Drawing near to God

1) Much of our life is directed to making choices, and one of our choices involves God.

2) We heard for our Scripture reading a few verses from Jas. 4.

a) In Jas. 4:8 the writer said “draw nigh to God.” This is a choice; it is one possible course of action.

b) James then gave a reason for making this choice.

c) If we draw close to God, God will “draw nigh to us.”

3) Any study about intimacy with God must include Jas. 4:8.

4) One of the ways that we achieve intimacy with deity is “drawing near to deity.”

5) To better understand this choice today’s lesson is essentially a word study.

6) We want to look at verses in the New Testament that use the word translated “draw.”

a) The basic meaning of “draw nigh” is “approach, come near, bring near.”

b) The first time this word is found in the New Testament is Mt. 3:2.

c) John the Baptist was preaching about the kingdom.

d) He said the kingdom of heaven was “at hand.”

e) In other words, the kingdom was “nigh” (not far away or way off in the distance).

f) We know what it means for a special day or a special period to “draw nigh.”

7) Children may look forward to their birthday; they know when it is getting close.

8) When adults reach the retirement years they may mark off the days as that time draws nigh.

9) This sense of the word is also found in Mt. 21:34.

10) Jesus spoke of vines that bore fruit; He referred to the harvest time “drawing near.”

11) This year has been a very strange winter; we once again have just a small amount of snow.

12) In spite of some pretty warm winter weather, we recognize the principle in Mt. 21.

13) We are not in the right season for harvest time to be “drawing near.”

14) What we understand about “drawing nigh” in the secular realm also applies in the spiritual realm.

15) God wants us to come close to Him and He in turn will come close to us.

16) A little later in Matthew’s gospel we have the word in Jas. 4:8 being used again.

a) This use, however, is not in every manuscript of Matthew’s gospel.

b) The manuscripts used to translate the KJV have it so it is used in the King James Translation.

c) Matthew 15:8 is the exact reference.

d) The first part of this verse has Jesus saying, “this people draws nigh to me with their lips.”

e) The end of the verse (where there is no manuscript variation) says the people’s heart was far from God.

17) When we think about drawing nigh to God, we find from Mt. 15:8 that the process requires our whole being.

18) It is not enough to say all the right things. Our speech needs to match our actions and our heart.

19) We cannot have intimacy with God by just verbalizing religious expressions and words.

20) Intimacy with God comes by seeking Him with our whole being.

a) In life there are times and places in life where we say someone or something is off limits.

b) Last Tuesday there was a funeral for a former U.S. President.

c) At this event there were some restrictions.

d) Not everyone was permitted to enter into the church building where the service was conducted.

e) Not everyone was allowed to be near the airplane used to take the body back to Grand Rapids.

f) Our world has many “restricted areas.”

21) There are some people—a lot of people who will never find intimacy with God.

22) Not only will there be people who will fail to find closeness, there are people who will never get near heaven.

23) This is not because God hates them; it is because people made some bad choices.

24) Heaven may be thought of as a “restricted area.”

a) There is a very interesting passage in Lk. 12:33.

b) This is one of those verses we might see, read, and keep on going.

c) This verse deserves some scrutiny because it has the same term used in Jas. 4:8.

d) Jesus is talking about heaven and He says there will be some people who will not get near that place.

e) It is almost like Jesus was saying heaven is a “restricted area.”

f) Let’s look at the verse together – Lk. 12:33 – READ.

g) A “thief” is someone who is unsaved.

h) Jesus said this type of person will not “draw near” or “approach” (KJV) heaven.

i) In life an unsaved person will not be close to God.

j) In eternity an unsaved person will also not be close to God or get close to heaven.

k) If we want intimacy with God, the time to make that happen is now; the time we are alive on earth.

25) Not only must we draw close to God when the time is right (now), we must do it in the right way.

26) The right way for intimacy with God is Jesus Christ.

27) This is what the Hebrew writer affirmed in Heb. 7.

a) In Heb. 7:18 the writer said the Old Testament system has been annulled.

b) For those who received this book this fact was a little hard to accept.

c) These Christians were inclined to return to this way of serving God.

d) They were considering returning to the Old Testament faith given by Moses.

e) The writer said this system had been broken; it was cancelled; it could no longer be used.

f) In verse 19 he went on to say that with the New Testament we have a “better hope.”

g) We want to consider the information in 19b – READ.

h) We have a “hope” that allows us to come close to God.

i) Who or what is this hope? What is the hope based on? Jesus Christ.

28) We cannot be close to deity without Jesus.

29) Since this is true we might ask how we come to Christ so He can help us find intimacy with God.

a) The Bible says we are “united to Christ in baptism” (Rom. 6:5).

b) In the previous verse (Rom. 6:4) the Bible says were are “buried with Christ in baptism.”

c) What if a person guilty of sin has not been baptized?

d) Such a person has not yet been united to Christ. Such a person has not been buried with Christ.

e) If we are not united to Christ, we cannot be close to God because Christ is our path to God.

f) Intimacy with God requires baptism into Jesus Christ.

g) We can read the Bible and pray until we literally run out of words but it will do us no good.

h) The Bible says we must have Christ to have closeness with God and baptism unites us to the Lord.

30) When we think about “drawing near” to God we need to pay attention to a distinction.

a) A good way to illustrate this difference is by reading Lk. 15:1.

b) At the start of this chapter we read about people who made some complaints against the Lord.

c) Pharisees and Scribes said Jesus was eating with “sinners.”

d) Jesus was aware of this and told a little parable about a man who had 100 sheep.

e) One sheep was not in the fold so the 99 others were left to find that one that was lost.

f) Before we get to all this information we have some information in the first verse – Lk. 15:1 – READ.

31) Certain words just seem to jump off the page in this single passage.

a) First, our eyes are drawn to the word “all” (lots and lots of people were coming to see Jesus).

b) The Lord was being visited by the individuals society had, by in large, rejected.

c) People like the Pharisees had no interest in this segment of society but Jesus was interested in them.

d) Those who came are describes as “publicans and sinners.”

e) These rejects were coming to “hear Him.”

f) Notice in the middle of this verse these two words: “drawing near.”

32) This is the same word in Jas. 4:8.

a) People wanted to get close to the Lord.

b) What was their purpose in coming close to the Christ?

c) Luke tells us: to hear what Jesus had to say.

d) Sometimes people want to get close to someone or something so they can know what is going on.

33) There may be a large group of people assembled in a public area.

34) Out of curiosity a passerby may stop and join the crowd to see what is creating all the attention or commotion.

35) Drawing near to someone or something does not necessarily equate to participation or fellowship.

36) Later this year we expect to have another fair in Elkhart County.

a) Some of us have wandered through the vendor areas.

b) People with something to sell will call out to those walking by, “Step right up, folks.”

c) On one corner there is a salesman who has the latest slicer and dicer machine.

d) Across from him is someone else who has the latest house cleaning invention.

e) Time after time people literally “draw near” to see and hear what is being said and sold.

f) After a polished sales presentation a vendor offers his or her “special deal.”

g) A few may buy the promoted item, but a lot of fair goers walk away. They do not buy.

37) With God, it is not enough to “draw near” in the sense of listening.

38) It is not enough to learn. This is where the process starts.

39) For the drawing nigh in Jas. 4:8 to occur, we must act on what we hear and learn.

40) A relationship with God is to be sought and cultivated day after day after day.

41) The good news is that such a relationship can be accessed by anyone in the world.

a) Who was coming to Jesus in Lk. 15:1?

b) It was the sinners; the people who were regarded as filthy, ugly, vile, defiled, unclean, wretched, soiled.

c) Jesus went on to show how these people could have an intimate relationship with God.

d) This is the chapter where He spoke about a father with two boys; one son went into a far country.

e) He became involved in some things he should not have pursued.

f) One day he decided to come back; did his father welcome him home. He did.

g) What type of relationship did dad offer? Was it distant and cold?

h) We know the story; dad offered intimacy and closeness. Dad showered love on his wayward son.

i) God’s love for man is reflected in this account.

j) God wants us to draw night unto Him (Jas. 4:8) so He can draw nigh unto us.

42) God will do that when we embrace His word and follow it.

43) A simple promise is in Jas. 4; have we found the fulfillment of it in our lives?

44) Are we drawing nigh to God so He is drawing nigh to us? Our answer must either be “yes” or “no.”

45) Which answer is true for us?