Description
DRONES
Where is God?
August 3, 2014
Ed Young
The presence of drones in our lives can make us feel uncomfortable and unsure. They see what we thought was secret, and they hear what we thought was hidden.
But drones aren’t the only thing that are everywhere these days.
In this message by Pastor Ed Young, we ask the question, “Where is God?”
And we discover that God’s presence in our lives shouldn’t make us uncomfortable;
it is the one thing that should actually bring us comfort!
Transcript
What’s up Fellowship Church? Wow, has this been amazing so far? The talent and the giftedness is absolutely stunning. Today we’re gonna talk about drones. Drones seem to be everywhere. You know, a lot of people use them recreationally and it’s making a bunch of people nervous. Others use them for aggression, and on the battlefields are sort of controversial in that realm. They also help us as we fight against the bad guys.
ILLUS: I’d never really come in contact with drones until several weeks ago. I was filming a reality fishing show, which will premier on Destination America this October. I’m not the star of the show, I am though one of the characters. And while I was filming this on the water I heard this sound that kinda sounded like a bunch of bees. <zzzzzz sound effect> And I looked to my left and sure enough the camera boat had launched a drone. The drone was behind me while I fished. On top of me, it seemed, above me, in front of me, taking still shots and also video. So while I was fishing and filming and having everything recorded I thought to myself this would be a pretty cool series. Drones.
Because drones, we either love them or loathe them. Drones are everywhere and they kinda bring up a voyeuristic type vibe, they kinda bring up big brother is watching, they kinda bring up all sorts of privacy issues. Then immediately I thought about God. Because God is everywhere. It seems as though a drone can be everywhere when you’re involved in filming, but in reality drones can’t. Yet our great God can. God is above us, he’s behind us, he’s beyond us. He is our all/everywhere God. The Bible calls God omnipresent. Omnipresent, that means there is nowhere that he is not. Above me you’ll see a drone. We have a drone right here that’s gonna fly across the … yeah, yeah. That’s a drone. And this drone right now is taking footage of you and me, and it’ll especially be active during the offering time. It has the ability if you’re not being generous with your finances to shock every single person who is being stingy with God. Anyway, of course I’m not serious.
But drones are anywhere. Isn’t it interesting how that drone can just fly across the crowd. And we’ll have different drone shots as I speak. Drones, though, seem to be omnipresent. They’re not really omnipresent, that’s really a term of exaggeration. Drones, though, are everywhere and they make a lot of us feel uncomfortable. And I think if the truth were known many of us feel uncomfortable even thinking about, even contemplating a God who is omnipresent.
What do I mean when I say omnipresent? Omni means all, present refers to location. God is different. God is unique because he is everywhere. Pantheism says that the creation and the divinity are pretty much one. Pantheism says that God is in the flowers. He’s in the mountains. He’s in the ocean. Pantheists, and a lot of Eastern religions are pantheistic in nature, they do not believe in a personal God. They think God is just a part of everything. And it sounds really sexy and really cool because we can control God that way and we can get in touch with the universe. However, pantheism really breaks down. I think it’s man’s response to a personal God. God getting up in our grill, up in our face.
Then you’ve got Deism. Deism is popular. It basically says that God got the blue planet spinning and got the planet on its axis and then bolted. And Deism is like God just set everything in motion and left. Deism does not believe in a personal God.
Whereas Biblical Christianity comes along and the Bible says from cover to cover that we serve an all-everywhere, up in our face, there’s no way you can hide or shake and bake him, God. We serve a God who is omnipresent. He’s everywhere. He knows everything and can do everything. Again, that brings about a little bit of discomfort because God is an eyewitness to everything we’ve ever done.
For example, the environment of a fish is water. God is the environment of creation. God is everywhere. There is nowhere that he is not. I can take some air right here and this air would have the components of air everywhere. I could grab, if I could, and the components of God, the element of God would be everywhere. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. Some of you here, I know in a crowd this size, are seeking. You’re investigating Christianity. You’re not a believer. You’ve got some serious questions, serious doubts. Maybe someone coaxed you into coming today. Maybe someone manipulated you into showing up today. Maybe you thought, “man, that’s a cool drone. I want to see what Drones is all about.”
If you’re seeking, welcome to this place. Because you need to know who it is you’re seeking. You need to know who it is you’re chasing after. You need to know that God is omnipresent. So your homework is simply this. I’m going to challenge you to make every session.
This series is only three weeks and what I’m talking about today is one of the most difficult doctrines in all of Scripture to understand, the omnipresence of God. Why? Because I can easily illustrate that God is all knowing but when it comes to God being everywhere we have nothing to compare that with. It’s difficult. Yet God is mysterious. Every box I’ve tried to put him in, he gets out of. But from Genesis to Revelation, throughout the Bible, the Bible says categorically, unequivocally, God is omnipresent.
There are those of you here who are running from God. You’re like, man, I’m comfortable here. Especially realizing that there is a detective aspect of the omnipresence of God and I know God’s watching me. I know God sees what I did last night, last week, back in high school. I know what God is thinking when he saw what I said to my spouse or my kids or whatever. And a lot of us here have rebelled. We turned our backs on God. We’re like, I don’t have anything to do with religion. I had a bad experience in church or whatever it is. You need to understand the God you’re running from. You need to understand the One that you’re bolting away from.
I discovered something in my own life. When I run away from God I run right into him. There is not a pass pattern that you can run. There is not a head-fake that you can do. There is not an island or a mountaintop far enough away to keep you at a distance from God. We do not serve a detached deity. We serve an all-everything, all-knowing, all-powerful, all-present God. God is all those things. He’s the Omnigod because we matter so much to him. It’s because of his love. It’s because of his compassion. It’s because he cares about you and cares about me.
Let’s face it, we’re not perfect. We all have messed up. We all have rebelled. We have all sinned and God could have said, “Well, I’m holy. My standards are perfect. You messed up so I’m just gonna leave. I’m gonna take away my presence and I’m going to be this detached deity.” No, no, no, no. Our God loves us so much he did something about that. The core of Christianity is God commissioned Jesus to live this perfect life, to die on the cross for your sins, to rise again, thereby giving us an opportunity to ask him to come into our lives.
So, God is equally present but he’s not equally a resident. God is equally present, he’s everywhere, but he’s not equally resident. And the question is, have you made him a resident in your life? That’s why he’s right there with you and me. He wants to strengthen us, to encourage us, and also it’s built-in accountability, man! God sees everything! He knows my shams and your shams, he knows my cover-ups and your cover-ups. He is still absolutely, madly in love with us. He’s not mad at us, he’s madly in love with us. So I want you to think about that if you’re a seeker. I want you to contemplate that if you’re in rebellion. I want you to own that if you’re a follower of Christ.
The take-home is simply this. Because I could I guess woo you with all the Scriptures and I could dissect the Hebrew and the Greek, and we could do that for, wow, about 10 weeks. And that’s great to have the head knowledge. My goal for this series is to turn the head knowledge into heart knowledge. It’s to answer the “So what?” question. It’s to say: “OK, Ed, how does this affect my dating relationship? OK, Ed, how does this affect my friendships? OK, Ed, the omnipresence of God, how does it affect the way I handle my finances? How does it affect the places I go? How does it affect what I see or what I say each and every day?”
There is a detective aspect to the omnipresence of God. Drones are everywhere. They can see things we never dreamed possible. And we’re gonna go wow, I kinda feel weird about that. I don’t know about the privacy issues. Well, God makes a drone seem like a drone doesn’t know a thing. There is no such thing, in God’s economy, as a clandestine meeting. There is no such thing as a closed office door, a closed bedroom door, a closed front door or back door. God sees it all. Yet, even though he sees it all and knows it all and can do everything, he’s crazy about every single one of us.
Now the classic text that I want to read is in the book of Psalm. Psalm 139:7-12. And let me read it. Here’s what David said. Now this is King David. He’s testing the waters. He’s like, going, whoa, I just wanna throw these questions out. “Where can I go to get away from your Spirit, God? Where can I run from (say you with me) you?” I had you repeat you because in the Hebrew this word ‘you’ is the emphatic. So it’s like, “where can I go to get away from your Spirit? Where can I run from YOU? If I go up to the Heavens (say it with me) YOU are there. If I lie down in the grave (say it with me) YOU are there. If I rise with the sun in the east and settle in the west beyond the sea, even there YOU (that’s right) would guide me. With your right hand YOU would hold me. I could say the darkness will hide me, let the light around me turn into night, but even the darkness is not dark to you. The night is as light as the day. Darkness and light are the same to YOU.”
You’ve got it! Give yourselves a round of applause. Incredible! In Jeremiah 23:24 says, and this is God speaking about himself, “ ‘I fill all of Heaven and Earth,’ says the Lord.”
So we serve not a little itty-bitty God, not a medium-sized God, but a giant God. A transcendent God. An imminent God. And I don’t understand, nor does anyone here, how big God is. All I know is God is the environment for the universe, and that is a big God.
And here’s what’s so unique about God. Maybe I’m in Miami and I need God. I’m going through a difficult time. Well, God’s not gonna say, “Sorry, Ed. I’m in Macedonia. I’m really tied up in Macedonia. I’ve got meetings after meetings after meetings in Macedonia. I can’t talk to you now. I can’t rescue you now. I can’t strengthen you now in Miami.” God’s not that way. So when we say God is here, because sometimes we say God is here, God is here! I can say that, you can say that, wherever we are, God is here. Say it with me. God is here. We serve an awesome God.
T.S. Well, let’s talk about some implications of the omnipresence of God. I’ve told you a little bit about it. I’ve defined it. How can this affect where I live? How can this affect where I’m going? How does this affect as we start school in several weeks? How does this affect you in your job? You as a single parent? You going through a difficult time with your children or whatever?
First of all, the omnipresence of God ushers in some serious conviction. It does.
There’s a guy in the Bible named Moses. Moses was God’s man. He’s the one who took the Israelites and led them out of Egyptian slavery. Well one day Moses, because Moses was an Israelite, and through a miraculous turn of events he was adopted into Egyptian royalty. He was groomed to be the next leader of Egypt. He walked outside, he saw his people being taken advantage of. And here’s what Moses did. Exodus 2:12. You can follow along with view-a-verse. Moses went outside and the Bible says, “looking this way and that way and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian. And then he hid him in the sand.”
Now you know my man Mo. You know Moses knew intellectually about the omnipresence of God. I mean he’s a patriarch. A spiritual stud. He knew in his mind about the omnipresence of God. However, sin has the ability, doesn’t it? In your life and mine, to warp our thinking. He forgot about it. He jumped over it. He looked one way, then the other way, and then <boom sound effect> he acted. How many times have we all done that? Many of us who are followers of Christ, who intellectually are “I believe, man, I believe in the Omnigod. I believe in the omnipresence of God.” But we look this way, we look that way, and then boom. It happens.
There is a conviction aspect to the omnipresence of God. And it’s not all negative. It’s built-in accountability. We have to realize, though, God is watching like no drone or no person or nothing we can ever even think about.
ILLUS: When EJ, our 22-year-old, was 2 years old we used to play hide and seek. And you’ve probably done this with your kids before, parents. EJ would hide standing as big as Dallas right in the middle of our den, covering his eyes. And I would act like I couldn’t see him. “Where is EJ? Where is EJ? Oh there he is! Wow!” He thought if he covered his eyes that I couldn’t see him. See, he thought just because he couldn’t see his father that I couldn’t see him.
How often are we the same? I can’t see God, I can’t see him. I’ll do this. I’ll do that. I’ll take the bull by the horns. I’ll live life my own way. Yet we’re as big as Dallas in front of God. Just because we’re like, I can’t see God, we think God can’t see you and God can’t see me.
Jonah. God says, “Hey, Jonah, go to Nineveh. And I’m gonna do something ridiculous in your life. You’re gonna talk to the Ninevites and they’re going to repent. Hundreds and thousands of them.” And Jonah, he was like, “No, no, no. I don’t like those Ninevites. I just don’t dig ‘em. I don’t want them to turn to you, God.” So he went the opposite direction. Jonah knew in his mind intellectually about the omnipresence of God. He tried to escape God. The Bible says he found a ship going the opposite direction away from where God wanted him to go.
There will always be a ship sailing in the opposite direction of where God wants you to go. Every single time. Yet the omnipresence of God says while God is everywhere, he wants to take us by the hand, he wants to give us strength for us to go and move the right way. Yet Jonah, in his sin nature, because he was warped, because he looked this way and that way and saw no one, he said, “You know what? I’m going to Spain.” Because that’s where the boat was going. And here’s what he discovered when you run away from God you run right into him. And some of us here are running from God. You can’t dodge God. Again I will say it. There’s not a pass pattern that you can follow, there’s not a head-fake that you can do. There’s not a mountain, there’s not an island far enough for any of us to get away from God. The Bible calls God our pursuing lover.
“Well, I just don’t feel like my prayers are getting above the ceiling.” They don’t have to! God’s right beside you. He’s around you. He’s behind you. He’s above you. He knows where you’re gonna be. He knows where you was. He knows everything. God is everywhere. He’s anywhere. He’s over there. Our omnipresent God.
So this conviction thing is a good thing because it brings us to a point of surrender. So it’s my prayer that many who have been seeking for a while would surrender and simply you would take Christ’s hand, his nail-pierced hand. And once he takes your hand he never lets go. He’s right beside you. He’s not housed in a building. He’s not in some geographical location. He doesn’t wear the red, white, and blue. God is omnipresent. And he’s waiting for you.
So conviction happens. Also comfort happens. Have you ever thought about that? Comfort, comfort. One of the reasons we have the omnipresence of God is because of comfort. We all go through tough times. We all go through death. I checked the stats again right before I walked out, 1:1 die. 100% of the people die. You’re gonna die. I’m gonna die. Let’s just say it… 1-2 I’m gonna die. 1-2-3… I’m gonna die. Let’s say it again. 1-2-3… I’m gonna die. But we live like we’re not gonna die. We don’t like to talk about death.
ILLUS: Last night I went to a wedding and there was a party after the wedding. I didn’t do it but I was talking to some people I didn’t know and I thought about just saying, “Hey, I want to talk to you guys about death! You wanna hear a conversation killer? Hey, let’s talk about dying. Let’s talk about 1:1 pass away.”
Here is one of the amazing benefits of the omnipresence of God. We don’t face death alone. Let me say it again. <rewind sound effect> We don’t face death alone. <rewind sound effect> We don’t face death alone. We have God with us. God is holding our hand.
The psalmist says in Psalm 23:4, “Yea, I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I fear no evil.”
God comforts those and he carries those of us from this life to the next. How about when your life is all screwed up? How about when you’re facing a tragedy? Because bad things happen to good people. There is gonna be suffering in the world. There are gonna be trials, there’re gonna be tribulations. There are gonna be temptations. How about that? God wants to comfort you and me. And he’s made it so obvious because he’s everywhere. He’s closer than anyone can be to you. That’d be like me going, OK, I have a friend. He’s my best friend. We hang out, we have common interests. I like to fish and stuff like that so that’s what we do. We talk and whatever. And you go,
“Man, where’s your friend live?” and I said,
“I have no idea.” You’d be like,
“Some friend. Wait a minute, Ed. You’re telling me this guy’s your best friend. You go fishing and stuff, you hang out, but you have no idea where he lives?”
“No, man. I’ve never been over to his house. I have no idea where he lives.”
So many people go, “God? Yeah, we’re tight. Jesus (remember those t-shirts back in the day) is my homeboy.” Where does he live?
“I don’t know. I think he lives in church. I think he lives in Dallas/Fort Worth. That’s the belt buckle of the Bible Belt.” No. Wrong. No, Jesus is everywhere. That’s why it’s so paramount and know about his location. Again, you can say God is in the house. God is here no matter whether you’re here or somewhere in outer space.
Here’s the deal. Have you invited him into your space? Into your life? The Scriptures say our bodies are a temple, a dwelling place, of the Holy Spirit of God. The moment I receive Christ into my life, that means not only is Jesus everywhere, not only is the Holy Spirit everywhere, not only is God the Father everywhere, they are resident in my life. So whatever I do, I’m taking Jesus with me. Oooh. It got quiet. It gets quiet in my own life. Whatever things I look at online, Jesus is right there. Whatever I do on that date, Jesus is right there. Wherever I go, whatever I put in my body, Jesus is right there. That’s a detective aspect of the omnipresence of God.
But also there’s the protective aspect to it as well. He’s there to encourage us, to comfort us.
ILLUS: This past, well really this past winter, my mother was in ICU for months and months and she came close to dying several times. And I was there with the family and we were planning the whole situation, the whole scenario. People were praying. People next to her in the ICU units were dying regularly. She was hanging on by a thread, hanging on by a thread. I felt, our family felt, the comfort, the omnipresence of God.
And many of you are like “Ed, I’ve gone through death. I’ve gone through sickness. I’ve been in the same situation.” That’s how much our God loves you and me. And quite frankly I don’t see how someone goes through life without walking with the Lord.
We talk about Google Maps, Google Earth or whatever and it shows us where we are, and it’s cool and all that. One of the things we can do, friends, is we can practice the presence of God. We talk to God. The Bible? That makes Google Earth or Google Maps look pathetic! God’s showing us, OK, you’re here. But here’s where I want to take you in this relationship. Here’s where I want to break you. Here’s where I want to mold you and shape you into the kind of person I want you to be. There’s a detective aspect to it. There’s a protective aspect to it. There’s a reflective aspect to it. There’s a conviction aspect to it. There’s a comforting aspect to it.
And also there’s a confidence aspect to it. I mean, I should have some serious Spirit-led swagger. I mean, I should walk with a pimp limp in the name of Jesus because of the omnipresence of God. I don’t mean I should be arrogant, but look who I’ve got with me! Look who I’ve got around me! Look who I’ve got in me!
ILLUS: A friend of mine was head of the Houston SWAT team years ago. This guy was an animal. Bench-pressed 330, ripped, you know all that. Hand-to-hand combat. Had to take people out who were crazy, killed them, etc. Well, we became good friends and one time he goes, “Ed, why don’t you come riding with me tonight. Just ride with me and we’ll serve us some warrants.” And that was back before you had to sign all these documents and have teams of lawyers to do all this junk, so I just signed my name because I was a pastor and I rode with him through the streets of Houston. And we were looking for one guy. His nickname was Rambo. He was like the hit man for this drug dealer in Houston and this guy was nuts, man. He was all freaked out on all this dope, carried a sawed-off shotgun. He’s killed all these people, whatever. So we were looking. Here I am, little white boy skinny pastor, walking around Houston with the head of the SWAT team trying to find Rambo. And we went to some places and saw some things that I will never forget. I think my mind is scarred.
But through that all, through that experience I had confidence. Why? Because Jim was – whoo! – and is a bad dude. I mean, Rambo? Good luck messing around with my friend Jim. This guy would hurt you bad. So I felt, even though in the midst of kinda some scary situations, I felt pretty confident. We did like a drug bust, went into all these crazy bars and chased people around. One time they came and they thought Rambo – and this is all in one night! – they thought he was holed up in this house. Jim said, “Ed, do not go with me on this one. You sit here in the car. Here’s a gun. If someone comes near the car just shoot them in the head.” Are you kidding me? No they were serious. That’s a whole ‘nother story. That’s when I was young. That’s why my hair turned white, really. But you know what Jim did? Several years after we searched for Rambo he sent me a picture of Rambo, really of Rambo’s body in the morgue, riddled with bullets. So he, the bad guys killed Rambo. Why did I tell you all that? Because God is with us. Yeah, Jim is tough. I mean he’s tenacious, he knows how to fight, but God is with us.
Maybe you’re going through a temptation right now. You’re like, “I can’t deal with it! It’s too strong!” No it’s not!! Our omnipresent God will give us the tenacity to tackle the temptation. He will never, ever, ever put us in a situation that he will not give us the strength and the power to come out of.
Maybe you need to be like Joseph. Joseph was tempted by Hotiphar, I mean Potiphar’s wife, and he ran! God provided him that opportunity. God is here and giving us Godfidence to have strength. He’s showing us how to walk in his footsteps. So what I’m saying is we need to thank God for his presence, for the omnipresence of God. He’s everywhere. He’s over there. He’s equally present and for many of us he’s a resident in our lives. Practice the presence of God. Take that next step to show up and to see who it is you’re seeking. And God will do amazing things in your life.
[Ed leads in closing prayer.]