The God You May Not Know
Take the Journey from Knowing About God to Knowing God
The God You May Not Know
TAKE THE JOURNEY FROM KNOWING ABOUT GOD TO KNOWING GOD
Because our personalities inevitably conform to our gods. We have witnessed this down through history. When we worship inferior versions of God – money, status, security, power, pleasure, you name it – we become like our idols.
If your god is money, you’ll become materialistic.
If your god is sex, you’ll become increasingly sensual.
If your god is yourself, you’ll become more self-focused.
But if your God is the almighty Creator of Scripture you’ve got a lifetime of joy ahead of you.
So it is no exaggeration to say that the study of God is the supreme study of a lifetime. It lifts our thoughts, steadies our nerves, purifies our motives, expands our confidence, and strengthens our influence. It’s the greatest subject we could ever study, for God is the apex of all reality.
One of the reasons we don’t love God as much as we should is because we don’t know Him as well as we ought. Trying to comprehend the person of God is like trying to capture all the galaxies of the universe in a child’s prism. Yet the Bible encourages us to try, for God seeks to be known.
In this teaching series, I want to personally introduce you to the God you may not know—to His knowledge, holiness, all-pervasive presence, unlimited power, love, and the other qualities that make Him who He is. Knowing our eternal God changes our daily lives—and He is well worth knowing, for He alone is worthy of all praise!
According to Philippians 3:10, Paul’s deepest aspiration was to know God.
He summarized his life’s purpose in one phrase: “That I may know Him.”
We ask: “Why, Paul don’t you know Christ? Didn’t you meet him on the Damascus road? Haven’t you been serving Him for years?”
Yes, but it’s one thing to meet someone and another to develop an intimate knowledge and an abiding friendship with him.
Is knowing God your determined purpose and priority?
from page 15 of The God You May Not Know
My prayer…
That this series will enable you to know Him, to know Him better, and to make Him known.
The greatest answer to life is knowing Him, as our Lord Jesus Christ prayed on the final night of His earthly life:
"This is eternal life, that they may
know You, the only true God,
and Jesus Christ whom you have sent."
John 17:3
If we aren’t careful...
We become trained Christians, people who have learned to do the things other expect outwardly. But while maintaining those outward traditions, we may be God-starved inwardly. This even happened to the Christians in Ephesus who, despite their outstanding Christian character, drifted far from their first love (Revelation 2:4).
Think of the last time you attended a church service.
Was your mind focused upward, singing praises to God? Were you “filled with His goodness, lost in His love” as the old hymn goes? Or were you distracted by all that was happening around you? Worship isn’t really the music. It’s not the melody. It’s not the rhythm. It’s not the lyrics. Worship is not whether we lift our hands or not, whether we clap or not.
Worship is praising the God we personally know.
Here is the key: We can only worship someone we love, and we can only love someone we know.
When we know him, we will come to love Him. And when we love Him, worship will be an explosion from within our souls that we’ll be unable to contain. That’s why knowing God is our greatest priority.
