Lord! - “Saturate in 08”
Opening Illustration: “What’s Missing?” from Blue Fish TV – We are moving from 2007 to 2008 this week and some are asking the following question, “What’s missing in my life?” Today I hope to answer that question!
Thesis: Our theme at New Life for the new year is “Saturate in 08!” It’s a prayer to God to be saturated in 2008 with His Holy presence, His love and His awesome fire!
Introduction:
Every year since I have been the Pastor of New Life I have come up with a theme for the New Year. Last year our theme was “The fire of heaven in 07!” In December of this year I had our prayer teams praying for the new theme at New Life -- because I did not just want a nice rhyme for the New Year. I really wanted to hear from the Lord on what He wanted our theme to be for this year. So when we were out with Pat and Merry Cahill they asked me what our new theme was for 2008 and I said, “I was not sure?” but I was praying about it. So we started to brain storm with phrases that rhymed with 2008 and 08: Here are some of the rhymes we came up with and some others that people gave me over the month of December:
Suggested Themes for 2008:
Get rid of the dead weight in 08!
Facilitate in 08!
Don’t hate in 08!
What’s your fate in 08?
Liberate in 08!
Be straight in 08!
Rehabilitate in 08!
Be great in 08!
Celebrate in 08!
Participate in 08!
Don’t take the bait in 08!
Saturate in 08!
After prayer and meditation I really felt the Lord say: “Saturate in 08!” Why? Because it is a call to prayer: “Lord, saturate in 08! It’s a theme which calls on us to cry out to God, to come to Him with humility and reverence. It calls on us to come to Him because of His beauty and awesomeness. It calls on us to get on our knees in prayer and to spend time in God’s presence this year. It calls us out of a life of apathy and into a life filled with the presence of God. It calls on us to enter into God’s presence and too once again experience His awesome love!
When we had Abbey Andrews here for the October meetings with Dr. Nichols she sang a song that she wrote called, “Saturate Me.” The song is a prayer to the Lord to have Him saturate us with His holy presence, His love and His awesome fire. This song has become a favorite of mine and Ashley has started singing it for us during praise and worship.
Listen to Abbey’s song: “Saturate Me!”
The song says to the Lord, “You are beautiful beyond all measure, you are wonderful to me, and I come to you.”
She sings about God’s beauty and wonderfulness which makes her want to come to Jesus to bath in His presence, to meet with God. She says, “I cannot stand in your presence” the reason is because it causes her to bow in God’s presence to yield to His holy presence. She sings and prays:
“Saturate me with your holy presence!”
“Saturate me with your love!”
“Saturate me with your awesome fire!”
I have spent many wonderful moments in time listening to this song and being ushered into the presence of the Lord. It always humbles me and causes me to meet with God. I really feel God’s presence as she pours out her heart to the Lord in this worship song. This song has moved me on the inside and quickened my spirit towards God’s presence and God’s love. This song causes me to search my heart and my mind. It calls me to come to God! So I feel this is what the Lord wants New Life to do this year! To call on Him, to come to Him and to bath in His holy presence!
So this year I want to help you to experience God’s presence, God’s love and God’s awesome fire. I really believe that many Christian’s and non-Christian’s feel that something is missing in their lives and I believe it’s a lack of intimate time and relationship with the Lord.
T.S. - So today we are going to explore God’s word and re-discover God’s saturating presence and its impact on our lives:
Opening Scripture Text: Exodus 33:12-23; 34: 4-11; 29-35:
Exodus 33:12-23 (NIV):
12Moses said to the LORD, “You have been telling me, ‘Lead these people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. You have said, ‘I know you by name and you have found favor with me.’ 13If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you. Remember that this nation is your people.” 14The LORD replied, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” 15Then Moses said to him, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. 16How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?” 17And the LORD said to Moses, “I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name.” 18Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.” 19And the LORD said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. 20But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.” 21Then the LORD said, “There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock. 22When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. 23Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen.”
Exodus 34:4-11a (NIV)
4So Moses chiseled out two stone tablets like the first ones and went up Mount Sinai early in the morning, as the LORD had commanded him; and he carried the two stone tablets in his hands. 5Then the LORD came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the LORD. 6And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, 7maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.” 8Moses bowed to the ground at once and worshiped. 9“O Lord, if I have found favor in your eyes,” he said, “then let the Lord go with us. Although this is a stiff-necked people, forgive our wickedness and our sin, and take us as your inheritance.” 10Then the LORD said: “I am making a covenant with you. Before all your people I will do wonders never before done in any nation in all the world. The people you live among will see how awesome is the work that I, the LORD, will do for you. 11Obey what I command you today.
Exodus 34:29-35 (NIV)
29When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the LORD. 30When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, his face was radiant, and they were afraid to come near him. 31But Moses called to them; so Aaron and all the leaders of the community came back to him, and he spoke to them. 32Afterward all the Israelites came near him, and he gave them all the commands the LORD had given him on Mount Sinai.33When Moses finished speaking to them, he put a veil over his face. 34But whenever he entered the LORD’S presence to speak with him, he removed the veil until he came out. And when he came out and told the Israelites what he had been commanded, 35they saw that his face was radiant. Then Moses would put the veil back over his face until he went in to speak with the LORD.
T.S. – In the Exodus passage above we see Moses being saturated with the holy presence of God on Mt. Sinai and what amazes me is that it became apparent to all who saw him after the divine encounter with God that he had. This is what I am praying for those of you at New Life this year-- to be in God’s holy presence and for others to see it in your face and life.
I. Lord, saturate us with you holy Presence!
a. Exodus 33:12-23;34: 4-11;29-35
i. Moses is dialoging with God on Mt. Sinai as he is receiving the 10 Commandments and on his way to the Promised Land with the nation of Israel.
1. God at the request of Moses reveals His divine presence and glory to him.
a. He tells him you cannot literally see my face because my holiness will kill you!
i. Remember sin cannot stand in the presence of God – he will burn it up!
b. So Moses will only see the back of God as he passes by in His holy presence.
i. We know this was an awesome experience for Moses.
ii. We are told that when it happened in chapter 34:
1. Moses bowed down in the Presence of God and worshipped (vs. 8)!
ii. Moses comes to the Lord and asks Him to go with them – to lead them into the Promised Land, to help him with the leading of his nation – the Lord tells Moses in verse 14, “My Presence will go with you…!”
1. Moses adds this observation to the God:
a. “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here!”
i. I want you to catch this thought.
ii. Notice Moses does not want to go anywhere without the Presence of the Lord going with him!
1. Why? Because that is what sets God’s people apart from all the others in the world – His holy Presence in a persons life!
iii. How about you? Is this your heart’s desire for the New Year- to go nowhere without God’s presence?
b. Moses was so impacted by the meeting with God and being in His divine presence that when he returned to the camp his face glowed from the glory of the Lord.
i. It was so bright and that they had to put a veil over his head because people could not look at Him because of the fear of seeing God’s presence all over you.
ii. The truth is ---When you are in sin then you will fear being in the Presence of the Lord!
1. Have you ever wondered why some people do not go to church it’s because they fear the Lord’s presence.
2. They know they are in sin!
iii. The truth is when you bath in the Presence of the Lord your countenance will reveal that you spoke and meet with God.
1. Other’s will see the Light of Christ radiating out of you!
T.S. – We need the Lord to saturate us with his holy presence so that we reveal the glory of God in our life to others and then we also need to be saturated with His love and allow this to overflow out of our lives and into others.
II. “Lord, saturate us with you love!”
a. Illustration from Stories for Preachers on the commitment of love of one to another from Mother Teresa:
i. “My own mother used to be very busy the whole day, but as soon as evening came, she moved very fast to get ready to meet my father. At that time we didn’t understand; we used to laugh; we used to tease her; but now I remember what tremendous, delicate love she had for him. It didn’t matter what happened that day; she was ready with a smile to meet him.”--Mother Teresa
ii. Love compels us to anticipate meeting and spending time with the one we truly love!
1. The more loved we are by another the more we want to spend time with that person. When we in love with another we want them to saturate us with their love back and God promises to that as we spend time with Him.
b. Psalm 36:7: “How priceless is your unfailing love! Both high and low among men who find refuge in the shadow of your wings.”
i. David sings to the Lord about His wonderful love and how it becomes a refuge from the things and the dangers found in this world.
ii. David has a love relationship with the Lord and you can see it in the Psalms that he wrote.
iii. He talks about his love for God and God’s love to him!
iv. This love relationship was real and genuine!
c. Psalm 57:10: “For great is your love, reaching to the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies.”
i. He also talks about how great this love is – its ability to reach heaven and earth.
ii. Remember he had experienced the love of God even when he fell into sin and this love impacted him deep within his heart.
d. Psalm 63:2, 3: “I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory. Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you.”
i. David says, I have met you in person and I have experienced your presence and its love.
ii. This experience of God’s love caused David to say “It is better than life itself!”
iii. Listen to what he is saying!
1. David says that to be in God’s presence and to en-gulfed in His love is better than living on this earth-It is better than life!
2. So why do we not spend more time in God’s presence and in His love?
e. Proverbs 3:3: “Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart.”
i. Proverbs gives us sound advice and tells us to never let love and faithfulness leave our lives. We need to tie them around our necks and write it into our hearts.
ii. Our love for God must never grow cold and apathetic but remain committed to the Lord.
1. When we do this faithfully God promises to saturate us with His love.
f. Illustration from Stories for Preachers:
i. I’ve never met a person whose greatest need was anything other than real, unconditional love. There is no mistaking love. You feel it in your heart. It is the common fiber of life, the flame that heats our soul, energizes our spirit and supplies passion to our lives. It is our connection to God and to each other --Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, MD, The Wheel of Life
T.S. – We need to be saturated in the Love of the Lord. We need this experience to stay faithful to the Lord in this corrupt world and we also need to be saturated in the awesome fire that comes from the Lord which in turn keeps our hearts clean and pure in His sight.
III. “Lord, saturate us with your awesome fire!”
a. 1 Thess. 5:19: “Do not put out the Spirit’s fire…”
i. We are responsible for keeping the fire of God burning in our lives, no one can put it out but us so we must guard our hearts.
1. If we let Apathy set into our hearts it will snuff it out the light of Christ in our life.
a. Revelation 2:4 says this to the church in Ephesus “Yet I hold this against you. You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.”
2. If we become unwilling to listen to the Prophetic words of God we will throw water on the fire (1 Thess. 5:20).
a. When we choose to not listen to the Word of the Lord we will put out the spirit’s fire in our life.
3. If we allow Sin into our hearts and lives it will choke out the fire in our heart.
a. We must constantly being evaluating our hearts and hanging onto the good (1Thess. 5:21).
4. If we let un-forgiveness into our heart it will quench the fire of God in our heart.
5. If we allow rebellion into our hearts it will cause us to desert the fire of Heaven.
a. We must avoid every kind of evil (1 Thess. 5:22).
b. Hebrews 12:28-29: “Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.”
i. God is a consuming fire and he always burns up sin when it crosses His path.
1. Isa. 30:27: “See, the Name of the Lord comes from afar, with burning anger and dense clouds of smoke; his lips are full of wrath, and his tongue is a consuming fire.”
a. Today we only want to talk about the Love of God because we don’t like to hear about God pronouncing the judgment on sin.
b. We in America like to live in our little deceptive mindsets and in denial about God’s nature of judgment towards sin and its evil results.
c. Many in America want God’s presence, and love on their terms not His terms and the truth is it does not work that way!
c. Leviticus 6:12-13: “The fire on the altar must be kept burning; it must not go out. Every morning the priest is to add firewood and arrange the burnt offering on the fire and burn the fat of the fellowship offering on it. The fire must be kept burning on the altar continuously; it must not go out.”
i. It is imperative that we never let His fire go out on the altar of our hearts!
ii. He started it and we have the responsibility to keep it clean, to maintain it and to feed it on a daily basis.
iii. That’s our responsibility if we do not do that it will go out because of apathy and sin invading our lives!
Conclusion:
Today I have presented you with a theme for 2008 – “Saturate in 08!” I have highlighted 3 prayers that I have for each and every one of you for this year. But I have to be honest with you – I cannot saturate you in God’s holy presence, in God’s love or with His awesome fire. It’s not in my power – I wish it was – But the truth is that power lies within each and every one of your hearts and actions. Abbey sang in her song that we need to come to Him. So we need to come to His throne and pray for these three blessings:
Lord, saturate me with your holy Presence
Lord, saturate me with your love.
Lord, saturate me with your awesome fire.
Then we need to wait patiently for God to move – just like the disciples did as they waited in the upper room for God to pour out His Holy Spirit which He did in Acts 2.
We need to pray, fast, reflect, mediate, call out to God to pour out his presence, love and fire into our lives this year.
Video Clip: From Blue Fish TV “Your Words” – a call to go to God and to experience a saturation of Him in our lives!
Altar call: Dismiss those who want to leave and encourage others to stay and listen to Abbey’s song, “Saturate me” again and have them pray to the Lord to be saturated by Him in 2008.
