(Audio Sermon Clip) Lord Let Me See Your Glory — Zac Poonen

Dwelling in the Lord’s Presence

There is only one thing I desire. I don't desire to be king. I don't desire to be an elder. I don't desire even to live. These enemies kill me, that's fine. I will only seek one thing from my Lord and that is that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, like we heard, not to ask Him for anything, not to tell Him anything, just to sit and behold the beauty of the Lord and meditate in His temple.

How many of you know how to do that? We need a generation growing up who knows how to sit in the presence of the Lord, asking for nothing, saying nothing, just saying, Lord, let me see Your beauty, let me see Your glory.

Seeing God’s Glory and Our Own Need

Moses had that desire, Lord, show me Your glory and God said, you can't see my glory and live, but I'll show you a small portion of it. The greatest men whom God has used in church history are those who have had a longing to see the glory of God and when they see the glory of God, they see their own need, like Isaiah.

One day he saw the glory of God and he was never the same after that because he saw what he was and I believe that is why even a man like Paul, on one hand he could say, like he said in Acts 23 verse 1, all my life I have lived with a good conscience.

What does that mean? I've never taken the Lord's name in vain, I've never worshiped idols, I've honored my father and mother, I have never committed adultery, I've never murdered anybody, I've never stolen, I've never borne false witness in court against anyone, I've kept the Sabbath faithfully and then one day I found Christ and found all that was rubbish that I could glory in that I found the righteousness of Jesus and I'm justified, God looks at me as I've never sinned in my life and that same man in the same breath would say, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am number one.

Have you ever thought how that could be? On one hand he has lived such an upright life and at the same time he thinks he is the greatest sinner on the earth. That is the mark of a genuine man of God. He lives in with a clear conscience but he feels he is the greatest sinner on earth because he lives in God's presence and therefore he is quick to humble himself.

Humility, Confession, and Apologizing to Others

I want to ask all of you, many of you are senior brothers in the church, do you ever apologize to anybody for something wrong that you did? Just use your mind a little bit right now, think of the last time when you went to somebody and said brother I'm sorry I was wrong, please forgive me.

I want you to be honest, some of you are elders, you can't remember when you ever said that to anyone, be honest before God. You can be satisfied with your ministry, oh God is blessing me, God is using me to help so many people in the church in so many ways, maybe God is helping you in your church to advise the brothers and encourage them and preach sermons that will challenge them and exhort them and many of you elders are even in your churches conducting marriages and establishing happy homes, wonderful, sharing God's word and we have distribution of articles now in Tamil, Malayalam, everything, wonderful and you are doing so many ministries, great.

But let me ask you, when was the last time you went to somebody and said brother I'm sorry I was wrong, I made a mistake, please forgive me, if you are honest, I think some of you will have to say I don't remember that I ever said that, I can't remember the last ten years I ever said that, oh then you must have become perfect ten years ago, I'll tell you my dear brothers, the reason why there is not more freshness and anointing in our CFC pulpits is because we are not sitting in the presence of God like David did, we are not seeing his glory, we are not being humbled by the sight of our own sin, Paul was the holiest man that was living on earth at that time and yet he felt he was the greatest sinner, how do these things go together?

They do go together, the holiest man on earth is usually the one who feels he is the greatest sinner on earth because he lives in God's presence, if he does not live in God's presence, he may be living a very holy life, there are many brothers who live a very good life, they don't violate the law, they do so many good things, they are so active in God's work and they are elders also and they are serving and serving and serving and sacrificing and all that but they never apologize to anyone because there is no sense that I have ever done anything wrong, something is wrong, is it really true that you have lived your life for so many years without ever hurting anybody, without ever stamping on somebody's feet, you may say I have apologized to my wife, that is not a great thing, you apologize to your wife because it is a selfish desire, you want peace in the home, all husbands will apologize to their wives because they want peace in the home, otherwise life is miserable at home, I am not asking about your wife, I am asking if you have apologized to another brother, have you apologized to an elder brother or a younger brother anytime?

God Examines Life More Than Ministry

It is really true, I am speaking, if the Lord speaks to your heart, take it seriously brother, you may be very senior brother but there is something you have missed out completely in your life, despite all the wonderful ministry God has given you, I am not denying it, maybe hundreds of people are being blessed through you but something is missing in your life and you will discover it when you stand at the judgment seat of Christ, that it is not your ministry God looks at but your life.

Martha was active and she was doing so much for the Lord and so may you and I, but Jesus said Martha you are worried about many things, look at Mary, she is just sitting at my feet, looking at me, one of my favorite hymns is, Father of Jesus, love's reward, what rapture will it be, prostrate before your throne to lie there and gaze and gaze on thee, not doing any ministry, just gazing.

Do you know anything of that in your life? Do you know anything of these words of David, one thing I have desired of the Lord, not ministry, just to sit, just to see you Lord, just to sit around and look at you, to see your glory, that is a worshipper.

Worship Before Service

Very few people know what it is to worship God and that is the tragedy of our generation. Jesus said in Matthew 4 .10, you shall worship, thou shalt worship and then thou shalt serve. I have remembered that all my life, that I cannot serve without worshipping and worshipping is not singing songs in the meeting, people, all of Christendom says we have praise and worship, there is no worship there, all those songs are praise and thanksgiving, they have not understood what worship is.

Be a worshipper, that is what I would tell you, that is what I always tell my fellow elders, be a worshipper, more than preaching and serving, be a worshipper, live in God's presence, keep your face in the dust, like John at the age of 95, this is my favourite picture of a servant of God, John the Apostle in Revelation 1, flat on his face before God, before Jesus and it is like a dead man beholding his glory.

We need many many experiences like that, all of you young people, brothers, sisters, I loved such times when I was young, we must say to the Lord, Lord ministry is not the main thing for me, I want to be a worshipper first and if you give me a ministry, so be it, if you give me no ministry, that is also fine, I can sit in your presence and be a worshipper all my life, that is what I am going to do for all eternity.

I am not going to be preaching in heaven, I am not going to be planting churches in heaven, I am not going to be healing the sick or casting out demons in heaven, all that would have finished, but there is something I will do for all eternity in heaven, it is worship God and I want to begin to do that here and let me tell you a little secret, you learn to do that here and your ministry will be far more effective to sit in God's presence and the Lord says what do you want and I say Lord I want nothing, I just want to sit and look at you, you are precious to me and you will see your need like Isaiah and say woe is me, you will see the people with whom you need to set matters right, if you have sat in the presence of God and the beauty of the Lord God has come upon you, it says when Moses came, they could see the glory of God on his face, he didn't even have to say anything, there was the radiance of, that's how it can be brothers, have a longing to live in God's presence my brothers and sisters, some of you sisters, I don't know whether you wish, I wish I were a man, I could have been an elder or I could have got up and preached, is that what you want?

Carrying Christ’s Presence Into the World

You can bring the presence of God in a meeting by Mary who sat at the Lord's feet, that was a woman who sat at the Lord's feet and poured out the perfume and the whole house was filled with the odor of the ointment, imagine one woman's presence filled the house with this aroma, it can be like that with you, seek to be like that, we need men and women in the next generation, my dear brothers and sisters, young brothers and sisters, may this be the passion of your heart, Lord I want to take the presence of Christ with me wherever I go, that whatever people may say about me, they call me cult leader, heretic, whatever, they'll never forget me, they'll never forget that there was one man who showed something of Jesus to them, in their dying moments they will remember it, till their dying moments, you can be a man like that, even if you have no gift of preaching, you can be a woman like that, seek to dwell in God's presence and be filled with His spirit, that the aroma of Christ will saturate you like a perfume, who can stop you from being like that, you don't need any elder brother's influence to put you in the pulpit or any such thing, let's pray, there are many things God has spoken to us today, let us absorb them, allow the Holy Spirit to remind us of them at the appropriate season, thank you Father, we humble ourselves before you, you're such a wonderful Father, what a wonderful God, we seek to see your glory more and more, show us thy face O God, one transient gleam of loveliness divine, and we shall never think or dream of other love, help us, we pray each one, in Jesus' name.