KNOWING GOD

Jer. 9:23,24

Introduction
1. Story: “The Keeper of the Springs”

2. Amos 8:11 "The days are coming," declares the Sovereign LORD,

"when I will send a famine through the land--

not a famine of food or a thirst for water,

but a famine of hearing the words of the LORD.

^{AM 8:12} Men will stagger from sea to sea

and wander from north to east,

searching for the word of the LORD,

but they will not find it.

3. How terrible it would be not to have a life-giving knowledge of God

I. The Importance of Knowing God

1. Jer. 9:23,24 “Thus says the LORD, "Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches; but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD who exercises lovingkindness, justice, and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things," declares the LORD.

a. wisdom is important but not as important as knowing God

b. might is important but not as important

c. riches are important but not as important

2. Hosea 6:6 “For I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice, And in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.”

a. in Hosea’s day, the people were immoral and idolaters

b. some thought they could sin with their bodies and idols and could make up for it by sacrifices and burnt offerings

c. what God what from them is loyalty and a personal knowledge

d. God has never wanted people to be religious “shows”; He wanted them to be genuine friends who knew Him and loved Him.

3. John 17:3 “Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”

a. Knowing God is the difference between being saved and being lost

b. Eph. 2:12 “remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.”

c. 2 Thess. 1:7-10 God will deal out retribution on those who do not know God

4. Phil. 3:4-11

a. Paul was a blue-blood, with a top-notch resume as a Jew

b. But all that was “rubbish” compared to knowing Jesus Christ; and you know what your resume won’t get you to heaven

c. What was “gain” in earthly terms did not compare with heavenly things

d. Paul wanted to know God/Jesus and be in a right relationship with God; he could not do that through the Law but through faith in Jesus

e. Paul was ready to lose it all in order to know Christ and attain the resurrection

f. You can lose many things, but if you miss out on a knowledge of Jesus, you can lose out at the resurrection

5. Whether or not you know God will make a difference in your here and now

a. what you KNOW or don’t know affects how you live—and how your kids live

b. 1 Thess. 4:3-7 how people live who don’t know God

c. Eph. 4:17-24 don’t live like people who are ignorant of God

d. Rom. 1:18-32 when people give up God, they turn to wicked ways

6. The greatest need of our time is a knowledge of God Himself—to turn back to the Bible and to practice its teachings

a. to know the love of God

b. to know the nature of God

c. to know the morality of God

d. to know the honesty of God

e. to know the goodness of God

7. Knowing God will matter to you, your family, your children, your city, your country! It will affect how people live, how they treat each other, what kind of citizens they will be, what kind of neighbors they will be.

Charlie Steinmetz was a crippled dwarf. But what he lacked physically he made up for mentally. When it came to the subject of electricity, Steinmetz was a wizard. No one in his day knew more about than did he.

Henry Ford realized than when he hired the man to help in the building of those massive generators and turbines that would run his first automobile plant in Dearborn, Mich. Once everything was in place, the assembly line worked like clockwork. Thanks to the electrical genius, cars began to roll of the line and profit began to pour into Ford’s pocket. Things ran along smoothly for months.

Suddenly, without warning, everything ground to a halt. Ford Motor Company went dark. One mechanic after another was unable to locate the problem, much to Ford’s frustration. Finally, he contacted the brains behind the system. Steinmetz showed up and immediately went to work. He fiddled around with some switches and a gauge or two. He tinkered with this motor and that one, pushed a few buttons and messed with some wires. He then threw the master switch and wouldn’t you know it? Lights blinked on, engines began to whirl, and things were back to normal.

8. We have to go to God and let his will work in our lives if we are to work the way we are intended. Our problem today is that we quit listening to God and thought we could live our lives our own way.

How Can We Know God?

1. You have to know Jesus to know God.

a. John 1:18 “No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.

b. If we want to know what God is like, look at Jesus

2. You have to study the Bible to know Jesus or the Father

a. it takes reading and re-reading

b. it takes meditation

c. it takes praying about what you have read

d. it takes practicing the teachings of Jesus (John 7:17)

Conclusion:

1. “Do you know the Lord?” is a question that should burn in your heart.

2. Knowing without doing is like plowing a field but not sowing any seed.