It's Personal

 It’s Personal

Watch on YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IAaX_ooO-o

** Watch from the 1:02:49 mark

When I made the point that at Jesus’s birth how God gets personal, the Lord wouldn’t let me loose on this whole concept or truth that with God its all personal.

We’ve all heard people say when they do or say something that upsets us, they say, ‘Don’t take it personally.” But for us it is personal. Well that’s how it is with God. Everything we say and do is personal with Him.

Like when we blow it, that is, when we sin; it hurts God, and it’s personal to Him. Why, because He created us in His image and likeness and we are part of His family, and this sin separates us from Him.

The prophet Isaiah said, “It’s your sins that have cut you off from God. Because of your sins, he has turned away and will not listen anymore.” (Isaiah 59:2 NLT)

Prior to God flooding the earth in the days of Noah it says that the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was so great, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually that He was sorry and grieved in His heart. (Genesis 6:5-6). And He said that same about Israel when they rebelled against Him in the wilderness, that He was grieved.

That’s personal.

And so, God made a way to get us back into that right relationship with Him, but He didn’t do it through religion and all of its rules and regulations, rather He got personal. He sent His Son, Jesus to be one of us, and tells us this very thing in the name that He will call His Son, “Immanuel,” or “God with Us.”

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God … And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:1, 14 NKJV)

Jesus became one of us. He became God with us. And so, when we come to faith in Jesus Christ, it’s all personal.

Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6 NKJV)

Notice Jesus didn’t say when you come to the church, or come to a religion, He said “I am,” not Judaism or Christianity, or this particular denomination or that denomination. But rather He was saying that it’s personal, that is, our salvation is through He Himself and no other, as He said, “No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

And what this tells us is that God doesn’t want a religion, He wants a personal relationship with each one of us.

And we see this in how God wants us to be a part of His family, where He will be our dad.

“But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name.” (John 1:12 NKJV)

Jesus came to redeem us and to make us children of God, members of God’s divine family. And God placed within us the Spirit of adoption where we can call Him Dad which is seen in the Aramaic word, “Abba,” which is a word of endearment, like when we call our fathers, Daddy, or Papa.

“For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father.’” (Romans 8:15 NKJV)

But when it comes to this personal relationship it doesn’t get more personal that in our prayer time with God.

Let me use an Old Testament example of the tent of meeting to explain.

The tent of meeting was the place where the people of Israel could plead their needs before the Lord. The tent of meeting, therefore, was a visual representation of the availability of God throughout Israel’s journey to the Promised Land.

“Moses used to take a tent and pitch it outside the camp some distance away, calling it the ‘tent of meeting.’ Anyone inquiring of the Lord would go to the tent of meeting outside the camp.” (Exodus 33:7 NIV)

Only Moses would make use of this tent, however. The cloud of God’s glory would descend upon tent of meeting while Moses talked with the Lord. And what really got my attention is when it says, “So the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend.” (Exodus 33:11 NKJV)

I love Psalm 61, because it speaks directly to this very thing.

“Hear my cry, O God; attend to my prayer. From the end of the earth, I will cry to Thee, when my heart is faint; lead me to the rock that is higher than I. For Thou has been a refuge for me, and a tower of strength from the enemy. And let me dwell in Your tent forever.” (Psalm 61:1-4a)