Introduction to the Character of God

Greetings

Welcome everyone, Emma and I are thrilled to have you tonight and to start getting into Scripture together.

House Rules

As a venue there are many fire exits, the one closest is just out this door and to the right, the assembly point is the lawn in front of the parking lot.

We are honouring everyone’s time so Emma and I commit to starting and finishing on time.

Vineyard Introduction

For all transparency, as it has been some time since we have seen many of you and it is good to see you, Emma and I feel strongly led and called to plant a church here in Cairns and LORD willing that will happen in all haste as we want to see God’s kingdom come to Cairns.

After our long journey of searching for where we belong we have found the Vineyard family of Churches. Vineyard is it’s own denomination like that of baptist, Methodist and Pentecostal.

We welcome questions about this but we thought it would be important to state upfront that coming to this bible study does not in any way commit you to that church plant.

Emma and I believe strongly that all Christians will benefit from studying scripture with more intent and it is our hope and prayer that you would bring this back to your congregations and it would help others grow as well.

With that being said let’s get stuck in

Why Study the Bible?

It is always good to start with why.

Why do we study the scriptures?

Most simple answer is to grow.

Even though scriptures were not written TO us they were compiled FOR us.

Even though we are not the original recipients of this material, it is helpful for every generation to encounter these writings afresh.

Paul States this in 2Timothy3.10-17

2 Timothy 3:10–17 LEB

10 But you have faithfully followed my teaching, way of life, purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, 11 persecutions, and sufferings that happened to me in Antioch, in Iconium, and in Lystra, what sort of persecutions I endured, and the Lord delivered me from all of them. 12 And indeed, all those who want to live in a godly manner in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. 13 But evil people and imposters will progress to the worse, deceiving and being deceived. 14 But you continue in the things which you have learned and are convinced of, because you know from whom you learned them, 15 and that from childhood you have known the holy writings that are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, 17 in order that the person of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.

There it is, the main and the plain, in Paul’s mind who you learn from matters, Paul lived what he taught and Timothy was witness to that as we all know, more is caught than is taught. That doesn’t mean don’t teach it means live it as well and be a functioning part of a group that is focused on growing. Like this one.

The scriptures are there to make us wise, which is not an airy fairy word, it means skillful. In this case in saving or for saving through trust in Christ Jesus. As what Paul says next is all about action, it goes to say that this skill in salvation would be others focused, not self focused, so what he is saying here is that studying scripture if done right should equip us to be saving agents to the world around us and that we would be skillful in it. Which is then what Paul goes on to describe, and to be sure, based on Paul’s usage of the term good works, it is serving the community, the poor, the destitute and needy and all of this is to be done in trusting relationship with Jesus.

As we will unpack in a few lessons to come, the root of the word faith is true, as in something is true. Faith is your relationship to the thing that is true, which is expressed in action as trust, but it goes to say that the more that we understand something is true, due to study and time spent, the more we would then in turn be able to trust it. This concept holds true for God. Faith is completely evidence based, we are never called, nor encouraged to have blind faith.

Sometimes we have to trust past a point that we are comfortable with, but the evidence for that faith is abundant and readily available.

Scripture is a source of that evidence, but so are the 2.6 billion other Christians who are alive today.

Which brings me to my next question?

Why Study the Bible in Community?

As we read earlier, Paul did not unlink his teaching from his actions. He viewed his times of teaching in sessions like this just as important as the times when he taught via his lifestyle.

There ought to be no gap. That is just integrity.

A benefit of studying scripture in community is that we all have the Holy Spirit inside of us, who is able to highlight some different things of the passage which is a benefit to all of us. I usually find that comes in the form of questions which I encourage you all to have.

Another reason is that some of us are just plain nerds who love studying and teaching this stuff.

I know for some, some fully devoted followers of Jesus who take the bible seriously, could not think of anything more boring than pouring through some giant tome just to find one sentence that makes them think for days and then enjoy the process of thinking and pondering. That is okay, there are people like myself who really enjoy that sort of thing, which makes me well suited to then present what I have found to the group so that we may all grow.

That is the important part, whatever your thing is, it is to be done with the benefit of others in mind.

Where did I learn that…Scripture.

and now we have come full circle.

Why Study the Character of God?

So with so many places to start, if the purpose of studying scripture is to grow then there are plenty of places to start.

Based off of what we read earlier, some reasons to study scripture are to reproof and correct, which is just an older way of saying to identify gaps and fill them.

Something Emma and I have noticed as we have journeyed is that people have extreme variation in who they think God is and what He is like.

A lot of times this will be observable in people’s prayer lives and behaviors

Some people we have observed, have trouble reconciling God of the Old Testament and Jesus as the same person.

Some people think God is aloof and doesn’t really concern Himself with human affairs, this person would likely never pray for others or maybe even themselves.

Some people think God is controlling every little thing, like some kind of divine gatekeeper, allowing and disallowing every little thing. This person would find themselves saying God is in control all the time, or when something bad happens they justify it by thinking or saying that God is actively using this bad thing to teach or punish someone or yourself.

Some people think God is a Cosmically Angry Judge. This person would think that God killed Jesus on the cross and that God actively punishes bad people and they deserve it, they may have a high focus on holy living and feel torn down if they ever make a mistake, profusely begging for forgiveness every time they mess up.

Some people think God is like a Cosmic Vending Machine or at least treat Him like it, this person spends the vast majority of their prayers asking things from God and thats it.

Some people think God is a neglectful Father completely other and doesn’t love them, these people would not spend the majority of their time in prayer listening, not talking, listening.

Our actions reveal our true beliefs.

G.K Beale said that we become what we worship.

It makes sense, the object of our focus becomes the thing we value and see, the more we value it, the more we think like those values, the more we behave according to those thoughts and before you know it we have become what we worship.

We only need to look at history to see how people who have lost sight of what God is like can do some terrible things.

Think the crusades, how about the inquisition?, what about the slave trade? British colonialism? All of these had “God’s Stamp of Approval”

I am happy to report that God is not like these things, but if you are anything like me, I have been in most of these categories, these are lies of the devil and the best way to deal with lies is with the truth.

So this is why Emma and I think it is vital to start here, because if we have a warped view of God everything else is going to be warped.

Our Topics are going to be:

God is Relational

God is Compassionate

God is Gracious

God is slow to anger

God abounds in Loyal Love

God is faithful

God is forgiving

God is real and authentic

God is cruciform

God is Kenotic

God is Pure Love

As we go, we may identify we need to spend a little bit more time on a subject and that is okay, the whole goal here is growth, so if you don’t understand something, ask the question, it does no good to stay silent. There is no fear here, remember that love casts out fear.

Closing

Moving forward, bring a notebook and something to write with or a laptop if that is more your thing.

Commit now to growing. The idea here is that some or all of these things may cause you to rethink your whole life…let that happen.

Questions

Helpful to send questions to [e-mail] so that you have a time to reflect on what was discussed and form your questions. I then have time to think and pray through the answers.