Text:
‘That I may know Him’ – Philippians 3:10
Thought:
“It’s not what you know but who you know”, the saying goes. We like to brag and boast about the people we know and have had contact with. Today’s Teaching is about the One who knows you and everything about you. The question is, “Do you really know God?”
The Problem to Overcome
‘Jesus was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world did not know Him.’ 1 Knowing God doesn’t appeal to worldly wisdom because it seems foolish. In fact the world usually pities Christians, thinking they are deluded or mad. Worldly wisdom tries to work God out, but can’t and so ends up leaving God out. But the pathway to knowing God is faith, for through it we can believe in a God who created all things. 2 When we reach that point, it pleases God and He responds by revealing Himself to us. 3
It’s also a problem when we may have been a Christian for some time now, but we don’t really know God. Jesus said to Philip, ‘Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me?’ 4 The challenge is to have an intimate, relevant relationship with the Lord Jesus through prayer and reading the Bible.
The Part not the Whole
‘Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.’ 5 Think about everything you know about the Godhead – Father, Son and Holy Spirit and it’s only a tiny fragment of what there is to know. Yet God knows everything about you! Even things we think aren’t important such as the number of the hairs on our head. 6 Psalm 139 records David’s sheer amazement that God knew his thoughts, words, actions – everything. Scary but true! Jesus taught that we would have to give an account for every idle word we speak. 7 So God must know about everything – past, present and future.
The Purpose of Knowing God
‘But the people who know their God shall be strong and carry out great exploits.’ 8 God wants you to know Him and then do something with that knowledge in a world that desperately needs divine revelation. People who know God have a strength of faith and are empowered by the Holy Spirit to work miracles through the name of Jesus. Jesus thanked the Father that the disciples knew He was sent from God. 9 On the Day of Pentecost those same disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit and power. They continued the ministry Jesus had started – healing the sick, casting out demons and preaching the gospel in such a powerful way that thousands repented and put their trust in a risen Saviour. The Good News is this; the knowing and empowering was not limited to that generation, but remains true today.
The Prayer to really know God
‘That I may know Him.’ Why is it that some Christians think an hour in church once a week is too much, while others can’t get enough of God? Why do some barely find time to open their Bible and pray, while others seem to be in touch with God all day long? Maybe the answer lies in the fact that like Paul, they are praying, ‘That I may know Him!’
When we consider all that Paul went through – his miraculous conversion and call to the ministry; his action-packed missionary journeys; preaching the gospel and planting churches; seeing people’s lives wonderfully changed by being healed and delivered from demons – it’s amazing that he still prayed, ‘That I may know Him.’ One would have thought he knew all there was to know, especially as God used him to write the majority of the New Testament! Yet he wrote, ‘I know in part’, and prayed to know Him more.
And God will answer your prayer too, if you will take time to humbly, sincerely and persistently ask God to reveal Himself to you, that you may know Him in a greater, deeper and more personal way. The precious worship song says,
The greatest thing in all my life is knowing You.
The greatest thing in all my life is knowing You.
I want to know you more, Help me to know you more,
The greatest thing in all my life is knowing You.
Even if you don’t know the reality of that song, you can start saying the words and see what happens, for God finds it impossible not to respond to a prayer from your heart like that.
1 – John 1:10
2 – Hebrews 11:3
3 – Hebrews 11:6
4 – John 14:9
5 – 1 Corinthians 13:12
6 – Matthew 10:30
7 – Matthew 12:36
8 – Daniel 11:32
9 – John 17:25
That I may know him;) that really helps me in my daily living. As I have often asked my self-has God really got the time to listen to me: Yet I know he has because if I listen to his word through Jesus Christ our Lord when in need the answer comes to me.So I have to say- I know God. As long as I walk with him in grace every minute of my day must say not easy but I try to bring forgiveness,patience,
Love,compassion and humbleness, into all my actions with others. I know that is his teachings so if I work with him the more he gets to know me, then surely I get to know him more so with growing strength.