Hello and welcome back to Cultivating Growth. We want to thank you all for listening this week. Jeremy and I are going to be discussing the topic of growing closer to God. We have been created in His image and in His likeness. And God makes it abundantly clear in Scripture that He wants to have a relationship with us.

He wants us to be close to him, near to him, and to be like him. And so we're going to talk about how we can grow in that area as we all seek to grow closer to God. So with that, let's get to it. 

Well, John, I think the best place for us to start before we kind of get into the Our end of trying to work on or cultivating that growth of getting closer to God Is to kind of establish the I mean really exceptional point kind of mind bending Point that God wants us to be close to him I think that probably is kind of the best spot for us to start that  You know to understand that God and who he is and what he's all about That he has a desire, a strong desire, we know because of, you know, what he sacrificed in order to make this relationship happen.

That he himself wants to have a close relationship with us. And I think if we can really grab hold of that reality, kind of, at the very outset of kind of going on this journey of trying to get closer to God, it ultimately can make a pretty big difference. Yeah, it really can. And I think, you know, You know, you hit the nail on the head that God sacrificed so that we could be close to him.

I think sometimes we walk around thinking that God's this grumpy guy in the sky. And, you know, we're hoping that we can find ourselves in his good graces. And the reality is, is he is doing everything possible to create an environment and an opportunity for us to be close to him. He wants us to be close to him.

He wants. To have this relationship with us. And he has done everything in his power to do that. And so it really isn't just amazing that God is open to that, but even more amazing that it's something that he desires. And so for us, as we think about the opportunity to grow close to God, to think about the fact that.

That the creator of this universe, the almighty, all powerful God who spoke us into existence wants to have a relationship with me. I mean, I'm one of 8 billion people on this earth, and he wants to have a relationship with me. And you're right, that is very difficult to fully wrap my mind around, but it speaks to the love that God has for us. 

And really, just the immeasurable amount of compassion that He is showing to mankind. That He is wanting each of us to draw near to Him. And I was looking at James chapter 4 and verse number 8, where it writes, Draw near to God and He'll draw near to you. And it's the reality that this is both directions.

God is, He's drawing near to us as we draw near to Him. And you think about those two entities getting closer and closer and closer to each other. That, that's what we're striving for. It is to, to draw near to Him knowing that He's going to draw near to us in return. Yeah, and I think even to take that, you know, this whole point.

Uh, that we've both made kind of even one step further is to understand even what kind of relationship that God is is looking for that. You know, listen, we got all kinds of relationships in this world. You have relationships with your family, you have relationship with friends, you have relationship with co workers or fellow students.

You have relationships with people in the community on your ball teams or on your kids ball teams. You know, you got, you know, We've got relationships with your neighbors, and we've got relationships all over the place. But to understand that, you know, when we say that God wants to have a relationship with us, that He wants to be close with us, we've also got to understand what level of closeness that He wants.

So you've got passages like Galatians chapter 4, specifically where my Bible is open, Romans chapter 8 speaks kind of along this same line, but specifically verses 4 through 6, where, you know, Paul will say that, especially in verse 4, In the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law to redeem those who are under the law that we might receive the adoption as sons.

And so, you have in both places, the Apostle Paul, as he writes there in Galatians 4 and in Romans 8, that the relationship that God is looking for is the closest of relationships that we can even have an analogy in parallel. the family. It is the closest father, son, father, child. That is the relationship that he's looking for.

Not acquaintance, not a, you know, somebody we've met along the way, not even close friend, but the closest relationship that we have,  you know, to parallel is the analogy that we get in Galatians and Romans both. Yeah, it's such a beautiful picture. God's chosen to use that family analogy. And the visual of adopting us into his family to describe that relationship.

And I've used this example before, we have a daughter that we adopted and there's no asterisks next to her name. She's my daughter. That's the way this works. She's a part of our family. She's no different than the two biological daughters that I have. She's my daughter. She bears my name. She's a part of our family.

And that is the way that God wants us to think of our relationship with Him.  We're not kind of His children. We are His children. We are a part of his family and he has made it possible to bring us into that fold. And you're right. When you think about the physical relationships that we have, there's no more closer relationship than that of a family.

And that's what God is using to describe the relationship that he wants to have with us. He wants us to be as close to him as any relationship that we can imagine. And that is just such a beautiful thing to consider. God bringing us, voluntarily bringing us into his family, but not just doing so sacrificing his own son.

son so that he could bring us into his family. That is a remarkable thing to consider. And it truly makes me appreciate the relationship that God is opening up and making possible for us. Yeah. And so, you know, if we could wrap our mind around that. That God wants to be close to us, certainly it's going to have an impact on, you know, me thinking about my relationship with Him.

And so, when you understand that, hey, God really wants to be close to me, if I then say, no, thank you,  how foolish that now starts to sound. You know, if God is, is, is lunging for me to, you know, to have a relationship with me, but I push Him away, You know how foolish that is, right? And so when we start to kind of transition into now thinking about our relationship with Him and growing closer to God,  understanding that He wants to be closer, it should help.

And so when we think about from my perspective, from our end, a lot of times, listen, there's no need to complicate. You know, this, you know, and how you know, this happens. We understand how you get closer to people. We understand how that works in our everyday life and our everyday relationships. We understand if you want to get closer to somebody, you've got to communicate with them.

You've got to have conversations. You've got to talk to them. You've got to listen to them. You've got to share things with them that we understand this. And, and. There's no need to complicate it, even when it comes to God. You think about the Old Testament specifically, a lot of people had close relationships with God.

A lot, we can't, we don't have the time to talk about all of them. But two of them stand out to me. Moses, number one, David, the other. You have one specifically made mention of being a friend of God in Moses, and with David, a man after God's own heart. I mean, those, that sounds great. I want both of those things.

But yet, you see those two men.  Moses and his  seemingly everyday back and forth interaction, conversations with God that he had. But then you have David, and not just in the narrative of his story through the, through Samuel and the Kings. You certainly have the Book of Psalms, where he, which are prayers in so many different ways.

I mean, he's talking to God. All the time. I mean, all the time talking to God and not just that he's bearing his soul to God all the time. And so you see these two guys that have incredible close, incredibly close relationships and it hinged on their constant communication with him. Yeah, you make a great point about David and Moses does this too, bearing their soul, truly being who they are when they talk to God.

And I think that that's so important for us to consider. We can't hide who we are from someone and still expect to grow close to them. That's putting up a barrier between us. Now we can have a casual relationship, we can be acquaintances, but when you think about those that you're truly closest to in this life, they know you for who you are.

They know what makes you tick. They know what makes you mad. They know what makes you happy.  When we think about our relationship with God and we see examples like David, he illustrates to us just how important it is not to try to hide our emotions from God.  Don't try to put on airs when we're talking to God. 

Be who we are. Be who God created us to be. And talk to God and interact with God in that way. He knows us as intimately as anyone does. He created us. God loves you. So let's not try to hide that from him. Don't, don't be afraid to show emotion when talking to God. Don't be afraid to ask God questions.

Don't be afraid of those things. Talk to him often. Talk to him frequently. And talk to him honestly. I think David and Moses and others as well, Show us just how vital that is to truly developing a relationship with God over time. Yeah, and a lot of times, if you have a close relationship with someone, it's almost second nature to want to talk to them, and you feel it when you don't.

And so, I think in a lot of ways, You know, it, it, it can become, you know, kind of a, uh, I, I mean a, a red flag scenario when you're trying to figure out, Hey, listen, what, what's my relationship with God like? Well, if you don't talk to him, or do you feel that, right, that we do that all the time. I mean, if, if I don't.

Talk to my wife for a day or for, you know, if I'm out of town and I haven't talked to her all day long or I'm out of town, I haven't talked to her for a couple of days. I feel that. And you know, when we get on the phone, it's, we got so much to talk about because we haven't, we haven't talked, you know, in a while or if something phenomenal happens, I instinctly think, well, I'm going to call her, I'm going to call my dad or I'm going to call, you know, the people closer.

We have that feeling right away. And that is a good. sign that can help us when it comes to our relationship with God. If I'm, if I don't talk to him, do I feel that if I don't listen to him through study or I'm not thinking about him, you know, through, through his word or meditating upon that, do I feel that?

And so there are ways that we can kind of test ourselves, you know, a little bit again, that are very similar to very, you know, the very same ways we do in the, in the, you know, our everyday lives. And it's easy to think about that from our perspective, but But also think about it from God's perspective, he, he's waiting to hear from us, right?

He's, he's wanting to hear what we're celebrating. He's wanting to hear what makes us sad. He's wanting to hear what is stressful to us or what is confusing to us in the same way that if I had some wonderful news, my wife would be anxious to hear that from me. Well, God is the same way. He wants us to talk to him.

about these things. He wants us to make requests of him. He wants us to thank him for things when he does something for us. These are, these are normal attributes that we easily understand when it comes to physical relationships, but sometimes we neglect when it comes to our relationship with God. And so as we seek to grow in this relationship, let's remember that God wants to hear from us.

And like you said, If we find ourselves not talking to God very often, are we feeling like something is missing? And if we're not, to your point, that should be a sign to us that we need to go back and re evaluate our relationship with God. And really go back to the basics of who God is, what he's done for me, what he wants from me, the relationship that he wants to have.

And start to re build that relationship on solid footing, so that we get to the point where that is missed if there isn't communication taking place on a regular basis. Yeah, and that can go back to the beginning of our conversation even today, right, in thinking about God and in his desire to have a relationship with me.

We go back and re evaluate that, you meditate upon that, and it bolsters, you know, bolsters those things. I mean, you know, I think about, What Paul says in a very simple kind of way to the Brethren at Thessalonica, you know, you get to pray without ceasing. And we talk about a passage like that often. And, you know, sometimes we see that and we're like, man, that sounds extreme, right?

Well, again, the point is being made, God and my relationship with him is to be the closest relationship that I have because ultimately it is the one relationship that has eternal ramifications. Here in this world the relationship that I have with my wife is the most important relationship that I have here.

But even that relationship is temporary. I'm gonna be taken away from this world. She's going to be taken away from this world at some point. I don't know when that'll be, but my relationship with God has eternal ramifications. And so it is the one relationship that will, will stand. And so it is the one relationship that makes a difference.

Yeah. And that's, I think you're going to, you're going to finish up here in just a second with back with Moses. And I think he illustrates that so beautifully because we see him having Relationships with other people. He had a relationship with Aaron, with Miriam and different people along the way, Joshua, as he kind of trained him and prepare him for his next role.

He had relationships with different people, but there is nothing that compares to the relationship that he had with God and so much so that other people saw it.  And Joshua, I think, is a great example of somebody who longed for that type of relationship with God. So much so that he would want to be around Moses when he's talking with God and when he's communicating with God.

Because he was envious of that relationship. Aaron and Miriam were envious of that relationship. So much so that God had to correct them and say, Yes, I do have a special and unique relationship with Moses. And so Other people can see the relationship that we develop with God. And I think that should be our goal as well, to make sure that others see in us the relationship with God that we're building and that we're longing for and that we're desiring.

It should be evident to those around us. If I can look at your life and I can see all the different relationships you have with all the different people in your life, but I can't really see the relationship between you and God. That's a problem because that. relationship should be just as evident as the relationship between me and my wife, or the relationship between me and my children, or me and my parents.

The relationship with God should be just as evident as you look at my life as it would be with any of those other relationships. You may mention, and we'll close in Exodus 33, and we will here in just a moment, but I'll add one other thing to that before I do so. You know, think about just Moses and his relationship with God, you know, that you made mention of.

And it was an important relationship to God. And it was an important relationship to Moses, and you see that playing out through their life. You see that even at the very end of Moses life. I mean, the end of his life kind of showcases that as he's up there on the mountain and nobody else is there. Just Moses and just God.

And Moses dies up there. Nobody's up there. Just Moses, just God. That was the closest relationship that he had. And we're told that God takes Moses body and buries it. And he buries it in a place that no one knows where it is, but God, God knew, and that was the special relationship that they had. And it is a relationship that we can have, a special, unique, intimate relationship with God.

It's what He wants to have with us, and it would be foolish for us not to want the same. And so we'll close with this, Exodus 33, we've talked about Moses, we'll make reference to verse 11 specifically, and then close. It says, So the Lord spoke to Moses face to face. As a man speaks to his friend, and he would return to the camp, but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tavern. 

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