Jim Van Gelderen: I want to deal with something here that would I trust encourage each one of you in your walk with God. Pastor Van Gelderen in just a few moments is going to be teaching you the hour with God. I know some of you are familiar with it, some of you are not familiar with it.

And again, I want you to understand that it is a biblically based methodology. It is a method, but it is very biblically based. And the whole key to the hour with God is what I’m going to preach on right now, just for a few moments, and that is experiencing the presence of God.

Experiencing the presence of God. Now, let me just tell each one of you young people that Christianity is not a list of do’s and don’ts. You’ve heard this before.

It’s not a religion, it’s a relationship. But for some of you that still has not impacted you. In other words, Christianity is not checking off a bunch of boxes.

Christianity is not checking off a list. Christianity is not doing stuff so Jesus will accept you. That’s called performance acceptance and that’s unbiblical.

Jesus accepts you no matter what you do. He gets grieved just like your parents do when you do wrong, but He still loves you and accepts you in the sense that He’s not rejecting you. You’re saved on your way to Heaven.

He loves you with an everlasting love, the Bible tells us, that truth to His people. There, that principle in the book of Jeremiah. But the key thing about understanding Christianity is it is a very real relationship with a very real God. You know, it’s amazing to me, have you ever walked out at night, looked up in the sky,

and been amazed at how many stars are up there? Now, for us living near metro areas, we don’t appreciate that as much as some of you live out in the country. I’m talking about the country.

When you go out in the country and look up there, I don’t know what happens, but the stars triple. Did you know that? Quadruple.

There’s more stars in the country than there in the city. Did you know that? I don’t know how that works.

But somehow there’s more stars out in the country. And I don’t know about you, but when I walk up there and look about that and try to comprehend how great God is, it’s hard to do it. I mean, have you ever been to the Creation Museum and seen that, how many have been there and seen that planetarium showing where they try to help you understand how expansive the universe is.

You can’t even comprehend it. It’s so big, so expansive, you cannot in your finite eye, I can’t comprehend how big this universe is. Now the amazing thing is, God created that, and He wants to have a relationship with you.

I mean, actually, you’re important to Him. You know, actually, the Bible says He’s concerned about the sparrow that falls out of His nest. He must be concerned about you too.

The Bible says He is. The amazing thing about God is He wants a relationship with you in a way that it’s hard for you to comprehend. Because many of you have lived, even your Christian life, much of your Christian life, you have lived it without God.

I’m not saying you’re lost. You just don’t have much of a relationship with God. He’s not important to you. You go throughout your daily life,

and you maybe even check a few religious things off. You might have a prayer time. You might have Bible reading.

You might do stuff. But you do not know what it is to have fellowship with God. The reason I believe this so fervently is because I was growing up, I witnessed it, I saw it.

First of all, I saw my grandmother. My grandmother was a remarkable woman. I would say the most remarkable woman I think I’ve ever known from a spiritual standpoint.

My grandmother walked with Jesus. Of course, she died in her 80s, so she had a long time to nurture a relationship with God. And by the time she was in her 80s, she walked with God like few people I’ve known.

When I was in the presence of my grandmother, I knew I was in the presence of God. I knew it. I sensed the presence of God, even as a boy.

I didn’t know how to explain it at that time. I knew either my grandmother knew God in a way very few people do, or I knew she was nuts, one of the two. Because she would talk about Jesus like He was right there.

When she prayed, you didn’t act like she was going through religious exercise. she was having a conversation with her best friend. When she prayed, she always cried. And when she said God answered your prayer,

God answered your prayer. You didn’t have to worry about it. Well, he marked that one off the list.

She was a remarkable woman. She walked with God like few people I’ve known. Now, obviously her son, my dad, had a similar walk with God. And as time went on in his life, I noticed more and more he became more and more

like my grandmother because time does that. It takes time to nurture a relationship like that. I had somebody tell me, in fact, I’ll be honest with a young person.

My dad went to heaven in 97. My mom went to heaven in 89. I cannot go six months.

I cannot go six months. I cannot go six months without somebody telling me, your parents, one or both, God used them to touch my life. They’ve been gone decades.

I still get it. I’ll guarantee you, the next six months, had it happened just a few months ago, Again, I’ll guarantee you, somebody will tell me, boy, I really appreciate your mom and dad. I remember one man telling me, he says, I really didn’t spend any time with your dad except one time.

He said, I got stuck in an airport, randomly met your dad. We spent 45 minutes together. Here’s what he told me.

He said, I want to be honest with you, Brother Jim. He said, that 45 minutes changed my life. Can I say this carefully?

How can 45 minutes with anybody change your life? And the answer is, it wasn’t 45 minutes with my dad. It was 45 minutes with Jesus. that was the reality of the Lord Jesus in my parents’ life,

in my grandma’s life, in a very remarkable way. I have always believed in the presence of God. Though for years I didn’t understand it, I had no idea how to get there, but I have always had a sensitivity to that. In fact, my dad and his ecclesiastical world

was sometimes even made fun of and mocked. People would call him a mystic. That’s probably not a word I would necessarily use for myself, but because he believed that God interacted with you.

Can I say this, friends? If you ever learn this in theology, you’ll learn that God is a transcendent God. Do you know what that means?

He interacts with us. He’s not distant. He wants to walk with you and talk with you.

I love the songwriters who get it. He walks with me and he talks with me along life’s narrow way. You ask me how I know He lives?

You know what the answer is? He lives within my heart. The songwriter, I guarantee you, was not talking theology.

He was talking reality. You know why? Because that morning he walked with Jesus.

He knew God was real. How? Why? Well, if you talk to Him every day and you interact with Him every day and you know the reality of His spiritual presence, His manifest presence,

you can’t help it. You know He’s real. See, some of you in this room do not have that kind of walk with God.

God is distant to you. You know theologically He’ll never leave you nor forsake you. You know right now He’s somewhere in your heart, but you have no interaction with Him.

And I will tell you right now, I feel sorry for you. If that’s all you got to Christianity, can I say this carefully? You got heaven, but besides that, you don’t have a whole lot more. I’m telling you, friends,

Christianity is not just getting heaven. That’s not what it’s about. It is certainly great.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s a wonderful thing. But I’m talking Christianity is not about life in the future.

Christianity is about life right now. It’s about the life of Jesus, living in you, walking with you, and knowing the presence of God. Now, I want you to understand, don’t get hung up on the experiential side, because what we’re talking about is what I would call a spiritual reality.

In fact, our pastor is the one who’s coined that term, and I like that term. It’s real, but it’s a spiritual reality. Now, one of the problems every young person has in this room is your culture does not even acknowledge the spiritual.

Many years ago in the 1970s, there was a Catholic guy. I don’t believe he was saved. But he was very concerned that culture was diminishing the spiritual realm.

And he really got burdened about it, thought, you know, we need to try to introduce people to the fact that there’s a realm other than the sensory. There’s a spiritual realm. And he wrote a book called The Exorcist.

which was turned into a movie which turned into a horror flick in the 1970s. But actually, it was written by a man who was trying to get people to understand there’s a spiritual realm, and if you can understand the dark side, then there’s obviously a light side, and that was his motivation in writing that novel, which became a horror movie. But the point is simply this.

There is a spiritual realm. You know, when you go to a third world country that has an animistic, satanic type religion, they know there’s a spiritual realm. It’s dark to them.

It’s scary to them. They fear it. But you don’t have to talk to them about spiritual realm.

They know there’s a spiritual realm. In fact, it’s very interesting. In the late 1990s, Moody Monthly and the now defunct magazine put out an article written by Steve Saint, who was the son of Nate Saint, who was killed down in the jungles of Ecuador. And for the first time, some of the play-by-play of the killing of his father and their four other missionaries,

the five total missionaries, came out. In fact, Steve Saint worked with those very people that murdered his father, and he never tried to pursue what happened because in their culture it was the responsibility of the closest of kin to kill the murderers of whoever murdered your family member. So he never wanted to act interested, you know what I’m talking about. But one day, the killers, the murderers, who had been saved for years, opened up and told him play by play exactly what happened,

how his dad was murdered. In fact, the adopted grandfather for Steve St’s sons was the one that murdered his own father. Isn’t that amazing?

The murderer became the adopted grandfather. And that can only happen in Christianity. And I will tell you they began to talk about the day they murdered those five missionaries. The last one to be murdered was Peter Fleming

who was the most proficient in the language. He was the brilliant one of the ones. He was young. And they were amazed

because Peter Fleming could have saved his life. He could have fled into the jungle, but he didn’t. He stayed, he communicated with them to the very end. He was the last one they waited out and speared as he tried to plead with them,

why are you doing this, using their language to speak with them? And they were amazed, why didn’t he run? Why didn’t he have fear?

And it really impacted him. But they said, as soon as Peter’s Fleming was speared and all five missionaries were killed, they saw suspended above the forest, the jungle forest, they saw beings that were glowing in the atmosphere and they had what they called fireflies flying around them, and they were bright, and they were singing music they had never heard, and they all said, that’s supernatural. But that’s not like the supernatural we experience in the jungle. The amazing thing was, when Elizabeth Elliot,

the widow of Jim Elliot, when she came back in with Marge Saint, the sister of Nate Saint, came back into the jungle to win this tribe to Jesus Christ, the very music they had with them was the very music they heard those angels sing suspended above the jungle floor. See, if I had Aka Indians before me this morning, I would not have to do what I’m doing with you. They know there’s a spiritual realm.

They get it. And that’s an unusual thing. You say, preacher, well, that kind of sounds odd. Well, there’s a Bible principle I have found

where there is no Bible. God will sometimes do supernatural things, and when the Bible comes, The supernatural manifestations stop, and the Bible becomes the way God communicates with them. But there is a principle. There are what we call Jesus dreams going on all over the Muslim world,

and many times those are what brings people to Jesus. Once they get their Bible, those things stop, and God speaks to them through the Word of God. So God seems to be, and that seems to be an indication as you read the Bible, seems to be a simple principle.

But I won’t go into it. Don’t get hung up on that. But here’s the point.

There’s a spiritual realm. I’m trying to shake you up a little bit because I want you to understand there’s a God who wants to communicate with you. There’s a spiritual realm.

Here’s the problem with every one of you in this room. You live in a culture that is completely dominated by the sensory. See, you as American teenagers, you interpret reality through the sensory.

You know, what you can see, what you can taste, what you can touch. You really do assimilate reality through every single one of your senses. Of course, the eyes and the ears are probably the two senses that assimilate most material into your life.

And so you’ve lived with five senses that assimilate reality to you. And you interpret reality with what you can taste, touch, smell, feel. And you interpret reality through that.

And you know what? Your culture caters to you. In the world in which we live now, it’s amazing to me.

Just even taste. I mean, when I was growing up, I’ve sometimes said this before. When I was growing up, we had candy.

But I’m telling you what, I don’t know what it is today. you guys said, those are the flavors they come up with. It’s unbelievable. Like potato chips,

cheeseburger potato chips. And when you taste them like, you can taste the ketchup, the mustard, the hamburger, the pickles. You’re thinking, this is crazy.

Dill pickle potato chips. You ever had those? That’s crazy.

I mean, as I was growing up, we didn’t have, you know, we had potato chips. That was about it. Then they came up with sour cream and onion.

Wow. That’s unbelievable. And, you know, they come up with all kinds, but, you know, loaded baked potato.

You know, sometimes I’ll walk by. I walked by the other day, and they had chicken and waffles. Potato chips.

Chicken and waffles? Now, I’ve had chicken and waffles, but a potato chip? I was walking by one bag of potato chips.

I knew I couldn’t buy it. It said beer-battered something. Okay.

I said, well, that doesn’t sound good. I better not get that one. Okay.

But anyway, it’s amazing how they come up with these different flavors. I’m talking just taste. And our culture caters to that.

I’m not saying it’s wrong. I’m just saying that our world has completely gone nuts on the sensory. And sensory and now, of course, virtual reality and some of the things that happen.

And there’s certain now amusement parks, some of the rides they incorporate have technology like nobody’s business. I think I’ve used this as an illustration to some of the students here. but there’s one ride I’ve been on that simulates hang gliding.

And when you go on the ride, you actually think you’re hang gliding. I mean, it has wind coming at you certain ways and then it tilts the thing so you feel like you’re about to fall out and die and all this kind of stuff. And it’s this big concave lens that, you know, you can just, you feel like you’re there.

And then it flies over orange groves and you smell orange. And it flies over pine forests and you smell pine. And it goes over water and water splashes on you.

You know, a fish comes out and splashes and water splashes on you. See, that’s our world. It caters to the sensory.

It’s like it’s real, but it’s not real. Okay, virtual reality. Okay, those kind of things are into our world.

And I’m certainly not saying that’s wrong. It certainly is kind of interesting and entertaining. But the point is, our culture is so asphyxiated on catering to your senses and my senses, of course in a monetary sense that we fall prey to believing that reality is determined exclusively through your five senses, but it’s not.

See, that’s physical reality. But you see, spiritual reality is not interpreted through your five senses. Spiritual reality is different. Spiritual reality, when you got saved, the Holy Spirit moved into your heart, and the Holy Spirit of God, you know what He

did, the Holy Spirit of God regenerated the human spirit. That’s where you meet with God. And anybody who’s been saved any length of time and who’s ever really met with God, you know what I’m talking about.

It’s a spiritual reality. It’s hard to explain because you can’t explain it using the five senses. It’s a spiritual reality.

You say, what does that mean? I don’t know. I don’t know how to explain.

How do you explain a spiritual reality? I remember several years ago, I came back at the end of the school year, and we’d been having an emphasis on the hour with God. It was the very first year we’d had that emphasis.

We’re in our final chapel. Some of you BCM students may remember that chapel. We sang Bend and Knee. I don’t know if you remember that, but it was one of those moments, corporate moments in the life of Baptist College of Ministry

when you could sense the presence of God in that room over there. Because many of the students that year had changed their lives as they began to meet with God like they had never met with God. I remember one student in particular, I noticed as she was singing, it was like she was looking through the roof, like the roof wasn’t even there.

It was like she was looking into heaven. There was a glow on her face I had never seen. Tears were trickling down her cheeks.

And she was a student I had not had concern about. I mean, I just wasn’t sure how she was doing spiritually, and I was just amazed. So later in the day, I saw her, and I walked by her, and I said, what happened to you?

Now that’s kind of a strange question, is it? What happened to you? Do you know she didn’t ask me what do you mean?

She knew exactly what I meant. She said, Dr. Jim, she said, I was miserable.

And honestly, before that, I could tell. She said, I was miserable. My Christian life was going nowhere.

She said, I saw all these students start to meet with God, do the hour with God. And they were starting to meet with God. And they were different.

They were changing. They had something I didn’t have. And she said, I made a decision.

if it kills me, I’m going to spend an hour with God. And you know what? For about five days it killed her. You try to spend time with God when you just can’t break through with sometimes stuff,

but she wouldn’t give up. She said, I’ve got to have what they have. I’ve got to have God. She said, it would have probably been inappropriate because it was too sacred,

but I wish I had videotaped it. There was an awe there. I don’t know how to explain it.

There was a joy. There was a wonder in her face. And she said, Dr. Jim, I don’t know, fourth, fifth, sixth day,

she said somewhere in there, I’m having my hour with God. And here’s what she said. He showed up.

And her life has never been the same. Young person, I’m just telling you, we’re talking about a spiritual reality. That’s all I’m trying to, I don’t even explain it other than the spiritual reality. That’s what my daughter was trying to tell you, that you get those wrong thinking patterns in your life, and it can happen,

and you get those wrong thinking patterns in your life. The answer always is God. It’s His Word.

It’s spending time with Him. It’s spending time with truth, His Word. And that’s the idea.

You know, I don’t even know how to explain it to you, friends. Let me give you another one. I remember probably about the same time when we were having the emphasis on prayer, I walked into this room right here, probably over here or some, right about where some of you are sitting on the dew and pepper, someone right there.

I sat down at a table. Two of our students there, one was a freshman at the time, one was a sophomore, both graduates now. And I don’t even know if they’re in the room.

They might be. I sat down at that table, and one of them looked at me with an awe and a wonder, and I loved that look. Said, oh, Dr.

Jim, we’re so glad you’re here. We’ve got to tell you what happened last night. I sat down and said, sure, tell me what happened. Both of them were there, and you could sense that both of them,

something big had happened. They said, well, Dr. Jim, we all have family members we’re concerned about.

And they said, we sat down to have devotions last night at 1030. You’re supposed to have devotions at 1030, and I don’t even know how long they’re supposed to go. And she said this, we spent three hours.

We had a three-hour prayer meeting. She said, it seemed like that. And she said, while we were having that prayer meeting, she said, I don’t know how to explain that.

We knew Jesus was there. And the one little girl said this to me. I was convinced if I opened my eyes, I would have saw him.

Can I say this carefully? She wouldn’t have had. You know why?

What she was experiencing was not physical. It was spiritual. But it was real.

And the amazing thing is, I don’t want to go into too many details. Some of you can figure out who I’m talking about, though I don’t think they’d be ashamed about it. Some of those prayers have been remarkably answered.

Remarkably answered. In that prayer meeting, three-hour prayer meeting. They went from 1030 to 130.

They couldn’t stop because they were meeting with God. I’m telling young people, every problem you have, everything we’re talking about, I want you to understand the greatest answer is just when God shows up. I was talking with a young man fairly recently with me in the last year or so, maybe two years. And I was talking to this young man and there were some major problems in his life, some bitternesses, some issues that he’d get resolved and then there’d be a provocation

and he’d go back and he’d get it resolved. There’d be a problem. And he was just struggling going back and forth. A lot of difficulties

and struggling with going through these issues. And I remember as I was talking to him, I said, have you ever met with God? And of course, I knew he had.

He looked at me and smiled. I said, when you meet with God, when God shows up, all the problems we’re talking about this morning, how do they seem to you? And he said, they seem very, very insignificant.

See, when God shows up, it puts it all in perspective. See, if some of you are to meet with God every day, the things that are tripping you up won’t trip you up anymore. You’ll have no trouble believing God loves you because when He manifests His presence, you know He loves you. You will have no trouble loving Him in return, and you will have no trouble obeying Him

because you love Him and want to obey Him. See, here’s the point I’m making. I’m not talking about having your devotions.

I’m talking about seeking God and meeting with God. That’s what I’m talking about. Now, there’s a lot of things I could say and could preach a whole message, but obviously in a moment we’re going to need to head over to the hour with God, so I don’t want to get off schedule.

But I want to just give you a few principles with meeting with God. And for time you won’t have to turn. I’ll just read the verses. But the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 16, verse 11,

Seek the Lord in His strength. And here’s the one. Seek His face continually.

Now, let me help you out. in the Old Testament, whenever the Bible talks about God’s face, it is talking about the manifestation of His presence. Some of you have heard me go over this, so I won’t say a lot about it.

But I want you to understand that in the Old Testament, the idea would be this. In that kind of culture, if you saw somebody’s face, guess what? You were in their presence and they were in yours.

Now, in our world, that’s not true. You can see a video of somebody. You can see a picture of somebody, you could see a live stream of somebody, you could whatever. There could be a lot of ways that you could see

somebody’s face and they wouldn’t be in your presence. A lot of ways. You can use Skype, FaceTime, whatever. You can do all those things and they would obviously, you could see the person’s face, you might even interact with them, but they’re

not in your presence. See, in our culture we don’t think that way, but the Old Testament did. So, seeking God’s face. Why would you seek God’s face when the Bible says no man has seen

God at any time? Because when talking about seeking your His face, it’s talking about a spiritual reality. It’s talking about the manifestation of His presence. So the first thing I want you to understand is in order to know what I’m talking about,

you have to want it. You have to seek God’s face. I mentioned the hymn by Francis Havergal the other day, and I just want to bring it back to you.

It says, I cannot do without thee. Can I say this? If you can live without God, you will.

But if you say, God, I can’t live without you. God, I’ve got to know you. I’ve got to have a relationship with you.

Well, guess what? You’ll have one. You know why?

Because God promises this. You find it all throughout the Bible. Seek and you will find. But if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him if you seek for him with all your heart

and with all your soul. Deuteronomy 4.29. Jeremiah 29.13.

And you shall seek me and find me. When you search for me with all of your heart. So number one, there has to be a pursuit.

There has to be a desire. There has to be a want to. That’s why I pled with you last night. Some of you that struggle, some of you got issues, some of you got coping mechanisms, some of you got all this junk in your life

that you’re turning to and you can’t seem to break free from it. Let me encourage you to go into the hour with God. Don’t just go through the motions. Say, just like that young lady did, if it kills me,

I’m going to spend an hour with God. I’m going to do this. Get hungry for God.

It may not be today. It may be next week. I don’t know.

But the point is be relentless with it. I’m not giving up, man. I need you, God.

I’ve got to have you. I can’t go on without you. And I will tell you, friend, when God begins to show up, all the problems in your family, all the problems in your own life, get into perspective.

And you realize, they’re no match for God. God loves me unconditionally. As a result, you begin to love your God.

And you begin to want to do what He wants you to do. It’s not doing it because you’re afraid of Him. It’s doing it because you love Him.

Huge difference, see? See, so there has to be a pursuit. Now, here’s what I want you to understand with the pursuit. Whenever it comes to relationship, in order to build a relationship and pursue someone,

it takes time. It takes time. You talk about the hour with God.

We say, you know, preacher, what’s the significance of the hour? Well, the first significance is Jesus said, can’t you wait, you know, with me, watch with me one hour? Okay, there is, it is a time the Bible has given us.

But it’s like this, friends. Don’t get hung up on the hour, though I think you need to set a time. But here’s the point.

It’s extended time with God. Can I say this? You’re not going to meet with God if it’s five minutes a day.

It ain’t going to happen. I hate to tell you, I don’t think 15 minutes a day are going to do it. I’m not sure 20 minutes will do it.

We pray together as an evangelistic team every day for 25 minutes. You know why? Because I’ll be honest with you, usually the last 10 minutes are the most significant.

You’ve got to cut through the mustard. I mean, you’ve got to deal with the junk. You’ve got to get your brain back on track.

And I mean, sometimes you have to pray longer. Why? because it takes us a while to get all the fog out there so we can start meeting with God and get an idea of what’s going on.

I mean, prayer is sometimes a battle. That’s okay. Sometimes your prayer time might be hand-to-hand combat.

That’s okay. The point is, I’m not giving up. I’ve got to have God.

I’ve got to have God. So it’s a pursuit that takes time. It’s a pursuit that takes time. Now, there’s a couple of thoughts real quickly,

we’ll then turn it over to, we’ll go to the auditorium. But the next thought I want you to understand is if you pursue God and take time seeking Him, there’s something you need to know. You have to expect Him to show up. What would you do if you were witnessing a guy and he said,

believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. And he prayers, Lord Jesus, I’m a sinner, save me. And you look at him and say, did Jesus save you?

I don’t think so. Would you be excited about that salvation decision? And the answer is no.

Why? Because that’s not called faith. That’s called unbelief. So if you’re seeking God, what you would expect, and the expect is, you want to expect that he’ll show up, because he said, you seek me, you’ll find me,

every single time. So seeking takes time. It’s a pursuit that takes time, but it’s a pursuit that expects God to do what he said he’d do.

You have to have expectation. It’s called faith. I’m using expectation because we get used to the word faith and believe.

So I’m helping you understand what it is. Expectation. You expect God to do what He said He’d do.

God, I need you, I want you, and I’m expecting you to show up. I’m expecting you to show up. Okay?

So pursuit that takes time, expectation. Now, one other big issue. That is, your iniquities are separated between you and your God, and don’t miss this, your sins have hid His face from you.

so that he will not hear. So when it comes to meeting with God, you know what you’ve got to do? Deal with your sin. If you don’t deal with your sin,

you will not experience the manifestation of His presence. And you know what the amazing thing is? When you deal with your sin, you will experience His presence.

Now don’t miss this verse in Psalm 34, verse number 18. It says, The Lord, here it is, The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart. You know what I’ve noticed doing campfire services and testimony services? When kids start giving testimonies broken about their sin,

God walks through the door. We were just in Pleasantville, Ohio. Seven of them are here.

And you know what impressed me about that testimony service? Several of the young people in this room gave testimony that night. And do you know what?

There were two kids that got saved that night. And when we asked them what impacted them, it wasn’t the preaching. And believe me, that’s okay with me.

You know what it was? The testimonies. There are young people in this room who gave testimonies.

God told them to give testimonies. They gave testimonies. And it impacted unsaved kids who got saved as a result of their testimony.

Isn’t that neat? You’d experience that too if you’d start obeying Jesus, opening your mouth when He tells you to. You begin to realize God starts using you.

It becomes an adventure. It becomes exciting. It’s just simply like this.

The Lord is dying to them of a broken heart. Now, let me just help you understand what that means. It’s just appropriate but total honesty. See, many times we try to package ourselves as having it together, as we’re good, this is not a big deal,

and we try to package ourselves in a certain way. And I’m going to tell you, friends, sometimes we’re acting like we’re something we’re not, and it becomes a reality in our life when we become appropriately honest at the proper times. I mentioned this song, and I’m going to mention it again.

Weakness will be power when leaning hard on thee. Your weaknesses are the very ticket for God to march into your life. Every weakness you have is an opportunity for God.

Can I say this? Every strength is a weakness and every weakness is a strength. In a certain sense.

Some of you got great strengths, but with each strength there’s a weakness. See, I got the gift of the evangelist. That’s a strength.

You know what the weakness is? Sometimes I might shoot you a straight shot and not have the compassion I ought to have. See, it’s like this.

Even your strength, you need God. See, it doesn’t matter your strengths, your weaknesses. We all need God in the deal.

And that’s the point is don’t be afraid of that. What becomes powerful in your life is when people know your weaknesses and they see God miraculously working in those, using them or overcoming them. It’s just God.

And you’re so excited about it. You don’t care. People know all your weaknesses because, man, it’s an opportunity for God to do a great work. Like when I was out in California three years ago,

I was in a prayer meeting and a girl started praying. I thought, man, God’s on that girl. Man, God just marched right through the door when she opened her mouth.

So later to me, she comes to me. She says, Brother Van Gelden, she said, I’m shy. I have never prayed in public.

I don’t talk in public. I never do anything in public. But she said, I was over there on my knees in this prayer meeting.

And she said, God just told me, you’ve got to pray. And I’m telling you, you know what I did? her very weakness God overcame. And I’m sure her classmates are saying,

is she praying? They are over and over. Is that?

Well, yeah. See, weakness will be power when leaning hard on thee. You have to understand, friends, brokenness is just getting appropriately honest and getting broken about your sin, letting God clean you out, and just walking with God, and just being just dependent on God, and being excited about what God is doing, going to do in your life.

Wow. And the Lord has dined to them that have a broken heart and save us such as be of a contrite spirit. You get broken before God about your sin, God will march through the door. Listen, some of you in this room could stand and give testimony

of just recently getting right with God. And I mean, you got broken before God and you got clean with the people you need to get clean with. God marched through the door in your life. Some of you, you haven’t had God march through the door in years

because your iniquities have separated between you and your God. Your sins have hit His face from you so they will not hear. So you understand when it comes to the presence of God, seeking takes time, expectation, but there also has to be a brokenness, an honesty, a humility.

God gives grace to the humble. It’s just a willingness to be honest about your needs and to biblically deal with your sin. So that’s taken care of, so the wall goes down, so now there’s nothing hindering the opportunity for you to meet with God. See, if somebody just get right with your parents,

maybe go to your pastor, youth pastor, if they’re here. Just get honest, start getting honest with God, march through the door. Many of you could get testimony when that happened in your life. Some of you may have, yeah, that was in the past,

but it’s kind of the wall’s gone back up. Okay, you know how to get the wall down. Just get honest with God.

Deal with the appropriate people. Get honest with, get broken before God, and then start living a life of understanding, I need God every moment. I’m weak, but man, hallelujah, it’s an opportunity for God to work in my life. And I’m just encouraging you, young person, a moment we’re going to march through those doors and head down there to hear Pastor Van Gelderen

and then to spend an hour with God. Let me encourage you. seek takes time.

Expect God to show up and be willing to deal with yourself. Be willing to get honest with God. Let’s ask heads to be bowed, eyes to be closed, no one to be looking.