Number 1.... Who Is God Series

In our world today…. full of fake relationships…. and crazy facts that really aren’t… facts at all….……

It becomes pretty easy to end up treating God as a commodity……

Something that we can have whenever we want it…….. without really knowing who he really is…….….

We learn certain little tid bits of information about Him…. and we end up calling that….…

“knowing God.”……. Right????…..

But I gotta ask you……….

Do we really…… KNOW… God….. or do we just know about him…….

Our scripture this morning will be from Jeremiah chapter 9 verses 23 and 24……

but first I wanna tell you about a man you may or… may not have ever heard of… His name is Dennis Wise…….

And you could say that Dennis… is a pretty big fan …. of Elvis Presley…..

Not long after Elvis died in 1977… Dennis had plastic surgery…. in order to make himself look…. almost identical…… to Elvis…..

After this was done……

He began a career of impersonating Elvis…… and became the most popular Elvis impersonator ever…

When he was asked what motivated him to shape his life around Elvis Presley…. Dennis said…..

Elvis had been his role model …… actually his idol ….. his entire life……

Now……

Heres what Dennis said to the Boston Globe during an interview they had with him……

Dennis said….

“Yes,, Presley’s been an idol of mine ever since I was five years old…..

I have 2 of every record he ever made…

I have Pictures in the thousands….. books…. magazines…. pillows…. Pretty much anything I could buy… that had Elvis on it…

I even have leaves off the tree….. in front of his house……

Although… I never saw Elvis Presley in person….. I saw him on stage and in the movies….

Once I stood up on the wall of the Presley mansion for 12 hours…. just trying to get a glimpse of him…………..

But he had so many people surrounding him that I just never could get a good view….

Yeah see….

It would be pretty safe to say that…… Dennis worshipped Elvis Presley……

but he never actually met the object of his worship…..

Dennis knew a lot about Elvis…. but he didn’t know …. Elvis……

He knew all the hit songs…. all the movie that he was ever in…..…. all the concert appearances that he had……

He knew….. all of Elvis’ personal preferences for food…..His clothes….. and cars …

But none of that…… is the same as actually KNOWING…. Elvis himself………

And see that right there should be a valuable lesson for pretty much anyone…..………..

knowing about God……..

the object of our worship………

Is not the same thing as……. knowing God Himself.

Yeah See…… Many Christians know a lot ……about God….

They’ve read books…… And maybe even read the Bible a couple times…..

Maybe they’ve attended church for years……and years… and years…..

And don’t get me wrong……I’am all about all those things……. right….

But once you spend a few minutes with these people….. you quickly find out…. they don’t really…. KNOW GOD….

And a lot of these people honestly…. give Christians a pretty bad wrap……

See….. Gathering accurate information about God… is really just the beginning of our relationship with him………

Key word here….. beginning……. Ok….……..

Where are you this morning…. have you never jumped off the starting line yet????

See…… if our relationship never moves to the place of spiritual worship …

And actually knowing the Object of our worship……

if we remain a repository of all these little christian facts and figures right??? ……..

then sadly we just end up living out our lives as …….

academic Christians… and not actual Christians….

And an academic christian… can be a very dangerous person…….

The heart of the Christian experience…… is literally the worship of our Creator.……..

Is your entire Christian life made up of just knowing some facts that ….maybe somebody else might have told you…… ABOUT God……

or do you really…. really….. deep down..…. KNOW… him…..

I wanna make sure you fully understand…. that me… and pretty much anyone else you ever hear preach……

We all make mistakes……… Im going to mess up sometimes……….

Don’t ever take my word as Gospel…….

Im not GOD……… never claim to be……..

My job .. is to make scripture so enjoyable to you… that you want to go home and read it for yourself….

That you want to make sure .. that what I just told you is true……..

And I gotta tell yah…..

Knowing the God You Worship….. is drastically important…….

We must learn to worship God with our whole heart……

Our Love for God… is totally and completely based….. on the Bible……..

Hebrews 4:12 says that the Bible is …… a living book ……..

In the pages of which you will encounter the ……..living and true God…… who will reveal Himself to you for … What???….