Leading The Way

Guest (Male): To know Jesus is to love him. That's the title of Dr. Youssef's current life-changing teaching series on leading the way.

Dr. Michael Youssef: This whole series of messages is built on one verse. Hear O Israel, the Lord your God is one God, and you shall love the Lord with all your mind. We saw that, how to love him with the mind, the seat of the will, the decision-making. Then love him with your imagination, love him with your soul. And then today, I'm talking about how to love him with all of your heart.

Guest (Male): Thank you for joining listeners across six continents for Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Youssef, a ministry connecting souls with the timeless truth of God's Word in 28 different languages through multiple technologies and platforms. Want to learn more about Dr. Youssef and Leading the Way? Well, a great place to start is by subscribing to the monthly print magazine, My Journal.

My Journal is packed with content written to challenge and inspire your faith by sharing ways the gospel is changing lives at home and around the world. Learn options for getting a free subscription started when you call us at 866-626-4356 or online at ltw.org. But do that a little later because right now, Dr. Michael Youssef is ready to continue his audio series, To Know Jesus is to Love Him.

Dr. Michael Youssef: I have been talking about how to develop deep intimacy with Jesus, how to deepen your love for Jesus. And the question is this: what is that intimacy? How do you develop it?

Intimacy, like so many other words like love and democracy, are misunderstood and bandied about without proper definition, and so misinterpreted in many ways. Today, if you ask the average person the word intimacy, they think you're talking about sexual intimacy. That's how our culture is now.

But intimacy has a far deeper meaning. Intimacy is the connection with another person on an emotional level. Intimacy is a connection with another person on an intellectual level. Intimacy is a connection with another person on a spiritual level, spirit to spirit. Intimacy is the connection with another person in terms of mutual interest and common desires.

Intimacy is the connection to another person heart to heart and soul to soul. The reason we have so many broken relationships today, the reason we have so many fractured relationships today, and the reason we have so many fragmented relationships today is because our generation has a false understanding of what intimacy is all about.

Intimacy is not instant, it's not manufactured while you wait. Intimacy is a process. Intimacy takes time to develop. True intimacy cannot develop overnight. Above all else, intimacy requires trust. Intimacy needs time investment. There's no going around this.

Thinking about the time investment, I thought of a story of the young couple who fell in love with each other and they wanted to get married. But the young man got conscripted into the military and he was shipped overseas, and he was to serve overseas for a year.

But before leaving, he promised his wife-to-be that he's going to be writing her a letter every single day while he's away. And sure enough, he did. He sent 365 letters. The young woman got married a year later, as planned, to the mailman. He was obviously doing more than delivering letters.

But you've got to understand, intimacy develops over time. In fact, this particular truth was not lost on a dear old maid who never dated anyone, let alone married. She died at the age of 96, and she left clear instructions in her will about her funeral. She said there will be no male pallbearers. Her explanation: they did not take me out while I was living, and they won't take me out when I'm dead.

Why is intimacy such a problem in our culture? First, as I already indicated, intimacy requires a focused attention, a concentrated time. It's like the boy who kept talking to his father. "Dad, are you listening?" and the father said, "I'm listening, I'm listening," while he was working. And he said, "Dad," and the father kept saying, "I'm listening, I'm listening." And he was not. Finally, the boy got so exasperated, he said, "Dad, listen to me with your face."

Secondly, intimacy is based on mutual trust. When trust is broken, intimacy is shattered. When trust is betrayed, intimacy becomes very difficult. I'm not saying it's impossible, but it becomes very difficult. Trust, on the other hand, opens the heart and opens the mind to the trusted one.

Trust makes fear vanish, makes suspicion vanish. Whatever that trust, whether it's between a husband and wife, whether it's between two brothers in Christ or two sisters in Christ, two intimate friends, it will vanish fear of rejection when it's exercised. Now, I don't get psychological on you and I'm not going to start now, but I just want to explain something that's very important.

Most often, the person who is unable to keep trust is because somehow, somewhere, sometime, they have experienced betrayal and they just can't get over that. Somehow, somewhere, sometime, they've experienced rejection and they can't get over that. Somehow, somewhere, sometime, they've experienced deception and they can't overcome that. Why? They are not able to allow the blood of Jesus Christ to heal their past.

So they live their lives repeating that betrayal. They live their life unable to trust anyone or accept trust of others. Someone said a real friend is the person with whom you dare to be yourself. Why? Because intimacy is built on trust, and trust takes time to build and develop. Trust takes real commitment. Trust is the very heart of intimacy.

Now, there are some people who don't even understand trust and don't comprehend trust and they get confused about trust. In fact, not long ago I was reading an article about how the super-rich in our day and the celebrities, they are unable to have real friends. And they said this is really problematic for them.

And the reason is because they can never know if the person is befriending them only for what they can get out of them. No wonder they get on these drugs and then, as we've seen of late, many of them are taking their own lives. What a way to live.

But listen, I am so thankful that I have a super-rich friend. He is a super, super-rich friend who knows my motives and he still wants me to befriend him. In fact, I'm building it up to get to this point. Intimacy with my super-rich friend and savior and Lord is that he longs for me to befriend him. And you know him too.

With my super-rich savior and Lord, I can be absolutely sure that he loves me and never worries about what I want out of him. How? Because he knows my motives and still loves me. He knows my desires and he still loves me. He knows my fears and my failures and he still loves me. He knows my weaknesses and my foibles and he still loves me. I know he wants a true intimacy with me and he wants it with you.

But the question is, do I know how to develop intimacy with Jesus? I want to talk to you about this, how to develop intimacy with Jesus. Because true intimacy with Jesus is more than just coming to him with your grocery list: "Lord, give me three of these, two of that, seven of the other, and preferably on the house."

Now, don't misunderstand me. I believe the Lord wants to hear our petitions. I believe the Lord wants to hear our requests. I believe the Lord wants us to hear our desires and our prayers. But to develop intimacy with Jesus, you have to learn to really listen as well as speak.

Did you know that Jesus actually desires intimacy with you more than you do? Did you know that? Somebody here might say, "Well wait a minute, Michael, I really tried. I really tried to listen, but my mind wanders all over the place and I can't listen to God." Not if you're listening to him with his Word open in front of you.

If you come to his presence with the expectation of hearing him through his Word, he will speak to you. That's his promise. Did you know that there are some people who really do not want to hear from God? And the reason they don't want to hear from God is that they are afraid the Holy Spirit may speak to them.

I know what I'm talking about. Sometimes people are afraid of his conviction, so they don't listen. They're afraid that he's going to put his finger—now the Holy Spirit doesn't have a finger, but you know what I mean—he's going to put his finger on something that reveals some attitude or some habit or some action that requires confession and repentance.

Others actually are afraid to hear God lest he say love words to them, and in their erroneous thinking, they feel unworthy to hear the words of his love. That's false. Others are afraid that they may hear nothing. Let me tell you something: nothing is something when it comes to God. Because God delights in us being in his presence. Sometimes you don't have to say anything. Sometimes he doesn't have to say anything.

Now, here's the problem. Some people don't develop intimacy with Jesus because they know they're going to have to get real with him. And getting real with Jesus may cause them to have to stop doing some things that they don't want to stop, or that he may give them what they don't want.

And so they go around knowing in their heads that Jesus died for them. They believe that they are saved by grace. They believe that God is good, especially when he answers their prayers. In their head, they know a great deal about Jesus. In their head, they can even discern biblical truth. In their head, they know Christian doctrine and they know all of that. In their head, they develop this knowledge of who Jesus is, but never an intimacy with Jesus.

Why? Because they never knew how to love him with all of their heart. This whole series of messages is built on one verse. Hear O Israel, the Lord your God is one God—we saw that in the very first message—and you shall love the Lord with all your mind. We saw that, how to love him with the mind, the seat of the will, the decision-making. Then love him with your imagination, love him with your soul. And then today, I'm talking about how to love him with all of your heart.

What is that heart? I'm not talking about that muscle that beats in the left side of your chest all the time. No, I leave that to the cardiologist. But when the Bible speaks of the heart, it is always referring to the center of our personality. And that is why when we say to people receive Jesus into your heart, what do we mean by receive him into your heart?

It's like the little girl who said, "Jesus is in my heart. I don't know how he got there, but he's in my heart," which is fine, good to teach the kids that, but you've got to go a little further and explain what that means. What does it mean to say I've received Jesus into my heart?

You are saying that I am inviting him to occupy the very center of my personality, that I'm inviting him to occupy the very center of my being, that I'm inviting him to occupy the very center of my totality. Someone would say, "Well, Michael, I pray all the time. I pray in the car, I pray at work, I pray all day long. I pray." Good, don't stop. I'm not asking you to stop.

But I want you to imagine the following scenario with me. Suppose you have a friend that he or she has the habit, as soon as you pick up the phone, as soon as the phone rings and you say hello, that friend just starts talking. And then they talk, and they talk, and they talk.

And they talk. Some of you are grinning, you have friends like that. And they talk, and they talk, and before you say "Ah," they hang up. "Goodbye, thank you." Can you really develop intimacy with that friend? No, you can't. Intimacy requires listening. Intimacy requires attention. Intimacy requires time investment. Again, I think of that kid who said to his father, "Listen to me with your face."

Now, most of us, I think, want to hear from God, especially if we are in a bind and want an answer to something and we don't know which way to turn. We all want to hear from God at that time. But then we want to hear from God while the television is bellowing away, the phone is ringing off the hook, we're multitasking and doing all sorts of things, and we wonder why we can't hear from God. And wonder why our intimacy with Jesus is not going anywhere.

The man who had the greatest influence on John Wesley, the Count of Zinzendorf, let me read it to you. He said, "An understanding which arises out of concepts changes with age and with education and with circumstance. But an understanding that's arrived at through experience is not subject to these changes. In fact, such understanding becomes better with time."

Your intimacy with Jesus can only grow better with time when you begin to experience his presence. Listen, I know in our culture, I know and it grieves me, I cannot tell you, I know we get bored with ideas and we get bored with life and we get bored with relationships and yes, some people even get bored with churches. What was once new becomes stale, old, and familiar.

But not in your intimacy with Jesus. Not in your intimacy with Jesus. The more you spend time with him, the more you know him. And the more you know him, the more you love him. And the more you love him, the more you get to love him more. And the more you love him, the more you love him with all your heart.

Only then will you recognize that God is most available to those who are most available to him. I want to repeat that. God is most available to those who are most available to him. One of the words you can reflect on: he died for me. He died for me. Can you say that with me? He died for me.

He died for me. As a matter of fact, Martin Luther said that those two words "for me," "for me," ought to be written in golden letters on the heart of every believer. For me! Why? Because it tells us of the savior who wants us. It tells us of the savior who longs to befriend us.

It tells us about the savior who longs for intimacy with us because it tells us of the savior who longs for us to be intimate with him. Some years ago, a well-known magazine, Psychology Today, surveyed 40,000 Americans. Question: what qualities in life do you value the most?

You'll be surprised with the answers. Number three was warmth and affection. Number two was loyalty. Number one was trust. Trust. That's the longing of the heart of people, whether they know Jesus or not. Now beloved, the reason you can love Jesus with all of your heart is because you can truly trust him.

You can trust him. You can trust him. You can trust him that he has your best interest in heart, even when he doesn't give you what you're asking for. You can still trust him. Even when he doesn't do what you want him to do, you can still trust him. I said earlier that intimacy takes time to build up and to develop.

I wrote the book Trust and Obey for that reason. I always love for people to learn from my failure. If you've read the book, you know what I'm talking about. Even if you haven't read the book, the title gives it away: trust. Trust. I don't want to give you the impression that I've trusted the Lord from the very beginning of my walk. I didn't.

In fact, there was a time when the Lord did the exact opposite of what I was asking and praying for earnestly. And I had a hard time trusting. But as I look back, I go on my knees in thanksgiving for him not answering that prayer and many others.

As I grow in intimacy with my Lord, even when I go through some puzzling circumstances as I always do, I can only testify of him that the one who was there and there and there, he's going to be here. I can tell you on the authority of God's Word that when you trust Jesus during the times when you don't have an answer as to why he's doing something that he's doing, when you trust him, especially in those times, especially in those times, you are honoring him.

And you know what his Word promised to those who honor him? He said, "I honor those who honor me," says the Lord. There may be a person here who hasn't even begun the first step in receiving Jesus as Savior and Lord. Today you can do that. You can say, "Lord Jesus, I receive you into my life. I'm a sinner, forgive me." And he promised that he will not reject you.

But for all those who have known the Lord for a long time, that you've known and you know all the right stuff, but you haven't begun to love him with all your heart, today you can begin that. "Lord, I want to love you with all my heart. I will invest the time and I'll trust you." Shall we pray together?

Our loving Father, we thank you that you long, you long to be in intimacy with us. Lord Jesus, you said, "I stand on the door and knock," and Father, many times we're busy and keep you out in the cold. May every heart be open, that intimacy begins to develop. That even as the world gets darker and darker, that the light of those who have developed and are developing intimacy with you will shine brighter. For we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Guest (Male): Thank you for joining Dr. Michael Youssef for this episode of Leading the Way. And if you'd like to get in touch with the team at Leading the Way, maybe to order a product or to stand with Dr. Youssef in generosity, here is the number to call: 866-626-4356. Or you can go online to ltw.org on your computer or your mobile device.

As we bring today's episode to a close, I want to take just a moment to speak with Dr. Youssef about his newest book, An Unholy Alliance. So Dr. Youssef, let's dig into the content of this new book for just a moment. Help us understand what current events indicate that this threat, this unholy alliance, as you call it, is advancing today and not retreating.

Dr. Michael Youssef: If you listen carefully to what the leaders of this Islamization of the West movement say, they said, "We basically going to do it by taking over power and authority." They are electing members of Parliament in England, Australia, and now in Congress in the United States, mayors, councils. And they slowly but surely want to choke Western civilization out so that they may bring their caliphate and they bring their Islamization and the Sharia law. And so every believer in Jesus must take this seriously in prayer, to pray for them that God will bring them to himself, to be converted to Christ, and that their plot to destroy Western culture with all of the liberty and the freedom that we can have to preach the gospel, that it would be foiled.

Guest (Male): Don't miss this month's special offer for An Unholy Alliance. And right now Dr. Youssef is offering to send a copy as his way of saying thank you for your gift of any amount to the ongoing ministry of Leading the Way. Preorder online at ltw.org or you can call and speak directly with a ministry representative to place your order. Give us a call, 866-626-4356. This program is brought to you by Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Youssef.