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Saturday Men’s Fellowship Outline and Discussion Question

Knowing God Notes

Basil Marotta Jericho Ministries Sept. 13, 2008

Jim led a great session on Is Seeing Believing …I’d like to camp onto that discussion and talk about do we really know God

Session Outline: We may believe in God, but do we know Him personally. What is the greatest thing in life?

I hope all would agree that knowing God is the greatest and most important thing of all

Let’s look at what Paul had to say….

(Phil 3:7-16 NIV) But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. {8} What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ {9} and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ--the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. {10} I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, {11} and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. {12} Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. {13} Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, {14} I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. {15} All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. {16} Only let us live up to what we have already attained.

To know Christ is not just to have some intellectual knowledge about Him. The Greek that Paul uses here means to know Him experientially or personally. It is equivalent to a shared life with Christ.

Paul had been a believer for many years when he wrote this…the man who wrote almost half the New Testament, yet he was still seeking to know God more. He gave up everything for Christ. What are we willing to give up?

(John 10:27 NIV) My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.

(1 John 5:20 NIV) We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true--even in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.

(John 17:3 NIV) Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.

(John 5:24 NIV) "I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.

Eternal life is knowing God now and enjoying the relationship and benefits in this life as well as the life to come.

Life Implication: How do we get to know God? We don’t see Jesus in the flesh like the disciples did, but we know and believe that Christ rose from the dead and is alive….and we have the living Word that He left. So we get to know God by studying and meditating on the Word, and spending time with Him in prayer and reflection.

Paul’s prayer…..so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, {19} and to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. (Eph 3:17-19 NIV)

(Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ. (Rom 10:17 NIV)

Hosea 4:6a NIV) my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. …

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|Discussion Question: How well do you think you know God? What must you do to know Him better? | |

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|Don’t pray for God to change your behavior; pray for God to change your heart…your behavior will follow your heart. What God is doing on the inside |

|will show up on the outside. |

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|Larry Crabb in “The Silence of Adam” |

|Men who spend their lives finding God are quietly transformed from mere men into elders: godly men who know what it means to trust a person when |

|there is no plan to follow; spiritual fathers who enter dark caves that their children run from; Christlike mentors who speak into that darkness |

|with strength instead of control, with gentleness instead of destructive force, and with wisdom that cuts through the confusion to the beauty |

|beyond. |

|The path to authentic manhood is entered through the narrow gate of a single-minded passion to abandon oneself completely to God. The path beyond |

|the gate is the freedom to speak into darkness as one hears and echoes the voice of a well remembered God. (P102) |

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|Crabb also states “ The only way to be manly, is to first be Godly.” (P32) |

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|Some blessings from “knowing God”…. |

|(Psa 37:4 NIV) Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart. |

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|(Psa 145:18-19 NIV) The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. {19} He fulfills the desires of those who fear him; |

|he hears their cry and saves them. |

|Those who know God have great energy for God… |

|(Isa 40:30-31 NIV) Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; {31} but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength.|

|They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. |

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|2. Those who know God have great thoughts of God. |

|(Psa 103:1-6 NIV) Praise the LORD, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. {2} Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his |

|benefits-- {3} who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, {4} who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and |

|compassion, {5} who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's. {6} The LORD works righteousness and |

|justice for all the oppressed. |

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|Those who know God have great boldness for God (Peter and John before Sanhedrin) |

|(Acts 4:13 NIV) When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they |

|took note that these men had been with Jesus. |

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|Those who know God have great contentment in God. |

|(John 14:27 NIV) Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do |

|not be afraid. |

|(Phil 4:12-13 NIV) I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and |

|every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. {13} I can do everything through him who gives me strength. |

|(John 15:11 NIV) I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. |

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|(Psa 91 NIV) He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty {9} If you make the Most High your dwelling-- |

|even the LORD, who is my refuge— |

|{10} then no harm will befall you, no disaster will come near your tent. |

|{11} For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; |

|{14} "Because he loves me," says the LORD, "I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. {15} He will call upon me, and I |

|will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him. {16} With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation."|

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