I. To Know Him is to Love Him
A. Romance = v. 2. To carry on a … love affair with: woo.
B. As the People of God, We Must Learn How to Have a Love Affair With Him!
C. What Does it Mean to Really Know God for Who He Is?
D. God Desires That We Know Him, Not to Just Know About Him!
E. When One Truly Knows Someone Else, it is Easier to Love Them!
F. God Knows Us, Because of Our Love to Him:
“Those who think they know something still have a lot to learn. But if they love God, they are known by God.” ( I Corinthians 8:2,3 )
G. That’s Why Jesus Said: “I am the Good Shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own.” (John 10:14 )
H. How Can We Truly Know Him?
II. Intimacy Requires Romance
A. It’s One Thing to Tell Someone You Love Them…It’s Another to Prove It!
B. There is a story of a couple that went for marriage counseling. The wife’s major complaint was that her husband never said, ‘I love you.’ When the counselor asked him about this he replied, ‘When we got married 30 years ago, I told her I loved her. If anything changes, I’ll let her know.’ (Husbands, That’s Not Romance!)
C. It will help you, in your attempt to romancing God the Father, to know just how much He loves you!
1. I John 3:1 “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!”
III. Our Level of Love With Determine Our Reality of Romance
A. Text: Song of Solomon 5:2-5 {read}
B. This text gives us 3 levels of response the Shulamite could have chosen. They are:
1. Neglect – (I’m Asleep Leave Me Alone)
(a) Professor H.W. Jurgen, a West German sociologist, claims that married couples chat with one another 70 minutes a day in the first year of their marriage. This drops to 30 minutes a day in the second year and then only to 15 minutes a day in the 4th. His research shows that by the eighth year, a husband and wife, typically, share hardly any small talk and become nearly silent with one another.
(b) How can this be? Complacency. We get too comfortable. Do you remember when you were first saved? How much time you spent in prayer? How excited you were about your relationship with Jesus? That’s why Jesus revealed Himself to John the Revelator in the book of Revelations and said to us: “…I have this (one thing) against you, that you have left your first love.” (Revelation 2:4 ) He told the church of Ephesus that they did all the right things…except they were a loveless generation, simply full of works. Does this sound familiar?
(c) Amos 6:1 says: “Woe to you who are at ease in Zion.” What does it mean to be ‘at ease in Zion?’ Zion is the representation of spirituality. We have become complacent and cold in our love for God.
(d) Matthew 25:5 “But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept.”
2. Preoccupation – (Let Me Put My Robe On)
A. We sometimes waste too much of God’s time.
B. Are We Like Martha, distracted with too much serving that we can’t visit with the Master?
C. Martha was distracted from the Best by the good she was doing.
D. That’s why Jesus told us, in Luke 21:34 “…take heed to yourselves (pay attention), lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly.”
E. The result of these two responses in found in verses 6 & 7 of our text:
“I opened for my beloved, but my beloved had turned away and was gone. My heart (soul) leaped up when he spoke. I sought him, but I could not find him; I called him, but he gave me no answer. The watchmen who went about the city found me. They struck me, they wounded me; the keepers of the walls took my veil away from me.”
F. So, the results of our being cold in our love relationship with God is that,
1. When we finally do search for Him, we will no longer find Him. Not because He has left…but because we have, in our ignorance.
2. Secondly, the world will then come and rape us of our God-given blessings. After all, the father of this world, Satan, comes only but to kill, steal and destroy everything that God has blessed you with.
3. Then, we will be exposed for who we really are, someone who has prostituted our relationship with God, to the world. We are nothing more than an adulterer in the eyes of God.
(a) God told Jeremiah: “(6)…Have you seen what backsliding Israel has done? She has gone up on every high mountain and under every green tree, and there played the harlot. (7)And I said, after she had done all these things, ‘Return to Me.’ But she did not return. (8)Then I saw for all the causes for which backsliding Israel had committed adultery. I had put her away and given her a certificate of divorce. (9) So, it came to pass, through her casual harlotry, that she defiled the land (the church) and committed adultery…(12) Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say: ‘Return, backsliding Israel,’ says the Lord. ‘I will not cause My anger to fall on you. For I am merciful,’ says the Lord. (13) ‘Only acknowledge your iniquity, that you have transgressed against the Lord your God. And have scattered your charms to alien deities…(14) Return, O backsliding children,’ says the Lord; ‘for I am married to you…” (Jeremiah 3:6-9, 12-14)
(b) God even said that He was the husband of the people of Israel. (Jeremiah 31:32)
(c) Isaiah 54:4-8 says: “Do not fear, for you will not be ashamed; neither be disgraced, for you will not be put to shame; for you will forget the shame of your youth, and will not remember the reproach of your widowhood anymore. For your Maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is His name; and your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel; He is called the God of the whole earth. For the Lord has called you like a woman grieved in spirit, like a youthful wife when you were refused, says the Lord your God. For a mere moment I have forsaken you. With a little wrath I hid My face from you for a moment; but with everlasting kindness I will have mercy on you, says the Lord, your Redeemer.” Yes, He will forgive of our spiritual adultery. If we just come back to our first love and romance Him once again with our lives!
(d) God’s Judgment for Spiritual Adultery
{Read Ezekiel 16:35-43}
G. Paul told Timothy to avoid those who were “…lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, having the form of godliness but denying its power...” (II Timothy 3:4-5)
3. Infatuation (My heart yearned for him)
A. This is the response God desires from us!
B. In reading Job, chapter 4, a very interesting verse will jump out at you: “Then a spirit passed before my face; the hair on my body stood up.” (Job 4:15)
C. Do you remember the romance you once had with the Lord? That feeling that caused your heart to leap with joy?
D. We must pursue this first love feeling once again!
Hosea 6:1-3 says: “Come, and let us return to the Lord; for He has torn, but He will heal us; He has stricken, but He will bind us up. After two days He will revive us; on the third day He will raise us up, that we may live in His sight. Let us know, let us pursue the knowledge of the Lord. His going forth is established as the morning; He will come to us like the rain, like the latter and the former rain to the earth.”
E. Once we pursue and know Him, He will reign over us once again with His great power and might!
F. Jesus told us to: “…love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. This is the first commandment.”
G. I John 4:8 states that if we don’t love, we don’t know God, for God is love.
H. David longed so much for this type of romantic relationship with God that he stated: “My soul follows close behind You…” (Psalm 63:8)
IV. Romancing the Stone
A. Song of Solomon chapter 4 gives us 3 characteristics of this romance:
1. Ravish the Heart of God! (4:9) He has ravished our heart, we should ravish His. (To ravish is to overwhelm with delight ).
2. Become Intoxicated With His Anointing! (4:10)
3. Offer A Sweet Aroma of Praise to Him! (4:11)
B. He has so much to offer you, just make your life a romance to Him.
1. Chapter 2 says that He has brought us to His banqueting table and His banner over us is love! (2:4)
C. In Chapter 1, the King has invited us into His chambers! The Most Holy Place- His presence! (1:4)
{4:8 says to look from the top of Amana, that’s not your refrigerator!}
D. We must honor Him with our worship and praise! We must love Him with an everlasting love! We must make our life a sacrifice of praise to Him!
E. Paul told the church at Rome to “…present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.” (Romans 12:1) We must do the same.
