Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:01 <inaudible> Exodus
Speaker 1 00:00:08 Chapter 33. Can you open your Bibles with me there? We're in the third week of our series on the golden calf, and if you're not familiar, the Israelites did a very evil, dumb thing. They, by worshiping this golden calf broke the first three commandments and then some, and they knew what they were doing was horrendous to God. And so that's the context of what we start in and what I want to do in this message is I want to deal with a topic that we kind of dance around in church quite a bit, but I want to deal directly with it. And it's the topic of the presence of God. So when I ask a question and I want you to see if you can maybe give some vocabulary, what does the presence of God feel like? What does it feel like? Like, how do I, how do I know emotionally or otherwise?
Speaker 1 00:01:00 If I am in the presence of God, where is the presence of God? Go back with me to 1999. Some of you weren't born, but there was a song that came out in the worship world. And the song was the heart of worship by Matt Redmond. And let me just tell you what happened when the heart of worship came out, like Christendom stopped in every church in the world saying the heart of worship. And it was kind of this moment in time where the lyrics and the melody and the message and the style just kind of made sense in this cultural moment. And I was leading different worship teams. And so what would happen? Like we couldn't go anywhere unless we were actually playing the heart of worship and across congregations, you couldn't have convinced people, the presence of God didn't like fall off because I mean, coming back to hands raised, yes, you remember this, like some of you were like, what are you taught?
Speaker 1 00:01:57 You're going to go download and be like that song. Like that song was revolutionary. It stopped the world of worship and church Christians all over were just like, yes. And it captured so much of the idolatry that the worship culture and evangelicalism dealt with. And it just caught this moment in time. And we were like, yes, the presence of God, like you could almost like feel it was that the presence of God, or maybe there there's this once in a generation pastor that comes along and you have the opportunity to hear them preach. And you're just like enraptured. You just can't even believe that somebody could communicate the word of God to hundreds of thousands of people sometimes. So effectively. I remember, I think it was 1999. I think that's a pretty consistent year. That's going to come up in my sermon here 1999. It was the passion conference in Memphis, Tennessee, and John Piper preached to tens of thousands of people.
Speaker 1 00:02:48 I think there was over a hundred thousand college students at this event. And I remember I'd never heard the guy before and I just listened and he spoke to a generation in a, we could understand. And I remember I was just enraptured in this guy's teaching. And then I would, I would go home. And do you remember back in the day where if you wanted to get someone's sermons, you had to get like a catalog and then you had to rip out a piece of the catalog and like check the ones you want and then write an actual check, put it in the mail and hope you got the tax rate, anybody, and then you'd wait right. Two weeks, maybe three. And I remember I'd be getting John Piper sermons in for like a good year. And I was just like, wow. Like every time I listened to him, I'm like, is this, this has to be the presence of God.
Speaker 1 00:03:34 Can it ever feel bad? Like, can you be in the presence of God and feel terrible? Can I be in the presence of God and not feel anything whatsoever? And so what I want to do is I want to go deeper to the subject and kind of lay some groundwork, get on the same page. Before we jump into Exodus 33, I want to share with you just four facts about the presence of God. And these four principles and facts are going to be geared and directed at Christians. If you have personally trusted in Jesus Christ, here are four things you can take to the bank about the presence of God. Number one, the presence of God is always a fact and facts, always Trump feelings. Amen. And so whether or not you feel like God is with you, it does not matter if you have personally trusted in Jesus.
Speaker 1 00:04:26 God has made a promise to give you his holy spirit and that holy spirit is the most permanent thing in your life. And when God decided to save you, he saved you, knowing all the ridiculous things you would do. And now holy spirit, once he has given to you cannot be undone or gotten rid of because you may be sinned. Beggar had a season of struggle. Now in the middle of sin, let's be honest. Some of us, all of us, we have quenched the holy spirit, have we not? We have taken the voice of the holy spirit and said, not today. Spirit. I don't want to hear what you have to say. I'm going to push you deep down inside. I've got worldly, sinful indulgent things to do. We've done that before, but it does that mean the holy spirit left. Definitely not. In fact, if you have trusted in Christ, this is the most sure thing the presence of God is with you always all the time, no matter what you feel or don't feel.
Speaker 1 00:05:18 Number two, it is often the presence of God is often a feeling. Let me give you a few illustrations. I think one of the emotional responses to maybe realizing the presence of God in your midst is this emotion or experience of wonder. Like I remember the first time I was in Colorado and I got to see an enormous mountain and I just looked up and I was like, whoa, God, you did this. You spoke. And this magnificence unraveled in creation. That's unbelievable. Here's another emotion piece. When everything inside of you is riled up and anxiety is winning. And everybody looks at you and says, yes, you should be anxious and concerned. And somehow even just for a moment, there is this overwhelming sense that it is going to be okay. And God has it. It's the presence of God. That is it new? No, but it's being realized in that moment in a way that it wasn't realized before, here's another one courage you're petrified.
Speaker 1 00:06:27 You're scared to death to do what you know, the Lord wants you to do next. And you are just not ready. And then all of a sudden you have this moment of courage and you're like, I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. And then you actually, by the power of the spirit in you, despite your emotions and your anxiety and your fear and all the what ifs, you actually get the courage to do this. And this is from the spirit of God. And it's this feeling of empowerment here. Here's another one conviction. You know, the feeling when you have been pretty disobedient and it's,
Speaker 2 00:07:03 You might interpret it as guilt.
Speaker 1 00:07:06 You might interpret it as shame. You just know there's a weight on you and you would do anything to get the weight off. The presence of God is often a feeling. Number three, the presence of God is not always a feeling. In fact, David, who is one of the most relatable guys in the Bible, you get to read his poetry and he is a very emotional guy. And so here's what David says in Psalm 13. One. How long a Lord, how long will you forget me? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? And David is having this experience where he's like, I don't feel you. I don't sense you're with me. In fact, things are getting more and more challenging in ways they never have like, have you abandoned me? I think this is a feeling that probably everybody here can experience or relate to the feeling of no feeling whatsoever. And here's the fourth fact about God's presence. It is graciously limited until death. If you and I, I saw, and we're in the full presence of God in all of his glory. Let me tell you about what happened to us. We would be incinerated. I love it. We're like, God, show me your glory. That's hilarious.
Speaker 1 00:08:23 You would be incinerated because it is the brain. It is the most beautiful experience a human could ever encounter. Now here's the problem. Will we see of the glory and the presence of God. It's like, you're in a dark room and there's a door is closed, but there's light creeping through at the bottom. That's like the magnitude of what we're able to experience this side of heaven. Like we see it. We can like, we can, we can, we know it's there. We know there's something bright and powerful on the other side of this thing. But, but we are, we do not have access to this side. Heaven. First Timothy says this God dwells in unapproachable, light whom no one has ever seen or can see first Corinthians 13, 12 says this this way. I think Paul's just so right on. He says for now we see in a mirror dimly, but then we're going to see face to face, whatever, whatever we get of the presence of God, it is not the full thing.
Speaker 1 00:09:17 If you will, in all of its glory, there is a reserve to it because you and I would be burnt to toast and destroyed forever. Isn't God gracious to not expose us to the fullness of all of his glory right now, actually this chapter 33, Israel has sinned, huge big. What they have done is evil and terrible and disgusting. God has had to kill through the Levi's a few thousand of them, the entire nation who has left, all of them, got the plug. And now the biggest, worst discipline of all is about to happen. God is about to remove his presence from the Israelites. So I structured this message and kind of two sections. One is we're just kinda, kinda trucked through this passage and we get to see what's in it. And, and then we're going to spend a little bit more time than usual on the so Watson, we're gonna apply this. All right, look at verse three with me, God says to Moses, go up to a land flowing with milk and honey,
Speaker 3 00:10:14 But I will
Speaker 1 00:10:16 Not go among you. Lest I consume you on the yay for you. You are a stiff necked people. This is wrath vengeance language. If I get near you, I'm going to have to destroy you because of how evil and sinful you are. But, uh, the first part of this, he says, you go up to the land, flowing with milk and honey, and, and God's like, listen, I'm going to bring, I'm going to make sure you get to the land. I made a promise to you, but here's the deal. I'm not going with you. I will keep my promise and get you there. But you guys are far too evil and rebellious. You're stiff-necked I can't, I can't go look at verse five for the Lord said to Moses, say to the people of Israel, you, you are a stiff neck people. If this is very strong language for a single moment, I should go up among you. I would consume you if you were like been around somebody or like if I'm around them for one more minute. So help me. I don't know if they're going to live just me.
Speaker 1 00:11:32 I was fairly how God feels about, about Israel. Stiff-necked is a strong word. And it's a combination of arrogance and stubbornness. It's this idea that are not going to go. I'm not going to listen. I know better than you. And if you have children, you've probably experienced stiff neck, at least one time or another, but it's a really ugly thing to watch just stubbornly and arrogantly, not listen to the authority in their life and I will do what I want. And that's what it's like for God. And there's no dialoguing with the stiff-necked person. Now, one of the questions that I think we need to ask here is, okay, God, if you're going to remove your presence from the Israelites, what is it? And where is it in the first place? And so in the wilderness, the Israelites would experience God's presence in two primary ways.
Speaker 1 00:12:18 Number one was a pillar of cloud by day. And the other was a pillar of fire by night, and this would lead them and it would guide them. And we actually don't know how big these were. I mean, these could have been enormous. They could have filled the entire sky. We actually have no categories. What we do know is that they were not normal. They were supernatural. And everybody who saw it, whether they were an Israelite or a foreign nation will look and say something supernatural is happening in the midst of these people. The very presence of God is there. My God says, it's not like a little dinky, little cloud and flame, like a lighter view. You know, like my God says, it's something that maybe reflects the glory and awesomeness of God. So what would happen to the presence of God in the old Testament is that if you were in unrepentant sin, then God would physically take his presence, the cloud, or the fire.
Speaker 1 00:13:15 And he would leave. And when God left, this would be devastating because God was your protection and God was your provision. He was your energy of big things were going to happen. You needed God on your side. And so for God to withhold his presence was actually a very physical thing. In fact, David prays in the Psalms. He says, Lord, take not your holy spirit from me. David even understood that God's presence is spirit dwelled on Kings and leaders. But if he sinned unrepentantly that God would actually take the holy spirit, his presence, and remove him from David. Now I want to remind you, based on the principles we learned at the beginning of this message can for a new Testament, new covenant, Christian, if you have trusted in Jesus, can the presence of God ever leave you? The answer is no. The spirit of God is stuck with you and you're stuck with him forever.
Speaker 1 00:14:10 That's it? But in the old Testament, old covenant times, the holy spirit actually could be removed from you. Two big reasons. I love being a new covenant Christian bacon and the holy spirit can't leave me. Amen. All right. Verse four tells us that everybody understood how devastating this really was. Here's what happens in verse four. When the people heard the disastrous word, they mourned. When the people heard the disastrous word, they mourned, and sometimes you don't feel the weight of how evil something is until you experience the consequence. Now I had about 15 personal illustrations for this, and none of them are appropriate to share here, but you have them don't you in the middle of your sin, you were blinded to it. But when you had to face it and face the consequences, you finally began to realize, wow, that that really is actually pretty ugly. I think their morning is understandable because Moses and the Israelites knew something that we would do really, really good to remember
Speaker 3 00:15:16 Without <inaudible>, without God's presence in our life, we have nothing. What is there?
Speaker 1 00:15:27 W we were designed and created by God, for God, for his presence to be in us. This is what we were made for. And without it, we are sitting ducks in the Israelites. They get this. They're like, if you, if you don't go with us, we have no protection. There's nothing that separates us. When an army comes up to us and they see the fire or the cloud, they take a step back because they don't have fire and cloud. They have dumb idols made out of stone and wood.
Speaker 4 00:15:55 We've got fire. We've got
Speaker 1 00:15:57 The presence of God that goes before us. And if you don't go with us, there's nothing that stands between them and us. And God's like, listen, listen, I'll go before you all take care of everybody. I'll have whatever. But when you get there, once I clear everybody out, we're done. And that's where they stand. And they understand that even if God gets them there, that this is just utterly devastating. And this, this whole thing sets up a really emotional dialogue between Yahweh and Moses. And I want you to remember this y'all went and Moses spoke differently with each other than anybody else in the world. At the time they spoke face-to-face they spoke his friends, speak. Moses had the freedom to talk to God in a way that nobody else in the time did. In fact, Moses has the freedom to speak with God. Like we do.
Speaker 1 00:16:41 We have the freedom as Christians with the holy spirit to approach the throne of grace with confidence and to ask our questions and to be bold and ask God for big things and to tell God what we need and what we're struggling with. And sometimes if you, especially, if you don't have a spirit of accusation to go up to the Lord and say, I'm frustrated, I don't know what to do with this. You promised me this, but this is what I'm seeing. Can you help me understand this? You know, that freedom that you had Moses was seemingly the only guy on planet earth at the time that had the ability and freedom to speak to God like this. And look what happens in verse 12. Moses said to the Lord,
Speaker 4 00:17:17 See you say to me, bring up this people, but you have not
Speaker 1 00:17:24 Let me know. Can we, I want to, I wanted to stop here. Just do an entire sermon of the sentence. Do you ever feel like God just doesn't let you know, fill in the blank and you're like,
Speaker 4 00:17:37 You, you tell me, you love me.
Speaker 1 00:17:39 You tell me that, like I am your son or your daughter. You tell me that I'm going to inherit the world. I'm going to judge angels. I'm going to have a new body. I'm gonna reign with Christ over all the, and I, and I'm all I'm asking for is information. So like, why, why are you with holding this for me? He goes on, but you've not. Let me know whom you'll send with me yet. You've said, I know you by name and you have found favor in my sight to verse 13. Okay? So now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me your ways. How do you work? You're like a conundrum wrapped in an enigma. I don't
Speaker 4 00:18:19 Even know what to do with you. You do this. Then you
Speaker 1 00:18:21 Do that. I don't understand appeal. You've got a plan, but I don't get it like what's going on right now. Show me your ways that I, that I may know you, you tell me, you love me. You tell me I have favor. You give me access, unprecedented access that nobody else has. So now I'm asking, I need you to throw me a bone here. I need, I need to know what's going on here in order to find favor in your sight. Consider too,
Speaker 4 00:18:46 That this nation they're also your people. God's response is so
Speaker 1 00:18:54 Immediate. It is almost jolting. And if I'm being honest, before I even know what's going to happen next, if it's the first time I'm reading it, I sort of expect the Lord to say, who are you? Oh, man, to talk back to me, shut your mouth. Were you there? When I made, remember the whole conversation with Joe, when I made the world, when the angels sang, but the difference between job's wagging finger at the end of the book of job in Moses is that Moses isn't actually accusing God of anything. His heart is actually, it seems to be pure to the Lord. No, God, here's what your word said. You said these things, here's what I'm experiencing. And I need you. I need you to help me. I'm asking for understanding. It actually seems that Moses, what he was asking was really good. Look at, look at verse 14.
Speaker 1 00:19:46 And he, God said to Moses, my presence will go with you and I will give you rest. Look at the word you, this is not a Texas y'all. This is a singular you. So when Moses is asking for the presence of God to go with him, was he meaning just him? Or was he meaning everybody is meaning everybody, but God's responses. I'm not going with them, but I will go with you. And Moses is not satisfied with this answer because Moses loves his people. And Moses knows that as the presence of God, doesn't go with them. And inevitably, they're going to be sitting docs. So versus teen, Moses says the way, if your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. And he goes from singular to plural, but he's not going to bring all of the people under this for how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight. Now watch this I and your people. There's a little turn of phrase that most of you probably didn't notice yet in an Exodus. After the golden calf experience,
Speaker 3 00:20:59 Yourway stops calling
Speaker 1 00:21:01 Israel. My people. In fact, when he's talking to Moses, he says your people, like if your kids are being really something, your son has not. My kid, yours daughter look at verse 16. Does it again? This is actually going to be the third time. Moses says back to God, your people, he said, is it not in your going with us? So that we're distinct. What sets us apart literally is the physical manifestation of your presence in the fire cloud,
Speaker 3 00:21:38 I and
Speaker 1 00:21:40 Yours or people. Isn't this interesting. He's he's just like,
Speaker 4 00:21:44 They're still your people, Yahweh. God
Speaker 1 00:21:49 Is not you're going with us so that we are distinct. I need your people from every other people on the face of the earth. And verse 17 is so strange to me. Again, I have these probably expectations that God is going to be like, okay, Moses enough. Okay. I've already told you, I'm going with you. Okay? I've given you enough now just relax relent and let's go. But it doesn't do that. Verse 17 says the Lord said to Moses, this very thing that you have spoken, I will do for, you have found favor in my sight. And I know you by name. So what Theresa what's let's apply this to the new covenant, new Testament. Christians. Number one is sin distances us relationally from God. When God's people sin in the old Testament, as we said, his presence, literally physically departs, but in the new covenant for new Testament, Christians, this is not our experience.
Speaker 1 00:22:54 If you are a true Christian, you cannot get the holy spirit, the presence of God to get away from you as hard as you try. But what's interesting is that what seems to be lost? It's not the presence of God. Although sometimes we say like, I just feel like God, isn't with me. I want to maybe give you a different vocabulary for this to help you understand maybe what you're experiencing. I would call this the favor of God. It's almost like, you know that God's like positive disposition to you has changed. Maybe he's not as responsive to you. Maybe you're just like, maybe you just know that you're feeling like guilt and you find the weight of, of the spirit confronting sin inside of you. And you're just like, I don't feel like we're okay. Like if my kids are willfully disobedient, don't get me wrong.
Speaker 1 00:23:43 I love them. I'm never gonna stop being their dad. I mean, forever. We're going to be okay. I'm not going like walk out of the house and say, you're no longer my child. Right? But relationally, there's some tension here. And so my kid is being really disobedient and says, Hey, can I have an Oreo? I'm going to be like, no, you can't have an Oreo. You're being super disrespectful. And I'm going to come to me and want an Oreo. How many of you are going to be prone to bless your children in the middle of belligerence that they know is wrong.
Speaker 4 00:24:06 Very few of you and you
Speaker 1 00:24:08 Happen to be made in the image of God. I think that might be actually maybe a little bit of a God instinct in all of us. So let me, let me try to break down with the favor of God. Looks like there's two sides to this coin. One is the ability to feel him emotionally. Now, again, for me feeling God emotionally is not the most important thing, but I do know that for most people, that if you never ever have an emotional experience or response to God, that that has a pretty devastating impact on most people. And so I do recognize that for most people, like we want to feel and know that God's presence is with us sometimes. And that is valuable and God gave us emotions so that we could actually have probably some of these experiences too, to a degree. But there, there are many reasons why you may not feel at all the presence of God.
Speaker 1 00:24:55 I'll break these into two categories. Some of these reasons are not sin. They're just real life things. And then there are some, some reasons that are actually straight up said, let me give you some reasons. You may not feel God, but these are sin. So here's one depression. You might be in a seasonal state of depression. You might be an extended state of depression. Your emotions and hormones are probably just not functioning. Ideally the way you want them to. I've never met anybody. Who's depressed. Who said, I'm glad I'm depressed. I'd like to stay here as long as I possibly can. Right. Have you probably not. And so what you find is that like already your ability to feel normal, real natural things is either stunted or muted or frustrated. And so I'm not going to look at somebody who's in the middle of a depression and say like, how dare you not feel, God, I actually probably wouldn't expect you to.
Speaker 1 00:25:46 But does that mean he is not with are now? No, no. It is always a fact. If you've trusted in Christ that the presence and spirit of God is with you here. Here's another one. Post-surgery if you run any kind of anesthesia, like it just messes with you. And so you might've just had like some surgical whatever, and it might be actually the effects might be lingering. I went through like a extended season of multi-month depression. After one of my surgeries, I had no idea it was going on. I was just like, holy smokes. This is like, this is pretty, this is pretty intense. And I could draw a line of sight right to that, right to that surgery. I woke up after one surgery. I think it's called pathological weeping. I think that's what it's called. And I just woke up and I wept and wept and wept and wept and wept.
Speaker 1 00:26:30 And I didn't feel the presence of God or anything of the sorts. And my wife was like, oh, he's losing his mind. Anesthesia is a real thing. Now you could be post loss, disappointment or hurt. You might be in the process of grieving and the presence of God is fully with you, but he's not bringing you joy. In fact, what the spirit of God wants you to do in loss and grief is to weep and to lean into it and to actually grieve the weight of the thing that you have lost. And so the presence of God does, you may want all of that to go away, but like, honestly, you may not feel it in the way you want to because you're in that season. And that can last for a while. You might be experiencing spiritual oppression. The evil one might know that you're, you might be doing something really important for the kingdom, or you might be bearing fruit, or there might be somebody that you're making an impact in their life.
Speaker 1 00:27:18 And they even want is like, Nope, that's my territory. And so the evil one is going to send his dumb little minions to try to impress you spiritually. That might be what's going on in your life. I can think of a thousand reasons that have nothing to do with sin in your life while you may just struggle to feel anything at all from God and more than ever in those seasons, you are living by faith because you are believing the presence of God is with you, despite what you feel. But there, there are legitimate reasons that are sinful reasons why the holy spirit may be just kind of pushing you away. Uh, James says, God opposes the proud, but he gives grace support, help to the humble, the proud the stiff neck. Don't do it my way. Worldliness. Here's one, you come to church and you're like, ah, preacher's long-winded and the music grumble, grumble, grumble, grumble.
Speaker 1 00:28:15 I don't get anything out of it, probably because you're worldly. Jesus could get up here and preach and you'd be like, I was all right. It was fine. It was fine. I mean, it wasn't for me, it's probably the person next to me, right? But this is what happens when you are satisfied with the world all week long, your heart is going to be numb to the things of God. And you come into a church service and you become a consumer because what do worldly people do? They consume. And so we take the worldliness into the place of God and we just consume that's one that's real substance abuse. The more you partake of substances, the more it messes up with your emotions when you're not on the substance. And you understand this. And so you don't feel a lot of things normally are rightly because you have indulged this world and it's effected your biology in pretty significant ways.
Speaker 1 00:29:03 Another one is just willful disobedience. And I know this is, this is a challenge for some, but like when you know the right thing to do and you don't do it, God opposes the out, but he gives grace to the humble. So the second aspect of the favor of God is simply this it's, God's willingness to respond to your prayers. Now this is going to take me to my second. So what I want to dig deeper into this. And, and for me personally, this has been like my major takeaway of this message. We do learn by the way, as pastors, when we're studying and teaching it does its work on us first or should the presence in favor of God are bent toward the obedient.
Speaker 1 00:29:46 Why does God so quickly change his mind? I mean, just think about this. If I'm around them for a minute, I'm going to consume them and destroy them. Hey, could you like not for me. Okay, fine. Like that's how it reads. So Christian, Christian bale, he played Moses in Exodus gods and Kings don't watch none of these super dumb, but he was asked in an interview, what did you learn about the God of Moses and the God of Exodus? And he had spent a whole bunch of time just learning ancient Jewish literature, studying the Torah, trying to get his head around this. And here was Christian bales. One word to describe Yahuah mercurial. Now who uses the word material. Okay. It comes from the word mercury and mercurial means this subject to sudden or unpredictable changes of mood or mind. So as he kind of got into character and as his Moses had interact interface with ya'll way, his basic understanding was that God was fickle and able to do this, or you wanna do that? Sure. We'll do that. I'll just try it. And I will destroy him. That's how he process them. Obviously. I don't think that that is an accurate description of Yahweh, the king of the universe, the one who literally could just kill everybody and change anything. I mean, we're talking about the most powerful being anybody could ever possibly come up with in their brain times a billion beyond that, and then another billion. Okay? Like we're talking beyond what we can comprehend. Our God is not mercurial. He can't even say the word it's so dumb. McKayla.
Speaker 1 00:31:30 Why does he change his mind? So easy because Moses obeyed God, there is something about this principle here that God opposes the proud the stiff-necked, but he gives grace to the humble. Now I want to show you this. And I want to show you this from the old Testament to the new Testament, I want you to watch this principle build. We go to the book of Psalms chapter 68, verse 18. The Salma says if I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have, do you have a nicoti you were cherishing that's we love the word holding onto, you know, he wants you to release it. And the Psalmus brain, the Lord does this to your prayers. Okay. Is this like a one-time thing? Is this poetic literature and Psalms? Well, let's, let's go to the book of second Chronicles, 16, nine. It's a verse you've heard before, but I want you to process it through this principle, the eyes of the Lord they run to and fro throughout the whole earth to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him.
Speaker 1 00:32:52 Those who obey the Lord and submit to his word. If God can find that person, here's his posture, dude, I want to champion and support you. Whatever you're doing, I am for you. If you will follow me in a bay, me and submit to me despite what you feel and despite what is convenient, despite what you will lose, I'm telling you, you want to talk about an active prayer life. You and me, we can do some work here. Okay. But Michael, is this just like an old Testament thing? No, it's actually not the book of James chapter five, verse 16, the prayer of a righteous person has great power in its working. Does righteous mean perfect by the way? No, definitely not. We're all sinners. And so James, as she goes on, he says Elijah was a man with a nature like ours. He was not perfect.
Speaker 1 00:33:41 The dude struggled and he prayed fervently that it might not rain. And for three years and six months, it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again and heaven gave rain and the earth bore its fruit. Okay. Michael, that's like an old Testament example. It's just like one time. Are there other ones? Oh, let's, let's keep going. The book of first Peter chapter three, it's a word to husbands. I'm guessing husbands. You would like to have a dynamic prayer life, right? Where the Lord responds to you and you bank him for things that are good and right. And he's like, yes, I want you to remember this principle. The Lord opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. Likewise, husbands live with your wives and an understanding way showing honor to the woman. As the weaker vessel by weaker vessel, he simply means men are physically biologically bigger and stronger. Usually it's not a diss on women. It's actually just an observation of reality showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life. So why do I want to live with them in an understanding way so that your prayers may not be hindered?
Speaker 1 00:34:53 Oh, okay. This thing's getting real. Shall we go further? One chapter later, first Peter four, seven, the end of all things as at hand, therefore be self controlled. Sober-minded why for the sake of your
Speaker 2 00:35:12 Prayers, isn't that interesting?
Speaker 1 00:35:15 Do you want the favor of God in your life? But most people actually probably interpret as the presence of God is typically the favor of God, which is I can actually sort of feel him sometimes. And when I pray, he's sort of responsive to me and I don't get everything I asked for. But when I pray for like good things, according to his will, like, I actually get to see God move. And here's the, if there is willful unrepentant sin in your life, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying you're going to hell. I'm not saying you're not a Christian. Your sin. Can't get rid of the holy spirit, but do not expect the favor of God in your life. Do not expect to feel God and do not expect God to bend his knee to your great needs. He opposes the proud and he gives grace to the humble, the presence and the favor of God are bent toward the obedient. Finally, number three, better is one day in God's presence than 1000 anywhere else. Now, many of you are probably wondering, is this another Matt Redmond song? It actually is go figure. And you're also wanting, are we going to sing better as one day to close the service? Didn't think that far ahead. So no, we're not. Unless marina, you have this one off the cuff. She's like, she's like, oh, wasn't even alive in that one.
Speaker 1 00:36:35 Yeah. Psalm 84, 10. David's onto something. By the way, for a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. We, again, don't have this category as something that could be so utterly mesmerizing and entertaining and interesting as the presence of God with the glory of God is emanating from, we have no category because we just see dimly. We just see under the door, we just see a little bit of this, but I'm telling you the presence of God will be something that will utterly blow your mind. And when we get there, we're going to look back and we are going to regret all of the moments that we forfeited opportunities to be. Even in the shadow of the presence of God, even in the room where the light dimly came through under the door, we're going to realize how transformative and powerful and beautiful and unique this opportunity was. And it's limited because if God showed us the whole thing, it would incinerate us the pieces. The fact that you can only see it through the door and have glimpses, whether it's emotionally or intellectually or experientially of it is a grace of God to not obliterate you in the process. While we have these fallen bodies.
Speaker 1 00:37:53 There's a sentence that I think really struck me, greater experiences of God's presence are most often reserved for the disciplined. David would go to the, to the courts, to the temple of God. This was his discipline and out of his discipline, being faithful to do the things that God has given us to uniquely I've say experienced the presence of God, whether it's worship or time in God's word or it's time in prayer, or it is time serving the Lord where when we use our spiritual gifts, the spirit manifest themselves. So it says first Corinthians 12, when we actually put those things aside, we experienced less the presence of God emotionally. That's a real thing. But what David understood is that as he disciplines his life, that he has a greater opportunity to experience the presence of God. Do you want to know God more? I'm telling you the presence of God by and large is waiting for those who are disciplined, who prioritize things that I would just say, allow us to even experience that glimpse of the spirit of God in a unique way, prayer in the word of God and worship and ministry.
Speaker 1 00:39:04 These are powerful things, and God gives us these things. And even if you don't experience emotionally, the presence of God does that mean God is not. Yeah, no, definitely not. At the end of our services, um, we celebrate communion and then what happens is paper shuffles people zone out the moment I say this, it happened in the last service. And so I'll just, I, you a pause for a moment before you shut down your brain and say communion time. And I put my head in a different space.
Speaker 2 00:39:34 Communion is four. Or
Speaker 1 00:39:37 If you're not a Christian here, I want to just take a moment with you. Because I think if you're being honest, you would actually love to experience and have access to the presence of God. If God's real, it's probably something that you would like to have. And there is literally only ever one way that the presence of God will be experienced by you in a positive way. And that is through Jesus Christ. There is no other avenue by which the holy spirit, his presence can be in us and experienced by us. Unless you, we personally trust in Jesus. You don't get the holy spirit by being good. By going to church, by being generous by serving, there is nothing good you can do to get it. Jesus was good for you. And this is, this is what God is offering you. This is a great invitation.
Speaker 1 00:40:42 Would you trust in Jesus Christ? He loves you. He died for you. He was raised from the dead to validate his payment was accepted. He's coming back and he does not require you to be good enough to get to heaven because nobody could do it. He is offering you forgiveness and the full presence of God inside of you to support you and to help you and to form you for the rest of your life. Not through going to church, not through being good, but by personally trusting in Jesus. So I want to invite you. We're going to partake of communion in a little bit. And, um, we're going to, some of us are going to get up and we're going to go get elements there in different parts of the room. And I want to invite you if you are ready to trust in Christ to go get these elements and to partake of communion with us.
Speaker 1 00:41:26 And when you partake, let this be your personal declaration of your faith. For those of you who are believers in this room and we partake of communion, um, this is an opportunity to repent. I have a strong hunch. The holy spirit in many of us has been bringing to our mind and memory things that we have been holding on to iniquity that we have been cherishing. And we know we need to let go of it. And now as a time when we have this opportunity for some silence and a bit to repent and to resolve in your heart with that next step is going to be to get this thing out of your life. And for you, I want to encourage you partake of communion today. And remember that Jesus Christ died for this sin. You are forgiven if you've trusted in Christ and he is offering you pack his favor, okay, right now, if you're living an unrepentant and belligerent sin, God opposes the proud.
Speaker 1 00:42:25 This is probably what you have been experiencing in different ways. But the hand can go from this to extended and gracious in a moment with an ounce of humility, the Lord opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. And so, as you partake of communion, this is not a time for you to declare how good you've been this week. As a time for you to repent into, to say, God, here's, I'm going to change this thing. I'm going to take a next step. I'm going to deal decisively with us. Would you help me do it? Some of you, you have been doing an amazing job. You've just been killing sin. You are not putting up with it in your life. You are, you are just diligent and you have been faithful and you've been disciplined. And yet you still are aware of the areas that you fall short.
Speaker 1 00:43:10 You have a nature just like Elijah did that is sinful and struggles. And this is an opportunity for you to remember that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ. There's no condemnation of the spirit of God declares that you are sons and daughters and you are forgiven is for you. And so as you come to communion, my encouragement to you is saver the forgiveness. They got offers you through Jesus. And remember that what he did for you on the cross, uh, you might be here from a different church. And I want to just welcome you. If you would like to partake of communion with us, we have one rule. If you've personally trusted in Jesus, we welcome you to partake of communion. Some of you have kids in the rim and kids are welcomed to partake of communion. There's two rules. Number one, you have to have had personally trusted in Jesus and number two, mom and dad, you need to be okay with it.
Speaker 1 00:44:01 So here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna have a moment of silence opportunity for you to pray. Um, I'm, uh, going to pray and then we're going to sing. As we sing, there are elements to my left and your right at that beam over there. There's elements in the back and then my right, your left at this beam. There are elements there. If you didn't get them on the way in when the song, when we're singing, worshiping together, feel free to walk over and grab them and come back to your seat. After the song is done, I'm going to come up and read some scripture. And we're going to partake together as a symbol of our unity in Jesus. As we remember what he did for us, let's have a time of silence with the Lord.
