A Sence of His Presence, Part 2

• A Sense of His Presence
• Part 2: Increasing our Awareness of God
• Living with God in the Center of our Lives…
• Our Purpose: to find spiritual renewal in a greater awareness of our heavenly Father
– 1 Thessalonians 5:15-18 Rejoice always,17 pray without ceasing,18 in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
– Romans 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, … that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy …
• The Practice of the Presence of God
• I have put aside all set procedures for devotion and seek only to continue in his presence. I keep myself there by giving heed to what I pay attention to and by my fond regard of God.
• This brings a sense of God's actual presence that is constant and silent but at the same time a secret conversation of my soul with God. This brings me great joy and inner rapture.
• Sometimes I feel such an overflowing sense of God's presence that I have to deliberately find a way to restrain and subdue myself when others are nearby.
• Time Consuming Activities
• Waiting at Red Lights – 6 months
• Waiting in Lines – 8 months
• Opening junk mail – 9 months
• Cleaning house – 4 years
• Searching for things lost – 1 year
• Pessimistic Philosophy
• Possible for society to achieve justice and happiness, but believed it eludes all but a select few.
• German Rationalists
• 1802 – Hegel declared God was culturally dead; man must throw off God to progress to man’s potential state
• 1880 – Nietzsche announced God (man’s greatest danger) in the grave – man was now liberated
• Leo Tolstoy’s Pessimism
• “Today or tomorrow sickness will come to those I love or to me. Sooner or later my affairs, whatever they may be, will be forgotten and I shall not exist. Then why go on making the effort?”
• Is Life Meaningless?
• “Life is like a ship tossed on the sea, headed for no port, with no rudder, compass, or pilot, floating for a time, then lost in the waves…”
• 1960’s God is Dead Movement
• Thomas J. J. Altizer revived the theme of Hegel and Nietzsche, gained attention in two issues of Time in 1965 and ’66.
• Modern Pessimism as an Emotional Response
• Due to growing social problems which seem unsolvable
• Perception no one has ever faced such difficult issues

• Opportunity for Church
• Christ’s message of hope is exactly what the world needs to hear … but we lose our zeal
• The Pace of Life
• Are we travelling through life too fast to read the signs and get our directions?
• A Sense of His Presence
• Part 2: Increasing our Awareness of God
• God’s Presence with Israel
• Exodus 33:14 And He said,"My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest."
• Aware of His Presence
• Psalms 46:1-2 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear…
• We Didn’t Know we were Poor
• Cast me Not Away from Your Presence
• Psalms 51:10-12 Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. 11 Do not cast me away from Your presence, And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, And uphold me by Your generous Spirit.
• The Universal Presence
• … If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there. 9 If I take the wings of the morning, And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,10 Even there Your hand shall lead me, And Your right hand shall hold me.
• The Universal Presence
• God is present even when we are unaware
• Genesis 28:16 Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, "Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it."
• God in His Creation
• He dwells in the creation, and in all His works, but He is distinct from the things He created
• Near or Far in Relationships
• A father says he is getting closer to his son even though they live in the same house
• Psalms 46:10 Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!

• Emotion and Knowledge
• Both are necessary to understand and pursue God
• The Heart of God
• Luke 15:20 "And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him.

• The Universal Presence
• Psalms 139:7-10 Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? 8 If I ascend into heaven, You are there …
• A Sense of His Presence
• Part 1: Living With God in the Center
• Becoming a Christian is Relatively Easy
• Hear
• Believe
• Repent
• Confess
• Be Baptized
• Live Faithfully
• Maintaining our Spiritual Life …
• Revelation 3:16 … because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.
• Romans 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, … that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy …
• 2 Corinthians 13:5 Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? -- unless indeed you are disqualified.
• With God in the Center
• Nothing gets in the way, between God and us…
– Hebrews 13:5-6 Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you."6 So we may boldly say:"The LORD is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?"

• We Experience Less Stress, Fear, Worry
• James 1:2-4 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials,3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing
• James 1:16-18 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.18 Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.
• We are Effective for God, His church, and the world
• James 1:21-25, … receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. 22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror;24 for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.25 But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.
• Example of Abraham
• Hebrews 11:8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.
• Hebrews 11:17-19 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son,18 of whom it was said, "In Isaac your seed shall be called,"19 concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense.
• Joseph kept God in the Center of His Life
• Genesis 50:2 But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.
• Joshua stood for God
• Joshua 24:15 And if it seems evil to you to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD."
• Paul as a man who had God in the center
• Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
• Philippians 4:11-13 Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content:12 I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
• A Home with God in the Center
• Psalms 128 Blessed is every one who fears the LORD, Who walks in His ways. 2 When you eat the labor of your hands, You shall be happy, and it shall be well with you. 3 Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine In the very heart of your house, Your children like olive plants All around your table. 4 Behold, thus shall the man be blessed Who fears the LORD. 5 The LORD bless you out of Zion, And may you see the good of Jerusalem -All the days of your life. 6 Yes, may you see your children's children. Peace be upon Israel!

• Keys to Living with God in the Center
• Humility - James 4:6
• Obedience – Phil 2:12-16
• Love – Romans 8:28
• Growth – 2 Pet 1:5-13; 3:17-18
• With God in the Center
• We see God for who He is – James 1:12
• We see God’s word for what it is – 2 Tim 3:16-17
• We see sin for what it is – Rom 6:23
• We see the world for what it is – Psalm 19
• A Sense of His Presence
• Part 1: Living With God in the Center