We Are…
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WHO DO YOU SAY WE ARE?
WHO DO YOU SAY WE ARE?
This question comes up a lot when we are starting a new youth group, or starting over.
Last week we talked about creeds, and for the next 4 weeks, we are going to be discussing who we are as a group, and how this translates into your life as well.
Our creed/vision statement:
We will be a student ministry who is Firmly Rooted in the faith, establishing our lives on the Word of God, and the salvation that is a Gift of God through Christ Jesus. It is because of this gift that we will Pursue God, be Unified with the Church, Strive for Righteousness, and be Ambassadors of the Gospel to our neighbors, city, and around the world.
In that we get these 4 “We are…” statements that dictate our direction
We Are…Pursuers of God
We Are…Unified with the Church
We Are…Striving for righteousness
We Are…Ambassadors of the Gospel
Today we are looking at this idea
What does it mean to pursue something?
What does it mean to pursue something?
Why would we start here?
Why would we start here?
Because this is the foundation that we should start our lives on.
When we become saved, this is not something that we just ignore because all of a sudden we know Jesus, but rather, it is the beginning of our relationship with Him. That from this point forward, we start to move into a deeper relationship with Him.
A.W. Tozer says it like this
“You and I are in little (our sins excepted) what God is in Large. Being made in His image we have within us the capacity to know Him. In our sins we lack only the power. The moment the Spirit has quickened us to life in regeneration our whole being senses its kinship to God and leaps up in joyous recognition. That is the heavenly birth without which we cannot see the Kingdom of God. It is, however, not an end but an inception, for now begins the glorious pursuit, the heart’s happy exploration of the infinite riches of the Godhead. That is where we begin, I say, but where we stop no man has yet discovered, for there is in the awful and mysterious depths of the triune God neither limit nor end.”
Tozer points this out, that the beginning our lives, the beginning of our walk with Jesus, from the moment that we are saved, is in a constant pursuit of Jesus.
He points back to creation…that we are made in God’s image, that we have the capacity to know Him. This is because of how God created us.
then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.
God created us with his own hands and in doing so allowed us to have the ability to know Him.
As a deer pants for flowing streams,
so pants my soul for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God,
for the living God.
When shall I come and appear before God?
Our very souls cry out for Him
What do I mean by Know Him?
What do I mean by Know Him?
Typically in the Bible when we talk about Knowing God, it is a deep intimate knowledge of. Meaning that you spend time getting to know Him. That you ask questions, you study,
What Tozer points out is something that was set up by God from the very beginning. That we have the ability to Know God.
And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
γινώσκω
enosgo
The cool part about this word that Jesus uses here is that while it means know, it means to learn, perceive, and to know by reflection.
You and I were created in God’s image, made to reflect His image, and so because of the way God has created us, by our very nature, we are to dive into a deeper knowledge of who He is. We are supposed to pursue Him with everything we have to know him more.
Even deeper than that, while we know that we have the capacity to know Him, to pursue Him is also part of our creation.
Our bodies were created as temples for the Holy Spirit
Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,
Our bodies were created as temples for the Holy Spirit. Meaning that we were made to not only have the head knowledge of who He is, but also have the deep intimate relationship with Him as well.
This idea though is not something new. Way back when Solomon was charged to build the temple, that would hold the Ark of the Covenant, which had the Spirit of the Lord in it, David told his son this
Now set your mind and heart to seek the Lord your God. Arise and build the sanctuary of the Lord God, so that the ark of the covenant of the Lord and the holy vessels of God may be brought into a house built for the name of the Lord.”
David, who was told by God that his son would build the temple that would hold the spirit of the Lord, was told first and foremost that he needed to seek the Lord your God. Seek is another word for pursue.
If David told his son this for the physical temple, and our bodies are called the temple, and once we are saved we are told that the Spirit of God lives in us, then it stands to reason that we too should be pursuing God first with everything that we have.
When we star there with this foundation, walking with the Lord becomes something that is apart of our daily lives, because we are walking step in step with how God has designed us.
He created us to pursue Him
He created us to pursue Him
How do we do this practically?
How do we do this practically?
No matter what I want to make sure that we walk away practically here. So, lets talk about them.
Spend time in His word
Yes this is the classic church answer, but the reality is that it is true. There is no better way to get to know someone than by listening to them.
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
God’s word was given to us so that we may know Him better. It is His breath in us. If our souls are crying out for Him, then we should be running after His voice, and to hear His voice, you have to read His word.
Spend time in His word
Spend time in Prayer
Jesus tells His disciples “when you pray in Matthew 5, and they ask Him how to pray in Luke. Praying is just as important to our lives and walk with God as reading scripture.
The book of Psalms is a book of prayers. A lot of them are David crying out to the Lord in prayer about what is on his heart, and David was known as A Man after God’s own heart. If that is how He is known, then we ought to do the same.
Spend time in His word
Spend time in Prayer
Praise His Name
This part is often overlooked, but is crucial in walking and pursuing God.
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.
Paul writes this in Philippians that we need to Rejoice, praise His name. David in the same Psalm says that His soul is panting for God
Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation
Praise should be something we do when life is hard, when life is easy, and even when life just seems boring and mundane. We pursue the things we praise. If we are not praising God, we are not pursuing Him.