Boundaries: What God Does Not Do for Us, but Can versus What We Want People to Do for Us, But Can't

Boundaries in Recovery: Boundaries: What God Does Not Do for Us, but Can (because of his omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence) versus What We Want People to Do for Us, But Can't. • Sermon • Submitted 2 years ago

Luke 11:5–13

God's Knowledge

Omnipresence

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Boundaries: What God Does Not Do for Us, but Can (because of his omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence) versus What We Want People to Do for Us, But Can't.

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God’s Knowledge or Omniscience (omni [all] + science [knowledge —> science]

I. Texts, Steps, and Principles

A. Luke 11:9–13 (LEB)

And I tell you, ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and it will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. But what father from among you, if his son will ask for a fish, instead of a fish will give him a snake? Or also, if he will ask for an egg, will give him a scorpion? Therefore if you, although you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father from heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?”

B. Principles and Steps

Boundaries in Recovery: Honoring and Embodying the First Three Steps and First Three Principles

Celebrate Recovery Updated Leader's Guide (Powerless)

Principle 1: Realize I’m not God. I admit that I am powerless to control my tendency to do the wrong thing and that my life is unmanageable.

“Happy are those who know they are spiritually poor.” (Matthew 5:3)

Step 1: We admitted we were powerless over our addictions and compulsive behaviors, that our lives had become unmanageable.

“I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.” (Romans 7:18)

Principle 2: Earnestly believe that God exists, that I matter to Him, and that He has the power to help me recover.

“Happy are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” (Matthew 5:4)

Step 2: We came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

“For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.” (Philippians 2:13)

Principle 3: Consciously choose to commit all my life and will to Christ’s care and control.

“Happy are the meek.” (Matthew 5:5)

Step 3: We made a decision to turn our lives and our wills over to the care of God.

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God —this is your spiritual act of worship.” (Romans 12:1)

II. God’s Omniscience (God Knows All or Everything)

Omniscient (adjective)

Om - nisc - ient or Om - nisc i - ent

/ ɒm ˈnɪʃ ənt / or / ɒm ˈnɪʃ i ənt /

Omniscience (noun)

Om - nisc - (i)ence or Om - nisc i - ence

/ ɒm ˈnɪʃ əns / or / ɒm ˈnɪʃ i əns /

A. F. Leroy Forlines

Biblical Systematics: A Study of the Christian System of Life and Thought, pp. 42-43.

God is Omniscient

When we speak of God as omniscient, we mean that His knowledge is infinite. There is nothing that has existed, does exist, or will exist outside His knowledge. As Thiessen explains:

He knows Himself and all other things, whether they be actual or merely possible, whether they be past, present, or future, and that He knows them perfectly and from all eternity. He knows things immediately, simultaneously, exhaustively and truly.

The scriptural support of God’s omniscience is abundant. The following are some selected passages: 1 Kings 8:39; 1 Chronicles 28:9; Job 34:21, 22; 42:2; Psalm 44:21; 147:4, 5; Isaiah 29:15; 40:27, 28; 46:10; Acts 15:18; Hebrews 4:13.

B. Carl Henry, God, Revelation and Authority

God, Revelation and Authority, pp. 268-269

By divine omniscience we mean, as A. H. Strong states, “God’s perfect and eternal knowledge of all things which are objects of knowledge, whether they are actual or possible, past, present or future” (Systematic Theology, Vol. 1, p. 282).

While the Bible does not apply to God the specific terms “omniscient” or “omniscience,” it does everywhere depict him as all-knowing . . .. First of all, God thoroughly knows himself; in the divine nature there are no dark and hidden recesses. God also thoroughly knows his created universe. “Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world” (Acts 15:18). He comprehensively knows both his inanimate creation (Ps. 147:4) and also the creaturely world (Matt. 10:29). No aspect of our vast universe, which some space-age observers are prone to consider infinite, is concealed from God . . .. God knows all processes and events of the universe not simply as unrelated facts but in their interrelationship with one another, and to all of reality.

God knows the motives, thoughts and purposes of all created minds. He knows the human will (Ps. 33:13 ff.) and the human heart (Ps. 139:2; Acts 15:8). Psychologists and psychoanalysts speak of deep areas of subconscious experience of which human beings are hardly aware. But God knows all men thoroughgoingly . . ..

In knowing himself he eternally and exhaustively knows all objects of knowledge. His knowledge of man and the world has its source in his self-knowledge, because God knew what he would make. God’s knowledge of what will be is grounded in his knowledge of his eternal purpose. Within the realm of God’s knowledge we are all as accessible to him as he is to himself. In his knowledge as in all other aspects of his being he is sovereign and self-sufficient. “He … calls the things that are not as though they were” (Rom. 4:17, NIV).

God’s knowledge is declared to be humanly incomprehensible (Ps. 139:6; Rom. 11:33; Eph. 3:10) because it simultaneously embraces knowledge of the past, the present and the future (Job 14:17; Ps. 56:8; Isa. 41:22–24, 44:6–8; Jer. 1:5; Hos. 13:12). His knowledge of the past (Mal. 3:16) and of the future (Isa. 46:9 f.), including future human acts (Isa. 44:22), is both comprehensive and detailed.

But God’s knowledge is more than comprehensive; it is also eternal. God knows from eternity (Acts 15:18). Without sense experience, without conjectural imagination, without such mental processes as reasoning and generalization, he knows the reason for all things and the logical relationships between axioms and theorems; he foreknows even the acts of his creatures and the complex purposes that motivate their decisions and deeds (Acts 2:23). Neither God’s mode of existence nor his mode of knowledge involves passing from one time to another.

Only God has perfect knowledge

C. God’s Omniscient /All-Knowing Passages

1 Chronicles 28:9

1 Kings 8:37–39

Acts 15:18

Ephesians 3:10

Hebrews 4:13

Isaiah 40:27–28

Isaiah 41:22–24

Isaiah 44:6–8

Isaiah 48:5–8

Isaiah 49:9–10

Jeremiah 1:5

Job 14:17

Job 34:21–22

Matthew 7:7–11

Proverbs 15:3

Proverbs 5:21

Psalm 139:1–24

Psalm 139:7–12

Psalm 147:4–5

Psalm 22:1–31

Psalm 44:21

Psalm 56:8

Romans 11: 22

D. Practical Application: Knowing and Believing in God’s Omniscience Builds Our Trust and Lessens Our Anxieties

The Lexham English Bible (Chapter 6)

7 “But when you* pray, do not babble repetitiously like the pagans, for they think that because of their many words they will be heard. 8 Therefore do not be like them, for your Father knows ⌊what you need⌋ before you ask him

The Lexham English Bible (Chapter 6)

31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?,’ 32 for the pagans seek after all these things. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.

II. Second Principle: If God Knows Everything, Why Are We Required to Ask, Seek, Knock, or Pray?

A. Answers:

1. God’s Sovereignty and

2. God’s Ordained Process of Growth and Character Maturation.

Sanctification or Spiritual Growth Requires the Right Balance of Struggling, Persevering, and Overcoming Using the Right Tools and Appropriate Disciplines that Christ and the Saints of Old Employed under the Guidance and Power (or Grace) of the Holy Spirit.

B. An Example from Salvation: Two Aspects of Salvation and the Two Sides of the Cross (Front & Back)

1. Front of the Cross—God’s Side

What God Has Done: The External, Objective, and Historical Aspects

a. 1 Corinthians 15:12-19 (The Cross and Resurrection)

Now if Christ is preached as raised up from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, Christ has not been raised either. But if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, and your faith is in vain. And also we are found to be false witnesses of God, because we testified against God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if after all, then, the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, Christ has not been raised either. But if Christ has not been raised, your faith is empty; you are still in your sins. And as a further result, those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If ⌊we have put our hope⌋ in Christ in this life only, we are of all people most pitiable. (LEB)

b. Hebrews 8:1-3; 9:11-14, 24-28 (Christ As Priest)

c. Acts 4:12; Acts 10:42-43 (Cf. Jn 14:6) (Only Name

Which Saves)

There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved. (NIV)

d. Romans 5:17 (NIV) (Salvation through One Man)

For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.

e. 1 Timothy 2:5 (There is only one mediator.)

2. The Back of the Cross—Humanity’s Side

What We Must Do: The Subjective and Personal Aspects and Activities of Salvation

a. John 3:16, 18; 20:31 (Belief and Confession)

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name. (KJV)

b. Acts 2:38 (Repentance & Baptism in Jesus)

Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. (NIV)

c. Romans 10:9, 13 (Confession and Belief)

That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." (NIV)

d. 1 John 5:1-12 and James 2:19-26 (Belief and Right Living)

3. Conclusion: There Are Two Aspects of Salvation.

While Salvation Is Free and an Unmerited Gift from God, Receiving Salvation Is not a Passive Experience. We Are Required to Act!

Salvation has two sides or two aspects. We must respond (the subjective, second, or the back side of salvation) to what God has already done and is doing (the front and objective side of salvation). In response to God, we must actively believe, repent, be baptized, confess, call on name of the Lord, and obey God’s instructions to receive salvation and afterwards to grow in sanctification. God may know our hearts and minds, but we are required to speak, confess, believe and act. We are to embody out trust in God and in God’s Lordship.

III. Boundaries and the Twelve Steps and Eight Principles of Recovery

I just mentioned that trust and faith in God means embodying the same. We can believe with our minds and acknowledge God’s existence (as the Devil and His Demons do), but our hearts, wills, and bodies may still be in rebellion and disbelief just as God’s enemies are. Head knowledge and our private thoughts must be joined with active trust and belief. We are called to trust and obey.

A. Boundaries for Transformation and Recovery

1. What God Has Supplied and Provided: God’s Side of Transformation and Recovery

a. The Spirit

b. The Bible

c. The Community and Fellowship of the Saints

d. The Spiritual Disciplines

i. The Traditional Disciplines (fasting, prayers, Bible reading, solitude, giving, service, etc.)

ii. The Twelve Steps

iii. The Eight Principles

2. What We Must Do and How We Are to Act by Faith by Seeking, Asking, and Knocking: Our Side of Transformation and Recovery

a. We must seek the Lordship of the Spirit and die to self daily

b. We must seek the voice and direction of God through prayer and Bible study—not just reading.

c. We must actively seek, find, and make use of the community and fellowship of the Saints

i. Actively Seeking and Finding Sponsors

ii. Actively Seeking and Finding Accountability Partners

iii. Actively Seeking and Finding Pastors, Teachers, Mentors, Coaches, and Counselors, etc.

iv. Actively Seeking, Pursuing, and Finding One’s spiritual gift and mentors and coaches to teach you how to use them.

v. Actively Seeking and Using ALL of the spiritual disciplines and practices modelled by Jesus, the Disciples, and the Saints throughout the ages. If Jesus and his disciples used them all in learning obedience and walking in obedience and victory, we should, ought, and must do the same to grow in obedience and victory.

d. Actively Seeking and Make Use of the ALL of the 12 Steps and 8 Principles for Recovery Derived from the Bible

B. Why the Understanding and Accepting the First Three Steps and Principles Are so Important.

Honoring and Embodying the First Three Steps and First Three Principles Allow Us to Respect the Boundaries God Has Set Up for Us

1. Celebrate Recovery Steps and Principles:1 - 3