Welcome to the InTouch podcast with Charles Stanley for Friday, June 13th. Would you like to know Jesus in a more intimate way? If so, here's help in taking advantage of the privilege of knowing God. One of the tragedies of this day is this. and that is that many, many people will live their entire life.
and they will never know God. They will come to the end of their life. As a person who is an unbeliever. and miss the very point for which they were created. miss knowing the very God who created them.
miss all the blessings that God would have stored up for them. Missing to know the one person For whom it is the greatest joy to know in all the world, and they will have missed him. What is this message all about? This message is all about this simple truth. The privilege of knowing God.
because it is an awesome privilege, an unparalleled benefit, Listen, it is a glorious opportunity that you and I have, an eternal treasure to know this God whom you and I have been. Thinking about, talking about, singing about, praising, worshiping, boasting of, all these years of our life.
Now, let me just say this to you. God is certainly worth knowing, and He desires that you and I know Him. Turn to the 14th chapter of John for a moment. And you'll recall that when Jesus was speaking to his disciples, and so many times he gave them some very intimate things and shared with them. They were asking him about the Father, John chapter 14.
And if you look in verse 8. Philip said to him, He said, Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us. We want to see Him. Jesus said to Him, Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father.
How do you say show us the Father? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you, I do not speak on my own initiative, but the Father abiding in me does his works. Listen, Jesus said, No man comes to the Father but by me. Jesus was so intent.
on his disciples knowing him. Understanding him, he shared the innermost beings of his heart. They watched him hurt. He shared the openness of his soul. He shared the deep, abiding things that he felt and things that he knew about the Father.
But he also shared himself with them. Why? He wanted them to know him. God the Father wants you and me to know Him. Because He is exciting to know, satisfying to know, thrilling to know, contenting to know.
And I could go on and on and on and on and on about what it is to know the living God. Listen, he desires that we know him. Let's think about this for a moment. Does God know us? Yes, he does.
What does he know about us? He has absolute, complete, perfect knowledge of us.
So God doesn't have to ask me anything, and I don't have to open up in order for God to get some new information about me. He knows every single one of us. He's omniscient.
So I don't have to open up for God. Uh to know me. But listen carefully. If I want to know God, I have to open up. He said, that sounds like a contradiction.
No, it's not. Watch this. If you listen, say amen. If I want to know God, I must open up. You say, no, wait a minute.
But if I want to know somebody else, they must open up. Correct. But when it comes to knowing God, I must open up. Because he already knows me.
Now watch, here's the reason why. If I come to God and I have a burden, a heartache, and whatever it might not, Lord, and I just need some help. In Jesus' name, I know you'll strengthen me. Amen. Move on.
I'm facing some real challenge.
Some real difficulty.
Well, I just want to thank you, God. I know you'll help me through this, and I can handle it. Thank you, God. I can handle it. I know I can handle it.
What about done? Shut him out. And I'm saying that I can take care of it.
Now, God, you know all about it, you know all the details. We're going to handle this. You know what? If I go through life self-sufficient, depending upon my own self. I'll never know God.
Here's the reason. Because When listen, because God must open himself up to me.
Now, in other words, for me to know God, he must open himself up. But also, if I'm to know him, I must open myself up because he's not going to open to me until I open to him. For example, let's take the simplest and we go to more complex. Here's a person who's not saved. Don't talk to me about sin.
So, they never wouldn't have confessed their sin, never went to look at their life.
So, does God open Himself up to a person who absolutely refuses to acknowledge that they're living in sin? No, He does not. There are some bits of knowledge that person can come up with, but they're not going to know God at all as long as there's rebellion. And so what happens? But here I come to a situation maybe I am very, very fearful.
I don't know what's going to happen. And I bring my fear to God and I say, Lord. I don't know what's going to happen in this situation. I may be terribly rejected, or I may suffer a great loss over here financially, or this may happen, or whatever. And so I have great fear.
And so I come to God and I say, Lord. I'm fearful. God, I'm hurting. I I feel so rejected and so shut out. God, I don't know what to do.
What have I done? I not only have opened my own heart to God, But what I did is, I now made it possible for God to open His heart to me. Because now, here's what God's going to say. He's going to say to me, son, I will never leave you nor forsake you. I know all about what's going on inside of you.
I'm omniscient. I'm faithful. I'm loving, I'm caring, I'm going to help you. I'm merciful. I see all the details of where you are.
I'm all-sufficient, and I'm sovereign, and I'm all-powerful. and I have a tender and loving heart toward you. You know what's happened? All of a sudden, I've taken a big step forward in my understanding of who God is. He helps people like me.
He doesn't criticize me when I'm hurting. He's not down on me because I'm weak. He's not down on me because I feel frail and inadequate and feel rejected and don't think I'm going to be able to handle this. What's he doing? Loving me, assuring me of what's happening.
I'm learning who he is, I'm learning how he responds. Or, let's go a step further. Maybe you get tempted by something and you fall into deep sin. And you come to him and you're so ashamed, instead of denying it, you can do one, oh, just forget it. Or you can say, God, I am so ashamed of myself.
Lord, I have sinned against you. I don't deserve it. I don't even deserve to go to heaven, pouring out your heart in confession with a genuine repentance. And what does God do? He says, Son, you're forgiven.
Do you remember that when you, when my son went to the cross and he died for your sin? He paid this penalty for your sin. Confession is right. Repentance is absolutely necessary at this point. But I want you to know that you're forgiven.
You don't have to have a pity party. Get up and move on. I'm your Savior, your Father. I do understand. And I want you to grow up.
And what can you learn from this? What have I learned about this God? I've learned He's merciful. I'm learning that He's tender. He's understanding.
He knows our weaknesses and our frailties. That's why God doesn't open up until you open up, until I open up. And so to know him, I've got to open up to it. And see, he's going to open up to me in response. But as long as I'm self-sufficient, he's not going to open up.
He's going to open up and reveal himself. And what is it to know God? To know God is, listen, as He progressively. As he gently, as he over a period of time opens up. And this is the reason that difficulty and hardship and trials and adversities are so important.
You say, well, I don't want any adversity in my life. Why can't I know God without adversity you want? Because listen, it is in brokenness that we discover things about God we're not going to discover any other way. It's when we are broken and shattered. And when we don't know which way to turn, and we feel so hopeless and so helpless, that we fling ourselves before Him in absolute prostration before Him, God, I need you.
Then He comes pouring in with His grace, and mercy, and love, and encouragement, and forgiveness, and kindness, and strength. What happens is we learn who he is.
So I want to say this again. If I'm going to learn to know who God is, if I'm going to know Him, I must be willing to open up. Myself totally to him. In order for him to be able to open up himself to to me in order for me to understand How he thinks, his ways, how he responds to me in difficulty and hardship and trial. This is why.
Most believers will never know who God is because we are so uptight about our, we're going to do it our way, and we're going to have it our way, and you know, we're going to be tough, we're going to see our way through this. You know what? It's not a sin to cry. It's not a sin for men to cry. Most women know it's not a sin for them to cry.
It's not a sin for men to cry. It's not a sin to say, God. I feel so helpless. God, I don't know what to do. Lord, you're going to have to help me.
God, you're going to have to strengthen me. God, I don't know which way to turn. I don't know your will in this, Lord. That doesn't upset God. You know what it does?
Flings the door open. And what happens? This relationship begins to build. And this knowledge begins to increase. And we begin to understand how He works and how He thinks.
So, what does it take? It takes more than just simply reading the Bible. to know who God is.
So now what I want to do is I want to give you Four things. I think I want to simplify all this down to four things of how. you and I can know him. And let me say in the very beginning, before I give you those, that I want you to think about this. Who takes the initiative in our knowing God?
Who takes the initiative?
Well, maybe you got confused a few moments ago, so let's clarify that. The truth is, God takes the initiative in my knowing Him because you see, if He didn't create some kind of a desire in me. then I wouldn't have any desire. Who took the initiative in your salvation? You may have said, well, I decide, someday I'm going to get saved.
I'm giving my life to Jesus. My decision: no, you responded to the initiative of God who convicted you and showed you He loved you enough to save you. God is the one, listen, it is His grace. It is the grace of God. That He desires that you and I know Him.
It's the grace of God that He sends difficulty and hardship that causes brokenness to open up to Him. It's the grace of God that He opens up Himself to us, He takes the initiative. But we must cooperate. It goes both ways.
Now, I want you to jot down these four things. They are extremely simple. But if you really want to know God, This is how you start. Will you ever know him all you want to? I hope you will not on this earth because if you get to that place, then you've missed him.
But number one, If I want to know God, I must listen to his word. Or read it either way. Listen to his word. Allow the Holy Spirit to interpret it. and apply it to my life.
I must listen to the word. Allow the Holy Spirit to interpret that for me. and then apply it to my life. That requires meditation. Meditation is reading.
And listening and talking to him about it, and listening to him about it, and discussing it with him, and telling him when we understand, when we don't understand. In other words, meditation is my spending time with him, listening to his Word to me, His revelation, His truth in His Word. Meditation is absolutely, listen, unchangeably, irrevocably, absolutely essential. if I'm going to know God. Because it's in this book.
That I understand that God reveals Himself in the most awesome ways. All of our experiences are rightly interpreted by the Word of God. You can close this up, and you can have all kinds of ridiculous experiences in life that have nothing to do with God.
So number one, reading and listening to the Word of God. allowing the Holy Spirit to interpret it to us and then applying it to our heart. The second one is this. And that is observing the characteristics. And the ways I separate that from just reading the Bible, observing the characteristics and the ways of God.
If I'm going to know him, then I I've got to know something about him. And as I read the scriptures from beginning to end, I discovered he has a will for my life. That he loves me. That he's a caring God.
So we listen, now watch this. We observe. The characteristics of God. How do I observe those? The Bible does not give me.
The following is a list of characteristics of God. And you know, somebody says, well, why didn't God make it simple and give us those? I'll tell you why. If somebody said, You know what the characteristics are? Turn to page 495 in the amplified New American Standard King James, New King James.
We'd read that, that'd be the end of it. You know why God didn't do that? Because He wanted us to discover them. By reading and searching it out, because He's going to teach us so much more than what we're looking for. The third thing that's so very important here, when I think about what's really involved.
I think about it in this light. That number three, I must be willing to accept his invitations. And follow his commands. If I want to know him, for example, he says, Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, I'll give you rest. That's an invitation.
But God may say to you, on the other hand, I want you to go and share your faith with that person. That's a command, that's not an invitation. Let me give you another invitation. Let's say that you're busy, busy, busy, and you're all tired, weary, and you've got some decisions to make, and you're just a little bit uptight. and you sense in your spirit God saying to you, I want you by myself.
I want you alone. I want you to spend some time with me. That's an invitation. An invitation to fellowship. An invitation to meditate upon Him.
You have this sense that you just need to get away and be quiet with Him. That's the Spirit of God inviting you, listen, into a secluded very private conversation with the Heavenly Father. Very important if I'm going to know him. Very important if I'm going to know him. That happened to me in such a dramatic fashion.
Just like the Lord said now, I just need, I want some time with you. I don't want you studying for the message. I just want some time with you by myself.
So I went the other road. Got on my knees and I said, All right, Lord, forget the sermon. He gave me the most awesome Encouraging word.
So absolutely practical. personally applied to my life. And you know what? I never remember, I'm sure I have read it many times, I never remember reading that passage. Here's the wonderful thing you learn about God.
And that is that sometimes, in order for him to say something that he wants to make a serious impact. He just blots out of your mind. If you've ever read it before. Otherwise, you'd come to pay and say, Well, I know what that means. I've done that.
I've been there well, I don't know what that must be some no.
Sometimes when he wants to get you by himself, He'll just blot your mind out of that passage, and all of a sudden it is brand new, takes on a whole new meaning. What's he doing? He's loving you. He's revealing himself to you. He's saying, I love you so much.
I care about you so much, I just want you to myself for a little while. If your wife said to you, or your husband said to you, Let's go on a little weekend vacation, take a week. I just want you to buy myself. I just want us to be together and just spend time together. You'd love that to death.
What about God? He does the same thing. Number four. That is, if I really and truly want to know him. I need to recognize His love for me And rejoice.
and praise him and worship him. Recognize his love for me. Worship Him and praise Him and spend time adoring Him.
Something happens when you're not open at heart. and worship the Lord.
Now with that in mind, let me ask you a question. Do you really and truly want to know? God Is there anything in life any more important than knowing Him? I'll tell you one time that you will agree it's the most important thing in life. When you come to those last moments of your life, and if your death should be such that you are conscious those last moments before the Lord takes you.
You will know in those moments the most important thing. in all the world. Second to nothing. is your knowledge of God. And that knowledge comes through knowing Christ.
How do you know Him? You accept the testimony of the scriptures. That he's the Virgin-born Son of God. Sent into this world to die on a cross. At which time God the Father placed all of your sin on Him.
And the moment you're willing to say, God, I do believe that you're God. that he is your son. His death paid my sin debt in full. And I accept by faith your forgiveness. I accept by faith Jesus Christ as my Savior and Lord.
In that moment, You've taken the first Most critical. absolutely essential step. to knowing Almighty God. And it's my prayer. If you've never done that, you'll take that step.
And Father, how grateful we are. that you love us enough to unveil yourself. Show yourself, reveal yourself. Make yourself known to us, unworthy as we are. I pray the Holy Spirit will sink this truth deep into our hearts that you have already.
In this hour, Created an insatiable, deeper, hungering, thirsting to know you. than any of us have ever had before. But we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Yeah.
Thank you for listening to part two of Taking Advantage of the Privilege. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by intouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.
