Life Ministries

 “The Key To Loving Is Knowing”
 Jeremiah 9:23-24

O.K. - I’m going to list some character traits and you tell me who I’m talking about…Holy, Creator , Omnipresent , Omniscient , Omnipotent, Faithful, Just, Sovereign, Unchanging ?

    How did you know it was God? Was it because you know God…or was it because you know these things about God? Our message today is the last in this series about the abundant life… Jesus said; “The thief comes to destroy and kill, but I have come that they may have life, and have it more abundantly”. In this series we have looked at 4 of the 5 keys to really living this abundant life that Jesus came to give. Today we will look at key #5 – “The key To Loving is Knowing.”

    This key is demonstrated in all of our relationships. It’s kind of like a universal principle; You can’t really love  someone unless you “know” them. This is true in a marriage as well as in a friendship. Love, the closeness and intimacy of love, is based on knowledge…but not just a knowledge about someone, but a knowledge that can only come from a relationship experience.
    If you think about this series, you will find that we really have looked at it backwards. We started with “bearing fruit” and then we went to the key to bearing fruit is abiding; then to the key to abiding is trusting – which leads to obedience; the the key to obedience is loving; and the key to loving is knowing… It ought to be the other way around; First we must get to know God, then we trust and obey, which verse 10 of John 15 tells us is a sign that we are abiding, and if we are abiding…we will bear fruit!
    But, how can we come to know God in such a way as to cause this sort of spiritual “chain-reaction” in our lives through which we can experience the abundant life? … Here is where the truth of Jeremiah 9:23-24 comes in – “but let him who boasts boast about this; that he understands and knows me!”
    Being known and understood isn’t nearly as important as knowing and understanding. To often we have things backwards in the most important areas of life. Wisdom, might, and riches are the things that most people want to be known for…Yet God clearly declares that in these things we should not glory. God’s giving us a very important truth concerning mans tendencies…He’s showing us that we tend to glory and brag in the things we excel at…And, the things a person excels in are the things he most intimately knows. If a man glories in His wisdom, or His power and His riches then obviously this is where his focus is. This is where his true “knowledge” lies.
    God declares to us that it is better to know and understand Him. We were made to know God, not in a superficial way but in an intimate way. Tony Evans says in his book, “Time to Get Serious”: If God is the all-consuming, all powerful, all knowing, loving, and infinite Creator, sustainer, and redeemer of this universe, then nothing else we can do matters quite as much as getting to know Him.”
    Before we move on, it’s important to heed a warning issued by J.I. Packer in his book called, Knowing God. It is possible to know about God without knowing God intimately. This is the danger of sterile intellectualism. It’s easy for us to fall into the trap of thinking that since we know a lot of things about God, that we must know Him well. Tony Evans also uses a great illustration: “I can’t fully explain what it means to know God. I can use the terms, but it’s like defining a kiss. Webster calls a kiss ‘a caress with the lips; a gentle touch or contact.’ But anyone who has kissed someone knows that a kiss is really much more than that. You can’t explain it, but Lord have mercy, it’s good when you get it! I can’t fully explain what getting to know God feels like, but I know that – like a kiss - you will like it when it happens.”
There are at least 4 ways that we can know God.
    The first way is by relying on our imagination. Each of us carries around a mental picture of who God is. That picture is a collage’ of a lifetime of experiences, impressions and assumptions…However, those are most often wrong.
    2^nd. We get to know Him by God’s Invitation - We can’t begin to get to know Him unless He extends an invitation. But, God invites everyone to “come” – to “taste and see” – to “seek and find”… God desires for each and every one of us to know Him.
    3^rd. Is by God’s Revelation - One way God reveals Himself is through creation. Romans 1:20 says, “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities -- his eternal power and divine nature ­ have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.” God has also revealed Himself through the Scriptures... 2 Timothy 3:16: “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.” If you want to get to know God, you do it by getting to know this book. If you want to hear from God, then read this book….If you want to see God then read this Book! The Bible is bursting with direct statements from God about God ­ and it reveals His mind, His heart, and His will and purpose for you.
    4^th. God’s primary vehicle for self-disclosure is through Jesus Christ. The Bible teaches in Hebrews 1:3 that “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being…” Jesus reveals who God the father is. As Jesus said in John 8:19, “If you knew me, you would know my Father also.” Colossians1:15 says “He is the image of the invisible God.”
    You see, the question is not so much, “Do you know about God?” but “How well do you know Him?” Even for those of us who have been believers for some time, the adventure of knowing God never ends. In fact, one of Paul’s prayers, in Ephesians 1:17, shows that our pursuit of knowing God is to be on the front burner, all the time: “I…keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know Him better.”
    There was a popular song many moons ago that Judy and I used to dance to, it went something like: “To know, know, know, him; is to love, love, love him”…It wasn’t a song about God, but it is still the truth. To know him is to love him; to love him is to trust and obey him; to obey is a sign of abiding in the vine; and when we abide in the vine we will be as “trees planted by the streams of water, that bears it’s fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers!” Such a tree withstands the buffeting winds and the storms of life, and it blesses man and animals and birds with its unfailing fruit and shade. It lives an abundant life!