The Practice of Daily Presence with Christ.

If you would like one, we are going to be reading in Colossians chapter 3 today, starting in verse 15. This is Paul's writing, and he says this:

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace, and be thankful. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Colossians 3:15-17

Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for your word. We thank you for your presence that is here with us through your Holy Spirit. We thank you for your son Jesus, his death, his resurrection, that made way for us to be with you for all of eternity. And this is just a taste here today. God, I just ask that through your Holy Spirit, as we read these scriptures, you would open up our ears to hear you clearly. You would open up our eyes to see. You would open up our hearts to receive. Would you meet us here today, God, through your word? And would we leave this place changed and closer to you? It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Getting to the diagnosis

I have kind of prided myself through the years in traveling and being able to conquer jet lag. Has anyone ever experienced really bad jet lag when returning from somewhere? Sometimes I swear I'll go where it's like 10 to 14 hour time difference. I come back and I wake up the next day and I'm ready to go. And then a couple of weekends ago, I'm in San Francisco and it's like two hours. The next day I'm like, wow, why do I feel like I was run over by a truck?

But I got a little cocky and I took my mom on her first big trip where there was a time difference to Greece this summer. When we came back the next day, I'm prepping her. I'm like, "Okay, mom, like this is what we have to do to get over jet lag. Like we have this. You're going to stay up. You're going to drink water, no naps." So I'm catching her in the middle of the day kind of snoozing. I'm like, "No naps, like wake up. You can't do that." And so I'm priding myself in trying to get her to conquer jet lag.

Well, by day five, like we were bad. Like it was really bad. I've never felt so terrible in my life. And then it hit me: maybe this isn't jet lag. So I took a COVID test and we were both positive for COVID. And so my poor mother, here she is, I take her to celebrate her 60th birthday with me on this trip. And I'm forcing her, as she has COVID, to not sleep, to not take any naps throughout the day, and just stay, keep moving, keep moving.

And I felt terrible, of course. But here's the thing: we started to feel better once we were treating the right symptoms. So often in life, we find ourselves in places where we know we're not feeling good. And so we start to make these assumptions about what's going on. Rarely do we slow down long enough to sit with ourselves, our bodies, to sit with the Lord, and to truly examine what is going on right now in my life. Because we can't properly treat things until we first know what we're treating.

Our "so what" for today: every week we have this main idea. Prayer is a pathway to deeper presence with Christ every day, in everything we do. Prayer is a pathway for us to be more deeply present with Christ.

As we wrap up our prayer series and head into this united week of prayer today, we're going to be talking about the examine prayer. That is our kind of next step, our "now what." As we wake up on Monday, what is our invitation? It is to learn, to practice, and to pray the examine prayer.

The examine prayer is this idea of really sitting before the Lord and asking questions: God, where were you throughout my day? What is going on deep down in my heart? Is there any sin I need to confess, things I need to repent of? So that I'm aware of what is truly happening in my life. So I can treat the right things and therefore become more like you and live like you in my everyday life.

Prayer is a pathway to deeper presence with Christ. So our invitation is: how can we, as followers of Jesus, pay attention to what is truly going on? How can we examine that and lay that down before the Lord?

Christ longs to dwell with us

Our first point today is this: Christ longs to dwell with us. Christ longs to dwell with us.

I love this. Even as we were singing that last song and that word "holy, holy, holy," to be holy is this idea that we are set apart. We're talking and singing that to the Lord this morning of saying, "You are holy. You are set apart. There is none like you." I was just reminded of that truth. There are so many gods that people worship, so many lives and ways and things and people that you can follow. But when we talk about what it means to follow Jesus, a God that is set apart, he didn't just stay up in heaven and send down some book to say "live like this." No. He left heaven to come down to earth to dwell with us. Even as Christmas comes, we celebrate God Emmanuel, our God with us.

John 1:14 sums this up so beautifully:

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 1:14

What a gift that we have that when we talk about following Jesus, we're talking about following someone that came down and took on flesh. He came down and dwelt among us and lived a human life as fully God. So he knows our experiences. He knows our pain. He's not distant. He's not far off. He came close.

And then when he ascended into heaven, after he died on the cross and was raised back to life, he left with us his Holy Spirit to continue to dwell among us. So we don't have to just say, "Okay, I believe the Bible's true, and yes, I'm going to follow you Jesus, and I can't wait to see you and talk to you someday in heaven." But every single moment of every single day we can be in communion and relationship and with the presence of God through Jesus, who made way, and his Holy Spirit that's with us.

I want to talk about this word "dwell" because words are fascinating in the Scriptures. When you look at the word "dwell" in the context of the Old Testament, there are lots of different words that this can represent in the Hebrew language. The Old Testament was written in Hebrew, and there are nine different kind of translations or words to describe this word "dwell." But the most frequent one was Yahshaba - to sit down. That was what it was translated to. To dwell was to sit down. And then this was used over 400 times.

Other ways that this word was translated to were: to abide, to inhabit, to remain. We often think of "remain," and there's a famous passage in John that talks about "abide in me, I am the vine, you are the branches." So it's like this dwell, this sit, this abide, this remain. But what I also think is fascinating here is that to dwell is also to settle down, from which is derived the rabbinic word Shekinah, which we often talk about the Shekinah glory - his dwelling, his glory was made and came among us.

So when we start to think of what it means that God wants to dwell, that Christ wants to dwell with us? Well, he already did come and he showed us that when he lived here and was alive on earth for 33 years that he walked among us. He showed us that he's like, "I want to sit with you. I want to dwell with you. I want to be with you. I want to remain with you." He had people that were with him for the long haul.

In the New Testament, this word "dwell" most frequently stands for orikyo, one of its other words that talks about to abide. But what I love about "abide," which can also be translated to "meno," is this word gets a little more fascinating. This also can mean to remain, to stay, or to long suffer. It incorporates suffering. To take up residence. That's my favorite one - to take up residence.

I talked a few weeks ago about how the way we see God changes the way we seek God. If we see God as someone who welcomes us, then we're going to feel welcome and we're going to go and we're going to talk to God. But if we see God as someone who's mad at us or disappointed in us, like nobody really likes to talk or be around someone that's mad at them or disappointed in them. So the way we see God changes the way we seek God.

I told the story about the difference between going to someone's house for the first time versus when you feel at home in their presence. When you go to someone's house for the first time, you're probably going to ask, like, "Where do I put my shoes? When I sit down for dinner, where do you want me to sit?"

But when you know someone well, you're just going to walk right in that door.

A couple of years ago, when I showed up to my brother's house and the buzzer wasn't working. He'd have to come down and let me in every time I showed up. We'd go up the elevator. So he already let me in the front door. I buzzed, he let me in, and we're in the elevator. At this point, he looks over at me and goes, "Why do you have a pillow in your hands?" And I was like, "Well, just in case." He's like, "Just in case for what?" And I was like, "Well, I need to spend the night." He's like, "What do you mean? Like, I never invited you to spend the night."

Now a little context: my AC was broken at the time. But the thing is, because I see him as my brother, as my family, as someone that welcomes me, whether he always wants to or not, I am fully confident to just show up with my pillow to his house and be like, "You're going to give me a place to sleep tonight. I'm taking up residence with you."

But there's something that happens when we start to recognize that Christ wants to take up residence with us. Like he doesn't want to just come for a short visit and then leave. He wants to make a home with us and us to make a home with him. He wants to dwell. He wants to abide. He wants to remain.

But here's the thing: when someone starts to take up residence with you and you start to live with them, you start to see them in a whole new light. And this at times is why we tend to want to distance ourselves from Christ. The idea of him really starting to dwell can be a little scary. You think you know someone, and then you live with them and now you really know them. You really start to understand.

My roommate knows now where I leave my coffee cups every single day. Everyone else might know like Abbie drinks coffee every morning, but she gets to hear me make the coffee and probably be woken up by me making the coffee in the morning. You know people a little bit differently when you start to live and take up residence with them. What does that look like for us to start to take up residence with Christ and allow him to take up residence in our life?

John 14:16 says:

I will ask the Father and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever. The Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him because it neither sees him nor knows him, but you know him for he lives with you and will be in you.

John 14:16-17

He's talking about the Holy Spirit, God's Holy Spirit, that was left with us so that we can continue to experience him taking up residence in our life.

And what's so cool is that the Old Testament to New Testament people knew that this was coming. It was prophesied in the Old Testament that Jesus was going to come and be Emmanuel, God with us. And we see that this promise continues of saying, "I want to dwell, I want to be among you."

Ephesians 3:17 says:

So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, and I pray that you, being rooted and established in love...

Ephesians 3:17

Here's the thing: Paul continues to pray this for us of saying, "Go back, like remain, let him dwell, let Christ take up residence. Like don't just have someone that you go and visit, someone that you come and you're like, 'I talk to Jesus when I come to church on Sundays.' Let him take up residence within your heart."

Christ longs to dwell with you. In Christ, he longs to do every little thing with you. He longs to do it with you.

This is good news to us because we all at different times in our life are going to feel that distance. This is not our eternal home. So we're going to feel that longing to have someone, to have that companion. What happens is oftentimes people talk about getting married and they think like, "Well, this is going to be it." But those of you who are married, you know like you can still be married and lonely. You can still be married and have struggles and long for community and companionship. It's because every single relationship here on earth that we get to encounter is a gift from God. It's a taste of the real communion and union that we were created for in him.

He is the one that our soul longs for. So we have an invitation then to let him in.

Do it in the name of Jesus

In verse 17 in Colossians 3, it says:

Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it in the name of the Lord Jesus and give thanks to God the Father through him.

Colossians 3:17

"Do it in the name of Jesus." I want to talk about this idea of the "name of" for a moment. What does that mean, "in the name of"?

So "in the name of" is used a lot in Christian circles and religious circles: "in the name of [fill in the blank]." Whatever God, whatever power, whatever authority, whatever deity that you serve. It's this idea of acting with the authority of a higher power. So when you say "in the name of," you might be there to represent someone as well. So it is either an authority, it's a purpose or a cause that you might say "in the name of justice," "in the name of freedom," "in the name of love." Or it's an identity that you are acting to represent something or someone. A person. A people group.

What do you today do things in the name of? Who do you do things in the name of? I want you to think about that for a moment, because for many of us, we can come and have this relationship and follow Christ, and we can find ourselves doing things in the name of success, in the name of comfort, in the name of seeking the next adventure, in the name of fulfilling the expectations that we think are placed on us. What are we doing things in the name of? Which then also asks that question: who are we living for?

When you think about who you are, the things that you wear, the way that you talk, who are you doing it for? Who are you doing it in the name of? Some questions, if we really want to dig deep: where do you live and why do you live there? Is it to represent Jesus, in the name of Jesus? Why did you move to the house that you did? Why are you in this city? Was it for the sake and the name, to represent Jesus?

And as I say this, I also say this with the caveat: if we didn't, and we're just like, "I just kind of got here," that's okay. But now we have this invitation to say, everywhere we go from this place, if our church's mission is to create the culture of Christ, his patterns, his customs, his beliefs, if we're going to do that, then we should be filtering everything we do and saying, "Who is this in the name of? Am I doing this in the name of what's expected of me in the next step? Am I doing this in the name of, well, this job's going to get me more money? Or am I doing this in the name of Jesus and the invitation that he's giving me for this moment?"

Which sometimes it might be the job that gets you more money. But who are you doing it in the name of?

This week for my work that I do with other churches here in Madison, which is part of our organization that puts on this United Week of Prayer, I get to meet with other pastors and host these little gatherings. This week I hosted a gathering of pastors that were in these downtown neighborhoods. And we had a group come from San Francisco to share with us about their church and what they were doing in the city. I want to share this with you. I'm not saying, like, "No, we're going to do exactly this," because I think contextualizing things is really important. But to share with you how this church is living for Jesus.

So this church, I want to start by saying, they only have about 100 people. This is not some big church with thousands of people and all this money and all these resources. But San Francisco, there are a lot of people that make a lot of money in the tech world, in the corporate world. So this church decided to plant in a neighborhood where people already lived from their church. They moved into the same neighborhood. They said, "We're all going to move to the same neighborhood."

San Francisco is a giant city, right? It takes an hour to get across the city. Here we're all like 15 minutes away from each other. But they moved to the same neighborhood so that they could see that neighborhood transformed, believing that would lead to the city being transformed, the world being transformed.

As they decided to be intentional about dwelling and discerning and learning who's here, who's among us, who are our neighbors, they started to notice that all of the schools nearby, when it came time to high school, students were having to bus really far. Even then, most of the students in their neighborhoods were not able to graduate. They were not meeting the reading levels they were supposed to be at. They weren't going to college. So they, as a church, said, "Well, what if we started a high school right here in these neighborhoods? So they wouldn't have to leave. They wouldn't have to travel. And we could bring this quality education."

And just last year, they had the graduating class that they started seven or eight years ago, I think, and every single one of them graduated and are now going to college. They did something so small by paying close attention to God, saying, "We know that you're dwelling among us, and we want to dwell among these people, and to live on mission, and to see them change."

But this started from them saying, "We're going to live and do everything with Christ, in the name of the Lord Jesus. We're not just going to go and live in the neighborhood that we want to live in. We're intentionally going to stay in this place and remain and dwell to see this city transformed."

The other thing that they did is they started their own tech company. And here's what I love. Some of you will understand this more if you're in that world. But they decided right from the get-go that they were going to pay close attention to the income, wages, and gaps among their employees when they started this company. They're making so much money. Almost all of their proceeds go to fund the school, go to fund the church and the ministry, the food pantries, and the things that they're doing. So they're intentionally working to make money to use it to build the kingdom right in the neighborhoods to do things there to feed people, to clothe people, to give them education.

But here's what I love. The CEOs, the founders of the company, they set a cap on what the gap was going to be. They take pay cuts in order to pay the employees that are in the starting positions even more so that they can continue to live and have a livable wage and to give and to serve in the community. Now, this is intentional living. This isn't just saying, "I'm going to be in this world and sometimes I'm going to show up and I'm going to visit Christ." It's saying, "We're going to let Christ take up residence, and we're going to take up residence. We're going to let him see everything, and we're going to live a little counterculture for the sake of the kingdom."

They're living out the culture of Christ in a beautiful way. They're asking the questions like, "If Jesus was right here in my neighborhood, how would he be living? Where would he be?" And I love this because it models so much of the New Testament where every time people moved, every time people made these changes, it was to go and start ministries and to plant churches and to provide for the needs of the people.

It wasn't the way that we live now, where we move for the job, we move for our family. You guys know that was the hardest part when I moved to this city: I left my family and I left my friends in Minneapolis to come here. But I remember that saying of like, "Life is but a vapor, and we're living for eternity." So I said, "Okay, we're going to go to this city." Then I said it was going to be for one year. Now we're going on nine.

But the more I was here, the more I sensed that invitation of: what would it take, and what would it look like if you stayed? If you remained? If you didn't leave?

One of the things that they talked about at this high school too that they started is they're encouraging the students when they get back from college to come back and continue to live in the neighborhoods. Because so often we take what we need from something and then we leave and never look back. But what does it look like for us to be blessed, to be a blessing, to be people that say we're not just going to take what we need from Jesus and be like, "Thanks Lord, you provided, and I'm going to take it and run"? But what do we say now that this is in my hands? I see it. You're trusting me with it. So what would you have me do with every last set, with every last moment, so that we can see his kingdom here among us?

But I believe that this starts when we ask these questions of saying, "What does it look like for us to live for the name and for the sake of Jesus? What does it look like for us to be people that say like, we're not just going to move to the neighborhood we want to move to? We're going to ask and we're going to seek the Lord and say, 'Where do you want me to dwell in this moment?'"

How do we get there? Well, first it's inviting Jesus and Christ into our hearts to dwell with us. And for us to say we're going to dwell with you, God. We're choosing to let everything else go and say, "This is where I'm taking up residence with you, Christ. This is what it's going to be like."

And then I think it's developing this discipline of paying close attention. And that's the final thing I want to talk about today: paying attention leads to deeper presence.

Paying attention leads to deeper presence

You see, I talked earlier about how I was treating the wrong symptoms when I thought it was just a little jet lag, but it was COVID. I just started working this fall, seeing clients as a therapist. One of the things that I do is I'm there to treat people, but I cannot treat them until I have a diagnosis.

As I go through that process of diagnosing the clients that come in and they sit with me, it looks a little bit different for everyone. When it's kids that come into my office, I take the first couple sessions, and it is a couple sessions where I'm watching them. I'm watching the way that they play. I'm not only listening to what they say, but like, how do they say it? Are they excited when they say it? Are they sad when they say it? I'm paying close attention.

Same thing when adults come in and they sit down and they're telling me things, they're saying things. I'm paying attention. I'm like, "Hmm, are they tense when they're saying this?" I'm watching them so closely and trying to diagnose them because I can't treat them unless I know what I'm treating. So often we get these misdiagnoses where people are like, "Great, we're treating them. They're getting better here." But that's not what they actually needed help with.

And this plays into our spiritual life and our relationship with the Lord as well. Many of us are stuck treating the wrong things. We think, "I'm just a little tired. I'm jet lagged." But there's serious sickness that's happening that we need to address and bring before the Lord.

So my next question to ask you is: when do you check in on yourself? When do you check in on yourself? My dad's calling me. He's like, "When's the last time you changed your oil? Because if you don't do that, there's going to be bigger problems down the line."

It's the little things that sometimes if we don't pay attention to will lead to bigger problems farther down the line. So we need to be people that slow down long enough to notice the small things, to bring it before the feet of Jesus so that we can continue to grow in his likeness and communion with him.

Practicing the examine prayer

When I ask those questions of when we check in on ourselves, I say this also with a heart of recognizing like sometimes we need to be reminded of how much Christ truly loves us and how significant it was that he came to dwell among us and to die for us so that he can dwell with us forever. Like you're worth checking in on today.

And maybe it's been a while since you've thought about that. Like your heart, your mind, your soul, your body. Like you are worth checking in on. You're worth slowing down long enough to say, "God, like what's really going on in my heart? What do I really need to surrender?"

Because we can say things like, "Yes, God, I surrender to you." But do we know what we're really surrendering in?

One of the things that we kind of put out as a church in the beginning of summer are these daily rhythm journals. Our heart is continuing to say, if we want to create the culture of Christ, we believe that's going to happen first by learning how to be with Jesus. Like, do we know how to pray? Do we know how to read our Bible, spend time with Jesus? So that we can become like Jesus and then do what he did, create his culture in every place that we step into, where we take up residence.

Part of that is focusing on how we develop daily prayer rhythms where we're daily spending time with the Lord. One of those is the practice of examine.

If you do not have one of these daily rhythm journals, I think we only have like one or two left in person. But if you do have the money and the finances to pay for it, we ask for just a suggested $10 donation. You can buy them on Amazon. And if you can't, just take one. We want to get this in your hands.

These are guided prayers for morning, noon, and night to help us continue to be with Jesus and to center our eyes, our gaze on him. Because we forget and we get distracted and we start to forget who we're living for and what name we're doing things in.

But this idea of the examine, it really is a way for us to continue to center our lives around Jesus. And so I'm going to kind of teach us through this and end in this practical way. For so many of us, maybe you've been to church a million times, maybe this is some of your first times exploring what does this look like, but we can so easily forget that Christ longs to dwell with us. He doesn't want to just say hi and bye every now and then, but he wants this relationship, this ongoing communication.

Prayer is a pathway to that presence. But what's kind of scary right now is that there's very few times in our life that we're actually present. Studies from 2015 showed that the average person's attention span is 8 seconds. We're distracted. Social media plays into that. The average person checks their phone every 15 minutes.

Movie theaters are some of the last few places in life where our attention is fully stopped, we slow down, and we're fully engaged in what's happening. Because even for a lot of us, in and out of the day at work, you might have times where you're checking your phone and doing this and that. You're so distracted that we're not paying attention to what we're actually feeling, what's actually going on. So we're trying to address these symptoms, these outward things without looking internally.

The examine is a way for us to check in on ourselves and to see God in the ordinary. So it starts with this idea of taking a moment to pause and replay. Just think about your day. Just think about your week. What did you do? Where were you?

And then there's this time to move into reflection. Psalm 139 says:

Search me, O God, and know my heart. Test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way of the everlasting.

Psalm 139:23-24

There is such an invitation for us to come and say like, "Holy Spirit, would you show me now? As I just replayed my day, would you show me where were you?"

Some examples of this: if you're going back and you're trying to pay attention, okay, what did I do today? And how was I feeling? Were you anxious at all? Did you have a moment of anger? Did you have a moment of frustration? Were you really happy? And then to name something specific and say, "God, where were you in that? What was really happening with how I was feeling?"

To not ignore things, but know he wants to be in it with us.

And then the next process is to repent. This is a way for us to continue to be reminded that we are created to live in freedom and not be stuck in our sin.

John 8:36 talks about this:

So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

John 8:36

Jesus came to pay the price for our sins and made way for freedom. So we can be free of anything that's holding us back.

So this idea of repentance is saying, "God, is there any way that I was not living for you today?" And to name that, to confess it, to say, "God, I'm sorry. And now I'm choosing to turn back towards you and to walk in your ways again."

Now, this is something that I think is so crucial for us as followers of Jesus to practice. Daily confession and repentance. Because if we're not careful, sometimes things that are so small, just like a seed of jealousy or a seed of greed or a seed of whatever, can later lead to these massive things that are causing our lives to fall apart because we didn't pay attention and we didn't notice the small and we let that seed grow and grow and grow and grow.

And so daily repentance, getting that in our practice of just a moment of saying, "God, will you show me any way I wasn't living for you today? Forgive me of my sins. I turn to you, Jesus. I declare you as Lord. I'm choosing to follow you." It's so powerful in our lives.

And finally, ending in gratitude. Ending in gratitude. This idea of rejoicing.

1 Thessalonians 5:18 says:

Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

1 Thessalonians 5:18

Psalm 145:3 says:

Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise. His greatness no one can fathom.

Psalm 145:3

Philippians 4:6 says:

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

Philippians 4:6

Thanksgiving is so key for us to center. It reminds our flesh, it reminds our hearts, our minds, our lives, that he is worthy no matter what is happening. That we're not living for this earth, but we're living for eternity.

So in those moments that sometimes when we get so anxious and worried about all these things, end our nights and just say, "Thank you, Jesus. Thank you for your death. Thank you for your resurrection. Thank you that you came. Thank you that you're coming again. Thank you that you came to dwell among us. That you're holy. That you're worthy. That you're set apart."

When we start remembering who God is, and that's where we use Psalms as a reminder, we use songs and we sing them as a reminder. But when we start to do that, all of a sudden it's like, "Whoa, that's right. This thing that's keeping me up at night, like it's not going to be here in five, ten years from now. This thing that I think is everything right now or this disappointment, like this is nothing compared to what Christ did for me and the dwelling that is to come." It recenters us back on Jesus.

It helps us to be present with him in a deeper way. This is what the prayer of examine does for us. It also protects us. It protects us from feeding the negativity in our lives and so much more.

So here's what I want to do as we end today. I want us to give a moment to practice this. I'm just going to invite you, and again, if you want to write down as you go, you can, or you can just look at it. But I'm just going to invite us to sit and center ourselves and say, "Holy Spirit, would you come and would you show us?"

This is the gift of when we come on Sundays: we get to try things together and practice so we can continue to become more like Jesus in our day to day.

As the worship team plays here in the background, I want to invite you to start with that first part and to just replay your day. To just even think about what was it like getting here this morning? When you woke up, what were some of the first things on your mind? The first things you saw?

This exercise or discipline can be as simple as being like, "I woke up, my feet hit the floor. I went downstairs to make my coffee. The baby was crying. That's what woke me up. What were the things that you did today up until this point?" And take a moment to think about that, to write that down.

And then as you do that, move into a time of reflection. Knowing that God does know. He knows our anxious thoughts. He knows everything offensive, standing in the way. But our desire is to be led in the way of everlasting.

So now start to think: were there any, as you reflect on your day, strong emotions, desires, good or bad that you felt? And to just ask the Holy Spirit to show you, "Where were you in that? Is there anything, God, that you want me to know about these situations, of why I was feeling this way?" And take a moment to reflect.

And the next is a time of repentance. To say, "Jesus, would you come and would you show me any ways today that I was not living for you? Is there anything that I need to confess?" And take a moment to confess that. And once again, just tell the Lord, "I'm turning towards you, God."

And then finally we're going to close just in this time of worship and gratitude. God, even now we just begin to do that. I invite you to just name your own things that you are thankful for to the Lord.

God, I thank you that in your word you tell us that if we confess our sins that you are faithful to forgive us. God, I thank you that you continue to come and cleanse us. God, I thank you that you continue to come and draw us closer to you. God, I thank you that you're present with us through your Holy Spirit today. And so, God, we just say thank you.

And we express all of our worship, all of our honor, all of our gratitude, all of our attention. It's for you, Jesus. You alone are worthy.

So God, as we close in this time of singing and gratitude, would you just receive the glory? Would you receive the honor that is yours? Thank you.