I.       Exploring Faith: What is God Like (6): God, the Lord, is with us (Presence)

by Jeff Fry

II.    Intro

A.   Review

1.     God values us greatly (Luke 12:22-32)

2.     God prunes us to make us holy (John 15:1-8)

3.     God delivers us from the oppression of our enemy because He is our covenant God (Exodus 6:1-8)

a)    God waited until the Exodus from slavery in Egypt  to tell the Israelites his proper name, "Yahweh"

b)    Yahweh was linked with God's covenant - "I will be their God, and they will be my people"

c)     There is an intimate closeness in the name Yahweh = "I am" or "I will be" or "I am here for you" (depicts the  faithfulness of God to His special covenant people)

4.     God, the Lord, is in control (Isaiah 48:9-15)

5.     God, the Lord, is in authority (Deuteronomy 6:4-9)

B.   This week: God, the Lord, is present with us.

C.   Jaroslav Pelikan, a leading history scholar,  writes, "Thomas Jefferson created his own version of the gospels; he was uncomfortable with any reference to miracles, so with two copies of the New Testament, he cut and pasted them together, excising all references to miracles, from turning water to wine, to the resurrection.  (Thomas Jefferson. The Jefferson Bible; Jefferson and his Contemporaries, an afterward by Jaroslav Pelikan, Boston: Beacon Press, 1989, p. 149.).

D.   In an interview regarding Jefferson with Yale History professor Jon Butler we have: [Interviewer:] Where does he stand on Christ exactly? [Jon Butler:] Jefferson rejected the divinity of Christ, but he believed that Christ was a deeply interesting and profoundly important moral or ethical teacher and it was in Christ's moral and ethical teachings that Jefferson was particularly interested. And so that's what attracted him to the figure of Christ was the moral and ethical teachings as described in the New Testament. But he was not an evangelical and he was not a deeply pious individual. (From: Rick Shenkman, "An Interview with Jon Butler ... Was America Founded as a Christian Nation?", posted 20 December 2004 on History News Network website (http://hnn.us/articles/9144.html; viewed 30 November 2005)

E.   Some describe Jefferson as a deist. But whatever he was he did not believe in a personal God.

F.    This week: God, the Lord, is present with us.

1.     What is God like?

2.     What is it mean for God to be the Lord?

III.  God, the Lord, is present with us

A.   State

1.     Read Leviticus 26:9-13

a)    Key thought in Leviticus is holiness - God's and man's.

b)    Chapter 26 broken into two halves:

(1)  Rewards for obedience

(a)    v. 3 "If you follow my decrees and are careful to obey my commands, I will send you rain in its season and the ground will yield its crops …"

(b)  Punishment for disobedience

(c)    v. 14 "but if you will not listen to me …."

2.     Getting our head around the passage

a)    who is speaking?

b)    what good things are listed in this passage that God will do

c)     On what condition will God fulfill his promise in these verses?

3.     The heart of the covenant is expressed by "I will be your God and you will be my people" (Leviticus 26:12 "I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people.")

a)    God's Presence gives us security

(1)  v. 9 says that God will actively "look after" (rather than "look on you with favour") His people.

(a)    God is faithful to provide for the needs of His people

(i)      covenant faithfulness

(ii)    promises to provide for Israel's need for

(a)   v. 9 reproduction - need for companionship

(b)   food - need for physical sustenance

(c)    communion - provide for the spiritual need to commune and connect with God and know God's forgiveness and companionship and friendship

(2)  Covenant is personal relationship protected by commitment. 

(a)    (marriage is a good illustration here)

(b)   God is committing himself to us

(i)      God doesn't leave when the going gets tough

(a)   God identifies with His people

(i)      our enemies are His enemies

(ii)    our friends are His friends

b)    God's presence give us confidence in difficult situations

(1)  God was with the Israelites when He delivered them from the hands of their enemies, the Egyptians.

(2)  Deuteronomy 4:37 Because he loved your forefathers and chose their descendants after them, he brought you out of Egypt by his Presence and his great strength, ³⁸ to drive out before you nations greater and stronger than you and to bring you into their land to give it to you for your inheritance, as it is today.

(3)  Gideon went up against Baal in the name of God.  All the other Israelites were afraid of Baal and had been appeasing Baal's presence and command over them in their town. 

(a)    One night Gideon destroyed the altar to Baal and was found out the next day by the townspeople.  He said to them, "Let Baal contend for Baal if he's so strong.  ".

(b)   when they stood up to him they found out that Baal isn't so tough after all

c)     God's presence gives us rest

(1)  We rest knowing we are accepted by God and don't have to work to earn His acceptance as His chosen people

(a)    v. 11 says, "I will put my dwelling place among you and I will not abhor you."

(i)      God has established a relationship with His people based on acceptance , not rejection.

(ii)    God the friend of His people is what we see here

(iii)   through faith and trust in Christ as Lord we are adopted into the family of God.  God opens up the front door to us.

(a)   we dwell together

(b)   we stick up for each other like family members usually do

(2)  God doesn't establish a performance standard that we must meet, but establishes a trust relationship with us

(a)    we love Him and obey Him for His good and our good

(b)   He blesses us for it

(c)    win-win situation

d)    God's presence delivers us from enemy oppression

(1)  NIV Leviticus 26:13 I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt so that you would no longer be slaves to the Egyptians; I broke the bars of your yoke and enabled you to walk with heads held high. 

(2)  God breaks the bars of the yoke that enslaves us.

(a)     This bar is the heavy crosspiece resting on an oxen’s back, forcing it to pull a heavy load.^[1]

(b)   sin enslaves us

(i)      addictions

(ii)    fear

(iii)   self-condemnation

(iv)  anger

(v)    impatience

(3)  God's presence in our life banishes the evil, the oppression of the enemy.

(a)    Get more of God in your life and it will rid you of the evil

(b)   renew your mind by feeding it the truth of God's word everyday.

(c)    In our Freedom in Christ course you will learn how to do a "Stronghold Buster" which is designed to bring the truth of the Word of God to bear on an stronghold in your life .  A stronghold is an area of sin that enslaves you.

(4)  not only does God free His people but he heals the stoop that the heavy burden of the enemy created.

(a)    Slaves are bent over under the heavy burdens they must bear. But Yahweh will heal the stoop produced by the heavy loads Israel carried while enslaved to the Egyptians. Not only will he ease the burden of his people; he will give them dignity so that they may walk upright, i.e., with confidence

B.   Illustrate

1.     DH

a)    Psalm 68:1 For the director of music. Of David. A psalm. A song. May God arise, may his enemies be scattered; may his foes flee before him. 2 As smoke is blown away by the wind, may you blow them away; as wax melts before the fire, may the wicked perish before God.

b)    from 50 to six!

C.   Apply

1.     Where do you need God's presence in your life?

a)    need to rest in God's acceptance?

b)    need assurance that God is seeing you through a difficult situation?