F4F | Steve Long Does the Presence of God

Welcome to another installment of Fighting for the

Faith here on YouTube and if you've ever been told by a pastor, preacher, teacher, somebody telling you that you can actually do the presence of God.

What are you talking about? If you've been told this, you know what I'm talking about. Go ahead and hit the subscribe button and don't forget to ring the bell down below.

You've been deceived. We'll talk about that. Now case in point, we're gonna be heading over to the YouTube channel of the

Toronto Airport Church where the Arnott's hold court and we're going to be listening to Steve Long and Steve Long is one of the teachers there in Toronto.

This is ground zero for the the Toronto blessing and you got to put that in air quotes and we're gonna watch as he's gonna talk about the presence of God and it being some kind of a thing that we can do and twisting

Exodus 33 along the way and boy does he do a miserable job in handling this biblical text and the only way you can say it is is that he had to be intentionally twisting this passage because it's hard to kind of mess it up that bad.

It is basically the way I would put it. So let's whirl this up. Here we go. We're over to the

Toronto Airport Church. Here's Steve Long and his message titled Presence.

Here we go. Good morning Church. We are beginning in the month of September a new theme and our theme is encounter

God's transforming presence. We're starting with the word presence and so we were purposefully...

So this is your new theme and encountering God's transforming presence. Okay. Today doing presence not having a long talk about...

Yeah see I got to back that up. Doing presence. How does one do presence?

Let's try this again. Here we go. Encounter God's transforming presence. We're starting with the word presence and so we were purposely today doing presence not having a long talk about presence.

We How does one do presence?

Where in Scripture am I taught how to do presence?

Now a little bit of a note here. Christ himself makes it very clear in the Gospels that where two or more are gathered in his name he is present among them.

Mm -hmm. That's what Jesus says. So you know we're gonna do presence then maybe we should just you know gather together as a congregation in the name of Christ you know to and you know and believe what he said that he's you know present.

But we continue. Do it that you would feel God's presence and God's presence is not a thing.

God's presence happens to be God. That God is with us. Jesus when he was born one of his names was

Emmanuel. God with us. Another word would be presence. The last. No no no no.

Emmanuel means literally God with us.

That's talking about the fact that Jesus is God in human flesh.

You know hence the name Emmanuel and it says in that prophecy he will be called God with us.

And so you equating what you just did because you you do presence you just did presence and somehow equating that with Jesus's name

Emmanuel which means God with us you oh boy you are very much in dangerous dangerous territory here my friend.

We continue. The thing that Jesus said when he ascended to heaven was I'm gonna be with you always.

Presence. And the Bible has some amazing things to talk about presence and friends we're gonna zip real quick like I'm gonna do this in three minutes four minutes maybe and then we're gonna finish our meeting this morning by having a time to pray for those of you that have sickness and pain because one of the benefits of God's presence of him being with us is that healing takes place.

So apparently they're gonna be having some healing going on after some serious carpet time apparently that they had on that day.

So slides please if we got them. If you have your Bible we're looking at Exodus chapter 33 and our theme this morning oops that's not it that was it.

Hi Natalie. There we are. Now he's gonna be doing some struggling here so let's take the occasion of him kind of fumbling with the mechanism of the slides there at the

Toronto Airport Church and let's take a look at the the text in question but the three rules for sound biblical exegesis they are context context and well you know context and so that being the case

I think it's important that we take a look at the context and so Exodus 33 is part of a narrative story that well begins with Moses coming down from Mount Sinai after being gone for a long time with the

Lord yeah on Mount Sinai and the people of Israel making for themselves a golden calf this is the golden calf incident my one of my favorite portions of that in chapter 32 is

Aaron when confronted by Moses regarding the the golden calf that he had made he you know

Aaron literally you know comes up with this weird story and here it is in 32 verse 21

Moses said to Aaron what did this people do to you that you brought such a great sin upon them and Aaron said well let not the anger of my

Lord burn hot you know the people that they are set on evil for they said to me make us gods who shall go before us and as for this

Moses the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt we don't know what's become of him so I said to them let any of them who have gold take it off so they gave it to me and I threw it into the fire and poof out came this calf now

I added the word poof by the way but you get the idea yeah that's Aaron's story and he's sticking to it totally just engaging in total lying and obfuscation and of course deflecting and blaming the people of Israel for you know it was them and then

I'm just a totally innocent guy you know all I did was throw the gold into the fire and blammo out came a calf yeah so you get the idea now this was a grievous grievous sin that they had committed against God and God had already given them the

Ten Commandments thou shalt have no other gods before me and so you know what they did was just I mean it broke covenant it broke faith it

I mean their relationship with God is in tatters because of their sin and as a result of it some of the sons of Aaron they were instructed by Moses to put their swords on and go and kill their their their fellows in the camp and the sons of Levi the text says did according to the

Word of Moses in that day 3 ,000 men of the people fell and then Moses said today you've been ordained for service to the

Lord each one of you at the cost of his son you get the idea this this is a this is a horrible horrible thing that has occurred and so the next day

Moses said to the people you have sinned a great sin this is 32 verse 30 and now

I will go up to Yahweh and perhaps I can make atonement for your sins you're gonna note that at this point

Moses is trying to figure out how do we reconcile them back with God how can their sin be forgiven and atoned for that's first and foremost what's going on in his mind so Moses returned to the

Lord and he said alas this people have sinned a great sin they've made for themselves gods of gold but now if you will forgive their sin but if not blot me out of your book that you have written and so you'll note that Moses here is going to he's going to try to figure out how to get

God to forgive them and so attempt number one on the part of Moses is he's saying to God if you won't forgive them then blot my name out of the book of life but verse 33 the

Lord Yahweh said to Moses well whoever has sinned against me I will blot out of my book but now go lead the people to the place which about which

I have spoken to you behold my angel shall go before you nevertheless in the day when I visit I will visit their sin upon them so God is saying he ain't going with them yeah you're gonna go to the promised land by yourselves because I ain't going with you so then the

Lord sent a plague on the people because they had made a calf and the one that Aaron had made now verse chapter 33

Yahweh said to Moses depart go up from here you and the people whom you have brought up out of the land of Egypt notice

God dispossessed of them and they're now Moses's people and Moses is the one who brought him out of Egypt to the land which

I swore to Abraham to Isaac and to Jacob saying to your offspring I will give it I will send an angel before you and I'll drive out the

Canaanites and the Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites so go up to a land flowing with milk and honey but I will not go up among you lest I consume you on the way for you are a stiff -necked people so you'll note here that God says if I show up I'm gonna consume you in my wrath yeah yeah it's funny because we're not gonna hear

Steve long really making any points there regarding the fact that God's presence would have destroyed them because of their sin yeah that's kind of conveniently left out as he works his way through this passage at chapter 33 verse 4 then so when the people heard this disastrous word they mourned and no one put on his ornaments for Yahweh had said to Moses say to the people of Israel you are a stiff -necked people for if for a single moment

I should go up among you I would consume you so note the reason he's saying he's gonna send an angel is so the angel can do

God's work but the presence of God if it goes with him will destroy them so that's the idea this the angels plan

B not plan a so now take off your ornaments that I may know what to do with you therefore the people of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments from Mount Horeb onward and now

Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp far off from the camp and he called it the meeting now

I'm gonna fast -forward a little bit in the text here because this portion of it is is doesn't help move the narrative that we're focusing on because we're doing a debunking work for the

Toronto guys but here's what what it says next verse 12 so Moses said to Yahweh see you say to me bring up this people but you've not let me know whom you will send with me yet you have said

I know you by name and you've all and that and and you also have found favor in my sight now note remember

Moses is trying to figure out how to get their sin atoned for and so at this point

Moses is basically saying to God I have found favor in your sight tell me how somebody can do this so that you know because he's wanting the people of Israel that favor in God's sight so now therefore if I have found favor in your sight please show me now your ways that I might know you in order to find favor in your sight consider to that this nation is your people so he wants to know what steps what

Oh what commandments they need to obey in order to receive to earn God's favor but nobody earns

God's favor by keeping you know the law or doing works no that's not how we sinners

God's not we don't even earn it how we receive God's favor so God said well my presence will go with you

Moses and I will give you rest

Moses and he said to them if your presence will not go with me do not bring us up from here for how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight

I and your people is it not in your doing going with us so that we are distinct

I and your people from every other people on the face of the earth so Yahweh said to Moses well this very thing that you've spoken

I will do for you if for you have found favor in my sight and I know you by name

Moses said now please show me your glory and he said I will make all my goodness pass before you

I will proclaim before you my name Yahweh and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious I will show mercy on whom

I will show mercy but he said you cannot see my face for man shall not see me and live so Yahweh said behold there's a place by me where you shall stand on the rock and while my glory passes by I'll put you in a cleft of the rock and I'll cover you with my hand until I pass by and then

I will take away my hand and you shall see me see my back but my face shall not be seen so hit this point you know

Moses is kind of playing a weird card because he says show me your glory and God says no

I can't do that but I'll cause my goodness to pass by and so it the text continues so Yahweh said to Moses cut for yourself two tablets of stone like the first and I'll write on the tablets that that that were on the first tablets which you broke and be ready by morning and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai and present yourself there to me on the top of the mountain and no one shall come with you will let no one be seen throughout all the mountain let no flocks or herds graze opposite that mountain so Moses cut the two tablets of stone like the first and he rose early in the morning and went on went up on Mount Sinai and yeah as Yahweh commanded him and took in his hand the two tablets of stone and then

Yahweh descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of Yahweh and the

Lord passed before him and proclaimed so Moses can't see God but he can hear the glory of God the goodness of God and here's what it says

Yahweh the Lord a God merciful and gracious slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness keeping steadfast love for thousands forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin but who will by no means clear the guilty visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and in the children's children to the third and the fourth generation and so Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshipped and he said and now you'll know if now

I have found favor in your sight and now he understands how he has because God has forgiven him and pardoned him of his sin

Oh Lord now please let the Lord go in the midst of us for it is a stiff -necked people and pardon our iniquity in our sin and take us for your inheritance and so Moses hearing the glory the goodness of God praise what he heard back to God asking

God to forgive and now God changes his tune before he was saying

I will not go with you because if I go with you I will consume you and now he says behold

I am making a covenant before all your people I will do marvels such as have not been created in all the earth or in any and all the people among whom you are shall see the work of the

Lord for it is an awesome thing that I will do with you and so you'll note then the story cut and then we went through rather quickly but you get the idea the gist of the story is that these people sinned greatly against God God says

I have nothing to do with you out my presence will not go with you if it does if I do I'll consume you in my wrath and Moses is trying to intercede figure out how can the people find you have

God's favor he knows that he has God's favor but how can they have God's favor and it turns out the way that they receive the favor of God is by God forgiving them of their sins now that's the story and that's the context of the story and it's a great one but what

Steve long is doing with this text or is going to do with this text is criminal that's the only way

I can describe it let's head back to Toronto and see what he does did

I get this right I think I'm doing this wrong yeah yeah especially when you get to the actual teaching portion you're really gonna be doing it wrong pressing it you know what

I'm going backwards I got the thing upside down maybe

I need help can you move me to this to the next one we're gonna read the scriptures together there we are

Exodus 33 so look at this the Lord said to Moses leave this place you and the people that you brought out of Egypt and go up to the land that I promised on oath to Abraham Isaac and Jacob saying

I will give it to your descendants so the promise is given friends that that the

Jewish people are going to have this amazing territory of land that God is going to give them and it's far bigger than the natural boundaries of Israel that that it is today the

Lord says I will send an angel next slide before you to drive out all the different people that are there go up to the land flowing with milk and honey but I will not go with you because you are stiff -necked people and I might destroy you on the way so this is not a good passage friends right and the reason for that he's saying his presence would consume them because of their great sin

God is saying you are gonna have the ability to take over but without me that's what it's saying and we have the option of not just that God bless people without him being around but if you want the supernatural if you want angels to be around you which we do but they're gonna be there helping you and I still won't be there did you know that this passage is saying that we can live a

Christian life without God's presence oh what no it isn't saying that at all it's like you just made that up Wow and see this is what happens when you rip biblical passages out of their context he's trying to make it sound like oh see one of the options for us

Christians you know because Exodus 33 is that we can you know we can live our

Christian life without the presence of God no you know the reason guess

God's saying he ain't going with him is cuz he's angry with him cuz of their sin without seeing that God is really with us it's possible whoops

I just pressed to there I should just leave this alone verse 12 says so we skipped a few verses

Moses said to the Lord you have been telling me lead these people but you've not let me know whom you will send with me

Moses knew that someone's gonna help have to help him who is it you're gonna right because God said he's sending an angel instead

God up to this point hasn't informed him which one and the reason why an angel is gonna go rather than the presence of God is so they don't get destroyed in the wilderness by the presence of God and he's already been promised we'll send the angels and he's going that's not good enough you have said

I know you by name and you found favor with me and now friends this is the key right here to having

God's presence with you 24 -7 no what he's gonna say is not the key because he hasn't read this text in context nor read the story through properly and as a result of it what he's gonna say here is absolutely false these verses coming up are not the key to how to have

God's presence with you always because this was Moses's second attempt which also failed because you don't earn

God's favor by doing things are you ready for it verse 13 if you are pleased with me friends is

God pleased with you go like this yes teach me your ways next slide so that I may know you and continue to fight favor with you a simple prayer friends when you wake up father

God help me to know you better Holy Spirit I choose to follow you today

Moses was still trying to figure out how the people of Israel can have favor with God and that was the second attempt and that was a swing and a miss also he says thank you help me to know you that little pushing in that's all it takes friends is for the

Lord's favor to come on you and then look what it says remember that this nation is your people and the

Lord replied my presence will go with you and I and the emphasis is on the word you my presence will go with you

Moses not them that that's again that's the point of this text when you read it in its context will give you what's the word rest friends in the worst day of your life when a doctor says you have cancer when your boss says to you you're meeting with HR and they say you're fired when your wife your spouse says

I don't love you anymore we're having a divorce what happens in those days all sorts of followers of Jesus freak out on those days they do because they're used to looking after life by themselves that's going into the land without God's presence why are these people not standing up and walking away because this is total nonsense some people will have angelic visitations that will help them but friends the best is when you know that you know that you know on that day that terrible day that tragic day that awkward day that frustrating day you're able to just close your eyes as it were and go

Holy Spirit what do I need to know what's your opinion and all of a sudden the

Holy Spirit's able to say things like I got this I'm with you it'll be easy this will be this will be fun we're gonna have an adventure together whatever it is that the

Lord says and friends you're able to go into that rest and the book of Hebrews talks about a

Sabbath rest that God has for us we're not talking about a day of the week we're talking about a season of life no

Hebrews 4 is not about a season of life the Sabbath rest he's referring to is found in Hebrews 4 and that Sabbath rest is salvation by grace through faith apart from works here's what it says

Hebrews 4 1 therefore while the promise of entering his rest still stands let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it for good news came to us it came to us justice to them but the message they heard did not benefit them because they were not united by faith with those who listened for we who have believed entered that rest as he has said as I swore my wrath they shall not enter my rest although his works were finished from the foundation of the world for he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way and God rested on the seventh day from all of his works and again in this passage he said they shall not enter my rest since therefore it remains for some to enter it and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience again he appoints a certain day today saying through David so long afterward in the words already quoted today if you hear his voice do not harden your hearts for if Joshua had given them rest

God would have not have spoken of another day later on so then there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God for whoever who has entered

God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his mm -hmm so let us therefore strive to enter that rest so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience and the the rest being referred to their salvation by grace through faith peace with God the rest of having received the gift of salvation forgiveness and mercy from God that's what's being referred to there so he just twisted

Hebrews 4 by only mentioning it and wrongly saying that's about some weird season of rest in your life no it ain't living all of your life feeling knowing that God is with you one of the unique things about catch the fire we're not better than other churches were we're just we do some things uniquely and friends if you're new to catch the fire the purpose of our

Sunday morning meetings is to encounter God's transforming presence that's the biggest reason that we gather together is to experience

God yeah we're not better than other churches but you know we here unlike other churches we experience

God's transforming presence they don't but we do but we're not better than them right so sometimes there's a short talk like there is today sometimes it's a little longer but the purpose of our meeting isn't for coming for a talk the purpose of our meeting is coming together to experience

God because when God's presence comes amazing things happen like 15 people this morning 12 people this morning realizing they made

Jesus in their life that happens because people were feeling God's presence yeah that never happens anywhere else people you know feeling that they need

Jesus you know because you know forget the fact that Jesus said go and proclaim or preach repentance and the forgiveness of sins they they they just they have carpet time there and they bliss out they do presence people go well

I better I need Jesus that no that's ridiculous the first meeting we had a gentleman named

Anthony comes every Sunday Anthony used to be in Hell's Angels has a really nice bike

Anthony has been a part of catch the fire for the last two years and in July Patricia Boots month after one of our flow

Sundays where we're just out of the worship what's God saying what's got what's a flow the flow

Sunday doing she called out people with sicknesses and specifically called out diabetes and Anthony's been struggling with that for 44 years and he stood up he always sits in the very back row right by the bookstore almost always and he stood up and the

Holy Spirit met him at God's rest came into his body he went to see his doctor because his body started to change and his doctor is a little confounded

I don't know what's going on bottom line is he was instantly healed yeah

I'd like to see those medical records please you know somebody who's been a diabetic for 44 years now claiming that he is no longer a diabetic

I'd like to see those records yeah so you'll note here of course you have to ask the question well wait a second this guy really twisted

Exodus 33 oh yes he did and he really badly twisted Hebrews 4 without even reading any of it out you know which begs the question well if God's Word is living and active and is inspired by God the

Holy Spirit why would God the Holy Spirit heal people of diseases and stuff like that when they're so poorly handling

God's Word back outright criminally mishandling it the answer is actually quite simple

God the Holy Spirit has nothing to do with this they're not experiencing God's presence and what they think is

God's presence is probably the presence of something spiritual but it ain't

God the Holy Spirit yeah and the proof is always in the doctrinal pudding and the doctrinal pudding is well the sludge and you know septic you know kind of stuff so you get the idea now if you found this helpful please share this video with other people all the information on how to share it is down below and and of course this ministry is supported by our viewers as well as our listeners to our podcast and all the information on how you can support us financially is also listed down below in the description of this video and if you don't already subscribe to our podcast head over to fighting for the faith comm and subscribe to our podcast where we do you know two hours every weekday of this type of discernment work so that you can be properly trained in what

God's Word says and be equipped so that you don't get deceived by people like this guy who slickly twisted

God's Word and then followed it up with oh yeah we know we got God's presence because you know unverified stories regarding healings and stuff like that yeah that's all part of the scam of what is the

NAR and charismatic churches like the Toronto Airport Church so if you found this helpful again share with others until next time may