Life Over God

With what? A small word, but a word that possesses profound power.

With. It's a preposition in our English language, and yet it has the power to transform. Just think back to this last week as you gathered, perhaps with family and friends, and you had food that you enjoy. What are mashed potatoes on their own, but mashed potatoes with gravy, with butter, with salt and pepper. With transforms our experience, even of food.

Try another one. Pumpkin pie, like, okay, but pumpkin pie with whipped cream. Or maybe you're like me and you prefer whipped cream with a little bit of pumpkin pie. Like, now we're talking. Take graham crackers.

Graham crackers with chocolate and marshmallows. It's a whole new world. With doesn't just transform our experience of food. It transforms our experience of even some of the most difficult things we encounter in life. Think about when you were going through a tragedy or there was an accident, or it was a season of grief.

Didn't you find more strength and courage when you had people with you to help you navigate those things? With transforms just our experience of time. Think about the good things that we do, whether it's going to a ball game or playing a game, like it's better with other people. With this small little word has the power to transform so much. Dr. James Cohen is a psychologist, and in 2014, he gave a TED Talk where he shared about the power of with, the power of presence and connection among people.

In that TED Talk, he shared about the catalyst for his research on the power of with. And it was an encounter with one specific World War II veteran. This man had been recommended to go see a psychologist by his physician because the physician looked at his life and he could tell that the man's life was was really not going well. His past experiences at war were having harmful effects on his most important relationships. The physician suspected that PTSD was just wrecking his life.

And so he encouraged the veteran to go seek out the help of a psychologist. They made an appointment with Dr. James cone, who was the psychologist for him. The day of the appointment came, and Dr. James cone rested in his office waiting for the man to come seek therapy. And no one showed. So the office called the veteran and said, you know, hey, you had an appointment today.

You missed it. Let's get you rescheduled. And the veteran said, listen, I'm not going to see a psychologist. I'm not going to go talk to somebody about this stuff. Well, after some convincing, the man relented, and he said, I'll go under one condition.

I get to bring my wife with me. They got approval from the doctor, and they reschedule the appointment. The appointment comes, and here comes the veteran alongside his wife into the psychologist's office. They sit on the couch. Dr. Cohn begins his intake process.

They get about halfway through the session, and he transitions to really trying to find out what's going on in this man's life. What's some of the trauma that's sourcing this behavior? And he asked the veteran just to share, what are some of the experiences that are troubling you? And the veteran just stares back at him in silence, saying nothing.

Well, the doctor, after some awkward moments, decided, well, let's change tactics a little bit. Maybe I'll get him to do some relaxation techniques. And so we coached him in some breathing exercises that could help him recognize the tension he was holding in his body and thought, well, maybe that's a gateway to getting him to share. And so he told him how to specific breathing exercise. And the man sat there and he did absolutely nothing, trying not to let the frustration show on his face.

He just waited. The doctor did, and that's when the man's wife, who'd been there the whole time, moved over. She allowed her leg to touch her husband's leg. She reached over and she grabbed his age spotted hand, and she looked up at him, and she simply said these words, what if I do it with you?

And the man agreed, and they practiced the relaxation techniques together. The session ended, they went home, they came back for the next therapy session, and they sat down on the couch in the same office. And once again, Dr. Cohen tried to get this veteran to start sharing some of his troubling experiences. And once again, the veteran just stared right back at him. Silence.

And that's when the veteran's wife moved over again, grabbed his hand, and without any words, the man knew what was next. And he started sharing some of the troubling experiences from his time in war. And for Dr. Cone, this became the catalyst for him to research, like, what was different in that moment. Like, what is it about the power of being with someone, being present with them, being connected to them. The power of with is fascinating to me, but I don't think anything is more fascinating as it relates to with than when we think about Christmas.

The God of the universe, the God who formed and fashioned the cosmos with mere words from his mouth, chose not to remain apart from us, but chose instead to come and to climb into human flesh and be with us.

One of my favorite names for Jesus is Emmanuel, which means God with us. Like, just hold onto that for a moment. The God of the universe looked at us, human beings created and crafted in his image. He saw the struggle brought into our life by sin.

And he said to us, what if I do it with you? And so Jesus comes and he does life with us and shows us the fullness of what it means to be human in all the right ways. And he offers us the opportunity as he lives with us, for us to live with Him.

He offers us the life that we were created for if we would live with Him. It's only with him that we experience the life that we were made for. He's the source of life.

I'm not sure any Bible writer helps us see this more than Jesus disciple John. John shares with us again and again in the various writings that the Spirit led him to record that are that are in our Bibles. The Gospel of John details an eyewitness account of Jesus life. The letters of John, first, second and third John. The Book of Revelation.

An apocalyptic letter that invites us into this vision that Jesus gave John on how things will work out in the end. And in all of them, John showcases how Jesus is the source of life. John, a disciple of Jesus, had such intimate encounters, intimate access to Jesus life. He knew what mattered most to the heart of God. He knew how much humanity mattered to God.

And what's fascinating to me is that John writes about Jesus as the source of life again and again and again. If we just look at the Gospel of John, the fourth gospel, the word life occurs at least 48 times in that gospel. There's only 21 chapters in the Gospel of John and 48 times more than twice. For every chapter. We have the word life and the word life that John uses.

Of course, he didn't use the word life. He didn't speak English, he speak koine Greek. But the word life that he uses is a word that represents not just like measurable quantity, days, weeks, months, but a quality of life. A life that's full, a life that's overflowing, a life that's abundant.

Sometimes he uses the words eternal life, like in the famous words of John 3:16. Maybe you've memorized them. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. I think oftentimes when we hear the word eternal, we simply think in duration. It's about quantity for us, that we could live forever.

And while that's part of it, again, it's not John's full intent. It's not Jesus full intent when he uses the Word. It's about equality. It's about a life that can be experienced. It's overflowing, it's abundant.

That's why Jesus on another occasion. And John, chapter 10, verse 10, it's recorded that Jesus said that the thief comes to steal, to kill and to destroy. But Jesus says, I have come that you might have life and have it to the full. Other English translations say life in all of its abundance, life that's overflowing, life in fullness. The point that John is making, that Jesus is making, is that that there is a life, the best life, that's only accessible in and with Jesus.

And again, it shows up all over John's gospel 48 times. In fact, John bookends his gospel by telling us that Jesus is the source of life. In John chapter one, we have the famous prologue that John writes, introducing us to Jesus and what was happening. He says, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God.

In the beginning. He tells us that the Word became flesh. So we know he's talking about Jesus. And here's what he says in verse 4. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.

So the very beginning of his gospel, as John introduces us to Jesus, he says that in him is life, the best life, the life that you and I seek. It's not found anywhere else other than in Jesus Life with Jesus.

As I told you, he bookends his gospel. At the end of his Gospel, John, chapter 20, we find John once again telling us that Jesus is the source of life. Now keep in mind that when John wrote his gospel, he didn't put in chapter numbers. He didn't put in verse numbers. Those were added later to help us navigate the Bible and find places and, and kind of both of us be able to look at the same thing at the same time.

But here's what John writes towards the end of his gospel. John 20, verses 30 and 31, he says, Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples which are not recorded in this book. It's like John saying, hey guys, guess what? This is a lot. But this is not all there is.

There is so much more. But verse 31, he says, but these are written. I chose these. That you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. He's like, I chose this, these things to tell you just so you would have life, have life in Jesus.

Once again, John saying, Jesus is the source of life. With is a powerful word, and we were made to live life with God. He's the source of the life that we crave, that we long for, that we are hardwired for. Ecclesiastes, chapter 3, verse 11 says that God has planted eternity in the human heart like you have planted in you this desire for the more that only God can provide. And John tells us that life is found in Jesus.

And yet how many of us struggle at times to feel like we're really experiencing life fullness, life in abundance? How many of us would describe our life as being a life that is full and overflowing? How many of us know people who would struggle to say that life is even good, let alone life at its best?

And so what has gone wrong? Like, where have we gone off from what God intended? I mean, so many of us have an incomplete understanding or view of who God is.

We relate to him in ways that aren't quite the fullness of what he desires.

Rather than living life with God, we settle for an approach that's less than the best. And the goal of this series that our senior minister, Matt Giebler launched last week that we entitled with is to look at some of those common postures we take towards God that aren't completely wrong, but they're incomplete at best. They're ways that we relate to God that we settle for and the process we miss out on the life that God truly intends as we live it with Him. The framework we've used comes from a book called with by a man named Sky Gitani. And in that book he outlines four postures we often settle for in our relationship with God.

One is life under God, which Matt looked at last week. One is life over God, which we'll look at this week and in the weeks to come, we'll look at life from God and life for God, all of which are really horrible substitutes for life with God. So kind of recapping a little bit about what Matt explored last week.

We choose life under God rather than life with God when we allow God's desire for obedience to shift toward our desire to control God and outcomes through our obedience. When we move to a posture not just of obeying God because we love him and we're doing life with him, but instead we choose to obey, thinking we can somehow force God's hand and make him do things for us. We've shifted from life with God to life under God. Does God desire obedience? Yes.

Consistent from the beginning of his story through our present day, God desires obedience. Several times we hear him encouraging people to obey his commands. Jesus himself says, if you love me, you will obey My commands. But when we choose obedience over life with God, we settle for life under God and we miss out. What about life over God?

What is life over God?

This desire to experience the best life possible is present in every human being. It's present not only in every person in this room and everyone watching online, but everyone that has lived throughout the history of the world. I have never read a story, heard an account, or met someone who wakes up during the day or in the morning, or maybe it's during the day, whenever, and says, you know what? I want to experience the worst life ever. Could my life just suck more?

Do you know anybody like that? Like, there's this common theme in humanity, like, we want to experience the very best life. And so in every era of history, in every civilization, you find people fighting to figure out how to live the best life possible. And one of the things that's common across civilizations in every era of history is that we will study life to try to identify repeatable patterns, strategies, to be able to figure out what are some predictable outcomes that will help us live the best life ever. We have this curiosity as human beings to learn and to grow and to apply what we learn to be able to reach the goals that we have.

And this is all pretty innocent, at least from the start. It makes sense that if you want to have a more productive business or more productive time in the office, that you'll look at what has worked for other people and you'll learn from them and extract principles and strategies to help you be more effective in your line of work. That's why we read leadership books. It makes sense that if you're playing on a sports team, that you'll look at what worked for other opponents that played the team that you're facing, and you'll extract principles and strategies. It makes sense in farming to look for repeated patterns and then employ them and apply them to get results that you desire.

It makes sense in marketing. It makes sense in our lives as followers of Jesus. We can look and we can study the life of Jesus. We can say what worked for him. Okay, Jesus knew Scripture.

I want to know Scripture. Jesus often withdrew to lonely places to pray. I want to pray because I want to be like Jesus. Jesus served and Jesus gave generously, and Jesus did. And the list can go on and on.

And we often call those things spiritual habits or spiritual disciplines, spiritual rhythms that we can have to help ourselves grow and all that is well and good until we substitute the principle and the strategy for the God that we're intended to spend the time with.

It becomes harmful when we begin to think that all we need is the right strategy, the right principle, the right formula to get the life that we want. Rather than looking to experience the fullness of life with God. God's created a world that often functions according to identifiable patterns and processes and laws and theories. He supplied a great deal of wisdom in His Word, which allows us to enhance our experience of life in this world.

But we have a tendency to shift from discovering those principles and wisdom through our relationship with God to only desiring his wisdom and not him, the wisdom giver. And when we do this, we look to our logic, our intellect, to extract what's needed from God's wisdom and instructions or to leverage them for us to experience the best life. But we want that apart from Him. In the process, we choose human reason over relationship.

We choose principles over his presence.

We choose wisdom over the wisdom giver. And we rob those very principles and wisdom and reason of the power that they have when we live life with Him. This isn't new, although the enlightenment served as an accelerant on our desire to live life over God when we elevated reason and science above all things. But it's been around for a really long time. How long, you might ask, if we go back towards the beginning of Israel's story, when they're led out of the wilderness, I mean out of Egypt into the wilderness, by Moses, we see this show up.

We're going to look at an account in numbers, chapter 20 in just a few moments. But I want to give you A bit of background, if you remember, and if you don't, we'll catch you up on the story. God chose Moses to lead his people out of Egypt. God calls to him. In the wilderness of Sinai, a bush is on fire.

He tells Moses to go to Pharaoh and talk to him. With reluctance, Moses goes and he brings God's people, starts leading them out of Egypt and towards the land that God will bring him to, what we often call the promised land. And along the way, the Israelites meet up with several difficulties. They have several concerns. Sometimes their primary concern is their safety.

Like, are we going to be able to survive? Are these people going to hurt us? Sometimes their concern is hunger. Is there food? Are we going to be fed?

Sometimes their concern is water, like, is there going to be anything to drink? And each time when they meet up against what seem like these obstacles, Moses does the same thing. He hears their complaints and their grumbling and he goes to God and he prays. And God says, okay, Moses, here's the way out. And so sometimes they stand at the edge of a large sea, like the Red Sea and Egyptians armies are bearing down on them.

They think they're going to be destroyed. And so they call out to Moses, did you bring us out here for us to die? And so Moses speaks to God. And God says, moses, I want you to take your staff and I want you to hold it out over the sea. And I'm going to part the sea and my people are going to pass through on dry ground.

And then once you're through, I want you to put your arms down and your staff down. And then the armies of Egypt will be swallowed up by the sea. And they get hungry. And God prays, Moses prays to God. And God says, I'll send manna from heaven.

And he does this dew like substance, but it's actually nourishment for their bodies that they can eat and get from the ground in the morning. On another occasion, when they're hungry, God sends quail. On one occasion when they're thirsty, God tells Moses after the conversation that Moses has with him, to take his staff and touch this bitter water, and it becomes sweet. On a separate occasion, the Israelites are once again thirsty. There's no water and they're grumbling and complaining, did you bring us out here to die?

And God tells Moses to take the staff and to strike a rock and. And fresh water comes out. And so we have all these occasions where Moses has been able to observe this repeated pattern. The people have a need. The people Grumble and complain.

I speak to God. God comes through. God often uses my staff. God does a miracle, and things are better. So when we get to numbers, chapter 20, we would anticipate.

And Moses certainly did a similar thing in verses two through four. This is the situation. It says now, there was no water for the community. And the people gathered in opposition to Moses and Aaron. They quarreled with Moses and said, if only we had died when our brothers fell dead before the Lord.

Why did you bring the Lord's community into this wilderness? That we and our livestock should die here. Super encouraging request for Moses.

They're grumbling, they're complaining. Like, why did you bring us out here? We're gonna die. There's no water. So what does Moses do?

He looks back. This is the pattern. This is what works. He goes to God. Verse 6.

Moses and Aaron went from the assembly to the entrance to the tent of meeting and fell face down. And the glory of the Lord appeared to them. Okay, they're gonna talk to God. We would anticipate that God's gonna speak. Verses 7 and 8.

The Lord said to Moses, take the staff, and you and your brother Aaron gather the assembly together. Speak to that rock before their eyes, and it will pour out its water. You will bring water out of the rock for the community so they and their livestock can drink. Just recognize for a moment. The Lord speaks to Moses.

He says, take your staff, and water's gonna come from the rock. It sounds pretty familiar, right?

But one thing is different. God doesn't say, moses, strike the rock. He says, moses, speak to the rock. Look at what unfolds in verses 9 through 11. So Moses took the staff from the Lord's presence just as he commanded him.

All right. So far, so good. He and Aaron gathered the assembly together in front of the rock. Huh. Still, we're doing pretty good.

We're doing it God's way. And then Moses said to them, listen, you rebels. Must we bring you water out of this rock? Uh oh. Moses is going off script.

Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank.

Moses was told by God, speak to the rock and water will come forth. But Moses thought to himself, this is what worked before. I'd rather speak to the people and tell them what's on my mind, and I'll use what God has used before. But rather than doing it with him in his way, I'm going to do it my own way. And he strikes the rock, and you may say, well, hey, it still had the same outcome.

The people still got water, and they did. But do you know what happened to Moses? If you read on this results in Moses not being permitted to enter the promised land, the very place that he's been leading the people toward all these years. He misses out on the life that he desperately desired because he removed God's principles and God's strategy from life with him. We miss out on God's best life when we prioritize principles over God's presence and the direction that he brings moment by moment.

Here's what Sky Giottani writes in his book with he says when the Bible is primarily seen as a depository of divine principles for life, and it fundamentally changes the way we engage God in His word. Rather than a vehicle for knowing God and fostering our communion with Him. We search the Scriptures for applicable principles that we may employ to control our world and our life. God has embedded discernible laws and principles and theories and practices into our world, but they're intended to be used in relationship with him rather than being removed from Him. And when we remove God's wisdom from the wisdom giver, those same principles and strategies lose their power.

Here's a couple of small examples this last week in America, millions upon millions of people gathered for Thanksgiving meals. Whether they gathered at a church in a basement somewhere and had meal with people from the community, or they gathered in someone's home, or they gathered in a park in our southern climates, many people gathered. And as they were staring at turkey and cranberry sauce and ham and noodles and sweet potato casserole and whatever it is that you enjoy at your table, many people, not even did they have to be Christians. We're asked the question, what are you thankful for?

Because we have this principle. We know that being thankful is good, right? Expressing gratitude is good. You can buy give thanks napkins at Walmart. Like, you don't have to be a follower of Jesus to give thanks.

But does the Thanksgiving hold the same power for someone who doesn't have life with God? Because if you think about it, when we go around the table, if we're not followers of Jesus and we say, what are you thankful for? And you say, well, I'm thankful for my family.

Who are we thankful to?

The universe.

Thanksgiving loses its power when it's removed from the God we're intended to do life.

Even more than that, what's the sustaining power for? Gratitude. Because all of us know we go through seasons in life when life is far from what we thought it would be or intended for it to be.

We're walking through grief, a diagnosis, disease, financial hardship, breakups, heartache.

Our pets die, our cars break down, our parents stop answering our phone calls. Our kids rebel and think they don't need us anymore.

Our sports team loses at sectionals or regionals or semi state. Like, what provides the sustaining power for gratitude then? Not just this great principle of it's good to be thankful, but it's recognizing that there's a God who is with us and can help us find something good in every moment. What about relationships? You can read books built on biblical wisdom, like how to love your spouse or how to have a great friendship.

And it might be rooted in the story of David and Jonathan from the Old Testament, but you can look at the attributes in a friendship in Scripture. And if you're not living life with God when your relationship is tested, you're likely not going to hold on to that principle or that strategy because we need life with God. As I think about that, it makes me think of this encounter Jesus had with some Jewish leaders in John chapter five. And once again, John will use the word life. Jesus is talking to Jewish leaders who clearly don't understand who he is and what he's come to do.

They're men who have studied the Old Testament scriptures. They've extracted principles, they've built a whole what they call oral tradition off of what they've learned in God's commands. They've shaped their whole other book of things to do to honor God. And yet somehow they missed being with God. Here's how Jesus responds to them.

This is John 5, verses 39 and 40. He says, you study against speaking to Jewish leaders. You, Jewish leaders study the scriptures diligently. Like, you put a lot of hard work into it because you think that in them, in those scriptures, you have eternal life.

But Jesus says, these are the very scriptures that that testify about me. They tell the story about me, and yet you refuse to come to me to have life.

Jesus says those scriptures were meant to point you to me, like I'm the one who brings you life.

He's telling them that God intends for life to happen with him.

I grew up in a church tradition where they often spoke of God's word as a roadmap or an instruction manual. And while that sounded great, they even taught us an acronym that the Bible stands for basic instructions before leaving earth. I think a teacher came up with that.

What happens if we only teach God's word, like an instruction manual or a roadmap Is we miss out. These words were meant to draw us into relationship with the God who made us, who knows us, who formed us, who fashioned us.

Our challenge is to pursue life with God. The incredible wisdom of God given in the Word of God is intended to draw us back into relationship with Him. In any principle we find any nugget of wisdom, we carry it into our lives because we're living life with Him. So here's my challenge to you. To read and study God's Word.

But read and study it first and foremost for the invitation that it is to help you meet the God who knows you and loves you.

Extract wisdom and principles and guidance from God's Word. But never let that wisdom and that guidance and the principles you find be a substitute for relationship with the God who gave those words to us. Resist the urge to choose reason over relationship and principles over his presence and wisdom over the wisdom giver. This Advent season, let's remember that Jesus is Emmanuel the that he is God with us, that he came to be with us so that we could be with him. That he is the one in whom life is found.

All life is found. He's the source. It's not about life over God. It's about life with God.

In just a couple of moments, I'm going to pray, and that prayer will be the end of our worship experience together. But before I do, while I'm praying, a Next Steps team is going to make their way to the front of the room. And we just want to offer an opportunity every week for every person that's here. If God is stirring you to have someone that you can talk with, that you can pray with. And so our Next Steps team will be at the front of the room and they're available for that.

They want to talk with you, they want to pray with you. They want to help you get pointed in the right direction. If you're at home or if you're not comfortable coming forward just yet, you can text the word next to the number you see on the screen. If you want prayer, you can email us prayergreenwoodchristian.com and we'd be happy to pray with you. We also have Next Steps classes that occur every single.