God's presence

LIMAVADY INDEPENDENT METHODIST CHURCH

SERMON NOTES FROM SUNDAY 21 AUGUST 2023

EXODUS 33 VERES 12 – 23

Verse 15 “If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence.”  Moses was praying for a people that had rebelled against God.  He pleaded with God to go with them.  “Not by might nor by power but my spirit.” (Zechariah 4 verse 6)  The priority of Moses’ prayer was God’s presence.

Notice firstly God’s presence is priceless.  Moses had just returned from Mount Sinai.  He had been there for 40 days and 40 nights communing with God.  He had been alone with God.  He had heard his voice.  But he had to come down into the camp of Israel.  What did he find?  A people rebelling against God.  The people had persuaded Aaron to make them a god, a golden calf.  They had been brought out of bondage in Egypt by Moses into the wilderness.  The Promised Land was now in sight but now they wanted to turn back.  Remember when Peter, James and John were taken by the Lord up into the mountain and the Lord was transfigured before them.  Jesus’ very presence shone before them, brighter than the midday sun.  It must have been a special time for them.  They were communing with God, but they had to come down the mountain into the midst of the people.  They found that an argument was going on.  A man had brought his son who was demon possessed but the disciples couldn’t help him.  We cannot live on the mountain all the time.  The time when we hear God’s voice in our quiet times, but you cannot stay there.  In the fellowship we can have great times of blessing, people working together and there is great blessing.  But sometimes there are hard and difficult times.  The priority of Moses’ prayer was the presence of God.  We cannot dwell on the mountain top.  We need to return to the valley.  Moses realised that the presence of God was the most important thing.  We need to keep praying for that in our private and public times.  Moses was told to move on, to take the land where God’s people could live.  Moses wanted God’s presence more than anything else.  We need that today.  The presence of God brought peace – a perfect peace – a peace that passeth all understanding.  It is in those difficult times, in knowing his presence there is a great calm in our souls.  We should always strive for that.  Maybe there is an uncertainty in your life because the reality of God is not there.  “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee; because he trusteth in thee.” (Isaiah 26 verse 3)  To trust in the Lord means there will be a peace in our hearts.  Jesus came into the world with one purpose – to die.  He died for you and I, to take away our sin.  When he takes away our sin, he gives us a peace.  Our sins are forgiven, cast into the depths of the ocean, never to be remembered again.  When all is turmoil around us, we have peace that passeth all understanding.  Remember when Jesus and the disciples were in the boat.  The disciples struggled in the storm.  They ran to Jesus and said, “Lord we perish.”  We need the presence of the Lord to bring peace in our lives.  To Jesus’ disciples before he left this scene of time he said “Let not your heart be troubled, ye believe in God, believe also in me.  In my Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.”  Later Jesus said “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”  Moses pleaded for this peace.  Joseph in Genesis had brothers who did not like him.  They sold him into slavery in Egypt. He was bought by Potiphar who noticed something in Joseph’s life that was different.  Genesis 39 verse 2 “and the Lord was with Joseph and his master saw that the Lord was with him, and the Lord made all that he did to prosper in his hand.”  Potiphar saw the Lord was with him.  That makes a difference between the man or woman of the world.  Joseph was falsely accused by Potiphar’s wife, falsely imprisoned.  Chapter 39 verse 23 “the keeper of the prison looked not to any thing that was under his hand because the Lord was with him and that which he did, the Lord made it to prosper.”  Joseph at 17 years of age had the peace of God because the presence of God was with him.  Remember Paul and Silas in a prison cell.  They had been beaten and at midnight they began to sing praises unto God.  Then an earthquake took place, and the jailer ran into them asking “what must I do to be saved?”  He knew there was something different about them.  Have we that peace today?  Let’s pray for the presence of God in our families and homes and fellowship.

The presence of God brings protection.  “As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about his people from henceforth even for ever.” (Psalm 125 verse 2)  When you put your trust in the Lord so too is the Lord around you.  Moses knew the entry into the land of promise would not be plain sailing.  When they stepped into the land of Canaan the fight was not over, it was only just beginning.  Nehemiah heard in the palace in Shushan that the walls of Jerusalem were torn down.  When he went down to Jerusalem his enemies were furious.  They knew he was a man coming to help the people of God.  The enemy came in with all sorts of temptations – violence, fear of man, deception.  They tried to stop the work of God.  Psalm 91 “I will say of the Lord, He is my refuse and my fortress, my God, in him will I trust.”  When we become Christians it is only the beginning.  We have an enemy that is mighty.  The devil will not stop his war against you.  He will try everything in his power to bring you down.  Moses knew what it would be like in Canaan and he needed the presence of God to go with him.  Barak asked Balaam to curse the people but when he saw the crowd stretching out before him he said “how can I curse a people God has blessed?”

God’s presence brings pleasure.  Moses knew the delights in Canaan.  They would only be secured with God’s presence.  Today people say they would love to be saved but they believe their life would be destroyed.  “I am come that they might have life and have it more abundantly.” (John 10 verse 10)  “Thou wilt show me the path of life; in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.” (Psalm 16 verse 11)  In the palace Moses had the prominence but he didn’t have the pleasure.  Hebrews 11 verse 25 “Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.”  Both the rich young ruler and the prodigal son found no pleasure in the world.

God’s presence that secures the pledge.  Chapter 33 verse 1 “Depart and go up hence thou and the people which thou hast brought up out of the land of Egypt unto the land which I sware unto Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob, saying, Unto seed will I give it.”  Isaiah 43 verse 2 “When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee; when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.”  Psalm 23 “Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me … Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.”