Made For Connection
The Chase – week two
Video bumper
Wow!
Powerful video, right?
I MEAN - I can so relate… running from God. Looking for life in other places… afraid of what is going to happen when God eventually catches up to me…
AND THEN – the shock, of finding out (and I am in many ways ‘still’ finding this out)… that God is pursuing me not to punish me but to have a relationship with me… because He has a divine obsession with me!
Crazy! Powerful! True!
NOW…
I want to start off this morning… by reading several passages of Scripture, that… will provide a great foundation for our conversation today.
AND – everyone of them (though it was not planned) was part of our FCFH reading for the week… AND – each passage are words spoken by Jesus the night before His arrest…
THESE – are some of His last words to His guys before, His arrest, death and burial. SO NEEDLESS – to say this is obviously some pretty important stuff.
AS – I read these words…
PICTURE – the scene, the images, the darkness, the garden
FEEL – the emotions of the disciples (the - fear, uncertainty…)
SEE – the face of Jesus (steady, sure, confident, compassionate)
“I am the Vine, you are the branches. When you’re joined with me and I with you, the relationship intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant. Separated, you can’t produce a thing.” – John 15:5 (msg)
After saying all these things, Jesus looked up to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son so he can give glory back to you. 2 For you have given him authority over everyone. He gives eternal life to each one you have given him.
3 And this is the way to have eternal life—to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one you sent to earth. 4 I brought glory to you here on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.
YEAH – Jesus (w/o a doubt) lived the life that he put on flesh to live. HE – ran the right track. HE – chased after the right things.
5 Now, Father, bring me into the glory we shared before the world began. – John 17:1-5
I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me through their message. 21 I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me.
“I have given them the glory you gave me, so they may be one as we are one. 23 I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me.
– John 17:20-23
Prayer
OKAY…
THIS MORNING – is our second week in our new series, “The Chase, Going After The Life You Were Created To Live…”
UNDERSTAND… Tim/Laurie
IF – there is an all powerful, all knowing, always existing God who created you (and there is)!
AND IF – this all powerful, Creator God has – thoughts, plans, purposes and intentions for your life (and He does)!
THEN – there must be….
A LIFE - that you were created to live.
A RACE – you are intended to run…
A FUTURE - a destiny, you are supposed to not only chase after…
BUT – actually live within.
QUESTION…
How does it make you feel to know that there is a life that the Sovereign King of the Universe created you to live…?
I MEAN - does it even make any sense for us to CHASE AFTER a different one… to live a life less than who you were created to be?
In 2000 Bruce Willis and Samuel Jackson stared in a movie called, ‘Unbreakable’
AND – the movie Unbreakable tells the story of Philadelphia security guard, David Dunn, a seemingly ordinary guy who slowly discovers with the help of a guy, named Elijah (that he is more than he thinks he is) that in fact he is a superhero.
NOW - there is an encounter that goes down between David and Elijah that has always resonated with me – since the first time I heard it.
David – ‘this morning was the first morning I can remember, that I didn’t open my eyes and feel that sense of sadness.’
Elijah – ‘that little bit of sadness in the morning you spoke of? I think I know what that is. Perhaps, you’re not doing what you’re supposed to be doing?’
QUESTION… (and you don’t need to answer out loud)
Like David Dunn, is there a little bit of sadness that greets you in the morning…?
IF SO… MAYBE – it’s there because you are not doing what you are supposed to be doing. You’re not living the life you were created to live?
NOW – I don’t know about you, BUT – I have felt that sense of sadness before (to be honest I still do at times)…
NO – I AM NOT saying, that I am a super hero…
BUT – I AM SAYING, that I know there is more to my life than I am currently living…
QUESTION… Who here wants to live the life they were created to live? Awesome! Me too!
That’s why we are doing this series…
SO THAT – all of us will begin chasing after the life we were created to live.
A LIFE – that Jesus describes this way in John 10:10…
My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.
– John 10:10
NOW – some versions translate that, ‘give them life in all it’s fullness.’
MAN – that is some really awesome news, right?
BUT – unfortunately there is some bad news as well.
YOU SEE - the first part of John 10:10… reads this way,
The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life. – John 10:10
UNDERSTAND…
THERE IS – a thief (in your life and mine)…
AND - his purpose is to steal, kill and destroy the life we were created to live…
AND LISTEN – one of His core strategies to make that happen is to get us to run on the wrong track…
AND THAT – is what we talked about last week as we kicked off this brand new series…
AND LISTEN, IF – you were here last week…
YOU KNOW – that God was most definitely in and all over His House last Sunday.
I MEAN – last week, as I looked out into this room, I saw a room full of people who are ready to be done with chasing after things (relationships, things, accomplishments, pleasure) that CAN NEVER and HAVE NEVER given them what they were looking for, true and lasting (fulfillment, contentment, satisfaction and significance).
LIKE – the prophet Isaiah said in Isaiah 55:1-3…
Why keep working for(why keep chasing after) things that do not satisfy?
Why spend your money on something that is not real food?
Why work for something that doesn’t really satisfy you?
Listen closely to me, and you will eat what is good; your soul will enjoy the rich food that satisfies. 3 “Come to me with your ears wide open. Listen, and you will find life. - Isaiah 55:1-3
AND – remember as we said last week as we wrapped up…
Living the life we were created to live doesn’t actually begin with chasing after the right things. Instead, it begins when we consider our present chase worthless.
I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done.
– Phil 3:7,8
AND LISTEN – like we said last week…
Chasing after the right things will not be easy (I mean, if we want to live a life that takes our breathe away, we have to be willing to get winded)… NO – it won’t be easy, BUT - it will be more than worth it!
THIS MORNING (10/19/13) – we are going to talk about chasing after a life of connection… IN – a conversation I am calling, “Made For Connection.”
AND – let me give you a little motivation for tuning in this morning….
We will never live the life we were created to live, without living a life of connection…
SPECIFICALLY – two connections…
• Connecting with God
• Connecting with others
QUESTION – has anyone here every heard anyone talk about the need to connect with God and with other people?
That’s why I think Jesus would say the same thing to us as he said to His guys in the upper room in John 13…
Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them. – John 13:17
UNDERSTAND – it is what happens… it what we do when walk out those doors that really matters.
Connecting With God, God’s Greatest Desire
YOU KNOW - whenever I really think about God and how great, mighty and awesome He is I am just blown away, amazed… awed. I MEAN – talk about greatness.
BUT – do you know what I find even more amazing?
THAT – this great, majestic, all powerful, always existing God pursues me not to (condemn me) or (punish me)… BUT - to have a relationship with me.
MAN – I am sooo blown away that this all powerful God has as the video we watch earlier… HAS a divine obsession with ME!
I MEAN – I can so relate to a Shepherd named David who for years stood out in the fields, staring at a night sky that would take our breathe away… (complete darkness - no pollution or artificial light too block the view…)
O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens… When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? - Psalm 8:1-4
UNDERSTAND – like David, when I really think and reflect on the greatness of our God…
GOD, THE ONE – who spoke billions of stars and galaxies into existence. STARS – so big that they can fit 500 million of our suns inside of them… (and our sun isn’t exactly small – 1 million earths can fit inside of it).
STARS & GALAXIES – so far away that even if we could travel at a sustained speed of 24,000 mph it would take you over a 100 million years to get there.
GOD, THE ONE – who spoke and that which was dead became alive.
GOD, THE ONE – who created everything!
GOD, THE ONE – who created:
• Our hearts which pumps 2000 gallons of blood each day
• Our brain which has a over 100 thousand billion electrical connections, more than all of the appliances in the world
• Our tongue that over 8000 taste buds
• Our DNA… Did you know that If the 46 segments of DNA in your body were placed end to end, it would stretch from here to the moon over 500,000 times! And if all this very densely coded information of your DNA were placed in type written form, it would completely fill the grand Canyon 50 times!
AGAIN – like David, when I really think and reflect on the greatness of our God and then I look at myself… and I think.
R U kidding me? R U kidding me? Is this for real?
I MEAN – so you are telling me, that this all powerful, always existing, perfect, holy, righteous God… who spoke EVERYTHING into existence wants a personal, deep and intimate relationship with me. Has a divine obsession with me?
Wants me to be His kid… Wants to be my Father, my Abba, my dad…? Wow… mind blowing!
UNDERSTAND… EVEN THOUGH:
• We are unfaithful
• We make mistakes
• We are broken people with all kinds of stuff in our lives
GOD STILL – pursues us, loves us and wants to be with us…
LISTEN - when you boil it all down, the story of the bible is not primarily about the desire of people to be with God…
BUT RATHER – it is about God’s desire to be with His people…
YEAH - as we have said time and time again at The Grove, The bible is the ongoing story of God’s passionate pursuit of a prodigal people.
AND – around 500 years ago… Michelangelo captured this intense desire of God – this divine obsession, on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel like no else ever has (before or since)…
IF – you look closely you will notice the figure of God is extended toward Adam with great intensity. His body is twisting toward Adam with great power, his arm is stretching out, His index finger is extending forward, every muscle in His body is taunt. He is riding on a cloud propelled by angels…
AND - His beard and hair are being blown back by the wind as GOD races to draw closer to Adam.
I MEAN – it’s as if even in the midst of the splendor of creation. God’s entire being is wrapped up in His divine obsession to close the gap between himself and this man, He can’t wait. His hand comes a hairbreadth of the man’s hand…
Adam has already been given physical life – his eyes are open and he is conscience. BUT WHAT - is happening now, is that he is being offered life with God…
God is as close as he can be. But having come that close, he allows just a little space, so that Adam can choose. He waits for Adam to make his move…
UNDERSTAND…
FROM the opening pages of the bible (when God creates man in His own image: forming him from and the dust of earth, breathing the breathe of life into him, taking walks with him in the garden)
TO His final revelation and to the moment that all of human history is moving towards, when a loud shout will come from the throne of heaven saying,
Look, God’s home is now among His people! He will live with them, and they will be His people. God Himself will be with them. – Revelation 21:3
YES – from beginning to end…
WE SEE - a God whose greatest desire is to be with His people…
I MEAN – come on, 2000 years ago God put on flesh and lived among us! To be close. To come near. To remove forever the very thing that was keeping us apart, namely our sin.
LOOK UP…
Tim, Laurie - God’s greatest desire is you!
YOU ARE – His divine obsession!
AND UNDERSTAND – nothing can ever deter or sway God from His relentless pursuit of you. Nothing!
• NOT – your sin…
• NOT – your failures.
• AND NOT EVEN – your indifference to Him…
BECAUSE – as far as the King of Glory is concerned Your Are:
• The pursued one
• The one worth fighting for
• The one worth dying for…
• God’s greatest desire… His divine obsession!
AND…
IF THIS – doesn’t blow our minds, and increase your heart rate…nothing ever will!
Catherine of Siena a fiery nun from the 14th put it this way…
O eternal, infinite God! O mad lover! And you have need of your creature? Is seems so to me, for you act as if you could not live without her, in spite of the fact that you are life itself. And everything has life from you and nothing can have life without you. Why then are you so mad? Because you have fallen in love with what you have made?...You clothed yourself in our humanity, and nearer than that you could not have come. - Catherine of Siena
Tim, Laurie…
God is offering us (you, me)
• A rich and satisfying life
• Himself – as the Spring of living water
• To give us what we are all chasing after (fulfillment, satisfaction, contentment and significance)
• A connection (John 15) that will bear fruit in our lives
• Life with Himself
Wow, What a deal!
SURE - sounds like an offer way too good to refuse, right?
YET… as crazy as it seems… many do.
NOW INTERESTINGLY - 500 years ago, Michelangelo not only captured on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel the reality and intensity of God’s greatest desire…
BUT HE ALSO – captured the reality of man’s ongoing apathy towards God’s desire.
LOOK – at Adam.
What do we see?
I MEAN – do we see…
• A guy who looks totally blown by God’s desire to connect with him? (I mean, think about all that God did to close this gap. All the obstacles to this relationship that he overcame).
• A guy who looks eager, excited and pumped up to connect to God? To close that gap?
QUESTION…
I wonder if this 500 year old painting at times, is a picture of us.
“Now, God I don’t want you to think that I don’t appreciate all you went through to be with me. Yes, I understand what you are offering me… but I am just not sure you are really worth the effort…”
THIS – brings us to the next point in your notes…
Our Greatest Pursuit
Understand as we saw last week our greatest pursuit is not to chase after (relationships, things, accomplishments and pleasure)… BUT – to chase after God.
PAUL – after declaring in Philippians 3 that all other pursuits were worthless, said this…
8 Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ… I want to know Christ! – Phil 3:8,10
AND JESUS - said (on the night of His arrest) in John’s Gospel as we read earlier today…
I am the Vine, you are the branches. When you’re joined with me and I with you, the relationship intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant. Separated, you can’t produce a thing. – John 15:5 (msg)
AND – he prayed these words with desperation in the garden..
And this is the way to have eternal life—to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one you sent to earth. – John 17:3
AND LISTEN – once we realize why God is pursuing us….
• NOT – to hurt us… BUT - to help us
• NOT – to wound us… BUT - to heal us
• NOT – to punish us… BUT - to have a relationship
• NOT – to condemn us… BUT - give us life
The first thing we need to do is to…
Stop running FROM God
YOU KNOW - I still remember the day I stopped running from God… I was 19 years old. AND – I had been running hard for the 3 years.
AND – looking back now, I was definitely running away from the hard realities of life. By the age of 16, I was totally lost in the fog of drugs, searching for the next party, looking for life in the next high – working hard to detach from the pain inside of me.
AND – occasionally I would sense that someone (that God) was chasing me…
BUT – I would fight off the feelings because I was not ready to deal with God. I am not even sure what I thought of Him…
Besides I had habits I didn’t want to address and junk I didn’t feel like dealing with.
AND WHEN – the drugs stop working for me I joined the Navy…
WENT – into the Nuclear Power program…
MAYBE – this will give me what I am looking for…
YEAH – I ran as hard and as fast as I could for 3 years… but eventually I was just wore out. Eventually I was given a picture of a God that I had never seen before.
That He was pursuing me to punish me and sent me to jail but to give me the life I was meant to live…
Stop running FOR God
YOU SEE – I stopped running from God when I was 19…
BUT – it was too long after this that I started running FOR God.
AND – what I mean by that is I started doing everything I could to prove that God was right in forgiving me.
SO – I started to work hard (reading my bible, praying, attending church, giving my resources, serving) so that God would continue to love me…
RATHER THAN – doing those things because God loves me.
And through it all I had this nagging sense that it wasn’t enough, that I wasn’t enough, that it wasn’t good enough, that it was never gonna be good enough.
And friends, whether you’re running from God or whether you’re running for God, you’re still running, and it’s still exhausting.
YEAH – I gotta tell you… that when I was running for God (and to be honest I can still slip into that mode)… it wore me out.
I MEAN – it was like I had entered into some kind of contract with God… “IF I do this stuff for you… THEN YOU will do this stuff for me.”
QUESTION - how many of you remember when… signed your very first mortgage documents?
• you sat down
• they push all those documents to you from across the table Have you ever seen so many documents in your life?
• you’re scared out of your mind.
• you read the first page like you understand it?
• And you’re kind of like, “Well, okay, I’ll sign that.” I didn’t have any idea what I just read. I’m just trusting everybody around me, right?
• You attempt to read the next page. Pretty soon, there are so many pages you’re just finally like, “Forget this.” AND - you just start signing stuff.
• And then you push it back across the desk,
• And they say, “Mr. Malone, you can keep the pen.”
MAN - I was scared to death, it’s like my life has now changed. I have entered into a relationship with the mortgage company. AND AS LONG - as long as I do the things I’m supposed to do—right?
AND AS LONG - as I make the payments I supposed to make, everything’s good with the bank.
BUT AS SOON - as soon as I don’t, man, it’s another story.
LOOK UP…
A LOT OF TIMES - we can drift into seasons in our life where we start to running FOR God and we react to Him a just like a mortgage contract.
“Okay, God, you know, I’ve got all these things that I’m gonna do for You. I’m gonna show up at church. I’m gonna give in the offering. I’m gonna serve. I gonna ready my Bible.
YEAH - I’m gonna do these things.
AND THEN - I have some things that I expect You to do for me. You’re gonna give me long life, health. You’re gonna give me 2.5 kids, a beautiful spouse, a nice, white picket fence around the house.
I’m gonna do things for You; You’re gonna do things for me.”
And pretty soon we can get into a scenario where we start to kind of barter with God. Maybe not even consciously (but) almost subconsciously. (It’s) like we’re trying to barter. (It’s) like God’s our car salesman and we’re gonna get a deal. And so we start working that deal.
THAT’S NOT - the kind of relationship that God wants with us.
UNDERSTAND - when God describe how He wants to relate to us, He doesn’t use a mortgage document; He uses a marriage.
(and we see this throughout both the OT and NT)
NOW - when I got married, I signed one piece of paper, right? The Marriage license. Think about it – Laurie and I were pledging our commitment to one another for the rest of our life.
That’s way more important than my mortgage. That was me committing my whole life, heart, soul, everything to another person (to Laurie) till death do us part…
BUT - it’s not about all the documents, because listen.
Now there are things that are required in our relationship. There are things that are expected. I want to be faithful to my wife. I want to be honest with my wife. I want to love her and protect her and cherish her. AND WHEN – I do those things it is not to fulfill some contract it is because I love her.
AND WHEN - I don’t do those things it’s not like I’m simply breaking the mortgage contract. I’m hurting the relationship.
UNDERSTAND – God says that our relationship with Him is like a marriage… where we do things not to fulfill some contract but because we love Him.
IT MEANS - that we read our Bible, not simply to meet the minimum standard of what not to do or what to do. But we read our Bible to know more about who God is, because we love Him and we care about Him and we’re thankful for what He has done in our life.
IT MEANS - that when we serve and when we give and when we show up, we don’t simply do that to try and get things back from God. WE serve and we give financially because God’s already given us so much, and we’re just thankful to give back to Him. We’re just thankful to have the opportunity to respond to Him.
IT MEANS - when we pray, we pray about things we need. We pray about things we want. But we also pray simply because we’re grateful for the opportunity to know and love and worship God.
YEAH – the crazy thing is we do the very same things we would do if we were under contract… BUT – we do them from an entirely different mindset… with an entirely different motive and attitude. We do it with a heart that engages with God?
God desires that with us.
AND – what I am suggesting this morning is that… if we want to make this connection from God all it can be we need to
Stop running from and for God…
AND – do you want to know what one of the really awesome things about God is… He doesn’t stop pursuing us after we have placed our faith in Him… not to burden us with more tasks on the ‘to do list’ or ‘to whip us into shape’ …
BUT – to love us. To breathe life into us. To remind us of the kind of relationship we are in with Him…
YEAH… it time to stop running FROM and FOR God…
AND INSTEAD…
Start running TO God and rest in God.
And as we rest in Him, that’s where the energy is and the strength is to face all the challenges that come against us…
AND – I gotta to tell you one of the best ways to run to God is to run to His Word…
QUESTION… How do we do that?
Have you ever heard people in church talk about having a quiet time?
1. Select A Specific Time
The best time I when you are at your best.
2. Choose A Specific Place
Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him. – Lk 22:39
3. Gather The Resources You Will Need
Bible, Notebook, ipod..etc
4. Begin With The Right Attitude
Reverence
Be still and know That I am God. – Psalm 46:10
Expectancy
Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law.
– Ps 119:18
A Desire to know God and walk closer with Him
5. Follow A Simple Plan
Relax, Read (FCFH), Reflect, Record, Request
Connecting With Others
NOW – we are not going to spend much time talking about this connection (our connection with others) this morning…
NOT – because, it is not essential to our living the life we were created to live…
BUT – because, we really are running out of time…
(I really wanted to spend most of the time talking about connecting with God.
AND – because, we do talk about this connection (this idea of: community, of connecting with others, of doing life together)… quite a lot at The Grove.
IN FACT…
THIS CONNECTION – was the topic of my very first message series as the pastor at The Grove, back in the fall of 2010, an eight week conversation we called, ‘Together We Rise.”
THIS CONNECTION – is why in January of 2011 we launched life groups at The Grove… and why we have continued to talk about Life Groups every since.
Because the undeniable truth is - we are better together!
Read this post of my fb newsfeed yesterday morning
I have an awesome life group that loves me!!! Thanks guys for all the prayers, support, and for checking up on me!!! I am definitely blessed beyond measure! – Debbie Murray
UNDERSTAND - our joys, our challenges, our disappointments and our chase - all have one common thread we were never designed to go though them alone…
AND – we see this in the very beginning…
The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone… - Genesis 2:18
What is striking is that the fall has not yet occurred. There is no sin, no disobedience, nothing to mar the relationship between man and God. The human being is in a state of perfect intimacy with God. Each word he and God speak with each other is filled with closeness and joy, he walks with God in the garden in the cool of the day. He is known and loved to the core of his being by omniscient, love-filled Creator. Yet the word God uses to describe him is ‘alone.’ And God says that aloneness is NOT GOOD.
BOTTOM LINE – it will be very hard (if not impossible) for us to live the life we were created to live without connecting with others…
A FEW WEEKS BACK – (while we were in The Story) we looked at Paul’s final days… and talk about some things he would like to tell us…
One of those… was to never journey alone…
Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed. 10 If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble. 11 Likewise, two people lying close together can keep each other warm. But how can one be warm alone? 12 A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken… - Eccl 4:9-12
We were fashioned by a God whose deepest joy is connection with Himself, a God who created us to enjoy the pleasure He enjoys by connecting supremely with Him and with each other. To experience the joy of connection is life; to not experience it is death to our souls, death to our deepest desires, death to everything that makes us human. – Larry Crabb
The Bible says it simply: Love God and love others. That’s the main thing.
And today it’s a great reminder for us to keep the main thing, the main thing.
I don’t know where you’re at today.
Maybe you’ve been running from God.
Maybe you’ve been running for God, doing everything you could to prove your worth, to stay in His good graces. And maybe today you just need to pause and realize you’re in His grace, because of what Jesus has done, and celebrate that and live from it.
We don’t have to run from Him (and) we don’t have to run for Him; we can run to Him. We can rest in Him, and we can allow Him to move in our lives.
AND we do not have to run alone.
