The History of the Presence of God

The title is, The History of the Presence of God. This is an interesting subject to me because I was once asked the question, how many temples were there or are there of God? To which I gave the answer, I don't know. And so it made me do an intense study into the history of the presence of God. And this sermon will go through it. It'll be picked up next Sabbath, and then it'll be picked up on Pentecost to give you all the answers to that very deep question. But Pentecost is next weekend, and it is a celebration of the temples of God. I'd like you to turn with me, if you will, to 1 Corinthians 3, which I'm sure this will not be the only time this is mentioned. 1 Corinthians 3, verse 16. Paul is talking to the church at Corinth at the time. And he says in verse 16, Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? Yes, a question because it had some behavior in the church at Corinth that they weren't acting like. God's Holy Spirit was in them, so he was reminding them. By asking them that question. And then he says in verse 17, If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For you are the temple of God. For the temple of God is holy. Which temple you are? We are the temple of God, he says. If the Holy Spirit dwells within you, the Holy Spirit, which is the power, the very essence of God, a part of God that he gives to us as a down payment. We don't have all of it yet. We're not spirit beans yet. But he gives us this down payment of the Holy Spirit to basically see, what are we going to do with it? What do you do with it? Before he gives you the full inheritance that God has promised his children, he needs to see what we're going to do with it. It's kind of like a parent that may give their children an allowance. I never got one on the farm. Dad said, if you eat, then you've eaten your allowance.

Some of you might have had parents like that. He said, I'm not charging you for your bed, your food, or the air you breathe. Now, he was mostly joking. But when you look at allowance, I know kids that have gotten it, but they had to prove, okay, for the allowance, you have to make your bed, you had to do this, you had to wash dishes, you might have to do these things around the house.

But don't we have times where people didn't get that allowance? Young people didn't get that allowance because they didn't do their job. So why would you pay somebody to do something and then they don't do it?

It's preparing you for the realties of life, the realities of life. But here, God gives us actual power because the Holy Spirit is power.

It not only helps us, it teaches us, it guides us, so many things that will probably be brought out more by the other speakers. But when you go back and look at Acts 2 at that day of Pentecost that we did a couple years ago, verse by verse, it was a unique place in time as the Holy Spirit was poured out to 120 people at one time in quite a show. In quite a show, you might find that in a lot of ways that through the Scriptures, God makes a pretty big show the first time that he does something that he once noticed.

It's called the Rule of First Mention by scholars.

But I'd like to look at the history of God and His presence on earth in Scripture.

It was George Santiana that said, those who fail to remember the lessons of the past are doomed to repeat them. You know that.

Well, can we look at this amazing date of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit is given, and it is a time that we are to celebrate. He says it's a feast.

Feast of first fruits, feast of weeks, quite a few different names that describe this feast.

But it is a celebration for us of what happened. The first Pentecost, 50 days after Jesus Christ.

And it should be a time that we celebrate this wonderful gift that is given to us.

But sometimes we can look at the history and find out that it wasn't treated as special.

As it should have been.

And God had to make some adjustments with the people.

And I pray that He does not make that adjustment with me or with you.

But that we will take it for what it is, the incredible gift of God.

And we will look at perhaps this gift as we have never done before.

If you go through the Scriptures, you can see, you don't have to turn there in Genesis 1-2, it says the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

So here, God, by His Spirit, created stuff, put stuff in order, in line.

But no one saw it. And there were no humans yet that saw it. All this amazing work done by God and the Holy Spirit.

But like you turn to Genesis 3, Genesis 3, as we look at this presence, the history of the presence of God, because where He was, so was His Spirit. So was His Spirit.

We need to know everything we can about that Spirit that is put in us, even if it is a very, very small amount of Spirit.

It is so powerful. We need to know. We do need to know so that we can not only use it, but make sure we never abuse it, because that's easy to do.

When you get a car, when you get a new car, man, you keep that car clean and you have everything, but after a while, you know, it's not so clean anymore. Genesis 3, verse 8, read from New King James Version.

And as we're talking about Adam and Eve here in the Garden of Eden, and in verse 8, And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.

Was He there? Obviously He was.

They heard the sound of Him walking.

And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the, what was your verse saying? presence from the presence of the Lord among the trees of the garden.

So God, His Spirit, His power, the very essence was there.

And they knew it.

And they hid themselves.

Knew they had done wrong.

Now, we can go through the Bible and look at every possible sighting. You can do that on your own. It's going to take too long.

But I just wanted to hit this area, and this area, and this area, to set the tone for just how important it is that we take serious the Holy Spirit that's given to us.

Go over with me to Genesis 14.

Genesis 14.

Very important part here because wherever God, wherever and whenever He mentions something two or three or four times, it's pretty important.

This event should have just been a one-timer, but it wasn't.

It wasn't just mentioned one time. This individual wasn't mentioned just one time. Turn with me to Genesis 14.

Genesis 14, verse 18. Then Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine, for he was the priest of God Most High, a king and a priest.

And he blessed him and said, Blessed be a brahm of God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth.

And blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hands, and he a brahm gave him Melchizedek a tithe of all.

Pretty important stuff.

This was, Melchizedek was, God on earth.

Yes, God on earth. It's amazing if you go to Google or any of these things, and I've read various books, and on Melchizedek, and they all kind of seem, Oh, maybe he was an angel, or no, he was just a very high, highly thought of king, and he was this and he was that, but hardly any of them.

Point that he was God.

He was the Word in flesh.

It's not hard to see, because later on, you see that God wrestled with Jacob, right? He also met Joshua. He made a few appearances, and when he did, there was a unique presence there.

That unique presence should be at your home when you're there.

That unique presence should be there when you walk this earth. If you believe the Word of God.

Make that point. Let's go over to Psalm 110.

Psalm 110, and how you explain this, this is Psalm of David. David has made this song about the announcement of the Messiah's reign, a future time, as he looks to, and God revealed to him that this would happen. And what does he say there in Psalm 110? The Lord said to my Lord, I mean Yahweh, said to Adonai, if you read the Hebrew, sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool.

Verse 2, the Lord shall send the rod of your strength out of Zion, rule in the midst of your enemies. He says down in verse 4, you are a priest talking about the future Christ.

You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

And that isn't talking about numerical order, but it's a degree, because he is a priest.

As Revelation says that we will be kings and priests in the coming kingdom of God, following this same order of Melchizedek that Jesus Christ, following that same order.

Go over to Hebrews 7.

Hebrews 7.

Hebrews 7, verse 1, for this Melchizedek, king of Salem, Salem, the location, was later known as J.R. Salem, J.R. Salem.

So even at that time, that was a special place.

Showed up in the past. It's there today, and it's going to show up in the future even more.

So for Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, to whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all, first being translated king of righteousness, and then also king of Salem, meaning king of peace, who is without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor the end of life, but made like the Son of God, remains a priest continually.

That pretty well explains it. You have no mother, you have no father, you have no beginning, you have no end, you are eternal. You are God. So it was a big deal when Melchizedek was king and priest that even Abraham knew there's something big here.

There's something I need to be in awe of. You follow down the scriptures to Exodus 3. Let's go to Exodus 3.

Exodus 3. Here we have the story of Moses. Moses and that incredible burning bush. Exodus 3. Pick it up in verse 2. And the angel, capital A, of the Lord, appeared to him, Moses, in a flame of fire from the midst of the bush. So he looked and behold the bush burned with fire, but the bush was not consumed.

Then Moses said, I will now turn aside and see this great sight. Why the bush does not burn? Which tells you, obviously, he stood there for a little bit.

That bush is all full of fire, and yet it keeps burning. A little burnout. Didn't burn out.

And he's watching it. So all of a sudden, now this gets his attention. Because you have to understand, God does one thing that's incredible. He knows how to reach people. The most powerful thing on earth, physical thing on earth for the first 4,000 years was what?

Fire! Fire! It was so powerful. If you've ever been in a brush fire, you ever started a fire, you got out of control. Guess what? You realize how powerful it is.

God knew how to reach you. So guess what? Moses, you're out there watching a bunch of sheep.

Thinking you're just going to chill for the next 40 years. I got different plans for you, big boy.

And so here's his bush. And so finally he says, and I will see, turn aside and see this bush. So when the Lord, remember that angel?

Can God come as an angel? Yes. You'll see it many times in scriptures if you want to study that. So when the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses! And he said, here I am.

Imagine a bush talking, a firing bush, that you're going, hmm.

He said, here I am. Then he said, do not draw near this place. Take the sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground. Pretty big deal, isn't it?

You don't just come up here, take those shoes off.

This is holy ground. Do you think he took his shoes off?

As fast as he could, I'm sure.

But there was something here that he needed to have some reference for.

That you just don't treat this like any other place or space.

This is what he's teaching Moses.

This, he says, is holy ground.

I think Moses learned a lot that day.

But the presence of God would be with him, with Aaron, as they met Pharaoh and all the leaders in Egypt. But the people, all two and a half to three million people, they say, that left Egypt, they saw various miracles that happened. But the problem was, they looked to Moses. They weren't really looking to God. They looked to Moses.

They followed Moses. Hey, it's Moses. It's Moses. When they couldn't, when they had problems later on in the wilderness, they didn't have any water. Who'd they blame?

Moses.

So, God needed to give them a sign. And so, they wanted to follow Moses. They were going to find out that Moses was not leading them.

Turn with me to Exodus 13. Exodus 13, once they left Egypt, across the Red Sea. Exodus 13, verse 21. Exodus 13, verse 21. And the Lord went before them by day, these three million people walking.

Can you imagine the size of that group? Three million people with animals, carts, whatever they had. That's roughly the size of all the people in Miami proper.

About three and a half million, I think. This is a large group.

Imagine the landmass as they walked.

And here, he said, he went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead the way. How big was that cloud? Huge! Huge! Not only did they realize this thing was leading them, if it's as big as what the history books and all the people want to say, I'd follow it too. Because for one thing, I want some shade.

You know, isn't it nice? You just stand out in the sun down here in Miami. Okay, that's okay. But boy, when a cloud comes over, doesn't that feel good? You can imagine them walking through this desert. And all of a sudden, there's this cloud over them during the day. It feels pretty good. I'd be following that cloud too.

And then it says, by night, in a pillar of fire, to give them light so as to go by day and night. And then it says, he did not take away the pillar of cloud by day or the pillar of fire by night from before the people. There, you're talking about a nightlight. How big was the camp? They're talking 50 to 100 acres of land just to set everything up.

And this fire was coming out of the tabernacle, or was over them before that time, and they could see this fire. How big must that fire have been?

Wow. Yeah, I mean, if you were abandoned thinking, well, let's see what's over that hill, and you get there, and there's this fire coming out of the sky all the way down right over this huge group of people, you're not going to go, well, that looks like easy picking. You're going to be going, there's something there! So you can see, as they met different kings, as this battle, as they would go into battle, these kings that were going to battle them, they had spies! They had to be going, well, let's sneak around at night and see, and they would go like, whoo!

Had to be awesome! But there was God! He was showing His presence is there! Can you sense it? Do you know it? Is it real? Was it real to them? Did it become old hat to them?

It become like the car? Now it's got 50,000 miles?

Go with me to Exodus 25. This time I'll read from the New Living Translation. Exodus 25, verse 16.

It says, And when the ark is finished, place inside it the stone tablets inscribed with the terms of the covenant, which I will give you, the Ten Commandments, the Ark of the Covenant, ark, boat, storage area. Just a little bit wider than this and about this tall. This is where this was the Ark of the Covenant. It was a piece of wood, a case of wood, that He had. And it was painted in gold or had gold covered over it. But on top of that was the mercy seat.

Solid gold set on top of that to cover those tablets of stone.

Said then 17, Then make the arks cover the place of the Atonement, which was a mercy seat. From pure gold, it must be 45 inches long and 27 inches wide. Also 27 inches deep. Then make two carabim with hammered gold and place them on the two ends of the Atonement cover.

Make the carabim on each end of the Atonement cover, making it all one piece of gold. So you're going to have two angels, carab angels, made here with their wings coming up like this right over it with a space in between. And you're going to put this right on top of that Ark of the Covenant. And that is the mercy seat of God.

With their wings spread above it, they will protect it. Place inside the Ark, the stone tablets inscribed with the terms of the Covenant, which I will give to you. Then put the Atonement cover, or mercy seat, on top of the Ark. I will meet you there and talk to you from above the Atonement cover between the gold carabim that cover the Ark over over the Ark of the Covenant.

From there, I will give you my commands for the people of Israel. So God was saying, here, He's giving instructions in chapter 20, Exodus 25 and 26 about building this tabernacle. And you're going to build it. And this is where I'm going to be. And every night, out of that, above that tabernacle, there's going to be this fire coming out of it.

And during the day, there's going to be cloud.

And when I want you to move, I'm going to move that cloud. And you're going to pack everything up and you're going to go.

Now, I find it interesting. That tabernacle was 45 feet long, which is... how far is this? It's close to 40 foot, wouldn't you say?

And it was 15 foot wide, which is close to this. And it was 10 foot tall, which is about what this is.

So this is a tabernacle. And in the back of that tabernacle was a little 10 by 20 area.

And that was where the Holy of Holies, this Ark of the Covenant, was.

You had the Holy Place, and then behind that curtain, you had the Holy of Holies. And that's where that flame came down, because that showed God's presence.

And when Moses wanted an answer or God wanted to talk to him, guess what?

He had to come into that Holy of Holies, because that was God's presence.

Was the Spirit there? Absolutely, it was there.

This was a predecessor to the temple of God.

And you might just say at that time, it was the temple of God.

You see where we need to know the history? Because we now are that temple.

We are that temple.

How important that temple was to God. Look at the great...just study Exodus 25 and 26, 27. Read all this. How much time it took. I mean, they took a lot of time to make everything special for this temple, for this tabernacle. It wasn't just something to...no, it had to be made exactly as God said, according to the pattern of what was up there and still up there.

Go with me to Exodus 34. Exodus 34.

Verse 29.

What is it like to be in the presence of God?

You should know the only thing is, it's not as real to us as it should be.

And it's not as real to us because we do not take the gift of the Holy Spirit as serious as we need to take it.

If we knew how powerful this really was, we would be in awe.

It would scare us. Exodus 34. Verse 29. So it was when Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of testimony were in Moses' hand when they came down. Why? Because he had come down before and broke them.

He had to go back up and get them again.

That Moses did not know that the skin of his face was not a part of the Bible. That Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him. So he came in the presence of God, talking to God, and all of a sudden his face lit up like a light.

It was just scary.

He didn't know it, but he was that close to God.

In the Spirit of God.

And it's a powerful force.

He had no idea until he came down.

30. So when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him.

Why? He's just freak-looking! Wow! What is that?

Isn't that interesting? That in the book of Acts, in chapter 6, Stephen stood before people and made that incredible sermon that day that brought his death. And as he stood before, it said he was a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was full. It may have started here, but it was full.

Just like it was with Moses.

And what happened? And what happened? What did the Scripture say?

He stood before them, and they looked upon him as he had the face of an angel.

You remember all the instances in the Bible where an angel would come, people would fall down, and he goes, Oh, don't worship me!

Why? The angels are in the presence of God! There's power there!

There's energy there!

Are we tapping into that? Do we even recognize it?

Do we realize it?

31. Then Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned to him, and Moses talked with them.

And afterward, all the children of Israel came near, and he gave them as commandments all the Lord had spoken with him on Mount Sinai. And when Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil on his face! It was too much for the people to see! Imagine walking around with a veil on your face, and you're not a Muslim?

I mean, this is like, wow!

And whenever Moses went before the Lord to speak with him, he would take the veil off until he came out, and he would come out and speak to the children of Israel, whatever he had been commanded. And whenever the children of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses' face shined, then Moses would put the veil on his face again until he went in to speak with him.

Is this the reason?

Is this... could be the only reason? And he brought this up many years ago, to me. Never thought about it. That Moses, when he died at 120, he was as strong and had as much vigor as when he was 20 years old. He was before that power, before that presence. It's got to be some reason. Most people, 120, are just barely going to walk around, if they're alive. But now it says God took him, had him die, but he was still strong as ever.

Had to be something powerful there. Go with this. Go with me to Exodus 40. Exodus 40.

Exodus 40 and verse 34.

Exodus 40 and verse 34. Then the cloud covered the tabernacle of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. What we just talked about, the Holy of Holies. And Moses was not able to open up the tabernacle of the Lord. Not able to enter the tabernacle of meeting, because the cloud rested above it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Imagine seeing that!

And when the cloud was taken up from above the tabernacle, the children of Israel went onward in all their journeys. But if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not journey till the day that it was taken up. For the cloud of the Lord was above the tabernacle by day, and fire was over it by night. In the sight of all of the house of Israel throughout all their journeys. What is this saying? It's telling you again that God was dwelling with His people.

And the Holy Spirit, He wants to dwell with you.

What about it? Will we? Go over to Leviticus 10. Leviticus 10, verse 1. Here we have the priesthood now, and here are Aaron's sons, Nate Abenebiah. And they are priests who have to offer fire there to doing the job that the priest, the Levitical priesthood is supposed to be doing. But what happens?

These boys got laks!

They got to wear... Ah, it's just a job!

Sabbath day, just another day. Ain't that big? Just show up for Sabbath services. Do whatever I want to do the rest of the day. Huh? Scary!

You are the royal priesthood, the chosen generation!

Holy!

That's what's scary. That's why we learned these lessons from the past, so we're not doomed to repeat them. I don't want to be Nate Abenebiah, chapter 10, verse 1. Then Nate Abenebiah, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it, put incense on it, and offered profane fire before the Lord, which he had not commanded them to do. So fire went out from the Lord. Where did they go? They went into the Holy of Holies! Where that fire was over it and I... Boom!

You talk about getting lit up.

Poof! Burnt them up. These were the sons of Aaron. These were the two nephews, the oldest nephews of Moses.

I don't know about you, but I've got nephews I'm close to.

Anyone see this? So fire went out from the Lord and devoured them, and they died before the Lord. Then Moses said to Aaron, this is what the Lord spoke. So guess what? God just spoke to Moses. He said, By those who come near me, I must be regarded as holy. I must be regarded as holy. And before all the people, I must be glorified.

We're priests in training.

We can't be playing. This can't be just another day. This can't just be another relationship with God. This is serious stuff.

Go over to Numbers. Let's go over to Numbers 9. Numbers 9.

Numbers 9 and verse 15. And on the day that the tabernacle was raised up, the cloud covered the tabernacle, an intent of testimony, from evening until morning. And it was above the tabernacle like the appearance of fire. So it was always the cloud covered it by day and the appearance by the fire at night. Whenever the cloud was taken up from the tabernacle, after that the children of Israel would journey in the place where the cloud set.

Okay, in verse 18, At the command of the Lord, the children of Israel would journey, and at the command of the Lord, they would camp. As long as the cloud stayed above the tabernacle, they remained encamped. Verse 22, Whether it was two days, a month, or a year that the cloud remained above the tabernacle, the children of Israel would remain encamped and not journey. But when it was taken up, they would journey. It was leading them. It was guiding them.

Numbers 11. Numbers 11. Verse 1, Now when the people complained it, this pleased the Lord. For the Lord heard it, and his anger was roused, so the fire of the Lord burned among them and consumed some in the outskirts of the camp. When the people cried out to Moses, and when Moses prayed, the Lord quenched the fire. So here they started complaining. They forgot that the Lord was right there. You would think you'd get up in the middle of the night, or you'd even look out and you'd see this fire, or during the day you'd see this cloud, you would think, that's God's present.

That's God's present. But they got to where they were complacent. As we get that way too, brethren, I include myself. And I must not. That's why this Feast of Pentecost is big stuff. It should remind us of who we are, and why we're here, and who called us, and who worked with us. It's just...it's amazing! It was amazing. It's that. Let me see if I got that here. Pull back. Yes, go with me back to Exodus 19.

I think this was important, because that's what they saw. Exodus 19, before we leave this part here. Exodus 19, and verse 16. This is the beginning. Okay? This is before the Ten Commandments were given. So it says in verse 16, Then it came to pass on the third day, in the morning. Okay, get that verse.

In the morning. Easy to see everything. Okay, this is a night. This is during the day, in the morning. There were thunderings and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain. And the sound of a trumpet was very loud. It was the angels blowing this trumpet. They were hearing this. They were seeing that cloud. So that all the people who were in the camp trembled. And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain.

It was Mount Sinai. Oh, three million people! Come on! Took them to the foot of that mountain. That mountain is 7,500 feet tall. You would be standing there just looking at it. You're at the foot of it.

You're not standing back here. You're at the foot of it, if you've ever seen. Yeah. It's huge. And he says, you're going to meet God. Verse 18, now Mount Sinai was completely in smoke because the Lord descended upon it in fire. You imagine that. They had seen it before in the tavern.

Now they were seeing this, just the whole mountain lit up as God was coming down, making an appearance. You get to see the presence of God. And its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace. It's the only way they could describe it. Smoke just rolling, rolling, rolling. And the whole mountain quaked greatly. And when the blast of the trumpet sounded long and became louder and louder, Moses spoke and God answered him.

Then the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai on the top of the mountain, and the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went. The presence of God. It was something to see. It was something to witness. Brethren, the presence of God should be something to witness today. His work in your life, His protection, His guidance, His direction, all that. Is God any less? Is God any less than here? He had to get their attention. What does He have to do to get ours?

To make us realize that He's in here. The tabernacle was prepared for over one year. They worked on all the things that went in the tabernacle. The laver, the showbread, everything. They altered with the horns on it that they would sacrifice the animals to. All the fine instruments of gold and silver and all this was planned and planned and planned. Why? Because God's dwelling place had to be special. It was going to be sanctified and set apart.

You ever heard those words? What does He call us? Sanctified, set apart, holy! We're not holy unless the Holy Spirit is in us. That's the only thing that makes us holy. It's God in us. The table for the showbread, the gold lampstand, the tabernacle. Every detail is laid out in Exodus 25, 26, 27. You want to make sure. Down to the very clothes for the priesthood of what they wear before they come to His presence.

What's that big? The presence of God, brethren, is a big deal. A big deal. What are the lessons for us? Where is God's presence at your house? Wherever you're at. It's how big a deal it is. Interesting for someone to... See, we understand, and you'll have more of this when Dwight gives it on Pentecost, I'm sure, about the Holy Spirit. Just how unique it is. It is a power of the essence, very part of God. It's not God. It's not a third of God, like people want to talk about the Trinity. You can't find that anywhere in the Bible.

It's made up. Go with me. We have just a few minutes. Acts 10. Acts 10. I think I had time for this one. Go to Acts 10. Acts 10. Let's go down to 38. This is Peter preaching here. Acts 10, verse 38. Now God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. That's asinine to say that the Holy Spirit's a part of the Trinity. Then why did God anoint him with that? That doesn't even make sense.

If Jesus was part of it, what was he doing? Why did he say, oh, join me and you can be half of me? No, but said he anointed him with the Holy Spirit because he was a human being. It was God born in the flesh, and he anointed him with the Holy Spirit, just like he has given us the Holy Spirit.

Gave it with him without measure. We're so blessed that he gave it in measure. Because we aren't prepared for it even now. But a little bit at a time. He said, he anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.

We understand what the Holy Spirit is. Remember I talked about the last couple weeks of how we are stewards of the mysteries of God? We understand that. God has given that to us by the Holy Spirit that we understand. That's a mystery to the world. They've got Trinity everywhere. Trinity, Trinity, Trinity, Trinity, Trinity, Trinity, Trinity. What is Trinity? Well, we'll never know. We just know it's three people. It's a mystery. It's not a mystery. It's paganism. Powerful. Never, ever can we take lightly the Holy Spirit and the presence of God in our life.

Nate Abinabai, who did, which made me ask the question, God, forgive me if I've ever offered profane fire to you, because I know I have. But He was merciful to me. Think about your profane fire. Remember Uzzah? Who was Uzzah? Anybody know Uzzah? Touch the ark, right? Who was He? He was a vertical. He was a Levi. He's part of the vertical priesthood. Right? And the cart was being brought by and He wanted to make sure, so what did He do?

It started getting unsteady and He thought it was going to fall and He reached His hand out. And when He did, BOOM! You're dead! God killed Him right then! Because He said, don't touch it! Can I remind you of M.C. Hammer? Maybe that's where he got inspired. You can't touch this. You can't touch this. He should have had that. We don't need to be like Uzzah, do we?

Where it's taken light. Did God just give it? Even David got upset about it, and God had to correct Davids. He said, what are you talking about? He knew what to do. He wasn't just somebody off the street. Oh, do you mind picking this up? No! He was part of the vertical priesthood. He had been trained to do this. He knew. He just didn't. He took it. What He wanted to do instead of what God told Him to do.

And if He believed that was God, do you think God couldn't keep it from tipping over? He questioned God. And how about me? What a lesson. What a lesson. Remember Raiders of the Lost Ark? Watch that clip, you know, where they tie Him and her up, and then this Jewish guy is saying this stuff, and he lifts the mercy seat off of that. And it's their depiction of what happened.

And so all this comes out and burns them, melts them, and all this kind of stuff. Yeah, it kills everybody there, except because it said, don't look upon this. I was, I just thought about this week because I went on Google and looked at this four-minute clip. And I was going to play it, but it was so gross. I mean, it was, yeah, it pushed the limit. I didn't think about that at the time, now I do.

Pretty violent. But it made me realize one thing. There's some power there. Yes, they made their point. But it tells us what? Do not trifle with God. We cannot show even the least bit of disrespect for God and the gift of the Holy Spirit. David knew he messed up, didn't he? And what was his word say? Take not your spirit from me.

Because by I'm sure, at this time, David could look back on his life and being able to defeat giants and animals and go out and kill a hundred men one time. He knew where the power came from. Don't take your spirit from me.

So brethren, if there's one thing to remember, the presence of God is a big deal. It is a big, big deal, and it needs to be for us.

Next week, same place, same time. You're going to hear part two.

As we pick up from going from the tabernacle to the incredible, awesome temple of God built by Solomon.

And we truly see the presence of God continues. It was, it is, and it will be. But what do we do with it today? Will we appreciate it?

In eight days, we celebrate the anniversary of the giving of the Holy Spirit in Mass.

It is a big deal.