Astounded | Omnipresent (June 27, 2021) Mike Armstrong

Welcome to the Redemption Church New Market podcast.

This morning we are hearing from Pastor Mike Armstrong, the senior pastor here.

The series is astounded, the attributes of God.

You maybe planned a coffee with a friend at 2 p.m., but oh no, I'm also supposed to be in a Zoom meeting for work at the exact same time.

We've all done that kind of thing.

For you, perhaps it is the chaos that happens when you're at home and you know your doorbell rings, you're not expecting any visitors or any guests or anything like that, but at the exact same time, the oven also goes off, and so you got that timer going, and then what was in the oven, because it's been overcooked, it is now burning, it also sets off the smoke alarm, and so you've got these three things going on.

You're like, what do I do?

What do I handle?

What do I tackle first?

Okay, if you uh if you have kids at all, if you have multiple kids, you've probably been in this type of situation before, where one of them cries out to you for help from the upstairs bathroom, and you're thinking, oh no, like what just happened?

Well, at the exact same time, downstairs in the basement, the two other kids are now in a fight, and you hear yelling and screaming and fists flying, and so you're thinking, how do I get upstairs and be downstairs?

Everything requires me to be there.

Now, again, we've all experienced these types of situations before where it becomes just painfully clear that you and I simply cannot be in two places at once.

Sometimes we feel like we need to be, our schedule demands it, a situation or a couple of situations demand it, but the reality is we know we can't be.

But if you are familiar at all with God's omnipresence, you're aware that he actually can be in two places at the same time.

In fact, he can be and is everywhere at all times.

Right?

That is the definition of omnipresence.

He is everywhere at all times.

Which I mean, when you when we stop and and and really absorb that, I think again, it's one of those mind-blowing realities uh that we have to try and allow ourselves to understand and settle and think about, right?

Which is exactly what we're trying to do in this series, is we're looking at the attributes of God.

We're trying to not just know them as these concepts, these lofty ideas in our minds, but actually know them in our hearts so that we are transformed.

We're talking about being astounded by uh being in awe of who God is.

That is the answer, really, to getting out of the jams we find ourselves in when it comes to idolatry and the different idols and sin that we get involved in.

We go after these things if we're not blown away by who God is.

And so that's the intention of this series, of course, and really where we're going this morning.

So here it is.

I am astounded as I consider that God is omnipresent.

He's omnipresent.

Now just listen to what David says here or read along with me if you've got it open to Psalm 139.

We're gonna be looking at uh verses 7 to 10.

And uh if you also want to cheat and get ahead a little bit, you can put your finger in Jeremiah chapter 23 as well.

Jeremiah 23 · chapter mention

We'll get there in just a moment.

But here's what Psalm 139 verse 7 says.

Psalms 139:7

David asked the question.

He says, Where shall I go from your spirit?

Hey, from your spirit, okay?

Now that word, spirit there, helps us understand just how God can be omnipresent.

Because he is spirit, right?

In nature, in essence, that is his makeup.

Okay, now here's how uh ligonier ministries uh puts it.

I like this.

They say God's being is altogether different from physical matter.

He exists on a plane wholly distinguishable from the one readily available to the five senses.

Okay, so you think sight, sound, smell, taste, touch, the five senses.

He he's on a he's on a different plane, again, that's distinguishable from the one that we exist on.

Okay, so God, again, his very essence is spirit.

That is his that he's a spirit being.

And so for him, there is not one single location in the entire universe where he does not exist and does not sovereignly rule.

Hey, think about that.

The most random, obscure place ever, God is there.

And he is ruling in righteousness and justice.

And David recognizes this because he asks the question.

Again, look at verse 7 again.

He says, Where shall I go from your spirit?

Where shall I go from your spirit?

Or where shall I flee from your presence?

Okay, where am I gonna go?

I can't get away from you.

Remember, I said we'd be in Jeremiah 23?

Well, you can go there now or just listen to me as I read it, verses 23 and 24, it says, Am I a God at hand?

This is what God says.

Am I a God at hand?

Meaning, am I am I not at close?

I'm at hand.

You can reach me.

Right?

I'm available to you, I'm within reach.

Am I not a God at hand?

declares the Lord, and not a God far away.

Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him, declares the Lord.

Do I not fill heaven and earth, declares the Lord.

He's telling us so much about himself.

And what we learn there, we learn in Psalm 139, is there's just simply no use trying to flee from him.

There's no use trying to run or hide, as Jeremiah says.

There's no point in trying to escape from the Lord.

You can't do it.

You simply cannot go to any location anywhere ever where he is not profoundly present and reigning supreme.

And so I just want to present the question to you at this point here now this morning.

Is there any chance that you're actually trying to do that, though?

Is there any chance that you are actually trying to flee?

That you are trying to run from the Lord.

Maybe it's it's by way of ignoring him.

He's trying to press on you.

Maybe it's to get saved.

Maybe it's to not go down the path that you're going down.

Maybe it's trying, it's some direction in life.

You've been praying to him, you've been acting, but you don't like the answer that you're starting to sense.

And so I'm ignoring him, and you're trying to run away and just kind of force it and do whatever you want to do.

Are you pushing him away in some manner?

Perhaps it's coming by in form of distractions.

Are you trying to flee from the Lord by distracting yourself with a with a hobby, whatever it might be?

Maybe it's it's a vice, straight up, right?

It's a sin that you're dabbling in and playing in and getting yourself all tied up in.

And you're using it as a way to run away from the Lord.

It can even be in good things.

We run away from the Lord by by immersing ourselves and throwing ourselves into our jobs and our vocations.

We we run into the garage to get away from the noise, the family, and just and to get away from the Lord Himself.

Maybe we do that even in other good things by by running into family, and I'm gonna, you know, just completely take up my life by investing in my family and or in my friends, and and really it's a way where you are trying to run from Christ.

Are you doing that thing that we do?

We're so good at this, right?

Where we where we try to play that game, where we're doing these types of things, but we're also trying to make it look like we're not.

Right?

You know what that's like, where you know, I, as the father of the home or you as a mom, or whatever, like we're we're still saying our prayers before the meal.

We're still praying with our kids before bed, but it's just kind of put up, you know, a certain view of ourselves before our kids.

We're I'm still showing up to church, I still tune into to small group from time to time.

I'm involved just enough to kind of make it look like I'm all in, to make it look like I've got this closeness to the Lord.

I know all the right words to say, I know how to deflect, but really for you, you're just running.

You're fleeing from the Lord, as David says.

And as he continues here, he just says that there's just no use doing it.

Because as we see here, there's nowhere you can run where the Lord is not.

Right?

But we've been doing it since the garden.

Right?

Adam and Eve did it.

They ran, they tried to hide.

And just imagine that the the you know the omnipresent God is like, where where are you?

Like, what are you doing here?

Right, and that that's what it's like with us as well.

And David gives us a couple of examples here to illustrate his point.

If you continue now in verse 8, Psalm 139, he says, If I ascend to heaven, you are there.

So you picture this, this is well before space travel, right?

We've sent people into space, you know, we've we've done all of that, but this is way before that.

That was just a pipe dream back then.

And so they're they're staring, looking up into the heavens, and they're like, even if I were to go there, which is like a billion miles away, that's what it would have felt to them.

They're like, even there, you will find me.

He says, if I make my bed in Sheol, Sheol is the word they used to understand the grave or the underworld or Hades.

Like, even if even if you go, if I go there, if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.

How about verse 9?

If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea.

He's picturing like, what's the most remote place on the planet?

I've just said, if I go above the planet, if I go below the planet, God's there, the most remote place in the middle of the ocean somewhere, even if I were to somehow get myself to these locations, I cannot escape you.

I cannot run away.

You are there.

He says, verse 10, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.

Okay, so how awesome is that that line right there?

Because it's not just that God exists everywhere, which he does, it's also that he has the heart to help us.

Right?

We see the heart of our God in that moment.

We see his love and his care.

Okay, no matter what kind of situation that you find yourself in this week or last week, no matter how how confusing or how dark or how painful your world might get, okay, God is not only right there, but he also cares for you in that moment.

He says that he leads you through those confusing times, through the pain, through the questions.

It says that his right hand, right, his right hand of power as the scriptures talk about it.

It says his right hand holds you no matter where you go.

Understand, church, that when the Lord feels like he's a million miles away.

And I mean, we all go through that experience, don't we?

We all go through those moments where it just feels like the Lord, like I couldn't be further from him.

I haven't heard from him, I haven't said him, I haven't even wanted to be near him.

We've all gone through that.

Right?

As you're crying out to him, maybe it's in your most intense hour of need.

Understand that he's there.

He's there and he cares.

Or when you like want to rebel against him, and it's that temptation that that's that creeps in on any given day to go in whatever direction that you know is not great.

When you want to rebel or or you have rebelled, you've given in, you've gone down that road, or or or you are currently rebelling in some way.

No matter what, yeah, you're you're you're harming the relational intimacy that Christ desires to have with you and share with you, but you're not actually pushing him away anywhere.

Do you realize that?

You're not putting any spatial distance between you and him.

But but I think sometimes that's where our minds, that's kind of how our minds understand it, because we can do that with people, can't we?

You ever get mad and storm out of the house?

I just need my space.

I need to go on a walk, I need to go grab a coffee, I need to go hang out with anybody other than you, I don't even want to look at you.

And so we give that we give that space.

We can run away from people, we can run away from certain situations.

Listen, we can't do that with the Lord.

When you're fearful, when you're searching, when you're when you're filled with doubt, when you're just depressed or numb from it all, God is present.

He's there at all times, everywhere, no matter what.

And not only that, he actually wants to engage with us.

He wants to meet us in that place.

I mean, the gospel has made that so profoundly clear to us.

Right?

Christ came to earth to engage with, to rescue and redeem fallen sinners, which which we all are.

Right?

He could have just said, done with you, flicking that planet, starting over.

He doesn't do it.

He actually comes to earth, he he lives the perfect life that you and I never could, and then he died, died the death that we we deserve.

Right?

We deserve to be punished for our sin.

He took all that upon himself.

That's exactly what he did.

The gospel makes it so profound that God is not only everywhere, but he is with us.

He draws near to us.

Now, as we close things off here, I want to leave you with something, four ways that God's omnipresence helps me right here, right now.

Because I think as we've been talking about this, again, we we don't just want to like have a dictionary definition and understanding of omnipresence in our minds, but we want like we we want this to actually transform us, right?

We want we want to be changed, we want to be different.

I want to be able to take this and apply it to my life as I walk out of these doors here today.

Okay, so four ways this helps us in real life.

First of all, it helps me fear him.

Right?

When you consider that that God is there and you can't run away from him, and in our sinfulness and in our in our flesh, we want to, right?

We want to escape him.

It's actually kind of terrifying to think that you can't escape the Lord.

He's there, he sees, he watches, he knows.

That's actually a good thing.

It's a good thing to shudder at that.

It's a good thing to be terrified at because it kind of acts as a governor for a believer.

Right?

It helps me to know, like, I can't escape.

I'm I'm this isn't a private.

The Lord is with me in what feels like a private moment.

He sees me, and that can be the, you know, that that can stop us from, frankly, doing a lot of dumb things.

Okay, it helps me fear him.

Here's the second one.

Helps me enjoy him.

It's not just about fear.

It's about it's about joy too, right?

When was the last time you just enjoyed the Lord?

Sat there and just marveled at who he was or enjoyed how he's working in your life and appreciated that.

Knowing that that God and all that he is is right there, is awesome.

Right?

That he is that he is power, right?

That is his wisdom, his you know, the joy that comes from him, the forgiveness that we need, that that is readily available.

He's not at arm's length, he's not far away, he's at hand.

Right?

That is that's amazing.

We should be enjoying the Lord, and he is available to you to enjoy.

Here's the third one.

It helps me not compartmentalize my life.

Knowing that God is everywhere at all times can help.

Let me pick on guys a little bit.

Guys are so good at compartmentalizing, right?

This is my spiritual life.

It's whenever I crack a Bible or walk in the doors of a church.

I mean, as soon as I leave or close the book, then I have my work life.

And then that's done at five, and then I go have my family time for a little bit, then I get the kids to bed, and now it's me time.

And you see how we compartmentalize?

That's so, you guys are so good at this.

Right?

But the reality is God is everywhere, which means he's present in everything that we're doing.

And so it helps us to not compartmentalize him, but to invite him, he's already there, but to be willing to invite him into all of those areas of life.

It's an important thing.

Four ways God's omnipresence helps me right here, right now.

Fourth one, it helps me find comfort when I need it.

And this is maybe the most natural or obvious way that we think about how God's omnipresence helps us.

Comfort.

When we struggle, when we're hurting, when we're in pain, all the things we've already even been talking about today.

We need peace, we need courage, we need healing, we need, we need forgiveness, we need joy, we need answers to our prayers.

The Lord is right there and he wants to comfort us.

He doesn't have to travel a billion miles to enter into your life.

He's already there.

Psalm 46, verse 1 says, God is our refuge and strength.

Psalms 46:1

You know the rest the the rest of it?

A very present help in trouble.

He's the answer to all of our needs, isn't he?

He really is.

He's available to you to be called upon.

And so listen, as we close our time together today, I'm gonna invite Derek to come back up and we're kind of shifting a little bit back into kind of standard church operations.

We're gonna have a time of uh worship and reflection on this, and then I will uh close us in prayer.

But I want to pray uh right now, actually, as Derek comes.

Lord, we thank you for this time together to unpack your word.

Lord, we thank you for how you are everywhere at all times.

Lord, that alone just makes you so worthy of our praise and so worthy of our awe and our respect and our adoration.

Lord, I pray that that would be happening in our hearts as we consider these things, Lord.

God, I pray that anybody who is trying to run away from you right now, Lord, would be rightly so struck by the fear that we can't escape you.

Lord, I pray that your spirit would be working in their hearts to stop them in their tracks and draw them to you and help them realize that inviting you into their life, confessing the areas of life, the different acts that we try to use to get away from you, that when we do that, enjoying intimacy with you is just so much better.

Lord, I pray that you would encourage your church today in these things.

I pray that we would marvel, that we would be astounded, that we would be filled with joy.

Lord, as we sing now, I pray that you would be honored.

Lord, I pray that you would be glorified.

And it's in Christ's name we pray these things.

Amen.