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Can God Be Known? - Hebrews 11:6

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Today we start a brand new series of messages I'm calling, "The Biography of God". The very subject matter of "God" is the loftiest of all subjects and the pinnacle of all pursuits. As we discover who God is and how He is perceptible to the human condition, we will be both lifted up and humbled all at the same time. The great transition that must be made, however, is to not stop with gathering information about God but by believing and acting in the light of that information, thus truly knowing Him.

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10/12/2008
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Can God Be Known?
Hebrews 11:6
Skip Heitzig
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Message Summary
Today we start a brand new series of messages I'm calling, "The Biography of God". The very subject matter of "God" is the loftiest of all subjects and the pinnacle of all pursuits. As we discover who God is and how He is perceptible to the human condition, we will be both lifted up and humbled all at the same time. The great transition that must be made, however, is to not stop with gathering information about God but by believing and acting in the light of that information, thus truly knowing Him.
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Biography of God, The

Biography of God, The

Thomas Jefferson. Martin Luther King Jr. Winston Churchill. C.S. Lewis. All outstanding men with amazing life stories, but in all of history, one biography stands out above the rest. The Biography of God gives an in depth look at His character and nature, and delves into the theological and personal profile of our Heavenly Father. As this series searches the scriptures to lead the believer to a discovery of who God is and how He is sensitive to the human condition, it will both lift up and humble at the same time.

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Detailed Notes

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I. Two Great Realities


  • God Exists



  • God is Personal




II. Two Great Requirements


  • Requires Faith



  • Requires Pursuit




A Personal Response:


  1. Write your own personal "statement of faith” that details the things you actually believe. Then compare it week by week to the specific biblical references that we cover about them in this series. See how close the two are and keep asking yourself, "Do I really believe this?”

  2. Name two personal benefits you have discovered from feeding off the truth in your own life. What difference has it made?

  3. >From these verses, what is the relationship between belief and behavior? How true is that in your own life?

Transcript

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Well good morning. Let's open our Bibles this morning to Hebrews chapter 11. As you can see we're about to embark on a whole brand new series of teachings called "The Biography of God."
Let's have a word of prayer together. Lord, it really is a delight to gather together. It's a delight for me to be with your people. It's wonderful to hear what you've been doing in lives throughout the week, teaching us, even through the sorrowful times and the uncertain times, just to see how you will intervene and work in the lives of your people. Lord, as we continue worshipping by listening and assimilating truths, we pray that not only today but this whole series we ask you to bless. Help us Lord to enjoy what we learn about you and to turn the knowledge about you into personal knowledge of you. We can enjoy the relationship that you call us to. In Jesus' name. Amen.
I've always loved the story about the kindergarten teacher who gave an assignment to her class and the assignment was to draw a picture of something that was important to them. So each of the students started drawing. Little Johnny, sitting in the back of the classroom, head down, worked very diligently on his picture. Well everybody turned in their assignments except Johnny, he was still working feverishly on his drawing, which caused the teacher to be a bit curious and she said out loud in the class having everyone else's assignment, "Johnny, what are you drawing?" And without even looking up Johnny said, "I'm drawing God." And she said, "Well Johnny, nobody knows what God looks like." And Johnny without looking up, without missing a beat, said, "Well they will when I'm through." Now I have a hunch that the reason we laugh at that is because of the confidence, we would say over-confidence that Johnny had in thinking he knew exactly what God looked like. If Johnny were an adult and were to have said that, we would call it arrogance. Now I'm a little hesitant in giving this title to a series: "The Biography of God." And I hesitate because I don't want it to sound presumptive, like Little Johnny. I don't want you to think that, "Well I and I alone know what God is like and now I'm going to finally divulge to the world what that is." That's as far from the truth as is the truth. The truth is, I am a fellow traveler on this same road that you are on. And we have access to the same information, the same documents, but I hope to offer a fresh perspective on God himself. And this is the biography of God. And what I mean by that is the dictionary definition, Webster calls biography with this definition: it's an account of someone's life written by someone else. Well, that's exactly what we have in the pages of scripture. The authors of the Bible speak freely and write freely about God, about what God wants and doesn't want and who God is, etcetera, etcetera. And by their writings we have a verbal picture. We have in essence a biography of God. 
Well, we want to examine some basic questions in this next few weeks, several weeks. Does God exist? How do we know God exists? And what is he like? What about others' belief systems? There's a whole host of different beliefs people have from atheism to agnosticism to polytheism to deism to pantheism and there's a few other theisms that we'll probably find and throw in there. And how valid are they, or invalid are they? Another question: why is God invisible to us? He is spirit, we don't see him, what's up with that? How do we have a personal relationship with a person you never see? Then there's the question about how powerful is God? What can God do? What can't God do? Or, what does God choose not to do? Does God know everything? Is God really everywhere? And what about the holy character of God, the holiness of God? What does that mean exactly? And why is that important to us in our daily lives? Those questions and others we want to examine.
Now why am I doing this? Why a series on God himself? Three reasons I'm doing this. Number one, because it's universal. There is not a person alive or who has ever been alive who has not grappled with the question of God. Does God exist? How can I know it? Everybody at some point deals with it, from children to adults, to astute philosophers, and even if they don't believe in God, they want to make films or write books and weigh in on why they don't. It's universal. 
The second reason I'm doing this series: it's inspirational. There's nothing more elevating to mankind than the study of God himself. Or for our purposes, let me throw it this way: There's nothing more edifying to the child of God than the study of God himself. 
And so we want to do that. I noticed something in the last series we did about heaven. It was a series whereas you remember we followed what happens to a believer from the moment of death all the way through the eternal state, seventeen weeks of dealing with that and I watched how elevating that was and comforting and encouraging because some of you have loved ones who are in heaven and you were able to, at least for once a week, escape the morass of the earthly, the taxes, the election, the problems and put your mind on things above, as Paul tell us to do in Colossians. Very edifying. Well, all God-centered teaching and preaching will do that, it elevates us. That's theocentric teaching, that's what we want to do with this series. Like heaven. I've seen the other kind of preaching and teaching, anthropocentric, man-centered preaching. And it's all about me, it's all about my needs, my marriage, my children, my job, my life. And the Bible has answers to all that but there's something uniquely elevating about focusing not on me but on God, it will do something to you, it'll do something to you.
The third reason that I'm doing this series is that not only is it universal, not only is it inspirational, but it is third, consequential. Now think about this: there's far more at stake if you get this wrong than anything else. There's far more at stake if you get the God issue messed up, it can mess up everything. There's far more at stake.
There's a name I'm going to throw out, I don't know if you've heard of Mortimer J. Adler, but if you've ever read Encyclopedia Britannica, know that for years Mortimer J. Adler was the chief editor of that series of books, an astute thinker, philosopher. Well Mortimer J. Adler was also the co-editor of 55 volumes of what are called the greatest books of the Western world. And in that series of 55 volumes, that housed some of the greatest essays and writings of the greatest contributors to western thought, you know what the longest essay in those 55 volumes is about? God. There's more space devoted to God, the longest essay is about God. And Mortimer J. Adler was asked why. And so he stated simply, "Because more consequences for life follow from that one issue than any other." And that is true. It is consequential, not just for the person who gets it wrong but I would say it's consequential for those of us who have it right, for the Christian. For the Christian it's consequential knowing or not knowing things about God. And this is what I mean: I've discovered as a pastor, and I think that this would resonate with my pastoral staff, we get people in the offices week by week and we are able to counsel with them about life issues. It's a privilege, we count it a privilege. But I've noticed that almost every problem that a person has in their life stems from an inadequate view of God. There's some component where they just don't have it right about the nature and character of who God is. So for example, if a person says, "I'm lonely." It could be that they don't really understand the love of God or the accessibility of God. Or if a person comes in and says, "I feel worthless, I feel useless, I feel inadequate." Maybe they need a fresh dose of the fatherhood of God who sees his children as not only redeemed but uniquely loved by him. Or for example if somebody comes in who's trapped by sin or by worldliness, maybe they've lost sight of the holiness of God or the ultimate knowledge that God knows everything and sees everything. But you can trace almost every problem that a Christian faces from an inadequate view of God. So, The Biography of God is what we start this morning. And I'm asking you to turn to Hebrews chapter 11, I trust you brought your Bibles, we want to read a few verses together. Now, I think most of you know about Hebrews 11, you know it's all about what? Faith. That's the subject matter. In fact Hebrews 11 is called the Hall of Faith, or the Hall of Fame of Faith. It's a whole bunch of folks from the past all of whom had faith in God, walked with God, knew God, and all by that component of faith. So verse 1 is faith described. Verses 2 through 31 is faith exemplified. And then verse 32 through 40 is faith summarized. That's the whole chapter. 
The question before us is can God be known? Now let's read together the first six verses. "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it, the elders obtained a good testimony, by faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God so that the things which are seen were not made of things which were visible. By faith, Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous. God testifying of his gifts and through it he being dead still speaks. By faith Enoch was translated so that he did not see death and was not found because God had translated him, for before his translation he had this testimony that he pleased God. But without faith it is impossible to please him for he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him." It's that sixth verse that we want to camp on this morning and unpack for you this morning. Two great realities, two great responsibilities, all in that one verse. The two great realities" God exists and God is personal. And the two great responsibilities to acknowledge that, to come to grips with that requires faith and pursuit. And I want to explain that. First of all the obvious first reality: God exists. For notice in verse 6, "Without faith, it's impossible to please him. For he who comes to God must believe that he is." Or you could translate it, that God exists. The most fundamental question of the universe is: Does God exist? Because if God doesn't exist, then we populate this planet by chance, there's no design, there's no purpose. If God doesn't exist, then Sigmund Freud was right when he said, "God is an infantile illusion that should be discarded." If God doesn't exist, then Ludwig Fueuerbach was right when he said, "God is a mere projection of our humanity." If God doesn't exist, then Karl Marx was right when he asserted that the material is all that matters, there is no heaven, there is no hell. If God doesn't exist, then Fredrick Niichi who taught Niihilism was right when he said that our existence is senseless and useless. So, if there is no God and if they're all right and if we're in this universe all alone, then there's a deeper question. The question is: What's the point? What's the point? If we're not here by design, if there isn't a God then what's the point of life?
Russian novelist Theodore Dustiyevsky said, "If there is no God, everything therefore is permitted. And the first thing that is permitted is despair. He's right, that's the logical conclusion if there is no God. Nicholas Cage, a great actor, but an empty one, admitted this, "I wonder if there's a hole in the soul of my generation. We've inherited the American dream but where do we take it?
Let's turn the page now or turn the corner: if God does exist then there's a whole host of questions that follow. Like: Okay, what's he like? What does he want? What does he require? What does he love? What does he not love? And the great reality is as we'll discover in the next couple weeks is God does exist and the evidence is abundant, it's all around us. In fact, I'll even assert this: If you're an atheist, you have way more faith than I have. It takes more faith to hold that position given the evidence for God than to not be an atheist and believe in Christ. So I congratulate you, you're a man or woman of great faith if you're an atheist this morning. I've met a lot of them and talked to a lot of atheists and sometimes when I speak to an atheist and they say they don't believe in God and I ask them why, some of them are intellectually honest as they grapple with the whole God question. But I've found a lot of them haven't done their homework. And I've discovered that a lot of atheists hold the position of atheism for moral reasons, not intellectual reasons, because if now they're open to the possibility that there's a God, it means there's an accountability to that one. It means I have to stop certain things that I've done, or am doing in my life on a moral level. And so I won't even entertain the idea that there is a God for moral reasons, not for intellectual reasons. And someone well put it, "an atheist cannot find God for the same reason a thief can't find a policeman. Because he's not looking for him." 
And I aim to show you and you don't have to look very far to discover God. And we'll start on that next week.
But even Albert Einstein said, "Certainly there is a God. Any man who doesn't believe in a cosmic force is a fool but we could never know him." With all due respect to Albert Einstein and I know he's not here to defend himself, that's where I part with him. He was a brilliant man, far more brilliant than I would ever imagine to be, but I would contend with him on this point. There is a God, he is not a cosmic force, he can be known because he is personal. That brings us to the second great reality: Not only does God exist but God is personal. Notice how the writer of Hebrews in verse 6 frames it, "He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him." Not only does God exist, God can interact with those that he has made. He is able as a person to be personal, to love, to care, to reward (as it says) those who diligently seek him.
Years ago I found a book and I read it and I have since read it and reread it and reread it, it's so frayed, the covers have fallen off. It's a book I recommend to you called Knowing God. It's by J. I. Packer. Now I'll admit to you it was the title that sold me. I remember walking by it in a store and seeing this huge print Knowing God and it was as if my heart lunged toward it, because I longed to know God more personally, more intimately. And I've discovered among even the most astute Christian, an active Christian, that there is this vast unfed hunger to know god personally, that lies just beneath the surface of all of our busy churchly activities. We want to know God, because we read in the Bible how God walked with Adam, how God spoke to Moses. And we read stuff like that and we go, "What about us?"
Listen to the words of a struggler, another great book that I found but written by Tim Stafford. He talks about this struggle. He says, "I did not lack for intellectual satisfaction or for demonstration of God's power. I saw him changing lives. On a man to man level Christianity was wonderful, it was the man to God level that I felt shaky about. I wanted more. I have come to realize since that I was not alone in my longing but whenever the conversation moves from the subject of knowing God, listeners grow suddenly quiet and attentive. For a long time I thought this was a disapproving silence. I know now that it's the silence that falls on a room of hungry people whenever someone talks of food."
How do you have a personal relationship with God? Now just think about that: How can you have a personal relationship with the ultimate person, the unique one, there's no one like him. He is invisible. How do you have a personal relationship with him? We'll discover how. We'll discover how, as I said, his personality crowds the world around us. If the Bible carries one repeated message, it's the message that God wants to be known. Wasn't that the cry of Paul's heart? After thirty years of ministry and life and sacrifice, even the great apostle, "that I might know him, and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings," he prayed that. 
So the two great realities: There is a God, he exists; and God is personal, he rewards. There's two great requirements that follow in the same text. The first requirement is faith. You'll notice in verse 6, faith is spoken about or alluded two three times. "But without faith, (that's the first one) it's impossible to please him, for he who comes to God must believe (that's the second time) that he is, that he exists and that (or that is, believe that, that's the third time) that he is a rewarder of those that diligently seek him." Okay, belief is absolutely essential. In your spiritual journey, at some point it's going to require an act of faith and here's why: because we are unable to see God (at least for now), we are unable to hear his voice audibly like you're hearing my voice right now (for now). And because of that, as Paul said, "We live by faith and not by sight." Now there will come a time when you don't need faith any longer, you'll be in heaven, you don't need to place your trust in God, you're there with him. But until then we live in that realm, we live by faith and not by sight. So there's plenty of evidence of God and you can examine all of that evidence but it's still going to require a level of faith on your part. And when I talk about faith, it's more than mere acknowledgement. See it's one thing to go, "Yes, I have all of the adequate information and I acknowledge that there is a God who exists somewhere out there, a cosmic force." That's not faith. Biblical faith is more than an acknowledgment or a mental assent. Look at it more like a receiving of the cure. Biblical faith is when you bet your eternal life on Jesus Christ. I'll give you an example: there was a doctor, a skeptical physician who was attending to a patient and she was very strong ardent believer in Christ. And the doctor was very honest, it was down time and he just sort of poured out his heart and he goes, "You know I don't get the whole faith thing. I believe in God and I guess I believe in Jesus, I have no knowledge that I have a whole lot of doubts. But something is missing, something's wrong, what's the matter?" And she said this, "Doctor, a week ago, I believe in you as a very skillful doctor. I believed if I got sick you'd help me." But two days ago, I let you cut into me and give me some medicine that I didn't quite understand but I trusted in you." Do you see the difference? It's not the kind of faith that there is a doctor who can cure me. This is the kind of faith that receives the cure, takes the remedy. That's active faith. So whenever we deal with God and whenever we examine information about God or the evidence for God, there comes a point when we must activate by faith and that's what pleases God.
Remember when the disciples came to Jesus and said, "Hey Jesus, what must we do to work the works of God?" Do you remember what he said? He said, "This is the work of God that you believe in Him in whom He has sent." That's the gateway, that's the door. You enter into that door and you take that step of faith and you live in that realm.
There's something else about this. This is not just initial belief. It is ongoing process of belief, there will be many acts of faith that will be required of you as a Christian. Our faith is progressive, it's not a one-time, "Yeah I prayed to receive Christ one time, that was my faith." Your faith will be required at different stages and here's why: Because I bet there's a few things about God that you don't know yet. Would that be an understatement? Because I'll say in my own life there's a whole lot of stuff I'm still discovering and learning about God. It's wonderful every time I do. So I bet you that God is still so vast there's a lot of information and a lot of things about God that are still not discovered by you yet. However, once you discover them in this process, this spiritual journey, once you are enlightened by them, that will require an act of faith. Example: I've known people who believe that there is a God but he's this nice smiling God that lets you do anything you want to do. And then they discover in the Bible that God hates sin and God will judge sin and God will destroy the world. Whoa! It's not a picture they saw before. They've got to deal with that now. Are they going to take that step of faith and believe that or are they going to turn it away? So here's the deal, it's important in this discovery, as we discover the one true God as revealed here in scripture, that we take ongoing acts and steps of faith. And when we do our view of him will change, I hope, or be fortified.'
There's a great book, I'm kind of mentioning a few of my favorite books but there's a great book, I'll tell you the title in a minute, cool title. It was written by a Bible scholar, translator named J. B. Phillips, here's the name of the book: Your God is Too Small. And in that book he describes the different gods that people make up that they want to believe in. for example, there's the grand old man God. This is the grandfatherly white-haired indulgent God who smiles down on everyone and winks at their adultery, their cheating, their stealing, etcetera. I know a lot of people who have that God. Then there's the resident policeman God whose primary job it is to make us feel uncomfortable and life unenjoyable. You know, "God's always mad, he's always looking for something I do wrong and go, ‘Aha! See!'" There's a lot of people who have that God. Then, third, there's the managing director God and this is the God of the deists. He designed and created the universe but now he stands back to watch the show. He's uninvolved, he's not personal, he's very distant and very aloof. I know a lot of people who believe in that God. Number four, there's the God in a box God. This is the private exclusive personal sectarian God. "Well my God is this way. Your God may be different." All of these are inadequate views of God, they're wrong view of God. It's no different than the boy in class drawing a picture saying, "They're going to know what God looks like in just a minute." So as we discover the biography of god, we're going to change. God can be known and when we know him it's by the gateway of believing in him, taking a reasonable step, as we'll see, not a leap in the dark, a reasonable step of faith, and when we do that that will please God and we'll be rewarded for it.
Which takes us to the second great responsibility and that is to know God requires pursuit. Let's take one final look at verse 6, "But without faith it is impossible to please him, for he who comes to God must believe that he is (and notice this) he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him." Do you know what that tells me? That tells me that God wants to be pursued. Isn't that true of any relationship? Let's say you're married or let's say you're dating somebody, both in that relationship want to know that the other wants them around. You know what if one of you said, "Well I acknowledge that she exists." That's not enough. She wants you to know that you want her to be around. She wants to pursue her and he wants you to pursue him. Any healthy relationship will require that mutual pursuit. In both the Old Testament and the New Testament tell us not only can God be found but that God loves to be sought after. Here's a sampling of verses from the Bible. I Chronicles 28 verse 9, David said to his son Solomon, "If you seek him, he will be found by you. If you forsake him, he will cast you off forever." Psalm 58 verse 11, "There is a truly a reward for those who live for God." Jeremiah 29:13, "And you will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart." Luke 11 verse 10, Jesus said, "For every one who asks, receives. And whoever seeks, finds. And to him who knocks, the door will be opened." James chapter 4 verse 8, "Draw near to God and he will draw near to you." See in each of these there's this seeking on behalf of the human, and the response of God. 
Now I just want to push the pause button for a moment because you need to understand that God made the first move. It's not that God hides himself and says, "Okay, let's have a game of hide-n-seek, see if you can find me." That's not how it works. God initialized it all. I John chapter 4, "We love him because he first loved us." He made the first move, he revealed himself in a number of ways as we'll see the next couple of weeks. That demands a response. But in a healthy relationship there's a mutual pursuit. "God I want to be with you. Lord I want to know you." We seek after him. Do you remember Jesus, in the Beatitudes said, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness. They will be filled." He didn't say, "Blessed are those who casually snack after righteousness." There's a big difference between a casual snack and hunger and thirst. It's the hunger and thirst ones who are the ones who are filled. Jesus said, "Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you." So two great realities: There is a God and that God is a personal God, he's able to interact with his created ones. And the two great responsibilities: It requires an act of faith, not one but several all the way through. An act of faith, that growing faith, not a passive one. And you pursue God because a relationship is developed. When you do that you please Him inasmuch as all of these in Hebrews 11 did. 
So I want to close with this question, here it is: What is your chief pursuit in life? I'll ask it a different way: What's your master passion? What are you passionate about? Or, what do you want more than anything else in life? And only you can answer that question. And I ask you to answer it in your own heart very honestly, what do you want more than anything else in life? I'll tell you how most people answer this, this I know because poll after poll after poll, everyone from Barna to Gallup has asked people this question. And do you know what their answer is? Do you know what I want most out of life? To be happy. To be happy, and we're guaranteed that in our Constitution, right? "Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." "I want to be happy," they said. And so they search for happiness in all the wrong places. "If I had this relationship I'll be happy," and they are for a while. "If I have this status and education, I'll be happy," and they might be for a while. "If I had this much money I'll be happy." And they do everything but they leave out the God component and they're unhappy. Listen to the words of one psychologist after years of clinical research writes, "About one third of my cases are suffering from no clinically definable neurosis, but from the senselessness and emptiness of their own lives. This can be described as the general neurosis of our age." I read a story about a young man who left his hometown and traveled out to Hollyweird. He had three goals he set as a young man that he wanted to have fulfilled in his life. Do you want to know what they are? (Even if you don't I'll tell you.) Number one, he wanted to see his name in lights, that was his first goal. "I want to see my name in lights." Goal number two, he wanted a Rolls Royce. Goal number three, he wanted to marry a beauty contest winner. He was able to achieve all three goals before he turned thirty. And he stated when he got them all, he's still miserable. You know why? He said, "I've run out of goals." He said, "What am I going to do for the rest of my life?" Now compare that and what that psychologist said with that you and I just read: God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. You know what one of those rewards is? You're satisfied, it's a sense of satisfaction. Now follow the thinking here and I'll sum it up: the more you do as you please, the less you are pleased with what you do. The more you do what pleases him, the more pleasure he will give you in that pursuit. You live for yourself, you'll never find satisfaction. If it's all about you, you'll never find satisfaction. But if you seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, all these things will be added unto you. And even in the worst of times, there's the deep sense of satisfaction. As Augustin said, "We are restless until we find our rest in you." Are you seeking the Lord? Is that your pursuit, your passion? Because if it is he will lavishly reward you. You might be saying, "Well I've never found God." Maybe you're not looking for him, like the thief and the policeman. The thief goes, "I never found a policeman." It's because every time you hear a siren, you run the other direction. Well know this, God has been pursuing you, seeking for you, because you're the lost one. But God also wants to be pursued and sought after because he wants a relationship with you.
The doorway is faith and belief. I have a hunch that there's a few people here who are honest enough to admit their restlessness and their desire, especially in this economic downturn, you've come to a place where you think, "there's got to be a lot more to life than everything I've saved up for and banked on (quite literally) What purpose is there/ Why am I here? Is there a God? Does he exist? Can I know him? I encourage you, you can. He who comes to God must believe in him, that he exists, and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.
So I'm going to give you an opportunity this morning to make that step of faith into his kingdom.
Let's pray. Our heavenly Father, we thank you and Lord, we come before very humbly as human beings, as your creation, the very thought that we could know the Lord and assert a biography of God. But Lord we dot that, we do it with great confidence because you, by your power, have historically revealed yourself in time and in space. And as your word declares, "The secret things belong to the Lord. But the things which are revealed, they belong to us, to our children forever. So the things that you have told us about yourself, those are things we work from and those are the truths we live by, and those are the truths we commit ourselves to and believe in and take definite acts of faith toward. And now Father I pray for those who have never made a personal commitment to you through the Lord Jesus Christ and his atoning work on the cross. And we pray for anybody who needs to make a recommitment to you this morning, they are not walking with you today and they're sensing that gnawing sense of emptiness and purposelessness. They're tired of it, they want their moorings back. They want to live with hope and confidence. You offer that, no preacher can offer that, no church can offer that, no system can offer that. But you offered it. So Father we pray that many would come ending their sense of restlessness and come to rest in you this morning. 
And as your heads are bowed and as we're thinking about tour lives and as your praying for others, I want you to ask yourself this question: Where do you stand with God? Do you know him? Do you believe in Him? Does that belief show up in a pursuit of him? And if maybe you've never made that decision before or maybe you remember some overture of faith when you were younger but today your life is not full of the things of God. Know that you can turn to Him today. And I'd love to pray for you but I want to know who you are. So as we're praying, our heads are bowed, I want you to raise your hand up in the air if you want to give your life to Christ, have your sins forgiven or come back to him. You're just raising your hand up and saying, "I need to do this." (several hands and acknowledgements) 
Heavenly Father, we thank you and we rejoice Lord, this is a wonderful admission of need, this is so beautiful because you're there to fill that need, you're the one that has set this whole thing up and drawn those who are here to this place. Thank you that we're witnessing it. In Jesus' name. Amen.
I'm glad you made that step of faith, you didn't make one step but you came up here and it was a step of faith that you're taking. And what you are doing now is you're here to receive the cure and this is the best way we know how to dispense that.
I'm going to pray out loud, I'd like you to pray out loud after me. And I'd like you to pray out loud after me. And I'd like you to pray from your heart. And you pray to him, asking him to come inside and assume control of your life. Okay, let's pray.
Lord I give you my life. I know I'm a sinner. Please forgive me. I believe in you, I trust you, that Jesus died on the cross and that he rose from the dead for me. I take you as my savior, as my Lord, I turn from my sin, I turn to you. Cleanse me. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Additional Messages in this Series

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10/19/2008
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Is Anyone Up There? Looking For Clues
Romans 1:18-22;Psalms 19:1-6
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We all remember the scene in The Wizard of Oz when Dorothy and her three friends come to approach the "Great Oz". Out of the corner of their eye, they notice a man pulling levers behind a curtain-working the mechanical, smoke-breathing Oz. The man then reacts by announcing, "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!" But how can they not? The man is the explanation for everything to them. They discovered that Oz didn't really exist! So how do we know that God exists and isn't a fabrication or projection of our own imaginations?
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10/26/2008
completed
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"Now Hear This!" How Does God Speak?
Psalms 19
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This is the age of communication. Cell phones, email, text-messaging, i-chatting and YouTube broadcasting are as common as coffee. (Some people are even talking the old-fashioned way—face to face with the person.) So how does God communicate? How does His message, His biography get out to the world? And more importantly, perhaps, who’s listening?
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11/9/2008
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I'm God...and You're Not!
Exodus 33-34
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The only way to know someone is for that someone to reveal himself/herself to us. We discover who that person is as he tells us about himself. Moses wanted to know God better and God tells Moses about Himself. This is the only place in scripture where God lists His own characteristics and qualities there are four phases to this touching story:
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11/23/2008
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God: A Short Autobiography
Exodus 34:5-7
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In studying the Biography of God, there's no better source than God Himself. This is one of the primary passages in all of Scripture about who God is; it is His own autobiography. This is God telling us about Himself. As God reveals to Moses who He is, he begins by declaring His name and then listing several of His primary character traits. It's not unlike meeting anyone for the first time. We get their name and then learn some things about them. As we relate to God, then, these experiences are what we can expect to find.

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12/14/2008
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The God Who Knows-It-All!
Psalms 139:1-6
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A little boy climbed his neighbor's apple tree when he saw their car leave. He didn't realize while he was stuffing his pockets full of apples that another neighbor was watching through a pair of binoculars and saw the whole thing! God isn't spying on people, trying to catch them doing something wrong; but God is aware of everything. Such a truth has a profound effect on us: it can either be very comforting or else extremely unsettling. As we continue with the biography of God, let's consider what God knows.
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1/4/2009
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Godisnowhere
Psalms 139:7-12
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1/11/2009
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My God is Bigger than Your God!
Psalms 139:13-18
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There are so many different belief systems out there! Some people have a god that isn't very big and can't do very much. He smiles a lot but is weak and helpless to act. It's not a whole lot different from ancient times, really. The Syrians once said that Israel's God was "a god of the hills and not of the plains" (1 Kings 20:28). Their view of God was limited and powerless. So what's your view? Does it match the Bible's description of our Awesome God?
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1/18/2009
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God's Most Unpopular Attribute
Isaiah 6
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Ask most people to tell you the first word that comes to mind when they think of God and it will be "love" or "grace" or "forgiveness." All of these are wonderfully comforting attributes of God, but another key attribute that is seldom considered is His holiness. Today we observe one man's encounter with God, and we learn some lessons about what it means to have a personal relationship with a holy God.
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1/25/2009
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I Don't Get It! How Can Three Be One?
Matthew 28:16-20
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1+1+1=1. Is this New Math? No, it's the doctrine of the Trinity. The Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God. At the very heart of the Judeo-Christian faith is the belief that there is only one God. Yet the Bible clearly teaches the plurality within the Godhead--three persons who are distinct from one another yet perfectly One in essence. What are we to make of all this? And why is it important? Today let's consider two major truth statements.
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2/1/2009
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Two Thirds is Not Enough
John 14-17
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"The mind of man cannot fully understand the mystery of the Trinity. He who would try to understand the mystery fully will lose his mind. But he who would deny the Trinity will lose his soul" (Harold Lindsey and Charles J. Woodbridge, A Handbook of Christian Truth). Last week we discovered that Scripture reveals One God in three distinct Persons. Today we consider the personality of all three Persons in the One God and Their role in our lives. Further, how can we relate to the Triune God in practical terms?
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2/15/2009
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The Dark Side of God
John 9:1-7
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"If God is in charge and loves us, then whatever is given is subject to His control and is meant ultimately for our joy" -Elizabeth Elliot. That perspective (which is the biblical one) is far from the typical sentiment about pain. Most ask, "If God really loved me, how could there be evil and suffering in this world--especially for me?!" To study God at all, this issue must be dealt with: Why is God’s world so messy? Where is the evidence of His power and love in such a suffering world?
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2/22/2009
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GPS: God's Positioning System
Acts 21:1-15
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Part of a relationship with anyone is knowing what that person expects. We wonder, "What does that person want from me in this relationship?" Relating to God is no different. So how can we know what God's will is for our lives? What kind of guidance can we expect? A notable example from Paul's life furnishes an excellent template for exploring this question. It was a confusing time, and many people didn’t agree with Paul's decision - but he felt it was God's will for him.
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3/1/2009
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How to Be God's Friend
Genesis 18:1-15
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For the last fourteen weeks we've looked at "The Biography of God." In this loftiest of all subjects and the pinnacle of all pursuits, we've discovered Who He is, what He is like, and how to relate to Him. We must always remember not to stop with just gathering information about God--we need to truly know Him in a personal way. Abraham provided a model for us in how to do that as a friend. Four qualities form the template for being God's friend.
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There are 13 additional messages in this series.
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