Sermon Central
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God's Presence - Seeking God For Himself.
Contributed by Hannah Pinkstone on Dec 13, 2002 (message contributor)
Summary: God wants us to spend time with him. But do we want to spend time with him? How can we? why should we? Do we come to God on his terms or ours?
I once told a friend that all I wanted was to be happy in God’s presence.
And I guess what I’m saying this morning is as a result of the reply I received.
Because I was reminded, that I shouldn’t seek God for my own happiness, I should seek him for himself.
Seeking God for himself. (But what does this mean?)
My motivation for wanting to be in God’s presence should not be as a result of my wants and needs, but I should want to be in God’s presence because he is God.
Matthew 6, the Lord’s Prayer starts like this:
"’Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, 10your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
It puts God first. We show him the reverence he is due, and ask for his will to be done – before we ask for anything for ourselves. And in the same chapter, Jesus says: But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
God’s Kingdom, is his presence breaking through. Seeking God’s presence will bring our hearts desires; freedom, growth, maturity, miracles, love, peace, joy, happiness. But we need to start in the right place, and that’s with God.
And the attitude we need is one that says it’s all about you.
Hosea 6:3 says:
3Oh, that we might know the LORD! Let us press on to know him! Then he will respond to us as surely as the arrival of dawn or the coming of rains in early spring."
This isn’t a call to turn up to church regularly, or to have a quiet time everyday. Although I think these things are vital. This is a call to spend time in God’s presence, real time. Setting time apart where God just fills the room, whether we meet as a group, or you’re just on your own in your house. And just praising God, thanking him for who he is, asking him to have his will, spending time with him.
Psalm 27 says:
4 One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple.
8 My heart says of you, "Seek his face!"
Your face, LORD, I will seek.
This passage should be our prayer. Just being in God’s presence everyday, so that it affects our hearts, our minds, our attitudes, every part of our lives.
How can we enter?
9God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful.
We are called into fellowship with God:
And this invitation came through the blood of Jesus.
Hebrews 10 says:
19Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. 23Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.
We are able to enter because God has invited us. He gave us a way to him, by sending his Son to die for us, that we might live with him.
And because of this, we can enter with confidence. We don’t need to go to God with an attitude that makes us feel worthless. We are invited by God to spend time with him! Through Jesus, we can spend time with God and get to know him, learning to love him and understand his will.
We can enter Gods presence because we have accepted and we believe that Jesus died for our sins. This gives us a desire to spend time with God. Even if we don’t feel like that at times, God examines our hearts and see his Spirit in us. God responds to the cry of our hearts.
We can all find ways that enable us to enter Gods presence. There are a lot of ways God has given us. Prayer, reading the bible, being still, worshiping, meeting as a church. These are things that we can be doing all of the time.
( One way that I am able to meet with God is when I’m playing my guitar. And I love it. It leads me into his presence, just by worshipping him through my instrument. )
How should we enter God’s presence?
How can we enter the presence of God as if everything’s fine? How can we take so lightly, the fact that the almighty, all powerful God has shown up because we have called on his name, do we just go through the routine?
