Speaker 1Hello, welcome to day 15, right at the midpoint, Intimacy 30. It's good to have you here again, and I'm really, really trusting the Lord that these teachings have been such a blessing to you, and that you have, very importantly, you've received revelation, your desire and your hunger for the things of God has been, you know, fanned into an inferno, and very importantly as well, that you have received tools to help you in your pursuit of God. Now, we've been looking at the elements of intimacy, that these, what are the elements, the pillars of intimacy, if you want to put it in another way, as I said, number one is knowledge, number two is strong desire, number three, separation, number four, stillness, and all of these are very powerful. Powerful subjects, that, you know, in 10 to 15 minutes, I did proper exegesis on, if you've not seen them, please go back to them, they'll bless you, and I want to talk about sacrifice, that's the fifth one, if I'm not mistaken, sacrifice, but I'm going to speak of it in two or three segments, all right, so it's going to be sacrifice, there's going to be another one on sacrifice in just a bit, because it's quite a big one, and it's a major part of intimacy. Just a bit. Just to even put it in context, the way God showed us his desire for fellowship with us is by sending his son, sacrifice, all right, so intimacy requires sacrifice, intimacy requires sacrifice, I already said intimacy requires knowledge, intimacy requires desire, intimacy requires stillness, separation, intimacy requires stillness, and now intimacy requires sacrifice. Now. But the question is, what is sacrifice, and what kind of sacrifice are we talking about that builds intimacy with the Lord? Now, I want to start from maybe what you were not expecting, I mean, because once many believers hear sacrifice, there's usually a preconceived notion to what they expect, all right, it to mean, but look at Psalm 51, I'll read you two scriptures, Psalm 51, verse 17, what it's saying, Psalm 51, and verse 17, it says, the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. That's the first scripture, and then Isaiah chapter 66, and verse 2, Isaiah 66, verse 2, it says, for all those things that mine hand, I'll read from verse 1, for thus he hath the Lord, the heaven is my throne, we've read this before in previous teachings, and the earth is my footstool, where is the house that ye build unto me, and where is the place of my rest? For all those things which at my hand made, and all those things have been, saith the Lord, but to this man will I look, I want you to observe, to this man will I look, even to him that is poor, and of a contrite spirit, and tremblet at my word. It says, this is the man I would look to. There are other scriptures that shows us. How that the Bible tells us that this is the sacrifice God is looking for. Let's start out by saying that God is spirit, and that the primary way you transact with spirits is via sacrifice. You see that in the occultic world, you see it amongst the occultic people, how that to transact with any spirit, they require sacrifice. Now, Satan is not a creator. All right? So he simply means. He simply mimicked what he had seen in God's realm of oppression. And so, in dealing with the Lord, you must understand that sacrifices are required. Now, the first and most important sacrifice, it would seem, that God requires on the face of the earth is the sacrifice, literally, of the person himself. And, you know, it can be so vague to say the person himself. What do you mean by the person himself? We're talking about the heart. The heart. So, you see, that's what David was speaking to in Psalm 51, verse 17, and Isaiah spoke to in Isaiah chapter 66, verse 1 to 2. He called it a contrite spirit, a poor spirit. He called it a broken spirit. And we're going to try to unpack all of this to see exactly what it means. It's the same thing Jesus said, reiterating the exact same concept when he said that blessed are those who are poor in spirit. All right? Blessed are those who hunger and thirst. Using those kind of statements. All right? What exactly does this mean in the sight of the Lord? What is a contrite spirit? What is a broken spirit? What is a poor in spirit? What exactly is this? And why is it such a big sacrifice with the Lord? Let's start out with the first level of meaning when we're talking about these things. Number one is a repentant heart. All right? David's speaking in Psalm 51, verse 17, talks about, and Psalm 51 was his psalm of penitence and repentance. All right? And what he was speaking to there is that a heart that treasures the relationship you have with the Lord above any pleasure of sin. And the right response. You know, one of the things that's amazing in the world in which we live in today is that the mention of sin, you're immediately said to be legalistic. You see? But the Bible makes provision for how sin should be handled. First things first is to note that the Bible never, I mean, John writing, the apostle John writing, speaks of if, I mean, if we sin. So in the mind of the Bible writers, Paul speaking in Romans as well, says that sin shall have no dominion over you. In the mind of the Bible writers, everything that needs to be done concerning the sin issue has been done. But then there could be occasions of falling, occasions of sin. And things like that. Now, the posture of your heart really matters to God. We're talking about a heart that does not condone anything that is in variance to God's word or to the things that God stands for. This is important because this is the heart that God desires. I found out that in building intimacy with the Lord, your posture and your stance concerning the soul. The subject of sin actually matters. You can't, you can't, and this is not preaching sin consciousness at all. This is you realizing that the God with whom you relate, the God that you have come to is actually a holy God and that he still hates sin while he loves the sinner. This is extremely important. We must, whilst we preach that he loves the sinner, which is absolutely true. We must establish that he still hates sin and that it's important that the believer has that right disposition towards it as well. It's not something you condone. It's not, oh, you know, it's just a little problem here. Oh, it's just my little weakness. No, no, no. A million times. No, you, you, the, the posture of David's heart was, listen, I have sinned against you and Lord, I desire your forgiveness in this place. So number one is a repentant heart. A heart. A heart that does not condone sin. A heart that does not minimize sin. A heart that does not minimize wrongdoings against the Lord. And when I say sin, please understand that the, the, the, the scope of sin there is not just talking about, oh, you know, flaunting the tent. No, that's, it's, it's actually way beyond that. I'm talking about God gives you instructions. The Bible says anything that is not of faith in sin, God gives instructions. You're obeying at your own time. You know, um, it could be as simple as. If you speak ill concerning someone and the Holy Spirit convicts you in your heart that no, you should have spoken about the person and you keep arguing that, well, you know, um, if they didn't act the way they acted, then I would have said what I said, what I said is true. And yet you are arguing with the conviction that the spirit of God has brought to you. It could be as, as simple in quote on sin, pardon me, as pride, but then the Holy Ghost brings conviction to you that your heart is being sullen and things like that. So you have to understand that God judges. He's the heart. And that's why I said to this man, I will look to this man. I will look to this man before this hand. God is not looking first at the hand is looking at the man. That's why the Bible tells us that God rejected Cain and his offering, not his offering and Cain. It was first Cain and his offering and Abel and his offering was accepted. The offering was secondary. The man was primary. Number two is a tender heart, a tender heart. And by a tender heart, we're talking about a heart that is responsive to God, a heart that is responsive to the motions of the spirit, responsive to the instructions of the Holy Spirit, a responsive heart, a tender heart, a heart that responds to God like this. You see, you could spend six hours in prayer, which is great. But then the question is, what is the portion? of your heart towards the Lord, a tender heart, tender-heartedness, and he shows in how you take corrections, because if you don't take corrections from humans, it'll be difficult to take corrections from the word. It'll be difficult to take corrections from God. A tender heart, that posture of your heart where I just want to please the Lord. I just want to love the Lord. God looks at these things, and this is what actually fosters intimacy with the Lord. Number three, when we talk about a contrite heart, number one is that it's a repentant heart. Number two is that it's a tender heart, and number three is that it's a reverential heart. If you observe what Isaiah said, he said, and that tremblet at my word, talking about the reverence for the things of God. Let me speak to this very, very quickly, and this is so important, because we live in a day and an age where spiritual things are beginning to become profane or trivialized. For example, every movie now, I mean, speaking in tongues is trivialized. Um, every movie now, it's a pastor that's been, um, um, um, scrutinized, and the wrong things have been said about them. And so what has happened generally is that even believers have lost their regard for our spiritual disciplines, for the things that produces power for us. You have to reclaim reverence for God. Reverence for God. Reverence for God. Which means, um, it could be as simple as you get into church early enough. Reverence for God. Reverence for God. Reverence for God. But realizing that it's, it's God, you have an appointment with reverence for God. I think that that's one big area of adjustment that a lot of us, um, believers need to come to. It would almost seem as though the God we have presented to people because he's a loving God, he's a reckless lover, and so we are reckless and all the rest in the way and manner in which we approach, in the way and manner in which we conduct ourselves before the Lord. for the Lord. This reverence will flow out in worship. It will flow out in your attention to the word. The posture you take in receiving the word of God, all of these things matter. Somebody does it matter? I mean, I'm talking about building intimacy with God. Does it matter? Yes, it does. It does. It does. You are the one. Remember, don't forget the subject of intimacy is different from the subject of redemption. You are the one who creates the right environment for the spirit of God to take advantage of. You are the one who creates it. And one of the ways you do it is with reverence for God. For example, the song goes up and then somebody says, blessed Jesus. That's not the time to be chewing gum and then you're looking around and all the rest. No, reverence for God. It matters. You'd be shocked at how that one person in the same atmosphere has a different experience of God. And why is that so? Because the person has reverence for God. So three things that makes up what we call a contrite heart. Number one is is that it's a repentant heart. It has the right posture to sin. It does not minimize it. Without getting into sin consciousness, it does not minimize it. Number two is that it's a tender heart. And then number three is that it is a very reverential heart. Glory to God. Now these things would help you search yourself. What are the adjustments that I need to make? And as you make these little adjustments, you see massive changes in your relationship with the Lord. Thank you for joining again today. 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