Sermon Tone Analysis

“If the Holy Spirit was withdrawn from the church today, 95 percent of what we do would go on and no one would know the difference.

If the Holy Spirit had been withdrawn from the New Testament church, 95 percent of what they did would stop, and everybody would know the difference.”

-AW Tozer

That quote from Tozer is a bit biting isn’t it.

But is it true?

When we show up for church on Sunday morning, or teach a class, or serve a meal, or go to a Bible study, or plan men’s ministry, or whatever are we absolutely positively dependent and desperate for the presence of God? Like “we can’t go on if you don’t show up”?

Is God here this morning?

What do we mean with that question?

What do we mean by the presence of God?

I mean it’s basic Christian belief that God is omnipresent—that means that he is everywhere.

So when we say something like, “we pray that God’s presence is here among us today” is that all we are saying?

No, I don’t think so.

When you talk about the presence of God in your life, in your family, in your homes, in your work do you just mean that God is somehow present among you?

Or do you mean something more?

We are saying something more, aren’t we.

And that’s the case in all the Bible too.

Look at the Garden of Eden.

We read from the very beginning that Adam and Eve walked in the cool of the garden with the Lord.

What we’re supposed to see in this story is that God dwelled amongst people in the Garden.

You are going to keep hearing me say these things but the three big things present there is rest, rule, and relationship.

God gave man a place to live, a purpose with which to live, and all within the context of a loving relationship.

But notice what happens at the Fall.

Man is kicked out of the Garden.

And what happens there?

The presence of God is no longer among humanity.

We don’t dwell with God.

God doesn’t dwell with us.

But we’re actually kicked out of the Garden for our own good.

The presence of God would now be something that is not so good.

It’d consume us and we’d die right there on the spot.

God’s holiness, God’s wrath would swallow us up.

And so he removes them from the Garden he removes His presence.

From “before his face”.

Sure God is still “present” in the “God is everywhere” sense…but the presence of God is not there.

And that’s the root of every horrible thing you’ve experienced.

But that’s not the end of the story, thankfully.

There’s a promise in about the seed of the woman crushing the head of the serpent.

And we see a continuation of this in when a promise is made to a guy named Abraham.

And in that promise is really all of those things we saw in the Garden.

Rest, rule, and relationship.

God is making all things new.

He is working so that once again He will dwell with humanity.

The Bible really is a story about God dwelling with humanity.

It’s a big story about the presence of God.

So, there is much that can be said in the Bible about the presence of God but I just want us to stop on a couple of places.

And we’ll land pretty much at the very end in .

God’s presence is to be most desired

That’s the root of every horrible thing you’ve experienced.

One place that has been rattling around in my soul for quite some time now is .

One of the most important characters in the Old Testament is Moses.

God had made all those promises to Abraham about this land that they’d have—that’s the rest, the promised land, a precursor to the restored Garden of Eden.

But they ended up in slavery in Egypt.

That’s hardly the Promised Land.

Enter a guy named Moses.

He is used by God to rescue his people out of Egypt.

But as they do they end up wandering in the wilderness and circling around this Mountain called Mt. Sinai.

It’s the place where God gave the 10 commandments.

And they’ve been there for quite some time now.

And here in it’s God telling Moses that it’s time to leave.

But listen to this:

You guys can go into the land but I’m not going with you.

Now think about this for just a moment.

All the blessings of God can be yours.

You can have rest.

You can have rule again.

You’ll have purpose.

Meaning.

Peace.

Comfort.

Joys.

All that stuff.

But there’s one catch…God isn’t there.

Your biggest dream fulfilled but God isn’t there.

Do you still want it?

I think John Piper gets at this question well:

“The critical question for our generation—and for every generation—

is this: If you could have heaven, with no sickness, and with all the

friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever liked, and

all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties

you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no

human conflict or any natural disasters, could you be satisfied with

heaven, if Christ were not there?

”

Let that stick for a moment.

It goes back to the Tozer quote.

Are we fine with things just as they are or are we desperate for God to show up.

Can we say, “if your presence stays then I don’t want to go into the promised land.

And if your presence goes then I don’t want to stay here.”

I want to be where YOU are.

Can we say that?

That’s really the driving force of the Bible.

This is where God is taking us.

His presence once again with us.

If that’s not our chief aim and desire then I think we’re walking contrary to what God is doing in our world.

But that’s kind of what it means to be messed up isn’t it.

Part of what God’s presence is doing is it’s also restoring us and changing our taste buds because if we’re honest there is a good deal of us that would say, “yes we want God’s presence absolutely” but if we are being honest there are times when those desires get askew.

And I think that’s why we see what we do in .

2. The presence of God is now a fearful thing ()

now a fearful ()

This is right after the 10 Commandments are given.

High point for the newly rescued out of Egypt Israelites.