Living in the Presence of Jesus
I
want you each one to think back to a time in your life that you had little to
no peace. What do I mean by
that? I mean I want you to take
your mind to a time of turmoil or unrest that you and/or your family had to
endure.
Perhaps
that time of unrest was centered around a medical problem that you were certain
would have a negative outcome.
Maybe the lack of peace in your life came from not knowing if you were
going to be out of a job and as a result you would not be able to provide for
your family. Your lack of peace
may have been born out of a situation where you were surrounded by
violence. I can certainly relate
to that after having been immersed in a combat zone for nearly 12 months in
Iraq.
Personal
Turmoil
I
can remember a time in my family's life that we had our peace shaken. It was February 2000 and I was working
for the drilling and blasting company that you have heard me mention from time
to time. That company was going
through some very troublesome financial times and as a result they began a
layoff period. They went from
having about 35 employees down to 6 over 9 months. I was a part of the final 6 and I thought I was going to be
safe all the way through. Such was
not the case.
One
Friday morning I was working and running my drilling rig when the owner of the
company approached the jobsite and motioned for me to come to his vehicle. I had a great relationship with the
owner and did not think a lot about him being there that morning. As I sat with him and talked he told me
that he was very sorry to have to let me go. He vowed to give me a great reference if I ever needed it
but at this time he could not afford to keep me. I was a little surprised to say the least, but the story
gets a bit more complicated. The
owner had another guy drive me home in my work truck so that I could unload my
tools and such and then he could drive my truck back to the shop.
When
I got home Ginger came outside with a very surprised look on her face. At that time cell phones were not as
common as shoes yet so I had not been able to call her and tell her what had
happened. She found out as I was
unloading my tools. Another thing
that complicated the situation a little further was that Ginger was about 8
months pregnant with our first child, Austin. Ginger was pretty upset because we were not sure how our
insurance would be affected and if the pregnancy would be covered. I did my best comfort her, but she was
still very worried. Our financial
and possibly medical peace had flown the coup and we both felt very much in
turmoil. And the story gets even a
little more complicated.
Early
that next morning on Sabbath Ginger began to have labor pains. She took a bit of time getting things
ready and then she awakened me. I
called the doctor and she told us to get to the hospital. I hurriedly drove us to the hospital
and Austin was born without any trouble other than some jaundice and since it
happened so soon after my layoff the insurance was still in effect and paid for
everything just fine. God had a
plan and He caused Austin to be born early so that everything was just
fine. Not only that, the next
Sunday we had a visitor from the Carolina Conference. It was the publishing director. I had been a colporteur for a while and he came by to recruit
me to re-join the conference publishing team.
You
see even though Ginger and were a bit shaken and unsure how things were going
to unfold; the Lord already had things worked out to take care of us in ways
that we could not see. He provided
for our needs long before we knew what to expect.
Presence
of Jesus: Homiletical Idea
Friends,
we had to learn to "live in the presence
of Jesus." And as we spend
some time together today I want to encourage you to do the same thing in your
life.
Paul's
Struggles
When
I think of the life of the apostle Paul I know that I can trust his words on
several levels. First and
foremost, Paul was inspired by the Spirit of the Living God to write the
letters that he sent to the believers in his care. Secondly, I trust Paul because he knew what it was like to
face the struggles and worries of life.
He was beaten five times with the infamous 40 lashes minus 1. Three times he was beaten with
rods. He was stoned once, and
shipwrecked three times; once even spending an entire night and day floating in
the sea. All of this is on top of
being hungry, thirsty, sleep deprived, and not to mention being constantly
concerned for the group of churches that he helped begin. I think it is more than fair to ask
what kept Paul going. How did he
manage to overcome the stress and anxiety in his life?
Restatement
of Homiletical Idea
I
think Paul was able to be an overcomer because he learned how to "live in the presence of Jesus." When we "live in the presence of Jesus"we live a life of peace amid the
turmoil that may come our way. It
is only by living "in the presence of
Jesus"that we will be able to face the problems that life is going to
throw our way.
Friends,
how many of you want peace in your life today? How many of you want to be able to face uncertain financial
markets with the assurance that it will all work out in the end to God's glory? How many of you want the assurance that
Jesus is going to be with you no matter what life may throw your way through
medical problems, marital problems, or anything else? Friends, today the Bible has relevant answers to the problems
that you and I face as last-day Christians.
Transition
to the Text
**Read Philippians 4:4-7**
The
danger with preaching on a passage like this one is that it is so common that
many people may wonder why we even need to discuss it. But often times what happens is that we
tend to overlook some of the deep spiritual lessons in the verses that we all
know so well. Familiarity is said
to breed forgetfulness, and I do not want that to be the case today.
To
facilitate our discussion I think we need to ask several questions today. The first question is "How do we live
in the presence of Jesus?"
Secondly, "How does living in the presence of Jesus give us a life of
peace?" And lastly, "What does a
life of peace look like?"
Let's look at our first
question: "How do we live in the presence of Jesus?" We need to let the text be our guide. Paul tells us in Philippians 4:4 that
we are to rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice. On the surface that seems easy enough
does it not? I mean who would not
want to rejoice in the Lord in all aspects of their life. But the practical application is a bit
more difficult I am afraid.
Lost My
Job
When I lost my job back in
2000 my first reaction was not say, "Praise the Lord!" My first reaction was to begin thinking
about how I was going to take care of my family. My thoughts swirled around how I was going to "fix"the situation. What did I need to do? I needed to just say, "OK Lord, I do
not know why this happened, but I trust You to be big enough to handle my
problems and I just ask that You would guide me to make the right decisions for
my family." Did I eventually get
to that point? Yes. But sadly it was not my first reaction. But was I necessarily wrong to react
the way I did? Let's look once
again at Philippians.
Paul was
Anxious (Phil 2:27, 28)
If we were to look at the
broader context of the book of Philippians we might ask the question about how
Paul was actually living what he was preaching. Back in chapter 2 Paul himself was anxious about Epaphrodidtis
in the sense that he wanted to send Epaphrodidtis to the Philippians so he
would be less worried about them.
It almost seems contradictory at the first glance.
Here Paul tells us in
Philippians 4:6 to not be anxious for anything, but in everything with prayer
and supplication yet in chapter 2 he himself was anxious. What is going on here? The thing I love about Paul is that he
is real. He lets his own humanity
shine through. He tells us when he
is angry or upset or rejoicing in the Lord. Here is telling us that he himself was anxious to get some
help over to the Philippian believers.
And even though his humanity reacted in the natural way to be anxious or
even worried about the situation he knew how to live in the presence of Jesus amidst his anxiety. His secret, if you will, was to live in
the presence of prayer. Look back
at verse 6.
Focus on
Prayer
He
writes that we should take everything with prayer and supplication with
thanksgiving to the throne of grace.
This is in perfect harmony with other counsel that Paul has given us. In 1
Thessalonians 5:17 he told the believers in Thessalonica to pray without
ceasing. Not that they or we
should be locked in a prayer closet 24/7, but that we should manifest a spirit
of prayer in our lives in such a way that we have our hearts and minds in focus
with the mind of Christ.
Friends
worry and anxiety about things are natural human reactions. I think that as long as we are on this
earth of trouble and woe we are going to have things in our lives that cause us
worry. Worry can come from
anything. It can come over our
bills. It can come as a result of
our job or lack thereof. It can
come as a result of a death in the family or even the looming possibility of
death due to extended illness.
There are many ways in which worry can manifest itself in our lives, but
the key to dealing with that worry and anxiety that is a natural human reaction
is to live in the presence of Jesus
by living a life that is bathed in prayer. When we feel the first stages of worry creeping into our
hearts and minds we should immediately surrender that to Christ through prayer.
Exact
Change
When
I was a colporteur I had the NW corner of North Carolina as my territory for a
long time. When I say the NW
corner I am not exaggerating at all.
I literally had 11 counties that I worked. The reason I had so many counties was that the amount of
leads that came in was scarce. Out
of those 11 counties I might get 10 leads a week spread over that huge
area. Way back in the dark ages
when we did not have cell phones I would use a pay phone to make calls and see
if people were home. I did this to
save driving an hour one way and wasting gas when I discovered them to not be
home.
Well
one day I was totally broke and I did not have a lot of gas. I needed $0.35 to make a phone call and
I did not even have the change to do that. So I began to pray.
I took my problem to the Lord and I just asked the Lord to show me what
I was supposed to do. I felt
impressed to stop and call the people.
No, I did not have the money and I was not sure where I was going to get
it. But I felt impressed to stop. So I was just sort of praying as I
walked over to the pay phone and as I reached out my hand to check the change
return on the phone I heard a little jingle inside. When I pulled out the money and counted it, it was exactly
the amount that I needed to make my call.
The Lord knew that change was lying there in the phone and He directed
me there to make the call so I did not have to waste my gas driving all the way
across my territory. I was able to
live in the presence of Jesus
because I was praying without ceasing and taking it to the Lord.
A Life of
Peace?
Let's
look now at our second question that we posed earlier. How does living in the presence of
Jesus give us a life of peace?
This
falls right in line with the first concept that we have discussed in that we live in the presence of Jesus by living
a life of prayer. This, friends,
will give us a life of peace. How
so? Because when we come to the
place in our walk with the Lord where we are willing to surrender everything to
Christ we can feel a sense of freedom that only He can give us. I want to suggest to you this morning
that we need to realize that we cannot control everything that happens to
us. In our stress seminars we have
been discussing various aspects of stress. We have talked about how there are things that will happen
in this life that are totally beyond our control or ability to understand
perhaps. How we choose to react to
those events will determine whether or not they become a stressful event in our
life.
The
life of peace occurs in the same way.
When we choose to live in the
presence of Jesus then we are choosing to let Him have full control. Does this mean that we sit back and do
nothing? No. But it means that we give the worry and
anxiety that life's events bring to Jesus. He is so much more capable of dealing with it that we can
ever hope to be. Our job, if you
will, is to be faithful in all that He has called us to do and live a life that
is in constant surrender to Christ.
This is what Paul is trying to tell us in verse 7 of Philippians 4.
When
we are anxious for nothing because we have prayed about it and given it over to
Jesus it is then and only then that we can be free from worry and fret. It is then that we will feel God's
peace that surpasses all understanding.
Observing
the Life of Peace
I
have had the privilege of spending time with a lot of wonderful people. I have met people who have had terrible
struggles in their life and they have had to depend on God for their strength
through it all.
I
want to tell you a story about a wonderful woman that I admire more than I know
how to express. Her name is
Cindy. Cindy is the wife of my
mentor pastor back in Collegedale and she is one of the sweetest people I have
ever known. Back in 2005 Cindy was
diagnosed with lung cancer. She
has never smoked a day in her life yet her body has been ripped by this
terrible disease and she is not doing very well at all right now. She has had surgery that took out a
portion of her lung and she has had multiple rounds of radiation and
chemo-therapy and nothing has worked.
She has been anointed and prayed for by literally thousands of people in
the Collegedale area and she is still not being healed.
When
I look at the life she and her husband live I see an atmosphere of peace around
them. When you talk to either of
them they have concern but they know that God is big enough to see them through
whatever challenge they face. Just
the other day I got an e-mail from one of my friends who still lives in that
area. The e-mail told of how the
doctors have found a new potato-sized mass metastasized to Cindy's vertebrae
and surrounding the nerves in the spinal column. But my heart was comforted because I know that Cindy is in
God's hands, and if He chooses not to heal her, but rather to let her find her
rest I know God will have made the right decision. Does it break my heart to think of her suffering? Of course it does. Does it make me sad to think that my
friend and mentor may lose his life companion? Sure it does, but I have learned to trust God and to know
that He will make the right decision for Cindy.
Friends,
in answer to our last question, "What does a life of peace look like?" I believe it will very closely resemble
the life that Cindy is living. It
will be a life that praises God no matter how sick we become or hurt we
feel. It will be a life that turns
to God in everything. It will be a
life that seeks to encourage others to live
in presence of Jesus.
**Reread Philippians 4:4-7**
Christian Action
Friends
today I want you to do several things if you will. I want you to find a quiet place to pray out loud so it is
real to you.
**Appeal**