Philippians 3: 8 – 10

Psalm 27: 4

God desires an intimate relationship with us not because He can’t live without us but because we
can’t live without Him.

It is God’s loving and gentle way of preventing us from living a life of misery by constantly reminding us to
grow deep in our relationship with Him. And that’s how it is. There cannot be a more tragic moment in our
lives than to have lived it for our own satisfaction. Edmund Chan wrote that the greatest incongruence
in life is to want God but never surrender to Him. John Piper said, “God is most glorified when we are
most satisfied in Him.” You see, life is more enjoyable when we cultivate an intimate relationship with our
Creator.

So what is intimacy? Why is it so important in a Christian’s life to desire for a deeper relationship with
God? It is because intimacy is the purpose of salvation. You did not receive salvation just so you can
go to heaven and escape hell. That was not the reason Jesus died on the cross. And so if you still believe
that Jesus died for you so you can gain heaven, then I’m telling you, as the Apostle Paul said in 2
Corinthians 13:5, “Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves.”

***Context of the passage***

Three truths about Intimacy with God

1. Intimacy begins in our emptiness

Emptiness and brokenness needs to take place first to create the hunger for God. Ken Gire in his
book The Work of His Hands writes:

When the Father begins crafting character, a crushing must first take place. Not because He’s
a temperamental artist who’s angry with His work, but because the raw materials for His art
come from a broken heart.

As we take a look at the preceding verses (v.1-7) by which Paul came to write this passage
(context), we can tell what his point was. We cannot start our journey with Jesus towards intimacy
unless we recognize that He is all we need and our sufficiency is in Him. This means that we
should not glory on human achievements, we should not dwell on the pleasure the world offers, in
fact we must look at it as nothing compared to the magnitude of being in Christ.

In Psalm 27:4 David said, “One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may
dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to
inquire in His temple.” That is intimacy with God! Have you ever felt a deeper hunger for the
Lord in your life? A hunger that extends beyond what you do in the church, more than just prayer
meetings, more than just fellowship, more than just church programs? Have you ever had the
desire that there is something more than this – that longing for something deeper, something
fulfilling, something life changing? And unless we don’t have this sense of longing, of emptiness,
there can never be intimacy with God.

What shows that we aim for intimacy?

a. It is our ultimate purpose in life

“One thing I have asked from the Lord, that I shall seek…” The defining purpose of the
Christian life is not merely doing things for God. Paul clearly pointed this out in our passage.
These are significant for the reason that they are part of the redemptive order.

 i. Redemptive order – has something to do with the Great Commission
ii. Creative order – we were created to enjoy intimacy with God.

If this – that I shall seek, is not the ultimate purpose of the Christian life where everything else
revolves around, then we cannot have that intimacy.

b. It is our ultimate pursuit in life

“I shall seek…” There are so many things that we desire in life. But what will matter the most?

c. It is our ultimate desire in life

“…dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life…” Stephen Covey said, “Whatever is
the center of our life will be the source of our security, guidance, wisdom and power.”

d. It is our ultimate passion

“To behold the beauty of the Lord…” Not just ordinarily seeing but beholding, gaze upon.
That was David’s passion.

2. Intimacy grows in our surrender

v. 9 “and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but
that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.”

Paul gave up everything. Now the question is what you are willing to give up so you may know
Christ because intimacy grows when we surrender to God. That is the problem of Christianity
today. As I said earlier as written by Edmund Chan, “always wanting God but never surrendering
to Him.” That’s the problem. That’s why today your life as a Christian is stagnant. You are just
content with going to church on Sundays as if you are someone from Zimbabwe. Simba-uwi.
Simba-uwi. Brothers and sisters in the Lord, it is not how a Christian should live their lives.
There’s more to it. There is more than just going to church. Christ wants our lives fully
surrendered to Him. Our journey as a Christian is the most important journey in life. You must be
intentional with how you live your life as a Christian. And that will require surrender to Him.
Maybe ask yourselves today, am I fully surrendered to God?

One way to know if you are fully surrendered to God is to ask about your spiritual discipline. I
Timothy 4: 7, 8 tells us the value of spiritual discipline and never listen to nonsense ideas.

How surrendered are we to God? How is our devotion life? How is our prayer life? How is our
journey with God? How do we use our time? How do we see our careers?

3. Intimacy yields to our conformity

v. 10 “that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and may share His sufferings,
becoming like Him in His death.”

Edmund Chan wrote, “God does not want to touch up your life, He wants to transform it!” Have
we prayed a prayer like this, “Lord, please change the way I think” or “Lord, I don’t want to be
angry, please control my anger and give me patience?” But ultimately, God wants us to be
conformed to the image of His son Jesus. God is not interested in our comfort, rather He is
interested in our conformity.