What Do You Know?

This week as we continued in our series, Being Useful, we talked about the next quality on Peter’s list that will make us more useful to Jesus. Having faith and pursuing virtue are good, but they require something else of us to get them right. In this part we talk about with this other thing is.

What Do You Know?

Do you know where the annual U.S. sailboat show takes place?  Any takers?  Do you know who else didn’t know the answer to that question?  James Holzhauer.  Name ring a bell?  He was the most recent super candidate on the long-running game show Jeopardy.  He dazzled the country for just over a month as he went on a 32-game winning streak.  Now, a streak like that would be impressive enough by itself, but that’s not what so captured the nation’s attention.  Back in 2004, Ken Jennings went on a winning streak of 74 games and sits in second place for all-time Jeopardy earnings with just over $3.5 million.  Yes, that’s only second place.  No, what made Holzhauer such a fascinating contestant was his gutsy wagering.  I’ve seen winning contestants on Jeopardy walk away with a few hundred dollars as their prize.  Holzhauer’s biggest prize was a shade over $131,000.  All for…knowing stuff. 

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Knowing Jesus

This week we got back on track with our series, Hard Sayings.  One of the things Jesus made fairly abundantly clear over the course of His ministry is that following Him isn’t something to which we can get by with giving merely a cheap lip-service.  The hard saying we examined together yesterday morning makes this even clearer than most.  Too often we rely on serving Jesus to cover up for not knowing Him well.  That won’t cut it.  Keep reading to see why.

 

Knowing Jesus

Think back with me for a minute to your bedroom growing up.  What kind of stuff did you have in it?  Specifically, whose poster did you have on your wall?  Was it an actor?  A musician?  A sports star?  Who was it?  How much did you know about this person?  Were you a casual fan or a full-blown disciple in the model of the Beliebers?  It is not at all uncommon for young people to have someone they idolize.  A lot of young, aspiring basketball players today want to be the next Steph Curry.  Baseball players look up to Aaron Judge—literally, since he’s a giant.  Singers want to be the next Arianna Grande or Miranda Lambert or Taylor Swift. Read the rest…