HoHum:
When I was a boy, my mother had a cookie jar much like this one. Most of the time it was filled with cookies. My mother would sometimes tell me not to eat any cookies before dinner because it would spoil my appetite. Well, I remember on time when I didn't listen to what my mother told me. I climbed up on a stool so that I could reach the cookie jar and very slowly removed the lid, being careful not to make a sound that my mother might hear. I reached into the jar and got a hand full of cookies. Just at that moment, I heard my mother coming. I quickly tried to pull my hand out of the jar, but it was stuck. I pulled and pulled, but it was no use! My hand was stuck in the cookie jar. My mother walked into the kitchen and there I stood on the stool with my hand hopelessly stuck in the cookie jar. "What are you doing with your hand in the cookie jar?" my mother asked. I answered, "I know you told me not to eat any cookies before dinner, but I was so hungry and the cookies looked so good that I just couldn't resist. Now my hand is stuck in the cookie jar." "Let go of the cookies," my mother said. When I turned loose of the cookies, my hand easily came out of the cookie jar!
Need a cookie jar. Taken from Sermons4Kids at: http://www.sermons4kids.com/cookie-jar.html
WBTU:
I’ve made having God in our lives sound so wonderful. Last week we sang hymns and I liked this one: Days are filled with sorrow and care, Hearts are lonely and drear; Burdens are lifted at Calvary, Jesus is very near. Burdens are lifted at Calvary, Calvary, Calvary; Burdens are lifted at Calvary, Jesus is very near. “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.” 2 Corinthians 1:3, 4, NIV.
Let’s be honest there are times even as Christians when we have a hard time connecting with God and experiencing that comfort. However, think about life without God, without any comfort and having our burdens lifted!
“God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.” Acts 17:27, NIV. Since this is the case why don’t more people seek to connect with the one true God?
Thesis: Start with some weak reasons and finally talk about the main reason why people fail to connect to God
For instances:
Some have hard time connecting to others so have hard time connecting to God
Last time we talk about attachment theory and how our relationship with our parents affects our current relatiosnhips and our relationship with God. Talked about anxious and avoidant
Let’s expand on that some. Really 3 ways to deal with attachment issues when our attachments needs (safe and secure base) are threatened.
1. These people feel like they need to earn God’s love. The challenge with this group is that they never feel like they measure up. They strive in pursuing God and pleasing Him but deep down they are anxious and afraid. They fight to keep their connection with God. When feelings of closeness begin to wane, they redouble their efforts to win God’s approval again.
2. Another group has an arms length relationship with God. This group feels connected to God until things fall apart. When that happens, they close God out and wonder if he is really capable of being there for them, because he seems so distant. This group is avoidant or others and God. They want to flee from relationships and a deep, rich relationship with God really isn’t on their radar screen.
3. To introduce this group, going to talk about discipline. When we were children our parents disciplined us. This might have been the point when we felt unconnected to our parents. Now, if our parents loved us they disciplined us. In much the same way God disciplines us as talked about in Hebrews 12. When I was growing up, I earned and deserved every discipline that my parents gave. The people in this group did not earn or deserve the discipline and actions that were done to them. I am talking about people who were abused emotionally, physically or sexually. Their abusive home environment was not a comfort but a source of pain. They believe that people are unsafe. This pattern spills over into their relationship with God as a fearful type, a God who is distant, cold and hateful. This group will try almost anything to connect with God, but they seldom feel close to him. This group freezes when they try to connect with others or with God because they are unsure of what to do.
Even so most of these ways of relating can be overcome. We change and our ways of relating change. We cannot use this as an excuse for failing to connect with God. Sent out an e-mail about a young girl named Lauren Chapin. Lauren played “Kathy” or “Kitten” on “Father Knows Best.” Lauren was abused in about every way imaginable. When Lauren came into a life-changing relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, she experienced a security she had never known before. After experiencing the ravages of rejection, Lauren finally found the love and acceptance she had always longed for. And because she was adopted into the family of God, she not only could rest securely in her Savior, but also found that her Heavenly Father truly DOES know best. “Though my father and mother forsake me, the LORD will receive me.” Psalms 27:10, NIV.
God is invisible
When we talk to a friend face to face we see the person’s expressions and hear his or her voice. We can tell by nonverbal communication, whether someone really means what is said. Even when we talk on the phone, the digital signal is translated to sound remarkably like our friend’s actual voice. Helping us stay “connected” has become big business in our culture. Smart phones, Facebook, and Twitter give us instant access to friends, family, work, and the world. But how much time do we actually spend building meaningful face-to-face relationships? And let’s go one step further—how much effort do we invest in connecting with God? Many complain of the difficulty of connecting with God. When we talk with God things are different than when we talk with another human. Some times my prayers feel like I am talking into the air because I get no reaction from God. When I pray I do not hear an audible response to my prayers from God. When I read the Bible and listen for God’s voice and guidance, I might have difficulty telling what God is trying to communicate to me. Communing with God is a unique and frustrating experience. God is everywhere but also up in heaven. God wants to connect with me but He is also invisible. “Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.” 1 Timothy 1:17. We see signs of God’s existence everywhere but we can’t see Him. We hear of Jesus in flesh, but now is ascended into heaven at God’s right hand.
Even so, this is not the main reason people fail to connect with God. This can be overcome.
Sin
The main problem between us and God isn’t the way our parents treated us when we were children, and it’s not that God is invisible; our greatest barrier to experiencing a living relationship with God is our selfishness, sinfulness and rebellion against him. The same problem that removed us from the Garden is the same problem we have today. We don’t want to know God. This is true for every human being on the planet. We exchange the truth of God for a lie (Romans 1:25). We have “all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). The the punishment for sin? “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:23, NIV. Those who are saved by believing, repenting, confessing, and being baptized have their sin forgiven and will live with God for eternity.
But notice that most people do not want to connect with God. Why don’t more people seek out God and find God? “God looks down from heaven on the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God. Everyone has turned away” Psalms 53:2, 3, NIV. Why is that? Because many enjoy their sin and do not want to give it up. When we fail to embrace a connection with God, our heart searches to fill the void. Instead of feasting on God’s love and strength through the gospel of Jesus Christ, we fill our lives with idols. Idols can’t give us what we long for, but in our blindness we think that we need them to make us really happy.
Some of us need to reexamine our concept of God and our identity because our earliest relationships have distorted us. Even so, all of us need to be forgiven for our sin. Thankfully, the Gospel helps us with both of these needs. In the Gospel, we find that God is a safe and secure base, the protector we need when we feel threatened, and the source of forgiveness for our sin. See, Jesus Christ helps us with our wounds and our sins.
Joshua Straub remembers speaking to a group of young people where he used to preach. He says, “I’ll never forget Anthony, a sharp but seemingly depressed 20 something who approached me after the service. ‘Josh, I have been praying and reading my Bible, no different than before, and God just feels so distant. It’s like I can’t feel his presence or his love for my anymore. What should I do?’ Looking to buy time until I could think about what advice to think up, I asked him to explain his situation once more, trying to see if he was just experiencing a spritual dry spell or if he had clinical depression. It wasn’t too long into the conversation that I asked, ‘Are you wrestling with anything in your life?’ After fumbling through some words he finally admitted how pornography was beginning to take over his life. This is what takes away spiritual intimacy and connection with God, our sin. The Bible tells us that we need to repent, lay down our idols and be filled with the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ.
Go back to the cookie jar. “Let go of the cookies!” Many times we don't want to turn loose of sin. We want to be forgiven, but we want to keep on doing the same things we are doing. It just doesn't work that way. “Your iniquities have separated you from your God” Isaiah 59:2, NIV.
