Experiencing God: You Have To Start Somewhere

"Experiencing God: You Have To Start Somewhere"
John 3:16-17

If you want to have great experiences in life you have to start somewhere.  Life’s                      great experiences don’t just happen, don’t just fall in your lap, or ask nothing of you.  If you want some great experience in life you have to start somewhere.

I was talking to my friend Terry Gatlin.  Terry is one of the pharmacists at Dillon’s here in town.  Maybe you know Terry, too.  I’ve known Terry ever since he was a little boy.  His family attended the church I served in Colby.  His mom was the custodian for the church for years.  I was very happily surprised when I saw Terry behind the counter at the pharmacy soon after I moved here.

So I was talking to Terry the other day about what he did for Christmas.  He went to his wife’s folks up in Lucas.  I asked how he and his wife met.  Terry’s first pharmacy job was up in Hays.  She lived up there, too.  He had run into her a few times, was interested but did nothing to show he was interested.  Three years later, he finally got up the nerve, and in a conversation with her, made her a bet of some kind.  The loser of the bet had to make Valentine’s dinner for the other.  Terry lost, so he had to make her dinner.  I said, “But even though you lost, you hit the jackpot!”  He said, “That is true; I sure did!”

That conversation, where he made her a bet, was where Terry started.  Had he never started with that, after three years of doing nothing, his life would be very different right now.  He has great kids, he volunteers in the community, coaches, very involved with his church, etc.  He is having a great experience in life.  But it all had to have a starting point.

You all can think of your own starting points for the great experiences you’ve had in life.  Usually, we think about the great experiences, and we smile when we think about them.  But we had to start somewhere.  What was that starting point?  Where and how did it all begin?  Those are the stories that really interest me.

I haven’t told too many people this story.  Three years ago, in October of that year, I was sitting up in the lounge of this church.  The Committee on Ministry of Presbytery met here monthly in Fellowship Hall.  I had driven in from Leoti, in far west Kansas for this meeting.  I was waiting to be interviewed by them, to become a full member of Presbytery.  As I was sitting in the lounge, waiting for my turn, I felt the Lord’s presence, and the Voice I have heard before, simply said to me, “You will be here.”

I had no plans on moving from Leoti, and away from serving the Leoti and Tribune congregations.  Some things were coming together out there, in terms of ministry, and doing ministry differently in those tiny congregations.  I was planning on being out there, after I got past the hurdle of joining presbytery.  But God had other plans.  And that day, sitting in the lounge, is where it all started.  Where my great experience of being here in Pratt began.  It had to start somewhere.  The Voice in the lounge is where.

All great experiences have to start somewhere.  Especially your great experiences with God.  Though we may have different starting places for most of the great experiences we have had in life, this starting place with our relationship to God has to be the same for everyone:  You have to start with turning your life over to God and God’s love for you.  That is where your great experience with God must start.

(Alan’s, “I am God” story:  Alan will tell it)

This starting place in experiencing God is not learning about God.  This starting place is foremost about developing a relationship with God.  I think I, as pastor, make the assumption that all of you, because you are here in worship often, have already had your starting point with developing a relationship with God.  That you have your own, "I am God" stories.  But 35 years in the ministry has proven otherwise.  There have been some, in all the congregations I’ve served, who are in church, who have started with church, they have an ongoing relationship with church, but have not really started with God.

This starting place in your relationship with God must be a time when you understand that you don’t have a relationship with God, that you have, for one reason or another been avoiding God, keeping God at arms length, that you've been treating God like a cosmic slot machine, and that you are ready, finally to stop all that avoidance behavior, and ask God to forgive you, and turn yourself over, fully, to God’s amazing love for you in Jesus Christ.  There is no other starting place than this in a relationship with God.

Blackaby says in the introduction of our book, “I encourage you: Don’t let any previous failure or disappointment stop you from confidently moving forward with God” (page 7).  That’s what I’ve found is most getting in the way of people’s holding back in starting a relationship with God.  They feel they’ve done something awful, had some stellar failure that not even God can forgive.  Or whatever their awful experience is, these people feel that what they’ve done would certainly keep God from loving them and embracing them.

Or maybe they’ve been disappointed with God.  Some negative, hurtful, grieving experience has made them rethink God, what God is about, or even if God is there.  In the throes of those disappointments, they gravitate away from God.

When I was serving the church up in Hickman, NE, I ran into a man in the post office who was the father of one of our members.  I told him I’d love to see him in church, and that if he’d like me to visit with him some time, I’d love to do that too.  He shook his head, in a droop, and said, “It’s too late for me.”  I assured him that God has no time-line, where once you move past a certain amount of time, too bad for you.  The man just shook his head again, and walked out the post office door.

I felt so bad for this man.  He had a notion in his head that he had used up all his chances, and starting a relationship with God couldn’t happen because it was just too late.  I had several other conversations with this man and talked to him about giving up his misunderstanding of God and how God works.  How God desires him and loves him, and through Jesus Christ wants to embrace him.  Instead, this man decided to hold on to some previous failures and disappointments, than give in and start a relationship with our loving God.  So sad.

So this is the first truth of Experiencing God:  you have to start somewhere.  You have to start.  You have to begin your relationship with God, or you will never grow beyond who and where you are now.  If you haven’t started with God, then do so.  Don’t put it off.  Don’t let time and distance fool you, like it did my friend in the post office who had convinced himself it was too late.  It’s never too late.  Start here.

Secondly, you have to tell the truth about where you are with God right now.  Just because you started, maybe years ago, doesn’t mean you’ve developed a deeper relationship with God.

There was a couple who was down stairs watching TV, late one evening.  All of a sudden they heard a thump come from their daughters bedroom upstairs.  The couple ran upstairs to see what had happened.  They found their daughter on the floor beside her bed.  “What happened?” her father asked.
“I don’t know,” the girl replied.  “I think I fell asleep too close to where I got in.”

That often happens when we begin a relationship with God.  We fall asleep too close to where we got started.  We don’t move farther in or farther on in developing our relationship with God.  We have to be willing to face that truth as we figure out why we may have allowed that to happen.  All real growth starts with telling and facing the truth.

On page six of Experiencing God, Blackaby has given a list for your truth telling. (on slide)  This may be a good list to look at together in your small group—to go around and tell where you are at, and honestly describe why you are at that place in your relationship with God.  If you aren’t in a group, then I encourage you to keep a journal as you read this book, and deal with this list in your journal with as much truth as you can muster.

Following this list, Blackaby asks an important question, for you also to deal with.  As you evaluate your present relationship with God, it’s not a matter of being truthful with where you are now in that relationship, but where are you going?  Blackaby’s question is:  (on slide)  “What does God want to do in my life as I read this book?”

How is your life going to change as a result of reading this book?  Where are you going to be in your relationship with God, when you’re done with this book, that you’re not at now?  Maybe you’ve felt some inklings that God has been interested in you, and wants to make some changes in your life, to use you in some new way, or kindle some new passions in you.  If you have felt those inklings, what might those look like when you are done reading this book?  Begin to get a vision for, not only where you are now in your relationship with God, but where God might be taking you with Him in some new direction.



And lastly, as you start out, or as you start anew in your relationship with God, you have to know that you have already been equipped with at least three resources that are strategic for you.

First, prayer.  I know that for most of you, prayer is an odd activity, and you’re not sure what it’s all about.  Think of prayer as a personal way to get to know God better.  When you’re starting out with any new relationship, how do you get to know each other?  You talk.  Maybe all the time.  You’re on the phone.  You’re on Facebook.  You send emails.  You text.  But you’re communicating all the time.  You do that because you want to get to know the other person better.  That’s what prayer is at its best—it’s that constant communicating with God and God with you because you want to get to know each other better.

Secondly is the Holy Spirit.  Think of the Holy Spirit as your personal matchmaker between you and God.  The Holy Spirit is the one who has been working on you, maybe for years, to get started with God, and with a relationship with God.  Long before you started with God, the Holy Spirit has been working on you so you’d be ready to make that first starting motion towards God.

The Holy Spirit is personal in that way.  Personal, because the Holy Spirit knows you, inside and out, knows what you need, and how you tick.  The Holy Spirit knows what you need to know and makes sure you learn those lessons along the way with God.  Have you ever been thinking about something pertaining to your relationship with God, and you’re not sure if it’s right or not, and then something happens where you are given some little confirmation.  That’s how the Holy Spirit is working with you, nudging you closer and closer to God.

And thirdly, there is Scripture.  We believe Scripture is God’s word to you.  Notice the objective truth of that statement and the personal side of that statement.  Scripture is God’s word.  Scripture is the way God communicates.  If you are not spending time in Scripture, hearing the voice of God is going to be like hearing a faint echo from a long distance.

But Scripture is also God’s word to you.  It is personal.  You can read along in the Bible and nothing really connects with you.  Then BAM!  Some verse jumps out at you, affirms you, or throttles you, or answers a question you’ve long been struggling with, or is a word you know you’ve just needed to hear.  That can’t happen like it happens when you are diving into Scripture daily, and listening for God as you read.




Are you ready for an encounter with God?  Are you ready to not just learn about God, but to experience God in a personal and powerful way?  Are you ready to have your life changed by your experience with God?  If so, then let’s start now!