January 5, 2025
Relentless Pursuit of Connection
- Andy Lynch
Sermon Notes
What do you think you are known for?
What do you think gives you value?
Psalm 139:17-18 NLT
How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered! I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up, you are still with me!
Isaiah 26:1a NIV
In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah.
Isaiah 26:2-3 NIV
Open the gates that the righteous nation may enter, the nation that keeps faith. You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you.
Psalm 4:8 NKJV
I will both lie down in peace, and sleep; For You alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.
Psalm 23:1-2 NKJV
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters.
Isaiah 26:7-10 NIV
The path of the righteous is level; you, the Upright One, make the way of the righteous smooth. Yes, Lord, walking in the way of your laws, we wait for you; your name and renown are the desire of our hearts. My soul yearns for you in the night; in the morning my spirit longs for you. When your judgments come upon the earth, the people of the world learn righteousness.
Isaiah 26:7-10 MSG
The path of right-living people is level. The Leveler evens the road for the right-living. We’re in no hurry, God. We’re content to linger in the path sign-posted with your decisions. Who you are and what you’ve done are all we’ll ever want. Through the night my soul longs for you. Deep from within me my spirit reaches out to you. When your decisions are on public display, everyone learns how to live right.
Why do we live as if we are all alone?
“Spiritual formation is the great reversal: from acting to bring about the desired results in our lives to being acted upon by God and responding in ways that allow God to bring about God’s purposes.” - Robert Mulholland
“I think a lot about my daughter and how much I miss her every day. Which always directs my thoughts to God. So as you can imagine it’s a constant cycle. I wouldn’t wish this kind of suffering on anyone but it has opened my eyes to so much and for that I am grateful.
I am learning what abiding in God truly means. It’s constant. Every minute, every hour. Thinking about Him. praying, worshiping…just talking to Him, being sad or angry at Him and letting Him know about it. I find that after my time with God, without fail, I am given peace and comfort.
It feels like my life is split in two, before loss and after loss. When I look at the ‘before’, it’s apparent how this world and daily life kept me woefully distracted from the one thing that matters. I am better understanding the verse about the small gate and narrow road that few will find, because how could we when it’s just so easy to live that way where we are all so distracted and focused on trivial matters. Even though I grew up in a Christian home and attended church all my life, I didn’t truly know God. I only knew of Him.
I am grateful for the suffering because without it, I don’t know that I would have ever known God the way I do now. I am and always will be undergoing spiritual formation, and I look forward to where I will be later on down that road. I don’t understand why things had to happen the way they did, but I put my full trust in God and His plan for my life.”