The Christian Path: Learning More About God

Intro

When you became a Christian

Certain things you knew about God

Existed God the Son — Jesus — died for your sins

Probably — God the Holy Spirit is now present in your life

Fill out your understanding of God

Three “attributes” — qualities

Goal: paint a picture of God’s majesty and grandeur

Call us to reverence, awe — worship

Warn: God cannot, ultimately, be known — “incomprehensibility”

God is beyond our ability to fully understand

Isaiah 55:9 ESV

9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Heaven — God always infinite

But God has revealed some things to us about himself

Omniscience - Omni” meaning “all” — knows all

Psalm 139:1–4 ESV

1 O Lord, you have searched me and known me! 2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. 3 You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. 4 Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.

Thoughts — words before spoken

Future —

Isaiah 46:9–10 ESV

9 remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, 10 declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,’

Can you and I really grasp what this means?

Knows everything about everybody/thing

Past, present, and future

Acquainted with the movement of distant galaxies

As well as the number of hairs — thoughts before think

We can’t fully understand his omniscience, but aren’t you glad that he is

Nothing is going to happen to you/Church that will surprise him

He will never misread or misunderstand you — better than know yourself

“Omnipresent” — present everywhere

Psalm 139:7–12 ESV

7 Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? 8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! 9 If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, 10 even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. 11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,” 12 even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.

Not that God is huge — he is bigger than huge

Has no spatial dimensions — John 4 — God is spirit (≠ a spirit)

No place in our reality — or God’s reality — where God is not present

Not that he is standing here or sitting there — localized

Acts 17:28 ESV

28 for “ ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, “ ‘For we are indeed his offspring.’

Comparison between Spirit and wind in John 4

Just as I exist in wind/air, so also I and everything else exists in God

Not pantheists

You and I exist in God — He is everywhere — separate from creation

Not spread thinly throughout creation

Not a little here and a little there

God exists in his fullness in every place throughout reality

Full attention when you pray

Can’t fully grasp — aren’t you glad that God is omnipresent?

Even if we want to, there is no place we can run and hide — rocks

There is no place where God is not present to help, love, or encourage

Even in our thoughts.

“Omnipotent” — omni-potentate — all powerful

“Sovereign”

God exercises his sovereign rule — kingly — over his creation

Psalm 139:13–16 ESV

13 For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. 14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. 15 My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. 16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.

Forms life — wrote down the days of your lives before you existed

Psalm 115:3 ESV

3 Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.

Can’t fully grasp — aren’t you glad that God is omnipotent?

Book of Revelation is true — God will win over Satan

Romans 8:38–39 ESV

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.

1 Peter 4:19 ESV

19 Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.

This is our God — omniscient; omnipresent; omnipotent

This is our heavenly Father — into whose arms we have leapt — in whose arms we live

So How do We Respond to this Revelation? Worship

What is worship?

Worship is not singing — although song can become an instrument of worship

English: “Worth ship” — attributing worth

Hebrew/Greek: “bow down; serve”

“Bowing all that we are before all that he is.”

“Our faithful response to God’s gracious revelation”

Worship is our appropriate response to the revelation of the attributes/activity of God

Worship begins with hearing attributes/activities — with clarity

Clarity of the revelation in architecture, speakers, preaching, reading, and prayer

Clarity in singing (lyrics are correct — not overpowered by melody)

Worship is then responding appropriately

Not spectator sport — can’t sit in the stands (must respond)

Not entertainment — worship is not about me and how I feel

Isaiah 6:1–4 ESV

1 In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” 4 And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.

Isaiah 6:5–8 ESV

5 And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” 6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.” 8 And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.”

(Seraphim know how to worship)

1. God’s holiness & Isaiah’s sin (worship) — so God reveals more

2. God’s mercy — humbly receive forgiveness — proper response

3. Will (work to do) — “Here am I. Send me.” — didn’t know what He would say

Normative—true worshippers understand God’s will, mercy, holiness, & our sin

Challenge: Never let God become small

Think we know more than he does

Think we can hide from him in our sin

Isn’t powerful enough to help

Keep things in perspective — why do we worry?

As you grow in your Christian walk

May your understanding of God grow with you

God is without limitation

Wisdom: omniscience — us better than we know ourselves — still loves us

Presence: omni-present — no spatial dimension — I/galaxies exist in him

Power: omni-potent — mighty to save

May we never just sit there and not respond

May our response always be appropriate for what God has revealed to us

Acknowledge his holiness and our sin

Receive his mercy

Do his will, regardless

When we get to heaven

See him clearly — not dimly but face to face

Spend eternity growing in knowledge, trust, love, awe, reverence, worship