21/3/2021Sunday Message                                                                                                                                                             www.lifechurchmissions.com

Living Before God <Ge 17:1; Ps 139:1-10; Ex 33:3, 15-16; Isa 59:2; 2 The 1:9; Mk 3:13-15>

 

Prelude: When is the moment where believers are most easily deceived? That is when we forget God? Often, believers fall because they cannot see God or they did not remember God's presence. The world we live in continues to tell us that God does not exist, or God is optional and is not important; what is important is humans ourselves, what we like, what we think is correct, what rights do we have etc. After man has fallen, we become self-centred. Hence, we are most conscious of ourselves and are most sensitive to our own needs, joy, anger, sorrow, success and failure, dissatisfaction, stress etc. But after we have fallen, we lose the consciousness toward God. Even believers who know the existence of God live as though He is not present. Even though God is always with us and has never left us, we cannot be conscious of His actual presence at all times. This is thus the problem of man. Think about it, how many times do we rush pass each day, what we see and our focus are never on God but on many other matters? Because so many things divert us from our "consciousness toward God"  - messages from our handphone, various information from the computer and hand phone, news, advertisements, continuous tasks that require our management, people around us who require our attention, our many own thoughts and ideas, cause us to helplessly lose the consciousness of God. When so many demands and news fill us, God and things of above suddenly become very distant from us, not very relevant and also does not appeal to us. But actually, the essence of the Christian life is to live before God. (This is what Martin Luther had said). 

 

1. The Christian faith is live our entire lives before God (coram Deo). 

If a believer were to compartmentalize his life, splitting it into what is sacred and secular, then he has some misunderstanding of the Christian faith. What God emphasizes is consistency, a person is the same whether in front or from the back, in the church or outside the church; he is consistent in his spiritual serving and earthly responsibilities; doing so for the Lord and living for the glory of God. Because the Lord is with us in the church, He is similarly with us in our company, when we are doing housework and when we are alone. Those who are able to live before God consistently are also upright before God. "Consistency" is related to "integrity". Actually, the conscience of a believer is already held captive by the word of God, therefore, those who truly believe the word of God have to live with integrity according to the word of God, otherwise, he will feel extremely uncomfortable. If we truly believe that God is with us, we really have to live in His presence. God ever told Abraham, the father of faith, "I am God Almighty ; walk before me faithfully and be blameless." <Ge 17:1> Therefore, those who believe in the Lord have to train themselves to "live before God". Actually, living before God has the same meaning as living in the presence of God. 

 

2. If we do not live before God, then we will live before man. 

Humans are very good in comparison. When we think we are better than others, we could become proud; or if we are not proud, we will think that we do not need to become better since relatively speaking, we are already better. But when we think that we are worse than others, we will think of ways to improve to keep up with them (positive reaction); if not we will immerse in inferiority (negative reaction). Sometimes, when we are very hardworking but see others beside us slacking, we will wonder, if others are also not serious, why should we be slogging? But there are also times when we see others who are more serious and diligent than us, bearing hardship without complaints, we will suddenly feel accused, or think that if they can be so hardworking, then we should do a little more. Or, sometimes when we encounter hardship and we see those similar to us in a state of self-pity, we will think that it is normal and justified for us to feel sorry for ourselves. But when we see that there are people in more pathetic situations than us yet could be joyful in Christ, we will suddenly feel ashamed of our own grievances. From the various comparisons and reactions of people, we will know that if we live before man, we cannot be firm, and in fact we will waver not be consistent. This way of living is not God’s will.  Therefore, we continuously need healing in the area of living before God rather than man.

 

3. God’s presence is dangerous but needed

1) God’s presence is dangerous, because He is perfectly holy and righteous.  

 In the bible, we see that God cannot be treated with contempt; His holiness means He must pass judgment on all sins. When is God’s presence dangerous? That is when we are insistent in our sins, unwilling to repent, and unwilling to obey God.

 

2) God’s presence is needed, because apart from God, there is nothing we can do.

In <Exodus 33>, because God’s people are rebellious, God told Moses that He will still help Israel to defeat their enemies and lead the Israelites to the promised land, but His Presence will not go with them. Actually, this is perhaps what many people like. Because humans want the blessings of God, but do not want God. Many people come before God, only wanting what they desire, but do not care if God is with them, or have an intimate relationship with God. They believe that as long as they have a loving interpersonal relationship, a satisfying career, a blissful family, life will be perfect; having a good relationship with God is not that important. However, the truth is that God’s Presence is more important than the Promised Land, because the human are created to need God’s Himself.

 

 

4. What does it mean to live before the Lord?

1) First be conscious of God

Those who are not born-again must first be born-again. If they are in a state of spiritual death, they will not be able to see and hear God. But if we as regenerated believers want to remember the Lord always and be sensitive to His presence, we must be intentional about thinking about God, meditating on His word and communicating with God. If God is with us, but we do not see Him as being present, that is of no benefit to us.

 

2) Seek to draw close to God

Sinners will always want to run away from God, because we want to go our own ways and escape from God’s judgment. But the righteous person will want to draw near to God and seek His presence. If we are true believers, God’s presence will not scare us, instead it will attract us. Just as David said, “You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence.” <Ac 2:28> Seeking God’s presence means “prayer”. Some people, though they know that God is with them, they only spend a few minutes of quiet time each day to come before the Lord to read the bible or pray (some believers may not even have quiet time), and then live for themselves for the rest of the day. It is no wonder the believers will be pulled by the world, deceived by Satan and are powerless to resist temptations; that is because they did not persist in seeking God’s presence. The bible calls us to “pray continually” <1 Th 5:17>, and it does not mean to lock ourselves in a room and just chant words of prayer, but it is, at all times, be reminded of Christ, mediate on God’s word, be sensitive to prompting of the Holy Spirit and obey accordingly. God wants us to integrate the spiritual things into our daily lives. God does not want just a part of our lives that is compartmentalise for Him, instead God should be at the core of our lives.

 

3) To live before God is to revere God

Often, man sins because they take God lightly. Either they belittle God’s holiness and judgment or they did not think that God is good enough. This leads them to not believe that God can help them or satisfy them. In the end, they end up in many foolish acts, decisions or sins. When a person truly reveres God, recognising Him as great and awesome and that He is the greatest love, greatest satisfaction, the greatest help, man will naturally acknowledge Him in all things, live before Him, does what pleases Him and shun things He hates.

 

4) A person who lives before God will certainly deal with his sins.

Those who are always conscious of God’s presence will be more vigilant, because they know that sin will grieve the Holy Spirit and anger God. But if the sin is alluring, how can we have to power to resist it? That is when we discover that the consequences of sin is greater than the pleasure of sin. Although we do not like to mention God’s sternness and judgment, but we cannot deny that one of the ways to help a stubborn sinner resist his sin, is to get him to think about the seriousness of God’s judgment. Not only in the Old Testament, but the New Testament also use the dreadful judgment of God to warn people not to sin.

<Is 59:2> But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.

<2 Th 1:9> They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might.

Actually, the most dreadful punishment of God is to shut people out from His presence. When a person is not living in the presence of God, he is prone to sin, because they do not think anyone knows. However, for those living in God’s presence, when they think of sinning, their conscience will be pricked, and he will be compelled to banish the thought. Therefore, a person who is truly living before God will surely have struggles, because the Spirit will conflict with the flesh.

 

5) A person living before God will do his best to accomplish the mission that God has entrusted him with.

When Jesus calls His disciples, He gave them a great commission and an important instruction -  that is to be with him <Mk 3:13-15>. Why did Jesus want the disciples to be with Him? That is because it is only with God’s presence that the disciples have the power to accomplish their missions. When we think of God’s presence, we will focus on God-related factors and not man’s conditions. No matter how bad the situation is, we focus on what God can do, and not what we can we do. When we confirm what we do, say or encounter is led and planned by God, our heart will have the power to properly accomplish God’s missions.

 

6) A person who is always living before God will receive His comfort

No matter what sufferings or trials a person is going through, when He sees God’s face and His help, he will be strengthened. When Paul was rejected when he was sharing the gospel in Corinth, God personally comforted him, “ For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you.” <Ac 18:10>.   “At my first defence, no one came to my support, but the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength”  <2 Ti 4:16-17>. In all these situations, Paul had the assurance that God is with him and he received comfort.