Where is God? What to do When You Think God is Hiding Himself

Exodus seventeen and verse seven.

And he called the name of the place Masah and Meribah because of the chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the Lord, saying, Is the Lord among us or not?

Is the Lord with us or is he not?

Where is God?

This is our last question.

In two weeks we'll begin our fall series in the book of Habakkuk on revival.

Next week, we've asked God a lot of questions.

Next week, God has a question for you.

Here's our last question, God.

I'm going through a trial.

I'm going through a storm, a difficulty in my life.

I just want to ask you, where are you?

That's the subject of today's message.

Father, we thank you for the Lord Jesus to bless the reading, the preaching of your word, but help us today to apply it to our lives in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Thank you for standing.

Please be seated together.

The subject of today's message is based upon a question that we've all asked in times of difficulty and trials in our lives.

Where is God?

Some of the questions that we have asked in this series have probed the existence of God.

The reliability of Scripture.

The nature of Christianity is the only way to God.

I'm praying as we've gone through many of these questions that God has settled these questions in your heart.

Today's question comes less from the heart of a skeptic and more from the heart of a Christian.

There was a Christian years ago.

His name was Job.

Job asked this question.

Job 23, verse 8, Behold, I go forward and he is not there.

Job 23:8

And backward, but I cannot perceive him.

On the left hand, where he doth work, but I cannot behold him.

He hideth himself on the right hand, and I cannot see him.

But he knoweth the way that I take.

And when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.

As you sit in this room this morning, there are a number of things occurring around you that you cannot see.

They're radio signals that flow invisibly within this space, allowing Wi-Fi to inform your devices.

They're Bluetooth signals and cellular signals.

And we're praying that they are in the silent mode for the next 30 minutes.

All seamlessly and covertly doing that which might have appeared impossible 150 years ago.

You cannot see them, hear them, or even touch them.

But given the right technology, the right signal, the right antenna, you discover that they are always there.

The problem this morning is that our perception is often vague and blurry.

We don't always perceive that which we cannot see, and that's Job's problem.

He couldn't see God like wind or oxygen or Wi-Fi.

But though he could not see God, God, like those elements, was all around him.

C.S.

Lewis, who said, We may not see God, but we can nowhere evade the presence of God.

The world is crowded with God.

He walks everywhere incognito.

Because Job looked forward, he said, He is not there.

Backward, I cannot perceive him.

Left, I cannot behold him.

To the right, I cannot see him.

And notice the irony in Job's words.

Though Job could not see God, God could see Job.

Though Job did not know where God was, God knew the way that Job had taken.

Though Job could not perceive God, we learn that God had not last, had not lost track of this man that he greatly loved.

Here in Exodus chapter 17, we are introduced to this people, the people of God.

Exodus 17 · chapter mention

They have been slaves for 430 years.

It's 150 years, 180 years longer than the existence of our country.

Think about that.

It would mean that your great-grandparents were slaves, your great-great-great-grandparents were slaves.

You had probably developed a servile attitude.

You had no temple, no organized religion, so to speak, no organized government, no capital, no land.

At this time, you really don't have any formal written documents either.

But God calls Moses, who was miraculously saved from an execution attempt in Egypt, to be the deliverer of the people of God.

At 40 years of age, he had risen up and slain an Egyptian.

He went in hiding for 40 years, and now at 80, God has spoken to Moses to go emancipate the children of Israel.

And so with much fear and trepidation, he goes to Pharaoh and he says, Thus saith the Lord, let my people go that they may serve me.

And Pharaoh says, And who is the Lord that I should obey his voice?

And God said to Pharaoh, I have lots of ways of getting your attention.

And God still has a lot of ways to get our attention.

He got their attention through turning the Nile to blood, dust into lice.

The gods that they served, he touched frogs and flies and cattle.

And finally, he touched the firstborn of all the Egyptians.

And there was in the land of Egypt the death of the firstborn, in the land of Goshen where the Israelites lived, there was the Passover.

And in one night God set them free.

That's good news for us that are bound in chains today, and that is that long-standing chains.

May I even say today, generational chains can be broken by the power of Jesus Christ.

Hear a lot of talk about generational curses, and I just want to go on record and say that my Savior 2,000 years ago died as a curse.

To break every curse in our lives if we would be emancipated by the gospel of Jesus Christ.

There is not a knot that Satan ties, he cannot untie.

There's not a lock that he clasps together that Jesus can't set us free from the power of sin in our lives.

He sets them free in one night.

We all know that salvation is the decision of a moment, but sanctification is a series of decisions we make in a lifetime.

In one night, can I say it this way, in one night, he set them free from Egypt, but it took the rest of their lives to get Egypt out of them.

How many of you can remember the night that Jesus Christ set you free?

Will you raise your hand?

Will you say amen?

Praise God for the power of the gospel.

But he is still at work in our lives, setting us apart from the power of sin in our lives.

They came to the banks of the Red Sea.

They discovered that the waters were deep and wide.

They had an impassable sea in front of them.

They had the hoof beating and the jeering of the Egyptians behind them.

Once the Egyptians have come to regarding the sorrow of the death of the firstborn in all the homes of Egypt, they gained their wits, they mounted their horses, they chased the children of Israel into the wilderness.

And so the Hebrews have a sea in front of them, they have an army behind them, they have a waste howling wilderness of mountains and impassable traps to the left of them and to the right of them.

And in this moment of uncertainty, they have nothing to eat.

Can you believe that?

We took a two-hour trip and we didn't take any snacks.

Can I get an amen right there?

They had no water, no food, no shelter.

They had the beating sun of the daytime, the chilly temperatures of the nighttime.

And in that moment of uncertainty, they asked this question: Where is God?

The Egyptians are behind us, the sea is in front of us, the uncertainty of the wilderness is beside us.

The beating sun is over us, the sands of time are under us.

Where is God?

Oh, I want to go on record today and say that Jesus Christ, his presence, pervades every molecule of this universe.

And there is nowhere that God isn't.

May he make us aware of his presence in our hearts and lives today.

Number one, will you notice?

When you're unsure of what lies ahead, he's before you.

Can we all say that together?

Ready to begin.

When you're unsure of what lies ahead, he's before you.

Now go with me to chapter 13 of Exodus.

Exodus 13 · chapter mention

Chapter 13.

Verse 21.

Chapter 14, we have the miraculous parting of the Red Sea.

In chapter 13, we have the promise of God and his protection.

And there's a word I want you to notice here.

And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud to lead the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, to go by day and night.

Notice the word in verse 21.

And the Lord went, what's the next word, church?

The Lord went.

The Lord went before them.

The Lord went before them.

If you're writing things down, notice this quote by Tozer.

Can we say that together, ready to begin?

God is always previous.

In other words, there is nowhere you can go in time that God is not already previous.

In other words, the thing that you are concerned about tomorrow, the thing that you're concerned about Thursday, listen, God is already there.

Let me give you a verse, Hebrews 13.

Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Let me give you another concept.

The eternality of God suggests that God does not exist in time.

Time exists in God.

God is eternal and he's not bound by time.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

In other words, the thing that we're concerned about in our future that brings us anxiety, the thing in our past that brings us depression, maybe a sin or a difficulty in our life, that God is seamless in time.

He knows no boundaries of time.

And in the thing that we're moving towards in our life, God is already there.

Moses said, Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations, before the mountains were brought forth, or even thou hast formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.

Before Israel came to the wilderness, God was already in the wilderness preparing the way before them.

Before they ever faced the need for food or water or protection, God had already provided that which they would need.

Before Moses ever stood before Pharaoh, God had already spoken to Moses.

Before Moses could say, Who am I?

God said, I am.

Before there was ever a Moses, there was a promise.

That God had already told Abraham what he was going to do.

Think about this.

That centuries before they came to this situation, God had told Abraham, know of a surety, Genesis chapter 15, know confidently that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them, and they shall afflict them for 400 years.

Genesis 15 · chapter mention

Before there was a nation called Israel, there was a man named Abram.

God had called Abram out to make of him a great nation, a people out of his loins that would know God, that would belong to God, that would present God to the nations.

And may I just go on record today and say, God chose that covenant people through which he might make himself known to the ends of the earth, and that the heirs of Abraham are those that have trusted in the revelation of who God is.

He chose them to make him known to the ends of the earth.

He he gave them a promise.

And before there was an Adam, there was the creative act of God.

And before the creative act of God, there was God Himself.

And before there was time, there was the eternal God.

And before there was the beginning, God was already there.

May I say today, God did not come into existence.

He did not later arrive on the scene.

He didn't at any point in eternity become God.

He is the eternal God, and he is always previous in our lives.

God simply is.

Before you know the need, God's already given the supply.

Before you see the way, God has prepared the way.

We worry so much about the things that lie ahead of us in our lives instead of trusting in the sovereign providential care of our great God.

Notice what he said to the disciples as he sent them out to preach, Matthew 28.

And he came and spake to them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.

Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I've commanded you, and lo, I am with you always.

Suppose I took twelve men from this congregation and I set them here, as was true of these eleven men that Jesus now had as his disciples, and he says to them, Go into all the world.

Some will go north and south and east and west, covering the known world of the first century with the preaching of the gospel of the crucified Lord.

And he says to them collectively, but personally, lo, I am with you always.

Wherever you go, wherever you preach and whatever you face, I want you to know that I'll be with you even until the end of the age.

So you, beloved, may be going somewhere in your life you've never been before.

But may I just encourage you with this thought.

You're not going somewhere that God has never been.

The Bible says here, notice verse 21, he would lead them.

He would lead the way.

Verse 21, by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light, to go by day and night.

These were academic verses to me until I lived in the desert for a couple of years.

That's odd to say.

I lived in the desert.

Anyone in here lived in the desert?

Will you raise your hand?

All right.

God bless you.

We survived to tell about it, didn't we?

My first summer, we were at Joshua camps to Dr.

Settler, and we had several hundred young people that were there training different ways.

My first summer, one of the maybe the thir third or fourth week I was in California, the temperature was 118 degrees.

It feels like opening the oven and that rush of heat just hitting you in the face.

I looked up to see if my eyebrows had been scorched off.

It was that hot.

And I saw some kids sitting under a tree.

Playing cards.

118 degrees outside, sitting under a tree playing cards.

Shade meant nothing to me until I moved to the desert.

He was a cloud to shade them by day.

But then I started going to Ethan's football games in late September and realized the 40-degree temperature difference between the daytime and the evening, and I learned that he was a fire to them by night.

He shaded them and he warmed them with his presence.

Notice in chapter 14, verse 24, the scripture says, And it came to pass that in the morning watch the Lord looked upon the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of the fire and of the cloud and troubled the host of the Egyptians.

This cloud, this moving cloud, this moving fire was that which led the children of Israel.

The story tells us that there was not any time of day in which God did not manifest this cloud or this pillar to them.

In other words, no second would ever transpire without the manifest presence of God leading them in their lives.

That's good news for us.

There is not a second of our day that God is not seeking to direct our path.

We all know Proverbs 3, 5, and 6, do we not?

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart.

Lean not to thine own understanding, and all thy ways acknowledge him.

He shall direct thy paths.

The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord.

Not only that, we see that there was not a step they took in which the Lord was not leading them.

Number one, when you are unsure of what lies ahead, he's before you.

Where is God?

He's before you.

Number two, we write down, when you're unafraid of what lies in your past, he's behind you.

Notice in chapter 14 and verse 19, the scripture says, And the angel of God which went before the camp of Israel removed and went behind them.

And the pillar of the cloud went from before their face and stood behind them.

Now what is he doing?

In Isaiah chapter 52, verse 12, Isaiah says, The Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your re-reward.

Isaiah 52:12

Now that's that's an interesting word.

The Lord will be your rear guard.

He'll protect you in going before you.

Sometimes people say, Hey, I just want you to know, I've got your back.

You know what God is saying?

He's saying, I'm not only before you, I'm leading the way, I'm previous to where you're going.

But he says, I want you to know I've got your back.

Isn't it wonderful to know that our great God is caring for us, He's protecting us from often that enemy, that threat that we cannot see?

What a wonderful God that we have.

Sometimes we fear what's in our past.

In this case, these Hebrews are scared of the enemy behind them.

Wouldn't you be?

They still have a servant attitude.

They have been prisoners for years.

Their rigor has been made more difficult as time has transpired.

All they know is Egypt.

And now they've been emancipated.

They've been told they're going to a land they've never been to before.

They don't know how long it will take them to get there, but they probably have a pretty good idea that there are going to be some enemies that we're going to have to fight on our way to Canaan.

There are nearly three million of them in the desert.

No rivers, no lush gardens.

Just the promise of God's provision.

And they're going to have to learn to trust that God will always provide for them.

And so they come here in Exodus 14 to the banks of the Red Sea.

They hear the hoof beating of Egyptian chariots fast behind them.

Can I ask you a question?

What are you afraid of that lies in your past?

Someone said that anxiety is that which we experience regarding the future.

Depression is that which we deal with regarding our past.

Years ago, I had a dear friend who had fallen into a very difficult situation as a teenager.

And had tried to make right with God.

On his road to making right with God, there were enemies who reminded him of his past.

And by the way, the devil doesn't need any help reminding Christians of their past.

You can say amen right there.

He's the accuser of the brethren.

We are not.

And the preacher stopped him.

And he said, No.

Your sins are not in your past.

Your sins are covered by the blood of Jesus Christ.

They are here because of the merits of shed blood.

They have been set free by the merits of the Passover limb that adorned the doorpost and lentel of each of those Hebrew homes.

And when God passed through and he saw the blood on the doorpost of those Jewish homes, he passed over them.

They were set free through the merits of the blood.

I'm simply saying this.

Our pardon has been tettled by the blood of Christ.

Those things that we fear in our past that have been covered by the blood of Christ must be settled because they have been settled with God.

Our past has been settled by blood.

How many of you could say today, oh, there might be a lot of skeletons in my past, but praise God, they have been covered by the blood of Jesus Christ.

Praise God.

Praise God.

You know what the Bible says?

Micah says, He will have compassion on us.

He will subdue all of our iniquities.

And thou wilt cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.

Aren't you glad that God took your sins?

He separated them as far as the east is from the west, and he cast them into the depths of the sea.

But you know what I see Christians doing sometimes?

I see them going down to the banks of that deep sea, throwing in a hook to draw up those sins from the depths of the sea that they've already confessed to God.

Someone said, When God threw our sins into the depths of the sea, he put a big sign on the bank of the sea that said, No fishing.

But in Revelation 21, I, John, saw the new Jerusalem descending out of God from heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

I heard a great voice saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and they shall dwell with him, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them and be their God.

And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no sorrow, neither any more pain, neither shall there be any more sea.

For the former things are passed away.

I just want to go on record this morning and say, I'm so glad for all of eternity.

There'll be no looking behind our back to see if our sins ever catch up with us.

He does away with the sea.

Praise God.

What lies before us?

The presence of God.

What lies behind us?

God is before us.

God is behind us.

Can I get you to a few more here?

When you're anxious about building a future, he's underneath you.

Go with me to Deuteronomy 32 quickly.

Deuteronomy 33.

God is before us.

God is behind us.

Now Moses says God is underneath us.

He's giving his last charge to the people of God.

Deuteronomy 33.

Verse 26, there is none like unto the God of Jesuran who rideth upon the heaven in thy help, and in his excellency on the sky.

Verse 27, the eternal God is thy refuge.

And underneath are the everlasting arms.

In Moses' final blessing to the tribes of Israel, they are about to enter into Canaan without Moses.

Their leader is passing off the scene.

Oh, they must have had so much uncertainty about what lie ahead for them.

When they crossed that Jordan River, there must be a thousand enemies that awaited them.

But Moses reminded the people that their God was not going anywhere.

For underneath, underneath the foundation of your life are the everlasting arms of God.

Last year we were in New York City for a few days, and right by Rockefeller Plaza, there's a big sculpture of Atlas.

Atlas bows under the weight of the world as the whole world rests upon his shoulders.

In mythology, Atlas was a Titan who was condemned because he had been defeated by Zeus.

He was condemned to carry the heavens upon his shoulders for the entirety of time.

And over time, the familiar picture is developed of Atlas carrying the weight of the entire world on his shoulders.

He's become a picture of strength under an unbearable burden, a man who must hold everything together by his own strength.

Perhaps that's how you feel today.

Carrying the weight of your whole family, your whole level of responsibility, your failures, your future, your fears, as if everything depended on you.

But aren't you glad the Bible says this world is not hanging on the shoulders of Atlas?

Oh, praise God.

Underneath this whole world are the everlasting arms of our great God.

Atlas carried the heavens on his shoulders, but we have a God who carries us.

The world was never meant to rest on your shoulders.

It was intended to rest in the arms of God.

Casting all our care upon him.

He cares for us.

I love this verse I found in Isaiah 46, verse 4.

Isaiah 46:4

And even to your old age I am He.

And even to whore hairs will I carry you.

I have made and I will bear, even I will carry and will deliver you.

God said, I'll carry you even in your older days.

I'll be with you.

When your hair begins to gray, I'll be with you.

I'd be okay with gray hair.

I just don't want to lose all of them.

So, Lord, just give me all the grays you want it you want me to have.

When you're anxious about building a future, he's underneath you.

Where is God?

He's before you.

Last, we notice in Exodus that when we are in need of forgiveness and fellowship, he's with us.

Very quickly, go to chapter 25.

I'm coming to a close.

And verse number eight.

If you know your Bible, you'll know that the Ten Commandments were given in Exodus chapter 20.

Exodus 20 · chapter mention

And from that began a long line of laws that God gave to the children of Israel: civil law, dietary law, religious law, ceremonial law.

You'll also know that in chapter 32, the children of Israel made a golden cow.

They bowed down to the cow.

Moses had to leave the presence of God to go deal with sin that was in the camp.

In the midst of that conversation God was having with Moses, interrupted by the sin of the people, God had given them the law, and then he gave them the pattern of the tabernacle.

The law reminded them that they were sinners.

The tabernacle was a place that sinners could come to make peace with God.

It was his place to come among the congregation of the people.

God has always had a place.

He met with his people.

Verse 8, and let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them, according to all that I show thee, after the pattern of the, what's the word there, church?

After the pattern of the tabernacle, the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so ye shall make it.

And he said in chapter 29, verse 45, and I will dwell among the children of Israel and will be their God.

Where is God?

He's in front of us, he's behind us, he's around us, he's underneath us, he's over us, he's with us.

I'll be with them.

This mobile tent became the place that God met with his people.

I'll be with you.

In John chapter 1, verse 14, if I can use the word, the Bible says, In Jesus and the word was made flesh and tabernacled among us.

John 1:14

The tabernacle is the place where heaven and earth meet.

In Jesus, heaven and earth came together.

He tabernacled among us.

And then the Apostle Paul speaks of our body in 2 Corinthians 5 1.

We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God and house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

And I quoted it a moment ago.

In Revelation 21.

And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them and be their God.

Let me put a bow on all of that.

He is forever with us now.

And we shall be forever with him in eternity.

He will be forever with us now.

We shall forever be with him.

Where is God?

He's with us.

He has said, I will never leave thee or forsake thee.

When we cannot see God, we're tempted to think that he is absent.

But the scripture tells us another story.

Job looked forward, he looked backward, he looked to the right, he looked to the left, and he could not perceive God.

Yet he could say, He knoweth the way that I take.

The Israelites learned the same truth in the wilderness that God was before them, leading, behind them, protecting, underneath, sustaining.

And the greatest assurance is that God did not merely send his presence.

He is with us.

He's before you.

God's never lost sight of you, though you cannot see him today.

Someone said atheism is akin to a fish questioning the existence of water.

Atheism is like a fish questioning the existence of water.

God's presence fills every molecule of this world.

And he wants to fill every part of your life.

He's with you.

And you can trust him.

May we pray together.