In Awe Of God Series

In Awe of God

How do we capture that awe of God

Recognize who God is

Recognize God as Creator

Recognize God as Judge

Recognize who We are

Recognize Ourselves as Sinners

Slide

Intro

Do you ever feel like something has changed in your life?

Where maybe you used to be excited about something, and then, it has just become part of the day in and day out living?

It seems the longer we are engaged in something, the more it becomes part of our life, the more likely that we are less excited over it.

Why does it seem that excitement dissipates with familiarity?

Work

When I used to work at the CME, people would always ask me if that was really exciting, and typically I would answer that it is a job like any other.

But you know what.

When I first started working down there, I remember walking onto the trading floor for the first time and thinking that this place is awesome.

Slide

The wonder and excitement were exhilarating.

People yelling and screaming

Paper flying everywhere

People communicating with hand signals across huge trading rooms.

It was really exciting and awe inspiring…the first month.

Marriage Relationship

Or even think about your relationship with your wife or husband.

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Before you were married, the excitement of talking to them on the phone or seeing them in person.

The getting ready to go on a date.

Putting on cologne and nice cloths.

Looking your best.

Then getting married.

The wedding night and honeymoon and even those first couple of years.

Looking forward to getting home from work and spending the evening together.

Then you get into routine and the excitement and awe seem to fade.

Relationship with God

Even in our relationship with God.

When I first became a Christian, I couldn’t get enough of the Bible.

I wanted to be reading

I wanted to be researching.

I wanted to be talking to others about what I was reading.

Now, I still enjoy being in the word, but that same excitement and awe is not always there.

Now I want you to turn with me to Hebrews 12:28-29 (p. 853).

Slide

Several weeks ago we were talking about worship and we saw that we must worship God in Spirit and truth to be true worshippers and we talked about the ways that manifests itself in our lives.

But as I was studying for those messages, this verse stuck out to me.

Let’s read it.

Hebrews 12:28-29

28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, 29 for our "God is a consuming fire."

If we are truly going to worship God with our lives, it needs to be with reverence and awe.

AWE

Fear mingled with reverence and wonder

(from International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, Electronic Database Copyright (c)1996 by Biblesoft)

Awe - a very strong feeling of wonder, reverence, or fear, caused by something grand or powerful. (www.Wordsmyth.com)

I asked myself, am I worshiping with awe? I have a reverence for the Lord, but sometimes, I confess, I don’t have that sense of awe and wonder.

And when we lose a sense of awe of God, the scripture tells us that we fail to worship God acceptably.

Today, I would like for us to return to a sense of being “In Awe of God”

To do that though, I think it is important to ask a couple of questions.

We know that it happens, but

Why does it Happen?

Why?

Why do we lose a sense of awe sometimes?

I think as we become familiar with anything including our own faith in God, it starts to become commonplace.

Now I want us to understand that there is a balance to maintain.

As we grow with the Lord, our understanding and relationship with the Lord will grow and it will become closer and more familiar.

We need to recognize that we can approach our heavenly father with confidence and with closeness, as a child approaches his Daddy (Abba).

But at the same time, we need to approach with a sense of awe and wonder that we have God almighty as our Father.

We need to seek to avoid our faith becoming so common that we look at God as we sometimes look at our own fathers as someone who

pays the bills and

lets us borrow the car.

How?

But how do we do that?

How do we maintain or get back our sense of Awe for God?

Slide

To start with, I think we need to recognize where this problem originates.

I believe it originates in our heads, in our thinking, or lack of thinking.

For instance, in working at the CME, I began to think of it as just a job, a place that I had to go and spend the day at so I could earn a living.