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You might be surprised to learn that our nation was founded by many men who were "deists." A "Deist" is someone who believes that God cannot be known in a personal way. They believe that God exists and that His Word is real, but that basically He created the world and then walked away and has no personal involvement with the affairs of men. Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and George Washington were all deists. When they said "in God we trust," they meant that they believed that God set the principles of this world in motion and they trusted in those laws, but that it was impossible to "know" God or have anything resembling a personal relationship with Him. To believe that, of course, they had to believe that Jesus Christ was not God but just a good man because the concept of God coming to earth to die blows the theory of "deism" out of the water! Thomas Jefferson believed this concept so much that he went through the New Testament and removed every miracle and supernatural work of Jesus Christ as well as every claim that He was God in Flesh and gave this "deist Bible" to the newly elected congressmen. In fact, today every newly elected senator and representative in Washington is still given one of these Bibles. And we wonder why our nation's morality and spirituality has declined!

But, despite what some say, God wants to know you and can be known. If God did not want to know man, then there would be no Bible and there would be no cross. If God did not want you to know Him, then He would not have provided a way for you to learn more about Him. That the Bible exists and that people still receive God's Spirit is proof enough to me that God wants to still have a relationship with man and be involved in my life! Let the Deists say whatever they want to believe, but their teaching has come too late to convince me that God doesn't love me or want to have a personal relationship with me! This beautiful creation that we admire so much was created to provide an environment for me to get to know my God. Man exists because the God of the Universe wanted to have a relationship with somebody who could act, think, and choose to love.

Before we completely bash the deists as fools and ignorant, let's discuss why they believed that false doctrine. The main reason that those men where deists was because they saw the evil and the heartaches of life. They saw the struggle that some men have to go through. They saw poverty and pain and sadness. They believed in God and His Word, and yet couldn't imagine why God would allow such suffering to happen. They did not believe in miracles because frankly, they had never experienced one! So they concluded from their own misgivings that God did not care or have dealings with man.

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Few people today are deists in theology. But you more than likely have wondered why God allows the heartaches of this life. Why would the perfect God of glory allow the suffering and pain that comes upon this world. Especially when a person Repents of their sins, is baptized in Jesus' name, and receives the Spirit of God: why doesn't God take away every heartache? There have been many new Christians who have walked away from God because they did not understand those questions. Those are fair questions. I believe in God and I believe that He loves me and that He is good, so why does
God allow things to happen in our life that cause tough questions? If God loves us, then why is life not perfect? Why does He require some sacrifice in living for Him?

I can give you two answers why we have trials in our life. First, so that we can know
God. I must know God to make it in this world. Hosea said it like this:

Hosea lived in a time when the Israelites where going through tough trials. There had been civil war and the top ten tribes which had separated from the southern two tribes were being severely attacked and conquered by enemies. But he realized that they would make it if they would turn back to the Lord! Because of persecution, Israel had strayed and lost faith in the very one who could help them! Don't let life's trials and persecutions cause you to lose faith in God! The more you know God, the more you are going to find out that He will bless those who seek to know Him! The more you learn about God you will find that He is a merciful and loving God! Yes, He is also a God of judgment, but when you begin to know Him, you will realize that He does all things perfect and good! As you get to know Him you will learn that He can even take the bad things of your life and turn them into the good!

But Hosea did not stop with just saying that they should cry out to the Lord and return to serving Him. Hosea went on to say that "if we follow on to know the Lord" THEN He will bless us and THEN He will shower His blessings upon us like the rain that falls on the harvest! "If we follow on to know the Lord" THEN we will reap good things in life!

Too many people use God as a 911 system and only call on Him when they need something. Sometimes God is merciful despite our foolishness, but calling on God and coming to His house and worshipping Him only when you are having a trial, is not getting to know God. You get to know someone by spending time with them! You get to know someone by going through things with them. For one year, I spend every waking minute and many of the sleeping ones thinking about and talking with my girlfriend, DeAnna. {adlib how that you would leave her and rush to go to your room to call her.} I then spend 5 months in San Antonio during our engagement using every spare minute on the phone with Florida talking to my fiancé'. I thought I knew my wife. And I certainly did get to know her somewhat by talking to her. But I'm really only after 5 years of marriage getting to really know my wife. My wife and I find out things about each other that we never knew. I got to know my wife by two ways: talking with her and going through everyday life growing with her. Many people talk to the Lord when they are in trouble and call for help. But you don't really "KNOW" the 911 operator. And you can believe in the Lord and know He exists, but you will never experience the power and blessings of God like you should until you begin to "KNOW" the Lord! I must know the Lord!

Job certainly went through some things in his life. Job certainly loved the Lord. And he certainly was tested and tried (Went bankrupt, lost all of his friends except one young dude, his house fell over and killed ALL of his children, his wife left him, fire came down from heaven and toasted his animals and livestock and the enemy came in and killed all his servants ALL in one day! Then a couple of weeks later, he lost his health and got huge boils all over his body.)

I want to tell you that there is nothing wrong with being frustrated in trials and asking "why?". The scriptures say that through every thing that he went through, Job NEVER sinned with his lips. Yet, 16 times Job asked God "why?". There are going to be times in your life that you will ask God "why?" {briefly adlib if needed}

Yet Job never considered giving up and quitting the Lord. When his wife suggested cursing God, Job told her she was a crazy woman and "naked I came into this world and naked I shall return." "Though He slay me, yet I will trust Him." There is nothing wrong with asking why, but don't ever let the whys of life cause you to lose your trust in God. Keep trusting in God, because if the book of Job ended with God never bothering to come to Job, then I would not be here today, but BECAUSE Job trusted God and waited on Him, God came down and answered EVERY ONE of Job's questions!

After everybody else had given their opinion on the matter, God finally came down in the final three chapters and began to speak to Job. Four times God asked Job from the whirlwind: “Knowest thou?” Then finally Job answered God in Job 42:1-2 and said “I know.” Job had believed in God and served God, but God allowed those trials to come so that he would KNOW God! I can tell you one of the reasons that God allows heartaches and trials in your life, is so that you can KNOW God!

Would you have ever known that God was a healer and cared enough about you to heal you if you had never been sick? {no} Would you have ever known that Jesus was able to bless you financially if you had never needed a financial blessing? {no} How many here know that God is a waymaker that can take horrible situations and make them turn out for the better? How do you know that? Because you heard the word of God preached or taught that said that and responded with faith believing God that He would do it for you! But now you KNOW God as a waymaker! After the sickness you KNOW God as a healer! You may have heard that God can wash your sins away, but do you KNOW that He is a saviour!?

God has no grandchildren! We must all have a relationship with God for ourselves. We all must be born again and KNOW Him as a saviour for ourselves! I can rejoice with you in your stories and they can help me to believe that God can do those things, but I will never KNOW God that way until I experience and have it happen to me! {adlib}

Serving God is really simple: You must believe in God and that He can do those things for you!

You can hear me preach about the promises and blessings of God all you want but it will do you no good in your relationship with Jesus Christ, until you diligently seek Him and believe that God can do it for you! I'm not talking about believing that God can do it when everything is going wrong, but I'm talking about believing that God will do it when you are in need! I like this scripture in Malachi:

God says "prove me." In other words, why don't you put me to the test and see if I will not do what I have said I've done. Malachi joined in with Hosea in saying that God will rain blessings upon those who seek to know God and prove Him by trusting completely in Him! David put it like this:

And then goes on to say:

God allows the righteous to go through some things so that they will KNOW the Lord! The disciples walked with Jesus Christ every day, but it wasn't until He arose from sleeping in the bottom of the boat and said "peace, be still" that they began to know that He was the great creator. They began to look at each other and say "what manner of man is this that the wind and the wave obey Him?". They would have never known Jesus as Creator unless there had been a storm! That's why the disciples later rejoiced that they were "counted worthy to suffer" for His name. What an attitude! And it's one that we need to get! When things go wrong in your life and your human nature wants to ask "why?," the proper response is to thank God for He is wanting you to know Him better!

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The second reason that we must go through trials and tests and hard questions is so that God will know us! Knowing God will not do us any good if He does not KNOW us! I know that you are probably thinking that "God knows all things and so He knows me." And you are right in that God is omniscient or "having all knowledge." But let me prove to you scripturally that there is a difference between God having knowledge of your location and your existence and "KNOWING" you. Let me also take a few moments and prove that you can "know God" without having a relationship and being saved!

The demons of this world know God and even believe in Him! One good story to illustrate this is when Jesus stepped onto the shores of the Gadarenes:

Notice that the demons knew Jesus by name and knew exactly who He was! They didn't question that He was the Son of God, but believed it and knew it! The interesting thing here is that Jesus went on to ask them "what is thy name?" They knew God but God didn't know them! You can know God but God must also know you!

This isn't the only scripture that proves this concept. Another one is when Jesus was just going to church one Sunday and an unclean spirit cried out:

The spirit knew who Jesus was but Jesus didn't know or have a relationship with that spirit and certainly that spirit or man was not saved! Notice this final example:

This shows the importance of knowing Jesus for yourself! If you try to make it in this world on someone else's walk with God, you will fail! But also notice that the demons KNEW Jesus! They also KNEW PAUL! Why? Because not only did Paul know God, but God knew Paul! The devil is not scared of those who claim to know God, but those whom God knows them! It's not enough to know God, God MUST KNOW YOU! You may say "but that's demonic spirits it's not the same with people," but James made the same comparison:

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In our text we read about Abraham. Abraham had heard the stories about God but did not know Him for himself. There were 68 years from when Noah died and God spoke to Abraham for the first time and asked him to step out in faith and go to a different land. No doubt Abraham had heard the stories of what God did back then, but God sent Abraham on a journey filled with many valleys and trials so that Abraham could know God for himself.

The biggest trial of Abraham's life is the most interesting. We read about it in our text and it came after Abraham had spent many years of learning to know God. In it God called to Abraham and said "Abraham" and Abraham answered Him as "Yes, Lord." And God spoke to Abraham and commanded him to take his only son Isaac and offer him as a sacrifice to God.

I want you to notice that Abraham never argued. Abraham "knew God" and "knew his voice." When God tries to convict some people to remove some things from their life and change some things, they argue with it and say "well, I really don't want to do that so maybe that wasn't God." If you know God, then you ought to be able to recognize His voice when He speaks to you!

Abraham knew it was God so he obeyed! {briefly adlib the story} And it was at the moment that Abraham was about to kill his only promised son that God stepped in and made a remarkable statement:

Did you catch that? Even though Abraham began to know God and have a relationship with Him; even talked face to face with angels and a theophany of God, and recognized His voice when spoken from heaven it was after God saw how that Abraham responded in his decision to obey God's Word or not that He said "NOW I know!"

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Many people are confused by the concept of predestination. I want you to know that God is omniscient which means that He knows ALL things. Some people then think that God knows if they are going to heaven or hell so they are “predestined” for one place or the other. They usually say, well then it doesn't matter what I do for God already has decided where I am going to go.

I do believe that God knows all things. But I do not believe that God knows right now whether or not you are going to heaven or hell. Do you want scripture? How about our text? AFTER Abraham had laid his son upon the altar and AFTER he had raised the knife, THEN the Lord spoke and said “NOW I KNOW!”

I believe that God already knows every decision and trial that you will have to face in your future. I believe that God knows exactly what will happen IF you make the right choices and exactly what will happen if you make the wrong choices. So God does know everything about the future, but He does not know which choice you will choose. God wants to know you! You are not predestined for hell or heaven. It is your choice. Adam and Eve did not “HAVE TO” eat the fruit in the garden. God knew the future for mankind in case they did make the wrong choice and had already created them in the image of the one who was to come, Christ Jesus, but God also had a plan in place if Adam and Eve would have chosen correctly that would have just as effectively revealed His love to them! We don’t know what that plan was because they chose the course of sin.

Think about that: God already knows every decision and trial that you will have to face! But it is up to you to choose your course that you take. God already knows where each choice will lead so He gently tries to lead and guide you to make the right decision and that is why He gave you His word to learn about what behavior and choices will lead to
promise and which ones will lead to damnation. But it is your decision. Bluntly speaking, if you go to hell, it will be because you made choices that took you down that path. But if you go to heaven, it will be because you made choices that took you down that path. No one will go to either place by accident. You may say, “well preacher, how can I know
where the choices that I am making are leading me?” By learning the Word of God! The Word of God is very clear in teaching the right kind of choices and the bad kind of choices, yet people still fall for the same traps over and over again. Why? Because they do not study God’s Word! Ignorance is not an excuse. When you stand before God on judgment day, the scriptures say that you will judged according to the book of Life,
your personal book that you have written by your daily actions, and out of all of the Word of God. If you tell God that you did not obey it because you did not know God required it, that will not save you. Hosea also said this:

Ignorance is not an excuse. What you don’t know can hurt you. We must know God and what God requires!

But it is also important that God knows us! And He knows us by the
choices that we make!

Ps 1:6 For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.

The Lord knoweth the way of the righteous! The path that you take and the choices that you make in everyday situations reveals how much you know
about God and how much God knows you.

God know every animal but those animals do not have a choice in what they do! But God does not know what you will you do! He knows the end result of every action that you can possibly make and that's why He went on to give you guidance in how to act so that He would know your ways!

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A preacher last week read this scripture as his text and said that it was the most sobering passage in the Bible. I totally agree:

{exposit text} The Lord must know us!