sunday sermon snippet 22 february
“You have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.” — Exodus 19:4
This week’s posting of the Sunday Sermon Snippet comes from this past Sunday’s sermon which is the final sermon in our series from the book of Exodus, and tells the sweeping story of chapters nineteen through forty. My simple aim in our gathering was to display what I believe is a central theme in the story, which is itself a theme of the whole story of the Bible. Namely, God’s persistent pursuit of shared presence with us.
And if you’d like to check out the whole sermon, just click here.
A Surprising Theme
I’d like you to bear with me a moment, grant me your patience. Would you mind, please, closing your eyes?
Now, I’d like you to take a deep breath, and do what you can in the quiet of this space to calm and clear your mind, and I’d like you to think of one person that is in your life with whom you feel safe. One person you can be vulnerable with and trust that in return you will not experience embarrassment, manipulation, or condescension from them. You feel sure that your transparency won’t be weaponized against you, and instead you will receive respect and sympathy and understanding, a person — a place — where you can confess and unburden your soul without anything to fear. A presence, and it’s like a warm blanket of acceptance and welcome and love, where you are truly known, and still truly loved.
Do you have someone like that? Are you able to be that vulnerable with anyone? I mean, where someone knows everything — I mean everything — about you?
Ok, open your eyes.
Maybe some of you think this a bit, well, squishy. Like, “Ok, that was weird.” Or, “Uh, a bit too emotional man.” Maybe for some of us, this feels like weakness, instead of strength. to need a presence like that. Maybe it feels like brokenness, instead of wholeness.
But here’s the thing: I don’t think that such a desire — which I believe is a fundamental part of being human — is a bug; rather, I think it’s a feature. I think that it is part of God’s creational design of humans to want and need this kind of presence. And I think that because it was how he created us before the fall, creating us for fellowship with each other, in his presence, and so for fellowship with him.
God’s presence. God’s dwelling. God’s meeting place. A relationship, here and now.
I wonder, has that happened to you?
Have you experienced God’s presence?
Has he met with you?
The most important question anybody could ask you — and I hope you take it seriously — is this:
Have you moved beyond merely mentally believing in God to a life-changing encounter with the presence of a holy God?
I wonder if it would surprise you to know that this idea — God’s presence — is a central part of the whole story of the Scriptures: that Creation was about us experiencing the presence of God, that the core tragedy of the Fall was this presence was interrupted, that God’s persistent pursuit of us is to Rescue us from the exile from his presence, so that fellowship, dwelling, and presence with him would be restored (in the Restoration), for ever and ever, world without end.
But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Let’s situate ourselves in the story so we understand exactly how Exodus makes a contribution to this central theme of the whole story of the Bible, which, in turn, will help us as we seek full and true humanity in the presence of God, moving beyond merely mentally believing in God to a life-changing encounter with the presence of God….
If you’d like to check out the whole sermon, just click here.
