Do I really know YOU

“Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.'” Matthew 7:21-22 NASB

OBSERVATION
Now let me tell you what’s so terrifying about this text. This text has just clearly outlined this reality – I can do things in Jesus’ name and not know Jesus at all.

Now if you have a long background in church, that should be terrifying. I can do things in Jesus’ name and not know Jesus at all. At times I’ve wrestled with doubt because the truth is I did not have a regenerate heart - my heart was calloused and hard - I had to walk in good old obedience to God’s word (despite not wanting to and not understanding completely why I should) and in doing so, a new heart was regenerated (not physically).  My heart became moldable, teachable, and over time was transformed by the guidance of God’s Word.

I was just good person. Good people go to church, good people don’t lie and good people don’t cheat on their wives.... but there was doubt.... that nagging doubt in me.  Then I started to think that’s God’s mercy toward me. Because He’s ringing the alarm in my soul that something is not right. That’s merciful because He doesn’t owe me that. That’s merciful because there are people all around me for whom that alarm doesn’t go off at all. But in His mercy, that alarm has begun to go off in my heart, in my soul. At time I’ve wrestled with doubt because I was not a believer in Christ - Yes, I was in the institution of the Christian church.  I knew how to act and what / when to say things. I believed in Christ like I believe in Bill Gates. I know he exists, but that’s about the extent of it.

Another thing that causes a lot of doubt in my.  Is that I have a hard time believing and staying dialed into the gospel at times.  Here’s what I mean by the gospel, just so I can be very clear. I don’t save me; God saves me. I don’t partner with God in my salvation; - Bottom line truth: God saves me. Because if it were up to me to earn the favor of God, I’m in trouble. Because even if I can externally manage things, it doesn’t change what my heart is, it doesn’t change what my mind is thinking and it doesn’t change the state of my heart. It’s simply me performing for people who are watching. So if I think, “I’ve got to partner with God in my salvation,” then of course I’m going to doubt. I think this mindset is the biggest hijacking of truth that has befallen Christianity, that I somehow partner with God in my salvation.

Okay, where the grace to confess and repent come from?
It was a gift to me by faith, and it actually came before the faith to enable me to use faith to believe in the grace.

I can go to Ephesians 1, Ephesians 2, Romans 8-11, Galatians 1 and I can go all over the Bible to see that this is true.

So what’s another spiritual truth’s that I struggle with – God loves you just as I am.... now.... today.... as I write this.... It’s not me when I get my stuff together, it’s not me when I nail down all I’m supposed to nail down, but the Bible says He delights in me.

Check this out: 
“Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” - Romans 8:1

“He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.” - Romans 8:11
Who raised Jesus from the dead?  Who was able to give life to Jesus’ dead body? God.
Who wants to give life to our mortal bodies? God.
How does choice to give us life? Through His Spirit who dwells in you.
So what is the purpose of God’s Spirit? “Spirit helps our weakness....” - Romans  8:26 “He (God’s Spirit) who searches the hearts, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. - Romans 8:27
Now look what happens. There is an acknowledgment that I’m weak, that I’m falling short and that I’m not getting what I need to get. What’s God’s response towards those He loves? Is it rage? Is it lightning? Is it cancer? Is it drought? Is it help?

So this idea that there’s no way God could love me, either I’m lying or the Bible is lying, but somebody’s not telling the truth. Again, if I stayed in Romans 8, I would see in verse 34 that the Bible tells me that Jesus is interceding for me, that Jesus is at the right hand of the Father in intercession... “34 who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was [l]raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.” All that means is Jesus is praying for me.

APPLICATION
It’s hard for me to imagine and believe that God delights in me. Maybe He loves me in some kind of weird way - like I play with the word “love.”  Like, “I love him; I just don’t really like him....”  Or, like “I deeply love my wife, my children, and my pets...”  common on.... I there’s a VAST difference in between the amount of love I have for my wife & children compared to any pet!  To think that God delights in me, rejoices in me, is thrilled with me, that’s very difficult for me to believe and imagine.

Now I am the best husband I ever am when I’m fully concentrating on, thinking on, meditating on and sitting under the gospel preaching and teaching.

I’ll tell you why. When I am completely dialed in to the fact that, through no merit of my own, through no act of my own and because of nothing I can do, but simply because God is merciful and gracious, He loves me, then as I engage my wife, there is this overflow motivated by being loved that flows over into my relationship with my wife.

Do you know when I’m a horrible husband? When somebody preaches a sermon on, “Here’s how you be a great husband.” Because there’s a type-A moron fabric woven into my DNA. So I will immediately go, “Let me start to do those things. She’ll respond this way...” So I start to go, “If I do this, she’ll do that, and what will come about is bliss.” Spoiler alert: it doesn’t work!

So I’m the best husband I ever am when I understand that God is patient, that God is merciful and that God is gracious to me. And as I am the recipient of that, that overflows onto my relationship with my wife. I’m the best father I am, not when I read a book on parenting that shows me how to handle my strong-willed children. I’m the best parent I ever am when I am completely attuned with God’s free gift of mercy and grace and wired into the fact that He delights in my strengths while growing me out of my immaturity. I’m just a better man when I’m aware of that.

God, do I really know You? Honestly that question causes doubt, shakes me to the core, and causes me to probe and see if I’m being genuine or masquerading around. Thanks for shaking things up today.  Help me not settle into the camp of institutionalization (Christianity) but press into cultivating a genuine transformational relationship with YOU. - Trevor

Thoughts?