Proximity

[00:00:00] Speaker A: You're listening to the message podcast of High Ridge Church, Longview, where our vision is to help you know God, find freedom, discover purpose, and ultimately make a difference. We are so glad that you're here, and we pray that this message impacts your life as you apply the spiritual truths from God's word in practical ways. [00:00:18] Speaker B: Let's listen in. Good morning. Happy New Year, everybody. How you doing this morning? You all right? I'm glad you could make it. Let's take a moment and welcome in all of our online friends watching from all around the world. Hello, everybody. Come on. Watching from Cameroon. Cameroon. We're watching. We're watching from. From the Cayman Islands this morning. Suffering for the gospel. We all hate you. Watching from all over the world. Hey, we're so glad that you could tune in. Welcome, welcome, welcome to the Raven Horse watching from Brazil. We're so glad that you could tune in as well. God's got something special to speak to us, and we're glad that you get to be a part of that. So open your Bibles, if you would, to James, chapter four. So I feel like the Lord is kind of drawing us together as we start out 2026. I have to be completely honest with you. There have been times in my life where I thought that number doesn't even seem possible for me to live, to be able to be this. This age this year. I get to turn 50 this year. I know I don't look like it. I'm 27 to you, but this is going to be my 50th year around this, and I'm shocked. And I'm also very, very grateful that the Lord will allow me to live this long based upon my. My poor decision making, let's just say it that way. But I'm grateful. This is going to be a fantastic year, and I hope you have that. That same expectation set for you. God's got some great things for you. Come on. You got to believe that God's got great things in store for you. And so as we were praying as elders, as we were seeking the Lord about what to. What to process through and what to focus on in 2026, we were asking the Lord, lord, what. What is a word for us? And there was a word that kept recurring over and over on our elders retreats, and that word was proximity. Say it with me. Proximity. Sounds like a new weight loss drug, doesn't it? Available at your local pharmacies right now. Proximity. Get the fat off. You know, how much is that? Like, is that pretty good? Does that work? No, just speaking about the nearness in space, the nearness in time, the closeness, the intimacy that we have. Proximity matters. There are a lot of things, whether you know it or not, are really important when it comes to proximity. There's a lot of. There's a lot of ways that proximity matters to each of us. It helps us. Proximity matters in your marriage, of course, you know, some of us are like, dad, have I had enough proximity with my spouse that she'll let me play golf without getting too mad at me? Do I? Have I. Have I invested there? Has there been enough proximity? Some of us. Some of us understand that once you've developed a little proximity, a little intimacy, some closeness, then you can understand the differences between personalities. You can understand the differences between. Is she just really angry or is she just hot? This is one thing that I've learned about my wife. They look exactly the same, but until you spend time with her, you don't know the difference. Is she mad at me or is it just 104? Is she mad at everybody? Proximity matters. You learn a lot about people with proximity. The closer you get to people, the closer you get to each other, the closer you get to God, the things begin to change. Proximity matters. So when it comes to your relationship with the Lord, understand it this way, that you're. You're as close to God as you allow yourself to be. And there are things that you can learn from God when you determine this is going to be a year of great proximity for me and for my family. Proximity matters. I believe that the successes of this year will not be based upon your New Year's resolutions that some of us have already given up on. Let me just encourage you. Your New Year's diet doesn't start till Monday. It never starts on a Thursday. Come on, you got till Monday. It starts tomorrow. So you're good. You're good. You're still on holiday time. You're still fine. But it'll start till Monday. Diet starts Monday. Remember that. But your. How. How far you go, how successful you are this year will not be based upon your New Year's resolutions. It will not be based upon your ambitions. It's not going to be based on how far you go, but on how close you stay. Proximity matters. God has given us that word as a church. He's given us that word to focus on and to remind ourselves that we're as close to God as we choose to be. His Word tells us over and over that. That he's here, that he wants to be near you. But how many times we get distracted? How many times do we find ourselves farther and farther away from God? Until pain hits, until circumstances happen, until life gets difficult. Then we're like, man, I need to get close to the Lord. Here's the thing. You don't have to wait until your worst day to start seeking God. Come on. And so in James chapter four, he gives us a powerful scripture. And everything we do today will be focused on this one scripture alone and how I've kind of misunderstood this scripture, but this is important, so I'm going to put James 4. 8 on the screen. I would like for all of us to read it together. Here is the scripture for the year. James 4, verse 8. Say it with me. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Proximity matters. So, like I told you, I've misunderstood this scripture. I've had it. I've had it worked out in my mind wrong. And as I was digging into the original language. And what is James speaking about when he writes those powerful words? Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. What is, what does he really mean there? And in my mind, I have it. Maybe perhaps like, like you have it. When you hear this scripture, you have it in the same way, if I take one step towards God, he's going to take one step towards me. I take one step towards him, he takes one step towards me. Draw near to God, he will draw near to you. But here's what we need to understand. God is omnipresent. And so the way that James is speaking obviously has something different to do than how it reads in the English language. I want to break that down for you. When we talk about proximity, what does it mean to draw near to God? What would this year look like if I was closer to God than I've ever been in my life? And I could prove it. Proximity matters. As we're digging into God's word, we see something powerful that emerges, and that's this. What we stay close to shapes what we become. What we stay close to shapes what we become. And for some of us, we've stayed way too close to some people that need to be left in 2025. It's time for a new season. Let me just speak that into your life. Some of us have have gotten into situations. We're like, you know what? I need to make some distance between me and that. Now don't look at you, at your spouse and say, yeah, we need some distance here. That's not what I'm talking about. No, no, no, no, don't twist that. But what you stay close to is going to shape what you become. And the same is true for us as believers. What we choose to stay close to, what we choose to develop great proximity to, will shape what we ultimately become. Who God has in mind for you, the future God has in mind for you will be shaped by your determination towards proximity. Do you want to be close to him, or please hear me, trying to step on your toes for just a moment. Are you satisfied? Have you gotten really satisfied? And this is especially important for those that have been walking with God most of their life. You get really complacent because you think you already know. And you get satisfied with the depth of your relationship with God. You get satisfied because I've experienced enough, because I know more than these guys do. I've been doing this for 50 years or 60 years or 70 years or 104, whatever it may be. We get complacent. It's easy for us to drift into a place where we didn't even realize that we've gotten away from the Lord. Until pain hits. Well, where were you, God? I did all the things. I've checked all the boxes. I didn't realize that I had drifted. Here's some things that are important when we focus on James 4, verse 8, drawing near to God and let him draw near to us. There are three things that I think are important for us and the kind of ways to help us frame this next season. So here's the first of three things I want to give you. Number one. Proximity is a choice, not an accident. Proximity is a choice, not an accident. Now, there are people that you're going to get close to in life that'll happen by accident. I accidentally bumped into this person that was an accident. Proximity, though, intimacy, it's not going to happen by accident. And especially in your relationship with the Lord. One of the people I bumped into one time on complete accident was Matthew McConaughey, who happened to be at Pizza King. It's the one time I was at Pizza King. You're literally looking at me and you're like, right, right. But we happen to be there. And I'm like, that is Matthew McConaughey. Like, all right, all right, there he is. But I would not say, you know, we met each other, we said hello, we took a little selfie. Maybe I'll show it to you sometime. It's a great little conversation. I would not say I know him. I know for sure he doesn't know me. There's no There's. There's no real proximity there. And proximity with the Lord doesn't happen by accident. No, no, no. It's. It's intentional. It happens by choice. And here's. Here's the even better news. The choice is yours. God made his choice when he sends his son to the cross, he made his choice. When his son goes to the grave, it makes his choice when his son was beaten and bruised and broken for our personal relationship with him. God made his choice a long time ago to be close to you. And he invites you to. To come into relationship with him. Proximity will not happen by accident. When I was in about the seventh grade, there was a. A girl that I called my girlfriend and she called me her boyfriend and we were boyfriend and girlfriend at church. And so the church that was raised up had men sit over here and women sit over here pretty much. And so we would look across the aisle like, how you doing? You know, wait, you know, whatever seventh graders do. I don't. I don't remember that far back. Probably still the same. But I realized after a few weeks of calling each other boyfriend and girlfriend, like that was pretty much the extent of our relationship is looking across the aisle in a church service. Because when I would call, she's always busy and I would write a letter. Never got anything back. And after a few weeks, she realized, hm, perhaps I'm not the Romeo that I thought I was. Perhaps there's a. There's a. There's no future in this part of the love life for young teachers Timmy group. Perhaps this is not what I thought it was because she's showing me with her actions that she's just not into me. Maybe she just doesn't know how to say it right. She's making the choice to be distant. Making the choice as I want people to say today, you got ghosted, right? You ever been ghosted? But here, here's the good news. God doesn't do that. God is constantly like, where are you? Come close to me. I'm right here. As a matter of fact, David says this in Psalm 53. 2. He says, God looks down from heaven. What is he looking for? He said to see if there are any who are looking for him. Is there anybody that wants to be in great proximity to me? Is there anyone that wants a great relationship with me? Is there anyone that wants to know me? Once again, he's not going to force himself on you. But. But he's made his choice to be close to you, and he's asking, how close to me do you want to be. It is 100% now dependent upon you. And that's the word that God would give us for this year is proximity. How close do you want to be? Because here's the good news. There's always more. There's always deeper depths in our relationship with the Lord. There's higher heights. There's more things to see and understand than we've settled for. God is a big God. And just because you've been raised in church doesn't mean you've reached the end of Him. If you reach the end of him, he therefore ceases to be God. You. You trust me, you don't know. But he wants you to know him. He invites you to know Him. Here's what we know, is that closeness with God doesn't drift into our lives. Distance does. That's what we have to guard against. And it's really easy, by the way, during the holidays to find ourselves getting more distant from God. And you can have, you know, great services and remind yourself, Jesus is the reason for the season. Then a couple days later, the kids have not gone back to school. You haven't gone back to work. You're like, I haven't been out of the same pair of sweatpants in four days. I don't even know what day it is. Things get a little crazy because we've lost the structure of our week, right? And then because things get a little crazy, you're just like, I don't know why exist. Things get. They get a little wild during the holidays. But your intentional proximity to God has to be a decision that you're willing to make and recognize that I have to have to guard myself against drift. Let me ask you, is your relationship with God closer than you, than you've ever had it? And why not? Because it's not going to be his fault. He loves you. He has a fantastic plan for your year. He has more for you than what we settle for. And the plan that he has for you is way too big to be limited by your petty offenses and attitudes and complacency and willingness to settle. God wants you to know him. It's why it's so important. By the way, we built our church around these four things. Everything revolves around these four things. You'll see them up on our walls. And the first of those four things starts with what we want for people. We want them to know God. We want you to know Him. Why? Because if you know him, if you really know him, you're going to love Him. And the more that you Love him the more that you know him. Everything about your life is going to change. But there's an intentional decision that has to happen for you to really know God. It is important that you know him. It's important that you develop your proximity and your relationship to Him. As a matter of fact, Jesus echoed this, by the way, when he talked about how important it is. He says this in John 17. He says, and this is eternal life. What's eternal life? That they may know you. You're the only true God. He's like, it all comes down to that. Do people really want to know you? Do they really want a relationship with you? Do they really want that? Or do they just want your blessings? Or do they just want the things that you can do? Lord, as long as you protect my kids and then don't get too far into my business, we're good. That's a very, very shallow relationship with the Lord. Lord, I want to trust you really deeply. But I want to hang on to this unforgiveness. I want to hang on to this offense. I want to hang on to this thing that somebody did me wrong. As long as you don't mess with that, then I'm good. We're settling. God's got more for you than what we settle for. Proximity is a choice. It's not an accident. The question is, are you willing to make that choice to go deeper with the Lord? Sometimes that means letting some things go. Now, I've had to do that. You've probably had to do it as well. But you recognize how important it is to walk into a new season by walking out of the last one. Here's point number two. I want to leave you with number two. Proximity produces transformation before blessings. Transformation before blessings. Like I said, many of us love the idea of getting closer to the Lord because you know that when you get closer to the Lord, there's a ton of blessings that come. And by the way, absolutely, yes, there are wonderful blessings that come from you having a great relationship with the Lord. But you're skipping a very valuable part in between. Knowing God in proximity to the blessings that come from his presence is one powerful thing. Transformation. And lots of people want to experience the power of God. They don't want the presence of God. Why? Because in the presence of God, something's going to change. And here's the big idea. It ain't going to be God. It's going to be you. And this is where God begins to change the desires of your heart to become what he wants. And this is where the desires of your heart begin to submit to the authority and the power of Christ. Why? Because the more I hang around him, the more I become like him. And his thoughts become my thoughts, and his ways become my ways, and his heart becomes my heart. His desires become my desires. I don't want to be offended by the same things. I don't want to hang on to the same bad habits. Why? Because I know him, he knows me. And the closer you get to the Lord, changes begin to happen. You stop settling for what you settled for. Things begin to change. So as we're, as we're reading this, you know, draw near to God and, and God's going to draw near to you. Once again, I, I had it visualized in my mind. Take a step towards the Lord, he's going to take a step towards you. But that's really not what James is saying at all. And so as you're, as you're, as you're understanding the scripture, as I started digging into it, I realized I had a, had a bad view of what this is saying. Because you, you, you need to remind yourself, James is not writing this book, book of the Bible to everybody. He's writing the book of this Bible to the insiders. He's writing this book of the Bible to believers, not to the world to believers. And so the things that he says, when you apply them to believers, they make a lot of sense. When you apply them to everybody, you're like, that doesn't make any sense at all. And you get really confused by the book of James because you're like, it's putting a lot of weight on people and God has set us free from all that. This shouldn't belong in the Bible until you recognize one simple fact that's for believers. It's telling you, straighten up, you should know better. And so when he says, draw near to God and he's going to draw near to you, he gives us a completely different picture in the original language of which he's speaking now. The New Testament, in case you don't know, is written in the language. It's written in Greek. And even though James is writing in Greek, remind yourself James is a Jew and he's thinking in Hebrew. So before you read it in English, remind yourself there's two other languages that has to get translated in for me to have a good understanding of what he's really saying to me. That's why I can look at this scripture and say, oh, take one step towards God. He's gonna take one step towards you let's just preach that and everybody have a great Sunday and go home. God bless you. But that ain't what it means. In the original language that he's speaking in and writing in here in the Greek language, he places those words draw near to God in the imperative, like the authoritative imperative. And if you're a nerd on the English language, you recognize draw. James is giving a command and he's saying this. Basically, you need to make a decision believer. It's time for you to make an intentional decision on what the nature of your relationship and the proximity of between you and God really looks like. It's time for you to make a decision on how close to God you want to be. It's time for you to draw near to him and do it right now. But if you go back even farther than that, if you look at the Hebrew language, which James was, Is trained as a Jew and trained as in the Hebrew language, you would understand that he's speaking about drawing near to God and he's speaking about this in temple language. To draw near to God in the New Testament is very different than drawing near to God in the Old Testament because remind yourself, before Christ, God lived in a temple and in a tabernacle. Before Jesus is dead and buried on a cross, you. You had to go to the temple to go to the presence of God. And you could only go so far. Not just everybody can come boldly into the presence of God where the Ark of the Covenant is like, have you not seen Raiders of the Lost Ark? Do you not know what's gonna happen if you decide to get it? Come on, you remember that. Like, this isn't something you mess around with. And so here's the process. In the Old Testament, there would be one priest once a year that, that would be voted like the, the. The most sinless, like, he's the best of us. And this person once a year gets to walk into the holy of holies and do a couple things inside of the holy of holies, where only God's presence is. And let me just tell you, you don't just come boldly into that room whenever you want, however you want. That ain't a thing. And so what would happen is they would. They would put bells on, on their robes, so jingle all the way. Kind of started with the, with the priest right there, because they knew if something stopped jingling, he wasn't that clean. He didn't repent or something. He had something between him and God, like there's a problem. They would actually Tie a rope around his, around his ankle so if he dropped, if he dropped dead in there, they could pull him out. Like, I ain't going in there. You going in there. We should have tied a rope, pull him out. Ain't gonna be two of us in there. But understand the process of what a priest would go through to just walk into the presence of God. Let me just remind you that that's a big deal. And he would spend all year long processing and praying and getting things right between him and God. I'm talking about, you're going to get squeaky clean before the Lord. Like, Lord, I'm going back to, to the third grade when I was in Albertsons and I saw a candy and I thought about taking it. If I haven't asked for forgiveness for that, Lord, please forgive me for that. Thought like that. Kind of spotless, like going back and asking for grace on everything. Why? Because he knows he's about to go into the presence of God. And that is, that's important, that matters. And so when James is writing about draw near to the Lord, understand, he's saying that there's some, there's a process that needs to happen in our hearts. Before you treat God like a Santa Claus, there's something that needs to happen on the inside where you take it seriously. Your proximity to his presence. Presence. And as James is given this language in the, in the Hebrew and in the Greek, we, we, we emerge with a much better picture. He's saying, draw near to God and he's going to draw near to you. He's saying you need to make a decision to do an about face because you're facing the things of the world as a believer and you know better. Turn around and face him because God is right there waiting for you. And he's been waiting for you to draw near to Him. He's omnipresent. He doesn't change yesterday, today and forever. He's always there. He's completely madly in love with you. He's looking for people that seek God. And he's saying, would you just turn around because you've drifted. And I believe that 2026 will be an incredible year of powerful proximity. When his people take this word seriously and determine. I want to be closer to God. I want to be nearer to him than, than I've, than I've ever been before. Here's what we know is that proximity determines influence. Proximity determines influence. Now, the priest that would come out of the temple, that had been the holy of holies. Let me just tell you, at least for a couple of weeks, you're kind of a big deal. Because you didn't die. You were able to go into God's presence and you came out. People are like, whoa. Remember the times that if you. If you've read the Old Testament, if you read Genesis and Exodus, you know, Moses would go and spend time with the Lord. Then when he'd come down, people were like, you got to cover up your face, man. Because he was so bright and so radiant. He had been with God, and his influence was completely different. He wasn't just speaking as a man. He's speaking as a man that had been with God. And the influence has changed. Remind yourself that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. When you start getting close to the Lord, you start hearing his heart, you start knowing his ways. Your influence is going to change. And not only are you going to change, but you're going to become an agent of change to the world around you. This is how you begin to make a difference with the rest of your life. It's going to be based on the time you spent in the presence of the Lord. Here's what we know, is that transformation happens in closeness. Transformation happens in closeness. And the closer you get to God, the more you're going to become like him and less like you. John knew this when he says, I, I, I have to. I have to decrease so that he can increase less. Less of me, more of him. Why? Because everything about me is. Is human and weird. And everything about him is really, really good. I want to become more like Him. The Apostle Paul says, oh, that I might. Might know Him. Even the fellowship of his suffering. I want. I want to know him. I want to be close to Him. I want to have great proximity to the Lord. And transformation happens in closeness. So proximity produces transformation before blessings. And here's the final thing I want to share with you. How do we do this? How do we have this proximity thing worked out? How do we cultivate that? How do I get closer to the Lord? And here's the good news. That God has designed the parts of His Word that tell us very clearly how to get closer to God. So, number three. Proximity is cultivated through intentional firsts. First. Somebody say that word with me. Firsts. What you do first matters more than what you think. Everything in your relationship with God when it comes to proximity, begins with what you do first. We know this is true because the more that you start focusing on honoring God with the first and the best, the more you begin to see your heart change. This is something I wish I could convince more people of it, but unfortunately, many people will never take that step. They might take a step to honor God a little bit with whatever is left over, if I can. But learning how to honor God first, it matters a lot. Let me just remind you of this. If God gets what is left, he will never get what is best. And if you want to know God, if you want to draw near to him, if you want to cultivate that relationship of proximity, it starts with your decision to give God the first and the best of everything. You have the first and the best of your day. One of the things we say here in this, in this culture, in our church, is scripture before screens, long before I get on emails and look at my schedule and all the things I have to accomplish for today, if I don't spend time with the Lord first, give him the first and the best of my day, I'm going to end up taking people and putting them in the place of God and forgetting. What's the point? The point is not that I get to every email, not that I get to every meeting and how to solve all the problems of the world. That's not the point. The point is, did I please Him? And I can't know that unless I've spent time with him first. When God gets the first and the best of my day, everything else begins to line up in spiritual order. There's a reason why we do church on Sunday mornings, the first day of the week and the first part of the day. There's a reason why we give God the first 10% of our income, by the way, I give him first percent of the gross. Why? Because it's the best. It's not what's left over. He deserves that. I honor God with the first of my paycheck. And I want to challenge you to think about 2026 in that way. What if I gave God my best and gave God the first of everything that I have? Not what's left over, not if I have, but just determine I'm going to trust him come hell or high water. And either he's God or he's not. But it's not going to be dependent upon me deciding if I trust him or not. No, I'm going to prove it by giving God my first and best. And I wish I could show you all the different scriptures that prove what I'm saying. Just, just take it from me. This is an important part of living a disciplined Christian life, is learning how to honor God with the first and the best it matters what we do first. There's a reason why I'm preaching a message on proximity first as the first message. Because everything else that we do in season 2026 of High Rich Church is going to be based upon proximity. This we honor him first. It shapes who you become. It shapes your influence and your ability to make a difference. And so, as we approach this year, as the first part of this year, we want you to know that what's coming up next is a time of repentance, a time of prayer, a time of humility, a time of prophecy, a time of honoring God first. It's important that we learn how to hear God's voice and not just decide in advance what we want him to say. But, Lord, if I'm really going to honor you and get closer to you, I want to be able to hear you and understand how important it is. That means I need to hear from you first. I need to be intentional about putting you first. For those of you that have ever seen the miracle of childbirth, if you've ever been in the room when a. When a baby is born, if you've ever seen your own children be born, it's a wonderful, wonderful process. A little gross at times, a little strange. If you've never seen it, by the time you get to the second or third or fourth, you're like, this is cool. You can enjoy it. But that first one, you're like, I might need to sit down a little crazy. But one of the things that they do intentionally, as soon as they pull that child out of the womb, one of the first things that they do is they place that child on the mother's chest. And that's not some emotional thing. Oh, let's take a picture. It's not really that. It's an intentional first. And there are so many things that begin to happen, not just emotionally, but psychologically, inside the heart of the mother and the child that you can't medicate, you can't fix any other way. There are hundreds of things that begin to happen in the connection between mother and child with the intentional first. If you've never seen that, it's a beautiful, beautiful experience. But doctors do that on purpose because we've learned how important this moment is for a child to place them on the mother. And we've seen that in a high anxiety environment when all their world has been ripped apart, they've seen the light and all the things are happening. People are messing with them as they come out of the wind. Things are crazy until they Place them on the mother's chest. And then the heartbeat begins to sync up, and they recognize that this is home. This is. This is okay. I'm. I'm. I'm safe. I'm where I'm supposed to be. And things begin to change. There's a bond that begins to happen. And the same is true, by the way. The moment that you're born again, the moment that you receive Christ in your heart, it is necessary for you to have an intentional first season where you're just spending time as close as you can to the Lord, digging into his word, spending time with him every day in worship, spending time in his presence, talking to him, letting him speak to you, writing down what you think he might be saying. It's important because you learn to hear his heartbeat. You've learned this is home for me. This is where everything else I do in my life is going to be based on. On these intentional firsts. There's something beautiful about watching somebody develop in their relationship with the Lord. And here's the good news. You never have to get away from that. That's home. That's where we're safe. Is in proximity to Him. Remind yourself that the moment God sends His son to the cross, he chose you. He chose a relationship with you. He bids you to come near to Him. But life happens. We get busy. We get distracted. There's noise. Things get loud. We get scared, we get anxieties, we get hopes, we get dreams, we get ambitions, we get New Year's resolutions, and we get excitement. And we drift and we find ourselves farther from God than we intended to be. But repentance and prayer and fasting quiets the noise and helps amplify God's voice. I start hearing him better. It draws me closer to Him. And everything else that we do from that point on will be based upon. What does God say? I want you to know that that's one of the things that keeps us safe as a church and as believers. One of the things that helps us is that everything that we do with the rest of our program for the year, programming for the year, will be based upon. What did God say? It's not what I want. What does he want? And as we were fasting and praying, as we were digging into God's word, as we were meeting as elders, that word became evident. Proximity matters. God says, get close to me. I want you to hear my voice. I want you to spend time with me. And so I want to challenge you. I want to push that onto your plate. And for you to think about that this year can be more than just losing a few pounds. It can be more than getting a raise or getting a promotion. It can be more than just, well, I finally get a ring by spring. And it's more than that. Because if you seek first the kingdom of heaven, if you seek first his righteousness, Jesus said, I'm going to add those things to you. And in the process of me adding those things to you, you're going to change. It's going to be the better version of you. I believe there's more for you. I want to challenge you to think about that. Life is more than what we settle for and then what we drift into. It's not going to happen by accident, but by us intentionally saying, lord, I need to repent, I need to humble myself, I need to hear from you, I need to ask. I'm going to do that with fasting, with prayer. So next Sunday I'll preach a message about the importance of fasting, about what's going to happen when we fast. And I'll lay that out for you for the following week. And on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, we're going to do a three day fast together. It's important that you understand that if you're on a ton of medication, talk to your doctor first because then things get a little crazy. You're going to hear the Lord, you're going to hear all kinds of voices like, don't do that, don't do that. Talk to your doctor about what it means. By the way, we need this. This is not a diet. It's a big difference. It's not a diet. This is a fast. A diet might help you to lose some weight, to feel better, but a fast can help you hear better. You'll be able to hear the Lord. Then we have services on Monday night, Tuesday night, Wednesday night of next week. Also, we have a service during the day on Wednesday at 10 o'. Clock. Those night services start at 7. The day service on Wednesday starts at 10am Each of those services, we're going to be praying together, giving you some specific things to call on the Lord for, asking the Lord for help. And we believe the Lord's going to show up, he's going to answer us, he's going to bless, he's going to heal, he's going to restore. Why? Because we're choosing proximity, want to get close to him. So right after James says draw near to God, he's going to draw near to you, he starts listing out ways to do that. He says, repent he says, purify your hearts. Like, wash your hands. He's not talking about your physical hands. He's saying, wash the things that you've done and thought about your attitudes and your emotions. Like, let's get clean of those things. You can start fresh with God. There's fasting and there's prayer. I love what it tells us in the Book of Ezra. Ezra was a man chosen by God to leave his country and go back to Jerusalem and start rebuilding the walls of a city that had just been completely destroyed. And he knew he had 900 miles to go. And even though God had called him to do it, he was super afraid and super anxious. Like, I've never done anything like this before, but. But. So he gets ready to make this trip and he tells, you know, his king is like, I'm gonna send some soldiers with you to protect you. And he's like, I don't need any soldiers. We can do this all with the hand of God. He's gonna protect us. Then five minutes later, he's like, I shouldn't have said that. Like, he's offering to protect us. Like, we could have had the protection of the Lord and the king. We could have asked the soldiers. Now I'm super embarrassed. And we've got a bunch of gold and silver that's gonna help us to fund this project. And I don't know what I'm doing. You ever been in a situation like that, you kind of stick your foot in your mouth and you think you're like, I'm going to step out on faith. I'm going to trust God. And then you're like, ah, I probably shouldn't do that. Ezra is the person for you. Ezra says, you know what the solution all this is? I need to quiet myself. I need to fast, I need to pray. I need to get some people to fast and pray with me, because I got a lot of anxiety. I'm not sure what the future holds. I got a lot of things to accomplish this year, and I know that God has something for me, but I'm just not quite sure how to do it. And I want to step out on faith. And sometimes I just get out in front of my faith and not sure how I'm going to do this. Ezra, I love what he says in chapter eight. He says this. So I proclaimed a fast so that we might humble ourselves before God and ask him for a safe journey. And I was ashamed to ask the king for soldiers to protect us. So we fasted and we petitioned our God about this. And look what happened. He answered our prayers. If you know the rest of the story, you know that they go to Jerusalem and underneath all kinds of horrible conditions, they rebuild the walls of this major city in 52 days. You think TxDOT could use some of that help? You ever seen a whole city rebuilt in 52 days? No, you have not. God's people did it working 24 hours. Why? Cause they had a mind to work. I believe what's gonna happen in 2026 is God is calling us out of our comfort zone into proximity. And he's saying, what's gonna happen with you, with the rest of this year will be based upon your willingness to listen to me and to draw close to me. Then you're going to accomplish more than you ever thought you could accomplish. Why? Because I'm going to show you what's most important. It all starts with proximity. And proximity is cultivated by giving God the first. And I'm going to challenge you today to think about honoring God with the first and with the best. I'm not here to put some kind of guilt trip on you. I'm simply saying this year can be different if you start prioritizing God first. Some people will say, oh, it's my kids. Before anything. You're out of order. The best thing you can give your kids is a healthy relationship between you and the Lord. Just saying, oh, it's my spouse before anything. I love that for you. Great. You're out of order. The best thing you can give your marriage is a healthy relationship with the Lord, period. I'm just telling you, when you get your relationship with God correct and when he's first and he gets the best, everything else begins to come into order. And there's a spiritual order for your life that's better than what you're fighting to defend. Some people will fight you for a system that they know is not working. And God says, this is better for you. Seek me first and watch me take care of the things that you can't fix. Let me help you. But you have to start developing relationship with me. Some of us bring our wounds and heavy losses and hurts. Let me just tell you, I understand. And your relationship with God is the safest place to bring those two. God says, come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden. He says, I bind up the brokenhearted, and I heal their wounds. So when he says, draw near to me, he says, turn around. Come back to me. You know better. And try to handle this on your own. Let me help you. I'll leave you with this thought, Giving God the first of my year declares that he is not an accessory, he's the anchor. And when God is the anchor of this year, what happens is going to be awesome. Is that. Okay, everybody, we're going to finish up right there, if that's all right with you. And go ahead and put away your phones, if you would. Let's just take a moment and get still before the Lord as we finish up today. I want to say thank you to everybody that was watching online. If you have a social media presence, do us a massive favor if you would click the share button. It is a huge blessing when you do that. There are people all over the world that do not have a home church that are not getting free fed the gospel there. There are people that don't understand the things that the Lord is saying for us. And so when you, when you choose to hit that share button and share this with your own social media influence, it becomes a big deal. And God uses your influence to be an agent of change to make a difference. So thank you in advance for doing that. For those of you that are supporting us financially, we could not do this without you. It is a massive undertaking, the things that God has called us to do. And I want to say thank you in advance for trusting us, for being able to stand behind us. There's a lot of people that are reaping huge rewards and we have a missionary with us today. I can't even tell you who this person is or where they're serving because they're serving God in a place that it's not safe to do that. But I want you to know that person is here today in person and we love you and we're very, very grateful for what God is doing through your ministry. And it is an honor to be able to support people like you. And there's a group of people here that love to watch the gospel go to places where it ain't easy. It ain't easy to serve him. So I just want to say thank you for serving God in the places where it's hard. And it is an honor and a joy to be able to be a conduit, to send you to where God has sent you. It's a beautiful thing. Would you go ahead and bow your head and close your eyes. Let's just take a moment, if you would, and ask ourselves some, some questions that we can be honest with about today in God's presence. Am I closer to God than I've ever been? And right now, as we're asking ourselves that question. I feel. I just feel empowered and emboldened by the Holy Spirit to say some of us are in this place where we're not as close to God as we've ever been. Because somebody has hurt you. Some church has hurt you, a pastor has hurt you, A pastor's actions or a pastor's family or a staff member. Somebody hurt you in some way. I think the Lord led you here today to say, can I have that? Would you let me take that? Because your walk with God is too important, and the calling that God has on your life is too critical. Fear to be sidelined by that hurt anymore. Let's leave that in 2025. Let's step into a new season. God's got more for you, and you're in a safe place. He says, lean on me. Hear my heartbeat. You're okay. So, Father, we receive the safety that comes from your presence. We want to be closer to you than ever before. Father, lead us. Speak to us as we begin to fast and to pray and position our hearts and our lives and our minds. And in a place to receive from you, I pray that you would come and do what only you can do. I pray for the hard situations in this room, for the difficult days. I pray for the offenses and the hurts and the pain and the losses and the sorrow. I pray for the ambition, Lord. I pray for all the resolutions. I pray for all the hopes and the dreams. I pray that they would all submit to you and that you would come in and do what only you can do. As we choose to just get close to you. We ask these things in the name of Jesus. And now, with heads bowed and eyes closed, perhaps you came here today and you would say, pastor, I don't have a relationship with God. I'm so far from God right now, I'm not even sure what that looks like. My friend, guess what? You're in the right place. And God led you here today for this moment. Others might say, pastor, I used to go to church. I used to be involved. I used to do all those things. I was raised in it, maybe, but I've gotten away from God. And I know I've been backslidden. I understand it. My friend, you're in the right place, too. God led you here for this moment. And as a matter of fact, if you could see it, God himself is reaching out his hand to you right now, saying, come home to me. Draw near to me, and I'm going to draw near to you. So with heads bowed and eyes closed, if you're ready to make a decision. If you're ready to start this year off in the presence of God, to make a decision, to follow him. And this next part is just for you. I'm going to ask you to pray with me. I'm going to give you a prayer. I'll tell you the words to say, and I'm going to ask that you say it with me. And as a matter of fact, so that you don't feel singled out or embarrassed in any way, I'm going to have all of us say it out loud together. But you need to do this. It's time for you to make a decision, to follow the Lord, to come home. This is how you do it. Pray this prayer with me. Come on, saints, let's say this together. Say, Jesus, I believe you're the Son of God. I believe that you came and died, and I believe that you rose from the grave so that I might have life and forgiveness for my sins. I give you my life. I'm all in, in Jesus name and with heads bowed and eyes closed with nobody else looking around. If you prayed that prayer and you meant that prayer, can I just see your hand all across this place? Would you lift it up nice and high and proud? So that was me, Pastor. I prayed that prayer and I meant it. Can I just see your hand? Good. Good for you. If you pray that prayer, you might even be watching online. Notice that there is a. There's a phone number appearing behind me on a screen. It's on your screen as well. Would you text me? Text the words I prayed to that number and I'll send you back the link to some things that will help you understand what just happened in your heart and what to do next. It's the greatest honor of my life, helping people know Jesus. It's a big deal and I'm proud of you. Good for you. How rich family. Go ahead and look up at me then. Let's stand to our feet together today. It's been such an honor bringing God's word. I hope that you've enjoyed that very much. I hope you leave encouraged and challenged and blessed. So I have our elders and their wives stepping forward and they're going to line up right across this platform to be available to pray for you about anything that you might need prayer for. If you're walking through a difficult season, you say, man, I wish somebody would pray for me. Let me just tell you this. It's free and we would love to pray for you. We've seen God do incredible things. We serve a powerful God. And when you choose to let somebody start praying for you, you open up the door to the miraculous. And we would love to to be able to cover you with whatever you might be walking through. And for everybody else, let me pray for you and send you out with my blessing. Father, would you bless my friends with a great week? Would you watch over them? Would you protect them, help them to have the most incredible year as they choose, Lord, to draw close to you? Bless them, Lord. I pray in the name of Jesus. Amen. God bless you as you go. Have a wonderful week. [00:45:12] Speaker A: Thank you so much for listening in today. Our prayer is that you are encouraged and strengthened by the message. If you haven't done so yet, be sure to subscribe to this podcast and leave us a review or wherever you're listening. [00:45:24] Speaker B: If you want to be a part. [00:45:25] Speaker A: Of our online community, connect with us through Facebook or Instagram with the handle hyridgelv or you can check out our [email protected] lastly, if this ministry has impacted your life and you'd like to support its work, visit highridgelv.com give we appreciate your support and we're believing with you today for God's best in your life. Have an incredible week and we will see you next time.