Form Versus Substance

The title today is Form vs. Substance and or the subtitle Form and or Substance. But actually what we're going to see is we need form and substance. We live in a world where image and outward appearance is emphasized more than the inner person of the heart. The checkout stands at the grocery and convenience stores are filled with glossy magazines, covers of beautiful young women that have been airbrushed their face and arms and complexion, and doctored to the point that their complexion is virtually flawless. The emphasis is on the outside. You seldom see any article that deals with what's on the inside anymore. It is said that the two categories of people that are most discriminated against are people that are overweight and those who are perceived to be ugly. It doesn't fit the image, the mold of the magazine covers that you see at the checkout stand. They don't fit the stereotype, so they become the brunt of bullying and jokes. Perhaps you can do something about being overweight, but one usually cannot help the way the genes and chromosomes come together to give them their physical features. Call it the way the skin is stretched over the face. Some have the mouth turned down like me. Some have it turned up with that beautiful smile all the time.

However, the way you're born has to some degree been overcome in today's world because we have even pre-teens and some as early as five or six years old. Their parents are submitting them to cosmetic surgery.

They hear and see the examples of the so-called celebrities. We live in a celebrity crazed cult kind of world in which those kind of people are cheered and those who would stand for that which is godly and right are jeered. I think that people should do what is reasonable to improve their appearance. Teeth can be straightened oftentimes. When I was somewhere around 10 or 11 years old, I had two, I guess it's incisors, that were coming in and they looked like the tusks on the hogs.

And so they pulled those two teeth and I didn't wear braces, probably couldn't afford it anyhow. And my teeth came out normal. I've got a lot of, I don't have false teeth per se, just a lot of implants. But anyhow, acne can be controlled in today's world. Acne has ruined the personality and the way that people deal with each other and has caused many a young person a lot of turmoil in their lives. I battled acne kind of thing to some degree. When I was a young person, it's amazing that my face is not scarred more than it is. You wouldn't notice too much now unless you were watching in HD. But in today's world, there seems to be no bounds in society on this quest to become and to remain young and beautiful. Let's look at 2 Peter, chapter 2. 2 Peter is definitely directed toward the end time and judgment coming upon the world. The example in the first part of this chapter is talking about even the angels that sin were cast down to a condition of restraint. In 2 Peter, chapter 13, 2 Peter, chapter 13. That'd be hard to find. 2 Peter, chapter 2, verse 14. Having eyes of an adulteress. That is the more accurate translation. So you look at those magazine covers and you'll see how the eyes of the young women there on those covers are made up. Having the eyes of an adulteress that cannot cease from sin beguiling unstable souls. And heart they have exercised. And a better translation there is, train with covetous practices having children of curse.

So we have been trained to covet because Madison Avenue, the advertising world in New York City, of course it's spread to other parts of the world now, is an absolute genius, as it were. They have it down to a science and an art of how to get you to covet and to seek after things and pair use and beauty and image with the good life. And it's paired with everything from Budweiser beer to Toyota pickups or whatever it is. If you want to be young and beautiful, then you'll drink Bud or you'll drive a Toyota or whatever the product might be that they're advertising.

Today, the way you look, your image and your view of morality largely determines your standing with your peers. And that's basically adults and young people. The way you look on the outside, and we see here what the Bible says, how up to date is the Bible?

Which have forsaken the right way and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam, the son of Bozor, and love the wages of unrighteousness.

What we see today puts tremendous pressure on parents and their children.

Parents deeply desire that their children will succeed in life, as you heard in the first sermon.

Dr. Baker and I, neither one of us knew what each one would be talking about, but some similarities for sure.

So they are under pressure, both parents and children. Young people don't want to be outcasts and the brought up bullying and jokes.

So they are surely under pressure. One of the big things in today's world is here over and over about bullying, and even some youth are committing suicide because they have been bullied so much, and or some in one of these latest shootings where this 13-year-old went through the door of this middle school and shot some people. Fortunately, they caught him. They even had, I think, guards on duty and blocked the doors all but one. He went in the one that was unlocked. The reason, his motive said, because he was being bullied at school. There indeed is now a tyranny of the peer group, both in the adult world and the world of youth.

So let's contrast this now to what God is looking for in you and I. Let's go first of all to 1 Samuel 16 and verse 7 to see where God places the emphasis.

One of the things that we'll be seeing here today is that God works from the inside out. That's not to say that form and appearance are not important because form and appearance are important, but which comes first.

Dr. Baker talked about the center of your life, centering. I'm going to use more of the word core and the word heart, but in actuality they are synonyms.

In 1 Samuel 16, verse 7, But the Eternal said unto Samuel, Look not on the countenance, don't look at the face or the height of the stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord sees not as man sees, for man looks on the outward appearance, but the Eternal looks on the heart.

He looks at the inward man. Now we go to 1 Peter chapter 3 and verse 1 to see what God really values, what is of great price. So we see that God looks first and foremost at the inside.

Of course, the account here with Samuel was that he was told to go anoint someone to take the place of Saul. Saul was a very handsome man, tall in stature, and all of that. He was the people's choice.

But David was God's choice, and that's one of the main things it means when it says that David was a man after God's own heart.

David was just as carnal as you or I, and of course his sins are cataloged in the Bible. But he was faithful when all was said and done to his core.

In 1 Peter chapter 3 verse 1, Well, they behold your chaste conduct, couple with fear. Who's adorning? Let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting of the hair or wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel. There's nothing wrong with that, and recently I spoke on some of this here in this congregation.

We turn to Ezekiel 16 and it talks about how when God found Israel, she was in a terrible mess, and the analogy is drawn between a newborn just coming out of the womb and God cleaning Israel up and entering into a covenant with her, with the nation of Israel. Verse 4 is our key verse here.

So adorning of the inside, working from the inside, God looks first at the heart.

I've heard it said that form precedes the substance.

But I have come to believe that you must work from the inside out first, not from the outside in. Form is important, and research shows that people eventually come to believe what their practice, and what you wear and how you appear is very important.

But it's not the most important thing, as the world would have us to believe, as you look at your magazine covers.

Or you look at television, you could name any range of media sources.

God convicts the mind first through His word and His Spirit, the inner person.

You look at John, the Gospel of John, chapter 16. My Bible just happened to turn to that automatically, but anyhow, let's look at it. This is John 16.

So the comforter, and the comforter is masculine, and the Greek, therefore the referent pronouns are in masculine form, but does not make it a person. I don't know why we always say that, I think we know it.

The comforter will not come unto you, but if I depart, I will send him unto you, and when he is come, it will reprove the world. And that word there for reprove is elencho, E-L-E-N-C-H-O in the Greek, and it means convict, to lay a weight on the mind and the heart, that you know that this thing is true.

And it's like you can't shake it. It's clinging there, and it puts an urge to you, I need to do something about this. And then the Word of God is equated with the Spirit of God in John 6.63. The words I speak, they are spirit, and they are truth. That's John 17.17. John 6.63 says, We call it the living Word, the Word of God. It is of the Spirit. So the Word of God and the Spirit of God convicts the inner man. And as we have noted, God looks on the heart and not on the outward appearance. The Pharisees emphasize the outside. They emphasize form over substance. They emphasize the outward appearance of being righteous, instead of being righteous on the inside, of emphasizing the outward form of fasting twice in a week, public prayers, and that kind of thing. Look at Matthew 23. Jesus Christ takes them to tasks throughout Matthew 23. We'll come down to verse 23. 23-23.

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you pay tithes of men, anise, and coming. Just a little, let's weigh it out and let's make sure we get that tithe in there just right. And have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith. See, if it's a weightier matter of the law, it means all three of these spring from the law. I would not have done sin unless the Scripture of the commandment is said, you shall not commit adultery.

So the law defines sin, and you make a judgment and say, I have sinned. Judgment, mercy, and once you admit you've sinned, you cry out for God's mercy. And He's faithful and just, forgive you of all unrighteousness. If you repent and faith, to walk in faith, go and sin no more. These ought you to have done, and not to leave the other undone. You blind guides would strain at a gnat and swallow a camel.

Would you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you may clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. You blind Pharisees, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.

And using the analogy there, of course, of working from the inside out with regard to the heart and what you believe and what truly constitutes righteousness. Woe unto you scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites, for you are likened to whited sepulchers, which indeed appear beautiful outward but are within, full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.

And virtually every celebrity that you want to name today, not everyone, but most, would fall into this category. So here I am, and I'm coming through, and it's the view on ABC in the morning. And our great guest of the day is Rosine Barr. And Rosine, I don't know if that's her real name or not, but anyhow, Rosine had a serious heart attack back in 2012. So she tells the story. There was this woman in the car, when she went in the parking lot from shopping, and she was crying out for help.

So she feverishly did everything she could to get the woman out of the car. And then a little bit later, she began to have pain in the chest and down the arms. And she had a massive heart attack, and she said, And my wife, Michelle, just really didn't know what to do, but Michelle helped me, and so on.

And you hear this from time to time. I was walking through that grocery store checkout stand, maybe in Glade Water. I don't know where. I looked over there, and it had Ellen DeGeneres involved in a 200 million divorce case with her. I don't know if it's a husband or wife, whichever one it is, but it's female, whichever one it is. Now, Ellen is going to be hosting the Academy Awards. I tell you, I won't be watching, but anyhow, so I believe at times, even in the church, maybe we have placed too much emphasis on image. I want to use a balloon today and a baseball metaphorically and allegorically try to illustrate working from the inside out as opposed to the outside in.

So we have here a balloon, and we have a baseball. We have a hammer. If I had a hammer, I could do a lot of things. So each has a cover. You see that cover on the balloon there? Each has a cover. Baseball has a cover. This might be the baseball that sometimes the pitchers, when I was coaching college baseball after the game, would bring the baseball to me and sign it. I think I'm down to one now. But it has a cover, and each has a form. Both basically round the balloon a little bit elliptical.

Each has substance. This balloon has something in it. This baseball is packed with a lot of stuff. It has at the very center a core. The cover is the outward appearance. With people, the outward appearance is what they appear to be. We talk about personality. Here she has a wonderful personality. It is great to have a wonderful personality. The word comes from a word, persona, which is associated with a mask.

Personality, to some degree, is your mask. So it is said that your personality is what people think you are, and character is what you really are. The goal, of course, is to have a great personality and sterling character. We have emphasized the going way back in the Church of God through the years, and ambassador clubs, and spokesman clubs, and graduate clubs, and all of that.

To a large degree, the personality aspect, and all of that. You weren't smiling enough when you talked. I noticed you dropped your Gs, and you didn't put your Ss on. All of that is good up to a certain point. But the inside is what really counts. In making a baseball, they start with a core. The core of a baseball is generally today cork. They try to take some of the life out of the baseball and not so many home runs.

They can either be solid rubber. It's about the size of a big marble, and it's smaller than a golf ball. And then they wrap it with string. It's miraculous how you can wrap this string, and yet remain perfectly spherical in a circle. We might liken that to knowledge and wisdom. This core, the very heart, the inner being of what you are. Then we have this knowledge. We have wisdom. Knowledge to a large degree is no better than your wisdom, the ability to apply it. Then with a baseball, the cover is made of horse hide. Now football, the cover is made of pigskin.

You hear the term pigskin, but with a baseball, it's horse hide. And then it is stitched together, very tightly wound. The cover might be likened to personality. So we have at the center of the baseball the core. We have the string might liken to wisdom and knowledge, or knowledge and wisdom. And then the outside may be the personality. Now with the balloon, there is no core. There is no core to it. It does have a cover, but that cover is very fragile, as you noticed.

And trying to get one balloon out, it met its doom. The balloon's cover or form is made first, whereas with a baseball, the core is made first. It's made from the inside out. The balloon is from the outside in. And you have to inflate it. The substance is air. Air is very fickle. It is subject to every wind of doctrine. Look at Ephesians chapter 3. And of course we have people who are caught up with the every wind of doctrine. They go to this organization, that organization, in search of, well, maybe they are saying something that I want to hear.

We all better be searching for the truth. In Ephesians 4 and verse 13, They are the cunning craftiness whereby they lay and wait to deceive. And so there are many isms and many schisms. Some have said, well, I know there are hundreds of schisms, offshoots from the parent worldwide church of God. Tossed to and fro, cared about with every wind of doctrine, by the slight of men and cunning craftiness, whereby they lay and wait to deceive.

But speaking the truth in love may grow up into Him in all things, which is the head, even Christ. How many young men and women have come to the church and built a shell? How many older people have come to the church and built a shell? The research that was done back in the 80s showed that the average time to cycle out of the church was 15 years, and that well over half of the people who had come to the church had left. They really didn't have that core, that centeredness, that you heard in the first message today.

Their foundation was built on sand and not on the rock. Let's look at Matthew 7, beginning with verse 22. To some degree, this bespeaks of where the world is today. A lot of young people say, well, the church is not relevant to my life. They talk about these commandments, these dos and the don'ts.

I would rather be active out there in the community and helping people and serving people and doing that kind of thing. That's wonderful to help people, but if you don't have that core, and if you don't have that knowledge and wisdom, if you don't become converted, if you don't have that cover that can withstand the pricks and the sticks of this world, it will burst your balloon and you will be just like that.

In Matthew 7, 22, many will come to me in that day and say, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name and in your name have cast out devils? And exorcism is a big thing. It's a big growing thing in the religious world today. Have we not cast out devils? And in your name done many wonderful works. Then will I profess unto them, I never knew you, depart from me, you that work iniquity.

Therefore whosoever hears these things of mine and does them, I will liken him unto a wise man which built his house upon a rock. He had a core. He had a foundation. And the rain descended and the floods came and the wind blew and beat upon that house and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock. And everyone that hears these things of mine and does them not shall be likened unto a foolish man which built his house upon the sand.

And the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat upon that house and it fell and great was the fall of it.

Now you contrast this to that. I mean, that looks pretty. That looks disgusting. So we can ask ourselves, are we building on the rock? Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 3.

1 Corinthians chapter 3, along this theme of what foundation are you building upon? 1 Corinthians chapter 3 and verse 10.

And of course, that's going to lead into the last part of the sermon having to do with building the core and foundation.

I have here an article, Why Kids Leave the Church. I didn't print all of it. And of course, we would not agree with a lot of it.

This is from a book, Chuck Bomer's book. He poignantly points to identity in Christ as the underlying building block for strong faith in young people.

They're coming to see, even in these churches that are trying to be all things to all men and do all the great works and dress down and be like everybody else kind of thing and not have any kind of standard with regard to outward appearance, which is important as well. So he writes, I don't know what Jumbotron summer campish kids church, the pizza parties, rock concerts, many evangelical youth have been coddled in a not quiet church, but not quiet world hot house.

They've never sat on a pew between a set of new parents with a fussy baby and a senior citizen on an oxygen tank. They don't see the full timeline of the gospel for every season of life. Indeed, we've dumbed down the message and pumped up the volume. Mark laments that the youth are being sent out into the world unarmed and utterly ignorant about their faith. And so what we have been trying to do here in Sabbath school is to emphasize building a relationship with God.

From a child knowing that God exists, we call it the seven great questions of life. Does God exist? And if he does, then what? Who is God? What is God? What is his purpose? Who is man? What is man? And what is his purpose?

You come to understand the great questions of life, and even as a child, you develop a relationship with God. And you begin to build from the inside out. And though no matter what the storms are that come in life, you're anchored on that firm foundation. What will you do? What will I do in the arena of life? Will Satan throw a sharp dart? And will Satan break your balloon? What's left? There's not much there when the balloon is broken. Or will you be like the baseball made from the inside out? The inside out. I could stick that little safety pin in here all day when there's much this. I could beat this all day with this hammer. I could even get a sledgehammer on it. Oh, and here it is. You never know I hit a hammer with it. I could hit it a lot harder. It would still be there. It would still be there. By analogy, let's liken the core of a baseball to character. At this point, I would like for each one of us to ask ourselves, do I really have character, or am I just a shell? Am I like the balloon? I look good at times, but when it really comes down to it, I fold. I become deflated. We start with the center, and as I've demonstrated, baseball can take a lot of punishment. The continuous string of knowledge, thoroughly integrated system of knowledge. Man shall not live by bread alone, but every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. You're talking to God. God is talking to you. I'm sure you're teaching your children to pray, and I'm sure they are praying. They want to be instructed. They want to know. They want that firm foundation. They want to build on the rock. In my boyhood experience with this baseball, we would knock the cover off, stitch it back on. It would get waterlogged. We'd put it in the oven and dry it out. It never was quite the same, but we could still use it. Those things were precious at that time. So we continue here in 1 Corinthians 3, verse 11. For other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Christ.

Now if any man build upon the foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, every man's work shall be made manifest, for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. None of us will be exempt. We'll all be tested and tried in whatever way that it is.

Sometimes when we knock the cover off the ball, then we would tape it up with this old black friction tape, and after a while we would knock the tape off. And then the strings would unravel, and we'd finally get down to the core. And then we would take the core, pitch it up, and hit it.

And when that was done, I would stand out in the driveway many times batting rocks or throwing rocks.

The point should be obvious. We want to work from the inside out. I'm sure that God is more interested in what we are becoming than how we are looking. So let's look at 1 Corinthians 13. We've been there many times in recent times. What is the bottom line? What is most important? Developing this relationship with God. Where you began at an early age. I don't know what age exactly when you began to talk and began to communicate, begin to talk about God and who made the moon, who made the stars, who made this, who made that. And begin to talk with God and talk about God. You know, if you were to read Deuteronomy 6, where it says that you shall write these on the doorposts, and you'll post them here throughout your home, throughout your habitation. See, we would view that as, I guess, self-righteous or whatever. But the home is the cocoon, and we really need to emphasize that. This article continues. Churches today have gotten the wooing part down to a science. But wooing a young person's heart to God is a task no church should attempt on its own. That task must be shared with God. The church should plant the seed, and God sows, and He's also the one that helps it to grow. You can lead a horse to water. You can't make him drink. You can lead a child to church. You can't force him to drink from the well of personal relationship with God. You have to develop it yourself. And if I go back to some of the days Dr. Baker was talking about World War II, when I was six or seven years old and 44 or 45, and I saw that neighbor come home with the flag draped over the casket and went out to the cemetery, and hear the 21-gun salute ringing in my ears to this day. So I guess, well, that and many other factors you learn to pray. My mother came down with cancer when I was 12 or 13, and I remember many nights pouring my heart out that God would spare my mother. Because at that time, cancer was almost like a death sentence, and she lived to be 87. I think prayer played a part. Of course, there were other factors involved. I'm just saying what the Bible says. Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth. Come to understand who you are and what you are.

In 1 Corinthians 13, though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not charity, agape, spiritual love, God is love, and He wants us to become as He is. So we could say, and am not becoming as God is and not be doing violence to the Scripture, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal, and though I have the gift of prophecy, understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith so that I can remove mountains and have not charity, if I'm not becoming as God is, I am nothing. You can have all the form, personality, knowledge in the world. But if you don't have that core, that centeredness, if you're not developing that, and though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned and have not charity if I'm not becoming as God is, it profits me nothing. So people do come to believe what they practice, and form is important to a certain degree, but form, or the cover, even though it may be torn apart, that inner core, if it's there, will last and stand the test of time.

The greatest pressure upon our youth at the present time, it seems to me, is the fact that they believe every step is judged and evaluated. They're afraid if they don't maintain a certain image, they're doomed. Hence, they are ever aware of the form, the cover, the appearance. It leads to appearing good and not being good. And oftentimes, almost every young person I headed to a certain degree when I was a kid, sort of a double standard, I would appear this way before the right people and that way before the peers. I know you do it.

But try to become consistent.

What you see is what you get.

Some overconform, and we tend to reward those who take on overconformity.

But we want to know about the heart. And God, as we've read from 1 Corinthians here, He's going to know.

And He's going to know what is inside.

Some play the political ropes, and they play up, and they imitate the one they perceive to be able to get them where they want to be. Ladder climbing, as it were. We've had a lot of that in the Church of God.

We're not here to reproduce ourselves. We are here to submit ourselves to the Master Potter that He might mold us, make us, shape us after His way.

And all of us, as we've noted, will eventually be exposed for what we are.

Some try to rebel against conformity and take on the fringe-looking behavior.

We get a hundred tattoos on each arm, and I'm on a neck, and a ring in the nose, and a stud in the eyebrow.

So what? I mean, you think that cuts any ice with God?

Or probably nobody else. A lot of pain.

See, both groups are not real. They're putting on a phony facade.

So where do you stand? Do you want to develop a view of life that develops sincere character?

Or are you just a role-player?

Sort of like a ball-in-the-pinball machine.

Ball-in-the-pinball machine is there. It's at the mercy of the flippers.

They just go here and there and here and there, and gravity is continually pulling down, and eventually they go into the pit.

A genuine person, what you see is what you get. No pretense, no phony facade.

We want them to come to the point. We want all of us to come to the point that we do what we do for the same reason that God does what He does.

Why does God do what He does? Because that is the way He is.

There are no ulterior motives. He does things the way He does because He is love, and He has our best interests at heart.

We must never come to the point that we view our calling in a cynical and profane way. It is precious beyond belief.

We want to memorize the commandments. We want to memorize this or that or the other.

But that's not where it stops.

See, I would say, first of all, and in conjunction with, develop that relationship with God.

Just as you have seen the world in the area here of social media, all my friends, they're on Facebook, and we do Twitter and Tweety-Tweet all the time.

And I've got a thousand tweets. And I don't know how many friends. Not me, but somebody. I'm not on any social media.

I think eventually I got linked in to LinkedIn, but I think I did it accidentally.

I can't get back in because I forgot the password if I had one. And then when I tried to redo the password, I did redo the password the way they said, but it won't work.

So I got a message yesterday, and of course it just computerized.

It said, welcome, you are now invited to the new premium LinkedIn. I haven't yet read that.

But anyhow, we're made in the image of God. Now listen to this.

Memorizing the commandments, and I've tried to commit to memory as much as I can of the Bible.

And you have to work at it. But that in and of itself, as we just read here, though I have the gift of prophecy, understand all mysteries, all knowledge, though I have all faith so that I can remove mountains, have not charity, I'm nothing.

We are made in the image of God with faculties of mind akin to God. That's you are a child of God by creation.

You can become a spirit begotten and eventually born child of God through birth into the kingdom of God.

Your identity. See, Satan has stolen the world's identity. They talk about identity theft.

Satan has stolen the identity of our people. You are made in the image of God. You're precious in the sight of God.

He loves you and he wants a relationship with you. Value that above all things. I have this relationship with God.

He is my creator and since he's my creator, my maker, he has the right to direct me in how I should go.

So I read the book of Proverbs. And with my knowledge, I'm getting understanding and I'm getting wisdom.

We don't just keep commandments in a rote manner then. We keep them because we understand who we are and why we draw breath.

I am a son of God made in his image with faculties of mind akin to God.

We obey because the one who made us and loves us so much that he's willing to give his only begotten son as a sacrifice for you and I.

So our sins could be blotted out and so we could be viewed as sinless and receive the Holy Spirit, the very divine essence of God living in this earthen vessel made of clay.

That's who we are. If we have any understanding about the Bible and the great questions of life, the Holy Spirit is the very life essence of God.

It should be the very core of our being, filling our hearts and minds.

And once we have that, no person can take it from us. Satan can't take it from us. No person can take it from us unless we permit it.

No one can come up and just collapse you because we have the sure Word of God. We have built our house upon the rock, upon the sure foundation.

We have the promise of eternal life in the kingdom of God to live forever and ever.

One of the things in the armor of God that Paul talks about in Ephesians and also in 1 Thessalonians 5 is hope.

Hope is a helmet of salvation. It says, put on the helmet of salvation, which is hope. It's 1 Thessalonians 5.8.

So what is that? In practical terms, that means that you understand your identity of who you are, what you are, and what your destiny is.

That you have been born to have a relationship with the great creator God of the universe. You are not fearful.

You have been freed from fear, ignorance, superstition, and the dogmas of man because you know and you know that you know your creator and you have a relationship with him.

So I hope that we remember this simple analogy here of the balloon and the baseball and which one would we like to be like. And this just a crude analogy for the greater issues of life. That is, to become God as God is God.