Our God is big and wants to be close
Key Passage: 2 Samuel 6
Date: June 7, 2024
2 Samuel chapter 6. We’re going to divert off a little bit of David, the life of David. We’ll be in the same passage, actually reading the same verses we did last week. We were talking last week about how they wanted to do a good thing, but in the wrong way. They wanted to bring the Ark of the Covenant to the capital, the city, the country—a great thing—but they went about it the wrong way.
But just a phrase we want to look at. I believe next Wednesday we’ll kind of divert off of David a little bit. Just focus on something here about the ark and where God dwelt. In 2 Samuel chapter 6, we’re going to start reading verse number one. Would you stand, please, as we read the Word of God together? Second Samuel 6, verse number one. And if you’re there, would you say amen? Good deal.
Verse number one again: David gathered together all the chosen men of Israel, 30,000. Just verses earlier, he had gathered the men together for war.
And now he’s gathered together, not for a physical thing, but for a spiritual thing. I like that. David was willing to lead the military even to do something for God and to bring the ark. I don’t think it took 30,000 chosen men, but it became involved in spiritual things—a wonderful thing. David arose and went with all the people that were with him from Beth-judah to bring up from Ephah the Ark of God, whose name is called by the name of the Lord.
I want you just to notice that the Lord is capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D. It’s always Jehovah, by the way. Everything in your Bible is very important. That’s why we stick to the King James.
If all the letters are lowercase, or if the L is a capital, that means a difference. Or if they are all capitalized, that’s Jehovah, always in your King James Bible. Everything about it is important. That’s why we don’t want to mess with it. You mess with it, you’ll mess it up. By the way, you can’t improve on perfection. But the name of the Lord of Hosts—here’s what I want you to notice—that dwelleth between the cherubim. That dwelleth between the cherubim. We’re just going to focus on that a little bit tonight.
Would you pray with me? Let’s pray the Lord would work in our hearts tonight. Would you do that?
You may be seated. Very interesting: “that dwelleth between the cherubim.” Brother Jim, can I get that ark up there? We’re just going to look for a moment at the Ark of the Covenant. And can you go to that other one? Oh, let’s see here. Let’s just kind of… We’ve got three of them. It’s the one that doesn’t have a number or a name on it. There you go. That’s perfect.
And here’s the thing: some of the fine details that the Bible doesn’t tell us about, you’re going to have a little bit of different—oh—of their imagination, if you will. The one thing I would guarantee that was wrong here on this is those poles. The Bible tells us they were covered with gold, so we know that part is wrong. But that’s the Ark of the Covenant there. It was three feet, nine inches long. This right here was that long, and it was two feet, 3 inches wide and 2 feet, 3 inches tall. That is if the cubit is 18 inches, which most think it is. A cubit is basically from the elbow to here. Typically, that’s around 18 inches. It was made of shittim wood. It was overlaid, all of it, with gold. It had these four rings.
And remember, they were never to touch it. They could put those poles through it. They had it covered, put the poles through it, and then they carried it on their shoulders with a pole. There was a crown around here—I wouldn’t know exactly what the crown looked like—but there was a crown around there. And this whole lid here is what is called the mercy seat.
At the beginning, there was just one thing inside the ark. Later on, two things got added. Inside there was the Ten Commandments, the law. Remember, God had written that with His finger. And that was inside there. And then God added Aaron’s rod that budded. Remember there was a time about Aaron, the one that God had chosen? All those sayings in his… His rod that had been cut and probably been dead for years and years budded. It was in there. And then a pot or a jar of manna, the bread that they had come down, ended up in there later on.
Then up top here are these—and I don’t know, I don’t tend to think this is what they looked like. We don’t know, per se.
Cherubim are maybe you could classify them as a special section of angels, maybe not even angels at all. They’re named differently in the Bible. The first time they’re mentioned is when Adam and Eve sinned, and they put a cherub out on the edge of the garden to guard it. Remember, it had that flaming sword that turned every way. So I would think cherubim have to do with guarding. They’re often found around the Lord, maybe to worship and protect and to overshadow, if you will, or protect His glory. But the cherubim—I tend to think by a couple of the scriptures it seems that not just on the ends these cherubim are, but on the different corners on other sides. The Bible has to—I don’t know if it would argue over that—but some verses lead you to think that if you kind of study that part out. It’s hard to find pictures like that. But let’s look at the other ones, Brother Jim. They’re basically the same thing. I just wanted you to get a couple pictures of the same thing of the ark. All in all, it will be the same thing. There’s just a… Their crown, of course, is different around the top. The cherubim is a little bit different, but the dimension is the same. You can go ahead and go to the other one, Brother Jim, if you would, please. Just a smaller picture of it. Of course, they got gold poles there for sure. Their wings did come out like that.
So here’s what he’s saying. He’s saying, let’s look back at the verse there, if you would. Brother Jim, you can just turn that thing off. I just want you to get a visual of that. But notice that in verse number two, the bottom of verse number two—would you look back there?—he says, “whose name is called by the name of the Lord of Hosts that dwelleth between the cherubim.” These cherubim we just saw that dwelleth. Now, just think about that between it. That’s amazing. You’re talking about the God of the universe. The Bible says twice the Lord says, “Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool.” Just talking about the vastness, the majesty, the infinite God we serve. I mean, he says, I can sit in heaven and put my feet on the earth as just a footstool. That’s a pretty big God.
By the way, I think he was talking about the third heaven there. The first heaven is what you see in the daytime—the clouds and all that, the atmosphere. Then the second heaven is maybe what you see at nighttime—the stars and all that, the moon, all that, and outer space. And the third heaven is the abode of God, and we can’t even see that far from our friend. And he says, “Hey, I sat on heaven and put my feet down on earth.” Just rest that for a while. Talking about how big your God is. Just thinking about your God. By the way, praise the Lord, we get to pray to God like that about our election. God can handle that. No problem for God on all those things.
Interesting. Isaiah 40, verse number 12, says this, talking about God: “Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand?” Now, wait a second, the waters. I’ve heard different things. I’ve heard 71% of the surface of the earth is covered with water. That’s a whole lot of water, folks. 71, 72% of the earth. And God says, “Hey, I can measure the waters. I can just put it in my hand right there.” That’s a pretty big God. We have a pretty mighty God we serve right there. He can put all that water—millions and billions and trillions and whatever is beyond that of gallons of water—in His hand. That’s pretty mighty. That’s God. That’s the God you serve.
He goes on and he says, “And meted out the heavens with the span.” That’s the cubit here. A span is this right here. I just… there’s a span there. And the vastness of the universe and the light—how many light-years away our sun or our moon is—and God said, “Oh, that’s no problem for me. I can measure the heavens with the span.” God just said, “I put my hand out there and measure that.” It’s about… oh, it’s not like one of my spans, God might say. I mean, the vastness of God, the power, the majesty of God is beyond your and my imagination. God, how mighty is He! Talk about God! What a wonderful privilege it is to serve Him. He says, “And comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure.”
I mean, and he can just say, “Yep, there are so many dust motes,” if you will. Just to imagine, I can look across it and tell you what it is. He can take it all in—boom—he’s done. “And weighed the mountains in scales.” How many have you been to Gatlinburg? Pretty much all of you, I imagine. I was trying to get somebody in a Sunday school class, and we’re kind of using a campaign in our class to work with the couples who were two over in Gatlinburg. And I noticed the lady, she perked up. And I thought, “Wow, we’re onto something here.” And she’s like… well, I could tell she’s wanting to get her husband to go. And then later on the visit, I figured out why: she’s never been to Gatlinburg. And I thought, “Man, we’re into something here.” She’s trying to get that man to go to that couple’s retreat. She wants to go to Gatlinburg, you know. And they’ve been married for years. He’s never… he’s been. He’s never taken her. But man, the mountains in Gatlinburg, right? And that looked pretty magnificent. Then how about the Rockies? Anybody here been to the Rocky Mountains? Wow, yeah, some of you have a whole lot more than me. We just went to Yosemite National—beautiful mountains. And then we thought we were doing something, and Ms. Couture, she just spoiled our plan. She said, “Well, I’ve been to both, Yosemite and Yellowstone, and Yellowstone is a whole lot better,” you know. And we said, “Well, thanks a lot for just… no.” And she wasn’t being mean. She wasn’t being mean. But it does make us want to go to Yellowstone. We’ll go to Yellowstone next. So I’ll be going next Sunday, friends, you know. I’m joking about all that. But I mean, the mountains are just magnificent. Incredible.
And God says… God says there, he said, “Look, he said, ‘And weighed the mountains in scales.’” Can you imagine that? How many have you seen that? I haven’t got to see it yet—the big mountain where the guy climbed it in four hours. What’s the name of that thing? El Capitan. How many have you seen the documentary? I don’t know, Brother Kevin, Brother Marlin, some of y’all watch that thing where that guy… That big old huge mountain, man. I got that mountain? Wow, I ain’t no way I’m going to do that right there. Uh-uh, not going to be me. You know, if God wanted me to fly, he’d put wings on me, you know. I’m not going to get up there on that mountain. Oh, not me. A big old mountain like that. God said, “I’ll just reach out there and pick it up and put it on a scale over here.” Just the vastness, the power, the might, the majesty of God. He says he weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance. What about those rolling hills of Tennessee, you know? We’ve got the mountains and we’ve got the rolling hills and the plains. That’s the three states of Tennessee. Those hills, he said, “Look, I can just put those hills into balance and balance them all out.”
I like this Psalm of David. God used a pen in Psalm 139:7. He said, “Whither shall I go from thy spirit? Whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there. If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.” He said, “I can’t get away from God. He’s everywhere I go. He’s there.”
He goes on: “If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.” Wherever you go, you can’t fly away and get away from God. He’s everywhere. Just the power and the majesty and the vastness. I mean, God’s just everywhere at one time. Has it ever occurred to you there’s no place you can go to that God’s not there? He’s everywhere. I mean, if they ever do land a man on Mars, God will be there. He’d been there a long time ago. Everywhere. I mean, just the vastness of God, the power of God, the majesty of God. He can take those big old Rocky Mountains and just lift them up. He’s… well, let me wave them out there a little bit. Just how mighty God is. He can measure the heavens with the span and put the water in His hand there. Just how mighty God is.
And yet he says there that he dwells in about two, three feet between the cherubim that dwelleth. Can you imagine that God that can take all that vastness and majesty, and it just kind of brings it all together in a special way, and I don’t quite understand it all, and he can just come right there in the middle of those wings or those cherubim, and he dwells there? Many times the Bible describes Him dwelling. It’s everywhere. Nowhere you can’t go, God’s not there. And His power and His majesty and measuring out the heavens. And yet God brings all that together. He says, “I’m going to dwell right there.” Pretty amazing. It’s really just hard for me to wrap my mind around God doing that.
Why would he do that? Why would the God that it doesn’t matter if you go to heaven—He’s there—even if you go to hell, His presence is there? You can’t get away from everywhere you’re going to go. God’s justice is everywhere you go. Why would he come in just a little two to three-foot area, dwell there?
We’ll look over, if you will, in Exodus chapter 25. It gives a lot of details in Exodus 25 about the tabernacle and the instruments. All right. And here’s the thing: kind of the center, if you will, the focal point, I should say, of the tabernacle is the ark. The tabernacle—it would be like this wall is the outer curtain. You’d come inside that, and there’s the altar there. And they did a lot of sacrifices, and then there’s the brazen altar. Then there’s the laver. And then you come to a smaller size, rectangular tent. You go inside there, and there’s the table of showbread and the altar of incense, candlesticks, seven golden sticks, candlesticks, or menorah. And then there’s the veil, a very thick veil. And inside that, the Bible calls it the Most Holy Place. There’s the ark inside there. And then there’s the mercy seat on top, the lid, if you will. And then the cherubim, and God says, “That’s where I’m going to dwell.” Why would God do that? Well, he tells us why. Look in Exodus 25. Would you look at verse number eight? Verse number eight: “And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them.” Kind of reminds you: “dwelleth among the cherubim,” that I may dwell among them.
Why would the God of all that vast power and might that can weigh the waters in His hand, pick the mountains up and wave them, measure the heavens with His span—why would a God that has all the way—come and just dwell in two to three feet? Why would he do that? Because he wants to be close to you. It’s exactly why. God says, “I love those people down there. I created those people down there—His people that are saved.” He says, “I want to just dwell among them. I want to be close to them.” That’s how much God wants to know you. The God of all the universe, He comes. He said, “Let me just come down there. I want to dwell among them.” Friend, you know how much God loves you. He wants to be the center of your life.
Brother Fontaine’s out there on Percy Priest’s lake and he’s catching those fish. Boy, he was telling some fishing stories before service tonight, folks. I don’t know. He was in church, so, you know, I was watching. He was doing this right here. I was watching while I was doing this here. If he had it, you know how it is, it was this big, you know. I can’t do it with that hand right there, you know. But he didn’t do that, but he was telling all this. But God wants it when he’s out there catching the fish. And he does. He wants to be right in the middle of that. And he wants Brother Fontaine to have a heart: “Man, God, you’re so good to me. Just awesome to be out on your lake catching your fish.” I mean, God wants to be right in the middle of everything in your life. You wake up in the morning. God loves it when you say, “Good morning, God.” It might be after you hit that snooze about 10 times, you know, and you groan, “Oh, Lord, help me today.” And, you know, God has new compassion on you. He’s ready to help you. He wants to dwell among you. He wants to be in the middle of everything in your life.
In your marriage, he wants to be in the middle of your marriage. You’ve got some marital issues, whatnot—he wants you to pray about it. He wants to be right in the middle of that thing. In the middle of the night, if you’re just maybe worried, you hear that noise in the house, you know, it’s amazing how your mind can play about 10 million different things all of a sudden, boom, like that, because you hear that noise out there. You know, but he wants you in the middle of the night just to whisper, “Pray, Lord, help me now,” and he says, “I will.” He never slumbers, never sleeps. He’s always there for you. He said, “Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.” It brings him glory when you call on him in trouble. He likes it. Why would that vast, mighty God just come and just dwell there between the cherubim? Because he wants to dwell with you.
The Lord is so good to us, and I’m really spoiled in so many ways. But we… I usually take a walk in the morning out—not our horses, but their horse pastures out there. Most of you have been there, and I go over on the side field, and we do it every morning pretty much, me and Dixie, our dog, you know. And we’ll have the picnic coming up. If you haven’t got to meet Dixie, he’ll come greet you. He’ll get you dirty, a prayer promise, you know. But I think the deer are used to it. I noticed the other day that we took off, and Dixie—I’ll take her collar off so she knows she can run in the morning time. And she took off, and the deer were out there in the field, you know, and the deer just kind of hung around almost until Dixie got in their field. I think they’re just playing with her now anymore, you know. And they just waited until Dixie got a little bit of a chance, and then they took off, you know. And then the morning that Dixie, she… she took off to my left, the deer over here, and the deer just stayed there. And they’re so used to it. I was able to walk all the way down the field. They never even left by the time I was walking down there. Boy, God loves it. And you say, “Man, God, your creation is beautiful. Thanks for letting the deer hang out a little bit. Let me see the deer.” He wants to share all day long with you.
Hey, young people, you’ve heard it. I know you’ve heard it. I believe it: as long as tests are in school, there’ll be prayer in school, amen. I like it. I don’t know about you, but often I say, “Lord, be merciful to me. I should have studied harder.” God likes it when you pray over the test. He doesn’t mind. You too. He wants to dwell among you. He just… he wants to share life with you. He wants to live with you, if you will. He likes to just be right there with everything going on. He wants to dwell among you. That’s the reason why the vast God came and he said, “Why don’t you build this tabernacle?” And part of that was the ark. That’s kind of the focus of it. And he says, “I dwell there between the cherubim because I want to be in the middle of your life.”
You know, it’s interesting, they would set the camp up, they would move. And you know, the cloud would move, and the fact they’d move. And the Bible lists out—I can’t remember which one goes where—but the tabernacle is there in the center of the Most Holy Place. There’s the heart. And right on the north side, I want this tribe and this tribe and this tribe. And on the south side, I want this tribe, this tribe—Tennessee is down there on the south, amen, you know. And over there on the east is this, and all that. And if you look at it, right in the middle of it all is God. God wants to be in the middle of it. Many… I don’t know if I could prove it, many… if you number the tribes, and the Bible does, it will shape almost like the cross, representing Christ. Friend, I’m just… the vast God. He says, “I want to come and I want to live with my people. I don’t want to be a God a million miles away that they never think about me and never think about them.” Oh, he’s thinking about you, but he wants you to think about him. He wants to dwell among them. He wants to be right in the middle of everything you do all day long. He wants to dwell with you.
Look down in this chapter, if you would, Exodus 25. Just so much knowledge he gives about this thing. Look down in verse number 22, if you would, verse number 22. He says there in Exodus 25:22, “And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubims, which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel.”
Hey, you know, when you get up and you struggle to get in the prayer closet, and you finally crawl in there, if you will, with a coffee—amen, God—have the coffee. He’s waiting to commune with you. Our High Priest Jesus, he rent the veil from top to bottom, written in two, and you have access. You can come boldly, and God’s there. He’s wanting to commune with you. I struggled with something not too long ago when I was talking to a very dear friend. And so I was about to go have just a prayer time, and they said, “That’s the best thing. You just go sit at the feet of Jesus. He’s the one that brings healing.” And he’s waiting to do that. He’s there dwelling among, between the cherubim in Him, and he wants to meet with you. When I sleep in, I hit the alarm and I never get up and go pray—God… now, he’s everywhere, but in a special way he’s in that prayer closet waiting for you. He said, “I wish you’d get up just commune with me.” He loves to talk with you.
He likes it when you can really sing that song and mean it: “Sweet hour, sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer that calls me from a world of care.” Man, you know what? It’s so needed in 2020. All the chaos—just calling me from a world of care, getting along with God. And he’s waiting for that. He wants just to commune with you. He loves to talk with you, if you will, and meet with you and dwell among you. And he said, “I’m waiting there.” By the way, prayer is amazing. It’s amazing. That’s when we talk to God, but oh, that’s so often when the Spirit of God talks to you and He communes. When you get away from the world and all the cares and you just kind of get alone, you’re drawn out of him. That’s so often the best time for me to hear the voice of God. He communes with you. The name of the Lord, that’s Jehovah—that dwelleth between the cherubim. Why would he do that? Because he wants communion. I met with someone not too long ago, and they were already at the restaurant, and they were inside waiting on me. And God’s waiting for you. He loves to talk. Father’s in the morning time, whenever you have your prayer time, he’s just waiting to commune.
You know, it doesn’t… it says even the very hairs of your head are numbered. “So I don’t have any hair on my head, preacher.” You did, and he had them all numbered. That’s what it says. Brother Frank, I don’t know. He knows how many his fellow… not how many are left. That’s how detailed God loves you. Very hairs of your head are numbered. That’s pretty detailed God knows you. I mean, some of us men, you know, when my dad… I remember my dad, when they started turning gray, he would pull them out. Then, out of the blue, he’s like, “I can’t pull all that, just let it grow,” you know. But at first you see that one, you know, and two and three. God’s got them all numbered. I’m talking about how much he just wants you to talk to him.
Miss Tammy’s in nursing school, and she’s busy with all that. And she’s doing so much, and I’m not complaining. I have to be careful how I word some of these things. I’m already getting in trouble with my wording tonight with some things. But I miss her because she’s so busy. I told someone the other day, I said, “I wouldn’t miss her so much if she wasn’t such a good wife.” I miss her when she’s not there. And this morning she… she had a little bit of school, but she didn’t have to go to clinicals or anything, a little bit of—somewhat of a day off. She was going to run some errands first thing in the morning, you know, and whatnot, and tried to get some things done, and has still more schoolwork to do. And she… I went out, and I came back, and she already had breakfast. Right? Man, she was ready to go this morning. I mean, I don’t know if she had some drugs or what, but she had energy. I’ll tell you what: whatever they were, keep taking them, baby. She’s ready to go. She had breakfast ready, and she… “Do you want me to iron a shirt, whatever?” She even picked it out. She said, “Well, it doesn’t need ironing anyway.” That’s why she picked that one out, I noticed that. But anyway, she got all ready to go. And I was just finishing up, getting ready. Can I testify? Can I complain for just a moment with some of you men here? Isn’t it just a little bit of a shame when you have to shave every day? Come on, come on, one to say amen right there? Oh, my goodness. I believe it. I believe Jesus had a beard. We’re all going to have beards soon. I mean, got Brother Anthony right on his level right there for sure, you know. And you got to do all that stuff, every morning shave and all that. It just takes time. And Ms. Tammy was ready to go. And she said, “Well, you need anything else? You’re good,” you know. So I’m good, you know. And she said, “Well, I’m going to take off run errands.” And I said, “Well, you could… that’s a little bit nice. We just… we just talk while I get ready. We’ve been so busy. Maybe we just… we just look, 10 minutes, we just connect, talk.” She said, “Yeah, that would be good.” And she just sat down kind of over in the chair and I’m shaving, and we’re talking. You know, it’s always hard to talk while you’re brushing your teeth and everything coming out all over. We do. And I like that. I like to connect with my wife. God likes to connect with you. He likes just to sit and talk with you. And sometimes we’re just so busy running around doing our own thing here or there. And God says, “I can help you whatever. I can do anything. Just slow down and spend a little time with me. I can help you get things done.” So many great preachers, and I’ve read their quotes before, but they’ll say, “When I got real busy, I for sure didn’t want to let loose my prayer time because that’s needed more than ever if I’m going to accomplish everything.”
Why would the God of the universe just come in a little bitty area, two to three feet, just something like that? Why would he dwell there? Because he wants to dwell, live with you, and he wants to commune with you.
One more thought about this thing here. I was planning on being done a little bit ago. One more quick thought here. It’s very interesting. Did you notice it’s in that verse we just read, verse number 22, Exodus 25:22? “And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat.” I’m glad it’s of mercy. I mean, if I had to get up to par, up to God’s par, to be able to meet with him, if it was a righteous seat or a justice seat, I wouldn’t stand a chance. The only way an infinite, perfect, holy, righteous, thrice holy God can meet with sinful man is at the mercy seat. Man, I’m thrilled. He said, “I’ll dwell above the mercy seat there.” I’m thrilled. He said, “Hey, come on over here. Let’s meet at a place provided by Jesus Christ and His shed blood. Let’s meet at the mercy seat.”
By the way, every year the high priest would go in there on the Day of Atonement and take some blood. And of course, all these were made after the pattern, the real one in heaven, you know. But he’d go in there and he’d take that blood and he’d sprinkle it seven times on the mercy seat. God says, “I’ll meet you over there where the blood is.” And God says, you couldn’t meet me on a level playing field. There’s no way a sinful, tainted flaw… I met with someone today. They said, “I’m so messed up.” And I said, “Me too,” you know. And so there’s no way you could meet with the holy God unless it was at the mercy seat. And God said, “Come on.”
It’s interesting getting it: the things that were in the ark—the Ten Commandments, the law. Who was it? He said, “I didn’t come to destroy it; I came to fulfill it.” Jesus. Hey, that jar of manna, that bread that they ate there—I mean, who is the Bread of Life? Jesus. Aaron’s rod that budded. Can I tell you a little bit better than the Aaronic priesthood? There’s the priesthood after the order of Melchizedek—that is Jesus Christ. We have a great High Priesthood. And that rod represents our great High Priest. And because of Jesus Christ, He can come over there, the mercy seat. And He’s just waiting. He’s just waiting for you to draw nigh unto Him. He’s provided everything. Hey, praise the Lord. I didn’t have to get to where He was. He came to me through that mercy seat. I messed up lives. God says, “Come on. I have a way and access for us to get close. It’s through the mercy.” Oh, by the way, you said, “I went over some sin.” Go to the mercy seat. He’s the one that gives you the strength to win anyway. He’s waiting.
He says, “I want to dwell with you throughout your whole life. He wants to just be right in the middle of it.” He says, “I want to commune. I want to talk. I want to have sweet fellowship. I want to be your Dad. I want you to be my daughter and my sons. I want to be close to you.” And he says, “You don’t have to wait for it to happen. The mercy seat.” He’s dwelling right above the mercy seat. Would you bow your heads and close your eyes?
Original File: Our God is so big and he still wants to be close to you - Pastor Paul Chisgar 102120