Everyday Theology | Part 3
Everyday Theology • Sermon • Submitted
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Announce:
Announce:
Three services continues this Sunday, August 9th at 8:15, 9:30 & 10:30AM.
Drive-In VBS will be held August 24-26 from 6-7PM in church parking lot. Spread the word and sign up online.
Prayer requests.
Bible Study:
Bible Study:
Review study.
Everyday Theology.
Theos “God” Logos “Words”
Last week we look at how God’s word can be trusted and is essential for our understanding of God (AKA - theology).
Tonight, we will be diving into the subject of God.
FACTS: What do we need to know about God?
FACTS: What do we need to know about God?
God is real.
God is real.
How do we know God exists?
There are several philosophical arguments for God’s existence, but these can be a bit confusing. We will talk about them at another time as we talk about defending our faith. Tonight I want to share with you three evidences for God’s existence that God’s Word makes clear to us.
(1) We see God’s Creativity in creation.
(1) We see God’s Creativity in creation.
I want you to write down these verses if you have a pen and paper handy. These are some powerful verses and they reveal to us how god has revealed himself in creation.
In the very first verse of God’s Word we read...
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
Paul in writing to the church of Rome wrote this about God’s activity in creation...
For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
While Paul and Barnabas were ministering in Lystra (modern day Turkey), he encountered those who worshipped Greek god like Zeus. They even sought to worship Paul and Barnabas as being gods who came down from Olympus. This bothered Paul, so he said...
In past generations he allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways. Yet he did not leave himself without witness, for he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.”
These all with a host of others show us God’s creativity in creation.
(2) We see God’s Thumbprint on history.
(2) We see God’s Thumbprint on history.
When Paul was in Athens he found himself at the Areopagus. It was a place of philosophical debate. He preaches he gospel to them via an idol they had built to an unknown god. He speaks of God’s thumbprint in human history...
And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us,
As we look at the human history we can’t help but see the thumbprint of God. His hand is so strong in human history that postmodernists today are trying to deny that we can even know or trust history.
(3) We see God’s Activity in our lives.
(3) We see God’s Activity in our lives.
Tell the story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal in 1 Kings 18:24-39.
You probably have never seen God bring down physical fire from heaven, but you have seen him answer your prayers and show up in powerful ways.
God is revealed.
God is revealed.
God reveals himself to us in several ways...
(1) Creation.
(1) Creation.
For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
(2) His Word.
(2) His Word.
knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
Note: “own interpretation” is probably a reference to Peter addressing an early form of Gnosticism - the belief that a person can possess some form of secret knowledge about God and his Word - a private interpretation if you will.
(3) His Son.
(3) His Son.
Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.
God is relational.
God is relational.
When we think about the realational reality of who God is, there is no better representation than the story of the Prodigal Son.
We find this story of Luke 15:11-32. [Tell the story]
This story reveals that...
(1) God is Approachable.
(1) God is Approachable.
And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.
(2) God is Love.
(2) God is Love.
We see this in the way the Father quickly embraced the son. God wants to do that for us. We only will experience the love of God when we get to the end of ourselves.
(3) God is Forgiving
(3) God is Forgiving
And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet.
FAITH: What do we need to believe about God?
FAITH: What do we need to believe about God?
God Exists As A TRINITY.
God Exists As A TRINITY.
The doctrine of the TRINITY is not fully described in one single verse of Scripture and it is a hard doctrine to believe.
Billy Graham said this of the doctrine fo the TRINITY...
When I first began to study the Bible years ago, the doctrine of the Trinity was one of the most complex problems I had to encounter. I have never fully resolved it, for it contains an aspect of mystery. Though I do not totally understand it to this day, I accept it as a revelation of God.
What does it mean that God exists as a trinity?
God is one being and three persons - Father, Son & Holy Spirit.
(1) God is one.
(1) God is one.
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.
(2) Father, Son and Spirit are all called God.
(2) Father, Son and Spirit are all called God.
Father
To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Son
Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!”
Holy Spirit
But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man but to God.”
3. Father, Son and Spirit are DISTINCT from one another.
3. Father, Son and Spirit are DISTINCT from one another.
Jesus is distinct from the Father. (John 17 Prayer to the Father)
The Spirit is distinct from the Father.
But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.
The Son is distinct from the Spirit.
And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
God is one being and three persons - Father, Son & Holy Spirit.
God Is Absolutely Sovereign.
God Is Absolutely Sovereign.
The bible makes this clear in several places...
one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.
You search out my path and my lying down
and are acquainted with all my ways.
Even before a word is on my tongue,
behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.
nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.
He determines the number of the stars;
he gives to all of them their names.
Great is our Lord, and abundant in power;
his understanding is beyond measure.
God Is Perfectly Moral.
God Is Perfectly Moral.
The Bible highlights this fact that God is morally perfect in many places. I will just highlight a couple tonight...
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. 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. And one called to another and said:
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory!”
But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.
He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek,
There is more to say on this, but this is enough to let us know that God is morally perfect, which makes him the only just judge.
FEELINGS: What do we need to do about God?
FEELINGS: What do we need to do about God?
Our response to the bigness of God who we believe to be...
Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Sovereign Over All Things.
Morally Perfect.
There is only one response, which we find in...
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. 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. And one called to another and said:
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory!”
And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. 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!”
The only right response that we can have to discovery who God is, is WORSHIP.
If we don’t worship Him, it’s becuase we don’t have a clue who He is.
Challenge: Commit to spend at least some time each day this next week in personal worship. Sing a song to the Lord, pray and read the Bible.
Pro-tip: You don’t have to be a good singer. You can listen to a worship song and sing along.
