Summary
The sermon titled "The God who is here" explores the omnipresence of God, emphasizing that His presence is not confined to specific places or moments but is ever active in the lives of believers. The pastor draws from Jeremiah 23:23-32, highlighting the futility of false prophets who claim to speak for God while misleading others. This passage serves as a foundation to address the modern struggle with identity, using the story of the blind man in John 9 to show how God's work is manifested even in the most unexpected circumstances. The message encourages the congregation to recognize God’s constant presence, not only in worship but in every aspect of their lives, and to embrace their new identity in Christ. It also challenges believers to speak truthfully, not falsely, as the power of God’s Word is likened to fire and a hammer that breaks down sin and builds up faith. Additionally, the sermon underscores the importance of vulnerability and truth-telling as acts of strength, and the responsibility of every believer to reflect God’s presence and power through their lives. The pastor stresses that God is not distant or silent but intimately involved in the lives of those who trust in Him, offering solutions to their struggles through His divine timing and strength.
Sermon transcription
So today our topic is the God who is here. By the way this month of August our team is exploring God's character in his uh omni omnipotence, omniscience and omnipresence talking about God's all powerful, all knowing, and he is all present. So today we will talk about the omnipresence of God. Okay. Let us open our Bibles or we can read together from the screen our passage Jeremiah 23:23-32. I entitled it the God who is here.
Am I only a God nearby? Declares the Lord. And not a God far away. Who can hide in secret places so that I cannot see them? Declares the Lord. Do I not feel the heaven and earth? Declares the Lord. I have heard what the prophets say who prophesy lies in my name. They say, I had a dream. I had a dream. How long will this continue in their hearts of these lying prophets who prophesy the delusion of their own minds? They think the dreams they tell one another will make my people forget my name just as their ancestors forgot my name through baal worship. Let the prophets who said who has a dream recount the dream but let the one who has my word speak it faithfully. For what has straw to do with grain? Declares the Lord. Is it not my word like fire? Declares the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces, therefore, declares the Lord, I am against the prophets who steal from one another words supposedly from me. Yes, declares the Lord. I am against the prophets who wag their tongues their own tongues, and yet declare the Lord declares. Indeed, I am against those who prophesy false dreams, declares the Lord. They tell them and lead my people astray with their reckless lies. Yet I did not send or appoint them. They do not benefit these people in the least, declares the Lord.
Thanks God. Thank God for the reading of his word. Father God, we thank you, Lord, for the opportunity to hear your words once again. And as we open up our hearts and minds, oh Lord, we want to know you, Lord, in a deeper way. Appreciate Lord your character, oh God, as all present the omnipresence of the almighty God. Oh Lord God may you speak to our hearts and may we receive it faithfully. Oh God to apply in our lives in Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen.
Um in the regional convention I was given the privilege to have a talk and the talk I did was hope in identity. Hope in identity and you know knowing that the issue of identity is important nowadays like we acknowledge the struggles of people with regards to who they really are. And I really took the opportunity to minister to his word especially to the younger generation to the newer members of the church. I feel like I'm already old having been in the convention from the beginning 25 years ago. So that was quite something. This is now the ninth convention we have the last 25 years. So looking back from the very beginning of our region in Europe and Mediterranean and seeing the new the younger ones who are members of our church and speaking to their hearts because we I have the conviction of not only knowing our identity in Christ but really embracing it. You know believing who we are. We struggle with our identity but if we are in Christ, God will not let us be on our own because he assures us that we will indeed know who we really are. It's a matter of time when we are able to finally secure in our hearts and in our minds that God will not let go because once he captivates us then we can really say that we are in him. You know and our identity in Christ is secured. Amen.
There is a passage in John chapter 9, you know, as an introduction to this verse. I like the song we sang earlier, God is here, right? That is our title for this sermon. But, how did we sing? How did we begin to sing the song? Oh, yeah. Open my eyes. Open my ears. Right. Uh, there is a story in John chapter nine about a man born blind and the people were asking Jesus what does this mean that this man is suffering blindness since he was born is was it about because of his sin or his parents sin and then Jesus replied with this very meaningful reply. He said that this happened not because this man's sin or his nor his parents, but that the work of God be displayed in his life. This happened because of the work of God that is to be seen or displayed.
So I was really the play of words, right? The he was born blind but that God's work be seen in him, right? Of course he was healed and know but the miracle of healing was powerful in him and that is the power of God. God is glorified. No matter who he was, what was his struggle, right? No matter his whole life, he did not have an idea of sight, right? Because in the wider scheme of things that God is going to be glorified. He eventually came to encounter Jesus after he was uh he can see, he was healed, but Jesus when he opened his eyes, you know, for the first time he Jesus was not there but eventually he found Jesus and when he came to know Jesus seeing Jesus eye to eye he worshiped the Lord that was something he found his true identity in Christ and that is what we need as people of God, as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we find our true identity in Christ. Each one of us, every one of us, not only me or some of us, but everyone who is in Christ, we have our identity in the Lord. Amen.
So in that in that sense, there are only two kinds of people in this earth. One is those without Christ and one who is in Christ. So just remember that if you are in Christ you are on the side on one side of the street and your identity is secure. Okay, let's talk about our topic for today. As I said, we are exploring God's character this month of August. Last Sunday, our topic is the omnipotence of God. If you can remember the title of our sermon with God, nothing is impossible, right? Nothing is difficult for him in creation and in redemption because he is all powerful. And today we are talking about his omnipresence. And next Sunday, Pastor Rehard is going to talk about the omniscience of God. God our all knowing God. And then fourth Sunday as Pastor Dan is recapping all these things. He goes back to experiencing the everpresence of God but in a very personal way. So we are excited about all these things. Let us begin to talk about the everpresence of God.
So these statements are interrogative statements because the context of this is the confrontation to the false prophets. All these statements are addressed to the people who are claiming that they represent God. So, beginning in verse 23 when God said, am I nearby or far away. So, God is addressing the false prophets who are saying God is here or God is with me, right? They are pretending that God is with them that God speaks through them and when this statement says am I nearby or far away, no, it's either they are localizing God or they are separating God away from them. No, so it is a deep thought about the omnipresence of God. When we say God is everywhere, that has to impact the way we understand the character of God. That God you cannot limit God in a certain place. That's why I entitled it, God is here. It doesn't mean that God is only here. That is in the context of God, God's presence and power everywhere but it is manifest as we are here today. Right? We have to understand that because people like to think of God is in the church when they enter the church, especially the traditional church, they are so solemn right because God's presence is here. But when they are outside, yeah, they go back they go back to their normal self and being carefree and so on and so forth, but that does not speak of who God really is. If God is everywhere, he is solemn everywhere or he is alive everywhere, right? The important thing is we understand that wherever we go, God is here, God is there. Amen.
Can anyone can anyone hide from me? You know, the thought of the false prophets um thinking that, ah, I can fool these people anyway nobody can see me and then God says can you hide from me. Do you think I'm not there. Do you think I cannot read your thoughts. Do you think I cannot read your malicious heart those kind of things. Verse 25, how long can they pretend their falsehood. We talk about sustainability. How long can they sustain? It's like okay, between you and me, let's play sustainability. Let's see who will who will last very long. Yeah, you try to pretend. Okay, let's see how long you can sustain it. Verse 26, how long will these delusions continue in their hearts? So God is uh you know confronting the darkness and the evil in the hearts of these people and the wonder that they are feeling themselves with this delusion, they do not understand that I'm all powerful that I am all present, you know the character that they will not survive if they are trying to play these pains, you know, delusions, how can they believe that they will win in the end, right? In the final analysis, no matter how powerful a person may be or anything can be, it can never win, you know, in battle against God, especially if God is opposing those who are not with him.
And then the next series of from verse 28 to 32 are the series of indictment to these false prophets. I will oppose them. I am against their stealing words. They are stealing words from each other. The verse said and the words that they are stealing from each other are pretention that they know me or they represent me. It's a little bit of a funny or humorous way of describing the false prophets. I am against their wagging their tongues. So you can just imagine how they wag their tongues. I am against their leading people astray with their lies. So we are talking about God's encompassing presence, brothers and sisters. And nothing can be hidden from God. Nothing can be hidden from the truth that God's all and compassing presence will always abide. It will not be less. It will be constant. It will be sustainable. It will be forever. And so, you know, what lessons can we learn from God's omnipresence in this context? It is a negative context because it is an interrogative statement indicting the false prophets. But we as the people of God, what can we learn from this? Okay. So, there are certain lessons that we can learn. I think we can go to the next slide. Yeah. So the beginning verses in verses 23 to 24 tells us that God cannot be confined. God cannot be boxed. Right? God cannot be localized. Everybody else can right. But the lessons of God's near presence for us as believers that when we say God is here, as I said earlier, God is not just here when we say Lord, thank you for your presence, we are imagining the mighty presence of the Lord in our midst. But in difference to the overall all work of God everywhere else as well. God is not exclusively here, right? God is not only with us when God is so much at work in different parts of the world. But what does that tell us in the vastness of God's power that he has a special place in his heart to be here as well. I mean that's one of the ways we can think of it because we cannot localize here. We cannot say you know God is with me, you know the Lord told me in my dream this and this and that as if I'm telling the congregation, you have to listen to me because I am a special person because God is speaking to me, but that is not the case. When we say we if we are in Christ, it's not me, it's not anyone, but it's each one of us who are in Christ. The power that rests upon me, the power of God in me is the same equally the same power that rests in you. So we have to build this confidence. Amen.
The power of God is not on the pastor alone but equally on each member of the body of Christ because we are talking about the body who is the head, not the pastor but Jesus Christ himself, he is our head. So every one of us has the privilege but also the responsibility to understand and know who God is his encompassing presence in our lives. Can you say amen to that? Amen. So on the farther extent of his presence, his powerful presence from a distance that we trust that God is there that we can trust the Lord as he is with us that he is also working in whatever planned in his grand scheme of things elsewhere. When we have a when we receive not so good news maybe from someone we love in the other side of the world, we can trust him that his power is there with them. His hand lifting up the problem that our loved ones are experiencing. We can trust in his faithfulness. Amen. Because his presence is there as much as he is with us. Amen. Whether he is here or he is far away, God's presence is there. Amen.
Amen. So now let us look at the context of this passage and let us see applying this. Of course, we are not false prophets, right? Who are anyone who is a false prophet here? um we are taking the negative lesson and applying it positively for us as we believe in the presence of God in our lives. So in verses 25 to 27 when when uh God said I've heard what they say what they say, right, it's an indictment right very negative, I know that they are pretending they're speaking as if they know what they are talking about you know, what does it mean the Lord is already preparing or already seeing the foolishness of this talk of these people's talk and he is going to use the words that they said to condemn them. But for us, what does that mean? Is it words of condemnation when we say, "Oh, I hear what you have said." No. But because sometimes we are guilty, right? I have I' I've said wrong things like that. You know, I explain you know when we are in Christ, we have our old identity right uh 1 Corinthians 5, anyone who is in Christ he is a new creation. The old has gone. The new has come. It doesn't mean that the old is not there anymore. But the place where the old identity was embedded was replaced with the new identity we have in Christ. Right? So we have that old identity, we have this new identity. When I share this talk in the convention, I also shared some of my vulnerabilities, some of my struggles, some of my um pain in having to battle against my old sinful self, no, my old identity. So you know, the reality of life is we are not uh 100% totally out of the storm of life. We are still here struggling. That's why some of our brothers and sisters are still struggling with identity but we help them. Why? Because they have already found their new identity. So we just have to continue to embrace who we really are in Christ because uh God is going to be faithful and he is going to be the foundation and the the we rely upon his strength in times of our weakness and in times that we are failing and struggling in our own lives.
you know after I talk about that that there are people who uh came to me you know and and and sharing their vulnerabilities as well sometime ago and unfortunately we still continue to believe that when you talk about your weakness and your struggles that you are a weak person isn't You don't want people to know who you really are. You are ashamed. You are afraid. Right? But we have to understand when we open up for who we really are, it ministers to others. So we are not thinking so much anymore of who we really are. Our struggle with our sinful selves. Because there are people there out there who needs to know that they are not alone in their battle against sin. So vulnerability is strength and vulnerability is God's power to through us to minister to others because we are not talking about our struggle and say that's it, you know, there is always the solution right unless of course you are talking about you know, I have committed this sin and this and that and then that's it, that's not the way you know, if you are in Christ, you know the answer. You know the solution to your problems. So if you have struggles with you know, understanding or placing the presence of God in your life. Sometimes we say when I pray as if God is silent, he's not here. Is it true? Of course not. It's stupid to think that God is absent because the truth is God is here and God's power is resting upon us in our time of weakness, in our time of sorrows, in our times of struggles, in our times of doubts. There it is. We have the answer. So when we, you know, express how weak we are, we exalting the strength of God in our lives. That is where we hold on. Amen.
So when we hear this statement, brothers and sisters, when God says, "I heard what they say, I want to embrace this and say, Lord, you heard what I have said." If I have said something that that is not pleasing to you, forgive me Lord. But I know that you want to hear what I say because those words are coming out of faith that believes. When I express my faith, I say words that came out of the scriptures of the words that God is proclaiming in this world. I can become the mouthpiece of God in this world. Do you believe that you can become the mouthpiece of God to others? Because that is who you are because you are in Christ and God hears what you say. Amen. It is a word of affirmation, a declaration of God to you and me that God hears what we say. Amen. Secondly, in verses 28 to 29, God said to the false prophets, "Is not my words like fire or hammer?" You know, these are fierce words right? These are powerful words. It uh God's word breaks the heart of stone, uh um God's word is like a fire that incinerate you know the wickedness that there is. So let us who speak for God speak faithfully. That's verse 28. God said, "Let them go on. If you speak deceit, go on." He said to the false prophet, but he said, "But let those who are with me, but let those who are in me, but let those who are my children speak faithfully. Speak truth." Amen. And speak with conviction. Speak that you really believe it. With all your heart. Amen. Speak with conviction. Don't doubt. Don't second guess. Don't say God is uh God is truth. No. Uh, Jesus is my Lord, isn't it? Don't don't ask the question. Just stand and say the Lord is my savior. Jesus is my God. Jesus is my lord. I rely on his power. He can be yours as well. Hallelujah. And thirdly, in verses 20 30 to 32, those are the words of indictment, no, exposing the lies and deceit of the false prophet. But we who are in Christ, we dispel falsehood. God gives us the spirit of discernment to know when we are speaking lies, when we are speaking half truths, when we are speaking white lies. And because we have this background of speaking lies all the time, we struggle with it when we become believers. Especially for Filipinos, right? Are you hungry? Are you full or are you hungry? No. We say no immediately, right? Because we have that force of habit to eat. But we who are in Christ, Christ wants us to speak and uphold truth because when we are in truth uh we have the spirit of humility to accept who we really are. I am weak. Who cares? God is my strength. Yeah. Have confidence in the strength of the Lord, not in your own ability to sustain yourself. Fight against the temptation to say I am going to make it on my own. Fight, fight, fight, and put your trust in the Lord because he wants you to rely on his power. He wants to make an example of your life so that others can relate. Amen. That they will know and understand, I am not alone. Somebody has the same struggles that I have and he is speaking the solution to his problem, the answers to his problem. Amen.
So in conclusion, brothers and sisters, we are in Christ. We have much to speak about who he is, his ever presence. And going back to the man born blind, the works of God is displayed. It doesn't matter he was born blind because at certain point in time, God is going to be glorified in him. The whole definition of his being and identity is God is glorified. Yeah. Is there anything greater than that? When you think of your life, and think that you know there is really nothing that I can tell people about myself this and that blah blah blah and then you realize that why not through my weaknesses the Lord's power is lifted up through my being who I really uh that God's power is displayed in you just like the man born blind. Amen. So we who are in Christ, brothers and sisters, let us celebrate God's all encompassing presence because he is here. Amen. Hallelujah.
Take-aways
- God’s presence is not confined to specific locations or times. Whether you are in the church or in the world, He is with you, always. This truth challenges the false belief that divine involvement is limited to religious spaces or services.
- False prophets and those who claim to speak for God while spreading lies will ultimately be exposed. This passage serves as a warning against deception, encouraging believers to seek truth and discernment in their own actions and words.
- Believers in Christ are called to embody God’s truth and strength. Speaking with conviction and offering faith-filled words—rooted in Scripture—allows us to become instruments of God’s power, even in our weaknesses.
- Vulnerability is not a weakness but a strength that connects us to others. Sharing personal struggles invites the truth of God’s grace to be revealed and empowers us to minister to those grappling with similar battles.
- The story of the blind man in John 9 shows that God uses even our deepest struggles to reveal His glory. Regardless of our past, God’s work is always at play, and those who embrace their identity in Him will draw strength from the realization that their true self is secure in Christ.
Food for thought:
- How do you perceive God’s presence when you are outside of a church setting? Is there a tendency to distance Him from your daily life, or do you allow His everpresence to inform your choices?
- When have you felt tempted to hide your weaknesses, and what changed your perspective about vulnerability as a gateway to deeper faith and connection with others?
- Do you believe your identity in Christ is as secure as the passage describes, or do lingering insecurities from your past still cloud your self-worth?
- How does the idea that all of God’s word is like fire or a hammer impact the way you use Scripture to speak truth and combat falsehood in your life and in your community?
- In what ways can you focus on God’s timing rather than your own? How might you trust Him to act swiftly in your life when your plans seem stalled or delayed?