The Gift of Presence
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Last week we talked about the greatest gift giver and the greatest gift of all time.
We began class talking about some of the great gifts that we have recieved through the years and we talked about how some people are better gift givers than others.
But when it boils right down to it we were reminded that there is only one perfect gift and one perfect gift giver.
God is the perfect gift Giver and Jesus and Eternal Life are the perfect gift.
But as we continue on in chapter five and as we noticed last week there are a handful of other gifts given to Christians.
As we saw last week verse 13 reminds us of the gift of eternal life.
• 14- In verse 14 we learn that God gives us the gift of communication, because we know that God hears are prayers
• 18- In verse 18 we learn that God gives us victory over sin
• 19- In verse 19 we learn that God gives us the gift of belonging
• 20- And then in verse 20 we learn that God gives us the gift of assurance that Christ is the true God.
When I think about these five gifts given to Christians. I like to think of these gifts as one big gift of presence.
All of us love receiving presents but the older we get the more we can relate to the idea that sometimes one’s presence is the only present desired.
Mike this sounds like a shirt that you have right, My Presence is your Present.
To me these five gifts have everything to do with the presence of God in the Christians life.
For example take the gift that we looked at last week.
I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.
Because of the presence of Jesus on earth we have the present of Eternal life. Because Jesus came to earth and died on a cross and rose again on the third day. We are able to receive the gift of eternal life.
Look now at verse 14 & 15. 1 John 5:14-15
And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.
Because of the presence of God in our lives we can have confidence that God hears our prayers.
Do you ever feel like when you speak people don’t listen.
Why is that?
Parents we understand this with our kids, right.
But unfortunately its not just kids.
We are the most distracted people of all time and it has a lot to do with our phones.
Because of this many people feel, rightfully so, that people don’t care to listen to them.
What about, have you ever wanted to talk to someone but you felt like they didn’t have time for you.
What John reminds us of here is that our God is never distracted or never to busy because he is always present and he is always willing to listen to us.
Because our God is not distracted he hears us.
Then more specifically when we ask anything in accordance with his will He answers our prayers.
How do we know what God’s will is?
What is an example of asking for something in accordance with his will.
For me God’s will is what is revealed in scripture. So in other words God answers the prayers that reflect the truths, promises and commands that are aligned with His will.
Also praying according to God’s will acknowledges that God’s understanding of what is good and necessary surpasses ours. It involves surrendering our desires, trusting that God’s plans are ultimately better than anything we could imagine.
Here is the thing about prayer. For the most part you can pray for anything that you want. Men like David in the OT did but a better example is Jesus in the NT.
When Jesus was in the Garden before his arrest and betrayal what did Jesus pray for?
Essentially what Jesus prayed for was for there to be another way.
Jesus prayed if there is another way for people to be saved, rather than me dying on the cross, lets do that. Even though Jesus prayed for what he wanted he ended his prayer with an important statement. Anybody remember how he ended his request?
And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”
Jesus understood the condition that John talks about here in 1 John 5:14-15
And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.
Jesus says what I want is to find another way but if your way is better, than let’s do that.
Because of God’s presence in our lives we can have confidence that He hears and answers our prayers just like he did Jesus. If its in accordance with his will.
Now just because we can have confidence that he hears our prayers that does not mean that we should treat God like a Genie in a bottle. Our prayers to God shouldn't be all about what we want.
James seems to address this in James 4:3 when he says...
You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.
If all our prayers our focused on what we want verses what God want for us than we will probably be disappointed.
But if we ask according to his will because of his presence in our lives we can have confidence that He will hear and answer our prayers.
John continues to talk about Prayer in verse 16 - 18. 1 John 5:16-18
If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life—to those who commit sins that do not lead to death. There is sin that leads to death; I do not say that one should pray for that. All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that does not lead to death. We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him.
Thankfully, ___________ is here and he is going to tell us what in the world John is talking about.
This is one of the most difficult passages in the NT. If you remember a few weeks ago Troy addressed this topic in his question and answer sermon.
As he mentioned when you study this passages you are going to get different answer from almost everyone. Although I believe that the sin mentioned here is the same type of sin that Troy mentioned I believe that it specifically has to do with a certain group of people.
When we come across difficult passages like this its important to remember that the Bible was not originally written to us. It was written to a specific audience at a specific time and they would have understood exactly what John was talking about.
So, if you remember Troy mentioned that he leans more toward the sin that leads to death, referring to the sin of blaspheming the Holy Spirit.
And in that context it refers to people who had hardened their heart to God and when God was doing something great they would attribute it to the devil because they had so hardened their hearts to God.
Troy brought out the point that if someone is concerned about whether or not they have committed this sin than they are not guilty of this sin because the Blasphemy of the Spirit is talking about people who have so hardened their hearts to God they they have turned their back on him.
Now to specifically understand what John is referring to let’s think about the context of this letter. What group of people could have committed such a sin?
What group of people had hardened their hearts towards God.
Ya, the antichrist that John refers to.
Let’s see how this sin could refer to them.
A sin that does not lead to death, I believe is any sin that is confessed and repented of.
But the sin that leads to death is the continual rejection of Jesus as Lord and Jesus as God. The sin that leads to death is when you say that nobody is over me and nobody can tell me what to do not even God because I am going to live anyway I want.
This is a sin that leads to death because essentially they are denying that they have sinned. And to deny sin is to deny the need for forgiveness. Also to deny Christ is to deny the source of forgiveness.
The sin the leads to death is the sin that these antichrist are committing.
Alright enough about that let’s continue to look at the blessings of his presence.
We have seen because of his presence we have:
13- Eternal life
14 ff- God hears our prayers
Now in verse 18 we learn that because of God’s presence in our lives he gives us victory over sin because the evil one does not touch us.
We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him. We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.
Meagan brought out this great promise last week. What a blessing it is that because of the presence of God in our lives he protects us from Satan.
What John is saying here is when you walk in the light (1 John 1:7) and when you acknowledge sin in your life, Jesus protects you by removing those sins so that Satan cannot take us away from Jesus.
Can Satan tempt us? Sure he can. But no matter how Satan tempts us he doesn't have the power to take us away from Jesus.
If we walk away from God it is because we chose to do that. Not because Satan took us away.
If you remember Jesus prayed for this same protection for his disciples in John 17:15
I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.
Why would Jesus pray that Prayer?
It truly is a blessing to know that God protects us from Satan so that he cannot snatch us away from God.
How does it help you?
So let’s get practical here. When we think about all these blessings what takeaways do we have.
If we have a God who hears us than we must be people who talk to him.
If we have a God who is never to busy to listen to us. A God who is never distracted. Than we must take advantage of his listening ear.
2. But secondly because he hears us we must be people who pray more for God’s will in our lives and in the lives of others.
Spend more time praying for the spiritual well being of others.
In public prayer we spend a lot more time praying for the physical well being of others than we do the spiritual. A lot of that I think has to do with often times praying for the spiritual may be awkward
Example, bob is struggling with addiction, marriage,
These examples may be ackward to pray about in public but in our own prayers there is no excuse.
We must be people who take advantage of prayer and pray specifically for the spiritual needs of others.
Now in order to do this we need to know about the things that we need to pray about. That means we may need to do a better job at building relationships with people so that we know their spiritual needs.
Why is it that we have no problem asking for prayers for physical or heath matters but when it comes to the spiritual we often times never ask for prayers?
How do we fix this problem.
3. The third takeaway for me is if we are going to take John’s word to heart than we must pray with confidence. We need to be people who pray like the Psalmist in Psalm 116:1-2
I love the Lord, because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy. Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live.
Finally the last takeaway for me is we need to be committed to staying in his presence.
This is so important because it is the presence of God in our lives that protects us from Satan.
We said last week that the eternal present that we receive from God is not knowing that we will one day receive eternal life but that we currently have it. And that is because the eternal present from Jesus is His eternal presence in our lives. Therefore we must be committed to staying in His presence.
As Christians we are not just waiting to be with him. Because of his presence in our lives He is with us now. The gift of eternal life doesn't start later it starts now because of his presence in our lives.
