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  NOT KNOWING DOCTRINE, KNOWING HIM
  by Randy Krahn
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Summary: This sermon emphasizes the importance of waiting on the Lord,
learning to love one another sacrificially, and understanding the deep
love of God that surpasses knowledge. It contrasts the actions of Saul,
who acted in haste and self-reliance, with the patient and trusting
heart of David, who waited on God's timing. The message encourages
believers to flow in the love of God, to lay down their lives for
others, and to seek unity and humility in the body of Christ.

Topics: "Waiting on the Lord", "Sacrificial Love"
Scripture References: Isaiah 40:31, 1 Corinthians 13:1, 1 Corinthians 2:9, Psalm 27:14, Psalm 37:7, Romans 12:10, Philippians 2:3, 1 Samuel 16:7, 1 Corinthians 1:18

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DESCRIPTION
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This sermon emphasizes the importance of waiting on the Lord, learning
to love one another sacrificially, and understanding the deep love of
God that surpasses knowledge. It contrasts the actions of Saul, who
acted in haste and self-reliance, with the patient and trusting heart of
David, who waited on God's timing. The message encourages believers to
flow in the love of God, to lay down their lives for others, and to seek
unity and humility in the body of Christ.

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CONTENT
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I just pray that that would become real in our life, that we could love
one another. We could learn of you in Jesus' name. Amen.

Jesus says, come to me and learn of me, for I'm humble and gentle in
heart, and spending time with the Lord is where we're going to learn his
ways. He doesn't want us just to know doctrines, he wants us to know
him. And there's a vast chasm between the head and the heart, knowing
about God and studying all the right truths.

These are good things, but one Saul of Tarsus knew all about God and
knew all the truths, but he missed Jesus. And so we have an opportunity
to know him, the life that is in Christ, the power of his resurrection,
but it's always accompanied with the fellowship of his sufferings. If we
suffer with him, then we're going to reign with him.

Reigning with Christ is something we can do now, reigning in
righteousness, that sin should not have dominion over us, because we're
not under law, we're not under bondage, we're under grace. Grace is the
sap that causes the love of God to flow, it's the Holy Spirit that's
better shared. I wanted to share something from Matthew 24, Elinor
shared it.

Speaking of end times, we're in the last hour, the last minutes. Verse 7
says, nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. All
the world is fighting.

It's a battle. It's a battle to be number one, it's a battle to be the
best, it's a fight to become wise, to become the top in your class, to
become the top of the league, whatever you're participating in, to be
acknowledged by men, to be esteemed by them, it's a fight. But Jesus
said, if my kingdom of this world, my servants would also fight.

We're not called to fight against flesh and blood. Our battle is against
principalities and powers. We're supposed to fight for the things of
God.

We're supposed to fight against the flesh. We're supposed to wage war
against the powers of darkness that have people in bondage through
prayer. It says, nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against
kingdom.

There'll be famines, diseases, and earthquakes in various places. We see
famines. We've just gone through a plague, and they're anticipating
more, and there's earthquakes manifesting all over different places of
the world.

But also in a spiritual sense, there's a famine in the land. It's not a
famine of bread or water from Amos, but of hearing the true word of God.
And so people are running to and fro to different meetings, getting all
excited about some new teaching, or some new way of deliverance, or some
new trick to enter into something, so they can get some light on things.

And there's pestilences. People are sick. Jesus came to heal the sick.

Sickness is in the world. Jesus wants us to come to him, to be free. If
we can humble ourselves and admit only that we're sick, that we need of
healing.

Brother shared about having a lack of the love of God, that we're dry,
maybe weary in a dry and a weary land, where there's no water. We have
to admit. As Brother Aline shared about a tree that once came and had
some small apples coming and growing, and all of a sudden the leaves are
becoming yellow, and there's been no fruit on the vine.

We have to admit that there's a problem, that we're not right with the
Lord. Maybe we can't feel. Our brother's hurting, and we have no feeling
for our brother.

We can't weep with him that weep. Maybe our brother had a child born in
his life, and we can't feel, because we have a hardness of heart, a
leprosy. It's a sickness.

Hardness of heart is like a leprosy, where you have no feeling. You
can't feel. You can't rejoice with your brother.

You can't weep with your brother. It's because you lack the love of God.
You might have lots of knowledge, but you don't flow in the love of God,
and also earthquakes in various places.

He says that yet once more, he's going to shake not only the heavens and
the earth, or the earth, but also the heavens itself now. Shaking all
those things that can be shaken. You want to come to know the love of
God, which surpasses knowledge? Then you have to humble yourself under
the mighty hand of God.

Allow him to shake off all those things that can be shaken, so that that
which is unshakable may remain. I think of one Saul of Tarsus, who
became the apostle Paul, and he was there on the beach, and he was
working and sharing the gospel, and he put some wood in a fire. A
serpent came out and bit him, and he shook it off.

We need to shake things off when we get caught up into something, or
Satan somehow finds an opportunity to latch itself on us, to seek to
poison us, to rob us of our faith, to get us into unbelief. Shake it
off, brother. All those marveled that he didn't die.

I'm telling you, when the serpent gets his poison in you, he's seeking
to destroy you, to get to your heart, to rob you of your faith, your
hope, and your love. Rebuke the devil. He says, if we drink deadly
things, he said, it will no means hurt us.

Shake off the sin that so easily besets us, and run with endurance the
race set before us. All these things are the beginning of sorrow. Then
he says, they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you.

You'll be hated by all nations for my name's sake. Then many will be
offended, will betray one another, will hate one another. This is the
way it is in the world.

The worldly people are very easily defended. They'll stab you in the
back as soon as you turn, and they might tell you that they love you to
their face, but inwardly they hate you, because they want your position
if you're ahead of them. They step on whoever they can to get to the
top, but not so among us brothers.

We don't step on anyone. We lift others up. That's what the Lord did for
us.

He lifted us up out of the mirey clay. You don't ever have to worry
about someone taking your position. God is the one who gives you your
position.

You don't have to put them down. It's the Lord that lifts up. He lifts
the beggar from the ash heap and seats him with princes, and he's able
to seat us with Christ.

He has seated us with him in heavenly places, and it says that of Jesus
that he's given him the oil of gladness more than his companions. You
want to enter into the love of God, we want to flow in the gladness, the
joy of the Lord. That comes from abiding in the vine, as our brother
already shared these things.

Many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. False prophets rise
up and get you to follow after them. They don't point you to Christ.

They talk about Christ, but they want you to follow them. They're
seeking to build an earthly kingdom, a ministry perhaps, a following, to
make a name for themselves. But there's only one name that we're to lift
up, the name of Jesus.

So don't seek to make a name for yourself. Seek to make a name for the
Lord Jesus, to establish his name, which is already above every other
name. And it says because of lawlessness or wickedness, or because of
the love of the world and the things in the world, as brother already
shared, the love of many will grow cold.

And it manifests in our love for one another. It manifests in our love
for the lost. And we can talk it away.

We can say, oh, you know, I love the lost. I just, I don't want them to
come into my space because they're going to defile me and mine. But
that's not the right understanding of the love of God.

The Pharisees, when they were there, they saw Jesus eating and drinking
with tax collectors and prostitutes. And he was not only eating and
drinking with them, he was drinking wine with them. And they called him
a wine bibber and a glutton, someone who was overeating and indulging in
too much wine.

But that's what they called him. But the father, he never did anything
the father never told him to do. He would go and associate with the
uncleans, because it wasn't the healthy that needed a position, but the
sick.

And so if we truly flow in the love of God, then our hearts will open up
to the lost and to the uncleans. Our hearts will open up to the lost and
the uncleans. And we will begin to flow in the in the richness of the
love of God, as Jesus did, when he was on the earth.

Wherever he went, he was healing. He was praying over for deliverance.
He was pouring out his life and he gave of his time.

You know what's easy to do? Come to church and put a hundred bucks in
the box. You know what's hard to do? Take a few hours out of your day
when you have a job and you have responsibilities, you have school, you
have children, and you have activities and everything else. Take a few
hours out of your day for somebody who doesn't even care about Christ,
to lay your life down for them.

That's what Jesus did for us. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for
the ungodly. He died for you.

While you had no interest in God, while you only had interest in
yourself, he gave himself a sacrifice for us. Greater love has no man
than this. Alina already shared this.

This is what was on my heart this morning. Than to lay your life down
for your friends. Jesus said, you're my friends if you do whatever I
tell you.

He called them his friends, but he knew that his friends were going to
turn their back on him very soon. His friends were going to say, I never
knew the man. I don't know the man.

They would call curses down. Peter did call curses down on himself,
saying, I don't know the man. Yes, you were with them.

No, I don't even know the man. But he said, greater love has no one than
this than to lay his life down for his friends. And he said, you're my
friends if you do whatever I tell you.

The word of God is living and active and powerful and sharper than any
two-edged sword. And the words of life are contained in this book. This
word is not the word of life.

It contains the word of life. And Jesus is the way, the truth, and the
life. And we have to come to him.

It's in coming to him in submission and humility that we can be free. If
we don't come to him according to these terms, then we're going to love
the world, as Aline already shared, and all the things in it. And you
know what? We're going to be fascinated with everything that's out
there.

We're going to be putting our time and our investment in other things.
You know, certain things. We're very particular about how we deal with
our business and our finances, how we deal with our free time and my
time.

But in sacrificing and giving and laying our life down, we're very
stingy. We'd rather put money in the box than to lay our life down. And
it becomes evident among us that we're not interested in one another.

We don't love one another the way that Christ wants us to flow in that
love. And that is where we lack the blessing. We might have a bank
account bulging and think that's the blessing.

It's a deception. The blessing is where there's unity in the spirit.
That's where the richness and the sap and the grace abounds.

Where grace abounds, where love abounds. It says in Romans 6, where sin
abounds, grace abounds more. But shall we continue in sin that grace may
abound? May it never be.

Maybe we've been selfish. Maybe we've been self-seeking, unthankful,
unholy, unloving from 2 Timothy 3. Having a form of godliness and
denying the power. But we're going to turn away from all that now.

And we're going to turn away from those who just want to be religious.
We want to come into relationship with Christ. I'm going to read
something.

I'm not going to preach very long. I'm misunderstood passage, I think,
among Christians. I mean, I know there's many about grace and law, about
holiness and entire sanctification, all these other things.

But for me, 1 Corinthians 2, verse 1, And I, brethren, when I came to
you, I did not come to you with excellence of speech or wisdom,
declaring you the testimony of God. But I determined not to know
anything among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. The love that
Jesus had in giving up his life on this world, when he could have been
the best businessman, he could have been the best king of kings, he
could have ruled the earth in complete holiness and righteousness and
established his kingdom in the earth at that time as the way men would
have seen it.

But yet he came to die. He came to lay his life down as a ransom for
many, to bear the cross. And he calls us to know Christ in this regard,
that Christ laid his life down for us and that we would lay our lives
down for one another.

That is where we come into the unity of love. So we're not only
interested in our own interests, but we're interested in the interests
of others. Paul said, even in the church at that time, he said, all seek
their own, not the things which are of Christ.

I have no one like minded with me in the faith except Timothy.
Everybody's doing their own thing. Everybody's trying to get ahead.

Everybody loves Christ. Everybody's coming to church, but they're not
flowing in the love of God. So the love for Christ is shallow.

It's all rooted in selfishness and pride still. And the fruit is still
skinny. Yes, there's some moments where we're having some encounters and
we are able to taste and see the goodness of God and the love of God in
our life.

But yet we're not ever increasing and ever abounding because you still
have attachments with this world. Paul says, I was with you in weakness
and fear and much trembling in my speech and my preaching were not with
persuasive words of human wisdom, with man's wisdom and with and
spiritual understanding wisdom where I'm just speaking about the oracles
of God. But he's talking about speaking of the heart from the heart of
God in the demonstration of the spirit and the power that your faith
should not be in the wisdom of men, nor in the doctrines of men or in
the teachings of man's wisdom, but in the power of the spirit, the power
of God to flow in the spirit, to walk in the spirit, to live in the
spirit, to abide in the vine that we might bear evermore to flow in this
love of God.

However, we do speak wisdom among those who are mature. We need to have
an understanding of God's will in his ways. But it's better just if
anything, if we have to choose, it's better to be humble as a little
child.

A child just loves, even if it gets a discipline in a few minutes, it's
hugging again and it's loving and it's forgotten. It's very short in its
remembrance of offenses. We need to be like that, like little children
in that regard, keeping no record of wrongs, thinking no evil, letting
offenses go as brother shared.

It's easy to be offended. It's easy to remember. And you know what
happens is we keep brothers at arm's length.

We say, well, you know, I'll let him so close, but I won't let him get
close because I don't want to be hurt again because we've been wounded
in the house of our friends. We've had brothers who've eaten bread at
our table, who rose up their heel against us and smashed us in the
teeth. And we decided we're not going to allow that to happen anymore.

So we keep them at arm's length. We have this kind of friendship love,
but we don't have the sacrificial love. Then we pour into our children
and one day our own children raise up their heels against us and smash
us in our teeth.

And then we wonder what was it all for? And we become disillusioned. And
so what we do is we just say, well, me and mine, whoever's with me, I'll
pour into them and whoever's not, nevermind them. This is not the way of
the cross.

Jesus didn't lay his life down for those who only for those who would
believe in him or only those who would be elected. He gave himself for
all men. He gave himself for all men that whosoever would believe in him
should not perish.

There was provision for all men because the scripture says he wishes
none to perish. If he wishes none to perish, then he also must give
everyone an opportunity to repent in one form or another to humble
themselves that he might reveal himself to them and in them. But we do
speak wisdom among those who are mature, the deeper things of God.

You're not the wisdom of this age. We're not going to sit down and
reason and worship the God of the brain. We're not going to get around
and analyze and reason things out.

The Jehovah Witnesses do that very well. We could do that. We could have
seminars and we could have different things and we could show who's the
most wise among us and try to corner one another as one corners a man in
a chess match.

But that's not the kind of wisdom that we want to be portraying as
brothers because it's very hard to love when you're trying to corner
your brother to show him that he's wrong. We speak the hidden wisdom
which God ordained before the ages for our glory which none of the
rulers of this age knew. For had they known they would not have
crucified the Lord of glory.

But as it is written, I has not seen nor ear heard nor entered into the
heart of a man the things which God has prepared for those who love him.
Now this is that scripture I was saying which is most misunderstood. I
has not seen nor ear heard nor entered into the heart of man the things
which God has prepared for those who love him.

When we truly enter into the agape love of God he begins to reveal
himself to us. The eyes of our understanding being enlightened. So it's
no longer about knowing about him, about reasoning through the
scriptures, about dotting all i's and crossing t's.

It's knowing the love of God which surpasses knowledge. But he says in
verse 10, God has revealed him to us by his spirit. For the spirit
searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.

The spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. The natural
eye hasn't seen, the natural ear hasn't heard, the natural mind hasn't
comprehended the things that God has prepared for those who love him.
But we can have the revelation.

Paul said he had the revelation. He had the revelation in the inner man.
And this is what he professed to preach.

Christ crucified. To the Greeks it was foolishness and to the Jews, what
was it to the Jews? What was it Sean? A stumbling block. I was reading
something from where this passage comes and Paul preached it there and
it's written in Isaiah 64.

Brother Alin, you stole my message and I'm okay with that. Because the
Holy Spirit wants to speak it in different ways so that we might come to
understand. 1 Corinthians 13 speaks of though I speak with tongues of
men and angels, yet have not love.

Though I can fathom all mysteries, yet I don't have love. Though I give
my body to be burned, we make all kinds of sacrifices, but don't have
love at all. It's all a zero.

It talks about knowing the love of God, which surpasses knowledge. Eye
has not seen, nor ear heard, nor entered into the heart of man. The
knowing God, that part of man, which God has revealed to those who love
him, entering into the love of God.

He speaks about the love of God and how we come to love God and to know
the love of God are connected. If we say we love God, we cannot really
come to know God unless we truly understand what it means to love God.
We spoke of this a number of weeks now about loving God and being
obedient to simple convictions and just walking in simple truths and
just from the heart, obeying from the heart that form of teaching.

And then asking as Brother David shared, Lord, I would have more love
for others. What does the scripture say? Love is patient. Love is kind.

It does not envy. It does not boast. It is not proud.

It goes on from there. But when we read this passage in Isaiah 64, I'll
read in verse four. For since the beginning of the world, men have not
heard nor perceived by the ear, nor has the eye seen any God besides
you, who acts for the one who waits for him.

This is where the passage comes from. Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
nor entered into the heart of man, the things that God has prepared for
those who love him. God acts for those who wait on him.

They that wait upon the Lord, you're going to tap into the strength.
They shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as
eagles.

Wait, I say on the Lord. The Lord had to teach David to wait on the
Lord. Saul, he elevated immediately into a position of authority.

And how did he first see it? The armies were coming. Samuel was not
coming. The sacrifice had to be made.

He's looking at his watch, constantly looking at his watch. Time is
running out. I need to act.

No, we want the Lord to act. We have to stop acting. We have to allow
the Lord to act for us.

The Lord acts for those who wait on him. Saul did not wait on the Lord.
And he acted.

And he sinned against the Lord. It was one of the great sins that God
had against him. Because it showed that he lacked faith.

And he doubted God. God, you're not coming. God, you don't care.

And so it's time for me to do what I've always done and act for myself.
Things get difficult when the walls are closing in. And the Egyptians
are behind you.

And the sea is in front. And you don't know what to do. And you want to
act.

But God brings us into a place where we have to have God act for us. You
want to flow in the love of God? Then you have to allow the Lord to
fight for you. So that you can learn to wait on him until your miracle
comes.

You'll never see the miracles of God. Your eye will never see. Your ear
will never hear.

It'll never come into your heart the things God has prepared for you
unless you wait on the Lord and let him do his bidding in your life.
Saul said, give me the epoch so to speak. I'm gonna make this sacrifice
now.

God doesn't care. Samuel doesn't care. Nobody cares.

It's time for me to act. And then the altar went up in smoke. And here
comes Samuel.

What have you done? You weren't coming. You know what Saul? This is the
beginning of the end for you. This is the beginning of the end for you.

You're taking matters into your own hands rather than waiting on the
Lord. So he anointed David in the process of time. And then he sent him
into the wilderness.

And he tested him and tried him there for how many years? Many, many,
many years. The men would come to him. Saul couldn't find him.

But the men found him. And he learned to lay his down for the men. These
weren't good men.

These were worthless rogues that the world and society had no need for.
There were men who couldn't manage money. There were men who couldn't
manage their own affairs.

There were men who couldn't get along with society. These became David's
mighty men. And these are the ones that Christ came for.

Jesus represents David in the sense that he refers to himself as the son
of David. And so when he says he invited those to the banquet but they
were unwilling to come, he invites them from the highways and the hedges
and he compels them to come because there's room in his house. These
became the warriors that David had needed.

They risked their lives for David. They gave their lives for him. They
were willing because David loved them.

They knew that David loved them. He taught them how to fight. He trained
them to be men of battle.

He shared with them the heart of God. And every time Saul would come, he
would take his men and they would go around the mountain and they would
wait on God to bring about the deliverance and make him king. There were
times when Saul was delivered into his hands and his men said, take him
out.

This is God's way. God has delivered him into your hands. This is the
time.

And David said, I don't know if this is the time. I'm going to wait on
God. He cut the robe and his conscience bothered him.

He said, no, this is not the time. This is not the time for me to become
king. I'm going to wait on God.

I'm going to keep waiting on the Lord because I want to see his power
and his glory in my life. That is why David had a heart after God
because he waited on God. That is why he came to know his God.

That is all these wonderful Psalms that are written from David because
he had a love for God. He had his mistakes and he had his gross sins for
sure. But he trusted in the Lord.

He didn't lean on his own understanding. Whereas Saul trusted in
himself, sought to make a monument for himself, wanted Samuel to honor
him in front of the men. He wanted to make sure that he had his
reputation before men in order.

Whereas David wasn't concerned about all that. David gave his life to
train up 400 to 600 men. At the end of your life, let your life be
poured out for 400 to 600 men like David.

That's truly when you can be a just king to rule in righteousness. The
Lord acts for those who wait on him. How many times we've got ourselves
into a pickle and we sought a way out.

We try to reason our way out. We try to talk our way out. We try to make
all kinds of backup plans and the Lord doesn't want us just to wait on
him.

And then fear manifests, anxiety manifests, but he wants us to pray and
see the power and glory of God. Whereas every other time we'd run. May
the Lord help us to stop running and to wait on the Lord.

And then when he responds, then we move. We want to hear and then we
want to do. We don't want to just do before we've heard.

It's not right. That's why we'll never see and hear the things that God
has prepared for those who love him. We'll never see the miracles and
the power of God.

We'll never see the deliverances until we learn of him. Come to me and
learn of me. For I'm humble and gentle in heart.

May the Lord help you today to flow in the love of God which surpasses
knowledge. That the Lord would knit us together in the love of God. Bone
to bone, flesh to flesh, in one body, the body of Christ, the bride of
Christ.

That we would become of one purpose and one heart. To lay our lives down
for our friends. To give of our time.

To give of our resources. To share our hearts. That our hearts would be
open.

Paul said, our hearts are wide open to you, Corinthians, but your
hearts, you're guarded. He said, please be open. Be open.

Yes, if you open your heart, you're going to feel pain. But you know
what? Better to feel pain and to know God and to know his heart than to
remain dead and calloused and hard and never know the love of God in
Jesus name.

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Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/GvljMWqqaro.mp4
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/randy-krahn/not-knowing-doctrine-knowing-him/
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