Intimacy // Merge Session

HP: to have intimacy with your spouse, you must have intimacy with God.

Introduction (DREY & LAI): Intimacy

Image: (DREY) Who we are.. Drey and Lainys Penny Jar story shows the reality of missing intimacy in couples

Need: (LAI) The reason we shared this with you is because we want you to have an intimate marriage, we want your marriage to be deeply satisfying. We are not talking about sex, thats coming soon. We are talking about what makes things like sex and holding hands and kissing GREAT. Do that sound like something you’d like?

Subject: (LAI) today we are going to answer, how do you have have an intimate marriage?

Text: (DREY) I find it interesting that in the OT, they had a word for this intimacy YADA. Ya da = to know. Adam yada Eve. what we are talking about tonight really is the root of your entire relationship. It is the root of all you do becuase it reaches the deepest part of what it means to be human. at the end of the day , what we all desperately need is to be seen heard and understood. To be YADAed.

Preview: (Lainy) one thing we learned in our relationship, is that intimacy changes at each stage of your relationship, especially after you get married. Before we get to YADA, know our spouse, we have to be YADAed, known, by God. So here we go, lets jump into our topic tonight Spiritual intimacy. TO have an intimate marriage we need to understand what intimacy is, fuel it, and live it.

What is Spiritual intimacy

What is Spiritual intimacy

What is Spiritual intimacy

A. Definition (LAI): Spiritual Inimacy is Togethergrowing in your relationship with Jesus.

1. A Broad look at faith (DREY): knowing Jesus and recognizing your dependence on Jesus and seeking to grow in your relationship with Jesus.

AW tozer says this “what you think about God is the most important thing about you” Why is this true? Well it really shapes the way we look at everything does it:

From our every day questions like, what’s the purpose behind marraige. What’s the point of work.

To the BIG questions, like why is there evil, why is there good and bad.

Your faith really is the most important thing about you and it will play a huge part in your mairrage.

2. Closer look at Faith (LAI)

Present the gospel.

8. Central turning point in the whole book.

Why does

B. Gospel Implications (DREY): Grace, Mercy, and Forgivenesss.

1. How does the gospel effect the way you view yourself (DREY).

Your not good enough, loveable enough, not perfect enough … and neither is your spouse to be.

YOu are marring and imperfect person. And thats a problem. This is why we must undertand grace; we have a huge need if we are going to make our mairrages work.

Ephesians 2:4–5 NET

But God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, even though we were dead in transgressions, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you are saved!—

Here is the key point from what lainy said. You

Story: KING (or judge)

2. How does the gospel effect the way you view your spouse (LAI).

a forgive problem is a gospel. Problem.

C.

C. The key to Intimacy (DREY)

1. Dependence on Christ (DREY): Apart from Christ we can do nothing //John 15:5

Tim Keller: the gospel is not the first step in a stairway of truths, rather it is more like the hub in a wheel of truth,. The gospel is not not just the A B CS but the A to Z of Christianity. The gospel is not just the minimum required doctrine necessary to enter the kingdom but the way we make all progress In the kingdom.

2. Evidence = changed life (LAI):

D. APPLYING INTIMACY DAILY (DREY)

Scriptrue and Bible study (DREY) //Psalm 1:2-3

Prayer (LAI)

Church (DREY)

Community (LAI)

Service (DREY)

Other (LAI)

SUMMARY

Repeat (DREY): our spiritual lives matter. We have to understand what intimacy is, we have to fuel it, and we have to Live it out.

Re-Image: Intimacy is more than sexual. Penny Jar (LAINY)