Connecting With God Begins With Locating Ourselves Series

Connecting with God Begins with Locating Ourselves

Series: Connecting with God

Brad Bailey – April 7, 2024

NOTE: The following notes were to long to be shared in full...but offer what can be well

read or edited for message.

Intro

Today we are going to begin a series entitled Connecting with God.

The purpose of this series is to expand our connection with God.

We are going to explore the different points where our nature and longings can

connect to the nature and goodness of God.

The Scriptures refer to what creation reveals... and many of us have had moments

when we are overwhelmed with a power and beauty that is transcendent. So we will

engage how we can experience connection with God through what God has created...

but also through our longings for justice... our longings for love... and ultimately

through the presence of His Spirit and Son.

But first... we are going to begin with locating ourselves

Have you ever entered a huge shopping mall...and wondered... how am I going to find

what I have come for?

If you’re near the entrance... you look and see a big map.

It allows you to find the location. But then you realize... what you need to know first...

which is where you are. And there it is: “You are here.”

> Only then can I see my position in relationship to what I am trying to connect

with. I can see that I may be on a different level.... What I will have to pass through.

In the same way... I think our process of connecting with God involves seeing

the bigger picture...and locating ourselves.

The Scriptures begin with a map that locates us.

We find this in the very first three chapters of Genesis...which is the first Book of the

Bible...the Book of Beginnings... and begins with a poetic summary that helps us

understand the position we are in.

Genesis 1:1-2

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was

formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of

God was hovering over the waters.

“In the beginning”... this is how your existence began... no dating... no timing ... but it’s

the fundamental truth of our source and nature.

Then it speaks of God creating the stages of formation... and plant life... animals life...

and finally...

Genesis 1:26

26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that

they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock

and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

The likeness is spiritual in nature... and involves our capacity to manage the various

parts of creation already created.

Genesis 2:7 (AMP)

Then the LORD God formed [that is, created the body of] man from the dust of the

ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a

living being [an individual complete in body and spirit].

Here we see a relationship between the Creator and the created. [1]

This Book of beginnings declares that everything emanates from a source... and is

given order.

What is initially formless is formed...and disorder is ordered. There is a source of

power and purpose in our existence.

It is this revelation of order that leads human life to assume there is order and

meaning.

It gives rise to observation of order and deduction.

But it also locates our position.

What is most profound... is that in it’s brevity... It tells us more about the

connection that matters most...than all the libraries of science... and humanities

combined.

It allows us to step back and see the ultimate position we are in... to locate

ourselves within the wider reality of our existence.

This helps us to understand the nature of connecting with God.

The first point is this...

1. My connection to God is that of a finite creature to the infinite Creator.

As Genesis describes...an infinite God created finite beings.

We are finite creatures... standing in a finite point in time... with finite abilities to

understand reality.

We have a limited perspective. [2]

All of the larger questions about life...origins...meaning... source...and if a source ...the

nature of that source... and why the evil that runs through us...and so much more. They

are all questions about that which transcends our finite nature. We must draw from the

limitation of our nature and perspective... and continually form our beliefs.

I recall that people once believed the world was flat... we might scoff at the idea...but

it reflected their limited perspective. After discovering that it was round we believed that

the sun rotated around the earth...until we discovered that in truth the earth rotated