11/4/2012

Disclaimer: my sermon notes are a rough outline.  Not intended for grammar perfection.  If you have questions about certain parts, please comment and I will respond.

Hunger for the “Moment”

Based on last week: ‘at that moment’ God and Man connected and great things happened.

Why do so many believers have a shallow relationship with God? Why don’t they dive into a deeper, more consistent relationship with Him?  What holds them back?  What would ignite and cause them to respond to His call to draw near?

Revelation 3- shows us a letter to a church that is very similar to the American church of 2012.  It was in a town called Laodicea.  On the outside, they looked very successful. On the inside, they were wishy-washy.

1.  GOD IS INTERESTED IN ME

Revelation 3:20 “Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends.

Been Struggling?

GOD IS STILL INTERESTED IN YOU!

Isaiah 42:3  a bruised reed He will not break…a smoking flax He will not quench.

He would rather fan it back into a flame.

We want fan the flames of passion in your life for the things of God.  Our mission from day one is to bring people into an intimate relationship with God.

We don’t want you in a building or a way of life.  We know the value of a relationship with God. Our desire is for all of us to be getting closer to Him.

2.  WE CAN START RIGHT NOW

God gets the ball rolling. He knocks on our door.

WE HAVE TO ANSWER IT!

Here is how we answer the door…

One word: DISCIPLINE

Proverbs 4:23  Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.  24  Avoid all perverse talk; stay away from corrupt speech. 25 Look straight ahead, and fix your eyes on what lies before you.  26 Mark out a straight path for your feet; stay on the safe path. 27  Don’t get sidetracked; keep your feet from following evil.

James 4:7 Submit Yourselves before God.  Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.  Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.

Being a disciple means you have the discipline of someone.  Discipleship is the process of becoming like him.  His discipline. His disciple.

Do we participate in our relationship? Do we??

Here is how we do it:

3.  EAT THE RIGHT FOOD

We do not desire Him because we fill the void with many other things.

Proverbs 27:7 A person who is full refuses honey, but even bitter food tastes sweet to the hungry.

Thanksgiving – we often skip breakfast because we know we will fill up later. Then another meal comes up. – difference in anticipate and hunger and hunger after eating.

Parents will often tell kids, you can’t eat that right now because I don’t want you to ruin your meal.

To the degree we are filled with the cares of this life determines our response to His call.

Back to Revelation 3 (Laodicea) Lukewarm Church  – they allowed the money and things of this world to satisfy their cravings for God. Paralleled with David. He was much wealthier, yet always craved God’s presence.

Progression of time stealers:

• written word (socrates) “dangerous and destructive, artificial and rigid, and unresponsive and insensitive”
• entertainment (drama/plays), radio, television, telephones, video games the gaps in time to think, pray, connect with others was slowly decreasing.
• In the early 90s, the internet and email started taking another slice of time away.
• Smart phones and tablets have eliminated every second of down time to think, ponder, dream, much less pray and read.

Now every second of free time whether you are at a stop light or bus stop, driving down the road, pushing a shopping cart.  You are constantly connected and checking to see what the latest post, comment, picture, word played,

We are finding ourselves becoming a generation that has squeezed every ounce of creativity and thoughtful pondering out the window.

We must be entertained or our mind must be occupied at every turn.

We are bored quickly. Attention spans are dissolving with every download, movie, app.

So to sit and meditate. To pray. Talk to God.  Read the Bible. Fast.

Wait on God. Patiently let concepts marinate.

All these ideas that are so Biblical have no place in our lives.

Isaiah 40:30 Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted;

31 but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.

If we want to Hunger for a Moment with God, then we need to learn that we:

4.  WE HUNGER FOR WHAT WE FEED ON

It is not just a problem to fill up on the wrong food, but worse than that, we crave the food we regularly eat.

You get an acquired taste for what you make a habit of eating.

Example of health food vs. junk food. When you change, your cravings change.

Heavy diets of sports means we will crave sports.

Heavy diets of fads, fashion, pinterest, leads to cravings of shopping, trends, etc

Heavy diets of television, movies (avg American will spend 9 years of their life watching TV)

leads to cravings of Hollywood gossip and the such.

Too busy with life.  No exercise. No Sabbath leads to less desire for God and his presence.

Spiritually we are starving because we are going 90 miles and hour spiritually without feeding our spirits.  Just like we go 100 miles hour physically and run out of gas when we fail to eat and hydrate our body.

When we are busy with life, our time with God is replaced.  Interest in the things of God dwindles.  Desire to pray wanes.  Consistently feeding on scripture allows for understanding and comprehension of scripture that doesn’t happen with sporatic feeding.

Revelation 18:14 “The fruit for which your soul longed has gone from you,and all your delicacies and your splendor are lost to you, never to be found again!”

 Revelation 19: 9 And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.”