[0:00] Welcome, my name is BK. I have the pleasure of serving as one of the pastors here. We are in a series entitled What We Believe and Why We Believe It.
[0:11] We are working our way through our affirmation of faith that we hold here at SBC. And as we've been going through it, I'm hoping it will enlighten you to our core beliefs.
[0:24] If you have been here for a short time and you're curious what we are about, this is the series to be a part of. Last couple of weeks, we spent some time on the Bible, God's Word.
[0:37] What does God's Word say about His Word? And today, we are in the subject of God. I cannot think of a better topic for Father's Day than the topic of God, our Heavenly Father.
[0:56] See how I worked that in there? I'm not much for Hallmark holidays, but anyway. I'm going to read to you what our statement of faith states.
[1:07] It simply says, there is one and only one God who is the creator of this universe. God, who is a God of love and justice, has always existed and will always exist.
[1:19] He is the ultimate authority over all persons and things, and He answers to no higher being or principle. In biblical terms, we affirm that He is holy, which means that He is in every way unique and in a category all His own, free from all the limits and imperfections experienced by creatures.
[1:42] In both the majesty of His being and the moral purity of His nature and action, He is uniquely perfect. Although God is one in His being, He exists eternally in three divine persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
[2:00] The idea of the Trinity is a mystery beyond our full comprehension, but we are compelled by the witness of the Bible to affirm it.
[2:14] Obviously, if we are going to say everything there is to say about God, I would be preaching a very, very long time. When I was reading our affirmation of faith, and no insult to those who wrote it earlier for us, who summed it up, I thought it was somewhat light compared to everything that we could say about God.
[2:49] So I thought I would read for you what our Baptist confessions say from 1689 on the subject of our God. It's a little bit meatier.
[3:01] Let me read it to you. The Lord our God is but one only living and true God, whose substance is and of Himself infinite in being and perfection, whose essence cannot be comprehended by any but Himself.
[3:19] A most pure spirit, invisible, without body, parts, or passions, who only has immortality dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto.
[3:33] He is immutable, immense, eternal, incomprehensible, almighty, in every way, infinite, most holy, most wise, most free, most absolute, working all things according to the counsel of His immutable and most righteous will for His own glory.
[3:49] He is most loving, gracious, merciful, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin. He is the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him, and withal most just and terrible in His judgments, hating all sin and who will by no means clear the guilty.
[4:13] God, having all life, glory, goodness, blessedness in and of Himself, is alone and unto Himself all-sufficient, not standing in need of any creature which He hath made, nor deriving any glory from them, but only manifesting His own glory in, by, unto, and upon them.
[4:35] He is the alone fountain of all being, of whom, through whom, and to whom all are all things, and He has most sovereign dominion over creatures, to do by them, for them, or upon them, whatsoever He pleases.
[4:58] In His sight all things are open and made manifest. His knowledge is infinite, infallible, and independent upon the creature, so as nothing is to Him contingent or uncertain.
[5:13] He is most holy in all His counsels, in all His works, and in all His commands. To Him is due from angels and men whatsoever worship, service, or obedience as creatures they owe unto the Creator.
[5:32] And whatever He is further pleased to require of them. In this defined and infinite being, there are three substances.
[5:44] The Father, the Word, or the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Of one substance, power, and eternity. Each having the whole divine essence, yet the essence undivided.
[6:00] The Father is none, neither begotten nor proceeding. The Son is eternally begotten of the Father. The Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father and the Son, all infinite, without beginning.
[6:15] Therefore, but one God, who is not to be divided in nature and being, but distinguished by several peculiar relative properties of personal relations, which doctrine of the Trinity is the foundation of all our communion with God and comfortable dependence of Him.
[6:37] God's people can say amen, right? The psalmist in Psalm 113 wrote, and you can follow along in your Bibles, praise the Lord.
[6:50] Praise the Lord. Praise, O servants of the Lord. Praise the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name of the Lord. From this time forth and forevermore.
[7:03] From this time forth, from the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the Lord is to be praised. The Lord is high above all nations, and His glory above the heavens.
[7:17] Who is like the Lord our God? Who is seated on high? Who looks far down on the heavens and the earth? He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap.
[7:28] To make them sit with princes, with the princes of His people, He gives the barren women a home, making her the joyous mother of children. Praise the Lord.
[7:43] Christian author A.W. Tozer wrote, what comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.
[7:54] What is God like? This is the question that philosophers have been debating for centuries, if not millenniums.
[8:04] Philosophers have taken to three primary arguments in their seeking of truth. In case you don't know that, there's essentially three philosophical arguments for the existence of God.
[8:20] There is what's known as the cosmological argument. And basically, this argument means that everything has to have a beginning. There's no such thing as something that just is.
[8:33] Sometimes it's called the uncaused cause or the primary mover, the creator. Everything in life needs a push, so to speak.
[8:47] God has forever been existing pushing. There is the teleological argument. That argument flows from design.
[8:59] That we know that this universe, the study of this world, our bodies demonstrate that there is a design far above you and I.
[9:11] And then there's the ontological argument. This is a little bit more of a complex argument, but essentially boils down to this.
[9:23] If you and I can imagine that there is a concept of a perfect being outside of us, then that must be God. So philosophers for years, they've spent all their time thinking about these things and this is all they can come up with.
[9:43] What does the Bible argue for the existence of God? Well, Genesis 1-1 simply states, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
[9:58] It doesn't even argue that God existed. It just tells us that he did and he did what he did. Romans 1-20 tells us clearly that God is known from things that are.
[10:15] That even a lunatic can absolutely know that there is a God. That creation screams out to us that there is a God. Our consciences scream in our head that there is a right, there is a wrong.
[10:29] We know that there is a God. But knowing there is a God doesn't really mean much when it comes to knowing God, does it?
[10:46] We can know all the science and all the proofs for the existence of God, but that doesn't mean that we know God. This morning, I'm going to look at what the one author states is the treasure of Christianity, the treasure that cannot be had in any other religion, but how that you and I can actually know God.
[11:15] The prophet Jeremiah in Jeremiah 9-23 simply states, Thus says the Lord, Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom.
[11:28] Let not the mighty man boast in his might. Not let the rich man boast in his riches. But let him who boasts, boast in this, that he understands and knows me.
[11:46] That I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.
[12:00] So if someone ever tells you that we're not supposed to brag or to boast, there is one thing that we can boast about, is that we can know the Lord.
[12:15] Let me ask you a question. Are you willing to adjust your life to whatever God reveals himself to you?
[12:30] Do you believe that knowing God, the true treasure of Christianity, is worth adjusting your life to? Paul in 1 Corinthians 1-9 simply states, God is faithful.
[12:45] By whom you were called into the fellowship of his son, Jesus Christ the Lord.
[12:57] Let me sum that up for you. You were called to fellowship with God through his son, Jesus Christ.
[13:10] That to know God is to be called into the fellowship with his son, Jesus Christ. So as I stated this morning, I'd like to preach to you about knowing God.
[13:26] In the next couple of weeks, we will find ourselves looking at what the Bible says, not so much about God, but knowing God.
[13:39] If you want to know about God, you would remember a couple of years ago, I did a sermon series on the attributes of God. If you want to know the immense, the enormity, the eternality, the assayity, all these amazing things about God, I would suggest you listen to that sermon series.
[13:58] But this morning, I want to share with you the treasure of Christianity and what it is to know God. But before I say any more, let us pray. God, you are my God.
[14:16] We are here to worship you, oh Father, by coming under your word to learn your truth, this special revelation that you have revealed yourself to us.
[14:28] Father, I pray that you give us understanding, that through this understanding of knowing you and how to know you, that you would indeed become the treasure of our hearts, that you would become the pearl of great price, that you would be the greatest riches, the sweetest honeycomb that we could ever experience.
[14:56] Father, I pray that you would give my words clarity, that you would allow our ears to hear your truth, and that you would give us honesty of heart so that we could check ourselves to really see if we do truly know you.
[15:20] And if so, may we give praise for that. If not, may you give us the courage to seek after you, to seek out your will, and to truly see you as you are.
[15:40] We ask these things in the most holy and immortal name. Amen. Amen. You see, there's an idea that has plagued man from understanding God.
[15:52] And the first barrier, or maybe barrier isn't the right word that I would use, there's a part of God that is truly incomprehensible, that is truly incomprehensible.
[16:10] You see, this is the thing that is so incredible about God. He is God. He is the creator of the heavens and the earth. And the question that needs to be asked is how that we, such a pitiful creation, truly the opposite God, truly know God.
[16:31] How can we, the created, understand the creator? Well, this is why we depend on God's word, his, the Bible, which is God's special revelation.
[16:45] So in his word, we learn that there are these attributes of God. And I want to give you a few definitions. And I know some of these ideas are going to play around in your head a little bit, and that's okay.
[16:58] I want them to play around in your head a little bit. The first thing that we need to understand is an attribute is something that God has revealed to be true about himself.
[17:12] An attribute is something that God has revealed to be true about himself. What this means is God had to tell us this attribute we couldn't figure it out on our own.
[17:24] You got me? That's the first rule of an attribute. The second one is an attribute is something that is essentially true about God.
[17:36] What I mean is it's an attribute of who God is, not how he acts. And I want to explain this for a bit because I think this is important.
[17:48] You and I are human. Some days are good days. Some days are bad days. Believe it or not, there's some days I am impatient. Some days I have the patience of Job.
[18:03] Well, not really. But anyway, I'm at least not impatient. How's that? Some days I can be frustrated. Some days I can be full of thanksgiving.
[18:14] How I feel or I act does not change the essence of who I am. I'm still a human being. You with me? So how I feel or what I do on that day doesn't change who I am.
[18:31] I'm still a human being. And the only way I cannot be human is if I essentially cease to exist. And this is the reason I'm explaining this is because we sometimes think of God in our terms about how we think about ourselves.
[18:53] So that's us. But God is completely different. With God, being something isn't how he acts.
[19:04] It's who he is. God is all-powerful. God is all-knowing. God cannot be himself and not be himself.
[19:16] So what I mean by, it's not like he's all-powerful on Wednesdays and not powerful, all-powerful on Thursday.
[19:26] He is all the time, every day, all-powerful on every day, all days. He is all-knowing.
[19:38] So when we talk about the attribute of God, it's who he is all the time. You with me on that? He doesn't cease.
[19:50] Now, it might seem really obvious to you, but I'm going to give you an example. In the late 90s, early 2000, there was this belief that entered into a lot of evangelical churches, which was actually a heresy.
[20:04] And it's a heresy called open theism. And what it meant was God is open to tomorrow. And what it essentially said, that God doesn't know what's going to happen tomorrow.
[20:18] And the reason he doesn't know what's going to happen tomorrow is because God is such a great respecter of our free will. And he doesn't want to impede on anything.
[20:30] He doesn't know. So he's like exploring with us what's going to happen tomorrow. What's it going to be like? And they were thinking about this. And if you understand Calvinism and there's extreme Calvinism, that's cuckoo Calvinism.
[20:45] There's Arminianism and there's extreme Arminianism, that cuckoo Arminianism. All right? This was on the cuckoo Arminianism side where they just said, you know what? God is such a great respecter of free will.
[20:57] He doesn't even know what's going to happen tomorrow because he doesn't want to even impugn on our freedom of making choices. So he's there with us, whatever, cheering us on or looking forward to when he goes to bed and waking up.
[21:11] What's tomorrow going to be like? Okay? But they were teaching this. This was a big thing. But it undermined who God was.
[21:21] One, God is perfect. And when God is perfect, he is in no need of knowledge. Do you know that? Perfection means perfect knowledge. If that was God who did not know what tomorrow is, he would cease to be God.
[21:35] And what's true is through this heretical teaching they actually proved not only how wrong they were, but how perfect God has to be.
[21:49] God doesn't learn. You with me on that? He's all-knowing. If he needed to learn, he would cease to be perfect. That's what happens when you start coming up with these ideas and you really don't know what the Bible says.
[22:07] So anyway, God did not hand over his Godhead to the created. You see, God's attributes are him at all time, regardless if we understand them.
[22:24] You with me? So that's the point. Attributes are who he is all the time. Here's the other thing. God is not divided. God is in perfect unity, perfect harmony all the time.
[22:37] I've kind of been making this point. God is not just on one day and full of mercy the next. On Monday and Tuesday, he's still mercy and he's still just.
[22:49] God is love and he hates sin all at once. Another way to say it, God is fully holy and fully love. So this is how we talk about attributes.
[23:04] These are how we are to understand them. So now that we think about these things, I want to express to you just how incomprehensible God is.
[23:16] I'll give you a few examples. Psalm 145 tells us that God overflows the bounds of creation. Let me read the text.
[23:27] Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised and his greatness is unsearchable. We will never come to the limit of how great he is.
[23:41] Jeremiah 23, 23, 24 says, Am I a God at hand, declares the Lord, and not a God far away? Can man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him, declares the Lord?
[23:58] Then he simply says, Do I not fill heaven and earth, declares the Lord? He's unsearchable. Psalm 139 says that his thoughts towards creation are actually beyond numbering.
[24:17] Psalm 139, 17 and 18 says, How precious to me are your thoughts, O God. How vast is the sum of them. If I would count them, they are more than the sand.
[24:32] I am awake and I am still with you. And thirdly, we know that his deeds are beyond measure. Job 5, 8, 9 says, As for me, I would seek God.
[24:48] And to God, I would commit my cause. Who does great things and unsearchable, marvelous things without number.
[24:59] The Puritan theologian, Richard Sibb simply said, How can finite comprehend the infinite?
[25:12] How we shall apprehend him, but can we comprehend him? One of the best analogies that someone used is, Just think of the Mayflower.
[25:31] When it was coming into America and they saw this piece of land. Looking at God is like looking at that piece of land. Little did they know it was part of this grand expanse of all of North America.
[25:45] But we can only see this really, truly little smidgen that God has chosen to reveal to us.
[26:01] But here's the thing. God does tell us we can know him. If you have talked to anybody who is a quote-unquote real expert in something, there's actually three stages to becoming an expert.
[26:18] Let me tell you about them. The first stage is the know-nothing stage. Right? They're called teenagers. They think they know everything, but they really know nothing.
[26:32] And let me explain. Then they go to the know-everything stage. And parents know that any kind of information that a lot of teenagers know is kind of just enough to be dangerous, right?
[26:49] They know some stuff. But then they say, then there's the true expert. It's the person who truly knows a lot about something.
[27:00] And he can only conclude that he really knows nothing about the subject. Does that make sense? That's true knowledge. True knowledge is the awareness of even though you're an expert, you really do not know.
[27:15] I have a doctorate. And all of my studies reveals how little I know about the subject that I wrote on, even though I've got 250 pages written.
[27:26] It leaves this feeling that I should just be writing more and more because I know so little. It's interesting because an author made the observation about worship music.
[27:44] And they did a comparison between the hymns of yesterday and the songs of today. And the Puritan writers who were deep in theology when they wrote a lot of hymns, most of their songs are about the mystery of God.
[28:01] Because the deeper that they knew God, the more they understood that he's such a greater mystery than today. But the Bible does tell us that God is knowable.
[28:21] And I'm here to tell you that God chooses to reveal himself to four types of people. Four types of people.
[28:33] What are those people? The first is the reverent. The first is the reverent. Psalm 25, 14 says, The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him.
[28:49] And he makes known to them his covenant. The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him. Let me ask you a question.
[29:03] Do you fear the Lord? And if you do, do you fear him more today than you did yesterday?
[29:14] Now fear, when I say fear, is a tricky word to use. Fear is not being used in the way of fear of terror or dreadful.
[29:26] Fear is not being used in the way of fear. But it's a fear of fear of fear. It's a fear of greatness. It is a fear of power and authority.
[29:37] It's not a fear based on reckless action. But it's a fear of measured action. Fear is, you know, Many of you knew that I spent time in the government working for CSIS.
[29:53] And there was one thing that we truly feared. Getting called in to see your boss, your manager, for something that you might have done wrong, whoopie doo, right?
[30:06] Slap on the wrist. But if you had a memo that came on your email that said they want to see you on the sixth floor, there was fear and dread.
[30:19] Because you knew when you went up to the sixth floor where the head directors resided and you had to answer for something, they had the fear, they had the power to end your career.
[30:32] That's kind of an earthly term that it would feel like. It's beyond that there is so much awesomeness and power. They have complete authority over you.
[30:45] That is the first person that God reveals himself. The one who fears the Lord. The second type of person that God reveals himself to is the one who is pure in heart.
[31:03] Pure in heart. Matthew 5, 8. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Pure in heart means to be clean in a spiritual sense from the pollution and guilt of sin.
[31:20] It means to be sincere, to be seeking the Lord. To seek after the Lord means to make amends, to seek repentance. The question that always asks is, how does one become pure?
[31:40] It's to be single-minded about one's love for God. The greatest thing that pollutes a Christian's life is worry about the other things of life that are not of God.
[31:55] It's not sin. Sometimes we think it's sin. But if you guys remember, Hebrews 12 talks about other aspects of life that work to distract us from our love for God.
[32:14] Are you divided in your love and worship for God? Or is your soul focused? Because when he is, you know that a pure heart comes from seeking forgiveness, repenting of your sin.
[32:34] The third quality or third person that can know the Lord is the childlike, the simple.
[32:46] Matthew 11, 25, 28 says, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children.
[33:01] Let me ask you a poignant question. Have you been finding that God is hiding himself from you?
[33:13] Do you find yourself like the psalmist simply asking, where are you, God? Maybe you have not come to him with childlike faith, trying to earn God through your wise and understanding ways.
[33:37] And then the last person that God reveals himself to is the obedient. The obedient. John 14, 21 simply says, Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he, it is who loves me.
[33:59] And he who loves me will be loved by my Father. And I will love him and manifest myself to him.
[34:10] That word manifest, I will reveal myself to him. Is it reasonable to assume that God would reveal himself to a person who does not respond in obedience?
[34:33] You see, when it comes to the subject of knowing God, there is a level of self-examination that we must do. There are many people who want to know God, yet don't.
[34:49] It was interesting, I just pulled out these books on philosophy that I had and the struggle that they had in trying to know God. And their biggest area was they had to prove him with their intellect.
[35:07] They wanted to lean on their brilliance, their experience, some of them had a eureka moment until they were led astray by another thought, if only seconds, if not years later.
[35:26] And sadly, many of these men wrote many books. I have their papers in my office, their ideas about God, but yet not a single one wrote a word of worship of God.
[35:45] You see, to know God is to know Jesus. John 14 is so key to understanding this. If you remember a couple of months ago, we looked at this passage over several weeks.
[35:57] Jesus had announced that he is leaving them. They cannot come. They are troubled with this news. The man that they have left everything to follow. And we have this record of this man, the apostle Philip, asking Jesus this question.
[36:15] He says, Lord, show us the Father. And it is enough for us. When we read the text and we understand the context, it's a sad question.
[36:32] I don't know what, if Jesus felt sad or exasperated or, he's like, did I not explain this enough?
[36:46] You've walked with me for three years and you still state, show us the Father and that will be enough.
[36:59] Jesus responds in John 14 verse 9. He says, Have I been with you so long that you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.
[37:12] How can you say, show us the Father? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you, I do not speak of my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works.
[37:29] Believe me that I am in the Father, Philip, and the Father is in me. Or else believe on accounts of the works themselves.
[37:41] Either believe what I'm telling you or believe what I've told you for three years. To know me is to know God.
[37:57] See, the biggest mistake we make as believers or even as non-believers is that we always believe that we must do something, that we somehow need to make ourselves smarter, better, cleaner.
[38:14] But Scripture actually tells us there is an order to understanding him. And if you would turn with me and your Bibles to Colossians chapter 1, I want to take you through the order which demonstrates a cause and effect for essentially knowing God.
[38:34] A cause and effect that this is the Apostle Paul writing this church, explaining who and how great Jesus is.
[38:48] But it's kind of interesting. When we first read, it doesn't really hit us. It's almost in reverse here. So we're looking at Colossians 1 and we're going to start at verse 15. And I want you to see here Paul's description of who he states God is.
[39:05] So he begins in verse 15. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him, all things were created in heaven and earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created for him.
[39:26] And he is before all things and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything, he might be preeminent.
[39:45] Those are the he as statements. That means present tense. Now take a look at verse 12.
[40:00] These are the he has statements. Verse 12 says, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.
[40:16] He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
[40:28] First part is who he is. Second part, what he has done. How do we respond? Verse 9. Excuse me.
[40:44] And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.
[41:00] So, as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing in him, bearing fruit in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father.
[41:24] The reason we can walk in a manner worthy of he is because of who he is and what he has done. Amen? That is what it is to know God.
[41:39] because of who he is, he is the image of the invisible God. Because of what he has done, he has qualified us, delivered us, transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved sons.
[41:51] We can, must, walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. Before I conclude this sermon, allow me to provide for you three stumbling blocks that sometimes Christians get caught up in which are stumbling blocks to knowing God.
[42:21] For lack of a better word of saying. The first one, one of the first mistakes that we can do, it's called knowledge of hearsay. It's basically, I know everything about God by what someone else told me.
[42:35] it's when you rely on sermons or that you've listened to or books you've read or what your family and friends have told you and certainly they are of benefit but they are no substitute to personally walking with God.
[42:54] Knowing good things about God is not the same as knowing God. the second stumbling block is what scholars call textualism.
[43:10] And it means that because you affirm the Bible as the word of God, you affirm that the Bible is true, you affirm that the Bible is good, doesn't make you know God.
[43:26] God. It's interesting, I live with, I live, I've got a lot of my buddies seminary who preach in Bible belts down in the South United States and I remember my one friend just asked him how it was going and he's got a pretty cool testimony.
[43:44] He was, his father and his brothers are all in jail and someone kind of reached him before he was going down that road and he really loves to do missions, loves to do outreach and then when he started pastoring he said, wow, I don't need to go anywhere, they're all coming here.
[44:03] Meaning, he lived in a whole church that thought they were saved but did not know God. We call them Republicans. And I'm just joking.
[44:15] But a lot of people in the States because they have a political belief that means they're on God's side, right? We do the same thing here. We think because we're choosing God's things, we're against abortion, we're for the Ten Commandments or whatever it is, we think that that's the same as knowing God.
[44:39] So the first barrier to knowing God is knowing what people tell you of God but you do not know yourself. Two, having a high view of Scripture but actually not knowing Jesus personally.
[44:52] and the third barrier which is perhaps the greatest tragedy is actually knowing the truth but not living the truth. It's knowing the truth of God but not allowing that truth to affect you in any way, shape, or form.
[45:16] You can know all the Bible verses, you can know all the truth yet live in complete isolation of those truths is an entirely devastating place to be.
[45:35] It's interesting when I was young I was kind of confronted with this just in the college and career ministry and we were all out on a Sunday afternoon gallivanting whatever college and career kids do and we were going to the night service that day and I remember this one woman stating that she really had to go home to change because she thought her clothes would be dishonoring to God if she wore them to church.
[46:04] And I remember we were kind of looking at her like she was looking just like normal. And we were like the question that came up in my head is if you really thought this was dishonoring to God do you not think it would be the same outside of church?
[46:19] As it would be inside of the church? Like if you really thought the I can't remember maybe the skirt was too high or the blouse too white I don't know whatever rules she came from which indicated to us and the leaders that perhaps her relationship was based on performance rather than the true knowledge of Jesus Christ.
[46:43] A.W. Tozer wrote everything that men do in their own strength and by means of their own abilities is done for time alone. The quality of eternity is not in them.
[46:58] What that means is those things that we chase after here on earth might mean something here but in light of eternity they are useless. Let me just conclude by reading Paul's words in Ephesians 3 verses 14 to 21.
[47:16] For this reason I bow my knees before the Father from whom every family in heaven on earth is named that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner being so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith that you being rooted and grounded in love may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled with the fullness of God.
[47:55] Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think according to the power at work within us to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever.
[48:13] Amen. Let's pray. Father we do indeed live in a world where people fight to know you.
[48:27] We know we've met many people who claim to know you. Some are wrong. Some are lost.
[48:37] lost. Some are desperate. Some are sincerely lost.
[48:49] Some are sincerely desperate. And by that I mean they truly believe they are on the right path. But we know this is what happens when we seek you without your source of wisdom God's word.
[49:06] This special revelation. Father first of all we give ourselves we give you thanks for opening our eyes to the truth of the Bible.
[49:17] That may we truly understand it and know who you are and more importantly how we can know you. Despite your immenseness the reality is you can hold the oceans in your hands.
[49:29] things. It's beyond the breadth and scope of our understanding of these things. But you sent your son who walked on this earth.
[49:44] Who loved us. Who taught us. And called us to you. Father we give you thanks for the gospels that teach us about Jesus.
[49:57] How the word became flesh. Father we give you thanks for the spirit that works in our hearts to see the truth and know the truth.
[50:09] That draws us into that relationship with you. Father I pray that you would remove those stumbling blocks. Sometimes it's a rebellious heart.
[50:21] Sometimes it's just willful neglect. Sometimes we're just stunningly disobedient. and not take the time to actually know your word.
[50:37] Father I pray that you would give us humble hearts and humble eyes to truly take stock of our lives. Truly ask the question that only you can answer.
[50:52] Do we really know you. You. So may we ponder upon these things as we come to this place next week.
[51:02] Lord willing. So that we can hear about what it takes for us to have that relationship with you. We ask these things in your most holy just incredible loving eternal perfect infinite name.
[51:20] Amen.