Bible Teaching

Calvary Temple Teaching Library

Preferring His Presence Pt.4

Hallelujah! Amen. Couple of points of interest here—we got an e-mail in from Ron, and it ends with, "Everything seems to gradually be moving forward toward registration." How many of you've, through the registration process, begun to learn about patient endurance and many of the different areas that are pointing toward that? Let me read this to you. It's an interesting e-mail. It'll give you a little bit of a feel for their day and how to pray for them.

"Hope everyone's doing well there. We miss you all and thank God for you. The example of your faith is true inspiration—encouragement to us. Things are going well. We had a good midweek service today—about ten were in attendance. We changed the meeting time from 5 p.m. to 1 p.m. because of the rains. Our lunch hour meeting from 1 to 2 has been going well. The first ten to fifteen minutes consists of prayer time and times of worship, and the remainder is Bible teaching. Six to twelve regularly attend these sessions. The location and property that we're renting is great. It's good to have a place that's available for use at all hours. We're often there just sowing into individuals' lives. We've cleaned it up so that it looks real nice. It's about one acre, mostly green grass. It has potential for whatever we might need it for at this time. It's available for us to use on a month-by-month basis or for a year's lease depending upon our need. Ministry is constantly taking place on the premises—often after meetings and also during off-hours. Musa is doing very well [he's from the Nairobi church] and has been a real asset to have. He's very teachable and has a servant's heart and a real burden for souls. He really does a good job helping with the outdoor meetings which have been going very well. We have four a week. The ministry that takes place after these meetings is great. We really make a point to hang around and be available for those who are hungry for ministry. The brother I referred to in my last e-mail as a precious brother is doing well. He and his wife remind me of Aquila and Priscilla. He and his family really seem excited about being members. He is around for everything and has made himself available. He also helps with interpretation and will be our Swahili teacher. He speaks Swahili, English, and Lualia," [Pastor starts singing Louie Louie] "the local dialect. He was a Swahili teacher in Bible college for two years where he also taught church history and the holiness of God. He seems to have a good spirit and a good wife." Those two are hard to find over there, I think. Let's see. "They want their three children to become the first students of discipleship training. Their children are presently enrolled in one of the more expensive private Christian schools in Kakamega. They also are proving to have the right attitude and approach in leaving the church that they were a part of. This is probably the best church in Kakamega. So, it's been exciting to be about the work of the Kingdom. We'll stay in touch; keep you posted of any new developments. Everything seems to be gradually moving forward with registration." Continue to pray. They're doing a good job over there, excited about the doors the Lord's opening, and just more and more opportunities arising at all times for ministry, so they're really in need at this time of their hands being lifted up.

Interesting little article here—I'll share a couple of highlights with you. Some of you may have seen it in The Washington Times (Larry Witham, The Washington Times, June 28, 2000) concerning the French's proposal to target proselytizing. Did any of you see that in The Times? Interesting little article and it talks about—I'm not going to read the whole article here, it's quite lengthy—but they're looking to marry two bills. One's already passed—a more conservative form—and they're trying to get the two married. This is the one that's being pushed at this particular time and it says it will cause "French law to imprison religious 'proselytizers' for up to two years for 'mental manipulation' of the public. The bill aims to limit the spread of what French officials have called 173 'dangerous sects' in France. These include Jehovah's Witnesses, Scientologists and Unificationists," and "also well-known evangelistic denominations such as Baptists." It does go down later and mention that this could even include men such as President Clinton and Vice President Gore who are both Southern Baptists. So they could go over there and go to prison as they're boldly sharing their faith in France. They may have to watch out.

It says, "The proposed crime, which critics say could cover many religious, advertising and interest groups, is to 'exercise serious and repeated pressure on a person in order to create or exploit a state of dependence.' The bill would allow the French government to shut down a religious group when two representatives are found guilty of at least one legal infraction." They could shut the whole ministry down over there, the whole denomination, if two people are found guilty about proselytizing according to their particular standards.

Then it goes on and talks about the "French Justice Minister Elisabeth Guigou who last week called the bill 'a significant advance giving a democratic state the legal tool to efficiently fight groups abusing its core values.'" That's quite a quote, isn't it? I like that. It'll give a democratic state the legal tool to efficiently fight groups abusing its core values. Now, when the government has one core value, and you have another one, guess who's going to win? It's very important to understand.

Now, where is this taking place? This is in Western Europe. This is where they actually go in this and talk about it being the most secular part of the world where many of its young people are looking at unconventional—listen to this quote—"unconventional approaches to find a deeper meaning to life"—unconventional approaches. See, they're a secular environment, and these kids are looking for a deeper meaning. Isn't that interesting? All of the secular has left them empty. They're looking, and they're looking in a lot of different areas, and some will find it in Jehovah's Witnesses and some among Mormons and Scientologists, but, primarily, the religion in France is what? Catholicism. It says of all of the Catholics, 8 percent attend services. Catholicism isn't on the list of the 173 dangerous sects, and the Pope says that they're doing a good job but must remember that religious liberty, in it's fullest sense, is the first human right. "Be vigilant and to treat fairly and objectively the different religious denominations," such as the church has for many years!

It just gives you a little bit of an idea of what's going on over there. I won't read any more. There's a number of people, of course, that are opposing this. It just shows you a little bit though of the environment that's taking place over there and, remember, that this is where the rise, of course, of the apostate religious system is going to be. There's going to be the rise of the great whore and then, of course, the man of sin that will come forth out of those regions to power and many different things that are taking place. I thought it would just be interesting to see that the spirit of Antichrist is alive and well, and the Lord's coming soon, amen? Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus.

Let's go ahead and turn to Psalm 23. We're going to pick up where we left off Sunday night. We'd left off with point two. We were talking about the rest of God in Exodus 33. We talked about the fact that the presence of God was there to make us mighty men of valor who would know glory, honor, strength, and gladness—glory, honor, strength, and gladness. From our notes Sunday night, we have the first point, of course, dealing with Gideon out of Judges 6. We talked about Moses and the presence of God in Exodus 33.

Then in Psalm 23, a psalm that we're all familiar with, verse 4, as we talk about this great shepherding psalm, "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want." We see the fact that He's going to provide for us and make us to lie down in green pastures. We see all of the providential aspects of the Lord, but in this same psalm, the psalmist speaking talks about the fact that there will be no fear of evil, for thou art with me. We begin to see in David's heart, as he's speaking forth here, an absolute confidence in the presence of the Lord. In Psalm 23, that passage is talking about the protectiveness—thy rod and thy staff. He sees the Lord as a warrior on his behalf.

We talked before about the rod and the staff of the shepherd who was out tending his sheep, and the staff, of course, is that aspect that has to do with the crook that many of us have seen. That was used many times to just be able to snatch a lamb that may have been caught in a thicket or somewhere down in a small ravine and to be able to remove it safely. The rod was a very interesting part of his paraphernalia though, that we realize that it was actually a weapon. It was used against wild animals. It could be used many times to bring attention; sometimes the shepherds would bang it upon different stones or whatever was necessary to attract the sheep's attention. The one thing that we do know is that it was used to bring about protection for the sheep.

In the fourth verse where he talks about the valley of the shadow of death, that's one that all of us ponder. It's something that many of us will have to face should the Lord tarry. He says in that valley, whether it's one through persecution, through trials, through sickness, disease, or just the natural course of life—because it's appointed unto all of us once to die and after that the judgment—the psalmist says, "I fear no evil." I'm not afraid of death. I'm not afraid of judgment because what? "Thou art with me."

You see, we welcome judgment. There's a lot of people that are uncomfortable with the coming of the Lord because at that time is the judgment of God. The thing that makes you ready for the judgment of God is the comfort of the presence of God in this life. If you're comfortable now in His presence, you'll be comfortable in death. You'll know that you're going to hear nothing but well done. The one thing is very sure, and that's if, for some reason, you find yourself moving out of the presence of God in our daily lives, there's going to be a fear of judgment. There's going to be an uneasiness as to the Lord's presence and power to deliver, not only temporal but in that life that's to come. The presence of God is the peace of God.

As I've been meditating on the presence of God and just in my own personal life reflecting back over all of the years and the times of knowing the intimacy of the Spirit of God—don't you love those times of refreshing and absolute tangible awareness of that presence? As tangible as being able to see the glory cloud itself; the voice of God that's so absolutely clear that if it was audible it couldn't be any clearer; that ability to rest; the revelation of God's Holy Spirit as you're reading the Word of God. As you're flowing through the Scriptures, your mind is open and your heart's open, and the truth of God is there to be able to saturate your spirit, and you're knowing the truth.

Now, it doesn't always happen that way, but in those times, there's such a refreshing and such an illumination that brings peace to our hearts and our minds. Then there's times when we're not as conscious of His presence. We're walking by faith, and we know He's with us—the promise where He said He would never leave us nor forsake us; yet, we're not sensing it. There's no tangible awareness of presence or anointing or wisdom that's being infused at that time, but we know the steps of a good man are being ordered by the Lord. We know that He said He'd never leave us nor forsake us, and so we're comfortable in His promise.

Then there's the times that we find ourselves wondering where the presence of God is. We find ourselves a little bit confused and disoriented. We find that now we're wrestling with doubts and fears and with our position, our role, as sons of God. We find ourselves in this valley that the psalmist is speaking of. He said that at those particular times, don't be afraid because the Lord will not forsake you. He's your shepherd. The good shepherd lays his life down for the flock. At those particular moments when you feel lost, be assured of this one thing—where can you hide, the Scripture says, where can you go from the presence of the Lord? You may not see Him, but He sees you. He knows where you are. He knows the paths that have taken you there and makes a way of escape.

Now, the thing that puts us into those paths many times are really multifaceted occurrences, occasions, but you'll find two things that are common. Let me show them to you for just a second. Turn over to the first Proverb if you would. I want to show you something there and also the first chapter of Romans. Proverbs 1—and in those times when you sense that darkness and that confusion and the doubts and you ask yourself, How is it that I find myself here? Proverbs 1, verse 24 says, "Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; But ye have set at nought all of my counsel, and would none of my reproof; I will also laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me: For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord: They would none of my counsel; they despised my reproof. Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices. For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil."

And "I will fear no evil: for thou art with me." You know, it takes a little bit of time to experience Proverbs 1. How many of you know that one offense doesn't cause this kind of a response from the Lord? How many of you know that ten offenses don't cause this kind of response from the Lord? I've got some good news for you tonight. How many of you know that a thousand offenses doesn't cause this kind of response from the Lord? Would you feel better if I said a million offenses doesn't cause this kind of response from the Lord? It's not the sin that separates us from God; it's the choice of rejecting His counsel. You see, everything in here has to deal with Him wanting to come and draw you into His presence and continue to be your source, but man in his own pride and arrogance here is rejecting God; and then it allows nothing else but God's ultimately rejecting you. The fear comes when you're choosing to separate yourself from God.

If that's something that you're sensing, then let me encourage you to do something. There needs to be an awareness and a brokenness. You need to begin to experience the same thing that the psalmist brought forth to us in that great 51st Psalm where he cries out and says, Oh, God, create in me that new heart, a clean heart. "Renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy Holy Spirit from me." How valuable is His presence to us tonight? How do we value it, you know, really? When you begin to stop and think about the voice of God, how bad do you want to hear that, even this evening as we're spending some time in His Word? How clearly do we listen on a daily basis?

You know, we've all seen the different cartoons with the devil on one shoulder and some little angel on the other—the angel of the Lord's presence. Now, what is it that we call that battle according to biblical knowledge? It's a warring in our what? Conscience. We're having our conscience continually cleaned with the water of the Word. How quick are we to begin to listen before there's any decisions that we make in our daily activities? I'm not talking about just big decisions, and I'm not talking about catastrophic sin-type decisions of either accepting or rejecting in any given temptation. I'm talking about how much do we prize, treasure, the voice of God, that still small voice, that when we hunger for it, it sounds like the thunder on Mount Sinai? When you long to hear God's will and to have His guidance in even the smallest things of life, you hear so clearly, This is the way; walk in it.

How many of us have developed lifestyles of just making so many decisions without considering the presence of God that we have everything in control, and we're confident in our own wisdom and our own experience? I mean, after all, I've done this thing a hundred times. But to be able to hear that voice and follow its guidance without really knowing why, without needing an explanation, of being able to be led by that intuitive voice, that knowing, that so often—and everyone of us in here would have a testimony of that—that saves our lives many times when we choose to just take a different path or delay our departure, to share the gospel with someone and hear later that was their last opportunity before the judgment of God became a reality in their lives.

How busy have we become and no longer pause? I wonder what it would be like if we even went through life acknowledging that presence? They'd probably lock us up. I mean to where you would actually stop and turn and start talking to the Lord. Say, Lord, what should I do here now? They'll lock you up. How aware are you of the presence of God on a daily basis? Do you make it that real to yourself? How many of you think that if you were that conscious of the presence of God that maybe you would make different decisions? What about at the cash register just before you buy that stuff that you were spending all of that time down at the mall looking for, and then you just get ready to give them your credit card, and you say, Lord, is this something that you'd have me to do? Lord, should I go ahead? This stuff's on sale now—and this doesn't apply to most of us in our fellowship, but just to make the point—Lord, this is on sale right here, and I'm not going to be able to pay my tithe this month, but what do you think? Do you believe the Lord would speak to you at that time, if you had paused and asked Him? Of course He would. He'll speak the Word of God to you.

How about before we make any type of a decision that would pertain to our pursuit of His Christlikeness or neglecting of it? How about as it pertains to our thought processes or our bodies which are the temple of the Holy Ghost and what we put into our minds and into our bodies and all of these things? What about stopping and asking the Lord first? You see, that's what that presence is all about, but, beloved, if we can so easily go through life and not even be aware of the presence of God within us! Our bodies are the temple of the Holy Ghost. The Spirit of God is speaking at all times saying, This is the way; this is the way. If we stand and say, I just don't have any idea what God's saying to me, then guess what? Somewhere we've lost contact with His presence because He's speaking. What is it that's speaking now so loudly that we can no longer hear the voice of His presence?

You know, the Romans passage is even a little more frightening than this Proverbs passage, if that's possible. Look over at Romans 1 for just a moment. You can keep your finger there in Proverbs; we're going to run right back. I called and you refused. I called and you refused. I've stretched out my hand, and nobody's regarding this. Romans 1 tells us in verse 28 when we're talking about the depravity of man, right in the midst of all of the culmination of this perverse living, the homosexuality and God speaking very clearly that that type of perverted living is the consequence of one thing. Look at it. "And even [verse 28] as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; Being [or becoming] filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness [filled with these things], covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them."

How do you get there? How do you get into Romans 1? How do you get into Proverbs 1? Well, of course, we're born in it, aren't we? But then, God, according to Proverbs, is reaching out His hand and wanting to make His presence known and saying, I want you to understand something. There's a way that you can walk free from this that holds other men in bondage, and all you have to do is be aware of My presence. I'll lead you into truth. I'll give you the wisdom. I'll give you the understanding. I'll provide the grace and the faith at the very moment you need it. How many times do you hear people say, Oh, God, help me, in the middle of some type of a crisis? Basically, what they're saying is, God prevent me. Oh, God, somehow stop this flesh; it's running out of control! God, help me! God, help me! Then they go on and do it. Is God there to help them or not? Of course He is, but they don't have any ears to hear. The "God, help me" cry is really a statement of "God, watch me; I'm going to do it my way again. Please, somehow find a way of excusing me."

When will we stop and hear that voice that says, Here's the way of escape? You can't be tempted past that, that you're able to stand. Here's the way of escape. Just stop for a minute and listen, and I'll deliver you. This is that walk that frees us from the fear of failure and the fear of judgment, but it's a building up in our own experience of that capacity to listen when everything else around us is raging. The conscious—and listen, it has to be done on a daily basis. It has to be done before the war is waging around you, to where you just consciously in everyday decisions pause and say, Lord, what would you have me to do? Do you do that? Is it something you practice? I don't, but I think it's something that we could practice and begin to help ourselves in. You wouldn't necessarily have to mutter it audibly where people will arrest you, but how about a life that's so disciplined that you would pause?

The golfer, Payne Stewart, some of you know, died in that tragic plane crash and a very freaky thing that took place. I don't know the exact sequence of who all was involved, but the Lord was really beginning to move in some of these young men's lives, and there were people like Payne Stewart and Paul Azinger, Bernard Langer, and some others who—one of these began to actively, having experienced regeneration, share with some of the other men. They began to experience a move of the Holy Spirit, and Payne Stewart who was a—someone raised in a fundamentalist background who had been backslidden, repented, and was refreshed in his spirit and renewed to sonship. He wore a little bracelet that came from the book, In His Presence. In that particular book, those of you that read it, you remember the question that would come would be, What would Jesus do? And to stop and ask yourself that question before you make any decision in life. Now, what would Jesus do at this moment?

Payne Stewart wore this bracelet, and on it, it had WWJD. People would say, What are those initials, WWJD? He said, It's just a reminder. It stands for What Would Jesus Do? The Spirit of God was using this man to touch the lives of others in his last hours. I believe in the sovereignty of God. Don't misunderstand what I'm saying. I'm not saying that he in any way missed God, or that God's will was not done, but how often do we board planes or follow our daily schedules, just head out for the next tournament, without stopping and asking the question, Now, what would Jesus do? What are you saying to me at this time, Lord?

You say, if I'm spending all of my time about that, I'm not going to get anything done. We're not talking about you have to pray hours about it. We're talking about a sensitivity to His presence that'll cause you to stop immediately in your steps when that peace is gone that we were talking about, when that rest is gone, when that joy is gone, to where you'll stop and say, Something's not right here. Speak, Lord, I need to understand your presence because I'm beginning to experience fear and anxiety and anxiousness. Fear doesn't mean torment. It's not talking about being crippled mentally or emotionally to where you can't function. That fear, that anxiousness that just stops you. You say, Something's not right, and then we begin to say, I won't move until I'm aware of the presence of God. It'll save us in a lot of different areas in our lives.

Go on to Isaiah 41. I wanted to cover some of these different aspects tonight. In Isaiah 41, we'll find another benefit of the presence of God. We see then that it causes us to become mighty men of valor with glory, honor, strength, and gladness. We see that it brings us rest, and it causes us to walk free from fear. Then we talk here in Isaiah 41 about another important part of the presence of God. Verses 10 and 11, "Fear thou not; for I am with thee; be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help you; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. Behold, all they that were incensed against thee shall be ashamed and confounded: they shall be as nothing; and they that strive with thee shall perish."

Have you ever walked in that kind of a confidence? I think most of us have. I know throughout the years it's been something that we've experienced in our own lives to where that presence of God brings about a boldness that other men really can't understand. It's a supernatural boldness. It's a confidence that knows that you're invincible. It's not an arrogance; it's a humility. It's not a brashness, but it is assurance. Jesus was never brash, but some of the statements that He made boggled the minds of the hearers. Never a man spoke like this man, they said. Why was that? Because He knew that when He prayed, His Father heard Him. He knew that men couldn't take His life; He had to lay it down. He was very aware of the presence of the power of God accompanying His mission, and we should be.

The great prophet, then, tells us that we're never to fear our enemies. Do you find yourself afraid of the enemies? Who is our enemy? Of course, we know, the satanic powers. How many Christians are afraid of the demonic realm, and they don't even want to hear about it. Don't talk about the devil. Don't talk about demons. I've talked to Christians that said, Oh, man, you know—the fear. It was almost like they were under some power of witchcraft in and of itself to where to speak of this just caused them to become undone, when the Scripture says that we've been given all power and all authority against all of the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means harm us. You see, when we're aware of the presence of God, there isn't any fear. You can walk into the midst of all of the powers of darkness and have confidence that, verse 10, God is with you.

We've experienced on numerous occasions these bouts with principalities and powers. Don't mistake what I'm saying. I'm not in any way minimizing the powers. I've been aware of their presence to where it would cause chills to run down your spine. I've seen the supernatural power at work in many different ways. I've dealt with real demon-possessed people and real witches and witch doctors, and they weren't singing "ting, tang, walla, walla, bing, bang" but, in fact, were putting curses on us and believing for us to die.

In the natural, you're no match for these principalities, these powers, but look what the Scripture says. Don't be afraid. You can't be afraid with My presence. I'm with you. Do not be dismayed, for I am thy God. How bold are you? How assured are you of your conflict? Do you go out into the battle, into the fray, on a daily basis knowing that a thousand may fall at your side and ten thousand at your right hand, but it's not going to come nigh you? It's the only way you can go into the fray, believing. Look what it says—that I will strengthen you; I will help you; I will uphold you with the right hand of My righteousness. Are you going in His righteousness or yours? You see, when it's one of those days that we talked about, you remember, months ago in one of our teachings—what about those days when you're at the bottom on your checklist? You think, man, I'm having a bad day! We talked about being accepted of God. Are you any more accepted of God on your best day than you are on your worst day? No. It's by grace; it's by faith. But have you ever noticed on those bad days how there's more of a tendency to be afraid because we must then be trusting in what? Our own righteousness, but the Scripture says that He's going to uphold us with the right hand of what? His righteousness.

You see, whenever that fear begins to come in there because you're not quite doing a good enough job, then you're not trusting in the presence of God. You're trusting in your own righteousness. Oh, man, I blew it! Now, the devil's going to take advantage of me! He can't take any more advantage of you on a bad day than he can on a good day because what we're trusting in is not our own righteousness but His presence. The glory of the Lord which is our rear guard, the Scripture tells us. All of those that are incensed against Thee shall be ashamed and confounded, and they shall be as what? Nothing. When you're walking in the presence of God, you lift up your eyes, and you look on your enemy, and they're nothing—nothing. You look up on the mountains and all of the chariots of fire are seen, and you understand there's more for us than there are for them, praise God. Isn't that exciting when it looks like your enemy has all of the advantage, and you stand there in absolute peace looking unto your enemies and just saying, You're nothing. You're no match for the Lord. That, beloved, is how those of us that are walking in the Spirit, those of us that are aware of His presence, respond.

When the battle begins—we talked about Psalm 91. Turn over there for just a second. In the 91st Psalm, that great psalm that you quote when you're afraid. You all ever been afraid? Circumstances are bad; the devil's presence is tangible. I've known the oppression and powers of darkness where it was so dark and physically dark in the place that I was, you couldn't see across the room. You could taste the demonic power and satanic presence. In the natural, it's a frightening thing, and you begin to speak the Word of God. This 91st Psalm, of course, is one of the great passages to deal with the enemy and the assurance of God in your life. He says that at a moment like that, "He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honor him. With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation." Don't you love it? I've had the enemy on a number of occasions, as I was speaking, wanting to destroy my life—literally to kill me, experiencing that warfare in the demonic realm. It's not something I talk about very much. I probably haven't addressed these occasions more than two or three times in all of these years, but I've found myself in those battles and in that conflict, and to be able to rest in the presence of God—in the midst of that to understand the reality of His intervention, that He's there, and all you have to do is call upon Him, and He answers.

How big is your trouble tonight? You want a good promise? Look at this right here—beautiful. Are you in trouble? Any of you in trouble of any kind? Temptations, tests, trials, you're battling your flesh, you're having people opposing you on the job, your enemies rising up against you whether it's spiritual or in some way natural? Let me show you something. If there's trouble, look at the promise. And I will be with you in trouble. If you're in trouble, God's there. Can you say praise God for that? The one thing to know is, whenever you're in trouble, God's there. It's a promise. You in trouble? God's there. Why don't you focus on Him instead of the trouble? That's the way of escape. Why don't you take just a moment and say, God's here! Not, How can I fix this in my own strength? What are the odds here? What do the odds say? Did you know that ninety-seven percent of all people in this situation die? Why not stop reading the statistics, the odds, and in the midst of trouble, acknowledge the presence of God and not the trouble? Because when we're in trouble, the Scripture says He will deliver us, and it's His desire at these particular moments to bring honor to His name by honoring us. You see, when we're honored, God's honored. That's the reason God blesses us—not so we can enjoy stuff, but that God could be honored in the midst of it because when He blesses us, we're blessing Him and causing Him to be recognized as the source.

We'll end with this for tonight. Turn over to Psalm 16—a passage that we're all familiar with. Psalm 16, verse 11—actually, let's look at verse 8, "I've set the Lord always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved." I have set the Lord always before me. Does that mean we're going to grab God and put Him in front of us? No, it means we're going to take time to recognize His presence. I take a moment, and I will not move until I know God is before me. My eyes are on Him. Lord, we don't know what to do, but our eyes are upon you. The psalmist speaking here says because He's at my right hand, I can't be moved. I'm not going to stumble. "Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope."

You know, we talk about the rest of God, and, of course, the hope—favorable expectation. When we're aware, and we begin to set the course, and we're aware of the presence of God before us, it'll always bring about a natural refreshing and an expectation of God's promises. The great prophetic utterance of the Lord's resurrection, "For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore."

As we look at our lives, and especially the rat race that we're living in, sometimes you feel like you're the big cheese, and sometimes you feel like you're the rat. In this particular rat race that we're in and our schedules that cause us to almost come to the place of being undone, don't think that it's by chance. What does the Scripture say is going to be a sign of the last days? It said men will be running to and fro. We're too busy with nothing. We're just so busy with nothing. That's the one thing that always amazes me about computers. It keeps people busy with nothing—just facts, just information that's nothing. It's keeping them from doing stuff. They're reading about what other people have done, planning about what they're going to do, and doing nothing. People are always just running and all of this information and all of the great plans of what's ahead. I've often wondered in the midst of all of this, what happened to people's joy? What happened to the ability to rest?

We were talking the other day about—I think it was just yesterday—we were going out to the property and doing some work out in the country, and on the way out there we were talking about vacations. I said, You know, it was only a few generations, it's just been decades, that Americans didn't take vacations. Why do we need so many vacations now? Have you all ever wondered about that? How many of you—you don't have to be real old, just like my age—how many of you think back on your parents—you didn't get vacations? Nobody went on a vacation. Number one, you couldn't afford it. The generation just proceeding that, my grandparents—three, four generations—you couldn't go anywhere. You were tending the farm. You were having to—who's going to watch the flock? Who's going to take care of the livestock?

My father-in-law had just a few little things. He always tinkered with different animals. He had goats and rabbits and sheep. Oh, man, those sheep—they're nasty sheep, man! Have you ever gotten in the middle of a bunch of sheep with shorts on? They're rubbing up against you with all that dirty wool, man. I'll tell you what—itch. Man, I'll tell you the Lord should have made them with polyester. I can remember loading his sheep up one time. This was after he was getting sick, and we kept trying to talk him into getting rid of this stuff and very reluctant to do it. And finally we were going to get rid of the sheep. Guess who gets to load the sheep on this truck and take them to the sale? So, here I am, the great shepherd. We're loading these things up, and it's out there in the middle of San Joachin Valley. It's hot and I've got my shorts on, and next thing you know I am itching—these sheep—and I think, Give me a break, man! I was never so glad to see those things go.

Had this really neat goat. You'd go out there, and that thing would—it was a billy goat—that thing just butt you, man! Boom, if you weren't looking, boom—he'd get you. Alvis was a man of few words, and he decided to tame that goat. So I asked him one day, I said, How come he doesn't butt you? I said, He tries to butt everybody else. He said, Well, I just taught him. I said, What did you do? He said, Well, this—watch. He reached over and he grabbed his ball peen hammer, and he went, P-wham!, and hit that goat. It was like a cartoon. He got those little x’s in his eyes, you know, and his knees buckled. It was pretty good training lesson for that thing, so it didn't bother him.

Oh, I know where I was going. I was talking about taking care of stuff. He was going to be gone, so he asked my uncle—my uncle married Janet's sister—and he asked my uncle to take care of the cow and to milk her while he was gone. He showed me how to milk the cow, and that was something you'd do a few times and that's enough. Then he showed Jack how to do it. Jack said, Yeah, I'll be glad to. He said, Now, the problem is you're going to have trouble getting her into the barn to milk her sometimes. He said, Okay, don't worry about it. Alvis was gone on vacation, comes back, and he asked him, How did everything go? Jack said, No problem. He said, How about the trouble getting her into the barn. He said, No problem, man. He said, Really? He said, Yeah, it's no problem. He said, Every evening when I drove up, that thing just ran to the barn. He said, What do you mean evening? You didn't milk her in the morning? He said, No—that thing was lined up waiting! So, if you're going to go, you had to get the right people to take care of the livestock. You just couldn't—people just didn't get away.

I think it's the satisfaction of that type of a life that we all realize of being able to live in a life where you could spend some time with the presence of God. I think of David and his psalms and when he's tending to the sheep and the ability to meditate on God's presence. Look what a man can do that's at rest out in the country, that's worshipping God instead of running up and down the Beltway. I think we've become so busy that that ability to become quiet and know the presence of God hinders worship and hinders revelation knowledge, and we've got to spend time, quiet and in His presence. What that'll do, beloved, will bring fullness of joy. If you're having to run here and run there and this vacation and buy that and new and more and better and this, and we've got to have this form of recreation, and we've got to have this and all of this because I've got to somehow soothe my soul, then maybe you've missed the presence of God because His presence will bring joy. It'll bring rest.

We'll end with Acts 3, verse 19, that passage that is interesting. "Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord." How about those times of refreshing? How about that, that comes and when you know that you have eternal life abiding in you? Nothing else can rob your strength, your peace, your joy. Nothing can bring fear because there's a refreshing coming from the presence of the Lord.

Father, we thank you for that refreshing and all that comes from the acknowledging of that presence in our lives. Father, we live in a generation running to and fro, and we've done all that we can to discipline ourselves to take time out and meditate on your Word and spend time in your presence in prayer. In the midst of all of this hectic life, we've tried to do everything possible to bring this community into a time of worship and awareness of the need of a visitation. Help us to take advantage of it, Father. Help us to understand what all of this has been about—home fellowship groups, nightly prayer. The presence of God is our power, is our might, is the glory, is the honor, is the strength to help in time of need. Without it we don't stand. Father, help us to pause before every decision and say, I want to take a moment to acknowledge your presence. Speak to me, Lord. I want to hear your voice before I move. Then it'll be a bold assurance of steps ordered by the Lord.

Let's stand before Him tonight and just worship. Just thank Him for His work in your life today. Stir up in your hearts a renewed desire to hear that voice, not just in the big things. How much easier life is, how much less stress when all of the little decisions have been made based upon His presence—not afraid that anything's going to come back on you, not afraid of anything collapsing or circumstances that might overwhelm you because your enemies are nothing. Anything broken, God can fix. What's He saying to you right now? What is the voice of God speaking? It'll bring you rest. It'll bring you refreshing. There is none like you, Lord.

Father, we're not interested in what E. F. Hutton has to say or Socrates or Plato, Thoreau, Twain, Franklin. We want to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit. We're not interested in the Edisons or the Gates because kingdoms rise and kingdoms fall, but Your truth is to every generation, and it is our hope in the midst of our enemies and among the nations. Your Word is what separates us from the nations and their wisdom and their ways, and we acknowledge Your presence in Your Word, and we choose to do it. We ask that you would be honored in our obedience.

Let's sing it together and just worship Him tonight. "We worship you…" Sing it again; magnify Him. Recognize His presence here tonight. He'll speak to you, and you'll never be the same. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Just worship Him. Take a moment and just worship Him. Praise His name. Worship and praise is no more than just acknowledging His presence. If you acknowledge His presence, then you have to talk about how big He is and how great He is and how loving He is and how merciful He is. Hallelujah, Lord, we do thank you! Who are we, Lord, that you would come into our midst? What is man that thou art mindful of him? Ah, Lord, what a privilege, what a privilege to have You reveal Yourself to us. Help us to see You as you are. We delight in You, Lord. As we commune with You in the Spirit, You become bigger, and we learn to trust more. Because You're with us, we fear no evil. We rest in the love of our Shepherd. We thank You for that. That is our strength in Jesus' name. Amen, amen. Before you go, turn to somebody and say, He's present, and I'm not afraid, praise God. Go in peace; God's love go with you.

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