God is Personal - Timothy Harvey
Notes
Transcript
God is Personal
Introduction
One of the difficulties children with autism can have is an inability to make friends. They have problems with the rules of social contact.
One young autistic boy, Gus, the son of New York Times reporter Judith Newman, has discovered a friend. [Judith describes this new friends as…] This friend is always patient and kind. She never tires of unending talk about a subject. This new friend is nonjudgmental and teaches Gus.
The new friend Gus has made is Siri, Apple computer’s iPhone personal assistant. Even though Siri is obviously not a person, Judith’s description of Siri makes her sound as if she follows Paul’s description for showing love in 1 Corinthians 13. We can all use such a friend, and we can all strive to be such a friend.
—Jim L. Wilson and Rodger Russell
Relationships. We all crave them. We all desire deep, meaningful relationships with others.
Relationships are the reason we are all here today.
Relationships are the reason we are all here today. Our relationship to Tim or the ones closest to her have drawn us together today.
If he would want to tell us anything today, I believe he would want us to know that the single greatest relationship that you and I can have today is with our creator and maker, God.
God is personal and desires a relationship with us.
Outline
God is Personal
Jacob – Genesis 28:15
Joshua – 1:5
Jesus – John 14:1-3
Us – Hebrews 13:5
God Restores or Broken Relationship
Romans 3:23 – The Problem
Romans 3:10-18 – Our Condition
Romans 6:23 – The Consequences
Romans 5:8 – The solution (see also John 3:16)
Romans 10:9-13 – Our part
God Offers More
Romans 5:1
Romans 8:1
Romans 8:38-39
Sermon Body
God is Personal
Jacob – Genesis 28:15 (Friend sent this verse to Hope)
Jacob was a man fleeing for his life because he stole something from his brother and now his brother wanted to kill him.
He had to leave his home, his parents, everything and was in fear of his life.
After running all day, he lay down to sleep and God visited him in a dream and told him this… (Verse 15)
Jacob’s Dream
10 Jacob left Beersheba and went toward Haran. 11 And he came to a certain place and stayed there that night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place to sleep. 12 And he dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it! 13 And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. 14 Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. 15 Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” 16 Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” 17 And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”
Jesus made a promise to Jacob to be with him wherever he went.
God is a personal God. He interacts and connects with his creation. He is not distant, impersonal, or uncaring.
We have a personal God and even from the beginning of creation, He has made this known.
Joshua – 1:5
God Commissions Joshua
1 After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ assistant, 2 “Moses my servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the people of Israel. 3 Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you, just as I promised to Moses. 4 From the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites to the Great Sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your territory. 5 No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you. 6 Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them. 7
Joshua was taking the reigns from a very respected, revered, and influential leader, Moses.
He had big shoes to fill.
There would have been great fear and insecurity in taking such a role and in the enormous task ahead of him.
So God made him a promise, to be with him, to never leave him nor forsake him.
MANY MANY more examples exist in the Old Testament
But I want to jump to the NT, to the time of Jesus Christ.
Jesus – John 14:1-3
I Am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life
14 “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.
Jesus promises that those who follow him, who trust him, who are his will have an eternal home with him.
This is the truth that makes heaven and eternity so precious…the presence of God forever!
This promise is as true for us now as it was for his disciples, his students then when he told them.
He goes one step farther though. It is not just in the life to come that we have this confidence and security, it is here and how.
Us – Hebrews 13:5
5 Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
The tendency is to fear the uncertainty of this life. So we do all we can to control it and find a measure of safety.
Thus we crave money and possessions, thinking it will protect us.
Jesus tells us not to worry, not to love money, to be content, BECAUSE, HE WILL ALWAYS BE WITH US.
And because he is always with us, we have nothing to fear.
The writer of Hebrews actually is quoting God’s words to Joshua that we saw a few moments ago.
Point is, our God is personal.
He has proven it throughout the ages with his interaction with mankind.
He has proven it with his promise to make a home for us who believe.
He has proven it by promise to be with us.
More than this, God proves He is a personal God by taking the initiative to restore a broken relationship with us.
God Restores or Broken Relationship
Romans 3:23 – The Problem
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
Adam and Eve in the garden
All are born into sin
All have sinned – missed the mark. Fall short of God’s holy demands
Even the best among us, is a sinner.
Romans 3 tells us just how short. It reveals our true condition.
Romans 3:10-18 – Our Condition
No One Is Righteous
9 What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, 10 as it is written:
“None is righteous, no, not one;
11 no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.”
13 “Their throat is an open grave;
they use their tongues to deceive.”
“The venom of asps is under their lips.”
14 “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16 in their paths are ruin and misery,
17 and the way of peace they have not known.”
18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
Apart from God, we are all sinners. We all have broken the standards of his holy law.
We are so fallen that none of us desires God.
We are sinful and evil throughout our being.
There is nothing good in us.
And the consequences of such a condition is total and complete…it is death.
Romans 6:23 – The Consequences
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The consequence for our sin, our disobedience is death; Separation from God; Spiritual death.
Worse than physical death. The soul lasts forever. The life to come lasts forever.
We will be dead a whole lot longer than we are alive.
Spiritual death is forever.
Left here, we would be hopeless and despairing indeed.
But the good news is, it doesn’t end here.
God provided a solution.
Romans 5:8 – The solution (see also John 3:16 and Romans 3:21-26)
6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Jesus, the son of God, was born into the Jewish people to be their Messiah and through the Jews, the nation of Israel to save not only the Jewish people but also the entire world.
Romans 3:21-26 (we read verse 23 earlier) also adds to this amazing truth!
The Righteousness of God Through Faith
21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
Jesus is Just and Holy. Must deal rightly with sin.
We are wholly sinful and unable to mend this broken relationship or pay the debt we owe to God because of our sin.
Jesus steps in and does for us what we are unable to do for ourselves.
He lived a perfect life, died an innocent death, and offers his own life death as PAYMENT for our sin.
He does this to JUSTIFY us (Declare us right before God).
He offered himself in our place. His death was ours.
He paid the debt that we owed through His death.
His resurrection defeated sin, death, and the devil (our enemy).
This is the good news.
What’s even better, it is a FREE gift offered to us.
We do not have to pay him back, we do not have to earn this gift before He gives it.
It is free.
All we must do is repent, confess, believe, and follow Jesus.
Romans 10:9-13 – Our part
9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. 11 For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. 13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
Repent – change one’s mind
Confess – openly acknowledge or admit
Believe – put faith and trust in Jesus alone to save us.
All we have to do is change our mind about sin, recognize it is wrong, turn away from it, trust Jesus death for us as the means of salvation and forgiveness, and live for Him.
This is all we must do be saved
This is all we must do to restore our broken relationship with God and find in Him everything we have ever desired and hoped for!
God offers us everything!
God Offers More
Romans 5:1
5 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
He offers justification – being put back (legally) into a right standing with God.
He offers us peace.
Furthermore…
Romans 8:1
8 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
He offers freedom from condemnation – the act of passing judgment and destruction upon something or someone.
We will never face God’s wrath or punishment once we have repented and trusted in Him.
Jesus took that for us.
We will face discipline, but that is different.
His wrath is anger against sin and every fiber of His being sent against to seek its complete annihilation. This we will never face.
He also offers us His never ending love.
Romans 8:38-39
38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Once we are His, we are His forever. He promises never to turn us away, reject us, or allow anything else to take us away from Him.
What greater joy can we have than knowing we will be loved forever by Him.
How much more personal can God be than this?
Conclusion
No matter where you are in life, hear this. God loves you. He sent His son to die for you in order to restore the broken relationship between Himself and you.
I am certain that if Tim were here, this is the message she would want you to hear!
There is not greater relationship that you can pursue than this relationship with God.
The good news is, God took the initiative. He stepped towards us and made it possible for us have a relationship with Him again.
Life is all about relationships. That is why we are gathered here today; we are each here because we had a relationship with Tim or those closest to him.
May his life and our relationship to him motivate us to pursue and even greater relationship with the God who made us, loves us, and sent His son to die so that we could experience relationship with Him.
Pray.
