God Is There Series

Mark Scott told the story of a student in Bible College who was running late for his 7AM class. The class had started and was in the middle of morning prayer when he stumbled in, panting, arm loaded with books. The prayer just continued. As he attempted to sit down, his books all dropped out all over the floor. He sat down in his seat as he gathered books and papers from all over, just then, the one leg of his chair was hanging out over a step down also went down – so did the rest of the chair, with the student in it. Once again, the books and papers went flying, this time with the late student also taking an unplanned trip to the floor. Once again, he regathered himself and everything else, and just as he was in his seat the AMEN at the end of the prayer came. The student looked up at the professor. “Did I miss anything?” “Yes, the ceiling!”

I’m starting a new series that will take us up to Christmas, and I don’t want you to miss out on any of it. I encourage you to make sure you hear all of it. This series has 3 parts that each build on the one before. Just remember that, because, after all, it’s December and you’re expecting to hear things about Jesus as a baby and wise men and shepherds in the fields and all that. We’ll get there. Just follow along in this series. Some will be asking, “Hey, where’s the Christmas in all of that?” I want to be answering an even bigger question. Where is God? Where is God this Christmas? Maybe you ask that same question every December as you venture out onto the streets or into the stores. Maybe this Christmas is harder than any other you’ve ever had to face, and now it has you asking “Where’s God?” I hope we can answer that – thoroughly.

Israel was asking a similar question. For 430 years they had been slaves in Egypt. Imagine it – some 17 generations of people who knew nothing but a slave’s life. Maybe some of them were asking, “Where is God?” Or maybe even, “Who is God?”

So one day in the Sinai desert, God uses a burning bush to help Moses become better acquainted with Him. It was the day that Moses was informed he was to go and command the king of Egypt to let God’s people go. That’s kind of like telling some person on the streets of Bagdad that he has been chosen to rid the world of Saddam Hussein.

He didn't want to lead Israel out of Egypt. He kept searching for the reasons he shouldn't be the one. Then, he tries to shift the burden to God, "What if they ask Who's sending me? What would I say? I don’t even know Your name!”

God said: YHWH - I AM - from the Hb "to be" "Moses, Tell them the I AM sends you." It's as though God were saying through that name, "I am the Being One. Existence itself finds its definition in Me." The Scriptures bear that out:

-Jn 1:3 "Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made."

-Acts 17:28 'For in him we live and move and have our being.

-Hebrews 1:3 The Son is…sustaining all things by his powerful word.

-Rev 4:11 "you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being."

Hamlet struggled: “to be or not to be” – Dream on. That isn’t up to you. Everything that is, that we can know of, owes its very being to God.

Ill - Bill Hybels, 1989 message he asked, "How do we know there's a God? "

the points were:

1. Only God could create a universe out of nothing.

2. Universal order could not happen without design.

3. Credible people demonstrate the born again experience.

4. It is mid September (at this writing) and the Cubs are in first place.

God is there. If you want to have a reason to celebrate Christmas, you have to get that fact straight. The basic truth of God's existence is the foundation of our worldview. If we believe that God is there, it affects everything we believe about life.

David believed it, and in the 139th Psalm he’s expressing to God some of what that belief means for him.

Psalm 139:7-10 Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.