You Can Know a Lot About Jesus and Still Not Know Jesus

Here's a question worth pondering before Sunday — don't answer it too fast, just let it settle:

Is it possible to know a lot about Jesus and not actually know Jesus?

Think about that for a second. Because there's a difference. A real one.

The Problem Nobody Talks About

There's an entire corner of the internet built on a particular kind of fraud. Sports bloggers breaking down offensive schemes and roster moves like they've been in the film room their whole lives — confident, detailed, technically fluent — and then you find out they've never played a down. Parenting experts who've read every book and don't have kids. Financial freedom gurus who are quietly drowning in debt.

They've got the vocabulary. The right references. The tone of someone who's clearly been around.

What they don't have is experience. They know the subject. They don't know the thing.

Now — what if that's a danger for people who've sat in a church pew their whole lives?

What if it's possible to learn the language of faith, collect the right beliefs, show up consistently, and still be writing about something you've only ever watched?

What Paul Said

This Sunday we're in Colossians 2:6–7, and Paul says something deceptively simple:

So then, just as you have received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to walk in him, being rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, and overflowing with gratitude.

Three images stacked on top of each other. Walking. Rooted. Built up.

Each one is a picture of ongoing, living connection — not a one-time transaction. And the way you continue walking in him, Paul says, is the same way you started: by receiving. By faith. By dependence. Not by performance, not by accumulating more information, not by doing enough that you earn a more stable footing.

The same desire that opened the door is the desire that keeps you growing.

The Target Is Deeper Than You Think

Paul frames it in Ephesians 4:13 as a destination the whole church is pressing toward together: "unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God's Son, growing into maturity with a stature measured by Christ's fullness."

That word knowledge there — it's not head knowledge. It's epignosis in the Greek. Deep, personal, relational, experiential knowledge. The kind that costs you something to obtain. The kind Jesus was describing in John 17 when he said that eternal life is knowing the Father and the Son — not knowing about them.

This is the target. Not attendance. Not more activity. Not having your theological ducks in a row.

Knowing him.

How You Know Whether You're Getting There

Paul gives you a diagnostic right at the end of verse 7 that most people gloss over: overflowing with gratitude.

Not occasional gratitude. Not obligatory gratitude. Overflow.

Here's the thing about overflow — you can't fake it long-term. When it dries up, when you're going through the motions on Sunday morning with nothing welling up underneath the words, that's almost never just a personality issue. It's almost always a symptom of something happening in your relationship with Christ.

Three things tend to kill overflow:

Striving. When you're trying to earn your standing — performing, managing your image, keeping score — gratitude shrivels. You can't be grateful for a gift you think you're paying for.

Drift. When prayer got crowded out and the Word went quiet and time with the church got thin, you don't have overflow because you don't have much coming in. The cup isn't full. There's nothing to spill.

Familiarity. This one's sneaky, and it's most dangerous for people who've been around a long time. You've heard the gospel so many times it stopped landing. The cross became background noise. And when that happens, gratitude flatlines — not because you stopped believing, but because you stopped noticing.

The fix for all three is the same. Get back to knowing him. Not knowing more about him. Back to the root. Back to walking in him the way you received him — by faith, by dependence, by surrender.

This Sunday

If you've been going through the motions lately — if Sunday feels more like obligation than encounter — this message is for you.

If you're the person who's been around long enough that the gospel feels like old news, this is for you too.

And if you're someone who's genuinely hungry to grow but not sure where to start, Paul gives you the most practical three-part answer you'll find anywhere.

Join us Sunday, April 19, as we dig into what it actually means to be rooted in Christ — and what it looks like when you are.

Colossians 2:6–7. Ephesians 4:13.

Services begin at 9:30 for bible class and worship starts at 10:30 AM. See more at cornerstone-coc.com.

1. What’s the difference between knowing about Jesus and actually knowing him? Where do you land right now?
2. Paul says “just as you received him, walk in him.” What posture did you have when you first came to Christ? Is that still how you’re moving? 3
. Which of the three things that kill overflow — striving, drift, or familiarity — feels most familiar to you?
4. How’s your gratitude level honestly? What does that tell you about where you are with Christ?
5. What’s the one concrete step you’re taking this week — Word, prayer, or someone further along?

Those Serving
CALL TO WORSHIP/PRAYER
Drew Triplett
SONG LEADER
Russ Robins
LEAD LORD'S SUPPER
Jeremy Price
 ASSIST LORD’S SUPPER
Brayden Grushon
Eric Renegar
Reggie Johnson
Billy Robbins
SCRIPTURE READING
Patrick Newbill
Colossians 2:6–7
PREACHING
Matthew Allen
CLOSING PRAYER
Mark Ringle
CLOSING COMMENTS
Rich Walker
WELCOME CENTER
Emily McDonald // Kathy Downey
USHERS
Roger Robins // Randy Mullins
COMMUNION PREP
Gwen Price
CLOSING THE BUILDING
Benjamin Baker