How to Get Closer to God

Welcome

Good morning everyone and to anyone joining us online good morning as well! Today we are starting a new sermon series called “How To...” All of us have seen how to guides before. There are helpful how to guides that come in the form of a book, and even now you can use youtube as a how to guide. For example, we had a leak in our washing machine a few months ago. I typed in where it was leaking and how to fix it, and I got a How to video on how to fix it. How to guides can be really helpful and guide us on how to do something. The idea then for this sermon series is that we are going to look at a few different areas of our faith and see what the Bible has to say as our how to guide. This morning we are going to look at How to Get Closer to God. The idea of growing closer to God maybe comes in waves for you. When you first became a Christian getting close to God was of extreme importance, maybe as time went by that desire faded. But no matter where you currently are, today we want to try to answer the question of, How do I get closer to God? For your own benefit but also for the benefit of others that you might be able to minister to. So, let’s read our passage from James this morning and then pray.

James 4:1-10

Prayer

Engage

As we start this morning I have a group activity for all of us to participate in. Don’t worry though, I’m not going to ask an embarrassing question or ask you to get up. In fact, I am going to ask you to do the exact opposite. For ten seconds, I want everyone to try to be as still as possible. Try to keep as still as you possibly can. Ready? Go! (TEN SECONDS)

Okay, now I do want a little participation. Who thinks they did great in that? Who was absolutely and completely still? Did you blink? Did you breathe?

Even though you might have done really good and didn’t move at all, I’m going to burst your bubble a little. All of us here were moving like crazy. But how? If we were all sitting perfectly still, how were we moving? Though you were sitting still, the earth was not. Each moment of the day the earth is spinning at roughly 1,000 mph and on top of that the earth is orbiting the sun at about 67,000 mph.

Tension

Because of this, nothing on the earth is actually standing still. This concept applies physically but also spiritually. Every day, every moment, we are either getting closer to God or going farther away. If you think back to when we were in Ephesians, we are either putting on our old self each day, choosing to get closer to our sin, or we are putting on our new self every day, seeking to get closer to God. Now, you might be thinking, but what about the church in Laodicea that we read about in Revelation. It says they aren’t hot or cold, that they are lukewarm, isn’t that kind of like staying still in your relationship with God? And to that I would say maybe, but the Lord also says that he is going to spit them out for being lukewarm, so I’m not sure you even want to make the argument that you are standing still in your relationship with God.

As you think about your life with Christ, maybe you can see the ups and downs. Periods of your life where you were actively seeking to grow closer to God and other times where you drifted away. It’s important for all of us to know this morning, that even though we might drift away from God, though we might have times where we become uninterested in our faith, times where we fail to place God first, there is always a chance to change that and to grow closer to God. Growing closer to God is something that absolutely can be done, and in fact it must be done. How can we?

James 4:4-7

James 4:4–7 NIV

4 You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. 5 Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us? 6 But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.” 7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

When James is writing this letter he is hoping to address a few issues. He wants Christians to live out their faith and be doers of God’s word and he is writing to many Christians who were in social and spiritual conflict. Despite their faith, they were still living in a very worldly manner. This is why James mentions that friendship with the world causes enmity against God. While this isn’t a way to grow closer to God, it is a warning of what not to do. In order to grow closer to God, we cannot choose the world over our relationship with God. James isn’t saying that friendship with people in the world in bad, but friendship with the world. When we choose to pursue the pleasures of the world and our sinful nature, we are choosing to walk farther away from God. As you think about growing closer to God then, think of it in terms of a friendship. Today, are you better friends with things of the world than you were a year ago? Or are you better friends with God?

While we might drift farther away though, verse 5 tells us that God continues to be jealous for us. This is an incredible truth for us to know. Even when we sin by seeking friendship with the world, we are greatly loved by God and sought by him. He is jealous for us, he desires to have us, and for us to be found completely in him. And besides that, God is always ready to extend more grace towards us. And so even if we falter, even if we begin to drift away from God, we know that he still desires us and that he is still ready to grant us more grace.

A comparison I saw of this comes from a painting. An artist had submitted a painting of Niagara Falls for an exhibit but didn’t give it a title. The gallery had to give it some kind of title though and decided to call it, “More to follow.” This is the same with God’s grace, there is always more to follow.

John 1:16 NIV

16 Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given.

Whatever our condition or situation, God will always gives us more grace. If you are sitting here this morning and think, “I’ve drifted to far, I am absolutely better friends with the world than with God.” You don’t have to be lost in despair. God is still jealous for you and is still ready to extend grace to you.

Verse 7 begins to tell us what we have to do in order to grow closer to God. We have to submit ourselves to him. We all have our own wants and desires, but that doesn’t mean they are good for us. In every area of our life, we have to submit to Christ. Submission to Christ doesn’t happen one or two days a week, submission to Christ takes place constantly. Submission to Christ means seeking his will above your own, it means caring for those the world ignores, it means loving those that you personally don’t want to. We grow closer to God when we submit to him and his will in all parts of our life.

There was a famous gangster named Mickey Cohen and it seems that Cohen once attended an evening evangelistic meeting and appeared interested. As a result many Christian leaders began to visit him, imagining what an impact his conversion would make. After one long evening service he was urged to open his heart and let Christ in, based on Revelation 3:20—“‘Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will go in and eat with him, and he with me.’” Cohen did this, but as the months passed it was evident he had not left his life of crime. When he was confronted about this, his response was that no one had told him he would have to give up his work or his friends. After all, there were Christian football players, Christian cowboys and Christian politicians—why not a Christian gangster?

Faith in Christ means that we also submit to him and to his commands. We cannot serve two masters, we can’t be friends with the world and our sinful ways while also being friends with God.

James 4:8-10

James 4:8–10 NIV

8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

Here is where we find one of the most encouraging truths in scripture about growing closer to God. Sometimes we think that growing closer to God is entirely dependent upon ourselves. But in truth, we don’t have to go the whole distance. Why? Because if we go after God, if we seek to grow closer to him, he will go after you! We see this played out in the parable of the prodigal son. This son left his father with his inheritance, became friends with the world and lost everything, but then made a decision to go back. The son didn’t have to get all the way home, go inside and find his father, instead we read this in Luke 15:20. “While he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.” Isn’t it encouraging to know that when you go near to God he will come near to you? That’s a promise right here is this passage. James isn’t saying go near to God and he might come near to you, no. If we seek God, if we want to know him deeper, if we want to grow in our relationship with him, then he will come near to us. One pastor has said, “Step toward God, and he will sprint towards you.”

Verses 9-10 show us more of what we can do in order to grow closer to God. Verse 9 calls us to repent. James isn’t saying that we should literally not laugh or have joy, he is wanting us to experience repentance. There is joy and laughter in the Lord, but it comes after a genuine act of repentance, a moment when we realize the sin that we have and the seriousness of it. This moment where we recognize how amazing it is that Christ would die on our behalf for our sins. When we repent and when we humble ourselves before God, he will then lift us up.

Now, a lot of how to guides have lists and while this is by no means comprehensive, here is how we can grow closer to God.

Don’t be friends with the world.

Instead of seeking out pleasure or things of this world, we grow closer to God by seeking out his will. Ask yourself that question we talked about earlier. Are you better friends with things of this world or with God than you were a year ago? What do you value or spend more time investing in than your relationship with God? If we want to grow closer to God we have to recognize what we are placing ahead of him.

Submit yourself to God

Instead of doing what you want when you want, seek to know God’s will and follow it. In your entire life, submit yourself to God and to his word and you will grow closer to him.

Know that God will come near.

If you leave here this morning with a desire and passion to get closer to God, if you decide to read his word, to spend time in prayer, to seek him above all else, then you can cling to the promise that God will come near to you. That is how much God loves you and desires to have a relationship with you.

The New International Version (Malachi Chapter 3)

“Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the LORD Almighty.

Prayer