How to grow spiritually by knowing God – Life Is a Journey, part 26
Is God your BFF? This message shows us the importance of spiritual growth in the knowledge of God. Right now is the perfect time to get closer to God, to understand God more, to improve your intimate knowledge of God.
Are you growing spiritually or standing still, perhaps fooling yourself that you’re not stuck? This message helps us understand the importance of the knowledge of God; that is a relationship with God, much like your BFF.
Through this series, you’ll learn how to live well & enjoy God's promises. You are loved by God; He knows your name. He has a plan for your life. Get helpful advice, encouragement, and hope for a life well lived in 2021 and beyond.
Are you walking in faith and victory? Set your eyes on the promises of God. You only have one life journey; say yes to Jesus.
Do you know about God or do you know God?
Spiritual Growth in the Knowledge of God
The last three weeks that we have considered life’s journey, we have said it is a journey of spiritual growth. Spiritual growth with regards to the hope we have of God’s grace. Next, we considered spiritual growth in worship, and then spiritual growth in faithfulness.
Today I want to consider spiritual growth in the knowledge of God. There are many people who say they believe in God. There are others who say they know about God. Still others say they do not believe in God, they even deny that God exists.
‘For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ’ (2 Corinthians 4:6, NIV).
Many are spiritually blinded to the truth of the Gospel only they don’t know it.
The glory of God is everywhere. It is seen in all creation, yet people have believed a lie that there is no God. Some have created or fashioned their own gods, idols that are breathless, lifeless and worthless. Still, others believe in God; they know about Jesus, and yet they have never fully placed their faith in Jesus as their Lord and savior.
When God created the world and Adam, all was good. However, Satan tempted Adam and Eve and they sinned. It is due to sin and man’s sinful nature, that mankind has rebelled against God and become spiritually blind and deaf to the knowledge of God, and the truth of the Gospel. Each of us are born with a sinful nature, having no spiritual understanding (see Romans 3:10-12).
We learned several weeks ago that if it were not for the hope of the grace of God, no one would be saved. It is only by God’s grace through faith that a person is saved. It is through the knowledge of God in Christ that anyone is redeemed, forgiven and saved.
Without the knowledge of God, we are doomed. All mankind has spiraled down spiritually into the deeper depths of depravity. Just look around the world today.
Like the Apostle Paul, as Christians we should pray and ask God to fill the hearts of people we know and see each day with the knowledge of God. To fill them with the knowledge of his will, with all spiritual wisdom and understanding that their spiritual hearts, eyes and ears would be open to receiving the truth of the Gospel. That they might hear, believe and receive the knowledge of God and be saved.
“For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, 10 so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God” (Colossians 1:9-10, NIV).
We need spiritual wisdom and understanding and that comes only through the knowledge of God as the Holy Spirit works in our hearts.
My Personal Testimony
I grew up attending church. We attended church as a family until my parents divorced. Both parents would later remarry. My father attend church after a time, but his lifestyle looked much like the world. My mother did not attend church services, her lifestyle appeared less worldly, and yet both of them were religious. They both knew and believed in God. I know they prayed because they would tell me. They believed in prayer and were open to prayer.
As a young boy I walked to church by myself while growing up with my mother and Joe, my stepfather. My mom and Joe never discouraged me from attending church. I may have attended church because I felt I should. Maybe it was out of a sense of duty or a feeling of a religious obligation. Whatever the case, I had a heart that was open to God. I believed in God and yet my lifestyle, my vocabulary, did not show a love for God. In my teens I was invited to attend a friend’s youth group. I enjoyed the experience and the teens and adults in the church did not judge me when I used some colorful words. I began to change inwardly. It felt wrong to use those words after a time. The seeds of the gospel, the knowledge of God was beginning to have an effect on my heart and life.
Attending the youth group was not strictly fun and games. We would have a time of bible study, and the youth pastor would share as well as invite others to share what God was doing in their lives. I heard how God was working in people’s lives. I owned a bible, but I didn’t read or open the bible much before attending the youth group.
Sometime later my friend invited me to go to church on Sunday with him and his family. His family would pick me up every Sunday for church. I sat under the preaching and teaching of a pastor and the youth pastor. Both pastors were living examples to me. They taught the word of God that they believed in their own hearts. The knowledge of God was being displayed before me and God by his Holy Spirit was opening my eyes and ears to the truth of the Gospel, and the knowledge of God was beginning to take root in my heart.
Others in the adult church and youth group openly worshiped God. They all appeared to be happy, caring and giving of themselves. Being a teen without a parent in the church, many of the adults made me feel at home. Some of the men became spiritual fathers to me. Spiritual examples of how a Christian should live. God was drawing me closer to himself, until one day at a Sunday service I asked Jesus into my life. I asked Jesus to forgive me of sin and to be Lord of my life.
It was not until the knowledge of God became real in my heart that I said yes to Jesus.
I thought I was a Christian all along. I knew about heaven and hell. I knew about God. I knew about Jesus. I knew Jesus died on the cross. I had a bible. I went to church, but I did not have a real relationship with God. I had been living a worldly and somewhat religious life without truly knowing God.
Knowing God is a Lifelong Journey
The journey of spiritual growth in the knowledge of God is a lifelong journey. It will not end on this side of Glory. Each day is an opportunity to grow in the knowledge of God. If you stop growing in the knowledge of God and no longer allow the word of God to saturate your heart, your heart will become spiritually dry and hard.
I believe throughout all eternity we will grow in the knowledge of God. We will always be growing in the knowledge of God and worship God Almighty just as the angels.
Four Types of People
Prior to a person knowing Jesus as their savior, most wanted nothing to do with God. The Apostle Paul, in the book of Romans, gives us the picture of a person who knows about God, but who does not have a spiritual heart for God.
“since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles” (Romans 1:19-23).
A person can know about God; however, it is only by the knowledge of God, and with knowledge and understanding that a person will believe and come to faith in Christ and be saved.
In Matthew 13:1-9, we find the parable of the sower of seeds in four different types of soil that represent different people:
Hard soil representing a hard or calloused heart.
Rocky soil representing a heart that is willing but has no foundation to keep it strong.
Thorny soil representing a heart that is willing with a good foundation to sustain it, but it is weak against temptation.
Good soil representing a heart that is willing with a good foundation, and is shielded to outside forces because of the strength that comes with daily diligence.
Each type of soil can be related to a person’s heart and how they respond to the knowledge of God. The seed that is being scattered is the good news, it is the knowledge of God.
Knowledge (seeds) that bring forth spiritual life will fall upon four types of hearts (soil) and each heart responds to the knowledge of God differently:
In hard soil, the seeds are eaten, taken before they can take root. This is a picture of a hard or calloused heart. It is a heart that refuses to receive or hear anything regarding the knowledge of God.
In rocky soil, the seeds start to grow but have no way to take root, so the plants withered and died. This is a picture of a heart that is willing but has no foundation to keep it strong in times of trouble. This heart receives the knowledge of God with joy; however, the soil is rocky and the roots cannot go deep to sustain the growth. When persecution and trouble come, the joy and growth from the knowledge of God can and will quickly shrivel up and die for lack of depth.
In thorny soil, the seeds grow but the thorns choke out the plants. This is a picture of a heart that is willing with a good foundation to sustain it, but it is weak against temptation. This heart that receives the knowledge of God and begins to grow and take root, however the cares of the world, the worldly desires of the heart will overshadow and overtake the area of the heart that received the knowledge of God (unless those desires are removed and replaced with Godly desires).
In good soil, the seed is given a welcoming and safe place to take root and grow strong. This is a picture of a heart that receives and welcomes the knowledge of God, is sensitive to God, and doesn’t allow anything to uproot it. The seed produces a plant that yields a crop of thirty, sixty, one hundred-fold. This seed takes root and fully develops. It is the Holy Spirit in prayer, and applying the word of God in one’s heart that will keep your heart spiritually sensitive to the things of God, growing in faith and victory in the knowledge of God. The knowledge of God that lands on good soil will grow. The soil is ready to receive the seed of the knowledge of God and will produce a harvest.
God has scattered seeds of knowledge throughout time
The seed of the knowledge of God is scattered liberally and can be found everywhere. The glory of God is seen in all creation. It can be seen in the Old and New Testaments.
In the Old Testament, the promise of a savior is first spoken of in Genesis 3. The Israelites are God’s chosen people. The Israelites look for the promise of the messiah. Yet the Israelites allowed the worship of other gods to choke out the truth of God. They became spiritually rebellious and blind to the truth regarding the knowledge of God. The commandments, that were to point the people to the need of a savior, were twisted and soon considered to be a way of salvation. The hearts of the Israelites became hard, and rocky. The truth of God shriveled and the people drifted away from knowing God in their hearts to only knowing about God and having a form of religion.
In the New Testament, Jesus, the promised son of God, was born and came to point people to God. He lived, died and rose again so that those who believe will be saved. Jesus paid the debt of sin we could never pay ourselves and then Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to comfort and convict us of sin. The Holy Spirit works in our hearts and lives so we might recognize Jesus as Lord and savior.
The knowledge of God and the message of the cross of Christ has gone forth for thousands of years. It is the Holy Spirit that breaks up and softens the hard-hearted person as the knowledge of God is scattered in the person’s heart. It is the Holy Spirit that waters the seed of the knowledge of God in a person’s heart. It is the Holy Spirit that tends the soil and brings to life the knowledge of God in a person’s life. But the person must be willing to listen and be open to receiving the seed of the Gospel. If the person fully rejects the message of the Gospel, if the person rejects the knowledge of God there is nothing left for them, they will have rejected the knowledge of God and are destined to eternal death.
God will extend his grace towards the sinner all day long. God will use you to spread the seed of the knowledge of God everywhere. The person who accepts and receives the knowledge of God, the person who places their faith in Christ will enter Glory and be eternally alive with Christ for all eternity.
How to keep your heart longing to know God
We will never know and understand all there is regarding the knowledge of God. But the more we know, the more we love and worship God. As you read the scriptures, the Holy Spirit will continue to reveal more and more of the knowledge of God to you.
As believers, we need to be on guard spiritually every day. The enemy of your soul will attempt to scatter seeds of discord in your heart and to choke your spiritual life. He will try to cause you to stumble and fall away. He will try to dry up your heart and spiritual life in Christ by worldly desires, spiritual pitfalls and Satan will use busyness to get you to stop reading the scriptures, stop praying, stop attending church, and spiritually growing in the knowledge of God. The enemy will use all the tricks he has to get you to turn away from the knowledge of God. He will try to do it over time so that you will not notice. Slowly you might find that you are no longer reading the scriptures. No longer attending church. No longer praying as you once did. Your spiritual sensitivity to the things of God has gone numb. By the time you realize what the enemy’s tactics have done, fear, doubt, and worry has replaced faith and your heart is no longer longing for the things of God.
What can we do to keep our hearts longing for more of the knowledge of God?
Read the scriptures daily and apply it to your heart and life
Pray and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal areas that need spiritual pruning.
Stay active: Allow time for Bible study, attend church, and serve others in the body of Christ.
Fellowship with other believers and pray with one another.
Continue seeking and longing for more and more of God. Never think that you have arrived.
Share your faith with others and watch God move in your life and the lives of others.
Life is a journey of spiritual growth in the knowledge of God. Enjoy the journey. This journey has eternal rewards. Rewards that money cannot buy.
It is never too early to start the journey of spiritual growth in the knowledge of God. It is also never too late to start. Start today. Some who may hear this message may need to stop and make a U-turn. You are headed in the wrong direction. Get back to the journey towards the knowledge of God. You will be glad you did.
God loves you and wants you to be a person of God who bears much fruit.
“For the reverence and fear of God are basic to all wisdom. Knowing God results in every other kind of understanding” (Proverbs 9:10, TLB).
Suggested Praise and Worship
YOUR SUPPORT IS APPRECIATED
If this message has been helpful to you, we’d be grateful for your support. A small gift of $5 can help us reach our goal of helping people grow in faith, heal, laugh, and thrive—both locally and globally. It’s because of people like you that this ministry can offer hope, help, encouragement, and a closer walk in faith with God.
This and other sermons brought to you by Faith Chapel, an Assemblies of God church in Pleasanton, CA.