Know Who Your Friends Are

Know Who Your Friends Are – Daniel 11:32

Intro.: We were created with the capacity and drive to know God. To complete that thought, “God also wants us to know Him!” So, we are compelled to know God and God draws us to know Him. Not so we can regurgitate facts about Him, but so we can know Him in a deep, living and experiential way. The pinnacle of God’s revelation of Himself was Jesus. God revealed His heart, His nature, His personality, His ways & His words. Jesus is the articulation and the manifestation of the invisible God. He came from the Father to declare the Father to us & awaken a longing for the Father in the earth.

I. The Deception

A. The enemy wants us to be in the dark about who God really is

1. When Jesus said, “I am door”, he stirred things up

2. This provoked a violent hatred in the Jews toward Jesus

NOTE: They didn’t recognize him because they weren’t intimate w/God’s Word

B. Deception is creeping into the church about this same topic

1. His glory has been watered down by those who claim to know

Him

2. We’ve questioned his claims of who he is

3. We’ve minimized his teachings about following him

4. We’ve turned Jesus into a “feel good” God

C. Sorry, but that’s not my Jesus…

1. My Jesus came to bring division, not peace

2. He came to reveal the deficiencies in mankind

3. He also revealed an inner hatred for God in the heart of man

D. The results of this deception are an “Antichrist Spirit”

1. A denial of Jesus’ deity and even his historical existence

2. A questioning of the reality of his death and resurrection

E. How do we defend ourselves against this deception?

1. By gaining a living knowledge of God

NOTE: Knowing God means having an ongoing, ever-increasing, personal, intimate relationship w/God. It involves striving, searching and sacrifice. A higher price than many are willing to pay. Look at what Paul said in Philippians 3:8-9 and Colossians 2:2-4

Paul’s attitude about knowing God just doesn’t fit today’s mold, does it?

II. The deep things of God

A. How do we find the deep truths? READ: John 16:12-15

1. Jesus sent the H.S. to bring us into this revelation

NOTE: The day we said “Yes” to Jesus as Lord, He placed within us God’s Spirit as a down-payment of the age to come, for the purpose of leading us into the revelatory knowledge of God.

B. We like to quote 1 Cor. 2:9 (READ) as a divine mystery, but…

1. If we read on thru vs. 12 it puts a whole new spin on things

C. The Holy Spirit’s job

1. To search out the depths of God and make them known to us

2. READ: Jeremiah 31:34 – this is a prophetic declaration

NOTE: It’s time to call the body of Christ to her glory: to know and to fellowship with God

NOTE: If we don’t know God, we will be like the people in Jeremiah’s time. They were on the brink of judgment because they did not know God. They had become deceived. They had experienced a time of peace & prosperity in their land, and had misinterpreted God’s mercy, thinking God was winking at their wrongdoing and blessing them anyway. God, in His great mercy was actually giving them time to repent, not ignoring their sin. Sounds like today, doesn’t it?

Concl.: What is your confidence in? your gifting, your abilities, your resources, your job, your friends, your intellect, or your God?

Do you know what’s going on in God’s heart for your generation?

God is crying out for His people to really know Him and understand His heart.

Daniel 11:32 “The people who know their God will be strong and do great exploits…”

Jeremiah 3:15 says that God will give us shepherds that will feed us with knowledge and understanding.

God is not only looking for servants. He is looking for friends John 15

Knowing God isn’t about info, it’s about being trusted w/God’s heart

Often, when God stirs your heart or wakes you up, it’s not about giving you some high revelation or calling you to intercession or doing anything; it’s about having time with you because you are friends.