Learning – Page 2

July 2, 2018

Seven Actions to Take Leading Up to a New Sunday School Class

What is done in the offseason for most sports determines in part the success of the coming season. The conditioning, drills on the basic skills, and strengthening your body prior to the season beginning allows for the athletes to focus on the details and opponents during the season. While a strong offseason regiment does not guarantee victory, failing to prepare in the offseason all but assures failure.

The same is true when it comes to starting a new Sunday School class. What is done before the first Sunday opens the door for success. Here are seven preseason actions a leader can take in the weeks leading up to the start of a new Sunday School class. Only the first one is listed in priority order.

1. Secure prayer support.

Invite a few people to serve as prayer support for you as you begin this new class. Ask them to pray for you as the leader, that God will provide the other leaders needed, and for the people yet to be reached by the class. Be sure to include another Sunday School teacher in this group who can mentor you through prayer.

2. Be clear on who the new class is for.

While anyone may attend the class, having a clear picture of who you actually are trying to reach will help you plan and prepare. College students have different needs than their parents do; classes for these two groups should reflect those different needs.

3. Gather what you need.

Gather markers, paper, and other resources needed by the class well in advance of the first Sunday. Even if someone else offered to gather everything you need, be sure to double-check to make sure everything you need is secured.

4. Prepare to lead a Bible study.

Use the resources provided to create a first Sunday built around Bible study. Some groups fall short by focusing on organization and other items the first time the group meets. Remember, people are gathering for Bible study so you must make sure that you are prepared to do Bible study.

5. Distribute resources.

Most classes will use some type of printed resource that will guide the Bible study. Take a copy of the resource to every potential new class member. This serves as a reminder of when the new class begins and gives you a natural way to invite people to the class. Be sure to give some brief information about how to use the resource.

6. Enlist a team.

Starting a new Sunday School class is hard work. Having a team of others helping you in different roles can make a big difference. At the very least, enlist a person who can oversee some of the administrative details so you can focus on teaching and contacting people.

7. Conduct a pre-class event.

An event prior to the first Sunday for potential class members can gives people the opportunity to get to know each other and gives you the opportunity to share your goals for the class. Doing so in this forum makes it possible for the first Sunday to be more like a “normal” class and can remove some of the awkwardness of the first Sunday.

You will have plenty of work to do after the class starts for it to succeed, but these actions will help you set a foundation upon which to build.

What are some other actions a leader of a new Sunday School class may need to consider taking prior to starting a new class? What have you done that helped you start a new class?

Dwayne McCrary is a project team leader for ongoing adult Bible study resources at Lifeway, including the adult Explore the Bible resources. He also teaches an adult group and preschool group every Sunday in the church he attends.

Group Leadership, Uncategorized

February 15, 2018

Why Should Kindness Be Random?

By Lynn Pryor

I’m not a fan of random acts of kindness. Don’t write me off as a curmudgeon. After all, my dad did raise me right.

I hold the door open for people (not just women, thank you).
I speak politely to the high school kid working the drive-thru.
I rescue baby bunnies from the dietary plans of my beagle.

When a need for kindness is right in front of me, I should take it. That’s biblical. Followers of Christ are commanded to clothe themselves with kindness (Col. 3:12). Kindness is part of the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23).

We’re not being random when we encounter someone who could obviously use some kindness.

Jesus told a story about a man who did an incredible act of kindness for a stranger. The parable of the Good Samaritan is about a Jew and a Samaritan, two men Jesus’ audience would have considered enemies. It was obvious to the Samaritan that the Jew was in a bad way–beaten and robbed–and he helped. That’s true kindness.

Kindness is seeing a need and responding in a good, gracious way that truly benefits the person. That captures the meaning of the Greek word and how it was used in the New Testament.

It may feel kind to us to pay for the coffee of the person in line behind us, but the guy spending $4.75 for a skinny white vanilla latte probably is not in need of someone buying his coffee.

The Samaritan didn’t pay to the lodging bill for everyone; he paid for the one who needed it.

Let’s be kind—but let’s be intentional in our kindness. Do it for those who could use the help or who need the encouragement. Don’t just be nice; through your intentional act of kindness, build a relationship. Show them the love of Christ in the process. And do it to honor Jesus.

Lynn Pryor is a team leader for adult resources at Lifeway. He and his wife, Mary, lead a Bible study group for young adults and have survived raising two sons to adulthood. A graduate of Southwestern Seminary, Lynn has previously pastored and served churches in Texas. Read more from his blog at lynnhpryor.com.

Group Leadership, Uncategorized

November 20, 2017

Three Steps to Cultivate Gratitude

By Michael Kelley

A year ago, my wife and I decided to plant a garden. A for real, grow-stuff-that-you-eat garden. So we gathered seeds for tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, and a few other things, we tilled the patch of soil, we repaired the critter fence around the area that had fallen into disrepair, we dug holes, we planted seeds, and then we waited.

And waited.

Every day I would come home and ask the kids if anything had grown yet. It had not. Until one day there was the smallest, green chute coming out of the ground. And we watched that little green chute, being careful to water it—but not too much—fighting off the weeds that would try to grow around it, until it would eventually bear fruit. From the time we began to plant until the day we ate the first tomato was around 3 months. Not a terribly long time in the grand scheme of things, but pretty long when you’re watching a clump of dirt every day.

Apparently, this is called cultivation—it’s the act of preparing, promoting, developing or promoting the growth of someone or something, and it takes time. And intentionality. And effort. That’s true of cultivating tomato plants, but it’s also true if you want to cultivate a characteristic in your life. Like gratitude, for example.

When I think of gratitude, I don’t want my life to only have brief spurts of thanksgiving; I want to actually be grate-full. I want the garden of thanksgiving to have entwined my heart and soul, so much so that I live and breathe gratitude. It emanates from the core of who I am. But if this, by the Spirit and grace of God, can actually be cultivated in our lives, what active steps can we take toward that end? Here are three such actions:

1. Remember what you deserve.

It strikes me that the moments when I am the most ungrateful are also the moments in which I feel the most entitled. That I deserve something better than the situation or circumstance in which I currently find myself. But that sense of entitlement is a lie. It’s not a lie in the sense that I’m not entitled to something; it’s a lie in the sense that I often forget what I am actually entitled to.

Which is hell. Separation. Condemnation. Eternal punishment. This is what I truly deserve. If I want to cultivate gratitude in my life, then a healthy dose of remembering what I am actually entitled to should go a long way.

2. Remember what you have.

It also strikes me that other moments when I am ungrateful stem from when I compare myself to others. I look at the bank account, the physical stature, the intelligence, the wit, or the influence of another and am so caught up in my own covetousness that I simply don’t have any room to be grateful. It’s in those moments that I can reflect back on what I truly have. And what do I have?

A beautiful wife? Wonderful children? Fulfilling vocation? Church that I love and loves me? Yes to all the above. But over and above that, I have every spiritual blessing in the heavens (Eph. 1:3). Every. Single. One. In Christ, God has held nothing back from me. By the virtue of His sacrifice on the cross, I am a coheir with Jesus (Rom. 8:17), and my inheritance in Him has already been secured. This is what I have, right now.

3. Remember what was paid.

And here we come to the meat of it all. For me, and for you, if indeed you are a Christian, a great and terrible price has been paid. We were not brought out of darkness and into the light, rescued from our empty way of life by silver or gold; no, it was by something much more valuable. The precious blood of Jesus was shed on our behalf (1 Peter 1:18-21). Jesus was given for our sake; only a price this high could atone for our sin so great.

The cross of Jesus—the price that was paid—is like water to the parched ground of our ungrateful hearts. We pour it on as we fix our eyes on Him, and watch gratitude sprout up and bloom. Slowly yet steadily, we can cultivate hearts by God’s grace that are no longer entitled, no longer covetous, and are burning white hot for the glory of the Lamb that was slain.

Michael Kelley lives in Nashville, TN, with his wife, Jana, and three children: Joshua (10), Andi (7), and Christian (5). He serves as Director of Groups Ministry for Lifeway Christian Resources. As a communicator, Michael speaks across the country at churches, conferences, and retreats and is the author of Wednesdays Were Pretty Normal: A Boy, Cancer, and God; Transformational Discipleship; and Boring: Finding an Extraordinary God in an Ordinary Life. Find him on Twitter:@_MichaelKelley.

Friday Features

November 10, 2017

Paul and His Team

By Group Ministry

Most of us have found common ground with someone and have experienced how it brings down walls. Common ground can be found in the most mundane places—people who grew up in the same area or who went to the same high school that we did, people who live in our neighborhoods, people who like the same food that we do, or people who root for the same sports teams. We may know nothing else about a person, but if we have common ground in just one area, we are more open and friendly with them. Common ground counts for a lot.

Paul knew this. Part of his strategy for spreading the message of Christianity around the Mediterranean was to seek common ground with anyone who would listen. Paul and his team needed to find a receptive audience as often as possible. For example, they consistently visited Jewish synagogues first when they came to a new city, because they shared a cultural and religious heritage. They sought common ground in many other ways, but we’re going to focus on one key example: Paul’s speech in the city of Athens.

16 While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was deeply distressed when he saw that the city was full of idols. 17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with those who worshiped God, as well as in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. 18 Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also debated with him. Some said, “What is this ignorant show-off trying to say?” Others replied, “He seems to be a preacher of foreign deities”—because he was telling the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. 19 They took him and brought him to the Areopagus, and said, “May we learn about this new teaching you are presenting? 20 Because what you say sounds strange to us, and we want to know what these things mean.” 21 Now all the Athenians and the foreigners residing there spent their time on nothing else but telling or hearing something new. — Acts 17:16-21 (CSB)

In his speech, Paul affirmed the Athenians’ obvious desire to know and serve God—he met them on their place of common ground. But Paul also argued that it was wrong to think that God is something that we create, or that He lives in houses we build for Him. Paul was not demonizing the Athenians; he was suggesting that they misunderstood God’s nature.

What’s most notable about Paul’s speech is what he did not say. Paul did not quote Scripture. He did not mention the Messiah or the name of Jesus. That sort of thing would be a perfect strategy for a Jewish audience, who would be familiar with the Old Testament. But this was not the synagogue. This was an illustrious council of Athenian thinkers who were probably unfamiliar with the Jewish Scriptures. Paul knew this, so he sought common ground elsewhere.

Paul commented on their city’s religious climate. He leveraged their altar to an unknown god as a launching point. He quoted their own poets to back up his claims. Paul wanted to find whatever foothold he could to open up a dialogue with the Athenians. Paul likely did not view this speech as all he wanted to say, but his best opening statement in what he hoped would become an ongoing discussion.

We need to change our mentality toward nonbelievers. We often fall into the trap of an “us versus them” mentality when it comes to spiritual matters. We see people as either allies or enemies and quickly put them into one of those two columns based on superficial observations. Paul and his team would have been baffled by this. Paul looked at people who believed very different things from him and asked himself, “How can I build bridges to these people?”

Seeking common ground is a powerful tool in the hands of a Christian willing to wield it. It overcomes countless barriers to the gospel. When someone experiences common ground with you, they are more willing to hear what you have to say. They are more willing to consider your perspective. Simply put, they are more likely to like you. Common ground gives you a level of influence that you would not otherwise have, because most people are unwilling to be led by someone they don’t know or don’t like. We should view ourselves as the seekers and wielders of common ground with any people or communities that our ministries touch.

This was an excerpt from Ryan Lokkesmoe’s small group study, Paul and His Team. Session 1. Series and study are available exclusively at smallgroup.com.

Group Leadership

September 4, 2017

Four Reasons Your Work Matters Today

By Michael Kelley

You are working today. You might or might not be paid for it, and you might or might not work outside the home. You might work in a manufacturing industry or you might own your own business. You might wear a uniform or you might wear yoga pants and a sweatshirt. But you are working in whatever office, home, or outfit you are currently in.

I think all of us, when the work slips into tedium and routine, are prone to ask the question of whether or not what we are doing really matters. The question, even if it’s not directly spoken, is revealed in other ways. We might find it hard to get out of bed on another Monday. Or we might constantly find ourselves clicking on job postings online to find something we deem to be more significant. Or we might apply this short but very relatively word to our occupation – “just”:

I’m just a teacher.
I’m just a mom.
I’m just a cook.
I’m just a salesman.

So how about it? Does our work really matter? And if the answer is “yes,” then are there reasons for that answer that go beyond the scope of a particular vocation? In other words, does our work matter regardless of what our position is?

To that end, I can see at least four reasons why your work matters today, whether you’re a plumber or a preacher, a stay-at-home mom or a go-to-the-office dad:

1. Because God is sovereign.
We like sometimes to attribute a kind of leveling to the sovereignty of God. That is to say, we think of God as sovereign over big, earthquaking events like an election or a world war. But if we believe that God is sovereign, then He is sovereign over both the big and the small. If God is sovereign, then it is not by chance that you are working in the field you are, at the company you are, and even in the location you are. You are there by His design. And God has not made an error in judgment, nor does He have a lapse in divine attention.

2. Because we are made in God’s image.
Work matters not only because of God’s intentionality; it matters because our desire and capacity to do good work is part of what it means to be made in God’s image. If you look back to the account of creation, you see God speaking innumerable creatures into existence, but only one that He made in His own image. And the first thing He did after uniquely creating man was to give Him a job:

“The Lord God took the man and placed him in the garden of Eden to work it and watch over it” (Gen. 2:15).

Being made in God’s image goes well beyond this, but it also includes our work. God did not create us to lounge; it is His intent for us to engage in work. Indeed, without work we are not living fully in the image of God. So our work matters simply because work matters, for working is God design for us as humans.

3. Because work is for your good.
God is using all things, both big and small, for our good, which is to mold us into the image of Jesus. This is His will for us in Christ—that we become transformed into the likeness of His Son (Rom. 8:28-30). When we become adults, we spend the majority of our waking hours doing some kind of work. So, then, if God is using all our circumstances for our good and godliness, and we spend the bulk of our time doing work, then our work must also be for our good and godliness.

It’s through this avenue that we learn the lessons of sanctification like contentment, perseverance, faithfulness, patience, and a host of other things. And even if your job is not one you would have chosen for yourself at this point in life, you can be sure that God is using it to make you more like Jesus.

4. Because work is for the good of others.
Work is one of the primary means by which God is exercising His common grace for humanity. Though He might have chosen other means, He has opted to use us to keep the world in order and provide for human flourishing. Consider, for example, what the Lord said to His people when they were exiled into a foreign land:

“Seek the welfare of the city I have deported you to. Pray to the Lord on its behalf, for when it has prosperity, you will prosper” (Jer. 29:7).

One of the most practical ways we can seek the good of the community around us is by doing good, hard work from which others benefit. Whether you are teaching a class, collecting garbage, or plumbing a toilet, you are one of the means of God for the public welfare. That means your work matters.

So you might find yourself living your dream job today. Or you might find yourself in a role you would, quite frankly, rather be assigned to someone else. But God is sovereign. You are created in His image. He is making you more like Jesus, and He is providing for the good of others through your job. Be faithful, Christian, and work hard in faith.

Michael Kelley lives in Nashville, TN, with his wife, Jana, and three children: Joshua (10), Andi (7), and Christian (5). He serves as Director of Groups Ministry for Lifeway Christian Resources. As a communicator, Michael speaks across the country at churches, conferences, and retreats and is the author of Wednesdays Were Pretty Normal: A Boy, Cancer, and God; Transformational Discipleship; and Boring: Finding an Extraordinary God in an Ordinary Life. Find him on Twitter: @_MichaelKelley.

Group Leadership

August 30, 2017

Build a Better Bible Study in 30 Minutes a Day

By Ken Braddy

The task of preparing to teach a Bible study each week might seem daunting. Preparation is the key to leading a great Bible study each week. Here are what a few experts have to say about the importance of your preparation:

“No matter how wonderful the Bible study curriculum, there is no appropriate shortcut for prayerful thorough Bible study before teaching.” – Teaching That Transforms, p. 159

“Good teaching can overcome weaknesses in curriculum materials, but great materials cannot overcome weak teaching. It’s you, the leader, who really makes the difference” – Teaching Adults, p. 70

I shared the following preparation plan with my new friends at the Desert Pines training event in Show Low, Arizona one Saturday. Here is a plan for spending just 30 minutes a day preparing to guide your group’s Bible study. By the time you lead your group to encounter the Bible, you’ll have spent 3.5 hours preparing. Does that sound better than finding almost 4 hours in one sitting? For most of us, “it’s a cinch by the inch,” and we eat the elephant one bite at a time. Perhaps breaking down your preparation into manageable “bites” will help you do an even better job preparing to lead your group’s Bible study.

Here is a simple schedule that can keep your preparation on track by carving out just 30 minutes a day to do the following essential tasks:

Monday
Read core lesson passage in several translations
Jot down key words, people, places that need further exploration

Tuesday
Consult Bible study resources (Bible dictionary, atlas, concordance, etc.) to research keywords, people, and places identified on Monday

Wednesday
Ask questions of the text: Attitude to adjust? Promise to claim? Priority to change? Lesson to learn? Command to obey? Truth to believe? Sin to confess? Example to follow?

Thursday
Consult and/or develop/adapt your teaching outline (1-3 points)

Friday
Consult and/or develop your group plan (allows for learner involvement/active learning/learning preferences of group members)

Saturday
Review and refine your group teaching plan
Gather resources
Get a good night’s sleep!

Sunday
Guide the Bible study (this is not a part of the 30 minutes!)
Evaluate – Ask yourself, “What went well in today’s study? What should I do differently next week?”
Review the next week’s Bible study (core passage, theme, and central truths…nothing heavy duty–just get an idea of where the study is heading before you begin your preparation in earnest on Monday.

Ken Braddy is manager of Lifeway’s ongoing Bible studies. He leads a weekly Bible study group at his church, and blogs daily about Sunday School at kenbraddy.com

Group Leadership

August 22, 2017

How to Address a National Disaster in Your Small Group

By Caroline Case

Race is back in the headlines. Your church members, friends, and co-workers are probably all divided over the tragedy that took place in Charlottesville, Virginia. You have probably already ranted on Facebook, posted on Twitter, or argued with someone over the dinner table.

But have you been quiet about it?

Have you taken the time to process, to evaluate, and to question? Below are a few steps small group leaders can take to promote humility and honest, informed discourse over the cultural crisis currently haunting our hearts.

1. Open the Floor

One of the worst things you can do as a small group leader is to ban discussion. Your small group members are probably anxious to talk about what took place in Charlottesville, so open the floor for discourse. They’re probably wanting to discuss which pastor tweeted what, and which “side” they should stand on (Do we blame Black Lives Matter alongside the KKK? Are evangelicals at all to blame for white supremacy? Are there any Christians who agree with the protestors in Charlottesville? What’s the relationship between politics and religion?). Begin the group with the opportunity for others to gently and compassionately express their opinions.

2. Keep It Positive

Keep it positive by monitoring the discussion and withholding accusation. It’s really easy to point out the bad guy. It’s really easy to blame someone, because black-and-white thinking provides us with accessible answers. Yet as we have seen, we live in a world of gray—a world where people claim to represent a belief system but have strayed far from it. A world where hatred can be so tangible, it comes in the form of blood and bruises. In curses to our brothers. In burnt flags. In vehicles that won’t stop. But no matter who your cultural enemy is: don’t accuse them. Bring the hope of the gospel to bear on the conversation.

The will of God, to which the law gives expression, is that men should defeat their enemies by loving them. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer

3. Pray and Be Quiet

Oftentimes it is a far braver thing to not respond than to respond. Both before and after we discuss the protestors in Charlottesville, we must pray. And in our prayer, we must be silent. We must hold our tongues. We must seek His face. We must beg for answers. We must listen for His response.

Men think that it is impossible for a human being to love his enemies, for enemies are hardly able to endure the sight of one another. Well, then, shut your eyes—and your enemy looks just like your neighbor. – Søren Kierkegaard

Caroline Case is a proud Nashville transplant from Naples, Florida, who serves as the Production Editor for Lifeway’s SmallGroup.com and Discipleship in Context teams. Caroline has a Bachelor of Communication from Palm Beach Atlantic University in West Palm Beach, FL. She is pursuing her Master of Fine Arts in English and Creative Writing at Belmont University in Nashville, where she will go on to pursue her doctorate and teach.

Group Leadership

August 17, 2017

Consider Teaching Sermon-Aligned Content

By Reid Patton

The team I have the pleasure of serving with at Lifeway is tasked with creating custom content as a silent partner with churches all over the country. Before my work on this team, I was fortunate enough to create sermon-aligned content for one specific church. All that to say, creating and teaching sermon-aligned Bible study content is a passion of mine. Here are a few key takeaways I’ve gleaned over the years that could be helpful to those of you who currently use or are interested in using sermon-aligned content for your groups.

Benefits of Sermon-Aligned Content
The benefits are twofold. First, this approach offers your groups an attempt to go wider and deeper into what their pastor taught over the weekend. I heard pastor Mark Dever say one time that the job of a pastor is to spend 1 hour on Sundays resetting people to live for the remaining 167 hours in their week. What Dever meant was, we have limited time with our people—they spend far more time in the marketplace and in the world than they do in church. One of the goals of the worship gathering is to prepare them to live out their faith for the rest of the week. Thus, teaching sermon-aligned content provides a platform to extend what God has laid on your pastor’s heart into the week.

Second, this type of content gives group members a way to process and apply what God is saying to them through the sermon. Many people walk away from Sunday worship wrestling with some truths to apply, and have additional questions about what was preached. Sermon-aligned groups provide a context to address these questions.

What Kind of Groups Can Use Sermon-Aligned Content?
Any kind of group can benefit from this content—from a traditional Sunday school model, where the groups meet before or after the worship gathering—to small groups that meet in homes throughout the week. The process will look different for different groups.

For groups that meet on Sunday the day the sermon is preached, it may be helpful for you to work a week behind and cover last week’s sermon before the current week. This gives you adequate time to prepare. Additionally, people have (hopefully) wrestled with the content for a week and will (once again, hopefully) have some thoughts about how to live out what they heard.

Groups that meet throughout the week after the sermon has been preached can feel more comfortable expanding on the material that they heard on Sunday. Many churches provide their groups with sermon-aligned lesson plans, which make this process easier; however, the preparation for all types of sermon-aligned groups should look pretty similar. I’ll tackle what preparation looks like in a later blog post.

Reid Patton is a Content Editor for the Custom Content Team at Lifeway Christian Resources, where he produces biblical small group studies for Discipleship In Context and SmallGroup.com. He is the thankful husband of Kristen and proud father of Ceile and serves with the Life Group leadership team at the Church at Station Hill in Spring Hill, Tennessee. In his free time, Reid likes reading, watching NBA Basketball and Auburn Football, and going to record stores. You can find him on Twitter @jreidpatton.

Group Leadership

August 8, 2017

Be Positive and Encouraging, Even if it Hurts a Little

By Ken Braddy

This teaching tip will apply to leaders of any small group. As you lead your group members in Bible study, be sure to remain positive and encouraging. There are enough negative influences in our lives today, and a Bible study isn’t a place for condescending attitudes, snarky remarks, or rolls of the eyes. As the group’s leader, set the pace and always look for the positive in the things your group members say and do. Here are a few phrases you can use to keep things positive:

• “You’ve asked a great question that I haven’t thought about until now.”
• “What a unique way of looking at this Bible story! Thank you for helping us to see it from your perspective.”
• “That’s a great insight.”
• “That’s a super sharp observation – I can’t believe I didn’t see that!”
• “Thank you for sharing your thoughts with the group. You’ve given us something new and exciting to think about.”
• “Thanks for sharing.”
• “I really like what you just said.”
• “That’s a great way to look at this Bible text.”
• “I wish I’d thought of that.”
• “I think you’d make a great group leader!”

And the list goes on! No matter who speaks up in the group, always find something you can affirm in them. Be an encourager, not someone who inadvertently discourages group members from sharing their thoughts.

Ken Braddy manages Lifeway’s Ongoing Bible studies, leads a Bible study group, and blogs about groups at kenbraddy.com.

Group Leadership

August 2, 2017

Seven Benefits of Knowing God

By Rob Tims

There is a mild to moderate aversion in some Christian circles toward talking about the benefits of knowing God. This aversion is a reaction to our tendency to approach God as consumers. “What can you do for me, God? I’ll consider Christianity based on your answer.” But I think we can go too far and ignore the fact that to know God is to have some pretty amazing things. Psalm 16 mentions seven in particular (all verses from the CSB).

First, to know God is to have protection. Verse 1: “Protect me, God, for I take refuge in you.” David appears to have been in crisis, a common occurrence based on all the Psalms he wrote. Yet in these crises, David knew God had his back. To know God is to have His protection.

Second, to know God is to have provision. Verse 2: “I said to the Lord, ‘You are my Lord;
I have nothing good besides you.’” God knows all of our needs. Yet what kind of God would know our needs and not give them to us? Fortunately, to know God is to have His good and perfect provision.

Third, to know God is to be drawn to those who are righteous. Verse 3: “As for the holy people who are in the land, they are the noble ones. All my delight is in them.” Our relationship with God is not a solitary one. To know Him is to know His people, who are in the same relationship with Him as we are. And we are not only to know God’s people, but also we are to desire to grow with them.

Fourth, to know God is to be troubled by sin. Verse 4: “The sorrows of those who take another god for themselves will multiply; I will not pour out their drink offerings of blood, and I will not speak their names with my lips.” Sin and the danger associated with it is ever-present. We are under a constant barrage of temptation to worship other gods. That God protects us, provides for us, and gives us a desire for His righteousness does not lead us to be ignorant or absent from the brokenness of our world. To know God is to be aware of sin.

Fifth, to know God is to be joyfully content. Verses 5-6: “Lord, you are my portion and my cup of blessing; you hold my future. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.” David’s life was full of strife, but also full of God. To know God is to be joyfully content in all circumstances because He is enough. Like Paul, David knew the secret of contentment; namely, knowing God.

Sixth, to know God is to be faithfully guided. Verses 7-8: “I will bless the Lord who counsels me—even at night when my thoughts trouble me. I always let the Lord guide me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.” I’m coming up on 10 years of living in the Nashville area. Therefore, I rarely use my phone for directions. Familiarity with my surroundings has bred a spirit of independence when it comes to getting where I need to be. Life, however, will never be so familiar. I’m in constant need of guidance and counsel, and I have it because I know God.

Seventh, to know God is to claim Jesus’ future as my own. Verses 9-11: “Therefore my heart is glad and my whole being rejoices; my body also rests securely. For you will not abandon me to Sheol; you will not allow your faithful one to see decay. You reveal the path of life to me; in your presence is abundant joy; at your right hand are eternal pleasures.” Though he likely didn’t understand how or why he could enjoy God eternally, David certainly anticipated doing just that. On this side of Jesus, we know exactly how this eternal benefit of knowing God will come (see, for example, 1 Corinthians 15). Our knowledge of God does not end with our last breaths; at death, our knowledge of Him only just begins.

I understand the fears associated with talking about the benefits of knowing God, but I also understand the dangers of not talking about them at all. We do ourselves and the lost world a great disservice if we neglect the good news of what it means to know God.

Rob Tims has been married to Holly for nearly 15 years. They have four children: Trey (13), Jonathan (11), Abby (4), and Luke (2). He has served in the local church for 20 years as a children’s pastor, student pastor, and senior pastor. He currently serves on a team at Lifeway Christian Resources that develops customized Bible studies for groups. Rob also teaches two classes for Liberty University School of Divinity Online. He is the author of the book Southern Fried Faith: Confusing Christ and Culture in the Bible Belt.

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