Rediscovering An Awesome God

Title: REDISCOVERING AN AWESOME GOD

Text: Selected

Introduction:

Do you remember the occasion when the awesomeness of God dawned upon you? When was it? That fresh surge of insight and discovery brings with it a whole new level in your relationship with God.

Let’s put on a new set of glasses and look at some people in the New Testament that discovered God’s awesomeness for the first time. As you answer the questions, try to put yourself in their shoes of what it was like to discover God for the first time.

1. Matt. 14:22-33 What do you think led Peter to ask Jesus to come out on the water with Him? (To test how far Jesus’ power could extend…can He grant me power to do what He does?)

2. 14:30 What happened to Peter to turn things around 180 degrees from his confidence shown in the boat just moments earlier? What are your “wind and waves” that shake your confidence?
Insight: Your focus will determine whether you sink in your circumstances or walk above them.

3. 14:32-33 What was the response of those in the boat? (When you see the elements obeying the One who commands them, worship is the right response.)

4. Mk. 4:35-41 What does verse 38 indicate what they thought of their current situation? (Life threatening.) Was Jesus limited by their fears?
Insight: Jesus responds to the human situation. He is awakened and stirred to action by the cries of his followers. Our fears may paralyze us and prevent us from taking action, but they don't bind Jesus. Jesus isn't afraid of the storms of life because he's faced them and been victorious in each struggle. Maybe today you feel like God has turned a blind eye and deaf ear to you. Don't think He doesn't care. Look at the cross - the story of His care for you is written in red.

5. 4:39-40 Jesus took away the threat on their life…He calmed the storm…yet He notices a change in their countenance. Why? (Their countenance changed from fear to timidity because no one they ever knew had such power.)

6. How is their fear-changed-to-timidity a reflection of their faith?

7. 4:41 When the storm threatened them, they were afraid. When Jesus calmed it, they were very much afraid. Why? (It’s far more frightening to face the holiness of God inside your boat than to have a storm outside your boat.)

8. Mk. 5:1-20 In verse 7, who is speaking here, the man or the unclean spirit in him? What does that tell you about what the underworld believes about Jesus? Why is it demons have more belief about who Jesus is than a lot of people today do?

9. 5:9 Why so many demons…isn’t one demon possessing someone enough to torment? (One is sufficient to torment, but there is strength in numbers. This man must have had multiple sins that plunged him into such possession. Legion = 4,500 to 6,000)

10. What gives you the idea that even demons know Jesus has authority over them? (v. 10, 13)

11. Why do you think the demons would rather be cast into pigs? (They must inhabit a body if they are going to be out of the “Pit”; they would rather be in a pig than to go back to where they came from.)

12. 5:15 What is there about a healed, perfectly sane man, in his right mind, that frightened these people? (They just saw the power of God at work and it melted them, creating a new kind of fear that they had never experienced before.)

13. 5:17 Jesus has just performed a miracle of mercy and compassion. Why ask Him to leave the country? (They knew God was present and they were not willing to face their own sin before Him.)

14. Mk. 5:24-34 Ladies, describe for me what the spirit and self-esteem would be like for the woman according to what you see in verses 25-26. How desperate do you imagine her to be? What does her approach to Jesus tell you about her? (Very desperate; not only because of the physical infirmity, but because of the social outcast and labeling she had as an unclean woman; she must have been very lonely; besides that no man would have anything to do with her.)

15. What was Jesus sensing in verse 30? (Someone just made a demand on His virtue and power. Virtue = 1. Moral excellence and righteousness; goodness. An example or kind of moral excellence: the virtue of patience. 2. Chastity, especially in a girl or woman. 3. A particularly efficacious, good, or beneficial quality; advantage: a plan with the virtue of being practical. 4. Effective force or power[1])

16. Did Jesus really need to ask who touched Him? Why did He go ahead and ask?

17. 5:31 What’s the astonishment of the disciples really about? (They were awed by His supernatural insight.)

18. 5:33 What was the reason for the fear in the woman? (She knew she was in the presence of God. She had the faith that took a risk.)

19. Mk 6:1-6 What was missing in His hometown that prevented Him from doing miracles there? What’s missing in us if are not seeing God’s miracles? (Unbelief, v. 6)

Conclusion:

Belief is evidenced by AWE of Him that can do ANYTHING! Eph. 3:20-21

----