James 4:7-8 Nearer My God To Thee Grace 9/20/2009

Last week we looked at our new mission statement – “Reaching the world for Jesus Christ, beginning in Casanova – Acts 1:8.” In order to reach the world for God, we need to let God reach us first and that’s what I want to look at today out of James ch. 4. “Submit yourselves therefore to God. … Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.”

As we begin to look at this, I want to go to the beginning – to Genesis. In the Book of Genesis there is the story of God making man. Gen 2:7 . 7And the LORD God formed a man’s body from the dust of the ground and breathed into it the breath of life. And the man became a living person.

God took a deep breath in the creation story. God breathed deeply and infused Adam with life. To Adam, the first human, God gave a breath of life, a breath with a spark of divinity. In the original meaning, there is a sense of intimacy, God breathes into the nostrils of the formed human.

Although I had taken more than one first aid course and administered a lot of first aid since my days as a Boy Scout, I had not taken a CPR class until I was in my late thirties.. While I have never yet had to give CPR in real life I did have to resuscitate “ANNIE” a practice resuscitation doll. I learned that day to help give life to someone you had to get pretty intimate. Face to face, mouth to mouth giving my breath to someone else. It can’t be done at a distance.

When God created man he didn’t create him from a distance, he created man different than anything else he created. That creation was a illustration about how he wanted man different than any other living thing.

Gen 3: 8-10 “⁸Toward evening they heard the LORD God walking about in the garden, so they hid themselves among the trees. ⁹The LORD God called to Adam, “Where are you?” ¹⁰He replied, “I heard you, so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked.”

God wanted intimacy and man was afraid. That trend has extended right to us today as many of us are still afraid of intimacy. We run from intimacy in relationships with fellow man, our spouses, even our kids. We are afraid of knowing another because we are afraid of being known.

Exhausted from the day, nerves shot, the dad was not in a mood to pay much attention to his son. But the little boy persisted, "Dad, how much do you make?" Agitated, the dad replied, "Enough! Now go to bed." "But Daddy, how much do you make an hour?" A quick lecture and in no mood for games: "They pay me $25 an hour." "Can I borrow $10?" Grumbled, "NO! Now go to sleep."

Next morning, the father felt bad about how he treated his son, and gave him ten dollars. The little guy lit up like a Christmas tree and rushed to his room and got his piggy bank. He carefully counted out pennies, dimes & nickels he’d saved. Reached into his pocket for the ten dollar bill, and said, "Here, Daddy. $25. Can I buy an hour of your time?"

God was saying to Adam and Eve in the garden I want some of your time… and they hid.

God already knew what happened at the tree. Yet he still sought them out and he still is today!

Bruce Wilkerson tells of a time in his walk with God when he felt far from God. Nothing seemed to give him a sense of closeness with God. In the midst of that time he had a spiritual awakening. Even though he was a great teacher, author of many books, including the prayer of Jabez, and the leader of Walk Thru the Bible Ministries he felt far from God. What he learned at that point was this: “God didn’t want me to do more for Him; He wanted me to be more with Him.”

So we see in James 4:8 “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.” While James is the one who makes the point that faith without works is dead, he is saying in the whole of today’s passage that the works must come out of a place of wisdom and righteousness that comes by being not doing. Be and do! Be and do! They go hand in hand but being is always first. Being with God. Drawing near to Him.

We know that God is omnipresent. He is everywhere, so in that sense God is always there with those who believe in Him and those who do not. We also know that the Holy Spirit dwells in everyone who believes in Jesus so He is always present with us in that sense as well. So just what is James getting at here if these two things are already true for those he addresses as well as for us?

He’s telling Christians to purposefully move into greater intimacy with God. It’s possible for a married couple to live in the same room. But if the husband is in his office on the computer and the wife is in another room watching television, is there any intimacy going on? They are logistically close to one another, but there’s no close interaction. Each is functioning independent of the other.

James is calling on Christians to get into the same room with God—get into a conversation with God—talk with Him and hear what He has to say to you--get to know God as a person much more deeply.

How do we do this? James doesn’t give us a step by step set of instructions but he does in the surrounding few verses tell us to submit ourselves to God, cleanse our hands and hearts and humble ourselves before God. This is good preparation for drawing near and is the first thing that needs to happen.. What’s next to make this all happen?

Second, make intimacy with God a priority. I have things on my to do list that have been there for months. It’s easy to find something else to do if there’s something we don’t want to. We intend to pray, to read the Bible more but many of us don’t. For many it never happens because they disobey one principle Jesus set forth in his Sermon on the Mount. Matt 6:33 “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” Where are your priorities? We can tell where our priorities are by what we actually do. All the other things are not done because we have excellent excuses for not doing them. Seek first—make it a priority—or you will never really get it done!

Third, take a step in the right direction. Someone has said, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” If we never take that step, we’ll certainly never make the journey. When we think about drawing near to God, sometimes we get such lofty ideals in mind that we never get started. Drawing near to God is a process. Start by taking a step in the right direction.

Fourth, continue with the process. Once you start the journey, keep walking.

“Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.” That’s a command with a promise. We have to be honest enough to say whether we really want to draw near to God. You can have a church service without drawing near to God. People can conduct all kinds of church activities without the presence of God. Christians can live their lives without intimacy with God—just kind of living a nice life but keeping God at arm’s length. Draw near to God—will we? Will we:

1. Prepare our hearts to seek the Lord?

2. Make it a priority?

3. Take a step in the right direction?

4. Continue with the process.

Once you begin – continue. It is the most important step to accomplishing our parish mission. In fact more important. Do and Be. Let us do both.

Amen