For the past few weeks we’ve been looking at stuff that goes contrary to popular opinion. Things like less instead of more, and living for more than me as number one, and how to slow down instead of hurry. It’s been a fun series for me personally, because I think I fall victim to the normal, the typical, and the usual. I am a go with the flow kind of guy, and sometime I just have to shake things up... Tonight I want to talk with you about one of the biggest shakeups I’ve had over the last few years. It has to do with who God is and how Big he is, and what we must do to understand him better...
Some of my favorite stories from the Bible are stories that I have heard for a long time, but I still don’t understand. Familiarity with something doesn’t mean you really know it - and I think a lot of the stories of the Bible describe God in massive terms and images...and we miss them.
I love the image of Moses and the burning bush. Moses was a guy that was running from his past. He had grown up with the Pharaohs family. Groomed from a young age to be great - but then his heritage started seeping out. He was born an Israelite, part of the slave class - and one day while watching a slave being beaten, his anger gets the best of him and he kills an egyptian. Years later, he’s on a mountain tending sheep and he sees this bush that is on fire, but not burning up. As he goes to investigate, the bush says, “Take off your sandals, for you are in the presence of God, you are on holy ground.”
All throughout the Bible, God’s bigness is amazing... When Israel finally builds a temple, God said that he would place himself there in a room called the holy of holies - but you could only go in there once a year - and only one person could go in... They tied a rope around his ankle, and he had bells on his cloak, so they could tell if he was still alive. Once a year he went in to see God and you might not come out alive...
The prophet Isaiah tells a pretty cool story about meeting God. It’s found in Isaiah chapter 6.
READ ISAIAH 6: 1-8
One of the things that I have come to realize is that God is bigger than I will ever understand. Paul seems to understand this well...and as many times as I’ve read the writings of Paul, I guess I just missed verses like this one: 1 Corinthians 2:7 "No, the wisdom we speak of is the mystery of God—his plan that was previously hidden, even though he made it for our ultimate glory before the world began."
Paul speaks often about the mystery that is God...and the more I think about it, that’s what I want to see. I want to know God’s richness and bigness. I want to understand God at a deeper level, but I’m not there yet.
I was reading an author that I like, Calvin Miller, and he tells the story of his family going to the great barrier reef. He described how odd it was to be seventy miles out into the ocean and be standing in ankle deep water. he had went with his wife and his son - he and his wife, Barbara, spent the day snorkeling - sun-burning their backs as they looked at the beauty of the reef while they snorkeled, but his son had went scuba diving. While they never went very far from the surface, their son had probed the depths... Listen to how he describes it, “What amazes me most is what we reported upon returning from the Great Barrier Reef. Ask me if I’ve been there, and I will hastily answer yes. So will my son. However, the truth is that the content of our experience was greatly different. We will both spend the rest of our lives talking about the experience and our enthusiasm will always be exuberant. But only our son knew the reef; only he understood the issue of depth.” (Miller, Into the Depths of God, Pg. 16)
If you want to go deep, then you have to prepare. You have to get ready, you have to do stuff. Almost anyone can learn to snorkel in a few minutes. It’s easy because it’s almost the same as swimming... Scuba diving is a whole different thing - but it’s really the only way to see the depths.
I think one of the things that God has been teaching me this year is that there is more of him than I could ever understand, but not everyone gets to experience his depth - his greatness. Most of us only experience God at the surface. We paddle along quite content to come to a church, or listen to a message, or listen to a worship CD in our car... But there’s more if we want it.
I like this verse from the Apostle Paul. He is writing to the Church at Ephesus. Ephesians 2:16-19 "I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God." That verse talks about us growing in Christ and as our roots grow down...we begin to understand how wide, and deep, and long his love is - did you catch how he describes the love of Christ? “It’s to great to fully understand...”
There was a movie that came out a few years ago called the Passion of the Christ. Mel Gibson directed it, which was odd. It was also in Aramaic - not English - so it had subtitles, which was odd... I went into it not really knowing what to expect. It’s a portrayal of the last days of the life of Jesus. It’s graphic and bloody and gritty. But it also is pretty powerful... I remember seeing it in the theater for the first time, and after it was over, no one moved... Because it was such a powerful example of what Christ had done for us - it showed me his love in a whole new way... There was a depth to it that somehow we miss when we just read the story...
Exploring the depths of God doesn’t come by accident - and it doesn’t come casually. If you want to know God at a deeper level, you are going to have to work for it... Calvin Miller says, “If mere conversation or study groups were the path to depth experience, the church would be deep indeed. But it is those who read and pray, not those who philosophize and chatter, who arrive at lives of real power.” (Miller, Into... Pg. 16)
That’s one of the reasons we’ve started having more scripture and we’ve asked you to share some of your life verses with us - because there is power in reading the Bible. The more we read, the better we understand God. The better we understand ourselves - the deeper we go...
Prayer is also something that I really don’t understand, but there is real power when we pray. Not in just prayer for Aunt Suzie’s ingrown toenail - but for God to meet with us, for God to commune with us... Prayer I think is one of the ways we begin to explore the depth of God...
So, here’s my prayer for you... That you go deep. Don’t settle for the stuff on the surface. It’s pretty and all, but it doesn’t really change you. take the time this year to go deeper with God...
For some of you it may start with the last part of that verse... “May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God." (Eph. 2:19) For some of you, this year, for you to really go deep, you will need to confront who Christ is - and what he is to you. Maybe it’s time for you to walk across the line of faith. To take that step and say, I am ready to give my life to following Jesus...” For others, you’re not there yet - or maybe you are even further along than most - but the challenge is still the same. Go deep.
