So in just a moment we're going to hear from Bethany and she opens the word for us today,

but before that I just want to remind everyone that last week we began a new teaching series

which we've titled The True and False Self filled with all the fullness of God.

Now no one questions the importance of knowing God but in the modern era of self-discovery

the second that you mentioned knowing the self as essential for spiritual formation and

maturity, a few things happen in a room.

Some people immediately panic, other people get really excited because they think this

is like the Myers-Briggs with the Jesus-y twist and many people are lost somewhere in

between.

So I just want to quickly put some of you at ease, calm some of you down and get all of

us collectively on the same page.

A.W. Tozer said this, what comes to our minds when we think about God is the most important

thing about us.

C.S. Lewis followed that up with, there is one thing more important than what we think

of God and that's what God thinks of us.

Then John Calvin said, nearly the whole of sacred doctrine consists in these two parts

knowledge of God and of ourselves.

Basically, come on guys, everybody's right.

Just relax.

What to say, we cannot separate the two, we cannot separate knowing God as He truly is

and knowing myself as I truly am.

And the conflict that exists right at the heart of the biblical story is deception.

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