Since September of 2020, we have been considering what it means for us as the people of Summit Church to be a faithful presence in the world. To embrace our identity and purpose as sojourners and exiles who “proclaim the excellencies” of God’s mercy, even amid the world’s suffering and pain (1 Pet. 2:9). We’ve considered the words of Jesus, given to his disciples in the upper room, which continue to equip and empower us to faithfully bear witness to the love we have received in Christ (John 15:27). Just as the Father sent Jesus into the world, we also are being actively sent with the power of the Spirit to give every man, woman, and child an opportunity to respond to the gospel (John 17:18). We are a distinct, God-glorifying, gospel-centered, missionally-driven, and disciple-making people who live faithfully as God’s presence in the world.
ETERNAL LIFE
But at the heart of our distinctiveness–the primary characteristic that separates us from the rest of the world–is our relationship with the living God. At the end of the Upper Room Discourse, Jesus declares that he has the authority to grant eternal life to all whom the Father has given him (John 17:2). So often, we describe this eternal life as a future tense event that will take place in the afterlife. But according to Jesus, eternal life is defined as knowing “the only true God” and the Son he sent (17:3). And this life begins here and now and then extends throughout all of eternity. Eternal life is a knowledge of God that leads to relational intimacy and then results in gospel transformation. This is the life Jesus invites us into, a life of intimacy with the Creator of the cosmos who made us that we may know him and love him. And this intimacy–granted in and through Christ–is achieved as we pursue him in relationship.
INTIMACY WITH GOD
Intimacy may not be the first word that comes to mind when describing our relationship with God, but it may be the most profound. At Summit, we express this reality through one of our five Discipleship Outcomes: Intimacy with God. This outcome describes a detailed knowledge and understanding of God’s heart and activity that comes from pursuing him as our greatest treasure. We know him–his heart, his activity–as we pursue him. And we pursue him because we’ve experienced him as the greatest treasure–the all-consuming, all-satisfying fountain of life. All other pursuits will leave us empty and wanting. But the pursuit of God leads to relational intimacy that results in transformation. This intimacy is the fuel that drives our gospel presence.
EXPERIENCING THE PSALMS
The book of Psalms captures and details this pursuit in the lives of God’s people through the use of songs and poems. As one commentator notes, the Psalms are “windows that enable us to look” into the relational intimacy believers have pursued throughout the ages. They “invite us to experience” the same God as we now pursue him in relationship. Throughout the summer, we will consider Psalms that give us examples of how we might know God in more significant and deeper intimacy. Psalms that will instruct, encourage, and compel us to pursue him as our greatest treasure. In doing so, we hope and pray that the people of Summit would live into the eternal life granted to us through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. To know him as the one true God–a knowledge of him that leads to relational intimacy and results in lives changed and transformed. In doing so, we will be enabled to continue to live as a distinct people who have a faithful gospel presence in the world today.