[music] Dr. 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 going to 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
you're in church or 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? There is some need 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 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, Well, is God over
yonder and over yonder and back yon--listen. Now 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 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's becomes yours when you become a Christian, 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 want to talk about
in this message is our awareness of God. Now, He's here whether you're
aware of Him or not. He's there when you're at work
or 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 want to talk about this
matter of the awareness of His Presence, not just His presence. We all know He's present, 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 you remember that David
penned this. And he was going through
difficulty and all kind of hardship in his life many times,
before he 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 name's sake." 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, they comfort me." That's as far as I want to go. You are with me. And if you'll think about it,
all through the scriptures, God uses that same phrase in
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 provides their needs on the
basis of His love and kindness toward us. And 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 the Old
Testament. For example, the Bible says that
Enoch walked with God and he was not because God took him. What a sense of awareness of God
he had. And if you think about Noah, God
told him to build an ark. And the one thing He said to
him, He said, I'm going to 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, following Noah--let's just
take Abraham, for example. He said to him, You, 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 Pharaoh about letting the people go. And He said, I'm going with you. And on one occasion I thought it
was interesting, in the thirty-third chapter and the
fifteenth verse, I believe of Exodus, He said, Now, 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 certainly don't want to do without God. And then, when God began to
speak to Joshua, I want you to take over Moses' place; an
absolutely impossible task. And He said, I'll be with you. And then when He talked to
Gideon, for example, and Gideon said, Well, Lord, I'm--my
family's the lowest family in the whole city; and why are You
asking me? And God said to him, Here's what
I want you to do and I'll be with you. And if you'll recall when David
was fighting Goliath, that he said to Goliath, 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 to Isaiah, Do not be afraid, I'm
going to be with you. And to Jeremiah, Jeremiah said,
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 said 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, Son, the Holy Spirit. And lo, 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 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,
the person of the Trinity, 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 the Apostle
Paul, for example, how many times he had to rely upon the
presence of God in his life and was aware of that, in prison,
when 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 I'm
coming to the end now. And there was this sense of
somehow, a sense of peace and awareness in his heart that he'd
given his best. Fought a good fight; 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 made an issue of this. He says, I'm going away; but I'm
not going to leave you as orphans. He said, for example, I'm in the
Father, the Father's in Me; I in you. He went to all kinds of ways of
encouraging them, that even though He was going to be gone,
He's still going to 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 hasn't changed. In other words, He hasn't
changed locations or ways, nothing about Him has changed. And so as they had the Holy
Spirit indwelling them; you and I have the Holy Spirit
indwelling 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, when I think about how
Jesus worked in 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 one
verse here that seems to be--it see--it would be almost
impossible, but He was--He said to them 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's working with His
apostles here and He comes to this 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 could 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 what I've done, you're going
to do greater. So somebody says, 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 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 get saved, but
three thousand did. So what did He 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 going to send the
Holy Spirit. He'll be in you, with you and
upon you. And that meant that the power of
God would be upon His servants. Then, for example, if you'll
think about it, and Jesus never travelled over eighty miles from
home. He didn't leave Palestine. Now think about this. He's telling this group of His
disciples, I want you to go into all the world and preach the
gospel. I think if I'd-a been there,
I'd-a said, Wait a minute. Have You been in all the world? What do You know's out there? And so, of course, this is a
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, And the works you do
are going to 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 just multiplying Christians
coming and going. What if you look at Paul and
look at Jesus, Paul just went everywhere; Jesus went eighty
miles furtherest 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 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 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 going to do as a result of what's going to
happen when I come back to you in the power of the Holy Spirit,
what's going to happen is going to amaze 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 going
to resurrect the dead and you're going to do this, that and the
other. He said, Greater works. What was the most important work
Jesus came for? Not to raise the dead and to
have miracles and healings and so forth; but to bring people to
a saving knowledge of God through the shed blood of His
cross. That's why He came. These other things are things
that happened to validate His ministry. But He came to bring people to a
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 do even greater. Does that single us out that
we'll do this, that and the other? No, but it meant His followers
would do greater work because He was going to indwell 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, God the Holy Spirit, three persons, but
rather God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, one
person. God in three persons, the
trinity, 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 presence. I doesn't mean that you live
believing there is a God. That's not it. It's the awareness of His
presence in your life. Every single believer is indwelt
by the Spirit of God and it 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 the evidence? Well here's one of the--I'm
going to give you sixteen of them. Yeah, that's right. Get ready. Because they're all important. There could be more, but this is
the best of them. 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's about three days old. Now she's going about her work
in her household doing what she does, but subconsciously you
know what? There's something in her that
they 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 aware of that child. He may be three rooms over, but
all of us have a subconscious and a conscious so that God
makes it possible for you and I 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 in our subconscious that makes us aware
of His presence. 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, we're continually
seeking His guidance. If I'm aware of His presence,
I'm going to 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 God. They say, Well I don't have to
ask God about everything. Well, you may not ask God about
whether you wear brown shoes or black, but 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
you make that decision? You say, Well, I think I can
handle this. Do you ask God? Let's 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, God,
say, I have no interest in that. Are there any? None. Amen? He's interested in everything. Therefore, if He is, then I
should be aware that He has a preference in my decisions. As we said, we're not talking
about shoes and socks and 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 going to be aware that when I have a decision. And for example, you meet
somebody and they'll tell you something, and the Spirit of God
says to you, Mm-mm-mm. Don't go there. That's the Spirit of God doing
what? Giving you guidance in your
life. And it's not that 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 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 know
exactly the year but I can tell you by this that I know. I used to drive a--when I first
came to Atlanta I used to drive a white, little white VW bug. And I was on my way to church. I'm driving my bug and it's like
the Lord said to me, I made you for Myself. I heard it that loud. Now I didn't hear it in a voice. It was so loud to me that I
almost turned to look. And I realized, God, you've
spoke into 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 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 and I are living in the
awareness of His presence, remember, He's our companion. 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 want to be, one of the two. So you--Let's say you are
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, 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 are aware of her, or
him, all the time. What about your children? They go to school 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 about Jesus as a
companion? Think about this. The most powerful force in the
world is in the person of Jesus. He's omnipotent, omnipresent,
omniscient and 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 and do whatever
God calls them to do. Why? Because while they lost 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 going to happen in this world. And so He so framed it, and to
be our companion that we don't have to say, Now, oh,
everything's over. What am I going to do? We're just going to look to our
companion. Then of course, we view
everything in light of His presence. If I view everything in the
light of His presence. Now what does 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 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 the 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 need Him. And sometimes people 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 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 to survive is what? I have God with me. And when David faced Goliath he
said, I'm going to 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 old Goliath before
he ever started, because he affirmed, he made the statement,
My God, Jehovah, is going to give you into my hands. When you and I go through some
storm remember this. The first thing we ought to
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 going
to guide me through this, help me, comfort me, assure me,
whatever needs to be done. And you know, once you begin to
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 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 our 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. And this is why I say just about
every Sunday, you ought to begin the day, every day, with the
Word of God. It may be one verse or a whole
chapter or 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 going to be with us that day. And so, if a person doesn't
read the scripture, I can tell you exactly what happens. Their awareness of the presence
and, of God in 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 to Joshua, Be strong and of a good courage. Fear not, neither be thou
dismayed; 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
that I say to you just about every week, you ought to start
every day with the Word of God. And to me personally, on your
knees. Not necessarily you 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 only thing you
may see, the only thing you may feel tomorrow morning is His
awesome peace. Where'd that come from? It came from God. Or He may trigger your mind to
think about something that He knows that 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, if I
forget this, and I could forget that, and 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 we need to remember. Then of course, we're going to
have a joy in our heart. If you're living and you are
living in the awareness of His presence, why--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. Well, you say, you know it's
Monday morning and it's cloudy and it's this, that and the
other. What are you aware of? You are aware of the weather. Who's sitting in the seat beside
you in the car if you are alone? The Lord's there, in other
words, it's where we focus. What's our focus? Our focus should be upon Him. He's there. 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 wants us to live in a way
that we recognize the fact that we're not alone. He's present with us, but am I
aware of that presence? For example, you could be sick
and in your medicine cabinet is exactly what you need. And you look in that medicine
cabinet and you find aspirin, and a few things like that. If you're not aware of, here's
the cure right here, if you're not aware of it, you'll 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, if you have an
unforgiving spirit in your life toward somebody, 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 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
our 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 going to
be a joy in your heart. Then of course, we--I think we're more conscious of the good
things God sends us when we're 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 the Bible say? Every good and precious gift
comes from Father above. But if I'm not aware of His
presence, I give somebody else the credit. Or I'll say, Look how--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 God, then we see these things as God being good to us. Amen? If, listen, if He's good to you
here, He'll be good to you 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 mean you're doing about
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. [congregation laughing] What's your first response? [congregation chattering] [congregation laughing] What's that? female: Jesus! Dr. Stanley: Jesus, that's
exactly correct. Oh, Jesus, help me! Jesus help me! You know why? Because we're living in the
awareness of His presence. He wants us to be aware of Him
at all times. We're dependent upon Him. Then, if we're aware of Him, I
believe 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 of some things, but I'm just telling you the way
I see it. And that is, I'm walking through
my house, lot of times I'm talking to Him. "Lord." I talk to Him out loud. And it's not that He can't hear,
it just that, you know what? Sometimes I need to hear it. Sometimes I need to hear it. "Lord." And once in a while, I'll lose
something and I'll say "Now Lord, I know You know where that
is." I don't remember where I put it. But I know that You know where
that is. And it's amazing how finally it
shows up. You know why? He's interested in every single
aspect of our life. All right, then we continue to
have hope, even when things look really hopeless. And listen, they may turn out to
be hopeless as far as what we would change, but they're not
hopeless in the eyes 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, when hope, things come along that seem hopeless,
they're not. Then, if I'm really aware of
Him, I'm--I--what I'm going to do is I'm going to 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's--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 through 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 help me Jesus,
casually. I mean, I mean it. Lord, whatever that question is,
give me the wisdom to give them a right answer, a godly answer,
or whatever it might be. Because, I think if we live in
the awareness of His presence, it doesn't make any difference
what the decision is, we want to run it by Him. And somebody may make you a big
offer or a good offer or something that sounds fantastic,
run it by Him. In other words, every decision,
we ought to sift it 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,
when 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, today
and forever; who provides the needs for His children. 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, that and the other and so forth. Instead of stopping to say,
Lord, what--here's the need, Father. What do You want me to do about
it? Many people are 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 every need through the awareness of His presence,
then what happens? Life gets--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 out yonder, 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. And 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 how God wants us to
live our life. And He wants us to worship Him,
aware of His presence, not just the things going on around us. 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, I'm
just a sinner saved by grace. That's what some people say. I'm just a sinner saved by
grace. Well suppose you get up every
morning and say that. You know what you're saying? You are programming your mind to
sin against God. The right thing is I'm a saint
saved by the grace of God. I may falter, I may sin, but
listen to this. Think about this, if we're
walking in obedience to Him and that's the will of God, then
when do I have to sin? Well 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 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 the other adjectives we could use, if we'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 will 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. Listen, people can explain away
sin. I hear the craziest stories. People just say, Well you know,
listen to this. Nobody's perfect. We all know nobody is. Don't--that's not information. You don't have to tell us that. Nobody's perfect. God knows we're not perfect, but
we shouldn't get up in the morning saying, I'm just a
sinner saved by grace. No, I'm a saint, walking in the
presence of the Son of God, in His strength, in His power. If I stumble, if I falter today,
He'll forgive me and I keep walking in His presence. It's a decision we make. And the more aware I am, listen,
the more aware I am of the holy presence of Jesus, the less I'm
going to 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 aware of all of these
things, I'm going to have a stronger, intimate relationship
with Jesus. Now, every husband and wife, if
you really love each other, you want to have a strong, intimate
relationship. Now people want--take the word
intimacy and always make it sex. Has nothing to do with it. It has to do with relationship,
how you feel toward someone; what--the way you see them. It's 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 more intense 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, 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. What you're going to miss is
heaven. What you're going to miss is all
the joy and the wonderful things that God provides. You say, Well I look around. I don't see much joy. 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,
that's the truth. You'll reap what you sow, more
than you sow, later than you sow. If you sow 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 immoralities, then you're going to 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, it sort of really boils
down, Lord 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
it will recognize, I'm missing something in life. I don't have all that in my
life. And help them 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. announcer: If you've been
blessed by today's program, please visit us at INTOUCH.org.
