[Adapted from Chip Ingram’s book God: As He Longs for You to See Him.]
We are starting a new series called – God: as He Longs for You to See Him.
Why is there a need to see God rightly?
John 17:3, 25-26 – In Jesus’ pre-departure prayer:
3 Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
25 Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. 26I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.
God invites us to know Him. Life is a friendship with God.
• Eternal life is not defined by its length but by our relationship with God.
• There is nothing more important than this, because this relationship will last forever.
Jesus says He has already made known to us the Father. And then he says He will continue to make the Father known to us.
• Jesus is revealing the Father to us all the time. We are growing continually in our knowledge of Him.
• God has something new to show you about Himself every day - through His Word, His creation, and through life experiences.
We are called to know Him personally and intimately, not just knowing about Him.
• If we are made to have fellowship with God, then knowing Him must be the goal of our lives.
• Jesus says “in order that” we can fully experience God’s love. We experience His love through knowing Him.
To really know Him, we need to be aware of the things that can distort our understanding of God. Our knowledge of God is affected by TWO things:
(1) HOW YOU SEE GOD
Take a look at these pictures (show slides).
• Your perception is very important. We can end up seeing God with many different lenses. Reality and perception can be miles apart.
A. W. Tozer in his book, the Knowledge of the Holy, says: “What comes to our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.”
• Who we perceive God to be, greatly affects the way we live.
• What you think about God shapes your whole relationship with Him.
Have you ever had a misunderstanding and the words goes like this: “I thought you like this” or “I thought this is what you want” or “Why are you like that.”
• Wrong perception leads to barriers in the relationship. We misread someone’s intention, motivation, or action.
• As long as we have an inaccurate view of the other, the relationship cannot develop in meaningful ways.
(2) HOW YOU THINK GOD SEES YOU
What you believe God thinks about you determines how close you will grow toward Him.
• Many people form a picture of God from their past upbringing or experiences, or from impressions they picked up along the way.
We are always worried and tense because we see God as an over-zealous policeman, a cosmic cop.
We feel guilty and unworthy, because we see Him as an angry judge.
Or we are casual about our sin, because we think God is just like us.
But are these really accurate? What if they are not true at all?
• Misconceptions about God will create barriers to an intimate relationship with Him.
• How you see God and how you think God sees you, affects the quality of life you have.
• It is the same with any relationships. How you see that someone, and how you think that someone sees you, affects that relationship.
THE COMMON ERRORS ABOUT GOD
(1) We tend to assume that God is just like us
Isa 40:25-28 "To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?" says the Holy One. 26 Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing. 27 Why do you say, O Jacob, and complain, O Israel, "My way is hidden from the LORD; my cause is disregarded by my God"? 28 Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.”
Isa 50:2 “Was my arm too short to ransom you? Do I lack the strength to rescue you?”
• Don’t project human’s limitations and experience upon God. He is not like us.
• We get tired and weary; God does not. There are things we don’t understand; God never even has a question come to His mind.
See the doxology of Paul in Rom 11:33-36
33 Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! 34 "Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?" 35 "Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?"
36 For from him [source] and through him [cause] and to him [for His glory] are all things.
To him be the glory forever! Amen.
• The answer to all of these questions is obvious – no one is like God.
• When God asks a question in the Scripture, the answer is not meant for Him. It’s meant for us.
(2) We tend to reduce God to human terms
In order words, we shrink Him. We box Him up. We try to tame Him.
Rom 1:21-23
21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
• These images are something more understandable, more tangible than an immortal God.
• They prefer things that can be seen, felt and touched.
Look at Job. All his three friends tried to rationalise his painful experience.
• From Job 1-37 they discussed their views of God. They had their reasonings - human explanation of what was happening.
• And God spoke finally – Job 38. He did not defend Himself. He simply threw them an avalanche of questions. Just like to quote verses 4-7
4 "Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand.
5 Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it? 6 On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone - 7 while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?
We cannot reduce Him to a formula. God’s thoughts and ways are higher than ours.
• We cannot reduce Him to the status of a servant, there only to meet our needs, and make sure we have a good life.
• God did not exist for us; we exist for Him. We are to serve and glorify God, not the other way around. God loves us and will surely bless us, but He does not exist to fulfil our personal agenda.
CONCLUSION
So the important question is: Who is God to you? What do you think about, when you think of God?
• The right perception of God is liberating – it frees us to enjoy God’s love and His grace, free from fear, suspicion, doubt or despair.
• We have confidence in Him because we know who He is.
So if you are in despair or feeling hopeless, it is usually because you’ve forgotten something about God’s character – or that we have not learned it yet.
• And God can be revealing Himself to you, in a newer ways, through that experience and struggle.
So over the course of this series [God: As He Longs for You to See Him] we want to make a deliberate effort to study the character and attributes of God from the Scriptures.
• We are going to look at His goodness, sovereignty, holiness, wisdom, justice, love and faithfulness.
• We want to go beyond the description of God’s attributes, to the implications of these traits in our daily lives – what does it really mean to know such a God.
• We want to stop looking at God through all the distortions of life and begin to look at life through Him instead.
Don’t miss these sessions. My prayer is that we will not simply learn facts about God but to be able to encounter Him in ways that we never dreamt possible, that we can all experience Him in a deeper and richer way.
• This was the prayer of Jesus – “He will continue to make God known, in order that the love God has for Him may be in us and that Jesus himself may be in us.”
• God wants to be understood. God wants us to see Him for who He really is.
The question is, do you really want to see Him.
• Jer 29:13 “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”
Prov 2:1-5
My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you,
2 turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding,
3 and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding,
4 and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure,
5 then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God.
If you… you will…
• No one can do that for you. You must seek Him and cry out to Him for insight. If you long to know Him, He will let you find Him.
• True knowledge of God can only come firsthand. I can tell you all about God, but you can only know Him firsthand.
• Even the best description of God cannot compare to you knowing Him personally.
• God wants you to know Him personally!
In the coming weeks, we will look at these 7 attributes of God.
• We will all see Him in a new light; we will all grow in the way we know Him.
• And it will surely change our lives.
• Tell God this is our desire… let us pray.
PRAYER:
Before I start praying, I’d like to give you a few minutes. Close your eyes and think about who God is and what He is like. Think about His goodness, His love, His power… Tell Him you want to know Him more.
Lord, this is our desire, to know you more and to love you more. Reveal yourself to us like never before. We pray that the eyes of our hearts may be enlightened as we take this journey together.
