Sermon Tone Analysis

Why Should We Study God?

What do you think of when I mention “god”?

What does god look like?

What is good about god and what is bad?

What is this “knowledge” based on?

Where have you gained this knowledge?

J I Packer Knowing God

How important is knowing what God is like?

Explain

Do you think that knowing God is difficult?

Explain

For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you.

We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all the power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience.

NIV

NIV

Firestone, Deidre.

The Knowledge of the Holy Study Guide .

Kindle Edition.

3 Key Assumptions

God Exists

This God is the God of the Bible

The Bible is the Revelation of God

Revelation about God

Revelation from God

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.

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in or that you may know the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people.

NIV

NIV

The Necessity of Knowing God

What we think about God is the most important thing about us.

This reveals so much about who we are as individuals and what we value.

It reveals a lot about us as a culture.

This is because when we think of god, we often create him in our mind as something or someone similar to us.

He loves what we love.

He hates what we hate.

He is created in our image, with the same priorities, pet peeves and even sin that we have.

An accurate picture of God is to our faith what a foundation is to a building.

If the foundation is not solid or out of plumb or made of faulty materials, the whole structure will eventually collapse.

Our failure in the Christian life, or error in doctrine, can be traced directly back to one or more incorrect thought about God.

An accurate picture of God is to our faith as the foundation is to a building.

If the foundation is not solid or out of plumb, the whole structure will eventually collapse.

Our failure in Christian living, or error in doctrine, is traced directly back to our imperfect thoughts of God.

Firestone, Deidre.

The Knowledge of the Holy Study Guide .

Kindle Edition.

[For example, the late 19th century brought about three men that revolutionized the way people thought about god.

Friedrich Nietzsche stated, “God is dead,” implying that whatever concept of god there is, the Enlightenment had killed it.

Charles Darwin proposed the theory of evolution and, based on the limited knowledge of biology and zoology at the time, proved that man was not created but evolved.

And finally, Karl Marx applied both theories to his ideas of society and government.

What resulted, as Nietzsche predicted, was the 20th century being the bloodiest century of all.

For example, the late 19th century brought about three men that revolutionized the way people thought about god.

Friedrich Nietzsche stated, “God is dead,” implying that whatever concept of God there is, the Enlightenment had killed it.

Charles Darwin proposed the theory of evolution and, based on the limited knowledge of biology and zoology at the time, proved that man was not created but evolved.

And finally, Karl Marx applied both theories to his ideas of society and government.

What resulted was the 20th century being the bloodiest century of all.

WW1: 15 million

WW2: 70 million

Vietnam:

Socialists- 111 million

Hitler: 17 million

Stalin: 20 million

China: 65 million

Cambodia: 2 million

Vietnam: 1 million

North Korea: 2 million

Eastern Europe: 1 million

Latin America: 150,000

Africa: 1.7 million

Afghanistan: 1.5 million

Others: 10,000

The concept of a great God has been so devalued that it has caused a moral tragedy, not only in the world at large, but also in the church.

(stats that show believers behave like the world)]

[Scripture repeatedly talks about those who do NOT know God.

When the biblical writers refer to those who do not know God, they are also referred to as wicked and/or evil.

Conversely, the biblical writers say often that those who know God will obey Him and will live holy lives.

For example, the apostle John points this out in one of his letters.

He writes in , “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God.

Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.

Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”

]

In his work Knowing God, J. I. Packer gives a warning about the danger of failing to pursue a knowledge of God.

Disregard the study of God and you sentence yourself to stumble and blunder through life blindfolded, as it were, with no sense of direction and no understanding of what surrounds you.

J I Packer Knowing God

J I Packer Knowing God

In his letter to the church at Rome, the Apostle Paul wrote to communicate the truth of the Gospel and its effectiveness to save all who believe from sin and guilt and change their lives as well.

However, before he begins this discussion, he first tells the church of our need for God and the gospel by stating our complete lack of understanding about who God is:

They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them.

For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky.

Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature.

So they have no excuse for not knowing God.

Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks.

And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like.

As a result, their minds became dark and confused.

NLT

He goes on to show how they built on this faulty foundation, houses of worship to mankind and animals.

Wrong ideas about God rot a religion from within.

Israel demonstrated this in the Old Testament and the history of the Church confirms it.

However, the person who comes to a correct belief about God is relieved of ten thousand temporal problems because they see that they are no greater than the God in whom they trust.

That person is left instead with one eternal preoccupation: the worship of God himself.

One author has stated that the chief end of man is to know God and make him known.

Knowing God should be our first priority in this life.