He Gets in the Car With You: Practise the Presence of God

Sermon outline

The first blessing of the Holy Spirit is that He brings God's presence to you, so you are never alone, and that presence grows stronger as you praise, give thanks, speak life and keep a steadfast and willing spirit.

1. The Holy Spirit is God with you

   Everything that works in the Christian life works by the Holy Spirit: He anoints your prayer and your preaching, prospers you, heals you, lifts you when you are down and speaks to the unsaved people you are praying for. He helps your weakness in prayer and leaves a witness inside you that God has answered before you see the result. God has not left us alone; He sent another Comforter.

   “If it was not for the presence of God, we would just be a religion without hope.”

   • Romans 8:26
   • Zechariah 4:6
   • John 14:16

2. The first blessing: the Holy Spirit brings God's presence to you

   You may feel alone at times, but you are not, because Jesus said He would never leave you nor forsake you, and He keeps that promise by His Spirit. In the car, on an aeroplane, in trials and at work, He is with you. When people plot against you He gives you wisdom, dreams, visions, ideas and concepts to bring you out, including the idea for a business.

   Illustration: He has stopped praying for travelling mercies, because when he gets into the car the Holy Spirit gets in with him, and when he gets out the Spirit does not stay behind. Sometimes as he walks he finds something like a light around him, or suddenly feels the power and presence of God without even praying.

   “I even stop praying for safe traveling mercies because when I get in my car, He gets in the car with me.”

   • Hebrews 13:5
   • John 14:16

3. Be filled with the Spirit and practise the presence of God

   Instead of being drunk with wine, be filled with the Spirit, which the Amplified Bible puts as being stimulated by the Spirit. You do that by speaking in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs and making music in your heart to the Lord, in the bathroom, in the car and on the way to work. A right heart matters more than the right key. The more you practise His presence, the stronger it grows, until you feel Him when you lie down, get up, walk, drive and work.

   Illustration: A teacher can worship while walking from classroom to classroom, and a driver can sing a new song at the wheel. Come early to church and worship in your heart while you sit.

   “A lot of people are singing with the right key, but their heart is wrong.”

   • Ephesians 5:18-19

4. Always giving thanks: stop murmuring and speak life

   We moan and complain so much, yet the passage says to give thanks to God for everything: your spouse, your car, your health, your job. Good things go to people who make merry in their hearts to the Lord and pass by those who sulk. Because God's presence is with you in the car as much as in church, He hears what you say there, so do not speak death over your job, business, home, marriage or children. David praised God openly even when his wife despised him for it.

   Illustration: Years back he and his family could not afford a car and took the train and the bus. He keeps a prayer written in the back of his Bible telling the Lord he is so blessed that he is even embarrassed. He calls stiff worshippers "God's frozen chosen".

   “Keep on sulking, keep on moaning, it will pass you by. But keep on praising Him, it will come to you.”

   • Ephesians 5:20
   • Proverbs 10:22
   • 2 Samuel 6:14-22
   • Mark 11:23
   • Matthew 18:18
   • Proverbs 18:21

5. The Holy Spirit is a person: build a relationship with Him

   He goes with you, travels with you and speaks with you, and He is a gentleman, so welcome Him and speak to Him kindly. He helps you to pray and to read your Bible; ask Him to open the eyes of your understanding. When you walk with Him, Satan cannot outwit you, because God shows you his schemes. He also asks the church to make the worship team's work easy by praising God themselves.

   Illustration: When he first became a Christian he would read the 'begats', close the Bible and say amen without understanding any of it. When God filled him with the Spirit, every word began to jump out at him.

   “When I get up and open my eyes, I say, welcome Holy Spirit.”

   • Ephesians 1:18
   • 2 Corinthians 2:11

6. The angel of His presence saved them

   In Isaiah 63:9 the angel of His presence is the messenger or conveyor of God's presence, and the next verse says they grieved His Holy Spirit, so he concludes that the two are one and the same. When that presence comes on you He saves you from disappointment, distress and whatever challenges you. Go into the week conscious that when you speak and lay hands, the Lord is doing it through you.

   “The angel of his presence and the Holy Spirit is one and the same thing.”

   • Isaiah 63:9-10

7. Do not cast me from Your presence: a steadfast heart and a willing spirit

   David, an anointed king who knew God's presence, wrote Psalm 51 after his sin with Bathsheba. The 'right' or steadfast spirit he asks for is a persevering heart that will not give up even when your own heart and other people condemn you. His great fear was to lose God's presence and His Holy Spirit. A willing spirit, to serve, pray, read, tithe, give, testify and bring people to church, is what keeps you succeeding in the Christian life.

   Illustration: He says he has made up his mind that nobody will ever discourage him from serving God, and that when someone snubs you, you do not give up.

   “I've made up my mind that no one will ever discourage me from serving God.”

   • Psalm 51:10-12
   • 1 Samuel 16:23