Knowing God
Elaine Poproski Download: Audio
Click here to download the sermon manuscript.
Notes:
At the 15:15 mark, we are invited to pause for a couple minutes to reflect on the question: Do I want to know God? It may be helpful to pause this recording at that time.
Scripture: John 17:25 – 26
‘Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. Read more…
Looking to Sunday
by Elaine Poproski
Back when I was in seminary, I took a course that had to do with teaching and Christian education. One of the assigned books for the course was titled “Celebration of Discipline.” I assumed it was about discipline – about keeping a class in line or maybe about Christian parenting or something similar, but we never got to this book, so it was some time before I cracked open its cover. When I did, I was mystified. The book had nothing to do with discipline at all. It was about things like prayer, worship, service, fasting… I couldn’t, for the life of me, figure out how the title connected to the contents.
It turns out, there are these things called Spiritual Disciplines. They’ve been around for a really long time. And they are essential for friendship with God.
In last week’s sermon I talked about God’s desire for friendship with us and asked if we want to be friends with God. I invited us to spend the week following meditating on the opening words of Psalm 42, which read,
As a deer longs for flowing streams,
so my soul longs for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
I suggested we could read these words as a fact – something that is already true – or as a request that they become true. Either way, the hope is that as we recite these words over and over again, they become rooted in our mind and in our heart as a prayer of longing for friendship with God. Because that’s where it all starts – with a desire, a longing, a want. If you haven’t already done so, may I suggest that you write these words out, in whatever language is most familiar to you, and put them on your bathroom mirror? Read them over and over as you brush your teeth. Allow them to be your prayer.
This week we’re going to talk more about this whole idea of friendship with God. Specifically, we’re going to focus on what it means for us – you and I – to be a good friend to God. Does that sound strange? I think we’re used to thinking about what it means that God is our friend, but what does it mean for us to be his friend? We know what it means to be a good friend to the people in our lives, but God…? That’s where the subject of Spiritual Disciplines comes in.
As you prepare for Sunday, I hope you will continue (or begin) to meditate on those words from Psalm 42 printed above. It may also be helpful to spend some time reflecting on the whole idea of being God’s friend. Consider some of your best friendships with people, are there things about how those friendships works that might inform what it means to be God’s friend? How does the whole idea of friendship with God sit with you? Is it something you want? Is it something you already experience? Maybe you’re too exhausted to even think about it right now. If so, I invite you to consider that friendship with God (just like friendship with people) may actually serve to heal some of your exhaustion instead of adding to it.