Love His Presence More

My name's Jordan.

I'm one of the pastors here.

It's my privilege to open God's word with you this morning to mine its riches and hopefully encourage our faith this morning.

We are continuing in our more series, and today we're going to be talking about loving God's presence more.

We're going to be looking at this psalmist's pursuit of God's presence through Psalm 84.

In 2015, I began the process of pursuing eldership, being a pastor.

I didn't know much about what that looked like.

I was approached by the lead pastor at that time, and we began conversations.

And kind of what the process looks like is they start questioning you and they see how you conduct yourself in the church and in your family.

And I began getting, you know, the thoughts and prayers going on of like, yeah, this might be something that God is calling me into.

So the process uh usually takes maybe two years.

For me, it was a little bit longer.

Um, but uh it ended up coming to fruition.

But one of the things that stands out the most of that process is kind of the culmination of the whole thing.

So you read all these books and you write these papers and you submit this theological statement to the elders for review.

And so they get days and weeks to look through five, ten, fifteen pages, however long-winded you are, of uh your paper, and they get to kind of start poking holes in it and looking for maybe some discrepancies or some things that that we don't align on.

And then at all the apex, the climax of the entire process is that you sit down with all the elders and they just start grueling you with questions, right?

And I remember getting asked questions.

I I don't even know what the question truly was that I was being asked.

I just remember, oh man, this is this is not going well.

And so I tried to be the best politician I could, and uh, I was just very slow to speak.

Could you rephrase that in another sentence?

You know, could you use that in a sentence for me?

Uh and I I just was like really strategic, and I didn't want to like, it's something I was a little bit unsure of my answers.

I was kind of, you know, just you know, trying to maybe not be so confident in my answer, but give them enough to appease them.

But one of the questions that that stands out was uh what I thought was the easiest question.

It was, is God in hell?

And I instantly blurted out, no.

And I believe it was Pastor Justin.

He said, That's interesting, because in your paper you said God is omnipresent, he's everywhere.

And now you're saying he's not in hell.

Can you explain that for me?

And I was like, oh no, this is not good.

This is starting to unravel.

And so uh that's a conversation for another day, another place and another time.

But today we're gonna be looking at God's presence with his people.

And so one of the things that we believe is that he is omnipresent.

He is everywhere.

It's one of his incommunicable attributes, something that he doesn't share with us.

But we believe as believers that we are indwelt with the Spirit, that his presence resides in us.

We're gonna be exploring that today.

But this discussion about is God in hell, if you'd like to talk about it, let's talk about it later.

But I don't know, I don't even remember what my answer was for that.

But I do believe that it sets the groundwork of where we are going to be headed.

What do we mean this morning when we talk about the presence of God?

Could you explain what is the presence of God to a co-worker, to a neighbor?

I challenge you, it's uh it's a little bit more difficult answer, or or maybe you would stumble around on your words.

And I came across a helpful quote from a Puritan named Thomas Goodwin, and it'll be on the screen behind me.

It says, A man and his little child are walking down the road, and they're walking hand in hand, and the child knows that he is the child of his father, and he knows that his father loves him, and he rejoices in that, and he is happy in it.

There was no uncertainty about it all, but suddenly the father, moved by some impulse, takes hold of the child and picks him up, fondles him in his arms, kisses him, embraces him, showers his love upon him, and then he puts him down again and they go on walking together.

I think it's a beautiful portrait of what we're talking about today.

The presence of God.

The Puritans would call this the sensible presence of God, this manifest, made evident, experienced, felt, taste, seen presence of God.

Not some mystical mysticism or some abstract thought, but the very presence of God in believers.

So, yes, God is omnipresent.

Yes, he is everywhere, but God delights to make his presence known in a special way to his children.

Like a good and perfect Father.

He loves to shower them with love and affection and at times just pick us up in his arm and remind us that we are his.

So this morning, that's where we're headed.

I want to pray, and we're gonna dive into the text.

God, we praise you this morning that we have confidence that your spirit is here.

God, the spirit that raised Christ from the grave is amongst us, has indwelt us as believers.

And so, God, I pray this morning that you would allow me to take a backseat to where you are leading, to where you are guiding, that your presence would direct us this morning, that your spirit would enable my mouth to be a mouthpiece of your glory and excellencies.

God, I pray that we would feel the risen Savior this morning amongst us, that we'd be encouraged in our faith, that we would be fueled for mission.

God, that your name is made glorious in this place.

So, Psalm 84.

Psalm 84, disclaimer, this is one of my favorite psalms in the Bible.

So I'm gonna try to be short-winded on this.

Uh, you ask a worship guy to preach from the Psalms, you're probably gonna get a bunch of funny trails and all sorts of stuff.

So I'm gonna try to keep it restricted.

Uh, this is one of my favorites.

Uh we we like to name our our worship teams, our bands at Sacred Mission, and one of them uh that I first came up with for our team here was Highways to Zion, and it's from this psalm, and I was shot down very quickly because it sounded like an ACDC song.

Uh but I love this song.

We ended up with Sun and Shield, and that's what we call ourselves, and I don't know really what this means.

Maybe we'll get a t-shirt someday.

But we are now Sun and Shield, so you can refer to me as Son and Jordan as Shield.

I don't know.

But um really that this is one of my favorite psalms.

If you read on your scripture, on the in your Bible, it says, Psalm 84, to the choir master, a psalm of the sons of Korah.

So that's our author today, the sons of Korah.

Korah meaning little bald head.

I think that's God's uh sense of humor.

Um, but this this man named Korah, I want to kind of give us, bring us into the context and the backstory of the author, because I think it really, really will influence the writing and the scripture that we have that God uh chose to use this man named Korah and his descendants to pen this psalm.

And so Korah was a man in the Old Testament.

God had given him a vocation, a job, and he was to be a gatekeeper of the tabernacle, the place where God dwells with his people, his presence is made manifest among them.

This was Korah's role.

Korah rejected God's plan.

He felt that God was holding out on him.

He went to Aaron, who is the priest, and he said, Who told you that you're the one to make sacrifices on behalf of God's people?

Why are you so special?

Did God really put you in that position?

And so Moses says, Tomorrow, Korah, I want you to bring a sacrifice.

I want you to present it before the Lord.

And whose ever sacrifice God accepts, we know that his priesthood is placed on God's plan.

And so that happens the next day.

Korah comes out, and so does Aaron.

Korah brings 250 of his best men with sent uh with censors, these bronze scepters, that they came out and they presented this sacrifice to the Lord.

And what happens?

The earth opens up, swallows Korah and all of his family.

And then fire rains down on the 250 men that Korah had brought out, and they are destroyed.

Before that happened, God said to Moses, Hey, withdraw your people from Korah's presence.

Separate yourself, because I'm going to kill them.

I'm going to wipe them off of the face of the earth.

That's Korah Senior.

That's that's the father of this tribe, this Levitical tribe.

And today we are getting a psalm from the sons of Korah.

Later on in the book of Numbers, there's a verse in chapter 26 that says, But the sons of Korah did not die.

The sons of Korah didn't die.

God chose to spare a small select few, this remnant.

And that's who the author is today of our psalm.

The sons of Korah, the ones that God spared in his infinite mercy and grace.

The sons of Korah later would hold the vocation of a gatekeeper like their father, but half of them also would be lead worshipers in the temple.

The sons of Korah actually led worship amongst King David in the temple.

And so that's who the author is today.

They go on to writing 11 psalms, and all of their psalms have this uh theme that and thread that runs through them of this deep longing and appreciation and appetite to be with God in his presence.

And so Psalm 84 this morning is no different.

While we don't know the exact time of the writing of Psalm 84, we know that it was in some type of exile, whether it's Babylonian captivity, the psalmist has now been separated from God's presence.

And this psalm is a plea, it's a cry to be reunited with God in his presence.

So Psalm 84.

It's broken up into three blessings, three beatitudes, and we're going to follow in that same form.

So, number one, we have in verses one through four, we have the appetite for God's presence.

Scripture reads, How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts.

My soul longs.

Yes, feints for the courts of the Lord.

My heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God.

Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young at your altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God.

Blessed are those who dwell in your house, ever singing your praises.

And so we see this appetite, this desire, this longing that the psalmist has, not for just the courts of God, not just for the tabernacle, not just for the temple, not just for the benefits of God, but no, we see for the living God.

Verse 2.

My soul longs for the living God.

He is longing for God Himself.

Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, is famously quoted in saying, You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in thee.

And that's what's taking place here.

The psalmist has been disconnected from God's presence and his yearning and longing, this insatiable appetite to once again dwell with God in his holy house.

Psalm 42 is another psalm of Korah, and it's uh along the same themes, uh, as the deer panteth forth.

You guys know that song, maybe, if you've been around church for a while.

But Psalm 42 and verse 4, the sons of Korah write, These things I remember as I pour out my soul, how I would go with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God with loud shouts and songs of praise, a multitude of keeping festival.

The psalmist here is reminding and remembering of the days when he got to lead God's people into the courts of God's praise and how he desires to once again do that.

Once again dwell with God in his house.

In verse 3, he we're reminded of this kind of jealousy that the psalmist has for even the sparrow.

It says, even the sparrow has a place where she may lay her young.

She has food for herself, she finds a home there.

The psalmist is is jealous of this sparrow, that even she can dwell at the Lord's altars.

The psalmist's appetite for God's presence is in his confidence.

And verse 4 that blessed are those who dwell in your house, ever singing your praise.

So to summarize, verses one for one through four, blessed are those who dwell in the king's house.

After this, we get a word selah.

It appears 71 times in the Psalms alone.

And it's it's a it's not a word that's uttered, but it's a musical interlude, it's a pause, it's some type of musical term, and it it uh doesn't have really any bearing on our text today, but we got to remember the psalms are a song book.

These are meant to be sung and prayed and read aloud.

And so as they would uh write this this uh psalm, it was intended for them to be a pause before we move on.

And so, number one through four, summary is Blessed are those who dwell in the king's house.

We're gonna go on to five through eight.

We see the psalmist pursuit of God's presence.

The psalmist pursuit of God's presence.

Verse five reads, Blessed are those whose strength is in you and whose heart are the highways to Zion, that great ACDC song, the highways of Zion.

In the second portion of our text this morning, we get a picture of this rugged journey, this trek towards the presence of God, this death-defying pilgrimage to God's presence.

He says, the highways of Zion.

Zion is used all throughout scripture.

It's used 152 times alone in the Old Testament, and it's always referring to the presence or dwelling place of God.

It kind of transitions and transforms over time to actually uh the apex of it being God's people are called Zion.

But this morning, the psalmist says that there's a highway to Zion that God's people are journeying towards.

The psalmist is describing this rugged journey, this rugged pursuit.

And this is something that we all can relate to, right?

We were created with God in relationship with him.

Because of sin, we are distanced from him, and now we are longing to once again be in this relationship with God.

Our hearts are restless until we rest in him.

And sometimes life can feel a little bit like the organ trail.

You guys ever play that game growing up?

The Oregon Trail.

I was reminded of this as I was reading this.

This psalmist is going through this valley of Baca and this death, this uh thirsty valley where there's no rain for weeks.

Sometimes our life feels like that, right?

You remember in the Oregon Trail, we have Jed who gets bit by malaria, you think everything's by a typhoid fever, whatever it was, you think everything's going great, and then the wheel falls off the wagon, and then you you get to the river and you decide, am I gonna cross here, am I gonna fort over it, and then the cows, you know, die, they they sink, and then you lose half your possessions, they get frostbit because you're in the water.

I mean, I pushed that family to the brink of death every time.

I don't know the point of the game.

I know you had to make it to Oregon, I don't know what was in Oregon, but it was a quest to go to Oregon.

And I I really I thought this this mental framework of this picture of this journey towards God's presence is a lot like our life.

We're going along, we're going along, and then something distracts us.

We blow a tire, our house nearly catches on fire.

We have uh a child get sick, right?

We maybe a good thing, we start manicuring our lawn, and we just want it to be the best thing in the neighborhood, right?

We have all these distractions and all these disruptions while we're on this journey towards God's presence, and they're all hindrances and stumbling blocks and roadblocks.

And this is what the psalmist is describing here this rugged journey towards God's presence.

And God never promises an easy path on the road to life, on the road to Zion.

But what he does promise is that he will provide us the strength, the strength on our journey.

It's interesting that some of the lowest points of our lives, some of the hardest things that we can experience on this side of eternity, are some of the times where we have felt God's presence most evident, most manifest, most clear, because we've been brought to nothing.

We've been, we've lost ourselves.

There's nothing more.

What am I going to cling to but you, God?

And we get this promise this morning.

We are reminded that the strength in our pursuit does not reside in us, but it's rather supplied by our King.

Derek Kidner, he writes a commentary on the Psalms that I've really enjoyed and appreciated.

He says the rich relationship with God is a never-ending supply of strength for the journey, even in difficult seasons.

So even though what we travel through the valley of Baca, this place where no trees can even grow because they have no water, we're reminded that because the strength is in our king, we can make it a place of springs, that pools, that that swell and overflow and life is given.

Verse 7.

Verse 7.

We get to go from strength to strength in our pursuit of God's presence.

So to summarize verse 5 through 8.

Summarizing verse 5 through 8.

Blessed are those whose strength is in the king.

Blessed are those whose strength is in the king.

So we have the appetite for God's presence, the pursuit of God's presence.

Verse 9 through 12, we're going to look at the blessing of God's presence.

Verse 10.

For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere.

I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness.

For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere.

Remember that song?

Better is one day in your courts?

Man, the sons of Korah wrote some banger hymns that we use in church today.

As the deer, better is one day.

There's tons of them, right?

This one's no different.

Compare the sentiment and the contentment of the sons of Korah with their father.

A day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere.

I would rather be a what?

A doorkeeper in the house of God than dwell in the tents of wickedness.

It's amazing the story and numbers, how it lines up with this psalm.

Korah was given this role of this doorkeeper, and he rejected it.

And actually, what God said to Moses, he said, remove your people from those who dwell in tents of wickedness.

And now we have descendants of the sons of Korah, of Korah Sr., and he says, I would rather be a doorkeeper and the house of God than dwell in tents of wickedness.

Why?

Because he had tasted and seen and experienced the presence of God.

And he longs for it.

He knows of the blessing that is in his presence.

And we read of this blessing.

The climax of our text is verse 11.

It says, For the Lord God is a son and shield.

The Lord bestows favor and honor.

No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly.

The Lord God is a son, he lights our path, he is a shield, he protects us.

He bestows favor, grace, mercy, unmerited favor.

He is, he shows us honor.

He gives us glory.

He places his loving affection on us, and we are judged by Christ's righteousness and not our own.

What amazing blessing we have for those who are in Christ.

It reminds me of Psalm 16 11 that says, In your presence, O God, There is fullness of joy.

Fullness of joy.

At your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

This is important.

The love and longing for the house of the living God are not meant to be an escape from the world, but rather a preparation for the righteous' life in it.

The love and longing for the presence of God are not meant to be an escape from the world, but rather a preparation for the righteous's life in it.

And so to summarize, verses 9 through 12, blessed are those who trust in the King.

Blessed are those who trust in the King.

The main idea of our text put all together is blessed are those who are brought near to the King.

Blessed are those who are brought near to the King.

And so that begs a question for us this morning.

What hinders us from experiencing God's presence?

What stops us in this journey towards experiencing the sensible, manifest, made-evident presence of God in our lives?

I would submit this morning that our story is that we have lost the satisfaction with our God's goodness.

What hinders us from being brought near to the presence of God?

We have lost the satisfaction with our God's goodness.

Many of us, if we're honest, have grown callous or insensitive towards the goodness and grandeur and glory and holiness of our God.

We believe the lies of the enemy that God is not good enough, that he's holding out on us in some way, shape, or form, that he won't truly satisfy all of our longings.

And so we take and we eat and we fill ourselves up with everything that won't satisfy us.

And we keep running and searching after lesser lovers and worldly pleasures that lead us to wanting more.

And as a result, instead of having this insatiable appetite that we see from the psalmist for the very presence of God, we've been filled to the gills on mediocre substitutes and appetizers.

Anybody gone to a restaurant before and you just start pounding?

It's usually in a Mexican restaurant for me, I start pounding chips and salsa, and it might not even be that good.

And then the main course comes around, you're like, man, I am hungry.

Like I I just house three boxes of tortilla chips and salsa, right?

Man, we do that in our faith.

We we fill up our guts with junk, fleeting pleasures, stuff that will never fill us, stuff that will leave us wanting, it will never satisfy us.

And as a result, we have no appetite for God's presence.

No appetite.

And furthermore, we have no pursuit.

We have no pursuit.

Maybe we'll keep going with this food analogy.

We get in this food coma.

No one wants to go run a marathon.

No one wants to run down anything after we have just filled up on this food, especially junk food.

Spiritually, we do this.

We fill up our lives and our schedules with junk and keep ourselves so busy and so preoccupied that we don't pursue after God.

We don't truly believe that no good thing does He withhold from us.

And we don't experience the sensible presence of God in our lives.

So we have no time left, we have no energy left to search and run hard after God.

I would submit this morning that the greatest roadblock, the greatest hindrance of experiencing God's presence in our life is ourself.

It's ourself, it's not God.

He has torn down the veil.

The separation between God and man has been broken in and through the person and work of Jesus Christ.

And many of us, because we don't die to self, because we search after fleeting pleasures, we repair that veil.

We build it back up.

And we separate ourselves from the presence of God made manifest in our lives because we're chasing after vain pursuits.

Let us not forget, church, that no good thing does he withhold from us.

Or as Romans says, that he who did not even spare his own son, won't he graciously, graciously give us all things?

That's our gospel conviction this morning.

That only in Jesus, only in Jesus can the righteous enjoy the presence of God.

Only in Jesus can the righteous enjoy the presence of God.

When Adam and Eve sinned, what did they do?

They ran, they hid, they sowed fig leaves, they tried to get away from the presence of God.

They didn't want to be around his presence, right?

They knew wrath was coming, right?

In Jesus, we don't have to live that way.

We can enjoy the presence of God.

Hebrews 10, verse 19, Hebrews is a book that really talks about New Testament comparing to the temple and the sacrifices.

Hebrews 10:19

It says, Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that He opened for us through the curtain, that is, through the flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith.

What gospel saturated reminder do we have today?

The story beginning with Korah in God's presence, had a vocation, had a job, much like Adam.

He rebels.

He rebels against God, and there is wrath and punishment coming, much like Adam.

He was dissatisfied in God's ways.

He believed the serpent.

Did God really say, God is holding out on you?

And Korah was struck down.

He was killed justfully by the wrath of God.

And the hope for us this morning, the confidence that we have is that Jesus became that substitute for our sin, that we might dwell.

That veil that was torn was torn by the blood of the Lamb, as Jesus rendered and offered up his spirit on behalf of our sin.

And he redeems us.

He gives us new purpose in life.

He gives us a new vacation.

He gives us the ability to dwell with God in his presence.

And much like the Father who gave of his very best, Jesus gives us the righteous, faithful, his very spirit.

John 14, verse 16 through 18.

John 14:16–18

And I will ask the Father, this is Jesus, I will ask the Father, and He will give you another helper to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him.

You know him, for he dwells with you and will be with you.

Jesus gave of his very best the helper.

He said to his disciples, It's better that I go, that I might send the helper, the spirit to indwell believers.

This is a fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies in Ezekiel chapter 36, where Ezekiel says, And I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you.

Ezekiel 36 · chapter mention

This is what Jesus has done for us.

Church, the purpose of our salvation is that we might enjoy the manifest, sensible, felt, seen, tasted relationship and presence of God.

The purpose of our salvation is that we might enjoy the presence of God as He enjoys our presence with Him.

And only in Jesus can the righteous enjoy this presence.

Like I said, I believe that we are the largest roadblock into why we don't experience and taste and see the presence of God.

So I want to give just three simple, easy ways of gospel practice this morning that we can have godly discipline in our lives to pursue the presence of God.

As believers, we are indwelt with the Spirit of God.

But we need to be praying.

We need to be a church that prays.

This daily invitation for the King to be present in our lives.

Prayer reorders our passions.

It allows us to meditate on God's goodness.

It allows us to die to self as the Spirit convicts us of our sin.

We need to be in prayer daily, pleading like the psalmist.

God, I pray that you would give me this appetite for God's presence.

I pray that you would instill in me this insatiable desire that all other things are fleeting and fading and worthless compared to knowing you fully, experiencing you more and more today than the day before, that my strength would be found in you, not my own efforts.

We need to be praying for the presence of God to be in our lives.

We should be people who are marked by expressive worship, responding to the goodness of God in our lives.

This is both individual and corporate.

The psalmist here says, How I long for the day, dwelling in your courts, ever singing your praises.

My heart sings, it cries out to the living God.

We should be expressive worshipers, reflecting and responding to the grace that has been extended in and through Jesus Christ, our Savior.

And lastly, we need to die to self.

We need to have the godly discipline of self-denial.

Christ has torn down the veil.

What is widely believed is when Christ rendered up his spirit and the curtain was torn, some people, some Pharisees, they missed the point of that.

And they actually went back in and sewed the veil back together.

This dwelling between God and man.

They actually put it back together.

And we are no different in our lives.

We need to learn to die to self, to push aside the things that separate ourselves from experiencing and tasting the manifest presence of God in our lives.

And I'll leave you with a quote from Octavius Winslow.

It says, where the heart is right in its affections, warm in its love, fixed in its desires, God is glorious in his perfections.

And communion with him is the highest bliss on earth.

Communion with him is the highest bliss on earth.

No good thing does he withhold, not even his son.

Let's pray.