Intimacy with God

Psalm 32:5-8 Then I acknowledged my sin to you, and I made no attempt to

conceal my guilt. I said, “I will confess my offenses to the LORD,” and you
removed the guilt of my sin. Selah 6 Therefore, let everyone who is faithful
pray to you where you may be found.
Even if great floods threaten, they will never reach him. 7 You are a place of
refuge for me; you preserve me from trouble and surround me with songs of
deliverance. Selah
8
I will instruct you and guide you in the way you should go; I will counsel
you and keep my eyes upon you.
https://youtu.be/4Ccwoj9VKL4?si=elt7Vj5IBipD_3gK (Lord I need
you)
INTRODUCTION:
It was about 13 years ago, when a senior high school student was
preaching his last high school sermon at Northridge SDA church. He was
talking about intimacy with God, about learning how to hear God’s
voice, specially when going through sorrows, struggles and ruff times.
At the end of his sermon, he shared the experience of an alpinist, a
mountain hiker, that while he was ascending a very high mountain at below
0 temperature.
Night time was fallen and when it was almost impossible to see thru, the
unimaginable happened, he made a false movement and fell off the cliff,
fortunately, he was covered with the harness, with the cord that everyone
uses on expeditions of this nature. After falling down, suddenly the fall was
stopped due to the length of the rope. He was unconscious for a while, then
when coming back in the midst of frozen darkness he started screaming:
Hey, is somebody here? Please help, is somebody here? Please help.
He kept shouting for help for a while, but no one answered, there was
a deep silent.
When he was about to give up, terrible scared and feeling the cold of the ice
and snow while hanging on the rope. Once again and for the last time he
screamed: Help, help, is somebody here? Then all silent. Suddenly he
heard a voice: “Cut the cord, cut the rope”
After that, he continued screaming: Help, help…is somebody else here?
Then the same voice again was heard: “Cut the rope, cut the cord”

The following morning, when his team found that he was missing, they went
to search around and see if he was in any refuge waiting for them.
They found his body hanging four or five feet from the ground.

The surface was so close!. He was frozen and no vital signs. That young
alpinist who didn’t obeyed or recognize the voice in the most critical
moments of his life: “Cut the cord, cut the rope” In the most critical
moments of his life, when he was losing all hopes, he decided not to obey
without knowing that he was just a couple of meters away from the floor.

And you my brother and sister: Which is the cord that is holding you up
pending on this sinful world. There is a voice asking you to let go,
because He is waiting to hold you in His arms.

In the most crucial moments of your life: Jesus is there asking you to
have faith in Him, he is telling you “let it go” I can hold you in my arms if
anything happen, so please, surrender your life by following his voice.

Today, that senior high school student is a doctor at Loma Linda Hospital
and will be finishing his 5 years of specialty in Radiology. And in a couple of
months he will be working on his fellowship at Stanford University.
He decided to have faith in Jesus, he accepted the call to serve as a doctor
and will continue walking by faith.

BODY:
Are you willing to listen and cut the rope?
There is an inspiring Bible verse in Jhon 16: 33: “I have told you these
things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have
trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

The gospel of John, shows us the semblance of Jesus as the good Shepperd.
John 10:27-28 “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow
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me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will
snatch them out of my hand”.
Human kind was created, conceived by God with a purpose.
 To have fellowship with God
 To cultivate the garden
 To be fruitful and multiply
 To rule over the earth and all that is in it

There is a mission to accomplish. Though, unless we develop an intimacy

with God, we will not reach the optimum level that our Heavenly Father is
waiting from us.

Keep in mind that, to develop Intimacy with God is always up to you. You
can choose today to believe and obey His voice right now, to grow in a
spiritual dimension as God has always expecting from us.
John 17:3 “ Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God,
and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”

1. Intimacy with God starts when we have clear what it means to know
our Lord in a personal way.
It is God’s hope that we as His children, remain under his wing and walk in
the confidence that He always listen to us. (Jeremiah 33:3) “Call to me and I
will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.”
When you have intimacy with God, you will know and understand what God
has in mind for you.
Jeremiah 29:11-13 “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD,
“plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a
12
future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will
13
listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your
heart.“
2. What kind of intimacy you have with God and what level of relationship
with God is needed so you can stop carrying your troubles, your
sorrows, your struggles that you have carried for years, maybe 10, 20,
30 or more years, that you are exhausted by its burdens.
Let us think for a moment the kind of intimacy that Enoch had with God
after he found that he was going to be a father. Genesis 5 tells us that Enoch
was 65 years of age when he became the father of Methuselah (Methiusela)
and because of this marvelous and wonderful experience of being a father,
the Bible says that Enoch walked faithfully with God 300 years. Gen 5:24
Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took
him away.
Isn’t that, what Jesus want for us today? Do you remember what
happened the Sunday morning when Jesus had risen, after he met with the
ladies and Mary? Luke 24: 13-32
There were two men, walking back home after all the commotion caused by
His death on the cross.

Luke 24: 13-32 “Now that same day two of them were going to a village
called Emmaus (Hu-may-uhs), about seven miles[a] from Jerusalem. 14 They
were talking with each other about everything that had happened. 15 As they
talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and
walked along with them; 16 but they were kept from recognizing him.
17
He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk
along?”

They stood still, their faces downcast. 18 One of them, named Cleopas, asked
him, “Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things
that have happened there in these days?”
19
“What things?” he asked.

“About Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “He was a prophet, powerful in word
and deed before God and all the people. 20 The chief priests and our
rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified
him; 21 but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem
Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. 22 In
addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this
morning 23 but didn’t find his body. They came and told us that they had seen
a vision of angels, who said he was alive. 24 Then some of our companions
went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not
see Jesus.”
25
He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all
that the prophets have spoken! 26 Did not the Messiah have to suffer these
things and then enter his glory?” 27 And beginning with Moses and all the
Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning
himself.
28
As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued
on as if he were going farther. 29 But they urged him strongly, “Stay with us,
for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with
them.
30
When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke
it and began to give it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened and they
recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. 32 They asked each
other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the
road and opened the Scriptures to us?”

CONCLUSION:
Our spiritual life can be, not only abundant, fruitful and sustained over the
time. So you don’t debate on one day been spiritually at the top of the
mountain and a day after falling all the way down to the bottom.

It is a call to stay always, every moment holding hands with our Lord
Jesus Christ, knowing that he will lead us to growth all the time.
Everything starts with the kind of intimacy we develop with God. You can do
it, this is the day for you to make such decision. You are not alone, our
Father in heaven wants to help you. All you need to do is get to know Him,
spend quality time with Him, learn to identify His voice, get familiar with his
presence and you will not be deceived, more than that, your life will not be
at risk, because He will have your back, all the time.

Do you want to come here and join me on our knees to recommit in our
relationship with Him, to renew our intimacy with God.
https://youtu.be/nQWFzMvCfLE?si=I453dcmH8FFNNGBQ (What a beautiful
name)