Steffany Gretzinger - Permanecer No Altar (Presence Night 2022)

and when we lose first love when we remove our eyes when we look away everything else is disappointing everything else is less than and we wonder why life has not gone the way we hoped it would we wonder why things aren't going the way we hoped they would we wonder why the thing that God promised us is not happening in our lives and we wonder Oh I thought you called me to this thing but the caller is the keeper caller is the keeper and the minute that we become more excited about what we want him

to do through us instead of what he means to us the lamp is gone dim the light is going out and he's looking for full lamps Full Hearts the word of the Lord says the eyes of the Lord look to and fro throughout the Earth to support a heart that is completely his if you don't have support perhaps he's not your first love because a marriage is helpful when it's healthy [Music] and we talk a lot about going to the altar right we're going to marry we're going to marry him or who we talk about

going to the altar and then we leave the Altar and we wonder why Things Fall Apart the key was to never leave the altar do you know the first time the word for worship is used is in Genesis 22. when God asks Abraham for Isaac what was the only thing more precious than his own life his son and Abraham okay Abraham you've just had gone climbed up that mountain and raised that knife and the voice of the Lord said don't you lay a hand on him because now I know that there's nothing you withhold this

is worship to stay on the altar to stay and kind of it's the only way to keep a covenant we can't keep that Covenant without him the times in my marriage with Stephen we just had our 10-year anniversary it's been beautiful and miraculous the only times that we have fallen apart or when we both realized we had gotten off the altar when I'm on the Altar and I put him on the altar he's not in my hands we yield to Stronger hands when I take it off and I take hold everything falls apart because he's

looking for Willing wombs he's looking for people who will give do you know that you can bless God but you can't impress God I know I say a lot of little things like that it's how the Lord talks to me so I don't forget he gave you everything if every one of your gifts he's not looking for your giftedness he gave those anyways he is unimpressed he knows he's awesome he's looking for your givenness why do we think he never picked anyone the world would ever pick why do we think he told the Shepherds for

I'll never forget being a little girl my parents would be in Ministry and I remember the first time y'all called me up on stage to sing with you and I like ran out of the room crying I was terrified terrified think about how awesome God is now I had no idea I had no idea what he would do and I certainly couldn't have done it the caller is the keeper and all he's looking for it's for you to look for him all he wants is everything looking for people who feel his touch and go turn

off the TV there's nothing wrong with watching a show with your friend I'm not saying that I don't want you to feel pushed down I want you to feel pressed into there's nothing wrong with this show I mean it's there's nothing blatantly evil about it but if it replaces that drawing he may not always draw you that way because contrary to popular theology he does remove his hand I don't know if you're reading this there is a people he falls on it matters who carries the ark and it matters how they carry it it matters

and he may save you but there is much more to be trusted with he wants to be closer he doesn't just want you to make it in you can live with him now he's looking for lovers who pay attention to the whispers who are willing to sit in the discomfort of silence even in corporate settings typically when we get quiet somebody feels like they need to fill it but as our dear friend Michael says the further in you go the less you take with you there's no room for all of these things in our hands

and there is a place in love well you can you quit thinking about all the things you feel like he's called you to do and he becomes the dream all those other things can be done without him and it's heartbreaking because it happens all the time then we can get used to thinking that the evidence of his hand on our lives is stadiums that the evidence of hands his hand on our lives is a room full of people singing songs we've written it's not because he said many will say to me Lord Lord but not

in turn he said many will cast out demons in my name they'll have a measure of power they'll walk in things and if you do not know the spirit of God you will do not discern the spirit and we will find ourselves when we climb off the altar we will find ourselves exchanging the anointing for opportunity oh my God and our songs and our sermons become palatable for the culture around us we begin to custom our own Christianity in the name of Jesus and we can blow up a room with our hype we can blow

up a room and move a room because it's good but it's void of his presence and the beautiful thing about God one of the endlessly beautiful things about Jesus is that as my my dear friend Elizabeth said Jesus is more humble than we are [Music] and he'll come to meet with people in spite of us and we can often think that when he comes into a room while we're doing whatever it is we're doing that it was because we were here that's when the first loves lamp has gone up the minute we think we had

because all the people in this room when the hungry come they will be fed because he's good and to the pure all things are pure it's why the presence of God moves in rooms where even people who have no character are leading worship that's not a judgment it's just true because God won't withhold from someone who comes in with a pure heart to see God they will see God the Beatitudes are mind-boggling but he wants to do it with us and he wants to do it through us and he's looking for a bride that won't

look away that won't be moved by the crowd because what happens in private will eventually play out in public it is inevitable it's impossible for it not to happen and the fruits will always speak of the root you can see people in moments our dear friend Melissa holster says this is like the five percent of your whole life this five percent the rest of your life is lived elsewhere in smaller groups of people you want to know who I really am this is all real thankfully I can tell you that's true but you ask the

people who are in my house every day about the fruit and that's who tell the truth about you how does Jesus experience you in that Matthew 6 place but when you pray go into your room shut the door and pray to your father who is in secret and then your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you openly [Music] but the reward is not all the stuff that's bonus that's amazing but the reward is his presence his glory what we do when he comes to us and pours out measures of anointing on

us because not everyone has the same I know we love to think about things like we're all the same and we all CA it's not true guys I don't know if you ever noticed that it's not true and we can either get next to people who carry something we don't and we can go oh God I need you more see comparison is only your enemy when you get off the altar because when you're on the altar and you get Nest to someone who is bigger than you who has gone further into the presence of Jesus

than you it ought to make you want him more when you're on the altar it pushes you towards Jesus when you're off the altar you look at all you don't have or you look at you you start comparing yourself to the people like well I could do that and you walk into worship services and then begin to break it down like what you think they should be doing and what they're not doing and and what's good and what's not as if we determined that the whole time we're we're like observing the room taking it in

to see what we think about it this is when we've come off the altar instead of coming in and engaging with him no matter what anyone is doing we've seen entire rooms shift because one person has buried themselves in worship under a chair somewhere and they came in with oil they didn't come to get it they came with it [Applause] and this Gathering should teach us and fill us in some ways but it is not our sustenance imagine what would happen in a room like this if we all came in with our lamps full because

I love you but I can't give you my lamp I can't give you my history with God I can't I can't Lyle can't give you his you have your very own testimony and you get you you'll go to your very own altar and he'll talk to you in a way he doesn't speak to me this will never change but he'll have something with you that he won't have with anyone else and if you're busy looking at what someone else has thinking oh I don't have enough or they should see what I have up my sleep

will always miss him we miss him the arrogance of that is like a foul stench in his nostrils pride is what caused Lucifer to fall I heard a pastor say one time that except for Pride every demon could be in worship around the throne oh my God you know why I think you said that because you can deal with all these other things but until we bring all of ourselves there's nothing we can do about it fear is one of the most tolerated sins in the church fear of not being enough fear of someone else

having more than you did Jesus gave more to them than he gave to me the talents guys the parable of the talents he is looking for what you'll do with the anointing he gave to you when we climb off the altar when we leave the altar of intimacy the oil of intimacy Runs Dry he wants our Idols he wants our other loves and he doesn't just want the things that are obviously bad he wants it all he wants your calling back he wants to become your biggest dream he is the water and the well I'm

going to say that again he is the water and the wealth from which we draw it there is no other place to get Living Water he is the hunger and he is the food we can't even be hungry unless he helps us right but he's so kind because it's like with physical food you may not have an appetite yet for what you should be eating but if you start somewhere you eat your first salad Hallelujah it might not sound good at first but you train your palate right it takes a mature palette to know a

fine wine don't be offended with me the Bible talks about this right isn't that true if you don't train your palate if you don't train your appetite if I don't teach my spirit my soul what to Crave I might be eating Donuts all my life I've never had eggs for breakfast I didn't know what they could do for me until I started eating better and I realized oh this is nutrients I can go a whole day off of this I'm alive I'm not crashing halfway through the day because I filled myself up on sugar and

then wondered what happened yes because all it takes is one real taste to one another one of a real Jesus real Jesus I believe that the body and the blood of Jesus I believe when we take communion that it is his body and it is his blood I know that freaks some people out but he didn't say here's some bread this represents my body we like to say that in church but that's not what Jesus said he said this is my body this is my blood it was the last meal he shared with him before

he gave himself to the cross and remember after he'd risen on the road to Emmaus remember and he begins talking to the disciples and they're like freaking out like oh their hearts are burning but they can't see him they can't see him they're like whoa didn't our hearts burn within us right they're coming to life it starts to walk off and there's no stay with us stay with us stay with us and they don't see him they don't even realize it's Jesus until until he breaks the bread and gives it to them we have to

train our appetite hunger can be habitual okay it can be like it's a habit thing it has to become a lifestyle if we don't take the cup he's poured for us and eat the bread he broke for us then there's no life in us there's no part with him it has to be the whole Christ or it is nothing at all he's everything or he's nothing there is not another option you're like Steph that's really extreme I'm pretty sure Judgment Day will also be trying to scare anyone there are so many things that I said

no to in religion that now I say no to for love it's different I'm when I talk about the Judgment when I read this word I know some people who so many people who so many people in the church who are terrified of the whole Bible and they don't talk about it all and they can't read it all because it's like scary God to them because they have not eaten ingested the whole Christ they're not taking him at his whole word you cannot have a holistic revelation of him without the whole of his word now

we see in part then we'll fully know now we see as a glass in a glass dimly this is all in part the only way we can continue fully knowing him and we will for all eternity by the way there's no end to him there's no like arriving at this place [Laughter] oh my God oh when he went to the cross he wasn't just paying for our Resurrection he was showing us how to die there's a reason why covenants like marriage are uncomfortable there's a reason why it's costly to make covenant because you can't have

a resurrection without a death and Jesus Paid It all but he also died to show us how to live he he died to set the example because if we die with him we will rise with him and he'll come back for us his bride I want to read one thing to you before and then let's pray foreign I've always read First Corinthians 13 the Excellence of love I mean I was a pastor's daughter so this is a staple all right so anyways no I I I've read it my whole life reading about love like between

one another right if we don't love each other with God's like we don't love this way with his love being filled with his love then it's then we have nothing but this year I was up in the night waiting for my little guy to come very pregnant if you've been pregnant before you know that the hormones wake you up in the night and it's like the Lord's getting you ready to be up with that little one right he's he thinks of everything he's always thought of everything do you know that if he doesn't deliver you

out he intends to lead you through he's already thought of everything you need if he's not taking you out he will lead you through but I was up in the night it was probably like 3 A.M and I I had to get up anyways but when I could go back to sleep I thought something or closed the door and I'm like Lord give me Grace I'm I want to be with you keep me awake I'm tired I know you know and I sat down and he said I said what do you want to talk about

tell me anything don't wait for morning don't wait for daylight tell me tell me speak to me listening when God called Abraham and asked him for Isaac he said here I am remember when he says here I am that the translation of that is actually before you ask a thing yes yes think about that next time hear the Lord call you before you ask a thing here I am the answer is yes and he took me to this very well-known passage of scripture and he began to read it to me but in the perspective of

first love for him now that y'all might have been doing that a long time but your girl had not I I started reading this like my mind was exploding and my heart was exploding and I thought I was going to come out of my skin because I had I hadn't read it in this context before his words alive you can read the same thing for your whole life and get something new out of it every time because he's it's living and active and sharper than any double-edged sword it divides oh and I want to read

it to you and I want I want you to close your eyes for a minute I want you to ask the Lord to bring you back to the altar of first love his longing for you he is longing to be with you in the watches of the night in the early morning hours and the in-betweens when you're in your car and the in the crowded rooms and crowded shopping areas where wherever it is he's in the middle of your baby screaming and needing you he is looking for your affection he knows that if you'll look

to him you'll have everything you need if we can see him we'll get through anything so we climb up on the altar again and we ask that you would restore first love to us and as we read these words to close tonight your word would come alive to us in a new way and it would stir our hearts again burn like wildfire impossible to quit you would search our hearts and know us show us if there's anything amiss anything that hinders love anything that keeps you from having everything from being lured leader and Lord and

lover sometimes we're comfortable with friendship but we don't want lordship and he wants to be Lord and he wants to be lover if I speak with the tongues of men and of angels but I do not have love I have become a noisy gong or a clanging symbol if I have the gift of Prophecy and know all Mysteries and all knowledge and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains but I don't have love that first love for Jesus I am nothing [Music] and if I give all my possessions to feed the poor

and if I Surrender my body to be burned but I don't have love it profits me nothing love is patient love is kind that means love doesn't get tired of waiting for him waiting on him love is not jealous it doesn't brag and it's not arrogant love does not act unbecomingly it doesn't seek its own gain it is not provoked does not take into account a wrong suffer does not rejoice in unrighteousness but rejoices with the truth when he's first loved you can take the truth you long for it love bears all things your children

could be martyrs love bears all things we could be raising children that give their lives for the gospel but love bears all things love endures all things Love Never Fails but if there are Gifts of Prophecy they will be done away if there are tongues they will cease if there is knowledge it will be done away it doesn't matter how amazingly gifted you are it doesn't matter how accurate your prophecy is it doesn't matter how profound your tongues how quickly you can roll it off out of your mouth how fast it go it doesn't matter

it'll all be still it'll all be quiet for we know in part and we prophesy in part but when the perfect comes partial will be done away when I was a child I used to speak like a child think like a child reason like a child when I became a man I did away with childish things not childlike things childish things for now we see an emir dimly but then face to face with our first love now I know in part but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known now

faith hope and love abide these three but the greatest of these in love [Music] [Music] we Covenant to you again Lord this night everything else will burn up first love unless it's done from this place for this reason for you and you alone it all burns up help us love you help us