The Presence-Driven Life-July 25th, 2010

Date: July 25th, 2010

Speaker: Pastor Kevin Snyder

Title: The Presence-Driven Life

Text: Exodus 33

Introduction

Rick Warren talks about being “Purpose-Driven.” We have looked at his book and series as a church: “The Purpose-Driven Life.” Signature series by Warren…summarizes his life approach.

Good stuff.

What would summarize or be the signature for Moses. What term would characterize his approach?

I think Exodus 33 captures it:

To my thinking

a. Moses wasn’t purpose-driven but rather “presence-driven”

Listen to his words:

Exodus 33:15:

“If your presence doesn’t go with us, don’t send us up from here.”

The idea of doing life, leading, without God’s presence was frightening to Moses. He was so aware of his need for God to be with him….absolutely vital.

He reminds me of the …

Woman in New Testament who refused to quit asking for healing until she received
The woman who would not be stopped from touching the hem of Jesus garment
Jacob – who wrestled with God until he received a blessing

Moses did not want to do life without the presence of God.

Apostle Paul – “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection.”

b. But we can live our life without a sense of God’s presence.

1 – 3

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Leave this place, you and the people you brought up out of Egypt, and go up to the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, saying, ‘I will give it to your descendants.’ 2 I will send an angel before you and drive out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 3 Go up to the land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go with you, because you are a stiff-necked people and I might destroy you on the way.”

We can go without God…usually not successfully.

do Christian life
do ministry
do your life
without presence of God….but often doesn’t work well.

Numbers 14: 41 – 45

0 Early the next morning they went up toward the high hill country. “We have sinned,” they said. “We will go up to the place the Lord promised.”

41 But Moses said, “Why are you disobeying the Lord’s command? This will not succeed! 42 Do not go up, because the Lord is not with you. You will be defeated by your enemies, 43 for the Amalekites and Canaanites will face you there. Because you have turned away from the Lord, he will not be with you and you will fall by the sword.”

44 Nevertheless, in their presumption they went up toward the high hill country, though neither Moses nor the ark of the Lord’s covenant moved from the camp. 45 Then the Amalekites and Canaanites who lived in that hill country came down and attacked them and beat them down all the way to Hormah.

Results of living presumptuously.

Moses didn’t want to live that way….

And, I believe deep down inside we don’t either. I believe we are all presence driven.

We long for the sense of God’s presence. We may not even know it as that….but there is a soul craving for presence of God.

As one author entitled his book: “Searching for God knows What…”

We are looking to have filled that God-shaped vacuum …but we try so many other things.

We look for love in all the wrong places.
We look for solace at the bottom of a bottle or at the height of a trip.
We look for exhilaration in a thrill ride or entertainment.
We look for peace in distractions and fantasy
We look for intimacy in a person who can be a soul mate.
We look for rest in a weekend at the lake.
We look for spiritual experience and are drawn to palm readers, etc

But deep inside our soul is craving for a sense of the presence of God. We are searching for God knows what…

We are presence–driven.

2. What did God’s presence mean to Moses?

To Moses, and some other people in Scripture the presence of God was something tangible.

i.e.

Psalm 51: 13 – David when he sinned cried out:– “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence…”
Jesus on cross – “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me.”
Psalm 139: 7 – 10

Agnostic – life without God’s presence

“…Over the years, I’ve come to think I’m missing out. My friends and relatives who rely on God - the real believers, not just the churchgoers - have an expansiveness of spirit. When they walk along a stream, they don’t just see water falling over rocks; the sight fills them with ecstasy. They see a realm of hope beyond this world.
I just see a babbling brook. I don’t get the message.”
Dana Tierney, R.Digest May 2004

The presence of God is sensing there is more

…it is that expansiveness of spirit

…it is seeing what others don’t,

…it is that emotional under-girding that comes when your world has come apart,

…it is that peace one can’t explain in the chaos of life, it is the strength to love when you want to spit

… it is that sense of companionship even when one is alone

…we know we are not an orphan…

For Moses it specifically was…

1. Friendship/Closeness

– v. 11 - Moses went out to the tent, all the people rose and stood at the entrances to their tents, watching Moses until he entered the tent. 9 As Moses went into the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and stay at the entrance, while the Lord spoke with Moses. 10 Whenever the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance to the tent, they all stood and worshiped, each at the entrance to his tent. 11 The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend.

2. Blessing – discernible difference

v. 16

5 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?”

Acts 4: 13 – 3 When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.

3. Affected His Countenance & Life Emotionally

Moses face shone - 34: 33 – 35

29 When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the Lord. 30 When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, his face was radiant, and they were afraid to come near him. 31 But Moses called to them; so Aaron and all the leaders of the community came back to him, and he spoke to them. 32 Afterward all the Israelites came near him, and he gave them all the commands the Lord had given him on Mount Sinai.

33 When Moses finished speaking to them, he put a veil over his face. 34 But whenever he entered the Lord’s presence to speak with him, he removed the veil until he came out. And when he came out and told the Israelites what he had been commanded, 35 they saw that his face was radiant. Then Moses would put the veil back over his face until he went in to speak with the Lord.

The presence of God made Moses face shine…

Shone with joy (Ps 16:11)
Shone with peace
Shone with radiance of God’s presence
2 Cor 3: 16 – 18 refers to this shining in the New Testament believer

(The Message)

Whenever, though, they turn to face God as Moses did, God removes the veil and there they are—face-to-face! They suddenly recognize that God is a living, personal presence, not a piece of chiseled stone. And when God is personally present, a living Spirit, that old, constricting legislation is recognized as obsolete. We’re free of it! All of us! Nothing between us and God, our faces shining with the brightness of his face. And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him.

Shone with freedom
Shone with Christ-likeness

4. Gave Direction –

v. 12 – 14

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.”

5. Victory

- without God they would soon disappear – needed God for sustenance – food, water, victory over enemies,

34: 5 - 11

5 Then the Lord came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the Lord. 6 And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, 7 maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.”

8 Moses bowed to the ground at once and worshiped. 9 “O Lord, if I have found favor in your eyes,” he said, “then let the Lord go with us. Although this is a stiff-necked people, forgive our wickedness and our sin, and take us as your inheritance.”

10 Then the Lord said: “I am making a covenant with you. Before all your people I will do wonders never before done in any nation in all the world. The people you live among will see how awesome is the work that I, the Lord, will do for you. 11 Obey what I command you today. I will drive out before you the Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.

Summary

One person likened living with God’s presence & living without to the difference between their brother who was a photographer and they who weren’t.

(Your God is too Small, p. p141,142)

In May we went to a Leadership conference – photographer Steve Uzzell from National Geographic who went through his pictures reflecting on experience of God & life.

Amazed at how he saw things. One picture where he saw it…went back day after day at sunset hoping for clouds to break for that moment when it took on transcendence. He saw a scene, an event, a face and saw a story, how it might be photographed to say 1000 words.

You see, my pictures don’t have that moment of transcendence. They don’t capture something more like his.

Usually by the time I’m ready to shoot the lighting has changed, my subject matter has shifted, walked away, taken flight. Even with my best efforts, the photos usually come out blurred, diluted with too much light, framed crooked, composed lopsidedly.

3. How do we cultivate it?

a. Come clean

34:8, 9

Guilt – has a way of breaking us from presence of God. We feel a sense of alienation, distance.

Just like Hebrews God would not go with them until repented.
Jesus on cross – bearing our sin – felt forsaken by God
David – when sinned felt the noticeable absence of God’s presence

Sometimes we do not know the fullness of God’s presence because - plain and simple – we are doing stuff that we know is wrong and God can’t bless.

i.e.

Pulley – if all these blessings don’t draw him to me maybe his restlessness will drive him

1st step to living in the presence of God is coming clean.

You know, most of the consequences of coming clean aren’t worse than misery & absence of God’s presence we experience when we try to hide it. When you are presence-driven there is nothing you want more, and nothing you won’t do to ensure you are living in the presence of God.

b. You Gotta want it

v. 4 – 7

When the people heard these distressing words, they began to mourn and no one put on any ornaments. 5 For the Lord had said to Moses, “Tell the Israelites, ‘You are a stiff-necked people. If I were to go with you even for a moment, I might destroy you. Now take off your ornaments and I will decide what to do with you.’ ” 6 So the Israelites stripped off their ornaments at Mount Horeb.

These ornaments led them into sin….to the making of the golden calf. Now they strip them off as a sign of their desire, and dedication to God. Go without if that is what it would take.

What will you do?

How bad do you want it?

Jesus used some hyperbole to make a point of the kind of desire expressed here.

Matthew 5: 28

9 So if your eye—even your good eye?*?—causes you to lust, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 And if your hand—even your stronger hand?*?—causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.

God honours the heart that desires to see him more.

v. 18 -

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.”

18 Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.”

19 And the Lord said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence.

c. Just do it

Note: the people watched Moses go to the tent of meeting. Moses went.

And we can be that way in our Christian lives….almost people

“I almost came to your church”

“I almost made a decision.”

“I almost came forward for prayer.”

“I almost called to come and see you.”

“I almost volunteered”

What do almost people experience? What changes for them?

Nothing!

Moses just did it….and he experienced God’s presence. His face shone.

And it is our choice

Hebrews 10:22 – “Draw near to God and he will draw near to you.”

i.e

Tony Campolo – car with wife

“Who moved?”

A few years ago there was a chorus that we sang quite often:

“Surely the Presence of the Lord is in this Place

I can feel His mighty power and his grace.

I can hear the brush of angel’s wings; I see glory on each face;

Surely the presence of the Lord is in this place.”

Elizabeth Barrett Browning writes:

Earth is crammed with heaven

And every common bush afire with God;

But only he who sees takes off his shoes.

The rest sit around it and

Pluck blackberries.

“God be in my head

And in my understanding;

God be in my eyes,

And in my looking;

God be in my mouth,

And in my speaking;

God be in my heart,

And in my feeling;

God be at my death,

And at my departing.”

Clic here to return to sermon page

The Holy Bible : New International Version. electronic ed. Grand Rapids : Zondervan, 1996, c1984, S. Ex 33:1-3

The Holy Bible : New International Version. electronic ed. Grand Rapids : Zondervan, 1996, c1984, S. Nu 14:40-45

The Holy Bible : New International Version. electronic ed. Grand Rapids : Zondervan, 1996, c1984, S. Ex 33:8-11

The Holy Bible : New International Version. electronic ed. Grand Rapids : Zondervan, 1996, c1984, S. Ex 33:15-16

The Holy Bible : New International Version. electronic ed. Grand Rapids : Zondervan, 1996, c1984, S. Ac 4:13

The Holy Bible : New International Version. electronic ed. Grand Rapids : Zondervan, 1996, c1984, S. Ex 34:29-35

Peterson, Eugene H.: The Message : The Bible in Contemporary Language. Colorado Springs, Colo. : NavPress, 2002, S. 2 Co 3:16-18

The Holy Bible : New International Version. electronic ed. Grand Rapids : Zondervan, 1996, c1984, S. Ex 33:12-14

The Holy Bible : New International Version. electronic ed. Grand Rapids : Zondervan, 1996, c1984, S. Ex 34:5-11

The Holy Bible : New International Version. electronic ed. Grand Rapids : Zondervan, 1996, c1984, S. Ex 34:8-9

The Holy Bible : New International Version. electronic ed. Grand Rapids : Zondervan, 1996, c1984, S. Ex 33:4-6

* Greek your right eye.

* Greek your right hand.

Tyndale House Publishers: Holy Bible : New Living Translation. 2nd ed. Wheaton, Ill. : Tyndale House Publishers, 2004, S. Mt 5:29-30

The Holy Bible : New International Version. electronic ed. Grand Rapids : Zondervan, 1996, c1984, S. Ex 33:17-19