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 industry for about 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, if you were with us last week, you know we’ve started a brand new eight-part series I’m calling The Abiding Presence Portraits of God.

Because I see all of Scripture as portraits of God. The Lord just does that to give us a sense of his presence, a sense of his power, his character, his heart, all of that. I love seeing scripture as portraits of God. In fact, the series we did before, just two weeks ago, that eight part series, I called Soul Care Portraits of God.

And we took a marvelous journey discovering how soul care is simply about two things, our unique God giving heart wiring and heart wounds, which the Lord yearns to lovingly reveal and heal to the degree we abide in him to bear much fruit. Hence this follow-up series about the abiding presence, portraits of God. And last time we talked about that very thing, how he is our abiding presence. I wanted to lay a foundation about explaining that we have his omnipresence on the one hand where he’s everywhere always.

That’s just a theological and actual fact that we know that wherever we go, the Lord is there. And that’s a good thing. It’s his watchful presence because he loves us, not because he doesn’t trust us. Right.

But not just his manifest or his omnipresence, but we also looked at his manifest presence. How does it show up in real life? And we talked about that at length on the day of Pentecost, how some people believed and saw and received the reality of the supernatural things happening then and how that happens throughout life and throughout time, that some see it, but the scripture says others were jeering and saying they’re full of sweet wine.

So we talked about that out of Acts 2, and that’s how we started.

So today, we’re going to the second of the eight broadcasts, and we going to talk about how he not only our abiding presence but one of the ways the manifest presence of the Lord occurs is by his inner presence We have an inner presence of the Lord God of the ages that we’re going to talk about today. It’s phenomenal. He is our inner presence, my friends, and we’re going to look at that together as we continue our journey through his love letters, this time through the book of Ephesians and John and Colossians. We’ll pick up some incredible insights about the inner presence of the Lord God of the ages, of the Lord Jesus Christ, and those of us who have been saved or born again, become one with him.

So if you have your Bibles, let me invite you to start making your way over to Ephesians chapter 3. And just a quick reminder that all of these messages are archived on my website at markpg.org. I call it Helping You Hear God, markpg.org. Those are 27-minute radio messages you’ll find there.

And you’ll find another section for articles, another for videos, another for some one-page quick guides on all kinds of topics.

So check it out at markpg.org if you want to go deeper into this journey of discovering the Lord and his ways through so many different portraits of God.

Now, as we get started, it is our custom. Let’s just go before the Lord, ask him to speak, shall we? Lord, I love coming into your presence to sit at your feet with my brothers and sisters. I love how you love to speak to us, Lord, heart to heart. and Lord I pray that you’ll help me cover this portrait in a way that my brothers and sisters will be encouraged that they’ll be able to receive it walk in it experience it we don’t just want an intellectual knowledge about it we don’t want to come to the place where we just acknowledge the facts and log down the data we know you want us to experience all that knowledge is just the beginning but then you want to deepen it You want it to reach our hearts, that soul, that inner being, our inner core.

And so as you show us how that works today, I pray we will indeed receive it, that we might experience it, walk in it. Sense that communion with you to not just know about you but to know you personally and intimately So thank you Lord We love you Lord And 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, let’s talk about how the Lord is our inner presence. And to unpack it, there’s going to be three sub-portraits, so to speak, that really help describe how his inner presence is a reality in our lives.

And so we start in Ephesians chapter 3, verses 16 through 19, where we look at his inner presence as our rooted presence. His inner presence is a rooted presence. Pick it up in verse 16. It says, he that is the Lord would grant you according to the riches of his glory.

Okay, I got to stop there. Can you look at that phrase? According to the riches of his glory, he wants to give out of the riches of his glory to us. Is that amazing or what?

So what exactly does he want to give us out of the riches of his glory? Here it is.

Next phrase, to be strengthened with power through his spirit in the inner self. Got to stop there. The inner self, hence our inner presence. The Lord, when we got saved, the Lord came to abide in us and us in him by his Holy Spirit in the inner self, in our inner core, in our heart of hearts, in our very soul.

The Bible uses all kinds of words to describe the inner self. And that is where the Lord resides in those of us who’ve come to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, my friends. We just forget this.

But look how this particular passage, which is one of the most complete and pregnant and comprehensive passages we have on this reality of his rooted presence in our inner being. He goes on to say in verse 17, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts. In your soul, in your inner self. Christ dwells there.

The Lord is there by His Holy Spirit. Through faith, the passage goes on to say, and that you, and I love this next phrase, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and height and depth Okay, I got to stop there again. I mean, every one of these phrases is worth its own message, but let me just say this. Here’s this picture of the Lord Jesus Christ by His Spirit coming to live within us, and He’s rooted and grounded in us in love.

We are rooted and grounded in Him in love that we might know with the saints the width and the length, the height of the death. That covers the dimensions, right? By the way, that’s reminiscent of the illustration I mentioned last week about when you’re crossing the street. Don’t be one dimensional and look one way and try to cross the street.

We tend to be so one dimensional and are thinking about the ways of God.

And sometimes in our denominational exuberance, we think this is the way and the only way and everybody else is heretics. And, you know, yeah, there is some heresy out there, to be sure.

But there’s a lot of godly diversity. The reality that we interpret things differently. That’s why we have so many denominations.

But it doesn’t necessarily make them heretical.

So that’s for another day.

But I just want you to see that the width and the length and the height and the depth is similar to crossing the street. where you don’t just look one way. You don’t even look two ways like we say mom and dad taught us. You got to look two ways before you cross the street. No, we will look six ways.

Left, right, up at the lights and the signage. Those are important. Down because stepping off the curb, you don’t want to step in a pothole or cans or garbage that are there.

So you look down. All this is reflective, by the way. You look straight ahead to see oncoming traffic.

So that’s five.

But there’s one more direction. You better look backwards over your shoulder. I mentioned to you that in Amsterdam twice, I almost got run over by bikes because there’s a billion bikes that are going around that city very fast. And they’ll come up from behind you and take a left in front of you if you’re not looking and you can get hurt.

You and I look six ways before we cross the street. And you know in life, looking six ways, looking multiple ways, being multifaceted in our understanding with the nuances and the layered ways of God because he’s transcendent and infinite and we are finite and limited.

So here he is saying being rooted and grounded in love we may be able to comprehend or see with all the saints what is the width and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ. Thank you. Wow. We’re rooted and grounded in love.

He wants us to know about it. Which surpasses knowledge. Do you see that? The love of the Lord surpasses knowledge.

It doesn’t replace knowledge. Make no mistake. It doesn’t diminish the importance of knowledge. That’s important.

In fact, I mentioned, I think, last week that I spent several years of my life pouring through the Heidelberg Catechism and then the Westminster Catechism and then the Baptist Catechism. Those three Reformation Catechism have a similar scope and sequence. And I blended them together into 95 question and answers and put them in rhyming verse, put them in a children’s picture book so it could be easily memorized by children. Even set it to music.

There are 10 sections of this 95 question and answer Catechism. 10 sections and 10 songs. You can find it at my website. Just click on to the inner tube, inner tube, I’ll get it right.

The YouTube channel that has these 10 songs and you can sing along with them with your kids. Anyway, I’m all into theology and doctrine and systematic theology, but don’t stop there. The Lord wants you to experience him and experience his love and to know him, the width, the length, the height, the breadth, to know the love of Christ, which surpasses knowledge. It’s not just data acquisition and fact-finding.

Go beyond it, to the heart, to the soul, not just the head. Why? That you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Is this a powerful passage or what?

Ephesians 3, 16-19 is chock full of supernatural, spiritual realities of the inner presence of God in our life. The rooted presence of the Lord God of the ages, the Lord Jesus Christ into our hearts. Power, the inner self, rooted and grounded in surpassing love, the fullness of God. Woo!

That’ll preach. All right. Hang on to that, because it even gets better as he gives us some more views of the same powerful truth, not just his rooted presence, but let’s look at his interwoven presence. That’s another way that his inner presence is described in the scriptures.

And this is over in John chapter 15, verses five through six, where Jesus says, I am the vine in verse five, you are the branches and he who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit for apart from me you can do nothing I mentioned to you before that this was the passage that was the theme of most of my pastoral career about 35 years worth but most of it, this was the theme of our church being abiding in him to bear much fruit because apart from him we can do nothing. Why?

Because this passage, this John 15, is so full of the reality and the truth and the necessity that we need to abide in him.

Because apart from me, we can do nothing. And in verse 6, it goes on to say that if anyone does not abide or is interwoven or is deeply connected in Christ, he is thrown away like a branch, drying up and thrown into the fire.

Okay, now, let me unpack that a moment because I don’t want you to be confused. Earlier in John chapter 15, it talked about a branch that does not bear fruit, does not bear grapes.

And some translation says he removes them or he cuts them off or he throws them out. Well, that’s not a good translation there. That’s a Greek word, airo, A-I-R-O. It can mean that, but it can also mean lift up. and in this verse verses two and three as opposed to verse six like we just read it’s the idea of lifting up because a branch that’s still green but it’s just fallen down into the mud it’s lifted up and tied back to the trellis so that it can be clean it can get the water it can get the sun so it can bear fruit my friend if you’re struggling you’re not bearing fruit right now he’s not going to kick you out of the family.

He’s not going to cut you off. God does not do that. He lifts you up. He’ll bring somebody to help you, a counselor, a pastor.

He’ll bring a friend, whatever. He wants to lift you up so that you will bear fruit. And that passage also goes on to say in verses two and three about how that those who do bear fruit, he even prunes.

So if tough things are going on in your life you’re bogged in the mud or you’re being pruned by god because either you’re not bearing fruit at that point or you are bearing fruit why is a branch bearing fruit pruned so it’ll bear more fruit so that’s all normal that’s what the vine dresser does but in verse six it’s describing a branch that already died because it not been properly interwoven or connected or rooted into the trunk And of course any branch that not connected to the trunk it going to wither up it going to die and be thrown out And that what verse 6 is talking about. Hey, quick illustration about that. I was in Missouri years ago doing a Bible conference, and there was a gentleman in the congregation who invited me to come and visit his apple orchard there in Missouri.

So I was delighted to go the next day and get the tour. And he described to me how his apple orchard, he said, these were actually wild apple trees at one time, but we cut off all the branches and we shipped in some red delicious apple branches from Washington state. And we engrafted all of those onto the trunks of those wild trees, having already broken off all of the wild branches. And we engrafted them.

And what you’re looking at there right now are red delicious apples on those branches connected to a wild apple tree trunk.

Now, is that amazing or what?

But I asked him, I said, now look, I’m a city guy, but I’m curious. I know you don’t nail the branch into the trunk or screw it in. How in the world do you do it? Oh, that’s a great question.

Well, we just put a big gash in a part of the trunk, and then we cut off the edge of a branch, and we put them together. We stick that branch in that gash, and then we put organic material in that gash, and we tape up both together with paper tape on all up and down that tree with all these different branches. I said, well, that’s amazing. Well, okay, but I’m still curious, and pardon me for asking, but how do you know if it works?

I’ll never forget what he said. He said, well, son, if you get apples, it works. If you don’t get apples, it didn’t work. Well, I love that.

I said, so sometimes a few of the branches, they just turn brown and dry up and don’t bear fruit. That’s exactly right. We just break them off, throw them out. They’re no good anymore.

They’ve already died. They didn’t get interwoven. They didn’t get interconnected. They didn’t get fully rooted and connected to the trunk.

And that’s what this is talking about. And you know, it’s also a picture of the marriage relationship. And how the scripture says over in Ephesians chapter 5, verses 31 and 32. It says a man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife So he leaves That one thing Cleaves That like two pieces of paper glued together That pretty close but you can get closer You can weave That’s what the next phrase talks about.

And the two shall become one flesh. And that’s more than just physical intimacy. It’s emotional intimacy. It’s intellectual.

It’s spiritual interwovenness. The Lord is our inner presence. We have his rooted presence as we read about in Ephesians 3. We have his interwoven presence.

And by the way, take your hands and just put them together like you’re praying in an old photograph. Flat together. That’s pretty close. You can even glue them.

That’s close.

But if you take your fingers and interlock them, now you’re interwoven and clasped together. and that’s the picture that we have here by the way hearkening back to something i shared a while back how he is our deeper dive and i shared that there’s these five levels these five depths of when you dive into jesus you know you start off by experiencing him as your merciful savior you get saved but go deeper he becomes our gentle teacher you discover and experience that but we’re not there just to sit and soak we’re there to serve as well so then he becomes our gentle or gracious master. And those are the three levels that we tend to live at.

But when you go to the two deepest levels, this is deep dive four. I just gave you the fourth level about how he is our loving bridegroom or loving father. Interwoven oneness in that marital passage we just read. In fact, it says, a man shall leave his father and mother, cleaved to his wife, the two shall become one flesh.

That’s interwoven. And this mystery is great, but I’m speaking about Christ and the church. There it is. Interwoven presence like a husband and a wife, a great mystery.

But the greatest mystery, Deep Dive 5, as I mentioned a few broadcasts ago, and I just remind you here, in this context, it’s not just his rooted presence and interwoven presence, but the fifth of those five levels and the third presence for today describing his inner presence is his mysterious presence. Oh, I love this. Colossians chapter 1 verses 26 through 27 and then chapter 3 verses 2 and 3 on the book of Colossians. Listen to this.

Couldn’t be more clear. This is his mysterious presence. The Lord, our inner presence, is a mysterious presence where it’s not just a fact to agree to it’s not just data to record it’s not just a doctrine to memorize and quote but beyond that regarding experiencing his love and his oneness and his unity uh his presence it’s a mysterious presence and the bible puts it this way in Colossians chapter 1, starting in verse 26. The mystery which had been hidden from the past ages and generations, but now has been revealed to his saints, to whom God willed to make known what is the wealth of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles is Christ in you, the hope of glory. his inner presence Christ in you the hope of glory chapter 3 verse 2 picks it up and says set your mind on the things that are above not on the things that are on this earth for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God this is the mysterious presence of God this is a great mystery Levels four and five in our deeper dive into Christ to experience intimacy with him power in him as we saw in his rooted presence and all.

We are hidden in Christ. We’re immersed. We’re submerged in Christ. Let me illustrate it another way.

We were having steaks at a friend of mine’s house and they were delicious. And I asked him, man, how did you do this? And he described this marinade that he created and he gave me the recipe and I tried it at home and then put them on the grill.

But man, mine did not turn out like his. They were like hockey pucks almost, you know.

So I asked him about it the next time I saw him. He said, well, I know I gave you the right recipe. How long did you marinate the steaks in the marinade? Well, I marinated them for, I don’t know, a good 20 minutes.

Oh, dude, you just got them wet. It’s all burned off when you put it on the grill. Well, how long does the need to marinate? Oh, a good six, seven hours.

What? Oh, yeah, it’s got to penetrate the meat and go deep. My friend, our quiet times, our prayer times, our worship times, spend time The more time you spend doing that the more we soak deeply If you just doing a five ten minute thing here or there you don do them at all What do you expect when the fires of this world come up They’ll burn you up.

But the secret of a good steak? Marinating in a good marinade. In life, that marinade is Jesus. And when you get squeezed, Jesus will come out.

Or think about a sponge. you soak it in a bucket full of a liquid and it comes out sopping and you squeeze it and that comes out well what comes out well it depends on what you soaked you soaked it in in the bucket if it’s kerosene that’s what comes out if it’s gasoline that’s what comes out but it was fresh water that’s what comes out what are you dunking the sponge of your heart into my friends what are you watching on TV? What are you looking at on the internet? How much time do you soak in Jesus and his word? Well, if you want to find out what you’re soaking in most, when life squeezes you, what’s coming out?

Anger, bitterness, resentment, frustration, depression, or love, joy, peace, patience kindness goodness even in the midst of the storm of the challenge in the fight What are you soaking in What are you marinating in I hope it’s Jesus. We are hidden in Christ. He wants us to abide in Him, to immerse ourselves in Him, to be interwoven with Him, to be rooted in Him. And in that way, we’ll bear much fruit. is that cool or what?

Oh, He is our inner presence my friends. Well, Lord, thank you for being our inner presence. Thank you for being our rooted presence and our interwoven presence, our mysterious presence that we can enjoy. Where we can thrive no matter what this world throws at us.

You said we will have tribulations. It’s okay. and bring it on. When we get squeezed, when the fires come, Jesus will come out. Oh, thank you, Lord.

We love you, Lord. In Jesus’ name, Amen. Well, I’m Mark Gonzales. I hope you check out my website at markpg.org for more.

And until next time, fall in love with Jesus, our inner presence.