Turn with me to Jeremiah 9. Jeremiah 9, verse 23. I believe this will be the most important sermon I preach all year. I'm not saying it's gonna be my best sermon all year, but I do think it will be the most important sermon I preach all year. My objective is not to help you feel better about yourself, My objective today is not to give you a self-help plan, the five keys to victory, how to overcome depression or any other thing of that nature. My objective, however, will help you in all areas of your life. In fact, this is the ultimate help in any difficulty you may be facing or going through. Rather, my objective is to remind us what is the most important thing in life. The most important thing, because we, even as Christians, get sidetracked. Even we become distracted with the affairs and problems of life. And we need to be refocused in our hearts and our minds towards what is main, what is primary, what is the most important thing in all of life. That's what I want to be about. I may fail in secondary issues, but I want to be successful at the most important thing. I want that, which is most important. Read with me in verse 23. Thus says the Lord, let not the wise man boast in his wisdom. Let not the mighty man boast in his might. Let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boasts in this. That he understands and knows me. Within this, I have four points. But as we go over these four points, these are not four different things. I'm not saying we have four important things in life. I'm saying we have one important thing in life. And all four of these things speak of the one thing from a different perspective. What is the most important thing in life? First of all, my first point is this. The most important thing in life is knowing God. That's it. Knowing God. Do you know God? Jeremiah says, let not the mighty man boast in his might, the strong man boast in his strength, the wise man boast in his wisdom. I mean, we like to accomplish great things and whatever we're good at, we want to be better at it. And we're proud of these things, but God tells us not let any of these things be what we're proud of or what we want to display. No, is if we boast about anything, let it be boasting in this, that I know God. See, we were created for this very purpose. J.I. Packer says, what were we made for? To know God. What aim should we set ourselves in life to know God? What is eternal life that Jesus gives? It's the knowledge of God. John 17 3 says, This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ in whom you have sent. What is the best thing in life? Bringing more joy, delight and contentment than anything else. It's the knowledge of God. This should be our number one pursuit and number one interest and number one thing that we desire in life, that we may know the Lord. But what does it mean when Jeremiah says, for us to know the Lord, to understand him? You see, you can know a great deal about God without knowing him. You can read Christian books. You can study the biblical languages. You can go through various multi-volume systematic theologies. You can even read through your Bible on a yearly basis. You can come and worship God, but in all this, you can hardly know God at all. God is not interested in how much you focus on these things, if in focusing on these things, your pursuit and objective and goal is not to know Him. When you open your Bibles every morning to do your devotions, what's the objective? What's the purpose? What's the reason behind your reading the Scriptures? Just to get through your spiritual discipline for the day? Why do you memorize Scriptures? Just so you can say, I have Scripture memory? Just so you can say, I know the Bible? Why do you study theology? Young preachers, why do you want to know the languages? Why do we want to know theology and biblical truth and doctrine? Why do we pray? So you see, all these things are good things, but they have a purpose. They have a goal in mind. There is an objective to these things. Yes, these things do lead to something wonderful, but we should be warning what these things lead to. And that's the knowledge of God. There is a difference between knowing about God and knowing God, and that difference is a personal relationship with him. You know, I know all about Michael Jordan. But what if I said, you know, Michael Jordan's my friend. When I was a young boy, I played basketball all day. I'd go out down the street, there was a basketball goal three blocks down, kind of a park, and I would shoot basketball, play basketball by myself for all day, all day. I'd be out there shooting baskets. And as a little boy, I would daydream all the time about Michael Jordan coming and playing basketball with me. I'd sit there and daydream about it, and I mean, I had it down. Where I lived growing up was in a back neighborhood, in a small town in Batesville, in a back neighborhood, and to get to my house, you had to make two left turns, one right turn, and another left turn, and it's very complicated to get there. When you got there, you're in the middle of nowhere. but somehow in my daydreaming, Michael Jordan was just driving around, just happened to be in that area of the woods, and just happened to be driving in a lower middle class neighborhood for no other reason, and he spots me playing basketball. Of course, he stops and asks if I wanna play with him. I mean, I would dream about that, meeting Michael Jordan. I mean, he was my hero. I had in my bedroom a life-size poster that stretched about six feet this way and went from floor to ceiling. My parents hated it, but I loved it. Man, I watched every Bulls game that I could possibly watch. But you're not gonna believe the end of this story. What if I told you some years later I met someone? You're not gonna believe who this is. I met God. I met God. Can you believe that? Can you believe it? I have personally met God. I know him. I, me, me, little me, born in the woods with no influence at all. I, me, little me, I know the Lord and better yet, he knows me. Wow. Wow. But what if I said this? I didn't just meet him. He's my best friend. Can you believe it? God Almighty is my best friend in the world. I know him that intimately. I go to him with my problems and he speaks to me in his word. He comforts me with the Holy Spirit. He loves me like no one else in this world. Can you believe he's my best friend? Who's Michael Jordan? Who cares? I know the one who created him. I don't just know about him. This morning, I spent time with the Lord. This morning, he met with me. J.I. Packer says a little knowledge of God is worth more than a great deal of knowledge about him. Galatians 4 and 9 says, but now that you know God, or rather are known by God, it's one thing to know him. See, and the thing about this personal relationship, it's not just me knowing him. I know some pretty big names. I know when I've talked to them, but I promise you, they don't know when they talk to me. Oh, I've talked to this guy, I've talked to that guy, but I don't think they remember talking to Jeff Johnson. So I know that person, I maybe have met that person, but see, this is not just me knowing God. Paul says, you know, we now know God, rather are known by God. This is God knowing you. Not just me knowing what God likes and He dislikes, what grieves Him and what makes Him happy. Not just knowing His will and knowing His love. He knows me. He knows me inside and out. because He has a relationship with me. 1 Corinthians 8, verse 3 says, But if anyone loves God, he is known by God. But we often have our heads stuck in the mud. Jeremiah earlier said in chapter 2, verse 13, For my people have committed two evils, They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water. So here's what's going on. They have the source of the living water that's gonna supply all the refreshment they need. all the satisfaction that they need, and rather going to the source, the spring of pure living water and drinking from that, what they've done is they dug a hole in the ground. But this hole can't even keep the water. And as the rain comes in, it fills up this hole. But the hole is a broken cistern. And so the mud comes in it, and it's just polluted, old, dirty, old, nasty water. And they're dipping their ladle into this old mud hole and trying to sip and get nourishment from this source. But this is what we're doing when we're seeking satisfaction and wisdom and knowledge, or when we seek satisfaction and happiness in money or wealth or fame or in our career or in any other path that we may choose. We're drinking, if you would, we're stuck drinking from this broken cistern that's not going to nourish or satisfy us. I thought about writing a book called Living for Twinkies. And it's because I love Twinkies. I do. That's probably my favorite junk food is Twinkies. But I've learned something about Twinkies. They have almost zero or no nutritious value to them. They're not good for you. In fact, you eat two, eat the package, and you feel sick by the end of it. You kind of regret eating them after you've eaten them, although they're fun for the moment. But they have no lasting value or help to your soul or to your life. They have no nourishment. But what if someone's living for Twinkies? I mean, they're operating their life in order to eat Twinkies. I mean, that's their life. That's what they're living for. They have to have Twinkies. And if you steal their Twinkie, they're going to be miserable, because their life is rotating around something that has no nourishment, no substance to it. But how many people are living for Twinkies? It may be their vehicle. It may be their home. It may be their jobs. It may be their careers. It may be their education. It may be whatever it may be. But all it is in the big picture is just an empty Twinkie that doesn't satisfy you. Some of you are looking for love. Some of you are lonely and you're just got to find love. You have to have friendship and companionship. And you're looking for companionship everywhere you look. You can't find it. You can't find someone that knows you, that loves you. And you're not seeking the Lord. And I don't care if you're married to the best wife or the best husband and you have the best intimate relationship you can possibly imagine. I don't care if it's the best marriage in the world. It won't satisfy your soul. Only God, only God can meet that demand. Look to Him. If you're single or married, look to the Lord for your happiness. Isaiah 55 says, come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters. And he who has no money, come and buy and eat. Come buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money on Twinkies? And why do you labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me and eat what is good and delight yourself in rich food. Incline your ear and come to me, hear that your soul may live. And Jesus said, Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. He goes on to say, And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life, and whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. What is it your soul is longing for? Well, don't look for it in the world. Jesus says, if you drink of this water, you'll thirst again. But whoever drinks of the water that I give him will never be thirsty again. The waters that I give him will become in him a spring of water, welling up to eternal life. And this is eternal life that you know me. What is it to have happiness, joy and fulfillment and contentment? It is found only in the knowledge of God. Now, what kind of benefit do we receive by knowing God? First, by knowing God, it gives us a knowledge of ourselves. You know, we think we know ourselves, but we really don't know ourselves until we look in a mirror. And in the mirror in which we can know our own soul and heart and conscience is God. See, we don't know how sinful we are until we look at God who is holy. We don't know how needy and desperate we are until we get to know how rich God is. The more we know God, the more we know ourselves and the more we know how small, how poor and how sinful we are, we know how much forgiveness we need. The more we know God, the more we know that we cannot know ourselves rightly without knowing God rightly. And the more we know God, the more we know we need God. You see, knowing God puts everything in perspective. I mean, it realigns our affections. I mean, we come in here and say, well, you know, this is what I have on my bucket list. I want this. I need this. I can't wait to get this. When I get three more paychecks, then I'll have enough saved for this. Then I'll have enough down payment that I'm needing or looking for. Then I'll be able to retire in five more years. We begin to put all our hope and aspiration in these things. But it's not until we see God that we get to see the prospectively that these things that we're looking at really have no value in them at all. The more I know God, the more I know it does not matter who else I may or may not know. It does not matter if I'm well connected or I'm alone by myself. I know God. It doesn't matter if I'm rich or if I'm poor. I know God. It doesn't matter if I have friends in high places or friends in low places. I know God. Yet, better than this, God knows me. If God is for me, then who can be against me? If God has my back, if he's my friend, the whole world can be against me, but I got God on my side. What can man do to me? The more I know God, the more I know I don't have to worry about anything. The less anxious I have to be, the less concerned I have to be. I don't have to fret. I don't have to worry. I know God. I got this. I know God. In the end, I may die, lose everything, but it doesn't matter. I know God. I'm gonna live forever with Him. You see, knowing God directs us on how to live. The more we know God, yes, the more we love Him, and the more we love Him, the more we obey Him, and the more we live rightly. The key to living a Christian life is not through just memorizing all these rules of do's and don'ts. If you want to live holy, draw near to the Lord. Seek first the kingdom of God. Put your interest and focus upon serving the Lord. Many of you guys are very focused about a lot of things. It's okay to have things you're doing, but don't let anything trump your focus of the Lord. You see, knowing God is worth bragging about. Jeremiah gives us permission. Our Lord gives us permission. If you're rich, don't boast about that. If you're strong, don't worry about that. Don't boast about that. That's egotistic. Don't boast about these things that you've accomplished. But we can boast about something. We can brag. And I'm going to brag, I'm going to go behind the pulpit and before God, I'm going to brag on myself. Here it goes, I know God. I know God. I put my nose up on that one. I know God. I may not be rich, but I know God. I may not be famous, but I know God. I may not be very powerful, but I know God. I may not be very talented, but I know God. I may not be very good looking, but I know God. You're talking about the ultimate name drop. You know who I was talking to the other day? God. Beat that one. You can't do it. You can do it. You can be the youngest Christian here and go, hey, hey, everybody, I know God. He knows me. The Bible tells us, let your glory be in the Lord. So we can boast and glorify in this. We can be proud of it. The Lord knows me, little old me, he knows me. This leads us to our second point, Knowing God means having a relationship with God. The most important thing in life is having a relationship with the Lord. This is what he's speaking about, a relationship with God. Let him who boasts in this that he understands and knows me. That's just another way of saying that he has a relationship with the Lord. But what is a relationship? A relationship includes many things. It includes fellowship, and fellowship is heartfelt interaction and mutual encouragement. 1 John 1.3 says, truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, that we walk and talk and commune and have fellowship with God. And it also means that, communion, sharing or exchanging intimate thoughts and feelings, especially when the exchange is on the spiritual level. I mean, it's in our closet that we can close the door and let our deepest feelings and thoughts come out. And we can cry, Abba, Father. Oh, God. Oh God, we can be intimate with him in fellowship as a search of me, oh Lord, and know my heart. See if there's any evil way in me. Look in me, see me. What intimacy we can have, intimacy like no other. You can't even share these things with your own spouse. It includes companionship, the feeling of friendship that is derived from a deep sense of unity and oneness. It includes friendship, sharing of interest through a mutual respect of one another. It includes mutual affection. Spurgeon says, when two persons love the same thing, their affections become a tie between them. And having a relationship with God is to love the things He loves, to share the same desires and affections with Him, and to be one in these things. Does God love His Son, Jesus? Yeah, I love His Son, Jesus. We share that in common. Does God love the saints? I love the saints too. Does God love the word of God? Yes, I love the word of God too. We love the same things. This is companionship and friendship at the deepest level. Relationship includes mutual sharing of time and sharing life together, enjoying the company and presence of one another. Do we want to live in the presence of God? You see, the reason we don't is because of sin. If you're scared of the holiness of God, which you should be if you have sin in your life, this will separate you from seeking and pursuing Him. What keeps you from following the Lord more closely and having a deeper, more intimate relationship with the Lord is sin. It's sin. It's sin that separates us from God. Isaiah 59 verse 2 says, But this is the purpose of redemption. This is the purpose of God sending His Son into the world. Not that He may save your soul from hell. Not even for you to be justified. And not even for you to be holy, even though He wants you to be holy and He wants you to be justified and without sin. Not even for God to give you a resurrected body. The purpose of Christ's incarnation, His life, His struggles, His passion, His death, and His resurrection is to bring us back into communion and fellowship with God. Yes, the atonement cancels out sin, but the goal is not just for us to be holy. The goal is for us to have a relationship with God, and holiness is the means to that relationship. This is the purpose of reconciliation, to bring us back into communion and fellowship with the Lord. And this is what's been opened up to us through His Son, Jesus Christ. Christ Jesus became a man. And without sin, he lived the perfect life to undo your sin and your guilt. That the sin in your life that separates you from God can be removed. And I'm going to give you good news. You who want to know the Lord and you says, Jeff, that's me. I want God more. Here's the good news. You can have them. Everything that would hinder you from coming to the Lord has been removed. He's made the way straight. He's made a way to the Father. Yes, Jesus is the only way, and that way is narrow, but there is a way. The only thing will keep you from God and a relationship with God is lack of interest. You will have to leave here if you're lost by saying, I just don't care. I'm not interested. You have God Almighty giving you an invitation to come through Jesus Christ. And Jesus says, come unto me, all you are heavy laden. Come unto me and I will give you rest. This is an open invitation to all of you. And the reason you'll walk out of here is because you'd rather have a Twinkie. I'll take my Twinkie. You can have the Son of God. I'll take my Twinkie and you can have eternity. No wonder God damns people in hell for rejecting His Son, whom He cherishes more than anything. You deserve to go to hell if you reject Christ. He's so precious. He is so lovely. He is so good. You know He is so good. I was thinking about this yesterday after the Razorbacks lost. I went out and took a little walk to clear my head, and I was thinking, man, it's humbling to be a Razorback fan. But you know who's more humble than a Razorback fan? It's Jesus, and he never lost. He's never done anything that should shame Him or disgrace Him, but just by His own goodness and will, He humbles Himself. He's not arrogant, brash, conceited. He's lowly and meek. You want to reject that? You want to reject the imitation that God has given you? Reject goodness because of your selfishness? because of your self-centeredness? But I say there is a way to be saved. Come, Jesus says, and I promise you by the authority of God's word, all who come to him and seek his face with all their heart and with all their soul and all their mind, he will no wise cast you out. You can walk away from this church service with a relationship with God. That's my guarantee. That's my promise. If you want it, if you hate your sins and you love Christ more than anything else, he will give himself to you. You know, this is brings me to the third thing in the most important thing in life is being a child of God. You know, the most precious name that God has. I believe his father. No, if you could be called anything, if you could receive a title, what title would you receive? Teacher, coach, doctor, vice president, senior vice president, president, emperor, king, lord? I'll tell you the most precious title I could be called is dad. Dad. My birthday's coming up. I like Twinkies. My birthday's coming up, and my son was, my son was, asked me what I wanted for my birthday, Martin, and I said, well, Martin, you could draw me a picture. That would really make me happy. He's been drawing lots of neat things, mainly stormtroopers, and he's getting better and better at drawing stormtroopers. And so I thought, well, he could draw me a stormtrooper, and he goes, okay, Dad, I'll put your name on it. How do you spell your name? And I go, Martin, you know what I would rather you put on there? Rather than putting Jeff, anybody can call me Jeff. You can call me Jeff. And honestly, I would prefer pastor for the same reason I prefer dad. Not because I want a title, not because I want to feel important, because pastors is something that speaks about a relationship that's unique, to the people you pastor, and anybody can call you Jeff. I said, son, you don't have to put Jeff on there. Put dad. Dad. Very few people can put that. Very few people can call me dad. You know, I love all you boys and girls out there. I love my boys especially. That's my sons. Martin is my boy, my boy. For him to call me dad is special. It speaks of a wonderful relationship that I specially and intimately share only with my children. But God invites us through his son to call him father. We don't just get to know him as a friend. But we can be his children. How about calling God of the universe? Father. Father. When you pray, you can go, oh, Jehovah, oh, Lord Almighty, which is fine and has its place in proper settings. But when you're alone in your own closet and you have to pour out your heart, there is no better name to address God and go, oh, my father. Oh, father. Remember your son, remember your daughter here. Oh, Father. So intimate, even the Apostle Paul brings it down to even, to something I would even hesitate to call God Almighty. Oh, Abba, Father, which means Daddy, oh, Daddy. Of all the names of God, the most precious name is Father. J. I. Packer says, to be right with God, the judge is a great thing, but to be loved and cared for by God, the Father is even greater. You see, God is a father by his very nature. Michael Reeve says that this is who God has revealed himself to be, not first and foremost creator or ruler, but foremost father. Perhaps the way to appreciate this best, Michael Reeves goes on to say, is to ask what God was doing before creation. Was he making hell? No. Jesus tells us especially in John 17, 24, Father, he says, you loved me before the creation of the world. And that is God revealed by Jesus Christ before he ever created, before he ever ruled the world, Before anything else, God was a father, a loving father to his son, and he's invited us to be his children. You see, we are his children. Second Corinthians 6, 18, I will be a father to you and you shall be my sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty. J.I. Packer goes on to say, you sum up the whole of the New Testament religion if you describe it as knowledge of God as one holy father. If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God's child and having God as his father. If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayers and his whole outlook on life, It means that he does not understand Christianity very well at all. Having God as a father changes everything. What love of a God that we are called his children. His children by adoption and by the new birth. Yeah, I know God. That's my dad. That's my father. I'm his son. I mean, what provision is going to be taken? We're going to have if God is our father. Jesus taught us, he says, if you being evil know how to give your children. Good things when they ask, how much more will your heavenly father? Give you the things that you ask in my name. You need something from the Lord. Remind him, say, Lord, remember, I'm your child. You promised to take care of me. Fourth, as we bring this sermon somewhat to an end, the most important thing in life is seeking God. There's nothing hindering us from the knowledge of God besides our lack of interest. And if we are Christians, nothing hinders us from a deeper knowledge of the Lord, a more intimate and close walk with God than just lack of interest. My desire in this message is not only for myself, but for all of you to leave this place closer to the Lord and a desire that's rooted to say this next year and the end of this year and ongoing in the next year, I want a deeper and closer relation with God than I've ever had in my life. I don't want to grow lukewarm and leave my first love. I don't want my affection and love for the Lord to wane and grow cold and all my well-doing. I want to know the Lord. I remember when the Lord saved me and dealt with me, I could not help but just rejoice for day after day after day, and I couldn't help but tell people what God had done for me because I was excited about God. But we lose that over time. But we don't have to if we passionately seek Him. Why do we labor for that which is not bread? Why do we seek the things that will not satisfy us? God has promised that those who seek Him with all their heart, mind and soul shall find Him. Psalms 119 says, Blessed are those who seek God with all their heart. Can you say, I want to raise my hand? I want that to be me with all my heart, with all my mind and all my soul. I want God. Philippians 4 tells us, but whatever gain I had, I counted as lost for the sake of Christ. My accomplishments, my degrees, my recognition, my fame, my prestige, my wealth, my power, all that I count as dumb. Indeed, I count everything as lost because of the suppressing worth of knowing Christ. Just give me a knowledge of God. A little bit of knowledge of God is worth all the money in the world. worth more than all the money in the world. Well, I'm gonna end by telling you how to do it. Let's put it down on the basic level. How do I know God more? First of all is repent. Repent of your sins. Your sins are hindering you, lack of interest, concern for worldly things. Repent. Say, I'm sorry, dear Lord, I've made too much out of Twinkies. You are the hidden treasure. You are the most precious of all things. You alone can satisfy. Help me not to look for that in my husband, to look for that in my wife, to look for that in my children or my family or my job, my career, my ambitions or my aspirations, or even in the ministry. Help me to look for that in you. Repent. Secondly, believe God. Sometimes you're not gonna feel close to God, and I'm not just talking about experiencing God, even though this is subjectively having experience of God, knowing God includes that at times. You could be in a dry place in your life, and God can seem not very close to you, but that doesn't mean you don't have an intimate, close relationship with God, because our feelings are deceiving. So I'm not even trying to make this all about an experience and put the subjective higher than the objective, that your experience above the word of God. I'm not trying to exalt that. You see, you can have faith and know. You can know that God hears you, even though you don't believe or feel that he hears you. You know he does because he said in his word. Every time I preach, I go, Lord, be with me. Be with me. And I come up somewhat expecting. In fact, I expect God to be with me when I preach. Why? Because I asked him to. I believe him. I trust him. Trust God. Treasure God. One of the ways of treasuring God is practicing and working up meditation, not Meditating on nothing. Meditating on God's Word. Contemplate God's Word. Treasure God's Word. Think more of the Lord. Meditate on God. J.L. Packer says, How can we turn our knowledge about God into knowledge of God? The rule for doing this is simple but demanding. It is that we turn each truth that we learn about God into matters for meditation before God. leading to prayer and praise to God. Think about God. Think about His mercy. Just dwell on His mercy for about 10 minutes. Dwell on your sins, then turn to God's mercy, and just soak yourself into that truth. Love that truth. Think of the different attributes of God. Think about Christ. If you want to know God, read the Gospels. Read the Gospels. Learn about Jesus Christ. See how he interacted with people and his personality. See if you can become familiar with the things he likes and the things he dislikes, the things he's passionate about, the things that you should be passionate about. If you want to know God, converse with God, talk to God, which means pray to him. Someone's intimacy with God will be determined by the measure and quality the quality of his prayer life or her prayer life. How's your prayer life? I was over at Drew's house the other day and Ginger come in from work and first thing they did, they began to catch up on the day and it's like talking about their day and what was going on. And I said, that's what a relationship is, just talking about your life with someone. If you're going to have a relationship with God, you've got to talk with Him. Pray to Him. And you have to read His Word as He speaks to us through that. The key really is simple. If you want to have a relationship with God, spend time with Him. Spend time with Him. You can't have a relationship with anyone without time. Don't give God just five minutes. Five minutes, hurried minutes. Give Him the best of your time. Give Him the best of your focus. Don't be content with prayers that you just pray and have no heart or feeling attached to it. I know prayers can be hard for all of us. but pray through until you reach God. Spend time with the Lord. Treasure the Lord. Seek God the Father through Jesus Christ. Know that you only have access to Him because of the blood of Jesus Christ. These are the most important things in life. In fact, this is the most important thing in life. I said knowing God, having a relationship with God, being a child of God, and seeking God, but isn't that not just saying the same thing? If you're gonna boast, If you're gonna brag, let it be in this, that you know the Lord. And if that's the thing you brag about the most, that'd be the thing that you want the most. You'd be the most proud of. And it's okay to gloat if you're gloating in the glory of the Lord. Let's go to Lord in prayer.