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Amen. So this morning I'm going to continue on preaching about the topic of God's nature. And this morning we're going to look at the fact that God is omnipresent. God is omnipresent. And basically, you know, that word omni just means all. So any time you hear these terms used, you know, omni, you can just think all, whatever. All, whatever might follow. In this case, omnipresent. Meaning that God is all present, meaning that He is present everywhere. You know, there's no place that God isn't. And when you say that, there's a couple things that you want to make sure you clarify. Because a lot of people can get this idea about God that He's omnipresent and kind of go to some extremes or go to some weird places when it comes to this. They, like, folks might say, well, if God is everywhere, then God must be everything. Okay. And I've heard people say this, well, you know, God is this pulpit. You know, God's that piano. God is in everything. And, you know, that's really getting into more of a pantheistic and, you know, kind of a Star Wars type of view of God where God's just this impersonal force. But we have to remember from our earlier lessons is that God is a spirit, that He is immaterial. Now, of course, we know that Christ, you know, the Son of God, took on, you know, the form of man and that He was created, you know, of a woman. But God in His nature is omnipresent and that He is spirit. So, and we'll make application here at the end. I know these are kind of a little bit more abstract ideas that we're talking about. But these are, you know, important things to understand about God. You know, there's a lot we can learn about God's omnipresence. There's a lot of things we can take away from this when we start to think about the fact that God is present everywhere. And, you know, the Scriptures tell us about that here in Psalms 139 where you are. It says in verse 7, whether shall I go from my spirit or whether shall I flee from my presence if I send up into heaven, thou art there. If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. So there's a thought, you know, people often think that somehow God has nothing to do with hell. Well, He's actually the one that created hell. And in fact, He's even, David's telling us here that He is present in hell. You know, His spirit is there. It says there, if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the utmost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me, thy right hand shall hold me. So you can kind of see how we can derive a sense of comfort here from this fact, that God is present everywhere, that God is never absent from our lives, that God is always there. That's what He says there at the end. Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. Now, sometimes it seems like God is not present, but we have to understand that God by His very nature is always present. Now, I'm kind of getting ahead of myself a little bit, but what I want us to understand is that God is present in different places in different ways. But we have to always understand that God is present everywhere, that His spirit is everywhere. If you would, go over to Isaiah chapter 40. Isaiah chapter 40. And what this should make us think about, first of all, is the fact that how immense God is. You know, and again, this whole series about God's nature and everything, we're trying to get across these deep, powerful truths about the nature of God using man's terms. You know, using terms like omnipresent, trying to put a vocabulary together to where we can describe the nature of God and who He is and what He's like. It says in Isaiah chapter 40, verse 12, Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, and meted out the heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales and hills in a balance. Of course, this is things that God has done. This is just showing us how immense God is. You know, we would look at an ocean and say, Wow, what a vast ocean. It's so huge. It would take, you know, weeks and months to, you know, depending on the technology we had available to us, to cross these oceans. We'd get lost in them and you wouldn't know which way to go. But the Bible says here that God just, you know, that He has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand. I mean, that's how immense God is. Again, the Bible is just trying to illustrate and get us to understand how vast God is, how big He is, how immense He is because of the fact that God is present everywhere. You know, we'd look at these mountains and say, Man, we look at that mountain limit and say, Well, I want to climb that someday. Well, maybe we wouldn't all say that, you know. But some of us would say that. We would say, I want to try and scale that mountain one day. It would be this difficult task. It would be something we have to build up to and work at. But He says there that He weighs the mountains in scales. To God, it's just, you know, the biggest mountain on earth is just, it's nothing to Him. He's comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure. He knows, you know, how much soil there is. I mean, God is everywhere. These things are nothing to God. God is that immense. And to try and illustrate this, you know, because again, I'm trying to put this in terms that we can understand or at least so we can comprehend how immense God is. We'll never truly comprehend that. But think about the fact that everything that we know of has a center and an end, right? Like this Bible, there's a center to the Bible and then it has like a sort of circumference, if you will. I know it's not a circle. But it has a border, right? It has a beginning and it has an end, everything. Everything that we see and look at, this pulpit, those chairs, everything that we look at, there's a center to that mass and then there's an end to that mass, right? It has limits. Well, think about the fact that God doesn't have that, that there is no limit to his being, that he has a center and that center is everywhere. So that's just trying an illustration to kind of get us to understand when we're talking about, you know, the omnipresence of God, we're talking about how immense the Lord truly is and that he's beyond our, you know, human comprehension. The Bible here with these illustrations like Isaiah 40 verse 12 are just trying to put it in, you know, human terms so we can wrap our minds around the immensity of God. Go over to Isaiah 66, Isaiah 66. You know, this is something the Bible brings about up several times and addresses is the fact of how immense God is. The Bible says in 1 Kings, you're going to Isaiah 66, but will God indeed dwell on earth? Behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain me. So we know the heavens, right? That's the sky that we see. And the heaven of heavens, right? That would be the space, you know, space, the stars, the galaxies. The heavens of heavens cannot contain me. We go to one of these observatories that are around here in Tucson and we look out at that, you know, the deep vacuum of space, right? That vast, just emptiness that is space and the Bible says that even that cannot contain God. That's how immense the Lord truly is. How much less the house that I have builded. You're there in Isaiah chapter 66, look at verse 1. Thus saith the Lord, the heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool. I mean, God just says, oh, you know, earth is nothing to me. It's like a footstool, I just rest my foot upon that. You know, it's not, he doesn't literally do that, okay? Don't try to fly up to the North Pole somewhere and find God's heel, okay? So again, this is just, you know, the Bible illustrating to us how immense the Lord truly is. He says, he says, can any, verse 24, hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him, saith the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth, saith the Lord. And really, we got to kind of think about what he's saying here. Look, because of the fact, this is the application, because of the fact of how immense God is and he is present everywhere, there is nowhere we can hide from God. There's nowhere, and this kind of goes back to the fact that God is all knowing, right? God knows everything and God sees everything. God is everywhere. And people sometimes, even Christians, can get this attitude that maybe God doesn't see them, that maybe God's not paying attention to what they're doing, but the fact is, is that if God is everywhere, there is no hiding from him. You know, he sees us not just here on Sunday, not just here on Thursday, but he sees us Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday and Friday and Saturday. He sees us every day of every moment of our lives. He's present everywhere we go. And you know, this can be taken as both a warning and a sense of comfort. You know, depending on how we're living our lives. And if you would, go over to Proverbs chapter five, Proverbs chapter number five, Proverbs chapter number five. So the practical, you know, application here about how immense God is, is that if God is everywhere, you know, don't think you can hide from him. Don't think that you can, there's some place that you can hide away from God and do things that are just pleasing to him, right? And whenever I think about this, I always think about that story in Ezekiel chapter eight, when Ezekiel's taken back and shown what the abominations that the elders of Israel do in the temple. And I won't read that whole story, but he tells them to dig the hole in the wall, right? Then there's a door, and then he goes through it, and he's literally like in this, and they got the censors going, the elders are there with all the smoke. So it's like literally this dark, smoke-filled room where they're worshipping, you know, idols and figures and things like that, where the Bible says that they are committing abomination. He says, look Ezekiel, look what they're doing in the dark, committing abomination. It says that in verse 12 of Ezekiel eight, I'll read to you, it says, Then said he unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark? Right, that man has this foolish notion that if I can just do things in the dark, if I can just hide in some shadowy place somewhere, God's not going to notice what I'm doing. No, God is omnipresent, God is everywhere, God cannot be escaped, there is no hiding from God. And it says there, they say, do you see what every man, the house of Israel do in the dark? Every man in the chambers of his imagery. For they say, and this is the foolish notion that enters into man's head, for they say the Lord seeth us not, the Lord hath forsaken the earth. That's what's going through their mind. They go, God doesn't see what we're doing here. And I brought this up before. I've always read that and thought, well, if God has forsaken the earth and God doesn't see them, why are you doing it in the dark? It's because they still know in the back of their minds that God does see, that God hasn't forsaken the earth. And that's why they have to do these things in secret. They try to hide these things from God, but the fact is that there is no hiding from God. I'm not saying if you're trying to hide in the dark and do something you shouldn't be doing, you shouldn't be doing that all of a sudden Ezekiel's going to show up or something, right? But the fact is that God sees everything. He's omnipresent. He's everywhere. There's no hiding from Him. Don't let this foolish thought enter into your head like these ancients of Israel that think, well, God's forsaken. God's not seeing what we're doing. We can get away with this. You can't get away with it. God sees everything. You're in Proverbs 5, right? In Proverbs 5, he said in verse 21, For the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord. He pondereth all his goings. So does it say God just ponders some of our goings? God only pays attention to us when we're out-souling. God only pays attention to us when we're going to church. God's only paying attention when we're on His terms, when we're on His turf. No, God pays attention to all of our goings. No matter where we're going at all times, God sees us. Because the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord, He pondereth all His goings. And now for guys like the guys in Ezekiel chapter 8, that's bad news, right? But we read earlier with David, he said, Look, even there shall thy right hand lead me, thy right hand shall hold me. Depending on how you're behaving, this can either be a blessing or a curse to you. If you're feeling like you need some comfort, like you need God, need to know that God is near, well, He is near. That can be a great assurance to us that we know that God is everywhere. If we're backslidden and living for the world and not living for Christ, we're not going to want to pay attention to this truth. We're going to say, Well, let me go find my smoke-filled room somewhere. Let me go hide out somewhere dark and just pretend like God doesn't see. But the fact is, the Bible tells us over and over again that God does see. I mean, how couldn't He see? How couldn't God, who even the heavens can't contain, not see? I mean, He sees everything. He's everywhere. He's at all places at all times. If you would, go over to Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians chapter 2, when you get there, put a bookmark in Ephesians 2. We're going to come back again later. But people get this idea, don't they? That they can somehow hide from God, a God who is present everywhere. And we'll even see that in Revelation chapter 6, where they open up the sixth seal, and it says that the kings of the earth and the great men and the rich men and the chief captains and the mighty men and every bondman and every free man hid themselves in the dens and the rocks of the mountains. Christ is about to come back and return and judge the earth, and these guys are running and hiding in the dens and the rocks of the mountains. And they literally have bunkers dug into the sides of these mountains in Colorado and places like that. It's kind of an interesting correlation there. But it says in verse 16, and they said to the mountains and rocks, fall on us, and do what? Hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, from the wrath of the Lamb. You know, there's something in man's nature when he's doing wrong, when he's sinful, when he's wicked, that wants to hide from God. Going all the way back to Genesis, I mean, think about Adam. Right? He sins. The first thing he does is he runs and hides, you know, in the bushes when God shows up, right? That's just part of man's nature now. They think that somehow they can hide from God. But the only time people really want to get away from God or pretend that they can hide from God is when they're not doing right, when they're wicked, when they're doing evil. I mean, in the case of Revelation 6, these are, you know, very wicked people that are running into these caves and dens and saying hide out. You know, they literally want rocks to just cave in on them and just keep God out and hide them from his face. Why? For the great day of his wrath has come. Right? They want to hide from the punishment of God, the wrath of God, the judgment of God. You know, if we understand that God is everywhere and sees everything, that he ponders all our goings, you know, that should cause us to live in a way that we wouldn't want to hide. We would just want to say, God, look at what I'm doing right now and let all my ways please you, right? Let everything that I do and say and think be pleasing in thy sight. Let the meditation of my heart be pleasing in thy sight. That's the difference. But either way, you know, God is going to be present everywhere no matter how we live our lives. And again, the other side of this coin is the fact that that can be a very comforting thought. You know, some people are going to look at that and say, well, let me try and find a cave or a den to hide in. Let me try to dig into some wall to commit my abomination. Some people are just going to, you know, run to God. Say, well, if God is everywhere, great. I want him to see me. I want that comfort. I want that assurance that he's there. The Bible says in Hebrews chapter 13, let your conversation be without covetousness and be content with such things as he hath, for he saith, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee, so that we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper. I will not fear what man shall do unto me. You know, that's a great assurance that God is never going to leave us, that he is always going to be with us. He's never going to forsake us. But again, that truth should what? Affect the way we live. It said, that starts in Hebrews 13. It says, let your conversation be without covetousness. You know, don't be a covetous person. Don't be lusting after things that aren't yours, things that you can't have, things that you shouldn't have. Be content with such things as you have, and understand that God is never going to leave you, that he is never going to forsake you, that he's always there with you. And that's going to be something that should be a great assurance to us. So we understand, you know, the beginning of the sermon is just showing us that, you know, God is omnipresent. He is everywhere at all times. And, you know, that could feel kind of cold. That can feel impersonal. We could say, well, what's so special about God's presence then? I mean, if it's just everywhere at all times, you know, what's the big deal? You know, and people could say, well, that's just, you know, you're just talking about some kind of a force at that point. Okay? But we have to understand that, you know, God's presence is everywhere, but he manifests his presence in some places in a way that he is not in others. Let me say that again. God manifests his presence in some places in a way that he is not present in other places. Okay? It's true God's everywhere, right? He's a spirit. You know, he fills heaven and earth. The heavens of heavens can't contain him. The eyes of man, you know, he beholds all the ways of man. We understand that. But there are certain instances where God manifests that presence in ways that he is not present in other places. And I'll show you what I mean. First of all, think about, you know, we believe in the Trinity. Okay? So we have the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Well, the Father, he is in heaven, right? He's not here on earth. He's specifically, the Father specifically, God manifests himself in the Father in heaven. Okay? Now, when I say manifest, I'm not saying like God, you know, morphs into the Father and then morphs out of it. He's always been the Father. Okay? Every time you've got to say stuff like that, you've got to clarify it these days. But he's the Father in heaven, right? That's his presence is there specifically as the Father in heaven like nowhere else. Okay? And we, you know, there's just a multitude of Scripture. I mean, just go read the Gospels. How many times Jesus talks about our Father which is in heaven, my Father which is in heaven, right? The Father is in heaven. Well, think about how the Son, we know he's in heaven now, right? He's seated in the right hand of the Father. Okay? He's not seated in the same seat. He's seated in the right hand. But think about the fact that he was here, that his presence was manifest, that God, you know, that God became flesh, right? That God was manifest in the flesh, right? That was a very unique manifestation of his presence here on earth specifically. And it wasn't anywhere else. You know, Jesus was here in Palestine, on earth, working miracles. He wasn't there and also on Mars or some other place. He was here, right? So when we talk about the fact that God is omnipresent, that he's everywhere, we don't want to let this idea creep in, well, if he's everywhere, then he's, you know, does it really matter? You can kind of take that for granted if you see what I'm saying. Because God does manifest his presence in specific places, in specific ways, right? In ways that he is not present in other places. The Father is in heaven. The Son was on earth. Those were very specific. Think about how God manifests today in his churches, okay? And this is, you know, this is an important truth because you're sitting in church right now. You probably already knew that, all right? But in case you didn't, that's where you are. This isn't a movie theater. But God manifests himself in churches. Look, God manifests himself in Jesus Christ here on earth. He came here and he was present here, but now he's in heaven. Does that mean God has just abandoned the earth in some way? You know, but we have his specific presence here in church, even this morning. Look at Ephesians chapter 2, verse 19. Now, therefore, ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God, and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord, in whom ye also are builded up together for an habitation of God through the Spirit. Look, that's what church is. This is the habitation of God that is built up of us through the Spirit. You know, we have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. If you're born again, if you're saved, you are sealed with the Holy Spirit unto the day of redemption. And when we gather together as a church, we're coming together and God is present in this building because he's present in every single one of us. And we become a temple of the Lord. We are built up in holy temple in the Lord. We are in habitation of God through the Spirit. I mean, so think about that. You know, we started out trying, I started out trying to explain, you know, this profound thought that how immense God is, right? And I don't know if I blew your minds or not, okay? But the fact is, it's really, when you stop and think about it, it is, you know, it's hard to comprehend that the God of the universe fills everything, right? How immense God truly is. But think about this. His presence is here this morning in this building. In a unique way. Look, God's not present in other places right now, like he is even in this room this morning, through the Spirit, through the indwelling of the Holy Ghost here in this room. You know, he's not manifest in the mall right now. He's not manifest, you know, his Spirit isn't over in the way it is here, like it is out on some lake or some golf course in front of some television. You know, and all the other things that people are spending their Sunday mornings doing, God's presence is not there in the way that it is present here. Now, is God's Spirit there? Is God present there? Of course. But not the way it's present here. Because here we have the believers, we have the habitation of God built through the Spirit, through us. Go over to 1 Corinthians chapter 3, 1 Corinthians chapter 3. This isn't an isolated, you know, scripture here. This is something the Bible teaches, that we have the presence of God in a way, here in church, in a way that we don't have it in other places. We should tell you something, that church is important, you know. Not just so we can write down a number, not so that we can just, you know, fill a room, because this is where God's Spirit is meeting this morning. In this church, and churches like it, wherever God's people are meeting together and singing praises unto him. I mean, the Bible says that he, you know, he inhabited, and he inhabited the praises of Israel. Right? He inhabits the praises that we sing to him. You know, wherever God's people are meeting together, where God's words being preached, God is present there, in a way that he is not present in other places. I mean, I want to get in on that. You know, whether I'm on this side of the pulpit or that side, I want to be where that's going on. If you're telling me there's a place where I can have the Spirit of God meet in a way that he doesn't meet in any other place, that's pretty unique. And that, you know, the building doesn't matter, the way it looks, I mean, if the Spirit of God is there, that's all that matters. And I want in on that. And hopefully you feel the same way, at least you should. You know, and maybe we need to think a little bit more about what that means. You know, say, oh yeah, I get it, you know, he's there. But think about who it is you're talking about. And that's what this whole series is about. We're just trying to, you know, emphasize and wrap our, emphasize how great God is, truly is. You know, and maybe I'm not doing the best job of that, but I'm trying. But either way, God is magnificent. God is, you know, amazing. He's unique. You know, there's nothing, I mean, it's just, it's really something to sit there and say that the God who fills the whole universe is present here with us this morning. You know, and we all have to process that ourselves. And we'll do with that what we will. It says in 1 Timothy 3, But if I tarry along, that thou mayest know how, I know you're not there, how thou oughtest to behave in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of truth. That's what the church is. It's the pillar and ground of truth. It's the church of the living God. It's the house of God. It's where God dwells in a unique way. The Bible says in 1 Peter 2, He also as lively stones are built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Look, Peter's telling us that we're lively stones. We're a living assembly, right? That this building, this temple of God is made up of flesh and blood. It's made up of me and you. It's not made up of ornate paintings and stained glass windows and beautiful, you know, buildings and things like that. Look, that's cheap. That's easy, right? That's easy to just have man build some giant edifice and say this is where God dwells because look, look at all the brass and gold and silver. Look how beautiful we've made it. Obviously, God's here. That that's not what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches us that we are those lively stones, that we are the temple of God, that we are that holy priesthood, that this is where God dwells is where God's people are gathered together, not regardless of what their surroundings might be, what the building might be. Look at 1 Corinthians 3, verse 9. It says in verse 9, For we are laborers together with God, ye are God's husband debris, ye are God's building. Ye are God's building. So what is he saying there when ye are God's building? I mean, God built it because that's where he's going to dwell. I mean, that's why we build buildings, right? So people can go in them and work and live and do whatever. And we are God's building. Why? Because God dwells in us. It goes on and says in verse 16, For know ye not, excuse me, know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you, if any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy. For the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are? Another way, we're talking about how God is specifically manifest in the church. But even beyond that, God is specifically manifest in a way in you that he's not manifest anywhere else. In each and every believer, the Holy Spirit is dwelling within. You say, I don't understand that. Me neither. I can't fully explain You know, I'd probably do a really poor job at that, trying to get that across. How is it the Spirit of God dwells inside the believer? But the Bible says it. The Bible says right here that we are the temple of God. Does God dwell in every single person? No, he does not. The Spirit of God is not resting in every single person. He's resting in those that have put their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ that have trusted in his death-bound resurrection. That's a unique, you know, presence of God that we have as believers. You know, we should not take that for granted, to sit there and think about the fact that the God who fills the universe also dwells within us by his Spirit. It's a powerful truth. Another place that God is manifest is not just in the churches, but also in prayer, okay, in prayer. Go over to Psalms 100. I'm just going to go through this very quickly in prayer. Go to Psalms 100. The Bible says in Psalms 100, the Bible says in Matthew 18, this probably verse probably has come to few minds, even as we were talking about the subject. It says, And again I say unto you that if two or three of you shall gather together as touching, excuse me, that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything, they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father, which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. Right? So whenever we get together with brethren and we pray, two or three of us, you know, God's presence is there in the midst of us. Whatever we ask in his name, you know, when two or three of us are gathered together, he's there in our midst. That's something to think about. So where is God also manifest in prayer? So we should never, you know, maybe this will motivate us to pray because honestly of all the disciplines that we are to practice as Christians, you know, personally speaking, I think prayer is probably the hardest one because nobody sees it because it's not something, look, if someone's seeing you praying, you're not doing it right. Okay, now I understand we pray publicly, we pray with our families, but you need to have your own personal time of prayer and that's between you and the Lord, okay? And if, you know, that's probably why it's a more difficult discipline. The soul wedding, you know, and I don't think anyone's guilty of this, but we probably, you know, we could be. Well, I'm gonna go soul wedding so so-and-so can see me so I can make an impression on so-and-so. Or I wanna serve in the church or I wanna do something for God so I can be seen of men. This is something that men fall into. This is something that is in the nature of man. They just want the praise and the glory of being seen of men. You're saying, oh, look how spiritual I am, look how religious I am, look how holy I am, right? And prayer is probably something that gets neglected quite a bit if we're being honest in a Christian life because it's not something that is seen of men. Because it's something that, you know, we're not gonna go around talking about, okay? But so let me try and motivate us, you know, if we're one that is struggling in this area, think about the fact that, you know, nobody else is, you know, maybe your neighbor is not gonna see you. Maybe everybody at church isn't gonna know how much prayer you did this week. But you know who is there? You know who is in your prayer closet with you? God Almighty is there. The Lord is there listening to those prayers. Or you know what? The Lord is there not hearing those prayers. Or the Lord is there where that prayer closet is saying, boy, it's been a while. You know, when are you gonna, when are you gonna come spend some time with me? Right? That's something to think about right there. The Bible says, let us come boldly before the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. We have such a great access to the Lord through prayer. And we can be present with Him. And look, anyone who's spent time in prayer, you know, reading His word, meditating on His word, praying to God, has had those moments where they've felt close to God and they've known that God is present. And if you're scratching your head and you're not, and you're wondering what I'm talking about, you need to pray. You need to pray and know what I'm talking about and understand because that is a spiritual reality that is available to all of us. But so many don't take advantage of that. Why? Because maybe we just think, well, God's everywhere, but is He gonna be specifically, you know, big deal about Him specifically being manifest in my prayer closet. You know, you need to let that sink in, that God is present with you. Right? It doesn't matter whether anybody else recognizes that or not if God does. So look, we have this access to come to God's throne, don't we? It says that we should, we can come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and help and find grace to help find time of need. So the question is, you know, if we can be present with God in God's church, right, if we can come to church and be in God's presence in a way that He is and anywhere else, if we can go to our prayer closet and pray and be in God's presence in a way that you can't be in other places, you have to ask yourself what kind of an attitude do you bring into His presence? Or even if you're just going about your life, just living your life, just going about your day, you know, what kind of an attitude do we have in the presence of God? Look, if our way, if God beholds all of our ways, if God is everyone, sees everything, what kind of attitude are we living with day to day? You know, is it, is it, are we complaining and bitter and angry in the presence of God, or is it, are we rejoicing, being thankful, being grateful? Are we being covetous or are we being content with the things that we have? You're there in Psalms 100, look at verse 1, he said, make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all you lands. Serve the Lord with gladness, come before His presence with singing. You know, come before His presence with singing. That's a, you know, a major reason why we start the service the way we do with the song, right? Because we're here, we're gathered together, God's presence is here through the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, through the Spirit, and we're gonna come before His presence with singing. You know, we didn't get up and just go, all right, everyone, let's start the service, I guess, I mean, you got the Bible, you're all here, let's see if we can get something out of it this morning. You know, I mean, that's this dopey, just sad attitude. But look, we might not do that here, but do people do that throughout the rest of the week? Do people do that the rest of their lives? Sure, you know, and I understand that that's just part of human nature, that we all are probably have done that, but when we, we should catch ourselves when we were doing that. When we're coming to, you know, when we're living our lives with just this bad, angry, bitter attitude. Well, I guess I gotta go to church, I gotta read my Bible, you know, because after all, God's there, right, when we saw that. Just this lackadaisical approach to living the Christian life. You know, when you start to realize that God is present in all these places, that God is indwelling you, and that God sees, you know, that should, that should, you know, motivate us. You know, that should inspire us. That should make us want to live for God. That should make us do what? Want to come before His presence with singing. You know, it's amazing to me the power of singing, the power of music, how it can just change your whole attitude. I mean, you can, you can kind of have a bad attitude, and if you just pick a song, pick a chorus, and just kind of start singing it to yourself, it can really turn your day around. And if you're kind of looking at me cross-eyed, like, I don't know about that, try it. Just try it. Or reading the Bible. You know, that's one thing I've noticed. I'll start out my day just bad attitude, like great, what's next? Well, I better get my Bible reading in. And whether I go into it with a good attitude or not, just reading the Bible will change my attitude. I'll read something, and then it'll just snap me out of it, and just say, wow, God's good. I've got a lot to be grateful for. The question is, what kind of presence do you bring, or what kind of attitude do you bring into God's presence? Do we come before His presence with singing? Look at verse 3. Know ye that the Lord, He is God. It is He that has made us, and not we ourselves. We are His people, and the sheep of His pasture. Verse 4, enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful unto Him, and bless His name. That's the attitude we should bring into God's presence, is one of praising, rejoicing, of blessing, of blessing His name, of being thankful unto Him. That's the attitude we should bring to church. It's a privilege to be here. It's a privilege to come and to be with God's people, hear the preaching of God's word, sing praises unto the Lord. That's the attitude that we should have when we go to pray, and understand that we're coming into His courts, that we should praise God. That's a good way to start off prayer, is just praising God and being thankful. I'd pray to God, but I don't know what to pray for. Why don't you just praise Him for a little while? Why don't you just pick out, go read through some psalms and recite some psalms? I mean, the psalms will practically guide you through prayer. They're a prayer in and of themselves. Sometimes you'll be listening to these psalms or reading them. It's like you're praying right along with David. Maybe you should just stop and be thankful for a while, just thank God. That's a good way to pray, rather than just not doing anything at all. But this is the attitude we should bring into God's presence. I kind of try to think of an illustration about how to kind of, you know, why this is important to understand is that, you know, I think sometimes people don't want to come into God's presence because they think God is just this mean old man with a bat who's just like, just stepped out of line one time. Like, they're just thinking that God's just waiting to crack you over the head. And look, God, He chases every son whom He receiveth. We understand that. God corrects, but He does that out of love. You know, but God wants us to come to Him. He wants us to come into His presence with singing. He wants us to come to His giving. He wants us to come in rejoicing. He wants us to come boldly before the throne. That's what it said in Hebrews, that we should come boldly before the throne. You know, we should just walk right into the place. I mean, that's what it means to come in boldly, right? I mean, just think about, you know, if I were to come boldly behind the pulpit, I'm like, you know, walking up behind it and grabbing the pulpit and start to talk. Or if I just came in bashfully and meekly and just said, well, I hope you guys would like to hear something this morning. You know, I've written a little something down. If you've got the time, wouldn't mind sharing. Is that okay? You know, right? Now, there's probably preachers out there that do that. But no, we've got to get up boldly and do that. Look, that's the same attitude we need to come into God's presence with. Come boldly before that throne. I'm not saying like a jerk, you know, and I'm going to talk a little bit about that tonight, but to come boldly before it, God wants to hear from us if we come with, especially if we come with that right attitude into his presence. Thanksgiving. You know, the illustration, that's what I was saying, is that, you know, I was actually writing this and I was in my office and I'm sitting there, you know, deep in thought. I'm trying to just, you know, really commune with the Spirit and just really pull something deep out of the word of God for you today. You know, I was taking it seriously. But you know, I can't be disturbed, the doors close, and then all of a sudden, my little three-year-old comes walking in just, and she's, you know, being potty trained, right? So she's in her little pull-up and she just marches, she just throws the door open, doesn't knock. Doesn't say, Dad, you got a minute? Are you busy? The older ones will knock. Say, hey, you know, this or that. Okay, you know. She just walks right in and without even saying a word, she just walks right over to where I'm sitting and just goes... Sorry, you're making kissy faces at me. All she wanted was Dad to pick her up and kiss her and give her a hug and tell her he loved her. She just said, What are you doing? She's like, I just thought I'd come see Dad. That's what she said. Right? And yeah, we were getting all the ah's and everything. And it's sweet, right? It's precious. But look, that's the same way, well, maybe not the exact same way. But it's that same attitude that we should have about God and not just go, Well, maybe I need to knock and make sure everything's okay. Come in here. If we're looking for affection, if we're looking for comfort, if we're looking for something from God, we want to know He's there, that He cares about us. Well, why don't you go to Him? Why don't you go to Him and just start praising Him and thanking Him and He'll be there because He already is there. It's not like you have to schedule an appointment with God. God's there waiting. He's just waiting for us to show up and spend time with Him because God's everywhere, because God's omnipresent. God's in that place and He's waiting for us, but we are the ones that have to go boldly into that office. We're the ones that have to throw that door open and start making spiritual kissy faces in a way. Now, you apply that however you want, but I thought that was an interesting illustration in the midst of writing the sermon that happens and I'm like, Man, that's a perfect illustration of how God wants us to just come right into the throne and just look for that fellowship with Him and just ask for it and it'll be there. I mean, what kind of a cold-hearted father would I have been and look at that sweet little face going, and be like, I'm too busy. Get out of here. Don't you know who I am? I'll see you on my terms. No, it was just like I stopped what I was doing immediately and took a minute and we had sweet fellowship and that's the same way, that's the same thing that we can have with the Lord, but we have to be the ones to be willing to just go into that place He's there waiting for us because He's everywhere. So God is present in all these places. So again, we're talking about how God is omnipresent, how He's everywhere, but don't let that turn into this cold feeling, well, God's everywhere so He's not really anywhere in a way, right? Like He's just some impersonal force. No, God is everywhere. His Spirit is everywhere, but He manifests Himself in specific places in specific ways that He isn't present in other places, okay? So He's present where? In the church. He's present in the believer. He's present in prayer, but another place He's present is, and we talked about this briefly, is in praise and if you kept something in Ephesians, go back to Ephesians chapter number five. Ephesians chapter number five. The Bible says in Psalm 22, But thou art holy, O thou, that inhabits the praises of Israel. He inhabits the praises of Israel, right? God is present in those praises. Look at Ephesians chapter five, verse 17. God wants us to be filled with the Spirit. Don't be drunk. Don't be filled with wine. You know, be filled with the Spirit. So how do we do that? Well, verse 19. You know, this is a recipe for being filled with the Spirit. Speaking to yourselves in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. It sounds to me like singing has a lot to do with being filled with the Spirit. I mean, it's seeing yourselves in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. You know, we're supposed to be doing these things. We're supposed to be speaking to ourselves in Psalms and hymns. We're supposed to be singing and making melody in our hearts to the Lord. You know, that's important when we come to church that we do that. And, you know, I get it. Not everyone in here is, you know, a professional, you know, operatic singer. But the Bible says make a joyful noise. You should come in here and praise God from the heart and sing out loud. I believe that. Because here's the thing. Nobody wants to start singing out loud because they're afraid because nobody else is. It always takes that one person to kind of get the ball rolling. And the further you are away from the piano and the further away from the song leader, the more your own voice stands out, right? So it seems like, and this is just the way it is in church, people who tend to sit back, they tend to the people who sing about this loud. They get their hymnal open and they say, Great is the Lord greatly to be praised. They just want to sing loud enough to not be heard but to be singing, right? Look, if you're praising God, if you're singing to God, who cares what your neighbor thinks about your voice? You know, your neighbor cares. But who cares, right? You should sing that out. Great is the Lord. See, I'm off, right? But sing it out. You know, that's something that's going to help you do what? Be filled with the Spirit. That's going to help something that's going to bring God's, bring you closer into the presence of God. It's singing these songs, these hymns, making a melody in your heart to the Lord. So that's even something that you can do throughout the day. You know, that's something, and if you're walking, and this is something I think will just happen. If you're living for the Lord, if you're filled with the Spirit, you'll just find yourself singing these songs. I mean, I hear it all the time at my house. My kids, it's just all of a sudden, they'll be bursting out in song, some hymn they heard at church. You know, and I'll stop and just listen, you know, and it fills my heart with praise to God, things like that. And look, if we're living for the Lord, this is something, I believe, that will happen just naturally. But look, if you're having a hard time being filled with the Spirit, here's a good recipe. You know, force yourself to do it. Pick out a hymn and sing it in the car. Sing it in the shower. Sing it while you're going about your chores. Sing it while you're living your life, going about your day. Have that in your heart, singing unto the Lord. It will fill you with the Spirit. It'll bring you into His presence. So the last thing I want to look at is how God manifests Himself. We're talking about the Spirit of God, how He's present everywhere, but also how He is present in certain places that He's not present in other places. So God is present in praise, but He's also, His presence is through the Holy Spirit. Right? And that kind of ties all of this together. It's the Holy Spirit indwelling the believers that makes the church the temple of God. It's the Holy Spirit in our hearts that fills our hearts with praise, that brings us closer to the presence of God. But God is manifest through His Holy Spirit. And there's a difference between being filled with the Spirit. Go to John 14, John 14. You know, if anyone, this is probably my favorite chapter. In fact, this is probably my favorite passage in the Word of God, for now. But it's one, every time I read it, I'm always just, you know, I remember the first time being shown this and just thinking about this and what a great truth that this is. And this is something that, you know, if you don't get this, you know, you need to think about this. You need to get this this morning. You know, there's being, you know, there's being sealed by the Spirit, right? We understand that when we get saved, we're sealed with the Spirit. You know, God has marked us. We're His. That's never gonna change. But being filled with the Spirit is something different. You know, that's something that we have to work at. That's something that we have to, through song, through the way we're living, you know, we're not all filled with the Spirit. And we're not all filled with the Spirit at all times. And that's something we have to work at. Otherwise, why would it be commanded where we read in Ephesians? Be filled with the Spirit. If that were automatic, that would make no sense. You'd say you are filled with the Spirit, just automatically. No, it's something we have to work on. We have to be filled with the Spirit. Now, look at John chapter 14, verse 15. He says, If you love Me, keep My commandments, and I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever. So who's the Comforter? Well, that's the Holy Spirit, right? And if we love God and we keep His commandments, look, we know we already have the sealing of the Spirit, but we'll have the Comforter that's gonna abide with us if we do what? If we love God and keep His commandments. You know, that's being filled with the Spirit. Even the Spirit of Truth whom the world cannot receive because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him. So again, talking about how God's presence is manifest in a unique way through the Spirit. That's what it says right there. The Spirit of Truth whom the world cannot receive. They don't get to have that. They don't get to know the presence of the Holy Spirit. That's not an option for them. They have to get saved if they want to know that. And even for the believer, if they want to know the filling of the Holy Spirit, that's something that they have to work at. That's something that they have to, you know, I don't want to necessarily say earn, but in a way it is. It's something that they have to work at through the way they live, you know, through all the things that, you know, the praying, the reading, living the Christian life, asking for the Holy Spirit, praying and asking for it. You know, that's even unique in that way. But look at here, he says here, the Spirit of Truth whom the world cannot receive because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him, but ye knoweth him, ye know him, for he dwelleth in you and shall be in you. I mean, that's a unique manifestation of the presence of God in our lives, is that we can have the Holy Spirit. I will not leave you comfortless. Again, Jesus was going back to heaven. He was going back to the throne of God. You know, he wasn't going to be present here on earth, but he was going to give us the Holy Spirit. He's not going to leave us what, comfortless. I will come to you yet a little while and the world seeth me no more, but ye see me, because I live, ye shall live also. That day ye shall know that I am in the Father and ye in me and I in you. He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me. You know, we can say, oh, I'm saved, you know, and we are saved. But that doesn't necessarily mean that you love God. Right? I mean, can you really say, well, if you're saved, you automatically love God. No, I'm sure that you appreciate what God did for you and you love God to a certain degree, but I can't just say, well, I love my wife because, you know, 11 years ago I said some vows. There's the proof. Well, just, you know, just let's roll the wedding tape. Let's get the video out and see, I love you. Didn't I say that on that day back then? We made that covenant. We made that seal. Oh, is that going to be good enough for my wife? She can say, yeah, well, there's the proof. You know, I have to show my wife that love day in and day out. You know, we have to show that to one another, you know, through our actions, through the things that we do. You know, we can get saved, and that's great, you know, but it's another thing to say that I love God. Well, how do we know that you love God? He that hath my commandments, verse 21, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me. So if you see somebody who is not keeping the commandments, you know, who's not living for the Lord, that just tells me they don't love God. Now, they might be saved. You know, they probably are saved, you know. They might be saved on their way to heaven, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they love God. The person that loves God does what keeps his commandments. And when you say, well, what do we get out of it? You know, what do we get out of it? Well, look at what we get out of it. It goes on and says, and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him and will manifest myself to him. Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou will manifest thyself unto us and not unto the world? He's like, look, if you show up, everyone's going to see you. This doesn't make any sense. He's saying, if a man love me, he will keep my words and my Father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him. What he's talking about is the comforter of the Holy Spirit. You know, the comforter because all three are God, right? God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. And God the Holy Spirit, you know, is the presence of God in your life. It's the presence of God the Father. It's the presence of God the Son. It's the presence of the Lord in your life. Look, if we'll love God and keep his commandments and do those things which please him, we have this promise that God is going to make himself manifest unto us and not just in this intellectual sense. Like, oh, I'm going to read the Bible and God, I can understand things about God. God has manifest himself through his word. Look, that's there. But he's saying, we will come unto him and we will make our abode with him. I mean, that's a powerful thing to think about. And every time I, you know, the first time that I was shown that, that was just like, wow. That the God of the universe will come and actually abide with me if I love him and if I keep his commandments. Does that mean he's going to physically knock on my door one day and show up and walk in and say, hey, I'm here. Good job. You've been keeping the commandments. I can tell you love me. No, you know where he's going to show up? He's going to show up, you know, in my spirit. He's going to show up in my heart and see me get a manifest in prayer. You know, that's something that has to be experienced. It's not really something that, you know, you can just, it's hard to put into words, but it's something that's there. You know, it's something that we, and look, it's not just there for the preacher. It's there for every one of God's children. Every single person that wants to love God and keep his commandments can know what it is to have the spirit and the presence of God in their life. And I'm not just saying, you know, some, you know, some overwhelming, you know, moment or something like that. I'm saying day in, day out, know what it is to walk with the Lord, to talk with the Lord. He's that close and he's that present. I mean, when you understand that, you know, you're going about your day and you could just be talking to the Lord as you go about your day. And just asking for help. Lord, help me to, you know, be nice. Help me to, you know, say thank you. Help me to, you know, help here. You know, all these things. We can be talking to God throughout the day. Why? Because he will come and he will abide with us. He will come abide with us. But that doesn't just come because you're safe. That comes because you love him and you keep his commandments. And then God comes, then you have that walk with him, right? And what is that? That's a manifest presence of God that is unique, that is not everywhere, that is limited to certain people, right? It's exclusive, you know? And again, I want in on that. That's, I mean, that's better than, I mean, I don't know what else you could compare to that, to have the presence of God with you in your life. But you have to have that through obedience. And look, you come into the presence of God, you say, well, I don't know about all that. I mean, I believe the Bible and everything, but this sounds kind of metaphysical or whatever. You have to come in the presence of God by faith. It's by faith at the end of the day. Go to one last place, okay? Hebrews chapter 11, and we'll close there. You have to come in the presence of God by faith. The Bible says in Psalm 16, in thy presence is fullness of joy at thy right hand are pleasures forevermore. You know, so many people are seeking for joy and pleasure in so many other places that are unfulfilling, that come to an end. They might have the pleasures of sin for a season, but then they go away. Look, the presence of God, his presence, it's fullness of joy. At his right hand there are pleasures forevermore. It's content, right? It contents us. It gives us contentment. Look at Hebrews chapter 11, verse six. But without faith it is impossible to please him. For he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. You know when you'll come in the presence of God? When you believe that you can. You'll come in the presence of God when you finally believe that you can. And that's really the motive of the sermon this morning, is to try to get you to understand that, yes, God is everywhere, but he can be uniquely manifest in your life in a way that he is not in anybody else's, you know, other than other believers, right? In a very exclusive way. But you have to believe that by faith. And look, when you really believe that by faith, you will seek him. You will go to that prayer closet, you will sing the psalms, you will memorize the scripture, you will live for the Lord, you will keep the commandments, you will love him, and then you will have God abiding with you, and you will know what it is to have that presence with you every moment of every day. Let's go ahead and pray.