Knowing The Holy One Series

SPIRITUAL INTIMACY – KNOWING THE HOLY ONE

1 Cor. 2:9-13; Prov. 9:10

Americans talk about the pursuit of happiness - we think it’s a God given right. In reality, as believers it is not happiness that we are to pursue, but holiness. From God’s perspective, we can only be happy, when we respond appropriately to His holiness.

When you talk about holiness, some people turn you off because they think you are wading in deep water.

Deep – is not a place we visit in our search for God, it’s what happens to us when we find Him.

Calvin Miller ‘Most of us dress our Christian faith in an ill-fitting discipleship that, like a cheap suit, leaves us uncomfortable most of our lives. Among our friends at church we struggle to keep our reputation for godliness bannered forth. We would like to appear to be like Jesus without the discipline of really being like Him.....we talk ourselves into a spiritual reputation we have never really earned. We continue to live on the surface, only talking of the deeper life.

I. THE DEPTHS OF GOD

1 Cor 2:7-we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory; 8 the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory; 9 but just as it is written, Things which the eye has not seen and the ear has not heard, and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him. 10 For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God

most often, we interpret those verses as a reference to eternity – and they are – but they are much more. There is ‘here and now’ in these verses.

While eyes, ears, heart of man – are limited – we can’t begin to fully measure the immensity of what God has for us.

Yet, for those who long for intimacy w/ God:

☛ He gives us spiritual eyes to see the invisible.

☛ Spiritual ears to hear the inaudible.

☛ Spiritual hearts to understand what is foolishness to the worldly.

☛ GOD, THROUGH HIS HOLY SPIRIT ABIDING IN US, DRAWS US INTO A NEW DIMENSION.

‘heart’ - the whole man - emotion, thoughts, affection.

vs.10 ‘even the depths of God’ – bathos the depths of God refers to God’s essence, His attributes, will, plan. Can be translated profundity - intensity - weightiness.

When you think of deep, you think about the depths of the ocean. Below the surface, Deep, tranquil, silent. ‘bathos’ – is the root for the word ‘bathysphere’ – which is a steel-walled diving bell used by oceanographers that can safely descend to the depths of the ocean.

TO GO DEEP W/ GOD REQUIRES DISCIPLINE. 29X in his letters Paul speaks of the Mystery of God.

We don’t go deep to study God – we go deep to get to know God – in getting to know God, we see how shallow, small and desperate we really are.

LOST PEOPLE HAVE KNOWLEDGE:

But it is limited, energized by the devil who empowers me with a form of wisdom that inflates their egos and blinds their minds. This wisdom is fleshly – empty – it does not satisfy.

Many school systems - HIGHER EDUCATION - don’t want anything to do w/ the Bible. They reject the deity of Christ. They see no need for the cross.

WE SPEND 18 YRS. RAISING OUR KIDS IN CHURCH AND THEN TURN THEM OVER TO WORLD TO DESTROY THEIR MINDS WITH ‘HIGHER EDUCATION’

‘rulers of this age’ - It was the educated religious crowd that crucified Jesus. It was the enlightened Romans who persecuted the church.

Abraham Maslow conceptualized the pyramid of priorities. According to Maslow, only a few people adjust their lives to live at the peak. He said the whole world is comprised of non-peakers talking to non-peakers about peak experiences.

Unfortunately – that’s where most S.S. classes are – most churches are – we are in the wading pool discussing non-essentials & God wants us to get into deep water.

God has prepared incredible things for His children here and now. He has revealed those in His Word – through His Spirit.

GOD WANTS HIS CHILDREN TO BE IN THE KNOW - He isn’t playing hide and seek with us. He wants us to walk in the light.

1 Cor 2:12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, 13 which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.