Urgent Pursuit: Thirsting for God's Presence

God did not intend any one of you to do life alone, okay? We have to have connection. And so that's something we learned last week. We learned that where relationship and connection are concerned, proximity matters. And proximity is just a fancy way of saying where you're at. Closeness matters. If you're not around somebody, you can't get close to them. [00:35:09] (21 seconds)


He said, if you want to be closer to God, you need to seek God. It's not complicated. It's not difficult. The more time you spend seeking Him, the closer you're going to get. And we actually have that promise in the Word, and I'm not going to re-preach that. And same thing with people, because we believe that God gave us His Word not just to help us know Him, but also to help us navigate this life we're living. [00:36:42] (22 seconds)


And so there's a decision he's making. So we're transitioning from proximity now to urgency. And yeah, I would bet that when he was praying this prayer, he may have been in a temple or he may have been in a spot of prayer. He may have been in a place where he prayed regularly. So his proximity was right, but you can sense in his voice and in the words we're reading here that he didn't just have a proximity. He had an urgency with him. [00:40:23] (25 seconds)


Going to Old Testament, we'll start there. Jacob at Peniel, it's a place where Jacob wrestled with God. And he wrestled with him. And he made a declaration there that he would not let go of him until he blessed him. Okay? And realizing that moment, Jacob was going through something. He was on his way back home to see Esau. [00:41:15] (22 seconds)


And last time they were together, things didn't go so well. He kind of took Esau's blessing in a lot of stuff that, I mean, Esau kind of gave him a blessing. He kind of took Esau's blessing in a lot of stuff too. But it's a whole process there. So he was concerned with what was going to happen when he showed back up. And so he had this encounter, this urgent encounter with the Lord. [00:41:37] (19 seconds)


And I want us to break that down a little bit. The first part of that, the trials and sorrows, the King James, the New King James, a few other versions says tribulation there. And I just love the word. You know, it's a turmoil. It's a challenge. It's a difficulty. It's a difficult situation. And so the first part of that verse is pointing out the fact that it's going to happen. [00:50:32] (22 seconds)


Jesus didn't say there's a chance that while you're here, you're going to have trials and sorrows. He didn't. He didn't even say some of you will have trials and sorrows. Right? But he made the kind of promise that you don't want to really get. He made the promise that you will have trials and sorrows, right? He's just trying to prepare them and help them to understand what's coming their way. [00:50:52] (28 seconds)


Man, this world's beating me up. Man, I understand I've been there, but you know what? He overcame me. He overcame the world. Run to him. And I've seen it. And it's everywhere on the spectrum, okay? Being real about this, sometimes you run to God in a moment of desperation and it's an amazing thing. And he instantly takes care of the situation. [00:53:46] (18 seconds)


And sometimes he takes care of the situation over time. And sometimes it seems like you're still walking a while. But can I tell you something? When you're walking with the Lord, it's a whole lot easier than walking without him. Amen? Availability doesn't always equal application. [00:54:26] (16 seconds)

You know, we have to come to a place and realizing that the only smart thing to do is to run to Jesus, to run to him. And, you know, I wanted to give you some passages of where people made this declaration. And these are so encouraging. There are a lot of them, but I'm not gonna give you all of them, okay? [00:56:37] (17 seconds)