My name is Dave Hood. I'm the campus pastor of Fort McKinley Church which is a branch of Ginghamsburg Church, in Dayton on the corner of Salem and Siebenthaler. Can I get a yeehaw for Fort McKinley. I think it's funny that on a week when all the music and all the theme is country, they bring in the urban pastor.

I want you to know that while growing up one of my favorite words was almost. I used it almost all the time, and it would drive my parents crazy. Here's the way it would work. My dad would say, "David, are you up?" "Almost." "Is your homework done?" "Well, almost." "Is your room clean?" "Almost." What does almost really mean? Not even close. I haven't even thought about it. Come on, I'm not even really considering it. The problem for me is that almost didn't go away just because I grew up. I think there are a lot of us who hear God's call in our lives to live this life of abundance and this life that God has promised us, and we are like, that sounds exciting and I'm almost doing it. Right? Almost living that life; almost there.

Let me give you an example of how it sneaks into all kinds of areas in our life. Last Wednesday, my wife and I had a big parenting decision to make. My son Ben is 13 years old and plays on a high-level soccer team. Earlier in the week, we got a call from his soccer coach and he said that we were going to have a soccer game on Wednesday evening. Ben was also on Wednesday afternoon supposed to leave with a group of 35 students from Fort McKinley who were going to Cedar Point for a youth group trip together. Now what are we going to do? We have already paid for him to go to Cedar Point. We don't want him to miss this opportunity with the youth group, but he is committed to this soccer team, he is a team leader and has some responsibilities there as well. But we did what we thought was best and we decided we were going to take him to the soccer game on Wednesday night and then drive him from the soccer game to Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio, and then drive back home. Doesn't that make sense to you all? It was 8:30 p.m. before we left the soccer game and almost 11:30 before we got to Sandusky; and about 3:30 a.m. when we got home. So we got in the car right after the soccer game and Ben got in the back seat and had his iPod on and so he all but disappeared into the back seat.

So, really for the next six hours, it was just my wife Julie and me with nothing better to do than talk to each other. That is both fun and scary at the same time. When do you get those kinds of hours to just have conversation together? On the way to Sandusky, we were just talking about whatever came natural and what we noticed was that all of our conversations are wrapped either around our children or church. Those were our two topics of conversations for three hours on the way to Sandusky. We were almost all of the way there and we realized, oh my gosh, it's not going to be many more years before we are going to be empty nesters. The children conversation piece is going to diminish some and if all we are left to talk about is work and church ... then we are in trouble. We began to realize, if we don't intentionally focus on our relationship and broaden our spheres of interest and get involved in other things together as a couple, then we are in trouble. My wife said to me, "I don't want to be sitting across the dinner table from you in 10 years and realize that you are a perfect stranger and we almost had a marriage." That was a real wakeup call for both of us. It is so easy to get complacent and disconnected and realize that you're almost there, but not really.

Isn't the same true with our relationship with God? We can be almost Christian, doing the things we ought to do, singing the songs we need to sing, showing up where we need to show up, but really not connecting to the God who loves us so much. So I want to show you a verse in Matthew 7. Open your Bibles to Matthew 7:21. All summer long we have been working our way through the Sermon on the Mount and you might remember that early in the summer, we went through chapter five and when Jesus was teaching us about the primacy of our relationships with God and with each other and the one thing we learned through that whole series was that relationships are complicated. Can I get an amen on that? In chapter six, we learn that Jesus is calling us to lose our religion, to set aside the rules and regulations and to really focus on who it is that God is calling us to be in him. To set aside all the religious stuff and dig into a deep relationship with God. But now in chapter seven, Jesus is telling us there is this life that I have designed for you, a life that is full of abundance. John 10 calls it a life that overflows out of us. But there are some obstacles that get in the way of that life. So in chapter seven Jesus is reminding us to be careful of these obstacles. Matthew 7:21, "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only those who do the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?'" Listen to this church: "Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'" For me, those are the nine most frightening words in the Bible, that last sentence right there, that I never knew you, away from me you evildoers. Those are some terrifying words for me because I look at the people who Jesus was talking to and I think to myself I'm not doing half the stuff that some of those folks were doing. They were prophesizing and driving out demons and performing miracles in Jesus' name, and I'm thinking, if I met these folks on the street or in church, I would think all these people are a lock for heaven. I mean these are the front row of heaven, special box seat, but here Jesus calls them evildoers. It's scary for me. I think if these folks won't make it, who will? Will I? Am I almost Christian. Jesus is very clear about what the problem really is. It's not so much that these people were not doing good things; they were doing some amazing things. The problem was that Jesus didn't know them. Jesus said hey, we have not hung out together; you don't invite me to the six-hour car trips anymore. I don't get invited to the dinner table when you are sitting down with your family. When you go on vacation, you leave me at home. Okay, occasionally I get to go to church with you, but then I don't get to see you again until next Sunday. Jesus says I don't even think I know you anymore. So I don't know about you, but, my goal in life is to stand before God and to hear those words, "Well done, good and faithful servant." Not, "I never knew you."

We are going to focus on how to know that God knows me. How do I know that I'm not almost Christian, but that I'm absolutely Christian? I picked up a book when I was in college by a guy named J.I. Packard called Knowing God. Knowing God is a great book because it defines the difference between knowing about God and really knowing God. There is this qualitative difference between a cognitive, intellectual study of God, and a real life-altering, world-changing relationship with God. For me this is how that works out, I can know every verse in this Bible, but still miss out on the power of God's word in my life. I can come to church every week, but if I'm not in an intimate, committed relationship with God, then I'm missing out on what it means to be in true Christian community. I can go to Bible study every week, I can sing in the choir, I can serve at Project Neighborhood at Fort McKinley, you should all do that by the way. I can even give one million dollars to the Sudan, but if I have missed out on knowing God, I have missed out on the thing that gives all this other stuff that we do meaning and significance. I have missed the most important thing.

Last week, I was watching Good Morning America and they were doing a segment on how to find a job in this kind of economy when the job loss rates are 18 to 20 percent; and now is a really hard time to find a job. So they were giving some tips to folks on how to go about doing that and I was especially listening because so many folks at Fort McKinley are out of work looking for jobs. They were saying things about how to build a great resumé, how to do good interviews and how to listen and really know where those jobs are available in your community. But one thing they said was the most important thing: at the end of the day, finding a job is not about what you know, it's about who you know. I thought to myself, that is just like our faith, isn't it? It's really not so much about what I know about God, but it's who I know about God. Do I know this God intimately and passionately? James 2:19 says, "You believe that there is one God and that's good, you should believe in God, but even the demons believe that." So it's got to be something more about what we know about God, it's got to be about do you know this God. I think back through the gospels, the people who really knew Jesus the best, you remember who they were, those crazy fisherman that he hung out with all the time. It was the unlikelies, the sinners, the tax collectors that he got in so much trouble for hanging out with all the time. It was the broken people, the hurting people, the people in need of healing and holiness and hope in their life. These were the ones who really knew the ministry and mission of Jesus the best. It was the unlikelies, the ones who were never voted most likely to do anything in high school. This is one of the reasons I love being at Fort McKinley so much. Because Fort McKinley is this mission field full of unlikelies, full of crazy fisherman, full of people who need help and hope, full of people who God loves the most and I get to hang out with them. These were the folks who knew Jesus the best.

I want you to think with me for just a minute. Do you know somebody in your life who you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that that person knows God? Not just about God, but really knows God. Are you picturing that person? I'm going to share with you who mine is and then I'm going to ask you to share with each other who yours are. I think it's important to name some of these folks. For me, when I think of someone who really knows God, I think of my grandmother. We called her Gram. Gram was not a highly educated person. She never went to college or seminary. She didn't grow up in the church, her faith was a later in life type of thing, but when she met Jesus, it changed her life forever. It changed everything about her. My Gram was the very essence of what it means to have peace in your life. When the whole rest of the family was blowing up in chaos, my Gram was the one who said, "You know what. God is in control. Can we just chill for a minute." She had that peace about her. It didn't make any sense, that peace that passes understanding. She had this joy about her. When I say joy, I don't mean happiness, because my Gram's life wasn't a happy life most of the time. She grew up in poverty and was sick much of her later life. It wasn't a happy life, but it was one defined by joy and she had the settled sense that God was in control. If you open our family dictionary to the word grace, there is a big 8x10 picture of my Gram there. I look at who she was and I say that is someone who knows God.

Let's take minute and just with the people around you, would you share somebody in your life who you know beyond a shadow of a doubt knows God intimately, passionately and why you think that about them. Here is my prayer: someday when some pastor asks that same question, I want somebody to say my name. I want to be known as the one who knows God. I grew up with that verse that everyone in my household learned at an early age. Can you guess what it is? Yes, it's John 3:16. "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." That verse for me has become foundational to what it means to be a Christian. Some people have called it the anchor of the gospels, the centerpiece of all that Jesus was and is and continues to be. But if you were to walk out your door this afternoon and walk over to your neighbor's house and say, "I was reading the Bible and came across this verse John 3:16 and it says eternal life. What is eternal life? Your neighbor would probably say get into heaven someday. Isn't that what we think? Is that what you thought? Living forever, getting to heaven. My fear is that this verse has become the centerpiece of our gospel, but I'm not sure we have done a great job of really understanding what it really means.

If you brought your Bibles with you, I want you to turn to John 17:3. I want you to see it for yourself. Jesus was praying to God and saying all right, I recognize that the folks I love so much have realized that, God, you sent me to save them, to give them this gift called eternal life, so now I want to define for them what eternal life really is. John 17:3 says, "Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." So here Jesus is, breaking into our nice comfortable Christianity, obliterating our ideas of what eternal life really is and redefining for us that it's not just about getting to heaven someday, is it? It's about knowing God today. I always thought I had to die before I achieved this thing called eternal life. But here, Jesus is telling me that it begins today, and all you have to do is be in a relationship with me. So I guess what we have to wrestle with is how do we know. How do we know that we are not almost Christian, but that we are absolutely Christian? For me, I use three questions; I call them the three Cs. To diagnose where I am, good for any relationship you are in, but especially for now. Let's focus then on our relationship with God. Where are we in our relationship with God?

The first question is: am I staying connected to the heart of God? Jeremiah 24:7 says, "I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart." So here is the good news. Not only did God send us his son so that we could have eternal life, so that we could stay connected with God, but God sent us the Holy Spirit which is this constant presence with us wherever we go. So when you are at work, driving to Sandusky with your family, when you are at the rodeo, wherever you are, even on the hard days when you have dug a really deep pit, when you have tried to run really far away, God's Holy Spirit is that presence with us, keeping us connected to the heart of who God is. Just like any other relationship that we have, like my wife and I learned this week, it takes a lot of work, it takes some intentionality because it's so easy to drift or be distracted or disconnected in our relationships, even with God. So God has offered us some really cool tools to keep us connected with God's heart. One that I use all the time is the power of prayer. When I say prayer, I don't mean, "Hey, God, can you get me out of this?" We have all prayed that prayer before. "Hey, God, if you do this for me, I'll do that for you." I'm talking about a prayer that happens in the middle of the day, like here I am driving, busy, my mind is on a thousand things and I take 10 seconds, turn off the radio and say, "Hey, God, this time is for you.  Thank you for being the God who loves me. God, I want to stay connected to your heart." Prayer that is an honest conversation with God.

For me one other tool is daily devotion. It means getting into God's word every day for more than just the purpose of teaching or preaching it, more than just filling my head with God knowledge, but for the purpose of diving deep into the heart of who God is so that I can stay connected to God's heart. Worship for me is a powerful tool that keeps me connected with God's heart. I don't mean just showing up to church. We can do that and miss the power of really knowing God. I mean a lifestyle of worship where everything I do, all that I am is giving God the priority in my life. It's not just a Sunday thing, it's an every day, wherever I am, whether I'm at work, with family, or wherever, it's a lifestyle of worship. These tools help me stay connected to the heart of God, to that Spirit that God has placed inside of me.

The next question I ask is: am I concerned. Am I concerned with the issues that really matter to God? Do I really care about the things that God cares about? Does my heart break over the things that break God's heart? Do I get angry over the things that make God angry? Or am I too focused on me to worry about that. There is a great verse here in Jeremiah 22:16, "He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. 'Is that not what it means to know me?' declares the Lord." God is saying if you want to know me, you need to get involved in things that I'm involved in. You're going to care about the people that I care about; and he even named some of them, the poor and the needy. I love being in ministry at Fort McKinley. It is a constant reminder to me that sometimes when I'm comfortable, it is an in-my-face kind of reminder that there is this massive humanity that God loves with all his heart and with whom we have the opportunity to do ministry.

I find myself super busy with stuff. You can stay busy with programs, systems, details and all that type of thing, but I know that I know God when I have those unexpected interruptions. Just last week, I had a guy walk into Fort McKinley and into my office. When you walk in the main door of Fort McKinley, my office is right there and sometime people just walk right in to my office, door closed, doesn't matter. They say, "Hey, pastor, I'm here." I think, great, who are you? And this guy walked right in and I was on the phone. He said, "Pastor, I need you to pray for me." I was thinking, "I'm kind of busy and you don't have an appointment." But, I know that I'm called to care about the people who God cares about the most. So I hung up the phone and listened to this guy for 20 minutes and he shared his heart with me about how he lost his job and his family is on the rocks and how life is crashing down around him. He said, "Pastor, I don't want anything from you, I just want you pray for me because I know that when you pray, God listens." I had to remind him that when he prays, God listens too. It's those interruptions in our day, those times we carve out when we are super concerned about the things that matter the most to God. Remember Jesus said that he came to bring the good news to the poor, to release the captives and to set the oppressed free. When I care about the things that God cares about, then I really know God. For me, one of the best tools that we have to make sure we know God and that my concern is in line with God's concern is to serve outside myself, to go beyond what I really want and need and serve someone else so that I'm staying connected to the people God loves the most.

The third question I ask is: am I committed to developing my relationship with God? I know this is not a do it and you're done type of thing. It's not just a one-time decision that we make. I ask people all the time, "Tell me your God story." One reply was, "I have a great one. I got saved at church camp when I was six." And I think, "Great, you're 56 now, where has God been the last 50 years." What is your God story? Are you committed to developing this relationship with God where you experience God or have you just been coasting? Or worse yet, just living like hell because you made that decision one day. Jesus tells us in scripture that neither one of those are absolutely Christian, but both are almost. When Jesus was asked what is the most important thing we should know, the one thing that if we don't hear anything else, what is the one thing we should know. In Mark 12:30 he said, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength." But here is what I have begun to figure out. It's going to take me the rest of my life to get there. Because I can do it pretty well almost, I can love the Lord with almost all of my heart, and almost all of my strength, but to do it, it's going to take some dedicated commitment to this relationship on my part in order to love God with all my heart.

At Fort McKinley we have a definition for discipleship. Discipleship is one of the churchy words that you only hear in church and so we have given it a definition. We say discipleship is taking one step closer to Jesus every day. So it doesn't matter where you are today. Maybe you are in the back of the pack, maybe you are struggling, I don't know where you are today, but today, can you take one step closer to Jesus. Tomorrow we will take another one. This faith thing is not about being there today, it's about being on the way. God blesses us in the journey as we seek to know God better. So the call for each one of us is to live the life. Live that life of abundance, a life that is full to overflowing that overflows on the people around us. A life of excitement, adventure, passion, purpose and mission. Jesus wants us to know that you can't do it by yourself. You can't fake it, you can't make it up, you can't pretend. All that is almost. Living the life begins and ends with knowing God. It begins and ends with me stepping out of my pew and becoming a passionate servant for Jesus, going beyond the rules and regulations and really getting into my relationship with God. Diving deep into that, so that everything we do from this point forward can flow out of that relationship from God and to recognize that the things we try to do on our own, will ultimately end up almost making it.

So what I'm challenging you to is something huge. It's a real lifelong relationship; it's this commitment to knowing God. So I want to pray for you and I found this great prayer in Philippians and I'm going to put it on the screen so we can pray it together. It's a powerful statement of what it means to know God. Make this your prayer of commitment and read this with me. "Whatever counted as gain to me, I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the worth of knowing Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have relinquished all things. God, allow that I may embrace Jesus Christ and be embraced by him, not trusting my own terms of righteousness, but only the pure rightness through faith in Christ alone. To know Christ, the power of his resurrection and to willingly participate in his sufferings, identifying with him all the way to death itself, with hope of resurrection each and every day. Amen!"