Have You Been With God Lately?

Exodus 34:27-35

Have You Been With God Lately?: Revival & God

I. Introduction
-What brings revival?
-As much as we'd like to believe it, we do not.
1. No formula/ no 10-steps to revival
2. "Drink a Ski!"??
-God's presence brings revival/renewal

II. Scripture

III. Getting With God
-Moses fasted 40 days & nights w/ God on the Mt.
-Fasting in the Bible....
1. Esther & Mordecai
2. Jesus, Paul, Anna (prophetess)
3. Cornelius, John's disciples.
-Fasted for 40 days...
1. Elijah, Jesus, Moses...
2. Daniel (3 weeks)
-Fasted during...
1. ...public/private calamities.
2. ...approaching danger.
3. ...ordaining/commissioning.
4. ...in times of sorrow.
5. ...before major decisions.
-But Fasting isn't the solution.
-But Moses, in v. 28, fasted
1. He fasted and communed w/ God
2. The focus was on God
-We don't believe God can handle revival anymore.
1. That's why churches have gotten away from it.
2. "It doesn't work."
3. Like it's an old beat up car.
-We are more focused on being good singers, entertaining preachers, & enlightening teachers, that we are no longer spirit filled.
1. We spend less & less time in the presence of God.
2. Communing w/ God?
-Bring in the right preacher/ singer/ program, etc. & we'll have revival.

IV. Our Focus
-Our focused is dominated with our reputation in the community.
-We want to accomplish what we want to do and what is best for us.
-We have a worldly preoccupation (not spiritual).
-There is very little difference between what we want & what the world wants.
-Query: Do you remember when we still thought "worldly" was a bad thing?
-How do we get the worldliness out of the church?
1. "Beat the Devil out of ‘em."
2. Do good to cancel out evil?
3. No, only the Savior can cleanse.
-Point: The only solution for worldliness and sinfulness in the church is being with God on the mountain of intimacy!

V. Worldly
-In Ch. 32 Moses is up on the Mt. w/ God and he comes back down to see the ppl dancing around the golden calf.
1. Aaron was dumb-founded!
2. Moses was angry.
-Point: If you spend a little time on the mt. w/ God you'll come back down and view things differently!
-How do I know that intimacy w/ God is a problem in the church today?
1. If it weren't I might see it in your face!
2. Being w/ God is powerful.
3. You cannot be the same.
-Biblical illiteracy is an epidemic in the church.
1. "Preacher, I know about Moses, Esther, & the Passion of Christ."
2. "No, you just saw the movie!"
-Parties, picnics, & potlucks have taken the place of prayer meeting!
-Sports, clubs, pageants, jobs, vacation, etc. have all taken precedent over church attendance.
-Feasting has replaced fasting
-Sin has become irrelevant.
1. Last I checked sin was still the problem!
2. We've turned sin into a mistake...
-Ill. A young girl once confessed to her priest that she thought she was guilty of the sin of pride.
1. "When I look in the mirror, I think I am beautiful."
2. Priest: "That's not a sin, that's a mistake."
-My goal is not to get you to read the Bible more or pray more...
1. That's another sermon.
2. You are missing the point.
-Query: Can the world tell you've been with God?
1. No: Have you been with God?
2. The world will be able to tell.

VI. Running from Intimacy
-I think we're running from intimacy.
1. TV, radio, computer, job, family, chores, ‘to-do' list, etc.
2. "So much to do; so little time."
-We are church shopping rather than God seeking.
-Seeker friendly church?
1. We are to seek the lost.
2. They don't care about God.
3. Problem: we're too friendly w/ sin and to foreign to holiness.
-Seeker friendly church = a church where you will be at home if you are seeking God.
-Ill. Somewhere in Acts after Pentecost the Bible says:
1. "One of the members saith unto Peter after the 3000 were baptized: ‘As surely as the Lord liveth thou hast not fed me today. Thou hast not encouraged me and my feelings are sorely oppressed because I have felt the Spirit of the Living God and He hath called me unto repentance. Therefore I have set my face to findth a church where by I might grow strong in the Lord without having to repent or worketh in the harvest."
2. "I'm not being fed."
3. You don't complain about that at the potlucks!
-Lots of churches are built around big personalities, charismatic leaders, gifted preachers, popular/ prestigious people.
1. It's hard to run a PR campaign for God.
2. Fewer & fewer churches are bringing people to Mt. Calvary to look upon the crucified Lord.

VII. Been with God?
-Being w/ God always makes you more like Him.
-v. 29b Moses didn't realize how different he really was b/c he was still focused on God
-Every service, every time God comes, we should leave reflecting the glory of God.
-Conviction is a good thing to us, b/c we want to be as close to God as we possibly can get!
-Some like to hear preaching on murder and homosexual, but do not talk about unsanctified attitudes and w/ words instigating hurt feelings.
1. Don't be proud about the fact you have hurt someone.
2. Ill. Board meeting fist fights
3. Note: "that's just the way I am" is the same excuse homosexuals use!
-Growing in grace does not make you more cranky & hard to get along with!
1. Closer to God = more loving.
2. Growing in grace is not becoming more prideful.
3. It is more humility.
-No sanctified person keeps track of their ‘holiness factor.'
1. Moses was not aware of the skin on his face shining.
2. He was still focused on God!
-Query: What has God done in your life lately?
1. B/c you're not doing a lot of things bad, doesn't mean you're growing/reflecting His glory.
2. Has anyone made a not of how much like Christ you look?

VIII. Cost of Discipleship
-We need to get back to the place where being a Christian cost you something!
-D. Bonhoeffer "Cost of Discipleship"
1. "Well, what's the draw in that?"
2. Hard to market Christianity as it is!
3. The HOLY SPIRIT is the draw!
-Virginia Owens: "Bible bookstores are now papered with announcements of Christian concerts instead of revival meetings."
1. Why is that?
2. B/c we can put on a concert ourselves, but a revival requires a coming of the Holy Spirit!
-Dr. G. Campbell Morgan: "The church patronized is the church paralyzed , therefore the church in peril. The church persecuted is the church prayerful, and thus powerful."
1. Why is that?
2. B/c they have had to be with God.
-Free, free, free salvation?
-It is free, but it will cost you everything!

IX. Christianity Isn't Easy...
-If we continue to proclaim that, we will continue to produce wimpy Christians! (delusion)
-There is peer pressure to conform to the world:
1. Reporters interviewing a 104 year-old woman:
2. "And what do you think is the best thing about being 104?" the reporter asked.
3. "No peer pressure," she said
-Just b/c you're a Christian doesn't mean you won't...
1. ...ever get fired, you will have perfect health,
2. ...or your business will be successful, or you will be rich.
-That's not why you sacrifice and commit to God.
-Point: You commit to Him b/c He is God!
-Ill. From Moses' perspective, the glamor of the world faded.
1. He turned his back on the shallow/easy/worldly but chose desert trial/ wandering with God.
2. He chose reproach of Christ over all the world had to offer. (Heb. 11)
3. It's called sacrificial.

X. Conclusion
-The sin of the church is not...
1. ...that we murdered, lied, committed adultery,
2. ...coveted, stole, worshiped an idol, gossipped, looked at pornography, slandered, cussed, etc.
-Point: The sin of the church today is that we have not been with God!
-2 Chronicles 7:14 "If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land."
1. That's not a formula for revival.
2. Those are all about getting into the presence of God!
-Leonard Ravenhill: "The more men pray the less worldly the become. The less men pray the more worldly they become."
-The sin of the church is that we have never (or rarely ever) been so close to God that it was reflected in our daily lives.
-The preacher preaches Sunday after Sunday... no change.
1. SS. Teacher... no change.
2. Service after service.
3. Bible study after bible study.
-v. 30 others were afraid of Moses b/c of how close he was to God.
1. The world does not know what to do with someone who has been w/ God.
2. Neither does the Devil!
-I fear that most of us have never experienced the kind of spiritual power at work in Moses.
-A real church service has lasting effect on our lives and lives of pppl we come in contact with!
-Point: Getting closer to God isn't preparation for revival... it is revival!

Response:

Can You See It?

Matthew 13:10-17

Can You See It?: Seeing What God is Doing

I. Introduction
-Have you heard from God lately?
-Have you seen his fingerprints in your life?
-Have you witnessed His handiwork?
-God is hard to understand!

II. Scripture

III. I See Something...
-Jesus is in the middle of a number of parables.
-The problem is people have ears, but do not hear.
1. They have eyes but do not see.
2. They're missing it.
-Jesus walked among the people and they missed Him!
1. They missed the Messiah.
2. They missed the Savior.
-We do that today.
-Jesus spent all His earthly ministry trying to get people to see something!
-Do you see something?

IV. Pastoral Pause
-Do you see something around here?
-Ministry is hard to measure.
1. We try to measure it in human ways.
2. Numbers, attendance, averages, line graphs, programs, participation.
3. Only God knows the heart.
-When ppl lay out of church they are moving in the wrong direction!
1. Not coming like they use to... wrong direction.
2. Detached, uncaring... wrong direction.
-Right now, in our church you can see visible signs of God's work.
1. Increased church attendance.
2. Sunday Night, SS, Wednesday night.
-Financial situation.
1. We are about to be out of debt!
2. No more mortgage payment.
3. Nursery.
-There is a sense of burning in my heart that God is about to do something we aren't ready for.
1. Visions & Dreams when the Spirit comes upon them.
2. Expectancy.

V. I See Something!
-Elijah & Ahab
1. "No rain until I say so."
2. Mt. Carmel Baal challenge.
3. Elijah prayed, servant looked seven times.
4. I see a cloud the size of man's hand.
5. Go tell Ahab rain is coming!
6. Doubt the cloud?
7. It may be a little cloud, but rain is coming!
8. Proactive! Pre-emptive praise.
-Acts 2... Pentecost
1. "The Sound of a mighty rushing wind."
2. See: "Tongues of fire above their heads."
3. Equipped with power!
-Elisha
1. 2 Kings 6
2. Assyrians surround the city.
3. Servant panics to Elisha.
4. Elisha's prayer: "Open his eyes Lord!"
5. "Those that are for us are greater than those against us!"
6. Sometimes we only see the Devil's work... open our eyes to see God's.
-Jacob "lost" his son Joseph
1. Years later his sons go to Egypt for food and find him.
2. Joseph sends a caravan full of food & many blessings.
3. Jacob's sons try to explain that Joseph is still alive.
4. He doesn't want to have a false hope.
5. But... Genesis 45:27 "But when they told him all the words of Joseph, which he had said to them, and when he saw the wagons that Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of their father Jacob revived."
6. Don't focus on God's blessings and miss Him!
7. Jacob was more interested in Joseph than the caravan!
8. I'm not nearly as concerned w/ the earthly blessings as being in His presence one day!
a. Missionary spent over 50 years in mission field on a boat back to the states.
b. On the same boat was a movie star.
c. As the pulled into port a great crowd of ppl cheered the movie star.
d. No one there for the missionary.
e. He said: "I've been saving souls, what has the movie star ever done. Why don't I get a big reception when I get home."
f. God tapped him on the shoulder and said: "You aren't home yet."
g. I'm not looking for human acclamation, just God's Words: "Well done thy good and faithful servant."
-Ill. Rolls Royce
1. Owner wrote company.
2. Good car, smooth car, comfortable car.
3. But how much horse power does it have?
4. Enough.
-Ill. God owns the cattle on a thousand hills.
1. Uncle Bud Robinson: "He owns the taters too!"
2. Nothing is impossible with God!
3. Do we believe that yet?
-Saul/Paul saw Jesus on the road to Damascus
1. It changed his life.
2. You'll never be the same.
-Elijah & Elisha
1. Elisha, I want a double portion of your Spirit.
2. If you see me when I am taken away, you will have what you ask.
3. The fiery chariot separated them and then a whirlwind took Elijah into heaven.
4. Elisha picked up the mantle of Elijah.
5. "Let they mantle fall on me."
-Isaiah
1. Isaiah 6:1 "In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple."
2. Needing another touch.
-John the Baptist sees Jesus.
1. Look the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the World!
2. He saw his salvation!

VI. What About Me?
-Now, I want you to look not at others, but at yourself.
1. Introspection.
2. Am I growing?
3. Can I see God working in my life?
-Can you see what God has done?
1. Is it the same old thing?
2. Do you even desire it?
-Let God work.

VII. Conclusion
-Jesus healing a blind man.
1. Mark 8:22-25 "And they came to Bethsaida. And some people brought to him a blind man and begged him to touch him. [23] And he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village, and when he had spit on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, "Do you see anything?" [24] And he looked up and said, "I see men, but they look like trees, walking." [25] Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again; and he opened his eyes, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly."
2. Do you need a second touch from Him?
-In a little town called Greensburg.
1. Some are skeptical. Tolerating the ravings of a young preacher.
2. I've never seen anything like it in my life!
-I'm waiting... with expectancy.

Response

The Lord is Here

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