Grace Emmanuel Church

Pastor Sam Chess

Meeting God in the Present

Let’s look at them….

When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, "Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it." He was afraid and said, "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the ____(house)_____ of God; this is the ___ (gate) _______ of heaven."

My goal for us all, in this three week period is to help us change the normal mundane parts of our day/s into “gates of heaven”…... Where we enter God’s presence, right in the course of daily events and it alters our perceptions, our attitudes, our outlook, our very lives.

II. Practicing the Presence of God

A) Foundational Truths of my life with/in God

1) God is always present and active in my life whether I see him or not.

2) Every action of my life is of immense interest to God.

3) My desire for God ebbs and flows but His desire for me is constant

4) Coming to recognize and experience God’s presence is something I can cultivate…it is behavior I must learn.

5) My task is to learn to meet God in this present moment.

6) When I fail, I can start over right away!

7) Every action, or reaction, moves me a little closer, or a little farther, from God!

8) My pathway to learning to experience God’s presence will not be exactly like anyone else’s.

9) Sometimes God seems far away for reasons I do not understand. These are to be times of searching and learning.

B) Meeting God in the Present

You all have memories of great moments in your lives. A moment of achievement…. A graduation….your first kiss, the birth of a child, the moment you gave your life to Christ.

We sometimes get caught up in how good life was “back when”. We tend to forget the hardships that accompanied life when that great event occurred…at the same time we are tremendously focused on the hardships of the present.

Here’s reality….

All the past moments of your life are irretrievably gone. What you remember of the good and what you remember of the bad. They are never coming back. If you live in the past you may completely miss what God has for you in the present.

The future is out there…somewhere. You can completely waste the present waiting for, or worrying about, “tomorrow”.

The potentially greatest moments of your life are these moments right here, right now. This moment, in your life, is God’s gracious gift to you.

This moment in your life is the moment that matters most to you, because this moment is where God is! This present moment is the only guaranteed moment you have to meet with God.

(Psalms 118:24) This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. (NIV)

(Ephesians 5:15-16) Be very careful, then, how you live-- not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. (NIV)

This moment, of this day, can be the greatest moment in your life because this moment is the time you can meet God!

One of the most dangerous words in the English language to your relationship with God is _____(Tomorrow)_______.

Illustration:

(Exodus 8:2-3) If you refuse to let them go, I will plague your whole country with frogs. The Nile will teem with frogs. They will come up into your palace and your bedroom and onto your bed, into the houses of your officials and on your people, and into your ovens and kneading troughs. (NIV)

(Exodus 8:8-10) Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, "Pray to the LORD to take the frogs away from me and my people, and I will let your people go to offer sacrifices to the LORD." Moses said to Pharaoh, "I leave to you the honor of setting the time for me to pray for you and your officials and your people that you and your houses may be rid of the frogs…. "Tomorrow," Pharaoh said.

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Do not put off until tomorrow what God intend’s to do in your life today! God is present in this moment of your life offering to lock arms with you in whatever you face!!!

D) Seeing God in the Ordinary

When Jacob saw God in the vision of the “stairway to heaven” (not stairway.. ladder)

His life was radically transformed. Every-time Jacob met God in an unusual way it gave Jacob a sharp turn in God’s direction. You, perhaps have experienced the same thing. You can pinpoint times in your life when God “broke through” the fog that often tends to be our spiritual lives and your course was sharply altered.

If every night, when you laid down God would stand at the head of a ladder to heaven and tell you He is still Lord of the universe and Lord of your life… just think of how much stronger you would be with each successive day!????

Or… if God were that available might it actually weaken the effect of his presence in our lives. Q: What happens when we get used to “special effects” :_____________________

One of the difficulties churches are having now in making a worship service relevant to people is because those same people (especially young people) have such high tech “special effects” available at the touch of a button every other moment of their lives.

Throughout history there have been times when God spoke in a voice that reverberated across the whole world…but those times are very limited. That’s not the tone of voice God normally uses when he speaks to us.

Illustration:

Q: When a parent consistently raises their voice what happens to the children’s response?_____________ …..We increasingly tune the parent out..

Isn’t it amazing that you can yell at your kids for hours and they profess to not even hear you….. If, on the other hand, you want to keep something from your children you go into your bedroom and shut the door, turn on the radio, turn on all water facets in the bathroom, get into the closet, cover up with a bedspread, whisper in your quietest voice, …….and every kid in the house will somehow manage to hear every word.

(1 Kings 19:10-13) He replied, "I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too." The LORD said, "Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by." Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. Then a voice said to him, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" (NIV)

So, if Scripture consistently teaches us that God, (most of the time), does not shout to be heard in our lives, and His visits often arrive during the “ordinariness” of our daily existence…. what should that tell us about practicing the presence of God???

1) Were going to need to be looking for our Creators presence.

2) We’re going to have to prepare our environment to accept His visits.

3) We’re going to need to tune our spiritual ears to His gentle whisper.

4) We’re going to have to practice tuning out competing noises

5) We need to overcome spiritual habituation.

a) Spiritual “Habituation”

1) When someone first becomes a Christian God seems to fill them with a desire to seek Him. They want to read Scripture…they long to pray… they love to serve. These characteristics are “gifts from God” to get them moving in the spiritual life. After a while God takes away the props so that we can begin to grow true devotion to Him that is strong enough to carry us even when our emotions are weak.

2) “Habituation”- When a new object or stimulus is introduced to our environment.. we are intensely aware of it… but that awareness fades over time.

- new purchase…watch…car….

- something out of place or damaged in our home or office

- “spiritual habituation can be as/more damaging than out-right sin… Why?

) Enjoying “Rainbow Days” from God

(Genesis 9:8-17) Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: "I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you and with every living creature that was with you-- the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you-- every living creature on earth. I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth." And God said, "This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth." So God said to Noah, "This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth." (NIV)

Imagine how Noah must have felt when “rainbow days” came in the future. It’s a certainty that not all of Noah’s days were “rainbow days”. It’s just as certain that not all our days will be “rainbow days”.

This sermon relies on material adapted from “God is Closer than you Think” by John Ortberg.