Intimacy with God

Exodus 32

How would you like to have the kind of relationship with God that Moses had? Moses, in the reading from Exodus we just read, talked back and forth with God as if they were talking face to face. The LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend.

Now it is clear that this is a description of the kind of relationship they had rather than a literal picture of the relationship. They did not sit down and talk to each other as one might do with a friend here in Morocco in a café. Just after this description of their relationship, Moses requests to see God’s face and that is denied him.

But as a description of their relationship, isn’t that tantalizing? Moses and God had a relationship in which they talked back and forth. They communicated with each other openly and honestly. Moses had a concern and told God about it. And then God responded. Free-flowing communication.

When I pray, I do not hear God speak back to me. If I sense God is telling me something, that is only because I have gone through a laborious process of trying to discern a word of God from one of the many thoughts that come to my mind and even then I have to wait to see over time if that was indeed God speaking to me.

I have often wished I could hear God speak to me clearly in an audible voice.

I know that Moses was a special man called for a special purpose but that does not prevent me from wishing to have the relationship with God he had. To talk with God as one would talk with a friend. To talk with God and have God talk back. What a dream!

I envy the disciples. Peter and John actually sat with Jesus. Watched him sleep, wake up in the morning, eat his breakfast. They heard him teach, watched him heal and cast out demons. They knew what kinds of things made Jesus laugh. More than anyone else, they knew what mattered to Jesus. They knew what he was passionate about. They were intimate friends with Jesus.

And it was not only during the time when they were physically present with Jesus that they had an intimate relationship with him. John received a revelation from God recorded in what we call the book of Revelations. Peter received visions from God and it is apparent that God spoke to him because some of the things he mentions in his letters must have come to him through revelation from God.

Paul had an intimate relationship with God. Jesus himself appeared to Paul on at least two occasions. Once at his conversion and a second time when he was caught up into the third heaven, a Jewish expression Paul used to describe the most blessed sense of the direct presence of God. Paul’s experience of the power of God working through him and of the leading of God and of the presence of God was a powerful experience. The consequence of Paul’s intimate experience with God is that he had a passion in his ministry that is reflected in the portion of Philippians we read this morning.

But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.  8 What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things.

I’m not eager to suffer like Paul suffered, but I envy Paul the passion of his relationship with Christ.

David, the writer of psalms, had an intimate relationship with God. We read one of them this morning as a responsive reading. Listen to one of his most famous psalms, Psalm 23
The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
3 he restores my soul.
He guides me in paths of righteousness
for his name’s sake.
4 Even though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.

What a beautiful picture that is of an intimate relationship with God. A shepherd who watches out for his sheep. He leads them to good and safe places. He protects them. He cares for them. David knew the Lord was his shepherd and he had a rich experience of that knowledge.

Thus far I’ve given only Biblical examples of those who had an intimate relationship with God but an intimate relationship with God is not confined to Biblical times.

I read a short little book the other day written by Joseph Stowell who is president of Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. He talks about sitting next to Billy Graham at a banquet and asking him this question, “Of all your experiences in ministry, what have you enjoyed most?” At the time of this question Billy Graham was eighty years old. He had preached to thousands and thousands of people. He had met with world leaders and celebrities, counseled the US presidents. He had received award after award. What was it he had most enjoyed? Was it preaching to a million people at one time? An experience with some famous person? The large number of people who were converted to Christ under his preaching?

His response was immediate and clear, spontaneous and unrehearsed.

“By far the greatest joy of my life has been my fellowship with Jesus. Hearing him speak to me, having him guide me, sensing his presence with me and his power through me. This has been the highest pleasure of my life!”

Isn’t that a wonderful description of what an intimate relationship with God looks like? Hearing him speak to me. Having him guide me. Sensing his presence with me. Sensing his power through me.

I have done a lot of strange things in my life, but preaching this sermon series has to rank near the top of the list. If you listen to someone giving a lecture or a sermon, the assumption is that the person speaking knows something about what he or she is talking about. A professor of literature can be expected to have read a lot of books and know a lot about them. An astronomer can be expected to know a lot about the stars and the universe. A counselor can be expected to know a lot about human psychology and relational issues.

And so if a preacher is going to engage in a series of sermons about intimacy with God, it is to be expected that the preacher knows what he is talking about. This is not the case with me. I have struggled with this part of my Christian life for most of my Christian life. I know a lot about the Christian life and I am committed to Christ but I would not describe my life with God as an intimate one. For much of my Christian life, I have felt a great distance between myself and God. I have never abandoned my faith but I have infrequently felt that I am emotionally connected to God.

With rare exceptions, it is in community that I have experienced the presence of God. One of the reasons I so much enjoy RPF is that so frequently I have sensed God’s presence in our worship. I feed off of our corporate experience of God.

When I read Billy Graham’s response to the question asked of him at a banquet, I am filled with a longing to make that an answer I could give to such a question. I long to have a relationship with God where I hear him speak to me, receive from him clear guidance. I long to have experiences when I sense his presence and to have the privilege and pleasure of his power working through me.

This raises a question. Why listen to my sermons on Intimacy with God if I have experienced so little of it?

One of the things I have observed is that people who are naturally good at something are generally unable to articulate what it is they do. Someone who is naturally good at relating to other people generally has difficulty describing to someone else how to effectively relate to others.

When I was a young Christian, in the 1970s, there was a very popular book talking about relational theology. This book was written by the pastor of a large church in the northwest of the US. A few years later, one of the men from our college fellowship ended up serving in that church as an associate pastor and he reported that the senior pastor who had written this book was one of the least relationally gifted people he had ever met.

It was because he was not naturally gifted relationally that he was able to write a book that so effectively talked about how to be more relational.

So it is my hope that in preaching on intimacy with God, my struggles to be in an intimate relationship with God may prove to be helpful to us.

What does intimacy with God look like? I suspect intimacy with God is like a diamond. There is no one way of describing it. From each angle, a new look emerges. As we take a look at intimacy with God over the next several weeks, it is my prayer that we will have a much clearer understanding of what intimacy with God is at the end of this series than we do now.

Let me lay out before you some idea of where we will be going.

Choice – Much of the Christian life is a matter of choice and I think intimacy with God is no exception. For example, I can choose to resist temptation or give in to it. To give in to temptation it to distance myself from God. I need to choose to be obedient and walk with Christ. If I sit and pray day after day to have an intimate relationship with God but do not make good choices, intimacy will not result. I need to choose to exercise the disciplines of the spirit. To read scripture, pray, etc.

It is interesting that in Moses’ call for renewal and in Joshua’s call for renewal, choice plays a crucial part.
Deuteronomy 30 Moses’ call for renewal
This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live  20 and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Joshua 24 Joshua’s call for renewal
“Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD.  15 But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”

Authenticity – How can I have an intimate relationship with God if I am not honest with myself and with God. I cannot be what I am not, even if what I am is not what I think I should be. I can pretend to be what I am not and get away with it with many people, but not with God. Unless I am honest about who I am with myself and God, I will be restricted in the intimacy I can have in my relationship with God.

Along with authenticity comes vulnerability. I must express who I am, not hiding behind what I should be. To be authentic and vulnerable requires a certain measure of confidence, a trust that the other person in the relationship will not trample on your vulnerability, will not take advantage of what you reveal. Who can we trust in this way if it is not God?

Time – In a marriage, time away is necessary. A couple that is so busy with children and work and other responsibilities that they do not take time to be together to talk and listen and simply to enjoy being in each other’s presence is a couple in danger. Time away with each other is crucial to a healthy marriage. Is a relationship with God any different? How can we have an intimate relationship with God if we never or rarely take time to be alone with him? A day a month? A weekend a quarter? How can I listen to God if I do not get away so I can do that?

Individuality – When God creates he is creative. Not all plants propagate the same way. God does not sustain all fish in the same way. Why are humans any different? What works for one person may not work for another person. God is not restricted to any pattern of behavior. He reveals himself in many ways. He relates to us as individuals, not as robots created on an assembly line, all made from the same mold.

The problem is that Christians experience God in a certain way and then teach and write that this is how all Christians should experience God. John Fisher has a song with this chorus “Jesus is the only way but there is more than one way to Jesus.” To be in an intimate relationship with God, I must know who I am, how God created me so that I can discover how it is that God created me to be in a relationship with him.

Self-knowledge becomes an important element of intimacy with God. I am limited in my ability to know God by the limitations in my knowledge of myself. Calvin said that “to know God is to know yourself” and he said as well “to know yourself is to know God”. The more aware I am of who God made me to be, the more I am able to relate to God in an intimate relationship.

Longing – where does hunger or thirst for God come from? Surely it is a gift from God, but I think there are things we can do to create in us desire for God as well. I need to think more about this but am curious to discover more about what we can do to increase our hunger and thirst for God.

Seasonality – there is an ebb and flow to all relationships so why not with God? Even if I am doing all things properly, there will be times when I don’t feel intimate in my relationship with God. In fact, some of the saints in church history who have had a powerfully intimate relationship with God talk about experiencing what they called the long dark night of the soul, a time when any sense of God’s presence was removed and they experienced the depth of their sin and overwhelming need for Christ. God may be testing me to make my faith grow. So commitment must be present even when I don’t feel my relationship with God.

God’s pursuit of us – In all of this, the good news is that God desires an intimate relationship with us (a huge mystery). An intimate relationship with God involves more than our effort. God will encourage and direct us to an intimate relationship with himself.

I have often taken these words God spoke to Israel as words spoken to me.
Isaiah 43
4 Since you are precious and honored in my sight,
and because I love you,
I will give men in exchange for you,
and people in exchange for your life.

Scripture is so clear that it is God who pursues us. God desires to have an intimate relationship with us. As amazing as that is, it is a truth that encourages us and sustains us.

Finally there are elements of our intimacy with God: praise and knowledge. We are to love God with all our heart, soul and mind. We love God with our heart when we praise. We love God with our mind when we gain knowledge.

This is where we will be going though there will likely be some changes as we make our way through this series. Where do I want you to be as we begin this series?

I want you to be hungry. I want you to be wanting more than what you have. I want you to be longing for more. I want you to be open to what God has for you.

Why am I hungry? Why am I beginning this series of sermons? In part it is because from time to time I have tasted the goodness of the Lord. There have been moments in my Christian life when I have experienced his presence and those are precious memories for me. I have tasted and I want more. I am not satisfied with what I have.

Spend some time this week thinking about your relationship with God. Are you satisfied with the level of intimacy you have with God? Take time to have a spiritual checkup. How healthy is your spiritual life? Do you want and need a more intimate relationship than what you are experiencing?

Let me finish with a look at the passage from Exodus we read earlier. Listen in this account to the tenderness God has for Moses. Listen to the assurances God offers to Moses.

12 Moses said to the LORD, “You have been telling me, ‘Lead these people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. You have said, ‘I know you by name and you have found favor with me.’  13 If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you. Remember that this nation is your people.”
14 The LORD replied, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”
15 Then Moses said to him, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here.  16 How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?”
17 And the LORD said to Moses, “I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name.”

Wouldn’t you like to hear those words from God spoken to you?
‘I know you by name and you have found favor with me.’
“My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”
“I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name.”

I am hungry to feel loved and encouraged in that way from God my creator. I want a richer experience of Christ. I want to experience the rest he offers.

Please do not listen passively to these sermons. Allow them to stir up in you desire for God. Take time with God in these weeks and pray that he will help you open up to what he has for you.