Is God Really With Us?
Message Summary: Jesus tells his disciples “I will be with you always.” Then he gives them the Great Commission and ascends into Heaven. Jesus wants to be connected with you. He wants to bring you a new life. How do we access that? We must have full belief in the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is there to remind us of Jesus in our life.
One way to help decide whether it’s God or the outside world that’s speaking to you, is by using the filter of Condemnation or Conviction. Negative thoughts (condemnation) are not from God. Conviction has hope with it. God is with you all the time. When we realize Jesus wants to be connected with us, we realize that the Holy Spirit is speaking to us a lot. Jesus also wants us to be connected to others, He modeled this best. Often this happens when we choose to serve someone else. If you want to experience the presence of Jesus in your life, go serve somebody else.
We are meant to live in community with one another. When life gets heavy, we can lean on one another and spread that heaviness among our community members. We can come alongside and lift each other up, praise one another, and do life together.
- How can you be there for your community this week?
- What is something you can do to help manage the weight of everything going on in your life and experience God’s presence?
- How can you work to filter through your thoughts to decide if they are convicting or condemning?
Matthew 28:18-20 – Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
John 14:16-17; 25-26 – And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.
All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.
Matthew 25:35-40 – For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you. When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’