The Awareness of God’s Presence

Do you feel isolated? Alone? Full of fear or anxiety? In times like we face in the world today, believers need to hold on to the promises of Christ. Friend, God hasn’t abandoned you. But are you conscious that He’s with you right now, at this very moment? This message encourages you to be mindful of divine activity in your life right now and become more aware of God’s presence.

This sermon was recorded before COVID-19. For the protection of our staff members and the community, we are currently following safety guidelines by practicing social distancing. We appreciate your understanding. For more messages from Charles Stanley.

Where is god in your life?
You say, well, he’s not in my life. Well, is that the way you want it?
If you decide you don’t want god in your life, he’s not gonna force himself on you, but you don’t know what you’re missing.
Or you may say, well, I’ll tell you about god in my life.
Sometimes I feel he’s there and sometimes I don’t. Sometimes I’m close to him, sometimes I’m distant.
Well, what’s going on when you feel close to him?
Well, he’s meeting your needs, and, uh, you’re in church, you read, you read the scripture, and everything’s sort of going your way.
What is it that makes you feel he’s distant?
Is it because something’s missing in your life that if some needs you don’t feel like he’s exactly working on to your best advantage?
What makes you feel this distance from almighty god?
When he says that he’s everywhere, and he is.
In other words, when you look up in the sky at night, and you study a little bit of astronomy, and you begin to see all the planets and how absolutely perfect their schedule is, uh, in relating to each other, and all the fantastic things beyond our comprehension.
There is a god And he’s in charge, and he’s in control, and everything is going the way he wants it to go.
Down here on earth, We just make all kind of messes of things.
But those of us who trust him, we have an awareness of him that others do not have.
Why do you want to live your life apart from a loving sovereign god who knows all he’s omniscient?
Has all power. He’s omnipotent. And he’s omnipresent, which means that he is everywhere.
But a better way to say that is that everywhere is in his presence.
Somebody says, as well, it’s god over yonder, and over yonder, and back yonder. Listen. No.
All of that is in the presence of almighty god. What an awesome god we have?
And you don’t want him in your life? He’s a god of love and goodness and mercy.
He sent his only begotten son Jesus into the world that you and I might discover what a true genuine life is about, and that our sins can be forgiven, our name written in the lamb’s book of life, and we can listen,
we can be on our way
to heaven when we die In other words, when you look at what becomes yours, when you become a Christian, why would why would you not want god in your life?
Think about the sin in your life that’s keeping you from wanting god in your life.
Now, you compare that with the forgiveness of sin, peace, joy, love, goodness, mercy, kindness.
Your name written in the lamb’s book of life, You have this present helper with you constantly night and day, twenty four hours a day, every day of your life, What in the sinful world do you have that compares with that?
And you and I both, we know that you don’t have anything.
Why not trust him as your personal savior?
Well, what I wanna talk about in this message is our awareness of god.
Now, he’s here whether you’re aware of him or not.
Uh, he’s there when you’re at work, whether you’re aware of him or not.
In other words, your awareness of him doesn’t determine where he is.
In fact, the scripture says Jesus Christ is the same yesterday today and forever. He doesn’t change.
And the reason his location doesn’t change is because all locations are in his presence.
Why would you want to live without a loving father who wants the best for you?
So I wanna talk about this matter of the awareness of his presence, not just his presence.
We all know his presence, but the awareness of his presence.
I want you to turn to the most familiar Psalm, you know, the twenty third Psalm.
There’s one phrase in that I want us to
look at primarily, And so if you’ll turn there for just a moment, the
twenty third Psalm, and, um, you remember that David penned this And he was going through difficulty in all kind of hardship in his life many times before we ever became the king and even afterwards.
So how many times have you read this? The lord is my shepherd.
I shall not want He makes me to lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside quiet waters.
He restores my soul He guides me in the paths of righteousness for his namesake.
What an awesome god who’s doing that. Then he says, even though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death.
I will fear no evil. Why is that? For you are with me.
Your rod and your staff may comfort me as far as I wanna go. You are with me.
And if you’ll think about it, uh, all through
the scriptures, God uses that same phrase
in a different way to different people.
And, I want us to think about this in the light of the fact that god, god works in the life of his servants.
He pro he provides their needs on the basis of his love and kindness taught us.
And, If if you look at the scripture, it’s evident from the scripture that our awareness of his presence is vital to whatever he wants to do in our life.
So let’s start with, uh, the old testament.
For example, the Bible says that Enoch walked with god, and he was not because god took him.
A sense of awareness of God he had.
And, um, if you think about Noah, God told him to build an ark.
And the one thing he said to me, he said, I’m gonna be with you.
Even in those times when he was persecuted for what he was doing, because they didn’t understand I’m with you.
And, uh, following Noah, Uh, let’s just take Abraham, for example.
He said to him, you’ll get up and leave your family and go into a land that I’ll show you.
He didn’t even tell him exactly where he was going at first. He said, but I’m going with you.
I’ll be with you. And if you’ll remember when god spoke to Moses, and he gave him that challenge, to go down and talk to Ferro about letting the people go.
And, uh, he said I’m going with you.
And on one occasion, I thought I was interested in in the thirty third chapter and the fifteenth of verse, I believe, of Exodus.
Uh, he said, uh, uh, we’re going, but we’re not going without you.
Have you ever thought about that in your life?
You’ve had things that you needed to do, but you’re something that I wanna do without god.
And then, When god began to speak to Joshua, I want you to take over Moses’s place an absolutely impossible task, and he said I’ll be with you.
And then when he talked to Gidien, for example, and Gidien said, well, lord,
I’m my family is the
lowest family, uh, in the whole city.
And why you’re asking me, and god said to him, here’s what I want you to do, and I, and I’ll be with you.
And if you’ll recall when David was fighting Goliath, uh, that he said to God.
He said, my god will deliver you into my hands. That sense of oneness.
When he called Isaiah, Isaiah and Jeremiah prophesying in a very difficult time in the nation of Israel, he said too, Isaiah, do not be afraid I’m gonna be with you.
And the Jeremiah, Jeremiah said, what what’s this? He said, I’m going with you.
Then if you slip through all the other prophets over to the new testament, you remember what Jesus sent to his apostles when he sent them out, He said go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
He said, baptizing them in the name of the father, the son, the Holy Spirit, And, lord, I’ll be with you even to the end of this age.
And you remember Jesus spent time talking to his disciples about the fact He was going to leave them, but he wasn’t going to leave them as orphans as he said.
He said, I’ll come I’ll come back to you.
And at Pentecost, The Lord came in a very special way to inhabit the life of every single believer so that when you and I got saved, the spirit of god a personal eternity inhabited our life at that very moment in order to enable you and me to live a godly life in an ungodly world.
And I think about, uh, the apostle Paul, for example, uh, how many times he had to rely upon the presence of god in his life and he was aware of that, in prison when one one prison after the other, then he comes to the end of his life.
And he says, I’ve fought a good fight.
I’ve kept the course And, uh, I’m coming to the end now, and there was this sense of somehow, of, uh, a sense of peace and and, uh, awareness in his heart that he’d given his best, fought a good fight, kept have kept I’ve kept the faith finished up my course now.
And so all of these people whom god used were people who were aware of the presence of god in their life.
And god hasn’t changed. In other words, Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today and forever.
When you trusted Jesus as your savior, listen carefully, you had just as much of Jesus in your heart as did the apostle Paul or any of those other apostles.
And Jesus met an issue of this.
He says, I’m going away, but I’m not gonna leave you as orphans.
He said, for example, I’m in the father, the father’s in me, I knew.
He went to all kinds of ways of encouraging them that even though he was gonna be gone, he’s still gonna be with them.
It was the awareness of his presence that he wanted them to understand.
And remember this, Jesus Christ was the same yesterday today and forever He hadn’t changed.
In other words, he hasn’t changed locations, away, said nothing about him has changed.
And so as they had the Holy Spirit indwelling them, You and I have the Holy Spirit in dwelling us.
But you can live your life, even as a believer, and oftentimes not be aware of the presence of god in your life.
And, uh, when I think about, uh, how Jesus worked and sending them out and how important that was, I want you to turn to the fourteenth chapter of John for a moment.
And let’s look at, um, uh, one verse here that seems to be It seemed it would be almost impossible.
But he was he he said to him in the early part of the fourteenth chapter, Do not let your heart be troubled.
You believe in god believe also in me.
And then he he’s working with his apostles here, and he comes to this, uh, same chapter, fourteenth chapter, and he comes to this twelfth verse.
And listen to this amazing thing he said to them.
Truly, truly, I say to you, He who believes in me the works that I do.
He will do also and greater works than these he will do because I go to the father.
What was he saying? I can use something greater than what he did. That doesn’t even make sense.
But what was he saying? He wasn’t saying the very nature of the work or the quality of the work, but he says, as a result, I’m leaving you, but I’m coming back to you in the Holy Spirit.
And and what I’ve done, you’re gonna do greater. So somebody said, that could be impossible.
But let’s just think about it.
We don’t see Jesus very much in large crowds speaking, except the sermon on the Mount, maybe a few other times.
Usually it’s individuals he’s dealing with, but at Pentecost, Peter preached and, and, what happened, three thousand people got saved.
I don’t know how big the crowd was, but three thousand of them got saved.
Everybody didn’t say, but three thousand did. So what did it mean when he said greater works than these?
Well, that was a greater work when it came to speaking to a huge crowd because that’s what He said, he said, I’m gonna send the Holy Spirit.
He’ll be in you with you and upon you.
And that meant that the the power of God would be upon his servants.
Then for example, if you’ll think about it, and Jesus never traveled over eighty miles from home.
He didn’t he didn’t leave Palestine. And now think about this.
He’s telling this group of, uh, of his disciples, I want you to go into all the world and preach the gospel.
I think it’d probably been out. I said, oh, wait a minute. Have you been in all the world?
What are your nose out there?
And so, of course, this is the Roman world of slavery, poverty, power and all the rest.
He said, I want you to go into all the world and preach the gospel. So what happened?
He said, the works you do are gonna be greater than what I’ve done.
The apostle Paul and those apostles went preaching the gospel.
They spread that little new testament church all over the Roman world.
And so if you’ll think about that, I mean, you couldn’t even count the people and the impact.
Look at the impact that the apostle Paul had.
In starting all these churches and going back and discipling all these people and and just multiplying Christians coming and going.
What if you look at if you look just look at Paul and look at Jesus, Paul just went everywhere.
Jesus went eighty miles further. He went from home, then you’ll think about the few people comparatively that Jesus talked to and compared to who Paul talked to, no comparison.
Now think about this. And the and today, we have television, we have radio that can reach every country in the world.
And when Jesus said greater things than I’ve done, he says they’ll be greater. Now watch this.
He didn’t say you’ll do them.
But it’s the spirit of god within every single one of us who has, who has the opportunity and the anointing of the spirit upon each one of us.
When the spirit of god’s there, he’s there to equip you to do whatever he calls you to do.
So we’re not comparing ourselves with Jesus. That’s not what this is all about.
It’s the fact that he promised them.
What you’re gonna do as a result of what’s gonna happen when I come back to you in the power of the Holy Spirit, what’s gonna happen is gonna amaze you You you’ve been amazed by what you’ve seen.
Now he resurrected the dead and all these things.
He didn’t say now you’re gonna resurrect the dead and you’re gonna do this and the other.
He said, greater works. What was the most important work Jesus came for?
Not to raise the dead to have miracles and healings and so forth.
But to bring people to saving knowledge of god through the shed blood of his cross. That’s why he came.
These are the things that happen to validate his ministry, but he came to bring people to the saving knowledge of Christ, of himself.
So watch this. Jesus is the same today, and we quote this verse.
He’s the same yesterday, today, and what, and forever.
So the Jesus in you is the same Jesus that walked in Palestine hundreds of years ago.
It’s the same Jesus who said to his apostles.
These works that I do, you’ll need to do even greater.
Did that single us out that we’ll do this that and the other know But it meant his followers would do greater work because because he was going to an enjoy them in the person of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity.
And it’s not like god the father, god the son, uh, god the Holy Spirit, three persons, but rather God, the father, god, the son, god, the Holy Spirit, one person.
God in three persons’ eternity. We sing that.
So we have the spirit of god within us, and it doesn’t make any difference what happens where, when, how, the spirit of god is living within us.
What is the desire of god’s heart?
The desire of god’s heart is that you and I would live Listen to this, that we would live in awareness of his presence.
It’ll change your life. It makes all the difference in the world if you’re living in the awareness of his present.
It doesn’t mean that you live, uh, believing there is a god. That’s not it.
It’s the aware awareness of his presence in your life.
Every single believer is indwelt by the spirit of god and says in ephesians and other places that when you trusted Christ as your savior, he sealed you he sealed you forever as a child of god.
And that seal is the presence of the Holy Spirit.
So what I’d like to do is I’d like to help you identify the evidence of the awareness of his presence in our life.
What’s what’s the evidence? Well, here’s one of the I’m gonna give you sixteen of them.
Yep. That’s right. Get ready. Because they’re all important.
There could be more, but this is the best.
Number one, he’s continually in our thoughts, conscious or unconscious. He’s continually in our thoughts.
Let’s take a mother who has a newborn baby and the baby is about three days old.
Now she’s going about her work and her in her household doing what she does.
But subconsciously, you know what? There’s something in her that that can hear that baby.
In other words, she has this something inside of her, which is her subconscious that god gave all of us, that she’s she’s aware of that child.
That he may beat, uh, three rooms over.
But all of us have a subconscious and a conscious so that god makes it possible for you not to go about whatever we do in life openly speaking or whatever it might be.
And at the same time, there is that spirit of god and our subconscious that makes us aware of his presence.
It’s it’s almost like a holy silence within us. But he’s there.
And so the issue is, are you aware of that?
Are you aware of the lord in your life consciously and subconsciously.
Secondly, uh, we are continually seeking his guidance.
If I’m aware of his presence, I’m gonna be continually seeking his guidance. We all make decisions every day.
Many people make decisions totally oblivious. To god. They don’t even think about you other.
So I don’t have to ask god about everything.
Well, you may not ask god about when you wear
a brown shoes or black, but, uh, all of us face decisions every day whether it’s on your job or whether it’s in your family or whatever it might be, we face decisions.
Now, let me ask you something. When a decision comes up, How do how do you make that decision?
You say, well, I think I’ll handle this. Do you ask god and
say, Lord, give me wisdom to handle this?
In other words, watch this. Think about this. What area of your life is god not interested in?
What area of your life got is, I have no interest in that. Are there any?
None? Amen? He’s interested in everything.
Therefore, if he is, then I should be, I should be aware that he has a preference in my decisions.
As we said, we’re not taught by us using socks. Stuff like that.
We’re talking about the decisions you and I make every day.
If I’m aware of his presence in my life, I’m gonna be aware than when I have a decision.
And, for example, you meet somebody and, um, they’ll tell you something.
And the spirit of god says to you, don’t go there.
That’s the spirit of god doing what giving you guidance in your life.
And and it’s not that you you don’t have to say, oh, god. Please give me guidance at this point.
No. Because you are aware of his presence, he’s ready to speak to give you guidance because that’s his desire, because he loves you absolutely unconditionally.
Then there’s another thing. We must view him as our constant companion.
That is If if I see him as my constant companion, then I’m always aware of him.
In other words, if I’m aware of him, I don’t have to wonder anything about it.
And I’ll tell you something that happened to me many years ago, and the reason I don’t I don’t know exactly the year, but I can tell you by this
that I know, I used
to drive a, uh, when I first came to
Atlanta, I used to drive a white little white VW bug and, um, I was on my way to church.
I’m driving my bug, and, um, it’s like the Lord said to me, I made you for myself.
I heard it that loud. Not in a voice.
It was so loud to me that I almost turned to look.
And I realized god, you you’ve spoken to my heart.
He is willing to speak to you in areas of your life that you didn’t even haven’t even thought about, that he wants you to think about.
He’s he’s ready to reveal himself to you in ways that no one else.
Somebody could say, well, you were just thinking that I wasn’t even thinking about anything of the sort.
If you’re not living in the awareness of his presence, remember, he’s our companion.
Would would you say he’s your companion, amen? Then how often are you aware of his companionship?
Well, most of
you look like you’re married or wanna be, one of the two. Uh, so so
you let’s say you’re married. Are you aware of the companionship of your husband or wife?
Yes, you are. You are sensitive to what goes on.
If you were to think that she’s that you saw danger and, uh, somewhere, and you know that your wife is shopping there instantly, you’d be concerned.
Why? Because there’s a oneness between you.
And you and you are aware of her or him all the time. What about your children?
They go to school, and and you are aware that they’re in school.
And no matter what you’re doing around your house or at your job, you are aware of your children because you love them.
And you want to be instantaneously told if something happens. Well, what what about Jesus as a companion?
Think about this. The most powerful force in the world is in the person of Jesus.
He’s omnipotent, I’m the president, I’m omniscient, and all all loving.
Can you tell me a better companion than that? Anybody? No. You can’t.
And you see, here’s the reason people can go through difficulty and hardship and pain and sorrow, the loss of loved ones in their life, whatever the reason may be, and still just move on in life do whatever god calls them to do.
Why? Because while they lost a, uh, a physical companion, the companion is still there.
He’s still there to guide them and to help them and to be the kind of companion they need.
In other words, God knew what was gonna happen in this world.
And so he’s so framed it and to be our companion that, uh, we don’t have to say now or everything’s over.
What am I gonna do? We’re just gonna look to our companion.
Then, of course, we view everything in the light of his presence.
If I view everything in the light of his presence, Then what is that?
That that gives me a sense of safety.
Whatever is going on, Watch this has to go on in the presence of god.
Now, that’s true of sin and of good deeds.
Everything that goes on goes on in listen, in the in the presence
of god because everywhere is in his presence.
And you know, there are no secrets, There’s nothing hidden from god.
And so, whatever’s going on in our life, think about it in this light.
It’s in light of his presence.
In other words, everything, everywhere you are everything we do is in the presence of almighty God.
Well, that’s a wonderful thing. For the simple reason, we all did him.
And sometimes you can say, well, I don’t believe in that god stuff because, you know, that would interfere with my lifestyle.
It needs
to be interfered with if you If
you don’t want god anywhere around.
Then, of course, one of the evidences of our awareness is we have peace in the midst of storms.
All kind of storms hit us.
In other words, we all go through difficulties, trials, and storms in our life. And what happens?
What keeps us and what takes us and what helps us and helps us to survive is what I have god with me.
And when David faced goliath, he said, I’m gonna take your head off of you.
He says because the father is going to deliver you into my hands.
He knew that he walked out facing goliath and those Philistines in the presence, in the power, and in the understanding and the awareness of holy god of Israel.
That’s why he won the battle. He defeated on Goliath before he ever started because he affirmed.
He made this statement my god, Jehovah, is going to give you into my hands.
When you and I go through some storm, remember The first thing we all remember is, listen, I’m in this, but I’m in here, I’m in this with god.
Jesus is with me in this. The Holy Spirit of God is gonna guide me through this.
Help me comfort me, assure me whatever needs to be done.
And, you know, once once you begin to feel sense the awareness of god, everything in life changes, things can be difficult, hard, blinding, But if you’re looking at that circumstance in the awareness of that that the lord is with you, let me ask you, what in this world is more powerful than god?
Nothing. Who’s more knowledgeable than god, he already sees their storms before they come.
His power is already working to enable us to face them whatever they might be.
So the awareness of his presence is a very practical issue.
Then, I think the awareness of his presence creates a hunger in our heart for the word of god.
This is why I say just about every Sunday.
You ought to begin today, every day, uh, with the word of god.
It may be one verse or a whole chapter, whatever it might be. Because what does it do?
Reading the word of god does what it ignites us to think about him and to realize that he’s gonna be with us that day.
And so if a person doesn’t read the scripture, I can tell you exactly what happens.
Their their awareness of the presence of of god and their life begins to diminish.
It’s the word, which is the word of god which is the voice of god.
It’s the hand of god at work.
And when you and I, we go through some situation and we come to a passage and Remember what he said that Josh shall be strong and of a good courage.
Fear not neither be that it’s made for the Lord your God is with you.
How many times have you quoted that verse before? Probably all of us have at some time or the other.
It’s the word of god that does what, that brings me back to the awareness that I have him to help me through this no matter what it might be.
And this is one of the reasons I say to you just about every week.
You ought to start every day with
the word of god. And, uh,
to me personally, on on your knees, not necessarily you’d have to read it on your knees, but There ought to be a sense of reverence, and if you are aware of his presence, you will reverence him.
And when you begin to read the word of god, what does he do?
He speaks because he has something to say.
And you see, the the only thing you may see, the only thing you may feel tomorrow morning is his awesome peace.
Where’d that come from? Came god.
Or he may trigger your mind to think about something that he knows you’re going to face during the day, and he’s brought it to your mind.
This is why if we live in the awareness of his presence, we don’t have to worry about it.
I just could forget this, and I could forget that, this, that, and so forth.
Living in his presence doesn’t mean you’ll have a perfect memory, but it does mean that god will assume responsibility for bringing to our mind and heart the things that we need to remember.
Then, of course, we’re going to have a joy in our heart.
If you’re living and you’re you’re living in the awareness of his presence, why, be be think about this.
You have an omnipotent all powerful god in the person of Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit living on the inside of you.
That should give me joy. You say, well, you know, it’s Monday morning and it’s cloudy and this and that.
What are you aware? You were, you aware of the weather.
Who’s sitting in the in in the seat beside you in the car, if you’re alone?
Uh, the the lord’s there. In other words, it’s it’s where we focus. What’s what’s our focus?
Our focus should be upon him. He’s there. There was nobody else can follow you around like he can.
There’ll be times when your best friends are gone, and there’ll be times when your family’s not there, and it’s just you by yourself.
You are never alone. And he he he wants us to live in a way that we recognize the fact we’re not alone.
He’s present with us. But am I aware of that presence?
For example, you could you could be sick and in your medicine cabinet is exactly what you need.
And, uh, you look in the medicine cabinet, and you find aspirin and a few things like that, if you’re not aware, of here, here’s the cure.
Right here, if you’re not aware of it, you just pass right on by and stay sick.
A lot of people are in trouble because they live their lives unaware.
Of the presence of our lord, of his willingness to help them.
And sometimes, uh, if you have an unforgiving spirit in your life towards somebody, Uh, and you say, well, you know what?
I don’t understand why god’s not answering my prayer and why this and why that and so forth.
And you get all tied up and, uh, maybe you need to stop and ask the Lord lord, what are you trying to say to me?
Maybe there’s something you want to deal with me about.
And all of us have to live with their tentacles out, lord.
I want to be sure I’m living in obedience to you in every single way.
Awareness of his presence changes everything. And certainly there’s gonna be a joy in your heart.
Then, of course, We I think we are more conscious of the good things god sends us when we are aware of his presence in our life.
You see, a lot of people are blessed every single day. Never give god any credit.
What does a Bible say? Every good and precious gift comes from the father above.
But if I’m not if I’m not aware of his presence, I give somebody else a credit.
Or I’ll say, look how,
uh, what’s the next word? Look how I
was. Look how lucky I was. Christians don’t talk about luck. We talk about being blessed,
the presence of god in our life, and that makes the difference.
And I think when a person is aware of of god, then we see these things as god being good to us.
Amen? If listen, if he’s good till you hear, he’ll be good till you’re there.
That’s the awesome presence of god. Then, of course, we feel a continuing dependence upon him.
In other words, when you’re aware of him, you feel dependence upon him.
For example, let’s say you’re coming down the street and all of a sudden somebody pulls right out in front of you.
And I’m you’re doing about uh, forty miles an hour, and they’re doing I don’t know what they’re doing.
They didn’t even look at the red light.
And all of a sudden, you see this other car right in front of you. What’s your first thought?
Well, y’all are in danger.
What’s your what what what’s your first response?
What’s that? Jesus. Jesus. That’s exactly right.
Oh, Jesus helped me. Jesus helped me. You know why? Because we’re living in their awareness of his presence.
He wants us to be aware of him at all times. We’re dependent upon him.
Then if we were to aware of him, I believe that pre that prayer will be a priority in your life.
That you just won’t say some short prayer because you’re in trouble, but you’re talking to him all the time.
And I don’t like to give myself as an example some things, but I’m just telling you the way I’ll see it.
And that is I’m walking through my house.
A lot of times I’m talking to him, lord, I’m I talked to him out loud.
That’s not thing he can’t hear. It’s just that, you know what? Sometimes I need to hear it.
Sometimes I need
to hear it, Lord, And once in
a while I lose some, I said, Lord, I
know you know where that is. Uh, I don’t remember where I put it.
But but but I know that you
know where it is, and it’s amazing how fondly it shows up. You know why?
He’s interested in every single aspect of our life. Alright.
Then we continue to have hope even when things look really hopeless.
But and listen, They may turn out to be hopeless as far as what we would change, but they’re not hopeless now as of god.
No child of god is hopeless. He is not only our hope.
He’s our power, our strength, he’s our helper, he’s our guide, he’s our sustenance, he’s our everything.
But when people are aware and live in the awareness of his presence, uh, when hopeful that things come along, that seem hopeless, they’re not.
Then If I’m really aware of him, I’m I’m what I’m gonna do is I’m gonna sift every decision through his will.
Lord, what is your will about this? What is your will about that?
All of us face things that sometimes people come up and ask us something, or they say, what would you do about thus and so?
If somebody asks me a question, Or if somebody comes to the line and says, I have a question.
You know what? When somebody says that to me, you know what I instantaneously to say.
Quietly. Help me Jesus.
I don’t mean to help me Jesus casually. I mean, I mean, I mean it.
Lord, whatever that question is, give me the wisdom to give them a right answer, a godly answer, whatever it might be.
Because I think if we live with the awareness of his presence, doesn’t make any sense what the decision is.
We wanna run it by him.
And somebody may make you a big offer, a good offer, or something that sounds fantastic.
Running by him. In other words, every decision, we are shifted by him.
Because some things are good. And they’re fine. Some things only look good, but they’re not good.
Some things look free, but they’re not free. And so god is the one who keeps us from making mistakes.
If I’m aware of his presence, I want a need arises.
I’m going to see that need in light of his presence.
Somebody says, well, I have a need in my life. Well, think about this.
Look at that need in the light of the presence of Jesus Christ, who’s the same yesterday than forever, who provides the needs for his children.
If I if I’m aware, if I’m living in the awareness of his presence and a need arises, I don’t have
to worry about it.
I may not have an answer at the moment But I know that he knows all about our needs.
And if you’ll think about it, he knows about our needs before we do.
And because he does, he’s already prepared to meet that need, whatever it might be.
But I think a lot of people think about this.
A lot of people who are not aware of God don’t pay much attention to him.
Here comes a need, and they want to go borrow money, or here comes a
need, and they want
to beg. And this hat and the other, and so forth, instead of stopping to say, Lord, what do you here’s the need father, what do you want me to do about it?
Many people a deeply in debt because instead of asking god to provide in whatever way he sees fit, they just go out and borrow the money.
And so if you sift every decision and, uh, every need through the awareness of his presence, then what happens?
Life gets light life becomes more peaceful, because we’re living in his presence, the presence of almighty god now.
If I don’t understand who god is, If he’s some distant somebody outganda, that’s a whole different story.
Then our worship is more real and rewarding if I’m aware of his presence.
You can come on a Sunday morning and not worship god at all.
It’s the awareness of his presence. But some of these songs we sing, for example, what happens?
Everything in you just wants to fly out. Why? Because you’re happy. You’re aware of his presence.
Well, that’s the way God wants us to live our life.
And he wants us to worship him, aware of his presence, not just the things that are going on around us.
And you think about this. There are people who come to church and go to churches every single Sunday.
With problems, heartaches, burdens, hopeless situations, and they go to church or come to the church or listen to the television or listen to the radio, hoping, hoping, hoping, hoping, they’ll hear something that encourages their heart.
And so when we live, aware of his presence, god is going to give that hope wherever it’s needed.
Then If I’m going to walk in obedience to god as
a way of life, just think about it.
If I’m going to walk in obedience to god as a way of life, which we all should do, I have to be aware of his presence.
Listen carefully. You do not have to sin.
I can tell some of you don’t believe that.
You remember people say, uh, I’m I’m just a sinner saved by grace. That’s what some people say.
I’m just a sinner saved by grace. We’re supposed to get up every morning and say that.
You know what you’re saying? You are programming your mind to sin against god.
The the right thing is I’m a saint save by the grace of god. I may falter.
I may sin, but but but listen to this.
Think about this. If we’re if we’re walking in obedience to him and that’s the will of god, then when do I have to sin?
And might you say, well, do you say you don’t? I didn’t say that.
I’m just saying I don’t have to sin. You don’t have to sin.
We we just accept sin as just normal. Sin is a choice.
If we’re living in his awareness of his presence, and love and goodness and mercy and kindness and all of other adjectives we could use.
If if you’re living in the presence of that, why do you want to disobey god?
Let me ask you a question. What does disobedience gain you?
Oh, you may have an immediate gain you think, but the longer you look at it, it’ll turn absolutely rotten.
Because it doesn’t fit you.
The more aware you are of Jesus Christ in your life, the less you will tolerate sin in your life.
Because you know it doesn’t fit you. It doesn’t even feel good.
No matter what it is, you listen, people can explain away sin. I hear the most crazy stories.
Uh, people just say, well, you know, listen to this. Nobody’s perfect. We all know nobody is. Don’t you?
That’s not information. You know what the
you know how to tell us that? Nobody’s perfect. And god knows we’re not perfect.
But we shouldn’t get up in the morning and say, I’m just a sinner saved by grace. No.
I’m a saint. Walking in the presence of a son of god in his strength and his power.
If I stumble, if I fall to the day, he’ll forgive me, and I keep walking in his presence.
It’s a decision we make.
And the more where I am, listen, the more where I am, of the holy presence of Jesus, the less I’m gonna be tempted by anything.
It’s the lack of awareness. That makes the difference.
Then, of course, I just say one last thing. All of these contribute to what?
If I’m if I’m aware of all of these things, I’m gonna have a stronger intimate relationship with Jesus.
Now, every husband and wife, if you really love each other, you wanna have you wanna have a strong intimate relationship.
Now, people want to take the
word intimacy and always make it sex.
It has nothing to do with it. It has to do with relationship. How you feel towards someone?
What the way you see them is your husband or your wife.
You cherish them, you love them, you adore them, you want the best for them.
And so what happens the more aware you are of him and of her and the more you love them, the more aware you are.
And the the more intense your your your sensitivity to each other is. And what happens?
It makes for a wonderful, joyful relationship.
The Lord wants us to have that kind of relationship with him.
Intensely in love with him, aware of his presence, no matter what’s going on in life.
So if you’re one of those persons who said in the very beginning, uh, god is not in my life.
Do you realize what you’re missing? What you’re going to miss is the gift of eternal life.
Which you’re going to miss as heaven, which you’re going to miss as all the joy and the wonderful things that god provides.
You say, Well, I look around. I don’t see much joy. It depends on where you look.
There are difficult times. These are very difficult times.
But what I want you to see is that Jesus, in your life, when you become aware of his presence in your life, he changes your viewpoint.
Because you begin to see everything in light of his presence, that means we’re safe.
Somehow, he’ll work the things out according to his great will.
If you’ve never trusted him as your savior, you’re living a fool’s life.
I know you don’t like that, but that’s the truth.
You will reap what you sow more than you sow, later than you sow.
If you saw life without god, a life that absolutely denies Jesus in your life, and you sow a life of worldliness and wickedness and all kinds of moral and moralities, then you’re gonna get what that brings.
When you trust Jesus as your savior and give your life to him to live a godly life, you get what that brings.
And that is awesome.
Father, we’re grateful to you for your goodness to us. We know that there’s so much to learn.
And yet, we sort of really boils down lower to our relationship to you, and I pray the spirit of god will seal this message in the heart of every believer.
And every lost person who hears him will recognize,
I’m missing something in life. I don’t have all that
in my life and help him to see There’ll come a time when they wish with all their heart that they knew you as their personal savior, and that is our prayer for them today in Jesus’ name.
Amen.
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