Living in His Presence (2)

Intro

Good morning, it’s good to see everyone. It’s good to be in the house of the Lord

If you’re a visitor, welcome to Sycamore Hill Church,

My name is Tony

Pastor Jon is away on guard duty this weekend, so I am preaching in his stead.

I have to tell you that I’m a little tired

My Fishing Trip, I just got back from my annual fly fishing trip, which is a work trip for me.

I took a redeye from Salt Lake to Atlanta at 11:50 pm, Salt Lake City time Friday night,

I got in early Saturday morning. I don’t sleep on planes, unless I’m laying down, so redeye’s are rough, but it gave me a chance to work on this sermon.

Then I had a 3 hour layover in Atlanta before I flew to Philly yesterday and got in around 10:30.

I knew I was preaching today, so I wanted to make sure I was home with plenty of time to spare to finish preparing and not make pastor Jon worry I wouldn’t be here.

I preached last year I think a week after having come home from this trip,

But, I have to say, this yearly fly fishing trip is a highlight for me on so many levels

I’ll work backwards

I do love to fly fish, and the fishing in rivers we go to is pretty epic, legendary, rivers that fly fisherman travel great distances to fish, and I caught some big and beautiful fish, brown and rainbow trout.

But, I rarely fish outside of this week, so clearly I don’t love it that much, I’m not obsessed with it, that’s not the main reason why I go.

No, in part it’s the places we go,

some are pretty well known, like Jackson Hole Wyoming, others are pretty obscure, like Dutch John Utah, that’s where I just was.

In Jackson Hole we fish the Snake River and in Dutch John we fish the Green River, the most beautiful settings.

It’s the scenery, especially on the water, mountains, and open plains, the trees, and boulders, we see eagles, and elk, moose at times, even bears, it’s pretty incredible.

I feel the presence of God as I’m out in His creation and it rejuvenates me, it feeds my soul, I usually come back physically tired from this trip but spiritually and emotionally alive. It’s good for me to be there

The other real highlight for me, and it’s the biggest highlight, is the guys I’m with.

Men, who I’ve known for a long time, men who I know and who know me, we’ve shared intimate details of each others lives.

Involved and invested in the highs and lows, we’ve walked with each other through really difficult times.

I love these men and it feels so good to be known and loved.

We spend time in the Word, and time in prayer, this time and this trip is sacred to me, it’s holy.

These men know Jesus, and they love Jesus, so when I’m with them, I’m with a unique expression of Jesus, and it’s really special.

I come home having been cared for and encouraged, affirmed and edified, loved, and doing the same for them.

That’s why that week is so special.

But I don’t live in that week, I’d like to, but it’s not my reality.

No, my life is more chaotic, it’s busy, and frustrating at times, it’s seems like it is more of a struggle to be content, satisfied, it feels less sacred and more mundane.

Can anyone relate to that?

Maybe none of us live in that week, or a week like it.

That, to me was Eden, but we don’t live in Eden, we live outside Eden.

But why don’t we live like last week?

Is it because it’s not realistic?

Is it because I have a job, or bills, or kids and schedules, etc. we have all these legitimate reasons as to why our lives are not like that week, because life gets in the way.

Maybe a better question to consider is, “do we want to live a life last week?”

close to God, enjoying His creation, with people we love, removed from all the chaos? Do we want that? I think deep down inside we do, we all want that.

Then maybe another question to consider is “how do we live as close to something like that as we can?” How do we do it?

That’s what we’re going to explore today.

Let me Pray

Seam

you can turn in your Bibles to Deuteronomy chapter 12,

Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and then Deuteronomy

The fifth book of the O.T. in what Jesus and the N.T. writers call the Law of Moses, or just the Law, the books of Moses

If you’re following along with our reading plan, we just finished Deuteronomy, so hopefully this chapter will be familiar.

so Let’s do a quick review before we jump in.

the Route 66 Sermon Series

Movement 1 Quick Recap

Foundations, essential for building, essential for building and telling this story of God and His plan

The story started with the Prelude, the beginning, how God created the heavens and the earth, made mankind in His image, placed them in the Garden to keep it and tend it, to be fruitful and multiply, but also how all that fell apart.

How man sinned, disobeyed and rebelled, was kicked out of the Garden, sent out into a world marked by pain and suffering, and then the downward spiral of humanity.

But that led to the Promise, God reaching out to Abraham, making him promises that through him God would grow a nation and give them land, a country.

But that people would end up in slavery in Egypt, so that Promise now required a Rescue, freeing them so they can now come into that Promised Land.

But this newly freed people needed guidance if they were to be God people, so that leads to the giving of the Law

Promise ---> Rescue --->Law ---> Living ---> Land (With God), that’s where we’re going today

The Law is good, it’s God’s standards to live by, for the purpose of holy, set apart living, Kingdom of Priests is the language used.

How to live right “by” God and right by each other in the Land

Every aspect of there lives was governed by the law,

There was not one area of their lives that didn’t have God’s fingerprint on it.

That’s significant

It’s not just a bunch of do’s and don’ts, the law is essential for their entire life as His people.

it governed all their relationships, from the closest to the farthest away, from family members to strangers

It had something to say about their work, and it had something to say about when they didn’t work, Sabbaths and Festivals

It governed their health, by what they ate, or how to be made clean, or avoid being unclean

The Law if obeyed would provide for all their needs and keep them right in God’s eyes.

But, the Law is not only to live right by God and by each other in the land,

It’s also to Live “with” God in the Land, in His Presence

Let’s look at Deuteronomy 12, verses 1-4

English Standard Version Chapter 12

12 “These are the statutes and rules that you shall be careful to do in the land that the LORD, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess, all the days that you live on the earth. 2 You shall surely destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispossess served their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. 3 You shall tear down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and burn their Asherim with fire. You shall chop down the carved images of their gods and destroy their name out of that place. 4 You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way.

Verses 1 and 4 are bookends in a way, they’re not saying the same thing exactly, but they are about the same thing, Israel’s worship of the Lord.

Obedience is worship, ascribing worth to God as the authority

This takes intentionality, “be careful to do”

Verse 4 is also about worship of the Lord, it’s just not like the ways of the pagan people of the land.

So, how are they to be careful and how are they to not improperly worship God?

That’s verses 2-3,

they must utterly destroy all the places of false worship, tear down altars, dash in pieces their pillars and burn their Asherim poles, chop down the carved images, destroy their names out of the land.

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Movement 2, The Problem

What is their problem, the warnings.

Why they struggled, why we struggle, busy, distracted, unfulfilled, unsatisfied, chaos, pursuits, priorities, passions,

Seeking satisfaction in creation and not our creator, Romans 1

Our hearts will be at unrest until they find their rest in You

The god’s of the Land, Molech, Ba’al, Asherah, Power, Position and Possessions, and Sex, that’s what these god’s represented and promised if appeased and pleased.

What god’s do we worship,

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Movement 3, The Prescription

Living in His Presence

A. Why?

B. What is essential? The Law, it’s foundational, we can’t without it

C. How, helpful suggestions, I don’t have all the answers, nor do I fane this all figured out, so don’t think I’m killing it.

Why?

Contrary to what some believe, God did not create and then remove Himself from the equation.

No, Adam and Eve, conversations, naming animals, walking in the cool of the day.

Abraham, as well.

Israel, God with man once again, fire and cloud, dwelling in the tabernacle in the wilderness and the Promised Land, eventually the temple.

Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us, John “He tabernacled among us”, “we touched Him, saw Him, etc.

The Holy Spirit, the plan was never for man to not be with God

This is for our best, life with Him is way better than life without Him

What it could look like

John 15, Galatians 5, dwell, abide, live, walk, keep in step with

So how? John 4, Jesus and the woman at the well, spirit and truth, anywhere

So where’s your where?

Sacred Pathways

Recognize where you’re at in life

Comer, Ruthless Elim

Disciplines, tough word

Holiness is not just about morality, sure that’s part of it, but if the root word for holy is where we get our word for sacred or sanctuary, then holy is set apart for God, holiness or growing in holiness is then, having more and more of ourselves set apart for God and His purposes.

Idolatry then, is having a part of us set apart for selfish or worldly purposes???? Is why God considers it adultery

Where does your mind go to when you’re not directing it, controlling your thoughts?

Where you mind goes when it’s idle, might be revealing an idol to you

Purify the land, because God Presence needs a sacred space, a sanctuary, rid of all idols, the land becomes more and more dedicated to God and His presence, set apart for God and His presence, and His purposes.

The same holds true for us, how much of us is still polluted by idols? How much is not yet set apart for God and His purposes?

We wonder why we struggle to sense or feel His Presence.

So how do we create the space?

How will more and more of us be God’s, will be holy, set apart for God’s purposes?

The first step in addressing idolatry is being aware of it, the second is to take action.

The children of Israel were called to destroy, completely remove, what does that look like for us?

It is one thing to clean out a space, it’s quite another to then fill it.

Practices, disciplines, habits,

St. Thomas Aquinas, the four typical substitutes for God, honor, pleasure, wealth, and power.

What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and yet forfeit his soul?

Our hearts are forever restless until they find their rest in God. Augustine

Seeking our pleasure and satisfaction in created things rather than the creator.

The warning is clear from Deuteronomy alone, if you don’t completely remove, you will fall away. It’s human nature

What God is doing is what God does.

What God has done is what God does, it’s because of who God is

(I mentioned already how the Law governed all of Israel’s relationships,

The most important relationship it had say over was their relationship with Him. )

God desire has always been to dwell with His people.

Remember Eden, the overlap between the dwelling of man and the realm of God.

Israel-the tabernacle, the temple

Jesus--”behold the virgin shall conceive and bear a child, and you shall call His name Emmanuel, God with us.

John 1 came and tabernacled among us

1 John 1-that which we have seen and heard, touch, lived among us

Revelation—20-21???

How to now live with God in their presence.

God’s awesome and fearful presence would now be dwelling with Israel.