Living In The Presence Of God

Psalm 1:1-3

Introduction: Today men everywhere are searching for happiness, fulfillment, and love. They are searching in all the wrong places. Peace can only be found in the Lord Jesus Christ.

HOW CAN WE LIVE IN THE PRESENCE OF GOD? The person who is saved has God’s presence with him. Did not Jesus say, " I am with you ALWAYS"?

Psalm 1

1 Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.

2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.

3 And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

Psalm 1 is the introduction to the book of Psalms. It is a very important psalm. The Psalms were the Hebrew hymnal.

The Bible says "Blessed is the man." The person who has God in his life is truly blessed. This world literally means "happy, completely satisfied, or blissful." If you are saved you have God living inside you. We must understand this.

Psalm 16:11 “Thou wilt show me the path of life: in Thy presence is fulness of joy; at Thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore.”

IF JESUS WERE WITH US FOR 24 HOURS A DAY 7 DAYS A WEEK, WOULD YOUR LIFE CHANGE?

GEN. 28:15 says, "I am with thee, and will keep thee in all the places wither thou goest."

God is with us!! His very name is Emmanuel, “God with us” (Mat. 1:23)!

The Bible says that if we realize that GOD IS WITH US it will radically change our lives. We will have the peace that the world does not have. Tonight we are going to briefly look at three things that will keep us living in the presence of God.

I. First, we must DEPART FROM SIN (verse 1).

II Timothy 2:19 says “Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, LET EVERYONE THAT NAMETH THE NAME OF CHRIST DEPART FROM INIQUITY.”

I John 3:4-5, “Whosoever commiteth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law. And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin. Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him.”

A. We must NOT LISTEN to the counsel of the ungodly. This means cutting off the means of communication of the world to your heart. i.e. movies, ungodly TV, wrong music, etc.

The Bible says in Eph. 4:22 "That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts."

Psalm 101:3 “I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside; it shall not cleave to me.”

B. We must LEAVE the way of sinners.

This means you will probably loose friends, and sometimes even your own family may reject you, but Jesus promised to give you a hundred fold in this life and in the life to come. I remember when I got saved I stopped living the way my friends lived. That does not mean I broke off all contact with sinners. In order to do that I would have to go to heaven!! No I would not participate in their way of life. As believers, we cannot participate in any kind of sin no matter how small we think it is, or else we will break our fellowship with God!

Because of this I lost about all of my friends, but some I won to the Lord!

We must not fall into the trap of putting our stamp of approval on sinners so as not to offend them or loose them as friends. We must tell them the truth—they are sinners in need of a Saviour. That is the only thing that will save them. No matter what, we must always be honest with sinners, no matter what the consequences are, like the story of two brothers I read recently:

These brothers were rich. They were also wicked. Both lived a wild, unprofitable existence, using their wealth to cover up the dark side of their lives. On the surface, however, few would have guessed I, for these cover-up artists attended the same church almost every Sunday and contributed large sums of money to various church-related projects.

Then the church called a new pastor, a young man who preached the truth with zeal and courage. Before long, attendance had grown so much that the church needed a larger worship center. Being a man of keen insight and strong integrity, this young pastor had also seen through the hypocritical lifestyles of the two brothers.