0:00:00 - 0:00:26 I wanna share some off the cuff comments about uh knowing people. It's an important topic in John 17 3. We read that uh this is life eternal that they might know the, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent so eternal life is kind of a big deal. And if knowing him is eternal life, then 0:00:26 - 0:00:52 the concept of knowing someone is kind of a big deal. If I sometimes I really wish that we were face to face having a conversation. Uh Most times, I'm glad that we're not. Maybe I'll delve into a little bit about why. That is just a little in a second. We'll see this part of this conversation is something 0:00:51 - 0:01:14 I wish we could have face to face cause I would love to ask you who is the deepest person you've ever met? And is it you, are you the deepest person you've ever met? I suspect that for most of you, uh you're not the deepest person you've ever met, you've met someone else who's deeper than you are. So 0:01:13 - 0:01:39 um I, I won't bother to define what I mean by deeper. You can use your own definition and it'll probably be just as true in demonstrating this, this uh principle. So no matter how wide or narrow your circle of people you've ever met, well enough to say is you probably know somebody who's freakishly deep 0:01:39 - 0:02:00 . Like you can't imagine a whole life being enough to get to know this person, the longer you're with them doesn't seem to affect the length of time that you're with them doesn't seem to minimize the, the number of surprises you experience in what they do or why they do it. They're just a fountain of 0:01:59 - 0:02:26 surprises and these surprises are not random. They're clearly coming from some deep um some there's substance behind it. It's not just sort of a roll of the dice, there's something coming out of this person deep inside of them. Um Hopefully you've had that experience uh because it will help you understand 0:02:25 - 0:02:52 God a little bit better. God is the deepest being and um depth depth is one aspect of intelligence in the scriptural definition of the term, not, not the simplistic reduction to IQ that we use for the most part in this world today. So the question is, do you know God? And you will take offense to the 0:02:52 - 0:03:15 fact that I will tell you, you do not emphatically definitively, I will say you do not know Him. There are things that I say that are like that that are all grouped under heading of, you know, what gives you the right to say these things, these judgmental things, if you knew cause and effect better than 0:03:14 - 0:00:00 you do, you would see that I have all the information, I need to say those things and be extremely confident that I'm correct. And I learned those things from the Lord, but you don't have to have any special revelation to learn them. They're right there in the scriptures, all those keys. And anyway, 0:00:00 - 0:04:04 so this is, this is kind of a at a meta level of, of the topic. You know, if you knew God, you'd be able to say those things too and you'd be just as correct as I am. So it's very interesting to see the reaction of people when you tell them things that are true about themselves. And I'll give you two 0:04:03 - 0:04:25 specific kinds of reactions that aren't the exhaustive list of all possible ones, but they are extraordinarily typical. The one's actually quite rare compared to the other. But this is this still between these two, we're talking, you know, at least 90% of the pie chart. So by far, the most common one 0:04:25 - 0:04:46 is you get what I can only describe from my childhood. There was an abundance of people where if you criticize them in any way, they'd re react by snapping their fingers and doing the head spin. So you don't know me, I don't do that very well. But you can imagine. And people don't really seem to do this 0:04:45 - 0:05:17 anymore. But I'm not sure if it's just because I've been west of the Mississippi for, since 2010, I think, except for some very brief visits. Um And that kind of culture isn't prolific here. Uh We have a lot of other fun things like random people living in tents under bridges. Um Anyways, so that reaction 0:05:16 - 0:05:45 is very interesting because there's no portion of it that goes through this, this question of, is it true? You see that the direct route is it's not possible for some other person to know me? Therefore, I have a right to dismiss out of hand anything they say about me without considering whether or not 0:05:45 - 0:06:05 it's true. You see if you were just throwing darts on a board, you might get a bull's eye even if you're not aiming, even if you don't know how to play darts, you know, a kid could just fling a dart and it could go into the bull's eye, it could happen. So, um, the first question is, what would the value 0:06:05 - 0:06:34 be of someone correctly describing you? What would the value be? Well, what if you already knew that and you were doing not just everything you knew to do about it, but, and of course, that presupposes we're talking about negative attributes, but um, they didn't have any extra input as to new things 0:06:34 - 0:06:56 that you aren't, you've never considered that you could also do about it. It's kind of long winded, but hopefully you get the point. Right. Well, if that were the case, there'd literally be no value in them correctly describing some aspect of how you are. Um But what are some of the cases because they're 0:06:56 - 0:07:25 much more numerous and likely where there would be value? So it's extraordinarily uh improbable that someone will describe a facet of how you are and there will be nothing you could do to better address if it's negative or use, if it's positive, that quality of how you are. So let's just briefly touch 0:07:25 - 0:07:45 on the positive. So suppose you think you're weak sauce and someone comes along who's not weak sauce in your um estimation and they size you up and they know you well enough to say, let's just suppose this, I know it's not really what we're talking about uh in terms of knowing someone well, but let's 0:07:45 - 0:08:03 say they know you well and they say, you know, you're capable of so much more than this. And that also seems like it's a dig criticism. But let's say let's just make this a really tiny example. Let's say you go to the gym with a very good friend of yours and you know them, you know them well, you've 0:08:03 - 0:08:22 worked out a lot together. OK. So this is not an example of someone who, who you struggle to believe, knows something about you. This is someone who should know quite a bit about you in that exact situation. And you're on the bench press and they say, you know, let's put an extra five pounds on each 0:08:22 - 0:08:40 side. You could totally do this. I've seen you, you could totally do this. You're gonna think, yeah, I probably can do this. You know, because, because the thought had crossed my mind maybe, but hearing them say it, they would know. So, yeah, let's do it. And so now all of a sudden you have greater faith 0:08:39 - 0:00:00 because you've been given sufficient reason to believe in a greater outcome than you did before, right? So, so that would influence you to do more than you would otherwise do it. Isn't that great? So, um, and, and, and there's no, I mean, there is change because now you're doing an extra two plates. 0:00:00 - 0:09:26 But, um, the point that your workout partner was making was you can already do this. You just don't know. This reminds me of that crazy movie Unbreakable with Bruce Willis where he's got freakish strength his whole life and somehow he never figured it out. And there's this scene where they're just piling 0:09:25 - 0:09:47 all the weights that they can on his weight bench in the basement, which again, if a dude has a weight bench in his basement, he knows exactly what he can lift. That is an incontrovertible truth. So they're like adding paint cans onto the bar, him and his son. Uh anyway, so when you don't know what you're 0:09:47 - 0:10:10 capable of, you won't do as good as you could. When you don't know what you're capable of, you won't do as good as you could. So, it's very important if someone sees the good in you that you don't see in yourself, that they pointed out because it can help you do more than you otherwise, would some people 0:10:09 - 0:10:38 have the faith to believe sufficiently in more um in unachieved potential on their own? Uh Although that's, that's as far as they know on their own, as far as they know, we can say. So we're surrounded at all times by this information and examples and wonderful things that God has saturated creation 0:10:38 - 0:11:11 with, that inspire us to be better. But it's a, it's a different category of overt assistance to have someone come and uh share their vision of your potential with you or actuality, right? As we were saying, all right. So um it's very important for us to know God and it's very important for us to understand 0:11:10 - 0:11:33 that God knows us. So we come to know God and there's a lot of work we need to do there. It's a, it's a lifelong task and even then you're, you're never gonna finish it. And um that's really important because it's one of these many contradictions that these mutually exclusive ideas that we hold at the 0:11:33 - 0:11:50 same time if you ask a random Christian. Um So if you read that scripture that we started with and then you ask them, do you know God, they'll probably say yes because they want eternal life and they want to believe that they already have it. But if you don't read that scripture and you ask them, do 0:11:49 - 0:12:08 you think, you know all there is to know about God? They'll say, of course not. He's so much greater than us. And yet we act like we know everything there is to know about Him. So how do we do that? One quick example is that we evaluate potential truth based on whether it matches our preconceived notions 0:12:07 - 0:12:35 . Whereas if we really knew and believed that God is much higher than us, then we would assume that the things he teaches us will contradict what we previously believed, not the alternative. And we will be searching for tools in the gospel to help us recognize truth that lies beyond what we already believe 0:12:35 - 0:13:03 because it's not as easy as just comparing it to what you already believe. If that's your test, you'll be extraordinarily limited in what you can receive from God. And that's what we see. Surprise, right? So, um, how else do we act like we know all there is to know about God. Well, we don't hunger and 0:13:03 - 0:13:26 thirst to know more about Him. There are people who spend their entire lives going to church, never learning a single extra thing or new thing about God, which is really bizarre. It's really bizarre. I mean, I guess it's not so bizarre in a world where people go to college and spend tons of money and 0:13:26 - 0:13:46 time and don't seem to learn anything. But, um, I guess at least historically, or at least on a common sense basis, it's an odd thing. Imagine going to work your whole life and never getting a paycheck. Why would you do that? And, and maybe it's because drawing on this college analogy, it'd be a pretty 0:13:46 - 0:14:08 foolish thing to go learn calculus from someone who's spends half of each class confessing that they don't know calculus. And that's what you get in every organized religion. Uh Every organized church, every sect of Christianity, you get some pastor or priest or prophet who seems to spend a great deal 0:14:08 - 0:14:35 of their sermons confessing that they still are sinners. So what exactly are you there for? I'm not sure I haven't been able to figure that out. So one evidence that God knows a heck of a lot more than we do is that he explicitly describes things that he knows that can only be known through experience 0:14:34 - 0:14:59 and these are experiences that people have not had. Therefore, if what he's saying is true. And he said it because obviously we're reading records of other people uh quoting him. But if what he said is true and you haven't had the experience, then it must mean that you don't know what he knows. So what 0:14:59 - 0:15:24 are some of these things? Well, just a quick appeal to some scriptures, we read about the unspeakable things of the Holy Ghost. So there are things from God that cannot be conveyed with words and far from just reducing this down to something where you'd say, well, when I get a feeling that's the fulfillment 0:15:24 - 0:15:48 of this phrase, uh We know that's not true. We have at least one example that explicitly describes at least one of these things which is to know what the depths of hell are like. And Jesus describes this and he says it's something that you can't know unless you've experienced it. And he says that he 0:15:48 - 0:16:11 knows all about it. And interestingly, you'll find this information referred to throughout the scriptures. Now, those things, all of those things that can only be known by experience that God has had, that we have not had, we are called to obtain. And uh you will receive much more information about that 0:16:11 - 0:16:37 at a later date, but the point is you don't have them right now. Okay. All right. So having established that, is it possible for there to be people out there who you don't know? Well, duh, yes. OK. Hopefully, that's an obvious thing that we can all agree on. There are literally people you've never met 0:16:36 - 0:17:02 before. OK. Great God references that he has people that we don't know of who have been now blanking on the specific phrase and I apologize. Maybe someone can find it after the fact and paste it in a comment. Um certain holy men, you know, not of reserved for today or something like this. That last part 0:17:02 - 0:17:37 is definitely wrong. Ok. Um, so he says that there are people we don't know and those are people that you haven't met yet. Perhaps, uh, some of us maybe have some of you maybe have, who knows, but they're out there and they minister and will minister to the, uh, elect. Now, what about, um, what about 0:17:37 - 0:18:01 people that you don't know that might know you now, a pretty safe navigation through any topic is to start with Jesus. He's the example in all things, right? And then you can work your way down and see how far you can go. So, um we have this interesting story of Jesus with this woman at the well and 0:18:01 - 0:18:22 suffice it to say at the end of this exchange, this woman takes off back to her town in Samaria and she starts raving at everybody who will listen to her come and see a man who told me all things from my life. So he, he knows everything about me even though I just met him. And she said this must be the 0:18:22 - 0:18:52 Christ interesting side note. Um She was able to recruit a sufficient number of people to go and hear Jesus who would not otherwise have come to hear him, but in a subsequent visit to Samaria, no one it says was interested in listening to him. So it's quite interesting that there was this enormous impulse 0:18:51 - 0:19:14 initially to come hear him based on this one piece of information is one evidence of value. And yet on a subsequent visit, not one person would come and talk to him. And the rejection was so complete that the apostles asked Jesus if they should call down fire on Samaria for rejecting him. And so it's 0:19:14 - 0:19:54 serious. So you could say things are getting pretty serious. Um So it's interesting as an example of a very common um occurrence which is sometimes people overreact to signs of God's wisdom or power or goodness or glory. And when they do, it's very often the case that, that dramatic uh overreach of response 0:19:53 - 0:20:22 immediately fades to a complete absence of appropriate response. Um So this is the flash in the pan kind of reaction. And um many of you have seen this, if you've served in ecclesiastical mission, you've seen this um that it's not always the case, but sometimes the ones that burn the brightest are the 0:20:21 - 0:20:46 fastest to burn out. And that's, that is not an argument against intensity. It's just an argument in favor of finding the actual ones you're sent to seek. Um There's a response that's commensurate with the light. There's always a reason it's not over the top. Um And what this woman didn't get is that 0:20:46 - 0:21:08 it's possible for a man to know everything about you, even if he's not Christ, that's very important. And you see this in the scriptures where many prophets were able to say things about people that they had no way of knowing through conventional means, no way of knowing through conventional means? Ok 0:21:07 - 0:21:38 . So then is it appropriate to assume and dismiss out of hand, whatever they say? Uh Is it appropriate to assume that someone who thinks they know something about you actually knows nothing about you? No, it isn't. And it's particularly inappropriate to do when you say you recognize that person is having 0:21:38 - 0:22:06 some kind of advanced spirituality. We'll say so what an odd thing to, for example, think that someone's quote a man of God and then also to reject the notion that maybe they know something about you that extends beyond what you realize you have revealed to them. And I said that very carefully on purpose 0:22:05 - 0:22:33 . We have, I'm about to tell you something that is much more important than it could possibly seem by what I'm going to say about it. We have this notion that profits are magical mythical creatures that have been changed in an instant by God from a normal person into an above normal person with magic 0:22:33 - 0:22:57 powers. And if you look over the scriptures, you can have sympathy for people that feel that way. But if you know the rest of the story, you realize that this is certainly not the way it usually happens if it happens at all because even the things that seem like they're all of the sudden with God or 0:22:57 - 0:23:23 not, everything he does is like a gigantic clock. And it's, it doesn't matter how many gears it has and how hard it is to predict the next iteration of what happens on the face, which is the part of life you perceive the point is, it's all calculated in his view. It's all by design and the more acquainted 0:23:23 - 0:23:50 you become with the creator, the better you can understand and predict his creation. And I will say much more about this at a later date. But my point is that it's rare for someone not acquainted with God very much, we'll say to see anything close to the full extent of what they are showing and what 0:23:50 - 0:24:22 they say in what they do and what they do not say and in what they do not do, I'll give you a very plain example of this. Jesus said to the crowds. I know actually he said specifically to the Pharisees. I know you don't know my father because of the way that you treat me because I am like him. So you 0:24:22 - 0:24:49 should think deeply about that because it's very important. This is one example of how those who know God better than you might see much more in what you demonstrate than what you realize. And this is why it's possible for some people to experience just a sliver of interaction with you and then be able 0:24:49 - 0:25:21 to pinpoint some serious faults that you have that you don't admit, maybe you don't know about and more likely than those two you do know about and you actively hide and they just go, here's your problem. Now, this can also occur on a positive level, which I referred to earlier with the weightlifting 0:25:20 - 0:25:52 example, I have seen happen on at least a couple of occasions where God said. And here's an example of the gift of prophecy, meaning all of the sudden, you know, although this is also just the cap of a very large mountain of experiences that are required to have these sorts of things, intentional development 0:25:52 - 0:26:14 . Maybe you could say anyway, at least a couple of situations where I was told to say specific things to specific people. And I had no back story. I had no idea what this is based off of. I had no knowledge of anything except that God told me to say a thing to a person. And I did. And then that person 0:26:14 - 0:26:42 told me of this long experience. They had comparatively with the Lord in him telling them to do this and working them up to it and they still lack the faith to make the leap. And then I came along and went and then they went over the ledge, they jumped, they didn't fall. So, um and um you know, those 0:26:41 - 0:27:06 , those experiences, actually, they're quite sad because I know that they could have done it without me being involved. And uh it, it costs something to be involved. And it's, um, it's nice to see people progress more than they otherwise would. Um, but it's bittersweet when you know that they're missing 0:27:06 - 0:27:47 out on something greater that they could have had. But anyway, and that's because blessings come through faith and the greater, um, let's see, the further beyond sufficiency, you require the evidences to be before you act, the less the blessings must be so that they follow another facet of this more 0:27:47 - 0:28:11 positive situation where you're going and you're helping someone see the parts of themselves that maybe they have an inkling of but insufficient faith to act up to or maybe it lies beyond. So it's a positive thing, but it lies beyond their current understanding uh or belief. And then another, another 0:28:11 - 0:28:40 one of those is um when you tell them things that are very deep inside of them that no one else could possibly know that have been uh the source of loneliness or confusion in their lives. Now, this one, this one is a very sacred opportunity. The reason for this is of all the attributes of God. Love is 0:28:40 - 0:29:11 the chief most. It's the, it's the confluence of his character. It's like um it's like when you put a rainbow through a prism, you get white light out. And if each of his qualities are like colors of the rainbow, the white light is like love. And um the most common way we grow in our perception and possession 0:29:09 - 0:29:35 of these qualities is through splitting the white light into its components. And you will find if you had eyes to see that throughout your life, God has provided you with so many experiences where he's divided reality down to a thin thin thread to make it easier for you to come to know him and become 0:29:35 - 0:00:00 more like him and some spoke on the wheel of his character rather than all at once. Because like looking at the sun without filter, it's extraordinarily difficult to take in that full range of information and intensity without becoming oversaturated. So he breaks it down for us like any good parent. 0:00:00 - 0:30:25 And um so we get, we get facets of this instead of the whole shebang. But sometimes just, just as it's greater to have the greater leap of faith opportunity and take it than it is to have more than sufficient evidence poured out on you and take it. But that's still way better than not doing anything 0:30:24 - 0:31:00 . Sometimes we get the opportunity to make progress directly in the white light of love speaking figuratively instead of in the sub components of the rainbow. So um sometimes um people, let's see, let me rephrase this. Um It's more common than you might think for people to have an idea of love beyond 0:31:00 - 0:31:27 anything they've ever seen in any person. Now where that amount goes to, it differs from person to person, depending on a lot of things and I won't get into it. But it seems that to be the case that it's always beyond what they've seen so far in a person that that's somehow inherent in us. And what happens 0:31:27 - 0:31:59 is from time to time. God will use someone to show that person the physical instantiation of that love beyond anything they've ever seen. And it might even be beyond what they've imagined could be. So as we continue to peel this apart, I will remind you that when I say the word love, what I mean is the 0:31:59 - 0:32:36 amount a person is willing to suffer for the benefit of another. So moving on, um when, when they see that they have a few choices, one choice is to ignore it. That doesn't go well, causes a lot of guilt. Um Another, it also causes down str stream problems because God puts these things into our life 0:32:36 - 0:32:56 as lifelines. It's like a role playing game where you always get the weapons you need for the next boss before you face that boss. That's life. And God puts those things right in our hands, but he leaves it up to us to recognize them and use them. And more often than not people just throw the weapon 0:32:56 - 0:33:18 aside or they don't even pick it up because they would rather go get a cheeseburger or something. So, um they don't see it as valuable, they trample it under their feet or they pick it up and then immediately try to use it to hurt someone instead of to do good things. And um that's, that's a problem 0:33:18 - 0:33:53 . But God sends demonstrations of love to us before we need that love to overcome. What would otherwise overcome us? Because love is the greatest meaning and meaning can conquer all affliction. So that's a grand secret, but I'm just telling you plainly. So um when we see this love, we can ignore it and 0:33:53 - 0:34:14 that will cause bad things to happen to us or we can minimize it. This is actually an extraordinarily common tactic that people use to avoid the guilt of receiving a gift for what it actually is because like it or not, and no matter how much modern culture tries to fight this idea, when you receive a 0:34:14 - 0:34:52 gift, it always comes with an obligation and unanswered, that obligation will cause a lot of problems um including immense guilt. So the third reaction is to be grateful for it. And the fourth reaction is to become what you see. So if you have the attitude that someone can't know you, it's a lot easier 0:34:51 - 0:35:15 to disbelieve a demonstration of love. But that becomes much harder, the more deeply you've lived up until that point. And maybe I'll be able to explain a little more of what I mean by that. Um I wrote in Seek You this Jesus. Uh I wrote a chapter called Terrible or Glorious where I tried to explain the 0:35:14 - 0:35:38 dichotomy of being in the presence of God for almost anyone, it's a terrible experience and it's described as such in the scriptures and for the repentant, it's a glorious experience. It's a wonderful thing. It's nothing better. No, I personally have had the experience of looking into someone's eyes 0:35:38 - 0:36:16 . This has happened with more than one person knowing full well in exact detail, the love of God that they have felt through faith must exist and exactly how that feels in contrast to the malevolence and darkness in the world. And you, I don't have the words to describe the mix of hopeful elation and 0:36:15 - 0:36:45 absolute terror in these people's eyes is I've told them what they've never dared tell another living soul and what they probably wouldn't have words to describe even if they tried from deep within their own. So that's interesting. And that is something that would be absolutely impossible to experience 0:36:44 - 0:37:17 if you didn't believe it were possible for other people to know you far beyond how much of yourself you believe you have shown. So, um I guess due diligence requires me to, to mention once again an idea that I've brought up before, which is if you had any idea how much of yourself you reveal in saying 0:37:16 - 0:37:49 or doing so little, you would never say another word and you'd lock yourself up in your house and never come out. Now, thankfully for most people, this requires a level of awareness from the Lord that far exceeds what any normal person has, but it does exist, I promise you it exists. And um there are 0:37:49 - 0:38:20 many um there are many good things in life that the Lord wants all people to have that cannot be had absent this degree of awareness. And whether it's in you or through another person to you is less important for, for our purposes here. Then understanding the idea that eternal life is to know God and 0:38:20 - 0:38:46 a very important part of that process is to know yourself. They are more coupled, those two ideas are more coupled than you probably realize. So the next time you experience the co occurrence of evidence that suggests that maybe someone knows more about you, then you've shown, then you think you've shown 0:38:46 - 0:39:15 and the contents of that person's assessment. When you see those two things together, I invite you to pause and consider the truthfulness of what you've been told. Now, if you have very strong reasons to contradict what you're being told, that aren't a disbelief, that disbelief that it's possible for 0:39:15 - 0:39:40 someone else to know those things about you, then by all means challenge or even doubt what they say the best way though I'll, I'll give you a little cheat code for life. The best thing to do is that to ask them questions about it and give them the opportunity to counter your counterarguments. And then 0:39:39 - 0:40:03 through one or two revolu revolutions of this, you'll have a, a very firm idea of whether they have any idea what they're talking about or not. But if you dismiss them out of hand, there's no follow on opportunity for them to give you further evidence anyway. So if this happens, then try to use the information 0:40:02 - 0:40:32 that's shared with you to your greatest benefit. And if faults are pointed out, perhaps there are things you can do that you have not yet done to correct them. If opportunities are identified, then perhaps there are things that you can do to take greater advantage of those opportunities. If present strengths 0:40:31 - 0:40:47 are detailed, then perhaps there are ways that you could more fully live those strengths to the blessing of others. And these are things that I invite you to consider. If this ever happens to you.