A Promised Presence (John 14:15-24) (2025/02/21)

A Promised Presence (John 14:15-24) Living Life 2025/02/21 Daily Devotionla Bible Study

 

A Promised Presence

 

Hello I'm John Smeiser coming to you from Southern California.

Today it's a sunny clear day it's a little chilly for me but it's a good day.

I don't know what it's like where you're at but I pray the Lord is blessing you.

I want to share with you today that there are certain families that come together.

When a man and a woman join in marriage it's two individuals coming together 

 

but I must tell you that actually there are a lot of other people involved in this marriage 

because the things that I saw my mother and father doing 

the way they acted, the way they treated one another those are the ways I act today.

In fact I would just groan 

my father in punishment would want to talk to me 

and I felt he was lecturing me about what I had done wrong and how it should have been this way to the point.

I would just say Dad I don't want to listen Just hit me spank me I 

I don't want to hear you know and I found in the way I raised my children

I think it was more of a punishment when I would discuss with them what it was that they did that wasn't quite right 

that that they got a lecture and I'm sure in their brain Dad just spank me 

I don't want to the things that our families give us in our relationships 

and in those ways we act that's what we carry on to the next generation 

today. Let's hear the word of God being read for us to day in John Fourteen beginning of Verse fifty

 

A Promised Presence

 

 

A Promised Presence

 

 

 

John Chapter fourteen verses fifteen to twenty four

15 "If you love me, you will obey what I command. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever-- 17 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. 18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21 Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him." 22 Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, "But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?" 23 Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24 He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.

 

 

In our passage today

we see that the instructions that God has given through Jesus Christ

those are the things that we should act upon.

In fact I think it was my father's work to train me 

by telling me informing me lecturing me on the things that are right and wrong.

It opens up this passage in verse fifteen 

if you if you love me keep my commandments.

Now commandments those Oh man I don't want to have the rules and regulations.

Well my wife and I when we first got married 

we had a washer and a dryer and these were like the top of the line washers and driers with all the good industrial parts and things and everything was it should have it should last fifteen to twenty years.

Now what came along with the washer dryer were the drain hoses and the water intake and the electric You know all the mechanical things.

But there we reached inside and there was a booklet You know it was a pamphlet and you open it up
and there's the instructions on how to use the washer and the drier.

Now what what do I need that for?

I know I just put in here let me put in some soap Okay let's put some soap in here you know and I can wash it and LO and behold the suds start 

If you don't follow the directions you mess up the mechanism 

You know this this washer and drier it got all clogged up with soap suds and and and residue and everything like that because
I didn't read the instructions.

You see God's commandments are not onerous they're not burdensome they're simply the way that this mechanism should operate best.

And so the things that God teaches us through his commandments they're the way that we can live a fruitful life.
Things like love the Lord Thy God with all thy heart soul and mind 

and love your neighbor as yourself.

Quite often we forget that as ourselves.

We need to first remember to be aware of our shortcomings

the way we give ourselves a little latitude when it's not we're not quite right.

 

I need to love my neighbor in that same way they don't have to be perfect.

It goes on then and it says then in verse eighteen I will not leave you an orphan you know God's not going to do that 

you know I don't know if you have ever felt alone 

but I want to encourage as I've said in the past many many times is that God's promise to us is that he would never leave us nor forsake us 

and in ways that we might feel alone he's there with us to help support us and encourage us.

In verse nineteen It says Before long The world will not see me any more.

Verse twenty On that day you will realize that I am in my father and you are in me I am in you.

Jesus speaks about these things that his father told him to say to us 

And as we live in breathe and have live by the commands he's given us 

we then will be speaking on behalf of Jesus 

in the same way as the lessons my father taught me.

I desired to teach to my children 

even though they felt like maybe dad's just lecturing. Again 

I've watched my son speak with my grandson in quite the same way I had done with him 

rather than just any kind of a punishment or anything that a spanking can raise up 

and I know that's child abuse in today's culture here in America 

but spare the rod spoil the child the issue from proverbs and so that when we look at how do we train first we need to read the manual you know the how to book the instruction manual 

folks that's what we're doing here as we go through God's word 

and we see what it is he's instructing us to.

And then as we act upon that as we don't dump the full box of soap into the washer

we don't need to overdo the instructions we need to simply abide by what God has commanded us 

knowing that Jesus is the one who heard his father and he did what his father desired him that we in turn need to, in our way, follow what it is that Jesus tells us to be doing.

To day I pray that you would be one who says, I'm going to follow my father

 

 

What do you usually do when you feel alone?

 

 

today. 

As we have read through this portion of scripture I want to encourage you 

to consider that God's instruction to us is almost worth our writing down.

I have a friend that says they, they read their devotions every day they just read it and get it done.

And I, I thought of myself I have a little spiral notebook that I have my devotion and in there I write any insight 

anything that kind of nudges me, kind of pokes me, kind of gets my attention 

so that I'll write it down and later I'll work to see how my life will reflect Christ in a better manner.

By doing this thing 

I pray you take hold of the things we read together 

and that you become a doer of the word.

Let's pray 

 

 

Lord Jesus it's in your name that we pray 
as you had told us to ask in your name 
and father your desire, Christ your desire, a holy spirit It's your desire
that we become more and more like Jesus Christ
that our lives reflect and become the persons that are a witness to our world
that we would be salt of preserving what is good 
and light shining in the darkness that would give hope.
Today Lord I pray that you would use us for your glory and your precious name.
Amen.