I Believe In God but I Don’t Know God *

The Christian Atheist – I believe in God but I don’t know him.*
Sycamore Creek Church
Easter: March 24-28, 2016
Tom Arthur

Christ is Risen! Thank you God!

Have you ever said one thing but believed another thing? One day when I was driving Sam, my two-year-old home we had the following conversation:

Sam: I WANT MY BINKY!
Me: You don’t need your binky.
Sam: I NEED MY BINKY!
Me: I’m sorry.
Sam: You’re not sorry, daddy.

Boom! Sam called me out. He was totally right. I was saying I was sorry, but I wasn’t really sorry. #sorrynotsorry.

The same basic thing happens with God. Seven in 10 people say they believe in God. Six in 10 believe Jesus rose from the dead. And yet when we look at how people live today, they’re not living a life that reflects the teachings of Jesus. They’re not living or acting like God exists. They are a “Christian Atheist.”   A Christian Atheist is someone who believes in God, maybe even believes in the resurrection of Jesus, but lives as if God doesn’t exist. This is NOT a shot at atheists. Atheists say they don’t believe in God. They’re entirely consistent when they live as though God didn’t exist. This is a challenge to those who think or call themselves Christian but their life doesn’t line up with their beliefs. It’s like what Paul, the first missionary of the church, said in a letter he wrote to one of his friends, Titus:

They profess to know God, but they deny him by their actions.
~Paul (Titus 1:16 NRSV)

Here’s where we’re going with this series:

Week 1: Those who believe in God but do not know God.
Week 2: Those who believe in God but do not fear God.
Week 3: Those who believe in God but do not want to go overboard.
Week 4: Those who believe in God but do not trust God fully.

There was a time when I believed in Sarah but did not know her. I first met Sarah, my now wife of nineteen years, after she came back from Kenya where she had spent the semester studying. Toward the end of the semester she had extensions braided into her hair. I didn’t know enough about female hair products to know they were extensions. I just saw this wild looking twenty-one-year-old and was caught. Here’s a confession. This is the thought that went through my head in that moment. I’m not proud of it, but here it is. I thought to myself: “I bet she’s a good girl to date, but probably not marry.” YIKES! There’s so much wrong with that. But I was obviously wrong. This May I’ll be nineteen years wrong. I didn’t really know her then. But after nineteen years I can order off a menu for her. I can pick books out she’ll want to read, which is saying a lot given that my wife is the author of eleven books. I can, get this…it’s a super power I have…I can buy clothes she’ll like better than she can buy clothes she’ll like. She actually prefers clothing shopping with me than by herself! I know her quirks too. Like the fact that she can’t stand mud. Muddy boys. Muddy shoes. Muddy clothes. YUK! I’m pretty sure I’m on mud duty for the rest of our parenting lives with our two boys. And yet, after nineteen years of marriage I’m still getting to know Sarah better.

Who is the person that you know best? What do you know about him/her?

Here’s the amazing news for today: God, the creator of the universe, the one who raised Jesus from the dead, wants us to know him. God created us relationally. God wants you to know God. So what I want to do today is look at three different levels of knowing God.

Level One: Believe in God, but don’t know God.
Do you know that even the demons believe in God? When you read through the Bible you find over and over again that they recognize exactly who Jesus is and they say it out loud. Obviously, it’s not a personal loving relationship with God that the demons have. But you can believe in God without really knowing God.

You might call this kind of Christian a Cultural Christian. The Cultural Christian says, “My dad was a catholic, and my mom was a Baptist so we go to church on Christmas and Easter. I’m not a Muslim…or a Hindu…or a Buddhist…so I’d say I’m a Christian. I kinda believe in God…sorta…mostly.”

John, one of Jesus’ closest friends, wrote this:

Now by this we may be sure that we know him, if we obey his commandments.  Whoever says, “I have come to know him,” but does not obey his commandments, is a liar, and in such a person the truth does not exist; “I believe” but no fruit, transformation, remorse over sin…
~1 John 2:3-4 NRSV

Our good works don’t win God’s love. Our good works are a response from knowing God. I do loving things for Sarah and my family because I know them and love them. We can know a lot about the Bible, but miss heaven by 18 inches. Jesus is really direct about this. It’s not a fear tactic. It’s just a truth-telling:

Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.
~Jesus (Matthew 7:21 NRSV)

Didn’t we go to church?
I took that class when I was 12. I think it was called a constipation class.I gave some money to the local food bank.
I said some prayers.

But Jesus wonders whether you really knew him if you did all these religious things alone. Sure they’re good and helpful. They’re maybe even essential. But sometimes we can substitute them for a real relationship and not really end up knowing God. The first level of knowing God is believing in God but not knowing God.

Level Two: I believe in God and know God, but don’t know God well.
Do you I remember who Leigh Nash is? She’s the lead singer of Six Pence None the Richer. They are a one-, maybe two-hit wonder. Their big songs were “Kiss Me” and a cover of The La’s “There She Goes.” I actually know Leigh Nash. I met her when her band came to Wheaton College where I attended. This was before I met Sarah. Even though she wasn’t yet well known, I was star struck. I was studying photography at the time and I was there at her concert taking pictures. After the concert she asked if she could have copies of the pictures I took. This started up a conversation and I mentioned that I was taking guitar lessons. She handed me a guitar and showed me the cords to “Kiss Me” and she sang it to me right there as I chunked my way through the song. My hands were so sweaty I could barely hold the guitar. But Leigh Nash sang “Kiss Me” to ME! TO ME! I know Leigh Nash!

Well, actually none of that happened. Except in my mind. What really happened was that I was there taking pictures, but I was too nervous to talk to her, but her bass player gave me some cash to send him some pictures I had taken. So you might be able to say, I know Leigh Nash, but I don’t know her well.

Many of us know God, but not well. You had an experience that one time with God. You called on God. You were maybe even adopted into God’s family but…you haven’t grown with God since then. You have been informed about Jesus but not yet transformed by Jesus. Faith is like a dimmer switch. It’s not black and white like it’s on or off. Faith and knowledge of God can be dim or bright. Too many of us have the dimmer switch of our faith on the lowest setting and we’re content to leave it there. We’re missing out on the bright light of knowing God well. You may very well be in the family of God, and your sins are forgiven, but you don’t know God well.

Paul said it this way when he wrote a letter to the church at Galatia:

Before you Gentiles [non-Jews] knew God, you were slaves to so-called gods that do not even exist. So now that you know God (or should I say, now that God knows you), why do you want to go back again and become slaves once more to the weak and useless spiritual principles of this world?
~Paul (Galatians 4:8-9 NLT)

What Paul sees happening at the church in Galatia is that followers of Jesus are following old paths. They have been tempted to turn back to lifestyles that are incompatible with following Jesus. Many of us made a commitment to follow Jesus at some point, but we’ve reverted back to following old paths from our days before following Jesus. It’s almost like we dated, got engaged and married, but never went out on a date again. You’re married but you’re acting like you acted when you were single. You know God, but you don’t know God well.

Level Three: I believe in God and know God intimately and serve God wholeheartedly.
Those of you who are at this third level of knowing God may not say you’re there, but you know it. You are led by the Spirit of God. You walk by faith, not by sight. You are gently convicted of sin and turn from it. You see God’s hand all through the day. You are directed by God to care for those around you. You sense God interrupting you to say something to someone. You know God’s comfort. When you are weak, God makes you strong. God’s Word is hidden in your heart. Worship is a natural overflow from your daily life. You do what you do because it’s who you are. At the end of the day, you measure the day by how you served and glorified God. You are not perfect or better, you’ve just been walking with God for a long time and you know God well. David, the ancient king of Israel who was known in part for his poems about God, wrote this psalm as a man who loves, longs for and needs God. Listen to the intimate language of a man who knows God well:

O God, you are my God;
I earnestly search for you.
My soul thirsts for you;
my whole body longs for you
in this parched and weary land
where there is no water.
I have seen you in your sanctuary
and gazed upon your power and glory.
Your unfailing love is better than life itself;
how I praise you!
I will praise you as long as I live,
lifting up my hands to you in prayer.
~Psalm 63:1-4 NLT

David didn’t necessarily have it all together. In fact, if you read about his life in the Bible you’ll see that he was pretty messed up at times. And when you’re pretty messed up as the king, you can mess up a lot of other people’s lives too. But amidst the mess, David knew God intimately and longed to serve him wholeheartedly. This is so much different than, “Yeah, I guess I believe in God and all that resurrection stuff.”

How well do you know God?
If you’re wondering how well you know God, what you call God gives you a clue to how well you know God. David says it this way:

Those who know your name trust in you.
~Psalm 9:10 NLT

What you call me shows how well you know me. If I pick up the phone and someone on the other line says, “Hello, Church Sycamore…”, I know this is someone who not only doesn’t know me, but doesn’t even know our church. If you call me “Reverend Arthur” you know I’m “clergy” but you really don’t know much about what kind of clergy I am. (Jeremy, our worship leader likes to get under my skin and call me “Reverend Arthur” from time to time, and I say back to him, “Layman Kratky.”) If you call me “Pastor Tom” you know a little more about me. You probably know I’m the pastor of Sycamore Creek. You likely know that I’m married to Sarah and that I have two kids. You’ve probably heard me tell stories about myself when I teach messages each week. If you call me “Tom” you know me better. If you call me “Tam” then you’ve probably been friends with me for 26 years or longer and we’ve probably sat in the back of a police car together or been in a car chase after egging an ex-girlfriend’s house. (FYI…Don’t try to call me Tam now…). If you call me “Daddy” you know me on a very different level. You know what it’s like to snuggle and tickle and get ready for bed times and pray together each night. There are only two people who call me “Daddy.” And there is only one person allowed to call me “Snug,” and she knows me better than anyone else knows me (and occasionally a private email addressed to “snug” gets “reply all’d” to too many people). What name you know me by tells a lot about how well you know me. The same is true for God’s name.

What name do you call God? Do you call God “The Big Guy Up in the Sky”? Or maybe “The Man Upstairs.” Or perhaps you call Jesus “6lb 8oz Baby Jesus.” These names you call God say something about how well you know God. Or do you call God Father, Savior, Friend, the one who is there for you as no one else is? Or do you call God Healer, Provider, or Comforter? Maybe you call God Lord or King. The more you get to know God, the more you get to know all the deeper characteristics of God. This is what I’d call “finding your hallelujah.” When you “find your hallelujah”, as Andy Grammar sings, you realize that “hallelujah” isn’t just a word you say when you’re happy. You realize that “hallelu” is Hebrew for “praise” and “jah” is short for God’s most holy name, “Yahweh.” Hallelujah literally means: “Praise Yahweh.” You’ve found your praise of God because you know God’s name. Jesus knew God so well that he called God “Abba” or “Daddy.”

Are you a Christian Atheist? Do you believe in God but don’t know God? When you get to know God better, your heart begins to break for the things that break the heart of God.   You begin to care for things you didn’t care about. You care for the poor. You pray for people you didn’t notice before. When you sin, you don’t beat yourself up. You confess it to God and make it right in as much as you are able. You hear God’s voice. Church isn’t some place you go (a building), it’s who you are (a faith community). You don’t have a job, you have a ministry (whatever your “career” is). You know God intimately and you serve God wholeheartedly.

God wants to reveal himself to you. God spoke through the prophet Jeremiah saying:

If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me.
~Jeremiah 29:13 NLT

You are one prayer away from getting to know God better! God delights to show you more of God’s vey own self. God’s greatest desire is that you would know God and love God and know that God loves you. Paul puts this into a prayer:

I remember you in my prayers and ask the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, to give you the Spirit, who will make you wise and reveal God to you, so that you will know him.
~Paul (Ephesians 1:17 GNT)

Maybe today you’re realizing you believe, but you don’t know God. Or you don’t know God well. Or you haven’t yet come to the place of knowing God intimately and serving God wholeheartedly. Maybe you’re realizing for the first time and being really honest with yourself for the first time saying, “I’m a Christian Atheist. I believe in God but I don’t know God.” Then you’re in the right place. God wants to know you better and better and wants you to know God better and better. You’re one prayer away from that:

God, the father of Jesus, give me your Spirit. Make me wise. I confess to you my brokenness, my woundedness, and my sin. I don’t just want information about Jesus. I want transformation by Jesus. Let me know you better and better. In Jesus’ name.

*This sermon is based on a sermon first preached by Craig Groeschel