EXPERIENCING THE PRESENCE

OF THE LORD

Hengky Chiok

A nurse volunteered to take other nurses to battle zone and tended to the wounded.

Not only she tended to the wounded on daytime, but also at night.

At night she would make her round in hospital and checked on the wounded soldiers and brought comfort to them.

Because she always made her round with a lamp, the soldiers dubbed her: the lady with the lamp.

Her name is Florence Nightingale.

She was well known for her care to the soldiers.

One song praised her as a friend of the soldiers because she always went out to look for the soldiers and to help them.

She was with them in the time of trouble.

Our Scripture reading today tells us about the tent of meeting or the Tabernacle.

It is the symbol of the presence of the Lord in the midst of His people.

God is the Lord of host who does not live in the tent made by man, yet He is willing to make His presence known to His people.

The first thing we learn today is God is interested in our lives and would like to be present in our lives.

The Scripture is filled with the stories about how God seeks us out in order to have a fellowship with us.

From the very beginning, after God created Adam, He did not leave Adam alone.

He cared for Adam and always wants to improve Adam’s quality of life.

He knows that Adam needed a companion, so He created Eve to be his partner.

He instituted the first marriage because he knows it will bring happiness into the life of Adam and Eve and it will help them to experience His presence in their life in a tangible way.

Marriage is meant to be a unity between a man and a woman, not of people of the same gender.

That’s why what’s happening in San Francisco these past few days is wrong and sinful.

Man should not marry another man; woman should not marry another woman.

Marriage is between Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.

Not only the Lord makes His presence clear to Adam and Eve before they sinned, right after they sinned, God came to look for them.

Genesis 3:8-9 tells about how God comes to Adam and Eve, yet because of their sin, Adam and Eve tried to hide from God.

I love the way Genesis 3:8-9 is told.

In response to God’s presence in the garden, Adam and Eve hid themselves.

Sin always causes that kind of response.

Sin causes us to be unable to stand before the Lord and to enjoy His presence.

Yet in response to Adam and Eve’s response, God called out to them, "Where are you?"

Man tried to hide; yet God is looking for them.

It’s not to punish them but to redeem them.

God wants them to know where they are in relationship with God and how they have fallen so that they can be saved.

Recognizing that you have fallen and failed to follow God is the first step of reconciliation with God.

God is looking for us.

He wants to be present in our lives.

Our passage today tells us that in a very clear way.

God promises that He will always be with His people.

As the Israelites journeyed in the desert, the Tent of Meeting is with them and with that the presence of the Lord.

God guided them with the pillar of cloud by day and pillar of fire by night.

For forty years He provided them daily with manna.

He is interested in His people’s daily affairs.

He provides them with various laws to guide them so that they can enjoy their life to its fullness.

When because of their disobedience, hundreds years later, Israel once again was led into captivity, God assures them of His presence.

He never forsakes them and will continue to be with them.

In Isaiah 41:10, as a message to the exiles, God says, "So do not fear for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand."

It is the same message to us today.

He is here with us as He has always been because He wants to be part of our life.

In Isaiah 41:17-20 He promises His blessings upon their life.

He will provide for His people and because of that they should be able to recognize His love and presence.

Just look at these verses and you will see how God is at work to provide for His people.

In verses 18-19 at least four times the Lord says, "I will"; and all have to do with His blessings for His people.

Just as God is able to turn deserts into pools of waters and parched land into springs, He is able to change your life forever.

He is interested to be part of our life and He wants us to experience His presence.

Sadly, too often we enjoy His blessing and become distanced from Him.

He blessed us with good job and we become so busy and do not have time to fellowship with Him anymore.

Our job makes us denies us an opportunity to come to church.

We enjoy God’s blessings, yet we do not experience His presence.

God is interested in our life.

He wants us to experience His presence.

That’s why Jesus came to us and to be like us. Philippians 2:6-7 says that Jesus has taken the nature of a servant and to be like us.

John 1:14 says that Jesus has become flesh and dwelt among us.

Imagine this, God in human form.

He wants to be part of our life.

He wants us to enjoy His presence.

He is interested in what we do everyday and He wants us to experience His presence in all the things we do.

He wants us to experience His presence when we work, when we study, when we talk, when we drive, when we go shopping.

He wants us to experience His presence when we are happy, when we are sad, and when we are puzzled. He wants to be part of our life.

The second thing we learn this morning is often times we fail to recognize God’s presence in our life.

When the Israelites came out of Egypt, they came out after a series of plaques that devastated Egypt.

Although we do not know how long exactly these plaques happened, we know that it did not happen in one day.

The ten plaques are not an instant experience that can easily be forgotten.

Furthermore, as they marched they had the pillar of cloud and pillar of fire to guide them.

Imagine the scenery.

Over a million of people were marching.

It would take miles for the whole band.

It is a sight to itself!

And on top of that, they have this miles long pillar of cloud to lead them by day and pillar of fire by night.

I can’t imagine how clearer God’s presence can be.

Yet, the first time they encountered problem, they blamed Moses, and indirectly, blamed God for bringing them out of Egypt.

In Exodus 14:11-12 they said to Moses, "Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? ^ Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!"

In Egypt they cried out to be redeemed from the Egyptians and now right under the pillar of cloud and fire, they blamed Moses and God from bringing them out.

They saw thousands of Egyptian army in pursuit of them and fail to see God’s presence.

The same story is repeated over and over again during the forty years of their journey in the desert.

In Exodus 17 they were thirsty and they blamed God.

They sang their favorite chorus, "It’s better in Egypt than in the desert."

The Scripture says that they questioned whether the Lord is in their midst or not.

God has provided them daily with manna, they just need to look up and miles length of pillar of cloud and fire can be seen and they still questioned if the Lord is in their midst or not.

Because of they did not get what they want, they grumble and failed to recognize God’s presence.

Isn’t this also true for us all?

We take God’s blessings for granted and when we do not get what we think we deserve, we complain and begin to question God’s love to us?

We want God to prove that He is interested in our life and when He did, we refuse the proof and ask for another.

Frequently, because of the problems that pile up in our life, we fail to recognize God’s presence.

We see only troubles and fail to recognize God’s hand giving us direction.

We are so panicky and keep crying out to God to help us that we fail to see God extending His hand for us to grab.

We often fail to recognize God’s presence because we only pay attention to what’s going on in our life.

The early church was so immersed in themselves that they fail to recognize that God is at work among the Gentiles.

They fail to recognize God’s presence.

On the day of Pentecost, they saw thousands of people were saved and failed to recognize that these people represent not only Jews but also people of other ethnicities.

Acts 2:9-11 lists different nations and ethnic groups who were there when the Holy Spirit came upon the apostles.

They came from all over the world.

The early church should remember Jesus’ command for them to be His witnesses to the end of the world yet they failed.

They remained in Jerusalem and engrossed in their own business and forgot that God is at work among the nations.

The Great Commission to go and preach the Gospel to the end of the world was given over a month before the Day of Pentecost.

In Acts, it is in Acts 1, yet only in Acts 8 the early church begin to leave Jerusalem and go to Samaria; and it took severe persecution for that to happen.

Not until Acts 11 when the early church begin to reach out to the Gentiles and send missionaries to different cities.

Almost half of the Acts tell us how busy the church is yet how they fail to recognize God’s presence and work.

I hope our church is not too busy taking care of ourselves and fail to see God at work.

Our church maybe small yet we can take part in a larger work of God outside of our church.

There is nothing wrong with trying to care for ourselves, but let’s do it this way.

Since God is interested in us, let’s care for and participate in God’s work outside our church and let God take care of our church.

Let’s participate in God’s work and let God participate in our work.

That way we can experience God’s presence in our life.

1 Samuel 3 tells us another instance of the failure to recognize God’s presence.

Notice that this does not happen to the people who are not religious.

This happened to a boy who was raised up by a priest and lived in God’s house.

The story says that God called Samuel three times before Eli recognized that God is calling Samuel.

The Scripture clearly says that Eli did not live in the presence of the Lord.

He lived in God’s house, yet he failed to tend to his spiritual life and let his spirituality slipped.

As a result, he did not teach Samuel to know the Lord.

A lot of times, because of our spiritual condition we fail to recognize God’s presence.

We live in spiritual poverty.

We are busy doing spiritual thing yet we do not grow spiritually.

We sing spiritual songs yet those songs do not minister to us.

We are present in God’s house yet our mind wanders.

We have become Christians since long time ago, yet we never grow.

We are selective in what we would like to hear and more selective in what we apply in our life.

We learn spiritual truth and agree with it yet we do not try to apply it in our life.

We gather spiritual knowledge and lack in spiritual actions.

We learn God’s truth but live according to our own truth.

God is speaking to us yet we do not recognize it.

Just like Samuel.

In the temple yet not in the presence of God.

We have to ask ourselves this important question.

Can I recognize that God is reaching out to me?

If so what hinders me from experiencing God’s presence in my life?

The last thing I would like to propose to you this morning is that it is possible to experience God’s presence in our life.

What we need to do is the willingness to apply God’s directions in our life.

I heard a story about why we usually bend our index and middle fingers and softly knock on the table when someone pours a tea for us.

It’s to thank that person for pouring a tea for us but why do we do it that way instead of saying thanks verbally?

A story was told about a king who went out to see how his people live.

During his trip he disguised himself and pretended to be common people.

When they were eating, sometimes the king would pour tea for his servants.

The servants could not verbally thank the king without betraying his real identity.

So instead of bowing to the ground with their whole body and saying out loud, "Thank you, your highness," they bend their fingers to symbolize their gratitude.

They bow down and thank their king with their fingers.

Well, it’s only a story; maybe it’s true maybe it’s not.

Let’s just assume that the story is true.

Can you imagine the curiosity of other people when they see what these people were doing?

Most likely they did not notice and in failing to do so, they failed to recognize that the king is in their midst.

It takes sensitivity to recognize God’s presence and that sensitivity grows out of a daily obedience to God’s Word.

Elijah was so frustrated because Queen Jezebel threatened him and he wanted to die.

He felt that his ministry was a failure and God has left him alone.

Yet, he obeyed the Lord when the Lord sent him an angel and told him to eat and drink.

Because of his obedience, although he was not satisfied with what God is doing, he was able to recognize God’s presence when God came to him.

He stood before the Lord when the Lord came to him in a gentle blowing of wind.

Nothing spectacular with a gentle wind on a top of a mountain, yet instantaneously Elijah recognized the Lord.

How?

Because he has obeyed the Lord daily.

He walked with the Lord daily.

Ask a goldsmith how he could recognize pure gold from a fake one simply by looking at it and he will tell you because he handles gold daily.

A bank teller was asked how he could recognize real money from counterfeit one and he would tell you that he was trained to feel real money daily basis so when he found a counterfeit one, he could recognize it.

How can we experience the presence of the Lord?

By walking with him daily.

Not weekly, not monthly, not once in a while.

If we try to be spiritual only on Sundays, we miss a great deal.

If we only spend an hour and half a week thinking about God, the rest of the hours when we do not think about God will obscure that an hour and half.

We have to intentionally let God direct our life daily.

Our experience with God should not be limited on Sunday.

Spirituality should be our life and not only part of our life.

Spirituality should not be an addition; it should be the whole thing.

You can not become sensitive to God’s presence if you only spend an hour and half out of your whole week.

You have to learn to follow and obey the Lord on daily basis.

Only then you will be able to see His presence.

What is the difference between professional basketball players and amateurs?

Profs make playing basketball their life; amateurs make playing basketball part of their life.

You need to make God your life, not only a small part of your life.

God is interested in your life.

He wants to be in your life.

And when we give our way of life to Him and take the way of life He has provided for us, His presence is clear.

This morning we learn three things:

God wants to be in our life and for us to experience His presence.

We often fail to recognize His presence because of our business and our spiritual condition.

We can recognize God’s presence when we learn to obey His word daily.

May God help us each as this year we learn to take God and His Word seriously.