THE PRIORITY OF KNOWING GOD!
PHIL.3:1-14
Last week I preached that Jesus is our only foundation as a Christian. These scriptures again confirm and emphasize how important it is to make Jesus our priority. Look with me at verses 7,8,&10a. Paul says I count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus and then goes on to say that I might know Him and the power of His resurrection. I like that Paul was saying this because it shows us how big our God is. Last Sunday night Daniel taught us on the Names of God. It was an awesome study we just didn’t have enough time. But each Name shows us another facet of God’s character and nature. Paul is saying we need to put knowing about and knowing Jesus as priority in our lives. When he says, “I count all things loss.” He is saying that without the knowledge of Christ nothing else matters. You may be great in this life, in some areas, you may have great wealth and power but the fact remains that one day everyone will stand before their God and maker. When all is said and done the question will remain: Do you know Jesus? The Bible says that it is appointed for man once to die and then the judgment. All people are created equal in God’s eyes. We all have the opportunity to know Jesus and to grow in Him.
JOHN 17:3. It’s sad to say that most people in America know more about their hobbies than they know about Jesus. Where do we learn about Jesus? Our Bibles! The Jewish men in Paul’s day memorized the first five books of the Bible. The Muslim’s memorize large portions of the Koran. Think about it. The devil has constantly fought against people reading their Bibles. In many countries today it is against the law for people to even own Bibles. But here in America, the enemy has used various other methods to keep people from reading their Bibles. His methods have been pretty effective. The Bible has been taken out of our schools. In America’s first schools the Bible was read and incorporated into the learning process. Not too many years ago a teacher from the alternative school brought me some books that they were not allowed to use in their school. On one page it mentioned Jesus Christ. It also mentioned Mohammed, but that wasn’t the problem, she said the problem was that it mentioned Jesus. How sad that Jesus can be kept out of our schools so thoroughly. People say it’s separation of Church and state but what we are saying to our kids in reality is that the Bible isn’t important. My husband Thomas cannot e-mail our son at work because his e-mail address has the word Church in it. It used to be that parents felt it important to teach their children about God. How many parents do you think take the time to read the Bible with their children before school or before bed? Most of our children that come on Wed. nights come not because their parents bring them or tell them to come. It is because they want to, which is awesome, but what is the message that is being sent by the parents? Of the majority of the children that come, the time on Wednesday night that they spend learning about God is probably the only time they spend all week. Kenneth Hagin said that we feed our physical bodies three hot meals a day and our spiritual bodies one cold snack a weak. That is for those who go to Church. Many people don’t consider it necessary. It is easy to see the result of it, just watch the news, look at the divorce rate, and the rate of violent crimes. These are a result of our world not knowing God. We can see what happened to Israel when they forgot their God. The people became more and more evil. Thomas’ Grandfather used to say, “Church is all right for women and children.” What a ridiculous saying. Most of his family lived very hard lives because they didn’t have the Bible as their standard. When Pat Robinson ran for president he was on a talk show that tried to belittle him saying, “Should we want a president who talks to God?” Like that was something strange or like it made him less of a leader to ask advice of God. Pat turned it around and said something like, “I think we should want a leader who is advised by God.” It only makes sense to ask the one who created us for His wisdom.
What we should realize in this is that it is wonderful that we can know God personally. And in knowing that we can, we should make it a priority in our lives. REV.3:20
Let’s talk about some reasons why we should make knowing God a priority in our lives.
1. It is important for us to learn about God because as He says, “My people perish for a lack of knowledge.” Kenneth Copeland tells a story about a man who made the remark that God took his daughter when his daughter died. Kenneth said God didn’t do it. God is the giver of life not the taker and His desire is that we live long lives. It is the devil that takes lives. JOHN 10:10 Many people have mistakenly blamed God for the evil things that happen. Well it made the man mad when Kenneth challenged him but later when his son was in a farming accident, he stood against the devil and his son lived. The enemy loves it when we believe something about God that causes us not to resist the devil’s actions. Many people believe that God puts sickness on you to teach you something. When we believe that we don’t resist the sickness. That makes is easy for the devil.
2. To know God and His ways is the only way to have the life that He wants us to have both eternally and in this life now. MATT.6:33. DEUT.30:15-20. God cannot help us the way He would like to if we are ignorant of His ways. It is through His ways or principals that He helps and blesses us. Many people don’t even know that God is a God who wants to bless them. Many people see God as a God who is just waiting for them to do something wrong so He can punish them. It has taken me years to truly understand that God desires to bless us and be a part of our everyday lives for our good not to hurt us but to help us always. The way we come to that understanding is by getting to know Him. We get to know Him through His word.
EPH.3:17-21.
3. We must not reject God’s knowledge. Part of prioritizing knowing Him is to put into practice what we learn. LUKE 6:46-48. One very interesting story in the life of David happened after he was made king of all Israel. He wanted to bring the Ark to Jerusalem. Prior to this the Philistines had given it back to Israel because they had captured it and there had been some things that had started happening because they shouldn’t have had it. So in their ignorance of how to get it back they put it on a new cart. Which was fine for them, they didn’t know better. However when David decided to move it, he must have thought that the way the Philistines decided to move it made sense. David did it the same way. The problem was even though it may have seemed easier it wasn’t God’s way of doing it. How was the Ark supposed to be moved? It was to be carried by the Levites. There were reasons for this. When they hit a bump in the road, Uzzah reached out to steady the Ark and it brought about his death. Was that God’s will, plan, or desire? No it was David’s ignorance. This caused David to have a wrong understanding about the Lord and he left the Ark at Obed-Edom’s house. The Bible says that David was afraid of the Lord that day. Well God blessed Obed-Edom and his entire household. David missed out on having the Ark in Jerusalem. When David saw that Obed-Edom was blessed he went again to get the Ark. This time he transported it rightly. The Bible told how the Ark was to be moved. God’s word tells us how to live so that we are blessed. The reason God hates sin so much is because it hurts us so much.
How do we give knowing God priority in our lives?
