Sunday Snippets – A Passionate Pursuit
Jason Malone brought this message on Sunday. I believe it to be one of the best he’s ever preached—and that’s saying something!
As
mentioned in the past, I try to jot everything down verbatim, but it’s not
always possible. To listen to the sermon in its entirety, I invite you
to visit Summit’s site.
- Our heavenly Father doesn’t desire a casual, courteous, respectful-based-on-a-holiday or sitting-in-the-building-nicely-dressed type of relationship with His people.
- God desires an intimate relationship.
Revelation 3: 20
Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.
- In speaking to believers here, we’re introduced to the concept that our God, with all His power and ability, says He will not force us to have an intimate relationship with Him.
- Many times we opt for religion instead of a relationship because we can treat God with respect (keeping Him at arms length) without true intimacy (knowing Him).
4 Ways to Pursue Him
- We have to give Him some time. Unrushed, unstructured, sitting and talking, listening kind of time. If the full extent of our relationship with Jesus Christ is showing up on Sunday mornings we don’t have a relationship—we have a religion.
- We have to be transparent. Stop working with formulas (Bible reading+church attendance+memorized prayers = successful walk with Christ.) Just talk. We won’t catch our heavenly Father off guard. He already knows when we’re angry, bitter, and ticked off so be honest. We can share all these things without being disrespectful. He desires honest communication.
- We have to obey what He says. Sometimes we avoid #1 because we don’t want to hear what we think He’ll say to us — but when we have a relationship with God, we can trust His best for us and pursue Him because of it.
- We have to be willing to grow and learn. Showing up once a week isn’t growing.
- Jesus says I want you to love Me, not just respect Me.
- He won’t force the door open – but He will come in and fellowship. It’s not because He can’t get in. It’s that He wants to be invited in.
(I encourage you to set aside 30 minutes this week to take a listen. My notes doesn’t do his sermon justice. Powerful and packed with tweetable truths.)
