Experiencing God: The First Step Series

OUTLINE

Jesus said that eternal life is knowing God . . . Jesus did not mean that eternal life is ¡§knowing about God.¡¨ . . . knowledge of God comes through experience. We come to know God as we experience Him in . . . You will never be satisfied just to know ABOUT God. Really knowing God only comes through experience as He reveals Himself to you . . . As you experience God, you come to know Him more intimately and personally . . . Watch for ways in the future that God may bring you to a deeper knowledge of Him through the experiences of your life. Then take time to worship God as your have come to know Him. (Henry Blackaby)

WHAT DOES GOD WANT FOR EACH ONE OF US?

. . . I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of. (John 10:10 - The Message)

WE PLAY THE GAME OF TRIVIAL PURSUIT

I looked most carefully into everything, searched out all that is done on this earth. And let me tell you, there’s not much to write home about . . . I’ve seen it all and it’s nothing but smoke--smoke, and spitting into the wind . . . I hate life. As far as I can see, what happens on earth is a bad business. It’s smoke -- and spitting into the wind.

(Ecclesiastes 1:13-14, 2:17 - MSG)

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WE HAVE TO CHANGE OUR PURSUITS

Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.

(Matthew 6:33 - MSG)

Eternal life is to know you, the only true God, and to know Jesus Christ, the one you sent.

(John 17:3 - CEV)

To experience God you first must ________________________ Him!

[For my determined purpose is] that I may know Him [that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly], and that I may in that same way come to know the power out flowing from His resurrection . . . Not that I have now attained [this ideal], or have already been made perfect, but I press on to lay hold of (grasp) and make my own, that for which Christ Jesus (the Messiah) has laid hold of me and made me His own. I do not consider, brethren, that I have captured and made it my own [yet]; but one thing I do [it is my one aspiration]: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the [supreme and heavenly] prize to which God in Christ Jesus is calling us upward. So let those [of us] who are spiritually mature and full-grown have this mind and hold these convictions; and if in any respect you have a different attitude of mind, God will make that clear to you also. (Philippians 3:10, 12-15- AMP)

*Knowing God is life’s ______________________ pursuit!

Oh, that we might know the Lord! Let us press on to know him, and he will respond to us as surely as the coming of dawn or the rain of early spring.’’ (Hosea 6:3 - LB)

As the deer pants for water, so I long for you, O God. (Psalm 42:1 - LB)

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*Knowing God is life’s ____________________ challenge!

God is so great that we cannot begin to know him. No one can begin to understand eternity. (Job 36:26 - LB)

"My thoughts are completely different from yours," says the Lord. "And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.

(Isaiah 55:8-9 - NLT)

We can’t know God on our own, we need a ___________ !

He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth . . . when the Father sends the Counselor as my representative - and by the Counselor I mean the Holy Spirit -he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I myself have told you.

(John 14:17, 26 - NLT)

*Knowing God is life’s _____________________ blessing!

So make every effort to apply the benefits of these promises to your life. Then your faith will produce a life of moral excellence. A life of moral excellence leads to knowing God better. Knowing God leads to self-control. Self-control leads to patient endurance, and patient endurance leads to godliness. Godliness leads to love for other Christians, and finally you will grow to have genuine love for everyone. The more you grow like this, the more you will become productive and useful in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.