Adrian Rogers: How to Enjoy and Practice the Presence of God

Our purpose is to know God intimately and to enjoy Him personally; we need nothing more and should settle for nothing else. In this message, Adrian Rogers teaches us how to enjoy the presence of God, and even more importantly, how to stay in it.

And let me ask you a question. Do you know God personally?
I’m not asking if you know about it. You might know about, uh, George Washington.
I’m asking, do you know god personally?
Is he today, this moment in your heart, in your life, a bright living vital reality.
If so, you know, the deepest pleasure You have fulfilled the deepest need.
You have attained that for which you were created, to know god personally.
Because you see worship is enjoying the presence of god. You need nothing more.
You should settle for nothing less. ProFound Truth simply stated.
This is love worth finding with past teacher and author, Adrian Rogers.
Would you be finding the book of Exodus chapter 33 as we continue our study?
On worship. If you were to give a definition of worship, what would it be?
Is worship, enjoying god. I believe it is.
I think that worship is enjoying the presence of god.
Just put it in a sentence worship is enjoying the presence of god.
And that’s what I wanna talk to you about today, how to enjoy the presence of god.
Now, folks, the more I study, the more experience, the more I realize that that is the bottom line, the highest good, most wonderful fulfillment to know god intimately and to enjoy him personally.
Enjoying the presence of god.
Now let me tell you some of the most frightening words in all of the Bible.
They’re found here in chapter 33 verses 1 through 3.
And the lord said unto Moses depart and go up hence, thou and the people which thou brought up out of the land of Egypt, unto the land which I swear unto Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob saying Under thy seed will I give it?
And I will send an angel before thee, and I will drive out the canaanite and the Amorite and the hic hittite and the perazite and the Hivite and the Jebucyte onto a land flowing with milk and honey.
For I will not go up in the midst of thee.
For thou art a stiff neck people, lest I consume the in the way. What are the frightening words?
God says I’m not going with you. I will not go up in the midst of you.
Now let’s get the background a little bit.
Moses had gone up on Mount Sinai to get the 10 commandments and instructions for the Tabernacle.
While Moses was gone, Aaron, his brother led the people into a revolt against almighty god, What Aaron said is we don’t know what’s happened to Moses.
He’s been up there a long time. Maybe he’s never coming back. We need some guidance. We need some help.
We need some leadership. You people give me your bracelets and your earrings, and we will make a golden calf, and we will worship that golden calf, and that’s what the people did.
Just go back to chapter 32 and look in verse 4, and he received them at their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool after that he had made it a molten calf.
And they said, these be thy god’s O Israel, which brought the up. Out of the land of Egypt.
Now what happens is this, when Moses comes down off the mountain, he sees this, this charade, this this orgy, this this this this feast, uh, they they were, uh, made themselves naked.
They are uh, committing immorality. They’re doing terrible, horrible things dancing around the golden calf.
Moses is so grieved that he takes the 10 commandments and cast them to the ground and breaks those tablets of stone.
Then he takes that golden calf and has it ground into powder.
And mixes that powder with water and makes the people to drink it.
And their their their greatest uh, delight now has become the greatest displeasure, and then 3000 of the chief rebels are slain and put to death.
Moses knows that this is a crisis. So Moses goes to god to intercede.
And look, if you will, now in verses 3032 chapter 32, and began in verses 3032.
And it came to pass on tomorrow that Moses said unto the people, ye have sinned a great sin And now I will go up unto the lord.
Per adventure, I shall make an atonement for your sin. Moses goes up to stand between god and judgment.
He goes up to intercede. And Moses returned them to the lord and said, oh, this people have sinned a great sin and have made them gods of gold.
Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin, It’s it’s sort of an unfinished sentence. His heart is just broken.
Yet, now thou wilt forgive their sin.
And if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of the book, which thou has written.
And Moses is praying and interceding and putting himself in the place of these people.
Now after this intercession is the text in Exodus chapter 33 verses 1 through 3.
Uh, god says, alright, I won’t destroy them. Alright. I’ll not destroy them.
Uh, Moses, for your sake, I will bring them into the land.
I will give them an angel escort. I I will give them protection.
I will give them provision I will fulfill my promise, but I will not go with them into the land.
Now look up here. Let me tell you something, folks.
If you’re a brother and sister in Christ, do not settle for a deal like that.
Do not settle for protection, do not settle for provision, do not settle for a promised land, without the presence of god.
Just don’t do it. Now I’m telling you I’m telling you when you have the presence of god, you need nothing more.
But you should settle for nothing less. What made Israel different from the other nations?
It was the manifested presence of god in the midst of them. It was the shekinah glory.
I wonder, are there some of you who wants to knew the glory of god.
And now that glory has departed and that glory has faded and And the glory of god is gone, and your life is dry.
What caused god? To withdraw his manifested presence from his people. I wanna mention 4 things.
Those 4 things are the same 4 things that will rob you, De Nude you of the manifested presence of god in your life.
And will be the arch enemy of worship. Worship is enjoying the presence of god.
Now what were these 4 things? What happened to Israel where god said, well, I’ll not destroy them.
I’ll send an angel but I will not be in their midst.
Number 1, they disobeyed god.
Look if you will, in chap Exodus 32, versus 7 and 8 again. Go back to it.
Ex just 32, and the lord god said in the Moses, go get thee down for thy people, which dowell brought us out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves.
Notice god calls them Moses your people now.
And notice verse 8, they have turned aside quickly out of the way, which I commanded them.
Just underscore that. They have turned quickly out of the way, which I commanded them And, uh, because they disobeyed god, the manifested presence of god was withdrawn from them.
Now I wanna say something else. Do you know who it was?
Do you know who it was that encouraged these people to disobey god?
And lose the manifest presence of god. It was Aaron. You know who Aaron was?
Aaron was a priest. A religious leader. And I’m gonna tell you something else.
There will always be plenty of people who will give you a reason and excuse to disobey god.
And it may even be a religious leader.
They’ll lead you into an unscriptural marriage, some immorality, some some, uh, some transgression of the commandments of god, and they’ll say, well, that’s alright.
Times have changed, and things are different.
But I remind you one more time that Jesus says he that hath my commandments and keep with them.
Here it is that loves me and he that loves me should be loved to my father.
And I will love him and will manifest myself to him.
Now if you want an angel escort and if you want to go to heaven, without having the presence of god in your life.
That’s your business, but I don’t. I want the manifested presence of god in my life.
I need nothing more. I will settle for nothing less.
So ask yourself this question if if god is not real to you. Ask this question in your heart.
This morning. Have I rejected a direct command of god? Am I living?
Am I right now living in disobedience to a known command of god?
If you are, There’s no reason that I can think of in all of the Bible where you ought to have a sense of the manifest presence of god.
God loves you too much.
To manifest himself to you in glory and joy and yet have you to live in disobedience because I cannot think of a worse lesson that he would teach you.
So question number 1, can I discern any direct disobedience to god?
Let me ask you the next question.
If god is not real to you, can I discover any divided devotion to god?
Not only direct disobedience, but divided devotion. Look again in chapter 32.
And, uh, look, if in verse 4.
And he fashioned them at their hand, and and he received them at their hand and fashioned it.
That is the golden calf with a graving tool after that he had made it a molten calf.
And they said, these be thy gods of Israel. Now what have these people done?
Uh, they had divided devotion. They claimed to be Israel.
The word is oil means, the people of god, and yet they made a golden calf.
They made for themselves a god that was no bigger than their own imagination.
And then rather than trusting almighty god, they began to trust the work of the hands.
This was idolatry. As I’ve told you before, that the Bible says when people make an idol, they become like the idol.
First, the man moles the idol, and then the idol moles the man. What is an idol?
An idol is just a magnified center.
A man just takes his own ideas and and and puts them into the work of his hands, and then he begins to worship it.
And What he is really worshiping ultimately, therefore, is himself.
You say, well, Adrian, I’m not guilty of idolatry.
Well, let’s check up and find out whether you are or not.
Maybe there might be a golden calf in your life. What is an idol?
Anything that you love more than god is an idol. What is an idol?
Anything that you fear more than god is an idol. What is an idol?
Anything that you serve more than god is an idol uh, anything that you trust more than god is an idol.
Now, friend, there are certain relationships in your life that are wonderful relationships, but none can take the place of an undivided relationship to almighty god, idolatry is the mother sin, the father sin, the sin of all other sins?
Now here’s a third question that you might ask yourself.
If god is not real in your life.
If you do not have that manifested presence of god and worship, is enjoying the presence of god.
Do you, thirdly, detect any displaced dependence?
Direct disobedience, divided devotion, displaced dependence, Look if you will again, in verses 78, and the lord said unto Moses, go get thee down for thy people which thou brought us up out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves.
They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I’ve commanded them. They’ve made them a molten calf.
Alright. There you have direct disobedience. And divided devotion.
Now watch this and have worshiped it and sacrificed there too and said, these be thy gods of Israel, which have brought the out of the land of Egypt.
Now they began to put their dependence in the work of their hands.
They’re ugly god that they’ve made with their own hands.
And now no longer is their dependence upon almighty god that brought them through the Red Sea.
You know, what happens when you do that?
When god gives you a victory and you give the glory to something else or someone else, and then depend upon that rather than the god who gave you the victory, you’re going to lose the presence of god.
And when god gives you a blessing, And when god is good to you and god brings you through the storm, whether it be desert storm, any other kind of a storm, and then you have that displaced dependence You began to give credit where credit does not do and fail to give god the glory.
Is it any wonder that his presence is not real in your life?
Is there any direct disobedience?
Is there any divided devotion Is there any displaced dependence?
One last question quickly, and I’ll close this message this morning. Is there any determined defiance? Listen.
Look, if you will, in Exodus chapter 32 in verse 9.
And the lord said unto Moses, I have seen this people and behold, it is a stiff neck people.
What does that mean? Stiff neck is the opposite of being meek and pliable.
God was wanting to lead them, but they’re like a horse with a stiff neck Who rares up?
Who will I yield? You want god to be real to you? Don’t be stiff neck.
If god gives you a specific revelation, god speaks to you about what he wants you to do, then obey him.
Has god told you that somebody he wants you to witness to?
Has god been laying somebody on your heart? And you’re not witnessing to that person?
No wonder god’s not real to you.
Has god been putting some impulse in your heart to serve in this church?
Perhaps to work in the preschool, the nursery, perhaps to be a youth worker, perhaps to work on the parking lots, perhaps to serve in the kitchen, But you say I don’t wanna do that.
Has been god been laying on your heart something he wants you to give some sacrificial gift not even to a need, but for the glory of god.
Has god been laying on your heart, somebody that you need to go to and apologize to and reconcile with and make things right.
Has god been telling you there’s a relationship that you’re in that you need to break off young lady and get out of it or young man that it is a wrong relationship?
Has god been speaking to your heart and calling you in the missions or full time Christian service?
Has god been telling you to do something go somewhere, be something, give something.
And you have said, no. You had a stiff neck.
And then you say I wonder why god is not real to me.
I wonder why god says, alright, I I’m gonna take you on to heaven.
I’m gonna give you an angel escort all of the way, but I’m not going in the midst of you.
Thank god Moses had enough sense to say no deal.
He said, god, if you don’t go with me, I ain’t going I am not going without the manifest presence of god in my life.
What is worship? Singing songs, no, saying prayers, no coming to church, no giving money, no worship, is enjoying the presence of god.
Is god real to you? He wants to be real.
Again, Jesus said he that has my commandments and keeps them.
He it is that loves me, and he that loves me will be loved to my father.
And I will love him. And will manifest myself to him.
Lord Jesus manifests yourself to Bellevue. Be real to us. Amen. Amen.
Let’s bow and prayer. While heads are bowed, no one stirring. Don’t gather your books.
As you’ve listened this morning, have you discovered any direct disobedience.
Have you deserved any divided devotion?
Have you detected any displaced dependence?
Have you displayed any determined defiance?
Well, these people found grace long ago.
And so may you.
As a child of god right now, why don’t you say lord Jesus?
I want you to manifest yourself And if I have disobeyed you willingly forgive me, lord, if I love anything more than you from now on, it you will be number 1 in my life.
Lord, if I’m trusting the work of my own hands or my own ingenuity, I quit it right now.
And lord, if there’s anything you want me to do, I’m available. Here I am.
And now, lord, as I go, go with me. Go with me.
Father, I pray in the name of Jesus. And you’ll seal this to our hearts.
Amen.