Levi Lusko - From Pressure to God's Presence

What pressure points to? If we follow the trail of our pressure, we get to find out what our worry is caused by when we feel anxiousness. Let’s pull on that thread. What is it going to lead us to? It’s going to lead us to either a bad thing or a good thing that’s masquerading as a God thing and is functionally taking the place of God, which is whatever seed of the most important thing is in your heart. So whatever is most important to you is functionally, in that moment, God to you. And what is that going to lead to? Pressure and panic, because it will not be able to do for you what you need it to do in the moment.

We are excited that we’ve added Willie Robertson to our lineup! We got the Duck Commander, Buck Commander, Duck Dynasty himself. Look at that beard! We’re so excited he’s going to be speaking and presenting, and I’m just telling you, God’s going to move in power in the hearts and lives of so many young people this summer at Movement Conference, and I’m excited that we get to be a part of it. Amen! That He’s trusted this with us. So, get signed up! Get your group signed up. If you’re a youth pastor or a parent, put together a student group with your student and some friends, and make your way out to Montana.

I was at a conference this week that has been running for 30 years and had 13,000 teenagers present this week. They were telling me about the first year, which was 1989, and just, for every year, faithfully serving, leading, building, just watching God grow. They had students come in from 15 different states, and I’m just so inspired that we would get to be a part of this because there are a lot of things coming against Gen Z, and there are a lot of people with opinions about this next generation, you know, and this and that and TikTok and all the other things. But I would like to be something fighting for this next generation, not fighting against it.

It’s easy to sit back and criticize, but to serve and to pave the way for young people to encounter God and to know that they’re called-that’s what I’m all about, and I’m excited about what God’s going to do. And if that fills your heart up, we invite you to serve, to be a part, to give, and we’re going to watch God move in power. You mark my words. Amen.

All right, two places in Scripture today we’re going to be in Psalm 84 and then 1 Samuel chapter 5 in a moment. These two texts. So you can put your finger in one, you can put your pen in another. I’ve got two ribbons in my Bible, so I’ve got them both marked out. However, you can make your way to Psalm 84 and 1 Samuel 5. I’m going to preach a message to you, and I’m going to hope to articulate and put into words what has been on my heart all week-so heavy as I’ve been seeking God and trying to keep up as He’s been giving me this message.

It’s called «I Can’t Cover For You Anymore.» Say it with me: «Cover for you anymore.» Have you ever had to say that to somebody? Maybe in a high school study group where you were working with a group? That always drove me crazy because then you can only drive as fast as the slowest person in the group, right? And the person that shows up and doesn’t do the work and didn’t do their part, and so now you all have to pick up the slack. There’s a certain point where you just kind of roll your eyes where that person develops that persona of being the slacker, right?

It’s frustrating, though, at work. It’s frustrating to have someone who’s not doing their part and just sort of shrugs it off, and that’s their personality-oh, you know me-and they just skate through, and everyone has to deal with it, right? Their lack of planning is now everyone’s emergency, right? And so now everybody’s like, the basic life skills class clearly did not get attended by those people. And so you’re in a situation where you just sort of -you know- it’s a fine line.

Because we do want to serve people. We want to help people, but there’s a time, counselors will tell you, when helping hurts. And you’re always on the neutral, on the clutch, and on the gas a little bit when it comes to getting out of neutral into gear when it comes to enabling versus serving, what tough love is, when tough love is needed versus when love bears all things, right?

And so there’s a fine line there and you have to really know, like the Book of Ecclesiastes said, what the time is. You know, the time-no, no, no, not the time, Kronos. There’s another Greek word for time, and it’s Kairos. Knowing the time, Kairos, is not just Kronos, meaning, like, what time? What time is it? No, Kairos means what is the strategic time? What is the pregnant time? What is the right time?

So you have to sort of know the time, and everybody has to walk that dance. As a parent, you’ve got to walk that dance-when is it time for them to feel a little bit of this before you hear that helicopter mom swoops in, takes care of all the problems, right? And-"Not on my watch!» — just swoops in every altercation. There is a time when helping can hurt. There’s a time and a place for these. «Be the breaks, amigo.» Right?

Any small business owners in the house? Any medium-sized business owners in the house? Anybody who leads any team? There’s a time and a place. Okay, all right! Then it’s like, you know what? There are some consequences that need to be felt, so this can be a come-to-Jesus moment for you. «I’m not covering for you anymore!»

And we find in Psalm 84, the first of our two texts today, these beautiful words: «How lovely is your Tabernacle, O Lord of hosts! My soul longs, yes, even faints for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young- even your altars, O Lord of hosts! My King and my God! Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they will be still praising you.»

«Blessed is the man whose strength is in you, whose heart is set on pilgrimage. As they pass through the Valley of Baca, they make it a spring; the rain also covers it with pools. They go from strength to what? To strength. Each one appears before God in Zion. O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer; give ear, O God of Jacob. O God, behold our shield, and look upon the face of your anointed — that’s Jesus! For a day in your courts is better than a thousand; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord will give grace and glory; no good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly. O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man who trusts in you.»

And Father, we ask that in these moments that the beautiful mystery of time almost standing still would take place as we sit in your presence. In these moments, we want to see you. We want to know you. We want to go, God, from strength to strength. We pray this in Jesus’s name. Amen!

Have you ever noticed how easy it is to discover dysfunction in anybody’s life that’s not yours? If you wanted to see dysfunction, all you’d have to do is hop in my truck and ride home with me, because you would see about 20 to 25% of the time my garage door opener in my car doesn’t open my garage. I don’t know why! I Googled it and found out that it can be caused by light bulbs. If you have the wrong kind of fluorescent light bulb, it can tamper with the frequency. For some reason, everything’s in order-the batteries are right, and everything theoretically is all synced up-it just only opens the door one out of four times. And it’s been going on like this for over a year, where I have to get out of the car and walk into the house and slap the button on the wall to open the garage door.

It’s dysfunctional, but I don’t do anything about it. I thought multiple times about calling a garage repairman. I thought how easy it would be, but something about paying someone for a visit. I thought about buying a new garage door opener. I thought about hitting my current one with a hammer. I’ve thought about lots of things, but you know what? I haven’t done anything about it. And if I sat down and actually calculated the amount of minutes of my life spent on this when it could be solved so easily, what is it? It’s dysfunction! But I tolerate it. And you riding home with me would go, «Why doesn’t your garage door open? That’s its name; it’s an opener! That’s all it should do. If it’s not doing it, it doesn’t deserve a place in your life anymore. You’ve outgrown it; therefore, you should abandon it.»

This current plan, Levi, you would say to me, is not working. And I would just say, «Let me go home with you. Let me walk through your life.» I would have an easier time discovering what’s wrong there. I would go, «What? Why would you do that?» If I watched you book a flight, I’m going to guarantee you I would tell you 12 things you did wrong while booking a flight, right? Because I’m really good at that. But you have areas of your life that are in disrepair, just like I.

It’s just so much easier to spot the dysfunction that we have grown accustomed to and normalized and habituated. Whether we know it or not, we accept it; we tolerate it, and we just walk on like there’s not a better way. Well, what we just read in Psalm 84 is the better way. It’s the better way!

This is a Psalm written by many people who think it’s David. We don’t know for sure. If you read the little metadata on it, you know, like if you swipe up on your iPhone, it’ll tell you all about your phone’s photo-what lens it took through, what was the shutter speed, how much light it let through, right? All that data is invisible until you ask for it, right? So we just read Psalm 84, and we didn’t see, as we put the verses on the screen, all the data about it.

But if you look above it, the translators added, «This is a Psalm written about the blessedness of dwelling in the house of God.» That’s not really there, but it’s accurate. Then you have what is in the text, which is just sort of like, «Hey, here’s some interesting information to nerd out on if you want to know.» It is to the Chief Musician, so whoever the worship leader is at the moment, on an instrument of Gath.

Here’s what instrument you’re to play this song on. He’s telling us it’s to be an instrument that I learned to use for good when I was in the land of Philistia for a while. Who lived in the Philistine land for a while? David did! We know that when he was running from Saul, he ended up in the land of the Philistines. That’s where he was when Saul died.

So that’s a little tip that maybe it’s David-not conclusive, because it was a common instrument; apparently, other people could have picked it up, and David popularized it. Then we have a Psalm of the Sons of Korah, to which you go, «Well, Levi, ding, ding, ding, ding! This is clearly not David; it’s the Sons of Korah.» Well, hold on. Some people think it’s actually a pen name, meaning David was so prolific that he just, to share the glory, started inventing other band names out there. It’s possible that this is a collective of musicians and worship leaders that existed that would write songs.

Others think this is a Psalm he was saying he wanted these to lead, and these would be all theories. But Spurgeon, Matthew Henry, and others all say, just from the tone, the flavor, and the rhythmic quality of it, when compared to other Psalms that they see, they see it as no possibility that it was written by anybody except for David. But it is interesting who David wanted to sing it or to lead it.

He wanted the Sons of Korah. This phrase, Sons of Korah, like I said, could be a pen name, but it also was a group of actual doorkeepers who, when the pilgrim feasts were on, and people were coming, would actually work and serve, doing shifts in the specific threshold of the temple area. So as people were coming, they were like the first. They were the greeters. They were opening the door; they were there to say, «Hey, you’re welcome here.» They were there to say, «Hey, if you’re new, here’s the deal. There’s the Court of the Gentiles; this is where you can get your whatever; here’s where this is going to happen. Here’s how it’s all going to work. Do you have any questions?» They were there to serve and to be a bright light.

They were the tip of the spear, right? The people’s first impression doesn’t begin when you hear the sermon or when you experience the worship. It’s that first handshake; it’s that first smile; it’s that person who’s there happy to help, there to serve. These things matter in business; they matter. It’s your website; it’s your online presence; it’s your social media; the feel, the culture of the organization. It’s important that it exists everywhere, that there’s a consistency to the brand.

So these Sons of Korah would be those who you would meet. They also had to overcome some pretty bad things in their beginning because, if you read the Pentateuch, you find out that Korah rebelled against Moses. He was mad and angry that Moses always-Moses, Moses, Moses-always got to meet with God. Always got to lead. And he was like, «This sucks! I hate it! You’re dumb!» And then the ground opened up and swallowed Korah and all those who went with him! So it’s not a great team to be on-the rebellious team.

But that’s not the sermon; this is just interesting details. So whoever the Sons of Korah were, they had to overcome, which tells us it is possible to overcome some bad things in your past. Come on somebody! You don’t have to do just as your parents did. You don’t have to walk in the customs of those who have gone before you. You can indeed overcome!

So this is a Psalm that we don’t know for sure who wrote it, and we don’t know exactly when it was written, although there are some various theories out there that make sense to me. One involves the time when Absalom, David’s son, pulled a coup and sought to rebel against his father and take his father’s kingdom. David, for his part, went through it pretty sweetly with a sweet spirit, meaning he said, «I’m going to trust God.» He was forced to leave the city for a time and live as a vagabond, as a fugitive; just as he had done during Saul’s madness when he ended up in Gath the first time.

But this time, he decided he was just going to trust God, and trust God he did, and God took care of Absalom. God took care of him, and he ended up hanging from his prolific hair from a Tammuz tree as his mule- we talked about mules last week — this is a rather grisly mule story in Scripture. The mule went on, and his hair got caught in the tree branches; the mule went on, and he ended up with spears thrown through his heart. So it did not go well for Absalom; it did not go well for David.

But during that time, it is postulated that David wrote this Psalm because he was far from Jerusalem. You’re like, «I love my bed too!» No, he wasn’t sad. You don’t seem to be opining for his bed, do you? He’s expressing the longing for the presence of God-a song that lifts up what it means to approach God’s house, what it means to come to seek God, to experience and encounter His glory.

«Oh, how lovely is your Tabernacle, the Lord of hosts!» My soul longs for you; he’s just expressing how much he can’t wait until he can get back to the city so he can come back and seek the Lord. We’re in a series of messages called «Make Up Your Mind.»

It’s a wise, prudent thing to do at the beginning of the year to make some hard decisions. If we can make some solid choices, we can ride, so to speak, the momentum of those good decisions on into this year, and these decisions happen right here, right here in our minds. We’re seeking to love God with all of our hearts, our souls, our strength, but also our minds. Scripture says, «As a man thinks in his heart, so he is.»

So we’re seeking to use our minds as a compass and as a rudder, pointing the ship of our lives all throughout 2024-making up our minds, making up Heaven, God, our mentality, setting our minds on things above, not using worldly, earthly wisdom-the wisdom that makes sense to people. We’re seeking God who has said of Himself, «My ways are not your ways, so follow me. You’re going to do stuff that’s going to feel weird, do stuff that’s going to be in the face of what you’re going to hear on this planet.»

We’re seeking to set our minds above when it comes to some very specific choices. We began talking about flesh and spirit. We have two coaches at all times trying to coach us-our fleshly nature and our new heavenly, our spiritual nature. We’re choosing in 2024 in the pull between flesh and spirit, «I’m going to walk with Jesus!» And if I walk in Jesus, I’m not going to do the lust of the flesh. Now, the converse is, if I don’t walk with Jesus, I automatically begin fulfilling the lust of the flesh.

It’s a bummer, right? Like, climbing up a hill in the mud. All you have to do is stop moving to start sliding backwards. So the forward movement in your life is to walk with Jesus. You don’t ever have to shift it into reverse! You don’t ever have to back that thing up, right? You' ll never have to say, «Today I’m going to walk in the flesh. All right, what are some good sins I haven’t gotten around to lately?»

Right? You’ll never have to do that! All you have to do in the absence of walking with Jesus will be the presence of sin in your life. So we’re going to choose in the «Make Up Your Mind» series the two choices -flesh and spirit. «I’m going to walk with Jesus!» That’s what we’re talking about in this series. Week two, we talked about compliance over clarity. I’m going to choose clarity!

Yes! I’m going to love clarity! Well, guess what? You’re never going to see God do great things in your life because it happens in a mystery. It happens in like, «Well, His ways are not our ways.» He’s going to call us to do things that don’t always make sense to us. We’re not always going to know how it’s going to work out, so I choose clarity. Well, guess what? It’s impossible to please God without faith. Guess what? It takes struggle for there to be faith. It takes, «I don’t know, God. It takes, 'I don’t have enough, God. I’m not enough, God.'»

Right? It takes those moments where you say, «I’m going to comply even when it’s not clear. I’m going to trust in the Lord with all of my heart, lean not on my own understanding.» That means my understanding of how it should go is going to be different. «In all my ways, I’m going to acknowledge Him; set my mind above to seek to glorify Him, to praise Him, to bring Him honor, which is obeying Him, does that, and then I’m going to trust that He shall direct my steps.»

So I choose compliance over clarity in 2024! God, I don’t know what it’s all going to look like! God, I don’t know how you’re going to do it! God, I don’t know, what the process is going to look like! I don’t know what it’s going to cost me! But I know if you said it, that settles it! «I’m your guy; here am I, Lord! Send me! Speak, Lord; your servant listens. The answer is yes, God. What’s the question?»

That’s 2024! If we’re going to walk in a move of God, let’s make up our minds! And this week, I want to talk to you about the choice we’re going to have to make between presence and pressure-presence-that’s Psalm 84-pressure.

Now, when I say pressure, I’m not talking about good pressure. There is good pressure! It takes pressure in your tires to drive, and how annoying is winter on that? Anybody with me on that being annoying, right? It takes pressure for a submarine to work, right? It takes pressure for your heart to beat. There’s good pressure! If you don’t have any, if you say, «I don’t want any pressure! I want a life without pressure!» you’re dead! Right?

If they put the cuff on your arm and there’s not pressure-Houston, we have a corpse! Right? So we need good pressure! So let me parse my terms here; let’s get a little bit more of a fine point on it. I’m talking about anxious pressure-I’m talking about the pressure that ends up in worry. I’m talking about looking out in 2024 and saying I want to choose presence-the presence of God!

Psalm 84: Your Tabernacle, your name! My heart set on pilgrimage, believing for springs in dry places. I’m going to walk through weeping but believe I’m going from strength to greater strength-your name, God! I’m jealous of the birds that get to stay at your house all week long! I just want to be where you are; I want to know you.

I’m going to walk this year. We’re going to say, «Making up our minds in presence over pressure!» For fear, at the end of the day, and that’s what drives anxious pressure-fear is faith in the enemy. Think about it-choosing to fear! Now feeling fear is human and natural and normal and a part of the deal. That’s why 365 times in the Bible God says, «Do not fear,» for we will feel scared!

So fear is fine so long as it’s a noun! What are you feeling? Fear! What are you going to do? Believe! Right? I’m not going to choose fear as a verb! When fear becomes a verb, it becomes sin, because we’re putting our faith in the enemy. And our faith is not in the enemy; our faith is in God who raises the dead! Our faith is in God who is glorious in power! Our faith is in God whose name is Jesus, who’s the King of kings and Lord of lords! Our faith is in God who takes us from glory to glory and from strength to strength!

2 Timothy 1:7: «For God has not given us a spirit of fear.» So God does not want you to walk in anxious pressure, because it’s not from Him. He’s the giver of good gifts. Every good and perfect gift comes from above, from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. He’s a very good gift giver. He never gives a stinker! You never go, «Ah!» Right? If it’s from God, it’s good!

Now it might be a strangely wrapped gift; I’ll give Him that. He gives strangely wrapped presents, but when you get to them, when you really see from the perspective of eternity what He did, you’ll go, «Lord, it was perfect in its time; it was perfect in your sight. You will from Heaven look back on everything God did in your life, and you will say you did all things well.»

If I knew what you know, I would want you to do exactly what you did. The struggle is believing that in the moment, right? Right? But that’s how faith kicks in, and that’s how we get compliance over clarity and we get to grow in the process. He did not give us, 2 Timothy 1:7, a spirit of fear! What spirit did He give us? He’s a good gift giver; He gives power and love and what? What’s the last one? What’s the last one? Oh, weird!

Weird! How do we get to power and love? Work it backwards! Gotta have a sound mind first! The Battle of the mind comes before the Battle of the fist! Kung Fu Panda taught me that!

So what we need to choose to do is to control our thinking, and your thoughts are in your control! They don’t want you to think that; they don’t always feel like that, but they are! You are in charge! You can’t let your thoughts happen to you! Scripture says you’ve got to take thoughts captive!

All right! So we’re going to walk this year with a sound mind, believing that’s going to lead to love and lead to power, and that’s going to conquer and cast out all fear, for love conquers all fear. Love casts out all fear; darkness can’t stay where there’s light!

So we’re going to ask the question, «Is this thought good? Is this thought helpful? Is this thought pure? Is it noble? Is it praiseworthy?» And then we’re going to go, «Well then, if not, I’m not going to think on these things.» You’re in control of the TSA inside your head!

Your thoughts don’t want you to think that! They think they get to stay there, and they just get to worry their little way into a rut in your life, and you’re just going to ruminate yourself into an ulcer or a hemorrhoid, but you’re in control of your thinking! You’re under new management! And the new manager’s name is Jesus! And He is King forever! And He is King immortal! And He alone is wise!

And when you elevate Him, and when you let His word set the pace, all of a sudden, where’d that fear go? The King’s here! And in His presence, everyone says glory! And there is not a spirit, and there is not a being, and there is not a person, and there is not a force, who can go toe- to-toe with King Jesus without falling on their face in front of Him.

Now, they might do so cursing all the way to hell, but His name is the name above every other name. And so, you are going, «What about? What about? That must be nice for you, walking in whatever perfect little life full of gumdrops and lollipops you’re walking in. But I’m talking about David, who maybe just maybe has his own son trying to kill him as he’s writing about how good God’s tabernacle is!»

Tell me you can’t come to a place where in the worst hell can throw at you, you can still long for Heaven. And in so doing, you make sense of the crazy, and in so doing, you make sense of the gnarly, and in so doing, you make sense of the difficult by elevating yourself to the Transcendent!

Come on! Is there anybody today who has found your heart soaring above hardships and difficulties and death and lack and persecutions because King Jesus comes riding in on the wind and takes you to a different elevation?

I love it when the pilots come on and say, «This is some rough air; we’re going to get above it.» I just think, «Oh, I just had church! I just had church!»

Come on, let’s ascend on eagle’s wings up above the turbulence! I’m not saying it’s going to go away, and I’m not saying the difficulty and the sickness is all just a shucks, it’s so wonderful. I’m not talking about living in denial; I’m talking about living in faith.

I wonder, where are my people at who are ready to rise up in faith and say, «If Jesus is King, then the storm is what it is, but I’m at a different altitude! I’m at 38,000 ft! Come on! I’m in the jet stream of God’s glory! I’m walking in wonder! I’m living a life of three things we’re going to need to work our way through.»

First, we’ve been already kind of on the power of His presence. If we’re going to walk in presence over pressure, what is presence? Presence is when God shows up. Presence is when God’s in the room.

Now, let’s get more nuanced. Like we needed to with pressure, because when we talk about God and being absent or present, it’s complicated. Someone say it’s complicated! He’s always there — where? Everywhere! Oh, what about-yes, that’s chronicled extensively in Scripture! He’s the worst person you could ever play hide and seek with! You see Jonah ran from the presence of the Lord-oopsies-right? And when I got there, you were there, David said that.

But if I get on a 747 and go the furthest place I can go, there you are! There you are! So what’s all this about the presence of God? Well, there’s a difference between the omnipresence of God and the manifest presence of God.

All right, I believe in Genesis 3 we lost our connection to the manifest presence of God. It was that sense in which we were with God face to face, like Adam was. This is that which will be finally and ultimately restored when the New Jerusalem comes down like a bride, and we don’t need a sun anymore! It didn’t say there isn’t a sun; it just said we don’t need it anymore!

I love when you realize while you’re camping or whatever that your lantern or your light is like, «Oh, right!» Because the sun came up! Maybe you even forgot, and then you’re like, «This was so important a moment ago!» Now you’re like, «It’s just like a joke!» There, right? The glory of God will make that which renders your headlamp a toy when the sun rises in the morning.

We no longer-it’s no longer the source of «Oh my gosh! I’m going to make it through; it’s not dark anymore!» Right? The sun’s there-that’s Jesus! Coming to the sunrise-the manifest presence of God!

We get little taste of God’s presence. David here is talking about Ian Scroggin’s house. For him, those moments feel like honey-the moments where the weight of glory is felt. Time stands still to the Lord of days, a thousand years, a thousand years of a day!

But David’s like, «Those moments come few and far between, and they don’t always happen. We don’t depend on them; we don’t walk out of here going, '12 goosebump day! Good one! ' Right? We’re not walking out of church every week assessing how good God did. But at times, He does show up in a thick way, in a powerful way, in an unmistakable way.

I remember one time I was running last summer. This last summer, I was running, and I was like, „I’m always doing this!“ I’ve only been running for a couple of years, but I was on a run and had a worship playlist on. This song came on from this group out of Europe. I’m having a moment, running, worshiping, singing-delightful! I felt like I could sense the trees ready to break out in song.

God’s presence! Tears streaking down my-I couldn’t wait to tell other people about it, except it sounds so weird to say, except God was there in that moment! Moments in His presence — think about the moment when we said goodbye to Lena for a moment; the sense of the nearness of the angels that had just taken her to be with Jesus.

The glory and the pregnant weight of this shell that was about to be buried in the ground as a seed until that day that she comes out of the grave to once again live in that body-the unmistakable, deafening silence of the glory of God and the veil being thin, and God’s presence so near.

Year after year, it’s been moments like this in this room where I felt God worshiping where we, where it’s almost like, „What day is it? What happened just now? Jesus radiated His glory and His power.“

We beheld the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ! Our scales get recalibrated when those moments happen, little or big-our scales get recalibrated!

I have a scale in my kitchen, and I measure coffee beans. You know how I do it? I put a cup on it, and it tells me how much the cup weighs. Then I hit tear, and you know the scale that was going, „This is how much that weighed,“ goes to zero.

So now when I pour coffee beans in, I know 12 grams because that’s all it’s paying attention to. This is what happens when we gather to sing to Jesus. Our scales that have been going, „Oh, this week was so heavy, oh my dad’s sickness is so heavy, oh the bill! Oh my kids! Oh my back!"-tear! God pours something in, and you go, «All I know to measure is what you just poured in!»

That old stuff, it’s not even worthy to be compared to the glory that now is being revealed and will be revealed! I got a whole new sense of measurement! He shifts our perspective!

You see, Isaiah 26:3 says, «You shall keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You.» Isaiah 26:3! This verse got me through some of the most difficult moments of my life when I had the enemy breathing down my shirt! «You will keep me in perfect peace if my mind is stayed on You.»

I feel the pressure; I choose Your presence! I’m not listening to the enemy’s roar; I got my ears peeled for any word from the mouth of my Savior! And my mind can be sound and right! I can walk in love; I will not fear, though I’m walking in the valley of the shadow of death!

It’s the power of His presence! Second point: What pressure points to? Let’s peel it back! Let’s get under the hood a little bit. When we feel the anxious pressure-and again, we’re not talking about the pressure of the sense of, «I don’t understand.» I’m talking about the anxious, the fear of, «I’m trusting in the enemy more than I’m trusting in God.»

The pressure of, «I don’t have enough. I don’t-what’s the key? I don’t have enough. I’m not enough. I can’t do that!» -I, I, I! So when it’s my, my, my, not Thy, Thy, Thy. We’re in trouble! It’s an indicator! This is a gauge on our dashboard telling us you’ve got a problem!

So what’s that pressure pointing us to? Augustine said better than I tried to say last week that the root that’s causing this fruit is idolatry-and you just saw it on the screen flash up. But let’s go ahead and read that quote: «Anxiety is over-love for good things.» Anything that we look to that isn’t God-that in that moment we want to function like a God-is going to lead to anxiety!

Why? Okay, here’s why! Because it’s not big enough! It doesn’t have big enough shoulders! And it’s not just bad things! Like, porn? Yeah, bad! Good! Right? We need to establish that! Heroin? Yeah, obviously! How about your kids, your spouse, your career? Over-love of good things turns them into functional God things, and anxiety is the result!

Because you’re trying to hang a 30 lb mirror from a wall anchor rated to hold five! Anxiety- it’s failure! It’s critical! It’s a problem! All right! So here’s what happens: the pressure becomes a gift because if we follow the trail our worries lead to us, we can look to and examine what is functioning as a God in our life, and we can then deal with it!

Okay? So Tim Keller put it this way: «Anxiety then becomes the implosion of a false god!» Anxiety- what’s the sound of anxiety you’re feeling? It’s a false god imploding under the weight of what you’re trying to hang on it!

The second text I had you turn to is 1 Samuel 5. Let’s read this with little comment because I could say here all day.

Then the Philistines took the Ark of God -the same Ark, by the way, that represented the presence in Psalm 84, this box that, until Jesus came and until Jesus comes again, was going to function in its time as our only hope of accessing the presence that which we were cut off from in Genesis 3.

Okay? He’s still omnipresent, but you can’t be near Him in the same way! Now we have even more than the God box because we are the God box, wonder of wonders! The Holy Spirit chose to take up residence in Holiday Levi, all right? And in you as well; He lives in you!

Okay? But in this day, this was the only hope-this represented His presence! And that’s what David longed to be near the tent and the whole courtyard that would get him close to near to what was a picture of the heavenly reality, which is God’s throne and angelic praise!

God’s presence always has the sound of singing around it, right? So all of this, okay? So the Philistines took the Ark of God. Why? Because His people were walking in sin, and they blew it, and so they lost in battle because they were not walking in God’s power! And so now this, which represents the presence of God, gets taken away! Kabad, it’s this-the glory has been removed! They brought it into the house of Dagon, which is the same complex that’s been rebuilt but was pulled down by Samson, the temple to the god Dagon, who is believed to be the father of Baal, the primary Canaanite deity!

Dagon is Baal’s dad! All right! So the worst god ever, his father, who was represented by a merman male from the top up, fish from the bottom down, and he was horrible! And all — okay? So they bring-this is crazy-they bring the Ark into Dagon’s house as a spoil of war. Basically, we won! Nanny nanny boo boo, your God box is now at the feet of our fish god! And when the people of Ashdod rose early in the morning, there was Dagon fallen on its face to the earth before the Ark of the Lord!

You know what they said? Dagon! Dagon! It’s what they said! It’s what they said when he fell over! So they took Dagon and set it in its place again!

And when they arose early the next morning, there was Dagon fallen on its face to the ground before the Ark of the Lord! The head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were broken off on the threshold! Only the torso was left of it. Therefore, neither the priests of Dagon nor any who came into Dagon’s house tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod to this day.

But the hand of the Lord was heavy on the people of Ashdod, and He ravaged them and struck them with tumors! Both men of Ashdod saw how it was; they said, «The Ark of God must not remain with us! It’s got to go! We’ve got to get it back!» And in the next chapter, they get it back.

What pressure points to? If we follow the trail of our pressure, we get to find out what our worry is caused by when we feel anxiousness. If we pull on that thread, what is it going to lead us to? It’s going to lead us to either a bad thing or a good thing that’s masquerading as a God thing and is functionally taking the place of God, which is whatever seed of the most important thing is in your heart!

So whatever is most important to you is functionally, in that moment, God to you! And what is that going to lead to? Pressure and panic because it will not be able to do for you what you need it to do in the moment! That’s why tumors were the result! Some translations say hemorrhoids-Scots would say bleeding piles! Basically, what happened?

They, the people, were afflicted with the result of pressure! It was doing to them something terrible to experience! Because what they were looking to was powerless to be what they wanted it to be and what they needed it to be in their life at that moment!

In pressure, then, becomes a gift! Because if we can seek to understand what our pressure is pointing us to, we can discover what we are looking to to cover us that we cannot help but need to carry! They were looking to Dagon to be their covering, but Dagon couldn’t even take care of himself!

And so what happens when what you’re looking to to cover you can’t even take care of itself? You then not only have to worry about you; you have to worry about it too! So this picture of them picking up their god and squeezing out hemorrhoids?

Ang! I want you to remember that visual! Pressure: the pressure at work, the pressure when you’re walking in pressure-remind yourself, «I’m not God, and neither is this, but I got a God! And I got a Helper! And I got a covering! So what are we going to say to Dagon? I’m not covering for you anymore! Why would I cover for what’s supposed to be covering me?»

Pressure is pointing us to the very thing we’re looking to to be what it can never be to us because it’s not God! And so I love the distinction and the juxtaposition of David in crisis, just longing to get back to the threshold, to be a greeter!

«If I could be a greeter in God’s house, I would take that!» Because God’s word at worst is better than the devil’s best! You see, he’s saying, «Give me any position on Earth!» Compare that to serving God, regardless of what level He called me to! It’s better in His house!

I just wish I could get back to the threshold just to be near where it’s happening-the glory of God! And you got the priests of Dagon who made a new rule! And the new rule was, «We’re never walking on the threshold of our god’s temple again!»

Because their creative gymnastics caused them to come up with this narrative of, «Well, Dagon probably fell because he was angry at us, and we had done something wrong, and because his head and hands landed on the threshold.» We’ll just step over the-it’s a new religious rule now! New religious pressure now! We’re not even going to stand!

We’re going to dance around the fact that our god-this is a person who’s in a toxic relationship, but you’re just going to keep covering for that person. «Oh, they really love me deep down.» This is the person who’s pulling you back to the world, but you’re just going to, «Well, I can just be around it. I can-I’ll find a way! Just one more time, and I won’t do it anymore!» But you' re looking to it instead of just going, «There’s a better way!»

Come on! I’m not going to walk in the house of a god who can’t even take care of itself-much less me! I’m not covering for you anymore! I got a covering! Psalm 91:4: «He shall cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you shall take refuge! His truth shall be your shield and buckler!»

I long to be in God’s presence! So what are then the gateways to glory? Or another way to put it: How do we find ourselves to the entrance? That’s another way for gateway, threshold! How do we keep coming back to the threshold of God?

How can we invite the experience of ecstasy that David described that was so transcendent in the moment it’s going to blow you away? I want you to write it down: you’ve got to ask for it! Jenny found, a couple of years ago, like $500 in Space Mountain at Disneyland-$100 bills right on the ground!

And we Googled it, and we were reminded that it’s stealing to not turn it in and technically illegal. So we brought it to a cast member: «If anyone loses money, we found it at Space Mountain-all this money!» And I was reminded of that this week, and I was thinking of whoever lost that money.

And I was wondering if they went to guest services and asked for it! Would you? I don’t know if I would! I don’t know if I trust you that much to ask guest services, right? I don’t know if I trust me that much! I wonder if 10 people lost $500 at Space Mountain if six of them would go to guest services and ask for the cash.

Is it possible there’s someone out there without that $500 to this day who has no idea it was waiting for them all day long at guest services? They only needed to ask for it! Jesus said, «My Father, your Father, is a good Father! He won’t give scorpions when you ask for bread! He won’t give rocks when you ask for a cupcake; He will give His Holy Spirit to those who ask for it!»

You’re going, «God doesn’t show Himself up to me! I’ve never had a run like that! I’ve never experienced God’s presence in a prayer meeting!» Well, do you go to prayer meetings? Mary Magdalene saw the risen Lord first! She lingered the longest after He died!

So ask! Linger longer! And put yourself in the line of fire! Where’s God moving? It’s in His church; it’s what He’s passionate about; it’s what He’s building! To serve! No, like literally, be a doorkeeper in the house of God!

Like, I don’t think David was being hyperbolic! You could literally do that! Busy? Yeah! Dagon’s calling! Of course, you’re busy! And if you want pressure, let other things be in God’s place in your schedule!

And if you want anxious pressure, let other things be in God’s place in your family! And if you want anxious pressure, let something other than God be the most important thing in your finances! But there’s a better way, for Jesus said, «Come to Me all, ye who are heavy and weary, and you will find rest for your souls!»

So Father, we pray for your presence. Oh God, You’re always with us! Heaven, help us for being so sinful and so foolish and so small and so forgetful! And we forget that You lean in when You’re recognized! How much peace, God, could have been ours but wasn’t because we let our thoughts be on everything and everyone but You?

Would You please, Father, show us Your glory for You are better than life itself? And in the thickness of this moment, and the sense of God’s presence here, may I just ask simply and humbly-is it the cry of anyone’s heart today for a greater sense of God of who He is, of His holiness, of His power, of His majesty?

Would anybody say, «I’m walking up to guest services today, and I’m asking for what Jesus left for me?» If that’s you I’m describing, raise up your hand! Raise up your hand! Raise up your hand!

Father, see us! Hear the cry of our heart to know You! Lord, help the things of this world grow strangely dim in the light of Your glory and grace! We pray this, believing it, in Jesus’s name! You can put your hands down, and I want to now invite anybody who’s not trusted Christ to do so! You want to make the shift today from Dagon to Jesus!

What a great choice! Dagon couldn’t even keep his arms from breaking off when he fell, but Jesus stretched His arms out for you on the cross! And even today, He stretches His hand out towards you, saying, «Come to Me! Come to Me! Come to Me! Build your house on the Rock! Build your life on Me! Trust everything you have and everything you are to Me! I am God! Let Him save you, friend! Take His hand today! Believe in Him today! If that’s you I’m describing, pray this prayer: Dear God, I know I’m a sinner. I can’t save myself, but you can. So help me, save me! In Jesus’s name!»