Posts
Sunday, January 28, 2018.
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I can hear a certain weariness in that
song, can you?
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Most of us don’t spend our lives on
the road touring and making music like Johnny Cash did.
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While I like to imagine travelling to
exotic locals or historic places, I cannot imagine taking the time and energy
to travel all the time, all over to make a living.
o
I
can just manage the long drive to visit family.
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I’m not sure I’d want to be able to
sing that song, as Johnny Cash did, and mean it.
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Last time we looked at the limitless
knowledge of God and today we’ll touch on the limitless presence of God.
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God’s personal take on that old Johnny
Cash song might be, “I am everywhere, man.”
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God is everywhere present or all
present. Theologians call it omnipresence.
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God more than sees everywhere; he is
everywhere.
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There is no place where God is not
present.
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As hard as it is for me to imagine
living the travelling lifestyle of a full- time music legend, who travels
everywhere, it’s even harder for me to imagine being like God who is
everywhere.
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Though I have often wished I could be
in two places at once, I can barely imagine that because having an earthly,
physical body limits me to being in one place at a time.
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Being an eternal spirit, however, God’s
presence is not limited to any one place, his presence is limitless.
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God promised to his faithful servants
in the Bible over and over that he would be with them.
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Often throughout the Bible God said to
the patriarchs, prophets, and apostles that he was with them.
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He promised Jacob to be with him
wherever he went: “Look, I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go.
I will bring you back to this land, for I will not leave you until I have done
what I have promised you” (Gen 28:15).
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He gave the same promise to Joshua
before the conquest of Canaan: “Haven’t I commanded you: be strong and
courageous? Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord your God is with you
wherever you go” (Josh 1:9).
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The living presence of God flies in
the face of humanistic doctrine which proclaims that God is dead, or that he
does not exist.
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The knowledge and awareness that God
is present has the potential to turn the unbelieving world upside down.
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Not only is it fearfully embarrassing
to be aware that God knows my sin, it is terrifying to know that he is present
as I sin.
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Let’s briefly look at more of what the
Bible has to say.
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Psalm
139:7-12
o 7 Where can I go to escape your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to heaven, you are there;
if I make my bed in Sheol (where dead rest), you are there.
9 If I live at the eastern horizon
or settle at the western limits,
10 even there your hand will lead me;
your right hand will hold on to me.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me,
and the light around me will be night”—
12 even the darkness is not dark to you.
The night shines like the day;
darkness and light are alike to you. (CSB)
Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to heaven, you are there;
if I make my bed in Sheol (where dead rest), you are there.
9 If I live at the eastern horizon
or settle at the western limits,
10 even there your hand will lead me;
your right hand will hold on to me.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me,
and the light around me will be night”—
12 even the darkness is not dark to you.
The night shines like the day;
darkness and light are alike to you. (CSB)
o
According to King David, who sought
after the heart of God his whole life, God’s presence is unavoidable; outside
the uttermost ranges of anywhere David could imagine.
o Jeremiah 23:23-24,
23 “Am I a God who is only near”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“and not a God who is far
away? 24 Can a person hide in secret places where I
cannot see him?”—the Lord’s declaration. “Do I not fill the heavens and the
earth?”—the Lord’s declaration.
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When the Scriptures say anything three
times in one passage, we can be certain that it is extremely important that we
stop and take note.
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The prophet Jeremiah said three times
that what God was saying in these verses was the Lord’s declaration.
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God through Jeremiah wants us to know
for sure that because his presence fills heaven and earth, then there are no secret
places from God.
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Jesus gave the promise of his presence
to his disciples in Matthew 28:20, “And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age”
(CSB).
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Not only is Jesus with us always, the
promise of God’s presence through faith in Christ runs even deeper.
o John
14:15-17, 15 “If
you love me, you will keep my commands. 16 And I will
ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever. 17 He
is the Spirit of truth. The world is unable to receive him because it doesn’t
see him or know him. But you do know him, because he remains with you and will
be in you” (CSB).
o Not only is the promise of the gospel of Jesus Christ that he is
with us, but through the Holy Spirit he is also within us.
o Revelation 6:15-17, 15 Then the kings of the
earth, the nobles, the generals, the rich, the powerful, and every slave and
free person hid in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains. 16 And
they said to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the
face of the one seated on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb, 17 because
the great day of their wrath has come! And who is able to stand?” (CSB)
o
As I mentioned earlier, not only is it
fearfully embarrassing to be aware that God knows my sin, it is terrifying to
know that he is present as I sin.
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Sadly, on the day God will shake the
heavens, some would rather die than face the judgment of Christ.
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It is a comfort to us that one day we
will see our Lord face-to-face, but not to others.
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Why
is God’s omnipresence important for us?
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God’s
omnipresence gives us comfort and courage.
o John 14:18-20,
18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I am coming to you. 19 In
a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me. Because I
live, you will live too. 20 On that day you will know
that I am in my Father, you are in me, and I am in you” (CSB).
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A few minutes ago, we looked briefly
at the first part of this passage where Jesus said he would send the Holy
Spirit, the Counsellor, to his disciples to be with them and within them.
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That God would be with those who love
him in this intimate a way is a great comfort and encouragement in the daily
trials of life.
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The overwhelming victory is ours
through the presence of Christ in us.
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The very presence of Christ in us assures
us of the hope of glory that we will see him face-to-face and live with him
throughout eternity.
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If God is for us, who can be against
us? Nothing in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God
that is in Christ Jesus our Lord! (Romans 8:31& 39)
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God’s omnipresence gives us comfort
and courage.
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God’s
omnipresence assures us that our security is in him.
o Hebrews 13: 5-6, 5 Keep your life free from the love of money. Be satisfied
with what you have, for he himself has said, I will never leave you or abandon you. 6 Therefore, we may boldly
say, The Lord is my helper; I will not
be afraid. What can man do to me?
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The significance of our lives is not
bound up in money or stuff.
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In Christ, we have everything we need.
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Because he is always with us, we can
lose everything yet lack nothing.
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Our security is in the God who never
leaves us.
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God’s
omnipresence also warns us to flee temptation.
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We learned earlier from Jeremiah 23
that there are no hidden or secret places where a person can hide from God
because his presence fills heaven and earth.
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Whenever we are tempted to do the
opposite of what we know to be good, right, and true, we must turn from sin
toward God’s presence.
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I must keep in my heart and on my mind
the truth that when I choose sin it is in the very presence of God.
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God’s omnipresence warns us to flee
temptation.
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God’s omnipresence assures us that our
security is in him.
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God’s omnipresence gives us comfort
and courage.
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The challenge before us each day is to
learn to live in the light of God’s omnipresence.
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Practice
God’s omnipresence well through daily silence and stillness.
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Practising his presence equips us to
flee temptation, assures us that our security is in him, and gives us comfort
and courage.
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In First Thessalonians 5:17, the apostle Paul gives a simple command:
pray continually, constantly, without ceasing.
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In other words, never stop praying.
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I think perhaps this is one of the
greatest struggles of the Christian life, to learn to pray constantly.
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At least, I know it is one of my
greatest struggles.
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However, because God never leaves us
and is with us always, we need to learn to see his omnipresence as a gift.
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Practice
God’s omnipresence well through daily silence and stillness.
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I think one of the biggest things I’ve
had to learn about prayer is that prayer
is about a relationship.
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We all know that healthy relationships
include several things, but one of those things is being together.
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We also know that there are many
things we can do to spend time with God. The key is not what we do but how we
do it.
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It is the spirit in which we practice
a spiritual discipline that makes it a channel for prayer, our relationship
with God.
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While practising his presence equips
us to flee temptation, assures us that our security is in him, and gives us
comfort and courage, those are not the goal.
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The goal of prayer is to be present
with God.
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Practice
God’s omnipresence well through daily silence and stillness.
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For most of us, it is going to require
slowing down our busy lives enough to take
time to be still and silent.
o It’s
just that important. Jesus said, “On
that day you will know that I am in my Father, you are in me, and I am in you”
(John 14:20, CSB).
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It is probably what we need the most
in our noisy, busy, screen filled, over commercialized world.
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Practice God’s omnipresence well
through daily silence and stillness.
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