Sis Janae shared how easy it is to steward God's presence carelessly, even while sitting right next to it. Eli's sons were surrounded by the ark of the covenant every day. They had access other Israelites never had, and it became so familiar that it became routine. When Israel later took the ark into battle like a lucky charm, without repentance and without seeking the Lord first, God did not go with them. The ark was captured, and when word reached Eli's daughter-in-law, she named her newborn son Ichabod: the glory has departed.
Familiarity with God's presence is not the same thing as fellowship with God's presence. Sis Janae connected this directly to stewardship — not just of time in prayer and the word, but of everything God places in our hands, including our finances. If we would never be careless with the ark of the covenant, we should not be careless with what God has entrusted to us today.
Bro Simeon preached from Colossians 3, walking through what it means to have been raised with Christ. Because the same Spirit that raised Jesus now lives in us, we have the ability to set our minds on the things above instead of drifting back to the things of earth. David modeled this in Psalm 16, saying he had set the Lord always before him, and that in God's presence there is fullness of joy.
Bro Simeon also showed what happens when a mind is not set above. In 2 Samuel 11, David stayed home from battle instead of leading his army, and it was in that stillness that his eyes wandered onto Bathsheba. One unset mind led to one sin, and one sin led to lying, then to conspiracy, then to murder. Sin never stays at the size it started. That is why setting your mind above is not a suggestion — it is what keeps you out of rooms you were never meant to walk into.
Bro Simeon closed the message by tying everything back to the tongue. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks — so whatever is dwelling inside a person eventually comes out, in word and in deed. If the word of Christ is dwelling in you richly, you have something to give: patience, kindness, humility, and forgiveness toward the people around you. If it isn't, you have nothing to give, because you can't hand someone what you never received yourself.
This is also why Colossians 3 puts love above every other instruction: "above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection." Compassion, kindness, and forgiveness only hold a family or a church together when love is what is actually dwelling inside each person — not just what's coming out of their mouth for show.