Hello All! I Will Be Speaking At The Following Events:
In 2012 Merlin Gonzales wrote the book The Kingdom In Our Midst, which challenges the reader to operate in the supernatural realm of faith. He founded Faith Hope and Love in 2005 out of his passion to disciple and to bring the love of God to local communities through acts of kindness. Through God’s inspiration to unify the Body of Christ, Merlin developed the concepts of “Mission Trips in Your Own Backyard” and “Missional Food Pantry.” He is a co-host for Wish TV 8′s “Religion In The News” program while serving as a Guest Speaker and Church Consultant. He is the President of the board of Lawrence Township Hunger Coalition and a board member of the Church Federation of Greater Indianapolis. Merlin Gonzales was born in the Philippines and now lives with his wife, Annie, in Noblesville, IN. He has two children, Kayla and Andrew.
John 14:23-27, “Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. 24 Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.
25 “All this I have spoken while still with you. 26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”
Let me give you a background of these verses to help us understand its context or the circumstances that precede this situation.
The Sunday before Jesus was crucified, he entered Jerusalem. This day is what we now call Palm Sunday, the start of the Holy Week. It’s the Sunday before Easter that was called “The Triumphal Entry”.
The following day, Monday, Jesus entered the Temple in Jerusalem and He drive out the people buying and selling animals for sacrifice. He knocked over the tables of the moneychangers and the chairs of those selling doves.
On Tuesday that week, He had confrontations with the religious leaders who were trying to trap Him with a question about paying taxes to Caesar to get evidence for His arrest.
The following day, Wednesday probably was a day of rest.
That Thursday, Jesus asked His disciples to find them a place to observe the Passover on an Upper Room. This was the night of the Last Supper. This was the time when Jesus washed His disciples’ feet and that was the same night that the Bible records as John Chapter 14, which is our Scripture reading today.
Jesus talked about love many times before these passages. In verse 23, He said, “All who loves me will do what I say.”
Love and obedience are a single package; they come together. Love manifests obedience and obedience manifests love. Jesus is saying to us that if we love Him, we should obey Him. This verse is described well by these verses in John 8:3-11, 3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4 and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” 6 They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.
But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. 7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
9 At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. 10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
11 “No one, sir,” she said.
“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.” Jesus is saying to us today, that He loves us as He loved the woman who was caught in adultery. However, He told the woman to obey Him, to stop doing what she had been doing – adultery.
Friends, God loves us that He does not want us to hurt ourselves. Although God had forgiven our sins (that is, if you received Jesus Christ in your heart) like the adulterer, there is consequence when we continue to sin.
Let’s continue on verse 23. Jesus also said to His disciples that His manifestation to the disciples’ lives would be in response to their love and obedience – that’s why Jesus said that God the Father and Himself will make their home with those who love and obey Him. Not only Jesus would take residence in us but also God the Father. In addition to loving us, but He takes pleasure in loving obedient believer.
In our lives, we catch ourselves praying for God’s power to manifest in our lives and wondering why (after months of praying) His power is not manifesting to us. We can pray for God’s help but if we don’t help ourselves, meaning, we disobey Him, we therefore do not receive what we pray for. We are actually hindering ourselves for the manifestation of God in our lives and robbing ourselves of the blessings.
On the next verse, He said “Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching.”
Here, Jesus is saying the same thing in different way. Not obeying Him, is not loving Him. Saying I love you to your spouse is not enough; it’s loving him or her with action. Taking action in loving your spouse is a demonstration of real love. Disobedience is a serious matter. There are consequences for our disobedience.
I would like to pause here before we move on to the next verse. Like many of us, I used to live in sin and continue to do the same thing even though I know I am disobeying God. The harder I tried to keep away from sinning, it seemed like I cannot get away from them and do the right thing.
I tried going to church every Sunday and still finding myself failing.
I tried going to Bible studies and still disobeying God intentionally
I started volunteering thinking that doing good things will get me to heaven.
It was until I decided to accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior that I had the strength and grace to break away from the bondage of sin. Friends, the Bible said that God sent His one and only Son to the earth to be one of us. He was tempted in everyway possible, but never sinned. He came to this earth to release us from our bondage to sin by dying on the cross. The Bible said that those who confess their sins and accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior will be saved from their sin and will inherit eternal life. When the sinner repent of his sin, trust Christ and confess Him as His Lord and Savior, he is born again. His sins are forgiven and He can be assured that he will go to heaven when he dies. Jesus paid the price for us by dying on the cross for the forgiveness of our sin. He rose again and is now in heaven. If you are ready to accept Jesus in your heart, please repeat this prayer. “Jesus, forgive me. I sinned and I am sorry. I repent from my sin. Jesus, please come into my heart and be the king of my life. I accept you as my Lord and Savior, in Jesus Name, Amen.” If you pray that prayer and you are serious about it, you can be sure that you now have eternal life.
If you have questions about finding out more about Jesus, His death and His resurrection, please contact Merlin by responding to this Blog.
This is a Special bilingual Mother’s Day Service on Sunday, May 12 at 10am. Artsees Diner will host this Live online. The physical address of the church is 3305 Lowry Rd Indianapolis, IN 46222.
The next postings will be taken from my book in the section, Grassroots Movement in the Kingdom. This series will explain why the bottom up approach with guidance will be longer lasting than top down approach. Listen