Off Topic | Intimacy with God

Welcome to the Seven Audio Podcast.

Seven is a community of young adults in a ministry of Gateway Church in Dallas Fort Worth.

We hope you enjoy this week's message.

Well, good evening, everybody.

You guys doing all right?

Did you hear uh we're supposed to get some more snow tonight?

Did you hear this?

Two to four inches.

That's gonna give all you ladies another chance to prove how great you are and uh drive to work tomorrow.

So, anyways, uh man, I'm so excited to be here with you guys tonight.

And uh I want to thank Preston just for the opportunity to be here with you.

You know, he told me, he said, Mike, I'm just telling you, he said, worship here, it's like another level.

And and I was unprepared for just how great it was gonna be.

So I was like, man, this was another level.

You guys give it up for the worship band.

Those guys are awesome.

It was good stuff.

Um I'll just tell you a little bit about myself briefly as we get started.

Uh was raised in California and uh and lived most of my life.

I've got a Californian, all right.

Uh was there through high school and college, and then right after college, uh moved out to East East Texas.

Uh to yeah, a little bit of culture shock there.

You know, I moved from an area of California of about 12 million people to a town in East Texas of about 12.

So it was it was definitely uh a little bit crazy.

In fact, do you guys do you guys realize most of you were maybe were raised or grew up here, but you know this thing they call Southern hospitality, okay?

To you, this is normal, but to people from California, it freaks you out, okay?

I mean it was you know, in California, you when you say hi to people, you don't shake hands or hug, you just kind of head flick, right?

This if you get a head flick and a point, that means close personal relationship, family, you know, that type of stuff, right?

And I come to Texas and it was a whole different story.

I get off the plane, I'm kind of like, hey, meeting some people, and the first couple I meet, she goes, Well, brother, how are you?

Gives me a big bear hug.

You know, I'm like, personal space, I don't even know you, you know, you're freaking me out.

It's kind of a whole uh a whole adjustment period, but uh but moved here and and worked at a ministry for about six years and uh and had a great time there and actually met my wife during that time, Alicia, and uh she is actually from Texarkana, Texas.

So if you can just imagine the level of southern accent that I live with on a daily basis, uh it's it's pretty incredible.

When we were actually engaged, it was kind of a funny story.

We were having one of those conversations that you have when you're engaged, talking about the details of the wedding and all this stuff.

And and I'll never forget, we came to one point in the conversation, she just kind of interrupts in the middle of our discussion.

She goes, babe, you know what is so weird?

And I said, What?

And she goes, to think about changing my name in the middle of my life.

She goes, you know, my whole life I've been called Alicia Walden, and now I'm about to be called Alicia Gazardo.

She goes, Can you imagine changing your name in the middle of your life?

And so being the troublemaker that I am, I'm like, Well, babe, I've already changed my name for you.

She goes, What are you talking about?

I said, Well, my whole life I'm gonna call me Mike, and now I'm gonna respond to Mac for the rest of my life, so I know exactly what you're talking about, you know.

Yeah.

Don't try, I got punched for that one.

It didn't turn out well, so don't uh don't try that if it ever comes to you.

But, anyways, uh, we got married just about six and a half, seven years ago, and uh, since that time, the Lord just kind of moved me on to just a time of traveling and speaking across this nation and uh and some overseas, just doing the best we can to help spark a revival uh in the church today.

And um I I want to share something with you guys tonight.

Um is it okay if I challenge you guys a little bit tonight?

Can I just unload my heart a little on you?

Um there's a trend that I'm noticing uh in the body of Christ today, and it's just something that is just vexing my soul.

Um I think one of the things that I'm maybe most passionate about is to see people not just come into a relationship with Jesus Christ, I want to see that.

But that once they come into a relationship with Jesus Christ, I want to see them move on to accomplish the fullness of the destiny that God set them on this earth to do.

And I think a lot of times it happens, there's this pattern that I'm noticing.

Uh, you know, as I have the opportunity to go to a bunch of different churches, I see this everywhere.

And it's kind of like this.

Uh, if you were new, if you came to the Lord, you know, kind of you weren't born in church, but you came sometime later, this was probably you.

Uh, or if not, you've at least seen someone go through this, and it's kind of like this.

Uh, when you first come into a relationship with the Lord, you're just excited about Jesus, right?

I mean, you don't know anything about Christian culture.

You know, because you know there's a Christian culture, right?

I mean, you don't know the right way to dress, you don't know the right way to talk, you don't understand all the Christian ease that you're, you know, now, you know, justified and one day will be sanctified and then glorified, and you know, all this different stuff, and you don't know any of the words to the songs, you have no idea about church aerobics, okay?

Because you know there's church aerobics, you gotta stand up at certain times, clap, you know, all this stuff.

And so you're just off, you know, you're you're you don't you're standing up a little late, your clap is off, you just don't know anything that's going on.

You're the guy that comes up to the pastor after the message, and just in innocence, you tell him how great the sermon was, but you're still using curse words as your adjectives, right?

You know, you're like, that sermon was bleeping awesome, Pastor, and everyone stops, they're like, it's the new guy, you know, type of thing, right?

And you just kind of, you know, have no idea what's going on.

But but you kind of hang out a little bit and you start to kind of look around, you start to get this Christian thing down, and you start to learn, you know, all the stuff that you can't do, like, you know, the socially unacceptable sins, right?

Like, you know, cussing in public and partying and things like that.

And you kind of start to learn some of the sins you can hang on to because nobody really cares about, like selfishness and and uh materialism and things like that.

Those things are kind of okay.

And you kind of come to the point where you just start to settle in a little bit, you know?

And one day you look around the church and you go, you know what, man, I'm looking just like everyone else.

I am not the biggest heathen anymore.

You know, someone is taking my spot.

And pretty soon here's what happens, and I see this time and time again.

It's not that they fall away from God, it's not that they walk away from the church, it's not that they maybe get dragged back into a lifestyle of some type of horrible sin.

It's just that they stop pursuing with the same tenacity that they used to, you know?

It's kind of start to settle a little bit.

Sure, they love God, they're going to church, but but that kind of pursuit that they had when they were new, that they just whatever it took, and to lay anything down, they just start to normalize because after all, I look just like everyone else, so this must be all there is.

And so what happens is people just kind of begin to settle.

And I'm telling you, churches are full of people like this.

And I see this time and time again, and here's what I'm beginning to realize.

You know, the enemy has a plan for your life, just like the Lord does.

You realize that, right?

The enemy's first goal for your life is he wants to keep you out of heaven altogether.

Okay?

But have you guys figured out that once you come into a relationship with Jesus, Satan doesn't just give up on you, right?

Like, well, you're a Christian now, I guess I'll go mess with someone else, you know.

He just moves on to plan B.

And plan B for your life is maybe I can't keep you out of heaven, but if I can just distract you enough, if I can just, you know, make you complacent enough that I can just keep you good but not great, right?

That I can just keep you from maybe ever really accomplishing the fullness of what God has for your life, then he's at least succeeded at plan B.

And I think this is what happens to us.

It's almost like, you know what it is?

It's almost like we settle for relationship with God when what he really desires is intimacy, you know.

Let me give you an example.

Um, okay, say uh you take a married couple, and uh, you know, a lot of you aren't married, but you've seen this process take place.

You know, when when you're first getting married, I mean, you you think that there could never be any wrong in your marriage, right?

I mean, you're talking, you know, you've got the nicknames for each other, you call each other schmugums and peaches and all this stuff, right?

And you never, you don't even know what an argument is, right?

You hear about all these other couples that have been married for a while, and they argue, and you're like, yeah, but that's because we're in love, right?

We're not gonna argue ever, you know, right?

And you're just, I mean, you're having a great time, you're on your honeymoon, everything's perfect, you know, you're just helplessly attracted to this other person.

I mean, it's like several times a day you're holding hands and doing stuff, you know, and it's just amazing, right?

And you're thinking to yourself, man, there's no way that this intimacy could ever fade.

But but we've all watched what happens over time in some marriages, right?

Maybe 10 years goes by, a couple kids, you know, a couple hardships, and maybe they didn't guard that that intimacy that they had at the beginning.

And so what you end up with is two people, they're married, they're still in relationship, they've got that piece of paper that that shows that they're in a defined relationship with their spouse, but the intimacy has faded a long time ago, right?

And they're living under the same roof and all that type of stuff, but it's different.

Something's gone.

And I just wonder how many of us fall into that category.

Or are partway down the road in that category.

Yeah, we're going to church, we love God, but are we really walking in that daily level of intimacy with God, where he is thriving and alive in our lives to the point where whatever it takes, whatever he wants to do, he still has free reign to do it.

You guys, I really believe that a lot of us would be surprised if we really grasped the level of fellowship that God wants to have with us on a daily basis.

When you look at some of the analogies that the Bible uses, you know, to describe how he wants to walk with us, you know, he uses words like husband or talks about like a marriage of a husband and a wife.

He uses words like friend, shepherd, father.

You know, one of my favorite analogies uh in the Bible is in Hebrews 12.29, and it's a very famous verse, but it says, Our God is a consuming fire, right?

Just think about that verse for a second.

You know, have you ever seen something that's been consumed by fire, right?

You know, take something like a like a piece of wood, at the beginning, it's a piece of wood, right?

And after the fire consumes it, it basically goes through every piece of that piece of wood and it transforms every ounce of that piece of wood to where it just becomes ash, right?

Nothing about that piece of wood is the same as when it started.

And God is giving us that analogy saying, listen, this is what I want to do to your life.

Is that I want to permeate every ounce of who you are.

So that by the time I get done with you, man, nothing is the same.

It's all been transformed for the better.

But just ask yourself, is that how you would describe the level of leeway that you're giving God in your walk with him right now?

Have you gotten into that point, maybe without even wanting to or without even knowing it, where you're allowing the Lord to move in certain areas, but you've got those couple that you're like, God, I got these?

You can burn away over here, but uh, these ones are kind of off the table right now.

Ask yourself, if you had to be honest, would you have to more readily describe your walk with God right now as a controlled flame?

Something that's it's burning in your heart, it's alive and well.

Or could you honestly describe it as a consuming fire that is permeating every piece of who you are, you know?

Because there's a difference.

See, here's the thing, I'm trying to draw a fine line tonight, but I'm telling you guys that there's a difference between relationship and intimacy, and it might seem like a small thing, but it's a huge difference in the results it produces in your life.

You know, with relationship, you know, you you may know God is with me.

I got that.

But when you're walking in intimate fellowship, you hear his whispers guide you through the day.

See, it's different.

You know, when you're walking in relationship, you might know that the word of God is good and that there's truth in there.

But when you're walking in intimacy, his word becomes a lamp unto your feet and a light unto your path every day.

See when you have, you know, relationship, you have stories about what God has done in your life in the past.

When you're walking in intimacy, you have stories about what God is doing in your life now.

See?

You know, when you have relationship, you know, you you might know that you need to spend time with God and you might carve out a few minutes for him every day, but when you're walking in intimate fellowship, you get lost in his presence, you know?

And you just want to hang out there.

It's like when you walk in relationship, you might know God is mercy.

But when you're thriving in intimate fellowship, His mercies are new to you every morning.

See?

There's a difference.

And I think for some of us, God's desire is to bring us deeper tonight.

That He has so much more for us.

And He's saying, listen, don't level out, don't slow down, don't become complacent because you've gotten to the point where you fit in.

There's so much more.

You see, relationship doesn't fluctuate, but the battles for intimacy are won and lost on a daily basis.

You know, I'll I'll tell you what, you guys, here's why I'm telling you this tonight is because I think so many of us that call ourselves Christians miss so much in life simply because we lack deep enough levels of intimacy with God.

Can I tell you something?

Let me help you understand.

It's like when you sin, it's easy to see that there's a problem there.

Because you do something and there's some consequences.

You go, I did this, this happened, don't do this anymore.

Okay?

It's different when you lack intimacy.

When you lack intimacy, you miss things you don't even know you're missing.

That's why it's so hard to discern.

See, you you walk by doors that you didn't even see that God had opened for you.

You miss whispers that you just didn't hear.

Areas of obedience that you just reasoned and rationalized away that would have led to an overwhelming breakthrough in your life, you see.

So it's much easier to go through life not knowing that you're lacking intimacy, where maybe sin will cause a glaring, you know, alarm to go off in your mind.

You know, I'll I'll tell you what, I'll give you kind of a little compare and contrast from the scriptures that to help you see how I think so many times we miss things that God intended for us.

You know, I'll give you an example.

Um, first one is from Song of Solomon, and it's in chapter five.

And uh basically it's telling the story about Jesus, who in this scenario is the lover, and he's coming to share a night of intimacy with his beloved that represents us.

And so he comes and he knocks on the door of this girl's heart.

And he's wanting to share some time of fellowship with her and spend, you know, some quality time with her.

And so he knocks on the door, and here's how she responds.

In verse three of chapter five, it says, But I said to myself, this is the girl speaking, said, I've taken off my robe, should I get dressed again?

I've washed my feet, should I get them soiled?

My lover tried to unlatch the door, and my heart thrilled within me.

I jumped to open it.

My hands dripped with perfume, my fingers with lovely myrrh as I pulled back the bolt.

I opened to my lover, but he was gone.

And it describes this scenario where he he comes to meet with this girl.

And, you know, she just doesn't really have her heart in it in an intimate state.

You know, in fact, earlier in that chapter it says my heart was sleeping.

And so when he knocks on the door of her heart, she just starts to make excuses, you know.

Man, I mean, I've already taken off my robe, I'm gonna have to put it on again, it's gonna be inconvenient.

I've already washed my feet, I'm gonna have to get them soiled to walk to the door, you know.

She just begins to hesitate.

And so eventually he kind of shakes the door, and finally something snaps in her, and she says, you know, of course I'm gonna go and open the door.

And she goes, and the perfume and the myrrh that were coming through the handle of the bolt represented the good things that her lover desired to bring her that night.

And it says she opened the door, but he was gone, right?

It was a missed opportunity.

And I look at that scenario and I just wonder, I wonder what revelation she might have gotten from the king that night.

I wonder what life-altering favor might have been hers in that moment, you know?

Here's the crazy thing is that she probably woke up the next morning and she was still the beloved, nothing had changed.

But you see, that's the problem.

Nothing had changed, you see.

Something was supposed to change.

There was a moment that was supposed to happen in her life, but it just passed her by.

You know, I wonder how many times that happens to us, right?

Yeah, God knocks on the door of your heart.

You ever feel that?

You ever just feel like, you know, Bill Heibels talks about those whispers?

You ever just feel that whisper, hey, come steal away with me, right?

And we make those excuses.

God, the finale of American Idol is on today.

Surely that can't be you.

I mean, come on, right?

Or have you ever had that thing happen where you just feel God drawing you and you don't say no, you just say, okay, I'll get to it in a minute.

And like three, four, five hours go by, and you're like, oh yeah, that's right.

I need to spend some time with God, and you try to plug in, it's just not really there.

And you're like, oh, who knows what that was, and you move on.

See, I just wonder what would have happened.

We go through that and it's okay, we wake up the next day, everything's fine, nothing's changed.

But you see, that's the problem again, right?

Nothing's changed.

You know, you compare that with a totally opposite scenario like Abraham in Genesis 22 when God asked him to sacrifice his son.

Listen, if anybody ever had reason to hesitate when God was speaking, it was Abraham, right?

I mean, he waited 25 years for the son, finally he's here, he's raising him, and now God says, go and sacrifice your son.

And the thing that's so amazing, Abraham keeps his heart in such an intimate state that not only does he obey God, the Bible says he literally gets up early the next morning.

I don't know about you guys, but knowing myself, I would probably try to at least over-spiritualize it a little bit, you know, maybe fast for a couple days, you know, just make sure it was the Lord or whatever, right?

Nothing.

He doesn't do any of that.

He just gets up, goes, obeys the Lord, and we all know the story.

God intervened, and but but I want you to see what happened in that moment as a result of his obedience.

We see in Genesis 22, later in that chapter, verses 15 through 18, it says this.

Then the angel of the Lord called out to Abraham from heaven.

He says, This is what the Lord says, because you've obeyed me and not withheld even your beloved son, I swear by my own self that I will bless you richly.

I will multiply your descendants into countless millions, like the stars of the sky and the sand on the seashore.

They will conquer their enemies, and through your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed.

All because you obeyed me.

Listen, I look at that, and something of me wonders, what if he'd have missed that moment?

Like, what if he'd have just said, Oh God, that's just too much of you to ask, I'm not gonna do it, and just decided, hey, it's too much.

You say, Well, Mike, I mean, are every time we miss these moments with God, are they that big?

Well, well, probably not.

But I don't know about you guys, I don't want to miss any, you know, that I don't have to.

You know, I'll tell you what, you guys, I I really feel like, man, that that if we just understood, I here's how I think of it.

I think intimacy with God is the ultimate wonder drug in life.

I really do.

It's the one thing that changes everything in your life.

It's almost like when you get sick, okay, and you get certain symptoms, you need to take specific medicine for specific symptoms, right?

Like if you have a cough, you have to take cough medicine, but but it won't help your headache, right?

You gotta take something different for that.

But wouldn't it be great if there was just one pill that you could take and it just got rid of any symptoms you were feeling?

It made you smarter, better looking, uh, you know, reversed all your old sports injuries and made you like, you know, uncontrollably attractive to the opposite sex.

How many guys would appreciate that pill, right?

Some of you guys are like, is that available?

Because I'd love to know.

Listen, I really believe that's what intimacy is like for your soul.

Okay?

Maybe not the attraction part, but but just literally, it's the one thing you pursue that changes everything about your life for the better.

You know, it's it's almost like you look at some of the verses that God gives us in his word.

You know, Psalm 37.4 says this says, Delight yourself in the Lord, that's one thing, and he'll give you what?

The desires of your heart changes everything, right?

Says in Matthew 6.33, seek first the kingdom of God, that's one thing, and all these things will be added unto you, right?

2 Peter 1.3 says, as we get to know Jesus better, that's one thing.

His divine power gives us everything we need for living a godly life.

You see, it's the one thing that we pursue.

When we grow to deeper levels of intimacy with God, it's one thing that we're pursuing, but it transforms every single thing in our life for the better.

It's almost like if you have an object, it's dark, and you want to see one part more clearly, and you bring it closer to the light.

How many of you guys know it doesn't just illuminate the one part you want to see, it illuminates the entire object, right?

And when we draw nearer to the Lord, that's what happens.

He begins to shine on every part of our life.

It is the highest leverage activity you can do is to carve out that time to grow deeper with Him.

I'm telling you guys, if we went around this room, we could we could basically say, hey, here's the main thing I'm struggling with in life, and I promise you, intimacy is the answer to it.

You say, you know what it is for me, Mike?

I just I don't have joy in my life.

I'm really needing more joy in my life, I don't know what's going on.

I'm telling you, intimacy is the answer.

Psalm 1611 says, in his presence is fullness of joy, right?

That's where it's found.

You say, well, you know what it is for me, Mike?

I'm lacking peace, I'm stressed out, I got financial situations going on, I got all these things happening in my life.

Listen, just get closer.

What does it say?

Isaiah 26, 3 says, I will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, or you will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, whose thoughts are fixed on you.

See, it's a byproduct.

You know, we could go on and on, talks about direction.

You know, you look at the Israelites in Isaiah chapter 30, they were needing direction and they were looking to natural means, and the Lord begins to rebuke them.

Isaiah 30 · chapter mention

In Isaiah 30, verse 21, he says, He's encouraging them to come back to him and look to him for direction.

Isaiah 30:21

He says, if you'll do that, whether you turn to the left or to the right, you'll hear a voice behind you saying, This is the way, walking it.

Right?

Listen, whatever it is that you're going through, I'm telling you, God is just desiring to draw us deeper so that we can remove the obstacles that are keeping us from moving on in him, and even some of the things that we're feeling, the lack of joy, the lack of peace, the things like that begin to dissolve when we draw near.

Here's what I want to do, you guys.

I I just want to really quickly just share with you maybe a few battlefields where I feel like intimacy is gonna be one and lost in your life.

And my hope for you guys is maybe in this first half to help you understand it how important this is.

But in this second part, I just want you to hopefully find one of these things.

Maybe two that you go, hey, you know what?

Man, that that's an area maybe I need to make an adjustment in my life.

And my prayer for you as you do this is that a fresh level of intimacy is gonna rush in your life like a flood.

And you're gonna say, you know what?

Maybe I didn't know that it was gone, but now that it's back, I don't know how I ever lived without this.

I'll start with some simple ones and then maybe we'll get a little more complicated.

But the the first one, battlefield, where I believe intimacy will be one and lost in your life, is simply time.

Okay.

This might sound like a profound statement, but it will be impossible for you to have a high level of intimacy with someone that you don't spend time with.

Okay?

I know that sounds profound.

All right.

But listen, it's true.

Okay, some of us, it might just be as simple as rearranging our schedule a little bit.

Okay?

Next time that alarm clock goes off, instead of get behind me, Satan, pushing the snooze button, maybe we need to get up.

And just spend that time.

Listen, have you ever seen little kids, you know, and and and they laugh or they have some mannerisms that is just like their dad or their mom?

You're like, man, that just totally looked like your dad.

You know what it is?

Is they're spending so much time around them that they're becoming like them, right?

And it's the same thing that happens if we'll just get time in God's presence.

You know, you look at 2 Corinthians 3.18, it says this, it says, But we all with an unveiled face are beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory.

And here's what he's saying here is like there's this mirror where we have an unveiled face and we can behold the glory of God.

And if we'll just spend time in front of that mirror, what happens is it begins to transform us into the image that we're looking upon, right?

And sometimes it's just gonna take some time getting ourselves in front of that mirror and being with him and letting God transform us into his image.

It's like we get examples like this in nature.

You know, I love the example of, say, the moon.

And uh, you know, you look at um, you know, you look at the moon, and we most of you know, I mean, the moon is a completely dark object on its own, right?

There's no light in the moon.

The reason why the moon lights up the night sky is because when everything gets out of the way and the moon is in the unhindered trajectory of the sun, the sun is able to shine on the moon and it transforms it from a ball of darkness into a beacon of light that lights up our night sky.

And listen, it's some it's the same thing with our lives.

Sometimes if we'll just get things out of the way enough and spend some time in the unhindered trajectory of God, He transforms us from a ball of darkness, or maybe we don't have revelation in certain areas into a beacon of light in our life.

And some of us it's just gonna be as simple as getting some more time with Him.

You know, sometimes I hear people say to me, they go, Well, Mike, you don't understand, I just don't have time.

I'm too busy, I just don't have time to spend adequate time with God that I need.

Man, if that's you, can I just make a suggestion?

If you're too busy to spend the time with God that you need, maybe you're just too busy.

Maybe you just need to alter some things or take some things off your schedule.

Listen, you don't have time not to spend with God.

If you're not spending time with God, you're gonna be less effective at everything you do.

You know, when people tell me they don't have enough time to spend time really pressing into the Lord, it's like someone telling me I've got a hundred-mile journey to make and I'm my gas tank's not empty, but I'm so late I just don't have time to stop for gas.

Well, it's gonna take you a lot longer to push.

You know, I mean it just doesn't make any sense.

And I think for some of us it's the same thing.

Listen, let me give you an example.

Have you ever had something in your life and you've just wrestled with this thing for like six months?

And then finally, like one word from God solves the whole problem.

You ever been there, right?

You ever wonder whether you're supposed to struggle for six months?

Whether you finally just got desperate enough to press in, and actually the answer was there all along.

Listen, I'm telling you guys, I know what it is to be busy.

I remember when I first graduated college, I was working for a ministry, and there was a time they had two shifts, kind of an A shift that was in the day and a B shift that was at night.

And I oversaw a department on the A shift, and they they needed me to help out with a department on the B shift and oversee that.

And so there was a several months where I was there eight in the morning to two in the morning.

Thankfully I wasn't married at that time, so I didn't have a wife uh beating me up.

But but uh, I mean it was just a crazy, crazy time.

And sometimes I was still traveling on the weekends, and and I'll never forget, even during that time, making a conscious decision to still get up early in the morning and spend some time with the Lord, or you know, everybody else would go out to lunch and I'd bring my lunch and get in my car and drive up in the woods and just get 30 minutes with the Lord, you know, or if a meeting would end early, I'd close the door and just get a few more chapters in.

Because I remember thinking, man, even if I help this department, we send thousands of kids on missions and do all this stuff, but I lose my intimacy in the process.

What have I gained?

And what am I gonna have to give those that are looking to me, right?

So time is a battlefield where intimacy will be won and lost in your life.

Another one to look at, you guys, is simply what I'll call um distractions.

And uh man, this is so prevalent in our society.

It's almost like every soul was born needing God to run properly.

Okay?

And it's almost like we we face so many things in our life that even when we know Jesus and He's in our life, there's so many hardships and trials and things are gonna come our way in a fallen world.

Our soul is constantly desperate and in need of more of God.

And so here's what happens is when our soul gets lean and it needs more of the Lord, unfortunately, it'd be nice, but unfortunately, our soul doesn't usually cry out through our mind, please put some more Jesus in and I'll feel a lot better.

The symptoms of a lean soul can sometimes be very subtle.

Sometimes they're huge and obvious, but sometimes they're things like discontentment, frustration, anxiousness, boredom.

And these are symptoms that something is awry in our soul.

And what we should do in those moments, we should take those feelings to the Lord and ask, and God will begin to show us what the cause of that is, and we can He can work us through healing that, and those symptoms begin to leave when we grow deeper in Him.

The problem is because our society has so many distractions available to us, when we feel those symptoms, we get frustrated, we get anxious, we run to just a myriad of distractions in our life.

And it can be anything, it can be a television program, you know, your video games, it can be, you know, some hobby that you have that's a fruitless hobby, it can be, you know, your Facebook, whatever it is.

And we run to these things in an unhealthy way, and they don't heal us.

They don't resolve the symptoms, they just temporarily pacify us for a moment, right?

And it eases the feelings for a little while, and then we go to bed and we wake up the next day, and when we feel those things again, we run right back to one of those distractions and we pacify ourselves again.

And so instead of going deeper and being transformed, we just stay in the same area, right?

Let me show you how subtle this is, how easy this can happen.

Have you ever had this happen to you?

Um, you just have a bad day, a bunch of stuff doesn't go your way, and you're like, man, I have had such a horrible day.

I'm just gonna go home, get a big bowl of chocolate ice cream, everything's gonna be okay, right?

Something like that.

Listen, it's so subtle, but but look at what we just did.

God, something is awry in my soul.

Let me go run to a food for comfort.

See?

And we just erect a little idol in our life, a little chance that we had to draw near and be transformed, and we just use something else to pacify.

You know, I remember there was a time in my life when I felt like I always had the presence of this one distraction in my life.

And there's certain things that we have hobbies and things that are fruitful, and God says, hey, these are great, but there's certain ones that are they're just distractions.

And you know, for a while, my brother, you know, I never was a big video game guy, but my brother got me into this one video game, and I started playing this thing all the time, and God was like, You gotta let this thing go.

And then some of my other friends got me into this thing called fantasy football, okay?

And I mean, you'd have thought they were paying me to do this, how much time I was spending on this thing, you know?

And it was just like, and I just, you know, the Lord would keep telling me, lay these things down, and being the obedient child that I am, I would lay it down and then just pick up something else, right?

And put it in his place.

And so I kept going through this process, and when God would ask me to lay these things down, I'd get frustrated.

I'd be like, Well, God, I got plenty of time.

I mean, I'm getting all my other stuff done, I'm having my devotion time, I'm, you know, getting my stuff taken care of.

And I'll never forget one day the Lord's speaking to me.

He said, Mike, listen.

He said, You can do as much of this stuff as you want.

I'm still gonna love you.

But he said, if you want to have more of me, he said, these things have to go.

I don't know what else to tell you.

He said, When you want more of me, you've got to make room for more of me in your life.

You just have too many things pulling out your mind time to grow deeper.

And the Lord began to show me that when we have these areas, you guys, they have to be pruned away.

These kinds of distractions are the enemy of deeper intimacy with God.

And let me just warn you in advance, when you try to prune these things away, you're gonna go through some withdrawals, okay?

Because when those feelings of anxiousness and discomfort and all that stuff rise up, your pacifier's gone, okay?

And so there's gonna be a little bit of time where you're just feeling like, man, this is horrible.

But if you'll, you know, just hang on through those withdrawal symptoms, eventually God will begin to fill your life with more of Him and what it really needs, right?

I I remember a couple years ago I just finished a book that I'd um it was my first book, and and uh I just had had an initial conversation with one of the publishers, and and so I got off the phone and I was um I was just spending some time with the Lord, and God just immediately spoke to my heart.

He said, Hey Mike, you remember those distractions I asked you to lay back over lay down over the last couple years?

And I said, Yeah.

He said, I just want you to know if you wouldn't have laid those distractions down, you'd have never written this book.

He said, not only that, you would never even known that you were supposed to.

So what are maybe the things in your life?

They're not sin.

They're just distractions.

And you know God's been asking these things of you, but you've been using logic and reason and all these things while you don't need to.

Listen, I'm telling you, they're they're an enemy, they're an enemy of deeper intimacy in your life.

Could be time, could be distractions, another thing could be a sin.

You know, Psalms 25, 14 says, the secret of the Lord is with those who fear him.

With them he shares the secrets of his covenant, right?

Look, you know, sometimes you guys, I think in the church it's funny because a lot of us sitting here tonight, you'd say to yourself, Well, I can check that one off the list.

I don't have any big sins in my life.

What about the small sins?

You know what's funny in the church, we don't even have small sins anymore.

We just have issues, right?

Because sins need to be repented of, but issues are gonna be so sympathetic.

You know, it's just an issue I've got, right?

Listen, Mother Teresa said, fidelity in the small things leads to God.

Infidelity in the small things leads to sin.

Can I tell you guys something I think sometimes we don't think about?

You know that in the world there's gateway drugs, right?

There's smaller drugs that lead to harder drugs.

How many guys know in your life there's gateway sins?

You know that?

There's smaller areas of sin that lead to greater areas of sin.

Have you ever had this happen?

You ever had an area of sin that you conquered in your life?

The Lord helped you overcome it, you're feeling good, you haven't struggled for about a year, you know, maybe longer in this area, and all of a sudden you fall out of nowhere?

What happened?

Chances are, if you were to look back, you set a pattern of saying no to the Holy Spirit in the small things.

And then when the big test came, you became more susceptible to fall.

You see, we gotta realize every decision you make is building momentum closer to the Lord or further away.

You know, I remember one time I was walking through the parking lot in Walmart and I just feel the Lord speak to my heart.

Mike, pick up that piece of trash.

And I'm, you know, again, sometimes I've just so like, you know, frustrating for the Lord, I'm sure.

But I'm like, I get upset, I'm like, God, I'm gonna pick up that piece of trash, you know, and I'm like, that's that's someone's job.

I mean, I'm taking their job away.

I'm not gonna, you know, all this stuff.

And and and he just keeps, you know, messing with me, you know, and so I go back and I pick up that piece of trash and I throw it away, and I'm totally having a bad attitude.

You know, I'm walking through the through the Walmart and I go, God, what was that all about?

And I'll never forget the Lord's speech.

He goes, Mike, it had nothing to do with that piece of trash.

He said, I'm teaching you to obey me at a moment's notice, even when it doesn't make sense.

He said, if you won't obey me in the parking lot with a piece of trash, you'll never obey me when you're ministry.

And I say, Hey, don't talk about that.

I know you had that plan, but I want you to say this.

Or, hey, see that person?

I need you to speak this into their life.

You know, I'll tell you guys, what are the areas that God is speaking to you, areas of sin?

You know what else I'll tell you?

Can I just save you?

Like what took me four years of trouble.

I think sometimes I'm a little slower than most people, but how many of you guys know God has a unique destiny and purpose for your life, right?

You know what that means is He's gonna shape you in a unique way.

What that means is there are things that are gonna be sin for you that are not sin for your neighbor.

And there may be some things that God is asking of you right now, and you haven't laid them down because you're looking around at everybody else and going, well, God isn't asking them to do it.

Right?

Maybe God's telling you you need to shut off the TV for about a month of your life and spend some more time.

Well, God, you're not even asking Preston to do that, and He's a pastor, for goodness sakes.

I mean, if surely if you wanted me to do that, you'd make the pastor do it too.

Trust me, God's asking other things of him, okay?

Listen, or you're like, you know what?

You're like, hey, uh, you know, God, look, if you can show me the Bible where it says, Thou shalt not watch TV, I'm in.

But you know, outside of that, I just, I'm not sure I can do this, right?

Or you know what?

This is what the ladies do.

The ladies, you know, you know, ladies, you got those special friends that you can call in that moment, you know?

That you know are gonna be sympathetic.

You're like, girl, I just really feel like God has asked me to lay this area of my life down.

Oh, he wouldn't want you to suffer like that.

You're right.

So glad I called.

Right?

And then we feel so justified.

See, I knew that wasn't God.

We keep our little pets in.

Listen, can I tell you something?

And those things, they're the enemy of deeper intimacy with God.

Let it go.

I can't tell you how many things that God has spoken to me that I'm like, nobody else, and you're not asking anyone else to do this.

Why is it me?

But as I've yielded in those areas, I've watched God bring fruit in my life, and I go, man, I had no idea where you were going there.

But some of you it might be something as simple as a small sin or an area that you've decided wasn't that big of a deal, or nobody else is doing it, and God is speaking to you even right now, saying, Listen, you need to let that area go.

Could be time, could be distractions, could be sin.

The last thing could be is just what I'll call a divided heart.

And this is where there comes a time in our life where certain things begin to elevate themselves and they begin to compete with our loyalties to the Lord.

And when God asks certain steps of us, we'll obey in any other area but this one.

And when we have situations like that in our life, it will cripple our intimacy with God.

I believe it's Luke 16, 13, says, you cannot serve two masters.

You know what I see happen a lot?

I really believe you guys that the enemy discerns our destiny very quickly in life, and he sets up some type of a stronghold right over the doorway to our destiny.

You know, I really believe as I look at people, everybody has at least one that maybe came in their life as a kid, what I call prevailing stronghold.

And for you, it's that one thing.

God, you can touch any area of my life, but please, not this one thing, right?

Maybe it's your image, maybe it's your security.

Who knows what it is?

But can I tell you something?

When it comes to that one thing, that is going to be your Garden of Gethsemane in your life.

And what you do with that one issue, that anything but this God, will make the biggest difference whether you stay on this side of the cross or go to the resurrection side of the cross.

And whether you stay being a Christian but never really experiencing the fullness of the resurrection life you read about in the scriptures, or going on to experience the fullness of what God has for you.

You see, I believe our journey with the Lord can kind of be likened to uh ascending the mountain of spiritual progress, right?

And uh it's like the Lord wants to take us to the pinnacle of the mountain, and he says, Listen, there's only one rule: you can take nothing with you.

You hold on to nothing, I'll provide everything you need along the way.

And we say, Great God, I'm in.

I want to go to the top.

And instead of obeying his instructions, we show up the next day with our 90-pound backpack full of all our comforts, securities, you know, things we think we might need, right?

And the Lord in his love says, All right, let's go.

And so as we begin to journey with him up the mountain, we uh, you know how it works, we come to certain points where we can't quite squeeze through a crevice or climb over a rock with the stuff that we have in our backpack.

And at those junctures, the Lord will speak to us and let us know what needs to be removed to continue on with him, right?

And if we remove those things, we continue on with the Lord.

If we don't, it's not that he gives up on us, he doesn't stop loving us, but you know how it works, he takes you kind of back around the mountain, maybe a couple weeks, a couple months, give you the same test again, right?

And he kind of keeps working on you, you know, hoping that you'll kind of come around in that area.

But if we ever come to a point where we say, no, I'm not doing it, what happens is it's kind of like we camp out somewhere on that mountain of spiritual progress.

And we get up every day and we reason with ourselves.

We look at all the people that we're a little bit higher than in the journey, and we reason with ourselves and we're doing pretty good.

But deep in our heart we know the pinnacle awaits, right?

And God is desiring for us to let go and break camp and let him continue us up the mountain.

You know, I remember when when the Lord began to work on this one area of my life, and um I had some things happen in my childhood that that made me a very insecure individual.

Um man, I I believe I was probably the most insecure person ever walked the face of the earth.

I mean, I I could share stories with you of just how deep-rooted this thing was in my life.

And so it caused me to compromise a lot in in high school.

I made some bad decisions, but it worked from an acceptance standpoint.

I became a real popular kid.

And so I thought, see, I'm healed of all these insecurities in my life.

And when I finally turned my life over to the Lord, um I didn't realize it, but these things were just as deep-rooted.

I just didn't have to face them when I was in high school because I was a real popular kid.

And so as I began to serve the Lord, these things would surface and God would begin to work on them.

But, you know, eventually it was, I was about 23 years old, and God was really trying to work on this stuff in my life, and and I'll never forget, he spoke to me one day in a quiet time.

He said, Mike, he said, your entire personality is nothing but a defense mechanism to make sure that you'll never have to face rejection again.

And I remember thinking to myself, well, if my whole personality is a defense mechanism, then who am I?

You know, I'm having this midlife crisis, you know, at like 23 years old, you know.

And and uh so he began to work on that, but it really came to a head, um, you know, when about a year or so after that, people began to invite me to speak.

And and I was just petrified to speak.

I mean, like I said, I believe the enemy always sets up a stronghold over the doorway to your destiny.

And so I was so afraid to speak.

And I remember I'd be standing there getting ready to go on, and it would be like my teeth were chattering.

I was so afraid, you know, and if I stopped my teeth from chattering, then I'd start shaking.

It was kind of one of the two, you know, and and uh and I'll never forget, I was just so nervous uh to do that, and it was such a like stressful experience.

I mean, I'd get done and I'd like to have to like take two days of vacation, you know, because it was just this it was this opportunity that I was putting myself out there to face what I had built up in my life as a totally irrational fear from some of the things that had gone on in my past.

And I remember the Lord speaking to me one time, he said, Mike, you know what you are?

He said, because I would only accept like one opportunity a month to make sure I could memorize my sermon and get it perfect and do all this stuff.

And he said, You know what you are, Mike?

You're like my fine China plate.

He said, You only want to come out under the perfect circumstances, with the best of company, you know, whatever.

He's like, but but Walmart, but but China plates don't get used that much.

He said, I want to convert you to a Walmart plate, you know, where you come out every night, sloppy Joe's, doesn't, you know, whatever's happening, you're there, you know.

And I began to realize that this inability that I had to do that.

And so uh right about that time, um, I went to visit a friend that I hadn't seen in a while, and and uh he he looked at me and said, Mike, you know, your hair is really thinning.

And uh and I looked back and I said, No, it's not.

My hair's just very fine, that's just the way God made it, and uh it's not it's not thinning at all.

And uh and so I remember going home and I looked in the mirror and I was like, dear God, he's right, you know?

And so I mean, uh this was like for most people, this would be no big deal, but for me, because of the strongness that I had in my life, this was the end of the world.

I mean, it was like lose a limb, hair fall out, I'm gonna have to pray about it.

I mean, it was just like this, it's gonna be this major flaw in my life, you know?

And so I remember I did this research, and I like for like three hours finding the latest, greatest, you know, lotion, potion, turn your head into a chia pet thing I could possibly find, you know.

And I remember finding this one thing, and it was like 300 bucks, and I ordered this thing and paid 50 bucks for overnight shipping, you know, and and so it comes to my house, and I remember grabbing this thing and I put it down and and uh and I'm getting ready to open it, and I'll never forget the Lord just speaking in my heart.

He said, Mike, send it back.

I said, God, what are you talking about?

He said, Mike, you've served your image your whole life.

He said, You choose this day whom you're gonna serve.

He said, I'm telling you, you can do nothing to help this because I'm using it in your life.

And so, just like Abraham, I prayed about it for three straight days and asked God to change his mind.

And uh, and he didn't.

Um and so I sent it back.

And over those next several years, the Lord just he could have used anything, but he used that scenario to cause me on a daily basis to walk through and face these fears that have been just completely binding my life.

You know, I've since realized the only way to really conquer fear is to walk through it and realize it was a lie to begin with.

I mean, I believed, man, I would never be able to speak because who's gonna want to listen to some ugly bald guy speak, and I'm never gonna get married, and I mean all this stuff, and I believed these things, it was crippling.

And so I watched the Lord use that process to heal me of these things because he knew what he'd ultimately call me to do.

And I share that with you tonight because if I would have said no in that moment, I'd still be a Christian.

I'd still be serving God somewhere.

But I promise you I wouldn't be here with you tonight.

I'd be doing something somewhere, maybe a little bit less than what God had ultimately called me to do.

And for you tonight, maybe what is that one thing for you?

Maybe it's that thing that God has been asking you for for several years.

Maybe it's a relationship, maybe it's something in that area, and you're like, God, I just can't let go.

Listen, I'm telling you, there is more for you, and God is desiring to draw you deeper.

And those things that we hold on to are just holding us back.

I'll give you one last scripture.

It's a story in 2 Chronicles 15, and it kind of is a perfect account of what we've talked about tonight.

In verse 3 of that chapter, it says that for a long time Israel had been without the one true God.

And what it means there, Israel was the people of God, right?

But they had idols in their land, they were messed up, they weren't walking in daily intimacy for a long time.

They had they were in relationships, they were covenant people, but no intimacy with God.

And so a prophet comes and he tells King Asa at the time, he says, Look, you got all kinds of idols in your land.

Here's what's keeping you back from knowing the Lord the way you desire.

And so it says that King Asa takes heart and he begins to get rid of every idol.

He just begins to abolish all the things that were revealed to him that were standing in the way of greater intimacy for with God between Israel and uh and the Lord.

And I want you to see what happens here.

In verse 12 of that chapter, the last several verses, it says, Then all of Israel they entered into a covenant to seek the Lord, the God of their ancestors, with all their heart and soul.

Verse 14, it says, They shouted their oath of loyalty with trumpets blaring and horns sounding.

All were happy about this covenant, for they entered into it with all their hearts.

Right?

So they're getting rid of all the stuff that they think could be keeping them back.

And I love this last sentence.

It just grips my heart.

It just says, eagerly they sought after God and they found him.

And he gave them rest from their enemies on every side.

And I just wonder, you guys, man, what could be better in life?

And we eagerly seek it for him and to find him in that way, right?

And then what was the result?

It was the one thing that changed everything.

That rest from their enemies on every side.

Listen, I really believe you guys tonight.

God is desiring to bring you deeper in your walk with him.

Some of you, maybe you're really lacking intimacy in your life right now.

Some of you, maybe you're doing pretty good.

But God is saying, listen, there's more for you.

And my encouragement to you tonight is listen, don't quit.

Don't become complacent.

Don't settle.

Maybe if God's spoken to some of those areas to you, or maybe an area I didn't even speak about, be willing to part with that thing.

And I believe as you do, fresh levels of intimacy will rush in your life.

Thanks for listening to this week's message.

If you have questions about Seven or Gateway Church, please visit us at gatewaypeople.com.