Intimacy with God (2)  (112)

Intro:

1. Intimacy is increasingly rare in our society. One reason is that intimacy is founded on trust and we live in a distrustful age. "Faith is no longer fashionable, and a quarter-century of wars and double-dealing in high places has eroded our confidence in institutions we once revered." Back in the mid 1960s, three out of four Americans said they trusted the federal government to do what is right all or most all the time, according to Gallup. Ten years ago that figure had dropped to 44%. Today only 19% have that kind of faith in the government. --Ministry Currents, Jan-Mar 1994

2. BEWARE:  "Believe only half of what you hear, and be sure it's the right half. "

3. The more trusting a person is, the easier it is for another to trust him in a personal relationship. Intimacy builds on trust, but an initial risk must be taken before trust can develop.

4. It is so easy to misplace our trust. The common ground that connects a person to another intimately is mutual trust. Even when a person is trustworthy someone must have enough courage to place their trust in the person. The more trusting a person is, the easier it is for another to trust him in a personal relationship. Intimacy builds on trust, but an initial risk must be taken before trust can develop.

5. A CON WHO WAS A REAL PRO

Judge: How could you swindle these good people who trusted you so?

Con Man: Your Honor, you can't swindle people who don't trust you.

6. It is trust that connects us to God in friendship.

I. Distrust separates us from God.

A. Distrust destroys personal relationships. Adam's and Eve's basic problem in the Garden was a lack of trust in God. The devil said, "You shall not surely die, ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." The problem was a basic distrust of God. They believed that God was withholding something good from them, they failed to trust.

B. They also felt that their distrust was valid. "Since you are not willing to give me what is best for me (the forbidden fruit), I have a right to sever the relationship and take care of myself. They no longer believed in God's goodness and trustworthiness and so they decided to take control of their own well being.

C. Sin is simply our effort to supplement what we think are deficiencies in God's goodness. It is trusting our self instead of trusting God.

D. We are interested in self-preservation, self-development, self-nourishment, self-care, self-expression, self-protection, self-enhancement.

2 Tim 3:1-3 1 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. 2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, (KJV)

E. Man's wretched self-centeredness is not only separating him from others but from God. It is no wonder that God seems more distant than ever before.

F. We continually question God's goodness. If you are a good God why would you allow a 737 to crash and 132 people die for no apparent reason. We tell God: "Prove yourself! I doubt your goodness. Look at what has happened in my life and in the lives of people I love. Do you know what it's like living with a constant dread that something terrible might happen? Since you provide me with no guarantee that nothing bad will happen, you need to convince me that you are trustworthy."

G. Others cope by denying that God is involved in human affairs. Distrust gnaws at us from many different angles.

1. The most basic source of distrust is our own pride. We have a tendency to rely on our own wisdom and strength rather than God's.

2. Our society's preoccupation with security, comfort, and self-fulfillment also feeds distrust. "The more we believe in providing for ourselves and trusting in what we have, the less we will believe in God's provision and trust in Him for our security." We put ourselves and our own well-being first. Then, to make things worse, we don't even recognize how self-centered we really are.

H. The fallen nature within each of us is built on the central lie: God cannot be trusted with the things that matter most. We pressure ourselves to make things happen (I've got to make these people see that they are wrong). We worry that we might fail (I don't know if I can get through to them). We develop bitterness over the lack of help we receive (I can't understand why God isn't doing more to change their minds and how no one else is terribly helpful either.)

I. Sometimes we only trust God to take care of us. We expect him to fill our needs. Any relationship flounders when we are only interested in what it has to offer me. When we are more interested in what God can do for us, than we are in what we can do for Him, the relationship flounders.

Isa 58:1-3
1"Shout it aloud, do not hold back. Raise your voice like a trumpet. Declare to my people their rebellion and to the house of Jacob their sins. 2 For day after day they seek me out; they seem eager to know my ways, as if they were a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the commands of its God. They ask me for just decisions and seem eager for God to come near them.
3 `Why have we fasted,' they say, `and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?' "Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers. (NIV)

J. We want our faith to make us happy or to heal us, or to make us wealthy and when it doesn't we seek to distrust God.

II. Trust Is Basic for Intimacy with God.

A. Trust was the key to the faith of the great men in the Bible. Intimacy and faith builds on trust. But we must be willing to become vulnerable. An initial risk must be taken before trust can develop. The risk is called an intelligent leap of faith. Once taken, the more one puts into a relationship in trust, the more commitment increases.

1. Daniel had trusted God when he was thrown in the lion's den, but that initial trust was what developed his intimacy with God. In order for God to accomplish his purpose in Daniel, Daniel had to trust God. Intimacy with God was developed as he trusted God and allowed God to lead him through the lion's den.

2. Joseph's great intimacy came as God healed him and set him as second man in charge of Egypt. But it was Joseph's trust in God that developed intimacy. His faith was developed through the hardship of being sold into slavery, and imprisoned for his innocence for seven years.

Gen 50:20 But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive. (KJV)

3. Paul's intimacy with God.

2 Tim 1:12 For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. (KJV)

B. We must trust God regardless.

Hab 3:17-19 17 Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, 18 yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior. 19 The Sovereign LORD is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights. For the director of music. On my stringed instruments. (NIV)

C. Job 13:15 holds the key to understanding faith. "This is faith.... Not `if I trust him, he will not slay me,' but `if he slays me, I will still trust him."

Job 13:15 Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him;

D. Finding God in the midst of our difficulties is more important than finding relief for present conditions and feeling good about ourselves, etc.  We must trust God before we can find him.

Titus 1:2 In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began; (KJV)

Heb 13:5 Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. (KJV)

1. To Jacob He said:

Isa 43:1-3 1 But now, this is what the LORD says-- he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: "Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. 2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. 3 For I am the LORD, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I give Egypt for your ransom, Cush and Seba in your stead. (NIV)

2. To Paul God said, "My grace is sufficient." Paul responded by saying, "Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong." (2 Cor 12:10 )

3. To each one of us he promises:

1 Cor 10:13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it. (KJV)

E. Christ too, has words of assurance for those who question the concern of the Father. He says:

Mt 7:11 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him? (KJV)

1. God is our Father! We have been made in his image, and it is therefore natural that he should care for his own. I am willing to do anything that is necessary for the sake of my children. I cannot imagine a father hating his son, or mocking his son's hunger. Can you. Remember this: God is not evil.

Psa 103:13 Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him. (KJV)

2. Jesus points to the constant concern that the Father has for the birds of the air and questions, "Are you not of more value than they?" (Mt 6:26).

Mt 10:29-31 29 Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. 30 But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. 31 Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows. (KJV)

3. When questions arise and doubts creep into our minds because our fare has become the "bread of affliction," it is well to remember the many promises God has made.

Rom 8:31 What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? KJV)

III. The Proof of God's Trustworthiness.

A. The experiences of others prove God's concern.

1. Did he not pledge his support to Jacob? Languishing in affliction in the land of Egypt, the sons of Jacob cry out to their God. And the Lord answers:

Ex 3:7 And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows; (KJV)

"I have seen . . . I have heard . . . I know . . . and I have come down to deliver." God is concerned when his people suffer. And you can trust God to deliver.

2. The Psalmist reveals a bit of personal history by testifying:  "I was pushed back and about to fall, but the LORD helped me." (Ps 118:13)  There was no doubt about it as far as he was concerned.

3. Alexander the coppersmith did Paul great harm. Paul tells us of his first defense and how all men deserted him.

2 Tim 4:17-18 17 Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. 18 And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. (KJV)

B. The gift of God's Son declares his concern. God gave us the greatest gift of all. If he has already given the greatest token of his love, will he not give unto us the lesser gifts? What greater proof of God's trustworthiness. God graciously sent you a portrait of himself in Christ Jesus.

Rom 8:31-32 31 What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? 32 He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? (KJV)

CONCLUSION:

A. Trust God to tell us we are lost.

"Until we believe that we are as bad as God says we are, we can never believe that He will do for us what He says He will do. Right here is where popular religion breaks down." --A. W. Tozer (quoted in The Berean Call, Sep 1993)

B. We must trust God for our salvation.

Isaiah 12:2 Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the LORD JEHOVAH is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation. (KJV)

2 Cor 1:10 Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us; (KJV)

C. Scripture records stories of ordinary people -- weak, stumbling, sinful people -- who found a path to God and stayed on it.

1. Hosea proclaimed God's compassion even though his own heart was shattered by an unfaithful wife.

2. The hatred of friends couldn't drown God's fire in Jeremiah's heart.

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