Who is God
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Illustration
Motivation
Explanation
Rejoice in the Lord, you righteous ones;
praise from the upright is beautiful.
Praise the Lord with the lyre;
make music to him with a ten-stringed harp.
Sing a new song to him;
play skillfully on the strings, with a joyful shout.
For the word of the Lord is right,
and all his work is trustworthy.
He loves righteousness and justice;
the earth is full of the Lord’s unfailing love.
The heavens were made by the word of the Lord,
and all the stars, by the breath of his mouth.
He gathers the water of the sea into a heap;
he puts the depths into storehouses.
Let the whole earth fear the Lord;
let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.
For he spoke, and it came into being;
he commanded, and it came into existence.
Summary of 3 Points
God is Creator
God is Creator
Illustration: There’s a reason that copyright laws exist, right? I think most of us would agree that if you put hard work into creating something, into writing a story, making a movie, painting a work of art, than it makes sense that other people shouldn’t be able to steal it and profit from it. There’s a sense of ownership that comes with creating something. There’s also a great deal of self-disclosure in creating. When you write a novel or a song or something there’s a part of yourself you’re sharing with the world. Though in some cases it might be veiled, you can learn something about someone by seeing what they’ve made. I have a songwriter friend who says that the only people who really know him are the ones who’ve seen him perform on stage.
We have a few goals this weekend, like having a lot of fun and getting to know one another, but one of our big goals this weekend is to get to know God. See if we believe this world was made by someone, well I think that’s good enough reason to want to know who this someone is. What is He like? Why did He make us? What does He expect of us as His creation?
The fact that He is a creator teaches us something about His nature. It means that He’s creative. And taking a look at what He’s created also teaches us about His nature. The passage I chose for today says that God is worthy of praise because He is the one who created everything. Let’s take a look at verses 6 to 9.
The heavens were made by the word of the Lord,
and all the stars, by the breath of his mouth.
He gathers the water of the sea into a heap;
he puts the depths into storehouses.
Let the whole earth fear the Lord;
let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.
For he spoke, and it came into being;
he commanded, and it came into existence.
In other words the person who wrote this Psalm is saying that God used His words to create everything that exists, from the heavens to the sea and everything in between. This is one of the most important aspects of who God is, and is in fact the first thing the Bible teaches us about Him. The Book of Genesis begins with this simple phrase
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
This one short sentence tells us a lot. There is a being called God, and this God at the very beginning of all time created the heavens and the earth, meaning every single thing in the universe. This stands out among different religious works because in a lot of religions they believed the earth was created in part by one god and in part by another, or even as a byproduct of a battle or struggle between gods. The God of the Bible didn’t claim to create part of the world, He created everything. This means that He, in a sense, owns everything. I don’t love that phrasing because it seems cold, but it’s at least a part of the truth of the world. He created all things so all things belong to Him.
So if this is true, what does this mean for us? Well the Psalm says that becaues God created the world, everyone in the world should “fear” God and be in “awe” of Him. Now when the Bible talks about fearing God it doesn’t mean being afraid of God like we’re worried He’s going to hurt us. It means realizing that He is all powerful and deserves our respect and admiration. That’s why the author uses the word “awe” in parallel with fear, because the ideas have significant overlap. So if we believe that all that we see is created by God than we should give Him the respect and reverence that knowing this deserves.
Thankfully the God who created the universe hasn’t just earned our respect by virtue of His position as creator, He has also earned our Praise and worship because of His character. This Psalm doesn’t just describe God as creator, but also as Holy.
God is Holy
God is Holy
Illustration
Motivation
Explanation
For the word of the Lord is right,
and all his work is trustworthy.
He loves righteousness and justice;
the earth is full of the Lord’s unfailing love.
Application
God is Love
God is Love
Illustration
Motivation
Explanation
He loves righteousness and justice;
the earth is full of the Lord’s unfailing love.
Application
Conclusion
Conclusion
Recap
Application
Sending
