While most are familiar with the notion that “God loves you,” the various wounds of life, teamed with our personal and sometimes persistent shortcomings, have made it much harder for many to embrace the fact that God also likes you.
Rather than a God who holds His nose when hugging us, the scriptures paint a vivid picture of a heavenly Father craving intimacy with His children even while they’re still soiled by their failures or have disqualified themselves when He has not.
This audio message will throw open new vistas for God’s grace to meet you where you are today so that you can walk in the intimate closeness you were destined for.
Jump in and be blessed!
The message was given at South Hills Church on Aug 10th, 2008.
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Click here for .wma
INTIMACY WITH GOD
In Seven (Not Always) Easy Steps—Psalm 139
by Ed Silvoso
“Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxious thoughts;
and see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way. (Ps. 139:23-24)
Psalm 139:24 And see if there be any wicked way in me (King James)
1. GOD READS OUR MAIL.
O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
You understand my thought from afar. You scrutinize my path and my lying down, and are intimately acquainted with all my ways.
Even before there is a word on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it all.
And the divine reaction?….
You have enclosed me behind and before, and laid your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is too high, I cannot attain to it. (vv. 1-6)
2. TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT.
Where can I go from your Spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, behold, you are there.
If I take the wings of the dawn, if I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, even there your hand will lead me, and your right hand will lay hold of me.
If I say, “Surely the darkness will overwhelm me, and the light around me will be night,”
even the darkness is not dark to you, and the night is as bright as the day.
Darkness and light are alike to you. (vv. 7-12)
3. UNDERSTANDING GOD THROUGH AN EMBRYO.
For you formed my inward parts; you wove me in my mother’s womb.
My frame was not hidden from you, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth;
your eyes have seen my unformed substance;
and in Your book were all written the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them. (vv. 13-16)
4. NOW I GET IT! AND I LIKE IT!
How precious also are your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand.
When I awake, I am still with you. (vv. 17-18)
5. IT’S TOO GOOD TO COMPROMISE.
O that you would slay the wicked, O God; depart from me, therefore, men of bloodshed.
For they speak against you wickedly, and your enemies take your name in vain.
Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord? And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?
I hate them with the utmost hatred; they have become my enemies. (vv. 19-22)
6. SOUL SURGERY.
Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxious thoughts;
anx•i•e•ty n
1. nervousness or agitation, often about something that is going to happen
2. a subject or concern that causes worry
3. a state of intense apprehension or fear of real or imagined danger, manifested physiologically as increased heart rate, sweating, trembling, weakness, and stomach or intestinal discomfort
and see if there be any hurtful way in me… (vv. 23-24a)
7. DIVINE AFTERCARE.
…and [YOU will] lead me in the everlasting way. (v. 24b)