Title: A Sense of Absence
Introduction: How did it feel to wake up this morning knowing that you lost a million dollars yesterday? How did you feel when your favorite hockey team lost last night?
--Someone tell of their childhood and the things you had for a moment.
--The Alabama song “Song of the South.”
----> Point is, we don’t miss that which we do not have.
1. What is a Sense of Absence?
A. Can we have a sense of absence without a sense of presence? Explain.
2. What is it about King David’s life that illustrates that he had a sense of the presence of God?
A. First look at what he did. Adultery, murder, immorality at its blackest.
B. His sense of the presence of God can be seen in his repentance. Psalm 51.
C. Why did David come back to God?
‒ Was it his hatred of the sin that he committed?
‒ Was it the relationship with God that he had?
‒ David had a sense of presence at its greatest when he was down.
**POINT---->Most people love sin too much to hate its wickedness enough to turn to God. It takes a desire to have a relationship with God to cause a man to want to change.
‒ We must desire to be with God. READ PSALM 42:1-2
David knew his spiritual poverty and knew that he had to turn to God.
3. How are we not aware of our spiritual poverty many times? What are some ways we have lost our awareness of the presence of God?
A. Swelling Egos: When we desire glory for ourselves and our buildings rather than God.
‒ Hebrews 12:2 "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."
‒ There is nothing so dear as Jesus.
‒ There is no building as beautiful and no goal as worthy to attain.
B. Glorifying Church: Ephesians 3:20-21 "Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, {21} to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen."
‒ We are to Glorify GOD in the church.
‒ It is the bottom line in the church to glorify God!!
C. Neon Not Fire: We want flashy preaching and great services for our own selfish desires and, in doing this, we miss the fire of the true divine one.
‒ As long as we can “sell the program” we think we have a great work going.
‒ To experience the fire of God, we must take our eyes off of the flash of neon that hinders our vision.
D. Wrong Focus: We see a man in a pulpit, not a message from God! Listen to the following quote from Edwin White:
‒ “One of the great scandals of the modern church is that the sheep enter the fold to see their Guide (preacher) and they are sent away satisfied, although they never saw their Lord. The flock is spiritually impoverished and yet unaware of its poverty. They feel no sense of absence because there was never a sense of Presence.” (Sense 15)
‒ Listen to David in Psalm 51 and hear the desire of him to be in the presence of God!!
‒ We need to be like those disciples who came to Phillip and asked, "Sir," they said, "we would like to see Jesus."" John 12:21
‒ Jesus told Thomas, “Happy are those who have not seen me and still believe.” We do not have to see the physical Jesus in order to believe by faith that He exists and is very much active in our lives.
E. The Feverish Gate: We run too fast to “Take Time To Be Holy.”
‒ I will have more to say about this in the afternoon, but listen to Psalm 4 “...meditate on you bed and be still.”
‒ We seem to have too much going on to be still.
F. The Remote God: Many find God too far away to be present with them. Sense Page 16
Conclusion: Do we, as a whole, miss God when we are away from Him, or do we not because we have no relationship with Him?
-- God says, Hebrews 7:19 "The law of Moses could not make anything perfect. But now a better hope has been given to us, and with this hope we can come near to God."
-- Hebrews 10:22 "let us come near to God with a sincere heart and a sure faith, because we have been made free from a guilty conscience, and our bodies have been washed with pure water."
