Developing an Awareness of God’s Presence
Holy, Holy, Holy • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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We sang the song this morning…
Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!
All thy works shall praise thy name, in earth, and sky, and sea;
Holy, holy, holy! merciful and mighty!
God in three Persons, blessed Trinity.
Those words… HOLY HOLY HOLY. Why do we say them? And why do we direct them to God?
Did you know that the word “Holy” is used more than any other word to describe God in the Old Testament? No other word in all the books of the Old Testament is used more to discribe our God than the word, Holy.
Look at these:
No one is holy like the Lord!
There is no one besides you;
there is no Rock like our God.
Let them praise your great and awesome name.
Your name is holy!
Amd this one…
They were calling out to each other,
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies!
The whole earth is filled with his glory!”
By the way, when you see the words Holy, Holy, Holy….three times… it is showing that the highest respect is being given to our God.
We must treat God’s presence as holy. As he works in our lives, in the church, and remains with you as you live you life, we must remember to our very core… he is holy. And this morning I want us to understand how we can develop an awareness of God’s presence.
But before we do, stand to your feet and lets declare what we believe about the Bible.
****CREED****
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The Bible is The Word of God.
The Truth of the Bible will change my life.
Lord open my heart and awaken my mind
And give me grace to respond.
Change me for your glory and my joy, Amen.
This morning we begin to look at the holiness of God. And specifically, become aware of God’s presence. We will discover that he is Holy, and what that means, but in his holiness, it is his presence, where we can dwell, and grow in our faith and love in him. His holy presence is what we should seek. His presence, should guide our lives, and therefore make us holy before him.
I told you a few weeks ago that now for the second year in a row and I reading the Bible everyday and by December 31st of this year I will finish. I was in Genesis this morning reading about Joseph being sold into slavery by his brothers. But every morning, before I start reading my Bible, I go through this small bible devotion from an app on my phone. Thsi app gives me different verses, 2 or 3. It picks the, I don’t. And this morning when I opened my phone… this was the verse…
Seek the Lord and his strength;
seek his presence continually!
First, do you remember the title of my sermon? “Developing an awareness of God’s presence.” And then, what verse does God place before me today? (verse)
That just blew my mind. Seek his presence continually. It doesn’t say, seek his presence when you come to church. It doesn’t say seek his presence when you need something…. it say SEEK his presence….CONTINUALLY…ALL THE TIME…NEVER STOP.
So, how can we SEEK his presence? How can we develop a life that is always seeking the presence of God? That is what we will discover this morning.
Open your Bibles to Exodus 3:1-18
As you are turning there, In Exodus Chapter 1, we see that as God’s chosen people, the Israelites were growing in number, just like God told Abraham. Now Abraham had died, Isaac, Jacob, they were all gone. But the number of the Hebrews were growing bigger and bigger, they were more than the Egyptians and Pharaoh feared that they would overpower them. So they made them slaves and an order went out from Pharoah that all male children 2 years and below should be thrown to die in the Nile River. He wanted to make sure that the amount of Hebrews decreased.
And it was in this time that Moses was born. And you know how Moses was hidden, then he was raised in Pharoah’s house, but when he became a man in Chapter 2 of Exodus, he killed an Egyptian man who was fighting with his own people. And he had to run away. He left Egypt and went to this place called Midian. He was there for 40 years… and then something happened… Look at Exodus 3:1
Exodus 3:1-18
One day Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian. He led the flock far into the wilderness and came to Sinai, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the middle of a bush. Moses stared in amazement. Though the bush was engulfed in flames, it didn’t burn up. “This is amazing,” Moses said to himself. “Why isn’t that bush burning up? I must go see it.”
When the Lord saw Moses coming to take a closer look, God called to him from the middle of the bush, “Moses! Moses!”
“Here I am!” Moses replied.
“Do not come any closer,” the Lord warned. “Take off your sandals, for you are standing on holy ground. I am the God of your father—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” When Moses heard this, he covered his face because he was afraid to look at God.
Then the Lord told him, “I have certainly seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their cries of distress because of their harsh slave drivers. Yes, I am aware of their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians and lead them out of Egypt into their own fertile and spacious land. It is a land flowing with milk and honey—the land where the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites now live. Look! The cry of the people of Israel has reached me, and I have seen how harshly the Egyptians abuse them. Now go, for I am sending you to Pharaoh. You must lead my people Israel out of Egypt.”
But Moses protested to God, “Who am I to appear before Pharaoh? Who am I to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt?”
God answered, “I will be with you. And this is your sign that I am the one who has sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God at this very mountain.”
But Moses protested, “If I go to the people of Israel and tell them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ they will ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what should I tell them?”
God replied to Moses, “I Am Who I Am. Say this to the people of Israel: I Am has sent me to you.” God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: Yahweh, the God of your ancestors—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.
This is my eternal name,
my name to remember for all generations.
“Now go and call together all the elders of Israel. Tell them, ‘Yahweh, the God of your ancestors—the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—has appeared to me. He told me, “I have been watching closely, and I see how the Egyptians are treating you. I have promised to rescue you from your oppression in Egypt. I will lead you to a land flowing with milk and honey—the land where the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites now live.” ’
“The elders of Israel will accept your message. Then you and the elders must go to the king of Egypt and tell him, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. So please let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the Lord, our God.’
Moses is in Median… he is out in the field, watching over sheep and what happens? He looks and sees a bush, and it is burning…its on fire. And as he watches it, something is different. It is burning, but it never stops burning, it is not consumed.
Remember on New Years Eve at our party, we lit the tire? At first, the first the fire was big. There were two tires there, and it burned and burned and burned. And as I stood there and watched the burning, I could see that the tires started to get small small. And the fires, small small. Why. Because the fire was consuming the tire, and as the tire decreased, so did the fire.
But this is what was not happening with this bush. It burned and burned and burned and it did not decrease. What did Moses say?
Though the bush was engulfed in flames, it didn’t burn up. “This is amazing,” Moses said to himself. “Why isn’t that bush burning up? I must go see it.”
So he moves closer to see better, and what happens? A voice calls out to him from the burning bush…
“Do not come any closer,” the Lord warned. “Take off your sandals, for you are standing on holy ground. I am the God of your father—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” When Moses heard this, he covered his face because he was afraid to look at God.
Moses had not heard the voice of God yet, so he covered his face.
God had a very special plan for Moses. After 40 years of being in the fields, on his own, God would used Moses to do something that we still talk about today. Think about that. What if you could do something today that people would talk about more than 5000 years later. God had a special assignment for Moses.
I’m sure you know what God wanted Moses to do, yes? He would help lead his chosen people out of Egypt and their going into the Promised land, but that is not the part of the story I want us to focus on today.
Remember…. Holy, Holy, Holy. God is Holy
The Lord told Moses, take off your shoes, you are standing on holy ground.
Now before the bush started burning, the bush was just a bush. Growing there in the field. There was nothing special about it. It was planted there in the sand…ordinary sand. But, when the Lord God Jehovah decided to appear before Moses in that bush….all around became holy. Why? Because our Lord is Holy. What does that mean? He….is…holy.
Holiness includes both separation and character.
What does that mean? Separation and Character. Separation means to be “set apart.” Set apart means to be different. Different from everything else. So God, Jehovah, the one who spoke from the burning bush, and the one who later said this…
“Listen, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone.
He is holy because there is none like him. He is God. The one true God. That has always been.
The Psalmist wrote: Psalm 90:2
Before the mountains were born,
before you gave birth to the earth and the world,
from beginning to end, you are God.
And Daniel had another name for him…
I watched as thrones were put in place
and the Ancient One (Ancient of Days) sat down to judge.
His clothing was as white as snow,
his hair like purest wool.
He sat on a fiery throne
with wheels of blazing fire,
Before there was anything… he was. He was not created, because he has always been. He has total dominon over everything, and because of that…. he is holy. He is separated from everything else and that makes him Holy.
SEPERATION
But what about CHARACTER?
What is his character? He doesn’t change, he doesn’t want anyone to leave this life and not be with him. In fact he sacrificed the life of his own Son so you could be with him. But his character also offers grace and mercy, and long suffering, again not wanting anyone to perish without him.
He is different. Like no other. There is no man like him, or no other created being…. HE IS HOLY.
So how can we develop an awareness of his presence? Moses had a burning bush. That got his attention. He became aware of the preseence of God because of this burning bush. But what about us? How can we become aware of his presence?
How can we develop an awareness of God’s presence?
We need to seek.
Look what Moses did when he saw the burning bush… Exodus 3:3
“This is amazing,” Moses said to himself. “Why isn’t that bush burning up? I must go see it.”
Even though at that moment Moses didn’t know it was the Lord, he still wanted to see what was going on. If we are going to develop a desire, an awareness of God’s presence, we need to seek it. Those words that Pastor Raoul spoke on Wednesday about the Bible are still in my head today. He was saying that we need to dig deep into the Word of God. There is where we will find the precious treasures. Treasures not of gold or silver, but the treasures of life and eternal life though the hope of Jesus Christ our Lord. And I also like what he said, you don’t haver to go very deep, they are there everyday when you come to them.
Listen, you may have given your life to God, but let me be straight with you… you will never truly experience the presence of God if you don’t seek him HERE.
How can we develop an awareness of God’s presence? We need to seek him at his Word.
Remember the verse I read this morning? Psalm 105:4
Seek the Lord and his strength;
seek his presence continually!
How can we develop an awareness of God’s presence?
We need to seek.
We need to show reverence.
Look at how Moses was told to approach the presence of God at the burning bush… Exodus 3:5
“Do not come any closer,” the Lord warned. “Take off your sandals, for you are standing on holy ground.
In that day, in that culture, to take off your shoes was like us taking off our hat when we enter into someones house or when we enter church. Moses stood before the Lord, the presence of God in the burning bish and he showed reverence. But showing reverence isn’t just about taking off your hat or your shoes… I think for us today, as we develop an awareness of God’s presence, we need to show reverence to Him in all that we do.
Moses saw the presence of God, and he showed revernce very well, but we don’t see a physical being when it comes to God, but does that mean that we should not give him the honor and revernce he deserves? No. How do we do that? I like to think about it this way, if God was standing beside you, would you have that conversation with your friend? If God were standing beside you would you go to that place that you know you should not go or do that thing that you know Mom and Dad have told you not to do? This last week, one of you older kids were in our house talking to Mom. This person said they signed out, but when Mom checked, she said no, your name is not here. That person, right there in front of Mom, said JESUS! What if Jesus was standing right there….. because he was. That is not reverence. That is not respect. That is not recognizing the name above all names. The name that at some point everyone will bow and confess that he is Lord. HE IS HOLY.
He deserves our reverence.
And when we seek, when we show reverence to our Holy one… we can step into his leading because we are now aware of his presence.
How can we develop an awareness of God’s presence?
We need to seek.
We need to show reverence.
We need to step into his leading.
Look at God’s leading for Moses: Exodus 3:10
Now go, for I am sending you to Pharaoh. You must lead my people Israel out of Egypt.”
If you know this story, you know that Moses didn’t go right away, in fact he told God, I am not your man, but eventually, with a little help he stood before the elders of the Israelites and later, the great Pharaoh and proclained that “I AM” said to let his people go. He stepped into the Lords plan and leading after he had been in the presence of God.
——You cannot accepting Jesus without turning away the world——-
