Dying In His Presence | Pastor Paul McGee

Yep, Amen. Scripture says that we should

love his appearing. We should love his appearing in

the context of speaking to the second coming of the Lord or the

rapture of the church, the dead in Christ rising, all those

things He ends with saying. Comfort one another with these

words. And so the thing that I've often

said is if the coming of the Lord doesn't bring you comfort,

then there's an internal check that needs to be taken, because

if His word said comfort one another.

With these words, then I'm. Under the idea that it should

bring me comfort, but if it don't, then I need to do an

internal check. Amen.

And I know there's a lot of things that may come about that

I will not understand. And we will not know the

totality of the unfolding of some things until they happen.

And I'm not going to live in fear.

I got comfort in the Lord. Hallelujah, folks, to think that

you lived your whole life for that moment.

Why not be comforted? I love the Lord and I show up

Sunday morning, Sunday night and Wednesday and, you know, pray

and fast and see God and all those good things.

Yes, I'm going to be comforted that this thing's going to wind

up. I'm going to be comforted that

the one that at distance as it may be that I can serve and

worship, that I'll see him face to face and be as he is.

Absolutely. I'll be comforted to know

there's no more. Pain and no more sorrow in the

land of no Moors. No more death, no more dying, no

more trouble, no more tribulation.

Ha. Ha, no more.

No more. No more disease, no more

diabetes, No more heart failure, no more pulmonary issues.

No more. No more Hallelujah.

Jesus, I'm comforted tonight by that.

I'm comforted tonight by that. It's the comfort that stays with

every dying St. Precious in the Lord is the

death of His Saints. It's the comfort of every dying

St. that as they close the their eyes in this world, they're

going to open for the purpose of another.

World. Oh, let's raise our hands.

I feel the Holy Ghost his presence.

I love you, Jesus. Oh yes.

Lord yes. Lord, yes.

Lord, sweet spirit of God, I love you, Lord.

I love you, Lord. You're good, you're good.

You're good, you're good. There is a comfort man.

It makes me think of Brother Bob Garrett.

He is dying. Bishop and I went to visit him

in the hospital more than once. Every time, almost uncanny to a

degree. Every time he had that broadest,

biggest smile on his face. And he was a.

Dying man. And he's smiling, ear from ear.

I can't help but wonder, Sister Sheila in the corridors of his

mind, if he wasn't just comforting himself with some

words. He was a happy man.

And. He was leaving this world.

That doesn't really make sense unless you know.

What I know unless you've. Experienced what I've

experienced. Hallelujah.

Amen. Jesus, Jesus,

I'm feeling after him because I wasn't really real sure what to

do here tonight and I just, I don't want to get ahead of the

Lord and I don't want to trail too far behind the Lord.

I want to be in step. Amen with him.

Hallelujah, Jesus, Hallelujah, Jesus, Hallelujah, Jesus.

But we'll attempt to go to the word of the Lord, the Numbers

chapter #3 a few months ago I attempted to minister this

sermon and a little bit. What's happening right now and

what's happening? So I don't know what's going on.

Maybe God never wants this preached, I don't know.

Amen. I have a sign above my office

door. It's been there for years, that

through this door I'll pass to face my ultimate challenge and

that is to feed my sheep. And it is.

I don't take this lightly because I understand the word of

God. The word was sent to heel and

sometimes the word is like a hammer and it might cause

fissure and rock and help break it up and other times the Bible.

Says that the word is like the snow.

Kind of sets on the ground and melts and seeps in and sometimes

the scripture says we're washed by the word of the Lord and it's

like water. And so it's so many things and

so applicable. Amen.

Numbers chapter #3 verses one through 4.

Amen. Here tonight I'm telling you

that I'm not on the top of my game, all right?

Embody right now, but we're just going to try to follow the Lord.

And so if I don't yell to the top of my lungs and spit all

over you, Amen. Just be blessed anyway in Jesus

name, Amen. Verse #1 The Bible says these

also are the generations of Aaron and Moses in the day that

the Lord spake with Moses and Mount Sinai.

And these are the names of the sons of Aaron, Nadab, the first

born, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithemar.

These are the names of the sons of Aaron the priest, which were

anointed. Everybody say anointed whom he

consecrated. Everybody say consecrated to

minister in the priest office. And Nadab and Abihu died before

the Lord. This is something that's already

occurred and happened, but it's a reflection backward.

They died before the Lord. When they offered strange fire

before the Lord in the wilderness of Cyanide.

They had no children. Eleazar and Ithmar.

Ithmar ministered in the priests office in the sight of Aaron,

their father. So it's kind of given a little

rundown to the sons of Aaron here.

It includes Nadab and Abai, who although they have already

perished and it speaks of that. And so for a little while

tonight, the help of the Holy Ghost.

When a minister simply this dying in his presence, the home

and Christian study Bible verse #4 says it like this.

Instead of saying that they died before the Lord, it says, but

Nadab and Abai who died in the Lord's presence.

So when a minister dying in his presence, Amen.

Let's ask the Lord to help us. Father, I'm asking God for your

help. God, I lean upon you, God the

Lord, both mind, body and spirit.

Lord Jesus, heavenly Lord, depend upon you this evening.

I pray, O God, that you have the minister.

Lord, God, to this group of people.

God, if no other Lord purpose God rendered from this Lord, let

it be a cautionary purpose. I pray Lord in this house and

will not fail to praise you and give you the glory for what you

accomplish Lord, in this place and will honor you Lord Jesus

tonight for what you do in the name of Jesus Christ that I pray

Hallelujah. Can the church say Amen, Amen.

You may be seated in Jesus name, folks, the verses that I read to

you and verse #4 in particular, we don't even have to get out

other sources or other reference books and commentaries for verse

#4 that single verse within itself holds a very haunting way

in the phrase that I expressed to you tonight as my as my

title, that they died in the Lord's presence.

The King James. Version says of course that.

They died before the Lord. And whenever you begin to

consider that and really consider it, it is a a sobering

statement. And what it means is this for us

in the modern church. In a day.

Where you can become callous to the presence of God, what it

means and reminds us of this, that nearness to God, right

proximity to God doesn't guarantee immunity from

familiarity with. God.

And as the saying of times goes, familiarity sometimes breeds

contempt. The Bible or the saying is

neither. Is his presence a way that

Shields us away from waywardness?

I think it's in the Psalms. The Bible talks about how a

person could inter metal with all sorts of different things

that are ungodly and holy. Being right in the middle.

A man of his presence. And so we leave an hour.

Of course that we emphasize the glory of Lord, we all the time

are talking about having intimate relationships with.

God and that. There is power in God's presence

and we should do so, and we should encourage all those

things, as I believe that we. Do but I believe.

That this passage offers a little bit of a.

Balance to that. Seeking after and the glory and

the intimacy and the power of God.

That while I'm a firm believer tonight that we.

Need to seek the presence. Of God, and I hope that we

support that around. This church and.

We make that. Clear enough that that's

something that needs to be. Taught on our priority.

List Amen. For He can accomplish, as I've

often said, things in us in a moment of being in His presence,

that it would. Take years to accomplish.

On our own, His presence can fix a lot of things in our life.

Just a moment, yet the truth still.

Remains that he can only fix what our will will permit.

We can come. Before his presence be

saturated. Amen in the.

Atmosphere that's charged. By the power of God.

And still. Leave unchanged the same.

That we entered if we. Won't permit him by our own

volition and will to. Have impact upon our life.

His presence will not override our will.

People have quoted me here in. In the church about me off time

saying that. God is a gentleman and.

He is but Nadab and ABI. Who proved this?

That it is possible to die in the very presence it's possible

to die in the very presence of the Lord.

My mind has almost a difficult time reconciling this because I

read in scripture other places people are trying to find the

Lord. Particularly Jesus in his

earthly. Ministry and they're thinking if

they can just. Get him to the.

Grave or if they can just get him to the coffin or if they.

Can just get him to the circumstance then.

Life is going to come back in a very literal.

Fashion and way so my. Mind has a hard time even

reconciling the fact that somebody could die in the

presence of the Lord. And so the book of Numbers opens

on the first day, the Bible says, of the second month of the

second. Year after Israel's.

Departation from Egypt and after this departation, the Bible says

19 days later that they would depart.

From Mount Sinai. After they had been there for

about a year, they spent nearly a year at the Mount of God

Mount. Sinai at the base of.

That mount and it was during this time that some things took.

Place from Exodus to Leviticus and to now numbers, Of course,

Exodus is the story of the children of Israel's deliverance

from bondage. It is the story.

Of them getting out of the Paschal lamb and the blood.

That was shed and placed up on the lentil.

And the. Doorpost.

That is the story. Exodus is the story of

redemption, of getting. Out.

Of bondage, but when you. Come to the book of.

Leviticus. It has a different feel.

There's a lot of people. Sister Sheila don't like to read

the book of Leviticus. It is.

It's the. One that's giving all the.

Guidance and the instruction on the myriad sacrifices that God

would wish his people to approach him or worship him.

With It is the book about denoting what's clean and

unclean. What's?

Profane and what's what's holy and and the whole.

Story is about sanctification throughout.

Leviticus, but when you get to the.

Book of Numbers. Then that begins to track God's

people walk with him. See, up to this point they've

had deliverance out of bondage. Now they.

Have also said at Sinai. For a year to get instruction

about how they. Should do what they should do,

Leviticus. Tells them how they should

worship, how they should separate themselves and

sanctify. But Numbers is really the

beginning of the walk, taking all the guidance.

And putting it to practice. Taking all the information about

sanctification and separation and.

Putting it to practice. And so God, throughout this

period of time leading into numbers, has become a very

personal God. To them he has shown.

Up in their place of worship that that Tabernacle in the

wilderness he has showed up. There and put his thumbprint.

Upon everything that they had done to bring that about by

filling that place with a cloud, so much so that those.

In ministry could not even. Do their ministerial services

there his spirit, his presence in the form of a cloud with

oftimes hover above the. Ark of the.

Covenant above the mercy seat, where God's told Moses that I'll

come, I'll speak to you, I'll converse with you.

Leviticus was God's invitation then to a place of holiness, to

live in such a way that his presence wouldn't just visit

them, but stay among them. Right?

Because be ye therefore holy, for I am holy, saith the Lord.

But in numbers of the the journey begins.

And we're reminded very painfully early in the narrative

that even anointed people can buy everybody, say anointed,

even anointed people can die in God's presence.

See from the earliest days at. Sinai it's.

Interesting as we read the. Story.

That God is calling his. People near to him we

understand. That he put a line, Had Moses

set a line around that mountain, People were not to crossover

that line, and some worshipped at his at afar.

But there were others, and. Groups of people that God

allowed to go over that and wanted them to literally come up

the mount to have communion with God.

He desired a close relationship with them and he called them to

be a Kingdom. Of priest in his.

Kingdom Look in Exodus 24 and verse one God.

Some of those groups are circles that he invited even closer for

relationship, for revealing himself to them.

Look at those that are mentioned in this list.

God invited Moses, he invited Aaron the high priest, he

invited Nadab, he invited Abihu, he invited 70 elders to come up

is the verbiage come up and worship of our off verse #9 even

says then Moses went up with Aaron and Nadab and Abihu and 70

of the elders and verse 10 describes and they saw the God

of Israel. What I'm trying to lay the

framework for here is this is that God at one time in the past

had given an invitation even to Nadab and Abaihu to draw closer

than just the common congregation, to have a closer

relationship than just the common man, to enter into a

place of fellowship with him that he had really created for

them and that allowed for them. And so Nadab and Abaihu in this

moment was just not like a commoner that that was

spectating with all of the glory of God and and the cloud and the

fire and the thundering that was upon the mount of God.

No, they were among some the few men in history who visibly

experienced the glory of God on Mount Sinai.

Think if you will, folks think of this great privilege that was

extended to them. They were hand picked to ascend

the mount of God and experience God.

They were included in one of the most sacred moments of Israelite

history, along with. Jesus and Aaron where that mount

with the covenant of God was confirmed for the nation of

Israel. He invited them into that

intermosa intimate place of where of that covenant and that

mountain so that they could experience it.

And they saw few. They saw what few had ever seen.

And that was a manifest presence of the Lord on that mountain.

And yet the Bible goes a step further that that they're

calling. It wasn't limited to that

mountaintop moment, although that was fantastic.

The Bible also tells us in Exodus 28 and one, it says that

these men, they dab in a Baihu and Eleazar and Ithemar, that

these men were specifically chosen and specifically anointed

and specifically consecrated for the priesthood.

These were men that were invited into everything that had to do

with the furnishing of God's house, the presence of God's

glory. They were invited into this

space. They, they weren't novices.

Please know they weren't novices.

They weren't wet behind the ears.

They were exposed to some of the greatest things that the

Tabernacle and God had offered. These were men entrusted with

sacred responsibilities, if I could say their lives literally

revolved. Around the Tabernacle.

As sons of Aaron, they were not numbered.

Among the soldiers. They were not numbered among the

tribal warriors. No, they were Levites.

And so they were not set apart for battle on a battlefield.

They were set apart for worship. And the Bible tells us when you

read of the Levites and you read of the different divisions and

the Kohathites and the Gershonites and the Mayorites,

you read about these men. And these men attended to the

holy art articles of the the Tabernacle in the wilderness.

It's these men that when you read through the book of Numbers

and it's talking about, there were these 3 tribes on the east

and these 3 tribes on the West, and these 3 tribes on the north

and these 3 tribes on the South. That whenever you had all of

them situated where they were, there was a innermost circle

ride around the Tabernacle. And it was the Levites.

They had, if you will, the closest contact to the presence

of God in their daily tent living and their daily camping.

They were ride around the house to God in the presence of God.

They carried the members and the structures of that house.

They set it up every time they pitched their tent at a new

location. They took it down when it was

time to take it down. They had all these matters,

concerns and inner workings and dealings with the House of God.

They had access that others didn't have.

They had an anointing that others.

Didn't receive. And they had experiences that

others never knew. They were the spiritual elite of

their generation. God gave them access not just to

outer courts, but even to the holy place.

They were permitted where others were prohibited.

They dab in the Bible. They went where others could.

Not go. What even others feared to

approach, they were invited to handle.

To them, God wasn't a distant deity.

To them, he was familiar. To them, he was tangible.

To them, he was something to be experienced.

This was a God who drew near, who granted these men some

access to His Holiness. Having access to the sacred.

It's not permission to redefine it.

Access wasn't a license for these guys.

No, no, not at all. Because with Access, they access

the type of access that they had.

What really came with their? Access was an accountability.

With that nearness of being near the Lord and the things of the

Lord and that pertain to the Lord, it really demanded from

them a reverence for the things that were around.

Them look, if you will. Scripture you can read of it and

Leviticus chapter #10 and one. This is the scenario.

This is the actual occurrence in happening of where Nadab and ABI

who offered strange fire unto the Lord, Some call it

unauthorized incense unto the Lord that was kindled not from

the coals of the altar, the brazen altar.

That was in the outer. Court.

Typically if the coals of the altar from the outer court was

kindled, they would take those coals and incense would be

burned up from and upon the fire.

Amen. That was from that altar in the

outer court. But these boys had brought some

strange fire. They brought fire, yes.

It was undeniable that what they had in their hand, a man coal

fire. However you wish to describe it,

what they had in their hand was undeniably fire.

It just was from the wrong source.

No one could say they didn't have fire.

They had fire. They just didn't have fire from

the proper source. And that might seem very minor

and that's might seem. Just very.

Trivial and maybe they were thinking in themselves because

they have been in a pattern. Just follow me here for a

moment. They've been in a pattern that

this is what we have seen done and this is what this is what we

do and this is some of the activity that we participate in

in the Tabernacle and ran about the Tabernacle.

And I'm not, I don't want to speak totally for him, but I'm

going to try to do it just a little.

Perhaps a Nadab and Abiah who begin to think on this

particular day, as they came in with strange fire before the

Lord, perhaps they thought in their mind, well, you know what,

we've been anointed as priests. We're already anointed.

So why does this matter that much?

We've already had God's hand and God's oil and God's blood placed

upon our life. So what does it really matter

that we just kind of, you know, just move a little bit and vary

a little bit in this because we're already anointed.

Why in the world should it matter?

Or maybe in their mind is this. And this is the tragedy of our

generation. This is the tragedy of being a

Christian so long you've gotten comfortable, and it's this.

We've already been in God's presence before.

We've already experienced His Majesty before.

We've already experienced His power before.

So what's the big deal today of taking in strange fire?

Because I've already experienced that about the T-shirt.

It is the tragedy of my generation that we become so

familiar. Amen.

And so used to his presence and his power that we think, you

know what, what's really one day of not doing it right, What's

really one day, if you will, of skirting the issue, and maybe

not because I've already experienced his power.

I've I've already it is. It sincerely is I sometimes, and

I see it. Sometimes ripple.

Amen in our movement. I sit sometimes in some of our.

Conferences and camp meetings and so on and so forth.

And I'm thinking to myself, Amen.

If this was a new convert. If this was a new.

Convert experiencing what we're experiencing.

Right now they would be looking over and be like I've never.

Felt anything like I'm feeling? Right now.

But I sit there sometimes and I'm nonchalant and I'm like,

you're going to have to do better than that to move me.

I've heard that before, I've heard that song before, I've

heard that passage preach before, and all I'm being is an

A dab in a by who with my strange fire.

I've not stayed connected to the real source and I've become, if

you will, little callous. Amen.

Callous. Maybe they had the attitude that

surely God will understand, but God did not understand and the

Bible says that the fire came out from the Lord and consumed

them because it doesn't matter how much.

In your. Past you've been anointed or

consecrated, that doesn't justify a present.

Day mishandling of his presence. Yeah, I received the Holy Ghost

when I was 8 years old. Yes I spoke in tongues and yes I

was baptized in Jesus name, but that doesn't justify a.

Mishandling of his presence tonight.

Come on. Come on.

Come on, just follow me here for a moment.

Some scholars believe that Nadab and a By who?

Were intoxicated follow me at this time and.

That may be the reason. Why just a few verses?

Later in the account of their mistake in Leviticus 10 that we

read in. Verses 9 and 10.

Then God going on and forbidding priests from drinking wine or

strong drink and entering the Tabernacle.

If it be the case, then surely God is pointing.

Out something in the particular. That drunkenness dolls an

individual's discernment. They, they, they, they, they.

Because Nadab and Nabai. Who should who should be?

So familiar with the dynamics of Tabernacle life and to act like

they did. Clearly they have lost theirs,

and for them it may have been a literal intoxication.

But for us it's metaphorical because we become intoxicated.

Maybe not with a literal drink, but we become intoxicated with

things in this life. We become intoxicated with the

system of the world in which we are living.

We become intoxicated with pride and with position and with

performance and with popularity and with pleasure.

To the degree that our notions and our discernment becomes

dull. We walk in the House of God a

little cavalier, and we walk in just a little cavalier and and I

start to live and put God as though he's the best boy, as

though he owes it to me when I want to owe to me.

But that's not the case. I don't want to get intoxicated

and be under the influence of anything except for his

presence, except for his power. I don't want my judgement to

become impaired, even in the sacred places.

When I learned from nadab and Mabai who is this is that I can

lose my reverence for his presence while.

Still going through the motions of ministry.

It's a fearful. Thing I'm telling you this.

Because I've done what I've done long enough, I can

intellectually put together a sermon.

I can. Practice all the form of.

Oratory We can sew it up with an altar call, and I can go through

all the motions of ministry though, and be detached from His

presence. And as people in the audience, I

know when to clap my hand, and I know when to elevate my voice,

and I know when to raise my hands, and I know when to stand

up, and I know when to sit down. And I can go through all the

calisthenics of being a Christian and yet be devoid and

separated from his presence, folks.

But what the world needs is not a people or a preacher going

through the mechanics of what we expect and what they expect an

Apostolic Church to have. What they need when they show up

in this place is somebody that's rubbed shoulders with the

divine, somebody that has oil still dripping from their hands,

someone that has the smear marks of blood still upon their life.

They need somebody that's not dying in his presence, but that

has life that they might share. Life to someone that is truly

dying. Hey man, we can handle holy

things and still be governed by unholy appetites.

The danger is not just that what they may have drank, but more

importantly, what it did to their discernment.

It made them approach God's presence lightly, and they then

treated the holy as though it was.

Common when we. Do the same folks, we jeopardize

our spiritual lives as well? And it's not because his his his

spirit. Or his presence lacks power.

Or that he doesn't show up, but it's that we don't treat it with

the gravity of weight that it deserves.

It's almost like if you're in an audience where the president

shows up and everybody's clapping, focus, attention is

there. And you're over here.

Messing around with something. As though.

He's not even there. I understand there's a man in

that position, but there is an office that that that deserves a

certain amount of reverence and honor because of the office.

And that's a reason why people clap.

That's a reason why people turn and focus their attention.

That's a reason why whatever else is going in the moment

stops and attention is given. But we can get to a place.

It's almost that God can show up.

But I'm just going to go on, do this little thing right here.

It's not that he don't show up, but we don't give him the all

and the gravity of the reverence that's deserving to his presence

being so their.

Death in the moment. Was it just a judgement on their

act? More so on the mindset.

That being in God's presence would somehow excuse.

Their disobedience. That being quote UN quote chosen

for anointed and consecration would exempt them from having to

be reverent. God had already made it clear.

Leviticus 10/3, he said. Among those who approached me,

he said I must be regarded as holy.

See, there's been patterns that presumption the past.

And I didn't. Plan on making the 30 minutes.

It's probably because I'm going slow.

This isn't the only time someone's died in God's

presence. I was in Ohio driving the.

Cart that the ark. Of the covenant is upon.

Been a kerjack cheering. For some 20 years.

And as they come to a certain threshing floor, the cart

shakes, the oxen shake, and it shakes the cart where the ark of

the covenants upon it appears as though it may fall off.

And the Bible says Ooza puts forth his hand and he touches

the ark, trying to steady what only holy men of God were meant

to carry. And the Bible says he dies in

the moment, in essence, in the presence of the Lord.

In Uziah, the Bible says arrogantly one day entered the

temple to burn incense, which wasn't his responsibility.

He was not a priest. That was not his role, that was

not his function. And so he enters the temple

where the presence of God is to do what was not for him to do.

And the Bible says in the moment this little white spot become

upon his head, and he was struck with leprosy.

Michael, you know the story of David's wife, Michael.

David now has retrieved the Ark of the Covenant, Amen, from the

House of Obed Edom, where it was for three months.

And the House of Obed Edom was being blessed.

And word came back to David concerning that.

And rather than bringing it on a cart, now they're going to bring

it on the shoulders of the priest.

And they're coming to Jerusalem. Every six paces sacrifices are

made. There's horns and flutes and

sack butts that are being sound. It's a time of celebration.

And so David is worshiping the Lord, Amen.

In the presence of the Lord. He's acting calamorously foolish

before the Lord. He's taken off his garment of a

king. He's put on linen ephod so his

dance and his worship wouldn't be inhibited.

And there's Michael, all the wild despising David from a

window seal as he's doing what he's doing in the presence of

the Lord. He says how calamitously foolish

was the king today, uncovering himself before the maidens.

And he says, if you think I've been vile today, I'm going to be

more vile. This isn't before your father

saw that I've done this. This is before the Lord.

But since she despised him for what he was doing in the

presence of God, the Bible says she who did not have a child,

thereafter her womb, died in the presence the Lord.

Each had a nearness, each had a proximity, but they lost their

reverence. It doled their awe.

They had seen the fire of God. Consume offerings in Leviticus

9. You can read it.

The fire of God came down and consumed offerings and

sacrifices in Leviticus 924 and in the very next chapter chapter

#10 two men haphazardly burning sins and they die in the

presence of the Lord. What are you saying?

I'm saying you can be close to holy things and lose your fear

for. The Holy One.

I want to be cautious. And I want to be.

I don't want to be. Mean or ugly, but every

backslider was a a Nadab in a by who who were in a holy place

around holy things, but lack somewhere along the way their

fear for the Holy One. And the longer please hear

pastor tonight. Listen, I'm not I'm not listen.

I did just come from the womb of of the Lord just last night.

Hey, man, he's I've been filled with him trying to walk with him

for a long time. And that is the danger, because

from what I see with my eyes in this real world, the longer we

serve, the easier it is to slip into.

Routine. Things become mechanical.

You never miss a service, right? And I'm thankful.

But sometimes we don't just because it's the mechanics of

that's just what I do. I don't know if you get what I'm

saying right now that on Wednesday I go to church.

On Sunday. I go to church.

I get caught in the routine rather than the bliss of the.

All you hear what? I'm saying right now I show up

to potlucks and I'll work when it's time to work.

But all that is just really mechanics of getting almost like

I become a robot. I just, I just do, you know,

input output and I just do. There's no feeling attached.

There's no glory attachment, there's no power attachment.

I'm just occupying space in my seating on the seating chart in

the church. I'm around holy stuff.

The lyrics are the word of God that they're singing.

His presence is falling and thank God I was there.

And I stopped. Treating sacred things with awe,

I become careless in His presence.

The very one that used to leave me speechless.

I leave. I leave.

Careless from his presence. I'll tell you how we can tell

how mechanical we get. That's whenever.

The preacher says let's all stand, people.

Are grabbing their jackets and their purse in their keys and

they're ready to leave rather than to wonder.

It's almost like just, you know, going to work.

I'm going to click in just right on time and I'm going to click

out just right on time and maybe a little early if I can get by

with it, Brother Mason, because I don't want to be there any

longer than I should be. I don't want to show up any

earlier and I don't want to stay any late.

Numbers 33 looks look what it reminds us of here.

They'd have in the by who were anointed and ordained.

Or concentrate consecrated to serve as a priest.

They were empowered for a purpose and that purpose yes, it

had some boundaries, but my generation we got to watch the

yeah there and sister McGee said and we may we talk about the

coming of the Lord as and I and I hope that impacts our all.

Sometimes we just want the unction won't have anything to

do with our participation in the function though of the holy

living unto the Lord God is a fire.

The Bible says the Bible says he is a consuming fire, and fire

does one of two things. It will either.

Purify or it will consume it will purify or it will consume

and there's no amount Nate dab in the body who I know you've

been annoyed and I know you've been consecrated, but all of

that call it giftedness, call it history that you had with the

presence of the Lord, call it passion, whatever you want.

None of that will protect you if you abandoned God's order and

God's plan and God's purpose. Hey, man, I know we have

generations today and others have other persuasions today and

they're celebrating calling. Oh, you need to find your

calling. And they have all the charisma

and the creativity that goes with that.

Amen. But the caution is clear that

God just doesn't want participation.

He wants and desires our obedience.

He someone say man. The fact of the matter.

The one that called Moses. And Nadab and the Bayou.

And all those to draw. Near then is the.

Same God that is calling this generation of people.

Modern now calling. US.

Near, he's still calling people into.

Intimacy. He is still anointing.

And he is still giving access. Amen to those that will.

But I cannot allow his. Nearness should not become a

casual. Thing to me his.

Power should not become a casual thing to me.

For one, his presence is not. Cheap.

Do you hear me? His presence is not cheap.

In order for his presence to come to you, it required a

kingly spirit in glory, fashioning himself a body in the

womb of a virgin and inhabiting that body, condescending and

limiting himself to a certain degree as a man as he walked 33

1/2 years on this earth to get to us, it required a cat of nine

tails, a thorns upon his brow, a man across that he hung upon in

grueling hours of shame and mockery.

In order for that presence to get to us, it required him

leaving the 12 disciples he had educated and taught and leaving

this old world so that the Spirit could come and in dwell

mankind. So folks, when we experience it,

it's not come to us cheaply. What's up?

The sermon that I preached a long time.

Ago talking about God telling Moses, I believe it was to come

up, come up the mount, come up, come up, have fellowship with

me. And the host scenario is this.

Moses got to the top of the mount and the Bible says that

the Lord came down meaning simply this.

It doesn't matter how call, how far you climb up, it will always

be because he came down that you could even have access.

It didn't happen cheaply. Someone say man I love.

His presence enough. To reverence his presence.

I want to just minister. With fire, I want to minister

with fire from the right. Altar.

And I want to. Understand that the.

Closer that I am. The more careful I must walk

because I can die. In his presence.

Whenever you honor him as. Holy when you walk humbly before

the Lord, when you serve Him reverently, when you minister

with purity, when you allow his Spirit, hey man, to guide you

not just in your worship, but in your decisions and in your

motives. Hallelujah.

And in your private life. His presence will become, Amen,

not a place of danger to you, but it will be your dwelling

place. Your dwelling place.

Stay with me please. There is hope, I think.

In the 1st 4. Verses of Numbers 3, not just.

Warning, I think there's hope. Because the same presence that.

Struck Nedab. And Abihu down the same.

Presence that raised those that remained faithful up.

God's presence called Moses. Into glory.

It filled. The Tabernacle.

It filled the. Temple it overshadowed that.

Virgin Mary and caused her to conceive the Christ.

Child it fell like fire in Acts chapter #2.

Empowered the Church. It's presence isn't something.

To avoid. It's everything we need and

more, but we must never forget that it's holy.

And we? Ought to be all struck.

By it so I. Plead with you tonight.

Come. Near it.

But come with a sense of. Reverence.

Draw close to it, but do so on his terms for when.

We live in. His presence rightly There's no

place more beautiful. No place.

More safe. No place more powerful.

Than the end his presence. I don't want to someday.

Look down the road, say, yeah, I've been in church for 35 years

as though I've done time in a prison.

You know what I'm? Saying yeah, I'm in there 35

years. Now.

I always, never. Wanted to rear my children to

where it's like, well, we have to go to church.

No, no, no, no. Always wanted the phraseology to

be seen. We get to go to church today.

Yeah, I want to be so compelled by you.

So awestruck by you that Yeah, I.

Show up for everything. But when I show up, I got

incense on a fire that came from an altar, has been sanctioned by

God, and I want an aroma to go up.

Because the Lord knows. In the moment, I'm experiencing

A presence that has come down, so I'm going to show up on the

1st Thursday of every month for prayer.

Not by or because. Of mechanics.

But because it's just another. Opportunity.

Where I can be all struck. By his.

Presence. And I can consider once.

Again. That he took.

Time. To reach down to a Sinner like

Paul McGee and picked him up. Out of the Marie Clay.

Dusted all the mud and the filth of the world off of him and set

him up on a rock, that's sure. And.

Stable so that I could live from.

That moment. Until eternity.

Giving thanks. Give praise.

Extol and give adoration to the one who made it possible.

I don't. Want to die in his?

Presence. I want to thrive in the.

Presence of the Lord this. Altar is.

Open Can you take your? Old flesh.

Can you take your old flesh tonight and just drag it to the

altar? Whether it wants to go.

Or not? Can you just take your old

flesh, drag it to the altar and say flesh?

You're going to reverence the presence of the Lord before you

leave here tonight. You're going to give homage and

honor to the presence of the King before you leave tonight.

Hallelujah. Don't, don't be intoxicated with

the things of this world. I'll dull your senses.

I'll dull your discernment of gratitude.

You'll do. You'll do all your discernment

of the holy things and the sacred things and the righteous

things. I don't want to die in His

presence if that's a possibility, and Scripture says

it is. I don't want to become so

callous and so familiar, Hallelujah, that it's just like

water off a duck's back, that I'm not impacted by it anymore.

No, no, I want to be easily influenced by the presence of

God. I want to be easily touched and

impressed upon by the Spirit of God.

I don't want to die in His presence.

Come on. Sir, Ma'am, you've been

anointed. Come on, Sir.

Ma'am, you've been consecrated. I need your presence.

To still impact me. I need your presence.

To still create a holy pause in my life.