Sensing the Presence of God

R.C. Sproul:

“The real crisis of worship today is not that the preaching is paltry or that it’s too drafty in church. It is that people have no sense of the presence of God, and if they have no sense of His presence, how can they be moved to express the deepest feelings of their souls to honor, revere, worship, and glorify God?” (A Taste of Heaven: Worship in the Light of Eternity)

Births in the US

Family and Culture:

In 1964, 93% of all births in the US occurred to married couples. In 2010, only 59% of all births occurred to married couples. Does anyone else see a problem here?

Jesus Christ is Lord!

It is hard for men who have all their lives had charge of their own lives to surrender everything to the complete rule of another. This, however, is what the gospel requires. Pastor David Moore writes:

And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’” And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.” And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” (Mark 10:17-23 ESV)

In this passage we see [a hard truth] about the gospel:

The Hard Truth That Jesus Christ is Lord – (v.18). The young man had addressed Christ as “Good Master” that is as the Teacher.

Jesus was indeed the teacher, but he was more than that. That is why Jesus asked the question “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.” What Jesus was driving at was that either he was a sinner like everyone else, or else He was God. You see, we cannot acknowledge the Lordship of Christ without acknowledging His deity, and to be saved, to “inherit eternal life,” a man must know who he is dealing with in Christ.

The deity of Christ is a fundamental of the faith. The Lordship of Christ is a fundamental of the faith. This is one of the areas in which the cults go wrong – they call Jesus good but they refuse to acknowledge Him as the Lord. The young ruler saw Jesus as a moral man, a man of insight and depth, but he did not recognize His divine authority. One of the hard truths of the gospel includes the truth that Jesus Christ is Lord. That is, that He has a right to your life. That He, as the Creator God, as the Redeemer of all mankind, may lay an authoritative claim upon your soul.

Do you know what I find today, I find that the Bible Schools, particularly here in Europe, are churning out speakers – but they are not really producing preachers, and there’s a difference. A preacher proclaims the truth. He does so with authority. He stands upon the premise that the Bible is the Word of God, that Jesus is the Lord and that the Word of God, whether written or living, is to be obeyed. A speaker is interested only in giving a little homily. He lacks passion, he lacks authority, and he lacks power. A “speaker” is a pathetic excuse for a preacher. The church is saturated with speakers but what we need today is some Holy Ghost filled preachers who will proclaim the Lordship of Christ with authority, calling men to repentance and faith. (“The Hard Gospel”)