Sermon Recap May 10
Do You Really Know God? Beyond Religion to Relationship
There's a question that deserves our honest attention, one that might make us uncomfortable but is essential to ask: Do I really know God?
It's not enough to know facts about God—His attributes, His works in history, the stories in Scripture. The critical distinction is this: Do you know God as He intends to be known, or have you settled for simply knowing about Him?
This isn't just a question for those exploring faith for the first time. It's a vital question for anyone who calls themselves a Christian. Because somewhere along the way, it's possible to confuse intimate knowledge of God with mere religious activity. We can mistake our participation in church for a genuine relationship with our Creator.
The Danger of Confusing Religion with Relationship
Consider the Apostle Paul's encounter with the philosophers of Athens, recorded in Acts 17:16-34. Paul found himself in a city "wholly given to idolatry," filled with altars to countless gods—including one dedicated "to the unknown God."
The irony wasn't lost on Paul. Here were people deeply religious, committed to their practices, careful not to miss any deity. Yet for all their religious devotion, they didn't know the one true God.
Paul's message to them cuts to the heart of our modern struggle: You cannot know God through the works of human hands. You can only know God through what God has made and what God has done.
This truth confronts us today. How often do we take pride in our church buildings, our traditions, our consistent attendance, our knowledge of Scripture—all good things—yet somehow miss the God these things are meant to point us toward?
When Good Things Become Idols
Churches do many good things. Christians accomplish much. We have beautiful sanctuaries, rich traditions, and meaningful practices. But here's the sobering reality: the enemy wants to turn what the gospel intends to be a relationship into mere religion.
He wants us to base our faith on our work, our practice, our buildings, our style of worship, our theological precision. He wants us to pride ourselves on what we do and what we have, because the more we focus on the things we've built with our hands, the more consistently we'll miss the One we're supposed to be doing it all for.
Imagine standing before God on judgment day, pointing to your Bible reading, your church attendance, your service record, your doctrinal knowledge—only to hear the devastating words: "Depart from me, I never knew you."
The works of our hands, no matter how religious, cannot substitute for knowing God through the work of His hands in Jesus Christ.
The World's Greatest Problem
Paul revealed to the Athenians—and reveals to us—that the world's greatest problem isn't that God is unknowable. God designed us to know Him. The world's greatest problem is that we don't really want to know God.
Why? Because when we truly know God for who He is, we must confront who we really are. When we see the beauty of God, we see the filthiness of self. When we encounter the glory of God, we face the brokenness of our own hearts. When we stand before the sinless perfection of God, we cannot escape the sinful nature of our own flesh.
This is why even as believers, we continue to struggle. We walked through the church doors this morning still battling sin, still wrestling with addictions, still distracted from our God-given purpose—not because God is distant, but because we're reluctant to fully and truly know Him.
Blind and Groping in the Dark
Paul used a powerful image from Greek literature to describe humanity's condition. He referenced the story of the Cyclops—a blinded, one-eyed monster groping around in darkness, desperately searching for what he cannot find.
In our sin, we are just as unseeing as that blinded Cyclops. We instinctively know God is there—we were created in His image, after all—but because of sin, we're blind, groping around with our philosophies and worldviews, desperately searching for what we cannot find on our own.
It's a desperate situation. All our human efforts, all our religious striving, all our philosophical searching amounts to nothing more than blind monsters feeling around in a dark cave.
The Gift of Sight
But here's the good news—the gospel in its purest form: Jesus gives sight to the blind.
"I once was blind, but now I see." What makes that miracle possible? Amazing grace.
Apart from the finished work of Jesus, we would remain nothing more than blind monsters groping in darkness. But the gospel—the good news of Jesus—gives us sight. Sight to see our own sinfulness, yes, but more importantly, sight to see the God who created us to know Him.
From the beginning, God's plan was clear. We all descended from one man, Adam, and our blindness came from that one man. But the cure for our blindness is found in one man—the greater Adam, Jesus—who lived a sinless life and died the death we deserved so that we might know God.
Which Group Are You In?
When Paul preached on Mars Hill, many in his audience refused to believe. They mocked the message of resurrection and rejected the gospel. But some believed. Some responded to the truth and entered into a relationship with the living God.
The most important question you'll ever answer is this: Which group are you in?
Are you walking around in the blindness of religion, participating in decades of church activity while somehow missing the point? Or have you truly believed? Do you genuinely know God as He intends to be known?
And if you do know Him, is there still work to be done? Are there dark corners of your heart where you've yet to allow the gospel's transforming power to work? Are you allowing the gospel to work not just in you, but through you?
An Invitation to Know
God is not distant. He is not unknowable. He has made Himself known through His Son, Jesus Christ. He invites you into a relationship that transcends religious activity, that goes deeper than tradition, that matters more than any work you could accomplish with your own hands.
The question remains: Do you really know God?
Not as a theological concept. Not as a religious figure. Not as the subject of your Bible study or the object of your church attendance.
Do you know God as Father? Do you know Jesus as your Savior, your King, your Lord?
This is what it means to be a Christian—not to have a different set of rules, but to have a new heart. And a new heart changes everything.
There's a question that deserves our honest attention, one that might make us uncomfortable but is essential to ask: Do I really know God?
It's not enough to know facts about God—His attributes, His works in history, the stories in Scripture. The critical distinction is this: Do you know God as He intends to be known, or have you settled for simply knowing about Him?
This isn't just a question for those exploring faith for the first time. It's a vital question for anyone who calls themselves a Christian. Because somewhere along the way, it's possible to confuse intimate knowledge of God with mere religious activity. We can mistake our participation in church for a genuine relationship with our Creator.
The Danger of Confusing Religion with Relationship
Consider the Apostle Paul's encounter with the philosophers of Athens, recorded in Acts 17:16-34. Paul found himself in a city "wholly given to idolatry," filled with altars to countless gods—including one dedicated "to the unknown God."
The irony wasn't lost on Paul. Here were people deeply religious, committed to their practices, careful not to miss any deity. Yet for all their religious devotion, they didn't know the one true God.
Paul's message to them cuts to the heart of our modern struggle: You cannot know God through the works of human hands. You can only know God through what God has made and what God has done.
This truth confronts us today. How often do we take pride in our church buildings, our traditions, our consistent attendance, our knowledge of Scripture—all good things—yet somehow miss the God these things are meant to point us toward?
When Good Things Become Idols
Churches do many good things. Christians accomplish much. We have beautiful sanctuaries, rich traditions, and meaningful practices. But here's the sobering reality: the enemy wants to turn what the gospel intends to be a relationship into mere religion.
He wants us to base our faith on our work, our practice, our buildings, our style of worship, our theological precision. He wants us to pride ourselves on what we do and what we have, because the more we focus on the things we've built with our hands, the more consistently we'll miss the One we're supposed to be doing it all for.
Imagine standing before God on judgment day, pointing to your Bible reading, your church attendance, your service record, your doctrinal knowledge—only to hear the devastating words: "Depart from me, I never knew you."
The works of our hands, no matter how religious, cannot substitute for knowing God through the work of His hands in Jesus Christ.
The World's Greatest Problem
Paul revealed to the Athenians—and reveals to us—that the world's greatest problem isn't that God is unknowable. God designed us to know Him. The world's greatest problem is that we don't really want to know God.
Why? Because when we truly know God for who He is, we must confront who we really are. When we see the beauty of God, we see the filthiness of self. When we encounter the glory of God, we face the brokenness of our own hearts. When we stand before the sinless perfection of God, we cannot escape the sinful nature of our own flesh.
This is why even as believers, we continue to struggle. We walked through the church doors this morning still battling sin, still wrestling with addictions, still distracted from our God-given purpose—not because God is distant, but because we're reluctant to fully and truly know Him.
Blind and Groping in the Dark
Paul used a powerful image from Greek literature to describe humanity's condition. He referenced the story of the Cyclops—a blinded, one-eyed monster groping around in darkness, desperately searching for what he cannot find.
In our sin, we are just as unseeing as that blinded Cyclops. We instinctively know God is there—we were created in His image, after all—but because of sin, we're blind, groping around with our philosophies and worldviews, desperately searching for what we cannot find on our own.
It's a desperate situation. All our human efforts, all our religious striving, all our philosophical searching amounts to nothing more than blind monsters feeling around in a dark cave.
The Gift of Sight
But here's the good news—the gospel in its purest form: Jesus gives sight to the blind.
"I once was blind, but now I see." What makes that miracle possible? Amazing grace.
Apart from the finished work of Jesus, we would remain nothing more than blind monsters groping in darkness. But the gospel—the good news of Jesus—gives us sight. Sight to see our own sinfulness, yes, but more importantly, sight to see the God who created us to know Him.
From the beginning, God's plan was clear. We all descended from one man, Adam, and our blindness came from that one man. But the cure for our blindness is found in one man—the greater Adam, Jesus—who lived a sinless life and died the death we deserved so that we might know God.
Which Group Are You In?
When Paul preached on Mars Hill, many in his audience refused to believe. They mocked the message of resurrection and rejected the gospel. But some believed. Some responded to the truth and entered into a relationship with the living God.
The most important question you'll ever answer is this: Which group are you in?
Are you walking around in the blindness of religion, participating in decades of church activity while somehow missing the point? Or have you truly believed? Do you genuinely know God as He intends to be known?
And if you do know Him, is there still work to be done? Are there dark corners of your heart where you've yet to allow the gospel's transforming power to work? Are you allowing the gospel to work not just in you, but through you?
An Invitation to Know
God is not distant. He is not unknowable. He has made Himself known through His Son, Jesus Christ. He invites you into a relationship that transcends religious activity, that goes deeper than tradition, that matters more than any work you could accomplish with your own hands.
The question remains: Do you really know God?
Not as a theological concept. Not as a religious figure. Not as the subject of your Bible study or the object of your church attendance.
Do you know God as Father? Do you know Jesus as your Savior, your King, your Lord?
This is what it means to be a Christian—not to have a different set of rules, but to have a new heart. And a new heart changes everything.
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