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Learning About People and Learning About God

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Learning About People and Learning About God

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Learning About People and Learning About God

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Read and study the Bible to learn about people and God.

Transcript

[Frank Dunkle] I am incredibly pleased to be here. As the coordinator for ABC, I've been using this joke, but now I can do it with them here. Every time I hear that term, I tend to look around to see if Mr. Antion is behind me, because I'm so used to him being the coordinator. But it's a pleasure to get to work with the students in this way. 

Years ago I dreamed of being on the faculty of Ambassador College. What's interesting is, back then I assumed that if I ever had the opportunity to teach there, it wouldn't be as a minister teaching theology courses, but as a history professor. That's been my love – something I've really enjoyed – and, in a former career, I was able to teach history for several years – notably at Texas A & M and at Columbus State Community College and such. And, as such, I've learned that there are a number of similarities between studying history and studying the Bible. One of them many of you might appreciate is, in both cases, people don't appreciate or enjoy that study nearly so much when they're younger as they do when they get older. And then they wish – “Aw, I wish I'd taken that time when I was younger to devote myself a little more.” But a lot of university students think – and I know this because they've told me out loud – “I'm interested in the future. What do I need to study the past for?” Or I've had them tell me, “I'm preparing to be an engineer. What do I care why the American Revolution happened?” And because of things like that, I've spent probably a little more time than most people pondering the question, “Why should we study history?” And by me saying, “Why should we study history…” you know, psychology says many of you are already thinking of answers to that question. And I always laugh, because I'm sure there are some people who are saying, “Well, maybe we shouldn't have to study history.” 

Well, when I was at Texas A & M, I developed a bit of a Thanksgiving tradition that I'll share with you, because students were the same then as they are today. They're eager to begin breaks early and so as Thanksgiving would approach, many students would say, “Aw, Mr. Dunkle, can you cancel the class on Wednesday so we can leave early to go be with our families or go wherever we're going?”  And just as professors today, professors back then didn't want to miss a class day. We've got so much that we think is so important to tell you. You guys are supposed to chuckle at that. But the compromise I came to was, I told the students, “Okay, I'll cancel class that day, but you need to give me a written assignment. I want you to give me a brief essay – a page or two – where you answer the question, ‘Why should we study history?’” Can you guess what the most common answer was? I can summarize.  It's found in a famous quote. Mr. Joel McNair once said, “Those who fail to learn from the lessons of history are doomed to repeat it.” I think somebody else might have said it earlier, but I know Mr. McNair said that. That sounds like a reasonable answer, doesn’t it?  Maybe I should have said, “Does that sound like a reasonable answer?”  But almost everybody said, “Yeah, that's a good answer.” 
But I could ask, “What specific lessons of history are you worried about repeating?” Are we members of Parliament who need to learn how to not have our American colonies declare independence and revolt?  Are any of us stock brokers who want to avoid a terrible financial crash and depression that begins in 1929? Probably not. As a military historian – and I say that with a little bit of trepidation – when I was doing my studies, people would say, “Oh, you're studying church history.”  “Oh, no, I'm studying military history.” But military historians notice that through the years, generals have tended to focus a lot of time and effort in learning how to fight and win the last war. And so that's why after WWI France spent a great amount of energy and time and money building elaborate border fortifications, which became known as the Maginot Line. And the Maginot Line would have been really effective at stopping the Kaiser's armies in 1914. Unfortunately, a couple of decades later Hitler's mechanized forces rolled around it and flew over it and it was an antique dinosaur.
 
So what are the lessons of the past that we want to be able to use when we study history? Well, I'll answer one of the things that I came to realize as I asked my students to study this. We don't study history just to avoid the mistakes of the past. We study history to learn about people. Why are people the way they are? Why do they do the things they do? What are they like? How can we learn to avoid what motivated the people to make those mistakes and do better ourselves? Studying history has shown me, one thing is very clear – over the centuries and years people's technology changes. Our toys and our tools have changed dramatically, but human nature doesn't change. Human nature is the same today as it was in the 18th Century. But also when I studied military history, one of the reasons I told people I was doing that instead of church history is, I learned when you study warfare, you can see people at their worst, but also people at their best. You learn what mankind sometimes is, but also what it could be. 

Now, you might think, “That guy's gotten a little off track. Does he realize it's the Sabbath? We're here to study the Bible.” But I've learned over the years that studying the Bible can teach us many of the same things as studying history. And that could be partly because the Bible has an awful lot of history in it – but I don't want to discount the law, the prophecy, the poetry. As 2 Timothy 3:16 reminds us, all of the scripture is given by inspiration of God. It's valuable for reproof, correction, instruction in righteousness.

But I do want to pause and let's consider all that talk about the value of studying history, as a starting point – as an introduction to the value of studying the Bible. Studying the Bible can help us to learn a lot about people – including ourselves – even more than military history. A study of the Bible can show us people at their worst, but also people at their best. It can show us what mankind is, but also what mankind should be and has hoped to be. And even more importantly than that, studying the Bible can show us an awful lot about who and what God is and give us some insight there. 

So let's consider a little about the study of people. The Bible tells us plenty about what we call human nature. When we want to be especially critical, we call it carnal human nature. Am I right? I'm not going to turn to Jeremiah 17:9, but it's a memory scripture many of us have known for years – the heart is deceitful above all things. It's desperately wicked; who can know it? I like to pair that with Ecclesiastes 8, and verse 11. This one I will turn to. I found as I was going through this this morning that I mention an awful lot of scriptures before I turn to any. But Ecclesiastes 8:11 is another memory scripture that we don't memorize quite as often. It says:

Ecclesiastes 8:11 – Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. That's something we all have in common – that with Jeremiah 17:9 – we fool ourselves. Face it. We're human. We lie to ourselves and the longer we get away with that or something else that we're doing wrong, the more it becomes entrenched in our behavior. And then we start convincing ourselves that it's okay. 

Now, I only wanted to touch on that briefly, because we could very quickly look in the Bible and convince ourselves that all people are worthless and hopeless. That's not true, is it? Genesis 1:26 reminds us we're made in the image and likeness of God. I'll also quote Psalm 139, verse 14, where David wrote that he was fearfully – not just him, but all of us – fearfully and wonderfully made. God made us special. He made mankind wondrous and God loved mankind so much, He gave His only begotten Son so that we can have life. Of course, John 3:16 is a memory scripture for that. 

I'm saying this partly as introduction, though, to remind us that the study of people is complex and sophisticated. It's not like accounting. I don't know if we have some accountants – I guess I know we’ve got an actuary in the audience, and I'm not saying any of that is easy, but at least numbers are consistent. 348 is 348 no matter how many times you get to it. But people are complex and unpredictable – changeable – and so it's worth studying them – seeing what they've done, look at the stories – to learn how to deal with them, how to cope. 

A part of the Bible that I like to read, when it comes to learning about people, is the story of King David. Now a part of my love of history is often involved in studying biography. I love reading biography. And King David's biography could be found mostly in the books of 1 and 2 Samuel. And I'm not going to go through all of it now. Just think of him as a case study and maybe an encouragement. If you're wondering what to study in your Bibles, think about reading his life. David is a fascinating character study. He was the man that God called a man after My own heart
David was enterprising, daring, brave, loving, sensitive. He was what we call a good guy. I'd like to be like him. But he certainly wasn't perfect. He committed some pretty terrible sins. He hurt people badly.  And we have example of how much he repented of that and how he begged God for forgiveness.  That's one of the reasons I often recommend while you're reading David's story, it's good to visit Ezekiel, chapter 18, and realize that if a wicked man turns from his ways, he’ll be forgiven, but if a righteous man turns from his ways and does evil, you know, it can lead to destruction. Conversion is a process. God wants us to travel down the road and he's concerned with where we end up on the road. 

But in considering David's story, you encounter some fascinating characters. 

  • The prophet Samuel and King Saul affected David's early life and their motivations and their, what you call, story arcs are amazing. 
  • Then there's Joab, David's most accomplished military leader. He was daring and brave, loyal. He was also self-serving. He was violent. He caused David to rejoice at times and to break out weeping at other times. 
  • Think of Jonathan. In Jonathan, David found the man that sticks closer than a brother – the friend that sticks closer than a brother. (That's what happens when I take these off. There's just squiggles down there.)  But Jonathan was someone that David could trust and vice versa. They could confide in each other. And, like some great epic novel, they were forced apart from each other by forces beyond their control. 
  • David encountered a man named Nabal, who is an example of a man who is selfish and rude – and I can even say, stupid, because as I've been told, his name itself meant blockhead – while Nabal was married to a woman named Abigail, who seemed to represent much of what's best in human nature.
  • I like to think of that also about a man that David encountered later in his life, named Barzillia. If you're not familiar with Barzillia, he's a fascinating study as well. 

 

I was joking this morning. My wife, Sue, was here for morning services and took Connor home. I joked…the first time I was telling about history in a sermon once – this is before we knew we would have children – I said, “I like that name. Maybe we should name our son Barzillia.” And she was sitting out in the audience going….so we settled on Connor. 

But I'm speaking these names as though they are just characters in some fictional novel. But they were real people – real people that we can learn from. It's not just for entertainment and it's also not just useless information. These stories about these people are going to help us learn about people in general and give us a better understanding of the human condition. 

To that though, let's add that there are examples in scripture that show us that studying people – the people I'm speaking of is not some homogeneous group, you know. It's not a case of well, if you've seen one, you've seen them all, because if all people were alike, that would be easy. Everyone would be just like you. It's not like that, is it? There’s a lot of variety in the human race. 

Reminds me of a scene from one of my favorite – I've been saying now, one of my favorite versions of the Robin Hood movie – you know, the story of Robin Hood. I used to say this was my favorite, but since we bought the Disney version, where Robin Hood was a fox, I like that one a lot, too. But you remember the one with Kevin Costner and the really bad English accent – Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves, and Morgan Freeman is in it. He plays a Moor who comes back with Robin Hood from fighting in the Crusades, and he says he's got to stay with Robin Hood until he saves his life because Robin saved his. So there, with the Merry Men in Sherwood Forest, taking care of their camp duties is this black man and he's sitting there in front of his tent in one scene. He's like fiddling with his bow or sharpening a blade – I don't remember. And a little girl – probably 4 or 5 years old – comes up, and she's looking at him, and he notices her. She's staring. “Hello, little one.” And she says, “Did God paint you?” He's not sure what she means until he realizes, “Oh, she's never seen a black man before.”  And he says, “For certain.” She says, “Why?” “Because God loves wondrous variety.” And actually, I believe in the movie, he says, “Allah,” but I don't want to confuse the matter. We know that the one that Muslims call Allah is not quite the same as the God that we know and worship. But it is true, God loves wondrous variety. That's why He didn't make us all the same. And this fictional story can show us that. That's an important part of why Peter wrote in 1 Peter 3, verse 7…well, I'll turn there. I'm going to turn there because those pages are falling out of my Bible and it's easy to find them in this case. 

1 Peter 3:7 – Husbands, likewise, dwell with them... who?  With your wives, it says, ...dwell with them with understanding, giving honor to the wife, as to the weaker vessel, as heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered. When he says, “weaker vessel,” that's no reference to how many push-ups she can do. It means she's more refined, more delicate – certainly more valuable than you clunky men – but dwell with understanding. Realize what humans are like – that God made that variety.

The most fundamental difference that God created seems to be male and female, but God made it that way on purpose. In Genesis 2:18, He said:

Genesis 2:18 – "It is not good for the man should be alone… we need the different types, so  ...I will make him a helper comparable to him." 

My own personal theory – and this personal theory is since we're both made in God's image, I believe God made some of His own attributes more prominent in women and some of His own attributes more prominent in men, but when a man and a woman are joined in marriage is when, perhaps, they're the most in God's image and likeness. As I said, my own thought, but I've seen that in my own marriage. I feel like I'm much more in God's image and likeness since I married Sue than I was before. It's good for us to understand that. And we can learn about the differences between men and women studying God's word. We have the example Abraham and Sarah, who were married for many years. The Bible tells us somewhat about at least fifty years of their marriage. They don't provide a perfect example. They provide a real one. And then we can look at their grandson, Jacob, who married two sisters and everyone suffered because of that. 

But, boy, you learn a lot about what people are like in their motivations and dealing with different people differently. And that's one of the things we can see. There are some examples in the Bible – especially that of Jesus Christ – who knew enough to treat different people differently – not with less love. He's God. He was God in the flesh. He's God at the Father's right hand now. He loves us all the same, but He understands those differences.

If you will, turn to Mark, chapter 8, let's look at a couple of examples of how Christ understood the differences in people. Now He had some very strong personalities, we believe – even the strongest among the disciples was probably Peter. Peter was impulsive, loyal – you know, a lot of other things – and Christ had to deal with him that way. Mark 8 – let's begin in verse 31. 

Mark 8:31-33 – He – that is, Christ – began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He spoke this word openly – meaning they could all hear it. Then Peter took Him aside…  “I've got to correct the Master before He says something He'll regret.” So Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. But when He – that is, Jesus – had turned around and looked at His disciples, He rebuked Peter, saying, "Get behind Me, Satan! For you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men." Some people would be devastated to have their master talk to them that way. I would! I'd probably want to go and crawl under a rock. I don't know if I could face Jesus and the other disciples after something like that. But that must have been the right way to treat Peter. Peter didn't quit. He didn't say, “I'm out of here. I'm going to go and hang out with, you know, some Pharisees” or something like that. Jesus knew what it took. 

But there's another case when He needed to correct one of His disciples, and He did so in a very different manner. Join me in John, chapter 20, if you will. John 20 – we'll begin in verse 24. This is actually after the crucifixion and after Christ's resurrection. And we all know He appeared to different people at different times – to Mary Magdalene, later to Peter, and to numbers of people. And apparently, there's one time when He appeared to ten disciples. We know Judas Iscariot wasn't there anymore and apparently one named Thomas was not with them. And we see the description of that here in John 20 and verse 24. 

John 20:24-27 – Thomas, called the Twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said to him, "We have seen the Lord." So he said to them, "Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe." Maybe he wanted to believe, but he said, “I've got to have proof. I saw Him hanging and dying.” So after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas was with them. And Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, "Peace to you!" Then He said to Thomas – I imagine maybe Jesus looked at him right off, and I imagine Thomas – “Come here,  Reach your finger here, look at My hands; reach your hand here, put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing." 

Here I imagine Jesus recognized that Thomas thought differently. You know, I propose perhaps Thomas was what we would call a tactile learner – you know, in the educational theories of multiple intelligence, they say some people learn better by hearing, listening; some by seeing; some by acting things out – I think kinesthetic learner is one of the terms. Maybe that was Thomas. So Jesus – now He did correct Thomas – “Put your finger in here. I'm going to convince you.” But He didn't say, “I'll show you not to believe Me!” But He was patient. He let him touch, and He said, “Don't be unbelieving, but believing.” He still corrected him, but not the way He jumped on Peter with both feet, and said, “Get behind Me, Satan!”  You know, as I said, I would have been devastated. Maybe Thomas would have been devastated. And Thomas didn't leave, either. He carried on with the other disciples – now apostles – and did the work. 

I'd like to consider another example of how Jesus Christ dealt with two ladies who you might have expected to be very similar, because they were sisters – Martha and Mary. Now, I'm not going to turn to Luke 10, but if you want to jot it down in your notes – Luke 10, verses 38 to 42 – is where we meet them. They invited Jesus into their home and apparently there was a crowd of people, and Jesus was doing what He did. He was teaching people from the word of God. And Martha, being a good host, was busy serving, and she was taking care of things. And she said, “Jesus, don't you see I'm doing all this work and my lazy, no-good sister is just sitting there.” Now, “lazy, no-good” is not in the scripture. I sort of added that, but Christ said, “Martha, Martha, you're worried about a lot of things, but Mary's doing the one thing that matters the most. I'm not going to take that away from Mary.” Now, I wonder if Martha was the firstborn. You know, she's busy taking care of things, and Mary…. We have these theories about firstborn, middle child, younger – I'm not sure where that falls in, because there were only two in my family, so I wasn't the firstborn. 

But I want to look at another incident where we see more clearly than anywhere how Jesus would deal with different people differently, even though it's the same circumstance. We go to John, chapter 11.  John 11 – and this is where we also realize that Martha and Mary had a brother – a brother named Lazarus – and they were good friends of Jesus. Maybe they grew up together. I'm not sure how long they knew each other. But Jesus wasn't near them, but He learned that Lazarus was sick. And, of course, He could have healed him, but He didn't. And He delayed going. We know that the conversation He had with His disciples, where they thought that Lazarus was doing great because he was asleep, and Jesus had to explain, “No, he was dead.”  And He knew that He would heal him and He probably also knew that would enrage the Pharisees so much they would determine, “We've got to kill this Jesus.”  But before we come to that part, let's look at the in-between, when Jesus goes to two grieving sisters. 

John 11:20-27 – Now Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met Him, but Mary was sitting in the house. Now Martha said to Jesus – note these words – "Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now, I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You." Notice, Martha's not lacking faith. And Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again." Martha said to Him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day." Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life.  He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?" She said to Him, "Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world." I'm going to stop there with Martha's story, but again, He's not rebuking her and she's not lacking faith. 

But let's look, a little bit later she sends word to Mary that He's there. And so we'll see how Jesus speaks to Mary.  Down in verse 32:

V-32-35 – Then, when Mary came where Jesus was, and saw Him, she fell down at His feet, saying to Him, "Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died." Therefore, when Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her weeping, He groaned in the spirit and was troubled. And He said, "Where have you laid him?" They said to Him, "Lord, come and see." Jesus wept. Now, we often focus on that. I know, often in God's church we focus on various things, but a lot of people have made notice of the fact that this is the shortest verse in the Bible, just two words – Jesus wept. But I'd like to back up and notice the words that Mary said. "Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died."  Same exact situation – same exact words that Martha said – but whereas with Martha, Jesus gave her a little lesson – He talked it through with her, probably to bolster her faith – what did He tell Mary? He didn't. He cried with Mary. Maybe He put his arms around her in a hug, because He realized that's what she needed. And when I first looked at this, I thought “Hey, I can be a little dense sometimes.”  When in a pastoral ministry – it's one of the things I started to learn over time – that, hey, some people you've got to deal with strongly, some people you've got to talk things out. There are some people that, when they're grieving, they don't need you to talk to them. They need you to put your arms around them and cry with them. And that's why I think God called some men into the ministry who cry very easily and some who don't cry so easily, but you know, God knows that we're all different and we have different needs. 

I think that can help us to better understand the principle that's called the Golden Rule. I won't turn to Matthew 7:12, but there's where Jesus said, Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the law and the prophets. Wow! The law and the prophets. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. That's about love. The reason I say that – actually I will turn to Matthew 22, because there's another place where Jesus equated something to the law and the prophets, and it is something pretty important. Matthew 22, beginning in verse 36. Actually, we go back up to verse 35: 

Matthew 22:35-36 – A lawyer came to Him and asked Him a question testing Him, saying, “Teacher, what’s the greatest commandment of the law?” He said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. The second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. And on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. 

Okay, so that’s treating others the way you would have them treat you. The Golden Rule is pretty important. It’s like all the law and the prophets. So does that mean to obey the Golden Rule, I need to treat every other person in the exact same way that I like to be treated? I see Mrs. Antion is ahead of me – she’s shaking her head. One example I thought of is pretty easy. My son, Connor, I discovered when he was about a year and a half old, he loves to be tickled. He just eats it up and that mystifies me because I hate to be tickled – drives me crazy.  And what’s worse is Sue’s not ticklish. 

Let’s think of another example. I’m a morning person. You know, mornings, I love – the best part of the day. So if I’m in any danger of oversleeping, I love it if Sue will wake me up. Don’t let me sleep past 6 – up by 5:30 is even better, you know, because it’s the best part of the day. So, following the Golden Rule would mean I should get out my church directory tomorrow at about 5:20 and start making some phone calls, right? Ha ha. Okay, maybe not. In this case, I think we see fulfilling the Golden Rule requires me to show respect for your sleep patterns, just the way you show respect for mine. That’s why I said, I used to tell people, “Unless it’s an emergency, don’t call my house after 10, I’ve probably been asleep for a while.” 

So understanding differences in personality and temperament is a valuable way for us to get along with people now. It’s valuable now. It’s going to be essential in the future. When we’re kings and priests in the kingdom of God – when we’re administrators, governors, teachers – we’ll be leading and teaching all different kinds of people. It’s useful to understand those different kinds of people. 

That’s a lot of what the apostle Paul meant in 1 Corinthians 9, I believe. 1 Corinthians 9, and beginning in verse 19 – it’s a familiar scripture to us, but I hope this – well, it’s worth citing because it fits this theme so much. 

1 Corinthians 9:19 – Paul said, Though I am free from all men, I’ve made myself a servant to all – you can be a good servant if you understand your master – that means understanding people because we serve people – that I might win the war. To a Jew, I became like a Jew that I might win the Jews. To those who are under the law, as under the law, that I might win those who are under the law. To those who are without the law, as without the law, not being without the law toward God, but under the law toward Christ, that I might win those who are without the law. To the weak, I became as weak that I might win the weak. I’ve become all things to all men that I might by all means save some. 
And let me add a couple verses from the next chapter. Over in 1 Corinthians 10, and verse 32, he tells us: 

1 Corinthians 10:32 – Give no offense either to the Jews or to the Greeks or to the church of God, just as I also please all men in all things not seeking my own profit, but the profit of many that they may be saved. 

This is a statement of what Paul said, but it’s so nice that the Bible also shows us a lot of what he did.  We can go through the book of Acts and read some of the comments in his epistles to see his life and learn from it – to learn by his example, just as I hope you will see the previous examples we read from Jesus Christ’s life, to look at His words and learn from them, but also what He did. He treated different people differently – not with less love, but as needed – because He had good understanding of people.  And we’ll do well if we make that effort to learn more about what people are like. 

As I mentioned at the start, studying history, I think, is valuable for that. It’s also cool for, if you get into a discussion about the Civil War, and you can cite battles and things like that. But the Bible teaches us what people are like. It teaches us about people. What are they? Why do they do the things they do? What are they like? And then I’ll add to that, studying the Bible is also a great way for us to learn about the One who is more important than people – that is, God. Studying the Bible is studying God. 

When I graduated from Ambassador College, I was given a diploma with a degree in theology. And in Latin, theology means study of God. Now, how do we study God? I figure it’s not the way we study bacteria. We don’t get a microscope and test tubes – you know, this is the third time I’ve given this sermon and nobody laughs at that. I always thought it was going to be funny, because I imagine God chuckling and saying, “No, you’re not going to put a microscope on Me.” But we can learn a lot about God’s personality – about His being – by studying His word. Reading your Bible will help you to get to know the Creator of the universe. It will make Him seem more real and approachable, because He is real and approachable. Many people tend to think of God as a caricature – he’s someone who is often angry and very demanding. There is so much more to Him than that. And I say, how do I know that?  Well, I talk to Him every day. Now I don’t hear Him talking back, but I’ve got His word, and I read His words every day. Now I wrote this especially thinking of younger people who might not have the habit ingrained as much, but we want to study it every day – not necessarily to just memorize facts and figures and understand how to explain verses, but also just to get to know what God is like and what people are like. 

Let’s turn to John 14, beginning in verse 7. Jesus sort of said, “Look, you spend enough time with someone, you get to know him.” And He was speaking of Himself to the disciples. Of course, this is the passage where He was with them for that last Passover before the crucifixion. He told them many things and He told them he had much more to say, but they couldn’t bear it then. But He said this – He was trying to explain that He was going to the Father, and to try to explain to them that there was a Father. In verse 7 of John 14, He says: 

John 14:7 If you had known Me, you would have known My Father, and also from now on you know Him and you have seen Him. So He is saying, “You can know the Father.” Philip didn’t quite understand.

V-2 – He said, - Lord, show us the Father and that’s sufficient for us. 

V-9Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet have you not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father. So how can you say, ‘Show us the Father?’” Jesus was saying, “We’ve been together three and a half years. We’ve been traveling, walking the roads together, we’ve had meals together, we probably sat around the campfire singing songs and telling stories.” And He said, “You know Me. And so, if you know Me, you know the Father.” 

We should understand this to show us that it is possible to get to know God, partly because we can read the story of Jesus Christ. There are four different versions of His life story there for us to see what He said and what He did. That was God – the One that gave Martha a lesson when she was grieving for her dead brother, and then the One who turned around right after that and cried with Mary. That was God, the Creator of the universe. 

I want to consider one more example of God dealing with someone in a way we might overlook sometimes. Actually, the story of Elijah is one of my favorites. partly because my freshman year in college we sang The Oratorio of Elijah, so I think of the music whenever I read his story. But he was a powerful prophet that God worked through in powerful ways. God had Elijah proclaim a drought over the land. “There’s not going to be dew nor rain except by my word.” And, of course, sometime later – about three and a half years – God said, “It’s time to end that plague.” So He sent him to King Ahab and he challenged Ahab. And he challenged his false religion. “Gather all the priests of Baal. We’re going to have” – I was going to say – sometimes they talk of having a dance off – a sacrifice off – you can’t say it that way. “But we’re going to show who is the real God. You priests of Baal, select yourself a bull, set him up on the altar, and call on your gods to send fire.” And, of course, they did. And they danced around, and they cut themselves, and waited for the answer – and Elijah…there was silence, because they were worshiping something that wasn’t God at all. And Elijah, with great faith, knowing that God has spoken to him, he not only had the bull ready, he had them pour water on it, pour water on it again, and a third time, so it filled a trench all around it. He said a very brief prayer, asking God to show that He was the true God and that he, Elijah, had done those things at His instruction. And God sent fire down from heaven. It burned up not only the meat, it burned up the rocks of the altar and the ground and all that water, which was a real shame, because there had been a drought going on and all the water’s gone. “And now, Elijah, let’s get those priests of Baal.” And they brought them down and they killed them all. I mean, talk about powerful! God’s doing this great work through him, and then he prays for rain, and He sends a thunderstorm and ends the drought.

And then Elijah was spent. You know, he was emotionally worked up and done. So then he gets a message from Jezebel saying, “Tomorrow by this time I’m going to kill you,” and he runs and hides.  Elijah just…he couldn’t take any more. He started pouting and feeling sorry for himself. 

I want to turn to 1 Kings 19. Sorry, I should have mentioned to start turning there sooner. Elijah’s story can be found in 1 Kings chapter 17 through 19 – most of his story. But let’s see how this powerful God, who burned up that sacrifice and had all the priests of Baal killed, dealt with one of his own who lost his nerve, so to speak. I'm going to start in verse 9. As I said, Elijah had gone off and was feeling a bit sorry. And it says: 

1 Kings 19:9-14 – ...He went into a cave, and spent the night in the place; and behold, the word of the Eternal came to him, and He said, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" And he said, "I have been very zealous for the Lord God of hosts – I imagine he was blubbering a little – for the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I alone am left. And they seek to take my life. God doesn't rebuke him – doesn't say anything. He says, "Go out, and stand on the mountain before the Eternal, before the LORD.” And so he does. And behold, the LORD passed by, with a great and strong wind that tore into the mountains and broke the rocks to pieces before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind; and then an earthquake – I imagine rumbling and shaking – but the LORD was not in the earthquake; and after that a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after that a still small voice. I like the translation that calls it a calm quiet voice.  So God showed how much power He had, but how He could also be a calm quiet voice. And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance. And a voice came to him, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" And I say it in that tone because that’s the way I imagine it was. You know, it could have been (in a harsh tone), "What are you doing here, Elijah?  How dare you!" But I don't think it was like that. I imagine it was a loving Father (in a kind tone), "What are you doing, Elijah? What's wrong? Tell Me.”  And he says again, "I have been very zealous for the LORD God of hosts; because the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword.  I’m the only one left…. And after that, God does what? He doesn't laugh. He doesn't ridicule him. He doesn't get angry, but He picks him up, metaphorically speaking, and He says, "We've got work to do. I'm going to be with you. There's a job to do. You need to go ordain a couple of kings. By the way, you're not alone. There are seven thousand others who haven't worshiped Baal and you need help. I want you to ordain Elisha to be your assistant.  You'll train him and he'll carry on after you're gone." 

God sort of gave him the encouragement that he needed. And I wonder if we look back to the sermonette, maybe that helped Elijah, when it was all over, to be able to forgive himself and carry on.  You know, God knows exactly what we need. He knows the type of help we need to make the adjustments. Have you ever been discouraged like that? Have you had somebody – maybe a parent or a good friend – help lift your spirits gently, but with enough strength, help you get back in the game?
One of my favorite sections of the Bible is in Isaiah – I say the Isaiah 40's – starting about Isaiah 41 through 52 – because God speaks in the first person. We see a lot of I's and Me's. If you want to turn there, I do want to read a couple scriptures from Isaiah 41. He's largely noting the difference between Himself and those idols – the false gods. And He sort of ridicules them – you know, "Hey, you piece of stone, do good, be evil, do something." Naw, they can't do anything. He said, "Whoever worships you is a joke." But in Isaiah 41, and verse 10, He also shows how He feels about us – how He feels about people. 

Isaiah 41:10 – He says, "Fear not, I am with you; Don't be dismayed, I am your God.  I'll strengthen you.  Yes, I will help you.  I will uphold you with My righteous right hand."  This is a good part of the Bible to read at times to get to know God.  

One of the things I'll mention – well, actually I want to come to that in a second, because there are other places where you can read how God dealt with people that were like His friends. He talked to Moses face to face, as a man does with his friend. He dealt with David and with Abraham. If you look up a couple verses – in verse 8, He says, You, Israel, My servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the descendants of Abraham My friend. 

A couple of years ago I was doing a study on the words for friends in the Hebrew, and I learned that in most places in the Old Testament, it's from the Hebrew reya, which means a companion, an associate, a friend. But here, it's not that word. Here it's aheb. That can be translated dear one, loved one – or I like to say it, best friend. And I've made this point before, Abraham and God were BFF's. And I'm not saying that to say, “Well, Abraham was God's friend and you're not.”  What I mean to say is God has friends. He wants to have friends. God wants you to be His friend. That can be kind of intimidating in a sense, but it doesn't have to be. He already knows what you are like. He knows what I'm like. He's already forgiven our sins. When we repent, we need to forgive our own. 

I'll make a reference without turning there, in John 15, and verse 15, where Jesus told the disciples, "I don't call you servants any more, but I’m calling you friends. A servant doesn't know what his master is doing, but I’m telling you everything I'm doing." Now, I want to qualify this in a sense to say, we shouldn't think of God as anything less than He is. He is all-powerful. He's the Creator of the universe.  As our song says, He's worthy of worship and praise. So don't just treat Him flippantly, like we might do some of our friends, especially when we get a little too casual. So God wants to be our friend, but He's still God. We don't want to forget that. 

But God, you know, He's not human. He doesn't have human faults. But we want to remember we're made in His image. We might understand Him a little better if we look at some of the things in the Bible and realize that God has feelings. Why do we have a sense of humor? Because God has a sense of humor. He made us to laugh. He also made it so we can get hurt. 

I started to say this: I've found a pleasure that I didn't expect in teaching the prophesy classes at Ambassador, because not only are they valuable for teaching us some history – showing what's to come – but more than in many other places, the Bible helps us to get to know God. He revealed Himself, and you see some of His personality in those books, and you see that He got His feelings hurt at times.  Now God can't be harmed, but actually the way He felt, it reminded me of a scene from a movie.  Earlier I was trying to figure out where I'd seen this before. I thought it might have been Happy Days – I don't know if you guys have seen the old TV show with Fonzie and Ritchie – and I thought it was Mr. Cunningham. And then, thanks to the Internet – you can search anything – it was actually the movie 16 Candles, where a teenage girl has a crush on this boy and her feelings are hurt. And her dad's talking to her, and he says, "You know, that's why they call them crushes.  If they weren't so tough, we'd call them something else." 

In the Bible, God describes His feelings for the people of Israel. And there are places like Ezekiel, chapter 16 – it can be a hard read, but you might note it – how He loved Israel, and said, "They treated Me like a wife who cheats on her husband." And He had Hosea act this out in the first few chapters of Hosea. I don't want to turn to either of those, but in Ezekiel, chapter 6, there's a phrase that kind of surprised me the first time I read it. But it's worth noting. Again, I'm trying to stress that God is understandable, and real, and has feelings, even though He is all-powerful and has no faults. But here in Ezekiel 6 and verse 9: 

Ezekiel 6:9 – Then those of you who escape will remember Me among the nations where they are carried captive, because I was crushed by their adulterous heart which has departed from Me, and by their eyes which play the harlot after their idols; they will loathe themselves for the evils which they committed in all their abominations. 

Can you imagine? I wonder if the times when we wander from God and do something wrong, does He look at us and feel crushed – not because He's angry and wants to destroy us, but because He loves us.  And when we betray Him, it hurts. 

Similarly, Hosea chapter 11 – one more scripture I want to turn to. I realize I'm running out of time – Hosea 11 and verse 8. Those of you who are parents, have you ever been about to spank your son or daughter, and you said, "This is going to hurt me more than it is going to hurt you." I used to laugh at that phrase. When I was a kid, I said, "No, it doesn't. It hurts me more than it hurts you." My mom never said that. I think she knew it was going to hurt me more, but now that I'm a parent, I understand.  Sometimes I do have to spank my son, and I feel like it does hurt me more than him. But we feel that way because God built it into us – because He feels that way. Let's read Hosea 11, verse 8 – He's discussing the punishment that He must give to His people. He says: 

Hosea 11:8 - "How can I give you up, Ephraim?  How can I hand you over, O Israel, How can I make you like Admah?  How can I set you like Zeboiim?" – these are two of the small towns that were destroyed with Sodom and Gomorrah. He says, My heart churns within Me; My sympathy is stirred." 
Can you imagine God's heart churning within Him, sort of that butterfly feeling like “I've got to do something that I wish I didn't have to do.” Let's not make God feel that way. You know, we don't want to feel that way. 

As I said, we can get to know God. And my point is to make God…don't feel sorry. He's God and He's leading us. He's punishing us as much as we need, because of how much He loves us. My point is, we can be reading the Bible – we should be studying our Bible – and getting to know and understand people and to understand our heavenly Father. The Bible can teach us about what people are, why they are the way they are, and what they do. And the Bible is far and away the best resource for learning about God. What is He? Who is He? What type of person? We're going to spend eternity with Him, so we certainly want to get to know Him. It's an amazing tool for building your relationship with God.  We have it right here (holding his Bible up) so let's make the most of it.