You Must Know God to Love and Worship Him

A. Gal. 4:8, “When you did not know God, you served those which by nature are not gods.” When you seek to know God you do not find Him by human intellectual pursuits. God is found be seeking to do His will. His will is revealed in the Bible. God’s Word is not given to satisfy our philosophical, intellectual curiosity. We do not seek an abstract knowledge of Him. We must seek to know His standard of what is right and wrong. It means that you live your life in obedience to His desires. Unless you know God and live your life in obedience to Him, nothing you do will be acceptable to Him.
1. “For as a man thinks in his heart, so is he.” Prov. 23:7. The life you lead grows out of what you think, and that’s why God tells us, “Keep your heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.” Prov. 4:23. Your desires, attitudes and your behavior are the result of what you thought about in your past. That is why thinking about God and what God teaches in His Word, is so important to shaping our lives and destiny. What you believe about God determines how you relate to Him and others around you. The lives we lead grow out of the thoughts we think. That’s why we need to examine our thoughts and lives to see if they are in harmony with God’s will. That’s what the Bible tells us to do, “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you?unless, of course, you fail the test?” 2 Cor 13:5?6. That’s good advice. “Check up on yourselves. Are you really Christians? Do you pass the test? Or are you just pretending to be Christians when actually you aren't at all?”
a. Your personal relationship with God can never be right if it is not based upon truth.
Jesus stated in John 4:22?24. That truth is the teaching of God’s Word. Our
relationship with God must be based on that truth----and not on man-made religions
and traditions. That’s why our relationship with God must be based on what He
determines to be truth and not what man thinks is truth. That’s what David said, “The
Lord is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth.” Psalm 145:18.
We simply can’t relate to God properly if what we believe about Him contradicts what
He says about Himself in the Bible. What we believe about God enables us to
worship Him acceptable, glorify Him properly and lead others to Him acceptably.
b. Acts 20:32

Spur - 10/26/03 pm