Knowledge of Power

You're reading from the 22nd chapter of Revelation, verses 12 through 14 and then 20. Verse 20. Who testifies to these things says, Surely I am coming soon. Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. Let's pray.

Lord God, just rejoice once again to be thinking. As the song said, when your trumpet makes that noise, And the dead, the dead who are saved, the elect are raised to life and those who are alive join in the air. Lord, we long for the day when our faith will be made sight. Just rejoice, Lord, and know the power of your resurrection, your amazing grace that brings your people to that point, Lord.

And we look forward to your coming that's very soon, Lord. I just pray, Lord, that the things that we learn today from your word points us towards your truth, to walk in the ways, Lord, that show forth your power in this world, Lord, that shows forth your truth to a world that is surrounding us and doesn't know its creator, doesn't know the one who sustains, doesn't know the one who is coming again, Lord. Let us, Lord, learn from the words that are brought to us today, Lord, how to honor and glorify you in our lives, Lord.

Bless my brother as he brings these things to us today, Lord. Give him clear thought, Lord. Give us good ears, Lord. Let us hear what your spirit has for the churches. You are our great God. We are thankful to be able to praise and worship you today.

Amen. Thank you. Unfortunately, a Buckeye fan, but for a few bucks, I'm going to let him preach today. He is from LaRue, same place Pastor Beebe was from. He has had some pastoral experience. Mostly, he's going to do for us today what he does, is we just fill the pulpits at different places, wherever he's called.

We're happy to have him. He has two sons with him. He has adult children and two, a son 12, Wesley, and a son 9, Michael. It's been a while. They stayed with us last night. It's been a while since we had children in the house.

Michael's like having Ryan back again. It was interesting. Good kids. I'm standing over here singing, and I can barely sing over top of Michael. This kid was just belting the words over here. It was impressive.

I liked it a great deal. So, Michael designs websites and builds apps for churches as a hobby. And again, his home church is LaRue. It's a very special church to me. The senior there, who was the senior for 30-some years and probably a lot of us still is, Tim Pasma, is a very good, close, and dear friend of mine. And I love him dearly.

Mr. Suspenders. So, I told him one day he's not going to die. He's just going to go into suspender animation. So, with that, here's Mike. Well, good morning and greetings from Lerue Baptist Church.

One of the greatest experiences of my recent Christian life has been being a part of a church that is a part of an active fellowship such as FIRE. And I have found that to be extremely helpful to the church, but even to myself personally. And some of the friendships I forged already through that. Well, Greg has already made a Ohio State Buckeyes joke.

And so I will let him have the last word on that one today. But I am a lifelong Ohioan and moved to Columbus at one point and was a pretty big Buckeyes fan, just being the hometown school. And I have made it a habit for almost 12 years, 13 years now maybe, maybe more, of being at most of the Ohio State Buckeyes home football games, It's preaching the gospel to people before the game or after the game.

We just, you know, it's about six or seven times a year. It's been a pretty big commitment. And just a quick story for you. And probably like 10 years ago the Wolverines came to the Ohio State University for the game And I as much of a rivalry guy as the next guy You know, I act like I don't like the state up north. I won't even say the word. And I root for my team.

I was at the Buckeyes game, and I was standing on the street. I'll never forget this moment. I was still a rather new Christian. I've been a Christian just under 20 years now. So this is over probably 10 years ago. And I'm preaching the gospel.

And if you've ever been a part of evangelism or especially like street evangelism where it's less relational, it can be confrontational. And oftentimes you get the types of reactions that the apostles got in the book of Acts which weren't always revival. And so you get used to just people being nasty to you, right? And I'll never forget one time I was standing there preaching and a family walked up completely covered in Michigan gear.

The dark jersey, the big maze numbers, and they came up and they said, praise the Lord, thanks for what you're doing, you know, something like that, I don't remember. And I just remember in that moment, you know, my heart melting a little, and God telling me, you know, these people are more in common with you than all the Ohio State fans. It was the Christians who were my real family there that day.

So I like that we can still enjoy a rivalry, but as Christians we are one family. And I think that's so great to experience. Well, if you are able to stand, I'd appreciate if you stand while I read the Word of God. In the book of Colossians chapter 1, if you want to turn with me, we'll get into the sermon so that story doesn't count against my time. Good, yeah, good, that was a lot of laughter for, that was good.

Most people just kind of, yeah, anyway, good. Colossians 1, I'm going to read us into a little bit of context and starting in part of verse 6. All over the world, this gospel is bearing fruit and growing just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood the grace of God. You learned it from Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf and who also informed us of your love in the Spirit.

For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with knowledge of his will and all spiritual wisdom and understanding. Now here's the sermon text introduction. So that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord and please him in every way. Notice after way we have a colon, at least in my version in English, and there's going to be four points that Paul makes.

Pleasing him in every way and walking in a manner worthy of the Lord in this chapter is going to be summarized by bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have full endurance and patience and joyfully giving thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light. You may be seated. That was Colossians 1, 6 through 12.

What I want to focus on today is just one of those four sub points that I believe Paul had that was describing what it means to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord and please him in every way. And what I want to focus on is growing in the knowledge of God. I think I had to come up with a sermon title and I think I named it Knowledge of Power. Because there's the phrase, knowledge is power, and then I try to be clever, because that's what preachers do.

And whether we're successful or not, we know in our own hearts, I'm sure. But growing in the knowledge of God is one of the ways that we walk in a manner worthy of the Lord and please Him in every way. So it's sufficient that Paul, I believe here, implies at the very least that this is a command. You cannot possibly be told that growing in the knowledge of God is one of the fruits of walking in a manner worthy of the Lord and then walk away thinking that it's not also commanded.

So even though it wasn't written as an imperative statement, Paul doesn't say you grow in the knowledge of God. He actually assumes that you're going to be growing in the knowledge of God as part of your walking in a manner worthy of the Lord. I will make no apology for making you jump around the Bible a lot. So if you turn to Proverbs 131, or I'm sorry, Psalms 131.

That was a great, you guys were like, who is this guy? Proverbs. Psalms 131, the only book in the Bible that has more than 66 chapters, I think, anyway. Psalm 131. We want to have a couple of cautions. As we grow in the knowledge of God, first of all, it's a command, and I think we have to have an element of humility.

In Psalm 131, a song of ascents of David, he says, My heart is not proud, O Yahweh. If you're wondering, I'm reading from the Berean Standard Bible, and if you're interested in why, I can talk to you about that after. I really like this version right now. My heart is not proud O Yahweh my eyes are not haughty I do not aspire to great things or matters too lofty for me And I think we need to have a humility about us that recognizes that while we grow in the knowledge of God you will never attain you will never complete that growth It's interesting to think about the glorified state.

So everybody here is in the unglorified state. Lord willing, we're all looking forward to the glorified state. And I think sometimes we have a sense that when we are glorified, we will have full knowledge of like everything. And I just want to caution you that that's impossible. We're not infinite. God is the one with full knowledge and you will spend eternity learning more about God.

And it will always be exciting, and it will always be wonderful, and He will always be able to amaze you. And that is part of what is so wonderful about eternity, is He will be there, and we will continuously grow in our knowledge of God. So it's actually not a sin to be human and finite. It's a sin to be willfully ignorant of the things that God has revealed.

And so we want to continue to grow in the knowledge of God. You don't have to turn to this one, but Jeremiah 10, 7, there's none like him among the nations. That's just something we can know about him. John 17, 3, this is a memory verse. I think this is something people should be able to meditate upon. John 17, 3, if you'd like to turn there.

Now this is eternal life, Jesus says, so that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I would argue also from this verse, it's a secondary notion, but that eternal life is not a description of length. It's not a description of quantity. Eternal life is a description of quality. Intimacy, knowing Jesus is eternal life, it's a quality of life whereby you know the one true God, you know the creator who made you and you know him intimately.

The Bible refers to the act of men and women consummating their marriage as knowing one another. There is an intimacy involved in getting to know another human being that is serious when it talks about that and when we talk about getting to know God. God is a being. He's three persons, one being. And getting to know God is important to us so that we may have eternal life.

You're not going to know salvation apart from knowing Christ. It's important. And so in Colossians 1 15, go back to Colossians 1, same context. We're still in the section where we're talking about knowing God, being part of walking worthy with the Lord. So in Colossians 1, right after talking about this with us, Paul tells us a bunch of things about the Son of God.

And in the process he tells us a bunch of things about God himself and things that I think he assumes that we simply know. Chapter 1, Colossians chapter 1 verse 15. The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created, things in heaven, things on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through him and for him.

Paul assumes the concept that there is one God who is the creator. He assumes his readers understand this, and I'm going to tell you, I think it's because Paul knows that it's absolutely irrational to believe anything else. Anyone who's ever done any kind of philosophy seriously has arrived at the conclusion that there's one God. Now, they don't know that he's Trinity and Unity.

They don't know how he has revealed himself in Christ. But we have been given sufficient revelation in nature itself to know that there's one creator, he has all wisdom, power, and goodness, and his wrath, in fact, has been revealed from the heavens against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. So to deny God and to deny that there's only one God is irrational.

Paul then takes this idea of Christ who the Colossians have heard about and he equates Christ with God. He's saying this is God himself. He's the one through whom all things were created. This is important because any Savior that would come to you and not himself be God and be able to enter the throne of God to make intercession on your behalf is no Savior at all.

So if you're going to hinge your entire life and your entire existence on another person having sacrificed himself for you, it better be the right person. So you have to know God through Christ. He's before all things, in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church. Paul goes from talking about God as the creator, the one over all authorities and thrones and dominions, and then he talks about Christ as the head of the church.

And he takes God that everyone knows is transcendent, beyond our reach in some sense, altogether different from what we are. So there's two categories of being. There's created things and then there's the uncreated. God is in the category of the uncreated. Everything else is in the category of created We so different from God that it would be impossible to know him had he not condescended to make himself known to us And Paul reveals that he did this through Christ.

And so you can look at Christ and in fact you see God. He says, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father. And so this is how we come to know God. And this knowledge is a privilege. It's a joy to learn about God. I was talking to Guy before the service today, and Guy handed me a sheet of paper covered in mathematical equations.

And I have just enough of a math education that I could read it a little bit. I didn't know what he was trying to do, but it was remarkable. It was really interesting, and I find it remarkable how much we like to learn things. We want to learn about cars, music. Sometimes we just learn trivia, right? Just so you can go to Buffalo Wild Wings and try to beat someone you don't know in a 15-question rally about, you know, who won a volleyball tournament that you never even watched.

And so I would challenge you that if you're the kind of person, I think we all are, that would take time to learn about something. Taking time to learn about God should be a priority because it's a privilege to us. So we come to know God through nature, but also through his word. And this was part of the Sunday school today. If you missed it, it was really helpful that we understand God through his word.

And it's important to know that God's word was given to us so that we might understand it. Because I'm going to tell you something. Did you ever read the book of Acts? What happened when the apostles preached the word? Go ahead. Anybody?

Riots? Did you say? There were riots. There were also sometimes people getting saved. Right? There was all these things.

And what caused that? Well, let me ask you this way. Had the apostles preached the word in English, would any of those things have happened? Go ahead. It's okay. I'm asking.

No, absolutely not. The reason why people rioted is they understood what they said. The reason why people got saved and followed Christ is they understood what they said. There's nothing magical about the Word. It's supernatural. It has power.

It is beyond our understanding how it works all the time. But one thing we do know is that the way that the word of God works on the hearts of people, whether it's to harden their heart or soften their heart, is through the understanding that those people have cognitively. So that's why we preach the word in the vernacular, right, the common language.

And so you have to learn the word. You can't just say, well, I'm going to show up and I'm going to sit under the preaching of God's word and I'm not going to actively listen. Okay, you're not going to get more knowledge of God passively. You have to be active in this process. And so you must put away all the vain philosophies and empty deceits of this world.

And you must come to know God through his revealed word. So, point number two. Knowing God is practically effective in the Christian life. So I'm telling you, you need to grow in the knowledge of God. And part one, knowing God is part of walking worthy of the Lord. I believe it's a command.

But secondly, it's practically effective for you. So if there was anything about you that thought, yeah, I just want a better life, which if you don't, like, tell me, because that's really, I want to hear your philosophy. But there's anything that thinks, I want a better life. I want to be a better employee. I want to be a better father. I want to be a better wife.

I want to be a better husband. I want to be a better grandmother, a better homeschooling parent. I want to be a better whatever it is you are. I want to fight my sin with more power. I want to have less giving in to temptation in my life. I want to read the word and not feel distracted halfway through the first paragraph.

Okay, does anybody else have that problem? Has anybody else here ever been praying and suddenly you're thinking about something that's got nothing to do with your prayer? And you realize you just basically interrupted your conversation with God to just start thinking about something entirely unrelated. And you'd never do that to another person in the room with you.

And I know I'd be offended if you did it to me. But we do it to God like it's no big thing. Well, you know what? We're weak. And so you want to get better at these things. You need to know God because it is practically effective in your life.

It's necessary for salvation and growth. Isaiah 53, if you want to turn there, it's a great passage that we know is talking about the suffering servant, Jesus Christ. And we read the beginning of Isaiah 53 a lot. But at the end of Isaiah 53 in verse 11, the neat proof text for my sermon, by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many and he will bear their iniquities.

You have to know Christ to be saved. And so is growing in the knowledge of God practical? Well, absolutely, because you're going to die and go to hell if you don't know Christ. So, knowing Christ is how you can be saved. And you have to know more than just facts about Christ. You're all aware, I'm sure, of what James says about demons and their knowledge of God.

Satan knew Christ personally, didn't he? Tempted him in the wilderness. So there's more than knowledge of God that you have to have, but knowledge of Christ is important. Have you ever talked to a Mormon or a Jehovah's Witness? And they use the word Jesus, they will use the word Christ, right? And then as you talk to them, you realize they are not describing the same person that saved me.

And if you, I think if you're accurate, you have to say that they are not Christian. Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses are trusting in someone who cannot save them. And it's revealed by their knowledge, by how they describe the person that they use the word Jesus or the word Christ to describe, they reveal that they're describing a different person. We can all understand this.

If you think of the simple example of if I said, oh, I bring greetings from LaRue Baptist Church and Pastor Tim Pasma, or maybe, I don't know if you all know Tim, but you all met Andrew last week. My other pastor, Pastor B.B., and if I said, yeah, Pastor B.B., my 6'5", 400-pound buddy, you would sit there and you'd immediately think, well, he's not describing the same Pastor B.B. that I know, right? So how I describe Jesus to you or how someone describes Jesus to you is going to help you to see whether they know the right Jesus.

That will help you in your evangelism, knowing enough about Jesus that you can discern heresies. In Romans 10, we're reminded that you cannot call on the one that you don't know. You're not going to call on the Lord Jesus if you haven't heard of him. If you haven't heard of him because he hasn't been preached to you, if you don't know who he really is, you won't call on the name of the Lord to be saved.

And so we must know the right Jesus. In Ephesians 4.13, New Testament, jumping around, I hope you turn as much as you can with me. Sometimes I go to the verse quickly, I realize. I think it's better for you to open your Bible and look at the words yourself while I'm getting there, while I'm even speaking about them. It's the Word of God that has the power.

Ephesians 4. In 11 and 12, Paul describes his gifts to the church, which he gives. And in verse 13, he says, Until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God, as we mature to the full measure of the statue of Christ. This is more just a proof for me that growing in the knowledge of God is important. There is a school of thought that we will address now.

So, that says, well, all this book learning isn't really that important. What matters is how I treat people. What matters is if I love others, and that is certainly a very important aspect of the Christian life. Because there's another school of thought that says I can just sit in a room and study books and study the Bible and I can grow in my Christianity and I don't have to interact with other humans.

And people have erred on both sides of that extreme. God expects you to love him and to grow in your knowledge of him that you may understand him more and grow and love him more and then be able to use that knowledge to love and serve others. And he expects you to be able to say no to a service opportunity because it means you need time dedicated to the Lord.

Remember the model of our Lord Jesus was that he would go away for long periods of time to be alone and pray. It's stunning when you think about it. The man who had no ability to sin, the one who couldn't be tempted to sin the way we are, Therefore, he had nothing in him that desired anything evil. He would still go and pray. We only pray when we need it sometimes, you know.

When we perceive that we're in need, all of a sudden we get real prayerful, don't we? I think it speaks to how highly we think of ourselves sometimes when we realize how little we pray. I am preaching to the choir and I'm preaching to myself. We're all in this together. We're all weak, and we all are battling an enemy within, the sin, the flesh that's within us still.

And so we work together to grow in this maturity. But we don't want to fall into the trap of thinking that as long as I'm busy doing the work of church things, that I'm growing the way that Christ would have me grow. You must grow in your knowledge of God, and you get that through studying the Scripture, Sure, you get that through showing up at Sunday school, listening to the pastor.

Ephesians 4, the gifts that God gave the church are basically your pastors, right? And so treat them the way that God expects them to be treated. God equips us for life and godliness through knowledge of him. That's 2 Peter 1, 3. And in Titus 3.3, a verse that I'm not going to turn to, Titus refers to us prior to our salvation as misled or led astray, I think is how the ESV renders it.

And so basically when you ignorant of what God has revealed you accountable morally for that What I mean is this It one thing if you know you not supposed to do something and you do it we all know I committed a sin and I knew better and I still did it even though I knew it was wrong Titus, and I would argue the rest of the New Testament as well for certain, would also see to it that you knew that your ignorance of something God has commanded is something that you're accountable for morally. So when you violate a command of God because you have been ignorant of all that God has said, you're also in sin. So I'm one of the, you know, I come from the camp of, well, if I knew what I was doing was wrong, well, then I'm wrong.

But according to God, you can be wrong even if you are ignorant. And I think it's because he knows we are willfully ignorant of what he has told us to do. So God equips us through his word by telling us what is right. He says, you know what is right, oh man, right? Do justice, love kindness, walk humbly with your God. He doesn't require all these burnt offerings and sacrifices.

He desires mercy. You know what God wants and you know because his word says it. You know what God is like because his word tells us. So when Job is suffering, do you remember how God responded? What's the word used? He says he responds in a whirlwind, right?

So Job's suffering, and we all expect God to somehow condescend like a warm blanket. And God says, where were you when I laid the foundations of the world? Are you the one that calls the ostrich out and the deer and all the different things? And God basically puts on display for three chapters all his power, All his meticulous sovereignty over every instance of the world to let Job know no matter how bad you're suffering right now, you don't have a complaint against me.

And every single one of us has those moments where whether we're saying it out loud and honestly and explicitly or whether we're just thinking it in our spirit, where what we are saying is, if I was God, I'd have done something different. And every time you even have that thought, you're sinning. And yet God uses his perfections to teach us how to respond to life.

Are you suffering today? You don't have to raise your hand. Jesus told you that there'd be tribulation. So I can trust everybody in here is either in the middle of a tribulation coming out of one or you're getting ready for the next one. And you know what? It's knowledge of God that's going to help carry you through it.

Do you know that God is good? Do you know that he's wise? Do you know that he's sovereign and all-powerful? Because just knowing those four things should get you through any situation. Because it means no matter how difficult that situation is, no matter how much hardship you're facing, he's good, he's wise, he's all-powerful. He's able to help you through that because you can focus on the fact that your circumstances are sovereignly ordained by a God who loves you.

So you have to grow in that knowledge. Knowing God loves you is the fuel that's going to get you through the difficulties of life. Most of the philosophies of this world will teach you that when you begin to suffer, that's evidence of divine anger. The reason you don't have crops? God must be mad at you. So why don't you strip half your clothes off and dance around for a while, see if he'll bring rain.

Right? That's what people do, historically. And then what? If the rain doesn't come, well, let's do something more extreme. And I'll add, this is a little bit of a hobby horse of mine, but eventually it always leads to child sacrifice. So we live in a culture right now that sacrifices our children at a clip of 3 or 4,000 a day so that people can basically have rain.

It's just in the form of a better contract at work, not having to have your body affected by pregnancy so that you can be an actress. There's all sorts of reasons why people sacrifice their children, but it's the same thing as the old pagan religions trying to get the gods to send rain for their crops. It's just they want something, they're not getting it, they don't know God, so they do what seems right in their own eyes.

So you must know God, you must be able to teach God to others so that you can make it through the difficulties. So that when you're having trouble financially, you know how to ask the one true God who cares about you. So that'll take us to how knowing God drives your prayers. If you believe that God is your Father and that He's able and willing and ready to help you, as the Catechism Exposition says in number 107, the preface of the Lord's Prayer, which is our Father which art in Heaven, teacheth us to draw near to God with all holy reverence and confidence, but then listen, As children to a father, able and ready to help us.

If you know that God's your father and that he loves you, and as Jesus said, earthly fathers, if their son asks them for bread, they won't give him a stone. Earthly fathers if they ask for a fish he won give them a serpent or a scorpion And he says if God drives your prayers Knowing that he's powerful enough to do what humans think is impossible. You guys know this experientially, don't you?

I was talking to CJ last night. I think you all should probably know this story better than I do. Greg's in the coma. Human wisdom said, let's save a little electricity here. Let's pull the blood. CJ said, my God is bigger than your imagination.

You don't know my God. Did anybody here pray for Pastor Greg when he was in the coma? Did you pray because you were told to? Did you pray because you really thought God could do what humans were saying was impossible? That's Christianity. And your father listened to your prayer and brought that man back.

What a blessing. So we know God, so we come to him because he's the one that has all things in his hands. He has all power. I'll tell you what, Colossians 1, if all things were created through him and for him, Then they still exist by the word of his power. He's not the God of the deists. He didn't just set the world in motion and then walk away and turn his back on it.

He is constantly what we call providentially keeping all things together. And he even intervenes to do the miraculous at times. We have great joy in knowing that when you pray to God there is power. So point number one, it is a commandment of yours to get to know God. Point number two, it's practical for your life. You absolutely need it.

It's good for you. So, if you just studied Proverbs, you'd probably be a successful worker or stay-at-home mom or whatever you are. I mean, the wisdom in there is unfathomable. It's so deep. But finally, I think you need to know God because it's a relationship. If all I did was tell you that you should get to know God because it will help you, I have just, in a sense, created an idol for you.

God is now, in a sense, he's a genie. Now you might think higher of God than the three-wished genie, but if that's why you want to learn about God is because the preacher convinced you, I'll make it through suffering. I'll find a spouse. My life will get better. Or I'll make more money. Or I'll learn how to live on the money I have.

All sorts of really good things that can happen if you get to know God that you should do as a Christian. But if that's the reason, if your motivation to get to know God is what can it do for me, now you're being selfish. God is a being. And God is three persons. And we get to know other persons, don't we? I want you to imagine a husband who gets married to his wife and he wakes up every day and he goes to work and he breaks his back to supply for her.

And he comes home and he asks her what she wants him to do and she has things that she'd like so he does the things for her on a regular basis. He's devoted to giving her the things she asks for. He'll sit down and tell her all about what's in his heart. He'll say, this is my needs. This is what I want. Sacrifices his body at a hard job for her.

And then I just want you to imagine a man that's just so, all these good things, so gloriously dedicated. And yet, he never asks her anything about herself. He never says, how was your day? He never wants to get to know her more. She's just whoever she was on the wedding day to him. But he serves, he works, he, I'll say obeys, not in the sense of a husband and wife, but he does her wishes.

And I think we can treat God that way. We can serve him. We can work real hard for God. We do it because we love him, we think. But we should also be trying to get to know him. Just like if you were in a relationship with someone who was happy to serve you, was happy to work for you, was happy to supply your needs, and if that person did not spend time and effort just trying to get to know you, you would be hurt.

Thankfully God is not as easily bothered as we are. So he still loves us even when we've neglected to get to know him as a personal being. So knowing God is not optional, it's essential and it should be your desire. And so I want you to conceive of your relationship with God as more than utilitarian. More than a form of self-centered narcissism, I want you to think of God as worth getting to know just for the sake of getting to know Him.

If today was your last day on earth and you knew it this convicted me so I share it with you If today was your last day on earth and you knew it would you ask your wife how her day was Would you listen to your kid tell a story with no point at the end? And I'm going to, I'll be honest, when I thought about this question, I thought, no, I would be so focused on like, what do I need to do before I die? Like, what do I need to do?

I, I, I. And yet I think a desire for relationship with others means that you think about them. That if it was my last day on earth and I only had a few hours left, I'd want to ask my wife something about herself. I'd want to let my boys tell me about the TV show that just doesn't interest me. So then the question is, why don't I just do it all the time?

Why don't I build relationships all the time with people, right? And it's the same with God. I want to build that relationship with God on a regular basis so that I show that I'm not only using God as a means to an end that I want. It's worth knowing him even if I can't predict how knowing that thing will help me. I can tell you why simplicity, impassibility, God's foreknowledge, God's wisdom, God's power, his goodness, his justice, his mercy, his grace.

I can tell you why a lot of those things actually helps you in your life. I can. Good pastors do that. But you know, sometimes I just want people to want to get to know him better just because he's so wonderful and he's worth knowing. There's a song I really like called You Are My All in All. And one of the lines goes, Seeking you as a precious jewel, Lord, to give up I'd be a fool.

Why would we stop? You know, if you knew there was a precious jewel hidden in your backyard, there wouldn't be enough backhoes in northern Ohio to find it. You wouldn't stop. And yet we have a precious jewel in Christ. So don't stop. In 1 Corinthians 13, we're told that one day we'll be fully known, or we'll know him even as we're fully known.

So we have this beauty that God knows us. It's scary for a minute, right? Should have way more head nods than that one. It's scary to think that God knows you. All the things you can hide from everyone else that go through your mind and heart, and God sees them all, it's scary for a minute, knowing he's holy and he's good. But then when you realize that he's forgiven you in Christ, And he fully knows you even with all of the hidden evils that you have not even discovered about yourself?

And he still loves you? Now that's glorious. That's comforting. You know what? I can't suddenly out-sin God's grace tomorrow by doing something that even I didn't expect because he expected it. He saw it before the foundations of the world.

He knew it would happen. And he sent his son anyway to die in my place. And in time, he justified me by grace through faith alone. And now I'm being sanctified. I'm going to be glorified. And it's all guaranteed by his sovereign election.

And it's based on his predestinating love, not on whether I would be a good boy after getting saved. Not on how well I can portray myself in front of others for 10, 20, 50 years. Because every one of us is going to die with remaining sin and God's forgiving all of it. So that's your joy. Get to know him. He's not a book report.

That's a temptation. Greg and Andrew talk about this. Sometimes it's just a temptation. Well, I've got to get this sermon ready. I've got to learn some stuff so I can get up and tell people it, right? That's a temptation.

It should be a worshipful joy to just get to know God better and then hopefully share it with people in a way that makes sense. He's not a book report. He's not academic study. It's living relational knowledge. You have nowhere else to go. God's our treasure.

So turn to Psalm 73. We're going to end here. Psalm 73. Most people, I think, remember this one. It's kind of a famous psalm because of the way it goes back and forth in a sense. You know, God is all we have.

We have nothing else. And at the end of Psalm 73, we'll start in verse 23. Asaph says, yet I am always with you. He says, you hold my right hand. Just for context, this is after Asaph effectively admits to what I'll say is gross sin. He spends the beginning of the psalm showing that he's not really trusting God because he's envious of wicked people because they're getting good things.

And he was a brute beast before God in 22. And he says, yet you hold my right hand. 24, You guide me with your counsel and later receive me in glory. It's true of all of us too. And then, Whom have I in heaven but you? And on earth I desire no one besides you.

My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Those far From you will surely perish. You destroy all who are unfaithful to you. But as for me, it is good to draw near to God. I have made the Lord Yahweh my refuge that I may proclaim all your works. God is worth knowing.

You are to grow in the knowledge of God in order to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord and please Him in every way. It transforms you for your life. It grants you endurance for your trials. It gives you resistance against temptation. And it gives you true comfort for your rejoicing. It grounds our prayers, sustains our lives, and ultimately it fulfills our deepest need, Which is to know God, our creator.

So come to the Father through Jesus the Son and give him the glory. Great things he hath done. Let's pray together. Father, we glorify you today because this is the day that you have given us to gather together as the saints and to worship in local bodies. We thank you for granting us all the good gifts you give us. First and foremost Jesus Christ coming into the world to shed his blood on that cross for sinners I pray for the folks in this room in particular right now that you would save anyone in this room who has not yet bowed the knee to Christ as Savior that you would do that work that only you can do, that you would help the saints in this room to grow in their knowledge of God, God, knowledge of Christ, that they may proclaim the mysteries of God.

I pray that this would be a church that exalts the name of Jesus, that it would take care of shepherds and deacons, that it would be a place where things are organized the way that you have decided, and that you would grant them, by your grace, many more years of ministry to this area. We thank you for the light that you have put here. Father, I thank you for the people that I've met and the joy that I've had.

Please use your word in our lives to cause us to love you more. And it's in Christ's name I pray. Amen. Thank you.