That I Might Know Him, Part 2

For many of us, living the Christian life is like a lion tamer with the whip.

We're trying to whip ourselves into shape, but Dr. Tony Evans says real change doesn't happen from the outside in.

It's the result of really knowing the Lord a lot of power without intimacy. You don't get the power without the knowledge.

This is the alternative. With Dr. Tony Evans, author, speaker, senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, Texas, and president of the Urban Alternative.

As the old saying goes, it's not what you know, it's who you know. Let's join Dr. Evans as he talks about how really knowing God changes us from the inside out.

God feeds hungry people. And one of the reasons that we do not know God is we're not hungry. One of the great hungry people in scripture is the apostle Paul. From prison, he writes the book of Philippians from a prison cell. His message in the Book of Olympians is Rejoice in the law, all wave. And again, I say rejoice. His circumstances aren't joyful. His situation isn't pleasing. He's not in the best scenario. He's financially struggling. That's why he thanks them for the financial gift he sent them being incarcerated under house arrest. He's struggling with being alone. Nobody to keep him company in jail. His bourdin for how things are going with the other Christians that the church had full of by.

He's got all these negative things going on in his life. And he writes the book, Rejoice in the Lord Always.

And again, I say rejoice. In other words, his circumstances, although negative, we're not controlling his well-being. He writes in Chapter three, relative to our theme of knowing God. In those eight, he talks about the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus. The first phrase, the verse 10, that I may know him. Our theme is knowing God. Yet he says, I want to know him referring to Christ. The reason he wants to know Christ is Christ is your direct route to God. Let's put it this way. He's your shortcut. Religion is the long way around, in fact, that will never get you to your destination. Paul found in Jesus Christ a treasure more valuable than what his own humanity could ever achieve.

And that's why he says this is verse nine, that I may be found in him not having a righteousness of my own derived from the law, but that which is true faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith. That I may be found in him not having a righteousness of my own creation. Not having a standard of righteousness has to do with meeting God's standard, not having a standard of righteousness that has come from my human ability to make it happen. But one that is derived by faith.

What is he saying?

For many of us, living the Christian life is like a lion tamer with the whip. We're trying to whip ourselves into shape. We're trying to force our souls to be what our souls won't cooperate with. We know I should be better in this area and I should be better in this area. And we try to whip ourselves into shape and make ourselves do better and make ourselves be holy and make ourselves be pure and make ourselves be righteousness. And we just keep trying to make it happen. Paul says, I don't want to wear those clothes. The Bible describes self-righteousness as a type of attire. Self-righteousness is righteousness that I put on. Is clothes that I wear. It's it's me dressing myself. When Jesus Christ came into your life, the Holy Spirit called the Spirit of Christ, was deposited into your soul. That is the perfect righteousness of Christ has been deposited into every believer. Every Christian already has the perfect righteousness of Christ in seed form and seed form. It is the growth of that seed in the soul that produces Christ righteousness.

The difference between self-righteousness and Christ righteousness is self-righteousness is X totally derived, which is why you can take it off and put it on.

C self-righteousness is extraordinarily derived. I go to my closet and I put on my holy clothes.

Holy look, holy makeup, holy rollers, holy curlers.

I look, I have this this way of being that is dressing me up.

But it's really not me, it's what I'm dressed up to look like.

Paul says that's not what I want.

I want a righteousness that is derived from him by faith in him. What does he mean? He wants I want Christ to grow in my inside.

If Christ expands in my inside, that will take over my soul, mass hotels, my body, what to do.

So the reason I'm a do what I do with my body differently is because the soul who I really am is functioning differently. That's because the spirit Christ in me is expanding within me. Then it's not an external righteousness is who I really am.

How do you get that? He says you get that through knowing him, coming to know him, coming to draw close to him, coming to experience him, coming to prioritize my knowledge of him.

It is that intimate, personal relationship that is the righteousness that Christ is looking for, not the external dress.

He says in first hand that I may know him. I want to pursue him. I want to know him, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection. That power that got him up out the grave.

I want to know him. In other words, it is. It is. You don't get the power without the knowledge.

A lot of what one guy power without God intimacy. They want to make long distance with God, but have resurrection power. He said that I might know him and have the power. The power comes with the intimacy.

No intimacy, no power, no power.

No supernatural intrusions into your life. No seeing God break through for, you know, seeing heaven visit earth.

None of that comes. In other words, that's tied to the intimacy. The power is tied to the intimacy. Everybody wants God's power if you want God's intimacy.

The power comes with the knowledge and informational knowledge we're talking about relational knowledge. He goes on and he says, and the fellowship of his suffering. I want to know him. Which means I will now have accessibility to the power.

And what does this power do? It resurrect things that are dead? The power of his resurrection. You rather read bad things. I want the power that raises stuff.

That's Dad.

I want watch this, watch this. The fellowship of his sufferings being conformed to his death. Suffering is designed to enhance intimacy. Suffering is designed to enhance intimacy. He calls it the fellowship of his suffering. Okay. What's is that? If you are suffering and you are seeking to know him, if those two things are true, you're seeking to know him. And life is going south.

You're seeking to know him. And things aren't working out. You're seeking to know him. And things are getting worse than getting better. Guess what Jesus is doing?

He's inviting you to a deeper level of intimacy, suffering for those who want to know him. It's an invitation, the closeness God is saying that you ought to be say when you're seeking to know him and things aren't working out.

God, how do you want to use this? I am currently going through to conform me closer to the image of your son. How do you want to make me more like Jesus to what you're sending me through right now? That's why James can say, count it all, Joy, when you go through trial. Keep nothing count. The trial is joy. He's saying count the reason for the trial. As joy if you are seeking to know him. And it's not working out. He's inviting you to a deeper level of intimacy.

You say, why hasn't he got me out of trial yet? Because you haven't got close enough yet. You're spending so much time trying to get out at a trial that you haven't gotten to the purpose of the trial. So he'll let the trial hang now as long as it meets the high mark. Because you said you wanted to know him. You said you wanted to get close to him. You said you wanted to be intimate with him. He says, okay, well, then you've got to go through some stuff.

Remember, James, I've never experienced Easter Sunday until he went through Bad Friday. He had to suffer to get a resurrection.

Now, don't get me wrong, you don't ask for suffering. You don't look for suffering. You don't go out for suffering. You don't beg for suffering.

But when you encounter it, that is an invitation to draw near.

Why? Because there is nothing like knowing God when he brings you through something.

See, God becomes real when he brings you through something. This is all a nice thing to say. Oh, Lord. Been good to me. Lord, be nice to me. Put bread on my table. Gave me food to eat. You know, he gave me air to breathe. And all that in all. But when he brings you to something that's different.

See, now you are experiencing him at a whole different level. He's brought you through something.

But sometimes what God brings us through can be difficult and painful. More on that. When Dr. Evans continues our message in just a moment.

How well do you know God is in the Clintons or is he at the level of a good friend? Maybe you know him as well as, you know, your spouse. Think about it. How well do you truly know God? Dr. Tony Evans newest book, Knowing God, is about pursuing a connection with the one who can truly meet your physical and emotional needs. Visit Tony Evans, dawg, and get your copy of the book Knowing God, along with a DVD and Bible study. That's a Tony Evans story.

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When we're trying to know God. What people want to know God. And he's taking you through something. He's trying to draw you near. Watch this now, while at the same time he's trying to kill something being conformed with death.

Death is killing some.

If he said sending you through something, there's something in you. He wants to die. There's something in you that he wants to get rid of. There's something in you that he wants to jack up. There's something in you he wants to remove. Wow. You draw near.

You want to know. If you want to know him, he wants to make you like him. Which means he wants to get rid of stuff that's not like him. As he draws you near to him to fellowship with him. As you go through.

Let me see the thumbnail. He wants to kill.

He wants to conform to his death.

You take a fire poker, you put it inside the fire in the fireplace. You watch the tip of it get red. You know what's happening? The fire is rubbing off. On the poker, the fire is rubbing off. You know why it's rubbing off, because that's where the poker is hanging out. C is hanging out in the fire. So the fire rubs off on the poker.

She always is sitting outside the fireplace.

It's different, but once you start letting it hang out inside the fireplace, the suffering of heat rubs off on the poker because with handing out.

So if it doesn't want to get hot, it needs to stay out. Once you put it in, it's gonna get lit up because that's the environment it's hanging out in.

See, the reason why so many of us are not on fire for Jesus is we're not hanging out with him.

So it doesn't rub off on us. We stay outside of the fireplace, but try to get close enough to look like we're in touch with it.

But we never get red hot because we keep safe distance away. He says, I want to fellowship with him. And sometimes that fellowship is in the heat of suffering, but suffering for the believer is never just suffering. It is purposeful to draw us near and to kill someone. And then he closes with this phrase.

In order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead, in order that I may attack.

I'm gonna be conformed to his death.

In order that not just the last day they had an order that I may attain to the resurrection of the dead. Hear me in order that I'm going to fellowship with him doing my bad times.

I'm gonna draw close to him doing my bad times cause he wants to take me deeper with him. In the meantime, he's gonna be killing something.

He wants to get rid of in my life why he's doing all this.

The goal of all is in order that I may attain to the resurrection of the dead. Now, the reason why I'm going over it and over it is this is a unique Greek phrase only found here in the New Testament. This phrase. Attaining to the resurrection of the dead is not found anywhere else is found here. The literal translation is that I may attain to an out of the box resurrection and out of the box or unique resurrection.

That's what the phrase is rendered.

Just couldn't quite figure out just how to phrase that because it's such a unique phrase. And out of the box. What did he think?

Paul is saying to me and to you and to us, I don't want to be an average Christian.

I know while regular, I will super unleaded, I don't just want to be like every other Christian I know. I want to be out of the box. I want to be unique. I want to be special. I want my relationship to God to blow my mind.

I want to be out of the box.

When you put a poker into the fire, the fire rubs off on the poker before you put the poker in the fire. If you touch something with the poker, let go hand.

It's just another piece of metal touches them once you put that baby in the fire.

And they fellowship in the suffering and you bring that they out and touch someone.

You go lights up, Melissa, because the way it's hung out has given it a Powerwall and a fire that's going to affect anything else that gets close to it.

You better stay away from that, Poca, if it painted a fire, unless you want to get lit up, too. You've got to stay away from that Christian, cause if you get too close to them, you're going to start looking like Jesus does that Jesus is gonna rub off on you. You better stay away from that, Christian. You get too close to them and God's going to be all over you. See, the reason why we're safe is because we hung out with pocus like us that are not in the fire.

So we hang out. We hang out with other black Christians. And because they're bland and we're bland, we think bland is normal. We think we must be on top of the world. Cause I'm like everybody else. Paul says, I don't want to be like everybody else. I want to be out of the box, Christian and out of the box saying where the supernatural is all over me. We're just the same. Growing up in the in the old songs, you know, I can feel them in my hand and I could feel them at my feet and I can feel them all over me. That's life and church. But I want to know how you lit up when churches over how you lit up at home. Are you lit up because you want out of the box?

Christian, you're unique. You're one of a kind.

It was 1856 in the year 1856. That was a slave name, Henry Brown.

Henry Brown didn't want to be a slave any longer. He was tired. Henry Brown came up with an idea. Henry Brown got a crate, a box, and he posted it.

He was in Richmond, Virginia. He posted it to an abolitionist in Philadelphia. He put the abolitionist name on the box. He had found out his address and she posted the box to the abolitionists.

Henry Brown got in the box, crouched down and stayed silent for three weeks as the box was shipped from Richmond, Virginia, to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. When it arrived that the abolitionists nor the abolitionists opened the box, out came Henry Brown. Henry Brown said I was a slave. Back in Richmond, Virginia. But I heard you set people free. I heard that you deliver people. So what I did was I went through the suffering and the inconvenience of putting myself in a box, trusting the post office to deliver me to a place where somebody could set me free. And I'm here making myself available to you. The abolitionist says, well, if you were willing to go through that, to leave where you were, right where I am, you are now free at last.

I'd like you to be free. You can stay on a plantation. Talking about you won't be free, but it's gonna be inconvenient to make your way to the one who stops people free. Jesus, who is the Christ, the son of the living God. The question Paul has for us is how bad do you want to know? He says, I don't want to be regular, ordinary. I want to be extraordinary and supernatural. God has somebody here today who wants to be on out of the box. Christian.

If you're ready to be that person, ready to experience the life changing effects of an intimate personal relationship with God. Dr. Tony Evans would love to help you do that. Visit Tony Evans dot org and click on the link that says Jesus. There you'll find helpful information about what it means to be a Christian and some great follow up resources that can help kickstart your new life. While you're there, check for details on getting a copy of today's message to review on your own or pass along to a friend. The title is that I might know him better yet get it as a part of Tony's current teaching series, Knowing God right now for a limited time, you can get all eight messages in this powerful series as our gift, along with a brand new The Power of Knowing God book, study, guide and Companion DVD that was mentioned earlier. All in appreciation for your contribution to help us keep this program coming your way. Call our resource center at one 800 800, 32, 22. To make the arrangements, it's open around the clock. That's one 800 800. Three, two, two, two. Or visit Tony Evans dot org.

Knowing God in your head is pretty easy. But on its own, pretty useless. Join us tomorrow as Dr. Evans talks about getting that knowledge out of your head and into your heart.

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