“THE PRESENCE OF GOD” Various Psalms
FBCF – 6/22/25
Jon Daniels
INTRO – (Open Bible to Psalm 51) Last week’s sermon on holiness in “Life Songs” series had 3 points:
- Living in holiness starts w/ our salvation – grows as we desire the presence of God in our lives – impacts others around us
Next sermon in series was going to be “The Perfect Law of the Lord” – Ps. 19. Normal process of sermon prep each week:
- Monday: Email my “Email Prayer Warriors” to let them know how to start praying for me
- Begin reading over the passage early in the week, Start looking for words that I need to look up in the Greek & Hebrew – See if any patterns emerge in the passage that may lead to my sermon points – Start checking out some commentaries & other resources to keep building my thoughts & ideas about how to preach the passage. Try to come up w/ the basic outline, the skeleton of the sermon by Wed. Then Thu is my “get out of the office, go to a coffee shop to hide & pound out the sermon” day. Try to have it finished by late Thursday afternoon. Even then, still thinking about it, looking at it, tweaking it, all the way up to Sunday morning in my study before I come to you.
Started doing that w/ Ps. 19 this wk. A great Psalm that I was excited about expounding for us.
But even as I was actually preaching the point on the presence of God last Sunday, I sensed something in my spirit – that I needed to focus on that more, that we needed to revisit what the presence of God means in our personal lives & in the life of our church. Then this happened: Gina Bozeman has been reading Forgotten God by Francis Chan – Few wks ago, encouraged me to read the chapter on “Supernatural Church.” I had read the book several yrs ago. Got it off shelf. Reading it in my office Wed AM. Read statements like:
- “I deeply desire that the Spirit of God would do things that I know are not of me & that cannot be faked or accounted for by human reasoning.”
- “…we’ve created a whole brand of churches that do not depend on the Spirit.”
- “What disturbs me the most is when we’re not really bothered that God living IN us has not made much of a noticeable difference.”
- “God delights in showing up when His people are in desperate need of Him…”
- “The church is intended to be a beautiful place of community. A place where wealth is shared & when one suffers, everyone suffers…when one rejoices, everyone rejoices…where everyone experiences real love & acceptance in the midst of great honesty about our brokenness. Yet most of the time this is not even close to how we would describe our churches.”
- “I don’t want to merely talk anymore. Life is too short! I don’t want to speak about Jesus; I want to know Jesus. I want to be Jesus to people. I don’t want to just write about the Holy Spirit; I want to experience His presence in my life in a profound way.”
- “The church [in Acts] was powerful & spreading like wildfire, not b/c of clever planning, but by a movement of the Spirit.”
- “Churches we build only by our own efforts & not in the strength of the Spirit will quickly collapse when we don’t push & prod them along.”
- “Let’s pray that God would build His church, an unstoppable force, empowered & sustained by the Holy Spirit.”
Something – SomeONE began stirring in me. Reached over & picked up Bill Elliff’s book, The Presence-Centered Church, & read statements like:
- “What kind of person do you want to be & what kind of church do you want? More importantly, what do you think GOD wants? Are you content w/ a business-as-usual church? Church that can be explained?...that is accomplishing only what human hands can build?...that has to entertain?...that relies on the next slick marketing tool to attract a lost world? Or do you long for “far more abundantly beyond” [“immeasurably more”]? The “much more” of God? A movement that comes from His presence?...Let the constant, ruthless evaluation be, ‘Is God here?’”
- “Without a divine invasion of His manifest presence, every life, every local church, & the Church in our nation is doomed to meager impact & overall decline.”
Began rallying prayer support as I sensed the need to change my sermon for today & preach on the presence of God – Email Prayer Warriors – Texted a bunch of folks to ask them to pray as sensed the need to preach on the presence of God today.
- Harvey – “If you say the Person & Power & Presence of the HS, my LG gonna be blown away.” – CONFIRMATION!
- Bill Elliff – replied that he’s preaching at Crossgates right now on THE PRESENCE OF GOD – sent me his sermon notes – CONFIRMATION!
- Rolland – “Jon, this Sun will not be common; God has already seen to that in the way He has moved in your heart…the small nudges usually lead to moments of great significance.” – CONFIRMATION!
Then thought – “Since I’m preaching a series in Psalms, what do the Psalms say about the presence of God?” – BLOWN AWAY! Tears filled my eyes as I began to read. Found 12 passages that deal directly w/ the presence of God & show us some life-altering truth about God’s presence:
- The enemies of God perish in God’s presence – Psalm 9:3 – “When my enemies turn back, they stumble and perish before your presence.”
- We are protected in God’s presence – Psalm 31:20 – “In the cover of your presence you hide them from the plots of men”
- We experience great pleasures & joy in God’s presence – Psalm 16:11 – “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”
- His presence causes praise & worship to happen – Psalm 95:2 - Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving.” Psalm 100:2 – “Come into his presence with singing!”
- It needs to be our permanent home – Psalm 140:13 – “…the upright shall dwell in your presence.”
APPLICATION – Without God’s presence, we have no hope individually & corporately.
How important is God’s presence? David, who wrote most of those verses, was a man after God’s own heart – not b/c he killed lions & bears, or b/c he killed Goliath or wrote a bunch of Psalms or was a great warrior or great king – but b/c he was a man who was desperate for the presence of God. In fact, right before he killed Goliath, he said: “You come to me with sword, spear, and javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies—the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. Today the Lord will conquer you, and I will kill you and cut off your head.” (1 Sam. 17:45-46 NLT) Even as a young man, he knew he had no hope against Goliath w/out God’s presence.
Heb word for “presence” means “face.” David knew that his very life depended on the face of God turned toward him. And in the most tragic chapter in his life – one of the most tragic in entire Bible – he learned the devastation that comes when we turn away from God’s face. Just a few chapters later in the next book, David intentionally turned his face away from God’s face w/ devastating consequences. We need to cry out to the Lord in desperation & brokenness & say as David said, “Lord, please don’t cast me away from your presence. Don’t cast me away from your face, b/c…”
IF YOUR FACE IS NOT TOWARD ME, I WILL MAKE STUPID DECISIONS - v. 11a – Decisions that will devastate my life & the lives of so many others.
David used every word he could use to confess what he had done – v. 1-4a:
- “transgressions” – total rebellion against the Lord
- “iniquity”- perversion & distortion
- “sin” – missing the mark & not living up to God’s standards
- “evil” – blatant wicked, harmful actions
Didn’t try to make excuses – blame others – downplay seriousness of what he had done. Owned it as painful as it was.
IF YOUR FACE IS NOT TOWARD ME, I WON'T KNOW THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT - v. 11b – How many times do we function simply in our own power? Tragedy is that we are content to do that when the same power that brought Jesus out of the grave is in us & available to us! The face of God – the presence of God – is where His power is. David knew that & begged God “take not your Holy Spirit from me!”
IF YOUR FACE IS NOT TOWARD ME, I WILL LOSE THE JOY OF YOUR SALVATION - v. 12a – This is where so many of us fall down. When we are tempted, we go ahead & give in to sin b/c we think, “Well, at least I won’t lose my salvation.” That is true IF you truly know Christ as your Savior b/c we will all sin.
But losing the joy of God’s salvation rips your heart out! Your life is plagued by a restlessness, an emptiness, a laziness in the things of God. You don’t want to pray, read your Bible, worship the Lord w/ God’s people at church. Or if you do come to church, you just go through the motions, or you don’t do anything at all. You certainly don’t want to serve the Lord in any way, & you open yourself up to all sorts of attacks from the enemy. Losing the joy of God’s salvation makes you extremely vulnerable to temptation.
David had experienced all of these things which is why he begged God to restore, or bring back that joy.
IF YOUR FACE IS NOT TOWARD ME, I WON'T HAVE YOU HOLDING ME UP – v. 12b - When we don’t have God’s presence, we don’t God’s grip on our lives. He will let us go our own way if that’s what we want to do. He will stop upholding us & let us find out how desperately we need Him.
CONCLUSION - Kyle Reno: The presence of God was evident in men & women in Scripture who were used mightily by God. It’s what distinguished them. “The longing for the presence of God in our individual lives & in a local church is what will distinguish us from all others.”
Prayed that we would have “the fullest experience of your presence as possible here on earth.” – that God’s presence would be so tangible here today that lost people in our midst would be moved to the point of saying, “I’ve got to have this Jesus that they have.”
