God Consciousness

[0:00] Our theme here tonight is God consciousness. God consciousness. They say it's a brave new world now.

[0:12] ! Radicals are rioting.

[0:34] There's mounting madness, chaos. Saw some footage around the, what's it called, where the Stone Mountain, Mount Rushmore, of people, militia.

[0:51] It's almost like a civil war over there going on. It's crazy stuff and it's alarming. I'm glad I'm not in the US of A at the moment, or in particular parts of it.

[1:04] There's much fear and control. There's this escalation of tension of, I think it's been inflamed. I think it's been stirred up and that there's forces behind it.

[1:22] It's not to discount there's some real issues going on in our world and it's not to discount the sad history that our world has. But you think what is going on today is a little, where's that come from?

[1:35] It's just come from left field. And it seems like there's this control going on too over what messages we're hearing and what we're not hearing, over this messaging that's about us.

[1:46] Some are comparing what's going on in the media, in the social media, with what happened way back in yesteryear where there were book burnings.

[1:57] There was book burnings. You know they would burn the Bibles. Those that would hate the Word of God would burn these books, the Bible, and Christian writings that didn't conform to the narrative of the established church of the day.

[2:12] They would burn Bibles. Now it seems what they're doing, as in they, as in the Facebook police or those that would want to filter and censor what we receive and send, that they are now censoring social media, what we post.

[2:33] And this has been demonstrated. It's been, people are saying this is actually happening. This is not just some beat up idea. But it's actually that where things do not fit the narrative, the thought police are erasing stuff.

[2:50] And look, this could even happen to our own church because we've got a YouTube channel, the stuff on our YouTube channel that people don't want to hear, the stuff that is on our website, the stuff that is on our church Facebook page, that maybe those that hate the gospel would not want it out there on the airwaves, in the media.

[3:14] And it's like there's this censorship going on. And it's like, as I say, the book burnings of old, where they don't want you to hear this kind of message that I'm giving here today, that they, those that would oppose the gospel, would not want you to know this.

[3:29] And I read a good quote that sums things up pretty well. It says, We live in a society where homosexuals lecture on morals. Where, it is laughable.

[3:44] Where transvestites lecture us on human biology. Where baby killers lecture us on human rights. And socialists lecture us on economics.

[3:56] This is the world we're living in. It's madness. And it seems like there's an uncertain future that lies ahead. There's this increasing talk of a new world order. As if that can fix everything.

[4:08] A new world order. What is that? Let me translate that for you. New world order. It means a world without God. That's what they want. They want a world without God.

[4:19] A world without the gospel. A world without salvation. And that is the ultimate end. The ultimate stage that the change agents are working towards. That's the ultimate stage.

[4:30] Where it's going. And the bulk of people are asleep to what is actually going on. Like mindless sheep. They're just going along. And they've been conditioned without even knowing it.

[4:41] It's conditioning that is subliminal. It's like incremental. It's gradual. To accept such concepts as gender neutral.

[4:56] I know Julie and I were down in the shops not that long ago thinking that we knew someone had had a baby. And we thought, well, we'll buy something for the new baby.

[5:07] And it's like it's all yellow now. It's almost like, where's the blue and the pink gone? I mean, there is still that. But in some shops it's almost like, what is this now?

[5:18] You can't buy pink and blue anymore. Because God forbid that you might actually define that child that is clearly a male to be a boy. And that child that is clearly a female to be a girl.

[5:30] But know that we've got this crazy stuff going on today. And really it's accommodation of sin, isn't it? It's like this rebellion, this rebellious child that is the average person now.

[5:45] That there's this growing acceptance amongst the masses. That maybe, you know, the best and the most hopeful concept for the future is some world domination.

[6:00] With some benevolent dictator to guide us. And some control system. And we know places like North Korea. We know places like, you know, communist China.

[6:12] We see, well, oh, you know, it's all very orderly. And everyone's got a job. You know, everyone is poor. But, you know, it's for the best, they will say, to have such a system.

[6:25] A brave new world. That's what perhaps, and I think that's what some of our politicians actually believe in. But here in this new world, God is an outdated concept.

[6:37] Don't talk about him. That's a forbidden word. Forbidden. God. And the Bible, oh, God forbid that you actually believe there's a book with absolute truth.

[6:47] No, that's obsolete now. That's irrelevant now. We have outgrown that now, they say. At least don't take it seriously. Now, I'm being a little, using some levity here to kind of get the point across.

[7:01] But this is reality, people. And I know it makes us laugh to think of such foolishness that is going on. But it is going on. And it's as if God doesn't feature at all in the minds of some.

[7:16] And it doesn't feature at all this concept of God, of one to be accountable to, of the ultimate authority that we will have to give account of our lives to. They don't want God to feature at all in their thinking.

[7:28] They want to blot that out. They want to erase that out. And they don't want anyone else to hear about it, too. So this leads me to Psalm 10, verse 4, as just a touch point on what I'm talking about here today.

[7:46] And I know I'm lifting bits here and there. And it's just to drive this point home and to illustrate the concept I'm trying to get across today. Psalm 10, verse 4, it says, The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God.

[8:02] God is not in all his thoughts. The writer of Psalm 10 says that the wicked, they're prideful. They will not seek after God.

[8:13] They reject him. And God is not in all his thoughts. The Bible tells us such a people as this. It tells us of a time of deceivers deceiving and themselves being deceived.

[8:26] There's people who honestly believe the lies they're telling us. There's preachers telling lies who believe that what they're telling is the truth. And yet it is a falsehood.

[8:38] It's based on false doctrine. You know, some of these charismatic preachers, they really believe what they say, some of them. But they are deceived themselves as well as deceiving others.

[8:50] You know, it's kind of funny. I thought, you know, as I might have mentioned it before, but, you know, we have spent some time in, on that side of the fence of that kind of Christianity.

[9:01] And you see some faith preachers saying, be healed. And they're wearing hearing aids or they're wearing glasses. And you think, well, okay, if they really believe what they're saying, then why are they wearing glasses, for example?

[9:14] Or why are they wearing hearing aids? Because, you know, the message that they're delivering is, it doesn't line up. It's taking things out of their dispensation, out of that right understanding of it.

[9:33] And saying foolish things. And yet they innocently, perhaps in some cases, believe it. But they are themselves deceived. And the Bible tells about some who are blind leaders of the blind.

[9:47] They're actually leading the way with this trail of people behind them. And they're marching off the cliff. They're blind themselves. And our Lord rebukes that.

[9:59] We need to have our eyes open. We need to know biblical truth. And we need to understand the scriptures. There are people in positions of power and influence who actively want to push the idea of God out of society.

[10:12] To have this idea, this concept of a God to whom we are accountable to, they want to push that right out of people's thinking. They don't want children hearing this message. They don't want the future generations knowing about a God.

[10:26] And so they're taking God out of the schools. And if he ever was there, you know, as far as what little was communicated about God, they want to take what little is left out of the schools.

[10:40] Right out of children's thinking. And their mantra is, there is no God. They say this in their heart. As we know, it says, God is not in all their thoughts.

[10:52] And I'm thinking of that other scripture where, what is it? Yeah, amen.

[11:03] Yeah, the fool hath said in his heart, there is no God. That's it. Thanks, David. There is no God.

[11:16] They say this in their heart. Notice that. They say in their heart there is no God. And what do people say now? It's like it's the measure of all truth. And especially if you might have a romantic feeling, follow your heart.

[11:33] Follow your heart, they say. See, that's the measure of everything that is right and wholesome. If your heart thinks it's a good thing to do, then just go with your heart.

[11:45] But of course, the Bible says of the heart, the one who searches the heart and knows our heart, through and through, he says that the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know it.

[12:02] It's Jeremiah 17 verse 9. So as much as we might have feelings and some of them might be of the Lord, of such things, we've got to measure it and we've got to test it and we've got to make sure there's God in it.

[12:18] The heart of the problem actually is the heart, the deceitfulness of the heart. We can't trust our heart because our heart might mislead us, take us in the wrong direction. I read a quote lately.

[12:28] It said, The biggest problem in America is sin. Everything else is a symptom or a consequence. It's the same in Australia, isn't it?

[12:40] The biggest problem for Australia is sin. Everything else is a symptom of sin or a consequence of sin. And of the world by and large, it says, God is not in all their thoughts.

[12:54] You could say the majority think that way. God doesn't feature in their thinking. We're living in a world without God, without hope, without him. Yet we, who were once far from God, it says we have been made near to him.

[13:11] In Ephesians 2 verse 12 through 13. It tells how we were aliens. It tells how we were strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

[13:26] But now, in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were afar off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. Ye who were once far off are made nigh.

[13:36] And we see the dire peril of our world around us. They need this truth. They need this saviour. Without him, they're without hope. And friends, when we really think about our loved ones, our family members who know him not, we see of our nation's dire lack of spiritual life.

[13:57] There's a drought going on in Australia, a famine. And spiritually so. Why? God is not in their thoughts. God is not in their hearts. Their mind is rather filled with godless thoughts.

[14:10] And we see not only that, but out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaker. What is their mouth filled with? You know, I know some people, you can't have a conversation with them without them uttering some expletive, some godless obscenities.

[14:30] There's some people that you wonder, have they got such a limited vocabulary that they've got to colour it with all these colourful words. You know, honestly, it's quite sad really.

[14:43] I'm quite astounded by some. They just, they can't help themselves, it seems, for these words to just gush out like a sewer pipe. Where they're punctuated by swear words that their conversation cannot be had without such words.

[15:00] Why so? God is not in all their thoughts. If they had some thought about God, they would have some, surely some measure of control about what comes out of their mouth.

[15:11] But there is no fear of God. They don't care. And the very precious name of our dear Lord and Saviour is itself dragged in the gutter, along with all the foul words.

[15:23] It's a gutter word itself now, it seems. At least in their mind. Their mouths are filled with blasphemies, with profanities. Now that ought to bother us as a Christian.

[15:35] When someone is cursing our Saviour. And some will say, I'm not going to let someone come into my house who talks like that and uses the name of the Lord in vain.

[15:47] Yet, they will allow the movies filled with such things to be pumped in through the idiot tube. Truly, they live a godless life and their world is without God.

[16:00] And they're the ones that often are the ones who control the media. And we want to filter that, don't we? We don't want that. I don't want my children to hear that. Some will have their god substitutes as well.

[16:12] When God is not in people's thoughts, they find a substitute. They find some other idol to bow down and worship. And people will say things like, when something good happens, they say, they thank their lucky stars.

[16:24] They want to thank the stars. What? And when something good happens, they praise their good luck. And I was talking with a friend lately about this and how, you know, we can say, oh, we were lucky.

[16:36] No. No, no, no. As a Christian, we don't thank luck for anything. We thank God for everything. We thank God for his blessings. Not luck. Not luck we thank God for what we have.

[16:49] And some people, they believe in good karma and bad karma. Anything but God. Because God is not in all their thoughts. You know, my old boss used to say that he was thankful to the universe.

[17:00] He said, oh, the universe has given me something. He praised this kind of crazy concept. Of the universe is what I'm thankful for. Something good happened to me. You know, because God is not in all their thoughts.

[17:14] And people are like that today, brothers and sisters. Some will acknowledge the beauty of nature. But they don't call it the glory of creation. You know, they would think that nature is so beautiful and astounding and amazing to the mind and to the eyes that we behold it.

[17:32] But they will not call it creation. Because to call it creation is to acknowledge that there is a creator. Sore. Why do they talk like that? Because God is not in all their thoughts.

[17:44] And it's there on a different wavelength really, aren't they? Think of the medical professional who trains to save lives. The medical professional who aspires to learn medicine so he can heal or she can heal.

[17:57] And yet this same medical professional will deliberately take the life of the unborn. They will treat it, this life in the womb, as if it were just some unwanted clump of cells that they can just cut off and extinguish it.

[18:13] That they have been educated this way. That God is not in their thoughts. That they will somehow put aside the rational and the reasonable and the intelligent understanding that that is a life.

[18:28] They will take the life. Because God is not in their thoughts. And the education system has trained them that way. Because God is not in their thoughts. They blanked him out. God has been expelled from the schools.

[18:40] But you are a believer. And God helping you a believer in the medical world. Then you can say no. I have a value for life. A value for the unborn.

[18:51] A value for the older aged. That we will treat their life as sacred. Every life counts.

[19:02] And we need to have that heart. But God is not in all their thoughts. They will kind of think, oh, someone's getting older. And we can just treat them like we would a dog.

[19:14] That we would euthanise when we see fit. Because God is not in all their thoughts. And the Bible tells us such a people that they are despisers of what is good.

[19:27] The Bible tells about a time when people will be hateful. They will hate that which is good. It says that in 2 Timothy 3 verse 3. It says they're without natural affraction.

[19:39] They're truce breakers. They're false accusers. Incontinent. Fierce. And it says at the last they're despisers of those that are good. Their thinking will be so warped and defiled that they will hate that which is good.

[19:55] There is no fear of God before their eyes. They'll hate the gospel. They'll hate the ministry. They'll hate the churches. They'll hate the reality that there is a God to answer to.

[20:08] And they are filled with their pride. Prideful even of their very sin. Such that they will flaunt it. And they'll march down the streets. And they'll have these big banners that say pride in rainbow colours.

[20:23] Look at me. I'm proud of my sin. They will flaunt it in your face. God pride. That's what they say. But God will mark that day.

[20:37] God will wipe that smile off their face. There's an anti-Christ agenda going on because God is not in their thoughts. The media is filled with messages that hate the gospel.

[20:50] They hate the message. They hate Christians. And we're seeing this Marxist takeover of our nation. And it's coming in whatever political colour.

[21:01] It's moving. There's a leftward shift, isn't there? They're shifting left. Ever left. Ever socialist. Ever godless. And it's a fearful time.

[21:11] We're seeing this chaos and destruction in some lands. And brothers and sisters, it's not far away. It's not far away from here. Some will downplay God.

[21:25] God is not in all his thoughts. Don't think about God. That's something kind of from the old, archaic, obsolete. And in the place of God, there's a false religion.

[21:36] The religion of self, of pride, of vanity, of godlessness. Yet the Bible talks in contrast to the false religion of the true, of the undefiled, pure, undefiled religion.

[21:50] It tells of a glad hope. It tells of an eternal future. It tells of God's wonderful saving message. It tells us of the blood of Jesus shed for us. And we surely do have hope in a hopeless world.

[22:03] In such a time as this, we have the hope that our world needs. We have the hope that our neighbours need to hear. We have the hope that the hopeless need, though they may not understand it, to grasp it.

[22:14] Yet we must communicate it. And there is no other way. For those that are lost, God is not in all their thoughts. There needs to be a wake-up call. And it's important to note that reaping time will come.

[22:29] The Bible says, what you sow, you will reap. Ultimately, it says, they that plough iniquity and sow wickedness shall reap the same. Job 4 verse 8.

[22:39] What you're sowing now, there'll be a reaping time. There'll be a harvest to show for what you've done. What about us? Will we help turn the tide? Can God using us be such that we can reach out?

[22:55] Will God be in our thoughts such that we want to hear the message? We want to study. We want to grow. We want to learn. We want to be a stronger Christian. And we will want to have a message on our lips that the godless need, that we will be the carriers of.

[23:13] Rabid unbelievers, as I say, have called faith a virus of the mind. I think it's actually a healing of the mind to believe, isn't it? To actually know God in your thoughts, to know God in your mind, to know as much as we can know this side of eternity, with all of our inadequacy of knowing that we can know the Lord, whom to know is life eternal.

[23:37] Surely that's a setting free of the mind. Surely that's a release, a liberty, a liberation, a healing of the mind. And we've been given this message our world desperately needs to hear, to impart it.

[23:50] If God is in our thinking, it will affect our doing as well. It tells in the word, knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. Now there's a judgment call.

[24:01] There's a judgment coming. There's a judgment yet to come. And there's loved ones I know, I don't know where they exactly stand, frankly. When judgment comes, it's going to be too late.

[24:14] I want to tell them this side of the judgment. And even if I'm accused of being dogmatic, even if I'm accused of being hard, because this is tough love, to tell the ones we love, because we care enough for them to spurn us even, to reject us for it.

[24:32] To care enough that they will call us judgmental and narrow, because they need this message. And if we don't tell them, who will? Knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men.

[24:45] There should be a fire in us to tell, shouldn't there? We cannot help but tell. People are fighting God. God is not in all their thoughts. There's something blanked off and filtered out and blocking.

[24:56] As the Bible says, their minds are blinded. They can't see where they're going. The devil has blinded the minds of them that believe not. God is not in all their thoughts. And we must tell them to get interested in unconverted souls and not be deterred.

[25:13] Not be deterred. Even when there's a sign that says, do not knock. Amen. Tell them. Tell them. We must not be deterred.

[25:25] We must be willing for that dog to come chasing after us. Amen. That we will not be deterred. What's going to stop you? When we think of our Saviour, we move to love him.

[25:38] Psalm 31, 23, it says, O love the Lord, all ye his saints, for the Lord preserveth the faithful and plentifully rewardeth the proud doer. O love the Lord, all ye his saints.

[25:49] Do we love him? Is his love in our hearts, in our thoughts, that we love our precious Lord, such that we cannot contain? When we think of our Saviour, it will stir us from slumber.

[26:05] More than ever as a nation, we need a wake-up call, don't we? As the kind of phrase goes, wake up Australia. That's what we need. We need an awakening for our nation because our nation is fast asleep on the hammock and we have need to awaken ourselves and others.

[26:25] It's easy. Look, I'm the one who likes a nice little sleep. But sometimes we can sleep too long. We can sleep more than we ought to sleep. There's need for sleep, but there's need for work.

[26:36] There's need to get aroused from sleep, isn't there? To be aroused from sleep. Our mission is to win the world for Christ. Who else is going to do it? Let's be serious here.

[26:49] This is our mission field. This is where you have been stationed for this time, unless the Lord sends you somewhere else. This is our mission front. And we have a mission, a world to win.

[27:04] Think of the men and women of God of old. Jonah walked down the streets of Nineveh. You could imagine maybe he was covered with seaweed. He would have stunk like a fish's belly, wouldn't he?

[27:16] Jonah. Jonah. And, you know, are we such that we would be like Jonah, a herald of the judgment to come? Just a short little sermon he had.

[27:28] Was it eight words? You know, yet it's at 40 days and Nineveh is finished. Our call is likewise. Oh, three Hebrew words.

[27:38] Yeah. Our call is likewise. Judgment looms. Repent. People aren't going to be, it's not some happy clappy, you know, your best life now.

[27:49] It's saying judgment is around the corner. Get right with God. Prepare to meet thy God. That's the message. There's no soft way of saying it. And we're not saying it in a harsh, condemnatory way, but in a loving, gentle, beckoning way.

[28:06] Judgment is coming. Trust him. Trust him now. That's our message. Not that we're any better than anyone else, but we must tell and it's time to face up with eternal facts, to stop toying with trinkets and to think about eternity.

[28:30] You know, someone, I mentioned it this morning, that someone's asked me to see them and I'm seeing them tomorrow. They've only weeks, maybe days left to live.

[28:42] They've been given the verdict. It's terminal. We don't know. Maybe we've got a terminal condition here as well. You know, these are realities, aren't they?

[28:53] We might have a terminal condition and not even know it. Friends, certainly we have a terminal condition. It's called being a human being, isn't it? It says, it says, being a human being, we've got a terminal condition in a sense that we all are finite in this life's frame, in this body of flesh.

[29:12] And when life gets to the end, what will it be at the end of our life? And there's some weighing up of priorities, isn't there? If God is in our thoughts, then actually eternity should be in our thinking too, in our time frame, in our thinking of what is going to happen.

[29:34] Weighing up of priorities. Because life is finite. This side of eternity, of course. But why not now?

[29:45] Why wait? To think, wow, yes, that makes me think, God in my thoughts, how I need to think of him, and what thinking of him would move me to be, to want to be, to want to do, for his praise.

[30:04] Because you that love the Lord, that's you and me, isn't it? Do we love him? You that love the Lord will be moved. And we know this world needs our Lord.

[30:18] It needs this message. People need the Lord, it's been said. And that's true, isn't it? People need the Lord. That's the ultimate need for every man and woman.

[30:29] And in darkening days, we have this precious truth. It's too good to keep to ourselves. It's all the more needful that we have God in our thoughts. Now there's some that struggle with thoughts of sadness, of depression, of gloom, of despair.

[30:48] And it's subject to all of us. We all can have moments such as that. Some have more such moments than others. But the ultimate antidote is the gospel. Isn't it?

[30:59] The gospel. The gospel. It's trusting in Jesus. It's knowing that you have a saviour who cares for you for time and for eternity. That you have a hope beyond these days of woe at times.

[31:11] That you have an eternal joy. And in darkening days, it's all the more needful that we don't neglect to pray, isn't it? Pray even as faithful Daniel, persecuted for his faith.

[31:24] In Daniel 6 verse 10, he was resolute. He knew he had an appointment to make with his Lord. He had these regular appointments that he made. They were in his diary.

[31:35] They were locked in. Nothing would budge them. But he had to pray at the set moments of time of his day. And Daniel 6 verse 10, Of course, his enemies had brought the king to sign this declaration.

[31:48] No one's going to pray except to you, O king. But Daniel, it says, when he knew the writing was signed, he went into his house. This is Daniel 6 verse 10. And his windows being open in his chamber towards Jerusalem, he knelt upon his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God as he did a four times.

[32:07] Nothing changed for Daniel. He was a stickler. He said, I'm going to pray even if it's illegal to pray. I'm going to pray and keep on praying. And of course, he faced the lion's den for it and God saved him out of it.

[32:20] Friends, he was resolute. What about you? If God is in your thoughts, you're going to say, I'm going to stick. I'm going to be locked into this. I'm not going to budge. I'm going to be intransigent.

[32:33] I'm going to be such that nothing's going to shake me or move me from this faith that matters. And friends, you might face hardness because even your own family may not understand that God is in your thoughts.

[32:49] That means you think differently. And we speak to a God rejecting people because God is not in all their thoughts. God, for some, God might be a little bit of a feature in their thoughts, but for us, God is, it's in all our thoughts in a sense that everything of life, he is central to everything of life.

[33:11] Elijah was another who stood fast and he was outnumbered, yet he stood firm. It says of Elijah in 1 Kings 18, 30, in part it says, he repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down.

[33:27] And he saw that people of God had gone astray and he saw that the altar was neglected, growing cobwebs and moss and it was scattered and he put it all back together again, the altar of the Lord, the place of worship, the place of sacrifice, the place of surrender.

[33:46] And God sent Elijah to warn the people of the judgment yet to come. He called the people back to God and what happened? The fire fell. The fire from God came down and the prophets of Baal had to die.

[33:59] Now this is a strong truth, isn't it? That repair the altar, the fire comes down, worship God, but the prophets of Baal have to die.

[34:15] Now these are strong truths that we've got to be on the right side and there's need for warning. Is God in our thoughts?

[34:28] Surely God is at work even in the circumstances of life, even in the tough things, in the circumstances, through the circumstances, in spite of the circumstances, whatever's going on for you, if you have that realisation, God is in my thoughts, then it makes everything make sense really as far as we can trust him even when it's hard to understand life's twists and turns.

[34:55] If God is in our thoughts, likewise all the decisions that we make, all the actions that we take have got that filter, that world view. God is in our thoughts.

[35:08] He'll be in our decisions too, won't he? He ought to be. In deciding, for example, where we are to live. Live where you can worship.

[35:19] In what you're pursuing as a career, if any. In what you're deciding to take up as far as study. In who you end up marrying.

[35:33] Those decisions will be put through the God filter. Does God want me to marry? Who would he want me to marry?

[35:46] Sometimes we can be careless in these things. I know my first girlfriend, I took her out on a date and I said, will you marry me?

[36:00] And she did. She ended up marrying me. You know, I was a bit foolish. Maybe that wasn't the right thing to do on the first date. The first things that you say to her, will you marry me?

[36:12] And she said no, of course, a few times, but I broke down her resistance. But there's that sense where, you know, when we caught someone, a young man, if you're going to court a female, young woman, if you're going to court a man, that the one that you caught, you're going to, you will decide before.

[36:30] She's the one. He's the one. And that you'll know that they are the one. God is, that your hearts are in that same direction of God.

[36:41] That your heart is in the same mind. That the same love of God. That God is in your thoughts. And you know you will be one. You'll be one because you'll have that same heart for God.

[36:54] But it is a serious decision, isn't it? And it's not about having a girlfriend. It's about having an engagement.

[37:07] That's how I see it anyway. You don't play around and play the field. Not that anyone else wanted me, but there's that sense where you don't, you know the one is the one.

[37:19] God is in your thoughts. And she will be the one to marry. Because God is in your thoughts and God is in her thoughts. And God is in the marriage. God is in it. And so whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

[37:32] Are we God conscious is the point I'm making here. And how about, are we sin conscious as well? Hearts can get cold. We can get cold. Backsliding can creep up on any one of us.

[37:44] And we put it, well we put aside all the fleshly fantasies and truly seek after God. Well we put aside all the vain things, the vain pursuits, the trivial pursuits. How is our God consciousness?

[37:56] Does God feature in our thoughts? It's an important concept to consider. That we ought to be different from the world. That God is not in their thoughts, but for us who believe, God is in all our thoughts.

[38:09] In all of our decisions. In all of our pursuits. In all of our endeavours. That ultimately it is to the glory of God because it says do A double L things to the glory of God.

[38:23] Doesn't it? Let's do all things to the glory of God. And as we talked about this morning, we are meant to be peculiar. It's pretty odd. For the world's reckoning, isn't it?

[38:33] But they will be overtaken by the worldly, the fleshly, the vain. But we are thinking of higher things, nobler things, spiritual, holy things. Friends, how is our thinking?

[38:47] What are our thought processes such that, well, we care about what God wants us to think about. He says my thoughts are higher than your thoughts. There's need to be grounded in old-fashioned doctrine.

[39:05] Doctrine matters. That spiritual dimension. To be willing to let our thinking be shaped by the holy. As it says in 2 Corinthians 10, 3 through 5, For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh.

[39:22] For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God, so they're pulling down our strongholds, casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.

[39:39] Wow, that's a lot in there, isn't there? Check that out later for more. Just dig deep into that one. 2 Corinthians 10, 3 through 5. We're not walking after the flesh, but after the spirit.

[39:52] And we're warring, not after the flesh, but we're warring. It's a spiritual warfare. Casting down imaginations. You're constantly getting barraged with spiritual imaginations, with anti-God messaging.

[40:09] And we need to get God conscious. We need to filter out all the rubbish. Don't we? When you see a drain pipe, and it's got a grate on it, and it filters out the rubbish, doesn't it?

[40:21] All the scungy stuff. And we need to think, what's going into that channel, that tube that is our brain? What is coming into it? We need to have a good filter, such that we filter out that which is not honouring to God.

[40:37] Friends, chase after God. Pursue him. Run after him. Chase after God. Make him your pursuit.

[40:48] Make him your goal. That which you will run the race towards him. And to seek for a revival of your own spiritual life. It's been said, revival is the life of God.

[41:00] It is the answer. Revival. How are we as far as God consciousness, that God's talking to us? Maybe it's like Elijah.

[41:11] It's a still, small voice. Sometimes we've got to, I'm starting to, I'm starting to lose my sight. I'm starting to lose my hearing. And I can identify with some of my family members.

[41:25] They've got to, what did you say? We've got to say, Lord, say that again. Sometimes he whispers. We get better than that noisy soul stuff, I think. Then we get too much noise going on.

[41:37] I just want to hear God. What are you saying, Lord? That still, small voice. My sheep hear my voice, it says. It's been said, if you've got a verse, you don't need a voice.

[41:49] In the sense that, if you've got a verse, you don't need a voice. You don't need to come and think, oh, I've got to have some dream or vision or some extra biblical revelation. It's not about getting that so much as the verse.

[42:02] It's from the word. It's the word that we need. Get the verse. And the verse is the voice, isn't it? It can be easy to treat the word of God too lightly. But we need to look and listen for a thus saith the Lord.

[42:17] Cherish your Bible. Cherish your Bible. I've heard it said, make it your guide in life and your pillow in death. Now this is the guide, isn't it? This is the book.

[42:28] This is the book. The book of books. And maybe it's time to consider how God conscious are we? You know, easy to get worldly conscious, isn't it? It's easy for us to be like the world that God is not in all their thoughts.

[42:42] That is God in all of our thoughts, in our decisions of life, in how we expend ourselves. May we look for God's presence and go on for God, to be God conscious, truly God conscious.

[42:54] For it says, for in Him we live and move and have our being. Acts 17, 28. Friends, to close, get close to God. Get close to God.

[43:05] This is non-negotiable. It says, draw near. Draw near to the throne of grace. Prayer is the breath of faith. And your prayers don't need to be flowery such that others will hear them, but it's you talking to your Father, your Heavenly Father.

[43:27] Fear before Him. Tremble, but come gladly, knowing He loves you and He wants to hear you pray. He invites us to come to Him. In a world where for many God is not in all their thoughts, you are counter-cultural.

[43:42] And this is the hour of battle. We have a message to take to the masses. Darkness and deadness prevails. We have life. We have the words of life. And as I referred to this morning, the Bible actually says we should hate some things.

[43:58] It says hate evil. Yeah. Hate evil. But love the Lord. Love God. Now these are fighting words. The darkness of sin, of unbelief is prevailing more and more so.

[44:14] The godlessness. We need an outbreak of godliness. That there'll be a godliness to your life. That you will be a burning and shining light like John the Baptist.

[44:28] That that would sweep over your soul. And that you would obey that scripture in 2 Corinthians 10 to take captive every thought to the obedience of Christ.

[44:38] Such that God helping you, you'll want to take stock and think what should I be thinking about? What should occupy my thoughts?

[44:50] What should occupy my thinking? What should be that which I dwell upon? that I that I spend my life in. God must revive us again.

[45:04] It's not a human work, it's a divine one. And we must rest in him and rely upon him for that outbreak of godliness to sweep over our soul.

[45:16] Are you ready for the coming of Christ? I'm reading the news daily and I'm almost waiting for the headline. You know, just about the, if I read the headline I've done something wrong.

[45:32] But the sense that Jesus is coming. He's coming. Are you ready? Do you want God's blessing?

[45:44] Will you work on that God consciousness such that you're ready? Draw an eye to God, to his voice. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you that your word urges us to be a God conscious people.

[45:56] That you will be in our thinking, our thoughts, our thought lives, that will filter out the undesirable things. That our mind, our heart will be overflowing with words of life to others in death and darkness.

[46:15] Lord, that we can be a people who know you, who do know their God. And Lord, we thank you for that knowledge that is life eternal, to know you, the only true God, to know that saving power of your bloodshed.

[46:30] Pray if there's any hearing this, Lord, here and there right now, any that would hear this and just come to that place of trust, simply that.

[46:41] Not having to know the ins and outs, the detail, to know the wealth of theology that we can just scratch the surface of, Lord, but just that simple truth that God is, to know that God is and that God is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

[47:04] To know God is and, Lord, if we can just know you are and simply trust you, trust that you've made heaven open to such as will call upon you, to trust in you, to know your saving grace, show to man at the cross in what you've done, that we can know that life eternal and we'll show it to you.

[47:28] And it will be in our thoughts, it will be in our thinking, it will be in our heart, it will be in our walking, it will be in our living, it will be on our lips and lived out in our lives, Lord, that it will all be to your praise.

[47:41] Pray for everyone here tonight that we can all have that assurance, even this side of eternity, that we have eternal life because your word promises such to those who believe in the name of the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ.

[47:57] Amen. Amen.