Knowing God [Part 3]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. Anyone who would place trust in him would have a right to become a child of God. You cannot just know about God.

You can know God. That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light. I'm Daniel Britt, excited for you to hear the teaching today in the series Galatians as presented at Reynolda Church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program, I want to make sure you know how to get our special resource right now. It can be yours for your donation this month made to Alan Wright Ministries.

So as you listen to today's message, you can go deeper as we send you today's special offer. Contact us at PastorAlan.org. That's PastorAlan.org. Or call 877-544-4860.

877-544-4860. More on this later in the program. But now, let's get started with today's teaching. Here is Alan Wright. There is a way in which we are invited to be known by God and to know God that is so personal. He is like the dearest friend. He is like a husband to a wife. He is like a father to a son. He is, we have a relationship with God. He's everything to me.

And I love Him. You can know God. I want you to know God. I want the whole world to know God.

And He wants to be known. I got to take a little trip this week. It's been way too long since I've done this.

Just the life, you know, life, kids, everything just keeps you, just pulling away at you. And Ann and I had not gotten away to just have a day or two by ourselves in a long time, years. We should try every year at least some time away. You with young kids you know.

You know it's hard. There's always somebody's nose to wipe or milk to clean up or diaper to change or something. But we just said this year we got an opportunity. Both kids, they're growing up now. Both were going on a trip the same week.

One to fun in the sun at Jekyll Island. The other was at Montreat at a camp all week. And so it was just the two of us, my wife and I. And we said we were going to take a couple of days and get away. And at first we started getting lazy on Sunday because we were going to be gone on Monday and Tuesday. And we started getting lazy and we started looking at not spending money. And we started talking about just staying around the house.

And we had to fight off and slough off the laziness and say no we're going somewhere. We finally settled on going down to the Pine Needles Resort in Pinehurst close by. And perfect place.

Golf everywhere you look. Just perfect. And it didn't matter where we went because we got to spend two days together. It's been a long time.

Oh it's good. I mean I've known my wife for 28, 29 years. If you said do you know Anne, I'd say yeah I know Anne. But if you asked me what happened after that trip I'd say well I got to know my wife in a deeper way. I got to know her again.

Isn't that something about a relationship? You can really know somebody and then just with time. Just with time. Just time to listen. Time to talk. Time not to be distracted.

Time just time. You can know somebody. Oh it's just wonderful to know and to be known. It's wonderful. It's the number one thing I recommend about marriage.

It's just a safe place to know and to be known. Wow. And one time I opened the door for her in the car. She said I like it when you open the door for me like that.

That wasn't new information to me. But I'd sort of gotten away from it. I'd just been too busy to open the door for her lately. And she said I like it when you do that. And when she said it, it was in the context of two days of just sharing meals together and talking about our hearts and our desires and our gratitude and the challenges.

Sharing the mixing of your lives like that. And then she said I like it when you open the door. And I'm like I'm going to open the door for you.

Because it wasn't a law. It was like she knows me and I know her. And I realized that for her this is tied up in just a grand sense of a noble thing that chivalry is not something.

That everyone is supposed to die away and that there's a headship of a husband and there's a covering and there's a blessing that can take place that might be expressed in little ways like opening a car door. And I just found myself like I want to open the car door for you. But you see the difference between why don't you ever open the car door for me?

And I was thinking if I just open the car door then I'll pass the good husband list and then she'll be nice to me. And that's law. But what God's inviting you into is a relationship and a knowing and a being known. And it's out of the context of knowing and being known that we serve.

And the more I know God and His heart and what His heart has compassion towards and what breaks His heart, then my heart becomes more naturally broken for those things. And what I'm saying is that all of the service and obedience of your life is inextricably woven into knowledge of God. You can know Him.

You can know Him. Your life is not built on your duty to God. But when you know Him and you're known by Him, your duty and your desire start becoming more and more the same thing. John Newton, the author of the famous Amazing Grace Hymn, wrote another hymn that puts this perfectly in the verse that says, Our pleasure and our duty, though opposite before, since we have seen His beauty, are joined to part no more. Now here's what's most astounding about Galatians 4 and verse 9. And that is not that he says you've come to know God, but then he almost as if he's correcting himself to say, or I should say it this way, or rather to be known by God. The most astounding thing he's saying here is that God wants to be known.

Let's be honest about it. The reason actually that I don't know Billy Graham is because Billy Graham has not ever had the thought cross his mind that he'd like to know Alan Wright. It's not really that I think Billy Graham thinks that he's too good for me.

I don't think that. He seems to be such a humble man. It's just that it hadn't actually crossed his mind. In fact, if Billy Graham really wanted to get to know me and have me know him, then he could do that. It's only a couple hours away. I could drive up there and have lunch tomorrow with him, really, if he'd just invite me. If he'd just invite me. In fact, really, if he wanted to write one last book and he called and said, Alan, I'd like you to write The Ford, I'd do that. I'd do that.

I'd do that. If he invited me to lunch, I'd say yes. If he invited me to write The Ford for his next book, I'd say yes. In fact, honestly, if he called me and said, Alan, would you come up and mow my lawn, I'd say yes. I'd mow your lawn. He just hadn't invited me to do any of those things.

I was up in Montreat earlier this summer doing a conference. And he didn't come to my seminar. But he wasn't thinking about it.

He would have liked it, but he didn't think about it. And what I'm just saying is if you could think like that for just a moment, could I just invite you, beloved, just to think about this incredible cosmic truth. God is thinking about you. And He is inviting you to know Him. If we really believe that and saw it and heard the invitation, if I'd go mow Billy Graham's lawn, what could there ever be that God would invite me into that I would ever say no to? He made you. He loves you.

You could know Him. All this is to say is that the knowing God is inextricably linked and in fact preceded by the God desire to know you. He sets forth, the Lord does, knowledge of Himself as the greatest thing in life.

Jeremiah 9, this is what the Lord says, Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom, the strong men boast of his strength, or the rich men boast of his riches. But let him who boasts boast about this, that he understands and knows Me. Imagine meeting someone great. Imagine a queen or president or some superstar that you admire and at first you meet them and you assume that it will be a formal meeting.

Your role is to be courteous and subservient. But imagine that the dignitary then begins to take you into his or her counsel and share important matters with you and personal things and seek to make you a friend. What would happen in your soul? What would happen is you would be shocked at first that this was even taking place and there would have to be a process wherein you would become willing to actually be friends with this great person. You would have to have something happen within you that would actually believe that this was taking place. Because if you didn't believe that this was actually taking place and you were being invited into friendship with this great dignitary, then you would shut off the conversation and sabotage it. But you have to believe that your God who made you is actually wanting to know you and for you to know Him. And here's what happens. Once you actually see that, it just thrills your soul. And what happens is it thrills your soul and it so exhilarates your inward being that the external peripheral things about knowing about this person are nothing in comparison. This is God's desire and it always has been that the knowledge of God is what He desires more than burnt offerings.

Hosea 6. In fact, remarkably, God says that for those who think that life is just about doing the religious things in order out of a law mentality or out of some performance mentality that they've so missed the point that in Matthew 7 Jesus says, Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. And on that day many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do mighty works in your name? And then I'll declare to them, I never knew you.

Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. The whole description of what it means to be with God for all eternity is rooted in knowing Him. There's a kind of knowledge that puffs up. It's the peripheral knowledge. It's the knowledge where you know about. This is what in 1 Corinthians 8, Paul says, the knowledge that puffs up, but he says, Love builds up. If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know. But this is what he says in 1 Corinthians 8, 3, If anyone loves God, he's known by God.

Wow! The knowing of God, the being known by God, this is the nature of what it is to love God. That it is when you are known by God that then you can know God.

This is the extraordinary thing. The whole point of the scripture is that God is pursuing you and He's always been pursuing you because He wants to know you. It doesn't mean that God is not omniscient about you at any point. He knows everything about you, but instead it points to the sovereign grace of God that pursues you, makes a relationship with Him possible. When God says, Adam, where are you?

It's not because God is confused about Adam's whereabouts. Instead, God is inviting Adam into a surrendered posture of admitting that he'd been hiding and in Adam's self-revelation unto God, in Adam's confession to God, in Adam's exposure to God. This is what is meant by God knowing him.

And this is what the invitation is. This is why prayer means so much to God, not just to God but to us, because He already knows what you need. Why does He want you to ask? A big part of this is explained herein, that we really know God when we are known by God, when you truly realize that this God who knows everything about you can be trusted at every point in your life, and therefore you can be thoroughly, fully, completely honest with Him, honest with Him about your longings, honest about your fears, honest about your sins, draw near unto God, and He draws near unto you. He's everywhere at all times. He knows things in all spaces. Why is it that it is so important that we commune with God?

Because it's in being known that we know Him. That's Alan Wright, and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. Ever feel like something's holding you back, as if you lack an important key that could change everything?

Is there someone you love who seems stuck? You'd like to help them, but how? What's missing? Blessing. We all need a positive faith-filled vision spoken over our lives. You can learn how to embrace the biblical practice of blessing through Pastor Alan Wright's new book, The Power to Bless, which quickly became an Amazon number one bestseller after its recent release. Until now, the hardcover book has only been available through retail sales, but this month, Alan Wright Ministries wants to send you the book as our thank you for your donation. Make your gift today and discover the power to bless. The Gospel is shared when you give to Alan Wright Ministries. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support. When you give today, we will send you today's special offer. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries. Call us at 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, PastorAlan.org. Today's teaching now continues. Here once again is Alan Wright. Moses allowed himself to be known by God. Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, he said to Jeremiah. Jesus said, I'm the Good Shepherd. I know my sheep. My sheep know me.

J.I. Packer writes about this, saying, Here God's knowledge of those who are His is associated with His whole purpose of saving mercy. It is a knowledge that implies personal affection, redeeming action, covenant faithfulness, and providential watchfulness towards those whom God knows. It is astounding in the first place that you can know God. It is more astounding that God wants to be known. It is astounding that God wants to know you personally.

And here's the most astounding thing of all. He wants this so badly that He made the way possible for you to know Him. This is why He sent His only begotten Son.

To die in your place, to become your sin, to take your curse. So that I could stand here today and say, You can know God. If I were to visit the President of the United States, it would require the President to make the way possible for me to visit Him. I cannot make my own way to Him. If I tried to make my own way to Him, I would be shocked. I might get arrested if I tried to make my way to Billy Graham. The President has to make the way for me out of his own initiative and his own authority. He had to give me the clearance. He'd have to tell the whole Secret Service and staff and give me the path and whatever to see Him.

My role would be to accept the invitation. In other words, there is an amazing strength, beloved, that comes into your life when something in your heart gets tuned to heaven and you know that God delights in knowing you. The secret of knowing God is all wrapped up in the greater assurance that God wants to know you.

Again, J.I. Packer writes, What matters supremely, therefore, is not in the last analysis the fact that I know God, but the larger fact which underlies it, the fact that He knows me. I'm graven on the palms of His hands. I'm never out of His mind. All my knowledge of Him depends on His sustained initiative in knowing me. I know Him because He first knew me and He continues to know me. He knows me as a friend, one who loves me. And there is no moment when His eye is off me or His attention distracted from me.

And no moment, therefore, when His care falters. This is momentous knowledge. There is unspeakable comfort in knowing that God is constantly taking knowledge of me in love and watching over me for my good.

There is tremendous relief in knowing that His love to me is utterly realistic based at every point on prior knowledge of the worst about me so that no discovery can now disillusion Him. This is to say, beloved, be aware there is a spiritual battle that is seeking to pull you away from the Gospel of grace in order to pull you away from a relationship with God into either rebellion or religion. And that there will be, until Jesus comes again, a battle to allure you to settle for knowledge about God rather than knowledge of God. And therefore, the invitation, not by law but by grace, is to cultivate a life with God personally, devotionally, cultivate a life with God corporately, sharing life with God with others. It is an invitation to be responsive that if the Holy Spirit invites you to this or that to say yes, the Holy Spirit residing in you so that you would have the capacity to know God, the invitation of the Gospel is simple, but it is absolutely astounding. The God who flung the stars into their place and set the planets into their orbits, the God whose ways are above our ways, whose understanding is so vast we cannot fathom it, who is so much greater than us that by comparison, if we were still in our sin, who would only shrink and run away from Him for fear of our lives, that God, the King of the Universe, has come in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ for this express purpose. Anyone who would place trust in Him would have a right to become a child of God. You cannot just know about God. You can know God.

And that's the Gospel. Ever feel like something's holding you back, as if you lack an important key that could change everything? Is there someone you love who seems stuck? You'd like to help them, but how? What's missing? Blessing. We all need a positive faith-filled vision spoken over our lives. You can learn how to embrace the biblical practice of blessing through Pastor Alan Wright's new book, The Power to Bless, which quickly became an Amazon number one bestseller after its recent release. Until now, the hardcover book has only been available through retail sales, but this month, Allen Wright Ministries wants to send you the book as our thank you for your donation. Make your gift today and discover the power to bless. The Gospel is shared when you give to Allen Wright Ministries. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support.

When you give today, we will send you today's special offer. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Allen Wright Ministries. Call us at 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, PastorAllen.org. Allen, our culture today of celebrity worship, we want to know the inside scoop. We just wish we could get close to someone with power and prestige. Well, we have this opportunity of a lifetime because we not only can observe God from afar and read scriptures about God, but we can actually know him.

There's a personal relationship. He's our Father. You can know God.

This is earth-shattering news. But this is clearly, clearly what the Bible teaches, is that Christianity, unlike every other religion, is an invitation not simply to know about or to follow some guidelines that have been given by some divine entity, but instead, this is a personal God. He is the Creator. He is ultimately and finally powerfully decisive and holy and wondrous. But this is why Jesus came, so you can actually know him. So there's our prayer today, Daniel, for any listener who says, You know, I have heard a lot about God, maybe even believed in God, but I really want to know him. May the Lord, by his grace, just escort you to the very throne room of his grace where you can know him and meet him personally. Today's good news message is a listener-supported production of Allen Wright Ministries.