Do you think it s possible to truly know someone without interacting with them?

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1 Faithful Faithful God Series: Faithfulness of God (Part 1) Naomi Cassata People are described in various ways: sweet, grumpy, loud, playful. We come to know each other through our interactions with each other. We can even discover what s hidden inside our hearts through new experiences good or bad. Do you think it s possible to truly know someone without interacting with them? My husband will often tell me conversations he s had with people at work. I ve come to know a little about their families, and some of their likes and dislikes. But to say I know them would be false. I know about the President and a few details about his life, but I don t really know his person the inner man. This is why interaction is so important. It allows us to better understand a person. Doing life with people gives us insight into the person s heart. We get a close up look into their desires, feelings, thoughts and character. There has to be deeper level of intimacy to truly connect. A bunch of facts about a person is no relationship at all. In the same way, a head knowledge of God, will not suffice. Our heads can be full of Biblical knowledge about God, but we can still not know Him. Someone can quote whole chapters of the Bible, interact with other Christians, participate in church activities, and attend worship service every week and still not really know God. Having a list of facts about God, and doing good things is not the same as knowing God. These things can certainly be an outpouring of knowing Him, but should never be the basis of knowing Him. Unfortunately, many people are satisfied with viewing God from this perch-never tasting the authenticity of a heart relationship with Him. Listen to this statement: A head knowledge of God is not the same as knowing God. Do you agree with the above statement? Why or why not? We see this with the Pharisees and Sadducees of Jesus day. They were taught the law from an early age and strutted their so-called devotion to God quite well. At least they had the common people of the day fooled. That was until Jesus came on the scene and exposed their hypocrisy. He not only explained but showed what it meant to know and love God, from the heart. What about Jesus life (words or actions) revealed His devotion to His Father?

2 Jesus showed what it really meant to know God. The religious leaders were counterfeit followers of God. It took Jesus coming to earth for us to see what it means to be a genuine follower of God. So what does this all have to do with God s faithfulness? Glad you asked. In the same way I can never really know someone I ve never met, neither can we fully grasp the faithfulness of God unless we first see our need for Him. The term, God is faithful, is a phrase people throw around loosely. We, Amen it, not really believing. It s almost like someone from Chicago saying, to this Florida native, Chicago is freezing cold in winter. There is depth to their voice, pain in their words, and suffering on their face. They are expressing to me something they have experienced firsthand. Growing up in Florida, I have no clue what it s like. I shrug my shoulders and say Ok not really comprehending the depth they are talking from. I will never know cold like that person unless I go their myself. My family and I recently moved from Florida to Kentucky. It is not only beautiful here, but it has four seasons! My husband and I hear people complain about the humidity. We can t help but laugh. The humidity in Florida is heavy stuff. You have to sprint from your car to your home before you break out into a sweat. No kidding! But no one can relate unless they ve experienced a Florida July and August for themselves. I ve met people in life who have had a tough life and made choices that have effected their lives horribly. However, they have been showered with God s mercy and grace and are compelled to reach out to others who have found themselves in the same horrible place, with the same grace and love they have received from God. Read the following passages: Luke 7:36-50 Reread verse forty-seven. Why did she show so much love to Jesus? She had certainly experienced God s grace and love. It shows beautifully throw her actions.

3 Have you met someone who has experienced God s mercy, faithfulness, forgiveness, love, etc., in a way that has changed the direction of their life drastically? Explain. Experiencing God in a personal way, that lines up with scripture, gives us a deeper understanding of who He is. As Christians, we would never appreciate or know the mercy of God, unless we experienced it first hand for ourselves. Now we know God s mercy, we also know His compassion and love for mankind. There s something about experiencing it for ourselves. If you were to describe God in one word, what would it be? Why did you choose that word? Is God more than a far off being you read about in a book written thousands of years ago? He has revealed Himself to mankind through scripture, through His Son, through His Spirit, and through circumstances in our lives. He reveals to us the truth of His word through our lives. Let s zero in on His faithfulness. Throughout both the Old and New Testament, God is referred to as: Faithful. The most meaningful Hebrew word for the word faith is aman, a root word for faith that signifies support, stability, and reliability. In other words, to uphold or support. You might envision a bridge being upheld by concrete and steel designed columns, or a roof being held up by sturdy beams; perhaps even a child being upheld in their father s strong arms. It denotes solidity and firmness. This is God s faithfulness. It is reliable, constant, and sustaining. Let me share something personal with you. A few years back I experienced a very difficult valley in my life: depression/anxiety after the birth of two of my children, the latter being the more difficult. During this time, the nearness of God that I had known for years was nowhere to be found. This was something I had never experienced before. I felt like a million miles away from Him. Depression strips you of all hope, lying, by telling you that you will always be like this, and God has left you. Although I could not sense His nearness to me, time-and-time-again, I was reminded of His promises: He would restore me (Jeremiah 29:14), He has gone before me (Isaiah 52:12), He has hedged me before and behind (Psalm 139:5), and many more that I clung to daily. Because I felt distant from God, I didn t have the peaceful assurance that these promises were true. I relied solely on the truth of His word, and His Faithfulness to His people throughout the Bible. If He was faithful to bring Joseph through his furnace experience, then He had to be faithful to me,

4 was my reasoning. All that was left for me to do was wait. Wait to see if He would be faithful to me in the same way. As the Lord began to walk me out of this deep valley, the hopelessness began to lift. The fears waned. I look over that difficult experience I went through and can testify firsthand that He is a God who is faithful. He never let me go. He upheld me and brought relief to my darkest days. And here I am now, conveying the best way I can, that God is faithful! I know, I ve experienced it in the heat of the furnace, with no other hope, but God s strong upholding hand. It s one thing to say your faith is in God when all things are good; it s another to actually rely on God s faithfulness when the storms of life are beating down. Read Deuteronomy 7:7-9. God spoke this to His people Israel. What do you come to understand about God, based on these scriptures? Is knowing that God is faithful just a term to you, or have you come to know His faithfulness, personally? Explain. Look again at Deuteronomy 7:9. What phrase is used to describe God? God had given a promise to the patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God was to make a great nation from their descendants. Here are His exact words previously given to Abraham, I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heavens, and all this land of which I have spoken I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever. (Exodus 32:13). Did God multiply Abraham s decedents? Did God give Abraham s decedents the land that He spoke of? Today one of the greatest nations on earth is the nation of Israel. He fulfilled His promise to Abraham. Through this revelation of God s faithfulness to the nation Israel, what can we conclude about the rest of God s spoken word? Numbers 23:19 says, God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?

5 We can t view God as we do man. Mankind is born with the will to sin from the beginning. Even as Christians, there is a drawing to sinful pleasures. A stumbling, if you will, that we face regularly. To relate God with man s nature will give an inadequate understanding of His character. We must see God through His word and His doings in the lives of people. Then we will discover the truth of who He is. When God says something, it s as good as if He has already done it. His word is that pure. Psalm 12:6-7 reads, The words of the LORD are pure words; As silver tried in a furnace on the earth, refined seven times. You, O Lord, will keep them; You will preserve him from this generation forever. How would you describe something pure? Unadulterated. Clean. Without blemish. This is God s word. His words are not tainted with sin. Man will lie, deceive, stretch the truth, say one thing and mean another. It comes natural for humans to sin. This is not so with God. He does none of these things because sin cannot be found in Him. He speaks from what is inside. Refining silver is a process that removes the impurities from the metal. The outcome is a product purer and costlier. There is significance and influence found in it now. In verse six, the Psalmist tries to emphasize the purity of God s word by comparing it to silver refined not once, but seven times. Silver is considered pure after the first firing. To refine seven times leaves no chance that any impurity can remain. It is pure to the core. This is God s word His promises to us. Look at verse seven again. What will God keep? Our God doesn t say things loosely. He says what He means and means what He says. We can rest assured that He will keep and fulfill all He has promised. There is no deceit or impurity found in His mouth, only truth, of the purest kind. If He has spoken it, He will do it. He is a faithful God who brings about what He has spoken. Who fulfills his word to us in His time and in His way. Who remains faithful to the end of time.