Just One Night in His Presence:
“Do You Truly Desire the Presence of the LORD?”
Scripture Text: Numbers 17:1-10
Do you remember the story of Zacchaeus? If you remember, he was a tax collector of a short stature. He had heard of the teachings and miracles of Jesus, and heard that Jesus was coming through Jericho, he wanted to see this Jesus everyone was talking about. So he climbed up into a sycamore tree and waiting for Jesus to pass his way. When Jesus came to the tree, He looked up and told Zacchaeus to come down, for Jesus was going to his house to stay.
Can you imagine how Zacchaeus must have felt? The very presence of God was going to stay in his house. Imagine for a second that Jesus was coming to visit you at your home. The very presence of God, who is completely holy is coming to your house. Would you act differently? Would you dress different? Would you have to ask the LORD to stay outside for a couple of minutes while you quickly got rid of the things that He would be ashamed of?
As we have been studying on Wednesday nights, God, from the very beginning as desired to dwell or tabernacle among His creation. God wants more than anything for you to be in His presence. He desires to be in your daily life. He desires to be in your thoughts. He wants to have a personal relationship with each and everyone of you, but the question is: “Do you truly desire the presence of the Lord in your life?”
This couple of weeks ago, I got home from a long study night at the church and when I walked into the house, I told Jessica, “I need to relax a little bit. I’m going to go relax in the bathtub.” After filling the tub, I sat back and relaxed. I always keep a Bible on the bathroom counter, so while I relaxed, I began reading the Word of God. I don’t know how long I read the Word, but I knew I had been in there so long that the water was getting cold. Right before getting out of the tub, something happened. Now you must understand where this bathroom is in my house. It is located in the middle of the house. There is no windows and when the doors are closed in the hallway, that room can get mighty dark. Well, there I was about to get out of the water and the lights went out at the house. I couldn’t see anything. I still had my Bible in my hand and I didn’t want to get it wet, so I didn’t want to just jump and and start feeling for the door knob. I slowly got out of the tub, and started drying off. Immediately, I heard a little knock on the bathroom door. Jessica had already gone to sleep, but Trinity was knocking. She knocked and ask, “Daddy, the lights went out. Are you scared in the dark?” I said, “No baby, I’m drying off. I’ll be out in a minute.” She replied, “Daddy, are you scared in there.” I replied back, “No baby, I’ve got my Bible.” After toweling off, I exited the bathroom and slowly made my way to the bedroom. By this time, Trinity had already woken Jessica and said, “Mama, the lights went off and daddy said he wasn’t scared because God was in the bathroom with him.”
T.S. - That’s what this message is all about today. If you truly desire the presence of the LORD, there are a couple of things that we must do to prepare for Him and secondly, there are some benefits of being in His presence.
Let’s read the text in Numbers 17
The P’s of God’s Presence
1. We will be productive in His presence (bearing fruit) The fruits of abiding with Him are…
Love, Joy, Peace, Longsuffering, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, Self-control
The stick was only fruitful when it was in the presence of the Lord!
John 15:4-5 states, “Abide [dwell, remain] in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine; neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. If a man abides in me, and I in him, he produces much fruit; for without me you can do nothing.”
The rod abided and it simply blossomed, budded, and produced almonds. How much more can God do with you.
2. We will have more power in His presence (doing things we don’t normally do)
3. We will have a greater passion for Him in His presence (a passion for worship, praise, and joy)
4. We will be planted in His presence (we will be in His will)
5. We will have prosperity in His presence. (abundance of peace, joy, happiness,
6. We will have the right perspective in His presence (we won’t worry as much about the little things)
7. We will be more prepared in His presence (He will mold us, transform us, shape us into what He has created us to be)
8. We will be more apt to pledge our allegiance in His presence.
