Sunday 8th December 2019

Sunday 8th December 2019

Today is the second week of our Advent series of messages called, "Like a Child". If you missed last week, what we're doing in this series is looking at some attributes of God from the perspective of a child. And we’re doing it because Jesus said something surprising when some parents brought children to him. The disciples weren't having anything to do with that, they were like, 'No, no, no, no, no; keep your kids away from Jesus, He's way too important for that!'

And Jesus didn't like what they were doing. He said, 'No, no, no, no, no!' Let the children come to me.' And then He said something really interesting in Mark 10:15

I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the Kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it. 

Anyone who will not receive the Kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it. Jesus was teaching us that we can be intellectual, and we can be mature; but we should at the same time believe in God and accept His Kingdom with the innocence and the faith of a little child.

So, last week we thought ‘God is for me’, and I want to show you the video we had problemsshowing last week.

Today I want to look at the presence of God from the perspective of a child – God is with me.

The theological term that you would use if you were in seminary or a Bible class is the word omnipresence. And what that means is that God is everywhere; He's here, He's there, He's around the world, He's everywhere. But a little child would more likely personalise it and wouldn't just say that God is everywhere, but that:

God is with me.

He's not just everywhere, we know that; but he's actually a very personal God who's with me. And presence really matters, especially to a child.

For example, if you leave a child alone at a house they’re going to freak out as soon as the house creaks or there's any kind of noise. But if there's a grown up in the house, someone physically present, the child takes great comfort in that because presence really matters to a child. 

Presence really matters to a child! A little child isn't going to just say, "My God is everywhere, but my God is actually with me”, and that makes all the difference in the world. 

Isaiah 41:10 So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

Hebrews 13:5 Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.

When you believe that He's with you, when you truly internalise it things change. Suddenly you have confidence, and you don't worry so much about what happens to you, or what people say or think about you, because you know God is with you, and He's for you, and He's working in all things to bring about good. You have real confidence like a child who believes, "My God is with me." Jeremiah 20:11 But the Lord is with me like a mighty warrior

The problem is many of us, even those of us who are committed Christians don't believe it. You may have kind of an intellectual on paper type of theological understanding, "Yeah, God is everywhere!" but we don't really believe that He's with us. What you need to understand is the way God is with us has actually changed over time. In the Old Testament when He would say, "I am with you!" what that kind of meant was, 'I'm for you, I'm on your side, I'm with you!' 

In the New Testament, if you happen to read the Christmas story this time of year, and I hope you do, you'll realize that when Jesus came He was called Emanuel, which means God with us. 

John 1:14

(CEVThe Word became a human being and lived here with us. We saw his true glory, the glory of the only Son of the Father. From him all the kindness and all the truth of God have come down to us.

(MSGThe Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighbourhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son. Generous inside and out, true from start to finish.

God came to earth and he was no longer just on our side with us, then he was physically with us in the person of Jesus. 

Then it got better. When Jesus gave his life on the cross and was raised from the dead, he promised to send Holy Spirit who would live in us. No matter where you are, God will never leave you nor forsake you. And when you can go back to the faith of a little child and believe, "My God is with me!" it changes everything.

So what I want to do today is ask, if God is with us, how can we be with Him? How can we have just a moment with the God who is always with us? How can we internalize that truth and enjoy the presence of God? How do we have a moment with God? And let me give you four very simple, Biblical truths. 

The first thing I want to encourage every single one of you to do is just to talk to him, learn to talk to God. And the reason I didn't say pray to God is that for some people it is a confusing and intimidating word. Some people are like, "I don't know how to pray. What do I call God?" You know, the approach matters, is it Dear Heavenly Father, Almighty God, Creator and Sustainer, what do I call God? And that intimidates some people. Others seem to think that prayer is only for the keen folk, or the holy folk.

And then, if you've ever been around people in a Christian prayer meeting, sometimes they change and they don't just use their talking voices, they have special ‘prayer voices’. Have you ever noticed that? 

What I want to do is just encourage you to make it as simple as you can, and realize that when God is with you just talk to Him. Talk to Him like you would a friend. 

In fact, I love the way David phrased this in his prayer life to God, Psalm 54:2

God, hear my prayer. Listen to what I’m saying.

What I've learned now is I actually pray much more by just having an ongoing conversation with God throughout the day. It's kind of like if I would text a friend, they're short spurts of communication with God. And you may say, "What do I talk about? I don't know what to talk about."

Well, Paul told the Philippians something that really gives us good direction of what to talk about, Philippians 4:6-7, he said: Don’t worry about anything. No matter what happens, tell God about everything. Ask and pray, and give thanks to him. Then God’s peace will watch over your hearts and your minds. He will do this because you belong to Christ Jesus. God’s peace can never be completely understood.

What does that include? Pray about your geometry exam, pray about your hamster that got out again and you can't find, pray about what to get for the person that has everything for Christmas, pray about your marriage that's not doing as well as it should be, pray about how to deal with your difficult relative that comes to your Christmas thing every year because everybody has a difficult relative. And if you’re sitting there saying, "I don't have a difficult relative," it’s YOU! Because every family has a difficult relative! 

And so, you pray about everything and then Scripture says you should just simply:

Tell God about everything

You just talk to God because He is with you. You talk to Him and you thank Him for all He has done.

Verse 7 says that even although we can’t properly understand it God’s peace will be in our hearts and minds.

Because my God is with me I will talk to Him. How do I have a moment with God? Just talk to Him.

The second thing is:

Since God is with you, you should listen to Him as well as talk to him.

In fact, Deuteronomy 30:20 tells us to:

…Listen to God's voice, and hold fast to Him. For the Lord is your life…

Listen to God's voice. 

Now, I know a lot of people, even committed Christians who would say, “You know I've never heard God's voice. I'm listening for it. I'm waiting for a voice that sounds like Morgan Freeman.” Well, I believe that God can still speak that way – not necessarily sounding like Morgan Freeman, because He's God and He can do whatever He wants, but God speaks in so many other ways. And I really truly believe that if you have any kind of prayer life with God that you should spend more time listening than you do talking. 

So, how does God speak? Well unquestionably, the best and most reliable way to hear God's voice is to read His Word. You read His Word and He'll speak to you, I promise you. You make it a part of your daily life and He'll speak to you. 

He can speak through people; He may give you wisdom from a friend or from a parent, or from someone you don’t even know. God can speak to you through a song on the radio or He can speak to you through circumstances. You were like, "I thought I was supposed to do that but that door closed, I guess God is directing me somewhere else." 

God can speak to you through His Spirit. If you're a Christian, you are spiritually connected with God and His Spirit somehow internally speaks to you, prompts you, guides you and you learn to recognize the voice of His Spirit. 

Now some of you might say, "That's kind of creepy, I don't even know how that works!"

Let me tell you the most simple thing you can do and if you don't think you've ever heard God's voice, do this, do it today! Get a piece of paper and a pen or a pencil and just ask God a question: “Who do you want me to pray for?" And then just stop talking and listen, and watch as all of a sudden these names pop into your head. Write them down and just start talking to God about them. Then, if you want to get really fancy say, "What do you want me to pray for?" and watch as God gives you direction. Then if you want to be incredibly blessed, call or text the people that you were praying for and say, "God just put you on my heart, I was praying for you." And watch as how often they'll say, "Oh my gosh, how did you know?" 

And suddenly, when you get used to being directed by His Word you start to ask Him questions throughout the day and you're doing life with Him, hearing His voice as you go. 

The longer you walk with God and the more you realize He's with you, you don't just talk to Him but you listen to Him and He guides you and He gives you direction. I love the way it's phrased in Isaiah 30:21

Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying, "This is the way; walk in it."

I talk to Him. I listen to Him. Because my God is with me, I also receive from Him. 

Because your God is with you, you receive from Him.

The problem is many of us as adults; we don't know how to receive from God very well. We don't even know how to receive from other people very well. We're like so full of pride we're like, "I'll help you but we don't ask for help." Or "I'm happy to give, but I'm not good at receiving." How many of you are a little bit like that, right? You're not very good at receiving? A little kid, man they're good at receiving. Have you ever heard a kid say, "No, no, no, really that's too many presents! I can't, I'm not worthy of that, please give those toys to some more deserving child than me!" 

With a child-like faith in the presence of God we learn to receive from Him. Let me tell you a few of the things that God will give you if you'll receive from Him. 

God's presence gives you courage when you're afraid. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for you are with me. God's presence gives you strength when you're weak. God's presence gives you rest when you're weary. Some of you, you're worn out and exhausted, and in His presence, He gives you a very real spiritual rest. God's presence gives you comfort when you're hurting and that's the point I want to land on for a moment right now because I know in my own life so many people that I love right now are really significantly hurting. And many of you right now, you're going through trials and struggles and you're in some type of pain. And what I want you to understand; that you can literally receive from God even now – strength, comfort, even healing because God is with you He will comfort you. 

Our God can comfort you; He is the God of all comfort and can comfort you in all of your troubles. Isaiah 66:13 As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you. *

And the fourth thing I want to tell you is because my God is with me I'm going to enjoy His presence.

I'm just going to enjoy His goodness and enjoy His presence. How many of you notice it's so much more fun to enjoy something you love with someone you love? It's so much more fun. You've got something really fun, you're by yourself it's not as much fun as if you're enjoying something fun with someone you love. 

Well, when you realize that God is with me, suddenly you can enjoy everything that you enjoy with the God who gave you everything you enjoy. And you enjoy Him more and you enjoy life more. And you start to realize, you're driving to work and there's an awesome sunrise and you're like, "God you did that, you're showing off again God!" and you enjoy His presence in the sunrise. And you walk in and you say, "Hey God, I need your help with this situation." You know that God is with you. And then you say, "I believe that person needs something God, what do you want me to say to them?" And then God gives you something to say and you minister to them. And you enjoy life with God because He is with you and you experience his presence. And when you realize He is with you, life changes.

Let me give you a couple of verses that I believe are so helpful. Psalm 16:11 You always show me the path of life. You will fill me with joy when I am with you. You will make me happy forever at your right hand.

Solomon said this in Proverbs 8:30 I was filled with delight day after day. I was always happy to be with him.

What if you could say that? I was filled with delight day after day, rejoicing always in His presence because my God is with me. How do you have a moment with God? You have a moment with God when you realize He's with you and you can talk to Him like you would a friend; when you choose listen to Him; when you receive from Him because He's the God of all comfort and when you enjoy Him because He's with you.







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