God's Greatest Desire Series

God’s Greatest Desire

Drawing Nearer (1)

AS YOU KNOW – tonight January 18th is the very first meeting of River Run’s Deeper Impact service… AND – let me tell you, I am pumped, stoked, excited, and jazzed about what God is going to do in our lives individually and collectively as we seek to go deeper BOTH with Him and in Him. UNDERSTAND – if I, if you, if we go deeper it WILL have an impact. THAT – is just the way God and His word are… NOW – I’ve chosen the following words from Isaiah 55 as the theme verse for this time of deeper impact…

As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. "So you’ll go out in joy, you’ll be led into a whole and complete life. The mountains and hills will lead the parade, bursting with song. All the trees of the forest will join the procession, exuberant with applause.

– Isaiah 55:10-12

LISTEN – if you come hungry for God each Wednesday night… HIS WORD – will achieve it’s purpose in your life… AND – not only that but you will go out in joy and will be led (could you use some guidance) into a whole and complete life.

YOU KNOW – I take great comfort in knowing that the “success” of Deeper Impact does not and never will depend on me… BUT RATHER – on God’s powerful and unfailing word and the hunger of His people….

ARE YOU – hungry? ARE YOU – ready to go deeper? ARE YOU – ready for the King of kings and His truth to have a greater impact in your life?

Prayer…

AS – Mike said last Sunday for the first 11 weeks of Deeper Impact we are going to do a series of lessons that I am calling, “Drawing Nearer…” UNDERSTAND – our greatest need, is not to have;

• That sickness healed

• That relationship mended

• Those anxieties lifted

• Those financial burdens removed

• That confusion cleared up

• OR even that addiction over come

NO – our greatest need is to be closer to our amazing Father in heaven. THERE – are 2 theme verses for this series… James 4:8 and Jeremiah 29:13,14

“Come near to God and He will come near to you…” - James 4:8

“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your. I will be found by you” declares the Lord… - Jeremiah 29:13,14

TONIGHT – I just want to lay the foundation for this study of drawing nearer to God… AS – you can see from your notes the title for our talk tonight, is ‘God’s Greatest Desire…”

3,000 years ago King David put these awesome words on paper… LISTEN – to them. IF – you know them, hear them again for the first time.

The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. In the heavens he has pitched a tent for the sun, which is like a bridegroom coming forth from his pavilion, like a champion rejoicing to run his course. It rises at one end of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other; nothing is hidden from its heat.

- Psalm 19:1-6

LET – those words sink in for a moment…

NOW ANOTHER – great passage about the glory of God is found in the 40th chapter of Isaiah. UNDERSTAND – Isaiah is writing to a people who for years had watched powerful empires like Assyria and Babylon reek havoc in their nation. Burning and destroying cities… Killing thousands, taking thousands more off into exile… TO – God’s people those nations (those problems) must have seemed so huge and powerful – and they must in turn must have felt so small…

Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood since the earth was founded? He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in.

He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing. No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown, no sooner do they take root in the ground, than he blows on them and they wither, and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff.