God Is. . .
God Is. . . • Sermon • Submitted
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· 6 viewsGod exists and wants us to seek Him for faith and life.
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Introduction
Introduction
*If I were to ask you to close your eyes and think about God, what would come to mind?
Old man like Father Time?
Giant with muscles and lightning bolts flashing around?
A question mark?
In his book, The Knowledge of the Holy, A. W. Tozer wrote:
What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.
The history of mankind will probably show that no people has ever risen above its religion, and man’s spiritual history will positively demonstrate that no religion has ever been greater than its idea of God. Worship is pure or base as the worshiper entertains high or low thoughts of God.
For this reason the gravest question before the Church is always God Himself, and the most portentous fact about any man is not what he at a given time may say or do, but what he in his deep heart conceives God to be like.
We tend by a secret law of the soul to move toward our mental image of God. This is true not only of the individual Christian, but of the company of Christians that composes the Church. Always the most revealing thing about the Church is her idea of God.
—A.W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy (New York: HarperCollins, 1978), 1.
*Where did you get you understanding of God? What teaching, experiences, or cultural absorption led to your view of God?
The goal of study over the next several weeks is to know about God that we may know Him - to wreck preconceived ideas and assumptions, to knock down idols that we have created and called “God,” and to take the lid off of the box we have placed God in.
ILLUST - radio voice - when you see the person behind the voice you are sometimes surprised- it didn’t match your assumptions.
Mel Blanc
the voices of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Tweety Bird, Sylvester the Cat, Yosemite Sam, Foghorn Leghorn, Marvin the Martian, Pepé Le Pew, Speedy Gonzales, Wile E. Coyote, Road Runner, the Tasmanian Devil and many of the other characters from the Looney Tunes
**God exists and wants us to seek Him for faith and life.**
1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. 2 For by it the people of old received their commendation. 3 By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. 4 By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks. 5 By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God. 6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
6 And without faith it is impossible to please him (A), for whoever would draw near to God (B) must believe that he exists ( C) and that he rewards those who seek him (D)
How do we please God? How do we draw near to Him? (A, B) How do we come to experience God in a powerful, life-changing, and world-denting way?
1) God exists.
1) God exists.
must believe that he exists
‘believe’ is from the same word as ‘faith’ - It’s impossible to have faith if you don’t believe.
Prove to me God exists:
The author of Hebrews points back to Creation as the beginning of faith:
3 By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.
While we as humans are the ones who are made in the image of God, it is more often the case that we understand God to be made in the image of MAN.
Common misperceptions of God:
God is an old Judge
God is a superhero (really strong man)
God is a genie
How do we get these views? Told them, absorb them, assume (create) them.
ILLUST - Jehovah’s Witness who admitted he only held his views of God and Jesus because they were given to him by his mother. - woman at coffee shop who told me she ‘made up’ her view of God.
God is:
God is:
Self-existent
24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.
Eternal
1 Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. 2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. 3 You return man to dust and say, “Return, O children of man!” 4 For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night.
rev
8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”
Unchanging
6 “For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.
19 God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?
All-present
23 “Am I a God at hand, declares the Lord, and not a God far away? 24 Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the Lord.
All-powerful
All-knowing
Completely Holy
Always Good
***Can you accept the fact that maybe you’ve been operating under a misunderstanding of who God really is? Maybe you’ve bought into popular but incorrect description of God. Maybe your experience of life has led you to assume things about God that may not be true?
Could you believe there is more to God than what you have previously understood?
Maybe you’re here today and, if you’re honest, you’re questioning whether God exists at all.
Prove to me God exists:
Here’s the problem with this statement - it is a categorical mistake.
Usually when we think of ‘proving’ something we are referring to the ‘hard sciences’ of mathematics and natural science - if you can see, taste, touch, hear, or smell something you can prove it.
When dealing with the realm of philosophy and theology, ‘proving’ something is more about the evidence and less about the senses. It does not mean you are any less confident in the final outcome.
ILLUST - suppose friend from PA came and had never seen a squirrel.
Look at the squirrel droppings - No, droppings of a mouse.
Look at the chewed acorns - No, your kids were hungry.
Look at the squirrel nest - No, it was windy and the leaves, grass, and straw happened to collect there.
Best evidence points to the existence of squirrels.
Even if the senses are used (see a squirrel) someone could try to discredit the evidence.
We don’t operate this way in life. (Ex. existence of the president)
We could talk about:
universal moral code
uniform laws of math and logic
The author of Hebrews points back to Creation as the beginning of faith:
3 By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.
Fred Hoyle is the atheist-astronomer who coined the term “Big Bang. Hoyle confessed that his disbelief was “greatly shaken” by undisputed science, writing:
“A common-sense interpretation of the facts suggests that a super-intellectual has monkeyed with the physics, as well as with chemistry and biology”
When we look at all the evidence:
Universe had a beginning
Universe is knowable
Universe is regular
Universe is fine-tuned for life
We come to the conclusion that God exists.
God is not simply interested in you intellectually acknowledging he exists, he desires for you to personally interact with his existence.
Malcolm Muggeridge, socialist and philosophical author, wrote,
"I had a notion that somehow, besides questing, I was being pursued.
2) God is actively interested in you.
2) God is actively interested in you.
he rewards those who seek him
Seeking God is possible
Seeking God is possible
‘Seek Him’
God is not hiding from you. More often than not, it is we who hide from him (cf. Adam and Eve)
9 “And you, Solomon my son, know the God of your father and serve him with a whole heart and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches all hearts and understands every plan and thought. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will cast you off forever.
1
12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. 13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.
jer 29
God actually wants you to seek him:
26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, 28 for “ ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, “ ‘For we are indeed his offspring.’
Acts 17:26-
Seeking God is profitable
Seeking God is profitable
‘He rewards’
He rewards his presence
In , God is actively present in the lives:
Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob,
You may not feel you are reaping any rewards for all the time you have invested in seeking God, but this list shows us that the very ability to know God personally and have promised presence of the Creator with us no matter where life takes us is a reward for sure.
He rewards his power
The people on the list saw God show up in a mighty way.
*Do you believe God can still show up in as mighty as he has in the past? Do you really?
Seeking God is powerful
Seeking God is powerful
‘those’
God does not reward everyone, but those who seek him.
He is not a universalist.
9 For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him. You have done foolishly in this, for from now on you will have wars.”
Nothing demonstrates more the fact that God is actively interested in you than the person and work of Jesus.
There are many things I can do to show someone that I care about them and desire to be personally involved in their life.
talk to them
provide for them
protect them
While God has done all these things, there is nothing that compares to the fact that he willingly gave his Son for you.
39 And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, 40 since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.
Heb 11:39-40
The author is saying there was something better than what each of these giants of the faith experienced - even better than the experience of God’s work through them in their faith.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Charles Spurgeon on the study of God:
It is a subject so vast, that all our thoughts are lost in its immensity; so deep, that our pride is drowned in its infinity.
There is something exceedingly improving to the mind in a contemplation of the Divinity. It is a subject so vast, that all our thoughts are lost in its immensity; so deep, that our pride is drowned in its infinity.
He goes on to say. . .
And, whilst humbling and expanding, this subject is eminently consolatory. Oh, there is, in contemplating Christ, a balm for every wound; in musing on the Father, there is a quietus for every grief; and in the influence of the Holy Ghost, there is a balsam for every sore. Would you lose your sorrow? Would you drown your cares? Then go, plunge yourself in the Godhead’s deepest sea; be lost in his immensity; and you shall come forth as from a couch of rest, refreshed and invigorated. I know nothing which can so comfort the soul; so calm the swelling billows of sorrow and grief; so speak peace to the winds of trial, as a devout musing upon the subject of the Godhead. It is to that subject that I invite you this morning.
. . . there is, in contemplating Christ, a balm for every wound; in musing on the Father, there is a quietus for every grief; and in the influence of the Holy Ghost, there is a balsam for every sore. Would you lose your sorrow? Would you drown your cares? Then go, plunge yourself in the Godhead’s deepest sea; be lost in his immensity; and you shall come forth as from a couch of rest, refreshed and invigorated. I know nothing which can so comfort the soul; so calm the swelling billows of sorrow and grief; so speak peace to the winds of trial, as a devout musing upon the subject of the Godhead.
Packer, J. I. (2011-10-25T23:58:59). Knowing God (Kindle Locations 154-159). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition.
Packer, J. I. (2011-10-25T23:58:59). Knowing God (Kindle Locations 145-154). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition.
*Pray*
Packer, J. I. (2011-10-25T23:58:59). Knowing God (Kindle Locations 141-145). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition.