Getting to Know You, by Pastor Ed Evans

Scripture: Psalm 145:8-14

145:8 The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
145:9 The Lord is good to all, and His compassion is over all that He has made.
145:10 All Your works shall give thanks to You, O Lord, and all Your faithful shall bless You.
145:11 They shall speak of the glory of Your kingdom, and tell of Your power,
145:12 to make known to all people Your mighty deeds, and the glorious splendor of Your kingdom.
145:13 Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and Your dominion endures throughout all generations. The Lord is faithful in all His words, and gracious in all His deeds.
145:14 The Lord upholds all who are falling, and raises up all who are bowed down.

One of the great aspects of having lived so long is that you were present when some of the best music came along. Music that has a gentle rhythm, keeping a patterned pace with my heartbeat. And you could understand the words, words that made sense and often told a story out of our own experiences.
One of my old-time favorites was a song titled “Getting to Know You.”
When I hear this song, I wonder, how is it that the Almighty God, the Great I Am, has been around longer than we have, and His precious Son, Jesus Christ, has been involved with mankind for more than 2,000 years, and we still don’t seem to understand either of them. And then there’s the Holy Spirit. Boy, do we have a lot of misconceptions there. Turn on the TV late at night and see what cable TV has done with the concept of “spirits,” sometime. Truly frightening.
How is it we know and understand so little about the existence of the Living God? There’s really no excuse, since God has given us an instruction booklet that tells us who He is through the experiential history of mankind, what He has done for us, and what He expects of us, as well as what can expect and look forward to.
And yet, we’re still playing “getting to know you.”
That remarkable melody comes from the famous lyrical Broadway play by Rodgers and Hammerstein, “Anna and the King of Siam.” Most of us today know it by the movie title, “The King and I.” Sadly, they just don’t make movies like that, anymore.
Schoolteacher Anna has arrived in the ancient kingdom of Siam at the request of the King to teach his many children (from many wives) about the modern world.
As she is introducing herself to the children and their mothers, Anna says,
“It's a very ancient saying…But a true and honest thought…That if you become a teacher…By your pupils you'll be taught.”
Then Anna sings, “As a teacher I've been learning -- You'll forgive me if I boast -- And I've now become an expert -- On the subject I like most.”
She pauses and says, “Getting to know you,” then sings, “Getting to know you…Getting to know all about you…Getting to like you…Getting to hope you like me.”
“Getting to know you…Putting it my way…But nicely…You are precisely…My cup of tea.”
Then Anna and all the mothers join in singing, “Getting to know you…Getting to know all about you…Getting to like you…Getting to hope you like me…”
Still later they all together sing, “Haven't you noticed…Suddenly I'm bright and breezy? … Because of all the beautiful and new…Things I'm learning about you…Day… by.. day…”
One of the many advantages God has over us is that He knew us even before we were; a difficult concept for us to get our head around. But in Jeremiah 1:5, God said to the prophet, “"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."
Even before he was, God appointed Jeremiah into an important part of God’s plans. By the way, that’s just one reason why the horrible practice of abortion works against the plans God has for us.
But God has always known us, even as we make only half-hearted attempts to get to know Him. Even as we make up our own rules about who He is, what we guess He wants from us, absolutely sure He must think like we do. And we do this even though if we have read holy scripture at all, we must have run across Isaiah 55:8 which tells us, "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways," declares the Lord.”
I am often amazed when I hear otherwise decent people declare, “My God wouldn’t be against “ this sin or that sin; or “My God wouldn’t be a violent God,” or “I
could never believe in a God who makes war on people.”
This is the creation judging its creator. How ridiculous is that?
The God who has always been, who has created all that is, including us, who knows more and can do more than we, His creation, can even suspect, does not answer to the petty judgments and half-baked opinions of His creation. What this is really evidence of is how little we know of God. For knowing God is much like knowing scripture. You cannot take one aspect of God and judge Him by that, just as you cannot take one verse of scripture and run off with it declaring it to be a truth all its own. You much take the entire Bible in context, for in total it is the story of man and God. Anything less is out of context.
The example is often used of the blind men who encountered an elephant. Not knowing what it was, they each went by their sense of “feel”, much today as we make up our minds about the rational by how we irrationally “feel” about something.
One man first encountered the elephant’s great leg and declared an elephant was like a mighty tree. Another felt its winding trunk and declared it was like a snake. Another felt its tail and said it was like a rope, another its ear and declared it was like a great fan. Nevertheless, for all their declarations, it was still an elephant.
The blind men were not getting to know the elephant, individually they were getting know the separate parts of an elephant, just as we encounter one aspect of God, perhaps answered prayer, and declare God is like a great Genie who will gift us with our heart’s desire. And so we spend all our energy asking for money and success, none of which will follow us to our Father’s House. I’ve never seen a U-Haul attached to a funeral hearse.
Perhaps you’ve heard the story of the young woman who married a man who had just won a $500 million lottery. But soon afterward he became badly ill and on his deathbed made his new wife promise to put his fortune in his casket with him. She loved him dearly, and so in his dying moments she promised. After the funeral a girl friend asked her, “You didn’t do that, did you?” The new widow answered, “I did. I signed that check for every penny and put it right in the casket with him.”
That makes about as much sense as us trying to hold God to standards that are not His own.
The real God of all time and space is so much better, more powerful, more all-knowing, more loving and forgiving, than any of the make believe and structured deities mankind might come up with.
My answer to all those who want to put human traits, frailties and emotions on God is simply that they don’t know the Living God. They may know “a” god, they make serve something they’ve made up in their mind – and Satan is always happy to masquerade as the an angel of light – but they do not know the Living God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And let’s not unclear here, that is deadly. That is dangerous. That is soul-killing.
The God-breathed, inspired Word of Almighty God, known to us as the Old and New Testaments, are their own best commentary. All the extra-Biblical texts in the world will not give you the rich inter-connectedness of God’s holy Word like the Bible itself.
Is there something you don’t understand in the Bible? Get into the Word and study more.
Is there something you think is contradictory? Get into the Word and study more.
Ask the Holy Spirit to lead you to a better understanding of what God has laid out for you there. James 1:5 advises us directly, “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.”
The more you study scripture – I recommend starting every day with a few moments in His Word – you may well feel yourself “suddenly becoming bright and breezy … because of all the beautiful and new…things you’re learning about Him …day… by… day.”
Verses 8 and 9 at the beginning of today’s scripture attests that, “The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. The Lord is good to all, and His compassion is over all that He has made.”
Today’s scripture ends in part with verses 13 and 14, “The Lord is faithful in all His words, and gracious in all His deeds. The Lord upholds all who are falling, and raises up all who are bowed down.”
This is the God of all time and space, Who loved us first, even before we were, and knowing Him better simply adds to our joy, in this life and the next. Because no one keeps promises like our God, who has promised to love us, and never leave us. For which we thank You, Father. Amen.