Developing Our Connection With God Series

Developing Our Connection with God

Series: Crave: Seeking God...Himself

Brad Bailey - Feb. 24, 2013

Intro

Last week....we focused on the fact that we all have a "first love" in life... created to know and have one relationship that is the most intimate and influencing... and that is with God. God is our truest first love.

How do we connect with God in this way?

As we continue in our Lenten season series entitled "Crave: Seeking God...Himself"... God reveals to us such a relationship exemplified in the life of David. David became the second King of Israel. he was one of who God said was a man after God's heart. Along with the Scriptures sharing a lot about his life with God.... he wrote many of the Psalms. They are an inspired devotional.

We're going to look at just a few verses from Psalm 27... in which we can discover some foundations for developing our connection with God.

Psalm 27:1, 4-5,8 (ESV)

1 The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? ...4 One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple. 5 For he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble; he will conceal me under the cover of his tent; he will lift me high upon a rock. ...8 You have said, “Seek my face.” My heart says to you, “Your face, LORD, do I seek.”

David begins by declaring that God is who he needs.

"The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? ... For he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble; he will conceal me under the cover of his tent..." - Psalm 27:1,5

David acknowledges the reality of needing light amidst a darkness of soul...and a stronghold - the reality that enemies cannot ultimately destroy him.

The world is not safe....not covered...we are not "home."

There is something that this world can't fulfill...it only offers a taste of.

1. Connecting with God begins with longings - looking through life's goodness to it's greater fulfillment.

We may not even feel our longings. You don't think you long for air... unless your body feels it's lack or loss.

David allows himself to feel his longings in every part of his being. It's not ultimately despairing because he is engaging the creator of the universe...who can satisfy...and who is not just the God of creation ...but Lord...his Lord.

We see throughout the Psalms that he is discovering at a deep level...that "God is the "all satisfying subject" and to connect with Him...is to open up our ongings.

"O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory... your love is better than life..." - David (Psalm 63:1-3)

" How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord Almighty ! My soul yearns even faints for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God." - David (Psalm 84:1-2)

There is a longing that is part of human condition.

In 1977 NASA launched Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 to explore the galaxy. A golden record called The Sounds of Earth was affixed to each of the twin spacecrafts—a message from earth to anyone out there in the universe who might be listening. It contained both music and the sound of a human heartbeat.

Over thirty years later, Annie Druyan, who served as the creative director of NASA's famous Voyager Interstellar Message (VIM) Project, reflected on what she chose to include in The Sounds of Earth:

The first thing I found myself thinking of was a piece by Beethoven from Opus 130, something called the Cavatina Movement … When I [first] heard this piece of music … I thought … Beethoven, how can I ever repay you? What can I ever do for you that would be commensurate with what you've just given me? And so, as soon as [my colleague] said, "[This message is] going to last a thousand million years," I thought of … this great, beautiful, sad piece of music, on which Beethoven had written in the margin … the word sehnsucht, which is German for "longing."

So in the end, NASA chose a great song of human longing and launched it into space.