Well, good morning, my friends, and welcome to the Heritage Hour. I’m Mark Gonzales, your pastoral or soul care encourager here in Southwest Florida. And I’m so delighted to be with you on air, online, and in media ministry for, wow, 35 years now.

So thank you for sitting with me at the feet of the Lord to listen for his heart to touch our hearts. Well, today we’re winding down an eight part series that I’ve been calling Soul Care Portraits of God. And every time we come to the last session of a series, I feel like we’re saying goodbye to an old friend. we’ve had such a marvelous journey just taking a journey together at the feet of the Lord just to see all the portraits of God related to soul care and just a quick reminder that soul care is simply about two things our unique God-given heart wiring that’s our spiritual gifting and all the ways that he’s poured into us to do the things he’s called us to do our heart wiring and our heart wounds because in this life, he said, you will have tribulation. We get wounds.

Now, so soul care simply about two things are unique, God given heart wiring and heart wounds, which he yearns to lovingly reveal and heal to the degree we abide in him to bear much fruit. And if you’ve been with us, you know that in the first seven broadcasts, we talked about how he is our soul care shepherd. That was the first of these eight broadcasts, trying to just give us a vivid picture of how the Lord does dispense his soul care to us. And of course, we get that out of Psalm 23.

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not lack. Makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul.

He’s our soul care shepherd. And then the second broadcast was how he is our healing creator. And then in the third one, the third broadcast, we expanded on a dimension of how he is our healing creator and said that he is our creative healer. And we looked at all these different ways.

20 biblical reasons why God allows physical infirmity and seven hidden things that blind and bind the hearts and a biblical journey about how Jesus healed. Wonderful journey that day. And then the next one, how he is our constant conversation. That was number four.

Oh how John 1 unfolds an incredible incredible truth about how the Lord is well our eternal conversation both in eternity past and eternity future In the beginning was the Word or the Logos in Greek, which can also be translated as conversation. And boy, did we take a journey through that particular topic. And then number five, I said to put a gold star by that one, how he is our deeper dive. and I gave you five progressive portraits and experiences and dynamics of growing in intimacy with the Lord. And the last two of those, number four and number five, we focused in on in the sixth message about soul care portraits of God and how he is our wondrous mystery, because the Bible tells us that in those five degrees or depths of discovering the heart of the Lord and intimacy with him.

The last two are called mysteries.

So we talked about those wondrous mysteries. And then last time we talked about he is our worship focus and how the worship wars that many have had and maybe are still in, whether it’s personally or in their church family or denominations, boy, this one will solve it. It shows four dynamics or types of worship scripturally, all of which we need. And when we get this and we receive it, the worship wars are over.

And now we come to number eight of eight. He is our soul care presence. We opened with how he is our soul care shepherd. We saw the other portraits that I just lined out for you, but I wanted to end up with this one, how he is our soul care presence, because it’s actually introducing the next series that I’m getting ahead of myself.

If you have your Bibles, we’re going to be in Matthew 28 and Hebrews 13. We’re going to look at five more sub-portraits of this overarching portrait about how he is our soul care presence, my friends.

But as we get started, as is our custom, oh, let’s just go before the Lord and ask him to speak, shall we? Well, Lord, I’m just so honored that you give us the privilege to come and sit at your feet. We get to gaze in your eyes and we get to listen for your heart as you speak to our hearts. And today as we’re winding up this series about how you are our soul care shepherd and so many other portraits that, well, talk about how you do want to refresh our souls.

I pray that today portrait how you are our soul care presence will just catch our attention go deep into our hearts, saturate our souls to see that you’re always with us. You’re always with us. Wow.

So Lord, I pray you help me unpack this in a way my brothers and sisters can be drawn more and more and to your awesome, holy, and loving presence. Oh, we pray this in the powerful name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by his precious cleansing and healing, transforming, empowering, and forgiving blood. Amen. Amen and amen.

All right, my friends. Well, Matthew 28, verses 19 and 20. You know it as the Great Commission, but tucked into that almost as a crescendo, if you really look at it, we get this marvelous peak, this marvelous statement about the Lord’s soul care presence, how he is our soul care presence.

Because as you know, the Great Commission opens up in verse 19 saying, Go therefore, Jesus is speaking, and make disciples of all the nations. And the rest of that verse is what we typically preach on. And we kind of just put a little asterisk on this one, but it’s worth focusing in on how he ends that great commission.

Because after he says, go there for and make disciples of all the nations.

So picture this, we’re out and about, all the nations, people making disciples, doing the work of the ministry, sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. He says, behold, I am with you always. To the end of the age. That is astounding when you stop and think about it.

Hebrews 13, 5. We get this, that he himself, that is Jesus, has said. He himself has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you.

Now I know that most of you who grew up in Christianity, good local churches, reading your Bibles, these are very familiar passages. Behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. I will never leave you or forsake you.

But we kind of forget the dramatic and transformative impact that should have on us.

But we forget. so we going to take a journey we going to look at five sub of how he is our soul care presence he always with us he never leaves us He taking care of our souls If we just take the time to listen and respond and converse with him as we talked about earlier, how he is our constant conversation, and that’s a two-way conversation he desires.

But what I want to do is just kind of give an overview of the basics of this incredible theological and life truth about the presence of God, the soul care presence of God. And I’m just going to kind of give you five of these sub portraits. And then the next series, actually, I’m calling the abiding presence portraits of God. We’ve been going through the soul care portraits of God, then we’re going to go through the abiding presence portraits of God.

But I’m going to give you an overview, a peek at what’s to come as we’re winding up to soul care presence, are the soul care portraits of God with this picture of the soul care presence.

So here we go. Number one, he is our omnipresence.

Now this is normally, I have two words for my portraits of God. This one sounds like two words, but it’s actually one omnipresence.

So he is our omnipresence. Let’s go over to Psalm 139. I’m going to read one through three and then seven through 10, but let’s read it slowly. Let’s read it with the eyes of the heart.

We can zip through this one because it may be very familiar with you but when you stop and think about that this is a sub-portrait of how God is our soul care presence and the first and most basic reality in this world is the omnipresence of God. How does the scripture put it? It puts it this way. Again, Psalm 139 beginning in verse 1.

Lord, you have searched me and known me, and you know when I sit down and when I get up. You understand my thought from far away. You scrutinize my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. By the way, let me stop there a moment.

Two things. The omnipresence is mentioned there, obviously, about how he knows everything and knows where I am and all that other stuff.

But it’s also his omniscience. That’s another nice big quarter theological word, all knowing. He’s not only all present, but he’s all knowing as well.

Now, he focused more on the omnipresence when we get to verse eight. The psalmist writes, or the end of verse seven, where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? I mean, if I ascend to heaven, You were there.

If I… Make my bed in Sheol. Behold, you are there. If I take up the wings of dawn, if I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, even there, your hand will lead me and your right hand will take hold of me.

Are you getting that? Are you getting the poetry here from the Psalms? Are you getting the picture that God will not only never leave us or forsake us in a propositional truth. Oh yeah, that’s a fact.

God’s everywhere. Listen, this gets it to the heart. It’s a stunning truth that God is speaking to us through the psalmist. The psalmist is discovering, Lord, I mean, you know me inside and out.

I can’t hide anything from you. I can’t go anywhere. You’re all knowing. You’re always there. it’s the omnipresence of God.

You know why?

Because he wants to refresh your soul. He’s our soul care shepherd. And he offers us his soul care presence in the sense of his omnipresence. It’s always true.

He’s always there. It’s a fact of this life. It’s the reality of this world. It is stunning.

But let me ask you a question. As you think about how God is always there, always seeing, always knowing, never leaving us or forsaking us, always watching us, everything we do, everything we think. Do you reflexively and in heart see him scowling or you see him drawing you to him? A lot of people see this omnipresence of God, watching everything you do as a scowling God. there you go again.

There you go again. I mean, ready to strike us down, ready to discipline us.

Now, there is the truth about the discipline of God for sure, but he’s not looking and hoping we’ll mess up so he can throw a lightning bolt at us or whack us or anything. Listen, he is always there to draw us more and more unto himself.

But do you reflexively see him as scowling or drawing you with a smile? Scowling you, getting ready to scold you, strike you, discipline you, punish you? Ah, no, smiling, winking, laughing. Grieving sometimes when we just do so many things that hurt us and others.

But he there yearning to draw us more and more to himself His omnipresence is a truth that should comfort us not make us cower or look over our shoulder or be fearful. I think I could say much more about that we will in the coming series, but let me take you to the next one. Not only is our soul care presence, our omnipresence, but there’s on the other end of the spectrum of his general omnipresence when we tend to forget take for granted right we have his manifest presence he is our manifest presence there are times when he manifests his presence in extraordinary ways that is just unbelievably awe-inspiring sometimes overwhelming Paul on the road to Damascus Pentecost but think about Pentecost not everyone believed that those miraculous manifestations in Acts 2 the beginning of Acts 2 were of God some thought that those that were receiving it and being impacted by it they’re just drunk what are you going to do they’re just drunk here’s the amazing thing about the manifest presence of God that will always be true wherever you are, my friends. And it can be in family.

It can be in your church. It can be at work. It can be in your neighborhood. It can be in a country.

It can be at a conference. It can be at a seminar. There are times there’s the manifest presence of God that’s supernaturally touching the hearts and spirits of people.

But not everyone in the room, not everyone in the worship center, not everyone in the Bible study, not everyone online.

Sometimes we sense the manifest presence, sometimes we do not. And you see that clearly in the opening verses of Acts 2.

But let me take you also to the end of Acts 2, because as manifest presence shows up in what we might think are just regular traditional Christian things, because it says this, Acts 2 verses 42 and 43. They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching. All right, let’s stop there. Application-wise, that would be preaching and Bible study, teaching, and that type of thing.

Okay, we get that. Discipleship groups, all that. They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, gathering together, to the breaking of bread. That could be communion, as is the Lord’s Supper, but also just eating together the fellowship of eating together We Baptists do a lot of that right And a prayer There it is again Apostles teaching fellowship breaking of bread and prayer But look what it says next.

And everyone kept feeling a sense of awe. And many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles.

So let me stop right there. I love this because the manifest presence of God often comes through the apostles teaching, but not everybody feels that awesomeness.

Some do, some don’t. And to fellowship.

Some feel the awesomeness, the manifest presence of God through fellowship. Others don’t. Breaking of bread and communion.

Some feel the awesomeness, the presence, the manifest presence of God through that. Others don’t. And even individually, some days we do and some days we don’t, right? Let’s just be honest.

And then to prayer.

Some feel the awesome manifest presence of God in their prayer times.

Some don’t. And as I just mentioned, we all have days that we do and days that we don’t. It’s okay. It’s part of the experience.

But I love how it says everyone kept feeling a sense of awe. And then many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. Signs and wonders. Yes, that can be healing.

Sometimes God does that. Deliverances sometimes does that. Those are the first things that come to mind.

But just aha moments. Breakthroughs in bitterness and forgiveness.

And so many things can happen when you are cognizant of the manifest presence of God and receive it. Don’t relegate your Christianity to just propositional or cerebral truth, orthodoxy.

Now, that’s a starting place. I’m not diminishing it. In fact, I spent several years of my life creating a catechism based on the three great Reformation catechisms, the Heidelberg Catechism of 1563 and the Westminster Shorter Catechism of 1647, and then the Baptist or Keech’s Catechism of 1693. You know what?

They all had pretty much the same scope and sequence when I really studied them, and I blended them together into 95 Q&As, because the catechism is just question and answers, 95 Q&As in rhyming verse. And we actually took the themes that we saw unfolding, the theological themes there, the knowledge of God, the power of God, 10 different segments, knowledge of God, power of God, the fall of mankind, the misery of sin, the gift of God’s Son, the work of God’s Spirit, the commandments of God, the salvation of man, pictures of grace and model Lord Prayer That how those catechisms unfolded the basic theological propositional truths of god so i all in put it in the children picture book we set those 10 sections of q and a’s into song you can see it online go to my website at markpg.org with lots of tools there and and it’ll tell you the youtube section that you can see these songs and put the songs. I also not just put it in a children’s picture book so mom and dad could read to them and they can memorize it without even trying. You know that.

You read a picture book to a child, they memorize it automatically.

But I put the same Q&As, the 95 Q&As, into a small devotional book I call Conversations with God. It’s a daily devotional and practical tool for prayer and evangelism, discipleship, based on the classic biblical worldview that I just described from those three catechisms, but I put it in first person. I put them as prayers.

So, for example, as you open up the children’s book, it’ll say, why is it that man is here? To glorify God forever with cheer.

But in the devotional book for adults, I put it as a prayer. My Lord, why is it that I am here? His answer, to glorify me forever with cheer. And then there’s scripture, and then there’s an application.

The second one, my Lord, what book did you give us to direct us your own? My infallible scripture, the Bible alone. My Lord, what do your scriptures primarily teach? They teach what you all should believe, do, and preach.

Well, my Lord, who and what are you like up above? I am holy, eternal. I am the spirit, the dove. I am unchangeable wisdom.

I am justice and love. My Lord, are there other true gods under the sun? I’m the only God living. I’m the Lord God, the one.

My Lord, how many persons in the Godhead yet still one? We are three in one substance, all equal, all one. God, the father, the spirit, and Jesus, the son.

Now those are the six and the section called the knowledge of God. And it’s a great song that we put with the kids.

But again, in the kids, it’s in the third person.

But for us, it’s heart to heart with God. A conversation with God. I call the devotional conversations with God.

So I’m all in on propositional truth.

But in addition to that, it’s not an either or it’s an and. Propositional, cerebral, orthodoxy, important. Doctrine, important.

But in addition to that, that existential mystical pietism or that personal experiencing God. Experiencing God was a great discipleship and encountering with God series. It came out in the 90s with Henry Blackaby. Still around today.

Really, basically it’s find out what God’s doing and get in on it was his theme. It’s a marvelous journey on that side of the spectrum of experiencing the Lord propositionally, But then, personally, with his manifest presence, through the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, breaking of bread and prayer. It’s a both and, not an either or. And don’t play one against the other.

Oh, sometimes within us, within the camp, we get critical of the others. They’re too emotionally based. They’re too feelings based. Oh, they’re these pietists and all. and those that are on the propositional cerebral orthodoxy side, you know, or pointing fingers at them.

But then it goes the other way. Oh, those guys are in academics and they’re just all about intellectual stuff and they don’t really get it. It’s not about the heart. Hey, let’s not go there.

It’s a both and. Not an either or. Well as we go on we see that he also our conscience presence our conscious presence Isaiah 26 You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you Hey, my friend, our problem is that we are not always conscious of the very presence of God. We just forget.

We lose sight of that. And you know what? When we do that, it’s practical atheism. It’s practical humanism.

Don’t do that. keep in mind that he is with you and he’s never left you. He is our personal presence. John 17, I in them, you in me, that they may be perfected in unity so that the world may know that you sent me and you’ve loved them just as you’ve loved me. My friends, this is the unity, the union, the fruitful oneness we’ve talked about in the earlier sections of this Soul Care Portraits of God series, those fourth and fifth depths of our discovering the Lord were intertwined.

There’s a love beyond measure there. It’s a personal presence.

So, it’s our omnipresence, our manifest presence, our conscious presence, our personal presence, and of course, He’ll be our eternal presence. John 14 3 when He said I go and prepare a place for you and I coming again to take you to myself to where I am There you also will be Oh my friends not just in this life but in the new heaven new earth Right now we’re being training and we’re in training for reigning with him later. It’s a whole other series.

But he’s also prepared a personal abiding place for us in eternity. He’s our eternal presence.

But that eternal presence starts now.

So here’s how we’ll wrap this up. He is our soul care presence. I gave you five ways that it can be experienced and expressed. We’ll revisit that again in the series to come.

But the next series title, He is our abiding presence. We’re going to look at a series called the abiding presence portraits of God. abiding in him to bear much fruit according to John 15 there’s an abiding presence that you can experience every moment of every day we’re just not always conscious of it we need to be conscious of it for it to have its impact and all if you you know like I said earlier you will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on him right so we going to be really taking a deep deep dive into that There a classic book called Practicing the Presence of God It talks about a man from the 1600s named Brother Lawrence all kinds of other things we’ll bring into it. It’s going to be a marvelous journey at this soul care level that the key to constant soul care is being conscious of the constant presence of God. He is indeed our abiding presence.

And I can’t wait to take you there starting next week. Oh, my friends, the Lord loves you far more than you can possibly imagine. He wants to refresh your soul. That’s why he leads us beside still waters.

Right? Why? so that he can indeed refresh our souls. He is our soul care shepherd and our soul care presence. And Lord, we thank you for this.

We receive it in Jesus’ name. Amen. Well, I’m Mark Gonzales, and I hope you’ll check out my website at markpg.org for more. Until next time, fall in love with Jesus, our Soul Care Shepherd.