12-31-06-We Need God's Presence
It is the end of another year. At this time we start to reflect on all that happened during the past year. We assemble our list of top 10 things (e.g. top 10 news events, top 10 songs, top 10 people, top 10 movies, etc). In the church, we also look back at what the year held, which is usually done at the annual business meeting held at the end of January. But rather than just looking back today, I want us to start to look forward to what the New Year holds for us. I want us to reflect on the fact that we must enter this New Year with the presence of God in our lives and in our church. We need God’s presence to go with us in the New Year.
¨ Exodus 33:12-17 (NIV) 12 Moses said to the Lord, “You have been telling me, ‘Lead these people,’ but You have not let me know whom You will send with me. You have said, ‘I know you by name and you have found favor with Me.’ 13 If You are pleased with me, teach me Your ways so I may know You and continue to find favor with You. Remember that this nation is Your people.” 14 The Lord replied, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” 15 Then Moses said to him, “If Your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. 16 How will anyone know that You are pleased with me and with Your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and Your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?” 17 And the Lord said to Moses, “I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name.”
As we begin the year 2007 I have a burning desire to know the presence of God in my life and church like I have never known it before. Like Moses, I believe that if God does not go with us, then we need not go anywhere at all. I truly believe that 2007 will be a different year for New Prairie if we have God’s presence with us.
Moses felt the need for God’s presence so he questioned God about it in vs. 15, “If Your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here.” Now, this is an odd statement because each day since they had left Egypt the presence of the Lord had been with them in the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. (show picture)
¨ Exodus 13:21 (NIV) By day the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night.
Yet, Moses is obviously crying out for something more. The reason I believe he was asking for more of God’s presence was because he wanted a more intimate and personal relationship with God.
In fact Moses felt he needed God’s Presence so strongly that he said, “15 If Your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. 16 How will anyone know that You are pleased with me and with Your people unless You go with us? What else will distinguish me and Your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?” I think these are 2 valid questions for us to consider today.
1. How will others know that God is pleased with us?
2. How will others know that we are God’s people?
How will others know that God is pleased with us?
Moses said that the only way others would know that God was pleased with them was because of His presence in their lives. But how would they see or know that God’s presence was with them? Was it that they would see God Himself? No, because God clearly told Moses that no man could look at God and live (vs. 20). So if no one could see God, then it must be that they would see the reflection of God in His people. Now does this mean that God’s people go around with a glow around them or walk 2 feet above the ground? No, it means that the reflection of God must be in how they live their daily lives.
If we do please God, then others should be able to see it. So what is it that pleases God and how will others know that we please Him?
¨ Col 1:10-12 (NIV) And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please Him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, 11 being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light.
¨ 1 Thess 4:1-7 (NIV) Finally, brothers, we instructed you how to live in order to please God, as in fact you are living. Now we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more. 2 For you know what instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus. 3 It is God’s will that you should be sanctified (set apart): that you should avoid sexual immorality; 4 that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, 5 not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God; 6 and that in this matter no one should wrong his brother or take advantage of him. The Lord will punish men for all such sins, as we have already told you and warned you. 7 For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life.
¨ Heb 13:15-16 (NIV) 15 Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that confess his name. 16 And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.
These are the things that people will see in our lives that testify to God’s presence in us, which means that He is pleased with us— love for God, love for others, strength and patience in the storms of life, a life of joy, giving thanks to God with our lips (not just in church), maintaining sexual purity in a world gone sex crazy, not taking advantage of each other in business matters, doing good and sharing with others—that is what it means to live a holy life. Of course we cannot do any of things through our own strength, but only by faith in God.
¨ Heb 11:6 (NIV) And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.
It is our love for God and our desire to please our heavenly Father that will affect the way we talk, walk, and act. Then what we do and say will be a reflection of His Presence to those around us.
What will distinguish us from the people around us? Or How will others know that we are God’s people?
In this question, I think is the idea of how we are different from the world. The word used in vs. 16 for distinguish means “to be separated, to be distinct, marked out.”
6395 פָּלָה [palah /paw·law/] v. A primitive root; TWOT 1772; GK 7111; Seven occurrences; AV translates as “sever” twice, “separated” once, “wonderfully” once, “set apart” once, “marvellous” once, and “put a difference” once. 1 to be distinct, marked out, be separated, be distinguished. 1a (Niphal). 1a1 to be distinct, be separated, be distinguished. 1a2 to be wonderful. 1b (Hiphil) to make separate, set apart.
This difference is not because of what we wear, how rich or poor we are, what jobs we do, or any other physical attribute. It is not that we are peculiar or strange people. Instead it is because we are a people with a different nature and character—the very nature of God.
¨ 2 Peter 1:4 (NIV) Through these He has given us His very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate (share) in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
In the scriptures we looked at that talk about how we please God, you will notice that they are talking about practical living, not our religiousness. It is not by how many times we go to church that others will know God’s presence in our lives, but because of the nature of God in us. Oddly though, some believers today think that they can hear a sermon on an Ipod or TV and never darken the door of a church. But what they do not realize is just how important the fellowship of the believers is to their spiritual life. Yes, the Word of God is extremely important, but also we need each other to help us grow. So besides holy living, the primary evidence of God’s presence in our lives is the love that we have been given by His Holy Spirit. This is God’s nature being lived out in us.
¨ Rom 5:5b . . . God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us.
¨ John 13:35 (NIV) By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another.”
¨ 1 John 3:10 (NASB) By this the achildren of God and the bchildren of the devil are obvious: 1anyone who does not practice righteousness (living right or holy) is not of God, nor the one who cdoes not love his dbrother.
In fact, holy living is not possible without God’s love in our hearts and His presence in our lives. It is our love for God that causes us to want to read His Word, pray, witness, go to church, and live a life that is pleasing to God. But it is also our love for God that causes us to love one another and to love those who do not know Him.
Although the children of Israel had left Egypt they still had a lot of Egypt in them. They had to have their thinking changed to no longer go along with what they had learned in Egypt. So God had to teach them to be a holy people through the Law.
Like the children of Israel, once we are born again we still have a lot of the world left in us and must have our thinking changed so that we no longer do what we did when we were in the world. We have God’s Law written on our hearts and must be taught by it to get the world out of us. It is the renewing of our mind with God’s Word that makes us able to be a separate people.
¨ Rom 12:2 (NIV) Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Moses said, if God’s presence did not go with them, then they did not need to go on in their travels to the Promised Land. He knew that only the presence of God would cause them to live holy lives pleasing to the Lord and make them a separate people.
This morning as we think about these words from Moses, “If Your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here” let us apply them to New Prairie as well as to our own lives. As we think about the New Year, how much is God is going with us? Will we strike out on our own trying to make things happen to cause this church to grow or will we only go as the Lord’s Presence leads us? Will we seek His Presence in everything that we do, or will we blindly wander in our wilderness of disobedience until we die? Will people know that we have God’s Presence in our lives or will we be just like everyone else and live unholy lives that do not please God? Will New Prairie be a church that is known for the Presence of God or one that is known by its music, preaching, fellowship, etc?
My challenge to us today is to really seek the Presence of God like we never have before as we enter the New Year. I am asking God to send His fire down upon us in this next year. I am also asking each one who calls New Prairie their home to pray earnestly for God’s Presence in this church and our lives. I am asking each of us to search our hearts and minds to see if those around us can see that we belong to God and His Presence can be seen in our lives. As we pray, if we discover things that are hindering the Presence of God in our lives as well as in the church, I’m asking that each of us have the courage to surrender them to God so that nothing will interfere with His Presence in us. If God’s Presence does not go with us in 2007, then we will not accomplish anything in this community and we will simply dry up and die as a church. But, I believe that if God’s Presence does go with us, we will become a lighthouse of holiness in a dark world of sin. We will be a holy church that those around us will notice and desire to be a part of!
If you are in agreement with me, then come join me at the altars and let’s seek His Presence today.
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v v: verb
TWOT Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament
GK Goodrick-Kohlenberger
AV Authorized Version
a John 1:12; 11:52; Rom 8:16; 1 John 3:1, 2
b Matt 13:38; John 8:44; 1 John 3:8
1 Lit everyone
c Rom 13:8ff; Col 3:14; 1 Tim 1:5; 1 John 4:8
d 1 John 2:9