I Know.

Here's the notes from the lesson I gave last week at Youth Group:
Know Grow Show Go!
Remember a couple of weeks ago at youth group, we were talking about that? Well one of the brilliant girls in my small group asked about how we can 'Know' anything even if; a chair is really a chair? So how can we 'Know' if God is really God. She said that her Philosophy teacher was really messing with her head. A well-studied Bible student and water polo player quickly added that we can have faith that there is God even if we can't Know. I gotta tell you as far as knowing for sure that we are sitting in chairs..'whatever!' Who knows? But We can KNOW that God is God...
There are so many countless ways that I decided to stick with one little thing; oceans.
Jer 5:22 Should you not fear me?" declares the Lord. "Should you not tremble in my presence? I made the sand a boundary for the sea, an everlasting barrier it cannot cross. The waves may roll, but they cannot prevail; they may roar, but they cannot cross it. Jer 31:35 This is what the Lord says, he who appoints the sun to shine by day, who decrees the moon and stars to shine by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar-- the Lord Almighty is his name.

My guys love the ocean; surfing, fishing, girl watching (have you noticed all the nude sun bathing going on recently down by the Del!...)
Anyways we were watching 'Water World' the other night and really that's how our planet should look! If not for being perfectly placed and designed ..
The gravity of our planet is 'just right' so that the mountains stay where they are.
If it was a bit greater the surface of our world would be smooth and guess what ....
Water world!,, water 2 kilometers deep everywhere.
Now that would be a dead world... The tides and rain send the perfect amount of good nutrients into the oceans to make them yummy for the creatures. All flat water, all yumminess goes sinking to the bottom where the salt content would be so high nothing could live...
That's another thing the tides make sure there's enough nutrients but they also make sure that lots of the salt stays on shore so the ocean don't turn into the Dead Sea.
.....and those tides, created by our perfectly sized moon and sun means the oceans circulate just enough to keep the salt and nutients churning and the temperture just right for the planet.
It's an amazing thing and we are only talking about one little aspect of the oceans! There's so much more.
If the moon were just a little bigger the tides would be much more massive..We'd have Katrina everyday and the turning of the earth would slow down longer days, way hotter days, longer nights, way colder nights. All the 'what ifs' are mind blowing.
So we can 'Know' that there's a God if we study enough science even just about the oceans..
But what about our hearts...
Mr 4:39 He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, "Quiet! Be still!" Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. Mr 4:41 They were terrified and asked each other, "Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!"


Jesus said to the waves, "She-ket, be still"
She-ket is the hebrew word for Quiet... when we first got back from living in Israel, I said this to some Sun.School kids and boy! did I get in trouble...some parent passing by thought I said 'Shut up..."

Anyways, Jesus could say this and still the waters but big deal...that's nothing for God... and it really didn't do much to convince the disiciples of who he was. Later, he's trying again to tell them why he came and what was going to happen and again, they are not getting it.
John 14:6 Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him." 8 Philip said, "Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us." 9 Jesus answered: "Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? 10 Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves.
But the miracles couldn't do it!.. they needed something more!

There's a Jewish holiday coming up here tomorrow, called Rosh Hashana... It's a super cool one because I think it's probably when Jesus will return to take us up...or like the Bible says to meet us in the clouds. Anyways for this holiday, there's special bread we have made (we're making it today after church:) and we take some of it and throw it into the ocean.
We get that from this verse in Micah...
Micah 7:18 Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy. 19 You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.
and what we really need not a bunch of miracles, not proofs from science, not huge Bible knowledge we need our sins forgiven ...we need this yuckiness in us washed into the depths of the sea.
That's what gives us that assurance, that 'Know'ing that there is a God.
Then when he washes that sin away He gives us an amazing Gift..the Holy Spirit.
John 14:16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever-- 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.


Once when we were singing songs for people at the Convelescent Home, there was this one lady who couldn't speak, she couldn't even eat..she had this tube thing. Anyways, we were singing to her, 'Jesus Loves me this I Know.' Micah and Danny were just little boys and they were singing it too and suddenly this lady who, seriously, can't talk,"joins us on the 'I KNOW!" It was a trip and really just impossible.She had nothing but she had that! She Knew! Tears were washing down her face, She Knew! Her sins were washed away she had the that amazing assurance from the Holy Spirit,,, Yeah, healing would be nice but what she really needed she had. She Knew. There's gonna be lots of teachers and professors telling us lots of things but what we really need is the 'I KNow' that that lady had ...Listen to this


Eph. 4:12 to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. 14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. 16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.


What keeps us from being tossed about having our heads 'messed with'by teachers and every new wave of teaching???The 'I know', the sins washed into the sea, then reaching out and helping others and being connected by His Holy Spirit to Him and to the body that is other believers.So if that Knowing has eluded you ... come, come to one of us..or go like David did (not my David but the way bigger than Obama, Rock Star, Hero, King and Shepard: David who wrote this psalm...
Psalms 93:1-5 1 The Lord reigns, he is robed in majesty; the Lord is robed in majesty and is armed with strength. The world is firmly established; it cannot be moved. 2 Your throne was established long ago; you are from all eternity. 3 The seas have lifted up, O Lord, the seas have lifted up their voice; the seas have lifted up their pounding waves. 4 Mightier than the thunder of the great waters, mightier than the breakers of the sea-- the Lord on high is mighty. 5 Your statutes stand firm; holiness adorns your house for endless days, O Lord.
We are so lucky we've got an ocean right there.
Go spend time with Him, then like Jamie said alot this school year, find someone or someway to help and you will Know!
Here's what some believers said after they spent some time with Jesus...
Lu 24:32 They asked each other, "Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?"
Then they went as fast as they could to tell others about Jesus!