The God you can Know

“The God you can Know”

.

When I was a kid I enjoyed watching the “Wizard of Oz” I was scared of the wizard of Oz all the way though the movie, I had a picture in my mind of what the wizard of Oz was like; big, strong and scarier, but when I final saw him he was nothing like I pictured.

I had created in my own mind a picture of the wizard of Oz that was not true.

Today people create pictures in their minds of what God is like; they have ideas, opinions and thoughts about what God is like.

· God is a cosmic killjoy.

· God is a sentimental grandfather.

· God is an impersonal force.

What is God really like? Where did God come from? What does God want from me? Where can I find about God?

We are given general revelation of God in creation; we look at creation and know there is a creator. We are thankful that God reveals himself to us in creation. But we are also given special revelation about God in the Bible. The Bible gives us facts about God that cannot be found any other place!

I thank God that He has chosen to reveal himself to us in the Bible!

And when you open the first page of the bible and read the first verse in the bible you find God introducing himself to us!

God wants you to know him, worship Him, love Him, and trust Him with your life.

There are three important facts about God found in .

Fact #1:

1. God is Eternal!

V:1-“In the beginning God…

The most loved verse in the Bible is . But the most read verse in the Bible is .

More people have read that verse than any other verse in the bible; they say I am going to read through the bible and they start with this verse and that is as far as they get. This verse is the most important verse in the bible for you to believe! Because if you don’t believe that God made the heavens and the earth, and you don’t believe that God is your creator you will never have a Christian worldview. What you believe about God will determine everything else you believe, and it will control how you live your life.

If God is the creator, sustainer of this world; then He is the one who has a right to tell you how to live your life on this earth He has made.

The Bible starts out with this amazing statement:

V:1-“In the beginning God…

In the beginning God was there, before there was anything God was there! There never was a time that God was not! God is not bound by time, space, or matter; God is the creator of time, space and matter! Before there was anything there was God, God is eternal!

Our little brains cannot understand eternity, we are bound by time, but God is not.

God is eternal, He has neither beginning nor ending.

-“And God is before all things, and by him all things consist”.

We are told in the N.T. that Jesus is God and that He existed with God before the world was made.

-“Father, glorify me with the glory which I had with you before the world was.

We are told in that same chapter that God loved Jesus before the foundation of the world.

Moses wrote in -“Before the mountains were brought forth or you formed the earth, even from everlasting to everlasting you are God”

The universe had a beginning, but God did not have a beginning! When we open the Bible we learn that God is eternal, that He has always been and He always will be; He is God!!

The Bible does not try to prove the existence of God; the Bible just presents God as the fundamental fact of all rational thinking.

There is evidence for God in the world and in the scripture and in people hearts, but there is no prove for God. If an atheist says to you, prove there is a God, just smile and say, prove there is no God.

Believing in God or not believing in God has nothing to do with intelligent. You show me a brilliant man who doesn't believe in God, I'll show you a brilliant man who does.

If a man doesn't believe in God, it's because he doesn't want to believe in God.

There’s not much said about atheism in the Bible. Only one half of one verse deals with atheism, . "The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God." The word fool does not mean a person who is unintelligent. The word means the morally perverse person. Not the man who has intellectual difficulties, but the man who has moral difficulties. Notice that verse does not say the fool has said in his head there is not God; the verse says the fool has said in his heart.

The problem with the man who doesn't believe in God is his heart, not his head. It is his heart. It is not that he cannot believe; it is that he will not believe; he has chosen not to believe in God.

That verse literally reads this way "The fool hath said in his heart—no God."

What's the difference between "there is no God" and" no God? Here's the difference, Tess and I went on a cruise with KWFC last week, and I ate so much food, Tess put me on a diet, no deserts. Suppose I come to your house and after we finish the meal, you say, "Would you like a piece of coconut cream pie?" And I say "No pie." Doesn't that mean there is no pie? No, it means no pie for me. This is what the fool is saying. "The fool has said in his heart, no God." I don’t want anything to do with God, no God for me. In his heart of hearts he knows better. Evolution is just a bias against God.

It is not because man has scientifically, logically figured it out, because they haven’t! Evolution is really not logical. The atheist believes that nothing times nobody equals everything. That's not even logical. The reason that people don't believe in God is found in . "And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind."

They did not like to retain God in their knowledge. The idea of God gives them an uneasy feeling, so they think that if they can get rid of the idea of God, they can get rid of that uneasy feeling, but they never really get rid of it. You can believe in God for very good reasons!! But it is a matter of faith!

Fact #1: God is Eternal!

Fact #2:

2. God is Powerful!

V:1-“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”

God created everything out of nothing, listen to the way the writer of Hebrews puts it; -“Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.

Moses used the word “created” this word is only used of God in the Bible, only God creates. And in it is used of the universe (V:1)

Animal life (V:21) and man(V:27)

In the beginning God created the cosmos, God created the universe and everything there is.

Man can make stuff from stuff, but only God could make everything from nothing!

God simply spoke and it happened. That speaks of the mighty, mighty power of God. God is so powerful He could speak the world into existence. He is God, the strong and mighty one, the creator of all things.

God is greater than creation. Just as a potter is greater than the jar he forms, and an artist is greater than his painting, and a musician is greater than the instrument she plays; God is greater than what he created. We are to worship God not His creation! God is creator and has authority over everything, and is able to handle anything.

God is separate from creation; what God has made will never be God. Eastern religion teaches that we are all gods with amnesia, we just need to wake up the god within us though a mystical experience.

I read last week in the Washington post that some of Willie Nelson’s fans think of him as a messenger, or even a manifestation of God.

Man is not God, and will never become god, that is the old lie of Satan. God is separate from creation; God is not an animal as Hinduism teaches, God is not in everything as pantheism teaches.

God is greater than creation, and God is separate from creation.

The first verse in the bible refutes all of the philosophies of man:

It refutes Atheism which says there is no God.

It refutes polytheism which says there are many gods.

It refutes pantheism which says everything is God.

It refutes deism which says God is in everything.

It refutes fatalism which says that man is in existence by accident.

It refutes materialism which says that matter is eternal.

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”

When you look at creation, you are faced with two choices; 1. God made this world, or 2. Everything can into place by natural selection.

The source of creation is either supernatural, or it is natural.

This universe, our world, our bodies are so wonderfully made; it is not possible that they came into existence by natural causes.

Everything from the smallness of the cell, to the vastness of the universe was “Created” by God.

Your body is made up of 300 billion cells, and every one of those 300 billion cells is more complicated than New York City.

God designed your body using 75 thousand miles of veins, and arteries to supply all those cells with oxygen- and nutrient- rich blood.

Your DNA stain is not like anyone else on earth, you fingerprint is unique to you, the palmist said you are fearfully and wonderfully made.

Think about the vastness of the universe. Light travels at more than 186,000 miles a second, and if you were to catch a light beam and start traveling, you'd be at the moon in two seconds. Four years you'd be at the nearest star. But traveling at 186,000 miles a second, you would travel more than 10 billion years before you'd reach the edge of the known universe, and who knows what's beyond that. The vastness of this mighty universe, and God spoke and it was so, God made it all out of nothing. God created the hundreds of billions of stars in our galaxy, the Milky Way, and He created the billions of galaxies that comprise our universe, and God created the earth and every living thing that inhabits it from the smallest single-cell creature to the largest mammals, reptiles, fish, and birds.

God did not miss a single detail when He created; He even went so far as to include in the head of the woodpecker a piece of padding so that he wouldn’t beat his brains out when he pecks a hole in the bark of the tree looking for something to eat.

All these things speak to us about our powerful, wise creator!

When you see a watch, you say there must be a watchmaker. What about the atomic clock of the universe? You think that just happened?

You look at the water system in the City of Springfield, mo. You know if there's a water system there must be an engineer who designed it. What about the water-cycle in the atmosphere, do you think that just happened?

When we look at this beautiful building, we say there must be an architect. Well, what about the human body? The evolutionist believes it all just happened and that billions of years will turn frogs into princes. I don't believe it. Only God has the power to create.

Fact #1-God is Eternal!

Fact #2-God is Powerful!

Fact #3:

3. God is Personal!

V:1-“In the beginning God…

Some people have the idea that God is like the force in star wars, some impersonal power that holds everything together. But God is not like the force, God is a personal God, a God you can know in a personal way! God is a spirit, but He is a person.

He has intellect, emotion, and will. He's not some impersonal being.

The name for God in V:1, is Elohim. Elohim created the heaven and the earth. The name means, the God to which nothing is impossible and who always keeps His word. Isn't that great? Aren't you glad that we have a God like that!

In the beginning Elohim created the heaven and the earth. And the name Elohim is a plural noun. Right here in the very first verse of the bible you find out that God is a triune God. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, because as you study, the Bible, you find out that all three were present in creation, and redemption. -“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made.

Jesus is God, and he was involved in creation, we find God the father in , we find God the son in , we find God the Spirit in . God is a personal God and he made you to know him in a personal way. God created everything, and He created you for a very special purpose.

The bible tells us that God created all things for:

1.His pleasure.

. "You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power you have created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created."

God made everything for His pleasure. He made it because He wanted to, and He didn't have to get anyone’s permission. All things were created for His pleasure.

We are told also that all things were created for:

2.His Praise.

. "For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things; to Him be glory forever."

"Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord."

Everything that's created is created to bring glory to God, to praise God! The trees lift their leafy arms and say, "Praise God."

And the beautiful flowers lift their petals and they say, "Praise God." And the birds flap their wings and say, "Praise God." And the oceans waves roll back and forth and say, "Praise God." Niagara Falls crashes to the waters below and say, "Praise God."

And you and I were made to praise the Lord, and until you come to know him and praise Him you'll never be fulfilled in life.

You were created to praise Him. "Let everything that hath breath, praise the Lord." God made all things for His pleasure. God made all things for his praise.

And God created all things for:

3.His people.

When God created everything He was creating a home for man to live in, God had man in His mind when he made this world.

The earth is fine-tuned for human life; if the earth rotated any faster man couldn't live. If it rotated any slower man couldn’t live. If the sun were closer man would fry. If it were further man would freeze. Earth was designed for human habitation. God loves you; He created this world for you to live on and to know Him! The devil wants you to think negatively about God. The devil wants you to think that God is not a good God.

But the devil is a liar; God is a good God.

-“God who giveth us, richly all things to enjoy."

God wants you to enjoy the flowers, birds, and everything He has made. God made it for your good.

Sometimes we think because we're Christians we can't enjoy these things. Don't ever think that God's physical, material universe is evil. When God made it, God said, "It is good." God is such a good God, He's a wonderful God, and He is a glorious God, a gracious God! And you can know in a personal way.

If these things are true about God and they are, and if you believe , and I trust you do, that, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth,"

That means:

· You are Personally Responsible to God.

You have an obligation to God if God created you. says? "Remember now thy Creator…"

, "Woe unto him that strives with his Maker."

If God made you, you have an obligation to Him.

Not only did God create you, God send His son to redeem you. God bought you with His blood. You're God’s because he created you, and you're God’s because he redeemed you. You are not your own. You are bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.

If you believe , you have to believe that you have a responsibility to God, and if we don’t fulfill that responsibility we will answer for it at the judgment.

You are personally responsible to God.

· God Has an Obligation to Us.

When God made us, He obligated Himself to us; when we bring children into the world, aren't we obligated to those children? Yes we are. There is a responsibility when you bring children into the world. And there was a responsibility that God took upon himself when He created us. And the Bible speaks of God in as a "... faithful creator." He didn’t just make this world and wind it up and fling it out into space and turn His back on it. No! He made it. He must look after it.

: "Thus says the Lord who created you, and who formed you, fear not; for I have redeemed you, I have called you by you name; you are mine. And when thou pass through the waters, I will be will you; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow you; and when you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon you, for I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel."

What is God saying? God is saying, "I made you, I saved you, I'm going to take care of you." And, friend, He will; I want to know that today.

This God who is Eternal, who is powerful, is a personal God who made you for a purpose, He loves you, He send His son to die for you on the cross that through faith in Jesus you can have a personal relationship with Him!!

When I was a kid we sang this song in church:

It took a miracle to hang the world in space. It took a miracle to put the stars in place. But when He saved my soul, cleansed and made me whole, man, it took a miracle of love and grace.

God made this earth, God made you and put you on this earth that you might know Him, He is the God you can know. Do you Know God today? Do you have a relationship with God through Jesus Christ? If not come to Jesus today!