“Practicing The Presence of God”
Sermon Title: Practicing The Presence of God
Scripture: John 15:1-11 NIV
Introduction (Today’s passage is an apt precursor to Philippians chapter 4)
Imagine 2000 years ago, hearing about this man from Galilee, unlike the Jewish leaders, is uneducated, the son of a carpenter. Yet, he speaks a message filled with truth, power, inspiration, and hope for all from the greatest to the smallest. He calls out in an authoritative, firm, and yet gentle tone that those poor in spirit today will be blessed, those who are meek will inherit the earth, and those who are pure in heart will see God. His words are not only filled with hope but accompanied by caring, compassionate, and responsive miracles for the poor, sick, and dead are raised back to life. He is gentle to the weak, the outcast, the sinner, but he holds contempt to the so-called spiritual leaders of the day, the self-righteous, the self-glorifying, who have barred the way to salvation. He has no fear of these people and he does not fear overturning their practices and understanding. In fact, it may be them who are in fear of him. Who is this man called Jesus?
You have his message and see all that he has done. You are convinced that this man Jesus is the Messiah who was foretold to come and you choose to follow him. You begin to trust him and give him honour and worship as the Son of God because this is what you have come to believe. Your faith in God, your compassion towards others, increases and surges, you sense a transformation in your life and you know are now someone new. Then you hear him say that he is going away to prepare a place for you, but in the meantime, he has given us a gift, the Holy Spirit, to be with us until the day he comes back.
Jesus says: Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. (John 14:12-13)
And we find ourselves asking these questions: What does this mean? I can ask for anything in His name and He will do it? How can this happen?
Remain in Me - Choice
John 15:1-11 is Jesus’ reply to the question: If He is the way, the truth, and the life, and no one can come to the Father but through Him, then what must I do to be saved? What must I do as his disciple?
- In this passage, we hear both a warning and a reassurance – and the command is simple, but difficult to live out: “remain in me.” Jesus repeats this command NINE times in this passage alone.
- The original Greek text for is “παραμένει” (para-men-ay), meaning to “remain,” or “abide,” but it also holds these meanings: (1) “not to depart,” or “to continue to be present” (ref. to a place); (2) “to continue to be,” “to last,” or “to endure.” (ref. to time); (3) “to remain as one,” or “not to become another or different.” (ref. to condition or state).
- the continuousness, the undividedness, and infiniteness of Christ’s presence in us is fundamental in the command for us to continue to abide/remain in him. We must remember that Christ is here always, but to be present with Christ means we must make a conscious decision. The challenge is, will you remain and be present in him?
- It is easy to remain in him when things are good and everything is working out for you, but will you continue to remain in him when you face injustice and evil or when troubles and tragedies happen in your life? When you are hurt and suffering and the world seems to offer some kind of relief, comfort, or distraction from the pain or something that looks more wonderful than Jesus, will you choose to remain in him?
Remain in Me – Mind and Thoughts
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. (John 15:1-2)
- We may feel that Christ is being unfair to us because he makes speaks as if this is such a simple, obvious, and natural thing to do. Jesus’ words in John 15:1-2 may seem unlikely of a loving Jesus, but Jesus is clear on our choices and we live constantly with this choice before us. We know the truth in our mind, but our heart, soul, and body cannot seem to live out this truth. You are not alone in this struggle. We all struggle with this tension.
- (A great reference is Brother Lawrence’s letters published in “Practicing the Presence of God.”) Brother Lawrence says: “We must know before we can love. In order to know God, we must often think of Him; and when we come to love Him, we shall then also think of Him often, for our heart will be with our treasure.” Brother Lawrence gives us insight and direction on how to remain in Jesus – we must fill our thoughts with Jesus.
- Steven Covey, in his book, “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,” says: “Sow a thought, reap an action; sow an action, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character, reap a destiny.” We have two creations: the thought and the construction. Like an architect, we think and create a vision of who we want to be or what we want to be in our mind: then, the thought creation leads to us to choose our actions and choices, which when repeated, creates a habit, which when exhibited reveals our character; and if remaining in Him is to also be like Him, our character reveal whom we’ve chosen to remain with – which is also another derivative of the word remain which I had outlined earlier – to remain as one or not to be another
- Our choice to remain in Jesus’ presence is what we choose to fill our mind with – not just on Sundays and during worship, but in our daily living activity
Remain in Me – Time
- The book, Sixty Minute Father, addresses the importance of fatherhood and analyzes many fathers who are businessmen to see how much time they spend with their children. It shows how their achievements have come at the expense of their relationship with their children. A section of the book, The Forty Second Father, shows the average amount of time fathers spend with their children on average daily. Is it any wonder why fathers have no relationships with their children?
- If your relationship with Christ is not as deep as you wanted, could it be that your time with Christ is so nominal? Time is of the essence; some may claim that it is quality over quantity, but in our relationship with Christ, quality is quantity
Reflection and Response
Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”
1. Are you abiding or remaining in Him? That is, are you continuing to be present in Him?
2. How much quality time are you spending with God each day?
3. How can you abide in Him so that you can bear fruit?
4. What are some of the things or people you have remained/abided in other than Christ?