To Be Fully Known
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13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.
John
What is Eternal Life?
When I ask the question there are so many thoughts that run through people’s minds.
When I ask the question there are so many thoughts that run through people’s minds.
The after-life.
Heaven or Hell.
Fantasy and fable
Or even myths and legends
What if I told you that this is not the way the Bible or Jesus described eternal life at all.
The very definition of the word eternal demands something more.
Eternal simply means no beginning and no end. It has no bounds or markers.
God is an eternal being. He has no beginning and no end.
“We experience eternal life when we are fully known by God and fully know God.”
“We experience eternal life when we are fully known by God and fully know God.”
There is a powerful force in the universe that we all want and we can all feel.
It is the longing to be completely known. So many of us are not really known.
We say in our hearts if you knew me you would like me much less love me.
So we hide.
We put on our mask.
We go along with the charade of whoever’s party it is.
You’re one person at your Mom’s house.
You’re another person to your kids.
You’re still another person at work.
You’re even someone else at Church.
Many times the person we fall in love with is the person with whom we feel the most known. This person knows all of me: my hurts and fears, my joys and my tears and they just keep hanging around.
Did you know that God desires to be known as well. But many treat God the same way they do everyone else. They don’t want to fully know God because they might not like or love all the aspects of who he is and what he’s about.
I love a merciful God, but I don’t like a god of judgement.
I love a forgiving God, but I don’t like a god of righteousness.
I love a giving God, but I don’t want a god that demands or requires something of me.
I love a God that promotes me, But I don’t like a God that want me to promote him.
God desires a people to which he can be fully known and still loved. I can here God saying, “These are the ABC’s of me Baby. Take it or leave it.”
This is the reason God took the form of man and came to the earth in the form of Jesus. So that we might fully know him.
This is the way Jesus described eternal life.
3 And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
“You will never know eternal life with God until you have tasted death with Christ.”
“You will never know eternal life with God until you have tasted death with Christ.”
We must join Christ in death to live with God.
We must join Christ in death to live with God.
8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Romans 6:
The power that raised Christ has raised us as well.
The power that raised Christ has raised us as well.
1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
You were resurrected in the power of the Spirit
You were resurrected in the power of the Spirit
11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
Romans 8:
Through the power of the Spirit we live resurrected lives.
Through the power of the Spirit we live resurrected lives.
We experience God through our resurrected spirit.
We experience God through our resurrected spirit.
14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”
Romans 8:
“Eternal life is an experience and walk with God.”
“Eternal life is an experience and walk with God.”
27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.
:27
There are two ways that we here God’s voice:
There are two ways that we here God’s voice:
The Word of God through the Bible.
The Witness of God through the Holy Spirit.
The reason why so many Christians are not experience the closeness with God is because the are unwilling to follow Christ and his way.
Some of you are taking Experiencing God right now and the last reality in the process is:
“You come to know God by experience as you obey Him, and He accomplishes His work through you.” - Experiencing God, Henry Blackaby.
The Apostle Paul is a great example of walking in eternal life.
The Apostle Paul is a great example of walking in eternal life.
7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 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
To walk with God you must be willing to throw away the things of this life.
This life compared to eternal life is a life of rubbish or dung.
9 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— 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,
To experience God you must be willing to share in his sufferings and maybe even his death.
Closing Thoughts
Well for many of you, you have made it through another Easter. It will all be over tomorrow and you can get back to your life.
But, I thinking that some of you will not be satisfied with a life of crap anymore.
You desire to know God is a real way.
You want to know God by experience as you walk with him.
You are ready to walk in the power of his and your resurrection.
To you I say, “I’ll see you next Sunday. We have some eternal life to live.
To the rest I will see you on Mothers Day.