That You May Know Series

INTRO.- ILL.- A man jumps out of an airplane with a parachute on his back. As he’s falling, he realizes his chute is broken. He doesn’t know anything about parachutes, but as the earth rapidly approaches, he realizes his options are limited; he takes off the parachute and tries to fix it himself on the way down. The wind is ripping past his face, he’s dropping like a rock, and at 5000 feet, another man goes shooting up past him. In desperation, the man with the chute looks up and yells, "Hey do you know anything about parachutes?!"

The guy flying up looks down and yells, "No, do you know anything about gas stoves?!"

Some knowledge is good or can be very good if you learn it at the right time in life.

And knowledge is a good thing if it’s a good knowledge. There is both knowledge of good and evil and I suspect that most of us know more about evil than we should know! How enlightened we are!

ILL.- In the hallowed halls of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, Dr. Walter Stewart, an economist, watched several graduate students coming out of a seminar. “How did it go?” he asked one.

“Wonderful,” the student replied. “Everything we knew about physics last week isn’t true!”

This may be true when it comes to physics and many other things in regard to this world, but this is not true when it comes to a knowledge of God. God never changes. His truth is eternal. What God says in His Word stands true forever! You can take to the bank, so to speak, and draw big interest on it!

ILL.- Pollster George Gallup Jr. has long referred to America as a "nation of biblical illiterates." Only four in 10 Americans know that Jesus delivered the Sermon on the Mount. A majority of citizens cannot name the four Gospels of the New Testament. Only three in 10 teenagers know why Easter is celebrated. Two-thirds of Americans believe there are few, if any, absolute principles to direct human behavior.

I would hope that people are not as ignorant of God’s Word as Gallup says. If so, we Americans are in deep trouble spiritually. Come to think of it, we are in trouble!

ILL.- A little boy saw his father use a square to see if a board he was planing was straight. “Why are you so careful, Daddy?” asked the boy.

“We can’t guess in carpenter work,” his dad said. “You have to be just right. People guess at too many things. God does not like that way of living.”

“I guess there are no squares for living by,” said the boy. “Yes, there are squares to live by, and you will find them in the Bible. Test all that you do by them, and you’ll go straight in life, my boy.”

It is always right to go by the Word of God!

II Timothy 2:15 “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth."

II Timothy 3:16-17 “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

Psalm 119:9-11 “9 How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word. 10 I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands. 11 I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.”

God’s Word is powerful! We need to know the Word in order to know God and when we know Him some good things will happen to us.

PROP.- John tells what we can know or expect to know when we know the Lord.

1- When we know Him we will know we have eternal life

2- When we know Him we will know we can ask anything of Him

I. WHEN WE KNOW HIM WE WILL KNOW WE HAVE ETERNAL LIFE

13I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. THOSE WHO BELIEVE IN THE NAME!

ILL.- Napoleon found an artist once painting a picture, and asked him, “Whom are you painting that for?” And he, drawing himself up proudly, replied, “I am painting it for immortality, sir.”

“How long will your canvas last?” asked the Emperor. “It has been skillfully prepared; it will last at least a thousand years.”

Napoleon shrugged his shoulders: “Now we have an artist’s idea of immortality.” ONLY A THOUSAND YEARS?!

Most people have little idea when it comes to the matter of immortality or eternity. And many don’t believe at all.