What the Bible Really Says About Intimacy With God

From the sermon preached on March 22, 2026

Intimacy with God is the foundation every other relationship is built on — and when that foundation is missing, no human relationship can carry the weight we put on it. That's the core of what the apostle Paul lays out in 1 Corinthians 7: the hunger for closeness is real, it is God-given, and it runs deeper than the physical. This post unpacks what Paul actually said — and why it matters whether you're married, single, widowed, or somewhere in the middle of a situation that doesn't fit a neat category.

Most people carry some version of this privately. They've tried to get close to someone — or to stay close — and something keeps going wrong. They don't say it out loud. But somewhere around 10pm, when it's quiet, the question surfaces: why does this still feel empty?

The short answer from scripture is yes — and not in the way you might expect. Paul opens 1 Corinthians 7 by addressing a community with real questions about sexual ethics in a culture that looked a lot like ours: people sleeping with whoever they wanted, doing whatever felt good, and calling it freedom. Paul doesn't moralize from a distance. He was writing to people in the middle of it — the same way you might be in the middle of something right now that you haven't told anybody about.

What Paul writes is not a list of rules. It's a theology of the body rooted in what God designed. He tells the church at Corinth that abstinence is not punishment — it is possible, and for some it's a genuine gift. He tells married people that physical intimacy in marriage is not something to be ashamed of; it is to be given generously, guarded carefully, and treated as something sacred. Hebrews 13:4 puts it plainly: marriage is honorable, and the bed is undefiled. That's not a loophole or a concession. That is God's own design being called good.

The part most people skip past is the reason Paul gives for protecting all of this. It's not primarily about purity as a moral achievement. It's about protection — protecting your heart from a counterfeit that will leave you emptier than you were before. When physical intimacy gets untethered from covenant and from closeness with God, it stops being a gift and starts being a drain.

One honest step: If you've been carrying shame about something in this area — inside a marriage or outside of one — write it down. Not to show anyone. Just to name the thing that's been living in the dark. That's where healing usually starts.

If you are carrying something you have not said out loud to anyone, pastoral support is available at Trinity Church — explore it here.

This is the part of the sermon that lands hardest for people who don't think of themselves as religious at all. The pastor who preached this message — James McGovern, Goodland Campus Pastor at Trinity Church — put it this way: if you try to get through this life without intimacy with God, you will feel empty. And you will carry that emptiness into every relationship. And you will put expectations on the people around you that only God can meet. They can't. So they will eventually fail you — or you will fail them — and you will be right back where you started, wondering why it keeps happening.

That's not a theological abstraction. That is the actual experience of a lot of people in Iroquois County who grew up going to church, walked away for whatever reason, and have spent the years since trying to fill something that doesn't stay filled. A marriage that started with real love and has gone cold. A relationship that felt like everything at the beginning and became a cage. A pattern that keeps repeating no matter who the other person is.
Paul's answer isn't "try harder" and it isn't "lower your expectations." It is: get close to God first. Be so satisfied in him that you bring something to give rather than showing up empty and hoping the other person can fix it. That kind of closeness — what Paul calls being filled and overflowing — changes what you bring to every other relationship you're in. It is not a platitude. It is a description of how the thing actually works.

One honest step: Think about one relationship in your life where you've been putting pressure on someone to give you something only God can give. That awareness alone is worth something.

You do not have to figure this out alone; Trinity Church's support groups exist for exactly these hard seasons — find it here.

Paul does something surprising partway through 1 Corinthians 7. He says he wishes everyone were single like him — not as a burden but as a gift. He calls celibacy a genuine gift from God. And he's not being dismissive of marriage. He is saying that a life without a spouse can be a life of deeper, more undivided closeness with God than a married life often allows.

That's not a comfortable thing to say in a culture that treats singleness as a waiting room. But Paul means it as an honor. He says the unmarried person has an undivided devotion to the Lord — their attention is not split between God and the very real, very good, very demanding work of loving a spouse well. Both things are gifts. Neither is second-best.
This matters for the widows in Watseka who feel like they've been put out to pasture since their husband died. It matters for the divorced person who has been made to feel like a second-class member of every church they've ever tried. It matters for the 40-year-old who has never been married and is tired of answering questions about it at family gatherings. God is not withholding something good from you. He is inviting you into something real. The hunger for closeness that you feel is not a mistake — it was designed to point you toward him.

Paul's word to all of it — married, single, widowed, divorced — is the same: the time is short, and what God wants is intimacy with you. He wants to be the first and deepest thing. Not because he wants to take something from you, but because he is the only one who can actually give you what you're looking for.

One honest step: Spend five minutes this week in silence — not asking for anything, not saying the right words. Just being still with the idea that God already knows you and is not disappointed.

In Watseka and across Iroquois County, these aren't abstract questions. They're the questions people carry to work at the plant, out to the field in the morning, into a house that's quiet in the wrong way at night. Trinity Church — located at 1658 East Walnut Street in Watseka — is a place where those questions are taken seriously, handled honestly, and met with real pastoral care rather than easy answers. If you've been circling something like this for a while and you're not sure where to take it, you're welcome to walk in, sit down, and find out for yourself. Nobody there has it all figured out either. But they're not pretending.

The message underneath all of Paul's words in 1 Corinthians 7 is simpler than the subject matter: you were designed for intimacy — with God first, and from that fullness, with the people around you. The emptiness you feel when that's missing is not a flaw. It's a signal. What God wants most is not your moral performance. He wants you, close to him, confessing what needs confessing, receiving what he's already offering.

Whatever has been standing between you and that — whether it's shame, or distance, or just years of not knowing it was possible — the invitation is open. If you are ready to take a next step, we would love to welcome you at Trinity Church at our Ashkum, Goodland, or Watseka Campus — plan your visit using the button below.

Or if you are not quite ready for that, fill out a connection card and let us know how we can pray for you — connect here.