Speaker 1: 0:00

Well, I have a question for you today. If you could ask God for just one thing, what would it be? What would it be? Now you can't say well, if I can ask God just for one thing, I'm going to ask God for more wishes. He's not a genie, okay, no, no. But maybe you would say, if I can ask God for one thing, I would ask Him to help me win the lottery. That's a good one. Maybe, if you can ask God for one thing, this is what I would ask. I would ask God if you can make junk food healthy and healthy food not healthy. That would be good. Right, come on, that'd be a miracle. Maybe you ask for an unlimited amount of money on a Chick-fil-A gift card. That would be cool.

Speaker 1: 0:43

Some of you might go deeper, though. Some of you might ask God to heal someone that you love, either physically or mentally. Maybe you ask God to save a broken marriage. Maybe you ask God to bring someone you love back to knowing God. Maybe you'll ask God to help you finally break that addiction that you just cannot seem to shake. Or if you could ask God one thing, maybe you'll ask God to heal you from the overwhelming amount of anxiety that you have in your life. Whatever it would be, what would you ask God? Now, it's a very interesting question, because what you ask for reveals what you value the most, what you're really looking for.

Speaker 1: 1:24

And today we're going to look at King David. And here's the thing about King David Sometimes, when I read about him, he seems larger than life. Right, he seems bigger than life. He's killed a giant. I haven't done that before. He wrote some psalms, which are songs. I've tried to do that. He defeated nations.

Speaker 1: 1:42

But I want to show you today that you have more in common with David than you might realize, especially when it comes to decision making. When it comes to decision making, because, just like you, he had good intentions, but, just like me, he did not always make the best decisions. And so, when we look at King David's life, it's clear that he valued family, but time and time again, he avoided conflicts and uncomfortable conversations which led to bad things in his family life. We see throughout that he wanted to please God, but he also gave into temptation. Regularly, his family fell apart. One of his sons made reckless, destructive choices. Another one of his sons betrayed him and led on a full-blown revolt to try to kill him and you thought you had family problems. But here's the part I want to encourage you. With all of David's failures, with all of his flaws, with all of his mistakes, with all of his ups and downs, the Bible describes David as a man known for being after God's own heart, being someone who was passionate about the things of God. Some people, here you go. So here you go In this message series.

Speaker 1: 2:55

Think Ahead. We're going to learn about decision making and, let's be honest, all of us want to make good decisions. I never met anyone that says I just want to make the worst decisions possible. I never met that person. I'm sure they're out there, but here you go. But this is what we all know. Some of you none of you, though other people from other church that don't go to this church, those people, sometimes they eat more than what they should, right, but not us. Some people none of us, though people who go to another church. They may spend more than what they make. Not us, though. Some people, none of us people who go to another church, say things or do things they shouldn't do, don't we all do these things? We all do these things, and here you go. So, instead of waiting to make decisions later on, when we may not be at our best, when we might be tired or we might be emotional or have other things going on. We're going to think ahead. We're going to pre-decide on the things that we want to do and we're going to be people that are intentional about our lives. Okay, so today, to kick it off, we're going to talk about what we're going to pre-decide on today is this how to spend daily time with God, because this is one of the most important things that we do. How we spend time with God can shape and form all of our lives. So we're going to talk about how do we pre-decide to spend daily time with God.

Speaker 1: 4:21

David, with all of his shortcomings, with all of his mistakes, he pre-decided to prioritize intimacy with God. Now, my friend and spiritual director, amy Heilman, describes intimacy with God as this into me. You see, I love that. I love that. Into me. You see, like, can we get honest today?

Speaker 1: 4:44

How scary is it to think that God can see into us, that God knows everything about us. And here's actually where the beauty of God is. Here, it's that God knows everything that we are, everything that we do, every problem, every doubt every concern. He knows all of us and he loves us anyways, and he cares for us anyways. And to me, you see. Now, why should we though? Why should we go after God? Why should we desire closeness with God? Because here's the thing you don't drift into closeness with God. You'll never just accidentally be close to God.

Speaker 1: 5:22

You know, I've been in ministry for over 15 years now and I never once heard someone say man, I was just binge watching Netflix, just like binge watching, and scrolling on my phone at the same time, and then, in the process, man, I just fell in love with God. It was just so good. You know, I never heard that story. I never heard someone, when they're in traffic yelling at people, flipping the bird, saying, all of a sudden, while I was doing that, the fruit of the Spirit just came upon me. I was just so gentle, all of a sudden, patient, self-controlled.

Speaker 1: 5:56

No, it doesn't happen that way, does it? It doesn't happen like that. No, you know, but because there is no such thing as intimacy without intentionality. There's no such thing. And here you go. We're smart people, you're smart people. You know this. You know this in your marriage, you know this in your friendships, you know this with your relationship with your kids. You just don't accidentally have a close relationship with someone without intentionality behind it. We all know this. And the same is true with God. You'll never be close with God on accident. You'll never just fall into a good, close, personal relationship with God. It takes intentionality to experience intimacy with God. And so if we ask David, if we ask King David, if God could do one thing for you, what would he say? What would he say? Well, we know, because the Psalms tell us. Check this out.

Speaker 1: 6:45

Psalm 27 says this one thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek. Now, before I tell you what he says, let me tell you what he didn't say. He didn't say. This one thing I seek from the Lord is that I may be the happiest person to ever live. Happiness doesn't always equal purpose, just to let you know. Because what happens? Since I said that? Because what happens is sometimes we confuse the American dream with the gospel. Sometimes we think, oh, the pursuit of happiness, well, that's what God wants for us. No, god wants us to be happy, but he wants us to be purposeful too, and so sometimes being purposeful means you sacrifice your happiness for the greater good of someone else.

Speaker 1: 7:30

Anyways, I can get on a tangent on that one, but anyways. So here you go. So one thing he says. He says one thing I seek from the Lord that I may have more money than anyone else. He didn't say that. He didn't say that I would have a bigger palace with better countertops and a nice backsplash. He didn't say that. No, but this is what he did say.

Speaker 1: 7:49

He said the one thing I ask from the Lord. This only do I seek that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple. Man, there's one thing I ask above anything else is that I may be in the presence of God, that I may experience the glory of God, that I may dwell in His beauty, in His temple. If God would give me one thing, if God would give, if he would do that, if I could be close with Him, if I could be intimate with Him, if I could hear His voice and allow His Spirit to direct my steps. Now, this is something that I do, okay.

Speaker 1: 8:32

Something that I do personally is that I always try to prioritize my time with the Lord First things. I call it the principle of first things, and I'm going to tell you why I do it, though. The reason why I try to prioritize my time with the Lord is this is this because I am desperate for God's presence. I'm desperate for God's presence. I'm desperate for God's presence. I'm desperate for God's presence. I remember when I was 15 years old and gave my life to the Lord. To this day, my desperation for God hasn't changed. I'm desperate for His presence, and I'm desperate, right now, for God's presence. I'm desperate in this moment, for more of God Because I need His comfort, I need His strength. I need His comfort, I need His strength, I need His power, I need His wisdom, I need His word directing my steps.

Speaker 1: 9:14

And here you go, to be fully transparent the reason why I'm desperate for God is because there's so many parts of my life where I still struggle. There's so many parts of my life where I still haven't figured it all out yet. I still need His grace. Here you go. I get angry too quickly. I still haven't figured it all out yet. I still need his grace. Here you go. I get angry too quickly. I still carry the weight of other people's burdens.

Speaker 1: 9:35

Very often I struggle with workaholism still. Sometimes I'll catch myself working over two, three weeks in a row without taking a real day off. And I still struggle, guys, with the pressure to perform. You know, and I still struggle, guys, with the pressure to perform, because even though I try so hard, people pleasing is something I still struggle with. Now I share that with you, not for you to feel bad for me, not feel sad for me, but it's for me to say I can't do this on my own. I can't live this life on my own. I am desperate for the presence of God. I am desperate for more of God in my life.

Speaker 1: 10:13

You know, david, david was like this. David was like this. He said one thing I ask for I want the presence of God, because when you look at his life over and over and over again, even in the blessings of running the kingdom, he was desperate for the presence of God. I'll give you an example of it. In Psalm 63, commentators tell us that he was most likely in the wilderness, hiding, running from his son. And imagine this if your son wanted to kill you and he's leading an army to come after you, that's some crazy stuff and this is what he writes in this moment. He says this. He says, man, that's intimate, that's some intimate talk that's desperate, that that I thirst for you, I long for you. Man, that's intimate, that's some intimate talk. That's desperate. I thirst for you, I long for you.

Speaker 1: 11:17

Now, one thing that's kind of interesting. The Bible talks about how we can actually be friends with God. I love that concept that we can be friends with God, which is amazing that a holy God will want to be friends with us. But let's be real, that language that David uses right there, man, that's beyond friendship, that's beyond friendship language. Now, here you go. I got some really good friends, some guys I've known for a long time through the years. But you know, I never talk to them like dog. I seek you. My soul thirsts for you, dog, because I've seen your power when you bench press 225, 15 times Better than life, dude. You know I just haven't had friendships like that, but maybe you have.

Speaker 1: 12:05

But but what he's saying is this what's saying is this this is language of someone that has an intimate relationship with someone. This is language of intimacy. It's intimacy, and here's what, and here's what I want to say to that you may be here today and you think I don't have that kind of connection with God. I don't have this deep intimacy with God. I'm not talking to God about all the different things in my life. You know like I believe in God, but you know I'm not talking to him like that. I'm not talking to him like that. Here's the reason why. There's a reason why we struggle to have intimacy with God. There's a reason why we struggle to have closeness with God and I'll tell you, I'll tell you the reason. Why is this? Because every demon in hell will lie to you Like you may. Jacob, that sounds so intense, dude, that's really like. That's really like you're like.

Speaker 1: 13:00

And you may say well, you know, I don't have a close relationship with God because there's, you know, sometimes I just have too many notifications on my phone, I got too many distractions going on. I mean, my work life is just so crazy, or I got this problem and that's Guys, can I just get honest with this today? Those distractions, those things that keep us from the presence of God, dude, there is an enemy that wants to do everything possible to keep you from pursuing God. There's an enemy that wants you to do everything, everything he can to get you to chase something else other than God, other than going after the presence of God. And this is the truth, and this is what happens that we get so distracted with this thing and that thing and this thing that we miss the very presence of God. And now and this is what happens to a lot of us we may say, well, if I get that thing, then I'll be happy, if I get that relationship, then I'll feel fulfilled. If I have that kid, then I will find my purpose. If I have that job, then I will be good.

Speaker 1: 14:00

And you get that thing, and you have that thing, and it does fill your heart up for a season, only for you to be left unsatisfied a little later season, only for you to be left unsatisfied a little later. And here's the truth, guys. There is a God-sized void in all of us that only God can satisfy. And you can try to search for this thing and that thing and that thing, but until you say, god, I'm desperate for your presence, I'm desperate for who you call me to be, I'm desperate for more of you, you will always come up a little bit short. You'll always be looking and hoping. Maybe this next thing. Maybe that's the thing until you get that thing, and it's good for a season, but then it leaves you dry. But then it leaves you dry. Can I be honest today? Lbc. And so here you go.

Speaker 1: 14:54

That's what we have to pre-decide. We have to pre-decide I'm going to choose attentionality, I'm going to choose faithfulness, I'm going to choose consistency, I'm going to choose intimacy with God and I'm going to prioritize putting God first Before I do anything else. I'm going to spend daily time with God and I'm going to prioritize putting God first Before I do anything else. I'm going to spend daily time with God. You may say, jacob, that sounds hard. Well, life is hard, Life is hard and we need God first. Life is too hard for God to be second. Life is too hard for God to be third or fourth, or our Sunday thing we do every once in a while and I'm losing my voice Like King David.

Speaker 1: 15:40

I'm desperate, and this is where the principle of first things come in. If you're new to church or new to God or not, or whatever, I challenge you this week put God first, wake up, and the first thing you do, spend daily time with God. It will change the trajectory of your week, guarantee it, guarantee it, he go. But I'm also. I'm desperate for His presence, but I'm also desperate for His word. I'm desperate for His word. See, here you go. Why do I need his word? This is one thing.

Speaker 1: 16:06

This is one that Aaron and I my wife Aaron and I we've been married for going on 11 years now, which is awesome. And something that has been really cool that's kind of just happened within the last year or so is that we've really been talking to each other. It's awesome, like now, we talked to each other before, but we've been really talking to each other recently and it's been great, you know. And so we have this little schedule we made that we have intentional time to talk, because the temptation and I get it, the temptation is, after a long day of work, after messing with your rugrats all day after, what you want to do is just what crash on the couch and binge watch a show right, and there's nothing wrong with doing that every once in a while. But Aaron and I said we want something different. We want something different.

Speaker 1: 16:52

So we made this schedule of intentionally talking to each other so we can hear each other's words, and so what we've done on Sunday nights, Sunday nights, we do a thing called marriage meetings. It sounds really professional but it's not that professional, but we do. We go over our upcoming week and we hit on four things. We hit on appreciations and we say all the things that we appreciate about each other. Hey, hey, spouses, don't assume your spouse knows what you appreciate about them. Say it, say it to them. Then we go over our chores, we plan for fun times, we go over our problems, our challenges, and with problems or challenges, you just pick one. But there in the week we play this question game that we got we want to be better parents. So we actually got this workbook and we go over this parenting book together and we do that one night there in the week. And here you go.

Speaker 1: 17:48

How do I know her and how do I love Aaron? It's because we talk intimately. We talk. It's the words that we exchange that creates the knowledge that leads to intimacy that we have.

Speaker 1: 18:01

How do you get to know God? It's by reading His Word, and I know this sounds real basic, but sometimes we got to get back to the basics word. And I know this sounds real basic, but sometimes we got to get back to the basics. I know it sounds, because what I'm saying is here. We need to be desperate for His presence, meaning we got to pray and seek God, and then we got to be desperate for His word, meaning man. We got to open up our Bibles and read it and read it. I know it sounds old school good, because check this out.

Speaker 1: 18:28

This is what King David says. He says the instructions of the Lord are perfect, reviving the soul. The decrees of the Lord are trustworthy. The commandments of the Lord are right, bringing joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are clear, giving insight for the living. They are more desirable than gold and they are sweeter than honey. Come on, winnie the Pooh. David says this is the Word of God and this is what I want you to see.

Speaker 1: 18:54

When you can't sleep and it's 2 am in the morning and you're stressing, anxious, thinking about something that happened in your life, that's when you quote the Word of God. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation where prayer and petition, I make my requests known to God and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard my heart and my mind and my soul in Christ Jesus, when you're wearing down and you don't feel like you can go on. You quote the Word of God Do not grow weary in doing good, for at the proper time I will reap a harvest. Whenever you're afraid and there's something coming at you, you begin to preach the Word to yourself. You say my God has not given me a spirit of fear, but of power and love and a sound mind. When you're hurting and your loved one is sick, you run to God, who says he is your refuge and your strength, your ever-present help in times of trouble.

Speaker 1: 19:54

You got to start preaching the Word of God Because here's the thing. Here's the thing. Here's the thing Because if we ain't preaching the Word of God to ourselves, we preaching what social media trying to tell us to preach to us. We preaching what all the TikTok counselors are trying to tell us to preach to us. We preaching what all the TikTok counselors are trying to tell us to do. But I'm going to hold myself to the Word of God, which hasn't failed, and it won't start with me. I'm desperate for His Word. I'm desperate for His Word. I'm desperate for Him. And then the last thing, the last thing, because we got baptized on people up in here today. The last thing, the last thing, because we got baptized on people up in here today. The last thing you may be wondering why there's a jacuzzi up in here. That wasn't for me. Last thing I'm desperate for God's church, I'm desperate for the local church. I'm desperate, for I want you to see how desperate David was.

Speaker 1: 20:50

He says I rejoice with those who said to me let us go to the house of the Lord. Notice, he didn't say I rejoice when you say let's sleep in. He didn't say I rejoice with those who say I'm a Christian but I don't need church. No, no, no. He said I rejoice with those who said let us go to the house of the Lord, let us go together as the body to worship the goodness of God. Why? Because God is good, because God is worthy of praise and because we need each other. And I want you to get this. Sometimes. Sometimes I need to experience God through you. I need to experience. One of the best ways I can experience God is through you. It's through your words and your encouragement and your life and coming together, sharing life together. That's why I'm desperate for this, I'm desperate for this church. I'm desperate for the church.

Speaker 1: 21:45

And notice how Jesus teaches us how to pray. What does he say? He says our Father in heaven. He doesn't say my Father. See, because this individualistic approach to spirituality again is confused with the American dream. In the gospel, throughout scriptures, you see that it's always about community. It's always about coming together, about unity and diversity, and coming together and sharing each other's burdens. He says our Father in heaven. This is how he teaches us to pray, this is how Jesus teaches us. And I'm thinking here you go, and I was thinking the other day. Almost every blessing in my life I can trace back to God's faithfulness through the local church Almost every one, actually, I can trace back to God's faithfulness through the local church Almost every one. Actually, I can't really think of one. I don't have one.

Speaker 1: 22:33

For example, when my family and I went to Vineyard Community Church, you know, down in Virginia Beach and then my brother and I started to go to the youth program there I gave my life to Jesus. Then I started to learn how to connect to God through the church and then through the church I got mentors and pastors in my life. Through the church I started to find my purpose. Through the church, leaders begin to call out my leadership. People in the church helped me pass my GED test. Come on somebody. That was a miracle. People in the church. People in the church got my brother and me a townhouse to help us get a jumpstart on life.

Speaker 1: 23:06

When I made some pretty bad decisions and they were bad the church rallied behind me. The church rallied behind me and the church helped me get into counseling and find freedom from an addiction that almost derailed my life. And then, in the process of the local church, I met this girl named Sarah and she asked me to start praying for her sister to know Jesus. And I said, yeah, I'll pray for your sister. Little did I know I was praying for my future wife. Come on somebody. Then I met my wife in church. We got pre-marriage counseling in church. We got married in the church. Come on, now. We started our own church and now my kids go to church and my daughter is telling me about the Bible because of what Miss Gina is teaching her in kids' church. And then today my daughter is getting baptized right here in the church.

Speaker 1: 24:01

And I'm just telling you guys, I'm telling you there's some bad stuff that happens and media likes to hype up all the things that these pastors do. But media also forgets to recognize the pastors and the leaders that grit and grind every week to see the local church mobilized and the local church bring hope to people, to change lives and to do something great. And LVC, we just started, we just getting going up in here and I'll tell you this I'm desperate for his church because I know there's everyday people like you and like me who need the hope and the freedom and the joy of the gospel that everyday people can learn how to become Jesus followers. And when that happens, everything changes. Everything changes. Families change, communities change, schools change. There is hope. So I'm desperate. I'm desperate for it.

Speaker 1: 25:14

So King David says this the righteous are planted in the house of the Lord and they will flourish in the courts of our God. So you can pre-decide today. You can pre-decide to have intimacy with God, you can pre-decide to spend time in His Word and you can pre-decide to experience His presence through His body called the church. And so that's what we're going to do. We're going to pre-decide and we're going to seek Him today, Because you're never going to have intimacy without intentionality, because, whether you know it or not, you're desperate for him. You're desperate for him and he is desperate for you, so desperate that he sent his one and only son to live a life we couldn't To die, a death we deserved. But three days later he got back up again. And so can you? Come on, let's pray.

Speaker 1: 26:18

God, jesus, holy Spirit, we thank you for your love, we thank you for your goodness and your favor and we say have your way. Maybe you're in here today and one of those three things really stuck out to you that you know you want to be desperate for his presence, that you want to be desperate for his presence, that you want to be desperate for his word and for his church. That's you just right, where you are. Begin to receive that. Say God, help me be desperate for more of you. Help me lay down the idols. Help me lay down the things that I think are going to help me, but they never do. They always leave me wanting more. Help me lift you up, lord. Come, holy Spirit. Ask for the Holy Spirit saying he's not done with you yet he's not done. Come, holy Spirit. We are not in a rush. We say more of you, lord, more of you.

Speaker 1: 27:56

You may be in here today and you don't know this Jesus I'm talking about, and you want to make a decision to trust Jesus with your life again, I just want to count to three and ask you to toss a hand up in the air. I'm not going to call you out. Have you come up front? Nothing like that. I just want to see who I'm praying for. If that's you, if you want to make a decision to trust Jesus for the first time in your life, on three, just toss your hand up in the air. One, two, three. Bless you. Bless you. Thank you, lord, just right, where you are, you can say this prayer with me out loud or you can say it in your heart. You can say Jesus, forgive me for my sins, make me new Today. I trust you in my life Today. I follow you In Jesus' name. Amen, amen. Let's give God some praise in here today.