If you weren’t here last week, our theme word for 2021 is “PURSUE” and our theme verse is a very familiar one to many of us.

Matthew 6:33 – NLT - “Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and He will give you everything you need.”

One of the definitions of PURSUE is “To chase after someone or something. TO FOLLOW in PURSUIT!!” And here is the bottom line for our theme:

PURSUE JESUS ABOVE EVERYTHING ELSE!

PURSUE Jesus every day BECAUSE you BECOME like the one you spend time with. Now, perhaps some here don’t know HOW to pursue Jesus. If that is you, please hang on with me this morning. I’m going to give you some examples and some practical handles on how to do that.

Now, as I mentioned last week, our new MISSION STATEMENT is, “At BC, we want EVERYONE to KNOW GOD, FIND FREEDOM, CONNECT WITH OTHERS and MAKE A DIFFERENCE. Each of those things require INTENTION. You will not accidentally find freedom. You have to WANT IT BAD and PURSUE it. You don’t CONNECT with OTHERS without some effort, especially over the last 9 or 10 months. You don’t typically make a difference unless you are looking for and seizing opportunities. And the same is true when it comes to KNOWING GOD. I haven’t met anyone that had an obviously CLOSE relationship with God that didn’t intentionally SPEND TIME on that relationship. And that is what we are going to talk about today. This is our calling. TO KNOW GOD! And here is what I mean by KNOW GOD –

Experience Jesus and deepen your relationship with Him.

I love how the apostle Paul puts it, after he gives his religious resume’ before he knew Jesus… He says:

This is what God wants FOR us. He wants us to:

Experience Jesus and deepen our relationship with Him.

And he wasn’t simply talking about the value in your knowing ABOUT Jesus, though there is certainly some benefit to expanding your knowledge ABOUT Him. But Paul wants us to see the infinite value in KNOWING JESUS. It’s an intimate, personal, relational KNOWLEDGE.

Now, before I start describing what it is to KNOW God, let me address what are the benefits of KNOWING God. Here are just a few:
· Knowing God makes believing and receiving from Him simpler.
· Knowing God causes you to LOVE God
· Knowing God gives you Peace with God
· Knowing God means you KNOW He has forgiven you
· Knowing God brings a deep satisfaction and TRUST in God
· Knowing God gives you and renews your strength
· Knowing God can provide a beautiful relationship with Him
Doesn’t THAT sound INCREDIBLE? Now, there is no end line of KNOWING God. What do I mean by that?

There is ALWAYS more to learn and ALWAYS room to grow!

We need to keep pursuing to KNOW GOD!

Many are familiar with the phrase “yada, yada, yada,” made popular by the TV show Seinfeld. In the context of the show, the catchy phrase is used to imply, “O.K., enough already, get on with it, get to the point”. It refers to people being redundant, monotonous, or wordy. It is also used as a fill in the blank phrase for details that are either unimportant or obvious to everyone. That is how most of us have come to know the term “yada.”

But, did you know that the term “yada” is a Hebrew word found 946 times throughout the Old Testament, although it has a much different meaning than depicted on Seinfeld.

Yada means to “know” in FOUR distinct dimensions. Importantly, all four aspects, or dimensions, are essential in comprehending the full meaning of yada.

1) To know something or someone in complete detail.
It means to study, analyze, or investigate something until you know something or someone completely. It is to know something like a detective would seek to know the details of a mystery.

How much more of God is there to know? How many of us have a complete revelation of His nature, personality, attributes, and ways? How many of us have read the same scriptures over and over for years, and then have a truth jump out at us that we had never seen there before? The second dimension of yada is…

2) To know HOW something works.
I know what a computer is. I know how to operate a computer at a pretty reasonable level. I have even taken a college level class on HOW computers work. I can tell you this though. I don’t really KNOW HOW computers work. I don’t get it.

This dimension of knowing is part of the wisdom that Paul was praying for in Ephesians 1:17.

It is not just knowing that something DOES work, like a computer, but also HOW it works.

A lot of people KNOW ABOUT God, but how many actually KNOW GOD so well that they KNOW HOW He operates, KNOW the keys that unlock His presence in our lives? Yada is not just knowing the DETAILS ABOUT God, but also KNOWING His ways, as Moses prayed in…

He wanted to KNOW God’s WAYS! When you KNOW God in this way, you hear someone else talk about God in unkind or unsavory ways and you KNOW that isn’t God. Now, the third dimension of yada is…

3) To know by personal experience or encounter
Again, a lot of people KNOW ABOUT God, but God wants us to KNOW Him through encounters in which we personally experience Him.

If I offered to take you to Hawaii on an all expense-paid vacation, would you get a little excited as you thought about the white, sandy beaches, the warmth of the sun and the tropical breezes, and the mesmerizing waves lapping towards your lounge chair as the rest of the world is washed away? Well, what if I told you that I was going there in person and would wear a go pro the WHOLE time and would be sharing the live link for you to join me virtually. How would you like that? There is a BIG difference between Hawaii IN PERSON and Hawaii virtually. You definitely miss out on KNOWING by EXPERIENCING or ENCOUNTERING.

Our heavenly Father does not desire an absentee relationship with His children in which He just sends the things we need from afar. No, His desire is to reveal Himself to His children DAILY.

When my boys were growing up, we would often play “hide and seek.” There was an excitement in the anticipation of finding me hidden out of sight in the closet or behind a door. I would hide in such a way that they could find me as they searched. Our heavenly Father WANTS to be found.

God wants to be found by you! He wants you to have a personal ENCOUNTER with Him, EXPERIENCE HIM!

Moses had a face-to-face relationship with God –he had a close, personal relationship. The people, on the other hand, chose to distance themselves.

That would be a great verse of the year for you EXODUS 2021! DRAW near to where God IS!

In fact, the Israelites said to Moses at that time, “YOU go and talk to God FOR us.” They were terrified of God’s presence. So, the people got the LAW instead of a relationship. Religious performance is always the substitute of personal face-to-face encounters with God. God wants us to KNOW HIM PERSONALLY by EXPERIENCE. Yada. The last dimension of this powerful word Yada is…

4) Intimacy
This speaks of REAL CLOSENESS! When this is the dimension that the word is referencing, in the OT, it spoke of sexual intimacy. Some may even say that this fourth dimension cannot be fully experienced until a person has satisfied the first three dimensions. You can have physical closeness without experiencing true INTIMACY. The aim of KNOWING GOD. The aim of yada is INTIMACY. God’s desire is to have a comprehensive, personal, face-to-face, intimate encounter with each one of us…DAILY.

In the New Testament, we are described as the “bride of Christ,” and in 1 Corinthians 7, Paul correlates the relationship of Christ and the Church to a husband and wife in marriage.

So, with that background, let me ask this question.

Is there room for you to GROW in how you KNOW GOD?

There is plenty of room in my life to grow in my knowledge of my wife. And there is certainly plenty of room in my life to grow in how I KNOW GOD! And here is the truth:

THERE are NO SHORTCUTS to KNOWING GOD

There is no miracle pill to take, information to learn, app to download, or life hack to discover. So, how do you get to KNOW GOD? In much the same way as you do with another person.

If you want to grow closer in your relationship with someone else, how do you accomplish that? You are more intentional about your communication, you talk to them, you listen to them, you spend MORE quality time together. You do nice things for them. In getting to know them more, you learn what they LIKE and then you DO those things, not because YOU like those things, but because THEY DO. Anytime, we were near a Sweet Tomatoes restaurant, which is a pretty extreme salad bar buffet, I would take Michelle there. NOT because that would have been my first choice, but because I knew it was her favorite. And NOW that chain has sadly closed down and I will never HAVE TO…I mean GET TO take her there again. ;)

Think about it this way: If you are married, what did your PURSUIT of your spouse look like when you were dating? I can think of some fairly extreme things that I did in my PURSUIT of Michelle.

· I wrote several poems.
· I went to college ½ a day my senior year in H.S. The college was in the same town that Michelle’s high school was in. So, on a few occasions, I stopped by her school, and left her a note in her locker or on her car.
· Here is what I want you to see from those things. I HAD IT BAD! I was IN PURSUIT!

Now, I’m going to give you some relationship advice. If you are SINGLE, write this down, tuck this away, and apply this to your future marriage, if you choose that for your life. If you are already married, APPLY THIS NOW and your marriage WILL get better! Are you ready for this relational GOLD?

KEEP PURSUING…even after there’s a RING

Far too often, after there’s a commitment, after there’s a ring, after the honeymoon, spouses settle in and stop PURSUING. It’s kind of like, “I’ve got him” or “I got her” and we can move on to the next thing that we need to PURSUE. That could be financial goals, or work goals, or getting a house, or starting a family. And we PURSUE those things and stop PURSUING our spouse. And there is SUCH a spiritual parallel there. I tell couples all the time in pre-marital counseling.

In your married life and in your spiritual life, they are both like paddling upstream. The goal…GROWING is UPSTREAM. All you have to do to ‘backslide’ in your relationship, to go backwards, is just STOP PADDLING. STOP going on dates. STOP having fun and laughing together. STOP flirting with one another. Just STOP! You don’t have to DO anything else to weaken that relationship. JUST STOP! The natural course of the flow will automatically cause distance to start growing in your relationship if you are not intentionally PURSUING. So…

KEEP PURSUING…even after there’s a RING

If you want to KNOW GOD better, there is a pathway for that! The apostle Peter challenges us to keep growing. He said:

And here’s the beautiful truth in marriage and in our relationship with God.

There is ALWAYS more to learn and ALWAYS room to grow!

I love Michelle. I try to make that really clear! We dated for 4 years, starting when we were 16, got married at 20 and have been married for 30 years. I know her better than I know any other human. I know a LOT about her.
· I know her favorite color is blue
· I know her favorite food is Mexican
· I know her shoe size and clothing sizes and the styles that she likes.
· I know what makes her laugh and what makes her cry
· I know what stresses her out
· I…mostly know how to help her out.
· I know what kind of vacation she desires and enjoys
· I know that she is super organized and keeps my life on track.
· I know that she loves her family more than life itself.
· I know that she is LOW drama and LOW maintenance, which I LOVE!
· I KNOW that she spends time every day in God’s Word and talking to Him.
· I KNOW that she LOVES JESUS!

I KNOW HER, but sometimes I don’t FULLY understand her. But I LOVE AND TRUST HER implicitly anyway. Is there ANY man here or online or in Ocon who would CLAIM to always understand your wife?

You DON’T have to UNDERSTAND your wife FULLY to KNOW her and LOVE her. You DO NOT have to understand God FULLY to KNOW God and LOVE God. Understand Him fully we cannot!

This is what He was saying:

You LOOK like you know God, but you don’t KNOW GOD

They didn’t KNOW - YADA
1) To KNOW someone or something in complete detail
2) To KNOW how something or someone works
3) To KNOW by personal experience and encounter
4) To KNOW by intimacy

They LOOKED like they KNEW God, but they didn’t. And that can be true of you or me. We can grow up in church, even going to Sunday School, know all the songs, know most of the stories, attend a Christian school, lead a small group. And all of those things are WONDERFUL. But it is possible to do all of those things and still just KNOW ABOUT God. To KNOW God is to have an intimate relationship with Him. Do YOU?

If you are going to get to KNOW God, first you have to invite Him into a relationship with you. We do that by talking to Him, telling Him that we want to have a relationship with Him. If you want that, I want to pray with you.
Now, if you already have a relationship with Jesus, HOW can you GROW in KNOWING HIM? PURSUE HIM AFRESH!

If I had a beginning checklist on PURSUING GOD, it would look like this:
· START the relationship
· Spend time with Him regularly. PURSUE HIM DAILY. And in that time…
o Talk to Him. We call that prayer.
o Read portions of His Word. That is the primary way that we listen to Him.
o Connect with His heart through singing or listening to worship.
· Desire MORE of Him.
· Tell other people about what God is doing in your life.

And KEEP going…KEEP PURSUING Him because…

There is ALWAYS more to learn and ALWAYS room to grow!

As we close the service today, let’s express our DESIRE to PURSUE more of Him by singing “Do it Again!”