This morning's sermon title
might contain what the kids would call the "Duh!" factor.
God knows everything, right? So the answer to the question, "How
well does God know you?" would be, "Very." "Duh!" But,
maybe a better question is, "How well do we let God know
us? Do we have that kind of open, growing relationship with Him
where we're allowing God increasingly into the deepest
parts of our lives?" That's the key to spiritual
growth.
The minute Jesus spoke to Nathanael, Nathanael realized something:
He knows me! He really knows me! But Nathanael couldn't
figure out how Jesus knew him. "When did you get to know
me?" he asked. Jesus replied, "Oh, I just saw you
sitting under that tree over there." This was a revelation ... an
epiphany ... The light came on for Nathanael. It was an AHA!
moment. He said, "You're the Son of God." Nathanael
was one of those folks who just blurt things out. But he was
honest.
It's a great thing when we come to know Jesus Christ,
but today's passage is letting us in on a secret. Long
before we knew him, He knew us. He planned for us before the
world started. That's what Ephesians says. It says, "He
destined us in Christ before the world began."
I love that. We're destined. We are not just some sort
of mistake. Sometimes kids who have a brother or sister ten years
older than they are get referred to as an "afterthought." Meet
Erika—she's our little afterthought. I wonder how
that makes Erika feel. In God's great plan, nobody is an
afterthought. He intends each one of us to be here. He's
got a purpose for us, a mission to accomplish. The great tragedy
of grinding poverty and of child abuse is that they threaten
the very plans of God for people. That's why we work against
them.
God also plans for our future all the way to eternity. Just
before Jesus died, He said to his followers, "I go to prepare
a place for you. In my Father's house are many mansions." The
Bible says, "Prepare Ye the way of the Lord," but
there is an even more basic theme of scripture: God prepares
the way for us from beginning to end. In First Corinthians, Paul
says, "While I am here on Earth, I know only in part; in
the world to come, I will know fully even as I have been fully
known." His experience was this: "I don't even begin
to understand everything about God. But I've experienced
enough to realize that God knows me through and through."
What effect does it have on us to grasp this truth? First, it's
a source of joy. Psalm 139 says, "Such knowledge is too
wonderful for me. I can hardly take it in." But we might
wonder, Is it really a good thing that God knows all about me,
including the parts I would rather he didn't know? I don't
mind that he sees me doing good deeds and volunteer work, but
I don't want God to see me kicking the dog or calling my
kids names. I don't want God to be aware of some of my
thoughts, attitudes, addictions and obsessions. Yet the scripture
says all things will come to light, eventually. Our spiritual
growth depends on how honest we can be with God. As we allow
ourselves to be transparent with God, we learn that God isn't
interested in passing judgment or condemning us: He's interested
in making us new creatures in Christ. When we share with Him,
he doesn't love us any less. Bring it all out into the
light; take it to God.
We disclose ourselves at different levels for different situations.
Few people would go to a football game and bare their deepest
souls to those sitting nearest them. Work is often not the
wisest place to tell all either. We might hope that family members
could be entrusted with more information about us, but it's
not always the case. Many an adult has reflected, "If Mom
and Dad ever found out some of the things I did when I was younger,
they would have a fit." A lot of times Mom and Dad were
well aware and just didn't let on.
Is there a safe place? A place to share what's in our
hearts? We might be reluctant to let others know who we are—especially
if we've been hurt, betrayed or even abused by someone
we should have been able to trust completely. We keep others
at a distance. Jesus is that safe place. God is that safe place: "our
refuge from the stormy blast and our eternal home." It's
okay to let God know us. He would never betray us.
So, part of the spiritual life sounds almost like a contradiction.
God knows everything about us, and yet we still need to tell
God more and more about ourselves. It isn't for His benefit,
it's for our benefit. There are many people with no relationship
with God at all. God still knows all about them, but no true
relationship can be a one-way street. We need to let God more
and more into our lives. Opening ourselves to God and others
is always a risk. I have a theory about why Nathanael made that
famous statement, "Can anything good come from Nazareth?" He
was trying to protect himself! He didn't want to be disappointed.
He'd been waiting and hoping all his life for the Messiah.
Now his friend Phillip said, "Guess what? He's here!
No more waiting." Nathanael's biggest dream had
come true—But should he let himself believe it? A lot of
what seems to be skepticism and unbelief is just people trying
to protect themselves from further disappointment.
Recently on the Today Show there was the story of a group of
fraternity guys who played an elaborate but terrible trick on
one of their brothers. They made a fake video of the lottery
numbers being announced and ran it on TV while this poor fellow
was watching. They had also somehow arranged with a local convenience
store to sell him the "winning" ticket before they
showed fake video! This guy went crazy when he thought he'd
won the lottery. Imagine what it would be like if you were that
convinced only to be told it was all a joke. You'd think
the guy would want to keep away from these so-called brothers.
The most amazing part of the story was they were all not only
still talking to each other—they were best of friends! The
victim of that practical joke ought to be a candidate for sainthood.
God knows us through and through, but we can deprive ourselves
of the pure joy of that by walling parts of ourselves off from
God. The Psalmist, it seems, thought that he could hide parts
of himself from God. "Where can I flee from your presence?" Where
in the world could I run to get away from God? Nowhere, of course,
but sometimes we try. C.S. Lewis called his autobiography Surprised
by Joy. He writes of fleeing from God, but getting nowhere. Finally
God poured out this joy, this love on him. C.S. Lewis felt like
he'd finally been caught—but it wasn't a bad
thing, it was a good thing.
Some of us have been in the following situation: We tried to
debate someone into having faith in God. We marshaled all our
best arguments together and tried to convince by logic. Did it
ever work? I don't think so. Phillip didn't fall
into that trap. When Nathanael raised the question about Nazareth,
Phillip could have given him the top ten reasons why, but he
didn't. He just said "Come and see." He could
have bullied Nathanael into agreement, but he didn't. What
did he say? "Come and see." Jesus isn't an
argument to be won. He is a Savior to be known and followed.
How well does God know us? Very well indeed. And He's
calling us into ever-deeper relationship with Himself. By our
lives of intimacy with God, we too will to others, "Come
and see."
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