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Introduction:
Everywhere I go, the conversation usually gets around to a
question of acquaintances. “Do you know so and so?” I am sure
the same thing happens to you. Consider the answers you give to
this question. They range anywhere from, “I’m sorry, I’ve
never heard of them” to “Are you kidding? They’re my best
friends.” Knowing someone is a graded process. That is, there
are levels. I can know someone and at the same time not know
someone. For instance, I know President George W. Bush, Queen
Elizabeth and even Oprah Winfrey. However, at the same time, I
don’t know any of them. This same thing can be said of God. Most
of us know God. But how many of us know God? How many of us have a
relationship with God? If we were out and about and someone said,
“Hey, do you know Jehovah God?” How would we respond?
We start our Fall Focus with this lesson, focusing on our
relationship with God, getting to know Him better and walking with
Him day by day. Every family attending is offered a free copy of
our Fall Focus book Walks with God. It contains five weeks worth of weekday readings
with application questions as well as five group study guides to
go over weekly (even if you are not in a small group, I encourage
you to work through the discussion guide questions on your own or
with your family).
As we begin our Focus, let’s examine our relationship
with God. How well do we know Him? What kind of relationship do we
have? We are going to briefly examine six levels of knowledge. As
we do, please don’t think of these as right or wrong. Though we
will recognize levels of relationship that are not beneficial, the
purpose of this lesson is not to decide whether our relationship
with God is bad or not. Rather, we want simply to honestly assess
what level of knowledge with have of God and then push ourselves
to grow deeper whatever answer we find.
With that in mind, let’s consider the answers someone
might give if asked, “Hey, do you know Jehovah God?” Discussion: I.
“No, I’ve never heard of Him.” A.
I don’t need to say much here in our 21st
Century American culture. No doubt, when Paul traveled to Athens
in Acts
17 he had to introduce people to the unknown God. I can
hardly imagine that being the case for any of us today. We have at
least heard of God. B.
I can’t imagine how you would end up here, listening to a
sermon without at least having heard of God. However, if for some
strange reason that is the case. May I invite you to get a Bible
and open to the very first page. It starts with the words, “In
the beginning, God…” Read from there and be introduced to the
Creator of the world and your life. II.
“Yeah, I’ve heard of Him.” A.
When someone asks me if I know somebody who lives near me
or used to live in a town in which I used to live, the answer is
often, “I’ve heard of him, but I don’t know him.” Sadly,
in our society, this describes a lot of people. They have heard of
God. They know some things about Him. They have probably even
developed an image of what God is based on their incomplete
knowledge. However, they really don’t know Him. B.
Paul mentions this relationship in Romans
1:19-23. These Gentiles knew about God. The world around
them declared some of the aspects of God. They knew God, yet, they
didn’t. That is, they had heard of Him, knew some things about
Him, but they had no relationship with Him. They developed images
of God based on the created animals around them. Another example
of this relationship is in Romans
10:16-19. This time speaking of Jews, who knew a lot about
God and yet their knowledge was incomplete. Because of that,
though they had heard of God, they did not know or understand God.
Their image of God was mistaken and distorted. C.
I
Corinthians 2:10-13
explains that we cannot have any great knowledge of God than this
unless God Himself reveals it to us. He has done this through the
Holy Spirit and His prophets and apostles. If we want to move
beyond this level of knowledge, we must spend time in the Word He
has revealed. That is the only way. III.
“Yeah, I’ve met Him.” A.
There are some folks who are acquaintances. We have met
them, shook hands perhaps. However, we have little to no
relationship with them. We especially like to display these kinds
of non-relationships if they are with important or famous people.
I love to tell people about the time I road on a plane with the
lead singer of the 70s and 80s band, Blondie.
I get a kick out of telling people about the time Marita sat next
to the lead singer of the 80s hair band, Slaughter,
on a fair ride. I like to show people my signed copies of John
Maxwell books and my signed book by Kenneth Starr as well as the
picture taken of both of us. However, it would be ridiculous for
me to claim to have any kind of relationship with any of these
people. B.
Sadly, this kind of relationship with God is far too
common. Jesus talked about this kind of relationship in the
Parable of the Sower of Matthew
13. The rocky ground received the seed of the word with
joy but developed no roots. They met God, but they didn’t spend
the time to get to know God. They developed no relationship. When
times got rough, they fell away. Sadly, some people rest on the
fact that they once met God. But this is not a saving
relationship. Frankly, this is the same kind of relationship the
demons of James
2:19. They know God. They’ve met God. However, they have
never developed a positive relationship with Him. They cannot take
any comfort in their knowledge of God; they can only shudder in
fear. C.
If you once met God, but have not developed a relationship
with Him, let me encourage you to start today. Like the prodigal
son of Luke
15:11-32, you abandoned the greatest relationship of your
life, but the Father is looking for you, waiting for you to
return. Why not come to your senses and come back to Him today? IV.
“Yeah, I know Him. He’s an associate/co-worker of
mine.” A.
Sometimes, when someone asks us about a person, we really
do know them. We even know them well because we see them
frequently. However, we are not extremely close to them. They are
associates or co-workers. We would never describe them this way if
through our work we had become close friends. We have a working
relationship with them and that’s all. We have a 9 to 5
relationship. We may spend time with them away from the plant or
the office, but usually because it is work related. We do what we
have to with them because it is required for the job, but we
don’t do much else. B.
Sadly, there a great number of Christians who have this
relationship with God. Their relationship with Him is not so much
a friend or family relationship, but a work relationship. This
relationship is filled with checklists and minimum or maximum
requirements. “What is the requirement for being saved? Hear,
believe, repent, confess, be baptized? I’ve done that; I’m
good.” “How many times do I really have to go to the assembly
in order to be saved?” These Christians often think about their
relationship with God as based on their relationship with the
local church, instead of seeing their relationship with the local
congregation as merely being a part of their relationship with God
and His children. They often think being in a congregation and
making it to the assemblies means they have a great relationship
with God. However, don’t let the local church ask anymore of
them than that. After all, they have other aspects of their lives
and the local church shouldn’t try to take over their entire
lives. They rarely think in terms of having a relationship with
God that has taken over their lives and He does have that right. C.
We see a pointed example of this in Luke
10:38-42. Martha had a relationship with Jesus. However,
she had not let it completely permeate her life. She was worried
and distracted by so many things that she allowed the one
necessary thing to go by the wayside. No doubt, she thought her
relationship with Jesus was great. So great, in fact, she thought
she could get Him to rebuke Mary for not being like her. However,
she was not so close to Jesus to know what really mattered to Him.
D.
If you have this kind of relationship with God, you need to
realize that “going to church” doesn’t equal having a good
relationship with God. Christianity is not a Sunday activity, with
some Wednesdays thrown in. Christianity is an every minute of the
day relationship with God. You can’t get into heaven by marking
off your checklists or meeting your minimum number of required
assemblies, prayers and Bible readings. We develop a heaven-bound
relationship with God by letting Him take over our lives. Galatians
2:20 describes that relationship as having crucified
ourselves and letting our lives be run by Christ’s will every
step of the way. V.
“Oh yeah, I knew Him. What a great friend. Haven’t
talked to Him in a long time though.” A.
I can look back over my life at a series of great friends.
I have kept up my relationship with some of them even though I
have moved and we parted ways. Other relationships have gone by
the wayside. Every once in a while, someone will say, “Hey did
you know so and so when you were in such and such a place?”
“Oh yeah, I knew them. We were really good friends. I need to
call them. I haven’t talked to them in forever.” B.
How many Christians have this relationship with God? We see
an example of it in Revelation
2:4. The Ephesians were moving along in their religion,
but not their relationship with God. They knew all the right
doctrines and stood up for the truth, not allowing error to stand.
They even endured persecution without breaking. However, the
initial relationship they had with God had grown cold. We see a
similar picture in Jeremiah
2:2-3. God spoke of Israel who once had the devotion of a
young bride just following her marriage. They would follow God
anywhere and everywhere out of their love for Him. The Ephesians
had been like that. Now, they had become a group of rule
followers. Their outward actions may not have changed a great
deal, but their motivation had changed. Now they were protecting
the forms and rules they had developed instead of pursuing a
closer relationship with God. When this happens, apostasy is
inevitable. Eventually, to protect our rules and forms we change
God’s pattern. However, when we are pursuing a relationship of
love and friendship with God, then we never let our rules and
forms take precedence over God’s revelation. When friendship
with and love of God is our paramount concern, then all our rules
and forms, whether they ever change or not, will be from God and
will glorify Him. C.
Jesus told the Ephesians to do the works they did at first
(Revelation
2:5). Have you let your love for God grow cold? The best
way to rekindle that love and devotion is to remember how you
behaved when you had it and do those things again. The emotional
side of your relationship will return if you rebuild the action
side. Do you remember your prayers, studies, evangelistic efforts,
discussions with people, assembly and class attendance when you
were on fire with love for God? You didn’t do any of those
things to meet requirements; you did them because you wanted to
get closer to God. Remember that relationship, realize you have
done wrong by losing your love motivation, repent and start doing
those actions again. The love you had will reignite. VI.
“Oh yes, I know Him, we’re good friends.” A.
In James
2:23, James said Abraham was called God’s friend (cf. II
Chronicles 20:7; Isaiah 41:8). What a great relationship
to have with God. How would you like to be called the friend of
God? Have you ever heard the dictum, “To have friends, you must
be a friend”? For God to call us His friends, we have to be a
friend to God. B.
Consider what Proverbs
17:17 and 18:24 say about friendship. Friendship is
about loving, trusting and sticking with someone through good and
bad times. Consider the relationship Paul had with God according
to II
Timothy 4:16-17. His earthly friends, even brethren
abandoned him. However, God stood by Him. This was because when
things got rough, God didn’t have to chase Paul down. Rather,
Paul stood by God. Paul is talking about a time when he was being
persecuted for his faith, facing possible execution. Did he
abandon God when the times got rough? No, he stood by God.
Therefore, God stood by him. C.
We have already read Galatians
2:20. Paul had sacrificed his own will in order to
accomplish the will of God, no matter how rough it got. Abraham
had been called the friend of God, because he believed God and
obeyed Him even to the point of being willing to sacrifice his
very own son (James
2:21-23). Being friends with God means trusting Him with
our very lives and even with the lives of those about whom we
care. It means surrendering our will to His. It means believing
His will is best for us and following it. D.
Of course, to have this relationship with Him, we have to
know His will. Faith comes by hearing the word of God (Romans
10:17). But hearing is not the end. Hearing is only the
beginning. We must stand by God, doing what He says even through
adversity. Then He will stand near us even in adversity. Being a
friend of God doesn’t mean always walking the garden path; it
means God will carry us through our adversities sticking closer
than a brother. Consider God’s friends throughout history. Think
of Abraham whom God kept on his journeys; Moses through whom God
freed His people with the plagues; David who became king; Daniel
who was saved from the lions’ mouths; Hananiah, Meshael and
Azariah who were saved from the fiery furnace and others. All of
these were God’s friends because they trusted God and stood by
Him at all times. E.
No doubt, the friend relationship is not a static one. It
is a growing relationship. Just being God’s friend doesn’t
mean we are done with our growth. Rather, as we continue to study
and continue to obey and continue to stick with God through thick
and thin, our relationship will grow. If you can say you are
God’s friend, that is awesome. But don’t be satisfied with
your relationship. Let it continue to grow, increasing your faith,
virtue, knowledge and love (II
Peter 1:5-8). Conclusion: If someone asked you, “Hey, do you know Jehovah God?” what would you have to say. What kind of relationship do you have with God? No doubt, most of these relationships aren’t that good. However, our lesson today is not to see whether our relationship is good or bad, but to see where it needs to improve. No matter what kind of relationship you have with God right now, why not commit yourself to make it better? How can we help?
Glory
to God in the church by Christ Jesus
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