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#153 The Presence Centered Life (5 - Our Greatest Need / God’s Greatest Desire) · The OneCry Podcast

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  His presence is what we most need, and some of us know that,
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  but listen to this, our presence is what God most desires.
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  Welcome to the One Cry Podcast, a nationwide call for spiritual awakening.
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  The goal, accelerating the movement of God through sharing revival truth, stories, and reports.
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  Well, hey, welcome back to the OneCry podcast. I'm Kyle Reno with Bill Eliff.
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  And, man, we've been in a phenomenal series, really, on the essential presence of God.
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  And, bro, last week just blew my mind, to be honest with you.
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  Well, you know, we were talking last week out of Exodus 32 and 33.
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  We're going to be there today to finish this story, really.
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  But it's such a picture to us, Kyle, of God's intent and desire.
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  One of the statements that we made last week is that God has this desire.
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  God desires an unbroken, real, daily, personal relationship with us,
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  but we've got to cooperate with Him. It's not going to happen without our cooperation. Right.
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  And here's the second part of the statement, and that is his presence is what we most need.
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  And we some of us know that. But listen to this.
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  Our presence is what God most desires.
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  I mean, this is one of the things we're trying to say in this series is you
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  just read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation.
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  Revelation in God over and over again through symbols, through places,
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  through covenants, through people, through sending his son,
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  through sending his spirit, through the promise of heaven, he wants to be with us.
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  And we don't believe that. We believe the lie of the enemy, that he could care
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  less about us and that we're not good enough to be with him,
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  which we're not, except through Christ.
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  And so he wants that, but the problem is, and this is what we saw last time, Kyle,
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  is that like they did in Mount Sinai.
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  God had led the people out with just amazing care and tenderness and precision and carefulness.
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  And he goes up to the top of the mountain with Moses to write this down, saying, I'm your God.
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  I'm the one who did this. Don't leave me. And down at the foot of the mountain,
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  they had quickly chosen substitutes for the presence of God.
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  And that's what we do. We just do it over and over again like they did.
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  And the tragedy of this, Kyle, is we were made for more. Yeah.
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  I mean, we were just made for more than messing around with with the world's
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  gods and trying to find substitutes everywhere else.
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  Well, it makes me think, as you hear him saying this, you know,
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  you see this all across Scripture and you see it.
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  John 14 through 16, one of the greatest discourses ever.
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  You know, I think Jesus is teaching us the Christian life. And then John 17,
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  his high priestly prayer is that what?
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  That we would be one, that we would experience the presence of God, that we're not God.
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  We don't get that seat at the table, but that we would know him and that he
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  would, and this is his prayer, that he would sanctify us in truth.
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  Because he knows that we rebel against that. We rebel against that nearness.
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  Like there's this tendency inside of us, though we were made for more,
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  that we will quickly settle for less. And that's what you see in Exodus 34.
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  Yeah, a bad trade, like you said last week. I mean, it's just such a bad trade.
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  And I was mentioning last week, I know when I...
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  Lose the conscious awareness of his presence.
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  I know when that happens. I get out of sync. I get irritable. I start blaming people.
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  It's everybody else's fault. It's my time. It's my schedule. It's that and the other.
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  And I hurt people, you know, and I was made for more than that.
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  And I will tell you something else. God deserves more than that.
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  Exactly right. He just deserves more than that. He wants our presence.
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  So, Kyle, the greatest
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  tragedy when we start turning away from God and slipping away to get substitutes
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  for the presence of God is not just the harm of the gods that we choose.
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  It's the loss of the presence of God that we experience and all that comes with
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  that. So how do we return?
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  And that's what we want to talk about today.
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  So if you have a Bible, you can pick that up with us in Psalm 32 and 33.
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  And this was astounding to me, Kyle, as I studied this just recently.
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  Secondly, the return to God's presence happened by humble, repentant prayer.
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  Now, what's fascinating in Psalm 32 and Psalm 33 is that there were three prayers
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  that were right at the forefront of the return to God's presence with God's people.
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  And there were critical prayers and the kind of prayers we need to pray.
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  First of all, there's a prayer for mercy.
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  So Moses is up on the mountain. The people are down there committing adultery
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  and immorality and all kinds of junk, running, trying to find a substitute for the presence of God.
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  And God is grieved up on the mountain. And so Moses prays this prayer in chapter
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  32, 11 through 14, and he says, basically, God, don't destroy them.
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  Please don't destroy them.
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  And the Lord changed his mind about that. And then he comes down and Moses is grieved and upset.
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  And he throws down the tablets with the Ten Commandments.
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  He draws a line in the sand and he says, whoever is for God, come over here.
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  And you wonder why he did that. And I think here's the point of that. God.
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  You must make a deliberate choice to come back into God's presence.
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  Now, listen, the presence of God, if I'm a Christian, I have the presence of God all the time.
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  But the problem is I walk away. He didn't walk away.
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  I walk away from him and I lose the conscious awareness of his presence and
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  all that his presence brings, the direction, the deliverance,
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  the daily communion with him.
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  I just lose all of that because I've just kind of walked away and I'm chasing some other God.
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  So he draws this line in the sand and it says to us, you've got to make a deliberate
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  choice to experience again the presence of God.
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  Now, what that means is you can't just listen to a podcast and and suddenly
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  you're back in the flow of his presence and you're aware of him and you're everything's good.
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  There are some things that had to happen. There was some repeating that had
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  to happen. There's some turning that had to happen.
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  There's some praying that had to happen. But he drew the line in the sand.
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  So first was this prayer of mercy. see.
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  Secondly was a prayer for forgiveness.
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  So in verse 31 through 34 of chapter 32, he says, I'm going to go back up and
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  I'm going to ask the Lord, maybe he'll forgive us.
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  And he pleads with him on the basis of the promises of God.
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  And what happens is absolutely fascinating.
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  God says, okay, I'll forgive them.
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  You say, yeah, that's wonderful. How gracious of God. Didn't have to,
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  but he would forgive them.
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  And he goes one step further. He said, I'll send the angel of the Lord with
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  them to take them into the land of Canaan.
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  I'll let them have the promised land and I'll send the angel to help them get
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  there. They say, oh, Oh, that's awesome.
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  And then he says these deadly words, but I'll not go with them.
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  My presence shall not go with them. And when Moses and the people heard that
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  word, it broke their hearts because they knew enough to know that everything
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  comes from the presence of the Lord.
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  It grieved them. Now.
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  When I read that, I thought, you know what?
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  So many, maybe the majority of Christians are living right here. They've been forgiven.
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  God has been merciful to them. He's providing some things for them.
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  They're on their way to the promised land. They're headed to eternity with Christ,
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  but they just don't have the presence of God as their daily experience.
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  And they're missing what life is all about because everything flows from the
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  conscious awareness of his presence.
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  Now, let me just pause right here and before I go a step further and ask you
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  a very important question.
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  Are you forgiven? Has God been merciful to you? Are you on the way to heaven?
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  Has he and his angels of provision, has he provided for you and giving you some
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  daily bread? Yes, yes, yes, yes.
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  But are you experiencing his presence?
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  Are you consciously aware each day you're talking to him?
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  You're listening to him? You're having this daily, personal,
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  intimate relationship with him, which is what we most need and what he most desires.
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  Are you experiencing the presence of God?
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  So, first of all, there was this prayer of mercy and a line drawn indicating they had to take a step.
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  Secondly, there was a prayer of forgiveness and God forgave them.
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  But he said, I'm not going to go with you. And finally, there's a third prayer,
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  and it's a prayer for his presence.
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  And it's found in chapter 33, verses 12 through 17.
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  Now, listen, when the people heard this, that he wasn't going with them, three things happened.
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  Number one, they mourned. They mourned.
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  Now, mourning is a real important part of the spiritual experience.
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  James said, come back to God, draw near to him, he'll draw near to you.
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  And then he said, be miserable and mourn and weep.
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  Jesus said, blessed are the poor in spirit and those who mourn.
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  In other words, a man who sees his spiritual poverty so much that it grieves
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  him, so much that he mourns over his sin.
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  So what happened was you have to see the loss before you grieve it and want
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  the gain of God's presence.
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  And what happened in this moment is they saw this loss of his presence so much
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  that they mourned. They weren't going to go a step further.
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  Secondly, though, they didn't just mourn. They repented. The Bible says that
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  they stripped themselves of all their ornaments that they had fashioned and
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  taken up to celebrate and party around the golden calf.
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  I kind of think of like Mardi Gras, you know, and all this garish kind of stuff
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  that they were looking to as a substitute for God.
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  Suddenly, that was repulsive to them. They didn't want those gods that they'd
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  chosen, and they just took them all off. That's repentance.
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  That's a change of mind. I mean, that's a guy that is chasing some god in the world.
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  Maybe it's power or reputation or popularity or immorality, and he gets so sick
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  of it that he mourns, and he's willing to lay it down.
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  So they mourned, and they repented, and then they prayed.
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  And basically, what Moses said is, God, we've got to have you.
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  We've got to have your favor. We've got to have your ways. We don't want our ways.
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  We need your ways. And God said in verse 14, my presence shall go with you and I will give you rest.
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  His presence brings peace, rest, everything they needed.
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  Moses said, if your presence doesn't go with us, don't lead us up from here.
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  For how can it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people?
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  Is it not you're going up with us so that we, I and your people,
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  may be distinguished from all the other people who are upon the face of the earth?
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  And God said, I will do this thing of which you have spoken,
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  for you found favor in my sight.
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  Now, this is an amazing statement, and I just have seen this, and it's so important.
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  You can't experience God's presence if you won't talk to him.
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  You can't experience God's presence if you won't cry out to him.
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  What is this humble, repentant prayer? prayer. The essence of any relationship is talking.
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  Kyle, I thought about this last week.
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  If you and I didn't know each other, which would be sad, but let's say we didn't
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  know each other at all, and you were here in Little Rock, and we said,
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  we've got to go to Chattanooga, and it's a 10-hour trip.
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  We got a car, and we drove for 10 hours. We went through Memphis. us.
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  We went through Jackson. We went through Nashville. We went all the way to Chattanooga.
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  And we didn't say a single word to each other.
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  And we got out of the car in Chattanooga, didn't even say goodbye, and we walked away.
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  Well, number one, it'd be the most bizarre thing that had ever happened in our lives.
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  But number two, we wouldn't know each other any better than when we started. Right.
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  If we got in that car and we started talking in 10 hours, we'd be best buds by the end of it.
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  Right. Because the essence of a relationship is talking.
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  Right. How can you say I have a relationship with God if you don't talk to him,
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  if you don't listen to him through the word of God and prayer,
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  if you're not communing with him?
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  So the foundation for his intimate presence is prayer.
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  And the secret to his unceasing presence is unceasing prayer. Yeah.
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  So if you want to experience the conscious awareness of Christ,
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  you've got to talk to him.
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  And I'm sure for all of us, it usually begins with a humble,
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  mourning, repentant cry for mercy, forgiveness,
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  and a return to his presence.
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  And here's the interesting thing.
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  He's waiting.
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  He's just waiting. Because.
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  His presence is our greatest need, and our presence with Him is His greatest desire.
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  Man, so rich, Bill. I'm going to say something that might catch our listener
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  different when you hear it first, but there are things that God's attracted to.
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  And he is attracted to these things found in scripture of this humble,
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  repentant heartfelt prayer that God moves toward he meets that prayer,
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  like the beauty of this and God sees this perfectly he meets that prayer with
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  manifest presence he meets it,
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  that's it, that's real I see that, I know the motive behind that,
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  they're turning They're learning. They're trusting. They want me.
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  And the Lord just lavishly gives himself.
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  You know, I think that let Moses get to a place in his leadership.
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  I think about pastors and leaders.
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  The Moses get to a place in his leadership where he could genuinely say,
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  I think, Lord, I want to be able to genuinely say this. I mean,
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  Lord, there's just nothing that makes us different but your presence.
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  There's nothing like that. That's the thing that distinguishes us from every
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  other sect of humanity, every other religious belief system.
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  They might have theology.
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  They might have different practices. They have their own belief system.
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  But the thing that makes us us is you.
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  That's right. Because you can't fake the manifest presence of God.
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  And, you know, Kyle, this is why you take an old boy who's just a mess.
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  He's just a mess. He's immoral. He's godless. He's a horrible husband and dad.
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  And something happens. He comes to the end of himself,
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  and he mourns and grieves his condition, is ready to just throw it all down
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  like the prodigal son, And he cries out and he and he receives the Lord.
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  And suddenly he's just full of the presence of God.
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  And I mean, everywhere it goes, there's a presence of God. And the Pharisees
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  among us want to say, well, you got to cross this T and not this I.
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  And the father says, no, bring out the best robe and the ring and kill the fatted calf.
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  Because I just this is all I wanted. I just wanted him to come home.
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  I wanted his presence. I wanted him here in the house with me,
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  living with me and talking to me.
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  And he's waiting to do that all the time.
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  There's a wonderful book called Enjoying Intimacy with God by J. Oswald Sanders.
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  And he says in that book, each of the disciples was as close to Jesus as he
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  chose to be, for the Son of God had no favorites.
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  With him, there's no caprice or favoritism.
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  Their relationship with him was the result of their own choice,
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  conscious or unconscious.
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  And then he says this, it's a sobering thought that we too are as close to Christ
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  as we really choose to be.
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  It would seem that admission to the inner circle of deepening intimacy with
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  God is the outcome of deep desire.
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  Only those who count such intimacy a prize worth sacrificing everything else
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  for are likely to attain it.
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  If other intimacies are more desirable to us, we will not gain entry to that inner circle.
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  And then this final thought, the place on Jesus' breast is still vacant and
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  open to any who are willing to pay the price of deepening intimacy.
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  We are now and we will be in the future only as intimate with God as we really choose to be.
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  Wow. What a statement. What a, honestly, Chambers. Who was that?
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  Oswald Sanders, you said?
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  Yeah, Sanders, which is every generation. Like that's what I love about redemptive history.
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  You know, God raises up people that see these truths and want to share it.
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  And I just I would say to our listeners today, you know, Bill has been on this
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  journey with the Lord and seeing this non-negotiable desire for the presence
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  of God that changes a human and can change human history.
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  You know, and I was born again in an atmosphere like that and discipled by men and women.
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  And the thought of, and I know him as much as I truly desire.
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  And there's just so much more. There's so much more to beckon us to believe
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  and then rightly position ourselves in ways that are attractive to God.
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  So, Bill, why don't you just help us, man?
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  You led this thought these last two weeks.
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  Help us pray it in. and get in the
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  right position and to believe for it yeah let's let's
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  pray together and i want to invite you to
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  pray because i i can't pray this for you i can pray for me so as we as we begin
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  in just a moment of prayer here i wonder if you have chosen some substitute gods little g.
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  For his presence, would you just repent of that?
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  Would you mourn that?
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  Would you ask for the Lord's mercy and for his forgiveness?
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  Be specific with him.
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  Lord, I've chosen this over you. I've wanted TV and video games more than I want your presence.
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  I've wanted my immorality more than I want your presence.
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  And just would you be willing to just take off the ornaments,
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  Just strip yourself of the ornaments, and that's going to take some deliberate choices.
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  And would you right now just cry out, Oh, Lord, let me experience and be consciously
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  aware of your presence right now.
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  Wash over me with your presence thrill me with your presence overwhelm me with your presence,
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  and Lord teach me how to walk in your presence.
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  So, Father, we thank you for the fact that you're waiting.
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  The place on Jesus' breast is still open to those who will count it a prize
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  worth sacrificing everything for.
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  And I pray that you'd take us there and help us learn how to live there.
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  For our good and for your delight and for your glory.
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  And we give ourselves afresh to you in Jesus' precious name. Amen.
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  Amen. Well, Bill, this has been the last two weeks. Fantastic.
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  And I'm excited to stay in this vein. So I want to encourage our listeners,
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  if you've been impacted by it, share it with somebody.
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  Let somebody know about it and spend some time. And this is not just to fill
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  our minds with more information, but to help foster more intimacy with God.
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  And so, man, go on a walk with the Lord today. I mean, like,
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  find you a chair somewhere and walk into His presence and talk.
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  Y'all have a conversation and share that conversation even with somebody else.
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  We're honored to have a few minutes of your time.
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  Music.