Pastor Wayne Cordeiro
August 24, 2003 - W0334

I  recently returned from a trip to Japan. It was wonderful! While I was there I also noticed that they have an entirely different ëmeasuring systemí than we do here in Hawaii. The driver drives on the ëwrongí side of the car. They measure length by meters instead of feet, weight by kilograms instead of pounds, and temperature by centigrade instead of Fahrenheit. And the food! We are used to Hawaii portions--choke food! Not in Japan. There I got one piece of fish, a small cup of tea, and one small sliver of Kim Chee.

While I was there I thought, many people measure the presence of God in different ways, donít they? Some people think that the number to times they attend church shows how ëholyí they are.

When I was pastor at New Hope Hilo I had a neighbor who often observed me getting in my car with my Bible. One day he said, "Hey! How many times you go to church?"  I said, "This week about eight times..." "Eight times??!!", he said. "You have to be REALLY bad to have to go eight times!! Me, I only have to go twice a year, Christmas and Easter!"

"You will show me the way of life, granting me the joy of Your presence and the pleasures of living with You forever" (Psalm 16:11 NLT).

Notice the words, "joy", and, "pleasures". Sometimes some people think, "I got the presence of God because I go to church many times..." Others might think holiness is shown by what they donít do. For example, if you donít laugh, have fun, smile, or be creative in church, that makes you holy. One thing we know for sure is that in Godís presence there will be a measure of JOY and this joy will be our STRENGTH. So if we want to be strong people, we need to understand the joy of the Lord. And that comes from being in His presence.

So one of the things God always wants us to be reminded of is WE ARE NOT ALONE. He is always with us! However, the question is not if He is with us, it is, are we with Him? God is always speaking, but are we listening? Often we live as though God is not around, but recognizing His presence in our lives changes our heart and faith level. The One who is the forgiver of sins, who knows whatís going on in our heart, and what happened to us last week ñ He is there to bring repair! All we have to do is reach out to Him right now. So itís recognizing His presence that will change us.

Yet how can we check to be sure we are living in Godís presence?  Well here are THREE MEASUREMENTS that will remind us and help us to learn to live in Godís presence. The first checkpoint is do we haveÖ

1.  GENUINE AND HEALTHY RELATIONSHIPS.

Jesus said the greatest commandment is, "You shall love the Lord with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your strength. And the second is like unto it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself." We need to have a strong ongoing love relationship with God so that it affects us deeply. Loving God is pretty subjective. We canít measure it. The real test is the second part of this commandment. It is the barometer to measure whether or not the first part (loving God) is happening.

"If anyone says, ëI love Godí, yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen." (1 John 4:20)  Now this tells us that if we do not love those whom we can see, weíre certainly missing it with loving God also.  "And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also". (1 John 4:21)

Iíve had people ask me, "Does this means we have to have a good relationship with everybody? Do we have to placate everyoneís desires all the time?" No! There will always be people who we donít get along with and have disagreements with. However, God is saying that even when people may hold things against us, it is our responsibility to do your best to reconcile. Secondly, we must keep our door open to them no matter if they close the door on us. This is what the prodigal sonís father did. Remember? Even though the son closed the door on his father by squandering his inheritance, the father kept the door open to his son. "If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.î (Romans 12:18)

Of course, itís possible that reconciliation wonít happen, but thatís not our responsibility. God wants for us to be free from our need to retaliate. He wants us to know that we live in the presence of the One who forgives. Itís not to say that we wonít be hurt or offended. We will, but Heís saying that He doesnít want it to become part of our heart. He doesnít want our sin or anyone elseís to make us bitter and binds us. Remember, Jesus came to set us free!

So we learn that we must have genuine and healthy relationships with others in order to be walking in Godís presence. The next checkpoint reminds us to make sure we areÖ

2.  DEALING PROMPTLY WITH SIN.

"The word of the Lord came to Jonah saying, ëArise, go to Nineveh..í But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish [away] from the presence of the LORD" (Jonah 1:1-3). God told Jonah to go to Nineveh, yet Jonah went in the complete opposite direction and away from God.

In other words, when we are walking with God, we are obeying Him. When we choose to go the other way our relationship with God and others will start to crumble. Remember, His presence is always with us. The question is, are we always with Him? Itís our choice because God doesnít change. So keep in mind that if you sense a distance between yourself and the Lord, remember, Heís not the one who moved and itís often sin that pushes us away from God.

The Bible says, "...If we walk in the Light as He is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin" (1 John 1:7).

The Lord is saying that if we walk in the light and recognize His presence, the by-product is that we will have good relationships with one another. And what if we do sin, and we will? Well, when we learn to live in the presence of God, the blood of Jesus continually cleanses us.

"Repent therefore and return, that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord" (Acts 3:19).

You see, God tells us that when we repent our sins are wiped away. We return to His presence and are refreshed. So deal promptly with sin. The longer we tolerate it the worse it becomes. You see, when we sin and donít deal with it, sin runs and ruins our life. Thatís why God tells us "If we confess our sins He will be faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness". (1 John 1:9)  Is this because He is a tolerant God? No, itís because He knows sin will kill us if we are not repentant and deal with sin immediately. It will drive us away from His presence, just like Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. They sinned and then hid their sin from God. Be mindful that the Lord loves us so much that His forgiveness is always available. The question is, how long do we want to let the devil run our lives? How much of our future do we want to give up? Repentance is one of the most precious gifts you can receive from the Lord; it was purchased on the cross. Take it, use it, and it will restore the presence of the Lord.

So the first way to measure whether or not we are in Godís presence is to look at our relationships. Are they genuine and healthy? If they are, the next point to be aware of is, do we deal immediately with sin? Dealing with sin promptly will restore our relationship with the Lord. And the final point to help us walk in His presence is to take a look and ask, is there.

3.  AN ONGOING GROWTH.

Are you maturing or are you just getting older? When you are walking in the presence of the Lord there is a change that happens. The Bible tells us that the Holy Spirit is at work to change us from ëglory to gloryí. We were created in His image and sin distorted that image. So if there is something you are doing that is not pleasing the Lord, repent. Why? Itís because when there is repentance there is a change. And Godís desire is to change us to be the person He created us to be. Thus, if we refuse to change, and develop an obstinate heart we will move away from the presence of the Lord.

The Israelites were like that. They didnít want to do what God said. And the Lord spoke to then and said, "...I will not go up in your midst, because you are an obstinate people, lest I destroy you on the way.í When the people heard this sad word, they went into mourning... For the LORD had said to Moses, ëSay to the sons of Israel, "You are an obstinate people; should I go up in your midst for one moment, I would destroy you..."í"(Ex. 33:3-5).

God said that since the Israelites were obstinate, to be in His presence would kill them. (Obstinate means that we are not changeable and not moldable). So just like clay in the potterís hand, if we refuse to be moldable, we will crack and be destroyed. We know that when we allow God to change us others will recognize that we are different and wee have more of Godís heart. "...As the Spirit of the Lord works within us, we become more and more like Him, and reflect His glory even more" (2 Cor. 3:18 NLT) Itís the desire of the Holy Spirit to change us. Will this come easily? No, because our flesh is pretty stubborn! But we need to be committed to having an ongoing growth even if it means we grow slowly.

I was recently at a local park and I watched a dad caring for his young son. He must have been a new dad because he was hovering over the little one as he toddled around. The dad was watching to be sure his child didnít fall over a ledge or plunge headlong into a canal. This child was relaxed and free because he was secure in knowing his dad was watching over him. He didnít need to be afraid of harming himself because he knew his dad was there to keep him safe. There was a clear love relationship between this father and son.

God watches over us like that, but often we go over the ledge and then call out to God. We wonder where God is when we are struggling through life. Remember though that God is always there for us. Thatís why God gives us three checkpoints to help us make sure we are living in His presence. The first is are your relationships genuine and healthy? Are you open to reconciliation? The second is do you deal with sin immediately? That will allow Him to restore His relationship with you. And last, are you continually growing in your faith? Are you maturing and allowing God to mold and shape you into His image? So as we learn to live in His presence, we find that there is no better place to be.

Discussion Questions:

1.      What does the promise of Ps. 16:11 mean to you? 

2.      Referring to Rom. 12:18, would you say that you are at peace in all your relationships?  If not, what can you do today to change that?

3.      We are sometimes like Jonah and switch direction and move away from God. Can you remember a time when youíve done that and what were the results of that choice?

4.      What are some ways you are growing and maturing in your faith?  Share with your group.

5.      What part of todayís lesson most impacted you and how will you apply it to your life this week?

Thanks to first time volunteer summary writer Cynthia Whitehouse -- we are grateful for your willingness to serve.  Mahalo!