<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Plymouth-Sorrento SDA Church

Ralph Henderson

Don’t Leave Home Without Him

I know those of you that are my age or thereabouts or a little older you remember back in the late 70s there was a commercial that came out that it was a very big ad and it said don't leave home without them you remember Karl Malden Big nose and he have his hat on and his his overcoat and he would talk about the American Express checks And how important it was that we don't leave home without them talking about all the calamities that can happen If you don't spend your vacation with American Express travelers checks now, you know, it's interesting because just 10 years later in 1985 Joni and I went with her parents to Hawaii and Garrett was about a year old and we took American Express Travelers Checks.

And we were very thankful we did because we had only been there about 2 days and Somehow all of our checks had disappeared We don't know what happened to them But we didn't want Joanie's dad to know because he was kind of a panicker to begin with so we just quietly 1 afternoon went for a little walk with Garrett in the stroller and we walked right on down to a local American Express office we gave them all the numbers for our checks and they reimbursed us right on the spot And so we were very thankful that we had not left home without those checks But you know today we're talking about don't leave home without him And you know so often we we get up in the morning and we we have a good start to our day We get up and we spend time and study in prayer and then we want to remember that we need to take him with us from that time.

We don't want to leave him on the table or in the bedroom.

We want to take him with us everywhere we go.

Like our song said this morning, take the name of Jesus with you.

And this morning, I want to consider what we can do to make sure that Christ is in us and with us throughout the whole day, throughout every moment of every day.

And this morning I want you to know something as we begin.

I believe that today, I've been impressed through the course of this week that this is going to be a very personal message.

We're going to talk about how to keep Christ in you, the practical ways that we keep Christ abiding in us, but I want you to know that it's going to hit home.

It doesn't matter how long you've been a Christian.

It doesn't matter where you are in your experience, I want you to know that God has impressed me that today, he's going to be speaking to our very hearts.

And I'm praying this morning that as you listen to this message, that your heart will be stirred to the point that you will want to make sure that you are putting the principles that we talk about into practice.

So as we begin, let's go look at our verse again for today.

You know, the thing that I'm always encouraged about is that the Bible is full of promises.

God asks us to do certain things, but then God always seems to follow those things up with a promise.

And so we know that promises are conditional.

And the question that we need to ask ourselves is, am I taking those promises to heart recognizing that God is asking me to do something so that He can fulfill that promise in my life?

And as we look at Hebrews 13, I love the statement that is made, but the beginning, God kind of gives us a little bit of a warning, and He gives us an indication of something that we need to do.

Beginning in verse 5, He says, let your conversation be without covetousness.

Now in Barry's translation he had it was money, but we know that covetousness is much more than just money.

We know that we can be covetous over many things.

We've seen people covetous to the point that they covet someone else's wife or husband.

You know, there's a covetousness that takes us to a whole new level.

And so we need to realize God is again, when He says this, covetousness is a part of His law.

And he's asking us in a sense to make sure that through his power We are attempting to keep his law and follow his ways and then he says be content you see when we're not content is when we begin to covet other people's things and what they have and the success that they get.

Do you realize sometimes people are covetous of the success of a friend that they have?

And that's a sad thing when we can't be rejoicing when someone else is doing well, when we're so upset about our own circumstance.

And therefore, we covet the success that they have.

God says, Be content with such things as you have, for He has said, I will what?

I will never leave thee or forsake thee this morning I want you to register that in your mind.

God will never leave you There may come times when you leave him and we probably all could raise our hand this morning and say, oh, there's been plenty of times where I left God.

I just walked out the door and left Him in the bedroom.

Our circumstances where we have left God behind.

But God promises, And in my Bible, those words are all capitalized.

I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.

And then he goes on to say, so that we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper and I will not fear what man shall do unto me." Go to 1 more verse as we're moving on.

It's a song actually that we sing at prayer meeting.

Joshua chapter 1 and verse 9 those of you that go to prayer meeting you remember this song?

Have not I commanded thee be strong and of a good courage be strong be strong and of a good good good good courage but notice what he says Have not I commanded thee to be strong and of a good courage?

Be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed, for the Lord thy God is with thee, whether soever thou goest.

So, I could have taken you through many, many verses this morning, but I think those 2 establish a simple fact, and that is that God has promised in his word that he will never leave us.

Remember last week we talked about God's desire to be with us so much that he built a dwelling place here.

Then he opened up the Gateway into the most holy place so that he could be near us this week We're going even further because God not only wants to be with us brothers and sisters.

He wants to be in us He wants to be in us today not just with us but in us.

Look with me at the words of Jesus in John chapter 14.

Jesus wants us to know that God is doing everything to make sure that if our heart is open, that we can have His presence in us.

John chapter 14, and beginning In verse 16, Jesus said, and I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you, what?

Forever, even the Spirit of Truth, which the world cannot receive because it seeth him not neither knoweth him but ye know him for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you I will not leave you comfortless I will come to you now the question is asked and maybe I'm the only 1 that ever asked that question, but then why is it, if God has promised He'll never leave me or forsake me, then why is it I have those times when I feel alone?

When I feel like God's abandoned me or forsaken me, when I feel like He's just not there for me, why do I have those times?

I have those circumstances or those conditions where I feel like God just isn't there.

Sometimes I study and pray for hours and yet somehow through the course of the day or the week some besetting sin comes along and I fall again.

Sometimes it's the same thing over and over again.

Maybe their money, maybe their relationship with their husband or wife.

I fall into the trap of talking about others, comparing myself with others, feeling prideful when I hear of other sins." Remember this statement?

The warfare against self is the greatest battle that was ever fought.

The yielding of self, surrendering all to the will of God, requires a struggle.

But the soul must submit to God before it can be renewed in holiness.

Now we were talking about that in our Sabbath school class today, weren't we?

In James chapter 4 verse 7, submit yourselves therefore to God.

I want to share an illustration and I've probably got a few of these in my own circumstance, but you know, you get up in the morning, you get up early.

How many of you like to study early in the morning before you go to work, okay?

How many of you like to study late at night before you go to bed?

But you know, some of us, you know, we like to get up early in the morning.

We like to start our day off with the Lord, and we'll get up real early 1 day.

You know, we'll think, man, I'm going to get this week going right, and I'm going to get up early, and I'm going to spend a nice, quiet time with God.

And we study and we pray, and then we get up and we're feeling really great about our study time that we've spent with God.

And we go off into the day and we get busy and the day begins and all of a sudden we come into a circumstance where our character is tested.

You know, I think back, I think I shared this 1 with you 1 time.

I had a cell phone with Sprint, and I was not real pleased with their service, and so my contract was up, and I was gonna call them up and tell them that we were gonna be dropping our coverage and going to another company and when I called the very first thing they told me was that well the other phones on your line they can't drop because their contracts not expired yet.

And I said well now let me ask you a question.

I said, now aren't those phones under my contract?

Well, I said, well, then what are you gonna do when I cancel my contract?

Because they're certainly not gonna come in and rewrite 1 with you.

And As this conversation progressed, he just wasn't going to let me switch.

And you know what started happening is self started to rise up.

Back to Menu

Don’t Leave Home Without Him

Transcript

Sponsor

Recorded

Related

Think On These Things

Think on These Things- Part 3

39m

Only

59m

Relating to God While Sharing the 3 Angels' Messages

Wake Up!

1h 18m

Plenary

When Temptations Return

1h 18m

Don’t Lose Heart

50m

The Man Behind the Armor

1h

Let Go and Let God

41m

For A Crown

1h

In the Spirit and Power

1h 22m

A God Worth Knowing

19 Jesus Understands

58m

Lord, Teach Us to Pray: The Science of Prayer

2. Where Prayer Begins

1h

Acts

Acts: Filled with the Holy Spirit

42m

Sound Doctrine