A0416_Thinking Rightly About God
Date: 7th January 2009 (Wednesday PM) Ref: A0416
Place: Kambah P.S.
Title: Thinking Rightly About God
Text: & Exodus 20:1-4
Illust: You can get T-Shirts with almost anything on them these days, favourites slogans, witty comments almost anything & if you don’t like what you find, you can print one yourself – Saw a T-shirt advertised with the slogan “You shall worship me as thow I were a God” – A T-shirt for those with a God complex, People have a lot of different views about who God is. This PM, very important that you have a right view of God
I. God
A. Who is God
i. There is a saying; “you become like the God you worship”
If your God is cruel, fickle, jealous – you will be cruel, fickle, jealous.
If your view of God is harsh then you will be harsh.
If you view that God is all just lovey, dovey then you will be a hippie.
If you view God as limited / not involved then you will live accordingly
ii. Why it’s vitally important that you have a right view of God; you will become like the God you worship, you will act in accordance with how you view God
Job 11:7-8 7 “Can you search out the deep things of God? Can you find out the limits of the Almighty? 8 They are higher than heaven— what can you do? Deeper than Sheol— what can you know? (NKJV)
iii. Many people have a very distorted view of God
Psalm 50:21 ... You thought that I was altogether like you; But I will rebuke you, (NKJV)
B. True Worship
i. This leads to the question, that is the most important question for every believer. – God? –What do you believe about God? Who is God to you? – What is your perception of God.
ii. Your life, how it plays out, your decisions / actions / words ultimately flow out of how you perceive God. – Not a theological question a very practical and critically important issue
iii. Actually it is impossible that your worship can rise above your concept / your idea of God
II. Idolatry
A. Another God
i. Extremely important to God, the 1st 2 commandments are aimed specifically at this sin – & vs.3-4 - Make no mistake a wrong view of God is sin. – One word for this sin - Idolatry
ii. Think about the 1st commandment, & vs 3 – If you believe God to be different than He really is then you actually are worshipping a different God, another God & have violated the very 1st commandment.
iii. Vitally important that you have a right view of who God is, what He is like.
B. An Idol
i. We may not have a stone, wooden or golden statue in our homes, but you can create an idol in your hearts, a God of your own making, your own vision of who God is, what you want Him to be like.
ii. The sin of idolatry is hateful to God because at it’s heart all forms of idolatry are a libel on God’s character, it is entertaining a view of God, thoughts about Him that are unworthy of Him. – Idolatry begins in the mind.
Romans 1:21 because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. (NKJV)
This leads to;
Romans 1:23 and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. (NKJV)
iii. Note the progression, if you have a distorted view of God in your mind then eventually this leads to gross idolatry & then gross sin.
Romans 1:24-25 24 Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, 25 who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. (NKJV)
III. Your Obligation
A. You Must Believe Right
i. A serious obligation on each of us not to exchange the truth of God for a lie. – Need to understand the truth of who God is:
AW Tozer: “So necessary to the Church is a lofty concept of God that when that concept in any measure declines, the Church with her worship and her moral standards declines along with it”
ii. The major obligation on each of us therefore is to make sure that we have a right view of God.
Imperative – read, study, know; Word of God
iii. Will determine our actions / destiny going forward.