Manifest Presence Series
“God’s Ministry from the Sanctuary” Part 1
(Inspired by Don Nori Sr.’s Manifest Presence: You Can Live Within The Veil)
January 21, 2015 CFBC Chester, IL Dr. Mike Fogerson, Speaker
Introduction:
A The “Bottom Line” in our Christian walk is not how well we sing, preach, teach, serve but rather how soft our hearts are before the Lord.
1 It is the soft heart that God can shape, transform, sculpt.
a Our ultimate service is not done before people or the pastor, but before Him.
b When we realize this fact, we’ll understand that we are always operating/ministering before the presence of a Holy God.
2 Hebrews 8:1-2 (NASB) 1 Now the main point in what has been said is this: we have such a high priest, who has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, 2 a minister in the sanctuary and in the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man.
a His Word changes our lives, shapes us.
b He wants to rule as our King.
aa God has never intended His Church to be without a King, our hearts to be unoccupied.
bb He has always desired to abide, dwell with His people.
B He will have a people who will allow Him to dwell within them.
1 They may be a small group/great in numbers; but they will not be satisfied with anything less than God’s abiding presence.
a They won’t give up, give in, quit.
aa They know that God will work with broken hearts, soft hearts, flexible hearts.
bb Will to have anything/everything changed for the sake of serving God.
b These will be the people God will establish (and is establishing) His throne and dwell/minister within the sanctuary.
2 I believe that often times we confuse the “flow” of His Spirit with “Fullness of His Presence.”
a IL. Flow=Flashlight; Fullness of His Presence=Flood lights.
aa We can’t live with just a lil’light, see yes, but not fully.
bb When the lights are on we see everything in the room, each other.
b When we look for “flows” we have limited visability, but when we’re ministering from God’s fulness we see & perceive in His fullness.
C Zechariah 8:2 (NASB) 2 "Thus says the LORD of hosts, 'I am exceedingly jealous for Zion, yes, with great wrath I am jealous for her.'
God wants to establish His throne & His sanctuary within us.
1 God is jealous for His Church.
a When we act immature, childish, petty . . . we resist His Presence.
aa Where these things abide, His presence is absent.
bb We must have a life style that draws His Presence to us.
b Zechariah 8:3 (NASB) 3 "Thus says the LORD, 'I will return to Zion and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. Then Jerusalem will be called the City of Truth, and the mountain of the LORD of hosts will be called the Holy Mountain.'
aa Many folks act different at church than at home/work/school.
bb God sees us the same irregardless of where we are.
2 Religion tells us it’s okay to act differently in the world than we do at church.
a If we’ve truly been saved & abide in Christ we are not satisfied/happy being hypocritical.
aa We know that hypocrisy chokes out His Presence, Power in our lives.
bb It dilutes His anointing within us/ruins our witness.
b On the other hand, we are to love God for His sake alone.
aa We obey Him even when no one is watching, on other days than Sunday.
bb He will always manifest Himself in mighty ways through those lives.
I Zion is The Place Where God Dwells
A Israel has always been the type of the Church, but Zion is the type of the dwelling place of God.
1 Typically, people think of Zion as Jerusalem, but that is only part of it.
a Zion is a hill in the middle of Jerusalem.
(Image of Temple Mount)
aa Jerusalem is in the center of Israel, but Zion is the center of Jerusalem.
bb Zion is where the sancturary of God was, where David’s Tabernacle was situated . . . free access to the presence of God.
b Disclaimer: God can do whatever He wants . . . the only limitations that God has are the ones He puts upon Himself.
aa Can God destroy the earth with a flood ever again? No, not because He can’t, but because He promised He wouldn’t.
bb Could the Father send the Son to die again for the sins of the world? He can, but He said He wouldn’t.
c God’s Presence filled Israel through Zion.
aa He wouldn’t come through Samaria, Persia, spaceship . . . Zion had to be the place because that’s what He said He’d do.
bb When His Presence was established in Mt. Zion, all Israel was filled with His Presence.
cc When God’s Presence is established in Mt. Zion, the whole Church will be filled with His Presence.
2 Zechariah 8:3 (NASB)3 "Thus says the LORD, 'I will return to Zion and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. Then Jerusalem will be called the City of Truth, and the mountain of the LORD of hosts will be called the Holy Mountain.'
The promise of the Lord through Zechariah means that God is in the middle of Jerusalem.
a Where is God’s presence in our churches today?
aa God dwells within you & me.
bb If we are going to minister from the sanctuary, we must minister from our hearts.
b Because there is little personal holiness, purity, flexibility in the church . . . there is an absence of His Presence.
B Ministry of the Sanctuary is the ministry of the heart.
1 Luke 17:21 (NASB) 21 nor will they say, 'Look, here it is!' or, 'There it is!' For behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst."
a When we minister/serve, it is to come from a place in our hearts where Jesus dwells.
b When our hearts are right with God, pure . . . we’ll operate on a new level of anointing.
2 As long as we give ourselves to Him, serve from our hearts unto Him, we’ll be serving/seeing Him from the sanctuary.
II Ministering From Our Hearts
A We all can recall the weeks/months immediately after our conversions.
1 Excited, on fire, living holy lives.
a Our hearts were the sanctuary, holy of holies.
b We had cried out “God, change me, transform me” and He did.
aa We just knew we wanted to show God how much we loved Him so we served out of love for His sake.
bb We told everybody we met about what was happening to us and through us.
c All we saw was Jesus.
2 What happened?
a We started seeing ourselves again. (Problems, needs, selfishness, old sin crept back in our lives.)
b We calm down (and most of the other Christians around us were glad we calmed down.)
aa Get with the program, go along to get along.
bb Religion sets in.
B We must keep our hearts like a garden before Him.
1 When you start a garden you get rid of all the rocks to prepare the soil to be tillable.
a We plant our seeds/plants and they begin to grow . . . and so do the weeds.
b I just pulled weeds last week . . . why are they back?
aa You pull them or you allow them to grow back.
bb You stop pulling weeds when the harvest has come in.
2 When we got saved we may have stopped doing a particular sin . . . but often it comes back up like a weed.
a You pull it out (repent).
b If these sins are allowed to grow they can threaten take over our hearts/lives.
aa We must not put off the weed-pulling in our lives.
bb Our repentance must be immediate each time we see a weed of sin emerging . . . if not they take over.
c We cannot afford to be a church who makes excuses on why we can’t/don’t serve God.
aa I’m too busy ... I don’t have time . . .
bb All are signs of a garden that is need of having it’s weeds removed.
cc The end result will be that person missing the feast.
3 Especially true for those in ministry!
a It takes time to cultivate soil, weed, daily seek the Lord and allow the Holy Spirit to show us where the weeds are located.
Matthew 13:24-30 (NASB) 24 Jesus presented another parable to them, saying, "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25 "But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went away. 26 "But when the wheat sprouted and bore grain, then the tares became evident also. 27 "The slaves of the landowner came and said to him, 'Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?' 28 "And he said to them, 'An enemy has done this!' The slaves *said to him, 'Do you want us, then, to go and gather them up?' 29 "But he *said, 'No; for while you are gathering up the tares, you may uproot the wheat with them. 30 'Allow both to grow together until the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, "First gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up; but gather the wheat into my barn."
b God wants us to be people who are ready to serve the Lord, fit to be called His, ready to ministry from the sanctuary for the King.
