Closeness With The Father - Part 1 Series

Our Key verse for this series is:

- James 4:8, “Draw close to God, and God will draw close to you.”

- God desires for us to be close to Him, to share intimacy with Him

Intimacy is a strange word.

When you think of the word intimacy, what do you think?

- Most people immediately associate the word intimacy with sex.

- Which there is intimacy in sex but it goes far deeper than just sex.

Dictionary.com gives these 3 definitions for Intimacy

- 1: close or warm friendship

- 2: a usually secretive or illicit relationship

- 3: a feeling of being intimate and belonging together

Tonight we are going to talk about #’s 1 & 3

– Having a close friend

– And being intimate and beloning to someone.

– Having an intimate, close friendship with God

Genesis 2:4-7

“When the LORD God made the earth and the heavens- 5 and no shrub of the field had yet appeared on the earth and no plant of the field had yet sprung up, for the LORD God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no man to work the ground, 6 but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground- 7 the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.”

Skip to Genesis 2:18

“18 The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”

Skip to Genesis 2:21-22

“21 So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.”

Skip to Genesis 2:25

“25The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.”

Most of us know this story of creation, how God made Adam and Eve.

We know about the “Tree of Life” and the “Forbidden Fruit”

We know how Satan tricked the women and she then made her husband eat the fruit of the tree.

Genesis 3:7

“7Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.”

Most of us have heard this story in Sunday school or from our parents or daycare or wherever.

Most of us know that God was pretty upset with Adam and Eve.

- Because of this first sin, God made women to have pains in labor

- God made man to work hard for food and to survive.

- God then kicked them out of the beautiful Garden of Eden where they had everything they could have ever wanted.

Why am I talking about this then?

- There is an important message in here that most people don’t teach you when you’re young.

- Some people may not understand it themselves.

- Let’s read this next passage and figure out what it is.

Read Genesis 3:8-11

8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?" 10 He answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid." 11 And he said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?"

There is an intimacy between God and man that was destroyed because of sin.

“Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as He was walking in the garden in the cool of the day…”

It says here that God was walking in the midst of man and women.

The God who created the universe, the moon, the plants, the animals, the oceans, the deserts, food, man…He was walking among them.

- It was God’s original plan to walk along the people He created.

- If man didn’t sin, me and you would be walking along side of God himself today

- How amazing would that be?

- Hey God, I have an itch right in the middle of my back, do you think you could stratch it for me?

- Hey God, I’m having troubles with my math homework, could you sit down next to me and help me figure it out?

- Hey God, I really like Samantha over there, do you think you could tell me if she’s the one I’m going to marry, you know to save me some time?