. That is the nearness of God, not just in being but in feeling. And experience God did as, as Jesus left the earth, remember too that he said, behold, I am with you always. And he said, I will send a helper to be with you forever, the Spirit.

He sent somebody to be near us always in that same manner that Jesus was near us. To always be with us. This is what Paul says. He says the Lord is near.

He is near to you. So respond to that. And that's what we're gonna see in these three responses, responding to the nearness of God, the, the Lord is near, so do this, don't be anxious, pray and experience peace. So the first thing you'll see is response number one.

Do not be anxious. It's very clear, right? I'm not coming up with any, really special wording there. It says it right there in the verse, do not be anxious about anything.

It's an imperative statement and one of two imperative statements in the, in the passage says, don't do this, do this. Don't be anxious, but pray. So we're, we're looking at both of those imperatives or commands, says Paul says, don't do this. Don't be anxious.

It's interesting if you think about anxiety that it's, that it's a, it's like a cousin to fear. fear is an emotional response that we have to a, to a perceived threat. We, we respond to something with fear and anxiety is like an element of that except it tends to be something that's out in the future, right? We start obsessing about that idea and, and we start coming up with these manufactured ideas of what might happen and, and then we get obsessed in our minds going through that possibility.

Anxiety builds up, undue concern or apprehension. Fear, look, and anxiety, both, they look at a situation in life and set that thing up as the most consuming thing in life, right? Like what happens in our mind with that fear and anxiety, it just gets all worked up on that one item and we can't see anything else, right? That takes the focus and basically what it does is it starts telling us what our priority is because we're spending all of our mental energy, all of our efforts into this one place and basically saying this is the most important thing and I'm trying to figure out all the different aspects of that and how I can fix it.

Does that make sense? Do you feel that when you, when you get anxious about things, you, you have that fear? Like that's what's happening in your mind. That's the, and that's the bad thing really about anxiety and fear.

It indicates where we put our trust. When we get anxious and fearful about things, we let that simmer in our hearts and what we're doing is acting practically as if that is the center of the universe and our efforts and thoughts are the center of the universe instead of an all powerful God being able to change circumstances. Do you guys remember the story of Peter when he tried to walk on water? Right, they're, they're in the boat, there's a storm.

Jesus comes to the disciples in the boat, at the point of the storm. He's walking to him, Peter says, let me come out to you. He steps out of the boat and starts walking and he's walking on water, which is pretty ridiculous, right? and he, he starts by walking and then as soon as he starts thinking about the circumstances and says, I'm walking on water.

This is crazy. That's when he starts to think. Because he's looking at the, at the circumstances and not placing his trust in, in Jesus. Interesting factoid.

Do what the most common command is in the Bible? Right? Do not fear. By the hundreds, do not fear.

And the most common accompaniment to that command. I am with you Do not fear, I am with you. We, we already read a bunch of the passages that talk about God being with us, right? but God says it to Isaac, to Jacob, to Moses, to Joshua, Gideon, David, on and on and on and on.

And look at what Paul does. Paul, a Pharisee, an Israelite, picks right up into that theme of the Bible and says, the Lord is near. Don't be anxious. He knows exactly what he's doing.

This is a theme that can't be missed in the Bible. Don't be afraid. The Lord is near. He is with you.

Now, you, I don't. I don't want to be simplistic in this section and say that suddenly all your anxiety is gonna disappear. I know that even here in the room, there are some, there are some significant issues in life. There are some significant challenges.

They are not small things. And you might be in that place in life where you are experiencing that very deep anxiety and fear that just threatens control of your insides. And you're exactly the person that Paul is talking to. No, he's not saying that it's gonna suddenly disappear, but he's saying the Lord is with you.

He is near to you. Matter of fact, Think about it. This is Paul writing to the Philippians. When Paul was in the city of Philippi, he was beaten with rods, imprisoned, imprisoned overnight, and basically kicked out of town.

And then Paul is writing this letter to the Philippians from Rome, where he's in prison again. And let me tell you some of the things that Paul experienced. He experienced countless beatings, often near death. Received 39 lashes 5 times.

He was stoned, he was shipwrecked 3 times. In danger from his own people, in danger from Gentiles. Sleepless, hungry, cold. You want to talk about reasons for anxiety and fear?

Paul had them. The Philippians had them. They had good reasons too because Paul says earlier in Philippians, if you go over into Philippians 2, he says, he says, it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ, you should not only believe, but suffer. Paul says it's coming.

There's no, there, there really is no guarantee in here that our fears won't even come to reality, right? Some of the stuff that we get anxious about and, and get fearful about. It might happen. And it's important that we acknowledge that.

That's not a small thing. Paul isn't saying it's gonna remove these things. The deeper your anxiety, and the more concretely you are willing to stare it in the face. The more you're going to understand and experience the nearness of God.

Let me say that again. The more you see and acknowledge your fears and anxiety, the greater your ability to trust God. If those fears come to fruition, God will still be near. And that is the beauty of his nearness.

Now it's important, I think we do need to insert a footnote about anxiety and thought. Paul isn't saying stop thinking or stop working hard or stop planning to, to resolve difficult situations. He's not saying put that all aside. That's good.

He says earlier on in, in Philippians, he says, straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on towards the goal. So in fighting anxiety, don't think Paul is telling, telling us to stop thinking or working hard. We're responsible in whatever we do to do it all to the glory of God, right? We have to work at that, that takes effort.

So don't think that that Paul is saying set that aside, still keep working hard. And then trust God and recognize that he's near. Response number 2. Always pray.

Paul says, remember, don't do this, don't be anxious. Do this, pray. And he gives a little bit of specific, instruction on how to pray. Now, It's natural thinking of the nearness of God.

It's a natural response then to say pray, right? Pray is like the communication and that's even the word that Paul uses here, that word pray is a a general term of communication specifically to God, not necessarily to anybody else, but that term pray is specifically communication with God. So he's saying communicate. Now, I wanna, I wanna paint a little picture here in our minds.

I'm gonna say, What if, Pastor Milton was with me 24 hours a day, OK? Pastor Milton, and I just pal around together. we go everywhere together, do everything together, and it's this constant, companion, right? Now imagine if we went 24 hours, this next 24 hours, and Pastor Milton is always near to me.

Imagine if we went that entire time and didn't speak a word. Awkward. That's just weird, right? can you imagine doing that and never speaking a word?

Paul is saying don't be weird, pray. If God is near you all the time, interact is normal. Paul gives us even 3 specific kinds of communication inside of that command to pray, right? Do you see that in the verse?

The first thing is just pray, let your request be made known. Do it. But then Also, specifically, make requests, ask God for things. Remember how Jesus said when he was on earth, the Father loves to give, give good gifts to his children.

The interesting thing about that too is when we ask for something, we're acknowledging authority. You notice that? If you ask somebody for something, you're saying you have the ability to do this. And that's an important thing in our minds to, to recognize that if we say, let your request be known and we start asking God, we're saying, God, I know you can affect this.

I know you have the ability to do this. You're also acknowledging that God is near. You're saying, I know you're right here, you see the situation, you have the ability to impact it, you have the ability to make change. So I'm asking you, God, to do this thing.

And God gives even specific, specific instruction on how to do those requests, right? That's, that's a separate sermon, but the things to request even in, in accordance with what God wants to see in our lives. He talks about those things specifically. The other thing that Paul mentions here is Thanksgiving.

Paul doesn't stop at the idea of prayer and specific requests, but also encourages thanksgiving. Verse 6, look at that again, it says, in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, that your request be made known to God. Notice that there's no qualification, like do this or in this situation or that situation, it's in everything, in everything. Give thanks.

in my mind, what happens sometimes with Thanksgiving is it sounds a little bit weak. There's something about it that I, almost feels like it's a weak thing to do. But, but the power of thankfulness is incredible. It has the power to really change your mind and your heart.

that, right? From when you, when, when you give thanks like it does something to you. My wife Shawna and I, have had this game over the years where if one of us is in like a really bad state or just consumed with something or, or worked up about a, a specific issue, the other person asks, tell me what you're thankful for. So we were driving one day to the store.

I was really worked up, just obsessing about this stage of life and, and certain aspects and stuff like that. And I was, I was in a bad mood, foul. And, and Shawna said, what I'm gonna ask you? I said, don't.

Don't do it. I don't want to be thankful. And some of that is Also just the fact that we don't, we don't stop to give thanks. We just don't, we just don't do it.

I, I see inside of myself and my experience two things usually that keep me from going back and giving thanks. First thing is, I assign credit somewhere else. what? Like I, that's just so natural for me.

I, I'll be praying real hard about some project I'm working on or something at either work or in school and, and I, and I'll, I'll look at that thing and And I'll say, God, please help me to accomplish this, do really well. help me to be excellent in it and achieve this thing, thing, whatever that might be. And as soon as I accomplish it, and I do it well, I say, oh yeah, because I worked hard. Of course.

You put in the effort, you get the result, right? And I sign the credit to myself or another, a similar situation is like if somebody I know is sick, like somebody will be sick and you're praying for them and And, and then they go to the doctor, they get a prescription. They start taking the prescription, they get better, and you say, well, yeah, cause they went to the doctor. It wasn't really God, it was the prescription that made him better.

Instead of saying, God gave the prescription. The ability for us to respond to a prescription. 11 Corinthians addresses that particular frame of mind and it says 1 Corinthians 4, you can jot down that reference. It says, what do you have that has not been given to you?

And if you receive it, why do you boast as though you did not receive it? It came from God. That's just shameful that I do that, isn't that? I reassign credit.

Second thing that I see in my heart as, as far as not giving thanks is, and this is a shameful one to admit, it's just plain old laziness? I just, I ask God for a thing, I get really worked up because it's something that I really want, I really wanna see in my life or I really wanna see in a relationship, or I really wanna accomplish. So I pray hard about it. It comes to fruition and then I'm just on to the next thing.

Oh yeah, I got, and this now, let's work on this. Direct your power over to this thing now. And I just never stop and go back and give thanks and assign credit and say, God, you did that. Thank you for that.

That came from you. So, with this particular point, Thanksgiving and the prayer, I, I've got, I've got a particular recommendation on this. How many of you guys, keep prayer journals or something along those lines. those of you that do that, yeah, that's great.

and that's a fantastic exercise for our minds, right? I had a, I had a friend, I've, I've done various things along those lines, sometimes with success, sometimes with failure, over time and I had a classmate. a while back, say, Jonathan, I can keep up with about 2 things a day. If I write down 2 things a day, and then I keep going every day with that method for about 5 days out of the week, I can keep up, and then I go back and I check.

And that's his way of keeping track. Maybe a little more, maybe a little less, but man, I would encourage you guys to do that. What I, what I did after I talked with him about that, I went out and got a journal and just put a line straight down the middle of the page. You, you got a line straight down the middle.

On the left-hand side, I write down the specific thing I'm praying for, 2 things a day. And put the date and then on the other side of the line, every couple of days I go back and I review what I've been praying for and then if God answers it in a particular way, then I write that down in the, in the right hand side of that, of that page and I put the date there. Sometimes God gives it, sometimes he doesn't, but I've got a record of it and I can say, God said no to that, God said yes to that.

God gave this, this is an incredible thing.

And it's a way of making sure that I backtrack and assign credit. So, I encourage you guys the same thing, to grab a journal, it can be real simple, spiral notebook, leather bound journal. Google Docs. I'm obsessed with Google Docs.

You can access that on your phone, your tablet, your computer, anywhere you go. It's a great way to go. Care Group, there you go. OK, so let's look at the 3rd response then.

Experiencing peace. Verse 7 says, and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. This idea of peace seems pretty natural with the context, right? We talked about the nearness of God and God being with you, and this just seems so natural in response to that.

The idea is God is near. Do these things, don't be anxious, pray, and then this is what you get. The peace of God. When we go through challenging times, especially, it's, it's common to ask the question of why, why does God allow this?

Why did this happen to me? Why do I have to go through this challenging time? And information is helpful., for me, I do like to find out more about a situation and learn from it and try to grow from it and say, hey, what could I have done differently and that's valuable, information is valuable. But this verse specifically says the peace of God which is better than All information It's better than all understanding.

will guard your hearts and your minds. If you had all of the information in the world, all of the information about every situation in your life, all of the information of the surrounding factors and the contributing factors that caused this situation, the peace of God would be better. John MacArthur, commented on this idea and said this. When peace is on guard.

The Christian has entered an impregnable citadel from which nothing can dislodge him. The name of the fortress is Christ, and the guard is peace. The peace of God stands guard and keeps worry from corroding our hearts and unworthy thoughts from tearing up our minds. Note what Paul says that this peace will guard.

He says it will guard our hearts and our minds. What's missing? Our bodies Doesn't say he's gonna, it's gonna guard our bodies. We already talked about that, right?

We might have to face those situations. We might be in situations where our body will receive harm for the sake of Jesus, we might be in situations Where we'll experience difficulty and God won't protect that necessarily from the physical, physical harm. He may sometimes but he might not sometimes. But it will guard our hearts and our minds, and that's what's important to keep ourselves directed, right?

That's what keeps us directed and keeping the anxiety and the fear. Away. Now, we're talking about the peace of God here and I, I have to be open with you guys and saying, I can, I tell this to my own heart. I say this, and there are times in life where I've, I've prayed, I've gone to this particular passage and I've said, God, you say don't be anxious and pray and give thanks and that's what I'm doing.

And I'm doing it over and over, and I still am just rocked with anxiety and fear. It's a battle But you have to, we have to stay in that battle. Even just like this last week, there was, there was one night I was up from 2:15 to about 4:30, laying in bed just trying over and over. God, I'm supposed to preach about this on Sunday.

This is ridiculous. I can't even get my act together when I'm on my own. And that's an ongoing battle, right? This is, doesn't say we're gonna be perfect in this, but this is the direction to head.

This is where to go. as, as we kinda wrap these things up, I wanna, I wanna paint a picture for us of what this looks like. So if you got your Bibles handy still, why don't you open up to Isaiah 43. The Lord is near to us and he says, don't be anxious, pray.

Experience peace. And this is a beautiful picture of that, Isaiah 43:133. This promise was specifically originally given to the Israelites, but Now we can through Christ say that we who are far off have been brought near and this is a picture of how God is near to us. Isaiah 43:13 says, but now thus says the Lord, He who created you, oh Jacob, he who formed you, Israel, fear not, for I have redeemed you.

I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. And through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you. And when you walk through the fire, you will not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you, for I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your savior.

So let me wrap up our conversation here and remind us of the three things. As we understand the nearness of God and we see this picture of how God is near to us, don't be anxious. And always pray, communicate that to God. If you can get a journal.

a prayer journal and start recording those things and returning to God with thanks. And then experience the peace of God. we have a decision to make as we, as we hear those things. We have a decision to make reading this passage.

Will we listen to that? Will we say, I want the nearness of God? Will we say, I want to set aside anxiety and I will choose to set that aside and trust God. Well, I decide to pray there are decisions to be made.

As we go on with the rest of the day, the rest of the week, right? And you might be in a place where maybe you're in a progression where you've interacted more and more, and you've, you've learned more and more about God and you're closer and closer to trusting in God and, and wanting that nearness with him. and if you, you, if that is you, if you're in that place of, of getting close to that or if you're, you're a few steps in the process, I'd love to talk with you afterwards, feel free to, come on up.

And, talk about that progression of coming closer and closer to God and making those decisions to trust God instead of yourself or your own anxieties.

I'd love to, I'd love to talk with you about that. But let's, let's go to prayer. And ask God to feel this idea of nearness in our hearts. Now and to help us to respond to that, throughout the rest of this week.

So would you pray with me? God, we're thankful for the time to read your word. And the time to listen to you. And God, I'm just thankful for you pointing out that you are near to us.

And God, we, we want to respond to that nearness. God, in my own life, I want to respond to that. I wanna feel that more, God. I want to understand your nearness and feel your nearness in a practical daily way.

And God, we also want to respond and, and set aside our anxieties and pray and interact with you. And we need help with that, God. I'm bad at, at doing that consistently. We need help to do that consistently to foster that relationship and that nearness with you.

So help us to do that, God. And God, would you use the rest of our time this morning as we worship. And as we, reflect and enjoy just the, the words that we sing about your nearness in this song. God help to cement that into our hearts.

And with the offering as we, as we give what you've given to us back to you, help that to be an expression of enjoying your nearness and So God, we, we lay all these things at your feet, ask you to do the work in our hearts. And we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.