Favorite Meeting Place?
Introduction:
I’m Pete. God loves you!
The topic today: A precious relationship with God. Where is your favorite meeting place?
Do You Even Have a Precious Relationship With God Through Jesus?
Jesus Wants That:
(Jesus speaking:) “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13 (ESV) (Jesus then laid down His life for you. Will you be His friend?
God Wants That Too:
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:6-8 (ESV) (God gave us Jesus.)
Do You Want That?
Do you even want to be forgiven and have a precious relationship with God? God loves you, but think hard about this, because your answer determines your eternal destiny! Why do we love Him? Because He was so good to us, not giving us what we deserve: We love him, because he first loved us. 1 John 4:19 (ESV)
How to Begin:
God and Jesus already did all that was necessary for you to get right with God, except to make that decision for you. Do you decide to repent of your evil, receive the forgiveness bought by Jesus on the cross, and seek God? Seeking God starts in your heart:
You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. Jeremiah 29:13 (ESV)
Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you. James 4:8-10 (ESV)
For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. John 3:16 (ESV)
Your Spiritual Meeting Place:
So, your spiritual meeting place with God is in your heart. You invite Jesus and God into your heart to live there:
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:14-19 (ESV)
Your Physical Meeting Place:
You choose a physical meeting place, a place to pray, wherever best works for God and your heart. Maybe you go into your room and shut the door. Maybe you go out to the garden if you have one. Maybe you just delay getting out of bed long enough to get right with God before the chaos of the day starts. Maybe it’s a place of peace at night. In your truck? Wherever it is, it can become a precious place where your heart and the hearts of God and Jesus come together. It can become your favorite meeting place. They just want you to get right with them and meet. The location can vary to suit the need. Better to meet God humbly in the bathroom than not at all. Wherever, meet them in your heart.
Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. 1 Peter 5:6-7 (ESV)
Your physical meeting place becomes precious as you humble yourself before God and share with Him whatever is weighing on you, as well as your joys. He’s there and listens.
In the Garden:
Those of us who have repented, invited Christ and God into our hearts, and have chosen a place to pray, sometimes find that place precious because we meet God there. If you get a chance, please listen to the old hymn “In the Garden” somehow. God Bless!
Old recording, “In the Garden”: