Intimacy with God Pt2
Soul Care • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 6 viewsNotes
Transcript
From Plateau to Presence: Awakening to Love
Today I want to start by asking you a question:
“Do you know God loves you?”
You may automatically answer “Yes”
But what would you say if I re-phrase the question:
“Are you living like a person deeply loved by God in all your human interactions?”
There is a difference between:
Knowing you are loved
Living like you are deeply loved
How we deal with rejection, offences, hurts, disappointments, will depend on whether we have our sense of worth, of value linked to our personal identity, achievements, abilities, acceptance by others, or whether our sense of worth, of value is based on God’s love for us.
In Romans 5:8 it says:
8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Rob Reimer puts it this way:
"The issue of your value was settled on the cross. When Jesus died for you on the cross, God made a statement about how much you are worth. You are worthy of His Son's life." Rob Reimer
To truly know that we are unconditionally loved leads to life change.
There’s a book by R. Thomas Ashbrook called “Mansions of the Heart which looks at 7 stages/or mansions that we can journey through, it’s based on teaching of St Teresa of Ávila. It starts with first encountering God’s love and leads to the final stage of union with Christ.
Let’s look at the first four stages.
Stage 1/Mansion 1 – We first encounter God’s amazing love and Becoming a Christ Follower
We experience:
Peace with God
Joy of salvation
Beginning prayer & Scripture
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
This is amazing, when we first experience God’s love for us and respond
But it’s the doorway — not the destination.
Stage 2 – Between God and the World
This is the tension stage - it’s like the Parable of the sower:
14 The farmer sows the word. 15 Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. 16 Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. 17 But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. 18 Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; 19 but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. 20 Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop—some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown.”
Many hear and receive God’s word joyfully. But how many last? How many don’t count the cost? How many are drawn back to worldly pleasures or fears?
17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.
You love God… But the world still pulls.
Illustration: Like Israel leaving Egypt - they were free, they had escaped, but when difficulties came they kept looking back.
It’s one thing for God to remove them from Egypt, but another to get Egypt out of them
They were Saved — but still thinking like slaves.
How often can we find ourselves in a similar position? Are you still thinking as a sinner captive to shame and guilt, or as someone saved beloved and adopted as a child of God!
This stage is about surrender.
Stage 3 – Faithfully Following Jesus
We move onto grow as a faithful follower of Jesus
Consistent
Serving
Morally stable
Active in ministry
But there can be a problem: we can over time become doers like the Church in Ephesus:
Hardworking
Doctrinally sound
Faithful
But something was missing.
2 I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. 3 You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. 4 Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first.
First Love. Passion.
You’re doing for God… But are you burning for Him?
Illustration:
A married couple functioning well —
Bills paid.
Responsibilities handled.
But affection has cooled.
The marriage still exists.
But intimacy has faded.
That’s Stage 3.
And most believers stop here. This is the plateau stage.
Stage 4 – Awakening to Love
A holy dissatisfaction begins.
Not: “I need to do more for God.” But: “I want to really know Him”
8 What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. 10 I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,
– “I consider everything loss… that I may know Him.”
Paul had already planted churches.
He had revelation. He had authority.
And yet he cries: “I want to know Him.”
38 Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.’ ”
Stage 3 visits the river. Stage 4 lives in the river.
BIBLICAL STORY – MARY & MARTHA
38 As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39 She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. 40 But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!” 41 “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, 42 but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”
Martha = Stage 3.
Busy.
Serving.
Responsible.
Mary = Stage 4.
Sitting.
Listening.
Being.
Jesus didn’t rebuke service - it was actually Martha who had invited Jesus for a meal not Mary.
He said:
“Mary has chosen what is better.”
Notice that word: chosen.
Depth is a choice.
Key: Some of you are faithful Marthas.
Jesus is not rebuking your service. He loves what you are doing, but He is inviting you closer.
WHY GO DEEPER?
The answer is love. When you love someone and they love you, you desire to grow closer.
Do you really passionately love God?
Is He your first love and primary obsession?
37 Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
Falling more in love with God will lead to Loving people more.
17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
Not only do we grow to love others more, but as we see Him more clearly, we are transformed .
We don’t change by trying harder. We change by seeing Him.
The more we see His love, His holiness, His passion for us, His sacrifice, His pain, His infinite and unchangeable nature, the more we desire Him and are able to let go of stuff which may get in the way.
Story of Uni friend: (MIKE) I need to get stuff sorted, then I’ll spend time with God! NO! When I sin is says my love and intimacy with God isn’t where it should be. The way is open, God has already forgiven me 2000 years ago on the cross when He died for me and said it is finished! When I mess up I need to not try to make amends, be better, earn my way back, I need to run straight back into God’s presence, yes facing my sin, yes repenting and losing face, but only in God’s presence with His strength will I overcome sin’s attraction and power!
So if you are tired of managing sin. You don’t need more willpower. You need to get closer to God. You need more presence.
It’s about abiding as John 15 says:
5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
In the soul care course and recently in the Soul Nurture series we have looked a bit at different spiritual rhythms - such as ways of reading the Bible to encounter Jesus, ways of prayer where we are focused on listening, soaking and resting in God’s presence in silence or whilst listening to worship music, connecting with God during activities or whilst out in God’s creation, fasting, watching, retreating. Actively processing with God times of pain or hardship.
In all these spiritual practices the focus is spending more time pursuing God.
Spiritual practices are means, not the goal.
The goal is: “To attend to God’s presence.”
Not reading the Bible or praying for an hour, to tick a box — But to encounter the living God. Not fasting for discipline or to feel holy, but to hunger for Him.
Not to earn God’s love — But because we want more of Him.
God is infinite, we can never fully experience the fulness of God - after 10,000 years in God’s presence the angels are still being wowed by His glory. If my relationship with God gets boring, it’s on me, God isn’t boring. I’ve just settled for a lot less than who God is.
You can have as much of God as you want — But no more than you are willing to pursue.
So to finish some q’s:
Am I growing closer to Jesus?
Is Jesus my first love and primary obsession?
Am I sensing God’s presence and hearing God’s voice?
Am I feeling more free and full in Christ?
Am I experiencing love, joy and peace consistently?
Is my spiritual walk with God fresh and bringing me life, love and greater intimacy?
13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.
Maybe it’s time to be honest with God as to where we really are at,
23 God, I invite your searching gaze into my heart. Examine me through and through; find out everything that may be hidden within me. Put me to the test and sift through all my anxious cares. 24 See if there is any path of pain I’m walking on, and lead me back to your glorious, everlasting ways— the path that brings me back to you.
Another translations says “Search me, O God.” Maybe that needs to be our prayer today?
Let’s ask that question now and make room for God’s response…
