WHEN GOD DISAPPEARS 9/16/03
Psalm 10:1
I was infatuated as a boy with magic tricks. We had a Christian magician come to the church and I was hooked from then on. I began to get books and study magic at a very early age. I would spend hours and hours practicing the magic and when I got my first job at the age of 14, I would spend the majority of my money in buying new tricks. I still have a lot of stuff. But sense they’ve came out with the shows that reveal the secrets, I’ve lost the interest because everyone knows how to do the tricks now. One of my favorite tricks was to make things disappear. Now one of the things about being a magician was that you never tell your secrets. But I’ll do like the TV show. I’ll tell you “the secrete” of how things disappear. They don’t, it is always an illusion. They appear to disappear but never do.
As I was praying this week as to what message God would have me to bring to you this morning, this thought kept coming over my mind again and again; when God disappears. Now the truth of the matter is that just like the magic trick, it’s all an illusion. God never disappears.
How do I know that? God gives us this promise in His word.
Hebrews 13:5b, I will never leave you, nor forsake you.
But there are circumstances that He appears distant. This morning we will look at a few of those so that we can determine which one relates best to each of us. This will allow us to reveal the way to feel His presence in all of these circumstances.
Sin Will Hide His Presence
From the beginning of time, sin has caused separation from God.
Genesis 3:8, And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.
Cain after slaying his brother.
Genesis 4:16, And Cain went out from the presence of the LORD, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden.
And it doesn’t stop there. All through out the Bible you will find where God took His blessing off of people due to sin.
David is an example of that. A man after God’s own heart. Remember he committed adultery with Bathsheba, then had her husband killed. Sin caused separation from God. So how did this man after God’s own heart get back the presence of God? The same way you and I can if we have sin in our lives.
Acts 3:19, Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord;
If you don’t feel as close to Lord as you use to, guess who moved? God didn’t disappear, you left Him, He didn’t leave you. You need to confess your sins and ask Him to forgive you as David did. Psalms 51:1-10
Now if you sin, and you continue to sin, and you don’t feel God’s presence leaving you, then you better go back and make sure that it was there to start with. If you continue to sin you might have some short time satisfaction, but you will be miserable till you make things right with Him.
Sin will cause separation from God.
We Will Flee From His Presence
Some times it is us who is the one disappearing. When God called out to Adam and Eve they were hiding in the garden, do they really think that He didn’t know where they were? He had planted the very trees that they were hiding from. That’s like a little baby covering there eyes playing with a parent and thinking that just because their eyes are closed and they can’t see you, you can’t see them either.
Now Adam and Eve hide because of sin, but what is another reason that people flee from His presence?
Some flee because they don’t want to do what He is asking them to do. Fleeing from service you could say. MIA as the military calls it.
We read about such a case in Jonah.
Jonah 1:2-3, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before Me. But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.
You see God told Jonah to do something and Jonah thought He could be MIA for that job. The same thing still happens. God calls you to do something for Him. You might not get on a boat to Tarhish, but you run from the calling. You might be afraid like Jonah. Nineveh was a town of great wickedness. Not one that would be receptive to any kind of preaching. He was afraid of what the people might do to him.
Maybe God has called you to do something and you are afraid like Jonah. You are afraid of what others might say. You are afraid of what others might do. You are afraid of what others might think.
There is a sin that is not talked about. It’s not one that is shown by its action. It is lack of action that causes the sin. We talked about this in the Youth Group, studying, “Sharing Jesus without fear”. If God tells you to do something and you don’t then it is a sin. If God tells you to witness to someone and you don’t, then you have the sin of silence. Sometimes it’s not what you say; it’s what you don’t say.
I was called to preach at age of 9, three days shy of my 10th birthday. I can remember having to stand on a chair to see over the pulpit. But then I ran from that call. I can remember thinking I was never going to get married because I knew what the life of a preachers family was and didn’t want to put my own through it. Then after having a family there was a lot of circumstances that would have prevented me from preaching. I didn’t think that I would ever have the satisfaction of fulfilling His call. But He had a plan. I didn’t get spit out from a fish’s belly, but I’ve felt His presence over the last couple of years more than any other time in my life.
Some people will even get out of church totally to keep from doing the service that God has gave them to do.
So what are you running from God for. Are you MIA? Are you fleeing His presence?
Do a U-turn. Tell Him you don’t know how to do it, but you are willing to do. He wants your availability, not your ability. He never will ask you to do something that He hasn’t all ready prepared the way for you to do it.
I heard a true about a woman who sang in a group. At 3’00 in the morning she was awakened and felt like God was telling her to go down to the riverbank of the Ohio River and sing “Amazing Grace”. She thought she was losing it, surly God wouldn’t want her to do that; especially at that time in the morning. But the presence of God never left her and kept on impressing her to do it. So she got up and woke her husband and told him that as crazy as it seems she needed to go down to the Ohio River and sing “Amazing Grace”. She got dressed and went down to the riverbank and sang the song and got back in the car and went home. As strange as it seemed at the time, she left with a peace knowing that she had did what God had told her to do. A few weeks latter they were singing at a camp meeting held in a tent by the Ohio River. A man stood up and testified that a few weeks ago that he had went down to the river and had planned on committing suicide that night but all of the sudden he heard an angle singing “Amazing Grace”. He accepts Christ and who knows what would have happened if that someone had denied God’s presence and not did what God told her to do.
Sometimes He Withholds His Presence
I was speaking with the teen’s Wednesday night about this subject. I asked how many knew how to ride a bike. How many of you still ride with the training wheels that they learned with?
You see sometimes God will withhold His presence from us because He wants us to take off the training wheels.
It’s easy to worship God when things are doing good and you have your health and your family and every thing is like the ending of a fairy tale, “Happily ever after”. But just like the fairy, this isn’t very realistic.
Rick Warren writes in his book, The Purpose Driven Life, “The deepest level of worship is praising God in spite of pain, thanking God during a trial, trusting Him when tempted, surrendering while suffering, and loving Him when he seems distant”.
As you mature as Christians, God may test you with periods of seeming separation. And sometimes it’s during a trial or a tragedy. How could God let my little baby die? Why would God allow someone who loves Him get terminal cancer?
Job is a perfect example of this. Satan came to present himself to the Lord. God says, “Have you checked out Job lately?” So God allows Satan in a matter of days he lost his family, his wealth, and his health. He had not done anything wrong and even though God was there, he couldn’t feel His presence.
Job 23:8-10, Look, I go forward, but He is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive Him: When He works on the left hand, I cannot behold Him: when He turns to the right hand, I cannot see Him: But he knows the way that I take: when He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold.
You see sometimes when you feel God has distanced Himself from you; it is not because of sin, it is not a case of you fleeing Him; it is a process of Him maturing you.
A lot of Christians today are seeking an experience rather than seeking God. They seek a feeling and if they get that feeling then they feel as if they have worshipped. God often removes our feelings, like training wheels, so we won’t depend on them. Seeking a feeling is not worship. He wants you to trust Him more than you feel Him. Faith not feelings pleases God.
People become concerned about not feeling the Spirit in a church service. Let me ask you, what did you do to change that? We shouldn’t come to church to be entertained. We should come to church to worship Him. When you sing, don’t sing to me or the person in front of you or the person behind you. Most of you are probably thinking when you sing Dean, don’t sing to anyone, just don’t sing. But when you sing, sing to the Lord. When someone is praying, don’t sit back there and count the ones they left off, pray with him to Him.
I heard about some people in the church praying for another Pastor. They approached a Pastor and told him about them praying for a new pastor and asked him if he would consider applying for the job. He told them that instead of praying for the Lord to send them a new pastor, why not pray for the pastor they have.
Don’t wonder around from church to church looking for that feel good feeling. Instead pray and seek God to bring that feel good feeling in the church you’re at.
Eternal Separation From God
No God is here. He never disappears, even though it seems that way at times. The only time that God is not there is if you reject Him and then you not only spend an eternity in Hell, but more devastating is the eternal separation from God. But you have a choice. He desires to have a relationship with you.
Luke 19:10, For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.
If you are here this morning you can accept Him today.
If you have sin in your life causing separation from God you can make it right today.
If you are separating yourself from God because you don’t want to do what He is asking you to do then you can come and surrender to Him.
