Being With God

Introduction

Good morning, One Church!

I have the honor of opening up our next mini-sermon series for the summer which is centered around our three values as a church: Be with God, live as family, and love like Jesus. These are the three values that we try hard to center our own selves around but also our community. We as a church try to go through a sermon on each of these values at least once a year to remind ourselves of what our goals as people trying to walk faithfully with Jesus should be. So if you’re new here this morning, welcome. This is who we are as One Church. And this is at a bare minimum what people who follow Jesus should strive to do: Be with God, live as a family, and love others like Jesus would love them. But if you’ve been here for a while, these annual sermons may be some that make you squirm in your seat because they remind you of everything that you should be doing, of how you should be living as a Christian. And maybe you started this year off being really disciplined about being with God but have gotten distracted or have lost desire or passion, or maybe you started this year with really lofty goals about how you were going to engage the community around you in loving sacrifice but have gotten tired and worn out. And to be honest, that’s where I’m at. When I got this assignment to preach on Being With God, I couldn’t help but think of the irony that I received this topic to preach on because Being With God has been one of the main areas of my life over the last two years that I have felt shame and embarrassment and discouragement and failure and tension with God. I used to treasure the hour or so that I had in the morning reading my Bible and journaling, but now we have two kids and I can barely wake up on time. There are other pressing needs that ask for my energy, like cleaning and maintaing our house and providing for our family and co-parenting our two kids and work performance. So before we get going, I want to nip any negative feelings that this may bring up in you in the bud, because what God reminded me of as I prepared this sermon is that these three values that we proclaim are not meant to burden us but give us rest and life.

I have an acquaintance who is currently hiking the entire Appalachian Trail from end to end, all 2,190 miles of it, and I’m sure that if she could stand here and give us advice on how to hike across long, intense, hard hikes like the AT, she would talk about the importance of pacing yourself and taking breaks. Our bodies do not have the capacity to go that far without taking the 40-pound plus pack off, and grabbing a sip of water for ten minutes, or stopping to make camp and rest in the evening. That pack that she’s wearing for her trek is a burden that she has to rest from. To many of us, these three values can sometimes begin to feel like a burden like that backpack that we shoulder on our arduous trek through the long, miles of our lives. So when we feel like we cannot carry our backpacks any more—that we struggle finding joy in being with God, that we cannot give anything more to our faith communities, or people in need around us—we sit down and feel like we have failed.

So before we begin, I want to challenge that by saying that I think we have these three values backwards. If being with God, living as family, and loving like Jesus have become burdens to us that we cannot carry or need to surrender, then we need to stop, take a breath, and be reminded that God intended these to give us life and lift us up, not weigh us down. That is the great paradox of God’s love. It is out of his delight and gentleness with us as his children that we run to him for safety and peace. It is his undying love for us that fills us up with energy enough to overflow on those around us. Jesus says in Matthew 11:28-30:

Matthew 11:28–30 ESV

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

This is the verse that I want to keep on the forefront of our minds as we navigate this sermon series.

Being With God

Today, we get to focus in on the first value, Being With God. We’re going to be spending some time in the Bible this morning, because I feel like we really should, but honestly most of our time is going to be super practical, because I don’t think I have to get up here and convince any of you that to be a Christians means that you are in a healthy relationship with God, and spending intentional time together is part of healthy relationships.

This was a recurring argument that Lauren and I had repeatedly in the early stages of marriage. She would want to spend time together with me when I wanted to be alone and do my own thing, or I longed to spend time with her when she needed space to do her own thing. We had countless arguments from miscommunicating about our desires, and wanting the other person to desire time spent together instead of feeling an obligation.

Similarly, my best friend lives halfway across the country. Because we don’t see each other every day like we used to, I genuinely go through seasons where I just miss him. We’ll text and interact occasionally on social media, but there’s nothing that can replace a two-hour conversation on the phone catching up with each other. Man, I love it.

Healthy relationships spend time together, so we’re going to spend a lot of time being practical this morning. But let’s continue this morning by turning in our Bibles to John 14:15-17. John is an account of Jesus’ life and ministry written by John the disciple. In chatper 14 we’re nearing the end of Jesus’ life when he’s getting ready to go into Jerusalem to be killed, and it almost feels like he’s urgently giving his disciples their last instructions through a firehose. It’s four chapters, John 14-17 of some of the richest and deepest words of Jesus in the entire Bible, and in my opinion some of the most overlooked and forgotten words of Jesus. It’s just absolutely beautiful. But he says this in 14:15-17:

John 14:15–17 ESV

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

As Jesus is going to die, in this last sermon to his disciples, he promises them that his Holy Spirit will come that will “be with you forever” and will dwell “with you and will be in you.” Let’s jump down a few chapters to John 16, starting in verse 5.

John 16:5–15 ESV

But now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

These two sections are the most profound statements from Jesus himself about the Holy Spirit in the entire New Testament.