Today we are going to continue on with the message we started last week.
“Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”
John 17: 3
We learned that we can only know God if we have an intimate relationship with Jesus. The coming of Jesus Christ is the revelation of God the Father, Jesus is the image of the invisible God, and in Jesus all divinity of God dwells in a bodily form.
We also learned that there is a big difference between knowing God and knowing about his existence.
Jesus said that the world does not know God. The vast majority of people in this world know there is a God, they go to church on Sundays. Many even admire God, they like God, cry out to Him when they are in despair, in need, and even honor God with their words. But their heart is far away from God.
Those who do not know God live in ignorance, in disobedience, they have proud hearts, do not know the way of humility, do not know the way of love, cannot forgive when they are offended, are not faithful to their spouses, are not faithful in their church and are a long way from knowing God.
The sign of a Christian who knows God is in the transformation of his old life and old nature. Knowing God and having an intimate relationship with Jesus transforms us.
Many think that by doing good works or being involved in the church, they are getting to know God and are pleasing Him. However, remember that good works do not save anyone and even our good works do not bring us closer to God.
Only our daily relationship and our faith in Him can transform our lives.
Our attitudes show whether we know God or not! So good works will come as a result of our relationship with God through Jesus.
Many Christians have a lifestyle that the Bible does not approve of and many are living outside of God’s standards.
Make no mistake: God loves you, but He does not approve of your bad conduct and your life of sin. He loves you but whatever you sow, you will reap! I love my children, but it is not my love that will determine their future, but the choices they will make during their life.
“Come back to your senses as you ought, and stop sinning; for there are some who are ignorant of God — I say this to your shame. ”
1 Corinthians 15:34
God’s word is clear: many are sinning because they do not have the knowledge of God.
God is exhorting us: stop sinning, recover common sense, have the mind of Christ to discern good from evil, set the holy and the profane apart, have good sense in knowing God and knowing that God does not approves of sin.
The apostle Paul wrote this message to the Corinthian church, he was drawing the attention of the church, saying: I say this to your shame – that is to say-, it is a shame that many are in the church but have no knowledge of God and live in their old ways.
Let’s read another text.
“They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good. ”
Titus 1:16
I always hear people saying: I am very grateful for God, I am grateful for the church, the brothers of the church, for my work, my family, wife, husband and son, I am grateful for my pastor.
Words mean nothing if we don’t have the attitude. The Bible states that your actions deny that you know God and you are deceiving yourself.
How can you say that you are very grateful for God but do not develop an intimacy with him, do not have time to pray, do not read his word, do not return tithes or offerings to God!
He says he is very grateful for God but does not come to services, does not come to the prayer meetings, does not come to cell meetings, does not give satisfaction to his spiritual leaders and does not honor his pastors. At home, children disobey their parents, people don’t honour their boss at work, they complain about their work, complain about the Government, live bitterly and do not forgive offenses.
All these attitudes deny that you know God, because Jesus said that the tree is known by its fruit. In other words, your personal relationship with Jesus will lead you to produce the Fruits of the Holy Spirit which are Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Faithfulness, Meekness and Self-Control. If you know God and you know Jesus Christ these fruits are in your life!
“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
The greatest proof that we know God is obedience to his commandments. Jesus is the truth, and if we walk in truth and in obedience, it proves that we know him.
Not knowing God will have consequences for our lives.
“He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.”
2 Thessalonians 1: 8
Not knowing God brings eternal punishment and eternal separation from God. This will happen for all those who do not know God, and also for those who hear but do not obey. For those who do not obey, one day Jesus will say: I never knew you, you will be set aside for eternal fire.
“They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might”
2 Thessalonians 1: 9
Beware, it is not God who rejects us! God loves us, He has the best for us, He has good plans for all of us, but it is our choices and decisions that will determine our future.
God gave us salvation but we did not accept his salvation, God gave us his grace, his love, his goodness, but we decided to live by satisfying the will of our flesh.
He revealed himself through Christ, but we reject Christ as our Lord and Savior we reject knowing him and being transformed by the Holy Spirit.
And by rejecting God and His Word, we will reap bitter fruit.
Remember that eternal life, or salvation, is this, knowing God and knowing Christ. So we need to know Christ.
So how can we know Christ?
The apostle Paul teaches us that knowing Christ is also a mystery.
“To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glori-ous riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
Colossians 1:27
What’s the mystery here?
The word apostle Paul uses here is “Christ hidden”
In other words: Christ is the mystery of God that has been revealed.
And the church is the mystery of Christ revealed.
Then, Christ is hidden and will be revealed or seen through the Church.
People had to look to Jesus to see God.
In the same way, the world has to look at us and see Jesus.
The world will only know Jesus through the Church, through you and I. This world is lost and the only hope for salvation is Christ in you!
Christ in you is the hope of glory, hope for you and hope for the lost.
“I in them and you in me — so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you feel me and have loved them even as you have loved me. ”
John 17:23
You and I need to understand this, if Jesus is not in us, nobody will be converted and nobody will be saved, that’s why Jesus said, you can do nothing without me, there is absolutely nothing we can do.
Here is the reason why we cannot win anyone for Jesus. We cannot pray, read the Bible, we cannot disciple people, we do not speak of the love of Jesus, we become lazy in attending meetings and we often make excuses.
Paul the Apostle said,
“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. Galatians 2:20
When we know God, Jesus begins to live through our lives.
That is why the Bible teaches us: Fill yourself with the Holy Spirit, be one with Christ, be filled with love, have a life of holiness, have compassion, have mercy on people. When Jesus looked at that crowd that had no pastor, he was filled with compassion,
Is Christ living in you and through you? Can people around you see Jesus through your actions?
“Because you are his sounds, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out,“ Abba, Father. ””
Galatians 4: 6
The Holy Spirit lives in our hearts. Through Him we have intimacy with the Father, our dear Father. It is through him that you will love the lost, you will have hunger and desire to be in the presence of the Father and you will have passion for Jesus.
The Kingdom of God is within us to be one with Jesus. Jesus said: I in them and you in me so that the world may believe that you sent me.
If you understood this mystery today, that church would be different, Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Unfortunately, many do not know God and are not transformed. We need to understand that we are transformed from glory to glory in the image of the Lord Jesus.
“For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.”
Romans 8:29
Jesus is the image of the Father and we are the image of Jesus. He predestined us to be like Jesus.
Pastor Márcio always preaches, teaching us that people have to see Jesus in us, in our work, in schools, at home, our friends, our relatives need to see Jesus in us, or they will not be saved.
Monaghan will be saved if people see Jesus in us. They need to see that there is something different about this church, they need to see the love of Jesus in their life.
Jesus said: learn from me that I am meek and humble in heart. When we know God and have the revelation that Christ lives in us, then you become meek, humble, patient, have self-control and have the fruit of the Spirit in your life.
When this church is one with Christ and Jesus lives in us, this city will be transformed, our families will see Christ, our friends, the world will see Jesus Christ, people will be saved, people will be healed, they will be released, people will repent of their sins.
For the same Spirit that was on Jesus is in you and me, dwelling in our hearts.
“But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowled-ge of him everywhere. For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. ”
2 Corinthians 2: 14-15
The Bible says that Christ in you exhales the fragrance of his knowledge everywhere.
When Jesus is in me and you, the world will have knowledge through us, that is, you are the good perfume that exhales the love and knowledge of Jesus, we are the aroma of Christ.
My beloved brothers, we will only be used by God if you deny yourself and let Christ live in you, without Christ in us, we are nothing:
- In Christ, God leads us victoriously.
- In Christ, with Christ our life is hidden.
- In Christ, we are new creatures.
- In Christ, we were reconciled.
- In Christ, we are more than winners.
- In Christ, we are the righteousness of God.
- In Christ, we have peace with God.
- In Christ, we have peace in God.
- In Christ, we are healed.
- In Christ, we are forgiven.
- In Christ, we are blessed.
- In Christ, we are made children of God.
- In Christ, there is no condemnation.
- In Christ, we have eternal life, we have salvation!
We are what we are because of Christ.
“We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We beg you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. ”
2 Corinthians 5:20
We are Christ’s ambassadors, Christ’s representatives in this nation wherever we are is, we represent the Kingdom of Christ in Ireland and Monaghan, through Christ we wave the flag of peace to all peoples, he is no longer the God of war , but the God of peace, and in Jesus all nations have put their hope.
Jesus through us is crying out to be reconciled to God, know God, make peace with God, have peace in God, have peace with God…
Christ in you the hope of glory.
How are you and your relationship with God?
Do not reject the knowledge of God, give your life to Christ, be reconciled to God, repent and ask God for forgiveness for resisting the knowledge of God, take away arrogance, harshness, forgive those who offend you, love those who hate you. Turn to God with all your heart.
May you live your life saying as an apostle Paul: Soon I am no longer the one who lives, but Christ lives in me!