Always and Everywhere

Attributes of God  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented
0 ratings
· 26 views
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
View more →

A well-known English deist, Anthony Collins of the seventeenth century, was walking one day when he crossed paths with a commoner.
“Where are you going?” asked Collins.
“To church, sir.”
“What are you going to do there?”
“To worship God, sir.”
“Is your God a great or a little God?” asked Collins.
“He is both, sir.”
“How can He be both?”
“He is so great, sir, that the heaven of heavens cannot contain Him; and so little that He can dwell in my heart.”
Collins later said that this simple answer had more effect on his mind than all the volumes he had ever read about God, and all the lectures he had ever heard. [Robert J. Morgan, Nelson’s Complete Book of Stories, Illustrations, and Quotes, electronic ed. (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2000), 353.]
The God whose greatness cannot be contained by the heavens — the God who is everywhere all the time — has condescended to place His very Spirit within the hearts of those who believe in His Son, Jesus Christ.
God
It’s a fantastic thing, when you think about it. But just as with the danger associated with God’s holiness, this presence of God within us — and the omnipresence of the holy and righteous God within His creation — is a thing that should cause us all to stop and consider our ways.
David, the Israelite king whom God had said was a man after His own heart, had been richly blessed by God. He had been given victory over all his adversaries. He had been raised from a lowly shepherd boy to the position of king over a great nation. He had been forgiven much and had seen God’s boundless grace and mercy in his own life and in the life of Israel.
1 Robert J. Morgan, Nelson’s Complete Book of Stories, Illustrations, and Quotes, electronic ed. (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2000), 353.
And one day, while David was in his own house, he told the prophet Nathan that he wanted to build a house for the ark of the covenant, the very symbol of God’s presence with His people.
2 Samuel 7:1–2 NASB95
1 Now it came about when the king lived in his house, and the Lord had given him rest on every side from all his enemies, 2 that the king said to Nathan the prophet, “See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells within tent curtains.”
David wanted to build a temple, and Nathan, without consulting God on the matter, responded that David should go and do all that was in his heart to do for the Lord.
But then God spoke to Nathan that night and set him straight.
2 Samuel 7:4–5 NASB95
4 But in the same night the word of the Lord came to Nathan, saying, 5 “Go and say to My servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Are you the one who should build Me a house to dwell in?
2 Sam 7:6
2 Samuel 7:6 NASB95
6 “For I have not dwelt in a house since the day I brought up the sons of Israel from Egypt, even to this day; but I have been moving about in a tent, even in a tabernacle.
God had been with the people of Israel in the tabernacle — the tent — that had been erected and dismantled as they were moving through the wilderness and then after they had settled in the Promised Land.
2 Samuel 7:7 NASB95
7 “Wherever I have gone with all the sons of Israel, did I speak a word with one of the tribes of Israel, which I commanded to shepherd My people Israel, saying, ‘Why have you not built Me a house of cedar?’ ” ’
He had been with them in the pillar of cloud that had led them through the days of their wandering and in the pillar of fire that had led them by night.
He had been with them in the battles that they won — in fact, it was not they who won their battles, but the Lord himself.
He had been with them when He delivered them from slavery in Egypt, sending His plagues and finally bringing death upon all the firstborn in Egypt who did not have the blood of a lamb smeared on their lintels.
He had been with them as He parted first the Red Sea to give them escape from the pursuing Egyptians and then the Jordan River to give them entrance into Canaan, the Promised Land.
God had been with His people always and everywhere.
But David wanted to give God a special place, a holy place, where His presence could be especially honored.
God would not allow David to build this temple, but He did allow David’s son, Solomon, to do so. And when it came time to dedicate this grand temple, Solomon prayed that God would bless this place, but he recognized that God was not to be thought of as having been confined to the temple.
1 Kings 8:27 NASB95
27 “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain You, how much less this house which I have built!
Ever since that first temple in Jerusalem, God’s people have sought to honor Him with glorious structures where they worship Him.
From the Sistine Chapel to the great cathedrals of Europe to Crystal Cathedral in California, these magnificent structures have attracted countless generations of humanity to come searching for God.
And many of them — including, probably, most of us here today — have been found by God within such structures.
But God does not dwell within this place, nor in any of the other
He is, indeed, here today. And He will be here on Monday, as well.
God’s attribute of omnipresence means that He is completely present in all places and at all times. His presence here today does not diminish His presence at Southside Baptist Church down the road or at the Sistine Chapel or, for that matter in a prison cell at the regional jail or even in a mosque in Kandahar, Afghanistan.
God is surely present in all of those places.
He was present at the dedication of Solomon’s temple in Jerusalem.
He was present with the disobedient prophet Jonah in the belly of a whale.
He was present when the Jews were being led into exile in Babylon.
He was present in the Nazi concentration camps.
He was present when your first child was born, and He was present when your mother or your father or your grandmother or grandfather took their last breath.
He was present in the World Trade Center when the planes flew into them on 9/11.
He was even present in the caves of Afghanistan, when the attack was planned.
This does not mean that He is ethically present at all places, which explains how Scripture describes Him as being absent from non-believers or out of communion with believers who are in unrepentant sin.
But for believers in fellowship with Him, God is present in an even fuller sense. He has a special spiritual and moral presence with them through the Holy Spirit.
When He is present with me, He is completely present with me, but at the same time, He is completely present with you, as well, if you have become His children through faith in Christ. His mercy for me at any given moment is undiminished by His mercy for you.
And because He is present within believers through the Holy Spirit that dwells within them, He is with believers in every circumstance of their lives.
When Jesus gave His disciples the Great Commission, he reminded them of this fact.
Matthew 28:18–20 NASB95
18 And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Matt 28
In fact, Jesus had told them at the Last Supper that His departure from the earth would usher in a time in which God would extend His presence to His people in a way they had never experienced before.
7
John 16:7 NASB95
7 “But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.
Having set aside the divine attribute of omnipresence to come and dwell among us as a man, Jesus was confined to one place at a time, just as we are.
But in sending the Holy Spirit, Jesus made something entirely new to take place.
Prior to the Jesus’ birth, God’s dwelling among His people was in the temple. He could only be approached by the priests, and even then He was separated from them by a veil. Only the high priest could go inside the veiled Holy of Holies, and even then only once a year.
Then Jesus came, and God lived as a man among us, and we crucified Him.
But when the resurrected Jesus returned to Heaven to sit at the right hand of His Father, He sent the Holy Spirit, and now, for those who follow Jesus, there is nothing that separates us from God’s presence.
While the world experiences the presence of God in a philosophical way, if at all, we experience it in the reality of the Holy Spirit, who convicts us of sin, who guides us in truth, who enables our understanding and who prays on our behalf when we do not even know how to pray for ourselves.
Understand this: God does not dwell in this place. The only ones who might FIND God here are those who are lost. For those of us who are saved, we have already BEEN found BY Him.
We may come here to worship Him, but even our worship should not be confined to this place. We may come here to enjoy the spirit of community with other believers, but even that spirit should not be confined to this place. We may come here to learn more about Him, but even our learning should not be confined to this place.
Because God is always everywhere — and especially because He resides within us through the Holy Spirit — we should always be looking for Him everywhere.
We look for God in church on Sundays, and we miss Him in the line on Walmart on Saturday as He ministers to the single mother of four who has no idea how she will pay for this cartful of groceries but has absolute faith that God will meet her needs.
We look for God in church on Sundays, and we miss Him as He gives us the opportunity to personally minister in His name to the illegal alien who represents so much more to God than a political cause.
We look for God in church on Sundays, and then we ignore Him on Mondays, when we go back to work and pretend He’s not there.
I submit to you that if we had a proper understanding of God’s omnipresence, we often would be utterly ashamed of ourselves.
The things that we do in private, the way that we treat those who hold different values and ideals from us, the way that we handle frustration, the very thoughts we allow to shape our actions — all of it is exposed to God.
But even as Christians we tend to go through our lives as though He is neither all-knowing nor ever-present.
Speaking of the false prophets who were leading the exiled people of Judah further astray by telling them that their Babylonian captivity would be brief, God said through the prophet Jeremiah that nothing escapes His attention.
Jeremiah 23:23–24 NASB95
23 “Am I a God who is near,” declares the Lord, “And not a God far off? 24 “Can a man hide himself in hiding places So I do not see him?” declares the Lord. “Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?” declares the Lord.
Jonah could not escape God while on a boat headed the wrong direction, while in the sea or while in the belly of the whale.
David wrote that God scrutinized his path and his lying down and that God was intimately acquainted with all his ways.
And he recognized that his great sins jeopardized his fellowship with God and begged God not to cast him away from God’s presence and not to take the Holy Spirit from him.
We act in folly when we act as if the God of all righteousness does not see our sins.
But our omniscient and omnipresent God is not just the righteous God who sees all of our sins. He is also the merciful God who knows how we suffer.
Through the prophet Isaiah, He tells us:
Isaiah 43:2 NASB95
2 “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they will not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched, Nor will the flame burn you.
Now this verse is not a challenge to go and walk across hot coals. It was a poetic reminder that God was with the people of Israel through every hardship they had faced. He had brought the nation through them all, and He would bring them through whatever came next.
Do not fear, for I am with you,” He says later in this chapter. He says the same thing today, and He has been saying it over and again to generations of His people.
To Abram, God had said, “Do not fear, for I am a shield to you.
To Isaac, God had said, “Do not fear, for I am with you.
To Jacob, God had said “Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go.
To the frightened young Jeremiah, called to be a prophet to a people who did not want to hear from God, the Lord had said, “Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you.
To the people of Israel being taken into exile by the Babylonians, God had said, “Do not be dismayed, O Israel … For I am with you.
To the remnant of Israel that had returned to Jerusalem from exile, God said through the prophet Haggai, “Take courage and work, for I am with you.
To His disciples, worrying over the hard things He was teaching them at the Last Supper, Jesus would say, “Little children, I am with you a little while longer,” and then He would promise to send the Comforter in His place.
To the same disciples who were about to be sent proclaim His name in the city in which He had been crucified, Jesus would say, “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.
And in a vision that Paul had while he was in Corinth, where Paul turned his ministry from the Jews toward the Gentiles, Jesus said, “Do not be afraid any longer, but go on speaking and do not be silent; for I am with you.
Even the very name the prophets gave to the Messiah whom God had revealed to them reflects this repeated promise, as revealed in the book of Matthew.
Matthew 1:22–23 NASB95
22 Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: 23 Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which translated means, “God with us.”
It’s important to note that God did NOT promise that His people would never suffer. In fact, Jesus promised that suffering is exactly what His followers should expect.
And God also did NOT promise that He would never give us more than we can handle.
Brothers and sisters, if that’s something you say to people, please stop saying it.
When we handle the trials that come into our lives in our own strength, we glorify only ourselves. It is when find that we must fall into the strong arms of our ever-present Savior that we bring HIM glory.
Paul understood this, and he wrote about it in reference to the “thorn in the flesh” that he had pleaded for God to take away.
2 Corinthians 12:8–9 ESV
8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
Do you see that? The power of CHRIST is what Paul needed to deal with his problem. And the power of Christ was perfected in Paul’s weakness.
Jesus, who had promised Paul that He would be with him, did not keep Paul from suffering, and He did not even take away the suffering when Paul faced it.
But He was there, and Paul leaned on Him, and Paul boasted in the power of Christ so that Jesus would be glorified even in Paul’s suffering.
What a friend we have in Jesus.
He is the friend who sticks closer than a brother. He is the friend whose greater love was demonstrated on the cross where He bore our sins and took our punishment so that all who believe in Him and follow Him in faith would be saved from the fires of eternal hell.
He is the friend who never leaves our sides.
God is surely present everywhere, but the only way to experience a relationship that makes His presence significant for you is through His Son, Jesus Christ.
When David genuinely repented for his sins, God forgave him. When Jonah repented for having sailed off in the opposite direction after God had called him to prophesy in Nineveh, God caused the whale to spit him out on a beach.
The world has its troubles, but Jesus promises the Holy Spirit, and He promises peace.
At that same dinner where He reminded the disciples that He was with them, He gave them — and all who will follow Him — something wonderful to look forward to:
John 14:16–17 NASB95
16 “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; 17 that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.
Brothers and sisters, Jesus has left us peace in the midst of this broken world. Take hold of that peace. Rest in it. Trust in it.
Jesus loves you, and He says today the same thing that His Father had said all the way back to Abraham:
“Do not fear. I am with you.”
Always and everywhere.
So great that the heavens cannot contain Him, and yet so
Related Media
See more
Related Sermons
See more