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.
The reason Jesus used a straight and narrow road was because He did not have…
(Show game board)
CHUTES AND LADDERS!!!
If they had this game then… Jesus would have held up a board and explained the road to intimacy with God
SLIDE #6
You remember this game: you roll dice to see how many spaces you move forward. If you are lucky you land on a ladder and get to take a short-cut and move past several spaces… it is like a turbo boost.
If you are unlucky, you land on a chute and have to go backward… you loose ground.
The road to intimacy with God is made up of chutes and ladders too.
HOWEVER… the road to intimacy with God is not controlled by luck… but by choices.
We make certain choices and they cause us to move closer to God, become more like God, receive the gifts of God and be more aware of God’s presence with us.
It is just like with your wife…
You come home from work early, everyone else is still not home, and you decide to start cooking dinner. While the meat is cooking you load the dishwasher and start a load of clothes.
I know most of the men are looking at me like I’m crazy... but work with me… imagine you did do that.
And before she gets home you draw a hot tub of water and light some candles around the tub.
Let me tell you something… you have just hit one of those ladders… and you have moved forward in the intimacy with the wife game.
In fact, you can probably send the kids to the grandparents’ tonight.
By the same token…
You come home, no one else is there and you go to your room, change your clothes, throw your clothes on the floor, go the kitchen, make a snack, leave the peanutbutter open and the knife laying on the counter, flop on the couch and when your wife comes home you ask, “When will supper be ready?”
She walks in the kitchen and sees the mess and gets mad. She goes to the bedroom and comes back with your dirty clothes in her hand and throws them at you and says, “Slob.”
As she leaves the room, you say under your breath, “You’re just lazy like your Mom.”… But it was not under your breath enough…
SLIDE #8
You just slid waaaaaaaaay back! You just lost so much ground you’ll have to live to be 105 to make it up.
You are going to have the sex life of a monk.
And just crawling on your knees and saying, “I’m sorry” won’t do it!!!!
This is going to take JEWELRY!!!!!!
So, you see… a relation ship is a relationship… whether it is your wife or your boss or your Lord
There are things you can DO that will build or destroy intimacy
SLIDE #9
EXAMPLE: You are reading the Bible and the Holy Spirit just really convicts you of a certain area of your life where you have not lived up to what you know God expects and you just pour out your heart in confession and ask God to help you to do better in that area.
BAM!!!! SLIDE #10That is a ladder and it moves you several steps forward.
OR
You make other decisions that move you farther away from where God wants you to be, become farther away from Him and have less sense of His presence.
EXAMPLE:
You go to a restaurant where they offer a cheaper price to children under 12 or senior adults over 55. You tell the waitress that your child, WHO IS REALLY 13, is just 12 years old and you get the cheaper price.
SLIDE #11
Or you tell her YOU are 55 when you are only 53. (((Boy you know that is a man… ain’t no 53 year old woman going to lie about being older just to save $2)))
We already know the things that will help us to get closer to our wife… and the things that will cause us to lose ground.
WHAT ABOUT GOD?
What are the things that will build an intimate relationship with God?
SLIDE #12
Marlene LeFever wrote a book, “100 Ways To Take The Yawn Out Of Your Relationship With God” … here are 10 of them the rest can be found on the web site www.jcnaz.org
· Teach a preschooler to sing a motion song that says something special about Jesus.
· Write a letter to God praising Him for how you are made.
· Read a biography of a faithful missionary or preacher.
· Get to church ten minutes early.
· Spend time praying that God’s presence will be felt throughout the service.
· Sing a hymn to God; pay close attention to the words.
· Memorize a chapter in the Bible.
· Take notes during the sermon. On Sunday afternoon go over them and ask yourself, “What did God want me to hear this morning? How does He want me to respond?”
· Pray daily for someone you don’t like.
· Start a neighborhood Bible study or open your home for a study.
· Write a love letter to God.
Actually, there are many things you can do to build intimacy with God. But four of them are so big till they are spelled out in the bible.
You can build intimacy with God by:
SLIDE #13
1. Learning from God – vs. 4
David said his desire also was to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and seek Him in his temple.
David knew that hanging out wasn’t enough. He needed to be a learner.
We need to continue to expand his understanding of who God was and to know His ways.
2. Worshipping God vs. 6 SLIDE #14
I sacrifice with shouts of joy; I will sing and make music to the LORD.
Of all the Bible characters David shows us what worship us all about. Music, Sacrifice, Dance, Lifting your hands, Laying on the floor. All of life was an act of worship to King David.
Worship and learning draw us to intimacy with God!
3. Praying to God – vs. 7 SLIDE #15
…when I call, O LORD… Your face, LORD, I will seek.
David saw prayer as face time. Being with God and having a conversation. Far more then just rattling off a list of requests but a time of conversation. We’ll talk more about that next week
4. Obeying God – vs. 11 SLIDE #16
David’s last commitment to intimacy in this passage was to say: Teach me your way, O LORD; lead me in a straight path
He was saying, “Keep me on track by helping me to DO the right things.”
Paul would agree. In Romans 12:1 Paul wrote, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.”
One of the most succinct verses on intimacy with God is John 14:21: “Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.”
If I desire to share in “the secrets of his promise,” then I will choose to pursue a lifestyle of purity.
This decision to be intimate with God will affect what books I read, what movies I see, what music I listen to, what programs I watch on television.
Abiding in His presence will alter my thought life, my activities and my relationships.
My speech and actions will want to honor and reverence His Holy Name.
If we want “Showers of Blessings” or “Confidence that our Redeemer lives” that only comes as we:
Learn – Worship – Pray to - Obey Our Lord.
So… LET’S REVIEW what we have learned.
SLIDE #17
1. Anyone can be CLOSER to God. SLIDE #18
He has already moved all the way over to you… now it is your turn to move over to Him.
2. God desires to be intimate with you. Slide #19
Not just to be your savior or Father… but to be in an intimate love relationship with you.
As I started out by saying…
3. You are as intimate with God as you CHOOSE to be.
SLIDE #20
You are in total control of your relationship to God.
4. You can CHOOSE to be closer to God… TODAY
SLIDE #21
You can make up your mind that the answer to that first question… What is the most important thing in the world to me… the answer can be …. To be intimate with God.
But if you choose to be closer
5. You must CHOOSE TO DO the things that foster intimacy. SLIDE #22
If you still are not sure what those things are; come and see me.
Remember this: SLIDE #23
The question is not, “Do you want to be intimate with God?”
Wanting is just wishing… just smoke and mirrors.
The real question is, “Do you CHOOSE T DO the things that will bring about intimacy with God?”
INVITATION:
Just walking down this aisle and bowing in prayer…
or telling me you want to be closer to God…
or even rededicating yourself to becoming intimate with God…
Will not make you closer.
BUT IT IS A GOOD BEGINNING.
Won’t you come today and make whatever decision the Lord has put on your heart.
You do that as we sing our song of invitation…
DRAW ME CLOSE TO YOU!
I have a PowerPoint presentation for this sermon. You can get a copy by contacting me at randdp@peoplepc.com
I used some sources from Sermoncentral. Feel free to use this as a source.
