Knowing and Being Known

REFLECTION QUOTES

“The world is perishing for lack of the knowledge of God and the Church is famishing for want of His Presence.”

“We must never rest until everything inside us worships God.”

~A.W. Tozer (1897-1963), pastor and author

“All my knowledge of him depends on his sustained initiative in knowing me.”

~J.I. Packer (1926-2020), theologian and author

“… if we would see the glory of God, it appears most in grace, and mercy, and lovingkindness, and such sweet attributes…. We must take God, not as considered [abstractly]…, but God in Christ; for other notions of god are terrible.”

~Richard Sibbes (1577-1635), Anglican theologian

“But my sin was this, that I looked for pleasure, beauty, and truth not in Him but in myself and His other creatures, and the search led me instead to pain, confusion, and error.”

“O love, ever-burning never-quenched, O charity, my God, set me on fire with your love. You command me to be [controlled in my passions] – give me the grace to do as you command, and command me to do what you will.”

~St. Augustine (354-430) in his Confessions

“To be loved but not known is comforting but superficial. To be known and not loved is our greatest fear. But to be fully known and truly loved is, well, a lot like being loved by God. It is what we need more than anything. It liberates us from pretense, humbles us out of our self-righteousness, and fortifies us for any difficulty life can throw at us.”

~Tim Keller, founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church (NYC)

“Being heard is so close to being loved that for the average person, they are almost indistinguishable.”

~David Augsburger in Caring Enough to Confront

“Love is divine only and difficult always.”

~Toni Morrison (1935-2019), novelist and college professor

SERMON PASSAGE

John 14:21 & Psalm 139

John 14 (NASB)

21 He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.”

Psalm 139 (ESV)

1 O Lord, you have searched me and known me!
2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.
3 You search out my path and my lying down
and are acquainted with all my ways.
4 Even before a word is on my tongue,
behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.
5 You hem me in, behind and before,
and lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is high; I cannot attain it.

7 Where shall I go from your Spirit?
Or where shall I flee from your presence?
8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
9 If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
10 even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and the light about me be night,”
12 even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is bright as the day,
for darkness is as light with you.

13 For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and
wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.

17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18 If I would count them, they are more than the sand.
I awake, and I am still with you.

19 Oh that you would slay the wicked, O God!
O men of blood, depart from me!
20 They speak against you with malicious intent;
your enemies take your name in vain.
21 Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord?
And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?
22 I hate them with complete hatred;
I count them my enemies.

23 Search me, O God, and know my heart!
Try me and know my thoughts!
24 And see if there be any grievous way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting!