Intimacy With God

Intimacy With God

Psalm 27

Let me ask you to help me this morning.

SLIDE #2

I want you to fill in the blank. “For me, the most important thing in life is ___________.”

Now, let me tell you this, If your answer was anything but YOUR relationship with God… you are not as intimate with Him as you should be.

I want to make a statement… then I will preach a sermon, and finally I will close by repeating the original statement.

“YOU ARE AS INTIMATE WITH GOD AS YOU CHOOSE TO BE.”

SLIDE #3

If you watch the TV show, “Two and a half men” you know there is a girl on that show named Rose, a neighbor, who is absolutely crazy about Charlie. She shows up at odd times, just walks right into the apartment, cooks meals for him, cleans his place, whatever. Because she is absolutely crazy about him. Charlie is as close to Rose as he chooses to be. In the show, he is not close to her… because he doesn’t choose to be. But if he did choose to be closer… she would let him. Because she has already chosen, already decided, she wants him. So… he is as close to her as HE chooses to be.

In our scripture lesson today, that is what Jesus told the man… If you want to be close to God… just choose to be, choose to let God get close to you.

God is like the girl on the show…

Not that God is a crazy girl with low self-esteem who stalks people... BUT GOD IS ABSOLUTELY CRAZY ABOUT YOU AND HE WANTS TO BE AS CLOSE TO YOU, AS INTIMATE WITH YOU AS YOU WILL LET HIM!!!

So Jesus told the man… “Choose to love God and let Him love you and fall deeply in love with Him.”

And listen to the degree of intimacy that Jesus talks about. God does not want you to love Him or let Him love you like you love the Bucs.

SLIDE #4

You might say, “I really love the Bucs.”

Let me ask you a few questions…

Have you ever talked to a Buc?

Do you know what they like, what they dream about, how they spent their day?

Have you shared your deepest and most intimate feelings with them? If they asked you to… would you give them a week’s salary?

Would you stay up nights caring for their wounds.

Here you go… would you clean up their throw up or clean up their soiled sheets?

Most who call themselves Buc fans will not stand in line three hours for tickets, or fight the traffic to get to the game, or pay the price of a plane ticket to go watch them play an away game. They will just stay at home, watch it on TV, and wear their Bucs jersey and say, “I love the Bucs.”

Jesus was telling the man that day… if you are going to love the Lord like most people love the Bucs, or their truck, or their church… just forget it and go home… Intimacy with God is not for you…

God wants so much more than half-hearted intimacy. God wants every bit of you… hook, line and sinker… or heart, soul and strength.

Allow me to use another analogy.

Every morning when I get dressed, I wish I didn’t have a pot belly. But I realize, as I look in the mirror, I have the abs I choose to have. I might say, “I wish I had six-pack abs.” But the truth is, I don’t want six pack abs. Why? Because I don’t choose to do the things necessary to have six-pack abs. I don’t choose to do sit-ups. I don’t choose to do crunches. I don’t choose to do diets.

So… by not choosing TO DO Sit-ups

By not choosing TO DO crunches

By not choosing TO DO a diet…

… I choose to have a pot belly.

But don’t laugh at me... so do you.

If you go to a personal trainer and tell him you wish you had six-pack abs, he’ll say, “There are things you can DO that will move you in the direction of six-pack abs and things you can do that will move you in the opposite direction. Sticking to the diet will move you toward the goal. Eating 26 triple fudge brownies will move you in the opposite direction.”

The same is true of intimacy with God.

Some things will help you become more intimate. Other things will destroy the intimacy and move you farther away from God.

SLIDE #5

I told you two weeks ago that Jesus used salt and light as his object lesson because He did not have vinyl siding.

Today I tell you: Jesus used the analogy of a straight and narrow road to teach about the path to intimacy with God.