Ezekiel 48:30-35
The Lord is Here: The Greatest Description
I. Introduction
- God is here this morning!
- But what does that mean?
1. Why is that significant?
2. Why does it matter?
- Did you know you can have "church" w/out God?
- Churches do it all the time.
- Maybe we've been guilty of it.
1. Maybe I'm guilty of "church" w/out God.
2. Maybe you're guilty of it.
- I wonder if we might even "feel blessed" and yet God never even be here.
- We need God to be here.
II. Scripture
III. Background
-The word of this scripture can be both...
1. Text & test.
2. Conviction & consolation
3. Hope & Challenge
-I think, as always, God's word is relevant to where we are as a church and as individuals.
-18,000 cubits circumference = 6 miles (1.5 m per side)
-Ezekiel was written about the same time as Daniel.
1. Both were in exile in Babylon.
2. Ezekiel wrote to those in captivity, but also to those who were allowed to stay in Israel.
-He warns/ rebukes those still in the ‘promised land.'
-In Ezekiel 10 & 11 he prophesied about God leaving/departing from the temple/sanctuary area. -You have to understand what that meant to them.
1. Was God going back on His promises?
2. Was he forfeiting His covenant w/ Abraham?
-The first half of the book of Ezekiel is gloom, doom, & despair.
-But then Ezekiel looks forward to God's redemptive work.
-And v. 35 says Yahweh-Shammah "The Lord is there.' (Jerusalem)
IV. God's Omnipresence & Presence
-At some level you cannot find a place where God is not.
-In other words, you cannot hide from God.
-Jeremiah 23:23-24 "Am I a God at hand, declares the Lord, and not a God afar off? [24] Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the Lord."
-You cannot run away from God.
-Jonah 1:3 "But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went on board, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord."
-We read Psalm 139 this morning.
-But there is also a concept in Scripture that God can be absent from places & ppl's lives.
1. Moses to God soon after the golden calf incident...
2. Exodus 33:15 "And he said to him, ‘If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here.'"
-There is also a concept of God's presence being revealed in a special way in a particular places.
1. Exodus 25:8 "And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst."
2. Moses & the burning bush.
3. Solomon at the dedication of the temple.
4. Jesus & the transfiguration.
5. Pentecost ‘mighty rushing wind.'
6. Saul/Paul on the road to Damascus.
7. All tied to a revelation of His glory.
-Don't make the mistake and believe that He is only glorious when His glory is revealed or He is only present when it is known.
-Jacob, while running away from home to his Uncle's house, stops for the night and dreams about a staircase from heaven w/ angels on it.
1. The next morning...
2. Genesis 28:16 "Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, "Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.""
V. The Lord is Not Here
-There are some places God does not reside.
-God is not where there is chaos.
1. 1 Corinthians 14:40 "But all things should be done decently and in order."
2. Benny Hinn, Todd Bentley..
3. Real sermon series titles (of chaos)...
...Spiritual Life is like a box of Krispy Kremes
...Lessons from Dr. Seuss
...Sex and the City and You
...Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, Ringo and George
...Dates of Our Lives: How to keep your love life from being a soap opera
... Meet at church naked.
... The Power of Positive Thinking
4. At a Nazarene Church: "Pimp my Bride" [off MTV's pimp my ride]
...Pastor Mike recounts the moment of inspiration."At that moment, I realized... this is what God wants to do to His Church. He wants to take our old and busted stuff and turn it into new hotness."
5. Churches resort to chaos.
6. Pastor said: "If so & so amount of ppl come to church on such & such a Sunday I'll preach from the roof of the church in my pajamas."
...Barring unforseen circumstances, you'll never catch me preaching from the roof of the church in my pajamas!
-God is not where there is disobedience.
1. Genesis 6:3 (time of Noah): "My Spirit shall not abide[strive] with man forever."
2. Note: Don't take it for granted.
-God is not where there is a quenching of the Spirit.
1. 1 Thessalonians 5:19 "Do not quench the Spirit."
2. If you quench, He leaves!
-God is not where there is sin
1. Proverbs 15:8-9 "The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, but the prayer of the upright is acceptable to him. [9] way of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, but he loves him who pursues righteousness."
2. Proverbs 11:20 "Those of crooked heart are an abomination to the Lord, but those of blameless ways are His delight."
3. On the cross Jesus took on all the sins of the world, then said: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
VI. Yahweh Shammah
-I believe the Lord is here.
1. May we ever protect that claim with all that is w/in us as a church.
2. May we fight for the presence of God.
3. ...hold tight to our God.
4. ...seek so to find Him.
5. ... hunger & thirst for it.
6. ... call out to Him in desperation!
-Isaiah 57:15 "For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: "I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite."
-Paul preaching in Athens at the Areopagus...
-Acts 17:26-27a "And He [God] made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward Him and find Him."
VII. God is Not Confined Here
-Solomon about building a temple for the Lord...
1. 2 Chronicles 2:6 "But who is able to build him a house, since heaven, even highest heaven, cannot contain him? Who am I to build a house for him, except as a place to make offerings before him?"
2. 1 Kings 8:27 "But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you; how much less this house that I have built!"
-After Jesus was crucified...
-Matthew 27:51 "And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split."
-Since the lamb was slain to take away the sins of the world things are different.
-1 Corinthians 3:16 "Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?"
-Thus is the power of the church, the body of Christ.
1. God's Spirit dwells w/in us.
2. We are born-again in and of the Spirit of the living God!
-Matthew 18:18-20 "Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. [19] Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. [20] For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them."
-Ill. Beulah land...
1. Isaiah 62... married land
2. Heaven on Earth.
3. If you can't experience the presence of God here on Earth, you probably won't make Heaven.
VIII. Glory Comes With Presence
-After the triumphal entry...
1. Some Greeks want to see Jesus... (hear where our church is, in this)...
2. John 12:23-28 "And Jesus answered them, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. [24] Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. [25] Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. [26] If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him. [27] "Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour'? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. [28] Father, glorify your name." Then a voice came from heaven: "I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.""
-There can be no greater description of a church or a people or a city or a home than this: "The Lord is there." (Yahweh Shammah)
-There is nothing worse than God's presence departing a place.
-Ill. Eli, Samuel's mentor, died and along w/ his three wicked sons and the ark of the covenant had been captured by the Philistines.
1. Eli's daughter-in-law gives birth...
2. 1 Samuel 4:21a "And she named the child Ichabod, saying, "The glory has departed from Israel!""
-The absence of God in a church or in a life is a terrifying thing!
1. We tend to be flippant about it.
2. "It's not a big deal that I am sinning."
IX. Conclusion
-Yahweh Shammah
1. God is there.
2. God is here.
-As ordinary or extraordinary as it may seem.
-Hebrews 13:5b "I will never leave you nor forsake you."
-Maybe you just need to be reminded of the presence of the Lord in your life.
-Maybe you've never experienced the presence of the Lord in your life.
-Maybe you need to know He is especially close to you this morning.
-Whatever your need... The Lord is Here.
Response
