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Getting Close To God Again
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Getting Close To God Again
Rev. Chuck McAlister is the senior pastor at Second Baptist Church in Hot Springs Arkansas. Second Baptist church is a thriving church that walks in fellowship with God. He is intelligent, energetic, sincere, and uses a wonderful blend of humor, intellect, and love to deliver his message.
I had the privilege of worshipping in Second Baptist Church. I heard three spiritual markers for getting close to God. These markers are based on Nehemiah 8-9.
Rev. McAlister gave me permission to pass these along. They are scripturally based and very helpful.
This is written in outline form. Anything with a number or letter beside it came directly from his sermon notes. It is an accurate presentation of his specific message.
The rest of this story is subject to my interpretation of the message. It is what I thought heard him say or my own application of the message.
Look at the markers and think about your own relationship with God. Be honest with yourself and assess yourself. These may not be yes and no answer and actually may be answered in degrees. Our relationship with God is constantly moving forward and backward.
My suggestion would be to rate yourself on a scale of 1-5. Mark it a 5 if this is completely true for you. I have added numbers to each section as a reminder. If you are not at a 5 on all of them, there is plenty of room for you to move forward. Take Action
I. Do not fake your fellowship.
Many Christians know how to look like Christians. They go to church and put on their “Sunday face.” If you are out of fellowship, admit it and began to move forward.
If you are not sure about the status of your fellowship, there are four tests to help you asses the validity.
A. There is joy. (1 2 3 4 5)
Intimacy with the Lord is joyful and exiting. Are you experiencing this joy?
Nehemiah 8:17-18
The whole company that had returned from exile built booths and lived in them. From the days of Joshua son of Nun until that day, the Israelites had not celebrated it like this. And their joy was very great. Day after day, from the first day to the last, Ezra read from the Book of the Law of God.
(from New International Version)
B. There is examination. (1 2 3 4 5)
A growing relationship with God requires that we constantly decrease so He may increase. We battle with the flesh. We are required to be honest before our God and constantly examine our lives.
This intimacy with the Lord is worth the struggle and the pain of the honesty. Ask yourself the following questions.
1. Am I broken before the Lord? (1 2 3 4 5)
Have you had experiences where your pain and failings have brought you to your knees? Have you thrown yourself on God’s mercy and begged for His relief?
Nehemiah 8:18-9:1
In accordance with the regulation, there was an assembly. On the Twenty-fourth day of the same month, the Israelites gathered together, fasting and wearing sackcloth and having dust on their heads.
(from New International Version)
2. Am I different from the world? (1 2 3 4 5)
Do people around you know you are different? Do you set yourself apart and are you willing to pay consequences for being different?
Nehemiah 9:2
Those of Israelite descent had separated themselves from all foreigners.
(from New International Version)
3. Am I confessing all my sin? (1 2 3 4 5)
Confession is a regular part of fellowship with God. While sin cannot separate us from our eternity, it can break our fellowship and intimacy with God. The Bible is clear that we are to confess to God and to man (or woman.) These confessions certainly do not always need to be in public but they do need to be with someone who knows Christ and is discreet. It is a step of obedience and humility.
Nehemiah 9:2
They stood in their places and confessed their sins and the wickedness of their fathers.
(from New International Version)
4. Am I obeying God’s word? (1 2 3 4 5)
God’s word is our anchor. It is clear. It tells us how to live. God will never act contrary to His word. The Holy Spirit with interpret it. Are you obeying what God is saying?
Nehemiah 9:3
They stood where they were and read from the Book of the Law of the LORD their God for a quarter of the day, and spent another quarter in confession and in worshiping the LORD their God.
(from New International Version)
C. There is praise. (1 2 3 4 5)
Do you wake up in the morning grateful for you blessings? Is your first thought to get alone with God and praise His name?
Do you praise God in your worship? Do you praise Him with song? Do you praise him at church and in the world? Do you praise Him with your tongue?
Nehemiah 9:4
Standing on the stairs were the Levites-Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani and Kenani-who called with loud voices to the LORD their God.
(from New International Version)
II. Do not forget your fellowship. (1 2 3 4 5)
We can become so preoccupied with our blessings that we forget the one who gave us the blessings.
The true test of our fellowship is not how we handle our difficulties. Most of us turn to God during our adversities. The true test is how we handle our blessings.
Nehemiah 9:5-30
Blessed be your glorious name, and may it be exalted above all blessing and praise. You alone are the LORD. You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, and all their starry host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to everything, and the multitudes of heaven worship you.
You are the LORD God, who chose Abram and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans and named him Abraham. You found his heart faithful to you, and you made a covenant with him to give to his descendants the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Jebusites and Girgashites. You have kept your promise because you are righteous.
You saw the suffering of our forefathers in Egypt; you heard their cry at the Red Sea. You sent miraculous signs and wonders against Pharaoh, against all his officials and all the people of his land, for you knew how arrogantly the Egyptians treated them. You made a name for yourself, which remains to this day.
You divided the sea before them, so that they passed through it on dry ground, but you hurled their pursuers into the depths, like a stone into mighty waters. By day you led them with a pillar of cloud, and by night with a pillar of fire to give them light on the way they were to take.
You came down on Mount Sinai; you spoke to them from heaven. You gave them regulations and laws that are just and right, and decrees and commands that are good. You made known to them your holy Sabbath and gave them commands, decrees and laws through your servant Moses.
In their hunger you gave them bread from heaven and in their thirst you brought them water from the rock; you told them to go in and take possession of the land you had sworn with uplifted hand to give them.
But they, our forefathers, became arrogant and stiff-necked, and did not obey your commands. They refused to listen and failed to remember the miracles you performed among them. They became stiff-necked and in their rebellion appointed a leader in order to return to their slavery.
But you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. Therefore you did not desert them, even when they cast for themselves an image of a calf and said, 'This is your god, who brought you up out of Egypt,' or when they committed awful blasphemies.
Because of your great compassion you did not abandon them in the desert. By day the pillar of cloud did not cease to guide them on their path, nor the pillar of fire by night to shine on the way they were to take. 20 You gave your good Spirit to instruct them. You did not withhold your manna from their mouths, and you gave them water for their thirst.
For forty years you sustained them in the desert; they lacked nothing, their clothes did not wear out nor did their feet become swollen.
You gave them kingdoms and nations, allotting to them even the remotest frontiers. They took over the country of Sihon king of Heshbon and the country of Og king of Bashan.
You made their sons as numerous as the stars in the sky, and you brought them into the land that you told their fathers to enter and possess. Their sons went in and took possession of the land. You subdued before them the Canaanites, who lived in the land; you handed the Canaanites over to them, along with their kings and the peoples of the land, to deal with them as they pleased.
They captured fortified cities and fertile land; they took possession of houses filled with all kinds of good things, wells already dug, vineyards, olive groves and fruit trees in abundance. They ate to the full and were well-nourished; they reveled in your great goodness.
But they were disobedient and rebelled against you; they put your law behind their backs. They killed your prophets, who had admonished them in order to turn them back to you; they committed awful blasphemies.
So you handed them over to their enemies, who oppressed them. But when they were oppressed they cried out to you. From heaven you heard them, and in your great compassion you gave them deliverers, who rescued them from the hand of their enemies.
But as soon as they were at rest, they again did what was evil in your sight. Then you abandoned them to the hand of their enemies so that they ruled over them. And when they cried out to you again, you heard from heaven, and in your compassion you delivered them time after time.
You warned them to return to your law, but they became arrogant and disobeyed your commands. They sinned against your ordinances, by which a man will live if he obeys them. Stubbornly they turned their backs on you, became stiff-necked and refused to listen.
(from New International Version)
III. Do not forsake your fellowship.
We can forsake God suddenly or gradually over time.
Many people go through a difficult time and blame God. They suddenly and deliberately withdraw. They suffer terribly.
Others withdraw when they deliberately choose to disobey God. The Holy Spirit convicts us of sin. If we are unwilling to stop the sin, it may seem easier to reject God than to face the conviction from the Holy Spirit.
Still others simply slip away. They do not mean to. They are committed Christians who get involved in busyness and blessings of their life.
They work hard at their careers and for their families. They spend Saturday doing all of the chores that they could not do during the week. At some point, their daily time with God slows.
They may oversleep on a Sunday. They skip Sunday School but rush to church. The next Sunday they miss both. They spend a quiet Sunday and actually enjoy it.
Suddenly, they are not prepared to face the challenges of every day life. Their week is exhausting and they believe they need and deserve the rest of another Sunday. Guilt may make them attend church occasionally. Unfortunately, their exhaustion causes them to get nothing from the worship experience.
They are out of fellowship and possibly even blame the church. It seems reasonable to think even an occasional worship service at a good church would help them. Unfortunately, when we are out of fellowship, it is hard to get through to us.
The pattern is in motion. Church attendance drops. Daily worship is forgotten. This group has forsaken God as surely as the other two mentioned above.
There are four actions to keep us from forsaking our fellowship with God. Rate yourselves on each one of them.
A. Accept responsibility for your broken fellowship with the Lord. (1 2 3 4 5)
God is always there. He did not leave us. The excuses for breaking our fellowship only enable us to remain out of fellowship.
Excuses come in many forms.
We may blame church or people. They cannot cause us to lose fellowship. People are human and make mistakes. God tells us to forgive as Christ forgave us. Many people are let down by churches and people and yet remain in fellowship with God.
We may blame our adversities. Self-pity is deceptive. While life may be hard, many people face difficult circumstances and grow closer to God. Our life circumstances did not cause our broken fellowship.
We may blame our blessings. Our life may be busy but so are the lives of many people that walk in intimate fellowship with God. We may even see other people similar to us forsaking their fellowship. We might and rationalize that it is “normal” for our age or our life circumstances. Beware. “Normal” means we are of the “world.” We are instructed to be different from a world that without fellowship with the Lord God.
Nehemiah 9:30-33
For many years you were patient with them. By your Spirit you admonished them through your prophets. Yet they paid no attention, so you handed them over to the neighboring peoples.
But in your great mercy you did not put an end to them or abandon them, for you are a gracious and merciful God.
Now therefore, O our God, the great, mighty and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love, do not let all this hardship seem trifling in your eyes-the hardship that has come upon us, upon our kings and leaders, upon our priests and prophets, upon our fathers and all your people, from the days of the kings of Assyria until today. In all that has happened to us, you have been just; you have acted faithfully, while we did wrong.
(from New International Version)
B. Decide to obey God and do His will. (1 2 3 4 5)
Are you obeying the word of God? Are you in His Holy Will? The Bible tells us to go to church. It tells to spend daily time with God in the morning and throughout the day. It guides our steps in our relationships. It sets the boundaries for our behavior. It describes us if we are in the will of God. If you are not, that can change right now.
Nehemiah 9:34-35
Our kings, our leaders, our priests and our fathers did not follow your law; they did not pay attention to your commands or the warnings you gave them. Even while they were in their kingdom, enjoying your great goodness to them in the spacious and fertile land you gave them, they did not serve you or turn from their evil ways.
(from New International Version)
C. Do not drift with the current cultures. (1 2 3 4 5)
Since the beginning of time, there have been cultures that try to confuse us.
In the Garden of Eden, a deception voice encouraged Adam and Eve to seek knowledge. Seeking knowledge sounded so reasonable and innocent. It destroyed the peaceful existence of their lives. Modern fads seem reasonable but are so deceptive.
Today, there are people who claim Christ but reject the Bible. They say His word is inaccurate. They point to the many translations. They have not studied His word. They forget the marvelous power of God to protect His word throughout the ages. It is remarkably accurate. How dangerous it is to follow the cult like existence of basing our beliefs on the free interpretations of individual ideas of God.
There are groups that have felt the need to add to the simple message of Christ. They have added prophets that they believe can explain the word God. They have added books to explain or complete the Bible. Christ is sufficient. The Bible is complete.
There are groups that worship mother earth, the sun, angels, and crystals. Some prefer not to give God a name or believe any name will do. Others believe only in God. They miss the sweetness of knowing God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
There are so many choices for spirituality. There have always been fads that threaten to pull people from the truth. Truth has not changed since the creation of the heavens and the earth. The truth is so simple and in its simplicity, it can be hard to accept. Do not become a slave to the complication of modern day culture.
Nehemiah 9:36-37
But see, we are slaves today, slaves in the land you gave our forefathers so they could eat its fruit and the other good things it produces. Because of our sins, its abundant harvest goes to the kings you have placed over us. They rule over our bodies and our cattle as they please. We are in great distress.
(from New International Version)
D. Put Jesus first in your life. (1 2 3 4 5)
We are told to put Jesus first in our lives. First includes coming ahead of our families, jobs, possessions, and even our church. If Jesus first in your life?
Nehemiah 9:38
In view of all this, we are making a binding agreement, putting it in writing, and our leaders, our Levites and our priests are affixing their seals to it."
(from New International Version)
Are you a Christian that is not experiencing a full fellowship with God? Oh dear fellow believer, there is such a difference between believing in Him and being in an intimate love relationship with Him.
God’s word is true, even when it hurts. It has stood the test of time. It stands the test of life. People that apply it find a peace that is beyond human understanding. Have you fallen away from living word of God?
Give in. Get on your knees. Take the steps necessary to restore a full fellowship with God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Accept your blessings.
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