Title: I Believe in God, But Don t Fear Him

Ipswich Lutheran Church A 32 Roderick Street, Ipswich, QLD, 4305 W www.ilp.org.au P 07 3202 4035 F 07 3281 9762 Date: 19/07/2015 Series: Practical Atheist Part: 4 Title: I Believe in God, But Don t Fear Him Author: Ben Hentschke All scripture references are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV 2011 unless otherwise indicated. The material for this message is obtained from a variety of sources. If any individual s copyright has been dishonoured, please contact us to have this acknowledged or removed. 1 P a g e

Practical Atheist Part 4 I Believe in God, But Don t Fear Him We are into our final week of our series called Practical Atheist. If you are new with us, you may be wondering what in the world is a practical atheist? Well if you are taking notes via your bulletin handout this morning, a practical atheist is someone who BELIEVES in God, but LIVES as if He does not exist. I want to open with scripture from Titus where Paul was talking about some practical atheists and he says: They claim to know God but by their actions they deny Him. (Titus 1:16). They believe in Him but yet their actions show clearly that they live as if He does not exist. What are they? Pauls says: They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good. (Titus 1:16) They are practical atheists. They claim to know God but by their actions they deny Him. We know that around 85% of Australians believe in God or some universal spirit, but as we look at these 85% of Australians, we know very plainly that all of them do not know God personally. They may believe in God, but they don t know Him. Really, the whole of this series is rooted in the question, do you really personally know God. If we go back to the first week, we studied the truth that many people know that many people believe in God, but they don t fear Him. They believe in God and they still want to do whatever it is that they want to do. They re not going to let God impact on their personal lives. Why is that the case? Because they don t really know Him. If they knew Him, they would fear Him. In week 2, I believe in God, but don t want to take Him too seriously, I don t want to go overboard and so many people are lukewarm. Why? Because they don t really know Him. If they knew Him, they would be on fire. Week 3, I believe in God, yet I trust in money. Why do people trust money to provide them with security and happiness? Because they don t really know God. If they knew Him, they wouldn t trust in something else to provide what only God can provide. I believe in God, but so many people would have to admit, I don t know Him. In fact, just the thought of knowing God relationally for many people is hard to swallow. It s because often at times we don t understand that there are different levels on knowing. What I would like to do today is to break down really the truth of not just believing in God, but knowing Him into three different levels and my hope is that you will honestly admit when you are and where you are might be slightly painful if you are truly honest. But in that honesty, I believe that God can do something because He doesn t just want us to believe in Him, but he wants us to also know Him. So the first of the 3 levels is this. Some people they believe in God, but they don t KNOW Him. And you might say, isn t that enough? I mean, I believe in God. Well James said of the demons, that they believe in God, but at least they even shudder. Today we have a lot of people who believe in God and they might be what we would call a cultural Christian. You know, my mum was a Catholic and my dad was Anglican, and so I m kind of confused, but we do go to Christmas Eve services once a year. We do good things as well. 2 P a g e

I believe in God, but these people don t often know God and what happens is their actions reveal the lack of intimate knowledge. Scripture says: We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. Whoever says, I know him, but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. (1 John 2:3-4) We can recognise that we know Him if we obey His commands, but today we have so many people who say I believe in Him but their actions deny that He really exists. There is no outward obedience and they are liars, it may not be that they are intentionally lying, but scripture says they are lying. The reality is that there are a lot of people who do know something about God. They know about Him, but they don t know Him. There are people that can quote Bible verses and historical facts and they have a head knowledge but not a heart relationship, and the sad thing is there would be a lot of people who might miss knowing God by about 50cm. A knowledge here, but not a knowledge here. One of the most sobering verses is in Matthew 7, where Jesus says: Not everyone who says to me Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive our demons and in your name perform many miracles? (Matthew 7:21-23) In our culture it could be didn t we go to Sunday School when we were kids? Didn t we get confirmed, Didn t we get our kid s baptised in church? Didn t we do some good things? Weren t we nice people? Weren t we generally moral? Didn t we give a few bucks to the Salvo s? Didn t we generally do more good things than bad things and Jesus will look at some and Tell them plainly, I never knew you, Away from me, you evildoers! (Matthew 7:23) I believe that there are so many people, good people, who believe in God but do not know Him personally. Some of you, you re going to have to admit that is where you are. You believe in Him, but He s not the driving force in everything you do. You may even look the part. Others may call you a Christian. You believe in Him, but you don t know Him. If that is you, acknowledge it, and I believe the Spirit of God can transform your life. The second group that I am going to talk about may be a lot of you, and that is those who believe in God and they KNOW him, but don t know Him WELL. They believe in God, and they know Him kind of, sort of, but not well. Think of your favourite footy player. If you don t follow the Queensland Maroons, then we will have opportunity later in the service where you can receive prayer. But think of your favourite sports person. You might know their height, their age, their marital status, their jersey number, the number of tries they ve scored, goals they ve kicked or shot, the amount of games they ve played and their hair colour. I tell you what, though, while you might think you know them, you really don t know them at all. Many of you have probably never spoken to them in person, spent time with them. And that s just the way it is sometimes with God. We know a bit about Him, you might have a kind of basic understanding, but you don t know Him well. You have some knowledge of Him, but He has not changed you. What I could say is this: You ve been informed by God, but not transformed by Him. You re informed, but not transformed. You might know him like your favourite sports person, but you haven t been radically, fanatically, changed by Him. 3 P a g e

There was a little bit of this going on in Galatia when Paul wrote this letter to some people who were trapped in legalism. They knew God, but not well enough, which caused them to get sucked back into the weak and miserable principles of legalism. And so Paul said this: Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods. But now that you know God or rather are known by God how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable forces? (Galatians 4:8-9) You know God, but not well enough to keep you out of those things that are not going to help you at all. There are those who believe in God, but don t know Him and some of you, you would acknowledge truthfully, that is me. There are some of you who believe in God, and you kinda, sort of know Him, but not well. Now there is a third group and it is my prayer that all of you would grow to this point and that would be those who believe in God, know Him INTIMATELY and SERVE Him wholeheartedly. You might ask, what does it look like to know God intimately? Just the fact that you might ask that question probably reveals the reality that you don t know that kind of intimacy, and to be honest, it is difficult to describe. What it means for me is that I am becoming more and more aware of God with me all the time. There is an increasing awareness of the presence, the provision, the power and the peace of God. It s not like God s there and I m here and every now and then I throw a prayer His way, but it is more of an ongoing conversation. It s being not led by sight, but led by the Spirit of God and it s doing life with God. It s knowing Him and serving Him wholeheartedly. Psalm 63 shows us the intimate knowledge of David, as he expresses how knowing God, it creates a longing for even more of knowing God. In verse 1: You God, are my God, He s saying you re not somebody else s God I heard about, you are mine. Earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water. (Psalm 63:1) In this world there is nothing that satisfies me God, that s why I need you. He continues and says I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory. (Psalm 63:2) I ve seen you. I know you. I know what you re like and your power and your glory are greater than anything I could ever imagine and describe. Then he goes on to say Your love is better than life. Think about that for a minute. Your love is better than living today. Your love is better than life and my lips will glorify you. I can t be quiet about you now. My lips are going to declare your goodness. David goes on to say: I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands. (Psalm 63:3-4) So how well do you know God? Those who know Him by name trust in Him. If you believe in Him and don t trust Him it s because you don t know Him. So how do you get to know Him? Well that s the easiest part. If you seek Him you will find Him. 4 P a g e

He says it over and over and over again. If you seek me, you will find me. Open your bible up and seek Him. Open it up and seek Him. Open your Bible up and seek Him and if you re hungry, He will feed you. And if you re thirsty, He will give you something to drink. If you seek Him, you will find Him because He longs to reveal Himself to you. I truly believe that God wants to reveal himself to you through our upcoming Transformed campaign. Starting in just 2 weeks time not next Sunday, but the Sunday following, on the 2 nd August, I truly believe that God will reveal himself as together, as one church, we grow in Him, as we seek Him and become transformed in 7 specific areas of our lives. You see, my concern over the past few weeks, as we have journeyed through this Practical Atheist series is that each week, many of you have been saying, Great message Pastor, Great Word. But I am worried. Worried because I think it goes in, and then as soon as you step outside of those doors, it s like it s just going out the other side. This week, again in your bulletin you will have found a commitment card, a sign-up sheet, whatever you might like to call it. I encourage you to spend the next few moments filling that out to commit to taking part in this transformed church-wide challenge together. It money is an issue and that is what is preventing you from singing up then I will give you a book for free. I will give it away, why, because I believe that you will be transformed through this series, and for many of you, that is an excuse, it is not the real reason why you are not going to take part in this challenge. I think the issue is our priorities we say we believe in God, but our diaries don t reflect that to be true in our lives. We say we believe in God, but we spend more time watching TV than we do reading the bible, or communicating with Him in prayer. We say we believe in God, but it is more important we watch the Broncos win this afternoon than spending time with Him, and seeking Him first in our lives. I challenge you to not be a practical atheist. For 7 weeks from the 2 nd August, take part in the short daily readings, even better, block out a night a week to join a connect group where you can get together with others and grow even more, digging deeper into what it means to be transformed, and growing in relationship with others. Surely God is more than just an hour on a Sunday morning. Sometimes we call them Sunday morning Christians maybe we should term that line instead to Sunday morning atheists. As you spend your time right now, filling out the sign-up card, and the ushers are available at the back of the church with more if you need them if you want to sign-up twice, or maybe you want to sign-up on behalf of a friend (And if you are buying a book for your friend, please just indicate that on the form). You can also fill out the sign-up form on our website the address is on the screen. For those of you who have already filled one out we are going to spend the next few minutes reflecting on a song that I heard on the radio recently, and I thought it fit in well with our series on Practical Atheist. It s called Tonight by Flame and JR. *Tonight Video 5 P a g e

So, here s the close. The close to the whole series and if God has been speaking to you and rattling you throughout the series, this has been my prayer for you each and every day, my prayer for the church. You can find this same prayer in Ephesians 1:17-19. Let s pray: I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation so that you may know Him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in His holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. (Ephesians 1:17-19). Amen. 6 P a g e