How close is close enough?
Closer
Zeno’s paradox. Imagine I had high school boys and girls lined up at opposite ends of the gym and had them half the distance between them every 10 seconds, how long would it be before they are touching?
Well, if I always half the distance, they will never touch, but close enough within a couple of minutes.
I. How many of you want to be close to God, really close to God?
We all say that we want to be close to God, but why would we want to be close to God?
You say, Brother Greg that’s a dumb question, there are tons of reasons why anyone would want to be close to God.
1. Being close to God makes us strong and courageous.
Read Josh 1:9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”
Indeed, when we need strength to go forward, we get it from a close relationship with God.
When I need courage to stand for what is right, I get that from God too.
2. The great thing about God is he is near to us when we need him most, when we call out to him, read Psalm 145:18 The LORD is near to all who call upon Him, To all who call upon Him in truth.
That reminds me of the story I read of the rancher and his three sons. According to the story, the rancher and his three sons got saved at a tent revival and became active members of the local church.
But as time passed and life became more complicated, the rancher and his boys started missing a Sunday service here and there and eventually quite coming all together.
Then one day, one of the boys was bitten by a rattlesnake. The father called for the Minister of his church to come and pray for his son. The Minister arrived at the ranch and was shown to the boy’s room where the family and the doctor were gathered around.
The minister knelt down and took the boys hand and then began to pray thus, “Oh Lord, we thank you for the rattlesnake that bit this young man because it has caused the entire family to return to you and call upon your name…
…and Lord, we pray that you would send more snakes, bigger snakes, that would bite them all, if this is what is necessary for them to follow you and call upon your name.
3. Jesus said that closeness was required if we desire to bear fruit for Him. Read John 15:4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.
He goes on to say that without being close to Him you can do nothing. Read John 15:5-7 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. 7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will[a] ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.
4. Being close to Jesus helps us increase our distance from other things.
Read Heb. 13:5 Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
In this verse he specifically calls out greed, but you can insert anything that draws us away from God. Let your conduct be without ___________. Profanity, vulgarity, envy, strife, anger, malice, pornography, drugs, promiscuity, adultery, etc…
5. Being close to God brings us toward perfection,
read Heb. 7:18-19 For on the one hand there is an annulling of the former commandment because of its weakness and unprofitableness, 19 for the law made nothing perfect; on the other hand, there is the bringing in of a better hope, through which we draw near to God.
The writer here says the law made no one perfect, but we have a better hope in Christ.
As long as we are in the flesh we will never achieve perfection, but we are now empowered to move in that direction.
I heard one man say that the only perfect man he ever knew was his wife’s ex-husband.
II. The hard truth is, whether we admit it or not, we may not necessarily want to be close to God.
Demonstration, get too close to someone and see how they react.
Play Seinfeld clip from “close talker” episode. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGVSIkEi3mM
Have you ever known someone who does that, they get too lose when they talk to you? I have a co-worker who does this.
Why do we have a problem with this? Because we have what is known as our “intimate space.” It makes us uncomfortable when someone that we have not given permission enters our intimate space.
According to phycologist, intimate space is about 18 inches from our face. It is reserved from family and our closest friends.
Personal space is 1.5 to 4 feet, good for conversations with friends and acquaintances.
When we are having a conversation with a casual friend or acquaintance, 2-4 feet is about the right distance. Our tendency is to recoil from people we don’t know well enough when they get closer than 18 inches.
When I am having a conversation with my co-worker I tend to maneuver myself so that there is a piece of equipment between us in order to preserve the proper space.
However, when we know someone well, the opposite is true. If they draw closer we draw closer. I think that is the picture that James is drawing in James 4:8A. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.
I believe there is an important revelation here for us. The question we must ask ourselves is this:
When God draws close to me, do I draw close to Him or do I break away because He is violating my intimate space?
You see, the truth is most people are comfortable with God being in their personal space, good for casual conversation.
But it bothers us when He gets too close. The reason it bothers us is due to a lack of intimacy.
It kind of reminds me of a poem I read once by Wilber Rees titles “Three Dollar’s Worth of God”:
I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please.
Not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep,
but just enough to equal a warm cup of milk
or a snooze in the sunshine
I don’t want enough of God to make me love a black man
or pick beets with a migrant.
I want ecstasy, not transformation.
I want warmth of the womb, not a new birth.
I want a pound of the Eternal in a paper sack,
I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please.
We want to be close enough to God to feel good. Why? Because if He gets any closer, we start to feel bad.
We feel bad for our neighbor who doesn’t have enough to eat, we feel bad for our family member who is suffering from addiction or some other personal crisis.
We feel bad for the men, women, and boys and girls living in a foreign land who have never heard the name of Jesus.
We are afraid that if we get that close to God, we will feel so bad that we will have to do something about it.
We are afraid that if we get that close to God, it might cost us something…
So we keep God at arm’s length, forever in the friend zone. Discuss the friend zone.
Let’s take another look at that verse in James. Read all of James 4:8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
He says if we draw close to Him, He will draw close to us. Then it lists two things we need to do.
1. First he says we are to wash our hands, that is, repent of our sins and stop doing them.
Have you ever been to a restaurant where your waiter/waitress had obviously dirty hands? I haven’t, and if I did, I can assure you I would never go back.
I think all of us would find the idea of being served by someone with dirty hands to be gross and disgusting.
Just as we would not want to be served by someone with dirty hands, so too, God wants to be served with clean hands.
2. Second, He says purify your hearts. Why is this important? Because an impure heart divides our desires, it makes us double minded.
When our heart is pure then it is set on the things of God and nothing else will do.
My son, Will, had his heart set on going to UA. He so desired this that he raised $4k of his own money to help pay tuition. For Will, nothing else will do, it was Bama or nothing.
James says that we are to purify our hearts so that our hearts desire is to serve Him. When our hearts are pure, we no longer fear feeling bad for other because our heart wants the things that God wants.
We want to help our neighbor, we want to help our friends and family, we want to see that men and women, boys and girls, all over the world have a chance to hear and receive God’s word.
And our greatest joy becomes doing the things that God desires for our lives.
So, do you really want to be close to God or do you really just want $3 worth of God?
Isaiah 55:6 gives us a warning, “seek the Lord while He may be found; call on Him while he is near.”
Today, here in this place, God wants to be close to you. Will you let Him into your intimate space, or will you recoil?
Will you allow God to be so close that your hearts desires are the same as His?
The Choice is yours…
Let us pray.
