A Quest for Intimacy - 1

 A Quest for Intimacy - 1

Subject – Finding Time Alone with God in a Hurried World

By Rick Welborne

Psalm 42:1-8 (NIV)
¹ As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for You, O God.
²  My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?
³  My tears have been my food day and night, while men say to me all day long, "Where is your God?"
⁴  These things I remember as I pour out my soul: how I used to go with the multitude, leading the procession to the house of God, with shouts of joy and thanksgiving among the festive throng.
⁵  Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Savior and
⁶  my God. My soul is downcast within me; therefore I will remember You from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon--from Mount Mizar.
⁷  Deep calls to deep in the roar of Your waterfalls; all Your waves and breakers have swept over me.
⁸  By day the LORD directs his love, at night his song is with me-- a prayer to the God of my life. 

--Today we begin a new series that I believe is going to resonate with so many. A Quest for Intimacy. One of the first responses we get when we ask someone how they are doing is, “I am so busy!”

--People, even church people, actually everyone are caught up with the phrase Charles Swindoll calls the “tyranny of the urgent.”

Swindoll – The tyranny of the urgent is not a theoretical issue, but a very real fact of life. It leaves people feeling strung out, impatient, occasionally resentful, and even worse, empty. 

--I ran into a good pastor friend the other day and in the process I asked him to pray for a mutual friend of ours because they were going through incredible struggles.

--His next words hit me pretty hard. He said I need to meet with you because I am going through such a struggle myself. Here’s the sad part…we couldn’t set a time because of how busy we both were.

--We just really never know what is going on in each other’s lives but I can give you a hint, like my friend, many people are hurting and hurting deeply.

--Many people are looking for affirmation, but sadly, they are looking for it in the wrong places. Don’t misunderstand me, a word of encouragement is good but it is only temporary.

--Many times we don’t think people are paying attention to us but they are. I was on a stationary bike trying to stay fit and a trainer who has not said hardly a word to me the whole time I have been going came up to me…

--Wow, you have almost lost all your body fat. I started to say thanks and then they said, but at the same time maintaining your muscle mass. I said, “You are my new best friend!” They laughed.

--That was good for that moment but, truthfully, I need more than that. What I need and what I believe many people need in their lives is intimacy with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

--Hear your pastor and try to understand where I am going with this. A lack of intimacy with God is our problem. Are we involved, yes? Are we doing activities and programs, yes? But not intimate with God.

--It is one thing to recognize the problem but it is a whole different thing to make the changes that will address the issues and get us the intimacy we need with God. This is the epidemic (Covid) of the church.

--I guess what I am asking of us as we begin this series, are we willing to make the changes needed to help us?

1. Deep Things

--People have always been intrigued by deep things. Deep recesses of space, deep jungles, deep oceans, deep caves, deep thoughts, and deep conversations. 

--There is nothing like going after deep things to make us dissatisfied with the superficial around us every day. Once we dive below the surface and taste the marvels of the deep we realize how valuable that is.

--National Geographic’s show and magazine has captivated us for years going deeper about animals, oceans, and space. They take us on a journey with them and it is exciting. 

--Nothing is more exciting or nothing should be more exciting than to realize that God is giving each one of us an invitation to go deeper with Him instead of being swallowed up with surface junk.

1 Corinthians 2:9-10 (NIV)
⁹  However, as it is written: "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him"--
¹⁰  but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 

--Many people, even preachers stop with verse 9…we can’t conceive what God has prepared for those who love Him but why do we stop there when there is more.

--God has revealed it to us by His Spirit…are we Spirit-filled? God wants to take us to deeper things with Him but the only way we will get there is by Holy Spirit in us. 

1 Corinthians 2:12-14 (NKJV)
¹²  Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.
¹³  These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
¹⁴  But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

--Now I know you can make it to heaven without being baptized with Holy Spirit power and speaking in tongues, but if you will go to deeper intimacy with God, it will be through Holy Spirit.

--Even Romans 11 talks of the depth of riches both of wisdom and knowledge. It says how unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable are His ways! There is a deeper place in God, Life Church!

--The prophet Daniel stated that God reveals the profound and hidden things and that He knows the things hidden in darkness. 

--Obviously, the Lord operates in realms far beyond our ability to comprehend, but He desires for us to explore and experience more than that which is seen by our natural vision.

--I believe some of God’s best truth’s or His priceless treasures are hidden in depths few are willing to venture into. What a loss for us! Patiently God waits on someone who is hungry enough to dig.

2. Hearts that Belong to God

--As intriguing as the deep things of God might be, they are not found by the natural means of our mind. He is looking for hearts who belong completely to Him.

Psalm 42:1-2 (NIV)
¹ As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for You, O God.

 ²  My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? 

--Imagine a poor deer in a dry forest trying to find water to drink. It is desperate. When was the last time you needed God so much you were like this deer?

--If the deer does not find water he will die. We should have that kind of holy desperation, if I don’t get to God I am going to die. When can I go and meet with God?

--Some of you may have to think way back but maybe you can remember when you found the love of your life and all you could think about was seeing them and being with them.

--You felt your heart would break in two, and even felt like at times you would die if you could not hold them again. Anyone remember that or have ever felt that. The psalmist felt this way about God.

--Sadly, in our crazy, chaotic, hurried world there is very little time for intimacy with God. The church has become a group of people who resemble a herd of cattle in a stampede than a flock of sheep by still waters.

Psalm 23:1-2 (NKJV)
¹  The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
²  He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. 

--It seems that many who came before us knew how to spend time with the Almighty but do we? We must learn again to think of God deeply, to worship meaningfully, and to meditate on Him unhurriedly.

Richard Foster – Superficiality is the curse of our age. The doctrine of instant gratification is a primary spiritual problem. The desperate need today is not a greater number of intelligent people, or gifted people, but for deep people. 

--People with hearts that belong to God will be able to go into the deeper things of God. God help us all!

3. We Cannot Stay Where We Are Now.

--Think about the condition of our world. Think about new government leaders in our country putting people in leadership who are the most pro-abortion, anti-family, Israel defying they can find.

--Isn’t it time for the Church…the real church, to get serious about its relationship to God and our responsibility to a lost and dying world. We must go deeper. Listen to Jesus speaking to Peter.

Matthew 16:17-18 (NLT2)
¹⁷  Jesus replied, “You are blessed, Simon son of John, because my Father in heaven has revealed this to you. You did not learn this from any human being.
¹⁸  Now I say to you that you are Peter (which means ‘rock’), and upon this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it.

--It almost looked like Peter, at this time, was going deeper and Jesus encouraged Him that he could go much deeper because He was building His Church. Jesus doesn’t build shallow stuff.

--Right after this Peter shows that he was still a surface follower of Christ when he rebukes Jesus for saying He was going to die. Peter continued being shallow and avoiding the deep until one thing happened in his life.

Acts 1:8 (NKJV)
⁸  But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me…

--Obviously God has provided Holy Spirit for us so we can have greater intimacy, greater power, and depths we have yet to discover.