I want to speak a message this morning entitled, "The Secret". I found out over this past week that somebody wrote a new age book entitled, "The Secret". So I thought about changing the title to "The Real Secret" but then I decided why should the devil get all the good titles?
Psalm 31:19-24 says this, "Oh how great is your goodness that you have laid up for those who fear you, which you have prepared for those who trust you in the presence of the sons of men. You shall hide them in the secret place of your presence from the plots of man; you shall keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues. Blessed be the Lord for he has shown me his marvelous kindness in a strong city! For I said in my haste, "I am cut off from before your eyes"; nevertheless you heard the voice of my supplications when I cried out to you. Oh, love the Lord, all you his saints! For the Lord preserves the faithful, and fully repays the proud person. Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all you who hope in the Lord".
Father, we thank you this morning that we can hope in you, trust in you and we are never ever brought up short because of it. Father I thank you for your faithfulness in this place. Spirit of God, may we decrease and may you increase. May this word not only challenge us but comfort us God, in your precious name, Amen.
Verse 20 says this, "You shall hide them in the secret place of your presence". As we started this year, the passion of our heart has been "A passion for his presence". People for years have been seeking the one thing that would make all the difference in life. They want to know the secret of peace, to wealth, to happiness and to wholeness. For the world this is an absolute mystery, they have no idea. They will write books and go to sweat lodges and will put their life in danger. But for the Christian, the secret of life is not a mystery. It is open knowledge and we understand it.
Psalm 25:14 says, "The secret of the Lord is with those who fear him and he will show them his covenant". What has been hidden to so many people is wide open to the people of God. If you don't know the Lord this morning I'm about to open it up and reveal him to you so you understand it. The secret of the Lord is with those who fear him. Those who know the continual goodness of God, those who grasp the mysteries of his word, those who receive constant strength, those who have joy and peace are those who are hidden in the secret place of his presence. The secret of life is to be a people of presence in his presence.
So many people talk about meditation and about all these other things that you can do to somehow find peace. But the real secret is not the counterfeit to God. The real secret is what God offered to every one of us, the ability to live in his presence everyday. The secret of his presence then is prayer. All true strength comes from drawing near to God.
As we move on in the year, as we are getting close to Thanksgiving and Christmas and move on in the vision that God has for us as a church and as individuals, one of the overriding principles that God is speaking to our heart is to never forget the secret of prayer. It's important. Our strength, our peace, our security, our power is proportionate to our nearness to God, how close we walk with him. When prayer ceases to be a priority, his presence begins to lack. All great men and women of God, all great churches, all great moves of God have all been birthed in prayer by people who understand their need to draw near to God; those who walk in the peace of God, those who you look at and say, "I wish I could be like that; I wish I could have that kind of power in my life for the Lord; I wish I had that passion for God in my life". It didn't come by accident, it came because they understood the secret of prayer.
Do we desire to see God in our life? Do we want to see him in our families? Do we want to see God in our home and our church, to see the spirit of God move powerfully? If we do then we must be a people of prayer, we must be a people of presence. We want to complicate everything, we've got to do this and we've got to do that but the secret is to be a people of prayer, a people who are in the presence of God. It is that simple. All we need, all we are will come from our secret life in prayer.
Psalms 91:1 says, "He who dwells in the secret place of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the almighty". If you've been a believer for any amount of time you know this verse but let this truth get into your heart, "He who dwells in the secret place of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the almighty".
Most people will never see their secret place in prayer. Very few people watch the prayer life of this pastor. My wife has seen it, my kids have seen it, some of the staff have seen it. That is time that is so precious between me and God. The only reason the annointing is ever there, the only reason counseling is effective, the only reason my children are well, I believe is because of the time I spend with God. Most people won't see what makes the difference but all will recognize the results in and through those who spend time with God.
The Bible says in Proverbs 13:20, "He who walks with wise men will be wise". Who is wiser than almighty God? Who is more powerful than almighty God? Those who spend time with him and make him their friend, who make the Holy Spirit the chief senior partner of their life and who are in that prayer closet with God will grow wiser still. "Those who dwell in the secret place of his presence, the Bible says, shall abide under the shadow of the almighty". They shall live there. We can live under the covering of God and we can walk under the anointing of God. The Bible says, "He who dwells in the secret place of the most high shall dwell under the shadow (or the covering) of the almighty God". Those who live there are covered by God. The word "Almighty" is translated "El Shaddai" or almighty, all powerful, all sufficient God. How many know if you are dwelling under the Almighty, all powerful, all sufficent God then you're doing pretty well? That's what God wants us to do, that's how he wants us to live. The secret is not a mystery, it is attainable by everyone, to those who will take time in prayer.
Those who spend time in his presence grow in faith. They walk in confidence in their relationship with God in anything that he would put their foot to do. They are people who don't live in fear and are familiar with the almighty and his ways. That's why when they lay hands on the sick it is not an odd thing for them to see those that they prayed for healed. They have been in the presence of almighty God. That is why when they're in situations that they don't understand, when they cry out to the Lord it's not an unfamiliar thing to do, it is something they do all the time. When they cry out they expect because they know the almighty. He who dwells in the secret place of the most high shall abide.
That's why our first Friday prayer is so important. It's a Friday night, we could be out doing things, seeing a movie or going out to dinner but the truth is all we've done is put just one hour from 7 - 8:00 to ask God to come and cover this church and cover every outreach we do. That's why we had no problem going out on Halloween into Riviera Beach just to minister the gospel of Jesus Christ. Gang members were driving by in their cars and they were slowing down to hear the gospel. They may not have gotten out but they drove by a couple times and I noticed with a few of them that the radio was turned down as they came by the 2nd time. They wanted to see and hear what was going on. The reason why 20 people gave their life to Jesus is because the almighty was there to touch their life.
I was standing with the deacon of that church and he got to testify. He said, "For about 15 years all I did was drink. I lost a $77,000 a year job, I lost my wife and kids, I lost everything because of alcohol. But I came back to Jesus and my life has been so good and so right with God". He was shouting and giving testimony while the preacher was preaching and I was alright with that. Praise God, what a great night it was. The closer we are to Jesus, the stronger we are. James 4:8 says, "Draw near to God and he will draw near to you". It's that simple. Do you feel far away from God this morning? Do you feel like he doesn't love you or doesn't care? Just draw near to him. That's why we worship, that's why the songs are the first thing we do even before the preaching. We draw near to God in praise and worship knowing that he'll draw near to us.
The secret of the believers life; our peace, our hope, our success, our joy, our strength, our power, our everything comes from God. It comes from our communion or relationship with him. By communion I mean intimate relationship, when we partake of him. John 6:48-56, Jesus said to the people, "I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and they're dead but this is the bread that comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread he will live forever. The bread that I will give is my flesh which I shall give for the life of the world. The Jews therefore quarreled among themselves saying, how can this man give us his flesh to eat? Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him".
We read these verses as we come to the communion table but communion is more than about a rememberance of what Jesus did on the cross. The very word communion is not only rememberance, it's relationship. When we hold the elements in our hand we hold that body and the blood of Jesus saying "Lord, you're my everything". It's all about secret intimate relationship. The strength of a marriage doesn't happen by what people see in public but what people see is a small glimpse of what takes place in secret, behind the closed doors. Communion and the intimacy that a husband and wife have together, we are what we eat and who we are close to. Jesus said, "Eat my flesh and drink my blood" because we need him like we need food to live. We need him like we need strength and health and sustenance. Just like we need food, if he is in our life and we are intimate in communion with him, the strength out of that relationship not only gives us reason to live but a healthy life, a healthy walk with God and a healthy marriage. Everything stems from that.
It is not what we do for God that matters most to him, but relationship. A lot of these verses that I could use today I've preached before as whole separate messages but I believe the one thing that God is saying at this time is to just know the secret of being with him. As our church is growing, as we begin to reach out to the city touching lives, my prayer is that we will not let serving take the place of relationship.
Luke 10:38-42 says, "Now it happened as they went that he entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus' feet and heard his word. But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me." And Jesus answered and said to her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her". She chose to sit at his feet.
We must not make the mistake of measuring our walk with Christ by our good works and our ministry but rather by his presence in our life. Mary chose to sit at his feet and Martha needed to learn to do the same thing. The truth is that we are never more pleasing to God than when we draw near to Him and this keeps us in the center of his will. It keeps us right next to his heart and it makes the ministry that we do and the things we do for God more sweet and more effective. I have found with the many things that I do week to week with the church that if I neglect my time with the Lord yet still counsel and preach then the ministry becomes more of a chore than a blessing. But I have found that when I sit at his feet and I get to know him and love him and he speaks to my heart and encourages me day to day, his power flows through me then when I begin to do the ministry of the Lord it is not a chore and I actually become more energized because of it. The truth is he is faithful and we are never more pleasing to God then when we are at his feet. It also gives us the power for what we do.
It is possible to be a believer and still feel distant from God. How many have ever loved God with all your heart and still felt far from Him? It is actually no different from any other relationship. If you don't spend time with Him it's easy to get discouraged and lose hope and lose strength. Without time in his presence our words have little power and our actions and deeds have small results. You find this happens in your marriage if you don't spend time with your spouse. You'll just feel so far away. We need to make sure we spend time with the Lord. Satan fears the Lord's presence in our lives and he ruins our relationship with God the same way he ruins it in a marriage, with business, distraction and a lack of consideration. Absence doesn't make the heart grow fonder, it just makes it grow lonely, discouraged and vulnerable.
Satan will use anything, even good things, to keep us from prayer, to keep us from church, to keep us from our quiet time, to keep us from that secret place with the Lord. I want to speak this to the body of Christ, we are way too busy and we must prioritize. God's presence should be the most important thing to us. The truth is what is important to us will get our time and our attention. His presence and his power should have priority. We all have to work and that's good, as the Bible says we should. We need to spend time with family but the enemy has more distractions going on making Christians so busy that we are worn out, tired out and don't have time for each other and hardly have time for God. Satan fears the Lord's presence so much that he'll do anything to keep you out of it. Let me ask you, what's keeping you from the Lord? Sometimes it's even our kid's sports games or our own stuff that we feel we've got to get involved with. Sometimes it could even be too much ministry. How many know that every member is a minister? You should have something that you're involved in and you should have someone that you're witnessing to. You should have some work of God that you're doing but if you are doing so much because you're trying to fill an empty place then find out what God wants you to do and fill up with Him in his presence. Take time to spend with the Lord.
I was so thankful last night when we were out in Riviera Beach. I don't just want to be the preacher standing around talking, I still want to help to pick up everything. Rocky looked at me and said, "Pastor, you need to go back home, you have to preach two services tomorrow". All the way home I was tired and usually every Saturday night you can find me in here praying. It was interesting because last night even though he told me to go home and rest, the Holy Spirit told me, "I want to meet with you. You need to come and pray. That's what you do every Saturday might. You're going to set the clock back anyway". And I did, I set the clock back and by the time I got here it was 9:30 but it was really 8:30 so I was doing ok. I got here and met with Jesus and I felt so much better because I did. As I started reading about the Secret I realized that the enemy tried to keep me out of the secret place and I didn't even think about that. How many know that preachers aren't always the sharpest tack in the box but Jesus makes up for it.
The truth is that we must prioritize to be in his presence. Before I needed to sit down and watch another tv show, I needed to be in the presence of the Lord. Those who stay at the feet of Jesus grow strong and not weak. Those who pray are less likely to face debilitating discouragement. You're going to face discouragement in your life but if you'll be in the presence of God it is impossible to come to the secret place everyday and stay down. It is impossible to come to the secret place all the time and be under the shadow of almighty God and start to feel like there isn't any point to life. Once you get underneath the power of God and he's there, he will change you inside and out.
Those who pray struggle less with temptation because they're under the shadow of almighty God. When Satan brings that thing to your mind and heart or to your attention where you are weak and attracted to, you have the power of God to help you fight back against the enemy. Those who know the secret of his presence stay strong and they have the strength to stand expectantly when times get trying. How many of you have gone through a few hard times in your life? You've got to stand. Those who are in his presence can do it with hope. Those who know God will know he will never let them down. Not only will God never let you down but he will be there even when the best of your friends aren't available. He will always be there. We can't have this assurance in our lives unless we truly know Him and that's why we must abide in that place.
The saints of old endured terrible sorrow and hardship yet they stood strong and everyone of them had the same secret, prayer. They were always in the face of God. Those who stand are those who are consistently and willfully in his presence, who pray without ceasing. Praying without ceasing, the Bible says, is not all about petition. It is not constantly going to God every time you need something because you're going to do that anyway. He doesn't have to give you a secret about that because that's when you're going to cry out to the Lord. Praying without ceasing is making sure you are in constant relationship, in communion with the spirit, making sure that relationship is there. It's recognizing that he's there in the room with you, that he's in your life guiding and directing at every moment. How many are thankful for that spirit of God who dwells inside of you? He never leaves you lonely, never leaves you without help, never leaves you without comfort, and never leaves you in a place of despondency.
We know that we live in hard times and in the last days and now is the time to build that relationship with the Lord so that we have the strength to stand and not be shaken now or in the future. Listen, he loves you so much, he's given the secret so that you are confident and strong, so that you have hope and so you are not moved when all around you are falling down. God wants us strong in Him ourselves. The truth is we need to take more time, more than once a week getting our fill up at church; we need to make sure we're filled up everyday.
Isaiah 40:28-31 says, "Have you not known, have you not heard the everlasting God, the Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the weak and to those who have no might he increases strength. Even the youth shall faint and be weary and the young men shall fail but those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary and they shall walk and not faint".
I was looking at Pastor Owen when he was there with us the other week. He's 85 years old and still driving across the country preaching to churches every Sunday under the anointing and power of God. He's still got a good sense of humor and full of the love of God. He runs circles around so many young preachers. Why? Because he spends time in the presence of God. That's his secret. You want the fountain of youth? it's found in the presence of God. You want the secret of health? It's the presence of the Lord in your life. You want the secret of the anointing? It's the presence of God. The secret of a dynamic church is the presence of the Lord.
This morning we're going to receive communion and as you hold that element of his body and his blood in your hand, the secret of what Jesus did on Calvary was to set us free so that we could have intimacy and relationship with Him and the Father. He made it possible. I just decided that if he'd go through all that for us then why waste it?
