Title: Experiencing God’s Presence 3

 Genesis 3:8 “And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.”  God wants to walk with us in the middle of our day, in our marriage, in our job or whatever life brings.

• God is spirit.  We experience God’s Presence in spirit.
• We are body, soul, and spirit. We must intentionally focus on the spiritual.

Sin blocks us from focusing on the spiritual side

Psalm 24:3-4  “Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in His holy place? The one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not trust in an idol or swear by a false god.”  There are things that keep us from enjoying God’s daily presence such as sinful things that we are physically doing, hurtful attitudes deep in our hearts, fallible things or people we’ve placed our trust in over God.  We may even be trusting in ourselves.

Colossians 3:2-4 “Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.  When Christ  who is our life  appears,  then you also will appear with Him in glory.”

The Example of Jesus

Matthew 4:8-11 gives the story of the temptation of Jesus and shows us how Jesus handled sin or temptation.

Jesus demonstrated that to defeat sin we must set our mind on things above. His method was the Scriptures. The Word of God is a powerful tool to set our minds on things above and should be part of our daily routine.

 Three Questions

1. In light of eternity, what sin am I holding on to in my life?

2. In light of eternity, what small things are distracting me and lowering my purity?

3. In light of eternity, what am I trusting more than God?