Living In God's Presence Following God's Guidance

Intro: What is the greatest promise in the entire Bible? The greatest promise in all the Bible is the one that we take the most for granted. It is the promise God’s presence. Many read the Bible but not to hear God’s voice. Many pray but not to bathe in God’s presence. Many come to Church but not to serve for God’s glory.

What is at the heart of being a Christ follower? It is given to us in this passage. It is utterly and completely abandoning ourselves to Gods overwhelming and satisfying presence. You probably know people that have become road kill on the information superhighway known as the internet. It is sad that families can surf the internet but not sustain a healthy family communication.

We are all too often abandoning ourselves to things that end instead of things that endure. Here in this passage is not only a proverb but a promise. How can I say that this is not merely a proverb but a promise? The truth of this passage is seen again and again in the Bible. For Example in Genesis and Hebrews Abraham is called of God to leave His family and inheritance and God would show him the place to go. Noah was called to build and ark when it had never rained. Naaman was called to bathe in a dirty, muddy river to be cleansed, we are called to die to live, to serve to be great, bless instead of curse. From the pages of God’s love story we see that abandoning ourselves to God begins with taking Him at His word.

I. Take God at His word

A) Complete confidence

Trust in the Lord. The word batach carries the idea to wholly place yourself at another persons mercy. The passage is not asking you to trust a proposition or a preacher it is asking you to trust a person. This passage is asking us to place our complete confidence in the person of Jesus Christ.

Why don’t you trust, why can’t you take God at His word? Because the kind of confidence that allows us to place our lives in God’s hands completely comes from intimacy with Him. Did you know you can be in someone’s presence but not be intimate with them? Husbands and wives get divorces at an alarming rate today because there is no intimacy. The divorce rate among Baptists is 29%, from the same data the divorce rate between atheists and agnostics is 21%.

Do you know why? Intimacy is not merely physical it must be whole abandonment of the self to another. The percentages show that we have a tendency not to take God at His word because a lack of abandonment.

The question you have to ask yourself is do you know God enough to completely abandon yourself to Him? Do you have complete confidence in God’s word to you? You ask how can I know? Complete confidence in God will cause you life to be patterned by compliant obedience.

B) Compliant obedience

Dr Adrian Rogers God’s plan is not a road map it is a relationship. We do what God says in His word, and through His Holy Spirit, because he wants what is best for us and because we love Him. Our obedience happens because we are in a relationship with Him. What you need to know is you are not called to surrender to a pitiful, pale religion but to a powerful, personal, ever present Lord!

Adrian Rogers also said, “God’s will is what you would want for yourself if you had sense enough to want it.”

Psalm 84.11“For the LORD God is our sun and our shield. He gives us grace and glory. The LORD will withhold no good thing from those who do what is right.” (NLT) Another translation says to those who walk uprightly. (Pattern of their lives is confidence followed by obedience to God’s revealed will.)

Why don’t you abandon that relationship that God says is unhealthy and he doesn’t approve of? Because you don’t have confidence in God’s word. Why do you not give to support the ministries that God has led this church to? Because you don’t have confidence in God’s word. Why is prayer not a part of your life? Because you don’t have confidence in God’s word. Why don’t you respect your husband unconditionally? Because you don’t have confidence in God’s word. Why don’t you love you wife unconditionally? Because you don’t have confidence in God’s word.

No good thing will God withhold! What is holding you back in your relationship with Jesus?

Do you trust the Lord with all your heart? What does that mean? It means that there is no plan B. I abandon myself in complete confidence and obedience to God and where He guides me and what He tells me in His word and through His Spirit.