Exodus: Sustaining Presence

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For more information about Grand Parkway, visit Grandparkway.org.

Father, help us to have a greater awareness that you are with us.

Jesus, we believe you when you say that without you, we're nothing.

So help us to figure out how we can be all that you've made us to be and more with you today.

Speak to us.

Holy Spirit, give us eyes to see and ears to hear.

And we welcome you to do your work here among us now.

We pray in Jesus' matchless name.

Amen.

Amen.

You can have a seat.

Again, welcome to Grand Parkway.

I'm Rick.

I'm one of the pastors here.

Actually, three months today, we we moved here.

And one of the most difficult things about moving here for me in particular is not moving here with our kids.

I don't know.

I guess I'm going through some sort of a mid-life crisis.

I've I've been most of my life known as a Vulcan.

I kind of I kind of as stoic as a get emotionally.

And then last spring, that did anyone see that movie Inside Out that came out, that little animated movie?

Yeah, so my wife was watching our nephews.

They were nine and eleven, so she's like, let's take them go see Inside Out.

And we didn't have kids at home at the time either.

They were all college or married.

So we went to go see this movie.

And in the end, I don't won't ruin the story, but in the end, this little girl's reunited with their parents, and she's like, I'm never gonna leave.

And I'm like a puddle in this little theater, and my wife looks over and goes, What is the matter with you?

Like, our kids are never coming home.

She's like, You need help, you need serious help.

So I was a big surprise to me because I was one of those dads, and some dads can relate to this, you don't have to raise your hand and admit it, but I was the dad that was counting the minutes until our kids left, you know.

One of the big achievements for me is that my kids are now off scholarship.

And I was like, yes, pay for your own stuff and all that kind of stuff.

Um, but it really surprised me when they moved away and how much like a void that left in me.

And so it was even more difficult to move here because they're not even like pop in close.

And we have to make trips.

My youngest son, though, he came back, he spent the semester in England studying.

He came back at in the middle of April and spent about a month with us, and then my daughter came to spend about a month with us while her husband was um deployed over in Bahrain and Jordan and stuff like that.

And so we we had a really good time.

So I say all it to say, I'm coming to you from a place of fullness.

I've just come off of a month of spending time with my kids.

Actually, I brought some pictures.

Um, this is my youngest son and daughter.

They talked me into taking them to Johnson Space Center.

This is on the tram there when we're going through the tour, because they claimed they had never seen it before.

Now, we used to live here and we had seasons pass us for five years.

All right?

But they're like, no, we need to go see this.

We can't wait.

I'm like, I drug you there every time anyone from out of town came.

We took them there.

It's like, I don't remember.

But they remembered it all now.

And then we moved back.

Last weekend I was gone taking my youngest son back to school in Indiana.

And then on the left is my oldest son and his wife.

So that was the son where he's the one growing up that I could never get to mow the lawn.

You know, you're like at the bribe and threatening, you know, you'll take away the car keys to mow the lawn.

So I'm there with him this weekend, and he he talks me into removing a chain leak fence, digging out all the fence posts, and putting up a privacy fence with him.

And he did the whole thing in a day and a half.

I'm like, you look like my son, but what happened to him, you know?

But I'll say there was just something about being with my kids where I had this longing and this ache, there's like something's missing.

But when I was actually able to be with them, like, ugh, I feel full in a really good way, right?

I know I look full all the time, but I felt really full in a really good way.

The reason I bring that up is because there's, I just want us to kind of locate ourselves in this reality that there's no substitute for being in the presence of someone you love, is there?

I mean, there's technology now that helps, like FaceTime and those sorts of things, but there's there's just something about being in a presence with someone you love that nourishes and sustains our souls.

And that's what we see today in our text.

We're still looking at the tabernacle or in the book of Exodus.

So if you have your Bible, turn to Exodus chapter 25.

Exodus 25 · chapter mention

And we're getting to how the tabernacle is furnished, and just one little section that talks about a table and some bread, beginning in verse 23.

It says, You shall make a table of acacia wood, two cubits shall be its length, a cubit its breadth, and a cubit and a half its height.

You shall overlay it with pure gold and make a moulding of gold around it, and you shall make a rim around it a hand breadth wide, and a moulding of gold around the rim, and you shall make for it four rings of gold, and fasten the rings to the corners and its four legs, close to the frame, the rings shall lie as full holders for the poles to carry the table.

So, like the Ark of the Covenant, you've got to carry this thing with poles.

Um, you shall make the poles of acacia wood, and over them will overlay them with gold, and the table shall be carried with these, and you shall make its plates and dishes for incense, and its flagons and bowls with which to pour drink offerings, and you shall make them of pure gold, and you shall set the bread of the presence on the table before me regularly.

So what we have here is a picture, and I don't want us to get bogged down in details, because I think the Lord has something significant for us today, that's really fundamental to being the people he called us to be.

But but it starts from this picture of the furnishings in the tabernacle, and we see this description of an ornate table, right, of made of acacia wood and covered in gold.

And how many of you, that's what you eat on every week, you know, every day in your house, right?

The gold-covered table.

It's hard to even imagine that.

But this gold-covered table with all these gold utensils and special bars and rings and all that sort of stuff, but it's all designed to hold some nourishment.

Bread.

Actually, 12 loaves of bread, 12 pieces of bread called the bread of presence.

Each one represents one of the twelve tribes of Israel.

So, but what I'd like for us to take from this short little passage today are two words that I think are gonna help us to really grasp what God wants to do in us today.

And those words are bread and presence.

Bread and presence.

See, bread was a really big deal in the ancient Middle Eastern culture.

Um, it was much more than it is for us.

You know, today when we think of bread, many of us think, oh man, I gotta eat less bread, I gotta cut down on my carbs.

But for them, bread not only meant that that piece of dough that baked into bread, bread represented the whole meal.

Bread was even more than a meal.

Bread was a way of life.

They would break bread together as a way to commune deeply with one another.

As a matter of fact, God demonstrated that he was with them and cared for them by providing heavenly bread every day in the wilderness called manna.

So when we think of bread, what we think of in terms of what's going on in this passage is bread equals sustenance.

You couldn't survive without bread.

All right?

It's really important to fasten that in our brains.

Bread equals sustenance.

And then there's the word presence.

In Hebrew, the word for presence could also be translated face.

All right?

So the face is the seat of someone's emotions.

It shows whether they're happy or sad or worried or stressed out.

And if you know someone well, they can say to you all day long they're fine, but you can tell by their face if they're not, can't you?

If you know someone's face, that's kind of the gateway to their soul, to their emotions.

It's how we are known, is through our face.

So the bread of presence could also be called the bread of the face.

The bread of the face.

The idea is the bread on this table was how we could enter into the presence of God.

We can see God's face.

We could commune with Him.

It was the first ever FaceTime, right?

Um, this weekly connection with God, although it had to go through a priest.

See, the tabernacle with the table and the bread and the lamps and the incense, which we'll get to in a few weeks, was this visual and aromatic reminder to God's people that he was with them.

It's really all it's about.

That he was with them.

The tabernacle screams, God is home, you are not alone.

You are not alone.

You might be in the wilderness, which Israel was.

Some of you might feel like you're in the wilderness, but God wants you to know today you're not alone.

He's home, he's with you.

His lights are on, and he longs to break bread with you.

The reality is, if you look at scripture from the beginning to the end, there's this constant theme that men and women like you and me, we flourish when we consciously live in the awareness that God is with us.

Because that's how we were designed to live.

We flourish when we do life with God.

I mean, this is how it worked with Adam and Eve when they were with God, they flourished.

When they decided to go off without God and be like God without God, that's when the whole thing blew up.

We see this scene throughout the Old Testament, from Enoch to David, to Abraham and Isaac and Sarah and God, even in the wilderness with his people.

He's with them through a pillar of cloud and a pillar of fire.

In fact, in Exodus 33, finally Moses and the people learned this incredible lesson that without God, it's pointless.

And in 33, God actually tells Israel, you know what, all you've been longing for, I'm gonna give it to you.

The promised land, it's yours.

You can go in and have everything you long for, but he says, But here's the catch: I'm not gonna go with you.

You can have it, but I'm not gonna go in there with you.

And Moses cries when he hears this word.

He says, God, I am not going anywhere without your presence.

In fact, Moses called it a disastrous word.

Moses and the people finally learned that they could long for peace and prosperity and they could experience that in the promised land, but if God wasn't with them, they wanted no part of it.

They wanted God Himself, and they realized if you can have all this world has to offer without God, it's a disaster.

This is a theme throughout scripture.

Every time we try and do something on our own without God, it ends up in the ditch.

This is why the psalmist says in Psalm 16, God, in your presence is fullness of joy.

And then the joy of the Lord is our strength, we hear Paul tell us, right?

So the presence of God is something that nourishes and sustains us.

One of my favorite Psalms is Psalm 73.

It's written by a priest named Asaph.

And the reason I love it so much is Asaph's job and my job are similar.

He was basically a pastor.

And he hung out with people all the time.

And sometimes we pastors, no matter what impression we give you on a Sunday, we don't always love the light, the hand we get dealt.

Right?

You think all we do is work Sundays and pray and read the Bible if it were only that easy, right?

But sometimes we start hanging out with people and we're going, man, I wish I had that, or I wish I was able to do that, or I wish I had this.

And we and there's a time ASAP is he's just looking around at the people in his church, and he's going, man, they got it so much better than I do.

What did I sign up for this?

Why would I even bother?

I should I should just quit this altogether.

And then in Psalm 73, ASAP says, I was thinking all these thoughts, and then I came into the presence of God.

And it all changed.

See, for me, every time I get discouraged, every time I want to quit, every time I think this is I'm not even sure this is worth it, there's just something about coming into the presence of God that snaps me to attention and fills my heart and soul.

Have you ever had that experience where you're like, there's no way?

I'm not, I can we just sleep in on Sunday?

I mean, do we really have to go?

And then you show up and you're like, what would life have been had I not shown up for that?

Anyone ever had that experience?

That's because that's what the presence of God does for us.

When we gather here on Sunday morning, it's not to check a box so that we can get through get on with the rest of our lives.

We come here to be recalibrated and nourished and filled by the presence of God.

That's what the presence of God does for us.

And God is so concerned that we experience his presence.

Um he actually came and made his presence available to us 24-7.

See, God's ultimate desire to nourish and sustain us is demonstrated by the fact that he put on flesh, moved into the neighborhood himself as the bread of life.

This is what Jesus said in John 6.

Truly, truly I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my father gives you the true bread from heaven.

For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.

They said to him, Sir, give us this bread always.

And Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life.

Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.

Jesus is saying, Hang out with me, do life in my presence, and you'll always be satisfied.

Always Can you guys even imagine a world in which you feel always satisfied?

That's like counterintuitive to how we're programmed to live in our country, right?

You should always be dissatisfied.

There's always something you're missing, there's always something else you need to get.

Jesus says, hang out with me and you'll always feel full.

You'll always be satisfied.

I say all that to say this.

The good news today is this the bread of presence in the tabernacle is now available to you and me as the bread of life.

And that bread of life, God's presence in Jesus, nourishes and sustains us.

See, we no longer need a priest to meet with God as our intermediary in the tabernacle, because God is tabernacled among us in Jesus, the bread of life and our great high priest.

God makes his nourishing presence available to us 24-7.

And I'm just here to tell you, if you're limping along through life, if you're just trying to make it from day to day and week to week, and you're always feeling like, I feel like I'm missing something, I want to say to you, what you're missing is the presence of God in your life.

Not just on Sunday, but every day.

Until you and I learn to live in the presence of God that really nourishes and sustains us, we're just gonna limp through life at best.

John Ortberg, in his wonderful book, God is Closer Than You Think, says this.

He says, Every moment we live without an awareness of God's presence, we're sleepwalking.

We're sleepwalking.

See, the teaching of Scripture is that God is present to nourish and sustain us by his Holy Spirit right now, right here, all the time, and in every place.

And every once in a while, there's someone kind of wakes up to that.

They get a whiff of the bread of life.

They get a glimpse of God's face.

This happened once to a guy named Nicholas Herman.

He worked in the food service industry after he had a few stints of stint in the military and then in transportation.

But eventually he just settled in as a short-order cook and a bottle washer.

And he was a guy who was always restless, always kind of deeply dissatisfied.

He worried about everything.

Then one day he was out on a break and he was sitting by this stream and just worrying about everything all over again, and he noticed a tree.

And the same truth struck Nick that struck the psalmist, and he realized that a tree's life is rooted in something other and deeper than itself.

So at that moment, Nick decided to make his life an experiment in what he called, quote, a habitual, silent, secret conversation of the soul with God.

The truth is, many of us have heard of Nick.

We just didn't know that was his name.

Nick today is known by, does anyone want to take a guess who this guy is?

His name's Brother Lawrence.

Anyone ever hear of Brother Lawrence?

Some of you have, some of you haven't.

Brother Lawrence remained in obscurity the rest of his life.

He was a monk, actually.

He never got a voted Pope.

He never was the CEO of some kind of relief organization.

He lived his life in the kitchen, but the people who around him found the aroma of the bread of life kind of wafted from Brother Lawrence in such a way that, like, I gotta have what this guy has.

Have you ever been around somebody that this kind of Jesus oozes off them and you're like, man, how do I get that?

I want to be like that.

This is how Brother Lawrence was.

And after he died, his friends actually put together a book of his letters and conversations, and that book is called The Practice of the Presence of God.

I did some research, and this book is thought, apart from the Bible, to be the most right widely read book in the last 400 years.

So Brother Lawrence, the short order cook monk, has probably outsold John Grisham, Tom Clancy, and J.K.

Rowling combined.

He just never knew it.

See, being who you and I are created to be, which is men and women made in God's image, which just think about that.

And to be made in God's image means to reflect him to our world.

You can't reflect someone you're not with.

To be that kind of person really comes down to being rooted in the sustaining presence of God.

And brother Lawrence wrote this.

He said, The most holy and necessary practice in our spiritual life is the presence of God.

That means finding constant pleasure in his divine company, speaking humbly and lovingly with him in all seasons, at every moment, and without limiting the conversation in any way.

So the challenge for us today is this.

If the good news is that Jesus, the bread of life, makes it possible for you and me to live 24-7, every moment of every day, in the presence of God, how do we do that?

How do we do that?

I mean, you come to church a lot.

I have too, where people like throw, you need to live in the presence of God.

The presence of God is what nourishes and sustains you.

You need to live out of that, but we have no idea how to do that.

So what I'd like to do in the last few minutes that I have is to get really practical and help us to have an imagination for what it would look like to live tomorrow, Monday, May 30th, in the presence of God.

Alright?

So I'm going to walk through a typical day and make some suggestions along the way, and hopefully this will stoke your imagination for the reality that not only can you live in the presence of God, but you will.

You'll be committed to do that, and as you do, it will be the kind of life you're like, why didn't I do this sooner?

Because it will sustain and nourish you in ways that you never experienced before.

Alright?

So let's get started.

Let's start at the beginning.

When we think about when the day starts, what time does the day start for you?

Six?

When the sun comes up, when the coffee pot starts brewing, right?

When Starbucks opens, when the alarm goes off.

But in the Bible, when it talks about the beginning of the day in creation, it actually says, and there was evening and there was morning the first day.

And then the second day, it's the same.

And there was evening and there was morning.

Same with days three through seven.

So according to the Bible, a new day begins when the sun goes down, not when the sun comes up.

A new day begins at night.

And what happens mostly at night?

We sleep, right?

So actually, the day is beginning while we sleep.

Why is this, do you think?

I know why I discovered for me.

Because when I sleep, who's still awake and at work?

God is, right?

George McDonald said this: sleep is God's invention for giving us the help he cannot get into us while we're awake.

I don't know about you, but I'm just a total control freak.

Um, as you get to know me well, you'll know that's how I am.

My wife will admit that, tell you about that.

My kids will tell you I'm a control freak, and they say just admitting you're a control freak doesn't make it go away.

So um, but for me, sleep has become just an exercise in trust that I can put away my to-do list and God is still gonna make the world work without me.

Sabbath does the exact same thing for me.

I've come in the last four years to really practice Sabbath very, very seriously.

One day a week, I completely unplug and I put away my to-do list, and I do nothing that has to be done other than just be with people and be with God.

Because I have to be reminded on a regular basis God doesn't need my help to make this world work.

Sleep is an act of trust.

So we begin our day by sleeping, and to do that, actually to get really practical, you have to prepare to sleep well.

You know that, right?

So, how many of you would say you you sleep on average the number of hours you really need to sleep every night?

Not very many of us, right?

How many would say, how many hours do you need to sleep?

Three?

See, this is the thing.

I think when it comes to asking that question, everyone underestimates the number, at least what they'll say publicly, because they're embarrassed to say, I really need ten hours of sleep.

When the truth is you might very well need ten hours of sleep, and if you would take that seriously, you could be much more productive tomorrow than you could have if you've only done five or six.

The problem is we live in a world that kind of idolizes people who don't need to sleep and end up frying themselves completely.

We burn ourselves out in the name of I don't know what, but we think we're gonna get a like a bozo button or a spirit a bath of spirituality because we we we don't sleep and and we burned ourselves out for Jesus.

And Jesus, like, well, what kind of Life is that?

Are we really wanting to invite people into live that kind of life?

So if you want to sleep well, a couple simple tips like turn off the electronics sooner than normal.

Literally, physiologically, the blue screen and the noise and all this stuff, all it's doing is stimulating brain waves, and so you can't shut your brain down enough to go to sleep.

Which is why so many of us are taking melatonin and other things because we're watching, we're looking at Facebook or reading our Kindle or watching Sports Center all the way up until we can't stand it anymore.

But our brain doesn't just shut off.

Um, another thing is don't eat before you go to sleep, which is bad news for people like me, but eating before you go to sleep actually wakes everything up in your body.

And for some of you, one of the best advice for you to get some good sleep is what Paul said, which is don't let the sun note go down on your anger.

So if you have some kind of a conflict with someone, settle it.

Or at least address it.

Don't sweep it under the rug because what happens when we don't?

We climb in bed and all we're doing is rehearsing and telling ourselves stories, and we're we're coming up with how I'm gonna put that person in their place, or what are they thinking, and and it just no one rests that way, right?

So prepare to get enough sleep.

I want to suggest, even if you hear nothing else I had to say tonight today, the most spiritual thing you could do to begin to practice the presence of God is actually learn how to sleep well.

Create space in your life to actually sleep.

And if you do, like that starts off today, eight hours in the presence of God.

Just begin as you go to bed.

Thank you, God, for this day.

I'm gonna settle any accounts I need to settle with you in terms of sin.

I invite your presence to envelop me as I sleep.

And help me to sleep with an awareness that you're with me.

And I found when I do that, I rest much better than I than when I don't.

And then tomorrow you're gonna wake up at some point.

So, what do you want to be your first thought?

Now, now, again, for me, often when I wake up, I I feel overwhelmed.

I have to-do lists for my to-do lists, and I feel uh hurried or maybe inadequate for problems, not smart enough, or what am I gonna do about this, or I'm too broken, all those kinds of things.

And those aren't the first thoughts I want to have in the morning.

So, what I do intentionally is I refocus my thoughts on God and His presence.

So as soon as I get up, I make a habit as I walk into the bathroom saying, God, thank you for this new day.

You've given me another day.

I actually woke up today.

That's good news, right?

I woke up and I get another day and you're with me.

See, some of the best advice I've ever been given is when I wake up as soon as possible to get alone with God.

Don't, not something heroic.

I'm not saying go spend an hour with God if that's not what you do.

But just get alone with God and focus your attention on Him directly.

It might be meditating on something like Psalm 23, right?

The Lord is my shepherd.

In other words, I'm not a sheep just wandering off all by myself.

I have someone watching over me.

And the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

He's gonna provide for me.

He sees what I need, and there's not a desire that he wants met that isn't going to be met as I do this day in his presence.

Or you pray through the Lord's Prayer, which which Clyde had us do some this morning already.

The idea is invite him to be with you when you wake up first thing.

Go over your plans for the day, any concerns that you might have.

For me, I use the Book of Common Prayer every morning.

There's an app on my phone that I just read through the Book of Common Prayer that really centers me on this is who God is and this is what he's doing.

And he invites me to join him.

My day is not about God bless me, it's about how can I get in on what you're doing, God.

Maybe it's just as simple as that little Jesus calling book many of you are familiar with.

You can put that on your app and just read one a day.

It's like a two-minute read that just at least goes, okay, God, this is your day, it's not my day.

Dietrich Bonhoffer said this.

For Christians, the beginning of the day should not be haunted by the various kinds of concerns they face during the day.

The Lord stands above the new day, and all worry and all anxiety flee before him.

Therefore, in the early morning hours of the day, may our many thoughts and our many idle words be silent, and may the first word and the first thought belong to the one to whom our whole life begins, belongs.

Again, tomorrow first thoughts belong to God.

And then we get ready.

Now it gets really practical.

How many of you, at least once a day, use some kind of a soap or shampoo or shaving cream to get yourself ready in the morning?

Right?

Raise your hand.

Those, how many don't do?

No, don't raise your hand if you don't.

See, the reality is our bodies are physical and we notice them more readily.

And so we tend to take care of them better.

We're careful about keeping them clean.

Yet for days or weeks at a time, sometimes we never ask God to cleanse us from the inside, do we?

Paul says that Jesus wants to make us holy by the washing of the water of the Word and to present us before God one day without stain or wrinkle or blemish.

That's what he says in Ephesians 5.

So tomorrow, just very simply, when you're washing your face or shaving or taking a shower, maybe you could do it just by as you're doing, God, as this soap and this water is cleansing my body, I invite your spirit, I invite your word to cleanse my heart and my mind.

Any impurities, any misguided intentions or destructive desires or thoughts that would pull me away from the life of love, joy, and peace that you have for me, any bitterness that could choke the life out of me.

God, would you wash those away?

Would you cleanse me of that?

You can do both at the same time.

And then you're gonna eat.

Jesus said, we're to pray each day for our daily bread.

Again, that's a reminder that even the food that we have is a gift from God.

In fact, in Ecclesiastes 9, the writer says, eat your bread with joy.

Have you ever considered that when we eat, that should actually be a celebration of God's goodness in our lives?

Often I don't do that because I'm so rushed and so preoccupied when I eat.

But how could I make mealtime a practice of gratitude, a practice of being in the presence of God?

I have a friend I used to work with.

Um, we would go to Sweet Tomatoes about every other week for lunch, and I always made a point of getting behind him in line at Sweet Tomatoes.

Has anyone seen that like really long, luscious salad bar?

And the reason I would get behind John is because when he would make his salad, he would like do color commentary on every vegetable along the way.

He'd go, Oh, look at that hiccom.

Have you seen hiccomil like this?

This is gonna be incredible.

And then he'd go, Oh, those tomatoes are so ripe.

Oh, I don't know which dressing to do.

And he'd do this whole thing, and then he'd get it to the table, and with everybody, he'd go, Oh, that is so good.

That is so good.

Have you ever been around somebody like that?

You forget to eat, and you're like, I'm not sure what to think of that, but I think that's kind of cool, you know?

So when it comes to eating, can I just encourage you tomorrow to, when you eat, actually slow down enough to notice what you eat and chew it.

Just chew it and remember God's goodness.

And remember also what Jesus said in Matthew 4 when he said, Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from God.

So just as our bodies are fed by food, our minds are fed for better or for worse by thoughts and words and images.

So intentionally feed your mind thoughts that will direct you toward God.

This is why scripture memorization is so helpful.

Things like I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Philippians 4.13.

Or Romans 8.38, nothing can separate me from the love of God.

Those are the kinds of things we just kind of turn over and ruminate on and just feast on.

And then maybe tomorrow you'll read the newspaper or scan your homepage for the headlines.

And I'm not suggesting you give that up if that's what you do, but maybe you do it as you wake up to the world, you wake up with one ear to God while you're paying attention to these other things.

So when you read the newspaper or watch the news or listen to talk radio, do you find your concern for our world kind of percolating in you?

Do you ever go, man, this place is jacked up?

Anyone kind of feel that way?

So, what if those kinds of feelings of anxiety are actually an opportunity to say, okay, God, I'm really disturbed by this, so I just want to ask you to intervene.

In these countries that are really kind of always, there's so much unrest, would you pour out your love, mercy, and justice?

And God, in this election season where I wish that none of the above was one of the options at the voting booth, would you make your kingdom come?

And I think God is gonna meet us in that.

He's gonna do something in us, and he might even do something through us.

There's also a good chance that you're gonna drive somewhere tomorrow, right?

Whether it work, if you have to work on Memorial Day, sorry about that, errands or the beach or something like that.

So, how would you drive differently if you're practicing the presence of God while driving?

Have you ever thought that?

Like give you a quick test of get your baseline as to where you are right now.

So here's the question: when driving, how often do you use your horn?

Okay, I'm gonna give you three options.

Number one, rarely, if ever, how many of you fit in that camp?

Now don't lie, you're in church.

All right.

Number two, as needed, which means at least at once, at least once a day.

How many of you fit in that camp?

Or honking is my primary love language.

Yeah, it's few, yeah.

That my wife actually would fit in the third one.

I remember when we first moved to Texas several years ago, um, she got so aggravated with drivers I was driving, she reached over and would honk the horn.

I'm like, you can't do that.

We live in Texas.

People can carry concealed weapons legally, and um, that could not go well, right?

But the problem is everyone is in such a hurry.

I mean, I did it this morning.

I honked two people on my way to church this morning.

I'm like, what is wrong with me?

I know I'm gonna talk about this, and I'm gonna have to out myself, right?

See, for most of us, the biggest enemy to practicing the presence of God is the pace of our lives.

We run everywhere, everywhere.

Yet in the Bible, no one ever runs with God.

Do you notice that?

That's very irritating.

We have a God who prefers walking.

Our God is a walker, and and we want him to run.

Yet he's content walking with us here and walking with us there.

So here's a radical way to practice the presence of God when it just comes to driving, and you're not gonna like this, but drive the speed limit.

I don't even have to comment on that.

Drive the speed limit.

Let someone pass you.

Indy 500 is tomorrow, and you don't live anywhere near that.

Right?

But to do this, you need to create space so that you don't have to be hurried all the time, right?

And maybe say, God, I want to drive with you, I want to trust you with my time.

Help me to manage my time better.

Or maybe, God, I I actually need you to be Siri for me.

I need you to be navigating me because every time I'm the one just taking the wheel, it doesn't go well.

Right?

I submit to you as my navigation system.

Again, this requires building in extra margin in our schedule so we have room for the Spirit to interrupt us.

I think one of the greatest practices we can we can really cultivate in our lives, if we want to be people who experience the sustaining and nourishing presence of God, is to create space in our schedules to be interrupted.

Because we live with this misguided notion that God is just gonna meet us in our schedule when he doesn't have to.

So much of what God does in my life along the way are the things I didn't plan.

And if I'm not, don't have the room or the awareness of it, I just miss out.

I just miss out.

So, I got how can I be interruptible and create space and margin in my life so that I can slow down enough to notice what God's doing?

I'm out of time, but somebody wrap this up.

Um, we could talk about working, but that's you know, most of you aren't gonna have to work tomorrow because of Memorial Day.

We'll save that for another time.

Maybe there's leisure time in the yard or at the park or the pool or the beach or just in your recliner with the remote control.

And I've just asked the question: do you think you could watch TV in the presence of God?

Actually, I think you can.

I think you can.

I mean, I don't know if Jesus would only watch PBS or, but I would hope not.

Or or ESPN, I think he would.

He'd appreciate these athletic feats of the people he created.

I'm not sure he would watch, you know, disease of the week movies in Lifetime for Women, because um, well, he's not a woman.

So.

But the idea is this when you watch TV, can you, I think we can learn to watch TV with Jesus.

And if there's something that makes you laugh, just laugh and enjoy the fact that you were able to experience joy.

And if you're questioning what you're watching, just talk to God about it.

And if he wants to change your viewing habits, he'll let you know.

But you need to be open to that and listen for his nudging and then follow that prompting.

And finally, tomorrow, there's a good chance you're gonna be with people.

So, how do we practice the presence of God with the people around us?

I would say simply start by asking, Holy Spirit, what do you want to do in this person's life and how do you want me to be a part of it?

Do you want me to encourage them?

Do you want me to serve them in some way?

Just to listen to them, speak some truth to them, love them, be your hands and feet?

And then follow that prompting.

I know sometimes we try and talk ourselves out of it thinking, oh, that's just me, but if you've asked God to speak to you by his spirit and a thought comes to your mind, you're pretty safe to go with it, as long as it's not like totally contrary to anything you've read in Scripture.

This isn't rocket science.

This is an art we can grow in.

And then maybe you'll come across someone you don't like at all, and you're thinking, you know, I need to avoid them so that they don't torpedo by practicing the presence of God tomorrow, which is very likely you'll probably be with family, right?

Um, but I would say actually the opposite is true.

Because being around difficult people is one of the absolute best ways to dial into what God's doing in you.

And maybe difficult people we need to be to need to begin to view as God's gift of holy sandpaper to smooth off our rough edges.

Again, Jesus says this in Luke 6 love your enemies, let them bring out the best in you.

If you only help those who help you, do you expect the medal?

So if you want to grow, the truth is you need some difficult people in your life.

And if you can't think of any, we have a whole list of those people at the church, and we'd be happy to assign you one for tomorrow, right?

All right.

So then when you lie down to sleep tomorrow night, I would just say do a review of the day and hit repeat.

See, if we can practice the presence of God for one day, we can eventually do it any and every day.

So, whatever tomorrow holds for you, I know it's a holiday, but there's errands and interruptions and everything, but everything's just this opportunity to practice the presence of God.

And when you forget about it and mess up, which you will do, I guarantee, don't beat yourself up about it.

Just stop and remember, you know what?

This is just another moment for me to learn how to be with God.

Because every moment is another chance.

Because God is here and he's at work, and all he asks us to do is watch and listen and obey the promptings of his spirit.

And as we do, we'll be filled to overflowing because that's what his presence does.

The presence of God nourishes and sustains us.

Every moment for us is a bread of presence, bread of life moment.

So let's practice the presence of God together, all right?

Let's pray.

Father, we just ask now that you would meet us and begin to show us what you want to do.

I ask, first of all, you would give us an appetite for this, that you would help us to long for a life that's rooted deeply in your presence.

Not just here when we gather on Sundays, but in your presence Sunday to Sunday in whatever we do.

And then we ask that you would give us eyes to see and ears to hear what you're doing.

I just want to give you a minute now, just to invite the Spirit to speak to you and show you.

Give you an imagination for the life that he has for you beginning tonight.

Speak a blessing over us.

May the Lord bless you and keep you.

May He make His face to shine upon you, and may you experience the joy and the peace that just overflows in your life when you walk in the presence of God.

I pray that you have eyes to see and ears to hear what God's doing, so that you can be his hands and his feet a blessing in your world.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Amen.

Have an awesome week.