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So this is uh week seven here at Castric Elementary in week seven of our Explore God series. And the question we're gonna wrestle with, as was uh posed in the video, is the question of can I know God? Can I know God personally? Uh maybe another way to say that that's even pushing it further is can I have a relationship with God? And so this morning, as we think about that, um I want to just stop and think a little bit about um relationships in general. Now, how many of you would agree with me that relationships are hard? Anybody? Um you know, when I met Jada, I was a um a senior in high school, and uh I was, you know, as as every senior is really considering what my life was gonna be like and what I was gonna do with my life. I was thinking about college, I was thinking about uh the future, and and and uh and and I happened to uh have had some really rough relationships in in high school uh with the opposite sex, and and so um I was kind of at a spot where I just was like I don't want to have anything to do with girls right now. Uh that was kind of my my take on life at that point, was pretty much just keep my eyes fixed on uh you know figuring out what college is gonna look like, figure out what what I'm gonna do with my life, and maybe somewhere down the road um I'll I'll start another significant relationship and that relationship will hopefully lead me uh to marriage. Uh but at that point I was really just kind of done with relationships because I had experienced some of the hardships that come in relationships, even as a teenager. Um and and again, it was my own doing because uh I would I would tend to uh make those relationships too important in my life, and therefore they would control some of the ups and downs of my life and and just really kind of got burned out by that. And Jaden and I happened to meet. Um I won't give you the whole story this morning, but we met we happened to meet through some some school activities that were going on, and uh I'm sure her story would be a little different than my story. Um but in the end, we we ended up uh starting this relationship that now has turned into uh 13 years of marriage. And uh I'm grateful for that relationship, but if I could just be honest with you this morning, that even as beautiful as my wife is, and as amazing as she is, and as great as my relationship with her is, our relationship is very challenging at times. Okay? And for those of you that haven't gotten married yet and you have the fairy tale idea that you meet somebody and it's happily ever after, um, let me just go ahead and rain on your parade. It doesn't work that way. That's not really how it works. In fact, anybody who's married in the room can tell you that even if you really love someone, there are challenging days in your relationship. There are moments when uh your selfishness and their selfishness collide. And it can be ugly. It can be really at times brutal, to be honest. And I say that to you this morning because, you know, the relationships where you don't really care about someone, where maybe they're an enemy to you, maybe they're just someone that's a stranger to you, uh, maybe there's someone that your personalities just don't jive, generally speaking, you can just kind of ignore that person. You can just kind of walk away, you can just connect yourself, you don't have to worry about that. You don't have to confront the reality that that relationship's hard, because you can just simply avoid it. Correct? But here's the thing: um, this question of can I know God personally has huge implications because if this is the God who created the heavens and the earth, and specifically he created each and every one of us in this room, and he desires to have a relationship with us, and there is a know-ability about him, then there's some challenges that we're gonna face in that process that for some we have to really consider. Am I willing to engage in a very difficult process of having a relationship with my creator? And for some, they have really gotten to the point where they said, no, it's not worth it. Um, for many in the world, I would actually say they've chosen the path of ignoring God. Just to shut him out and just to say it's not worth the time and the energy and the effort to know this God. Now, the Bible tells us to answer the question briefly that God uses many means to speak to humanity. Uh, he uses creation to speak to humanity, he uses circumstances, he uses impressions, he uses other human beings to speak to humanity, to speak to us. And so I believe personally this morning that the answer to the question, can I know God, is absolutely yes. In fact, God wants to know us. But I want to take you on a little bit of a journey this morning because the message of the Bible is one that from the beginning to the end talks about God's desire to know us as human beings. And for us to know Him. So, if you've got your Bible, um, I want you to open up to John chapter 17. And I want you, if you don't have a Bible, there's a Bible that should be on the floor in front of you. It's either brown or black, it has a little cross on the front of it, like this. I want you to open up to John, it's a gospel in the New Testament. And if you uh you don't know your Bible uh well, or even if you do, but you would like a little extra help, let me just tell you it's on page 700, okay? And you can get there to page 700, John 17, and in just a little context, John is one of the apostles, one of those who'd been with Jesus, and he is writing here about a prayer, he's recorded a prayer that Jesus prayed. And a section of that prayer, Jesus prays for himself, another section, he prays for his disciples, and then he prays for uh believers, all believers. Like you and I, if you happen to believe in Jesus Christ today, he's prayed for us, which I don't know about you, but that's a pretty awesome thought that our Savior Jesus Christ has prayed. And in fact, the Bible says he is praying, or interceding is the word that it uses, but praying for us. Isn't that cool? That Jesus is praying for his people, he's praying for his followers. We're not gonna read the whole chapter of John 17, but I want to read the first five verses to you. And then later on, we're gonna come back to the very end of this passage. This is what it says as Jesus prays. Jesus spoke these things, and he looked up to heaven and he said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, so that the Son may glorify you. For you gave him authority over all flesh, so he may give eternal life to all that have given him. Now catch this verse. This is really key. This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and the one you have sent, Jesus Christ. I have glorified you on the earth by completing the work that you gave me to do. Now, Father, glorify me in your presence with that glory that I had with you before the world existed. Now, again, this is a powerful passage to remember to remember and reflect on this morning as we think about Jesus praying for us, praying for himself, praying for his disciples who were with him during that time. But he says something very profound in verse 3 that I want us to hone in on, where he says that this is eternal life, life that will last forever, that it's really knowing God. Now that says a couple of things to me, but I want, if you're following along in the handout this morning, I want to give you four major points that the Bible makes over and over again, and we see this as being the arc of the redemptive narrative of Scripture. Okay? The first point is this that we were created to be in a perfect relationship with God. We were created to be in a perfect relationship with God. God wants to know us and He wants to have a real relationship with us. And when you go to the very beginning of the Bible, you find the story of creation. Now, some people debate about the story of creation. Okay, is this the real story of creation? Is this figurative? Is it symbolic? I take the Bible and I read it and I just say, this is the story of creation. That's what it is. It's the story of creation. God knows this is how it was done, okay? But it tells us that in seven days, God made the earth and even took a day of rest in the midst of that. Okay? So seven days, and we still use a seven-day week. Um, and it all stems back to God and his seven days that he took to create the earth and to have a day of rest. But when he created humanity, he created humans with the capacity, Adam and Eve particularly at that time, to have a perfect relationship with him. Now, in this room, if you really stop and think about it, what would a perfect relationship look like? What would a perfect relationship with God look like? Adam and Eve, it says that as they were in the garden, without sin, without rebellion to God, without any issues, without any struggles, in perfection, in this beautiful place that God had designed for them, with all they needed to eat and all they needed to live forever with God. There's the beginning of chapter 3. And it says that God walked in the garden. Now, it's a precursor to something we're going to talk about in a minute, but it just says that God came in in the cool of the day and he walked in the garden. How many of you guys would like to know God in that way? That he literally walked in your neighborhood? That he was with you and that there was a that he was present. Like you didn't have to guess, God, where are you? You didn't have to guess, like, are you there, are you not there, are you listening, or you're not listening, but literally he would come and walk with you. When I was a kid growing up in church, I grew up in Baptist churches, and we sang this song that he walked with me and he talks with me and he tells me I am his own, and the joy we share as we tarry there. I don't know what tarry means there, but anyway, um, none other has ever known. You know, I kind of like as a kid I would sing that, and I thought, kind of like the catchy tune to it, but like, can we really experience that? God walking with us and talking with us? And yet the Bible says that when Adam and Eve were in the garden, that God literally would show up on the scene and he would be with them, and they just had time with them. But here's here's what I thought. What would relationships look like if they were perfect? Well, here's just some of the things I wrote you could probably add to this list, but no fear. No fear in the relationship. No fear of what? No fear of rejection. How about no shame in your relationship? Not no never a place where you were ashamed of your actions or your behavior. Uh so there was never a barrier in that sense of shame. No lies. No, no, no trying to bend the truth to appear one way or or or keep them from knowing something that might cause them to reject you, right? No lies. Complete honesty, complete authenticity, genuineness, complete acceptance, like being fully known and fully loved. How many of you like a relationship like that? Where you can just say, look, you know every bit of me. And like, but yet being fully embraced, even in who we are. No blame. Complete trust. We don't even know how to wrap our brains around that. Like, I mean, I think I have a really good marriage. I think I have a really rich marriage, but uh like in our humanity, we don't even trust ourselves. Much less the people that we're in close relationship with, fully, right? I mean, we strive for that, we long for that, but there's this piece of us that struggles to trust because here's the thing. Even though you and I were created for a perfect relationship with God, we were wired, we were designed from the very beginning for a perfect relationship with God. Something's messed that up, hasn't it? And we know that. Those of us who believe in the message of the Bible, we know that something's messed that up. And it's this that our sin has wrecked our closeness with God. Our sin has wrecked our closeness with God. As I was thinking about this week, um, what word would fit in that space? Our sin has what with God? It's it's caused division, it's it's broken our relationship with God, but but literally it's it's it's a train wreck. It has wrecked, it has wreaked havoc on our relationship with God. It's destroyed this intimacy, and I know men don't always like that word intimacy, but this being fully known, it's destroyed the ability for us to just have a real relationship with God where there's nothing in between, nothing that's separating, nothing that's dividing us from God. I long for that. And yet I'm scared of it at the same time. Because there's something wrong with me, isn't there? There's something wrong because the Bible says that our sin has wrecked our closest with God. We know that because in the beginning in the story, they're there in the garden and they have everything they need, and they have got this perfect relationship with God. No need to hide from God, no need to fear God, no need to be ashamed. And yet, because they chose to break the only rule he gave them, to not eat from the tree. They instantly feel this separation from God. He had said, You will surely die. And in a sense, they died that day, and we are still dealing with that death because we are separated from God in his original intent for mankind, to be in this perfect close relationship with him. You know, with my kids, one of the things that I love in being a parent is just spending time with them, just being with them. I love just having my kids at the end of a long day climb up in my lap and just put their arms around me and say, Daddy, I love you. There's just something about that just that's just powerful. Like, I love it when my kids greet me at the door, coming home from a day of work, and they just run up and they grab my legs and they just say, Daddy, daddy, daddy, daddy's home, we're excited. There's just something awesome about that. But you know what breaks my heart? When my kids disobey. When they do something that dishonors their mom, and she calls me on the phone and she's like, these kids that we love so much, they're being little demons right now. Okay? And she's like, these kids are driving me bonkers right now. I'm like, those kids that like greet me at the door and love me, and those kids, are you sure? She's like, yes. And do not walk in the door and act like nothing's happened here today. Right, moms? I just want to be with my kids, and she's like, no, you gotta discipline them first. Then you can be with them. But listen, here's the thing. When my kids have screwed up, when they've blown it, when they've disobeyed, there's this disconnect that happens between me and them. And as much as I love them, as much as I care about them, until we get that issue right, there's this brokenness in our relationship. And so I want to love them and I want to just be with them, but I can't ignore the issue at hand, which is they have rebelled against the rules of our household. And I tell parents all the time that when they ask, you know, how do you discipline your kids? How do you deal with your kids? Um, well, I had a thought, but I'm not gonna say that right now. Um, here's the thing: if they're disobedient and they're disrespectful, we deal with it. We can't ignore it. Because we love them too much to ignore it. Right? And listen, the Bible says that we have a heavenly father. And then when he sees our life and he sees that we have disobeyed him and we have rejected him and we've rebelled against his rules and his guidelines and for the way things are supposed to work, he can't ignore that. So what does he do? He comes to us. And here's the thing: when he pursues us, when he comes to us, we feel this shame. We feel this guilt, we feel this disconnect, we feel this brokenness. All the things that a perfect relationship doesn't have, our new relationship now has. There's lies and there's deceptions. I mean, what did they do in the garden? What's the first thing they did? They ran and they they hid. They hid. That's what sin does. Is it causes us to want to hide. And then he says, What did you do? And what do they do? They blame. They blame each other, but ultimately Adam blames God for giving him a woman who deceived him, who led him, right? Which it was his job to lead her. That's a whole nother sermon for another day, man. But here's the thing: in the midst of all that, this relationship is now broken. And God at that moment in history had every right to scrap it, to literally take the page that he had been writing on, wide it up, and throw it in the trash can and say, I'm gonna restart this story all over. He had that right. As a holy, just, righteous God, he had every right to do that in that moment. That could have been the end of the Bible as we know it, right? We're three chapters in. I mean, we didn't make it very far. Is that encouraging? Discouraging? Three chapters in. We've already blown it. But instead of scrapping the page, instead of ending it there, instead of stopping the storyline, our God, a merciful, gracious God, He chose love. He chose love. You see, when we think about love, we think about in terms of something that we feel only. And there is a feeling that's a part of love, but but we all know in this room that love is an action, isn't it? It's a verb. It's something that you have to do, not just something that you have to feel. In fact, many times the feelings don't come until we start to act in line with what love is. We pursue the action of love, and thankfully, God is good and he meets us and he brings the feelings of love. Again, in marriage, this is something we see consistently. When we choose to act in line with what love is, thankfully, God is gracious enough that he stirs our hearts again and gives us an affection for the people that we choose to love. And the problem in our culture is so much of the time we try to do it the other way. But that's not how God works. God hurt in that moment, frustrated in that moment, wounded in that moment, that his creation, his beloved creation, who he said is very good, who he gave only one rule to, not 3,000 rules like we have today, or however many we have. One rule, break the only rule, because they thought they knew better. And God says, I'm gonna choose to love you. Isn't that awesome? That God says, I'm going to love you. His response to our sin was love. He came to the garden just like he did every other day, and he came and he tracked them down. Now he knew where they were. He didn't have to say, Where are you? This is God for crying out loud. This wasn't like a game of hide and seek. He knew exactly where they were, but he says, Where are you? In some ways, I kind of wonder if that question wasn't not just where are you physically, but where are you spiritually right now? Where have you gone? Why have you abandoned me? But he says, Where are you? But here's the thing I want you to know that for God to choose to love us was not a cheat. For God to make his response to us love instead of wrath was not an easy process. It was not an easy task. In fact, we know at that moment in chapter three that while he is issuing the curse to mankind, saying that man would have to work hard to get the ground to produce a crop and there'd be thorns and thistles, and why women would now have pain and child labor, and while these things would be uh there would be struggle in the relationship because the woman would want control over the man because now the relationship is screwed up because there's sin involved, and and even saying to the snake, that snake, you are gonna lick the dust of the earth. I mean, we had that conversation with our kids this week. I wonder what it's like to be a snake before, you know, they lost their legs, I guess. Now you're gonna slither on your belly. But he says something powerful in this passage. He says that you snake, you serpent, Satan, that your head is going to be crushed. Your head's gonna be crushed. And how's it gonna be crushed? Well, if you continue to read the Bible, you understand that God didn't stop at love, he continued on in justice. Because God is holy and he is good and he is right and he is true, he is perfect, and he cannot ignore our sin. He cannot ignore our rebellion to him because he loves us too much. Somebody had to pay a price for us to have a restored relationship with God, right? And that person was Jesus. That person was Jesus. And if you believe today in Jesus Christ, we need to stop and just say thank you. Because what happened is God, in his great mercy and his great love, he chooses to pour out the wrath that he had against our sin in that moment on his own son. Now, I've thought about this multiple times, and maybe you've heard this before, maybe you've really stopped and considered this, but what would it look like for me to take my son leaf and pour out my anger and wrath on him for everything that all my other kids have done? How unfair would that be? As I said, you guys know I have five kids. More kids, more sin. There'd be a lot of sin in our life, in our household, that it had to pour out on my one son and say, I'm gonna pour all of my anger and frustration and discipline out on you, Leaf, no matter what they've done. Now my girls would be like, yes, this is awesome. And Leaf would be like, what? Say, what? And like most every other kid in the United States, he'd say, That's unfair. That's not fair. And yet God says, He chose to pour out his just and holy, righteous wrath on his son Jesus. That's his response to our sin. Colossians 1, 21 and 22 says it this way. Once you were alienated and hostile in your minds because of your evil actions. But now, catch this, but now he has reconciled you by his physical body through his death to present you wholly, faultless, and blameless before him. Romans 5.8 says this, while you were sinners, while you were in your rebellion, Christ died for us. 2 Corinthians 5.21 says that God made him who knew no sin to become sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. You catching that? God treated Jesus like he lived your life and my life so that he could treat us like we lived Jesus' life. Think about that for a minute. Let that sink in. That's crazy talk. But that's what our God did. Because he's that good, because he's that loving. Because he wants a relationship with you and with me. Relationship is hard. Relationship is difficult. Relationship is challenging, but God has done the hard work for us in person of Jesus Christ. And so the fourth point is simply this. Anyone who trusts in Jesus' substitution can have a restored relationship with God. Anyone who trusts in Jesus' substitution, the word that we like to use in theological circles is substitutionary atonement. That God had to take our place. Now, as I was a student pastor, I served with a pastor in a little small town while I was in college. And his name was John, and he had a son named Travis. He actually had three sons, and Travis, for whatever reason, he was the middle child. If you're the middle child, I don't mean this to be offensive, but Travis kind of was, you know, doing his own thing. And he had a lot of problems at school getting in trouble. And John was trying everything to get through to his son. He tried and tried and tried. Like, come on, son, you can do this. And he was getting calls constantly from the teachers, from the principals, hey, your son is acting up again. So John thought it's time for drastic measure. The principal called him and said, Hey, we're getting ready to give your son SWATs. And, you know, this by this point, this is uh already in the 2000s. And so uh, you know, in the 2000s, uh, they can't SWAT a child, you know, unless the parent comes up there because you know, we've got all these lawsuits and all these issues now. You don't want to break a kid's spirit, you want to make sure mom and dad are there. Um like that didn't work back in my day, right? You guys know that. I mean, you want to swank, spank you, they spanked you right there on the spot, didn't matter. And then they tell parents way later. Okay? And then for me, I went home and got another spanking. So but principal called and said, Hey, Travis is acting up again. And he went up to the school and the principal's office, and Travis was supposed to get two SWATs. And he stepped up and he said, Principal, I want you to give me the SWATS instead. And so he walks over, puts his hands on the desk, a grown man, almost 40 years old, while his 14-year-old son stands there and watches his dad get SWATs from the principal. I wish I could say that Travis never had issues again. And I'm sure his dad wishes that. But I know this for sure that forever he has a living, breathing illustration of what Christ did, but that's one little bitty tiny drop in the bucket compared to what Christ did for us. He didn't just take a swat for us, he took the wrath of his own father against all sin upon himself. He was despised and rejected, as the scripture says. Are you hearing me? But if we put our trust and our faith in Christ's substitution on our behalf, guess what? We can have a relationship with God, a restored relationship with God. We can have a real relationship with God. And it may not be perfect this side of heaven, it may not be perfect this side of Christ's return, but one day it says in the Bible we will have a perfect relationship with Christ again. In fact, Revelation says it this way. In fact, Revelation 21, verse 3. This is one of my favorite chapters in the entire Bible. In Revelation 21, verse 3, it says this. Then I heard a loud voice from the throne. Look, God's dwelling is with humanity, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. Notice that, be with them. Just like he was in the garden. One of the men in our small group this week, he asked a really profound question. We were talking a little bit about Revelation. And he said, you know, when God hits that reset button at the end, when things go back to the way they were supposed to be in the Garden of Eden, when God starts things over again and everything goes back to the way God intended, how do we know that we won't reject him again? How do we know that we won't rebel against him all over again and break his heart again? It's like, I've never asked that question. I've never thought about that. And in that moment I was reminded, like, praise God, that when he resets, when he restores, when he brings us back into a relationship with him, guess what? It won't be an option to reject them anymore. Because we will be like him and we will be with him, and all the evil things of this world will be done away with, and there will be no more pain and no more suffering and no more sorrow. And I'm excited about that because I know my heart all too well that if I was left to my own, I would rebel all over again. But thankfully, we have a gracious God who's gonna make us new. And we won't be the same as we are now. So if this is the gift, if this is the issue, is that it's by faith, if it's by trusting in Christ's substitution, we can have a restored relationship with God, then why is it that we don't? Why is it? And I just was thinking about this week. Like, if this is the message of the Bible, and I'm not sure many people believe that this is the message of the Bible, at least in the culture that I'm swimming in, because I talk to people all the time, and when I tell this is the story of the Bible, they're like, what? No. No, isn't the message of the Bible like be a good person? Isn't the message of the Bible like here's some rules to follow that'll make your life better? Like, no, man. That's not the message of the Bible. The message of the Bible is that God's perfect and he's good, and he made us perfect and good, and we screwed it up. But that he's merciful and gracious and just and he's pursuing us. And he wants us to know him, and he's made a way through his son Jesus Christ. And if we'll trust in him, we can have life. But there's three primary reasons why I believe people reject this message. Three primary reasons. And I want you to consider today if you have rejected this message, which one is you? And if you are a believer in Christ and you've accepted this message, which one do you struggle going back to? Okay? So as I outline these three things, think about which one, and maybe it's more than one, but which one is it for you that you struggle with? First thing is this we are straight up deceived. We are deceived. You see, the reason why we fall to temptation is because there is an enemy who wants to keep us from having a relationship with God. Did you know that? There is one in the Bible that says that he is prideful and he is arrogant and he is ungodly, and he is the antonym of God that we serve and love. And he wants nothing more than to keep us separated from our God, from our creator, from our maker. He wants to keep us disconnected. And so he deceives us, he teases us, he puts things in front of us. But also, the Bible says that we get distracted by the things of this world. The things that were intended to be gifts from God, the desires that were there that were intended to be good are perverted because we're broken. And so we're deceived. We're deceived. And so instead of pursuing a relationship with God, we pursue material possessions. Instead of pursuing a relationship with God, we pursue a relationship. Instead of pursuing a relationship with God and pursuing Him, we pursue TV shows and we get lost in our smartphones and we get lost in things that are temporary satisfactions. We pursue hobbies. Now listen, before you think that I'm down on all that stuff, I'm not, but but I can tell you this. People have substituted so many things for God. And sometimes we want to look at it like, okay, these big things, it's the little things we substitute for God that own us. Our busy schedules that are consumed with how we appear to other people or what accomplishments we have. Those are things that rob us of a relationship with God, aren't they? Because here's the thing. If I was gonna have a real relationship with God with uh with my wife, and thankfully I do, what has to be true? At a baseline level, I've got to be with her. I've got to spend time with her. I've got to know her, I've got to let her know me. We've got to talk, right? It's not rocket science. And yet, so many people in this world, including myself, we choose other things instead of spending time with God. And we wonder why he feels so distant, why he still feels so far away, why he feels like he's not talking to us. Can I just say to you today, we are deceived. We think there's something that's better than Jesus. And listen, there is nothing better than Jesus. Second thing, though, is that for some of us in this room, the reason why we struggle with the relationship with God, trusting in Christ, is because we're ashamed. What happened whenever they found out that what God said would happen actually happened in the Garden of Eden? They were naked and ashamed. They realized they were naked and they were ashamed. You see, in our lives, shame drives us, doesn't it? It hurts us so deeply. And so many people are filled with shame. And they feel like I'm not worthy of God. I am not worthy of Christ's sacrifice. And the danger of this is that that sounds really good. But did you know that that's really false pride? A false humility, it's a reverse pride. It's a backdoor to the same issue, which is we make the whole universe about us. Because I know because I've struggled this in my own life, that when I struggle with not feeling good enough, the issue is that I'm focused on me. But when I fix my eyes on Christ, the center of life, the center of this message, the hero of the Bible, the hero of the story, the rescuer of mankind, when I put my eyes on him, I realize it doesn't matter who I am, it only matters who he is. And I can get right perspective all over again. And I remember in that moment that he's better than anything that this life can offer me. But shame can own us. And many times people who feel shame and guilt, they give up. Let me just tell you something. Shame, shame is not from God. Shame is not from God. Conviction is from God. Conviction is from God. Conviction is when the Holy Spirit, God, He comes to us and He says, you're choosing something other than me to fill your life, and it's going to lead you to death. It's going to lead you to destruction. It's going to lead you to hardship. That's conviction. Shame says you're not good enough. You're not worthy. You'll never make it. You can never choose right wisely. You can never choose the right thing. Give up. That's shame, right? There's a difference, isn't there? And so this morning, I don't know where you are personally in your walk with God, but if you feel shame, that's not of God. But if you feel conviction this morning, God is calling you back to Himself. Because, see, God wants to restore the relationship with you. With my kids. Did you know that I can shame my kids into behaving correctly? Have you ever experienced that personally? I can tell them, man, you are just a bad kid. I cannot believe you. Like doing all that stuff. I can shame them. I cannot, I told you not to do that, and you're just a bad kid. You just chose to do that. And I can make them feel really bad and really lousy. And I can maybe get the right behavioral response out of them by beating them down enough. Right? With those words. But you know what? You guys, and we all know this in here. There's no heart changing that. And that's not what God does to us, is beat us down. He says, you can't be good enough because you are broken. But I still love you, and you're so worthy that I would send my son to die so that you could have life. But the third reason we reject Jesus' substitution on our behalf, and maybe this is many of us in the room today, I don't know, is that we're self-reliant. We're self-reliant. You see, that's what religion's all about. Religion is all about people trying to make their way to God, people trying to do good things to establish their worth in the kingdom of God. Or for whatever belief system that they choose to apply to their life. It's ultimately about how man can perform. What man can do. Just jump through some hoops. My question to you and to me today is how's that working for you? How's it working for you to jump through those hoops and try to be, you know, good enough? Because it's like running on a treadmill, isn't it? It's like running in a hamster wheel. It's like you're running really hard, going really fast, but you're not getting anywhere. Because you can't be good enough in and of yourself. We need a savior, and we are not our savior. We cannot save ourselves. And so many people are self-reliant. We try to work our way back to a relationship with God. You know, um, when I was a kid, and maybe you saw this as well in your own life, when I would blow it, I would disobey my parents, I would do something disrespectful, or maybe get in trouble at school. You know what one of my first things I would do? I was I would go home and I would try to make up for it. So I'd start washing the dishes. Hey, I'd start washing the dishes. I'd start uh cleaning the floors, I'd go clean my room, start doing all these things, right? Like, where does that come from? Why is that like, okay, this is gonna fix the problem? It might have softened the blow, maybe. But it really, at the end of the day, it really didn't make it up, did it? And some of us in our lives with God, that's what we're trying to do. We're trying to make up for our rebellion, we're trying to make up for our rejection of God. And let me just tell you, stop trying to can't. Trust. Trust in Christ. So here's the thing, as we wrap up this Explore God campaign, Explore God series, seven weeks, we've talked about some difficult questions. At the end of this conversation, this question of can I know God, really is the answer to every other question. The answer to this will just determine whether or not those other questions really we're ever going to get some answers or we're ever gonna have some peace in all this. You see, the first week we talked about does life have a purpose? If we know God, the one who created the heavens and the earth and created us and loves us, guess what? Life has a purpose. To know God and to make him known. Does God exist? Well, if we have a personal relationship with God, absolutely we know he exists. We feel him, we sense him, we talk to him, he talks to us. Maybe it's not audibly out of heaven, but his word's living and it's alive, it's active, it speaks into our lives, it speaks into our hearts. Why does God allow pain and suffering? You know, when you know God, when you have a personal relationship with God, you may not understand why things happen, but you can know that there's a God who's with you in those things, and that you have a God who has suffered for you in his person of Jesus. Is Christianity too narrow? No, if we know God, if we have a relationship with God, guess what? Like, wouldn't you want everyone to know? This God that we know? It's not too narrow. It's an overflow of what God's doing in our life. We've got to make people aware. We want people to know. We want people to see Him. Is Jesus really God? If we know God, if we have a personal relationship with God, we know that Jesus is the way we get to God. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes with the Father except through me. Is the Bible reliable? If you know God, if you have a personal relationship with God, then you know his word is alive. And when you read it, it's not just words on a page, it's not just another book you pulled off the shelf. You sense and you feel the presence of God as you read it. I'm not telling you there's not days that you wake up and it's dry. But generally that's because when we try to approach the Bible like a textbook, it's not going to be real, real rich. But when we approach the Bible as that God is writing a letter, a love letter to us, and it's a relationship that we have with Him, He's speaking to us, changes everything, doesn't it? And it points us to Jesus. Our trust this morning, my trust, is not in a book of rules, it's not in a systematic religion. Our trust as Christians, as Christ followers, is in a person. And his name is Jesus. That's where our trust lies this morning. At the end of the John 17 passage that I read at the very beginning this morning, this is what it says, verse 25. Righteous Father, the world has not known you. However, I have known you, and these have known that you have sent me. I made your name known to them and will make it known, so the love that you have loved me with may be in them and I may be in them. Listen, our Savior God, Jesus Christ, he wants a personal relationship with you. My challenge, my encouragement to you this morning is quit being ashamed, quit hiding, quit trying to make your way back to God on your own. Quit ignoring God. Listen, open your heart, open your life to Him. Because it will radically change your life here and now, but also this is eternal life. To know God and the one who He sent, Jesus Christ. That's eternal life. That's where we find.