Refuel Pt. 3
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Hey everyone! How’s everyone’s week been?
We’re at the end of a 3-week series about connecting with God called Refuel. We started a few weeks ago talking about the warning lights on the dashboard of a car – especially the low fuel light, and how when you’re running on empty it isn’t long before you run out of gas. God intended us to live life to the fullest, not sputter along like an old beater. Then after that we looked at the stoplight and how to prepare to meet with God - we lit up the red and yellow lights of the stoplight to help remind us of these principles - stop and be quiet.
Well, tonight we’re going to talk about the green light of the stoplight – not just stopping, but learning how to actually make a connection with God. And how the God of Heaven, the God of the universe wants to come down and meet with you to refuel your life. This is the final step in what promises to be a simple process to help you walk with God.
I heard this song this week about this connection with God – Him coming down to meet with us, and it really spoke to me. I wanted you to hear it as we begin. Glad you’re here, enjoy this song.
SONG OF HOPE
I love the lyrics of that song, especially the phrase “just to know that you are near is enough.” I think it’s a good reminder for us, because sometimes God doesn’t seem near at all. We hear that he loves us and wants to be in relationship with us, but if that’s the case why is connecting with Him so difficult?
I’ve wanted to follow God before – I’ve tried all sorts of formulas and ideas to help me on my quest to meet with God. I’ve tried the:
>>>>Read through the Bible in a year plan
Genesis – the first book of the Bible begins with origin of the earth, Adam and Eve, Noah and the Ark. Even Exodus, the second book, isn’t that bad either – Moses parts the Red Sea, the 10 Commandments and lots of great stories that make for great movies. But then there’s Leviticus. Leviticus was written by people who wanted to discourage students from reading the Bible. It was written by a man who was so detail-oriented that you would fall asleep faster than listening to…who’s a teacher in school that is really boring to listen to?
I’ve read both of these books in the Bible and I’m not going to lie to you, they’re TOUGH! I know God speaks to us throughout this word, but I’ve gotten stuck several times right near the beginning.
POLL: How many of you have actually read through the Bible from cover to cover before? [Never opened it, made it through a few books, made it partway, I’ve read the NT, Yes I did it!]
This proves my point – we start out with the best of intentions, and we really want to connect with God, but over time it starts becoming this checklist to complete. How about this formula one:
>>>>Pray before bed
I’ve also tried this one, too: “Dear Jesus, thank you for this day you’ve given us, and for my friends, and my family, and for sheep and … /doze off. I wake up, I feel like I have to apologize to God. Then I feel all guilty for not being spiritual… so I try to:
>>>>Get up early to read the Bible
But I can’t get out of bed early to read the Bible in the morning either. My house could be on fire and I wouldn’t get out of bed. I have an AM arch nemesis: the snooze button. I just can’t do it. I’ve perfectly timed my morning to get out of bed at the last possible minute and make it to the office on time. Does anyone else have this routine down to get to school just in the nick of time?
I can’t do this anymore! I’ve played the game long enough to know that trying to connect with God for hours a day isn’t working for me. We have all of these crazy pictures in our mind about what a solid Christian looks like. Praying for hours a day (on their knees), reading books of the Bible one right after the other (including Leviticus), never sinning or doing anything wrong (Jesus Jr) hovering everywhere we go with the sound of the hallelujah chorus in the background! And if I’m honest with you, I fall wayyyyyy short of that - oh, I pray before meals and read the verses on the screen at church but I genuinely wish I could connect with God like those people. But I’m happy if I get in a minute of God’s Word on the go along with my Pop Tart on my way out the door. OK, 2 pop tarts, but still.
Now I want to be clear here, the Bible is a book that should be read. We should pray to God. The problem is that these things can become very … formulaic. We start turning God into this algebraic formula where, meeting with God is next to impossible.
📷And the truth is that making a connection with God isn’t a formula, it isn’t a religion and it isn’t some dry, boring, rule-based routine. It’s realizing that in the SMALLEST of moments God is ready and waiting to meet you. WARNING: I don’t want you to hear shallow. I don’t want you to hear surface. I want you to hear this:
BIG IDEA: Make a connection
Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
I LOVE how this passage describes our connection with God. There’s nowhere we can go where we can’t be connected with God. There’s no moment where His power and presence isn’t available to us.
We live in an online world. With the power of the device you can now surf the internet from the top of a mountain or on a jet crossing the Atlantic. There is rarely a time when you are offline. I’ll bet you can update your Facebook status from the International Space Station.
Making a connection isn’t hard to think about because our connection is always on. Now I can even send out one text message, on X, and it gets resent to 1,600 other cell phones in about 8 seconds. We don’t make connections, because we’re always connected.
Let me give you an example:
How many videos or memes are there that become a trend that most of us would know together?
Someone uploads it to YouTube, facebook, tells a few friends – and BOOM! 57 million people have watched the same clip of some goof in his bedroom singing an awesome song. We’re all so inter-connected now!
What I’m saying is that our connection to God needs to be the same. We need to live an online life with Him. Connecting with God isn’t JUST something we leave our lives to do – in a quiet time or at church – it’s something that happens RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE of our everyday lives.
A “cell phone” Christian - we charge up and then try to make it through the day A “lamp” Christian –we stay plugged in constantly to stay connected
I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me. Proverbs 8:17
I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently find me.
and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
It’s like your parents who say they know a guy. I’m getting to the age where I know a guy too!
The truth is that there is this INCREDIBLE connection with God that is available in every single moment. We have more of God’s life-changing power at our disposal than we even realize.
So let’s get practical. How do we make a connection with God without falling into the same trap of reading the Bible for a year, or getting up early to pray for an hour … not gonna happen.
Let me give you 3 super practical ways to connect with God this week.
To connect with God, I need to…
THINK SMALL: Take a little step forward.
Luke 16:10 (ESV)
“One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much.
Small is good. Those of us who are followers of Jesus Christ have got to get over the fact that the phrase “go big or go home” isn’t biblical. God has a rich history of using small, blessing small, honoring the small.
He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.”
Reminder about WOD and journaling
BE TRIGGERED: Watch for reminders to be refueled.
Practical ways to connect with God this week:
When you see a “Pause” button – do it! iPhone, controller, movie.
When you hit a red light – stop for a few moments and be quiet. Talk to God in the moment.
Give God some time, pause for 30 seconds, be still and know that I am God.
Locker Combination – Pray that God would unlock sins in your life so you can live a better life.
When you’re about to do social media - stop and say a quick prayer to God.
When you get a text or a call from a friend - thank God for good friends and pray for them.
LIVE DIFFERENT: Think “training” not “trying.”
I think a lot of times we get frustrated at how hard connecting with God is. We grit our teeth and try REEAAALLY hard to have these deep, meaningful connections we feel we’re supposed to have. But the harder we try, the harder we fail.
So, as of today, I want you to scrap “trying”. Instead, replace it with training. God wants you to start making those connection points with Him, so start training yourself to see how often you can make small connections with God throughout your day.
Here’s your goal: Can you, 2 weeks from now when we meet again, be better at creating connection points with God than you are now? Can you learn to stop, turn off the noise, and offer up small prayers to God, or give individual areas of your life to Him? Don’t worry about being a super Christian tomorrow. Just train to be a little better at connecting to God.
Here’s the verse we started with this series a few weeks ago – I wanted us to come full circle to where we began:
and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
It’s the make a connection that I really want you to own most from this series. I don’t care how you do it; I just want you to build your faith on a million little connections with the God of the Universe. My dream is that you will fully become aware of the presence of God. THAT is the message of Refuel.
Pray.
The Last Word
The essence of living a refueled life is making regular connections to God and living out His Word.