God's Presence - Part 5

Main Point:  Life is full of trails and challenges, but God’s people rise above them and can see beyond life’s challenges and continue to hunger for God’s presence.   A church that hungers for God’s presence will experience God’s presence.  

Matthew 5:45:  (The rain falls on the just and the unjust)

• The struggles of life will happen to all people.
• Life comes with challenges whether we are Christian or not.
• How you handle and react to these challenges will define you.

Pastors’ Thoughts:

• Since it is a given that we will go through challenges and hard times in our lives, then let’s not focus on the challenges/hard times lets focus on what victory God will bring through each one of them.
• Don’t focus on the Lions, focus on all the people that will get saved because of the Lion.
• Don’t focus on the flood, focus on rainbow and the promises of God that the resulted from the flood.
• Don’t focus on the death on the cross, focus on the resurrection power that we all have access to today.
• The wise men did not focus on the difficult journey they focused on being in God's presence by visiting the Messiah, God incarnate.

Scripture: Wise Men….
Matthew 2: 1-12: (The wise Men came from another country to worship Jesus and present him with gifts)

Pastor’s Thoughts:

• During these times a long journey on camel was a very difficult and dangerous journey, but because the Wise Man had no doubt that Jesus was God incarnate they did not think of the difficult journey, they thought of just being in God’s presence.

That is my message to you this morning.  

• Don’t focus about all of life’s challenges and hard times, instead rejoice that we can journey into God’s presence because we are children of the most high God.
• Rejoice that we children of God.  
• Rejoice that are names are written in the book of life
• Rejoice that we have the honor to praise and worship Him this morning.

Praise is proclaiming what God has done (shouting out his goodness)

Worship is honoring God for who He is (acknowledging His Holiness and Righteousness)

Hunger for God’s Presence:

• In his presence there is fullness of joy.
• In his presence there is peace, rest, refuge, mercy and grace, times of refreshing