The Effects of Knowing God

Introduction:

Paul’s prayer for us is that we would have a full experience of knowing God because of the power of God at work in Christ.

Illustration:

There was a goldfish named Monstro and he had become blue. Literally, Monstro had turned a very dark shade of blue and developed lesions on his belly. His previous owner, unable to care for him, returned Monstro to the pet store. In his blue state, Monstro no longer swam, instead he rested upon the gravel of the tank waiting to die. A man from Kansas purchased Monstro and spent several weeks documenting on TikTok his care and nurture for Monstro. After several weeks the blue began to fade and Monstro once again regained his golden appearance and a new energy on display in the fish tank for everyone to see.

Like Monstro, when we spend time in the power and care of our God we too begin to experience the effects of His care for us.

Spiritual transformation: from death to life

Jesus reveals this transformation in John 5:24.

English Standard Version Chapter 5

24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.

Paul calls speaks of life before Christ as enslavement. Galatians 4:8-9

English Standard Version Chapter 4

8 Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. 9 But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more?

Last week we talked about being “Born Again” which can be a difficult idea to grasp. The process of being moved from “Death to Life” is also known as being “Born Again.” There is a spiritual side of you that comes to life through a relationships with Jesus Christ.

Moral transformation: from evil to good

Sanctification

The concept of being set apart as sacred.

Did you ever sit down to lunch with your friends and they all started to eye the chocolate chip cookie waiting for you at the end of the meal? How many of you preemptively licked that cookie ensuring everyone noticed. You sanctified that cookie! You set it apart as your own and no one else could have it.

In Christian living, it refers to the process of gradual purification from sin and progressive spiritual growth. see: 1 Thessalonians 4:3-5.

English Standard Version Chapter 4

3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; 4 that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, 5 not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God;

Colossians 1:10

English Standard Version Chapter 1

10 so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God

Ultimately, the consequence of knowing and experiencing God yields the fruit of Love.

1 John 3:10 (ESV)

10 By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.

We could spend the rest of our time today talking about this one issue. How does a follower of Jesus Christ express righteousness and Love towards his brother?

Simply put, I believe we can let Jesus answer this question for us in Matthew 25: 34-36

English Standard Version Chapter 25

34 Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’

I spoke last week of Max Lucado’s book, “Just Like Jesus”

If you were to stand trial for your faith in Christ, would there be enough evidence to convict you?

We become like what we worship. True worship will make us more like God. - Adrian Rogers.

Boldness of action for God

1 Peter 1:13 (ESV)

English Standard Version Chapter 1

13 Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Stephen, the first Christian martyr, is a great example of boldness. Acts 6:8-10

English Standard Version Chapter 6

8 And Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people. 9 Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called), and of the Cyrenians, and of the Alexandrians, and of those from Cilicia and Asia, rose up and disputed with Stephen. 10 But they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking.

Faith is belief with legs on it - Adrian Rogers

God’s word gives us several pictures of what knowing God can look like in the life of a believer.

Parent and Child

1 John 3:1 (ESV) — 1 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

Proverbs 3:12 (ESV) — 12 for the Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.

For those that feel abandoned.

Psalm 68:5 (ESV) — 5 Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation.

Like husband and wife

Isaiah 62:5 (ESV) — 5 For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your sons marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.

Isaiah 54:5 (ESV) — 5 For your Maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is his name; and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth he is called.

As we will see later in Ephesians, this type of love is a sacrificial and selfless love.

Ephesians 5:25 (ESV) — 25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her

Like king and subject

Psalm 29:10 (ESV) — 10 The Lord sits enthroned over the flood; the Lord sits enthroned as king forever.

Psalm 95:3 (ESV) — 3 For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods.

As subjects in His kingdom, we submit to his authority.

Matthew 6:33 (ESV) — 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Like shepherd and sheep

Psalm 23:1–2 (ESV) — 1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters.

Psalm 28:9 (ESV) — 9 Oh, save your people and bless your heritage! Be their shepherd and carry them forever.

Ultimate, we see the picture of our God as Shepherd in the life of Christ.

John 10:11 (ESV) — 11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

The peril of not knowing God

Romans 1:21–32 (ESV) — 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. 24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

This is the curse of ever searching, but never being satisfied.

Jumping from one obsession to the next to find meaning.

Having everything, but having nothing.

There are some who claim to know God.

Titus 1:15–16 (ESV) — 15 To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled. 16 They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.

The Message of 1 Timothy and Titus d. Their Errors (1:14b–16)

That is, there is a fundamental dichotomy between what they say and what they are, between their words and their deeds. Usually professions and denials are opposites, which exclude one another. We cannot profess what we deny, or deny what we profess. At least, to do so is the essence of hypocrisy, because then we profess God in word and deny him in deed. This is ritual without reality, form without power, claims without character, faith without works.

Eternal separation in the future.

Do you feel like Monstro before his new owner redeemed him?

Why would you want to stay there? You’ve tried that fish tank before!

Romans 6:23

English Standard Version Chapter 6

23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 2:5 (ESV) — 5 But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.

Matthew 7:22–23 (ESV) — 22 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?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’