Know and Known

As some of you know, I’ve got 3 terrific daughters & it would be really easy for me to stand up here & get a cheap laugh by throwing them under the bus with a funny story. ….So, I will! … I’m kidding! I’m actually going to throw my self under the bus with a little bit of what it was like to be a kid in the 80’s! See, of course today, everybody has countless ways of communicating across distance, getting to know people, & staying in touch, etc.

Well, if you’re a child of the 80’s (or earlier) like me, then you know it was basically 3 ways: landlines that had a long coily cord (we didn’t call them landlines, we just called them phones), screaming across the neighborhood, and mail. Like, in an envelope snail mail.

Anyway, one day when I was about 12 I came home from school & my mom informed me, “Danny, you got mail.” I was like, “What?! A real piece of mail to me?” And sure enough, not “current resident”, not “customer”, it said “Daniel Shontere”.

I was fired up! Mail! For me! …  I am important!

So, I rip it open. Fill out something, I don’t even know what, and put in the reply envelope. Well, pretty soon I start getting mail every day. I’m busting in the house after school, “Mom! Where’s my mail?!” And I’m replying to everything like we’re pen pals or something. (I have no understanding of the concept of junk mail!) Well, get this, I start getting offers for free stuff.  And no joke, they sent me, a 12 year old middle school kid, a 5 piece luggage set!

I began thinking … I think these people think I’m a traveling business man, or something. Then, after that I got a free 20 piece set of pots & pans! And then I get the best offer, 100 free pens. Reply soon & it’s doubled to 200 pens. And these were nice for the day, too. Erasable pens, but like the first edition of erasable pens. They pretty much had a chunk of pumice rock on the end that ground a hole in the paper where you wanted to erase!

Here’s the best part … I get 3 lines of custom engraving on the pens. (This is all free, mind you. Seriously.)

Now, I’m sure most of their orders for 200 pens would have Name, Phone Number, Address, or Business Name, Person’s Name, Phone Number.  Now …. I’m 12 & I got a blank slate to put whatever I want on 200 pens!! So, this is seriously the 3 lines I decide on: “Danny Shontere”, “Is A”, “Cool Dude”. I can only imagine the look on these people’s faces when they got this order from their “business prospect” for engraved “Cool Dude” pens. I’m pretty sure they thought I was a traveling business man or something up to this point.  I actually got them, though. And I handed out all 200 pens all around school.

Very soon after this, they must have figured out I wasn’t exactly who they thought I was.  … The communication stopped.

See, they paid a whole lot of attention to me, even daily attention, but they clearly didn’t know me. And I think maybe our relationship with God can be similar. We can go through the motions of maybe paying attention to God,

without really knowing Him.

This thought of Knowing God really struck me recently because in my small group we worked our way through Exodus.

You recall the story. The Israelites are enslaved in Egypt and Moses is ultimately chosen by God to approach Pharaoh & tell Him what God’s up to & announce, “Let my people go!”

Now, we can picture Pharaoh responding to Moses’ request to let free all the Israelites.

And we imagine Pharaoh going, “Well, let me think about that. … Uh, NO!”  ….. And it’s Pharaoh’s negative response that make people think, “No he didn’t! He did not just say ‘No’ to Moses & God! Ok, Pharaoh, time to put your plague gear on!”

God is about to unleash on you!!

But think about why Pharaoh did not let the Israelites go.

Pharaoh was in control. He had his life, his kingdom, his system of how the world should be set up & running smoothly.

I think we can be like that sometimes. …. My world is going ok. ….. I like my life alright.

Why change and flip everything upside down for this invisible old man in the sky? 

But take a look at Pharaoh’s full response & we can see there is more than a simple “No, not feelin’ it”.

See, stories in the Bible get richer and richer with closer and closer examination. … 

In Exodus 5:2 “Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord and I will not let Israel go.” (NIV)

Pharaoh’s response is actually pretty rational. And by that, I mean completely rationalized … not unlike ourselves.

“Who is the Lord that I should obey him? I don’t know him. So, I’m not going to do what He says!”

Keep in mind, Pharaoh pays all kinds of attention to god, small “g”. His whole day is dedicated to small “g” god.

But Pharaoh doesn’t know God, because in his world … he is god!

Do you think we could slip into that very same trap today?

We say, or you know people who say, something equivalent to, “Well, I don’t know God so I won’t surrender to Him….”

I do not know the Lord so I won’t seek His will, or love my neighbor, or reach out to “the least of these”.

Or, let’s drop the Christianese and say, “I don’t know the Lord, so I will not be honest”

I don’t know the Lord so I will not stop gossiping

I don’t know the Lord so I will not do my best work

I don’t know the Lord so I will not treat people as more valuable than what they can do for me

I don’t know the Lord so I will not forgive that person

I don’t know the lord so I will not care more about people’s opinion of God than people’s opinion of me

I think the 10 plagues that follow Pharaoh saying “No” to God served more of a purpose that to simply “free the Israelites”.

I think there was a dual purpose. Take a look at this series of verses … This is God’s Word before, during, & after the plagues ….

Exodus 6:7 “I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God …”

Exodus 7:5 “And the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring the Israelites out of it.”

Exodus 7:17  “This is what the Lord says: By this you will know that I am the Lord:”

… Do you sense a trend?

Exodus 8:10 “ … so that you may know there is no one like the Lord our God.”

Exodus 8:22 “  …so that you will know that I, the Lord, am in this land.”

Exodus 9:14 “ … so you may know that there is no one like Me in all the earth.”

Exodus 9:29  “ … so you may know that the earth is the Lord’s.”

Exodus 10:2  “I performed my signs among them, that you may know that I am the Lord.”

Exodus 29:46 “They will know that I am the Lord their God, who brought them out of Egypt so that I might dwell among them. I am the Lord their God.”

Do you sense a theme? Do you think maybe the plagues had a purpose beyond freeing the Israelites?

God is crying out over & over again, “Know me! Know me! Know me!”

So, quick question, … “Anything been plaguing you?” If there is, I’m not saying God is putting it into your life,

I’d simply ask if perhaps there’s a way you can come to know God more as a result of it.

I think this constant repetition of God pleading for us to know Him, begs a certain question. ….

Why? Why does He want us to know Him? …. He wants us to know Him because He actually cares about us!!

We always hear people ask the big question, Does God exist? … Is God Real? … Big question, but rather irrelevant.

The much bigger question is, “Does God care?"

And we have this whole book of God’s voice telling us Know Me, Know Me, Know Who I Am!

…. because He cares and He wants us to know Him!

And what’s more is, because we are created in our Creator’s image,

 Knowing God is the only way we can actually know ourselves.

You know …… It’s fascinating this issue. This issue of “Knowing Who I am” or “Knowing Ourselves”.

Dietrich Bonheoffer, in fact, had a term to describe the approach of those unwilling to go through the sometimes painful process of knowing themselves. …. He called it … "Cheap Grace"

So, this issue of knowing ourselves … It’s usually discussed in the form of a question something along the lines of “What’s God’s will for my life?” or “I don’t know what to do with my life!”

Something that basically boils down to “What’s my purpose in life?”….

And I get that. … I do. … And I think God actually wants to help us through that process. That process of knowing who you are.

But that process of knowing yourself begins with knowing God.

Look at Proverbs 9:10b TLB “Knowing God results in every other kind of understanding.”

You know the first thing you’ll understand when you know God?

What you’re God-given purpose is ….. Your purpose is to worship Him.

Worship God! ...  Not the things about God, or the things we get from God. …. Worship God!

Why? Because if we don’t worship God, just like Pharaoh, we will make ourselves god & worship self!

(200 “Cool Dude” engraved pens are Exhibit A!)

And God knows we are terrible gods! …. God knows when we play God, we freak out!

When we get consumed with self, we will eventually replace worship ….with worry.

Think about the relationship between worry and worship.

What’s a basic definition of worry? … A fixed focused concentration on one thing.

What’s a basic definition of worship? … A fixed focused concentration on one thing.

The definitions of worry and worship can be remarkably similar. And I think in our actions one can supplant the other.

That’s why Jesus had a very simple statement when it came to worry: Don’t do it!

See, the opposite of “faith” is not “faithlessness” …  because you will have faith in something.

The opposite of “faith” is “worry”. That’s why Jesus has very simple instructions about “worry” … “Don’t”!

What do we tend to worry over, though? What do we tend fear? … The unknown.  It’s even a cliché “fear of the unknown”.

That’s why God says, “Know Me!”

See … When we are in relationship with a known God, we can step into unknown circumstances.

And when you step into the unknown with a known God, you can step confidently.  There is a word for that ….It’s called Faith!

Recall how Abraham, the father of our faith is described in Hebrews 11:8. “He went out, not knowing where he was going.”

He stepped into the unknown … by faith!

And we know without faith it is impossible to please God.

And think about it, you know what we learn from virtually every character of every story we read about in the Bible?

You will not know God to the depths that are possible without stepping into the unknown, … the uncertain.

And because of this you will not know God as deeply as you could without experiencing some struggle along the way.

There is a reason every single book in the New Testament speaks of struggle with a rather strange fondness.

The struggles in their lives, and our life, are not so much obstacles to be overcome, but opportunities to know God!

Think about it.... a life without struggle is largely a life without faith.

Now, I understand nobody wants to struggle & most of us have a natural fear of the unknown or fear of failure.

… We live in the “surburbs” for goodness sake!

But there is a simple, tough-to-hear fact that is not our fault:  We are bad at a lot more things than we're good at.

That's very humbling. But life is a process of figuring out what we’re good at and what we’re not.

We’re trying to know the best version of our self.

And we’re not going to know that without struggling a little (or a lot) or without stepping into the unknown!

Every worthwhile thing that has ever happened started out as an unknown!

Now, you want to know how to do this in modern day “overly-practical” suburbia?

How do I really live by Faith, and become the best version of myself, & know what God wants me to know of Him?

OK. … Don’t get offended, but I think it’s directly related to what we do with 2 things … Money & Power

We wouldn't say that but it's largely true.  … Why don’t we be nice and “euphemize” them.  

Let’s call them: Affluence & Influence …… BTW, there’s nothing inherently bad about money and power: Affluence & Influence.

What matters is how you get them & what you do with them when you got them.

So what do you do with your Affluence? Easy ... Give it away.

You may think, “Well, Easy! Mine’s gone!” Check! … But look, you have more than you may realize.

First of all, you flush clean drinking water down a toilet every day. This is a crazy thought in much of the world!

I’ll bet you even have a special machine in your kitchen called a garbage disposal. Have you ever put garbage in it? No!

We have a unique piece of technology to grind up & throw away our left over food!

That’s not even comprehensible in much of the world!

We need to recognize & respond accordingly to our affluence.  

We're told all over God’s word not to be greedy, be generous.

Christians should be giving away money to the point that non-Christians think we're insane!

Wouldn't it be nice if the biggest complaint we kept hearing about Christians is just how ridiculously generous they are?!!

(Whispering sideways)  “It's like they don't even care what phone they have! They don’t even care how high their ceilings are!”

Those crazy Christians …. They just keep educating & feeding kids around the world!! UGH!

So, affluence: What do you do with it? Give it away.

Now influence, what do you do with it? … Use it for those that have none.

Again, you may think, “Easy! I have none!” Check!

But consider that you live in a country that people from around the world want to come to. And in a state that people from around the country want to move to. And in a part of the state that people from around the state want to live!

That gives you influence, whether you know it or not, whether you use it or not.

Most will use it for selfish gain. Don't take that obnoxiously wide path!

Use your influence for those that have none.

We also know that Jesus had some of his harshest of criticisms for those with wealth and those with influence.

Why? Because wealth & influence are stewardships, not ownerships.

We’ll be tempted to act like we own them. Go back & read the temptations of Jesus in the desert.

Even His temptations were what? …. To use His power for Himself. … And He said “No!” 

See, when we act like we own them, just like Pharaoh, we make ourselves God!

You'll have them by the grace of God, and for however long God in his grace determines.

But why did I go here? And what does this have to do with Knowing God or Knowing myself, anyway?

Well, go back & read Matthew Ch. 5, “The Sermon of The Mount”, AKA The Beatitudes.

Using your affluence & influence on behalf of others is crucial to becoming a “Beatitudinal Christian”.  

In other words, if you use your affluence & influence of behalf of others, you will know the best version of yourself!

Paul says it best in Phil 3:8 … “I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage that I may gain Christ.”

So know you’ll have choice to make as some of the most affluential & influential people to have ever walked the planet:

Cling tightly to whatever your “everything” is in your life or gain the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus as Lord.

So, what is the “surpassing worth” of knowing Jesus?! … Kind of a funny phrase …. “Surpassing worth”.  …

I can tell you I’ve never once replied to my wife when she asked how a dress looked, “Oh, Hon, that’s of surpassing worth!”

Ok, look, Jesus lived & died & rose to save us from death. If that was everything He did, it would be more than enough!

But Jesus also makes God known to us! …. That is surpassing worth!

See how Jesus, Himself, describes this in one of His final conversations with the Apostles in

 John 15:15, “…for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.”

And look in Luke at the final thing He did for the Disciples …. “Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.” – Luke 24:45

And Listen to Jesus’ final prayer before He is arrested in John 17:6 “I have revealed You (God) to those whom you gave me...”

And again when He prays for us, the future believers, this is the final statement in His final prayer before He is arrested:

“I have made You (God) known to them, and will continue to make You known in order that the love You have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.” John 17:26

Given this is the last thought and prayer by Christ before He is arrested,  

Do you think it may be important that we know Jesus to know God?

God is revealed to us through Jesus Christ. We know God and we know the best version of our self by knowing Jesus Christ.

But there is a risk of knowing Jesus. The risk is …we know God, so we think we know it all.

Look, you all know a “know-it-all”. … And you don't like that person.

And you all know a “Christian-know-it-all”. And you really don't like that person!

And you're a Christian! Imagine what a non-Christian thinks!

The risk of knowing God, is that when we act like a know-it-all Christian we'll end up being a fool, a jerk, or worse a foolish jerk!

Paul was way more polite. He said knowledge "puffs up".

I'll just say it risks making you a foolish jerk!

I think those of us who know God have to become more comfortable with the phrase, "I don't know".

See, just because we know the heart of God doesn't mean we always know the ways of God.

And when we act like we do, I don't think we're doing God any favors.

Consider Job & his friends. … After about 38 chapters of pontificating Job's situation in life, God speaks up.

God says, "Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge?"

.... Not a response from God we want to hear!

We don't know everything … but that's ok.

Don't try to eliminate the mystery of God. Don’t try to use God as a variable in a formula.

The kingdom of God is mysterious and we lose something if we try to turn it into a puzzle we're piecing together.

… Because we'd be trying to put together a puzzle without being able to see clearly the picture on the cover.

Again Paul says it best in 1 Cor 13:12 ... the "love” chapter … “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face.

Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.”

And this thought makes clear that there is one thing, …  just one thing better than knowing God.

That is to be known by God. … Do you believe that?

We know this socially. We want to be known. ...We clamor for attention. …. Monitor our “likes”.

We know we get more of a rush when someone knows our name, than when we know someone else's name.

I'll prove it... Imagine you leave here to have lunch at Mexicali and you see a huge “A-lister” at the next table.

 …Let’s say … Justin Timberlake. … And you’re thinking … “I think that’s Justin Timberlake eating a chimichanga!”

You get excited and think I’m gonna say “Hello”. So, you lean over and say, “Hey, Justin Timberlake, oh my gosh! What are you doing here? … I didn’t know you vacation in Bradenton!”

(OK, for purposes of this social experiment, everybody in here is named, Francis! …  I had to pick a unisex name.

I could have gone with North, but that’s just ridiculous! Nobody would name their kid that!)

Now, how much more excited would you be if Justin Timberlake was like, “Hey, Francis! So good to see you. I was hoping to run into you, Francis!”

You'd be freaking out! … Wait! …. I know you’re name, but you know my name!  ……

Now let’s take it a step further……

What if you said, “Hey, Justin, my kids really like you!  And by ‘my kids’, I mean ‘me’. And by ‘like’, I mean ‘love’.

I got an idea! Why don't you move into my house for the rest of summer vacation!

You know, we can sit around & chat about you being the most famous person on the planet.

… And I can tell you about my kid winning the cup stacking contest in elementary school. I’ll be amazing!”

And Justin Timberlake’s response is, “Oh my gosh! I've been waiting for someone to ask me that!

I have no place to stay this summer! … That would be awesome!”

So, Justin Timberlake moves in & you tell him ok, you're spot is that futon on the back porch.

OK, I gotta go to work; we'll catch up after, for sure.

And then you come home, Justin Timberlake is sitting on his futon. You walk by give him a head nod & say dude I gotta catch up on some Netflix. We’ll def catch up in the am though! And the next morning you’re late for a meeting running out the door.

JT, you sleep ok? After my meeting, lunch maybe? I got some friends I want to introduce you to. It's going to be awesome.

After the meeting you come home….  “JT! I hate my boss!! I gotta go lay down.”

JT’s like, “Hey, I thought you were going to introduce me to your friends, talk, chat, you know … hang out.”

“Whatever! Maybe later, I gotta take a nap!

….. Don't go anywhere, though, because you may be useful for me to have around sometime. I don't know. Maybe.”

Sounds ridiculous, right? Well, if we wouldn't treat JT like that, then why do we treat JC like that?!

I know that sounds cheesy, but whatever. … It’s alliteration! You’ll remember it.  … Treat JC better than you would JT!

The point is… we say we wouldn’t treat a personal God like that.  …. We do it all the time!

So, tell me what’s better? To know about or to be known? To know God or to be known by God?

Listen to Paul in 1 Corinthians 8:3 “… but if anyone loves God, he is known by Him.”

Or especially here in Galatians 4:9 “But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how is it that you turn back …”

Do you want to know why being known by God is deeper than knowing God?

Knowing God makes your best life possible.

Being known by God makes your eternal life possible.

(Jesus tells us in John10:28-30 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.)

Being known by God carries identities with it that I hope you carry confidently into the unknown circumstances of your life.

…. Chosen, Holy, Cherished, Beloved ….

John Calvin refers to this as a remarkable “Dual Knowledge”. …That we know God & He knows us.

And, finally, know you are known by God not just to live eternally with Him.

You are known to make the unknown …. known. …. You are known by God to make Jesus known.

 I mentioned you all have affluence & influence.

So what's the best and greatest use I can think of for that affluence and influence?

Make known Christ! Make Jesus known!

Look at more from Jesus’ final prayer when He prayed for future believers …..He was praying for you & me. He’s praying for us!

John 17:23 “ …may they be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”

There is something about us, the Body of Christ, believers in Christ, when we are in complete unity

(& this is why church division breaks the heart of God, but’s that’s a whole different message)….

But there is something about the unity of believers, when the Body of Christ acts like the Body of Christ,

that the world sees it & says, “That’s Love! That’s the love of God!

What those Christians do …. That’s the love of God! I see Jesus in that!”

Jesus loves & died for every person you will ever meet.

Every person, in every neighborhood, in every office, in every city you will ever live in.

… You are known, to make Him known.

So know God, He pleads with you to know Him in every page of this Book.

Know that by knowing God, you will know yourself…. and you’ll see that Grace wasn’t cheap at all.

It cost Christ His very life.

And when you know the sacrifice of Christ, know that you are known by God ….to make Christ known to the world!