In years past, I have often made this statement, “all of our problems would be solved, if we knew who God is, and who we are.” Although, I have made the statement many times, and I believe it to be a true biblical principle, I have never taught or preached on this subject, “knowing God.”
1. Is there anybody here that needs their problems solved?
2. Does each of us know God as we would like to?
3. Let's look at two different sets of verses tonight:
a. Jeremiah 9:23&24; Colossians 1:9-10; Philippians 3:7:10
b. Exodus 33: 12-14; Psalm 103:7; Hebrews 3: 7-11
4. Now, we need to divide this message into three parts.
1. Know God’s Will: Desire
2. Know God’s Works: Denial of Self
3. Knowing God’s Ways: Deed or Acts
I. Knowing God’s Will: Desire
1. What motivates that desire? Why do you want to know the will of God?
a. Could it be because of our present conditions?
b. Could it be for self-betterment?
c. Could it be because you are hungering and thirsting after God?
d. I know that God will never force Himself upon us, saved or lost, good or bad.
1) I did not say God does not punish if disobedient or rebellious.
2) I did say, Revelation 3:20; “Jesus will stand at the door and knock, but you must open and invite Him in.”
3) Luke 9:23; says it well
e. We must hunger; Matthew 6:6
1) Story of older pastor and young pastor
2) When you desire God as much as you desire that breath of air, you will know Him. It must be in our heart; Psalm 37:4
2. The mold, pattern, we are to fit. Philippians 1:12-21
a. We could not find a greater Christian than Paul.
b. We could not have a better description of Paul’s Christianity than we find here.
3. Paul, in Roman prison, giving testimony under unimaginable circumstances and facing an uncertain future share with us:
a. God's will for his life
b. the works of God
c. the ways of God
4. Paul did know Jesus, acts 9, on the Damascus Rd, he knew him as savior. That did not satisfy him, Philippians 3:10; Paul's Supreme desire was to know him.
5. Philippians 1:12&21; following the desire must come the commitment.
II. Knowing God’s Works: Self Denial
1. Paul is committed to one thing, and because he was focused by one compelling motive, you could put him in any situation.
a. A Philippian jail late at night. You can put him in stocks and cast him into the enter dungeon and after having beaten him he will look up and give glory to God.
b. It's one thing for a man to be imprisoned unfairly, unjustly, but it is another thing that while he is in there for his friends to take advantage of his situation.
c. How would you expect a fellow to respond to this situation?
2. His response was “what then”. What then means So what, what difference does that make if Jesus is being preached.
3. Salvation means spiritual warfare
4. Is the supreme desire the master motive of Paul and ours?
a. His motive is not to get released from prison.
b. It's not for the Lord to vindicate him not to judge and punish those that are mistreating him.
5. According to my earnest expectation, the word expectation means, to stretch the neck to look for something.
a. It's a picture of a person who is waiting eagerly and longing for someone to appear.
b. They're straining and stretching their neck trying to see as far as they can.
6. Now right where I am. Is Christ magnified in my body? Is he magnified by my life or by my death?
a. If you and I can come to the place where we can say my life or death is beside the point.
b. Circumstances are not what is important to me but this one thing I'm committed to:
1) I want my body to be a means to magnify the Lord Jesus.
2) Romans 12:1-2; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20
7. The word magnify means to make great.
a. Paul is saying, I want my circumstances and my body to become the means whereby Jesus Christ is made great.
b. Christ made great in my life. I believe that he was great in Paul's life; Acts 27:21
c. What is the most conspicuous thing about your life today?
III. Knowing God’s Ways: Deeds and Acts
1. There are two ways to magnify something.
2. First, we ought to be a magnifying glass of the Lord Jesus.
a. A magnifying glass takes an object that is small and makes it large and great.
b. Very needful for you and me to be able to magnify Jesus Christ.
1) There are a lot of people that we meet that don't have an excessively big opinion of Jesus.
2) They know he is around, and they know he exists, but they do not see him in his bigness. They do not see him in His Majesty.
c. This is the reason so few of them do not depend upon him for their problems.
d. It's the reason so few looks to him for the power of living.
1) What they have seen in our life, is that he is a Jesus who is exceedingly small and insignificant.
2) They have seen all too often That Jesus has not been able to handle the problems in our own life. James 1:1-3
e. Paul is saying, “I want Jesus to be magnified in my body”. People who think Jesus is small and weak, I want them to see through my body, my circumstances, that He is great and powerful. I want Him to be large.
3. Second, not only as a magnifying glass, but also a telescope.
a. Now a telescope is an instrument that is used for bringing things that are afar off and distant, near and bigger.
b. There are a lot of people you are going to be meeting the next few days, they know Jesus is around, but he is not awfully close.
1) To them, Jesus Christ is somebody that is far off, and removed from all our problems.
c. People need to see how near and real Jesus really is. They need to see how involved he is in the lives of all his people.
4. What is it that would keep the Lord from being magnified in my life? 2 things:
a. Sometimes the lens is dirty.
1) If the lenses are dirty, the object you are trying to see is obstructed. you can't see it.
2) Sometimes the object you are looking at is kind of fuzzy, and you can't get a clear picture of it. The lens is out of focus.
b. Do you think this could be the reason so many people today have a distorted view of Jesus?
1) Twisted about what it means to be a Christian. Uncertain what it means to be saved. Deuteronomy 10:12-13; Micah 6:6-8
2) Where do you think people get all of those ideas about Jesus? They get them from looking through an unfocused lens.
3) The only reason something is out of focus is, it's not zeroed in on its object.
c. The one thing I pray for more than anything else is for people to see Jesus.
d. We need to ask ourselves after each service, “did people see Jesus?”
1) If not, we need to do some cleaning up of the lens and focus in on the Lord Jesus Christ.
2) For me to live is Christ and to die is gain.
e. Life is not food, cars, houses, money, clothes, friends, but Jesus.
f. Is it really our desire to know him?
1) His will
2) His works
3) His ways
