Welcome to the InTouch podcast with Charles Stanley for Wednesday, July 16th. Is there something you want in life? Make sure you are going after the right things. Refine your aspirations by embracing and pursuing life's supreme goal. If I should ask you, what is life's supreme goal, what would you say?
Somebody would say, well, Life's supreme goal is to be saved by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And someone else would say, life's supreme goal is to be called to serve the Lord in a very special way. And ultimately, we would get around to saying, life's supreme goal is ultimately to go to heaven. What is the supreme goal? that God wants us to reach toward.
And of all the things that you and I could say, ultimately it is this. God wants us to know him. Life's supreme goal is to know God through the Lord Jesus Christ. There are many things that will happen in a person's life as a result of that, but that is the supreme goal. And I want to show you how Paul arrived at this decision.
Now Paul, in light of all of this, said, He wanted to know God. When did he desire to really know God? Having come to that Damascus experience. And meeting the Lord Jesus Christ as his personal Savior, he began to want to know God. And here's what he said.
He said, first of all, he had to review his life. As he reviewed his life, he looked back over verse 5 and 6, circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel, the tribe of Benjamin, and being of the tribe of Benjamin was very important, a Hebrew of the Hebrews touching the law of Pharisee. Concerning zeal, persecuting the church, touching the righteousness which is the law, blameless. He said, You can look at my life, and from a human point of view, he says, I am spotless. I have everything in the world to be bragging about, everything to be proud of, but.
When Jesus Christ came into my life, I had to reassess my values in life. Here to fall? It was the fact of my parentage. It was the fact of my past, of my education, of my position in life, of my being a Pharisee, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, all of these things that the world places value on. He said, my whole sense of value was wrapped up in human relationships and in my knowledge and understanding.
He said, but when Jesus Christ came into my life, I had a whole new sense of meaning and purpose. All of a sudden, he said, I had to review the values of life. I rejected my past values in life. I turned to a new sense and I re-evaluated my life. And he said, what I discovered is this.
That the only thing important, the only thing in life that's really important, the summum bonum of all knowledge, the mountain peak, the everest of all knowledge that men will ever gain, is to know God in a personal way through the person of Jesus Christ.
Now here's the man who had it all. And you see, today all of us have a sense of values. There are certain things that you and I lay most value on. Whether it be material things or personal relationships with people. But all of us have a sense of value.
And what we have to ask is this, where do we place the greatest sense of value in our life? What is the thing, a relationship, that we put all of our weight in? What is it we spend the most of our time thinking about? What is the thing we're most concerned about? What do we want to protect the most?
What do we pursue? What do we desire? What is the innermost being of my heart longing for above everything else? Paul said the supreme goal of a man's life is to know God. And then he begins to describe what all of that really means.
Now, let me just say two or three things to you here. When a man begins to know God in a personal way, That is, he's no longer up yonder and you're down here. But there's a warm, intimate, personal, emotional relationship between you and him. And you begin to discover how God responds. And you begin to know what God thinks.
And you begin to be interested in His feelings and His attitudes and what please Him. and you begin to want to live. And to know him and to know more of him, and the urging and the deep-seated desire of your soul is to know him. You don't want prominence, you don't want position, it isn't possession that you want. You want to know him, you want a deeper relationship.
There's a hungering, thirsting, driving within you that supersedes your desire for everything else. Listen. You have to ask yourself carefully and honestly, and you see, you can sit there and you can't fool me because I'm not concerned about you impressing me. I'm concerned about you and God squaring off in your life as to what is the most important thing in your life.
Now, listen carefully. As you look at your life and as you look at the whole value system that you have. Can you honestly say? That deep down in my heart, When I evaluate what I want in life, what a desire in life, where I'm headed in life, the goals I'm after. that beneath all of that, moving, pulsating in my whole desire, in my whole emotional system, I want to know who God is.
I want to know what he's like. I want to be conformed to his likeness. I want to be shaped into his image. I want to fulfill his will for my life. I want my life to be an expression of who he is.
And to do that, I know that I must know him in an intimate, warm, personal, quiet way. All of us have a value system. All of us have certain things we place more value on. All of us have certain things in life that motivate us above everything else. But listen.
When the hungering, thirsting, yearning desire of your heart. becomes paramount. To seek God. When what you want to know above everything else is who is he really like? That's what Paul is saying.
He says, When he evaluated everything he owned, his position and place in life, he said the one thing that motivated him above everything else. The one thing that he wanted above everything else was to know God in Christ.
Now listen. A man who knew what Paul knew, a man who'd experienced what Paul had experienced, a man who'd been where he'd been, a man who had the possession, the position, the prominence, and the pride that he had. When he said, I chunked all of that, I cast all of that overboard, in order to discover one thing in life, we must stop to ask, what is it? What value system, what objective, what goal in life would cause a man to dump everything in order to learn one thing?
Well, let me tell you why I did it. First of all. He did it for this reason. Because you see To know God is to love God. To love God is to obey God.
To obey God is to be blessed by God. If I want to be blessed by God, I've got to know Him. He created us to know Him. He has revealed himself. You know how?
Desperately God wants us to know Him. Not only did he begin in the Old Testament by sending prophets and revealing himself to Abraham. He gave them the law of Moses, all of which was part of the unveiling of who God really is. and then to top it all off. The pinnacle of God's expression of desire that you and I would know Him is that God Himself came to this earth in the form of flesh, lived among men to do what?
To reveal to us who God is and what He's like. Jesus came to what? to lift the veil from men's eyes, to pull back the drapes, to open the doors that you and I may be able to see into the very presence of Almighty God and to know what He's like. That's why he told us to call him. Heavenly Father.
You see, there is no greater knowledge than knowing who God is. I don't mean that he's sovereign, supreme, but I mean knowing him intimately, emotionally feeling your relationship with him, mentally understanding what he's saying to you, being able to respond to him in return, knowing how he operates, knowing how he works in your life, knowing what he's going to do next in your life. You say, well, you can't always know that. You can't always. But there are basic principles that God has given us.
He says, when you do this, I'll do that. When you do this, I'll do that. If you respond this way, I'll respond that way. There are many things about God we know, but what we want is not things about Him, but an intimate relationship with Him on a personal basis. And you see, so many people know about him.
But they've never discovered What he's like. Person to person, one to one.
So, when I see these people seeking him and running hither and yon, reading this, that, and the other, and trying their best to find out what he's like, and avoiding forgiveness of their sin and the recognition of the atoning death of Jesus Christ, I thank God what a futile trip they're on. They'll never discover what you're like. And there are men who live their lives in this book and never know the Christ or the God who's therein. But you see, why don't we know him? Because we find some sin in our life, or there's something in our life that we want more than we know in Him.
And listen, God isn't going to reveal Himself to you. On an intimate basis, as long as you hold, definitely hold on, willfully to sin in your life. You can go through all of the ritual, and you can go through all of the verbal intellectual pursuits in life, and you, with your prides, you can do all of these things. But I want to tell you, my friend, if you get on your face before God and confess your sin to Him and yield your life to Him and tell Him whether you like it or not, you're giving everything to Him, it is only then that God. becomes warm and intimate and personal, then he becomes the summon bonum of your life, the pinnacle, the mountains of all of your thought.
All of a sudden in your life, what happens is that Jesus Christ, for the first time, in living genuine color and reality, he becomes the paramount of all thought in your life. And until then, what happens? We play religion. We play Christian. We go through the routine.
We carry a Bible under our arm. We go to Sunday school and carry out a Sunday school quarter. We give our money. We pray. We sing, do all those things, but we don't know God.
When you begin to know him, something happens to your whole being. But you see, as long as I hold on to sin, I'll never know him. Doesn't mean you never sin again. But you yield everything you know to God. God begins to unfold Himself.
And as you begin to know Him, what else? Then He begins to pull in other things. You settle that, and He keeps on doing what? He just lifts the veil. He draws back the curtain.
Because listen. When you and I begin to know God, it is amazing what happens. It affects every relationship in life. There is no way for a man to begin to know God in a personal way without affecting his relationship to his wife. There is no way for a woman to begin to know the Lord in a warm, intimate, personal communication way.
There is no way to do that without her beginning to what? be more understanding or better relationship with the husband. There is no way for a teenager. To know the Lord, a young person, a college, single student, there's no way for you to begin to know God without it affecting your relationship to your parents. You see, it is the pinnacle of thought, it is the key.
When you and I begin to know God, it affects every single thing in our life, whether it is your employees. Your employer? Your husband-wife relationships, your children, your social contacts, the more you and I know God, the more we'll understand each other and be able to relate to one another in a more profitable and fruitful way. Because you see, by knowing God, what am I learning? I'm knowing what he thinks.
I'm seeing his principles. I'm willing to look at it his way. I'm willing to be able to feel as he feels, react as he reacts. Every facet of a person's life is affected primarily above every other thing in life by their knowledge and understanding in personal relationship of who God is in Christ. I didn't say, quote scripture, facts, go to Sunday school, church service, listen to sermons.
I said to know God. All of those things may make a contribution, but I'm talking about a personal relationship with Jesus Christ unto God, just like a man and a woman.
Now the question comes, this is the big question, how do you do that? I want to give you four simple things. Number one. Meditation. Be still.
And know God. You can't rush around. and find out who God's really like. It takes time to be quiet. Listen, now watch this.
in the Word of God. Reading the scriptures. When you're reading the scriptures, what's happening? God is speaking to you. Then what do you do?
You talk back to him about what he said to you. And then you be quiet and listen and let God speak to you, not only through His Word, but speak to you personally. You say, No, wait a minute, I've never heard God speak audible. I've been saying about being audible. God has the most precise, exact, unmistakable, unquestionable way.
of impressing the human spirit.
So that you know God has done the talking.
So, meditation in the word, listening.
Now, watch this. It isn't just talking to him, but it is in the word, seeing what he has to say. how he's operating in other people's lives, talking to him about your life. And then listening to him respond to that. And going back to the word, and then going back to him, and listening to him, and going back to the word, and back to him, and listening to him.
And you see, chewing on what he said. Thinking about it. You see, now listen, we must get over the idea I've got to do my morning devotions. Forget it. That's not it.
You're not doing morning devotions. You are discovering who God is. And so you're not reading just to say, well, I've read chapter 4 for today.
Now, if you're not going to do anything, do that. Please don't stop it, but listen. It's the motivation. You're reading to do what? To hear him.
To speak to him, to listen to him, to hear him, to speak to him, to listen to him. You are building an intimacy with God that cannot be built any other way. But in prayer and meditation, that's the first thing. The second thing is application. Why would God speak to you through His Word?
So, you can store knowledge. God isn't interested in your storing knowledge. God wants to speak to you, and He wants you to learn who He is in order to apply. Him to your life. And listen.
In the word Talking to him, listening to him. in the word, talking to him, listening to him, or to do what? In order to walk out of that bedroom or that study or wherever you are, to do what? To apply. In your daily life, those things God just said to you.
So, first of all, there must be meditation. What is he saying to me? Secondly, application. Applying the things you and I already know. You see, we've already got a head full of stored knowledge.
Man, we quote a whole lot of things about God. But are we applying them in our home, in our business, in our social contacts, in our church? Application. is essential to knowing God. Listen.
You can read all you want to read, but if you don't apply it, you know whether it works or not. The third thing is interpretation. Here's what we do. Talk to him. Having heard what he says, listening to him.
Go out and apply it and then do what? After we've applied the truth. We must do what? Then we must walk away to say, all right, now what really transpired? What was God saying to me?
Is this the way the Lord responded? You see, interpretation makes it my own. Then I began to understand God. Simply listening and reading and applying, those are essential, but they're the foundation of what? Of the interpretation.
That is, I must look to see now what did he really do? In proportion or in relationship to what he said, what did he do?
So, therefore, if that's what he said, and this is what he did, is this what God's like? Am I beginning to learn to know God? Yes. Interpretation. This is why I've said to you and I've said to parents over and over and over again: one of the smartest, wisest, most intelligent things you can do is to keep a daily diary.
What are you doing? When you're keeping a daily diary, you're in the Word meditating upon God. You're out applying it in your life. And you come home and the bottom dropped out, or the whole beautiful world came in on you in a wonderful way. And you're simply putting in your diary, read so-and-so this morning.
I asked the Lord to show me about that. He applied in my life. And here's what I learned about God today. I'm beginning to know what God is really like. The diary is your privilege to record God's actions expressed towards you, God's control, His guidance.
He puts you in situations to make those scriptures that He's laid upon your heart a living reality, and you begin to know God. Interpretation is essential. One more thing is important, and that is confirmation. Meditation in the Word before him. Application in daily life, interpretation of what God is doing, and then what?
Back to the Word. Seeking those verses to confirm what you believe God is saying in that given situation. When you put those four things together, friend, and you begin to do that on a daily basis, you see, I've not said to you, you've got to have four hours every day to learn to know God. No? You know what I'm saying?
I'm saying take time. To see what God says. Hear what God says, express what you feel to God as you get up tomorrow morning, eat your eggs, bacon, or whatever you have for breakfast, and you go to work. You're just going to go to work just like you used to do, but what? You're going to have God's Word in your heart.
And you're going to be applying those verses of Scripture. And in the process of applying them, you're going to see God working and begin to interpret and then record. What God did in your life, and I want to tell you, my friend. You won't learn to know God. Unless you begin to put those things in practice.
Now, you'll struggle through and you'll fret and you'll fume and you'll sort of get some things, but I'm saying, man, life's too short to waste. You don't want to, well, you get to be 65 years of age to say, well, it's about time I start learning who God is. It is late. You and I need to teach that to our children as young as they can learn it. We need to practice it day by day.
Because listen. the better you and I know him. The better we're going to be able to love him. And obeying. and serving.
How much service? is to such little avail Because the people who are attempting to serve God whom they know about. have never learned who God is. The greatest knowledge acquired Listen, not in schools, not in seminaries, not before great professors.
Okay. But sitting before God. In His Word. Living your daily routine. Interpreting what God is doing.
and having it confirmed in the Word. You and I are able to see more, know more, experience more, feel more of genuine truth and knowledge and experience with God in proportion to obedience. And yieldedness and surrender and desire within our heart to know God. Uh Thank you for listening to Life's Supreme Goal. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or InTouch Ministries, stop by intouch.org.
This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.
