Our Values: Presence | Encounters with the Holy Spirit lead everything.

Life is BETTER in God’s Presence.

Now that we’re here in 2024, I couldn’t be more excited honestly to take a walk through our values here at The Cure Church which are mirrored to the values of our entire network of churches across the country.

These are values that are derived from the Word of God that we believe are paramount to the life of follower of Jesus.

It’s amazing to me that the pull of sin always seems so appealing to people but every time even from the very beginning, sin may catch your eye, but it always leads to despair.

It’s also amazing to me how when God confronted Adam, Adam said the woman you gave me made me do it.

Then Eve immediately shifted the blame to the devil.

You can almost see right off the bat how sin infected them. The right response by both of them would have been to own their mistake, but when sin entered into man, it began to infest his heart.

But what sticks out to me more than anything here, is how much better Adam and Eve’s life was when they were in the presence of God.

Genesis 3:8-9 AMP

8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool [afternoon breeze] of the day, so the man and his wife hid and kept themselves hidden from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to Adam, and said to him, “Where are you?” 

Notice the events that take place from the moment they sin. They realize that they’re naked, they realize that everything has changed, they all of a sudden understand that they have done something horrible and now they feel shame, and instead of running back to the presence of God, it says they hid from his presence.

What is the Presence of God?

One question you might have this morning is what do we mean when we say, “Presence”, or “Encounters”?

Because here’s the reality, God is omnipresent.

Meaning that He is in all places at all times. He can see all things. Nothing can be said or done that He’s not aware of.

So, what do we mean when we say we want to get into His presence every day, we want encounters with Him every day, we want His presence to consume every worship service?

Here’s the reality of what Jesus had to say about his presence:

Matthew 18:20 ESV

For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”

John 14:16-21 AMP

And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another [c]Helper (Comforter, Advocate, Intercessor—Counselor, Strengthener, Standby), to be with you forever—  the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive [and take to its heart] because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He (the Holy Spirit) remains with you continually and will be in you. “I will not leave you as orphans [comfortless, bereaved, and helpless]; I will come [back] to you. After a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you will se Me; because I live, you will live also. On that day [when that time comes] you will know for yourselves that I am in My father, and you are in Me, and I am in you. The person who has My commandments and keeps them in the one who [really] loves Me; and whoever [really] love Me will be love by My Father, and will love him and reveal Myself to him [I will make Myself real to him].”

So, here’s where we see in scripture what Jesus promised to all of his followers. He said that while I may not be with you in the physical realm, I will manifest myself to you and become real to you through the truth of the Holy Spirt.

This is why here at The Cure Church we say encounters with the Holy Spirit lead everything.

Why is the presence of the Holy Spirit so important to each of us?

The moment Adam and Eve sinned, they stepped down from the glory of God’s perfect and holy atmosphere into a broken and cursed ground.

As Jesus said in John 14 – He will make himself real to us. He will not leave us stranded in this broken and cursed world.

We’re not left here with only a dream and an imagination of what it could be like to have fellowship with God in heaven one day, we can have that here and now.

His presence in our lives sets our lives in order – His ways will become our ways – His thoughts will become our thoughts – His word will begin to shape our identity.

When we’re in His presence, things get easier. Life gets better.

Not to be confused with perfect. Life does not get perfect; our wants and desires do not get instantly met in His presence. But far better than us getting everything we want all the time; He gives us what we need.

Consider Moses.

Think about this: The Israelite people were slaves in Egypt for over 400 years. They finally get delivered and set free, they wonder the dessert, they go through all kinds of trials, and here they are about to finally enter the Promise Land that God swore to their ancestors.

What is Moses’s response?

Exodus 33:14-16 AMP

And the Lord said, “My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest [by bringing you and the people into the promised land].” And Moses said to Him, “If Your presence does not go [with me], do not lead us up from here. For how then can it be known that Your people and I have found favor in Your sight? Is it not by Your going with us, so that we are distinguished, Your people and I, from all the [other] people on the face of the earth?”

Sin Will Take You Out of His Presence.

You ever notice how when there’s sin in your life because you’ve made some bad decisions, when it comes time to worship, it’s hard to worship?

Sin makes it hard to pray.

Sin makes it hard to surrender.

Sin makes you want to hide in the garden when he comes looking for you.

Apostle Kelly said something to the men a few months back that was so powerful…

There were some men at the altar for prayer who came because they said it was hard for them to say I love you to people, to kids, to themselves, to their wives, even to God.

And he said this, “Some of you are here at the altar tonight because you can’t distinguish God’s voice in your life. Think back to when Adam sinned, and God came looking for him in the garden. The question is: What do you hear when God comes looking for you after you’ve sinned? Do you hear a father who’s full of rage screaming, “Adam!! Where are you!?” Or do you hear the love of the Father, “Adam, where are you?”

God tells us as fathers here on earth, “Do not provoke your sons to a place of anger, but instead show them love and kindness.”

God’s instruction shows us that THIS is the type of Father that He is.

Here’s the reality of Adam and Eve’s sin:

Did it cost them? Absolutely.

Was their situation after their sin worse than their situation before they sinned? Yes.

Was there room for grief? Sure, the Bible says we should grieve over our sin when we fail.

But was their sin the end of their life? No.

Did God leave them? No. He punishes them, sure. Because a loving father will always bring correction. And sometimes when we sin, we have to live with the results. But the reality is this…

It says after they were removed from the garden, God clothed them and provided for them STILL.

It also says that before God looked at Adam and Eve, He looked at the devil. He then unleashed the first prophetic word we see in scripture when he said that the son of Eve would crush the head of the serpent. Meaning Jesus would one day come and crush the power and the price of sin.

Sometimes the Word can cut you deep. But that’s what the word is. It’s sharper than any two-edged sword, it’s like a fire that burns through the flesh and hits your soul.

There’s only one way to respond to a message like this – It’s to jump into the presence of the Lord and ask Him to consume us.