The Ministry of Presence: Finding God in the Storm

• Jehovah Shema [00:02:17 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor introduces the name of God meaning 'The Lord is there' and connects it to Ezekiel 48:35.
• Eschatology and the Rapture [00:05:40 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor outlines a timeline involving the rapture, a seven-year tribulation, and the battle of Armageddon, correcting a childhood misconception about believers fighting in the battle.
• The Ministry of Presence [00:09:23 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses an analogy of friends texting versus showing up in person to illustrate the significance of God's physical presence with His people.
• Attributes of God [00:10:28 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor distinguishes between God's general omnipresence and His 'manifested presence' or deliberate revelation in specific moments.
• The Fall and Departure of Presence [00:11:47 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor begins tracing the biblical narrative from Genesis, noting how sin caused God's manifested presence to depart from humanity.
• The Departure of God's Presence [00:11:35 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor traces the departure of God's presence from the Garden of Eden (Adam and Eve) through the Tabernacle and Temple, culminating in Ezekiel's vision of the glory leaving the temple.
• God's Pursuit vs. Abandonment [00:12:45 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor contrasts the idea that God would abandon humanity after the fall with the biblical truth that God actively pursues Adam and Eve, establishing a pattern of divine pursuit.
• Typology of the Temple's Departure [00:16:55 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor analyzes Ezekiel 9-11, arguing that the specific path of God's glory leaving the temple (doorway, east gate, Mount of Olives) points typologically to Jesus Christ.
• Seeking God in Silence [00:22:44 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor applies the historical 400-year silence of God to personal experience, teaching that intimacy with God requires seeking Him through His Word even when He feels silent.
• Spiritual Disciplines and Pursuing God [00:23:06 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor argues that believers must actively pursue God through various disciplines (prayer, fasting, scripture, etc.) even during seasons of perceived silence, as silence is often God's way of stretching the believer.
• The Departure of God's Glory [00:25:04 ▶️ 📄]
  > An explanation of the historical context of the Second Temple, noting that while it was rebuilt, the manifested presence (cloud/Ark of the Covenant) was absent, leading to empty religious ritualism.
• Christ as the Embodiment of Presence [00:30:13 ▶️ 📄]
  > The theological point that Jesus is the 'Jehovah Shema' (God with us), where the glory that departed the temple is now wrapped in flesh, tabernacling among humanity.
• The Holy Spirit and the Believer as Temple [00:32:52 ▶️ 📄]
  > The teaching that after Jesus' ascension, the Holy Spirit indwells believers, making their bodies the new Temple and the new 'Ark of the Covenant,' providing direct access to God.
• The Indwelling Presence of God [00:34:41 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor contrasts Jesus being 'God with us' in the past to the current reality of 'God in us' through the Holy Spirit.
• Divine Protection and Comfort [00:35:12 ▶️ 📄]
  > Using a personal anecdote about his children waking him during storms, the pastor illustrates how God's presence changes the atmosphere and provides safety amidst fear and uncertainty.
• Jehovah Shema (The Lord is There) [00:39:03 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor applies the concept of God's presence to various human struggles (grief, diagnosis, fear), asserting that God is present in all circumstances.
• Eternal Perfection of God's Presence [00:40:25 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor looks forward to Jesus' return and the eternal state described in Revelation 21, where God's dwelling place is fully with man, ending all sorrow and pain.

• Sermon Illustration [00:06:30 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a childhood memory of believing he would fight alongside Jesus in the Battle of Armageddon, complete with Ninja Turtle swords, only to later learn from Revelation that Jesus defeats the enemy alone.
• Sermon Illustration [00:08:49 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor illustrates the 'ministry of presence' by contrasting receiving supportive text messages from friends during a hard time with the greater impact of a friend physically showing up in the hospital.
• Sermon Illustration [00:19:41 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a personal anecdote about waking up at 2:00 AM in middle school to do a paper route with his father, listening to radio host Paul Harvey, and using the phrase 'and now for the rest of the story' as a transition to the next point.
• Sermon Illustration [00:35:12 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a personal anecdote about his children waking him up at night during storms. He admits he never taught them a specific way to wake him (like grabbing his arm), so they would just come to his side of the bed, illustrating a lack of structured guidance in parenting.
• Sermon Illustration [00:35:12 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a personal story about his children waking him up during thunderstorms. He explains that he never taught them how to wake him properly, so they would just stand there. He describes waking up from a dream, initially reacting with protective aggression towards a perceived threat, only to realize it was his young daughter. He notes that once she was in the bed with them, she fell asleep instantly, changing the atmosphere of the room despite the storm still raging outside.

• Pastoral Charge [00:02:17 ▶️ 📄]
  > Open Bibles to Ezekiel chapter 48
• Pastoral Charge [00:02:30 ▶️ 📄]
  > Download the CBC app or use the tap tech in the seat to access sermon notes
• Pastoral Charge [00:23:06 ▶️ 📄]
  > Pursue and seek God during seasons of silence.

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:00:00] All right, CBC, how we doing? How we doing? Two o'clock. Come on. Been waiting, waiting for this service. Man, some of you are like, who is this guy? Who is this guy up here? Hey, I am, I'm Pastor Hutch, and I'm the central campus pastor at this location, and it's an honor to be able to serve this campus. An honor to be with you and filling in for our pastor today as he's gone this week, but just even before we get started, can we just
[00:00:30] just one more time. We even have people walking in right now that just got baptized all across our campuses. One more time, just thanking the Lord for what he's doing.
[00:00:42] It's amazing to see all these stories. And so as I said, Pastor Ed, he's out this week, but we'll be back next week and we'll also be taking communion together next week. So we'd love for you to be a part of that with us. But as I said, man, I'm excited to be with you guys.
[00:01:00] with Central Campus. Here we go. And all our campuses that are watching in, man, thank you so much for tuning in right now. We are in the middle of a series called Hallowed Be Thy Name.
[00:01:11] Come on, Hallowed Be Thy Name. How many of you guys have enjoyed this series so far? The names of God. It's been amazing. What our pastor's been doing every single week, and we're going to do it
[00:01:20] again, is we're saying these names out loud so as to get familiar with them. We even sang about these names, some of these names already. So here's what I need you to do. Repeat this after
[00:01:31] me. Say Elohim. It means he's a powerful God. Say Yahweh. He's personal. Say Adonai. He's possessive. He's the owner of all things. Say Jehovah Rapha. It means the God who heals.
[00:01:49] say Yahweh to soar. That's God is our rock. Say this, Jehovah Jireh. That's God is our provider.
[00:02:01] Amen. That was last week, an incredible message from our pastor. And so now we turn our attention to a name called this, say this, Jehovah Shema. What this means is the Lord is there. And aren't
[00:02:17] you thankful that we have a God who is there no matter what you're walking through? And so as we look at this Jehovah Shema today, if you have your Bibles, go ahead and open up to Ezekiel chapter
[00:02:30] 48. Ezekiel chapter 48. If you don't have a copy of God's word, we have a CBC app that you can download that will have the notes on there for you as well. On the tap tech in front of you on
[00:02:45] the seat, there'll be some options there for you to get the notes for this sermon. But we're going to be in Ezekiel chapter 48. Here's what I want to tell you about Jehovah Shema, this phrase that
[00:02:56] means the Lord is there. It's only mentioned one time in scripture, one time that this verse is mentioned. And so this word is mentioned. So before I explain this verse, I think it's important for you to understand who Ezekiel is, what in the world is going on that would lead Ezekiel
[00:03:15] to even say this name of God, Jehovah Shammah. Okay. So for us to understand that. So some of you, maybe you've never read the book of Ezekiel. All right. And, and, and what we want to do is
[00:03:26] want to help enlighten you to what this book is. And so I'm going to do a brief synopsis of it.
[00:03:31] So here's the deal. Ezekiel, he grew up in a priestly family. He wanted to be a priest when he got older. All right. So he lived in Jerusalem. He's like, oh, when, when he turns 25, like this
[00:03:42] is the time he gets to become a priest and all this stuff. But then if you know anything about history, it just so happened at age 25, the Babylonians came in and the Babylonians came
[00:03:53] into Jerusalem and took a bunch of the Jews captive and took them into exile. Ezekiel was one of these guys. So he's in exile, but then five years pass at the age of 30, the Lord reveals
[00:04:06] himself to Ezekiel, calls him to be a prophet and gives him these visions, all these visions and tells him to tell the people in exile, these visions. Okay. So that sets up, that's what the
[00:04:20] book of Ezekiel is about. It's all these visions that he gets. And now he's going to tell the people that are in exile of what God is saying. So what, what is God saying? What's he prophesying?
[00:04:30] First part of the book is all about the prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem that would come the ruin of jerusalem the temple all that would be destroyed he's talking about that and then he's talking about prophecies about god's judgments to other nations and and then if you know
[00:04:46] anything about the children of israel in the following the old testament they always were rebellious and they always would turn their backs on god and so ezekiel is is telling them god is telling you to repent so it's a section of the scripture he's calling them to repentance and
[00:05:01] then towards the end of the book, which is where we're at there, he's prophesying about the future restoration of Jerusalem. Okay. Future restoration of Jerusalem. Now that hasn't happened yet.
[00:05:14] So what Ezekiel is talking about is end time stuff. Okay. End times. Now we love end times.
[00:05:20] We love to talk about the end times. And if you'd like for me to talk about the end times, I'm not going to do that right now, but you can go to our website. Pastor Ed, man, did a series
[00:05:30] on revelations and you can get into all the end time stuff there. But what I want to do just to set this up, I got to do a drive by statement. You with me drive by statement. So here's, here's
[00:05:40] what happens. There's going to come a day when the Lord's going to return and the church will be taken. The church will be taken up. I believe that will happen. First Thessalonians talks about the church being taken up. It's where we get the word rapture. So I believe that we'll be raptured
[00:05:53] up. All right. Then when that happens, that ushers in a period of tribulation for seven years, praise god we will not be here during those seven years amen like people of god we will not be here
[00:06:05] all right the people of god those in christ be taken up period of tribulation for seven years when that period is over then here comes jesus riding on that white horse leads us into the
[00:06:20] battle of armageddon how many of you guys have heard of the battle of armageddon okay it's going to happen. Hasn't happened yet, but it's going to happen. Now, when I was, when I was young and I
[00:06:30] grew up in church and I would hear the preacher guy stand up and talk about this battle of Armageddon. Okay. And he would often say like, Hey, we are going to be in this battle and we're
[00:06:40] going to, we're going to fight with Jesus. Okay. I remember these words. So in my, in a simple little mind that I had, I was like, Oh my goodness. Like we're going to fight with Jesus. Okay. So
[00:06:52] maybe during the seven years of tribulation there's going to be like this massive weapon room you know and we're going to be able to go in there and just pick our weapons for the battle
[00:07:02] right so i'm being serious i thought about this now i also grew up loving the ninja turtles come on i love the ninja turtles i see you yes and i love leonardo okay because i he just the
[00:07:16] two swords in the back right that were just crossed so i always thought if this happens when the Lord comes and we go back with him, battle of Armageddon, I want the two swords.
[00:07:26] All right. So I can just be ready and just shank a demon or something behind Jesus. I'm behind Jesus, right? Like Jesus knew your thing, but I'm going to try to get in there and get one. Okay.
[00:07:38] For real. And then I always thought if something happens to me, you know, and say, I get stabbed and maybe I die. It's okay. Cause I'll just respond at the back of the line or something
[00:07:47] and come back out. Here we go. I'm serious. I really thought, I really thought that we were going to fight as well. I really did. And the older I got, you begin reading more of scripture
[00:08:01] and you read in revelations, we won't fight. We're going to be with Jesus, but he speaks and the sword comes out of his mouth and defeats the enemy once and for all. That's what's going to
[00:08:12] happen. And so when, when Jesus does this, then he rides into the city. And this is what Ezekiel is talking about here in Ezekiel chapter 48. He's describing this city in the end times and look at verse 35. And it says in the name of the city from that time on shall be the Lord
[00:08:34] is there. That's Jehovah Shema. The Lord is there. And I love that because it's just like Let me illustrate it like this I don't know if you guys have ever walked through something or maybe a tough time or something and you text your friend group
[00:08:49] And so you're texting your friend group, man I just and i'm walking through this could use some prayer or whatever and And so you start to get replies, you know, like hey, man, I got your back. Hey, i'm praying for you
[00:08:59] Hey, if you need anything i'm there Hey, man, we got you, right?
[00:09:04] Let's just imagine if you were in the hospital or you were walking through something and And, and rather than getting those texts, maybe one of those friends actually shows up.
[00:09:13] Like, come on guys. It's a, it, it means a little, it means a little more when, when someone, their presence is right there. It's called the ministry of presence. Amen.
[00:09:23] And so it's nothing like, I love the text message. All that is great. But, but man, when someone shows up for you, it just means a little more. I need you to understand like we have Jesus, but one day we're physically going to be with him. Like that's incredible.
[00:09:37] We are going to be with him for all eternity.
[00:09:40] And that's something worthy of celebrating.
[00:09:41] Amen.
[00:09:43] So here's what we're going to do.
[00:09:45] As we look at scripture, I want to, I want you to understand that God's desire has been and will always be to dwell with his people.
[00:09:53] It has been an always be to dwell with his people.
[00:09:57] And you'll see this in your target statement today, that the whole story of the Bible is God making a way to dwell with his people.
[00:10:04] And so in the time that I have with you, I want to take you through scripture I want to take you on a journey and prove this to you and that ultimately then what is jehovah shema?
[00:10:14] What does that mean for us?
[00:10:16] today But in order to do that, I got to explain some things real quick that we all can agree on about god Here's what we know about god. We know that god is omnipotent, which is that he's all-powerful
[00:10:28] We know that god is omniscient meaning he is all-knowing but God is also omnipresent you guys with me omnipresent he's everywhere this means God is everywhere he's here he's outside of this place all right doesn't matter where you go
[00:10:46] God is there he's everywhere he created all things he sees all things he knows all things there's nowhere that you can go from his presence like he is there okay that's his omniscient that's his omnipresence, right? But then there's another, there's another piece to his presence and there's
[00:11:05] his manifested presence of God. And I put this definition in your notes. It says this, it's his deliberate revelation of himself in a specific way, place, or moment so people can experience his activity. And so what I want to do today is I'm going to take you through a journey through
[00:11:24] scripture where we're going to see his manifested presence all right where it's there you can see his activity and so that leads us to point number one point number one right off the bat we're going
[00:11:35] to see that his presence departed like man hutch right off the bat yet his presence it doesn't take long in genesis before we screwed it up all right but his presence departed if you go back
[00:11:47] to the garden of eden and you know the story adam and eve they were told by god one thing not to do and it's to eat of that one tree.
[00:11:55] Within Adam and Eve, they listen to a talking snake.
[00:11:58] That's a whole thing in itself that this animal could talk, all right?
[00:12:03] And they're convinced by this.
[00:12:05] They eat of that fruit and then sin as we know it enters into the world.
[00:12:10] Then what we see in Genesis three, verse eight, the Lord is there and he's walking in the garden.
[00:12:16] You guys with me?
[00:12:17] His presence, manifested presence, glory of the Lord is there walking with them in the garden.
[00:12:23] and he knows what's happened. He even says that, you know, Adam and Eve, he says, where are you?
[00:12:28] But here's the thing. When I think about this story, man, God could have easily just killed off Adam and Eve and started over. And we would not know. Like none of us would know if he killed Adam and Eve. Like, oh man, those two got it wrong. They ate the tree.
[00:12:45] Ah, let's just, let's just do this again. But what does the Lord do? The very first thing that the Lord does. He doesn't abandon Adam and Eve. He actually pursues them. And what you need to
[00:12:56] know is that you might be walking through something. Let's say you've messed up. You've gotten yourself into a situation and you feel like there's no way that God loves me. There's no way that God will forgive me. You need to understand that we have a God who doesn't throw
[00:13:11] us away. We have a God who doesn't kill us off, so to speak. We have a God that doesn't abandon us, but he pursues us. He pursued Adam and Eve. And so that's the kind of God that we have.
[00:13:21] so his presence manifested presence he's there he's walking in the garden fast forward all the way to to the children of Israel in Egypt with Moses when God takes the children of Israel out of Egypt and he tells Moses to come up to the mountain and on this mountain he gives him
[00:13:39] the 10 commandments and God tells Moses hey I'm going to be your God and you got your guys are going to be my people right and he says in Exodus 25 verse 8 he says let them make me a sanctuary
[00:13:51] that I may dwell. Remember that word dwell. Let me make them a sanctuary that I may dwell in their midst. And so the Lord is giving instructions to Moses on, on how to, how to build this
[00:14:03] tabernacle. And so it's a bunch of these tents and all this stuff. And then very center of this tabernacle is what's called the Holy of Holies, this big curtain. And then inside the Holy of
[00:14:14] Holies is this thing that they were supposed to build. All right. It's called the Ark of the covenant all right so they build the ark of the covenant they get this tabernacle they get all
[00:14:24] this set up all right and then the ark of the covenant was where the very presence of the lord would reside in the tabernacle you guys heard of this before ark of the covenant presence of god
[00:14:35] no one could just roll up into the holy holies you understand that like we couldn't just go up and go through the curtain they're like no no no no no only the priest could go into the holy of
[00:14:44] holies once a year. Very presence of God was there. The curtain represented sin because sin separates us from the holiness of God. You understand? Fast forward comes King David.
[00:14:57] King David has a son named Solomon. Solomon wants to build a temple. He begins building this temple that's a permanent residence for the presence of God. Because before the tabernacle, they would tear it down and they'd have to go from place to place and they'd build it back up and then
[00:15:13] they'd have to tear it back down. But the temple would be a permanent place where the presence of God would be. And so they build this temple and they're getting ready to dedicate it and all of
[00:15:25] this stuff. And you see in first Kings chapter eight, verses 10 through 11, the priests come in, they put the ark of the covenant, they placed it in the holy of holies. And when they do that
[00:15:36] and they leave, a cloud fills the house of the Lord.
[00:15:41] Glory of the Lord filled that temple.
[00:15:44] The people knew because they could see the activity, the manifested presence of God is in that place.
[00:15:50] And they rejoiced and celebrated because the Ark of the Covenant, the very presence of the Lord had a home, okay?
[00:15:57] Well, then if you know anything about history, again, with the Israelites, they continued to rebel.
[00:16:02] They continued to turn their back on God.
[00:16:04] they continued to worship other idols and they constantly did this and and this for generation after generation after generation this would happen and this leads us into the book of ezekiel where he would describe this vision of where the glory of god would actually depart the temple
[00:16:22] his presence would leave the temple now this is where i'll stop for a second because growing up and going through seminary and learning the old testament and things like this we knew i knew that
[00:16:34] the glory of the Lord left the temple. I knew it departed the temple, but I didn't know how.
[00:16:40] And I think it's very interesting in studying this. I think it'll be interesting to you as we pause and look at this, because here's what's interesting. When Ezekiel has this vision, he doesn't just have this vision where the glory of the Lord just immediately disappears.
[00:16:55] But actually, when you stop, when you study scripture, sometimes we just got to stop.
[00:17:00] you got to go slow and what you'll see here is that the glory of the lord exits slowly so look at this in ezekiel chapter 9 verse 3 so the glory of the lord remember why is the glory of the lord
[00:17:12] leaving i don't i want you to understand why is the glory of the lord leaving because of the idolatry of the nation of israel they turn their backs on god it was no more so the glory is now
[00:17:24] leaving and so how does it leave it comes up out of the ark of the covenant above the cherubim and then makes its way over to the threshold and it stops on the doorway and as i'm as i was studying
[00:17:38] this and reading this i want you guys to understand why would the glory of the lord stop on the doorway and maybe come on everything points to jesus because there's one that's going to come
[00:17:51] in John chapter nine, who would actually call himself, I am the door. So the glory of the Lord stops on the doorway on its way out almost to say, but don't worry because I'm coming back
[00:18:00] because there's one coming who says, I am the door. So it stops on the doorway. And then what Ezekiel chapter 10, the glory of the Lord moves from the doorway and you see where it stops
[00:18:12] the East gate. Now it could have stopped on any other gate. CBC could have stopped on the North, south or west but no it stops on the east gate why does it stop on the east gate from the door
[00:18:25] from the doorway to the east gate because the glory would depart from the east gate but one day the glory is returning through the east gate that's why it's all pointing to jesus and so then you keep moving on it doesn't stop there ezekiel chapter 11 the presence of god
[00:18:43] goes from the east gate and then stands on the mountains east of jerusalem so what's so significant about the mountains east of Jerusalem? It's the Mount of Olives. What's so significant about the Mount of Olives? Jesus himself would ride down on a donkey from the Mount of Olives heading into
[00:19:01] the city and he would not go through the East gate. That's another time, but he'd take a right and he would go through the sheep's gate. Why through the sheep's gate? Because the sheep's gate, he went through there because he was the lamb that was to be slain for us. And so what
[00:19:17] you see here in Ezekiel is the glory of the Lord departed. It's gone. I feel like we need a break.
[00:19:27] I mean, it's a lot. It's a lot. You know, when I was growing up, it is, man. That's a lot of history all the way through the glory of the Lord departing the temple. Man, when I was growing up
[00:19:41] in middle school and high school, my dad had a paper route and I had to get up every single morning. All right. Two o'clock we get up and we go ahead, uh, do a paper route. Okay. That's a
[00:19:52] whole thing. I don't know why my parents would make me do that, but I had, I had to do this paper out every single morning. Okay. And so when we get up and we go do this paper out, um, my dad
[00:20:02] would always listen to, uh, these radio talk show hosts. Uh, and, and I don't know if you guys have ever heard of this name, but we'd always listen to this guy's might date me. Uh, his name was Paul
[00:20:15] Harvey. You guys ever heard of Paul Harvey? Yeah. Some of you heard of him. I shouldn't have heard of him because I shouldn't have been up that early. All right. I'm sorry. I got real aggressive
[00:20:24] right there. I'm still dealing with that. But anyway, paper out in the morning, we're listening to Paul Harvey and, and what he does is he would share these stories. So he would just go through
[00:20:36] in his radio show. He'd talk about all these stories. And so as, as I'm sitting there rolling papers, you know, and stuff in them, you know, just putting a rubber band around them, throwing them, you know, throwing it out of the house, out of my car window and stuff. I'm getting into these
[00:20:51] stories. I'm like, this is pretty, this is pretty cool. And right before it would get to like the most important parts, it would go to commercial break. And I, some of you that, that don't know
[00:21:03] about talk radio and things like, it's like when you're watching your favorite streaming show and you don't have premium so you have to watch ads and it's like oh my goodness you're in like the
[00:21:13] most intense scene ever and this is amazing and the next thing you know it's like dish soap you know you're like a it's some medicine with 18 000 side effects you know like oh my goodness how many
[00:21:25] side effects are on this thing the whole commercial is a side effect you know and then and then it comes back to your show right well for paul harvey for those of you that are familiar with it you
[00:21:37] would know when he'd come back from the commercial he would always say this and you'd say and now for the rest of the story and he'd say it just like that and I love like listen I know point
[00:21:49] one was a lot but guys it's time for the rest of the story and aren't you glad that there's a rest to this story and that leads us to point number two where his presence is promised throughout the
[00:22:01] old testament there are over 300 prophecies about the promised messiah that's going to come the Lord would speak through these prophets all right and they would be his voice representing his voice but then after Malachi there's no more prophets God's voice is silent until John the
[00:22:18] Baptist in the New Testament you guys 400 years of his silence like that's a big deal now again glory had departed the temple no manifested presence of God in the temple and now his voice
[00:22:32] is gone. 400 years of silence. And I don't know about you guys, but if you ever walked through a season of your life, obviously it's not 400 years, but if you ever walked through a season
[00:22:44] where you just felt like God was silent in your life, you just felt like, man, like, God, where are you? Do you see what I'm walking through? Like, God, are you there? And you even know the
[00:22:55] verse in your head. You know that God will leave you nor forsake you, but it just feels like he's just silent. I want to teach you something today that I had to learn growing up in my relationship
[00:23:06] with Jesus is that if you want to grow in your intimacy and your relationship with God, you have got to learn to pursue him and seek him through the silence. You've got to do it. And you're like,
[00:23:20] well, Hutch, how do you seek the Lord when he's silent? What does that look like?
[00:23:27] Well, for some of you, let's just say your time with the Lord, let's say it's all filled with just prayer. Prayer is awesome. Let's say that your discipline is prayer, but you never open up
[00:23:36] his word. Guess what? He wants to speak to you through his word. So praying is incredible. But when you open up his word, all of a sudden, oh my goodness, you hear from him. Some of you are like,
[00:23:47] hey man, you pray and you read God's word and that's awesome. And you feel like, man, God is silent. Maybe he needs you to fast because when you actually stop and fast, oh my, guess what
[00:23:56] happens. Because you're stretching yourself, because you're pursuing him, he's going to speak to you. Maybe for some of you, it's not just reading his word and praying and fasting. Maybe for some of you, it's journaling. Maybe for some, it's giving. Maybe for some, it's memorizing
[00:24:11] scripture. You guys understand? Maybe some, it's worship, discipling, evangelism. There's so many disciplines that we have before us. And God wants, he's trying to help you understand, I want to stretch you and take you to new levels. And in order to take you to new levels, you got to
[00:24:27] continue to pursue me. Even when you think I'm silent, the reality, he's not really silent. He's just trying to stretch us. So guys, the spiritual disciplines are a big deal. We can't just rely on one method. You guys with me? And so that's, that's what's so important about this, but here
[00:24:46] he's silent. His voice is silent. Glory of the Lord had departed. Now, some of you little Bible scholars in here you know we're full a lot of bible scholars you're thinking wait hutch didn't they rebuild the temple wasn't there a second building of the temple that took place
[00:25:04] so how in the world could the glory departed that they rebuilt the temple great question so glad you asked all right and let's dig into that let me let me help you understand in 586 bc remember
[00:25:17] ezekiel's prophecy about the ruin of jerusalem it happens through king nebuchadnezzar he comes in destroys Solomon's temple, destroys Jerusalem. 50 years later, a guy named Cyrus the Great comes on the scene. He conquers Babylon. One year after he conquers, one year after he does that, he issues a
[00:25:36] decree that the Jews could return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple. So that you'll see this in Ezra chapter one. And so then they appoint this guy named Zerubbabel. All right. That's a whole name? Zerubbabel. A lot of B's. All right. And so this dude is in charge of building the temple.
[00:25:56] He lays the foundation for the temple. You see this in Ezra chapter three. Well, then there's some opposition from the nations that come that don't want the children of Israel to build this temple again. And so the prophets Haggai and Zechariah, they talk about, hey, you guys continue
[00:26:12] the work of rebuilding the temple. And they do so. And finally in 516 BC, the temple after Solomon is completed and it's dedicated. And you'll see this in Ezra chapter six. Then Nehemiah comes on
[00:26:28] the scene. If you've read Nehemiah and he rebuilds the walls in the city of Jerusalem. But here's the thing. What we don't see in Ezra chapter six is what we saw in first Kings chapter eight. Remember
[00:26:41] in first Kings eight, when they put the Ark of the Covenant and the Holy of Holies, a cloud filled the temple. Well, they dedicated this temple and guess what? There's no cloud that filled the
[00:26:51] temple. There's no cloud. Why is there no cloud? Because there's no Ark of the Covenant. His manifested presence, remember, had left. It's gone. So where's the Ark of the Covenant? Man, there's a lot of people out there. There's a lot of conspiracy theories out there where this Ark
[00:27:10] of the covenant is. We don't know where the ark of the covenant is. So many people think, Hey, when Babylon came in and destroyed the temple, that it, it got destroyed. Some think that it
[00:27:19] burnt something that think that it's buried somewhere. If you're an Indiana Jones fan, then Raiders of the lost ark, there's a theory. It got taken to Egypt like that. That's what that whole movie is about, but we don't know where the, we don't know where the ark of the covenant is.
[00:27:33] So here's, here's what I'm trying to tell you. The temple is built. Holy of holies is there.
[00:27:41] curtain the whole thing still a sacred place the priest would only go inside the holy of holies once a year and instead of sprinkling blood over the ark of the covenant now they're sprinkling blood where the ark of the covenant once was once where the glory in the presence of god once was
[00:27:58] but it's no longer there here's i need you to understand years after years would go on and here's what ended up happening like the temple was amazing but they they began to worship the actual rituals of what they were doing there in the temple and we get when you get into a place
[00:28:17] we're actually just worshiping the rituals and going through the motions cbc do you know what that's called it's called religion they were being religious like we're going to do all this stuff we're going to check off all these boxes and all this but they failed to seek the presence of the
[00:28:35] lord because the presence of god had departed the holy of holies he wasn't in there makes sense it's crazy and so man here's the thing i'm getting off here but here's the thing may it never be said
[00:28:49] about us that we're a people that just goes through the motions may we not be a religious people may we be a relationship people that makes sense it's not about religion it's about a relationship with jesus and so everything we do in here it's not about all of this just going
[00:29:06] through motions no man we want to open up god's word because we want to help you understand the truth of God's word. We want to teach this in spirit and in truth. We want to hoist our sails
[00:29:16] as our pastor always says, and wherever the Holy spirit takes us, that's where we want to go.
[00:29:20] And when people outside of this place, they should say that, you know what? There's something different about those people at CBC. Why is there something different about you? Because of what Jesus has done in your life. That's why when you come in this place and people say so
[00:29:35] many times, man, this place is special. Why? Jehovah Shema, because God is here. God is here.
[00:29:44] And so this leads us, I told you everything, everything in scripture points to Jesus. Amen.
[00:29:52] And point number three, you'll see his presence personified. Remember I told you the glory had departed, but now the manifestation of that glory would wrap himself in flesh and we would call his name, Emmanuel, God with us. John 1 14, the word became flesh and dwelt among us. Remember there's
[00:30:13] that word dwelt. This word dwelt carries the idea of tabernacling. Remember in the tabernacle, they would move from place to place, but the glory and the presence of God would be confined to one space. And so now here comes Jesus and CBC. He's the greater and the better tabernacle,
[00:30:31] so to speak. That's Jesus. He's Jehovah Shema among his people. God's presence is no longer manifested in a tent. Jehovah Shema is walking in sandals. He's touching lepers. He's eating with sinners. He's weeping at tombs. He's calming storms. He's healing the sick. He's forgiving sin.
[00:30:54] This is what he does. He welcomes the broken. And in Jesus, God doesn't merely send help.
[00:31:01] God comes himself the creator would enter creation this is why it's so important Colossians 1 15 when the people would see Jesus they were seeing the visible image of the invisible God and so this is where Ezekiel in the gospel it's where they come together because in Ezekiel the glory
[00:31:22] in the presence of God would leave the temple in Jesus the glory in the presence of God walks into the temple. In Ezekiel, the sin would drive the presence of God away. At the cross, Jesus pays
[00:31:36] for sin so that presence can come near. Like it all makes sense. The name Jehovah Shema finds its clearest expression in the name of Jesus. And if you want to know what it means that God is there,
[00:31:49] you simply look at Jesus. He's God there in the manger, God there in the wilderness, God there in the storm. God there at the cross. God there at the resurrection. He's God there with his people
[00:32:01] to the end of the age. Jehovah Shema. He's with us. Amen. And then in this storyline, Jesus, he does something crazy. He comes back to life and then he tells his disciples, I got to go again.
[00:32:20] They're like, what? Like you don't leave us. Like you were just here. Like don't leave us.
[00:32:25] he's like listen it's better that I go and I'm going to send my helper you know why would Jesus say that because Jesus he's 100% God right but he's also 100% man so in his humanity he could
[00:32:41] only be in one place at one time but oh listen he was sending his helper and his helper that would come in point number four it's his presence planted planted in the form of the Holy Spirit
[00:32:52] Jesus would send his Holy Spirit and now his Holy Spirit is the manifestation of his presence would come down on his disciples it would giving his disciples power to preach you remember Peter would go out day of Pentecost 3,000 people came to know him so the Holy Spirit came down on the Jews it
[00:33:10] came down on the Gentiles it came down on those who put their faith and trust in him John 14 16 through 17 says the Holy Spirit dwells with you and will be in you. This is why when Paul says
[00:33:25] in first Corinthians nine, he says that your bodies therefore are the temple of the living God.
[00:33:32] I hope all of this is coming together guys, because when you think about this, Jesus on the cross, when he dies, remember there's an earthquake. When that earthquake happens, something happens in that temple. There's the Holy of Holies that's separated by that veil. When he dies, that veil
[00:33:46] would tear from top to bottom. Remember, sin separates us from the holiness of God, all right?
[00:33:52] But when Jesus dies, now that veil is torn, and now we have direct access to the Holy of Holies.
[00:33:58] We have direct access to God because of the death of Jesus on the cross. How do we have that access?
[00:34:05] It's through the power of the Holy Spirit. Oh man, this is it. And that's why Paul says, Paul's like hey remember your bodies are the temple of the living God therefore honor God with your bodies so think about this if your body is a temple of the living God guess where the ark
[00:34:25] of the covenant is it's right here they want to know where the ark of the covenant is we got all little arcs of the covenant walking around here at CBC it's in us you with me we're little arcs
[00:34:41] walking around, having the very presence of God. Remember, Jesus was a manual God with us, but through the power of the Holy Spirit, it's God in us. Makes sense. Oh, so good.
[00:34:54] He's with you. He's with you everywhere you go. Man, I feel like I need another commercial break.
[00:35:01] Get my breath. That's good. Hey, listen, some of you parents in the room, man, maybe you can relate to this. I know Pastor Ed has shared something similar to this before.
[00:35:12] But when your kids are little and if something happens in the house, if there's a noise or if there's a thunderstorm, you know, often kids will come to their parents' room. And one thing that I
[00:35:23] never did as a parent, I never did this, is I never explained to my kids how to properly wake me up. You guys understand what I'm saying? I never told them, hey, when you come, come to my
[00:35:34] bed, just, just grab my arm and just say, dad, dad, and I promise you I will wake up and everything will be fine. We never did that. And so my, you know, my kids, one after the other, they didn't
[00:35:46] do this all combined, but you know, one would come up and, and especially, I remember my daughter, she would, she would come up and come to my room. I don't know why they always came to dad's side.
[00:35:57] Okay. Mom is right over here. It'd be so much better for you to go to mom, but they come to dad's side. All right. And guys, my daughter, when she would come in and she would not touch my wrist,
[00:36:08] she would not whisper dad hey dad she would just stand there come on parent i need you to be with me she would stand there so i'm here sleeping in the third realm whatever dream is happening you
[00:36:29] know man i'm just i'm deep in it and my daughter just standing there man some of you laughing because you know what i'm talking about i'll freak you out and so you're in the middle of this
[00:36:42] dream and, you know, maybe, and I don't know, man, I'm having sport dreams or, you know, whatever.
[00:36:47] And just thinking I'm crossing somebody over on the basketball court. I don't know. And then all of a sudden it just like, it just starts getting darker in my dream. Okay. And so if this has
[00:36:58] happened to you, you know, something is there. And as dads, if you're a dad, you're a protector of your home. Like, I mean, those noises, whatever happens, I mean, you got to be ready as something,
[00:37:10] you know, goes on. I mean, you got to jump out of the bed and just get yourself together and go jack somebody. I mean, you gotta, you gotta be ready to deal with the enemy. And so when this,
[00:37:20] like this, this, when this happens and there's this presence there, I mean, everything in you just wants to, man, I want to hit, I want to slap, I want to stab, I want to grab, I want to choke.
[00:37:31] Like what is going on? Right. And then I wake up, you know, and millisecond you have to just, oh my goodness, Corbin, what are you, what are you doing? I even think she's here. Is she here,
[00:37:43] Corbin? She's right there. Corbin, what are you doing? She's right there. It's you little curly headed, blonde hair, blue eyed baby, just looking at me. Right. And I'm like, oh, I can't, what is happening? Go talk to your mom. Go talk to your mom. And it is, I would, I would actually send
[00:38:01] her over to her mom, you know, and mothers are amazing. Mothers are just like, they're already sleeping. They're dreaming and they just know what's happening. Young one, climb into the bed, come in here, come get in here. Everything will be safe. And here's what's amazing. Whenever
[00:38:16] my children would get into our bed, and if you parents, if this has ever happened to you, it always was amazing to me how fast they would go to sleep. Now, dads, for you, I mean, our hearts
[00:38:28] are going crazy. I mean, it's, you know, we can't go back to sleep. We've got a foot in the rib, you know i mean but every time they would go to sleep so fast and i remember just at times laying
[00:38:41] there thinking man god you were so good because the thunderstorm was still happening the circumstances hadn't changed but her being in the presence of mom and dad it changed the atmosphere it changed things and i want to tell you guys today is that whatever you're walking through the circumstances
[00:39:03] that you're walking through that may not change, but here's what I know. We're promised Jehovah Shema. The Lord is there through the power of the Holy spirit. He's with us. And what I need you to
[00:39:15] know is that the Lord is there. Some of you are walking through some stuff. I mean, just even this last week, walking through talking with my wife and a friend of hers had a family that was killed
[00:39:31] in a car wreck. Some of you are walking through some grief. Some of you are walking through a diagnosis that you just received. Some of you are in the waiting for something. Some of you are in
[00:39:46] some kind of struggle. Some of you are in some kind of uncertainty or fear. Maybe there's suffering, but I need you to know in all of this, the Lord is there. He's there in the temptation
[00:40:00] of whatever that is. He's there in the depression. He's there in the anxiety. He's there in the brokenness. He's there in your successes and the highs and lows of whatever you have going on in
[00:40:13] your life. He's there. He's there in your calling and he's there in your loneliness. Jehovah Shema, the Lord is there. And then one day what's going to happen? Jesus is going to return, just as I
[00:40:25] said, and he's going to ride on that horse coming through that Eastern gate. And he's going to establish his reign here on this earth. And the name of that city will be Jehovah Shema.
[00:40:36] Point number five, you'll see his presence is perfected for all eternity. It's perfect.
[00:40:43] And so when all this happens, when all the end time stuff happens and all this is said and done, revelations 21 three says, behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. Remember I told you
[00:40:54] the point of this whole thing is to help you understand that God's desire from the beginning has been to dwell with his people and here we are at the very end behold the dwelling place of god
[00:41:05] is with man and in that place there'll be no more tears god will wipe away every tear death will be no more no more sickness no more pain there'll be no temple there as well because in that city
[00:41:21] the lord is there god the almighty and jesus the lamb will be its temple no need for a sun or moon because the glory of God gives us light and Jesus is the lamp.
[00:41:33] And won't that be a day, CBC?
[00:41:35] Won't that be a day for us to be there?
[00:41:38] We will be with him for all eternity.
[00:41:41] And this leads us to our takeaway statement today.
[00:41:44] Because of Jesus and through the power of the Holy Spirit, the presence of God is not something that you have to chase.
[00:41:51] It's someone I can trust.
[00:41:53] It's someone I can walk with.
[00:41:54] And it's someone that one day you can enjoy forever.
[00:41:57] like that is our God.
[00:42:00] Amen, CBC?
[00:42:02] Amen.
[00:42:03] Well, heads bowed, heads bowed, eyes closed across all of our campuses, across this campus, heads bowed, eyes closed.
[00:42:10] I just wonder in this room, man, after preaching this message and hear this, this is not about me, but this is about you and your relationship with the Lord.
[00:42:19] If this message, you needed to hear that God is there for you, you've got something going on in your life and you needed to hear that today.
[00:42:29] Will you just slip your hand up in the air?
[00:42:31] All our campuses, slip your hand up in the air.
[00:42:33] Yeah, here's what I want with your hands up in the air.
[00:42:36] No one looking around.
[00:42:38] Here's what I want you to do when you go home tonight.
[00:42:40] I want you to read Psalms 139.
[00:42:44] Will you do that for me?
[00:42:46] You can put your hands down.
[00:42:48] Psalms 139, go home.
[00:42:50] I want you to read about the presence of God.
[00:42:55] Others of you in here, maybe you're like, man, Pastor Hutch, I want to be one of those little arcs. I want the Holy Spirit living in me.
[00:43:03] I don't have Jesus and I want Jesus. We'd love nothing more than for you to walk out of this place knowing that you're a believer, knowing that you're a Christian, knowing that you're a follower of Christ. And if you've never done that before, I'm going to pray a simple prayer. And all
[00:43:18] of us, I'm going to ask us to repeat this for that person that is praying this for the very first time to give them some encouragement simply pray this prayer if that's you lord jesus i know i'm
[00:43:29] not perfect but i believe in you save me change me forgive me i give you my life if that's you if you just prayed that prayer we would love to celebrate with you here in this room if you did
[00:43:45] that today for the very first time you need to know that he'll never leave you nor forsake you but that's you just slip your hand up in the air we'd love to celebrate across this place amen
[00:43:54] Come on.
[00:43:55] And we see you.

[00:44:00] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:44:00] Hey, my name's Ed Newton, pastor at Community Bible Church here in San Antonio, Texas.
[00:44:04] Thank you so much for even turning on to our YouTube channel.
[00:44:08] And if you're not subscribing right now at Community Bible Church here in San Antonio, Texas, you got to subscribe.
[00:44:14] Here's the reason why.
[00:44:15] We believe that God's given us a message rooted in his word, empowered by the Holy Spirit that would be an encouragement to you.
[00:44:22] And if you're not subscribing right now, you got to stop what you're doing and hit that button.
[00:44:27] Also, here's what I'd say to you.
[00:44:28] Every time you watch, would you drop some comments?
[00:44:31] Let us know where you're watching from, how the message impacted you, and how we could pray for you.
[00:44:35] And would you do us a favor?
[00:44:37] One of the things that we believe oftentimes is bless people, bless people.
[00:44:41] And if this message blesses you, how about you send it to somebody else and ask them to click the subscribe button as well.
[00:44:46] And if you are planning any trip to the state of Texas, hear me when I say this, you can't come to Texas without coming to see us in San Antonio.
[00:44:54] I'd love to meet you face-to-face.
[00:44:55] And as always, until we meet again, much love.