Why? Week 1 : Why Don't I Always Feel God's Presence?

INTRO: Today we will attempt to answer the question, Why don't I always feel God's presence? WHY THIS SERIES? I think that everyone at one time or another has asked the question why?

Perhaps currently you are facing a situation that would cause you to ask why?

In this series we will attempt to answer some of the most difficult questions you may have ever asked.

I don't claim to have all the answers. But will try our best to examine Scripture and try to find an answer to some of these questions.

Here's where we're going to go with this series. Week 2 : Why doesn't God answer my prayers? I think everyone has felt like this at some time or

another.

Is God really listening to me when I pray? Why did the opposite of what I was praying for happen?

Week 3 : Why do bad things happen to good people?

One of the most asked questions of all time. Everyone has thought this especially at the thought of a loved one dying or getting hurt. Or perhaps an innocent child, etc.

Week 4 : Why would God use someone like me?

With my imperfections and sin. I'm just not good enough.

QUESTIONS : :: How many of you would say that at some point of your life you've felt the presence of God? :: How many of you would say that already today you've sensed the presence of God at church?

:: If you didn't feel God's presence, who's fault was it? :: If you've felt the presence of God, how do you know that you've actually felt the presence of God? How do you actually know if you've experienced the presence of God or not? IF YOU DON'T ALWAYS FEEL GOD'S PRESENCE, YOU'RE NOT ALONE. Psalm 88:13-14 13 But I cry to you for help, O LORD; in the morning my prayer comes before you. 14 Why, O LORD, do you reject me and hide your face from me? Have you ever felt like the psalmist?

As if God were playing cosmic hide and go seek?

Let's wrestle with this question today.

God where are you when I need you?

We will raise five different Biblical possibilities as to why you might not feel the presence of God.

What we don't want to say is that this is specifically for everyone; but some possibilities.

1 : MAYBE YOU ARE OVER SENSATIONALIZING THE PRESENCE OF GOD. Sometimes we expect to hear this loud booming voice or this miraculous sign from heaven.

It's a double rainbow with a shooting star and an eclipse!

Jesus faced a similar instance with some people.

He was teaching them when the crowds began to ask him a question.

John 6:28-30 28 Then they asked him, What must we do to do the works God requires?

29 Jesus answered, The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent. 30 So they asked him, What miraculous sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? Basically what they were asking was, what great, big, miraculous, over-the-top experience could you give me?

But Jesus' response is a simple one, Just believe in me.

I believe that a lot of people are over sensationalizing an experience or feeling God.

Some want to feel tingly wingly. For some the music has to be just right. For others, the sermons have to be the right length.

Why don't I always feel God's presence?

Maybe for some of you, you're oversensationalizing it.

2 : MAYBE YOU'RE DISTRACTED. In other words, God is with you, but you're distracted and not experiencing him. Luke 10:38-42 38 As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39 She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lords feet listening to what he said. 40 But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, Lord, dont you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me! 41 Martha, Martha, the Lord answered, you are worried and upset about many things, 42 but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her. Jesus was right there, yet Martha was distracted.

The truth is that a lot of Christians, they're often distracted by doing the work of God.

Many are so busy doing the work of God that they miss being in the presence of God.

It's not just doing God's work that can distract you, but just about anything.

Life work, school, friends, family, errands, bills, relationships, goals, frustrations, ups, downs, and everything in between. Technology Facebook, e-mails, laptops, TVs, DVD's, iPhones, etc.

Maybe you're simply distracted. God is with you and you're missing His presence. 3 : MAYBE YOUR HEART HAS HARDENED. Matthew 13:14-15 14 You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. 15 For this peoples heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.

Maybe there was a time when you once felt really close to God, but then, something happened and it caused to harden your heart.

Maybe you were really praying for something and God didn't answer the way you thought he would and you hardened your heart. Or perhaps you really felt like God was leading you to do something and you took a step of faith, but then things didn't work out the way you thought they would. Many became hard-hearted due to a hurt relationship or betrayal in the church.

4 : YOU'VE BUILT A WALL OF SIN THAT HINDERS YOUR INTIMACY WITH GOD. Isaiah 59:1-2 1 Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. 2 But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.

Now, let me be really careful and really clear here. If you're a Christian and you sin, you're still a Christian.

Just because you sin doesn't mean you're out of the game, you're covered by the blood that Jesus shed on the cross for you; your past sins, your present sins, and your future sins. But the truth is, if you continue living with unrepentant sin; in other words, you're just sinning and you're not sorry and you're not turning away from it that is going to negatively affect the potential of intimacy with God.

Maybe the reason you don't feel God like you could is because you're not confessing and turning from the sin that separates us from a Holy God. 5 : MAYBE YOU DON'T KNOW GOD. There are so many people who know about God, but don't know God.

There's a huge difference between having a head knowledge of God and having a heart relationship with God.

John 7:28-29 28 Then Jesus, still teaching in the temple courts, cried out, Yes, you know me, and you know where I am from. I am not here on my own, but he who sent me is true. You do not know him, 29 but I know him because I am from him and he sent me. God wants us not to know about Him but to know Him, and maybe the reason you don't feel the presence of God is because you don't really know Him. IT'S NOT ABOUT THE FEELINGS Now, we've talked a lot about feelings, do you feel.

Let me just be real clear about something. You may not always feel God's presence. It's going to take faith to believe in Him even when you don't feel Him. walking with God is never about our feelings, what do we feel and what do we not feel; it's always about our faith.

What I'd like to do for the remainder of our time is try to build your faith in God with Presence Promises. 1 : YOU WILL FIND GOD WHEN YOU SEEK GOD. Proverbs 8:17 I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me. HOW DO YOU SEEK GOD?
1. 2. 3.

Daily in God's Word. Daily in prayer. In worship.

2 : HE WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU. John 14:16-17 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. 17 He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isnt looking for him and doesnt recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now

and later will be in you 3 : YOU CAN EXPERIENCE GOD NOW. Acts 17:24-28a 24 The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. 27 God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 28For in him we live and move and have our being. It doesn't really matter what I feel.

More than me feeling Him, I want Him to feel me. I want Him to feel my heart, my adoration, my praise, my worship, my obedience, because

ultimately all of this is not about me, it's all about Him.

And so, whether I feel Him, I will worship Him. Whether I don't feel His presence, I will worship Him. No matter what I feel, I want Him to feel my heart, my adoration, my longing to know Him.