The Secret Place pt7 – Hope Community Church

Announcements:

Thursday Night Bible Study at 7p, (Bible Study theme: Hungry to Grow In My Christian Journey-Freedom)
Men’s Breakfast meeting. Saturday November 18, 2023 at 9:30am.
Spanish Translation for the sermon is now available at HCC. Feel free to invite Spanish speaking people to church.
Youth meet every Saturday at 6:30pm.
Pray for HCC and Open Hands Community Charitable Services as we prepare to expand our service to the community.

Main point: The secrete place with Jesus will result in a passion to be in God’s will.

Foundation Scripture:

2 Timothy 4:1-8.

Paul was content; He answered the call God had for his life. He finished the race of life strong because He knew God in the secret place.

Let’s look at Paul’s life for a second:

Saul believed that Christians were an enemy to God.
- Until He ran into Jesus on the road to Damascus.
When Jesus confronted Paul about his persecution of the church, Saul had a decision to make:
- Either He was going to fight against God himself or He was going to fight for God himself.
- Wisely Saul chose to fight for God. Saul’s name changed to Paul and Paul will get is just reward for surrendering His life for King Jesus.
Because Paul knew God personally, He was passionate about spreading the good news of the Gospel even when he was persecuted. Paul’s passion only grew stronger through persecution.

*Ask yourself this question: Do I have a passion to answer God’s call for my life?

*Or do I hope just to get by, get into heaven and hopefully don’t have to do too much.

What does a life with a secret place (Alone time with God) look like?

It looks like passion and determination to be doing the will of God in your life.
Having a secret place will produce passion to be in God’s will.
That’s what it looks like. A passion to be obedient to Christ even when it is uncomfortable (Paul is a good example of this. Jesus is the ultimate example of this.)

Pastor’s Thoughts:

This series about the secret place was not planned but each week I have not been able to let this go in my prayer time.
I feel as if God is using this series at this moment so that the church can hear loud and clear: “God is pursuing us and He desires to be close to us.”
The secret place where you and God are alone and no one else is watching is where you and God get close, like friends.
Think about that for a second. The creator of all things, wants to be close to you and me, like a friend. Yes, Yes, Yes.

The Urgency of the moment:

It’s time to fight to be close to God
And those who are obedient and establish the secret place in their lives will look and be different than everyone else around them because they will walk around with an anointing and with power.
You won’t need to have an important title, you just need to be close to Jesus and your very words and actions will shake up the ground for God’s Kingdom.

People that know God in the secret place:

-Daniel 11:32. The people that know God shall be strong and due great exploits.

Training for Kingdom Purpose:

Do not let your carnal failures convince you that you cannot be close to God in the secret place
- Fight for it. Get back on track as soon as possible. Work out your own plan of action in the secret place.
Train your heart and mind to defeat your carnal sinful nature by the power of the Holy Spirit in your life.

Romans 12:1-2.

V1. Surrendering all to God is what we were created today (reasonable service).
V2. In the secret place with God your mind will be renewed because you know God and hear his voice
- We will not find clarity in our walk with God until we surrender our carnal unto God.