SPIRITUAL INTIMACY BEGINS WITH A LIFE PHILOSOPHY - Part 2
Last week we started talking about a life philosophy. Let me remind you of the one I’ve followed for the last 30 years.
TO KNOW LOVE AND GLORIFY GOD, AND TO BE USED OF HIM TO MAKE DISCIPLES, MATURE THE CHURCH AND TO ADVOCATE REVIVAL.
Last week, we talked about a desire to know God. Obviously, my desire to be used to mature the church and inspire a hunger for revival is unique to my calling.
I do believe that the first part of this is applicable to anyone who is seeking an intimate, vital relationship with God. ‘To know, love and glorify God and to be used of Him....’
I. SPIRITUAL INTIMACY IS A LOVE RELATIONSHIP.
It is one thing to know someone, it’s another thing to love them. The result of getting to know God is that we love God.
It may seem odd to say this, but the reason we should love God is because we are commanded to do so.
Deut 6:5 " You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. Loving God means I have no rivals in my heart. He is the love of my life - any other love pails in comparison.
11:1-"You shall therefore love the LORD your God, and always keep His charge, His statutes, His ordinances, and His commandments. Loving God is evidenced by obeying His Word.
30:16 in that I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, that you may live and multiply, and that the LORD your God may bless you in the land where you are entering to possess it. we find life - blessings - in loving God.
Josh 22:5 "Only be very careful to observe the commandment and the law which Moses the servant of the LORD commanded you, to love the LORD your God and walk in all His ways and keep His commandments and hold fast to Him and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul." love for God shows up in my willingness to serve Him with the right spirit.
Ps 31:23 O love the LORD, all you His godly ones! The LORD preserves the faithful And fully recompenses the proud doer.
Godly people are those who love God and find His support and strength.
Matt. 22:37-And He said to him, " ’YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’ 38 "This is the great and foremost commandment.
God never commands us to do something that is....
☛ impossible.
☛ unreasonable.
Loving God is not optional - it is commanded. If I am going to be intimate with God, I have to obey His commands.
IT’S THE BOTTOM LINE OF THE LIFE OF FAITH.
God knows that man in is a Baal maker in his heart. His people can quickly turn to idols of their own making. While we don’t build statues of wood or stone today – we do have idols to contend with.
☛ The idol of religion – putting my church position ahead of God. Putting tradition before truth. Putting my preferences before God’s principles. 2 Kings 17:33 ‘They feared the Lord, and served their own gods’ - tried to have their cake and eat it too.
☛ Christian idols – (a)worshiping a past experience (b)substituting a dead experience for a living relationship.
☛ The idol of materialism - wanting more and more. Justifying disobedience in the area of giving while at the same time, saying I love God. ‘You can not serve God and mammon’ Luke 12:15 ‘Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions." In a sense, it’s easier to survive poverty than prosperity. Eve - Achan - David - all 3 ‘I saw, I coveted, I took’
☛ The idol of self – what’s in it for me? When do I get to be in charge? Why can’t I have that? Jer. 45:5 ’But you, are you seeking great things for yourself? Do not seek them;
☛ Other idols include: work - status - race - patriotism(that makes country more important than God.
WE may consider the word ‘idolatry’ to be antiquated, and that’s exactly what the devil wants us to think. It is the most often mentioned topic on the Word except for God Himself.
Paul to Corinth ‘my dearly beloved, flee from idoltary...’
John wrote, ‘Little children, keep yourselves from idols....’
IDOLATRY - “Inordinate affections given to something or someone other than God.”
Martin Luther ‘Your God is where you hang your heart.’
Whatever you love more than God – is an idol.
✖ Reason trouble loving God -can’t see, feel, touch Him.
✖ Reason idolatry hard to spot - is the absence of figures.
Every person worships something or someone. We either worship God who created us or we create a God we can worship. Idolatry doesn’t destroy the necessity of a god, men just set out to make gods for themselves.
STUDY JEREMIAH 10 - YOU’LL FIND AT LEAST 5 CHARACTERISTICS OF IDOLS:
1. They will let you down. ‘They can’t do any good’
2. They can’t go with you ‘They must be carried’
3. They can not minister to you ‘They can not speak’
4. They are deceptive ‘the customs of the peoples are delusion..’
5. They will not stand the test of time. ‘in the time of their punishment, they will perish...’
Other gods – idols – will kill our love for God. They will dilute our faith - destroy our witness.
In Matthew 22:37 - this wasn’t a new question. What is the greatest commandment. The scribed had been debating it for centuries. There were 613 commandments in the Law - 248 positive and 365 negative. The experts divided them into ‘heavy’ (important) and "light" (unimportant).
Jesus quoted the "Shema" (Deut 6:4), a statement of faith recited daily by every orthodox Jew. The word Shema comes from the Hebrew word which means "to hear." "Hear, O Israel!
Obedience is based in love - If I am walking with God I will have no problem w/ His commandments.
Rom.13:8-10 tells us the Law is summed up in love.
Jesus did add something to the commandment in Deut. He added, “with all your mind."
We are to love God with the totality of our being. All we have. All we are. Holding nothing back.
Paul emphasized the renewing of the mind in Rom 12:2; Eph 4:23. We are to take every thought captive according to 2 Cor 10:5.
"Heart" - deals w/ my emotions. But our love for God has to get beyond the emotional level. God never does His deepest work in the shallowest part of our being.
"Soul" - that’s the will. The decision-making part of us.
"Mind" - this is more than just thinking about God. This is the center of our ethics. The battle is in the mind.
According to the N.T. the mind can be:
"reprobate" (Rom 1:28), "fleshly" (Col 2:18), vain (Eph 4:17), corrupt (1 Tim 6:5; 2 Tim 3:8), and defiled (Titus 1:15).
We are to love God with"all" our mind because the mind can be revived and empowered by the Holy Spirit (Rom 12:2) and because God’s laws under the new covenant are put into our minds (Heb 8:10; 10:16).
The word for "love" is agapao, totally unselfish love. God’s kind of love. The Holy Spirit empowers us love him.
II. SPIRITUAL INTIMACY IS GOD GLORIFYING.
A concern for the glory of god is the ultimate motive in the Xn life.
‘Glorify’ is a word we don’t use in everyday language.
Random House Dictionary of the English Language says it means ‘to magnify with praise, to extol, to transform into or treat as more splendid, more excellent than would normally be considered.’
A. It is the reason we were created.
Isa 43:7 Everyone who is called by My name, And whom I have created for My glory, Whom I have formed, even whom I have made."
Rev 4:11 " Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created."
B. It is the consequence of knowing and loving God.
If I am living to the glory of God - there will be evidence of it.
1. I will live a life of praise. Ps. 50:23 ‘Whoever offers praise glorifies Him...’
Eph. 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love 5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. Vs.12 to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory.
2. I will consciously choose to glorify Him. 1 Cor 10:31-Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
3. I glorify God by bearing spiritual fruit.
Gal 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
John 15:8 "My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.
4. I glorify God when I walk by faith. Rom 4:20yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, 21 and being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform. 22 Therefore IT WAS ALSO CREDITED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS.
5. I glorify God when I confess Jesus as Lord. Phil 2:11every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
III. THOSE WHO ARE SPIRITUALLY INTIMATE WANT TO BE USED BY HIM.
Life is not a dress rehearsal - there are no do-overs. This is it. Not talking about full time, vocational ministry – talking about the privilege we have as believers to be used by Him.
Important to note: We aren’t the ones producing the results. We are simply the vessels God is using.
Ps 127:1Unless the LORD builds the house, They labor in vain who build it; Unless the LORD guards the city, The watchman keeps awake in vain.
John 15:5 "I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.
John 6:63-" It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.
2 Cor 10:17-But HE WHO BOASTS IS TO BOAST IN THE LORD.
2 Cor 4:7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves;
We’re just plain old peanut butter jars – tools in the hands of the potter – instruments to be filled w/ the Spirit so Christ might live His life through us.
Warren Wiersbe “I’m just the vessel. The most important thing is that Christ is seen and that Christ gets the glory., It is too bad when Christian workers make the vessel more important than the treasure of the Gospel.”
2 Tim 2:19 Nevertheless, the firm foundation of God stands, having this seal, " The Lord knows those who are His," and, " Everyone who names the name of the Lord is to abstain from wickedness." 20 Now in a large house there are not only gold and silver vessels, but also vessels of wood and of earthenware, and some to honor and some to dishonor. 21 Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from these things, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work. 22 Now flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.
As believers, we are vessels in a great house. Some vessels can’t be used, because they are defiled. Paul is warning Timothy - and us - to cleanse ourselves.
The Scriptures teach separation - not legalism - but the truth that as God’s children we are IN the world but not OF the world. We’ve been set apart to honor God through our lives.
A CLEAN VESSEL IS ONE THAT CAN BE USED OF GOD FOR HIS GLORY.
PAUL PROBABLY HAS IN MIND, Num 16:26, where the Lord warned the people to get away from the tents of Korah and those who had rebelled. God’s children prove it by living godly lives. Eph. 1:4 calls us to be ‘holy and without blame" I am responsible to turn from son - to be holy.
GOD EMPOWERS -- BUT I HAVE TO OBEY.
As we close – make note of something.
To know, love and glorify God – have to do with CHARACTER.
WHAT WE ARE IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN WHAT WE DO.
WHAT WE ARE WILL DETERMINE WHAT WE DO.
WHAT WE ARE WILL DETERMINE THE DEPTH OF OUR RELATIONSHIP AND HOW MUCH GOD CAN USE US.
God is more interested in MAKING US into something than TEACHING US something.
