Intimacy With God.
Notes
Transcript
Handout
7 Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.
James 4:7-10.
Introduction:
Our lives are gifts from God Himself. He was so generous to us that He used Himself as template. We should fight fight the tendency to waste it.
you are unique. you have unique Story. you have a unique gifts. You have unique calling.
We are called to redeemer the time.
This Week as we think about fresh start with the Lord.
As Christians, we are personally relating to Jesus. Often, because He is God and He loves us we forget about it a little and mail it in.
As we give ourselves a fresh start, lets draw near by allowing ourselves to be interment with The Lord Jesus.
This relates to the purpose of God we talked about last week because we will only be as powerful as we are interment.
1. As believers in Jesus, the core of our relationship with Jesus is intimacy with Him.
1. As believers in Jesus, the core of our relationship with Jesus is intimacy with Him.
James 4:8.
8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
Draw is a verb. We know that in order for a verb to work we have to work it. Draw means to move from where we are to where he is. of course we don’t mean physically, we mean in the heart and mind. normally what is in the heart comes from the mind.
all to often when we talk about intimacy with God we get caught up in the nuts and bolts of how to draw near without giving you the opportunity to draw near.
Genesis 5:24.
24 And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.
Enoch walked with God, and got so close to God he did not have to die, he was just closer to God’s house.
2. The Power of God we walk in is directly connected to the intimacy we have.
2. The Power of God we walk in is directly connected to the intimacy we have.
Acts 19:11-20.
11 Now God worked unusual miracles by the hands of Paul, 12 so that even handkerchiefs or aprons were brought from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out of them. 13 Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists took it upon themselves to call the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “We exorcise you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches.” 14 Also there were seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, who did so. 15 And the evil spirit answered and said, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?” 16 Then the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, overpowered them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. 17 This became known both to all Jews and Greeks dwelling in Ephesus; and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. 18 And many who had believed came confessing and telling their deeds. 19 Also, many of those who had practiced magic brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted up the value of them, and it totaled fifty thousand pieces of silver. 20 So the word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed.
Relationship with The Lord is personal and cannot be cooped. My relationship with God is personal. I need to spend the time with Him, in order to walk in the things that He has called us too.
I cannot very successfully fake a relationship with God.
Acts 19:14-16.
14 Also there were seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, who did so. 15 And the evil spirit answered and said, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?” 16 Then the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, overpowered them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.
They Had the knowledge of power, without personal connection to the source.
This can be dangerous because we only have the testimony that we have. it is very easy to forget to avail ourselves.
Finally the core of our intimacy with The Lord Jesus is not how much cash we spend but rather the time we spend.
3. Intimacy means time.
3. Intimacy means time.
Luke 6:12, Mark 6:46, Matthew 14:23, John 6:15, Mark 1:35, Luke 5:16, Luke 9:18, Luke 9:28, Matthew 17:1.
23 And when He had sent the multitudes away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray. Now when evening came, He was alone there.
15 Therefore when Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, He departed again to the mountain by Himself alone.
35 Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed.
16 So He Himself often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed.
18 And it happened, as He was alone praying, that His disciples joined Him, and He asked them, saying, “Who do the crowds say that I am?”
28 Now it came to pass, about eight days after these sayings, that He took Peter, John, and James and went up on the mountain to pray.
1 Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, led them up on a high mountain by themselves;
18 And it happened, as He was alone praying, that His disciples joined Him, and He asked them, saying, “Who do the crowds say that I am?”
46 And when He had sent them away, He departed to the mountain to pray.
12 Now it came to pass in those days that He went out to the mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.
Jesus took time.
Jesus took time by Himself.
Jesus took time by Himself and He went to the Mountain to pray.
Sometimes Jesus prayed all night.
John 5:19.
19 Then Jesus answered and said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.
This is how Jesus does nothing except what He sees the father doing.
This is how Jesus does nothing except what He sees the father doing.
always remember the two aspects of prayer:
always remember the two aspects of prayer:
1. The talking.
1. The talking.
2. The listening.
2. The listening.
in almost any communication we know when we have not been heard.
how often are we trying to “get it in.”
Conclusion:
While talking about God is awesome and we should never stop under any circumstance. we should make sure we are not talking about Him more than we are talking to Him.
God wants you to do great things in the world and the Kingdom, however he wants to do them with you and through you. In oder for Him to do things with you and through you for the world, you need to spend some time alone with Him.
Don’t think because I said time it means you have to spend a lot of quality to have quantity.
Remember to talk to God and wait for Him to talk back, (at least give Him the opportunity if he wants it.
