Who Knows?: Know

Introduction

Jeremiah 29:11–13 (ESV)

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.

(Don’t Read, just reference)

Philippians 3:3–9 (ESV)

For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh— though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—

(Read)

Philippians 3:10–11 (ESV)

that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Matthew 7:21–23 (ESV)

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

What did we talk about last night?

That’s right, we talked about Studying.

We want to study so we can know God.

Saying and Doing the Right Things Does Not Mean We Know Jesus

But did you know that you can study something really well and still not really know what it is you’ve been studying?

Studying is important for us to know God, but it does not necessarily mean that we know God.

Picture of Dak Prescott / Taylor Swift / Tom Brady

Does anybody know who this is?

Now, of those who say they know these people, how many can say that these celebrities know you?

Just because you know things about a certain person, it does not mean you really know them or they know you.

Paul

Looked like he knew God

But he just took pride in how much he knew

He enjoyed knowing how impressed everyone was with how smart and spiritual he appeared.

Jesus’ teaching

There are those who claim to know Jesus

Just like we claim to know who Mahomes or Swift or Brady is

There are those who act like they know Jesus and who do all the right things.

But saying and doing the right things does not mean we actually know Jesus.

This is a passage we need to take seriously because we want to make sure that we really know Jesus, not just know about Him.

This can be a scary passage even for me because I can say and teach all the right things to you and Jesus could still say, “depart from me I never knew you.”

Knowing Jesus Means Spending Time With Him

It’s good to publicly declare our love for Jesus to other people.

It is not inherently wrong to do things and say things about Jesus in front of others.

In fact, Jesus even told us that if we deny Him in front of others, He will deny us before the Father.

However, there’s a problem if all we do is look like we follow Jesus in front of others, but there’s no personal relationship with Jesus.

How can we be sure that we really know Jesus and not just know about Him?

How do you become a friend with someone and get to know them better?

You need to spend time with them and talk with them.

You hang out together, you play games together, you talk with each other and encourage each other.

So how do we get to really know Jesus?

We spend time with Him.

We spend time with Him by studying and reading His Word. That’s how He talks with us.

We spend time with Him by praying to Him. Prayer is our way of talking with Him and sharing with Him what is on our hearts.

We want to develop a genuine love for Jesus, not simply do things for Jesus and say things about Jesus.

It’s not just about what we do in public in front of others, it’s about what we do in private with Jesus.

How would you feel if you had a friend that always did things for you at school, but then ignored you and didn’t want to spend any time with you in private? They would always find time for other things or people, but never wanted to spend time with you by coming to your house or talking with you on the phone.

They might put on a good show in front of other people, but they would show they don’t really love you or really know you.

This is how we can sometimes treat Jesus. We can put on a show for others, but do we love Jesus when no one else is watching?

Do we enjoy spending time with Him in the Word and in prayer?

Jesus Came so We Can Love God

Knowing Jesus really means growing in our love for Him.

Does anyone know the two greatest commandments that Jesus gave us?

Love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength,

and to love our neighbor as ourselves.

You see, our biggest problem as sinners is that we do not love God like we should.

In fact, every time we sin, we actually show that we love something else more than we love God.

We cannot just muster up love for Jesus. But we can be given a heart that loves Jesus.

This is what Jesus came to do. When He came, He died on the cross for our sins. He came to take away the penalty of our sin. When we trust in Him, we are forgiven of our sin.

But there’s more than just that going on. When we put our trust in Jesus, He not only forgives us, He also gives us a new heart that begins to love Him more, a heart that wants to spend time with Him more.

This doesn’t mean that we will perfectly love Jesus, but we should be growing in our love for Jesus. We should say I want to love Jesus more today than I did yesterday. I want to spend time getting to know Jesus even more today.

Are you content in just knowing things about Jesus, or are you seeking to love Jesus?

How do we know when we are trusting in our own good works and how do we know we really trust in Jesus and love Him?

Do you want to really know Jesus and love Him? Do you want to be assured that Jesus knows you?