How to Enjoy the Presence of God | Part 1

What is the truest purpose of worship?

Listen to Adrian and enjoy him personally. Is he today, this moment in your heart, in your life, a bright, living, vital reality? Because you see, worship is enjoying the presence of God. You need nothing more.

You should settle for nothing less. We must learn how to enjoy the presence of God, and even more importantly, how to stay in it. If you have your Bible, turn to Exodus chapter 33. We'll begin in verse one as Adrian Rogers begins part one of how to enjoy the presence of God. If you were to give a definition of worship, what would it be? Is worship enjoying God?

I believe it is. I think that worship is enjoying the presence of God. Now, folks, the longer I live, the more I study, the more I experience, the more I realize that that is the bottom line, the highest good, the most wonderful fulfillment to know God intimately and to enjoy Him personally.

Enjoying the presence of God. Now, let me ask you a question. Do you know God personally? I'm not asking if you know about Him.

You might know about George Washington. I'm asking, do you know God personally? Is He today, this moment in your heart, in your life, a bright, living, vital reality? If so, you know the deepest pleasure. You have fulfilled the deepest need. You have fulfilled the deepest need. You have attained that for which you were created, to know God personally.

Because, you see, worship is enjoying the presence of God. You need nothing more. You should settle for nothing less. You need nothing more.

You should settle for nothing less. Now, there are many Christians today who do not have the conscious presence of God in their lives. They show up at church.

They sing the songs. They may muster an amen. But there is a deadness, a dryness, and a void in their life. Now, let me tell you some of the most frightening words in all of the Bible. They're found here in Exodus chapter 33, verses 1 through 3.

Jesus said to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, Unto thy seed will I give it, and I will send an angel before thee. And I will drive out the Canaanite, and the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite, unto a land flowing with milk and honey. For I will not go up in the midst of thee. For thou art a stiff-necked people, lest I consume thee in the way.

What are the frightening words? God says, I'm not going with you. I will not go up in the midst of you.

Now, what is the situation? The Jewish people, the sons of Abraham, are out there in the wilderness. God has given them a covenant, and God has given them a promise, and they're headed toward the promised land, and in the middle of that journey, they sin terribly against God. God says, I will not go up in the midst of thee. God says, all right, I promise that I'm going to give you the land, a land that flows with milk and honey. I will give you an angel escort into the land.

And when you get there, the land will flow with milk and honey. But God says, I am not going with you. Now, that's frightening, to have success, to have possessions, to have protection, but not to have the presence of the Lord. I'm going to give you an angel to take care of you. He says, I'll get you into the land, but I am not going with you.

That would be like people getting married and the husband taking care of the wife, but they're living in separate bedrooms. Don't settle for success without the Lord. As a matter of fact, it has well been said, in whatever a man does without God, he will either fail miserably or succeed even more miserably.

Now, let's get the background a little bit. Moses had gone up on Mount Sinai to get the Ten Commandments and instructions for the Tabernacle. While Moses was gone, Aaron, his brother, led the people into a revolt against Almighty God. What Aaron said is, we don't know what's happened to Moses. He's been up there a long time.

Maybe he's never coming back. We need some guidance. We need some help.

We need some leadership. You people give me your bracelets and your earrings, and we will make a golden calf. We will worship that golden calf, and that's what the people did. Just go back to chapter 32 and look in verse 4. And the Lord said unto Moses, Go in peace.

The people set down to eat and to drink and rose up to play. And the Lord said unto Moses, Go, get thee down, for thy people, which thou broughtest up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way, which I commanded them. And they have made them a golden calf. And they have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto and said, These be thy gods of Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And the Lord said unto Moses, Go, get thee down, for thy people, which thou broutest up out said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiff-necked people. Now, therefore, let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them, and I will make of thee a great nation."

Now, what happens is this. When Moses comes down off the mountain, he sees this charade, this orgy, this feast. They are committing immorality. They're doing terrible, horrible things, dancing around a golden calf. Moses is so grieved that he takes the Ten Commandments and casts them to the ground and breaks those tablets of stone. Then he takes that golden calf and has it ground into powder and mixes that powder with water and makes the people to drink it.

Their greatest delight now has become their greatest displeasure, and then 3,000 of the chief rebels are slain and put to death. Moses knows that this is a crisis. So Moses goes to God to intercede and look, if you will, now in verses 30 and 32, chapter 32, and begin in verses 30 and 32. And it came to pass on the morrow that Moses said unto the people, ye have sinned a great sin, and now I will go up unto the Lord, per adventure I shall make an atonement for your sin. Moses goes up to stand between God and judgment.

He goes up to intercede. And Moses returned unto the Lord and said, oh, this people have sinned a great sin and have made them gods of gold. Yet now if thou wilt forgive their sin, it's sort of an unfinished sentence.

His heart is just broken. Yet now if thou wilt forgive their sin, and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of the book which thou hast written. And Moses is praying and interceding and putting himself in the place of these people. God says, all right, I won't destroy them. Moses, for your sake, I will bring them into the land. I will give them protection. I will give them provision. I will fulfill my promise, but I will not go with them into the land.

If you're a brother and sister in Christ, do not settle for a deal like that. Do not settle for protection. Do not settle for provision. Do not settle for a promised land without the presence of God.

Just don't do it. Now, I'm telling you, I'm telling you, when you have the presence of God, you need nothing more. But you should settle for nothing less. You say, how does that apply to me, Pastor? Well, there are a lot of you today who are saying, I have salvation. I have eternal security. I'm not walking in joy.

I'm not walking in victory. God is not real to me, but I honestly expect to go to heaven. And when the pastor asks, how many of you know if you were to die today, you'd go to heaven, you'd lift your hand. But if you would be honest with me, you would say, Pastor, God is not real in my life. I do not have the manifest presence of God in my life. I have His protection. I have His provision.

I have His promise. But I do not have that presence of God in my life. Now, don't think just because you have provision and protection, you're right with God. Don't think that for just one moment. Oh, you may be on your way to heaven. But I'm going to tell you one thing.

You're certainly traveling there second class. I remind you that a non-believer has certain provisions, food and air and clothes and houses. And, you know, we can be so preoccupied with getting that provision and that protection and claiming that promise that we fail to have His presence. Israel, however, knew better than that.

And thank God that they did. Look in verse 4. And the Bible, so this is Exodus 33, verse 4.

And when the people heard these evil tidings, they mourned. And I want to say to you today that it is an evil thing to have gifts without the giver, to have blessings without the blesser, to have the promise without the provider and the manifest presence of God. Again, I want to ask you this question. Is God real to you? Is the presence of God, the Shekinah glory of God, this moment, very real to you? Are you just simply fulfilling your duty, listening to some pastor bum away, and really, very frankly, you're not very interested? This message is for you because worship is enjoying the presence of God. We're going to show you in a moment you need nothing more.

You should settle for nothing less. What made Israel different from the other nations? It was the manifested presence of God in the midst of them. It was the Shekinah glory. I wonder, are there some of you who once knew the glory of God and now that glory has departed and that glory has faded and the glory of God is gone and your life is dry. What caused God to withdraw his manifested presence from his people? I want to mention four things. Those four things are the same four things that will rob you, denude you of the manifested presence of God in your life and will be the archenemy of worship. Worship is enjoying the presence of God.

Now what were these four things? What happened to Israel where God said, well, I'll not destroy Israel. I'll send an angel, but I will not be in their midst. Number one, they disobeyed God. Look if you will in Exodus 32 verses 7 and 8 again. Go back to it, Exodus 32. And the Lord God said unto Moses, Go get thee down for thy people which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves. That's what calls them Moses, your people now. And notice verse 8, they have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them.

Just underscore that. They have turned quickly out of the way which I commanded them. And because they disobeyed God, the manifested presence of God was withdrawn from them.

Do you know a lot of people? You confess faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. You have subscribed to the authentic doctrines of the church. You followed the Lord in believer's baptism, but you do not have the presence of God. You don't even have the assurance of your salvation.

And I have people come to me and say, Pastor, could you help me? I don't know whether I'm saved or not. Well, let me tell you, I can't tell you whether you're saved or not. That's not my job.

That's not my responsibility. Do you know whose responsibility it is to tell you that you're saved? It's the Holy Spirit. It's the Holy Spirit of God that gives you the assurance that you belong to Him. That is the work of the Holy Spirit. Listen to these verses and put them down. I John 4 and verse 13, Hereby know we that we dwell in Him and He in us because He hath given to us of His Spirit. Could anything be more plain than that? Listen to it again. I John 4 and verse 13, Hereby know we that we dwell in Him and He in us because He hath given us of His Spirit.

That's plain. How do we know that we belong to Him? The Holy Spirit.

Let me give you a companion verse. Romans chapter 8 and verse 16, The Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the Father. Now those two verses make it crystal clear that it is the work of the Holy Spirit to give us that assurance that we belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. John says and Paul says because of the Holy Spirit, we have the assurance of our salvation.

What does that have to do with the manifested presence of God and what does that have to do with disobedience that you just read simply this? When you knowingly, willingly with eyes wide open disobey God, do you know what you do to the Holy Spirit? You grieve the Holy Spirit of God. That's the reason the Bible says that you're not to give place to the devil and grieve the Holy Spirit of God. Ephesians 4 verse 30, Grieve not the Spirit of God. Grieve not the Holy Spirit. Did you know that you can only grieve somebody who loves you?

Let me illustrate this and you will understand what I'm talking about. The neighbor's kids may vex you. Your own children grieve you.

What's the difference? Grieve is a love word. The Holy Spirit of God loves you, but you can so grieve him when you disobey the commandments of God that the Holy Spirit just closes up. Again, the Bible says in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 and verse 19, Quench not the Spirit. You know what the word quench means?

It means to pour cold water on a fire. The Holy Spirit is like a gentle dove. The Holy Spirit is like a glowing ember.

You can frighten away that dove. You can pour water on that ember. The Bible says be filled with the Spirit. Then the Bible says grieve not, quench not. Be filled. Grieve not, quench not.

Now listen again. I want to ask you this question. Who gives you the assurance of your salvation? The Holy Spirit of God. Who is it that manifests the life of God in you? The Holy Spirit of God is to you in this age what that pillar of cloud and that pillar of fire was to those people in that day.

He is the Shekinah, glory of God. He is the manifested presence of God. The Holy Spirit of God is the manifested presence of God in your life. The Holy Spirit of God is the manifested presence of God in your life.

Now listen to me. If you will feel carefully, knowingly, deliberately, disobey God. You grieve the Spirit.

You quench the Spirit. And when you do, God ceases to be real to you. You can even wonder, am I saved? I met many people who doubt their salvation that I believe are truly saved. But they're living in direct disobedience to God.

And as a result of that, they do not have the manifested presence of God. Now put this verse in your Bible. John 14 verse 21. It's one of the key verses in enjoying the presence of God.

Now listen to it. Jesus said, He that hath my commandments and keepeth them. He it is that loveth me. Now folks, when people truly love God, you don't see it just when they stand in the congregation and sing, oh, how I love Jesus.

But they obey Him. He that hath my commandments and keepeth them. He it is that loveth me. And he that loveth me shall be loved to my Father.

And watch this. And I will love Him and will what? Manifest myself to Him. Aren't we talking about the manifest presence of God?

Do you see how the Bible links the manifest presence of God with keeping the commandments of God? Because when we disobey God, we grieve the Holy Spirit, we quench the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit of God is in us to make God real to us. And when we do that, we might have eternal security. We might go to heaven. God might send an angel escort to bring us to heaven when we die.

But would you settle for that rather than the manifest presence of God? Many Christians are. A man came and talked to his pastor, and he said, Pastor, I don't have any joy. The presence of God is not real in my heart, in my life like it used to be. This wise pastor asked him a direct question. He said, is there any known sin in your life, any unconfessed and repetitive sin in your life? That man, in a moment of honesty, said, well, pastor, let me tell you something. He said, I used to bring a tithe of my income to God.

I believe the Word of God when the Bible teaches that we're to bring all the tithe into the storehouse. But he said some time ago, I got the idea that perhaps God didn't need that as much as I needed it. And he said, yes, pastor, I have ceased to be honest with God.

And you know what this man told him? The pastor said, do you know what you've done? You've begun to steal from God. He said, sir, you wouldn't put your hand in the offering plate, would you, when the offering is passed?

Put your hand in the offering plate and take some money out that other people had given to God, would you steal from the offering plate? Malachi says, when a man is not faithful in stewardship, he's robbing God. Now, he said, what do you think God does when his child does that? When God sees his child willingly disobeying him, will God say this?

My child has chosen to disobey me. Number one, he's stealing from me. Number two, he cannot trust me to take care of his needs. He cannot trust me with his resources.

Number three, he will not obey me. Now, this week, I think I will bless him with even more financial resources, and I will make my presence very real to him. Do you think God would do that? And God says, I'm going to display myself. I am going to give him a deeper sense of my presence and my approval. No.

No, why? Because here was a man in willing disobedience to Almighty God. And coming up on Monday, we'll hear part two of how to enjoy the presence of God. But maybe today you have questions about what Jesus is, about what he means to you, how to receive the forgiveness that God is offering you through Christ. Go to our Discover Jesus page at lwf.org slash radio.

You'll find resources and materials there that can answer many of the questions you might have about your faith. Again, lwf.org slash radio and click Discover Jesus at the top of the page. Now, if you'd like to order a copy of today's message in its entirety, call us at 1-877-LOVE-GOD, and mention the title, How to Enjoy the Presence of God. This message is also part of the powerful and convicting series, Exalting Your Savior. For the complete collection, all seven powerful messages, call that number 1-877-LOVE-GOD, or go to the website lwf.org slash radio.

Or you can write us to order at Love Worth Finding, Box 38600, Memphis, Tennessee 38183. Thanks for studying with us in God's Word today. Remember these powerful words from Adrian Rogers as you continue with your day, do not settle for a promised land without the presence of God. We hope you'll join us Monday for the conclusion of this message right here on Love Worth Finding. At Love Worth Finding, we are so excited about the new things that God is doing in and through this ministry. And we are blessed to share free resources with you through the Love Worth Finding app. Now, the app is free, it's easy to navigate, and you'll find timeless messages and devotionals there. The app also has exclusive content, including our brand new audio theater series, Voices of Easter. Hear the story of Jesus' final days of his earthly ministry, his death, his resurrection through the eyes of those who witnessed it all unfold. Featuring the creatively crafted testimonies of Peter, Pilate's wife, John the Beloved, and more, this series is a wonderful tool to refresh your understanding of the Easter story and share it with others. Search for Love Worth Finding in your app store to download it onto your mobile device, tablet, or TV. Thank you for your continued support of Love Worth Finding.