Marty Sloan – Living the Dream

The Owners Manual – Intimacy with God

1/27/10

James 4:7-8 NKJV

The highest aim of any believer should be an intimate relationship with God. The greatest discovery you could have is that God loves you and desires a personal relationship with you. God has always walked the earth to be with man!  In Genesis He was there personally. In Daniel He shows up in the oven ☺! Fast fwd to the NT – Jesus was God in the flesh walking with mankind experiencing the human life.  In the book of Acts He descended in the form of a rushing wind, we know as the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit (God the Spirit) is still resident today. WHY? Because God wants to be with us!

James 4:7 NKJV

Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

James 4:8

Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

Question: Is it important that we draw closer to God?

Problem: Many do not see drawing close as their responsibility. Our human nature wants the other person to move first!

Observation: Emptiness is a lack of intimacy

Statement: Intimacy with God is most attainable when we discover our role and effort in the relationship. Intimacy is always a two way street!

Intimacy by definition means connection at the deepest part.

Psalm 139:23-24 NKJV

Search me, O God, and know my heart;

Try me, and know my anxieties;

And see if there is any wicked way in me,

And lead me in the way everlasting.

Statements about intimacy

1. Intimacy was stolen with sin –

Genesis 3:6 NKJV

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.

Genesis 3:7

Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.

Genesis 3:8

And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

Genesis 3:9

Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?”

Genesis 3:10

So he said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.”

Genesis 3:11

And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?”

• We are not naturally intimate

• We are naturally insecure (hiding) (especially in an area that we carry ANY form of guilt or shame)

2. Intimacy is about being, not doing

Revelation 2:1 NKJV

“To the angel of the church of Ephesus write,

‘These things says He who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands:

Revelation 2:2

“I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars;

Revelation 2:3

and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name’s sake and have not become weary.

Revelation 2:4

Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love.

Revelation 2:5

Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent.

Vs. 5 word: repent – a change in ones mind!

In relationship when what a person does precedes who they are, intimacy has been lost.

Table Talk: What things cause us to fall away from our love?

3. Intimacy comes from living from the heart

Ephesians 6:5 NKJV

Bondservants, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in sincerity of heart, as to Christ;

Ephesians 6:6

not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart,

Ephesians 6:7

with goodwill doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men,

Ephesians 6:8

knowing that whatever good anyone does, he will receive the same from the Lord, whether he is a slave or free.

4. Intimacy is kept by keeping the corruption out

Ephesians 6:24 ESV

Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible.

Keys to keeping the corruption out

1. Tender hearts

Matthew 19:3 NKJV

The Pharisees also came to Him, testing Him, and saying to Him, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?”

Matthew 19:4

And He answered and said to them, “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’

Matthew 19:5

and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?

Matthew 19:6

So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.”

Matthew 19:7

They said to Him, “Why then did Moses command to give a certificate of divorce, and to put her away?”

Matthew 19:8

He said to them, “Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.

• What is hardness of heart?

The above, and many other texts which might be advanced, show that hardness of heart is a voluntary state of mind. If it is a voluntary state, it must be the will in a state of choice–a will committed, for the time being, to some form of selfishness. The term hardness is appropriately used, because when the heart is in this state, it is stubborn, and will not yield to the truth, and prevents the intelligence and sensibility from

2. Fidelity in faith

Fidelity – the quality or state of being faithful

1 Timothy 4:1 NKJV

Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons,

1 Timothy 4:2

speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron,

1 Timothy 4:3

forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.

1 Timothy 4:4

For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving;

1 Timothy 4:5

for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.

1 Timothy 4:6

If you instruct the brethren in these things, you will be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished in the words of faith and of the good doctrine which you have carefully followed.

1 Timothy 4:7

But reject profane and old wives’ fables, and exercise yourself toward godliness.

1 Timothy 4:8

For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come.

3. Forging Fidelity

• Nourishment

• Reject

• Exercise

• Productivity