Strengthening Community Through Intimacy with God

God has you here because he loves you and he has called you here and brought you here because he Longs for you to be drawn into sweeter intimacy with him that's why he has you here and so I think it's important to remember because God does draw us into intimacy with him but it is not just to that end he draws Us in to intimacy with him so that we might be a blessing and a strength to the body of Christ as a whole. [00:03:20]

Paul said if I have prophetic powers and understand all Min Mysteries and all knowledge if I have all Faith so as to remove mountains but have not love I am nothing so let me put it in different words that I think might be a little sharper as we sit at a conference on Bible intake if I have consistent and Rich time in the word and if I uncover many Mysteries that are here if I have all knowledge of the scriptures in the Greek and the Hebrew if I go to Every seminar that is at the look of the book conference and take copious notes but I am not being more overwhelmed by the amazing God and his love for me if I'm not being Amazed by the god of the Bible and his love for me and growing in my love for him and love for his body, then all of this is nothing. [00:04:10]

Our intimacy with God is about his body being impacted about it so that together as the body of Christ we are loving him more it's like the ripple effect everything in the body of Christ has a ripple effect and we know that we hear about I just heard about a couple that got married recently we don't even have to be related to people who are getting married and when we see them up there making a covenant before God and man and it's gonna get hard so they're saying when we don't have any money and when I don't feel good and when you're sick and I don't like you I am committing to love you until the grave till death do us part and we love seeing that and standing beside them and the joy ripples through there is great ripple effect and sorrow and loss when we when our friends and the other people in the body of Christ experience that. [00:05:00]

The faulty value that I think we suffer from is American individualism and I think this is more a Temptation for us in present day than it was in the Old Testament it was very family based I just don't think they dealt with it as much as we do since we've had technology and Industrial Revolution allowing for us an independence from other people that can contribute to this silo effect of us living in such a way that I don't really have to rely on anybody else at all I could get my groceries delivered I don't even have to walk outside the door I can live very independently of people most of Christian history your walk absolutely depended on the body of Christ you couldn't take in the word of God unless you were going to a place where you were communally hearing it and it was being explained to you and you could memorize it together and talk about it for the rest of the week until you came back for another deposit of God's word it was a communal life. [00:08:00]

I think that our Bible intake is absolutely very much a personal Affair but God never intended for it to be private he gives us these gifts gift of this conference that it might be shared and I think that we also suffer from a faulty practice and that faulty practice would be compartmentalization and it's just the idea that I schedule this little pocket of time for my personal devotions and then when my time is over I close my Bible and close my journal I go off to work or off to take care of the kids or off to see a friend and it is over. [00:12:40]

Deuteronomy 6 five love the Lord your God love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul with all your strength and with all your mind and these words that I command you today shall be on your heart you shall teach them diligently to your children and you shall talk of them when you you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise in fact bind them as a sign on your hand and then put them on a like a front liet in between your eyes this is so important that you would know how to love the Lord your God. [00:13:41]

I think that we have a faulty heart and that faulty heart comes out with our insecurity the idea that a lot of people who are sitting in this room who will be at this conference who think I don't have anything to offer in a conversation with the the people around me I don't have anything to tell them from what I've gotten out of the Bible that they haven't already gotten or that there hasn't been a book written about wrong 1 Corinthians 12 the eye cannot say to the hand I have no need of you nor again the head to the feet I have no need of you on the contrary the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable. [00:18:10]

I think that it is an exciting thing when you think about how to fight insecurity to find someone else who's probably struggling with the same and say can we do this together can we just try 30 minutes once once a week for a little while maybe you can take the Bible study challenge um other than that I would say where where is it that we go from here when if I'm saying that I think that we could be missing out on the strengthening that we could be getting in the body of Christ where do we go from here if that's the case and I think here are a few helpful things to Think Through on your own when you do get in the word and have personal devotions. [00:22:47]

I think you can evaluate the culture that you're in and I would say just if you think about your life in relationships and concentric circles start in the tiniest Circle who are your closest friends um who is your people that you spend most time with in your family because I have some questions for you is it normal or awkward to talk to each other about what you've been reading in the Bible cuz if it's awkward let's change that are we having conversations that contribute to our being upb built by the things we've been hearing in the word are you learning regularly from the people around you from what they're studying in the Bible. [00:25:07]

When the Bible is our book when it is the book for us what effect is that going to have I think it's the effect that Colossians 3:16 Says the word of Christ will be dwelling among you richly when we are not living under this American individualism perspective that this is all about me doing better and I've got to pull my my bootstraps get pull myself up by bootstraps and do better in my walk with the Lord if I am not just thinking about compartmentalization I need to schedule more sections of when to get in the word if we are thinking about the insecurities and leaning in on the body of Christ we are going to be strengthened in such sweet ways the word of Christ will be dwelling richly among us and we will be singing Psalms we will be increasing in our worship throughout the day we are going to be increasing in our Thanksgiving when you hear about other things that people have heard in the word that bless you it in inrees our Thanksgiving it helps us in The Daily Grind salting The Daily Grind of changing diapers and wiping off mouths. [00:26:39]

I think it helps our understanding a friend of mine sat and talked about Micah 68 and she was asking how is it that we do justice and love Mercy Justice just seems like harsh and I was so glad that I could look at her and say are you serious you're doing it you have adopted a little one that was fatherless and orphaned and he is in your home and you are loving on him you are a picture of doing Justice and loving mercy and adding more to that that was so great for her understanding of God's word to come in and bless her in a deeper way it helps us remember every day you don't even have to leave your home we are bombarded with messages that are screaming to us about what defines us and what we should fear and how we should live and what we should have we are more Victorious together and fighting against those Lies when we are reminding each other and asking how are you doing on the truth up here you seem a little distressed how are we doing with hiding God's word in our heart and sharing what we're learning. [00:28:17]

Our Bible intake does not terminate on us it is for the health of the people around us and I will end on this thought because I think that if you are like me after having written this talk I am feeling a bit discouraged about the way that I have not been offering strength and up building and love to the body of Christ and this is what I would say 2,000 over 2,000 years ago Jesus Christ was ripped out of the community that he had with God the father so that he could drink every last drop of God's Wrath on us even for the ways that we do not love each other every last drop was drained from that cup and when Jesus Christ cried out it is finished and was raised from the dead the ripple effect that came from that was a tsunami over all of the ways that we do not love the body of Christ the way we should so we are free to fall and fumble in figuring out how to let our personal intimacy with God be the collective Glory of his bride Jesus Christ. [00:31:21]