Favorites vs. Intimates - Part 2

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Friday, February 2nd. Do you have a hunger to learn more about who God is? He wants intimacy with us. The question is, do we want intimacy with Him? As we'll hear today, it takes commitment and a willingness to listen.

Here's part two of Favorites vs. Intimates. Imagine God, Almighty, Sovereign of this universe, desire us to have an intimate relationship with you. Well, I want you to see how He developed that with Abraham, because I want to tell you, my friend, He will develop that with you.

And you know what? He's waiting on you. He's waiting on you. When I hear people say, I never heard God speak audibly, neither have I. I don't believe God does so and so. God's never said this to me. God doesn't operate this way. It may be that if you let Him develop with you what He wants to, you may hear what you've never heard. And I guarantee you'll feel what you've never felt and you'll sense what you've never sensed. The first thing God did in building a relationship of intimacy with Abraham, He made a commitment to Him.

Let me ask you a question. What commitment have you made to Almighty God since you've been saved that is just between you and Him and does not deal with other people? A commitment is involved in building an intimate relationship. Secondly, notice what I said, how many times or in fact, if you just read the life of Abraham, here's what you'll discover that most of the conversations that Abraham had were between him and God. Abraham developed a listening heart. He knew how to listen to God.

Friend, you'll never develop an intimate relationship to Him until you learn to listen to Him. And you see, one of the reasons, now think of it, one of the reasons our ideas of God are so shallow when He's willing to make it deep and unveiling Himself. Listen, if you want to see things in the Word of God that you've never seen before, I can tell you exactly how to do it. How many of you want to know? I'm going to tell you how. If you get on your face before Almighty God with an open Bible and tell Him that you humbled yourself before Him, and you want to fellowship with Him more than you want anything else in the world, and you want to know Him as you've never known anything or anybody, I'll guarantee you on your face before God, an open Bible, you'll discover more about Him than you'll ever discover sitting up in a chair, easy chair, taking it easy, reading the scriptures before you go to bed.

That's not it. Sometimes, for example, when I'm studying for a sermon, it just won't come. I know exactly what to do. Get on my face before God, stretch out on the floor and open that Bible and tell God I'm going to lie there, that He tells me exactly what I need to know, and then begin to talk to Him about Himself and about myself. And He's never failed to unfold the truth. I can tell you this, the motivation out of this pulpit's one thing, and that is that you would develop a hunger for God. And my friend, if you don't want an intimacy with Him, then you are going to miss what life's all about.

That's walking on a level with Him. You see, listen, if two people develop an intimate relationship with each other, they tell things to one another. They don't tell anybody else. Now, I'm not saying God's going to tell you in the big secret, but here's what He will do. He'll open what He's already written so you can understand it.

When two people build a relationship, it means they talk about things on a deeper, personal level than they're going to talk about it with anybody else. You say, well, I'll try to tell God about that. He's listening. He's caring.

He's understanding. And Abraham got, listen, God took the initiative to build with Abraham a beautiful relationship. And the Scripture says that the saints of old knew Abraham as the man who was called. Who was he called that by? He was called it by God. He was called the friend of God.

Can you imagine having that label on your name? John's one of the friends of God. Sue's one of the friends of God. But more than that, being intimate with Him. And you see, Abraham had an intimate relationship with Him. But only if I'm willing to spend time with Him, and only if I'm willing to make that a priority in my time, that I just really want to get to know who He is. And you'll get to know Him on your face before an open Bible. Now, if you're one of those persons who has some kind of physical problem you can't get on your face, God understands that.

He says, well, I don't know why I can't sit in a chair. Well, you can, but my friend, there is something about humbling yourself prostrate before God, that God Almighty honors. And I've seen it a thousand times when I really want to hear what God is saying. I want to get on the inside of Him, and I want to feel what He's feeling, and I want to know exactly what He's thinking.

That's the place to go. Prostrate before Him, Almighty God, I humble myself before you. Search my heart, expose my sin to me.

Let there be true confession if there's something that needs to be dealt with. But God, unveil thyself to me. Show me the truth of this. Let me see it as you see it. Do you think God's going to keep that from you? No, because you see, He's always the one who's taking the initiative to build the intimacy.

So that was true with Him. Then I want you to see something else that I think is interesting here in the 15th chapter, and that is there's an openness between two people who are intimate with each other. Look, if you will, in chapter 15. After these things, the word of the Lord came to Abraham in the vision saying, see, He came to him in all different kinds of ways. He says, do not fear Abraham. I'm a shield to you.

Your reward shall be very great. Now watch this. You know what? When two people are intimate, you know what they don't even have to do sometimes? They don't even have to tell each other how they feel.

They know how each other feels. He said, don't be afraid, Abraham. Then I want you to notice something that he says to him.

He says, Abraham said, Lord, O Lord God, what wilt thou give me since I'm childless and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus? Now, one of the things about building a relationship is that two people have to be open with each other. You can't build a relationship, an intimate relationship with God, if you come to Him in prayer saying, our gracious Heavenly Father, creator of the ends of the earth, almighty sovereign of the universe, thou transcendent God of all earth. Don't give Him that. You come to Him. How do you approach your wife?

You just say, sweetheart, I just want you to know that I love you. Abraham said, Lord, listen to what God said to him. Look at his reply. Here's God speaking. The word of the Lord came to Abraham in a vision saying, do not fear Abraham. I am a shield to you. Your reward shall be very great. Now listen, what did he just say to him? He said, don't be afraid. I'm going to be a shield to you.

Your reward is going to be very great. But Abraham said, Lord, now wait a minute, I'm concerned about something. I know what you said back in chapter 12. Now, he didn't say that exactly, but that's what he said. He said, I know what you've said to me. You said you're going to bless me and all the nations are going to be blessed. But he says the truth of it is I'm having a little difficulty here because I don't see how that's going to work out. Because the only the only fellow I've got around me is the servant, Eliezer. He can't be the one. But he just said, God, I don't I don't say you're going to work this out.

I need a little help here. Now, that may be a poor illustration, but it's an openness between him and God. Now, God just got through telling him, don't fear.

I'm a shield and a buckler. What did he do? He turned right around and said, but I am I am worried about something. Let me ask you a question. Do you ever feel like you can't tell God something? I meet folks who can't even tell God in privacy. They can't tell God in privacy something they feel.

The only way to develop an intimate relationship with the Lord is to be open. God, I know what you said. You said you were going to do something. God, I will tell you, I don't believe it. I'm having a hard time believing you. You have to if you're going to build an intimate relationship, don't try to fake each other. Don't try to fake God out. You can't fake him out. Just tell him, God, frankly, I just don't believe it right now.

I need some help. You know what God will do? He'll just love you and accept you in your doubt. Just put his loving arms around you and just pull you to himself. You know what he'll do? He'll do exactly what you need. That is, he'll just show you you can trust him.

Now, something else about an intimate relationship, and that is there'll be conflict. For example, if you'll remember what Abraham did here, he was here. He was serving the Lord and and being obedient to God. And so God said to him, he said, I'm going to give you a son.

Sarah says, I think I better help you out. And so she sort of stepped between Abraham and his devotion and obedience to God and suggested that he take Hagar, the handmaid, and have a child. You know, if you're going to build an intimate relationship, you have to build trust. And it's amazing how many times God comes to Abraham in different ways and says in our language, just trust me, Abraham, just trust me. And you see, he didn't trust, even though God said it and reconfirmed it again and again and again, because he didn't quite do it on time to suit Sarah.

And he weakened at the moment and he allowed her to convince him to do it another way. Abraham is certainly an intimate, but he's no favorite. That is no favorite to the point that he could disobey God without any consequences. He suffered the consequences.

The chapters that follow the conflict between Sarah and Hagar and he had to live in that. Plus, every nation since and the whole every century since has suffered the relationship between the descendants of those two children. You see, we're going to have conflict. We're not always going to agree with God. Now, we are always wrong when we don't agree with him. You mark that we're always wrong.

We don't agree with him. And there will be conflict and there'll be frustration that you see, you can't build an intimate relationship without risking something. What do you risk in building human relationship? You risk rejection. You risk being misunderstood. You risk having conflict. And if you if you absolutely can't take rejection, don't want conflict and surely don't want to be misunderstood. You never build an intimate relationship. Now, listen, God never misunderstands us.

All of that is on our side. But I have to risk something in building an intimate relationship with God. You know what I have to risk? I have to risk all of my rights, all of my wants and all of my desires.

And let me just tell you something. You get this in your heart out of my heart. If you tell God, God, I want I want to build an intimate relationship with you because I want you in my life more than anything else.

And I want a relationship with you where you can just unveil yourself to me, where you can do in my life everything that you chose to do. Here's what you've got to do. Friends, you've got to lay on the line every desire, every goal, every ambition, everything in your life that would in any way possibly compete with God.

And none of them may. But you've got to lay them down. If you're not willing to lay them down, there's no intimacy. Because here's one thing about building an intimate relationship with God, friend. You have to forsake, give up, forfeit everything you possess. Now, whatever God wants to leave you with may be more than you ever expected or it may be far less than you choose.

But that's the risk. And you see, the only thing Abraham had was God said, you get up and leave your family, your father, your friends and go into a country that I will show thee. That is, I'm going to show you as you go. He had to risk fully trusting God.

And listen, a lot of people do this and do not realize it. I want to be what God wants me to be. I'm going to be what God wants me to be. Whatever God wants, that's what I want.

And so here's what they do. They decide they're going to be what God wants them to be. And an imaginary line they draw in their minds, consciously or subconsciously, and they say, this is how committed I'm going to be. I want to be everything God wants me to be.

But they never dare step to say, God, I'm willing for you to do in my life, to my life, through my life, what, where, what, when, how you choose, regardless of the consequences and regardless of what anybody else says. I want to tell you something. You'll never build an intimate relationship with God until you take that step. And you think about this. The highest form of knowledge known to man is to know the mind of God.

That's the highest form of knowledge. Let me ask you a question. What would you rather have than that? What relationship in life do you prefer over an intimate relationship with God? That this God who created it all is willing to move into your life in a fashion that you have never experienced Him before.

Now, here's the thing I want you to remember. God doesn't build intimates with people who are worried about what other folks think about their devotion to Christ. He doesn't build relationships with people who compromise with sin. He builds relationships with people, intimate relationships with people who are willing to step down and say it doesn't make any difference what the world thinks.

What really matters is my relationship to Him. And let me say this about it. I believe that God must put the hunger in the heart of a person in order to do that. I don't believe it's something we just grab and put together.

I believe God must put it there. But listen, God wants that hunger to prevail in your heart above every other desire. A warm, intimate relationship with Him. And you see, if I'm going to build an intimate relationship with God, I've got to keep checking to be sure that my schedule and His are the same. And I find in my own heart when my relationship with Him is not as intimate as it ought to be, I have to look for the reasons.

And sometimes it's something that I'm doing that's not on His schedule. I must be available. I must be open. And I must have a deep hunger.

Now listen to me carefully. Jesus had the most intimate, perfect relationship with His Father. That's why His life was so tranquil even though it was so stormy.

It was tranquil on the inside. Intimacy not only gives us insight to who He's like that we never discover otherwise, but it has a quieting effect in quietness and in confidence is my strength. A quieting effect upon the person who's building that relationship. Are you satisfied with just knowing God on the level that you know Him? Now He knows you perfectly, but are you satisfied knowing Him on the level that you know Him?

Listen, you may be one of those persons who has great, you're just a reservoir of all kinds of spiritual information. But the question is, do you walk on a level with Him that is intimate, personal, private, warm, fulfilling and contenting? In other words, listen, is Jesus somebody that you can just sort of hide away with, just the two of you? And you be comfortable? I meet a lot of folks who are not even comfortable being by themselves. And listen, when you're with Him, you're not alone.

I just want to ask you one more time. How much time do you spend in a given week just being with Him? And that will tell you how deep your desire is to build that intimacy.

Here's what happens. When we learn to build an intimacy with Him, it's easier to build it with other people. And not only that, but God will begin to flow through your life.

He will begin to do through your life what, listen, what He will never do until He, just Him, just not what He has to give. You see, listen, if you build a relationship with somebody to get something, mm-mm, it won't work. You're not trying to build a relationship. You're not trying to build intimacy.

Intimacy, listen, intimacy must be based on the fact that I want a relationship with this person for who they are, not for what I'm going to get out of it. I want to build an intimate relationship with Him just because He's God. Whatever you're hungry for that exceeds your hunger to know Him on the deepest level possible and to experience the deepest expressions of His love and the deepest expressions of the awareness of the presence of God. And I want to tell you, He makes Himself real and intimate and warm and loving to anybody who will just take the time and tell Him, God, I just want to build an intimate relationship with You. Abraham was a man who was known as the friend of God, and God built with him a beautiful, intimate relationship, and he's still blessing us. Listen, I don't know of a greater gift that you could give your children than the example of a walk of a father or a mother who walks in intimacy with God the Father. Thank you for listening to Favorites vs. Intimates. For more inspirational messages like this, visit our online 24-7 station. And if you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.