In His Presence - Pastor Robert Morris

turn to Isaiah chapter six please I want to share a message with you that I'm calling in his presence and this hit me so strongly a few weeks ago when I was recovering and I came to church one weekend pastor Jimmy Evans was preaching and God so refreshed me here at church in his presence we're going to look at Isaiah chapter 6 let me read you a few verses before we get there Psalm 16 verse 11 says in your presence is fullness of joy you you can't get any happier at any time in your life than when you sense the presence of God birth of a baby marriage all of that is because God's presence comes and fills that situation in your presence is fullness of joy acts 3:19 says times of refreshing come from the presence of the Lord times of refreshing we all need to be refreshed Isaiah in chapter 6 is going through a difficult time and I'll explain that to you and he has an encounter with God Isaiah 6 verse 1 it says in the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting on a throne high and lifted up and the Train of his robe filled the temple above it stood Seraphim Seraphim is a big word for angels a seraph is one angel Seraphim would be the plural so more than one angel above it stood Seraphim each one had six wings remember this six wings because I'll show you a parallel passage about angels with six wings with two he covered his face with two he covered his feet and with two he flew and one cried to another and said holy holy holy is the Lord of hosts the whole earth is full of his glory and the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out and the house was filled with smoke well here's what happens Isaiah goes to church in the temple this Lord says this happened and in the temple the presence of the Lord comes and Isaiah sees the Lord has his spiritual eyes opened and sees the Lord I think that's what happens when we come into his presence our spiritual eyes are open and we see God in a new way and so I want to show you three things and we'll read more in this passage that Isaiah saw will show you three things that we see when we come in the presence of the Lord number one is how good god is we see how good God I mean part of me how big God is we see how big God is this is exactly what he sees he sees immediately how huge God is it says that the Train of his temple in other words just the the Train of his robe just the fringe of His garment fills the temple fills up symbol he's high and lifted up he's seated on his throne now it's very important to understand when this happened he having about 740 BC that the date is not that important to us but to understand what was happening in the nation of Israel at that time he begins his passage within the year King Uzziah died now most of us know kind of the famous kings of Israel like David and Solomon we know a has not being a good king we know about Ahab and Jezebel and things like that but here we need to know about use I use I was actually a great King he reigned for 52 years which is a long time for a king to reign he became King when he was 16 years old and he immediately began to re-implement worship in Israel and because he did that God blessed him and he began he became a great king he conquered Milton more Philistine cities he expanded the territory of Israel and he gave great peace and blessing and prosperity to the nation at this time before he dies a few years before he dies the king of Assyria is is on a rampage and trying to conquer many nations but he will not go into Israel because of King Uzziah so in King use iodized the whole nation is now afraid and so that's what he's saying Isaiah saying in the year that the king that was a good King died and his son was already ruling in this place but his son was not a very good King and did not have the ability that his father had his father because God helped him gave him wisdom his father actually invented some some implements of war that we even know about today I'm gonna read it to you in a moment but you all have you've seen it the catapult no one's ever even thought about where the catapult came from and maybe others at the same time had it I don't know and I don't know what wikipedia says about it I don't care but let me tell you what the Bible says about it second chronicles 26 verses 14 and 15 says then Uzziah prepared for them for the entire army shields Spears helmets body armor bows and slings to cast stones and he made devices in Israel in Jerusalem invented by skillful men now watch this to beyond the towers and the corners to shoot arrows and large stones so his fame spread far and wide for he was marvelously helped this is an important phrase till he became strong he was marvelously helped in other words God gave him great wisdom and strength until he became strong and here's the sad thing he began to walk in Pride toward the end of his life and he goes into the temple one day and he begins to offer sacrifices that only the priests were allowed to offer and the priests ran in immediately and said you can't do that you're not a priest and in essence he said I'm the king I can do anything I want and immediately he was stricken with leprosy and he spent the rest of his life it says isolated in a house and was never able to enter the temple again and isolated from his family isolated from the house of God and isolated from his own house because of this and yet because of his strength and wisdom and the team he built the king of Assyria wasn't invading so when he dies Isiah is thinking what are we going to do our nation's going the wrong way now and our leader has died here's what happens he goes into the temple he worships and he comes out with a revelation like this okay the king with a little cave has died but the king with the big cave is on the throne that's what he gets every one of us need this revelation and it happens when we gather together I want you to understand how important it is for us as the people of God to gather together and to worship God not just to to hear the message and it's important to hear the word because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word but many times we think about hearing the speaker when we should be thinking about hearing the Savior and many times we think well even if I get there a little late that that's just the singing part at least I'll get there for the message please hear me the singing the praise and the worship is extremely important because it's when God wants to speak to his people Exodus 25 verse 22 says and there I will meet with you and I will speak with you Hebrews 10:25 says not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together Psalm 22 verse 25 David said my praise shall be of you in the great assembly in other words when everyone gathers together I'm going to praise you Psalm 35 verse 18 I will give you thanks in the great assembly I will praise you among many people um can we tell you a concern that I have with all the technology that we have now I'm concerned that because we air our services on television and on the internet that it could become more convenient to just stay home and I'm glad that if you're if you're and if you're watching right now on the internet I'm glad you're watching ok don't don't turn it off but there's a difference in watching it and being here would you agree when I was recovering obviously the first two weeks I couldn't get out of bed and so I watched you and it was encouraging and it was wonderful and I did sense the presence of God but that first week that I was actually able to be here in the presence of God I remember and in the presence of God obviously we sense the presence of God anywhere but there's something special about his manifest presence in the congregation there's something that we sense and we feel and we know in our spirits tear that up and I remember that very first week that's when I got the the thought of this message I thought I want to remind us about coming to church now if you know if you're away on vacation yes gather everybody around and turn the computer on you know if you're got a child that's sick at home yes watch the message still at home if you're recovering like I was yes turn it on and watch it but if you live or if you live in another area you know we have people that watch in every every week down low if you notice we have people that watch our services on the internet in every state and like 60 something countries around the world and that's great if you don't live here but if you live here get here because God does something when we come and here's what's amazing think about this if it's not important to attend church why does the devil fight it so hard I mean everything seems to go wrong when you're trying to get to church and and you can get to church to work by 8 or 9 o'clock in the morning and even like there this serves starts at 12:30 and it's hard to get here on time right that's not just you it's every service it's just tough to get their own time because everything is going wrong and it's tough to worship when you get there and you had a fight with your wife on the way and spanked three kids and some of them you had to spank while you were driving you know tell you I told you sit down you know my a while back we were doing something at our house and my son Josh and James were there and they went to a Home Depot to get something and they came back and they were just they said we got to tell you what we saw at Home Depot we got to tell you and they heard this child talking and they thought how old is this child and what what is this going on and and the child is on the other out so they rounded the corner and they saw it and they saw the mother and the father walking about ten steps ahead of this child and they were mad they had had it they were put out this child is only like six years old and he's walking behind his parents and he said this is what he said guys if we just talk about this we can work it out and he hears and he just kept saying sit come on guys that just just talked to me guys he said I know you're mad now but let's settle down and talk about this and EJ and they said we followed him around the store because it was just so funny this little kid said guys think about it I'm tired of being spanked and you're tired of spanking me if we just sit down and talk about this as rational adults we can work this out okay here's what I think I think they were on their way to church because Satan does everything he can to keep us from gathering and worshipping God and having an encounter with God so number one he saw we see how big God is number two we see how small we are now when I say small I don't mean insignificant okay because God would not have sent Jesus to die for someone insignificant we are very significant but compared to God we're very small and our problems are small because God can take care of look at what Isaiah sees Isaiah 6 verse 5 so I said so so I've seen the king so I said what was me for I am undone because I'm a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips for my eyes have seen the king the Lord of hosts now when the Bible says the Lord of hosts it's referring to the hosts of heaven are the armies of heaven so when it says the Lord of hosts he's referring to the the commander of heavens armies here their commander-in-chief who was a great warrior had just died and yet Isaiah says but I see the real commander-in-chief I see the one that commands all of the armies of heaven I see him and he sees how big God is but immediately when he sees that he sees how small he is now let me say it another way he sees how holy God is and when we see how holy God is we see how sinful we are now please hear this this is not a bad thing it's not a bad thing God never shows us our sin to make us feel bad you have to know that he's already dealt with our sin on the cross the only reason he shows it to us is to get us out of that to bring us in the freedom that's the only reason I remember one time when I was young and I was Heather I was speaking at this place and it was kind of intimidating to me and there were people there that were intimidating to me and I remember during worship I was just real nervous and finally just kind of read this press that God helped me do well tonight and the Lord just how he is he said to me why he ever had God asked you a question that he already knows the answer to and that you don't want to tell him the answer to but I knew and so just as I said well um because I wouldn't look good I mean that's the bottom line I don't want to look bad in front of this many people and friends and and important people here and the Lord he's so gracious he said that's exactly right you're praying for me to help you do well for your sake but now that you know it I'm going to bring you to the place where before you you say lord help me do well for the kingdom's sake so he just graciously adjust something in my heart see that's what happens rise higher and there's no way that you can't see your own need when you see how holy he is holy holy holy look this parallel passage I was telling you about revelation 4:8 says the four living creatures each having six wings remember the six wings we're full of eyes around and within and they do not rest this is very important they do not rest day or night saying holy holy holy Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come okay here's what you need to understand right now God is so holy that heaven never takes a break from saying holy holy holy Lord God Almighty this is the only attribute of God that is repeated three times nowhere in the bible does it say faithful faithful faithful even though God is faithful nowhere doesn't say loving loving loving even though God is loving this is the only attribute that when this attribute is expressed in Scripture many many times it's expressed this way holy holy holy and most theologians believe the reason that this attribute is repeated is because one holy just isn't enough to describe how holy God is when I was thinking about how holy God is I started thinking about everything he touches becomes holy and I just started writing because I remembered all these scriptures about the holy word of God the holy people of God so remove your shoes you're on holy ground I just started remember all these things that God calls holy and so I just wrote this down in my notes his name is holy his power is holy his temple is holy his Spirit is holy his covenant is holy his city is holy his tithe is holy his ground is holy his works are holy his words are holy his promises are holy his angels are holy his prophets are holy his people are holy and then I thought of this one even his kisses are holy if you remember Paul said greet one another with a holy kiss all I've got to say about that is make sure it's a holy one you look at this scripture psalm 22 verse 3 this is the old King James I love it nil King James but thou art holy o thou that inhabits the praises of Israel now this is actually a paradox in Scripture many people don't realize that the word holy means set apart morally pure and completely set apart from sin God is set apart from sin that's holy but notice this it says you are holy and you inhabit the praises of your people now if God is set apart from sin and we know that his people and even nation Israel here weren't perfect how could God do that if he set apart from sin well obviously he takes care of our sin - the blood sacrifice of his son but here's what it's amazing to me God is so holy but where he lives where he dwells is in the praises of the congregation when the people of God come together and praise him that's where God is um it says in habit we have a monthly service we have one tonight we have a monthly Sunday evening service called habitation you know why we call it habitation because we want to take some time at least once a month where we can spend a little more time in the presence of God and just spend a little more time worshiping him praising him and allow God to manifest his presence among us if you've never been I encourage you to come tonight it's going to be phenomenal inhabit you inhabit the praises of you people this this pattern is all through scripture people come into the presence of God they see how holy he is they see their own inadequacy think about Moses standing in front of the burning bush he just boom he sees God's glory and then his next thing is well Who am I I couldn't go back and do that he sees his own inadequacy when uh when I was an associate pastor at Shady Grove Church which is our Grand Prairie campus now pastor Olin was the senior pastor there one week this young lady came and she got saved and she got saved in the church and then she went home and she was living with a man who played guitar in a rock band and she goes home that day and she says to him I'm moving out and he said what do you mean you're moving out she said well I went to church today and I got saved now no one told her that that it was wrong to live together before marriage but she just knew it once she got saved she knew this is not God's plan and so she goes home she says I'm moving out and I got saved today and he said well how did you get saved and she said well I went to this church and there was a time when they asked any visitors there though I don't know why she keyed in this word visitor but she just figured that if you were if you attended you remember that you were saved you know if you remember you were saved so she said there was a time when they asked if there were any visitors that wanted to get safe she said I went forward and they showed me how to get saved and this guy said well I like to get saved and she said okay next week you can go to church with me and she didn't even think about that he could get saved right then you know because that's not how she got saved so she just say okay next week we'll go they'll have a time when they ask the visitors to come forward when they do you go down get safe so he said okay so the next weekend she brought him and during worship he said I was standing there and I just got overwhelmed at how big God was and I could just sense the presence of God it's just like and then he said then I started thinking about how bad I was and I got this is exactly what happened and I say he said I started thinking about that I didn't deserve to be there and I shouldn't be there and I needed leave and then he said I started getting sick physically sick and he said I started thinking it was real funny to hear him share his testimony because he said I started thinking I'm going to throw up and then he thought I'm gonna throw up down the blouse of this lady in front of me I'm gonna throw it right down her neck it's gonna go out I'm gonna throw up I've got a lead and he turns to his girlfriend then and he says I'm about to throw up I'm gonna have to leave now she'd been saved one week listen to her theology she said it's the devil shut up and he started thinking I bet it is the devil trying to get me leave before I can get saved and he said I started feeling better and then here was alone something past Roller wasn't preaching that weekend we had a guest the pastor Olin did the little part between the worship and the message where you greet the visitors well this guy had heard you know when they asked the visitors to come forward to get saved and you go for it so when pastor rolling up said I'd like to welcome the visitors he heard the word visitor he'd waited as long as he could he just got up and walked down to the front and again in his line a visitor needs to be safe so he walks down the front and pastor Olin said can I help you and this is what he said yes I'm a visitor pastor Olin said great he said is there something I can help you with and then he just thought well just I guess I need explain it to him I didn't say it well enough so he said yes I'm a visitor I need to be saved I'm a visitor and so pastor Olin said to the congregation can you excuse me just for a minute and went down and led him to Christ right there it's exactly Isaiah's vision it's exactly what happened he comes into the presence of God he senses how holy God is he senses how bad he is here's the great step here's the step number three and then we sense how good god is how big God is how small we are and then how good god is look at verses six and seven then one of the Seraphim flew to me having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar and he touched my mouth with instead behold this has touched your lips your iniquity is taken away and your sin purged there's a picture of salvation but I want you understand this continues to happen this process in our life as believers because once we get say we don't become perfect we continue to make mistakes so we come to church we gather in the presence of God God shows up we begin to sing songs that focus our attention on he and we begin to see the Lord in his greatness in his temple how holy is how high and lifted up he is and we begin to say god you're so great you're so great you're so wonderful and then somewhere in that process the Lord says now what is this in your life what is this and he's not doing it in a mean way and we said god that's sin that's what that is that sin that's horrible Lord asked you to forgive me I don't want to continue in that and then God sins somehow through his spirit that angel that takes a live coal from the altar basically the blood of His Son Jesus Christ and touches us and here's the great thing we say thank you lord thank you Lord and we leave knowing that we've been cleansed that we've been purified leave knowing and we don't have to walk in guilt anymore we don't have to walk in condemnation say it says your iniquity has been taken away do you remember how far God has taken your iniquity way Psalm 103 verse 12 says as far as the East is from the West I've removed your transgressions from you and then it says your sin is purged that this word purged I really want you to catch the full grasp of it because it's a 102 times in the Old Testament it's a Hebrew word that's in the Old Testament obviously not in the new because it's a Hebrew word although there's a Greek word that is parallel to this but this words in the Bible Old Testament 102 times only seven times translated purged the majority of times over 70 times it's translated atonement now atonement is a big theological word but it's all these big theological words have very simple definitions let me tell you the very simple definition you can actually remember this definition forever atonement means at one with atonement means at one with notice when you see the word atone there notice the at one see we don't we don't think about being at one because we say atone but it's at 1 and then meant anytime you see M ent that suffix it means the state of the state of in other words the state of being at one let me give you another example contentment contentment is the state of being content you see I'm saying and then what the reason I say with is because with is sending them for the state up in other words at one with that's what content with with content that's what it means so here's what atonement means it means we can finally be at one with God we can be in unity with God here's a holy God we're sinful people but because of the atonement Jesus brought us together and it's the blood it is only through the blood that there is atonement so matter of fact I the scripture I'm about to show you is actually the scripture that went through my mind when I was passing out in that emergency room a few weeks ago because I knew I lost a lot of blood this is a scripture I thought of Leviticus 17:11 says for the life of the flesh is in the blood that's that's the side that came to my mind cuz I knew I'd lost a lot of blood and I thought the life of the flesh is in the blood and then I thought I just breathed the prayer lord help me Lord help me but here is what the full verse says and this is what it means the life of the flesh is in the blood and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls for it is the blood that makes atonement for the Soul here's the reason when God points out something in my life that I can walk out without guilt because I know the blood of Jesus covers that sin I know it I know the blood covers that sin I don't have to do anything else other than repent thirty something years of ministry now there's I have discovered there's one group of people that I can't work with I can't work with them I can't help them and that's people that won't acknowledge that they have shortcomings oh they'll say it in general as how oh yeah you know I know I'm not perfect but then you point something out and here's what they say I just don't see it and what's amazing is everybody around them sees it everybody sees it but they say I do some state and they won't admit it okay let me let me explain to you something about God and this might be it maybe a shocking statement but you need to hear this sin is not a problem for God because his sons are to pay for it you know the only problem for God unrepented sin under pay that that's rough so the reason I'm telling you that is when God shows us our sin in his presence it's not a problem for them as long as we'll say yes Lord I see that that's bad and I don't want to do that anymore then he can take care of it but if we just keep going and walk in Pride and walk in arrogance that's a problem years and years ago there was a carpet cleaner that God really used in my life named Milton green and he told a story one time that when he had his carpet cleaning business and he hired this new employee and he took him out and he showed him what to do and how to do it how to use the equipment and all and he left him at a house he said I'm gonna go check on some jobs and I'll be back in a little while he came back and little wall and the new employee was was putting up the equipment like he was finished and he thought there's just no way he could I finished in this amount of time and done a good job and so he windy and he started looking around and sure enough he went to these high-traffic areas and there was dark dirt in the carpet you know it's dirt so he brought the new employee over he said I'll never forget how milton told story he said I brought him over and I made sure to position him where his toes were right on this dirty area right on the edge of a dirty area and he said I said to him look at me now look down and he said now what is that and the guy looked at him and he said that's dirt and Milton said good now we can work together he said you'd be shocked at how many people I've hired they can't see that but he said they'd pay us to get that out but if you can't see it we can't work together as long as you can see that and know that we need to get that out than we can work together right after that happened I was in a worship service right after I hear this I was just worshiping God worshiping God and it's like the Lord said to me look at me I think I'm looking at you and he said uh-huh now look at that and he pointed at something in my heart and he said to me what is that that's a god that's uh that's sin and that's what he said good now we can work together he said you know a lot of my kids get to the place where they can't see that anymore and I can't work with them as long as you can see it I can work with you because my son paid to get that out and I can get it out if you can see it I want you to bow your heads and close your eyes we want to pray with you no matter which campus you're attending no matter whether you're a member of Gateway Church or not that's that's not important to us as to whether we're going to pray with you or not and help you if you're going through a difficulty right now maybe the Holy Spirit is pointing at something and saying that's soon you need to get that out maybe you're like the guy that told about you you need to get saved you need to give your life control of your life that's what it means giving control of your life to Jesus Christ maybe you're just going through a difficulty and an area of your life and you need someone to join with you in prayer maybe a difficulty in your family or your finances or your health your job a relationship one of your kids marriage whatever it is if you need prayer for any reason at all any reason in just a moment at every campus we always have one more worship song we s it no one leave unless you have an emergency we understand that but it's just one song it only takes about five minutes but we ask that if you need prayer for any reason at all then just come to front come to the front of whichever campus you're attending they're going to be leaders at the front if you're in the second level at South Lake we have leaders by each sit so we'll know if you're heading toward the exit you know you either have an emergency or appointment you got to get to or playing the catch or something or you're going to get prayer we understand that but if you need prayer for any area of your life as soon as we stand up in just a moment you just stand up and then just step slip to the Isles really easy just step out and just come to one of the leaders at the front of the campus and let us pray for you right Holy Spirit I pray you'll draw every person that needs prayer in Jesus name Amen I was 19 years old when I gave my life to the Lord and everything changed I didn't have any desire to go back to that old life I wanted to walk with the Lord and learn more about him and some people helped me to learn the Bible and to learn how to pray and to learn about my new life in Christ and that's what we want to do for you I am so excited that you've given your life to the Lord he's forgiven all of your sins and you're on your way to heaven but we need to learn some things now about the Bible about prayer about some basics of the Christian life so that you can be victorious and live for the Lord like I know you want to so we've designed a class called fresh start and I want to encourage you to sign up for this class because we want to help you grow in your walk with the Lord now I love you and I'm so proud of you

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Keywords: gatewaypeople, Gateway Church, Pastor Robert, Robert Morris, Care, new sermon, new, Inspiring, In His Presence, sermon, Southlake, DFW, Texas, God, Jesus, Christ

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Length: 35min 45sec (2145 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 12 2013