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you got to have your own relationship

you have to make your own choice you

have to go and gather him up for

yourself

you have to taste and see

for yourself how good he is you can

celebrate him in the testimonies of

other people in the experience of other

people till you are blue in the face but

there’s got to come a time where you

decide i’m going to stop sitting on the

periphery and applauding his experience

with other folks you got to decide today

will be the day that i go and gather him

up for myself

years and years ago man my babies were

little

i remember this because i traveled to

memphis on one particular occasion and i

remember this because i was exhausted i

was so tired um you know my kids were

small at the time and i happened to take

this particular trip uh by myself and i

traveled to memphis and i remember being

so excited when the lady picked me up

from the airport that was a part of the

church that i was going to be

ministering at she took me to from the

airport to the hotel it was early

evening i was so glad anybody ever been

glad to just go to bed at 8 pm

i could not wait i laid down in the bed

ready to get a good night of sleep and i

was jolted awake about two o’clock three

o’clock in the morning because there was

a train that went by right outside the

window of our hotel

the conductor of the train was sitting

on the horn as the long train blaze

right outside of the hotel where i was

sleeping i sat straight up in bed sort

of alarmed by the noise went and looked

out of the window and realized that

literally the train tracks were right

there and it was one of those very long

trains with a lot of cars that went

whisking by it took a while for the

train to finally pass by and settle i

tried to go

back to sleep as best i could

lady came back to pick me up that

particular morning because the

conference started i had to be there

very early in the morning so it was

about 6 30 or so anyway that i was gonna

have to get up and get dressed and get

ready for a 7 15 or 7 30 pick up

and so i got in the car and i didn’t

really really say anything no big deal

we had a great day at the conference i

went back to sleep that night thinking

of course that the night before had been

a fluke and that that train wasn’t

coming by again went to sleep about 8 30

9 00 p.m so glad to get a good full

night of sleep but 3 am you guessed it

that train went roaring by right outside

the window i sat straight up in bed not

believing that this was happening again

and i couldn’t even get back to sleep

that night

i couldn’t wait for that sweet lady to

come pick me up the next morning

i sat down in the car and i said so hey

did you know that there is a train

that goes by about three o’clock in the

morning at least the last two mornings

that that i’ve been here that train has

gone by in the middle of the night

woking me straight up out of my sleep

and she had this look of complete horror

and regret written all over her face she

said

i am so sorry i didn’t even think about

the fact that that train goes by because

those of us who live in this community

have grown so used to the sound of the

train

that it doesn’t even occur to us when

it’s passing through anymore

it occurs to me that those of us who

live particularly in this western part

of the world where the presence of god

has been so lavishly given to us we’re

on every street corner we see another

church with a pastor that preaches the

good news of jesus christ where we can

turn on christian radio stations or go

across town to the christian bookstore

where we live as women in a day and age

and generation where there have never

been ever in history so many bible study

resources by women for women what could

it be that we’ve grown so used to the

blessing of the presence of god that

when the train of god’s glory falls when

god’s presence comes and marks and

and permeates our presence that we don’t

even recognize it anymore

that god has so blessed us that we’re

too blessed for our own good

that we don’t see the fingerprints of

god in our lives that when there’s even

just a hint of disappointment or

discouragement or frustration or

irritation in our life that we are

blinded to the fact that even when

things are dark

the light of god’s presence can still be

found if we’ll just open up our eyes

may we never be

desensitized to the presence of god

and if you have your bibles and you want

to look with me at a passage of

scripture i’ll just read it to you that

i want to point out today if you still

you know actually use a bible with paper

pages like i do

or your iphone your ipad any manner of

eyeness is fine in luke chapter 2 there

are a group of people who are about to

be in the presence of god and they’re

not even going to recognize it

i will tell you as you turn to luke

chapter 2 that the author luke wrote

this gospel and recorded these stories

really to show us how to have an

encounter with jesus to not miss him

when his presence is near and by the way

this is our goal as believers this is

the reason why he died on the cross of

calvary so that we could not just know

about him but so that we can encounter

him we’re not just supposed to read in

the old testament about how he divided

the red sea or caused the walls of

jericho to come tumbling down or met

with a man named moses in the form of a

burning bush or showed up as the angel

of the lord in a wine press while a

fearful timid gideon was beating out

wine uh threshing wheat rather in that

wine press we’re not just supposed to

read about others that had an encounter

with jesus we’re not just supposed to

see and applaud and experience the

testimonies of other people they’re

supposed to encourage us to realize that

if regular folks like that can encounter

him so can we

and luke comes along and he writes story

after story in his gospel to show us

that we can have an encounter with jesus

these people that he is writing to and

that he’s writing about we’re in a time

of national decay

there is chaos

happening and swirling around them

morally and socially and you and i can

relate to that because they were not

just in a time of national decay so

are we

our country is in a state of more social

decay and decline than we’ve ever seen

before and the more god is marginalized

and segmented to the periphery of

society the worse things are gonna get

the more he is completely ignored and

disregarded the more we’re going to see

the influx of chaos and destruction but

today i don’t want y’all to worry about

the white house i want to get to your

house

i want to talk about the destruction and

the decay happening maybe underneath the

roof of your own home luke is writing

not just then but now to people who need

a savior

folks who are waiting on a hero to show

up and rescue them

from the plight of their own

circumstances luke was writing to them

but by the holy spirit he is writing to

us today for any of you who are in a

state of decline in some area of your

life where we’re seeing against the

backdrop of darkness this need we have

for the savior to manifest himself for

us to not just know about him from afar

applauding him in the testimonies of

other people but if anybody wants to

experience him themselves than luke is

writing to you

and i want somebody to know this today

that sometimes

sometimes your difficulties are less

about the enemy being against you

and more about god wanting you to show

wanting to show you what it looks like

when he is for you

sometimes it’s about him finally wanting

his daughter’s eyes to be open so that

when he shows up they’re sensitive

enough to see him

luke chapter 2 verse 25

says and behold

there was a man in jerusalem whose name

was simeon

this man was righteous and devout and

looking for the consolation he was

looking for some hope y’all

looking for the consolation of israel

and the holy spirit was upon him

and it had been revealed to him by the

holy spirit that he would not see death

before he had seen the lord’s christ

and he came in the spirit into the

temple

and when the parents brought in the

child jesus to carry out for him the

custom of the law he took jesus he went

over to this couple grabbed this 40-day

old child into his arms and he blessed

god and said now lord you can let your

servant depart in peace because

according to thy word my eyes have seen

your salvation

you have prepared your salvation in the

presence of all the people a light of

revelation the glory of thy people

israel and mary and joseph they were

amazed at the things that were being

said

about their son

jesus christ

here on this occasion mary and joseph

have come into the temple for um the

purification ceremony it was traditional

it was ceremonial that about 40 days

after a baby was born and the

purification process had taken place

that the parents of a new baby would

bring their baby into the temple to

offer specific sacrifices a burnt

offering a sin offering

and just to present their child to the

lord now traditionally when folks came

into the temple they would bring

sacrifices and if you look back into the

book of leviticus the details of those

sacrifices are given they would need to

have a pigeon for a particular sacrifice

they would need to have a lamb for

another sacrifice and there is a caveat

i’m just going to take a little rabbit

trail for a second because i love that

y’all like rabbit trails

there’s a little caveat given in luke

leviticus chapter 12 that says that if

someone is not wealthy enough if they do

not have the resources to actually

purchase a lamb for this sacrifice that

they actually can just bring two pigeons

and i didn’t read all the details here

but a few verses earlier than where we

started in verse 25 it tells us that

mary and joseph come into the temple

with two pigeons or two turtle doves

they they don’t have a lamb which

indicates to us that they have expended

so much of their resources that they are

in a state of poverty at least enough

but they were not able to afford their

own lamb they’ve got two pigeons that’s

all they had to bring on this occasion

as they bring their new baby into the

tabernacle to present him to the lord

they’ve got these two pigeons which

means that when they walked into the

temple people would have looked at them

and recognized them as a couple that was

of ins that had insufficient funds as a

couple that was lacking as a poor couple

they would have been looked down upon

people would have marginalized them

because they did not have the

accoutrements of wealth that everybody

else in the building had

so they did not have a lamb and yet they

have in their possession the lamb that

takes away the sins of the world can i

just say to anybody who is in the room

and you felt like an outcast because you

don’t wear what everybody else wears you

can’t afford to drive what everybody

else drives you don’t have the resources

to live in the neighborhood where

everybody else lives listen my friend

even if you do not have a lamb you might

be in the perfect position to make sure

you have intimacy with the lamb who

takes away the sins of the world

and can i tell you that sometimes it is

our affluence that keeps us from having

the lamb of god in our grasp intimacy

and fellowship with him like never

before

the people that i have met that have

more of an integral intimate ongoing

fervent passionate relationship with

jesus christ they are not the people

sometimes that live in the mansion on

the hill it’s the people in a hut in a

village with thatched roofs and dirt

floors who have in their desperation had

an encounter with jesus christ

and y’all i have met people in third

world countries who pray for us

oh they pray for us they feel bad for us

because they say we pray

anemic self-centered prayers

they listen to our prayers that are so

focused on having more comfort than we

already have we’re in their desperation

they have met with jesus they have seen

him with their own eyes they have been

marked by the presence of god they have

watched god show up in so much splendor

and they want that for us

[Applause]

sometimes when we can afford our own

lamb

it pushes out

the opportunity and the margin that

should be reserved for the lamb

comfortable people

pray anemic prayers

it’s desperation

it’s insufficiency

it’s lack it’s emptiness when you find

yourself in that state where like mary

and joseph you don’t have enough to buy

your own lamb anymore

that might be the perfect setup for your

encounter with the lamb of god

and so they are coming into the temple

with the lamb

he’s in their arms they walk in

to the temple

y’all there at church

there’s a group of people including

religious leaders pharisees and

sadducees that have all gathered around

probably hundreds of people all carrying

their sacrifices that have joined in

on this occasion

and they’ve been waiting all of these

people have been waiting on the messiah

they’ve been waiting for the kingdom of

god to be at hand

they’ve been waiting on a king to ride

in on a white horse and to redeem them

from all that has been lost and how

they’ve lost as a nation they’ve been

waiting for somebody to rescue them from

the oppression of rome they have been

looking for a hero

and the hero comes in

and they do not recognize him

they are at church

and they do not recognize the presence

of god

the reason why is because he has come in

a package

that they do not prefer

he has come in a package that does not

align with their expectations and so

because he does not look like what they

wanted him to look like about what they

had in their own estimation prepared as

the package that would be in their

estimation the best package for the king

to arrive because their circumstance

does not look like and he has not

appeared the way that they prefer they

downplay the messiah when he arrives i

want to submit to you

that jesus is there

in this difficult moment in your

marriage in this trying moment in your

finances in this struggle on your job in

this difficulty in this relationship

you’re rubbing corners with your boss or

your spouse or this struggle you’re

having on your university campus or in

your high school campus this hard time

that you were having he is there he just

may have come in the package you don’t

prefer

and that oftentimes the fingerprints of

god are not recognized not because he’s

not there it is just because the

expectation we have set up about what he

looks like and how he will speak and how

he will move the prayer request the

solution that he will bring doesn’t

align with the prayer requests that we

have prayed we have boxed god into the

way we want him to answer instead of

believing that his ways are not our ways

and his thoughts are not our thoughts as

high as the heavens are above the earth

that’s how high his thoughts are above

our own and so we box god in when we say

lord answer my request in this

particular way do you know

that you limit not god but you limit i

limit our experience of god when we say

lord answer my request exactly this way

i have learned to pray here lord is my

request you said that i can make it

known here’s how i would like to see you

in my circumstance thank you lord that i

can come boldly and make my request

known so i’ve made my request but at the

end of that prayer i’ve learned to pray

lord

do it

or do something better

because do you know there are categories

of options

that our brain doesn’t even know are

available and accessible to us and if we

limit god to what we can think and what

we see as the way we have not even

considered

the categories of opportunity that this

divine holy almighty being has

accessible to him y’all he’s not just

thinking about you he’s thinking about

your children and your grandchildren and

your great-grandchildren and those that

are to come and how his kingdom purposes

are going to be outworked in this

generation

and so on this occasion the messiah

shows up and nobody recognizes him

except somebody say accept

except a guy named simeon

he had been told and promised

just like we have

that he would see

the manifest presence of god he’d been

told it

he’d been promised just like we’ve been

promised because of our relationship

with god through christ jesus and the

holy spirit indwelling us that we will

see the fingerprints of god working in

our lives this is called the manifest

presence of god

it is unique to omnipresence

omnipresence means that god is

everywhere all at the same time i’m so

grateful for god’s omnipresence because

god’s omnipresence means that when i fly

back to dallas where i live when my new

friends that i just met from uganda fly

back to where they live um that when you

all fly back to wherever ever it is

you’ve come from whether all over

different areas of california or afar it

means that no matter where we go he is

as much with me as he is with you

because he is omnipresent

but if you’re anything like me you’re

grateful for his omnipresence but you

want more than that

you want the manifested presence of god

i’m talking about where you can look

back over your circumstances and realize

that his fingerprints were all

throughout that thing i’m talking about

where you can see footprints in the sand

as you actually recognize that god was

walking beside you the whole way i’m

talking about what other people call

coincidence encounters you see the

sovereign hand of god that was aligning

your footsteps and setting you in the

right place at the exact right time the

manifest presence of god

i wanted to know what made simeon’s eyes

open to recognize what nobody else in

this scenario did i figured whatever

opened up his eyes might open up our

eyes as well are you ready three things

that i want to point out to you it says

in verse 26 about simeon it says that it

had been

actually verse 25 i want to start there

there was a man in jerusalem whose name

was simeon he was righteous devout

looking for the consolation of israel we

could spend a whole lot of time in those

three but here’s where i want to heart

the holy spirit

was upon him

the holy spirit

was upon him

it says

that he came into the temple verse 27

in

the spirit

verse 26 says it had been revealed to

him

by

the holy spirit

look at the presence of the holy spirit

permeating this text look at how the

author has over and over and over again

highlighted the work of the holy spirit

in opening up simeon’s eyes to be able

to recognize the manifested presence of

god before him in the person of jesus

christ luke

here he is just in the second chapter of

this book and by the way just in these

first two chapters he has already

alluded to the spirit 10 times

the work of god’s spirit is so powerful

and so needful to a fruitful experience

in the life of the of the believer that

even before the book of acts even before

pentecost even before the spirit has

come

luke points out the movement of the

spirit here in the life of simeon this

shows you how important the spirit’s

work is how critical it is to making

sure that your spiritual senses your

spiritual radar is heightened so that

you can detect the presence of god

the holy spirit was upon him now i want

you to see the work of god’s spirit this

is just the first uh characteristic of

simeon but i want to just just take some

time for just a few moments on it the

work of god’s spirit is so important it

deserves a little bit of our attention

here there are three ways that the holy

spirit is described

as relating to simeon in these few

verses just just a few ways that the

holy spirit relates to simeon in these

few verses the first thing it says is

that the holy spirit was upon him now

listen i want you to know that if you

have placed faith in jesus christ the

holy spirit lives on the inside of you

ephesians chapter 1

says that the moment you believed you

received the holy spirit you were sealed

by the holy spirit of promise

i want you to know that at the moment

you became a believer in jesus christ

you received the most incredible gift

you will ever receive this side of

eternity and that is the very presence

of god living on the inside of you the

holy spirit is not a ghost or a wind or

a fire or a dove he is often symbolized

by those things but don’t minimize him

that ain’t who he is the holy spirit is

the third person of the trinity not

third because he is least in value just

third because he’s the last to be

revealed to us in the pages of scripture

but all of the power all of the glory

all of the authority all of the grandeur

of god the father is in the person of

the holy spirit

which means

if you’re a believer in the holy spirit

lives in you

that means all of the grandeur and all

of the greatness all of the authority of

god himself now lives on the inside of

you so if you are a believer you have

the holy spirit you are not waiting on

more of the holy spirit all of the holy

spirit you ever gonna get you got the

moment you got saved

now you do need to be filled by god’s

spirit

so that his influence in your life grows

and grows so that you operate under the

gifting of the spirit so that you can

live according to the fruit of the

spirit that means living beyond your

natural capacity it means when your

patience runs out you can still have

more patience with that person it means

when gentleness has long since left the

building

you still find you got a little

gentleness for that when self-discipline

i mean you just don’t have no more

self-discipline in that area we need the

fruit of god’s spirit so we need to be

filled by the spirit as we yield to him

in obedience we are filled which means

he influences us more our mind is

renewed and transformed we are

sanctified into the image of christ

jesus

so the holy spirit is in you

but simeon

his relationship with the spirit is not

described in that way

it doesn’t say that the spirit was in

him

it says that the holy spirit was on him

which means

there is a difference between the spirit

being in you

and the spirit resting on you

listen to me

the gift of god’s spirit in you oh this

brings tears to my eyes

the gift of god’s spirit in you

he will never leave you nor forsake you

there is nothing you can do to work

yourself out of a relationship with the

holy spirit

okay

but him being on you

you got to live a life i i want to live

a life that is a magnet for the presence

of god to rest on me

we can sit in this conference until

we’re blue in the face and applaud the

truths of god and say amen to the truths

of god but if we leave this room and

live in a way

that is out of alignment with the truth

of god we will not have the spirit

resting on us

if you want the mark of god’s presence

on you i’m talking about where other

people can see you operating in your

gift moving about in the assignments

that you have been given where they can

just see there’s a unique favor on your

life toward that particular task or that

particular endeavor where you are marked

by something that gives you favor that

gives you his grace for a particular

area of your life then you must live i

must choose to live in a way that honors

god so that god’s presence can rest upon

us

because he will not force himself on you

he offers you this resting of his

presence and his grace upon your life if

you will choose to live in a way that

does not

disturb his presence that does not keep

him from being able to be near you

because you have chosen here it is to be

holy

listen to me

are you listening

you all we live in a day and age where

we have become more interested in being

impressive

than being holy

where we are more interested in making

sure we have likes

and friends

and the applause of people more than

just being flat out

holy

by making sure that political

correctness is not our main goal

that we’re not after the applause of

people we’re after the applause of

heaven

you got to choose to be ye holy

and so i implore you sisters by the

mercies of god

to walk in a manner

worthy of the calling by which you have

been called

so the spirit rested upon him let me

just show you quickly verse 26 says that

the spirit revealed to him

so that means the spirit not only rested

upon him the spirits revealed to him old

preachers call this

illumination

it’s shining a spotlight it’s when

you’re sitting in church on a sunday and

your pastor opens up the bible to preach

and man he just reads or she reads that

first two verses that that they’re going

to be preaching from and you sit

straight up in your seat because you

feel like

it’s all about you

anybody know what i’m talking about

it’s where you’re trying to figure out

how

did the church bug my house how did they

know

that’s the illumination of the spirit

it’s when he it’s when the old truths of

scripture scripture leap up off the page

and for lack of a better way word it’s

when they grip you in your soul where

you see how that intersects with

something you are personally facing

today that is the revelation of the holy

spirit this is what the holy spirit does

he reveals he illumines he shines the

spotlight simeon was there that day

because he had been promised by the

revelation of god’s spirit it wasn’t

just a random promise it was his promise

oh you’ve had that happen over the

course of these days that we’ve been

gathered you probably have had that

happen where something that has been

said it wasn’t just great to hear it it

gripped your soul

you knew it was an assignment for you it

was a conviction that you knew the lord

was going to send you out of here with

that assignment because the holy spirit

revealed it to you

god’s spirit rests he reveals and then

he ruled simeon because it says in verse

27 that he came in the spirit to the

temple meaning the spirit told him on

this day to go into the temple and it

says that he came into the spirit under

the into the temple under the conviction

of the holy spirit when the spirit said

go

simeon said

yes sir

he submitted to the leadership of the

holy spirit

and he was in the right place at the

right time to run right smack dab into

the messiah because he was submitted

to the leadership of the holy spirit

do you know that the more you ignore

ignore that still small conviction the

quieter that voice will become

not because he is no longer speaking but

because you’ve built a callus of

disobedience

you have muffled the voice of the holy

spirit so it is better to be so

sensitive to god’s holy spirit that

sometimes you give when maybe he hasn’t

even prompted you to give but it’s okay

because to the best of your capacity you

are obeying the holy spirit of god just

to keep those airways open and clear

from the disobedience that will begin to

muffle his voice in your life because

more than anything else the enemy wants

you disconnected

from the privilege of hearing the voice

of god y’all this is what separates our

faith from every other so-called faith

on the face of the earth it’s that our

god is alive

it’s that he speaks it’s that we have

the privilege to hear his voice

never downplay or minimize the value the

beauty the lavish grace of this

privilege that we have to hear the voice

of god

so the holy spirit rested upon him there

are two other things that i want to

point out to you that were symbolic or

was were significant about simeon that

opened up his eyes to see jesus as he

was to be seen

in this package that other people

downplayed and found insignificant that

they totally ignored because they didn’t

think that their king would look like

that here’s what opened simeon’s eyes

not only that he was in the spirit when

he came into the temple and by the way

here’s another rabbit trail sorry

if we came to church in the spirit

it would change our experience in church

can i just say that

because while everybody else was looking

at that poor couple wondering why in the

world they were in their midst and

discounting mary and joseph

simeon came in the spirit and he was

less concerned about who was wearing

what and who was driving up what and who

sat where and who was in his seat and

whether or not it was hot outside and

they had to walk far to go take their

children to sunday school they were he

was less concerned about his convenience

whether or not the preacher preached

good was irrelevant to him he was

looking for jesus

whether or not the microphones were

perfectly balanced or the lights were

exactly as they should be whether or not

the ld screens were on full display that

day whether or not the ushers were or

were not kind was not his priority he

had come with his eyes peeled for jesus

we would be less critical and less

skeptical if we came to church in the

spirit

then the pressure wouldn’t be on the

person who’s on the stage because you

didn’t come to see them you came to see

jesus

okay verse 27

so he comes in the spirit and then look

what happens in verse 27 the parents

bring in the child jesus

jesus comes in in his parents arms

look at the savior look at how the

manifest presence of god arrives on this

remarkable day watch him show up into

the experience of this aged saint named

simeon in a very personal way and on to

the landscape of human history he

arrives in the arms of his parents

there is something about the way we see

jesus when we look at him through the

well-worn paths

that have been hewned out by our parents

our grandparents our great-grandparents

our forefathers and our foremothers

spiritually speaking the people who have

gone before us and have walked with

jesus just a little while who’ve spent

their lives serving him i’m always

nervous

when i see a young group of christians

with their little skinny jeans and their

lattes and their avocado toast

which i love by the way

i’m just always a little nervous when i

see them instagramming all their

religious experiences without the

oversight of some spiritual parents

because y’all we have modernized jesus

today

the modern version of jesus that we have

crafted he has made him watered down now

he’s tolerant of sin without the

expectation of holiness our jesus is

politically correct

we need to see jesus coming in the arms

of our parents the people who have gone

before us the folks who have walked the

road a little while who know what

hymnals are

who sang the good old hymns that were

based in some theology we got to make

sure that our new praise and worship

songs i love them we got to make sure

they’re rooted in some good theology

[Applause]

and so the package may change listen

y’all i i still go to the kind of church

it’s come a long way but it started when

i was one year old the church that i go

to now so you know back in the day

there was no way in the world i would

have ever gotten on a stage with with

pants are you kidding me

anybody know what kind of church i’m

talking about we still have a few people

in our church a few mothers of the

church if anybody knows what i mean

jeans in the church are you kidding me

they came in in their suits i’m talking

about where the skirt matches the jacket

like they were bought together

and not only that but underneath that

suit she’s gonna have some actual

pantyhose on i’m not talking about spanx

with the feet cut out uh i mean

pantyhose

the ones with the girdle top anybody

know what i’m talking about anybody

remember that

and she’s gonna have a handbag in her

hand and that handbag that clutch is

going to match that jacket which matches

that skirt which matches her patent

leather shoes that she has on her feet

closed toe patent leather shoes

but the outfit is never complete

and you know it ain’t no regular hat

right you know it’s got something it’s a

feather

or a net or something that’s sitting

just like this

and she’s gonna worship god

anybody know what kind of church i’m

talking about

and i love when she comes up to give a

testimony

about what she has seen the lord

it might not be modern it might not be

new and improved

but it’s the jesus of abraham isaac and

jacob

it’s the god of our forefathers

there’s some things you cannot learn on

instagram

there are some things you just need to

be with a mother of the church somebody

who’s walked the road a little bit

longer than you to make sure you can

bounce off of her or him from the true

theological biblically based

unchanging venerated word of god

so the package may change but the

principles never do y’all

jesus was never politically correct he

was always a revolutionary he never

dismissed sinned he called it out in in

grace but most certainly in truth he was

never watered down he always said i am

the only way

i am the truth and i am the end the life

he didn’t acquiesce or tolerate he loved

but he did say repent for the kingdom of

god is at hand

god made us in his image

and one philosopher said we have now

returned the favor favor by trying to

make him in ours

we gotta see jesus says he’s always

meant to be seen and sometimes it

requires you going to find a parent a

spiritual parent who can show you the

jesus of the bible

simeon saw jesus because

as he was meant to be seen he saw him in

the package in which our savior wanted

to come because there were some

spiritual parents who were willing to

bring him in

so i speak to the younger people that

are in this room i’m telling you

check your arrogance

check our lack of teachability where

sometimes we just think we know it all

so we won’t recognize and see the beauty

of our savior because we won’t receive

him from the parents who are trying to

give him to us

so the package may change change the

package enjoy that freedom but watch and

make sure that you’re sticking to the

true milk of the word of god

and then can i implore you

who are in this room and you’ve sort of

graduated to that parent department

take this as your privilege

to carry jesus to those who need him

to see him and experience him as you

will bring him simeon shows us that in

order to have our eyes open his

experience demonstrates to us that we

need to have the holy spirit upon us

and we need to be looking for how the

parents bring him into our experience

but finally it says in verse 28 that as

soon as he caught a glimpse of him he

went over look at the boldness look at

the audacity look at the eagerness of

simeon he runs over to the parents he

takes the baby

out of their arms and gathers him to

himself

because an experience with jesus from

afar

wasn’t enough for simeon

can i just tell you in this room that

god does not have grandchildren

you got to have your own relationship

you have to make your own choice you

have to go and gather him up for

yourself

you have to taste and see for yourself

how good he is you can celebrate him in

the testimonies of other people in the

experience of other people till you are

blue in the face but there’s got to come

a time where you decide i’m going to

stop sitting on the periphery and

applauding his experience with other

folks you got to decide today will be

the day that i go and gather him up for

myself

that i start to spend time with him in

prayer and in conversation so that i can

take advantage of this privilege to hear

his voice and to speak to him in prayer

that i won’t let everybody keep spoon

feeding me the word of god i’m going to

go to the scriptures myself and know

that i too can have an ongoing fervent

relationship with jesus i’m going to

gather him up in my own arms and when

you do you will see him

and experience him and encounter him in

a way you have never encountered him

before

at tbn our mission is to use every

available means to reach as many

individuals and families as possible

with the life-changing gospel of jesus

christ thank you for helping make

the gospel of grace go around the world

without you we couldn’t do it god bless

you