A Prayer for the Presence of God: Lessons from Exodus 33 on the Eve of a New Year

Amen. Now we're going to read a few

verses from the book of Exodus. Exodus chapter 33.

Exodus 33 · chapter mention

Exodus chapter 33, Exodus 33.

Exodus 33 · chapter mention

Let's hear the Word of God. I want to read from verse one,

reading of course from the King James Bible.

And the Lord said unto Moses, Depart and go up.

Hence thou and the people which thou has brought up out of the

land of Egypt, unto the land which I swear unto Abraham, to

Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, unto thy seed will I give out.

And I will send an Angel before thee.

And I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, the

Hittite, and the Perisite, the Hivite and the Jebusite, unto a

land flowing with milk and hanai.

For I will not go up in the midst of thee, for thou Artest

stiff necked people, lest I consume thee in the way.

And when the people heard these evil tidings, they mourned, and

no man did put on him his ornaments.

For the Lord had said unto Moses, Say unto the children of

Israel, Ye are a stiff necked people.

I will come up into the midst of thee in a moment, and consume

thee. Therefore now I put off thine

ornaments from thee, that I may know what to do unto thee.

The children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by

the Mount Horeb. And Moses took the Tabernacle,

and pitched it without the camp, afar off from the camp, and

called it the Tabernacle of the congregation.

And it came to pass that everyone which sought the Lord

went out onto the Tabernacle of the congregation, which was

without the camp. And it came to pass, when Moses

went out on to the Tabernacle, that all the people rose up, and

stood, every man that his tent door, and looked after Moses

till he was gone into the Tabernacle.

And they came to pass as Moses entered into the Tabernacle, the

cloudy pillar descended and stood at the door of the

Tabernacle. And the Lord talked with Moses,

and all the people saw the cloudy pillar stand at the

Tabernacle door. And all the people rose up and

worshipped every man in his tent door.

And the Lord speak unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh

unto his friend. And he turned again into the

camp, but his servant Joshua, the son of none, the young man,

departed not out of the Tabernacle.

And Moses said unto the Lord, See thou sayest unto me, Bring

up this people, and thou has not let me know whom thy will send

with me. Yet thou has said, I know thee

by name, and thou has also found grace in my sight.

Now therefore I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight,

show me now thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace

in thy sight, and consider that this nation is thy people.

And he said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give

thee rest. And he said unto him, If thy

presence go not with me, carry me not up hence.

For wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have

found grace in thy sight? Is it not in that thy goest with

us? So shall we be separated, I and

thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the

earth. And the Lord said unto Moses, I

will do this thing also, that thou hast spoken, for thou was

found grace in my sight, and I know thee by name, Amen.

We know God will stamp with His own approval and blessing this

reading of His own precious word.

My text tonight is found in Exodus chapter 33 and the verse

Exodus 33 · chapter mention

15. And I want to take up the theme

this evening, a prayer for the presence of God.

Now tonight, we stand at the solemn threshold.

The year 2025 is drawing to a close.

In a few hours, it will pass into history, never to be

relived or retrieved. 2025 will be gone forever.

And during the past year, some of its days were filled with joy

and Thanksgiving. Together we raise the testimony.

The Lord has done great things for us.

We're of we're glad. We look back with gratitude and

thankfulness. The Lord has not field us or

forsaken us. Other days, of course, were

filled with pain, sorrow, struggles, and many unanswered

questions. In this very hall, prayer was

offered in faith. Some of those prayers were

answered quickly. Others were delayed.

Some are unanswered, and the ultimate reason for those

unanswered prayers remains a mystery.

No one, only to God. Now, as we prepare to step into

2026, I believe it's fitting that we pause not merely to

reflect on what has been, but to consider this, how we as a

church will go forward in 2026. Not merely what we are going to

do in 2026, not merely what way we're going to accomplish what

we want to do, but with whom are we going.

You see, Moses prayer in Exodus 3315 meets us precisely at this

moment. Look at verse 15.

Listen to the words. And he said unto him, they

remember he's talking to God face to face in prayer.

If thy presence go not with me, carry us not of Hence this is

not the prayer of a man of God who is afraid or terrified of

the future. It's a prayer of a man of God

who knows that the presence of God is the most valuable thing

and the most important thing than anything else in the whole

world. The presence of God is more

important than pounds, shillings and pence, more important than

prosperity individually, family, congregationally, more important

than progress. We all want to see success in

the work of God, but it's even more important than success, and

it's even more important than the promises of God itself.

You see, I'll ask this question each week as you've come to the

Luther Hall to pray. What do we need to pray for in

2026? What does carried off need as we

step into this new year? I believe we need to pray this

prayer. I believe we need to believe

this prayer. We need to breathe this prayer,

we need to battle this prayer, we need to say to the Lord, if

Thy presence go not with me, carry us, not offence.

Literally let this be our prayer for an individual, for our

families and for us as a church one.

Think about the provision of this prayer.

You see, to understand the weight of Moses words, we must

understand the context, the setting, the back cloth to the

prayer. The children of Israel have been

redeemed from Egypt. They have, of course, by the

power of the shed blood of the lamb.

They have crossed the ray of sea.

They have left Egypt, they have received the law at Mount Sinai

and God has promised to lead them into the land flowing with

milk and honey. And then Exodus 32 happens.

The unthinkable happens. They build a golden calf.

They break off their covenant relationship with God by

idolatry, immorality, and iniquity.

Listen to chapter 32 and in the verse 24.

And I said unto them, This was Aaron.

Whosoever had any gold, let them break it off.

So they gave it me, and then I cast it into the fire, and there

came out this calf. It says in verse 25, when Moses

saw that the people were naked, for Aaron had made them naked

unto their shame among their enemies.

Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, Who is on the

Lord's side, Let him come unto me.

And all the sons of the Levi gathered themselves together

unto him. Now don't miss this, that's

important, right? You see, once they broke off

their covenant relationship, God's righteous anger burned

against them and judgement falls upon them.

I know the Lord doesn't destroy them completely.

He declares something very chilling.

Look at verse 3, Exodus 33, verse 3.

Exodus 33:3

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 he says

in verse 16. If you read it, sorry in in the

verse, right. OK yes, verse 2.

Sorry I I missed that. And I will send an Angel before

thee. Now this is what I don't want

you to miss. I will not go up.

I will send an Angel before thee.

Now you see, God is still offering guidance.

God is still promising victory. God is still offering them the

land flowing with milk and honey.

Verse 3. In other words, he's saying to

them, Go ahead, Moses, but one thing you won't have as you go.

You won't have my presence. I will not go up with you.

I'll send an Angel, but I will not go up in the midst of thee.

And that is the greatest threat that the children of Israel ever

faced. Not famine in the wilderness,

not starvation, not Pharaoh in his army, not enemies in the

land, not the giants, but the possibility of moving on without

the Lord, the possibility of going forward without the

presence of God. She remembered the children of

Israel on a journey and God is saying He is not with them,

He'll not be present amongst them.

And Moses, the man of God, the man of prayer, he, he understood

this. This is not a successful

outcome. This is but a disaster without

God. We cannot, we must not go

forward. And that's the background to

this profound prayer. If thy presence go not with us,

carry us not of. Hence He did not say Lord give

us the land anyway. He didn't say Lord, help us to

be successful. He didn't say Lord, make our way

prosperous. He didn't say, Lord, keep us

safe and give us the victory over our enemies.

No, He's saying this, If thou are not going with us, then

don't let us go at all. You see, that's the heart of a

man of God. That is a true Reformed faith.

What a great truth that many modern churches have forgotten

and ignored and forsaken. It's better to stay in the

wilderness than to go into the promised land without the Lord.

And you see, that's something that we fear.

Remember Hosea, and I made reference to this a long time

ago in the book of Hosea. In Hosea chapter 5 and verse 11,

Hosea 5 · chapter mention

Hosea the prophet says this. I will go and return to my place

till they acknowledge their offence and seek my face and

their affliction. They will seek me early.

I will go and return to my place.

God is saying I'm withdrawing myself, my presence, my power,

everything. I'm withdrawing from you.

I fear the withdrawing of God's presence, His presence, His

power, His provision, His protection in 2025.

As this year ends and 2026 begins, what will we be

satisfied with if we knew and felt and believed and understood

God's presence was going to be absent from us in 2026?

What would growing numbers be without the life of God in the

midst? What would the help of God be

without holiness? What would activity be without

His divine power and divine hand upon us?

Imagine having prosperity without the presence of God.

Imagine having rejoicing without a reverence for who God is,

without the knowledge of Him. You see, I believe Moses was

wise. He knew what was needed.

He knew what was essential, the provision of the prayer.

If thy presence go not with us, carry us not of.

Hence, very quickly think about the principle of Moses prayer.

You see, Moses knew what distinguishes the people of God

for men and women of the world. If you look at verse 16, he

says, For wherein shall it be known that here and I and thy

people have found grace and thy sight?

It is not in that thy goest with us.

That's the answer. That's what distinguishes the

people of God from the people of the world.

Is it not that thy goest with us?

What God makes God's people distinct in God's people

different. It is not their redemption, it's

not merely their morality, it's not their doctrines, it's not

even their distinct history. It's the presence of the living

God amongst them. You see, what was the

Tabernacle? It was a dwelling place for God.

God dwelt there. That's what made it different.

That's what made the Tabernacle distinct.

And the same with the temple. It mattered because God filled

the house with his own Shekinah glory.

We read, of course, in the Bible that men like Enoch walked with

God. Noah walked with God.

Thousands of others mattered. Why?

Not that they walked with God and that was true, but that God

walked with them. I remember Doctor Douglas

speaking one time and the words of Enoch walked with God and he

proved it from the Hebrew, which I not take time to try and do

tonight. But the meaning of those words,

Enoch walked with God is this that with God Enoch walked about

completely different. The emphasis is on God coming to

Enoch and Enoch making the decision I'm going to walk about

with God. And you see, in the New

Covenant, the Church of Jesus Christ matters because Christ

dwells in our hearts by faith. Christ in you, the hope of

glory. That's what the book of

Colossians teaches. When did you remove God's

presence, take his presence away?

What are we left with? We're left with nothing hallowed

tradition, empty religion, parlous orthodoxy and ask this

question to us a challenge my heart.

I was thinking about it today as I was sitting in First Alert and

Presbyterian Church, big church, whole 600 people was talking to

your man. I think his name was Blackburn

and he was a former elder there. I was saying, oh, it's a

beautiful building and it is I I like old buildings like

architecture, wood and oh, fascinating, never been in it

before. And he says to me, well, well,

how would you fill it? He says, why would there not be

a good crowd come on a Sunday. He says, well, we're down to 25

from 40. Are we jealous for the presence

of God in carried off FPC? Are we guarding the presence of

God or just we maintaining something religious?

Go through the motions, not just the provision of the presence of

God, but think about the precision of the presence of

God. You see, we believe, of course,

that God is omnipresent, and we believe that He is present

everywhere at all times in the fullness of His being.

But Scripture not just speaks of the doctrine of His

omnipresence. Scripture speaks of His

covenant, His presence, or His covenantal presence, His

conscious presence. Sometimes you hear me praying

that in the Sunday that the Lord would make His presence real,

make his conscious, his continual presence.

You see, His continual covenantal conscious presence is

His favourable gracious, relational nearness to His

people. See, Moses is not afraid that

God will cease to exist and cease to be God.

Moses is afraid that God will withdraw His presence, His

guidance, His power, his fellowship.

Remember Psalm 27127, verse one, except the Lord build the house,

the labour in vain that build it.

The word house relates to a family.

This is not emotionalism, not mysticism.

This is really covenant theology.

God's presence means what precisely to us when we talk

about God's presence, it means he is with us, he he indwells us

by his Spirit. It means that he is working.

And we we see that in the conviction of sin and the

conversion of souls. He, he, he gauges on our

decisions according to his word. He He restrains us in relation

to sin. His blessing is on our labours.

The Lord bless thee and keep thee.

The Lord make his face to shine upon thee.

The Lord lift up light of his countenance upon thee.

The Lord give thee peace. We experience His power and

worship. We have a sense that we're

before the Lord, and the Lord has come to meet with us.

We have comfort in our suffering and in our pain because we turn

to Him and He's our heavenly Father who will not 'cause us a

needless tear. He counsels us according to the

Scriptures. You see, Moses knows what he

wants. No, Moses knows that without the

presence of God, every step forward, it would actually be

like taking a step back towards Egypt.

The precision of God's presence. Now one final thing, the purpose

of God's presence, let's apply it to ourselves and the

Christian life. Now let's bring this home.

The end of the year 2025. We're thinking of the new year.

What are we thinking of? Well, we're thinking of new

plans, aren't we? New resolutions.

Long do they last? They don't last very long.

Sure they don't. New goals, new opportunities.

None of these are wrong. You know nothing wrong to have a

plan or a goal or or to seek a fresh opportunity.

But a year without God's presence is not a blessing.

In fact it's it's a curse disguised as an opportunity.

2026 we would be enter it with better finances, better health,

better circumstances, better numbers, and yet be the poor

spiritually. If we don't have the Lord with

us, we could really say and should say to the Lord, Lord, if

you're not in this house, better if someone shut the door.

Lord, if you're not in my plans, cancel them.

Lord, if you're not blessing my way, then stop me in the way

because obviously it's not the right way.

Lord, if you're not being glorified in my future, then

don't take me there. Lord, if you're not going to

help us to build this house, then don't let it happen.

See, remember, except the Lord build the house, the labour in

vain that build it. We could take a house to be an

individual life. We could take a house to be a

family. We could take a house to be the

House of God. You see, this is a dangerous

prayer and and yet this prayer can't be prayed.

It can't be experienced if we harbour sin.

Remember the psalmist said in Psalm 51 and in the verse 11 and

his prayer of restoration, he said, this cast me not away from

thy presence. Take not thy Holy Spirit from

me. And if we're guilty of

bitterness, guilty of gossiping, guilty of murmuring, guilty of

pride, all of these evil things, these are small sins, I know,

but they quench the Spirit because of withdrawing of God

and a withholding of much blessing and much power, we

could apply it to Christ life. We can't preach this without

looking for Christ. Moses interceded for the

children of Israel. What did he plead for?

He pleaded for God's presence. Jesus Christ today intercedes

for us in heaven. He is God's presence.

Remember, He's the exact replica of the Father we read in John's

Gospel that was read for us at the Christmas time in John

John 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1 and in the verse 14, that tremendous statement and

the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.

The Word dwelt means tabernacled, and we beheld as

glory. The glory is of the only

begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

He says in verse 18, No man has seen God at any time.

The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He

hath declared Him. And of course, Christ Himself on

the cross experienced the ultimate withdrawal of the

Father's presence. Remember, he cried one of his

cries. My God, my God, why has thy

forsaken me? And He was forsaken so that we

would never be ultimately forsaken.

Our confidence is in God, and all that God is and all that God

has revealed of Himself. We merely just don't have a grip

on God. But let's think of God's grip on

us. Let's think of his hand, the

Lord's hand to be upon us. And as the midnight hour

approaches, then let this be our united prayer as a church.

Let's pray, Lord, we can't and don't want to grow without you.

Is he? Anything less would be us just

going into the new year to go through the motions religiously

again. We need the Lord to bless us.

Someone sent me today the Euronic blessing, which I've

been sharing with a number of the folks who are in the

hospital. And of course, it's taken from

the words of Numbers chapter 6 and in verse 22, 24.

Numbers 6 · chapter mention

The Lord bless thee and keep thee.

The Lord make his face to shine upon thee and be gracious unto

thee. The Lord lift up his countenance

upon thee and give thee peace. It's not tremendous.

And they shall put my name upon the children of Israel, and I

will bless them. Imagine God coming to say to

carried off FPC I'm going to bless you now in 2026.

I'll bless you in the past, but I'm going to bless you with an

even greater blessing, and we're going to pray.

I want you to pray and believe and breathe and battle for this

prayer. Lord, we can't and don't want to

grow without your blessing, without your presence with us.

We should pray this as families. Lord, don't bless us apart from

you. We should bless this as we

should pray this as individuals. Lord, don't take me anywhere

that Your presence will not keep me.

Remember Matthew 28 and 20. Lo, I am with you always, even

unto the end of the age. Hebrews 13 and five.

I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.

See better a hard year. I don't know what it's going to

bring, but better a hard year with God than a happy 1 without

Him. Better unanswered questions with

God than all the fulfilled dreams that we could think about

without Him. My thought was, as we close the

year, that's Moses prayer become ours.

Let it become mine, let it become yours.

Let it become yours as a church, let it become yours as a family.

Let it become yours as an individual.

And I say this as I finish. May the God who has been

faithful in 2025 go before us into 2026.

Walk with us individually as families and as a church.

Dwell amongst us in the year to come like it has been in 2025.

Think of these words, If thy presence go not with me, carry

me not up hands. What do we need most?

What's provision do we need the most?

We need the presence of God. What makes us distinct?

What principle stands out? It's the presence of God.

What precisely do we need the presence of God?

What do we mean? All that God is, all that God

has revealed of himself. And here's our purpose.

Let's apply it to our hearts. May the Lord take these few

thoughts and bless them to us this evening.