Do You Really Know God?

We live in a self-important society. We take personality tests. We use social media to broadcast what is on our mind. We hear slogans that tell us we’re due something or we deserve a reward. But, in order to live in such a way that God is most glorified, we must pursue a greater knowledge of Him. To really be who God made us to be, we must make it a priority to know Him over knowing ourselves. Who God is will transform our own lives, our relationships, and our own sense of identity.

One way I will give a biblical lens today through which you can more closely examine God, is to study Him as Creator. When we can emphasize God as our Creator as much as we do our Savior, this provides a stronger basis for worship.

This understanding should change our outlook on our lives, days, body and money. God, as Savior, is such a glorious role. But He has a prior claim as the Creator. Namely, OUR Creator! So, how does this understanding change the way we live? I think it feeds our worship. We realize just how great God is and that’s what informs our worship. We’re not relying on our feelings toward Him, but leaning on a deeper understanding of Who He is and what makes Him Who He is.

The more we love and understand Him, the more we see that He’s better than we could have ever possibly imagined! And we gain a deeper appreciation of Who He is by studying His Names. Not only can we know God deeper through understanding His Names and his Attributes, but we can better understand ourselves.

God’s position as Creator, explains our call to create. We are called to a sense of purpose. And that purpose involves a mission. A mission in life. We are to be people who create. The problem is passivity. We’re not creating as God calls us to create. Fathers are leaving children instead of creating families. Instead of creating work or business, people are waiting for handouts. Instead of sharing our faith to create brother/Sister relationships in Christ, we often sit these opportunities out, afraid to do so.

Another name we will examine today is, “God the Merciful.” We like to receive mercy, but we’re often slow to give it. My goal is to help people become more merciful and teach you about the God of mercy. We’ll look at the well-known passage in Micah that tells us to love mercy, act justly, and to walk humbly with God. We’re called to love, and out of that love we are to give mercy to others.

Once we gain an understanding of God’s Names and attributes, like Creator and Merciful, we'll get more than just knowledge: we are called to action! We’re not learning just to gain information; we’re learning so we can change. Knowing Who God is affects how we treat others. When we lack mercy, we have poisoned relationships because we’re holding on to things like past hurts. Also, when we can understand Who God is, for example, as Creator, it changes the way we worship. We’re not just worshipping when the music is catchy or the hymns sound majestic, but we’re worshipping in spirit and in truth.

Acts 17: 22-34, "Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious; for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you: God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’ Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising. Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.” And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, while others said, “We will hear you again on this matter.” So Paul departed from among them. However, some men joined him and believed, among them Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others with them.