Intimacy with God
Intimacy with God; Obstacles to our Friendship
August 2nd and 3rd, 2003
John 15
13 /Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. [1]/
-Jesus is calling us to friendship.
-The barrier that used to be there is removed and you were able to be introduced by the new birth.
-The next step is to develop a relationship with Him and be His friends.
-God spoke to Moses face to face as a man speaks to his friend.
-Abraham is called God’s friend.
-I want to address specifically the things that keep us from entering that level of relationship and intimacy with God.
-There are enemies that specifically try to prohibit and hinder that relationship.
-If you are trying to be friends with someone and there are forces trying to stop it you have to identify them in order to conquer them.
1. THE DEVIL
-Have you ever had a relationship that someone else resented and so they tell a lie to separate that friendship?
-You can see things being said behind someone’s back to give the wrong impression of them.
-That’s what the devil does to God (and to you by he way).
Garden of Eden
-When man was first created the devil came to him in the garden and got them to doubt God’s character and credibility.
-He convinced them to doubt God by telling them they couldn’t trust Him so they would have to look out for themselves.
1 Peter 5
All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because,
“God opposes the proud
but gives grace to the humble.” a
6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. 7 Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
8 Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 9 Resist him, standing firm in the faith,
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John 10
10 /The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.[3]/
John 8
44 /You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. [4]/
-He comes as a murderer and a liar. He comes to kill you, to steal from you and to destroy you.
-The only way to win is to mark him and stay on high alert.
-If someone is lying about you to your friend or misrepresenting you; the only way to beat it is with the truth.
-Jesus is the truth and His Word is the truth.
-The weapons that you fight with but they are strong to pull down strongholds and things that have been deep-seated in you even though they are lies.
-What did Jesus do when the devil tried to lie to Him?
-He used the Word.
-It is written or “the truth says”.
-You beat a liar with the truth.
-Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ and He is the express image of the Father. What is God really like? Look at Jesus. He perfectly expressed and personified God and God’s plan and feelings toward man.
-You have the truth. Use it to defeat the lies and the liar.
Ephesians 6 – The Message
And that about wraps it up. God is strong, and he wants you strong. So take everything the Master has set out for you, well-made weapons of the best materials. And put them to use so you will be able to stand up to everything the Devil throws your way. This is no afternoon athletic contest that we’ll walk away from and forget about in a couple of hours. This is for keeps, a life-or-death fight to the finish against the Devil and all his angels.
Be prepared. You’re up against far more than you can handle on your own. Take all the help you can get, every weapon God has issued, so that when it’s all over but the shouting you’ll still be on your feet. Truth, righteousness, peace, faith, and salvation are more than words. Learn how to apply them. You’ll need them throughout your life. God’s Word is an indispensable weapon.
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2. THE WORLD
John 1
9 The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world. b
10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.
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John 3
16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, f that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. g 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.” h
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-John deals with the “world” as a major theme in his writings.
-He addresses it as evil yet tells us that Jesus came to give His life and that He loves the world.
-Jesus said stuff like the world hates me and you.
1 John 2
15 /Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. 17 The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever. [8]/
The Message
/Don’t love the world’s ways. Don’t love the world’s goods. Love of the world squeezes out love for the Father. Practically everything that goes on in the world—wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear important—has nothing to do with the Father. It just isolates you from him. The world and all its wanting, wanting, wanting is on the way out—but whoever does what God wants is set for eternity.[9]/
-You have to choose between friendship with God and friendship with the world system.
1 John 3
How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known.
/But we know that when he appears, a we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. [10]/
-The world system is a diversion. It provides a diversion and says, “this is all there is”.
-It is like a big carnival that says stay busy here. What’s out there doesn’t matter.
-What is the world Jesus was talking about?
John 16
33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
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-The word used there for world is “kosmos”
-It literally means this system or arrangement of things.
-It is the “material world”.
-Madonna sang about being a material girl living in a material world.
-In the Bible kosmos represents fallen man in his rebellious state and the evil age we live in.
-Another meaning is to adorn with jewelry. In other words the kosmos is just the trappings.
-Jesus said He overcame the world; how?
1 John 4
4 /You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. 5 They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. [12]/
1 John 5
4 /for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. 5 Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. [13]/
-The way to overcome the world is to believe. Faith is the victory.
-Faith sees above and beyond this world to true reality.
-The world thinks that it has within itself the ability to heal itself.
-In truth; the world in its present form is passing away.
-Faith sees the invisible.
-We set our hearts and minds on the eternal not the kosmos.
-Its like being on vacation and falling in love with the place. You are sure you should move there. Then you realize that you aren’t working or paying bills or taking out trash. It isn’t the real world. It is temporary.
-We overcome the devil with the Word/Truth and we overcome the kosmos/world with faith.
3. THE FLESH
-Our flesh is the fallen nature in us.
-The flesh hates the Spirit.
-When sin came into the world the man and woman became self-conscious.
-They were focused on God before then they became focused on themselves.
-When you are a baby you don’t realize that the world continues beyond your view. As far as you know you are the center of the world.
1 Corinthians 3 -KJV
1 And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. 2 I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. 3 For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisionsa, are ye not carnal, and walk as men? 4 For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?
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The Message
/But for right now, friends, I’m completely frustrated by your unspiritual dealings with each other and with God. You’re acting like infants in relation to Christ, capable of nothing much more than nursing at the breast. Well, then, I’ll nurse you since you don’t seem capable of anything more. As long as you grab for what makes you feel good or makes you look important, are you really much different than a babe at the breast, content only when everything’s going your way? When one of you says, “I’m on Paul’s side,” and another says, “I’m for Apollos,” aren’t you being totally infantile?[15]/
-We are supposed to learn that we are part of the world but not the center of it.
-Because our nature is against God it doesn’t come naturally.
-We mature only when we take ourselves off of the throne.
-I was telling the story of the rabbi’s where the man was riding a donkey but it is a terrible state when the donkey rides the man.
-When your flesh is in control it is as if the donkey is giving the orders.
-Your flesh is like a glove with no hand.
-When the new man comes in it is great because the glove is filled and given proper direction.
-Without the hand it is useless. With a director it is capable of all sorts of things.
-Paul told the Corinthians that they were “carnal”.
-We know that carnal means ruled by the body.
Webster’s’
1 a : relating to or given to crude bodily pleasures and appetites
b : marked by sexuality
2 : bodily, corporeal
3 a : temporal
b : worldly
— car•nal•i•ty \kär-ˈna-lə-tē\ noun
— car•nal•ly \ˈkär-nəl-ē\ adverb
synonymy carnal, fleshly, sensual, animal mean having a relation to the body. carnal may mean only this but more often connotes derogatorily an action or manifestation of a person’s lower nature 〈a slave to carnal desires〉.
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Original greek
/under the control of the animal appetites. 1a1 governed by mere human nature not by the Spirit of God. 1a2 having its seat in the animal nature or aroused by the animal nature. [17]/
Romans 7/8 – The Message
I can anticipate the response that is coming: “I know that all God’s commands are spiritual, but I’m not. Isn’t this also your experience?” Yes. I’m full of myself—after all, I’ve spent a long time in sin’s prison. What I don’t understand about myself is that I decide one way, but then I act another, doing things I absolutely despise. So if I can’t be trusted to figure out what is best for myself and then do it, it becomes obvious that God’s command is necessary.
But I need something more! For if I know the law but still can’t keep it, and if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help! I realize that I don’t have what it takes. I can will it, but I can’t do it. I decide to do good, but I don’t really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. My decisions, such as they are, don’t result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time.
It happens so regularly that it’s predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. I truly delight in God’s commands, but it’s pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge.
I’ve tried everything and nothing helps. I’m at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn’t that the real question?
The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different.
/[18]/
/With the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, that fateful dilemma is resolved. Those who enter into Christ’s being-here-for-us no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud. A new power is in operation. The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death.[19]/
-Condemnation tells you that because that nature still pulls at you and so can’t be God’s friend.
-The truth is; only God can help you conquer that nature and get the donkey off of your back.
-In The Practice of the Presence of God, Brother Lawrence says, “The most holy practice, the nearest to daily life, and the most essential for the spiritual life, is the practice of the presence of God, that is to find joy in his divine company and to make it a habit of life, speaking humbly and conversing lovingly with him at all times, every moment, without rule or restriction, above all at times of temptation, distress, dryness, and revulsion, and even faithlessness and sin.”
-In other words even in your sin and rebellion run to God and acknowledge Him in your mind and thoughts.
Romans 8
5 /Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 6 The mind of sinful man e is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; 7 the sinful mind f is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. 8 Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. [20]/
9 /You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. [21]/
-Paul said he took his body captive.
-Get on the donkey and ride it, get it off of you.
You need the truth of Jesus and the Word, faith that there is more than this world and a new mind that isn’t being controlled by the old nature.
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[1]The Holy Bible : New International Version, Jn 15:13-15. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996, c1984.
a Prov. 3:34
[2]The Holy Bible : New International Version, 1 Pe 5:5-9. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996, c1984.
[3]The Holy Bible : New International Version, Jn 10:10. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996, c1984.
[4]The Holy Bible : New International Version, Jn 8:44-45. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996, c1984.
[5]Peterson, Eugene H. The Message : New Testament With Psalms and Proverbs, Eph 6:1. Colorado Springs, Colo.: NavPress, 1995.
b Or This was the true light that gives light to every man who comes into the world
[6]The Holy Bible : New International Version, Jn 1:9-12. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996, c1984.
f Or his only begotten Son
g Or God~s only begotten Son
h Some interpreters end the quotation after verse 15.
[7]The Holy Bible : New International Version, Jn 3:16-21. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996, c1984.
[8]The Holy Bible : New International Version, 1 Jn 2:15-17. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996, c1984.
[9]Peterson, Eugene H. The Message : New Testament With Psalms and Proverbs, 1 Jn 2:1. Colorado Springs, Colo.: NavPress, 1995.
a Or when it is made known
[10]The Holy Bible : New International Version, 1 Jn 3:1-2. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996, c1984.
[11]The Holy Bible : New International Version, Jn 16:33. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996, c1984.
[12]The Holy Bible : New International Version, 1 Jn 4:4-6. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996, c1984.
[13]The Holy Bible : New International Version, 1 Jn 5:4-5. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996, c1984.
a divisions: or, factions
[14]The Holy Bible : King James Version., 1 Co 3:1-4. Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1995.
[15]Peterson, Eugene H. The Message : New Testament With Psalms and Proverbs, 1 Co 3:1. Colorado Springs, Colo.: NavPress, 1995.
\
\ə\ abut \ə\ kitten, French table \ər\ further \a\ ash \ā\ ace \ä\ mop, mar
\au̇\ out \ch\ chin \e\ bet \ē\ easy \g\ go \i\ hit \ī\ ice \j\ job
\ŋ\ sing \ō\ go \ȯ\ law \ȯi\ boy \th\ thin \ṯẖ\ the \ü\ loot \u̇\ foot
\y\ yet \zh\ vision \ȧ, ḵ, n, œ, œ̄, ue, uē, y\ see Pronunciation Symbols
[16]Merriam-Webster, Inc. Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. Includes index. 10th ed. Springfield, Mass., U.S.A.: Merriam-Webster, 1996, c1993.
[17]Strong, James. The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible : Showing Every Word of the Test of the Common English Version of the Canonical Books, and Every Occurence of Each Word in Regular Order. electronic ed., G4559. Ontario: Woodside Bible Fellowship., 1996.
[18]Peterson, Eugene H. The Message : New Testament With Psalms and Proverbs, Ro 7:1. Colorado Springs, Colo.: NavPress, 1995.
[19]Peterson, Eugene H. The Message : New Testament With Psalms and Proverbs, Ro 8:1. Colorado Springs, Colo.: NavPress, 1995.
e Or mind set on the flesh
f Or the mind set on the flesh
[20]The Holy Bible : New International Version, Ro 8:5-8. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996, c1984.
[21]The Holy Bible : New International Version, Ro 8:9. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996, c1984.