Generation Church Sermon – Essential: the presence of God

Exodus 33:12-16 (NLT) One day Moses said to the Lord, “You have been telling me, ‘Take these people up to the Promised Land.’ But you haven’t told me whom you will send with me. You have told me, ‘I know you by name, and I look favorably on you.’ 13 If it is true that you look favorably on me, let me know your ways so I may understand you more fully and continue to enjoy your favor. And remember that this nation is your very own people.” 14 The Lord replied, “I will personally go with you, Moses, and I will give you rest—everything will be fine for you.” 15 Then Moses said, “If you don’t personally go with us, don’t make us leave this place. 16 How will anyone know that you look favorably on me—on me and on your people—if you don’t go with us? For your presence among us sets your people and me apart from all other people on the earth.”

-Generation church was birthed on the presence of God

Romans 8 teaches us that the presence of the Holy Spirit is marked by:

-Conviction -Liberation from sin -Righteousness -Your mind drifts to things of the spirit -peace
-Healing -intimacy with god

Judges 3:1-2 (NLT) These are the nations that the Lord left in the land to test those Israelites who had not experienced the wars of Canaan. 2 He did this to teach warfare to generations of Israelites who had no experience in battle.
-My experiences, GC’s experiences, Pastor Mikes or anyone else’s expreriences won’t give you a personal encounter with the presence of God. You have to learn to fight for your own breakthrough.
****Moses had a sense of his mission
-When you fail to discover of peruse your God given mission you will pursue, as John Ortberg has labeled it, your shadow mission
-That mission that’s a little dark and a little self serving

****Moses had a sense of his mortality

-He’s a murderer with a studder hiding out on the backside of a mountain feeling totally unable to accomplish this thing that God has placed in his heart
-His presence comes when we hunger and thirst
Psalm 63:1 (NLT) O God, you are my God; I earnestly search for you. My soul thirsts for you; my whole body longs for you in this parched and weary land where there is no water.
***Moses’ mission + morality created a need and a desperation for the presence of God
Exodus 33:17-19 The Lord replied to Moses, “I will indeed do what you have asked, for I look favorably on you, and I know you by name.” 18 Moses responded, “Then show me your glorious presence.” 19 The Lord replied, “I will make all my goodness pass before you, and I will call out my name, Yahweh, before you.

“When God give you a revelation of your mission(his plan for you life) and your mortality(your weakness’) it will bring about a hunger for his presence. Without his presence you will struggle and strive to accomplish your mission in your own strength or your will be so transfixed on your mortality that you will be so demoralized that you will never even set out to accomplish your mission. Either way your life will be marked by insignificance. But I’m thankful that the mission that Jesus left us with wasn’t mean to be done in our own strength but through the help of the Holy Spirit who available to every believer that would ask.”

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