Title: The Presence of God 16.06.06
I am excited that I can have a chance to share the word of God with you today. I am glad that your leader invited me here today. Because your leader invited me, so I come. Because I decided to come, that’s why I’m here to night. If he doesn’t invite me, I wouldn’t have come, and I would not be here tonight. So tonight I’m here. I invited a few of my frens to come with me tonight, they decided to come, and they are here tonight. If I never invited them, they would not come, and they will not be here tonight. Halleluyah, because of your invitation, all of us have invited, and all of us have made to decision to come, and all of us are here tonight. Some of you here tonight, maybe your fren invited you to come, if they doesn’t invite you, you will not be here, and you will not made the decision to come, and you will not come. So I’m happy all of you are here tonight.
Let’s pray:
I’m very sure, just now when I gave my introduction, some of you might be thinking in your heart. What is this pastor talking. She spoke soooo much just to sum up in one sentence that she’s happy that she is here tonight, that’s it!!! I’m here tonight to share on the title of the presence of God.
In order to understand what is the presence of God, you need to know what is not the presence of God. There are 4 examples that I want you to know tonight.
1. The presence of God doesn’t equal to loud music.
Everybody write loud music. Too many people think that, the louder is our praise and worship, the more the presence of God is in our midst.
The louder I shout, the stronger the presence of God is among us. Halleluyah!!!! Thank you Jesus!!! Frens, the presence of God doesn’t equal to the loudness of your music, if it’s that way, then the bible wouldn’t tell us that Elijah heard God in a still small voice. I’m not saying loud music is not good, I love praise and worship, I love to dance, btw I did a 2 full years of dance in Singapore. I’m not against any style of worship, but the presence of God is not equal to our loud music. I heard enough of people told me that pastor Wincci; I shouted very loudly, sing with all of my heart during the service. I even got bad soar throd after the service. Wah I really feel the presence of God very strongly man.
But how many of you know that next week, when we have prayer meeting, I never see that person, or not long later, he just back slide with no reason. If loud music equal to the presence of God, how can he get back slide in such a short time?
Tell your neighbor: the presence of God doesn’t equal to loud music.
2. The presence of God doesn’t equal to activities
Many people think, as long as I get busy enough with God, God is surely with me. Or some people might think, wah my church got a lot of activities, very active, everybody is serving all the time, sure the presence of God is with us. Oh that church down the road, not much activities, the only thing they have is prayer meeting and bible study class, boring. The presence of God is not with them. Listen fren, the presence of God doesn’t measure by your loud music, neither your service for God.
Tell your neighbor: The presence of God is not equal to activities.
3. The presence of God is not equal to good feeling.
Pastor, I tell you, this morning worship was great man. When I was singing, I feel good. I tell you the pastor sure have the presence of God, when he pray for me, I slain, the ka gia pray for me, no slain. This morning, when I was praying, my hand was shaking. Your hand didn’t shake, you don’t have the presence of God.
Tell your neighbor: The presence of God doesn’t equal to good feeling.
4. The presence of God doesn’t equal to miracles.
Wow, great things happening there, that is the presence of God.
Through my introduction, I want you to know a very important principle of God. The presence of God is not a thing, loud music. The presence of God is not a feeling; the presence of God is not activities, how much you serve Jesus. The presence of God is a not even some miraculous thing happening around us. The presence of God is about the person!!
Everybody say: The person!
Frens today before you can seek for the presence of God in your life, you must get this right. Too many people seek the blessings of God, see the touch of God, see some great experience from God, but they don’t seek God. Frens, through my introduction I want you to know a very important principle of God. The presence of God is God Himself. Tonight if I decided not to come, but I give Caleb my coat, all you have is just my coat and not me. Unless I come, you will have me. You understand? We many times have side track of chasing the “coat” of Jesus, and not Jesus himself. We want a super extra ordinary touch from heaven. We care for how hard our hand can shake, how loud the music can go more than whether God is truly in our midst or not.
Listen, the best part is, when you have me, you can have my coat. Right? But when you have my coat, it doesn’t mean you have me!
That means when you seek Jesus Himself, you will have what he have. Miracle happen when Jesus comes.
Miracles is not the presence of God, it’s the manifestation of the presence of God. So we don’t seek miracles, but we seek the God who perform the miracles. Amen!! Because when we have God, we will experience the miracles. Halleluyah!! Let’s give God a big hand.
Tell you neighbor: When you seek God, you will experience the miracle.
What does it mean the presence of God? If we say the presence of God is God Himself. Then it is a person. Right? So the presence of God is not something it comes when you like it kind of thing, and it will go away when you don’t feel like it. It is a relationship. Today I presence here because I have a relationship with your leader so he invited me.
You love to be with someone’s presence because you love to relate to that person. Right? Frens, the presence of God in your life is directly related to your relationship with God. That’s why in all my years of ministry I hear enough of young people told me this, “I’m tired pastor, I’m dry out, I’m back slide”..the root problem is you being discipline to have a relationship with God. How can you say that you want the presence of God but doesn’t want to relate to God? Amen!!
Let’s read
Matt 7: 24-29
Here Jesus talks about 2 kinds of people, one he called them foolish, and other one he called them wise.
The foolish man build his house on sand. (sing…)
The wise man build his house upon the rock(and the house on the rock stand firm)
These speaks to us the 2 kinds of relationship with God as well.
The first kind build the relationship on the sand. What is sand to us? Something not stable, not firm, something changeable. When the rain comes, when the storm blow into our lives. It will ruin the relationship.
But the other kind of relationship is build on the rock. When problems comes in, it will not ruin them, they will be strong, they will be firm, because of the nice glass they use..
Because of the Italy door they imported? No because of their foundation. Everybody say: foundation!!
The foundation they build on. The presence of God is directly related to your relationship with God. Let me say again. The presence of God is directly related to your relationship with God. In other words, the presence of God is the result of your relationship with God!!
There are 3 things that we can do to help us to relate to Jesus:
1. Worship God whole heartedly
If you truly want the presence of God in your life, then this is the first foundation that you need to restore in your life.
Why worship?
Worship draws the presence of God
Worship welcomes the person of God to you!
Worship release the power of God
Worship fills you with the love of God
When you worship Him, His presence is there, when you worship Him, He release His power, when you worship Him, He fills you with His love.
You notice, I say worship God whole heartedly, because many people, I don’t think its you lah. They worship with one eye close, and another eye open to see “mei nu”, during worship they are thinking, later I must get her hp hum.
Don’t just worship Him, but worship Him whole heartedly. Why I say that? When you worship Jesus whole heartedly, whether your neighbor is singing or not, whether we have great music or not, whether are we singing your favorite song or not,
even singing the right style that suit you or not, is no more important than WHO you worship. The person is the matter. Jesus is the reason why you worship and not your favorite song!! The centre of worship is Jesus alone when you worship Him whole heartedly. Friends, when you start to worship God whole heartedly, you know what you actually doing? You are practicing the presence of God in your life. You will find the more you practice that, the more you love to worship God. It’s like if you always relate to a person, you feel comfortable with the presence of that person. But if you seldom relate to that person, you will feel awkward when he/she presence.
But what happen if you don’t worship Jesus? Or the only time you worship Him is on Sunday morning? Let me tell you….
You will feel uncomfortable to enter into His presence. It will take you a long time to focus on Jesus because you don’t USE to do that. Let me say again. Worship usher the presence of God into your life. If you want the presence of God, you can never have it without worship Him!! Amen!!!
Let’s turn to Jhn 4:24
Let’s stop just worship Jesus, but start worship Jesus whole heartedly in our lives because He is seeking us. His presence will change us. This is the first foundation we need to build strong, the foundation of worship. Amen!
Tell your neighbor: Let’s worship Jesus whole heartedly.
2. Pray to God fervently
The second foundation you need to build strong is your prayer life. Maybe some of you might say. No fail I pray every morning, no matter what weather raining day, sunny day, cloudy day, I still give thanks to God. And I pray during every meal, no matter which restaurant I go, mamak stall, or KFC, or even 5 star hotel I also pray. And I pray at night. Every night I will thank God that my whole day “sun sun”.
Is that your prayer life? If that is your prayer life, how can you expect the presence of God? By the way, I have this cousin, she is a Singaporean. A funny Singaporean. Every time she called me, she will talk and talk and talk non stop. If I wanted to give my opinion, she will shout “wait”, and she will continue to talk and talk and talk. And the worst is, without saying bye bye, I will hear a tooooo….
Is your prayer life like that? God bless me, bless my family, bless my result…bless bless bless, god I very tired, and without saying in the name of Jesus amen, you already fall asleep.
Fren, do you truly hunger for the presence of God in your life? If the answer is Yes!, then pray fervently, not just pray.
If you want to see breakthrough in your life, if you wish to experience the person of God, Then you got to work on your prayer life.
Rom 12:11-12
Frens, you might be thinking now “ohh, worship again, prayer again.” Are you serious on seeking the presence of God? Then you can never have the person of God without relate to him without talking to him.
Tell your neighbor : Pray fervently.
3. Read His word hungrily
If you long to see great thing happen in your life, then you need to stop just reading the bible, but read His word with a hunger heart.
Stop just open any page and read one chapter everyday and think that you have done your part, start reading His word with a hunger heart. You will then start to see revelation from different pages. His word will start to change your life. His word will start to build your character. More than that, His word tells you who He is as a person.
Let’s read how much the psalmists hunger for the word of God.
Psalm 119: 11,18,43,62,73,92,105
This is how the psalmists hunger for the word of God. And I only took it all in one chapter in the bible.
Fred W. Cropp, president of American bible Society, received a letter asking a question, “what do you recommend for keeping the leather on the back of bibles from still, cracking and peeking?” the reply was “there is one oil that is especially good for treatment of leather on bibles. In fact it will insure your bible will stay in good condition. It is not sold, but may be found in the palm of the human hand.”
Fren, when was the last time you read your bible? Was it the last time you came to church? Or you don’t even remember that?
Or you only read it when you face problem…(open and read..) that’s not the way to hunger for the presence of God.
Let’s start hunger for the word of word in our lives. Let’s don’t get too busy to build this foundation back in our lives. The word of God is God Himself in written form. It’s contradict to say I want the presence of God but I don’t want to read the bible. Amen!!! The third foundation we need to build strong is the word of God.
Tell your neighbor: Let’s read his word hungrily.
By now, you might be thinking that, “aiya, I was excited wanting to know how I can have the presence of God in my life, so the answer is just these.” Yes!!! I am firm to say that the answer is not only just these, but keep on doing these. If you want the presence of God, then how can you do it without relate to Him? If you want to relate to God, then how can you do it without worship him, talk to him and read his word?
Everyone of us know that if you want to excel in anything, for example a skill, or your study, or a relationship you can never despise the basic. Because without doing the basic well, you can never excel in that area right?
This apply in our spiritual life as well. If you want to experience a great life with Jesus, if you truly want the presence of God, then you can never despise the basic. Because these 3 things build the foundation of your Christian life. This basic can never be replace, can never be ignore if you want to see yourself soar high in Jesus Christ. Not just worship Jesus, but worship Him wholeheartedly. Not just pray to Him, but pray with a fervent heart.
Not just read His word, but read it with a hunger heart. And I guarantee you, you will start to experience the person of God!!
Before I end, I want to share with you three kinds of people who doesn’t have the presence of God.
1. People who have unrepentant sin in their lives.
Fren, our God is a holy God. Sin and holiness can not go together. Are you seriously hunger for the presence of God in your life? Then do you have unrepentant sin in your life that you need to say sorry to Jesus? And turn away from your sin.
2. People who don’t really want the presence of God in their lives.
These people are call the crowd, they follow where the crowd goes. When they see Jesus perform miracles, they are so excited to go and see, they are excited to join the crowd, they love the party but not Jesus himself. When the crowd wanted to hung Jesus on the cross, they follow the crowd, because Jesus is never the one they chase after. They chase after the fun, they chase after the crowd, the chase after the miracles, but not Jesus Himself. The sad thing is, Jesus was never attracted by the crowd, he was only attracted by his disciples. Are you one of them?
3. People who are afraid of commitment
Have you heard of this before? “I love you with all of my heart honey, I want to have children with you, but I’m just not ready to marry you.” Sound familiar right? These are the people who doesn’t willing to commit but want to enjoy the result of the commitment.
It is like telling Jesus “I like your blessing Jesus, but please don’t ask me to suffer. I like to hear from you Jesus but please don’t ask me to obey you if I’m think that’s too hard for me to do it”.
Fren, how far your commitment can bring you? It is only when you are convenient then you will commit? If it is not convenient and it’s out of your comfort zone, will you still commit?
Let me tell you a fact that truly blesses me when I prepare this sermon.
A person call Paul Rogers has done some calculating of just how far the Apostle Paul walked in his efforts to spread the gospel. According to Acts, he took three missionary journeys. The second of these alone amounted to three thousand miles, (everybody say wow!!) two thousand of which would have been on foot. The average daily distance of a traveler of that time was about twenty miles, with a Roman Inn being located every 20 to 25 miles along the road. The travel recorded in Acts 16 alone would have covered 740 miles. Chapter 15 alone would be 500 miles. And to think he was walking not for his own health, but for the spiritual well-being of others!
That was the commitment level of Paul. How far can you go for Jesus frens?
Let me tell you a joke before I end.
A chicken and a pig were walking past a church building one day when they noticed the Sunday morning sermon posted on the outside bulletin board, "Helping the Poor." They walked away when the chicken suddenly came across with a suggestion. "Brother pig, why don’t we give all the poor people a nice breakfast of ham and eggs?" The pig thought a moment and replied, "That’s all right for you to say because for you it is only a contribution, but for me, it’s total commitment!" How far can you go for Jesus fren?
Conclusion:
Commitment is a result of choice, it’s not a condition. It’s never about bargain with God “God you give me this, then I will commit.” No fren, it’s a choice. I can give you points 123 how to build the presence of god in your lives, I can give you points 123 pople who doesn’t have the presence of God so that you can prevent from falling into it. I can give you points 1234 what is not the presence of God, but tonight, if you walk out this place thinking that this is too much to commit, to boring to do in my life, I just be a normal Christian, then I would say you forget about the whole thing of the presence of God. Because the presence of God is God Himself. You can never have it without building the most foundation as a Christian in your life. There is no shortcut to the presence of God. You need to start to rebuild the foundation of worship, the foundation of prayer, and the foundation of the word of God in our life. When you decide to commit, your decision will always cost something. There is no such thing as a free commitment. It will surely cost your time, it will cost you put in effort to wake up early in the morning to read His word, to talk to Him. It may even cost you a friendship as well in order to stand firm on your believe. Are you willing? How far are you willing to go for Jesus?
