Presence over Presents

Devotional

Day 1: Choosing Presence with God over Holiday Presents

In a season that pulls hearts toward buying and busyness, you are invited to slow down and treasure the nearness of God. The Holy Spirit lives in you, not as a visitor but as a faithful companion, ready to comfort, guide, and empower. You have constant access—no appointments, no lines, no prerequisites—just simple, honest turning of attention to Him. Let the quiet recognition of His indwelling presence reshape how you plan your days and how you love those around you. Choose presence over presents this week and notice how peace begins to settle in ordinary moments.

1 Corinthians 6:17 But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.

Reflection: What is one practical change in your December schedule (a canceled outing, a shorter screen time block, a morning walk) that would create space to enjoy the Holy Spirit’s nearness each day this week? 


Day 2: From Nothing to Everything: Abiding in Jesus

Lasting change doesn’t grow from willpower; it grows from staying close to Jesus. He is the vine and you are the branch, drawing strength, wisdom, and steady courage from His life. When you whisper, “Apart from You, I can do nothing,” you make room for grace to meet specific weaknesses—food choices, words you speak, habits you want to change. Abiding is not striving; it is remaining in a love that already holds you. Begin and end your day anchored in Him, and watch new fruit appear where frustration once lived.

John 15:5 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

Reflection: Identify one area you’ve been trying to fix on your own; what would it look like to replace sheer effort with a simple, repeated prayer of dependence throughout the day?


Day 3: Self-Control: Spirit-Grown, Not Self-Made

Self-control is not a solo project; it is the Spirit’s fruit growing within a surrendered heart. The same power that produces love, joy, and peace also shapes your choices in the hidden moments when no one is watching. Instead of pushing harder, invite the Holy Spirit into the exact point of temptation: “Help me now; lead me through this choice.” Receive small victories as signs of His faithful work, and let gratitude deepen your resolve. Over time, dependence becomes delight, and discipline becomes a graceful rhythm.

Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

Reflection: Think of one recurring temptation this week; what brief, pre-decided prayer and one accountability step could you put in place before the next urge arrives?


Day 4: Living From Union: You Already Are One

You don’t have to earn closeness with God; you already live from it. The Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead now dwells in you, infusing mortal moments with resurrection strength. Begin your day confessing, “I already am one with You,” and let that identity steady your decisions, conversations, and thoughts. When fatigue or fear rises, lean back into the Presence that never leaves. From this union, courage grows, and ordinary obedience becomes beautifully possible.

Romans 8:11 11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

Reflection: If you started each morning declaring, “I already am one with the Holy Spirit,” what specific conversation or decision this week might that identity reshape?


Day 5: Walking Into Freedom With Spirit-Led Steps

Where the Spirit is, freedom is not a theory but a path you can walk. Name your struggle before God, repent where needed, and invite the Holy Spirit to lead your next step—one clear action today, not a lifetime plan. Consider adding an accountability partner and asking for prayer so you do not journey alone. Keep praying, “Apart from You I can do nothing; with You I can take the next faithful step,” and celebrate each grace-filled victory. Freedom grows as dependence deepens and hope becomes your steady refrain.

2 Corinthians 3:17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

Reflection: What is one concrete step you will take today toward freedom (sending a text to an accountability partner, scheduling prayer, discarding a trigger item), and when will you do it?

Sermon Summary

We’re in the Good News series, and today I leaned into the gift we often overlook: the presence of God. Not just the idea of God, but the indwelling, moment-by-moment nearness of the Holy Spirit. Scripture shows a shift from the Spirit’s occasional visits in the Old Testament to His permanent residence in every believer because of Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension. In a season full of presents, we’re invited to prioritize Presence—real, relational, empowering presence that makes everyday obedience possible.

I shared a very personal story about health, willpower, and why I kept failing. After years of cycling through diets and determination, God named the root: selfishness. In those tempting moments, I was thinking only of myself—my cravings, my convenience—forgetting God and those I love. Repentance opened a new path, and Scripture reframed everything: self-control isn’t my achievement; it’s fruit of the Spirit. I had treated “self-control” as a solo project, but the Bible places it with love, joy, peace, and the rest—gifts that grow from abiding, not striving.

Jesus’ words in John 15 were the remedy: “Apart from me you can do nothing.” That’s not shaming; it’s freeing. Abiding in the Vine isn’t passivity—it’s a posture of dependence: “For apart from You, I can do nothing.” That became my prayer at the table, in the pantry, after meals, on a walk. And change began—not because I got stronger, but because I stayed connected.

From that union flows identity. If you’re in Christ, you don’t need to fight for proximity; you already have it. You are one with Him—fully, always, inseparably. Live out of “I already am”: already a child of God, already joined to the Lord, already a dwelling place of the Spirit. That confidence becomes courage in real choices—saying no to the extra slice of cake, forgiving the difficult boss, releasing your children to God, giving generously, serving boldly, and naming the struggle you’ve kept private. We’re not meant to do this alone; the Spirit leads us into freedom, and the church walks with you.

Key Takeaways
  • 1. Choose Presence over Presents this season Consumer impulse trains our hearts to expect life from material things. Presence retrains our hearts to receive life from God Himself, who lives within and speaks in ordinary moments. When we prioritize Presence, obedience stops feeling like performance and starts feeling like companionship. Let your Christmas shopping list be interrupted by a deeper hunger for the Spirit.
  • 2. Self-control grows from the Spirit If self-control sits with love and joy, it isn’t a triumph of grit but of grace. Calling it “fruit” means it’s cultivated by abiding, not manufactured by willpower. Repentance from selfishness makes room for the Spirit to reorder our desires at the root. The goal isn’t stronger restraint; it’s a deeper surrender.
  • 3. Apart from Jesus, I can’t “Apart from Me you can do nothing” redefines success and failure: not “try harder,” but “stay closer.” Dependence is not weakness; it’s alignment with reality—He is the Vine, we are the branches. A simple prayer in the moment of temptation invites real power into real choices. Practice it until it becomes your reflex.
  • 4. Live from union: I already am You don’t strive into God’s presence; you start from it. You are one spirit with the Lord, with 24/7 access to His counsel, comfort, and power. Identity precedes behavior, and intimacy fuels holiness—authority flows from union, not effort. Acting from “I already am” dismantles shame and awakens courage.
  • 5. Name struggles and walk together Freedom accelerates when secrecy ends. Naming your battle invites intercession, wise counsel, and accountability—the ordinary means God uses to do extraordinary work. Bring your card, your story, and your next step into the light; we’ll walk with you. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
Youtube Chapters
  • [00:00] - Welcome
  • [05:22] - Holy Spirit focus in worship
  • [44:27] - Good News: forgiveness revisited
  • [45:56] - Beyond forgiveness: presence and hope
  • [46:33] - Presence over presents
  • [48:12] - The Spirit indwells every believer
  • [50:59] - Resolutions, health, and willpower
  • [55:26] - God exposes selfishness
  • [59:06] - Self-control as fruit, not grit
  • [61:58] - Abide in the Vine: John 15:5
  • [65:37] - A simple prayer in temptation
  • [67:36] - Living from union with the Spirit
  • [72:59] - Practical examples and daily choices
  • [75:54] - Accountability, prayer, and next steps
  • [86:06] - Closing prayer and blessing

Bible Study Guide

Bible reading
- **John 15:5**

Observation questions

  1. In John 15:5, what roles do “vine” and “branches” play, and what does Jesus say will happen to the one who abides?
  2. What shift was described between the Spirit’s occasional empowering in the Old Testament and His indwelling of every believer in the New Testament? [48:12]
  3. Which nine qualities are listed as the fruit of the Spirit, and where does “self-control” appear in that list? [58:38]
  4. What short prayer was practiced in the moment of temptation, and how often was it used? [01:05:37]

Interpretation questions

  1. If Jesus says, “Apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5), what kinds of “nothing” does this include, and how does that confront the idea that some areas can be managed by willpower alone? [01:03:47]
  2. If self-control sits with love and joy as fruit of the Spirit, what does that suggest about how self-control actually grows—by striving or by abiding? How does repentance from selfishness reposition the heart for this growth? [55:26]
  3. The claim that those joined to the Lord are “one” with Him was emphasized. What does that union imply about 24/7 access to God’s counsel, comfort, and power in ordinary choices? [01:10:39]
  4. “Presence over presents” challenges consumer impulses. How might consumer patterns shape desires, and how could prioritizing Presence retrain the heart toward companionship with God rather than performance? [46:33]

Application questions

  1. Presence over presents: Where could you interrupt shopping, list-making, or planning this week with a 60-second pause to attend to the Spirit’s nearness? Be specific about the time and place. [46:33]
  2. Naming the root: In a recurring struggle (food, media, anger, comparison), where might selfishness be quietly driving decisions? What would repentance look like in the next 48 hours—words, actions, or a conversation? [55:26]
  3. Simple prayer practice: Identify one predictable temptation window (late-night snacking, doom-scrolling, snapping at someone). When and where will you pray, “Apart from You, I can do nothing—help me,” every day this week? [01:05:37]
  4. Live from union: If you already are one with the Spirit, what decision this week will you face from “I already am”—a child of God, indwelt, empowered—rather than “I must become”? What will be different about your choice? [01:07:54]
  5. Fruit, not grit: What habit have you treated as a solo project? How will you shift from doubling down on willpower to abiding—asking for help, slowing down, lingering in Scripture or silence? [01:07:06]
  6. Walk together: What could you name out loud to invite prayer and accountability this week? Who will you text before group ends to set up a check-in? [01:17:15]
  7. Real-life examples: Which step fits your season—say no to an extra serving, forgive a difficult boss, release a child to God, give generously, or serve? What is your first small step and when will you take it? [01:14:25]

Sermon Clips

So today marks the third week in the message series, The Good News. The Good News. And in case we need a reminder, the reason why we call who Jesus is and what he did on the cross, The Good News, is because he paid the price, right? And reverse the curse of sin for us, for good. And that's what Pastor Paul talked about two weeks ago. Just that. Truth. We are completely forgiven. Completely. Okay. And that alone should be something we celebrate daily and be grateful for. Guys, that's the news that we want to share with everybody. [00:44:08] (41 seconds)  #ShareTheGoodNews

Listen, in this season, when many of us already began our shopping spree, right? Way before Thanksgiving. I know people who started weeks before Thanksgiving. When we're consumed by what to buy and what we're going to get for Christmas. When Christmas becomes all about the gifts or the presents, we need to get back to the presents. That's called homonym, I think. When two words that are spelled differently and mean different things, but yet sound the same. What I'm saying is that we need to prioritize presence over presence. [00:46:26] (47 seconds)  #PresenceOverPresents

The presence of the Holy Spirit indwells or lives in every single believer of Jesus Christ. Just think about that. It's not sporadic like in the Old Testament, but every single believer has the Holy Spirit in us. And this is precisely the reason why Jesus told his disciples to wait for the gift to come. That it is better that he goes away so he can send the Holy Spirit. [00:48:36] (28 seconds)  #HolySpiritWithin

So what is a man to do? Once this realization of selfishness became so painfully clear, what was I supposed to do now? Well, for one thing, I needed to repent. I needed to say, I'm sorry, God. That was my first step. Saying sorry to God. Then I had to submit myself, this area, to God and ask for help. But what does it even look like? I had no idea. Because for so long, for so long, regarding health and eating habits, I did it all on my own. [00:57:58] (34 seconds)  #RepentAndSubmit

So when you see this word, self-control, I sort of made the word self bigger and quote-unquote. So self-part in the word, self-control, confused me into thinking that I had to somehow discipline myself, okay, and keep working at it until I accomplish whatever. In my case, health and eating habits, which I thought I had to do it all on my own. But the reality is that all nine, all nine are the fruit of the spirit, not the first eight and all nine, which means none of it is my own doing, not even self-control. [01:00:06] (45 seconds)  #SelfControlFromSpirit

Maybe it's a bad habit that you're trying to get rid of. Maybe it's a temptation or sin. Maybe you have issues with pornography or gambling or you have a hard time forgiving someone. There's something in your life that you can't seem to have control over. And you try, you try, you try to make something of it, to improve, but yet you still fail. So maybe there's one area in your life as well. [01:04:14] (31 seconds)  #StruggleToFreedom

So you don't have to strive to be a child of God or to be a new creation. No, you are already a child of God. You're already a new creation. Say it with me. I already am. I already am. This is the same as operating out of the reality that Jesus already won the battle. That He already won the victory. [01:08:03] (23 seconds)  #AlreadyNewCreation

Let me give you a clear illustration of what that looks like in case you're still wondering. Well, you know what? I'm not there yet. I'm not good enough. What do you mean I'm one with the Spirit? One with Jesus? No, no, no. If you believe Jesus is your Lord and Savior, guess what? You are already one with Him. You are already one with the Holy Spirit. You don't have to become one. Sometimes we think, oh, I'm not good enough. I sinned yesterday. You know, can I truly, am I still one with the Lord? Am I still one with the Holy Spirit? Yes, you are. [01:08:42] (36 seconds)  #OneWithTheSpirit

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