Mentoring Men for the Master

The 5th “I” – Interrelating with Others to Share Our Lives

If we would interrelate with others to share our lives, we must first of all Love Jesus with all our being.  There are two aspects of His Love which we must consider:

  1. The MEASURE OF OUR LOVE FOR JESUS.  One day a scribe asked Jesus what was the greatest commandment.  Jesus’ immediate reply was “And you shall love the Lord you God (the Lord Jesus Christ) with ALL YOUR HEART, and WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, and WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH.”  (Mark 12:30) How do we do that?
    1. Love Jesus EMOTIONALLY. “And you shall love the Lord with ALL YOUR HEART and ALL YOUR SOUL.”  The words “heart’ and soul’ show that we are to love Jesus with our emotions.  Jesus is a Person, not an abstract entity.  He desires to share emotional intimacy with us.  We are invited to “pour out our hearts (guts) to Him.” (Psalm 62:7)  We may be called a fanatic, who is simply some one who loves Jesus more than we do.
    2. Love Jesus INTELLECTUALLY. “…Love Jesus with your entire MIND.” Loving Jesus involves our thoughts, even what we read. Jesus desires to renew our minds (Romans 12:2) through the Word, take our thoughts captive to His obedience (2 Corinthians 10:5) and to continually think upon the best things. (Philemon 4:8)
    3. Love Jesus PRACTICALLY.” …You shall love Jesus with ALL you STRENGTH.” We are to love Jesus with practical obedience. Love is something we do, and the thing we do is to obey His commandments, (John 14:15) and His commandments are not burdensome because of our love for Him. (1 John 5:3) Such obedience is foreign to legalism, for it is willingly and lovingly doing what He commands, whereas legalism is the discharge of duties to earn God’s favor and impress others, which is very burdensome.

Intimate Love with Jesus is more important than any religious ritual in which you may participate.  Do you truly love Jesus?  If so, you will truly love your brothers and sisters and find it a joy to share you life with them we glibly say and sing “O, how I love Jesus” which costs us nothing.

  1.  Stupid bumper sticker:  If you love Jesus, “Honk!”
  2.  Scriptural bumper sticker: “If you love Jesus, tithe.” An illustration of such hypocrisy:  I read of a guy who fell in love with a young lady.  So he wrote, “My dear, I love you so much that I would swim the broadest ocean just to see you again, I would climb the highest mountain to sit by your side, brave a hurricane to look into your eyes, and if it doesn’t rain I’ll see you Saturday evening.”

 

“The MEANS WHEREBY WE LOVE JESUS WITH OUR TOTAL BEING.  In order to love Jesus with out total being, we must know Jesus, and in order to know Jesus, we must have INTIMACY with Him, and in order to have Intimacy with Him we must meet three requirements:  The Lord has no favorites but he does have intimates.  Indeed, this is his supreme purpose for every life (Jeremiah 9: 23-24.  But there are some ABSOLUTE REQUIREMENTS for intimacy with the Father.  There are three which are fundamental:

  • ALONENESS WITH GOD. The first hallmark of the life of Jesus was ALONENESS WITH HIS FATHER.  Matthews 14:22 says before He walked on the water “He was alone” in the mountain praying. Alones were not just one event; it was the habit of Jesus. This is the habit He wants from you and me.  Jesus is not primarily intimate in our church attendance, our preaching, money, etc. any more than a woman in love only wants her husband’s name, paycheck and house.  She wants her husband and just merely her husband – her husband alone.

 Jesus wants us alone.  The only person who would argue with this is the person who has not been alone.  And He does not want the scraps and leftovers of your time.  Not five minutes or thirty or one hours but hours upon hours.  How do you feel when you read the words of Wesley, “I don’t respect any one’s spirituality that doesn’t spend 4 hours per day in prayer?  Of course, any moment with the Lord is precious, but you will never know intimacy until you are willing to pray the price in quality time, much time, and time that will cost you dearly.

  •    The Principle of ALONESS is illustrated throughout the Bible:
  1. Abraham – we think sacrifice of his son Isaac. How could he?  Because he had been alone with God.
  2. Moses is remembered for crossing the Red Sea. But before that He was alone with God in the desert and heard him speak from the burning bush.
  3. We remember Elijah for the first resurrection in the Bible but before that he had hidden himself alone with God.
  4. We remember David for killing Goliath, but 1 Samuel 17:37 says he had defeated the lion and the bear and had been with God.
  5. Luke 10:40-42 – Jesus condemned Martha and commended Mary. I call them “Meat-Loaf Martha and “Meditating Mary,” saying “Martha, you are burdened and troubled with many things.  But ONLY ONE THING is needed and Mary has chosen the better part and it shall not be taken from her.”  What is that better part?  ALONENESS WITH JESUS.

But there is more to intimacy than ALONENESS.  The New Agers, the Buddhists and Hindus are ALONE for hours, but they do not qualify as intimates with God.

  • The second requirement for Intimacy is the ASSIMILATION of the WORD OF GOD. Why does one need to be ALONE with GOD? Certainly not to hear the voice of the devil or to commune with out own minds or reflect upon the evils or good things of the world even. No, but for one reason, to get alone with God to hear a Word from God.  Paul admonished Timothy in 2 Corinthians 3:14 – to be devoted to the Word ;   3:16 – to be directed by the Word and  3:17 – to be dependent upon the Word

When a person does these three things, he will be delighted in the Word.  He will find his life in the word.  Jesus said in Matthews 4:4. Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word which proceeds out of the mouth of God.

Jesus Christ was the Word of God incarnate.  If we would have intimacy with Him, we must internalize the Word of God into our lives.  Four steps are involved:

  1. You must know it in your head – this call for much, much study.
  2. You must stow it in your heart – this calls for memorization and meditation.
  3. You can then show it in your life.
  4. Then you can show it in the world.
  • But not only must there be ALONNESS WITH GOD, ASSIMILATION OF THE WORD OF GOD, but there must be and AVAILABILTY TO GOD. – This is obedience, the 3rd essential element of intimacy.

(Aloneness is essential, Assimilation is essential for intimacy, but there will never be true INTIMACY until there is obedience.  When you hear a person teach or preach or pray that reveals what he knows of the Word of God.  But when you watch that person walk and obey, that reveals what he knows of the God of the Word.  Jesus says “He who has my commandments (that is the word) and obeyeth them, He it is who loves me and he who loves me shall be loved of my father, and I will love him and make myself real to him.” (John 14:21)

Why say we believe if we do not obey.  Jesus said it was nonsense – Luke 6:46.

The words of the great old hymn are true “Trust and obey, for there is no other way, except to rot and decay.”  A good motto would be “No obey – No Say.”

In Luke 11:28 a woman shouts out to Jesus “Blessed is the womb that bore thee and the paps you have sucked.  But Jesus corrected her, “yea, rather, blessed are they who hear the Word of God and keep it.”  And what is the blessing of keeping the word?  The first and foremost is INTIMACY with the living God.

The Price of Intimacy.  Your life is already packed, so you don’t have time for intimacy.  So what do you do?  You”take time” for that which is important to you and intimacy is indispensable if you would know and love Jesus to the fullest.

  1. You must let some things go in your life. Illus: I loved the health club, especially the massages, but I quit to save time for more important things.  I substituted jogging and power walk which I can do most anytime – just outside my home. (within an hour)
  2. Some things that are perfectly legitimate must go. Illus:  Fishing is legitimate.  I know some pastors who go every week.  I go only occasionally so I can have time to “fish for men.”
  3. “Weights,” as well as sin must be laid aside.” (Hebrews 12:1) I can’t jog with my overcoat on, and I can’t “run the race set before me” if I am weighed down with multiple habits which deprive me of time with God. (a) Illus: An Associational Missionary told me some time back that the pastors in his area were too lazy to visit their sick, never won a soul, but played golf three days each week, and what should he do? (b) TV – The average professing Christians watches TV 30 hours per week and prays 3 minutes a day. (c)  The internet.
  4. Expect to be misunderstood by colaborers, relatives, friends, and fellow believers.
  5. You will be accused of being fanatical, so join the club of Jesus and Paul.
  6. Learn to live by the “both and” principle rather than the “either or.”
  7. Remember: Success before men is no longer your aim, but your aim is to know Jesus in intimacy. Paul asked “AM I now trying to win the approval of men, or God? Or am I trying to please men”?  If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ. (Galatians 1:1)
  8. The supreme Price: Humility and Repentance.

Who would exchange Intimacy with Jesus for anything this world may offer?.  Well did Robert Murray McCheyne, who died at 29 but whose legacy lives on forever, said:

“A CALM HOUR WITH GOD IS WORTH A LIFE TIME WITH MAN.’