Emotional Connections With God

We're back. I got to meet Ron, the neighbor.

So life is a continual conversation. Just like your oxygen is flowing in your lungs. It's continual. Every breath. Just like your blood is flowing through your veins. You know, your heart is actually a vortex motor. You won't exactly learn that in school. But it's not just a pump, it's a vortex. There's a significant difference. It's a really good upgrade. It's a swirly type, uh, squeeze out mechanism that works very efficiently. And if we could ever figure out how to make a heart motor in the real world, it'd be amazing.

So if you want to be an inventor, if you like science, go dig the heart. Actually unpeel us all into one, uh, heart, uh, muscle and the muscle and the required firing pins to make it go in the form of electricity is way beyond what science can currently comprehend or replicate. So, you know, sometimes the previous generation, all we can do the best is pass along our limitations. We can tell you, "Hey, I know there's something good in that direction. If you want to pursue it because nobody's really figured it out yet anyway."

Life is a continual conversation, just like your brain never stops the neural pinions. Sorry, the the thinking. It's designed to be one steady conversation and the whole key to living. If you want to summarize it down into one. Healthy sentences.

Keeping a steady flow. Open channel between you and God and simultaneously with the outside world.

The Two-Lens Focus

You know, if you focus, if you focus above and you focus externally simultaneously, it's like you have two glasses.

One lens of your eyeglass needs to be continually focused on God, and the second lens needs to be continually focused on serving others. It's both.

See, I was able to put it into one sentence, but then multiply it and see it from different angles so that you'll notice a couple things are missing. Number one, yourself. You know, we're supposed to live a selfless life. We're supposed to live in others focused life focused on others. And we cannot do that unless we first focus on God.

And God is the originator. He. We love Him because He first loved us. How do I love my brother? How do I love my sibling? How do I love my fellow person? It's impossible humanly. I will certainly run out of juice unless first I receive love from above. I become the receptacle, the sponge, the intake, the uptake of God's love.

So it's divine love. Inbound. First, I need to receive and believe the love that God has for me. Then I need to, uh, love God back in return. We love Him because He first loved us. And then the outflow, the overflow of that core connection of both inbound and outbound will be anybody around me will be able to tell.

The Bible says if any man love God, the same is known of him, which means the degree to which you love God or ignore God is just going to be so extremely obvious to the world.

Um, you know, you ask the average person, "Hey, you want to have a conversation about God," that "Oh, that's probably that private. I don't want to talk about it. I'm embarrassed." Yeah, they're embarrassed because their relationship is embarrassing. They haven't put in the work. Like, tell me about your best friend. "I don't want to talk about them." Dude, it's your best friend. What do you mean, you don't want to talk about them? Of course you want to talk about them. They're. They're the person that most occupies your mind and your thoughts and your. You know.

Anyway, so the only way to sustain long term relationships is to let God be the center. When God gets out of the center, another person will just drain you right to nothing and you'll be drained yourself. We can't love people sufficiently on our own. We all run. We all run out of juice. Anyway.

Personal Participation Required

So this constant conversation with God, there's a couple keys to it. You know, personal participation. Like I've got to choose. It's on me. That's the crazy part, is I can't blame God for Him not participating. He's already done plenty enough. Has He not made the grass? Isn't that enough effort on His part? I mean, what have we really contributed to this relationship?

If you think about it now, let's think about it. What? What have I really done for God? You know, God is my friend. Certainly. But what have I done to demonstrate that I'm God's friend? The answer. If you'll pause long enough to think about it, must be very little. By comparison, I mean, did not God make the ocean? Isn't that a sufficient exertion of energy on His part to demonstrate that He wants us to enjoy life? You don't have to have been to the ocean, but just the fact that you can appreciate it on a screen.

I mean, God made you. That's a lot of energy, right? He's demonstrating His love. God sent Himself to experience life and show us that victory is possible. You can have a successful life. How to do it right. Pretty much. Jesus spent the majority of His waking hours around people. He was not always alone. He spent a little season in the wilderness. Sure, He went alone to be with God so that He could have power to be with man. He went up into the mountain alone to pray. Yes. And it's fine to have seasons alone.

But I'm telling you, it's very tempting, especially as a teenager and a young person, to get addicted to time alone, because then you have less conflict, you have less arguments, you have less opinions. You don't get drained. You feel like you have better energy. However, life is not designed to be a solo adventure. You are not supposed to be the king captain of your own world.

We are supposed to live for God and others, both at the same time. God and others in that sequence.

And so then, if life is a conversation, we must be in constant contact with heaven. And. Humans, not just the friendly ones. Not just the ones we like, but humans in general. You know how I speak with Ron. They're my new neighbor that I just met. That's that's reflective on how closely I am to God. You know, am I in tune with God? Is God welcome in my world?

Making God Welcome in Your World

So let's just chat a little bit about how to make God welcome in your world. Uh, the Bible says in all thy ways acknowledge Him. That word acknowledge in the Hebrew sounds like yada yada yada yada yada. And it means to develop a close intimacy of communion while working together with somebody or walking with them, going for a walk in the park. You know, when two people hang out, they usually do something together and, uh, you know, they go out. They call it to go out means get out there and walk and talk and do and be, you know, old folks go for coffee. Young kids, they go to the park. Medium kids. They go to work together. So they go to school. They learn, develop and grow.

Anyway, uh, a couple elements to having a good, healthy conversation with God is, number one, you're not going to want to. You are not going to feel or want to. And if you don't want to, how how is it that our primary purpose is to glorify God if we don't want to? I don't want to, I don't want.

Well, the best things in life are determined by the will. And you gotta tell yourself you got to find your motivation to do it because you know what's right. You know what's good. It's difficult to do. It's hard to do. You admire the people who have figured it out. You don't want to be a blooming idiot, a blooming onion. You just you don't want to be. A dummy in life. You want to have this part figured out?

So how am I going to have a good communication with God? How am I going to have a good conversation with God, if that's genuinely the essence of life is to have a good upward connection so I can have a good outward connection. How in the world am I going to do it, especially knowing I don't want to do it? My flesh. I want to talk to God. About what? Why should I talk to Him? What's He going to do? I'm going to talk to Him for one minute. Two minutes. How long do I have to do this? Can I quit? Can I go play a game? Can I go do something fun? Can I eat some ice cream? Can I leave now? You know. Is class dismissed?

We want to escape. We want to get away.

But we got to make our conversations with God enjoyable and delightful and positive and a source of energy. And so how do we do it?

Number one, you got to realize you don't. You don't want to. There's something in my flesh. Nature doesn't want to go to the gym. I don't want to go to school. I don't want to talk to that person. They're an idiot. So sorry I keep using that word. Um. My human nature doesn't always want to stay connected to God, but I know it's the right thing to do. So I've got to persuade myself and convince myself and motivate myself that it is good.

The Heart Comes First

So let's talk about the good part. One of the key, one of the keys to having a productive conversation with God is emotion. So when the Bible says, love the Lord thy God with all thy heart. There's a reason why the heart is first.

God wants the heart.

The heart is total chaos. The heart bypasses your brain. The heart is the core of your, uh. First layer of how you process life. You know, how do you feel about it? Is really a significantly more important question than how do you think about it? Thinking normally comes second. Feeling normally is first.

Now we're supposed to eventually reverse that and have the Spirit in charge of our heart, and we need our mind in charge of our heart. And then we need our soul, which is includes our mind. We need the Spirit to control our soul and our soul to control our body. But order is reversed. So God starts with the heart.

Now your heart is just things you like. You know, we ask a kid what's your favorite blank. And you fill in the blank with everything. Your favorite restaurant? Your favorite food? You know we're interested in your soul. Your. Your perceptions. Your favorites. You know. Tell us about your heart. That's the real question they're asking. When? When an adult asks you what kind of bike do you want? What kind of clothes do you like? Uh, you know, they're just trying to figure out your heart because people think with their emotions.

I'm in sales, and I can persuade people to do things and to think and to make decisions. So sales is just helping people make choices. And, uh, you can get paid a ton of money for helping people make smart choices. But you need to know that people don't make very smart choices. They make choices with their heart, how they feel. How are you feeling today? Uh, you know, if somebody just likes someone and they like something, they normally can't explain it very well. They just do. Why do you like chocolate? I don't know. I just like it. Okay. That's. You're. You're brilliant.

Um. So your heart likes it, and you have no idea why your head should like it, right? So you're not thinking with your head. You're thinking with your heart. So this is true of human nature.

God wants us to love Him with our heart first.

Now, that's not natural. You know, I thought you just said that we have to choose to love God. Yes. But I have to motivate myself to make that choice. And so the underlying decision to love God must come from my heart first and then my will second. See, this is a key that most Christians just don't realize they never conquer. They wait until they feel, uh. And if you wait until you feel, you'll never think. Especially in your relationship with God. It is heart first.

Then your personality. You know, love the Lord, the God, the heart, the a soul. Soul is number two. Mind is number three, and strength is number four. Heart, soul, mind. Strength. So, you know, a lot of people get it backwards. And they they serve with their body. Like I'm out here doing the thing. I'm treating people nice. I'm working at the mission. I'm serving the homeless. I'm cleaning up yards or whatever. You know, they're contributing in some meaningful way in the ministry, but they lack heart and they lack soul intellect, and they're just serving with the body.

And God doesn't really accept service with the body. That's superficial. That's what we display before mankind. Uh, a lot of people say, "Oh, they're they're a wonderful, wonderful Christian." Why? Because they've been doing the same thing for a decade. This person. "Oh, man, they've been serving in the bus garage for, you know, 25 years or this lady, she's in the she was in the Seoul Winter club, or she was in the nursery department for umpteen years." And so we thereby, uh, validate their identity according to externals.

Divine Love Has Boundaries

However, back to the position. I'm telling you, if you can follow this intellectually, that your core purpose and mission is the Great Commandment. The Great Commandment, Jesus summarized, is thou shalt love.

Now, number one, it's impossible to love. Especially long term. You can't love on a divine level without divine assistance. Come on, smiley face right there. Repeat. Rewind. Say it again. It's not possible to love on a divine level without divine assistance, right? Can you argue with that? Can you prove it wrong? No. Is your love. Endless. Boundless. Eternal.

You know, people like to use the word. What are they? What do they call love? What are some of the adjectives for love are unconditional? It's. That's so garbage. Unconditional. No conditions. You're supposed to love me no matter what. Okay? Stop it, stop it! Yeah. That's such a child. Love you. Why? Why should I love you? You know, real human love runs out.

You know, we want to say God has unconditional love. Have you read His book? The love is not unconditional. It is exclusive. You have to receive His love His way. You know, you can't just be a rebellious punk all day and let God love me. "God loves me." So you're forcing God to love you. You're like requiring Him. Give me that Bible verse that says God loves those who hate Him. Now He does. God loves His enemies. Yes, because He's a good God. But even the eternal, boundless, endless, amazing love of God says, if you reject My son, I reject you.

Even the amazing, eternal, boundless, awesome love of God that can't be measured or described says, if you refuse to glorify Me and express gratitude, if you don't give Me a proper opinion of Who I am, if you won't let Me be God, if you refuse My. Definition of Who I am. Uh, Romans chapter one. Those people, they they rejected. The opportunity to express gratitude. Thankfulness to God. And they became vain, empty, hollow heads in their imagination. They started to think that they were better and smarter than God. God says, "I will turn you over to vile affections. I will remove the boundary to where you start thinking that, you know, you're you're you're lusting after pets. You're lusting after people. You will want things that you've never wanted before. You will want things that are disgusting and revolting. You'll start slicing yourself up, cutting it up, painting it, piercing it, destroying it. You'll. You'll start hating your own flesh." Why? Because you're rejecting God. God's trying to get your attention.

That doesn't mean that God doesn't love you. It means that God loves you enough to tell you, um. Stop it. No, the answer is no. There's boundaries.

So real love has boundaries.

You know, everybody wants boundless love. But no, you don't. Real love has boundaries. So human love is impossibly flawed. Divine love is not what we want. We think we want something different. We want God that accepts us no matter what. Doesn't matter. My hair color. Doesn't matter how many earrings. Doesn't matter what. My sexual orientation doesn't matter. None of that matters. God has to accept me, not do it.

You have to accept God. You got it backwards.

You're not forcing yourself on God. He's not going to play your game. God. God is not a toy. He's not a teacher. He's not a parent. That you can just push around and bark at Him and cuss at Him and call the officers and have the government. You know God, what if God is bigger than CPS? What if God is bigger than the government? What if God is just the kind of being that doesn't put up with your garbage, your hard heart, your soft head, your limited expectations, your force, your will? What if God is not conforming to your identity of what you think He should be? "I need a God. I need a God Who loves me no matter what." Well, find that in the Bible. Find that what kind of what kind of God would that be? Maybe you're making your own God.

Uh, He that believeth. He that cometh to God must believe that He is. And that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. The first part there says, you want to come to God. You come to God on God's terms. If you want love, real love, you're gonna have to get to know the person of God. You have to fall in love with God emotionally.

Having the Hard Talks with God

You know, in order to love somebody, you gotta expose your heart. You gotta have full disclosure of your identity and expectations for this relationship. Most people never have the hard talks with God. They don't take it to the next level. You know, when when the Bible says love God with all your heart, that means it's perfectly fine to complain to God because He can handle it.

It means it's fine to express your anger toward God, but not about God to others. You don't. Don't complain about God when other people are around you. You go out in the field. You go out in the backyard. You go tell God how you feel. You go have these walks in the woods. You go pour out your heart before Him. But David said He showed. I showed before Him my trouble. I gave Him my complaint.

There's one complaint department that can handle all of your mess, all of your garbage, all of your mess ups. And that's you and God.

So you need to take you the chaos of your heart. If you think nobody understand me, nobody love me, nobody think about me. Okay? There's one. There's only one that does understand. Your chaos, your corruption, your lust, your violence, your selfishness, your rudeness, your self elevation. There's only one person Who can do all that. And I'm in the same boat. I'm of the same skin. I get tired, I get weak, I get worn like I'm doing some yard work. I know it's gonna wear me out. I know I'm gonna have to take about a two hour nap, frankly, just to function. Um.

Anyway, all of my emotion needs to first be dumped out on God. I need to purify my emotion. I need a clean heart, you know? David finally came clean to God. And, uh, Psalm 51 says, created me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Why restore to me the joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with thy free spirit? He says, let's get back. Let's get back to how it used to be. Remember when I was a kid and it was fun? Yeah. So emotional cleansing.

Two Essential Steps

The very first step to God is, I would say

Number one: let God be God. Stop forcing Him to be according to your expectations.

And the number two, puke. You gotta puke out all your emotional chaos to God in a conversation.

If you're going to be a good conversation artist, if you don't have people that trust you, believe in you. They think you're authentic. They trust your opinion. You better have a lot of puke time. You better have taken long walks with God and vomited out all your garbage. Because I guarantee you, your heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, Who can know it? You know what the answer is. It's in the next verse. It says, I, the Lord, search the rains, I try. The hearts. He knows what's in your heart.

You know, the problem with conversation is we just get exhausted. We'd run out like "I'm done. I don't want to talk to you anymore. I don't want to talk about it. I don't want to talk about it." That sounds so childish, right? Well, what if God already knows? What if God already knows your heart and He's like, "Well, are you going to tell Me the truth? Are you going to pour out your questions? You know, it doesn't seem like you're curious to want to learn and grow and build this relationship."

People die in their relationships. When they get bored. They get tired, and they stop asking questions.

So all I'm saying is, number one, don't miss. Define God, don't redefine God, don't twist the definition of God. Let God be true. And by comparison, everyone else is not entirely true. You know we don't have the whole truth. Only God has the whole truth. So let God. Define Himself, and then based upon His accurate definition of Who He is, then you can emotionally engage, you know.

The Reality of Our Limitations

So I guess I'm talking about how to how to persuade myself to be emotionally engaged with God. So, you know, most people don't want to think about it. They're not going to have these long philosophical tirades with themselves. They're not going to have conversations. I would say most people stop. They have a limit to their love. They have a limit to their emotions. They have a limit to their intellect. And they are not looking for a deep, long term relationship with God or the world that they want to. They want to. They've decided, you know, "I can't handle it." They have the quitters mentality. "I'm just not going to have a relationship with that person. I'm just not going to live in love. I'm just going to give up and quit and walk away." And, uh. Yeah, it's very convicting. Nobody wants to be a quitter.

Nobody. When we're kids, say, you know, "I don't want to live on the street. I want to be strung out on dope. I want to live on crack pipes and be homeless and have to live on government support and not have decent clothes and shelter." How does that happen? Well, it happens by forcing God to conform to your expectations. And then, number two, not pouring out your entire heart before Him.

When we don't dump our heart out to Jesus and to the Holy Spirit and to God the Father, we're just bottling up garbage. We will become expired, rotten, uh, mildew on the inside. We'll become bitter, critical, nasty. Uh, what's the word is bitterness. Bitterness of heart. And will will not be able to engage. We won't be able to engage with the world. We won't be able to forgive or to love.

The Path to Reconciliation

So the first step to reconciliation is allowing God to define Himself so He can tell us accurately Who He is. Number two, we need to emotionally crash out on God.

We need to trust Him enough to tell Him our whole heart, our whole truth, the entire situation, and have Him feel like we have exposed something He already knows.

Do you think that God is limited and cannot comprehend your heart? Of course, God knows your heart. Of course, God knows my heart.

And so we'll talk in the next segment, maybe about accurate methods to motivate myself to have an emotional connection with God.