Come into His presence

   1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. 3 And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” 4 At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. 5 “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.”

 6 Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”

 8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”

 And I said, “Here am I. Send me!” (Isaiah 6:1-8 NIV)

Intro:

   Brother Lawrence, a lay brother in the Carmelite Order, wrote a little book called The Practice of the Presence of God. He died in 1691 near the age of 80. His writings are still being read and contemplated today. Andrew Murray, born in 1828 wrote a little book called The Secret of the Abiding Presence.

   Murray points out that Jesus made a promise to His disciples in Matthew 28:20 “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” He points out that while the disciples expressed dismay over the prospect of Jesus leaving them before His ascension, there is no hint of them missing Jesus after the day of Pentecost. Why? This is how Murray explains it “The early disciples never for a moment regretted his bodily absence. They had Him with them, and in them, in the divine power of the Holy Spirit.”

   Well, you might say, God is always with us. Yes. But do you know it? Do you experience it? Now, you might say, our experience is not reliable. Yes. It is a dangerous thing to make our faith subject to our experience. But since we truly believe that Jesus is with us always, as the Bible teaches, let us bring our experience, our awareness into harmony with our faith.

I. Half of life is just Paying Attention!

   A.   God’s Presence in 4 Directions at once.

      1.   Before, behind, above, below.

      2.   God sometimes comes to us sideways.

   B.   What is God doing with you here?

      1.   In the daily troubles and bothers of life, God is working on you.

      2.   When you face a problem, sometimes the most important question is not “How do I solve this problem?” but “What is God doing with me here?”

      3.   Specifics:

          a.    Are you having financial problems? What is God teaching you about being satisfied in all situations, in plenty or in want, about financial responsibility, about your dependence on Him, etc.?

          b.   Problems with your kids? What is God teaching you about patience, or authority, or gentleness, or love, or something else?

          c.    Problems in your marriage? What is God teaching you about love, giving, understanding, listening, patience, prayer, assertiveness, etc.?

          d.   What is God doing with you in the biggest problem or area you are facing right now? It might take a while to figure it out. But you can be sure that whatever it is, God won’t let it happen to you unless he already has a plan to turn it to your benefit.

          e.    Whatever you are facing God is in it!

   C.   Seek the Lord while He may be Found

Isaiah 55:1-13

1 "Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. 2 Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare. 3 Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David. 4 See, I have made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander of the peoples. 5 Surely you will summon nations you know not, and nations that do not know you will hasten to you, because of the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, for he has endowed you with splendor." 6 Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near. 7 Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon. 8 "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. 9 "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. 10 As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, 11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. 12 You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. 13 Instead of the thornbush will grow the pine tree, and instead of briers the myrtle will grow. This will be for the LORD's renown, for an everlasting sign, which will not be destroyed." (NIV)

      1.   Come, buy and eat. It doesn’t cost you and the product is beyond price.

      2.   God’s vision for Alger Community Church is not that it be a shrub but a mighty tree, not a nuisance plant but a fragrant tree!

      3.   We purpose to seek the Lord

          a.    Not the way it used to be.

          b.   Not our version of the way things are supposed to be.

          c.    We will seek the Lord. What is God doing? That’s what we will do. What will bring God glory? That’s what we will do.

II.   Worship is Response to God

   A.   In God’s presence we see our Puniness.

      1.   We see our moral puniness.

      2.   We see the puniness of our hearts.

      3.   We see our puny understanding.

   B.   God’s touch makes us Clean.

      1.   Reverse moral physics.

      2.   Don’t let your impurity stand between you and the only One Who can make you clean.

   C.   With God’s people we seek to Praise Him.

III. The goal of worship is God’s Glory!

   A.   Worship is Beyond Words.

      1.   It is possible for all the words said and sung to be Biblical words and yet for no worship to take place.

Isaiah 29:13 The Lord says: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men.

      2.   Whether our voices are in tune with the music doesn’t matter so much as whether our hearts are in tune with the very presence of God.

   B.   Hallowed be Thy Name.

      1.   When we pray these words with half a heart, or out of some mere ritual, we shouldn’t be surprised that we do not see God’s glory anywhere.

      2.   We pray the words, but the actions of our lives lead others to dismiss God as irrelevant or wishful thinking, or merely an adornment.

      3.   To truly pray this prayer requires that we promise to do all we can to bring God praise and root out of our lives everything that would lead others to see in us a powerless or meaningless God.

   C.   Doing everything for God’s Glory!

So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.(1Cor.10:31)

“Here am I. Send me!”

The Bottom Line:

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