FRIDAY NIGHT REVIVAL Service – Oct.

24, ‘08

Intro

1. Have you ever talked to someone and while you are talking with them they are looking constantly
at their watch?
- Or they are not giving you eye contact and they are fidgety?
- It is quite annoying, isn’t it?
- You are talking with them and you can tell from all manners of body language that they don’t
want to STAY THERE with you.
- When you have a conversation like that, do you want to continue it? - No.
2. Or if there is someone that you see frequently (maybe at a store or at school) but you only talk to
them for 30 sec or so, do you consider yourself CLOSE to that person. – NO
- even though you see them frequently, you are not CLOSE to them
3. This is because you do not HANG OUT with them.
- the term “HANG OUT” describes a group of people who are just staying with each other
- a group of people (especially young people) can stay with one another in a park and do nothing
but “hang out”
- it’s a common American question to say, “What’s up?”
- and the response from a group of young people is: “Nothin’. We’re just hanging out.”
4. The reason they can HANG OUT together is because of RELATIONSHIP.
5. How many of you have a relationship with God?
6. God wants to HANG OUT with you, and He wants you to HANG OUT with Him.
7. In fact, that’s some of what we have been studying about over the past weeks regarding the
Tabernacle.
- Ptr. Festin has been showing us that God wants to dwell with His people, to tabernacle with us.
8. Tonight we are going to look at more scripture related to “hanging out” with God.
9. We are going to look at the words of Jesus…

Text: John 15:4-5 (NAS)

Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot, bear fruit of itself unless, it abides in
the vine, so neither can you unless, you abide in Me. 5 ``I am the vine, you are the branches; he
who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing…”

A. Understanding “ABIDE in ME”

1. ABIDE (Gr): meno (men’-o)

- to remain, to tarry, not to depart, to continue to be present
- to be held, kept, continually
- in reference to state or condition: to remain as one, not to become different
(a consistent state)
- ABIDE and REMAIN are the two most common translations of MENO

2. Examples of use in NT

Mark 6:10 (NIV)

Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that town.
 Mark 14:34 (NIV)
"My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death," he said to them.
"Stay here and keep watch."

3. Jesus’ use of MENO in John 14,15

a. Jesus used this word in His teaching in these two chapters 12 times.
- more than in any other teaching of Jesus
- and Chpt. 14,15 are part of the last great teaching of Jesus to His disciples
describing what a relationship with God was all about

John 14:16 (NKJV)

And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He
may abide with you forever

b. Of course here, Jesus was talking about the Holy Spirit staying with us forever.
c. The Holy Spirit is LIVING within us.
- We are a Tabernacle of God, a Temple of the Holy Spirit.
d. We sometimes do no think about this enough and do not realize what it means to our
relationship with God.

B. The Command of Jesus: “Abide in ME”

1.. That is a command of Jesus to His disciples.

- they had no trouble obeying that command at that very moment
- almost 24 hours a day, they were with Jesus Christ
- they were always “hanging out” with Jesus
2. But they did not know that very soon after Jesus said this, that Jesus would be taken
away from them.
- at the arrest of Jesus and his crucifixion
3. But of course after the resurrection of Jesus, He was with them again for 40 days.
4. But after that, Jesus finally left His disciples physically.
- He ascended to the Father.
- Jesus is in heaven now.
5. So, when we read Jesus’ words: “Abide in Me”
- How can we really stay and remain with Jesus?
6. This is where we must have a personal revelation that each of us is a temple of the Holy
Spirit.
- We CAN REMAIN, ABIDE and HANG OUT with Jesus because of the Holy
Spirit within us.
- The Holy Spirit is the one who reveals Jesus to us.

John 16:14-15 (NLT)

He will bring me glory by revealing to you whatever he receives from me.
15
All that the Father has is mine; this is what I mean when I say that the Spirit will
reveal to you whatever he receives from me.

7. Just think about this…

- anywhere you go, at anytime of the day… you carry around with you the Holy
Spirit in you

- the same presence that was in the Holy of Holies of the Tabernacle is INSIDE of you
- the presence of God IS IN YOU… 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year
 8. When we grew up in religion, religion taught us that our relationship with God was tied
up to a church building.
- when you go to church, you meet with God
- when you leave the church building, you do your own personal things

9. If that is the attitude of a Christian, they are in trouble if they can’t go to church all the time.
- sometimes people get different jobs and their schedules change
- sometimes people get transferred to different cities for employment
- if a Christian’s relationship with God is based on going to a church building, then they
will really have struggles
- they will DRY UP and they will not experience the presence of God anymore

10. This is all because they did not LEARN to remain in the presence of Jesus Christ within them.

- PRACTICING HIS PRESENCE

11. What we receive from church services should serve to SUPERCHARGE us with the word of
God and the anointing so that God can use us for His glory.
- but nothing can take the place of our personal relationship with our Lord Jesus

C. The Old Testament Word for ABIDING

1. YASHAB (yaw-shab’) – this is basically the Hebrew equivalent of the Greek MENO
- to remain, to abide, to sit, to stay

2. David wanted to always YASHAB (DWELL) with Yahweh

Psalms 27:4 (NIV)

One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple.

a. David wanted ONE THING more than anything else in life: the PRESENCE of GOD.
b. This was something that brought holy frustration to David.
- because David wanted to be near the dwelling place of God all the time.
- but he was not able to be there all the time
- at one point of his life he was being chased around the wilderness
- at other times, he was busy fighting battles against enemies
- at other times
c. If we could have told David that the Temple of God would in the future live inside the
people of God, he would have FAINTED.
- it would have been too much of a revelation for him
d. But again, we have become almost familiar with that revelation.

3. Also please notice what David says about dwelling in the house of the Lord.

3. Also please notice what David says about dwelling in the house of the Lord. (repeat)

“to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple.”

a. This speaks about ADORATION.

 b. One of the Friday night in weeks past we watched a video about
the gem stones from heaven in that church in Puerto Rico.
c. The gem stones were amazing, but there was something that struck me from what that
Puerto Rican pastor said… and it has been in my mind since that time.
- he said, “This is a MOVE of ADORATION”

C. A Move of ADORATION

1. Adoration: ________

2. Now, we will tie together the concept of ABIDING in the Presence of God with this MOVE of
ADORATION.
a. How do you ADORE something or someone?
- you look at that person or thing for awhile
- in fact, you cannot keep your eyes off of it
b. If we are not REMAINING with JESUS on a regular basis, how can we ADORE Him?
c. Our personal adoration of Jesus will directly affect our corporate adoration of Him.

3. If we want this MOVE of ADORATION to increase and go deeper, we must go DEEPER in

our relationship with the Lord.
- we must learn to HANG OUT with the Holy Spirit in our personal lives
- we must practice SOAKING with the Holy Spirit

4. Adoration is more than SINGING, it is an attitude of love and respect for God.
- and it comes because we see God working in our lives

5. We must look within ourselves and see if we are really ABIDING in the Lord’s presence.

a. Going back to Jesus’ words in John 15:4,5

John 15:4-5 (NASB)

Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot, bear fruit of itself unless,
it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless, you abide in Me. 5 ``I am the vine,
you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for
apart from Me you can do nothing

b. Jesus showed that there was a way to EVALUATE if you are ABIDING in Jesus on a
regular basis.
- the test to evaluate it is: BEARING FRUIT

c. You can just ask yourself: “Is JESUS still CHANGING my LIFE?”

d. If you are ABIDING in Jesus, every season of your life, God will be doing something in
your life to change you.
- He will be working in you to produce more FRUIT
- What is that FRUIT? Ministry?
- No… it is the fruit of the Spirit

e. When you are ABIDING in Jesus and living a life of ADORATION to the Lord, you
will be bearing more fruit of:
- love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,
self-control
 f. Ask yourself: “What is the latest change that Jesus did in my heart?”
- if the answer is: uhhh, wala
- then you know that you are not abiding in the Lord’s presence

g. And sometimes the changes that God does hurts.

- Jesus said that He is the Vine and His Father is the Vinedresser
- He said that when we bear fruit, He prunes us to bear more fruit
- If you’re being PRUNED, it is a good sign of a strong relationship with God.

Conclusion

1. In this move of God, Jesus wants our relationship with Him to go deeper and deeper.
2. He wants to TABERNACLE with us by the presence of the Holy Spirit.
- both within us individually
- and also in us as a corporate temple of the Lord
3. Let’s finish my reading a prayer of the Apostle Paul for the Ephesian believers:

Eph 3:16-17 (NIV)

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit
in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.

Eph 3:16-17 (NLT)

I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will give you mighty inner strength
through his Holy Spirit. 17 And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts
as you trust in him.

4. Paul was praying for believers just like us.

- filled with the Spirit of God
- walking with the Lord
5. But Paul knew that the people of God always must allow Christ to dwell MORE in their HEARTS.
- Paul never got self-satisfied and stuck in one place spiritually
- He said that “I have not obtained it yet”… he was always pressing on for more of God
6. The presence of God in our midst has a great purpose in us individually...
- read Eph. 3:16-17 again
- to STRENGTHEN us in our spirit
- so that Christ would DWELL more in us
- so that we would be CHANGED into the TABERNACLES that would be the right home for
Christ to live in
- changed: an increase in the fruit of the Spirit
- repentance and renewal in diff areas of our lives
- more surrender
- more time with God in our personal lives
- so that the presence of God can always abide with us