OPEN
PRAY
Story:
·
I was talking with a Father the other day that
was having trouble connecting with his children. When they were younger, he
remembered talking a lot to them. But as they “grew up,” they neglected having
dinner together… they stopped just visiting with their dad… eventually, they
stopped answering his phone calls and texts… he tried posting on their Facebook
walls and even asked some of their friends to help him reconnect… he hasn’t
given up hope, but they seem not to want to hear what he has to say.
·
Strangest part of all of this, when I reached
out to the kids for the dad… their response was “I love my dad, he’s the best,
don’t know what I’d do without him” …when I asked them how they were nurturing
that relationship with him, they said they still saw him at the holidays, but
their lives were pretty busy so the rest of the year was tough… and summer was
nearly impossible with sports, vacations, and what nots.
Our heavenly Father…
·
Has done something amazing to reach out to us.
·
He’s inspired dozens of authors to write 66
books for us to understand Him.
·
He knows we all understand things differently,
so He’s used story, poetry, prophecy, vivid imagery, personal and corporate
letters, songs, historical accounts and more to show us His nature and His
personality.
·
Beyond that, He’s filled us with His Spirit so
that He can continually inspire us, instruct us, and interact with our hearts
through His word.
·
His Word to us is Jesus… and He’s active,
willing, and able to nurture our covenant relationship every moment that we want to.
In this series, we are attempting
to UNLOCK the scriptures for each person in our campuses. We are attempting to
do this through focusing on the SON Jesus... and we are using SON to reorient
our focus on Him:
·
Story
– having the right scope and arc to what God’s doing
·
Order
– realizing that God has been progressively revealing Himself throughout
history
·
NURTURE – regularly
finding times & ways to grow your relationship with the SON.
The problem…
Ø Like the family I mentioned earlier,
we can’t have a one-sided relationship.
Ø We can’t expect communication to work well
without a little effort.
Ø We cannot underestimate the importance
of time in a relationship.
The good news…
·
Much
like reuniting with an old friend, roommate, or college buddy… The Father will
always say YES to a reunion & will be excited to see you no matter the
time-distance.
·
The
Father hasn’t stopped speaking, inspiring & loving no matter what we’ve
done.
Word
I think that most of us who are Christians would say that
we “want to NURTURE our relationship with Jesus” …I think even most who aren’t
believers would say that they “would want to know God” on some level… I even
believe that most people would say that they want to understand the Bible even
if they don’t believe everything in it…
One of my favorite stories on someone discovering the
Bible is found in a cleverly written book called “Blue Like Jazz.” In it, Don tells the story of how
his friend (Penny) began to read the Bible with her roommate (Nadine). Listen
to this excerpt from the book: Read highlights on 46-47
Penny discovered the truth of Hebrews 1 “Long ago, at many times and in
many ways, God spoke to our fathers by
the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir
of all things, through whom also he created the world.”
She discovered that the Father
wants to NURTURE a relationship with us… no matter where we are at… and He
wants to speak to us… not just have us talk to Him.
But to jumpstart the relationship, we need a lens: JESUS is the “key” to unlock the Bible for us.
v
I
love movies with a twist or 2 at the end of the movie. Have you ever watch one
and then said, man do I need to go back and watch that again because your
perspective of the entire story and order of the story shifts?!
v
Jesus
is the ultimate twist to the end of the story… not only does He UNLOCK all of
the ideas and plans and purposes behind the entire Scripture, BUT he helps us
reinterpret everything we’ve seen AND he is still helping us grow in our
understanding of that which the Father has been trying to share with us.
v
One
of the things that I love about the book of Hebrews is that the author was
revealing to us so much of what Jesus fulfilled, accomplished, and is still doing
in light of our Scriptures:
o
Hebrews shows Jesus as God’s WORD of power
o
That He’s a better word than the angels
o
That He’s a better word than Moses
o
Than Joshua
o
Than Aaron
o
It shows Him as God’s WORD of righteousness
o
That He’s a better promise
o
A better priest
o
A better covenant
o
A better tabernacle
o
A better sacrifice
o
It shows Him as our WORD of faith
o
Providing a better reward
o
Providing a better Kingdom
o
Providing a better way to live
v
If we want to nurture relationship with the Father, we must see Jesus in every book of our Bibles... after all, its about relationship with Him NOT just study/knowledge of Scripture.
v
There
are many lists out there. First probably made famous by an Oral Roberts and
later done in songs & services. But if Jesus is the key, we must begin to
see Him in every part.
– He
is the hidden treasure
– The
pearl of great price
– Our
living bread
– Our
advocate
– Our
shepherd
– The
Lamb of God
– The
Great physician
– Closer
than a brother
– The
lily of the valley
– The
rose of Sharon
– The
sure foundation
– The
Cornerstone
– The
fountain
– The
way, the truth and the life
– The
door
– The
true vine
– The
morning star
– The
faithful witness
– The
savior of the world
– In
Genesis – the seed
– In
Exodus – the Passover lamb
– Numbers
– star of Jacob
– Deuteronomy
– great rock
– Joshua
– captain of the Lord
– Judges
– sword of Gideon
– Ruth
– kinsman redeemer
– Samuel
– the coming King
– Kings
– the Lord God of Israel
– Chronicles
– the God of our fathers
– Ezra
– lord of heaven and earth
– Nehemiah
– the rebuilder
– Esther
– God of providence
– Job
– every living redeemer
– Psalms
– good shepherd & king of glory
– Proverbs
– wisdom
– Ecclesiastes
– only one
– Song
of Solomon – lover of our souls
– Isaiah
– wonderful, counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, prince of peace
– Jeremiah
– our righteousness
– Lamentations
– compassionate God
– Ezekiel
–son of man, the new covenant
– Daniel
– fourth man in the fire
– Hosea
– faithful husband
– Joel
– God’s dwelling & the Holy Spirit
– Amos
– plumbline & the resurrection
– Obadiah
– deliverer
– Jonah
– salvation
– Micah
– lord of kings
– Nahum
– stronghold
– Habakkuk
– everlasting & joy
– Zephaniah
– mighty lord
– Haggai
– desire of all nations
– Zechariah
– servant and the branch
– Malachi
– son of righteousness
– Matthew
– king of the Jews
– Mark
– servant
– Luke
– son of man
– John
– eternal God
– Acts
– Holy Spirit
– Romans
– justification
– Corinthians
– sanctification
– Galatians
– righteousness
– Ephesians
– head of all
– Philippians
– supply
– Colossians
– fullness
– Thessalonians
– coming Christ
– Timothy
– mediator
– Titus
– great God & Savior
– Hebrews
– heir, better, high priest, great intercessor, mediator and more
– James
– great physician
– Peter
– unblemished lamb
– John
– advocate and propitiation
– Jude
– beloved
– Revelation
– king of kings and lord of lords, alpha and omega, lion of Judah, slain lamb,
bright and morning star, the beginning and the end
v
This
should encourage us as Paul did with Timothy that…2T 3:16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for
teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete,
equipped for every good work.
v
If
we look at the entirety of the story through the lens of Jesus, then we can
begin to let HIM speak to us through his word... think again on the stories of the Ark/Passover/the prophets.
Where
do we go from here?
Let me wrap up by encouraging
you with these few ideas.
1) NURTURING
a good relationship is about desire.
o Psalm 119
o 9 How can a
young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word.
o 10 With my whole heart I seek you; let me
not wander from your commandments!
o 11 I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.
o 12 Blessed are
you, O Lord; teach me your statutes!
o 13 With my lips
I declare all the rules of your mouth.
o 14 In the way
of your testimonies I delight as much as in all riches.
o 15 I will meditate on your precepts and fix
my eyes on your ways.
o 16 I will delight in your statutes; I will not forget your word.
o You can hear David’s love for the Lord
expressed in his passionate pursuit of his word… he was a shepherd and a
warrior, not a scholar or a priest… but he was “after” the heart of God through
his love of the Father’s voice.
2) NURTURING
a good relationship is about time.
o Don’t make the pursuit of Jesus harder
than it is.
o We have a family of 7 (+ AL J) and for each of us the desire is not
always “what we are doing” but the fact that we got to do it together – running
to the store, taking time to take one on my coffee run (and getting them a
milkshake), reading a book, making sure Corrie and I have non-kid time.
o I guarantee that if you carve out time
for the Father, Holy Spirit will make it worth your while… pull out your iCal/GoogleDOC right now – for this week, put
a reminder or 2 in your phone (worship, small group, journaling, prayer, etc.).
o Desire + Time tends to release all
kinds of growth in a relationship.
3) NURTURING
a good relationship is about personality.
o Find what works best for you… if you
have desire & you make time, there is no right or wrong way to do this
thing.
o Like most relationships, there are
daily, weekly & extended times of fellowship.
o BREAKFAST – one verse, one-year-Bible, reading
plan, repetitive book, journal
o DATE
NIGHT – worship, small
group, mini-Sabbath, evening/morning
o VACATION – retreats, conferences, a season of fasting/prayer
Let's pray...
