The God I Believe In
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Introduction
Introduction
NT scholar, NT Wright used to teach at Oxford University, and part of his job was to meet with incoming students.
He used to tell a story about students who’d sometimes would come in,
knowing he was a Bishop in the Church of England,
and want to warn him: "I don't believe in God."
When they would say that:
NTW would smile and respond, "OK, what God don't you believe in?"
"Well," they'd usually say, "A god who has a long flowing beard who is just waiting to throw lightning bolts down on us when we mess up."
And NTW would reply, "Good. I don't believe in that God either.”
These students had fake pictures of God —
My picture of God must come from
how God has chosen to reveal himself
= found in Scripture
Who’s the God I believe in?
As I said last week —
when we say “I” in the Apostles’ Creed,
it’s each of our individual voices
becoming one voice
proclaiming the truths of the gospel
When my voice joins yours
who’s the God I believe in when I say:
"I believe in God, the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth"?
Theme: The Apostles' Creed teaches us that the Almighty God is worthy of all praise and created the universe is also our loving, eternal Father
When we believe in fake pictures of God
we commit — what the Bible calls —
idolatry
where we create God in our own image
Sometimes, they look like:
"A god who has a long flowing beard who is just waiting to throw lightning bolts down on us when we mess up."
Or we say:
“I can’t believe in a god who would punish or judge anyone.”
Or like Elton John
who in an interview with Parade magazine in 2010, said,
“I think Jesus was a compassionate, super-intelligent gay man who understood human problems.”
Unless the picture of God you have
comes from how God revealed himself
it ain’t God
Context
Context
So how has God chosen to reveal himself?
And this is where the AC is really helpful,
when —
like I quoted J. I. Packer last week
If life is a journey and the Bible is a roadmap,
The AC is a simplified version of the map
[Young people] You probably never saw your parents do this
But I remember my dad planning for our next family trip
And he’d put out a large map on the table
And then take a highlighter and
mark the way to our final destination
Well, the Bible gives us a lot of detail about who God is
But the AC grabs a highlighter
and marks the way to our final destination —
to answer help us answer:
“who is the God I believe in?”
And the AC helps us see this — by the way it’s broken down in three parts —
God is
Father, Son, and HS
“I believe in God the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth...”
“I believe in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord...”
“I believe in the HS…”
Can we dive deeper into some theology here?
Christians have historically believed God is three persons—Father, Son, and HS—in one
Three persons, one God
= Trinity
or the Triune God
That might seem confusing,
You may not understand it — welcome to the club ;)
And when we try to understand it,
we often come out with fake pictures of God
But God revealed himself this way from the very first pages of the Bible
Genesis 1:1–2 (ESV)
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
Here, we see God the Father,
and the HS
And it took some time,
after Jesus’ death and resurrection,
the apostles
looked at their OT Bibles and
saw things with a fresh set of eyes
So, the apostle John tells us Jesus, God the Son, “the Word” was at creation too —
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
And so when Genesis 1:26 says
Genesis 1:26 (ESV)
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.”
The NT writers said — “who’s the ‘us’ at creation?
It’s the Triune God — Father, Son, and HS
From the very first pages of the Bible,
all three members of the Triune God are present
United together in purpose and mission of creation
Now this is the catholic faith:
That we worship one God in trinity and the trinity in unity,
neither blending their persons
nor dividing their essence.
For the person of the Father is a distinct person,
the person of the Son is another,
and that of the Holy Spirit still another.
But the divinity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is one,
their glory equal, their majesty coeternal.
(Athanasian Creed)
The God I believe in
is three distinct persons,
but one God
[Chart]
So this is the God I believe in:
as Father,
Son,
and HS
three distinct persons, one God
But today, we’ll focus in on God the Father
Bibles — Psalm 103 —
1. God is the object of praise (vv. 1-5, 20-22)
2. God is the eternal loving Father (vv. 6-19)
God is the object of praise
God is the object of praise
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and all that is within me,
bless his holy name!
Praising God the Father keeps us from developing fake pictures of him
Praising God the Father keeps us from developing fake pictures of him
Have you seen this picture of Pope Francis in a puffy coat?
Love the caption here —
It’s famously called Coat Pope
The problem with the photo?
It’s a fake
Apparently it was created by a 31 year old construction worker used AI to create a picture of him a $3000 designer coat
And it spread all over the internet
And most of the internet didn’t catch it was a fake
There are a lot of fake pictures of God on the internet
And many times you people don’t catch the fakes
e.g., Many think Mormonism and JWs are Christians
They aren’t!
They have a fake picture of God —
b/c they don’t believe in the Triune God
And some fakes are so good they fool Christians
And these are usually the ones we develop on our own
Let me give you two examples
Apathy and disappointment can give you a fake picture of God
But David, the writer of Psalm 103,
gives us the tools to spot some of the fakes we develop on our own —
David here is praising God
as a way
to shake off
the apathy
and disappointment
he feels
Apathy
Man, there are a lot of apathetic Christians out there
They have Jesus set before them —
the most important person who ever lived
God in human flesh
who gave his life to rescue them from sin
But somehow they still have a picture of God
who’s apathetic:
if they’re apathetic toward their sin
to their lack of generously
to their lack of service
to the fact they aren’t going deeper in relationships to other Christians
They act like God’s cool if they are half-hearted about those things!
I think that’s why Jesus tells us to be like little children
It’s hard to find an apathetic 4 year old
Little kids are “all in”
That’s why parents are always so tired —
But kids aren’t apathetic
A god who’s OK with your apathy
is a fake picture of God
David says: let all — not some, not part —
all that is within me
bless his holy name
If you start praising God with all that is within you, everything will come with you — it’s that simple!
Your time,
talents,
and treasure
will follow closely behind
I don’t believe God wants an apathetic life for you
What a boring way to live
half-hearted about him
about his commands
about a relationship with him
he doesn’t want that for you
because he knows apathy will kill your soul
Disappointment
Praise helps shake off disappointment too
For some of us here life’s
really knocked you down so many times,
you’re not sure you wanna get back up again
And God invites you to bring your disappointment to him
He doesn’t want you to act like it never happened
But he wants you to rely on him
And when you come to him in your weakness,
and you’re unable to pick yourself back up
you praise him because he helped you stand again
Praise is the remedy for fake pictures of God we develop ourselves
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits,
= Remember all he’s done for you
And remember God is the God:
who forgives all your iniquity,
who heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit,
who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,
who satisfies you with good
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
Don’t let apathy and disappointment give you a fake picture of God
Don’t let apathy or disappointment rock your soul to sleep
You ever see those boot camp documentaries
where the sergeant will come in as the sun is just coming up
screaming and demanding the recruit to get up
sometimes they throw them out of bed
Praise will get your sleepy soul out of bed
Command them to praise!
“Soul, get off your seat.
But I’m not gonna let you be apathetic anymore!”
“I know life’s knock you down, my soul,
But I’m not gonna let that knock you out!”
“Wake up! And praise the Lord!”
And sometimes you need to give your soul a history lesson —
as a reminder for why you praise God —
The Lord works righteousness
and justice for all who are oppressed.
He made known his ways to Moses,
his acts to the people of Israel.
Just like he was to Moses and his people Israel
he’ll be faithful to his Church
and you
God has been faithful here, at LNE
And when I get down about something here — I gotta give myself a little history lesson
I remember when LNE was 6 people in my living room for Bible study
We didn’t know where people would come from
But by God’s grace, we launched in Jan 2019
And settled around 80 people
6 to 80 — praise God!
Then COVID hit,
and you were shut down for 5 months
And we dropped down to 30-40 people
God brought most of you —
God did that! — Praise God!
Since the Bible study days, I said I want us to plant more churches
Here we are — next week — sending a core team to Bristol
Praise God!
As God sends Bristol, he sends us here at NE —
In January we’ll be 5 years old — Praise God!
This past Monday,
I gave a 5-year vision to the elders
that I felt God put on my heart when I was on sabbatical
I said “here’s where I think he’s taking us.
And I’d like to pray over it and think through it
and bring that to — you all — in the next year.”
Praise God — he’s at work here!
Sometimes you have to give myself a history lesson of God’s faithfulness
The best thing you can do to keep fake pictures of God from running rampant in your mind:
is to awaken your soul,
by giving yourself a history lesson
and command your soul to praise him
When you do that, you can call on others to do the same
At the end of the Psalm (vv. 20-22), David calls on:
angels
God’s armies (hosts)
his ministers
and so forth
to bless the Lord
See, God doesn’t waste your story —
if you allow him to weave it into a beautiful tapestry of his faithfulness
And he wants to use your story to invite others to praise him with you —
You can tell others —
My sin,
My failures,
My suffering,
My sexual history,
My substance abuse,
My fears,
My anxiety,
even my apathy
and disappointment
God was faithful through it all —
Come —
Praise him with me!
Human Condition
Human Condition
God doesn’t change (Mal. 3:6, Heb. 13:8)
If you have put your faith and trust in Jesus,
God love for you doesn’t change
As we sometimes say at baptisms here
No matter the good things you do
or the bad things you do
he loves you just the same
Isn’t comforting to know that God never changes —
he doesn’t change based on how you feel?
When you allow a fake picture of God to run around the internet of your mind,
you allow your emotions to develop a picture of God
As they ebb and flow
so does your god
and a god who constantly changes with how you feel
will drive you further into apathy
and disappointment
and why praise a god like that?
No good deed can earn more of God’s faithfulness
No bad deed can lessen it
No sin, no suffering, no disappointment can take it away
He doesn’t change
His faithfulness doesn’t change
and neither does his love for you
Gospel
Gospel
God is the eternal loving Father
God is the eternal loving Father
As a father shows compassion to his children,
so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.
Jesus invites us to call God Father when we pray (Matt 6:9)
We have to be careful here —
If we project our experiences of our earthly fathers onto God our heavenly father
That’ll give us a fake picture of God, too
even if you had a great dad!
— no matter how good your dad is, he’s still human
We can’t view our relationship with our heavenly father through the lens of our relationships with our earthly fathers
Jesus invites us to see the Father
through the lens of how his relationship with him, the Son
Here’s something interesting: What was God doing before creation?
John 17:25 — He was loving the Son before the foundation of the world
Now look at God the Father’s love
through that lens
through the lens of his love for the Son
We don’t see someone like our earthly fathers
instead we see our heavenly Father who:
Psalm 103:8–18 (ESV)
...is merciful and gracious,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
Who
… will not always chide,
nor will he keep his anger forever.
…does not deal with us according to our sins,
nor repay us according to our iniquities.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west,
so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
As a father shows compassion to his children,
so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.
For he knows our frame;
he remembers that we are dust.
As for man, his days are like grass;
he flourishes like a flower of the field;
for the wind passes over it, and it is gone,
and its place knows it no more.
But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him,
and his righteousness to children’s children,
to those who keep his covenant
and remember to do his commandments
The Lord has established his throne in the heavens,
and his kingdom rules over all.
This is all wonderful —
But how do we get this love?
Notice:
Psalm 103:17–18 (ESV)
But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him,
and his righteousness to children’s children,
to those who keep his covenant
and remember to do his commandments.
No one always fears God = reveres him
None of us have been completely faithful to our side of the covenant
None of us have always remembered to do all he’s commanded us
And God knows:
we’re weak (v. 14)
that we’re mortal
like grass
or a flower of the field (v. 15)
one day here
and the next day gone
But despite our limitations and our failures,
God the Father
sent his Son to die for us
And Jesus did verses 17-18 perfectly on our behalf
and in his love for us,
he died the death we deserved die
for not perfectly doing those things
And b/c the Father loves the Son,
He loves all those who the Son loves
And the HS draws our hearts to faith in the Son
when we put our faith in the Son,
we receive the same love the Father showed the Son
since before the foundation of the world
And we are given the HS
who becomes proof that we are God’s sons
And because of this,
our hearts praise the Father
Galatians 4:6 (ESV)
And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”
Visualize
Visualize
The Triune is at work in salvation as much as in creation
— those who have been saved are called a new creation
And when we look at that work — it’s a work of love
The Father loves me — because the Son died for me
and the HS marks me as God’s son
and I can come before God as my eternal and loving Father
And know he will receive me,
and accept me,
like he does the Son
Action
Action
Romans 5:5 (ESV)
God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
And when the HS fills my heart with God’s love,
it starts to overflow to others
1) Does the love God has poured out on you, flow outward to others?
Our hearts should be exploding with God’s love
If I had to guess, the reason why many of us don’t share our faith —
or invite people to church —
is b/c we haven’t grasped this reality
we haven’t fully grasped
the undeserved love
we’ve received from the Father
the same love the Father shows the Son
“Well, they might not like the preaching, or the music, or the liturgy…”
“Well, it might ruin my friendship if I talk to them about Jesus…”
“Well, they know I go to church and they’re always welcomed to come with me...”
If you grasp the reality of the love of God
you should be exploding and overflowing with it
not making excuses
about why you shouldn’t share it
Could you do this — share the love of God w/ one person this week
who is that?
or invite them to church or home meeting
let the love of God overflow to others
And share his love with one person here at LNE
Worship is where we proclaim God’s love to each other
in song
prayer
in the AC
Home meetings are places where we remind each other of God’s love
when we pray together
when we cry together
when we celebrate together
Or even text or call someone to let them know God loves them
2) Are you soaking up the Father’s love for you?
Like a sponge, are you taking it all in?
if you haven’t received the Father’s love
b/c you haven’t given your life to Jesus,
you need to do that
For those who have,
Allow God the Father’s love to pour over you
Read Psalms about his love
(Google: Bible verses on God’s love)
Sit with them,
read them again and again slowly until it hits you
and respond in praise
Make worship and home meetings a priority
to hear of his love from each other
Conclusion
Conclusion
When we say the AC,
Use it as a time:
1) to throw out fake pictures of God
and adopt the picture God’s chosen to give us
2) to awaken your soul
to remind yourself of God’s faithfulness
to shake off apathy and disappointment
3) Use it as a time to remind each other
and proclaim out into the world
about his love
Let’s stand and say the AC together
And confess the God I believe in