To Know or Not To Know, That is the Question – Eph. 1:17-19
Intro.: What does it really mean to know or believe in God? Is it a verbal or intellectual agreement with what we’ve always been taught? Or is it something that goes to the core of our being and transforms our whole lives? Do we camp on the fringes of knowing God or are we drawn into this glorious mystery, where our mouths are shut, our eyes are opened and all we can do is cry, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord our God!” God asked 110 questions of Job. Job’s response was, “Behold, I am vile, what shall I answer You?”
I. Roadblocks to knowing God
A. The biggest roadblock is thinking that you already do
1. We know nothing compared to the reality of God
2. But because we have been Christians for years we convince
ourselves that we are experts on God. Which leads to…
B. Arrogance and self-confidence are roadblocks too
1. These lead to flippancy and self-righteousness
2. This is pharisaical posturing in the church
II. The reality of God exposes spiritual barrenness and bankruptcy
A. Job’s friend Elihu recognized his barrenness and declared:
1. Job 36:26–“Behold God is great, and we do not know Him.”
NOTE: A.W. Tozer in “The Knowledge of the Holy” said that our concept of God is “utterly beneath the dignity of the Most High God”
B. Dealing with the Mystery of God shakes us up
1. It reveals who we really are - weak beings made in His image
2. It reveals our frailty
3. The depths of God unnerve us because we can’t define Him
a. This inability rubs us the wrong way
b. God is indefinable and He lives outside of our little world
NOTE: Psalms 113:6 says, that God must “humble Himself to behold the things that are in the heavens and the earth”
C. We like things that we can handle, define and control
1. God doesn’t fit into any of these categories
2. God designed us to pursue His infiniteness
NOTE: We were made to know God deeply and intimately and to live our lives out of the overflow of this encounter.
NOTE: Abundant living only really begins when we reach beyond the restraints of time and we begin to grasp the concept of eternity.
Even though we were born, we will NEVER die.
Our Eternal Father designed us in His image.
Our capacities and faculties were designed to relate to and accommodate the knowledge of our Eternal Creator.
III. This isn’t happening – because the Church is in an Identity Crisis
A. We don’t really know who we are or why we were created
1. Here is how most Christians are living:
a. We try to obey the Lord
b. We try to resist temptation
c. We try to do good deeds
2. This is what God desires for us:
a. Get to know Him
b. Understand His heart
c. He created us out of His desire for fellowship
d. He created us as a people destined for dominion
B. Most people say “I’m looking for my calling”…
1. What they mean is “Why do I exist?”
2. People live their whole lives searching for something
3. How we answer this search is where the breakdown occurs
a. We look in the wrong places
b. Or fulfilling these desires in the wrong ways
NOTE: The right job, right house, right amount of money, etc. can’t fulfill the longing of our hearts because our hearts were designed to be satisfied only with God.
Concl.: If we take the time to diagnose the true question, we are on our way to the answer. We are all called to know God intimately and search Him out fervently. We were made BY God FOR God.
Think about Adam in the Garden and undefiled by sin:
I’m sure that he heard inexpressible things…
He touched the untouchable, tasted and smelled eternity.
God ordained the glory of intimacy to allow Adam to understand His heart so that he could govern the earth out of that understanding.
We are Adam’s offspring and we need to have the knowledge of God to fulfill our destiny as part of His kingdom!
