In this enlightening episode of the In Touch Podcast, we explore how the omnipresence of God influences our daily lives. Drawing upon Paul’s sermon to the Athenians, we learn to truly connect with Jesus Christ and understand that we are always in the presence of God. Whether acknowledging His presence during challenges or celebrating it in moments of joy, the goal is to live aware of His ever-present love.
00:00:01 Introduction and Invitation to Connect with Jesus
Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Friday, November 21st. Technology lets us connect instantly, and yet we often feel isolated and alone. Today, you’ll discover how to truly connect with Jesus Christ, who invites you to live each day in His presence.
SPEAKER 01 :
Where is God? Is it making a real difference where God is? And let me ask you this. At what times in your life is your awareness of the presence of God most important? And I want you to turn, if you will, to Acts chapter 17. And Paul, who had been over in Thessalonica doing such a wonderful job preaching the gospel and was so popular, they said about him, these men have upset the world. They’ve come here also. Wouldn’t you love to have that be tagged on you? That your witness for the gospel is so strong you’re upsetting the world. Folks don’t want you around. So Paul is there and he begins in verse 22 of Acts 17. He stood in the midst of the Oropagus and said, Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects. They probably nodded amen to that. For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, To an unknown God. And then he begins, What therefore you worship in ignorance… What he probably said under his breath, I’m about to tell you what it’s all about. What you therefore worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and all things in it, since he is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. Neither is He served by human hands as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all life and breath and all things. And He made from one every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitations, that they should seek God if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him. Though He is not far from each one of us, for in Him that is in God, we live that is in His presence. We live and move and exist as even some of your own poets have said, for we also are His offspring. Paul said, I want to tell you first of all who this God is. And secondly, he says, I will remind you that you are accountable to him. So he continues in verse 30. Therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all men everywhere should repent. Because he has fixed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness through a man whom he has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising him from the dead. So I want to begin by talking about the reality of the presence of God in this world. Now, one of the problems for these Athenians was that they localized God. And so God’s here, and He’s here, and so they had all kinds of temples to their gods, and so this is what motivated Paul’s sermon. But I want you to notice what he said to them in verse 24. He says, Now think about that. If God made this world, God is not the same as creation. There are those who believe, they will say to you, well, you want to see God? Look at that tree, that’s God. Look at those clouds, that’s God. Look at those animals, that’s God. Look at these people, that’s God. Look at these buildings, that’s God. That is not God. God and creation are not synonymous. God is above and beyond and outside of creation. This is what Paul is saying to them. This God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. You cannot confine God to a place. The truth is that we are in the presence of God because everything that exists, exists in the presence of God. So when you think about the reality of His presence, Let’s clarify a term. We use the term omnipresent, which means all present. And so we say, oh yes, I believe that God is omnipresent. The Bible teaches that. Well, the Bible never uses the word omnipresence. Nowhere to be found in the Bible. But the reality of God’s presence in this world and the accurate reality that all that is in existence is in the presence of God should alter the way we think and the way we pray and the way we feel about things. Because we talk about coming into the presence of God. You and I never have to pray, God, would you come into our presence? If I only see God is out yonder and up yonder and out there somewhere, then when I need Him, somehow I’ve got to get through all of this vacuum, this space out there between God and me. But the teaching of Scripture is not that. That God is over here and over yonder and out there. But all things that exist, exist in the presence of God. He says, Not only that. God is fully present everywhere and at all times. There is no time at which God is not, so that there always has been, now is, always shall be, all that exists in the presence of God. If you recall in the 139th Psalm, look there a moment if you will, here David is underlining this truth when he says, beginning in verse 7, he’s asking a question about the presence of God. He says, “‘Where can I go from thy spirit?’ Where can I flee from thy presence? Then he says, God’s presence is unlimited by space when he says, If I ascend to heaven, thou art there. If I make my bed in Sheol or in hell, behold, thou art there. Then he says, If I take the wings of the dawn and rush across space… Undaunted by the speed, God is there. If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, even there thy hand will lead me. And thy right hand will lay hold of me. If I say, surely the darkness will overwhelm me, and the light around me will be night, even the darkness is not dark to thee. And the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are like to thee, so that God is unaffected by darkness.” There is no place that anyone can hide from the presence of God because all places exist in the presence of the Lord God. You see, oftentimes we have the idea, well, I’ve got to go get in the presence of God and talk to Him. Well, friend, you can pray anywhere, and surely there ought to be times when you and I are alone in the presence of God, meditating and crying out to Him, bringing Him appetitions, but likewise praising Him. It isn’t that we walked out of that room where God was not into this room where God is so that now we can get in touch. The truth is, if you’re a believer, you are instantaneously in touch with Almighty God because you live and dwell in the presence of God. And once that begins to be a reality with us, one of God’s goals for us then becomes realistic. That is, becomes a reality. There are a couple of scriptures I want you to turn to, one of them being 2 Thessalonians chapter 1. We’re talking about the coming of the Lord and God dealing at His retribution. Verse 9 of 2 Thessalonians chapter 1. He says, “…and these will pay the penalty of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power.” So you say, well, when somebody goes to hell, they are no longer in the presence of God. Let me ask you something. Has God created anything outside of His presence? No. If God is God, no matter where it is and what it is, it’s in the presence of God. Nothing is beyond His reach or His knowledge nor beyond His power. So I want you to turn, if you will, to the 14th chapter of the book of Revelation. For here, another scripture that relates to the presence of God in a different sort of way, and this brings me to something that I want to talk about. The awareness of God’s presence… is different. He says in verse 9, And another angel, a third one, followed them, saying with a loud voice, If anyone worships the beast in his image and receives a mark on his forehead or upon his hand, we’re talking about tribulation days, he also will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mixed in full strength in the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. What he’s saying is this. There will be no presence of fellowship. The face of God turned away from those who are in judgment. But that does not mean that hell is beyond, that is beyond the reach, the knowledge, the power of the presence of God. It is the fact that those who are there will not be aware of that presence of God that is so true of us on this earth while we are alive in this life. It is a different kind of presence, but nothing is beyond the presence of God. And when you think about your life, the difficulties you’ve been through, the hardship, the heartache, you’ve never taken a single step outside the presence of God. You say, but I’m not even a Christian. It doesn’t make any difference. Whether you were aware of Him or not, God was there. And any moment you would have called upon Him, asking for mercy and salvation, forgiveness of your sin through the Lord Jesus Christ, He would have made Himself very known to you. That’s very important to God that you and I understand that. that He wants us to be aware of His presence. Now, it’s interesting. In the Old Testament, if you go through the list of God’s servants, how important it was in the eyes of God that no matter what He asked one of His servants to do, the one thing He would do is to say to them, I will be with you. You remember what Moses said when God said to him, I want you to lead my people, Israel, out of bondage? He said, no way, I can’t talk. He started giving God all these excuses. And then when God says, here’s what I want you to do, here’s what he said. He says, and surely I will be with you. Then when he spoke to Joshua, who had the awesome responsibility of assuming command of the nation of Israel, Moses had died. He had been like a father to him, been the commanding officer. He’d been the statesman, and now he was dead. He was gone. And God said to Joshua, Joshua, I want you to assume the responsibility. And I’m sure Joshua must have been frightened over the idea. But here’s what he said to him. He said, Joshua, as I was with Moses, so shall I be with you. Be strong and of a good courage. Fear not, neither be thou dismayed, for the Lord thy God, Jehovah Yahweh, is with you wherever you go. What did Jesus say to those disciples in the upper room? I’ll not leave you comfortless. I will come to you. And that general promise from God that all of us love when he said, I’ll never leave you nor forsake you. I will, listen, this is God speaking. I, Jehovah God, will never leave you nor forsake you. Period. He didn’t say except, if, and, but. He said never leave you. Only person who could promise that. Nobody can promise that. Because death separates people. God said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. And nothing can separate us from God. Nothing. No experience. God said it. It wasn’t an afterthought. It wasn’t a mistake. It was a truth and is a truth that nothing can separate a child of God from God. Every single one of us live in the presence of God eternally and forever. How did Paul conclude that wonderful word of assurance in 1 Thessalonians? When he began… to explain to those Thessalonian Christians what had happened to their loved ones who had already passed on. He said, The Lord’s coming with a shout. The dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore, comfort one another with these words. All through the Bible, God continually assures us of His presence. And you see, what God is after is this. God knows that all of us live in His presence. What He wants us to be aware of, He wants us to be aware of His presence. God wants us to be eternally conscious of His presence. That does not mean walk around saying, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, but rather to so learn to live in the awareness of His presence that at any moment you can talk to Him. You don’t have to get on your knees and come into God’s presence and knock and find Him. At any moment, because you live in His presence and because He is present within you, you and I have an instantaneous, momentary, personal, intimate, irreversible relationship. You say, but wait a minute. When I sin against God, doesn’t that do something to my relationship to Him? You sin against God, it does not do anything to your relationship to Him. But the Bible says that my sin has separated me from God. Your sin hasn’t separated you from God. Says the Bible in Aaron? No. What is he saying? That in the life of the unbeliever, sin indeed separates that person from God spiritually, but not the presence of God. Any moment that person is willing to submit, to yield, to cry out in repentance and faith, they’re going to be saved. God’s not out yonder. They don’t have to run a thousand miles to find God. He is always there because all things are in His presence. We live in His presence. When you go to share your faith, you don’t have to ask God, now, God, I want you to go before us. He’s already there. Lord, come into our presence. We’re in His presence. It’s awareness of it. And so what happens? At Pentecost, from that moment on, God is on the inside of every believer. Jesus said, you abide in me, and I will abide in you. And so we are in the presence of God, and God is in us. Why did he say that it is our responsibility to be being filled with the Holy Spirit, filled with God? Listen to what Paul said. He understood this. He said, I’ve been crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, he says, yet not I, but Christ is living on the inside of me. And the life which I now live, I live with the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me and is now living on the inside of me. He understood. Living in the presence of God. I wonder how aware you are of His presence in your life. You see, God isn’t just interested in saving you, my friend. Listen, you know when I hear people say, well, I’m saved and that’s it, I want to tell you. Listen, that’s just getting in the door and getting the door slammed right on the heels. That’s just the beginning. God wants an intimate, loving relationship with you. He’s not just satisfied in keeping you out of hell. He says conforming us to His likeness. What’s His likeness? Loving intimacy. What is the relationship of Jesus to the Father? Loving intimacy. The truth is it is intimacy, oneness, knowing Him, loving Him, cherishing Him, being satisfied with Him, wanting to be with Him, that is aware of His presence. wanting to sense His love, searching His Word to know more about Him, praying and talking to Him, having conversations, meeting with other people in worship and praise, glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ and honoring Him for who He is. I want to be in His presence, but I want to be aware of His presence. Since I am always in His presence, it isn’t just wanting to be in His presence, it is the awareness of it. It is intimacy. Listen, don’t be satisfied with knowing about Him. You will not know Him. That’s what God’s goal is. He wants you to know Him. You know why He wants you to know Him? He knows what He’s like. And He knows that the more you know Him, the more you’re going to love Him. And the more you love Him, obedience will be sort of natural and normal. And you see, the more you love Him, the more you’re going to trust Him. And the more you trust Him, obedience is an overflow of that. He wants us to know Him. Not know about Him, to know Him personally, intimately. Living in His presence, aware of His presence. And that probably best comes through searching the Word, on our knees talking to Him, and in worship praising Him. But some of us, remind me of the sheep. And the story is told of the shepherds long ago. If they had a lamb that began to stray and kept on straying and nothing the shepherd would do would make a difference. You know what the shepherd would do? He’d break the lamb’s leg so he couldn’t walk. And then the shepherd would pick him up and carry him. And he would carry that little lamb until the lamb’s leg began to heal. And by the time the lamb’s leg healed enough for him to walk, the lamb had been so used to the presence of the shepherd that he ceased to stray. My friend, it is not only through the Word of God and through prayer and through worship that you and I learn to be aware of His presence. Sometimes God has to break us. Sometimes God has to send enough trouble to drive us into the awareness of His presence that we learn that the best place in all the world is in the presence of Christ.
SPEAKER 02 :
Thank you for listening to In His Presence. For more inspirational messages like this one, visit our 24-7 online station. And if you’d like to know more about Charles Stanley or InTouch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of InTouch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.
