Short Answers to Common Questions 2
(topical)
1. One important innovations is the drone, a self-piloted mini flying device.
2. Amazon.com is pursuing a plan to deliver packages to your door by sending a drone to drop it off. Some people look forward to ordered a doughnut or a pizza and having it delivered by a drone. This will likely happen.
3. But drones pose a real danger to privacy. This UPI article reads, “Residents of an Alaska neighborhood said their privacy is being violated by an unusually high-tech peeping Tom using a camera drone.
Neighbors in the Prominence Pointe area of Anchorage said the drone has been seen flying close to homes and appeared to use its camera to look into windows.
"My gut feeling is it's here casing homes and trying to find out who's there or not," Tollefsen said. The Federal Aviation Administration bars the use of personal drones over private property without permission and the law requires owners to be within line-of-sight of their aircraft at all times.”
4. New technology brings new challenges and new questions.
Main Idea: Questions, curiosity, and a desire to learn more are generally a virtue. This series seeks to answer a variety of common questions about the Bible, theology, or the Christian life that can be answered briefly.
I. What is the Ark of the Covenant and Does It Still EXIST?
A. ORIGIN of the Ark (Exodus 25:10)
Indiana Jones did Christians a service… before then, average person had not hear of the ark.
“They shall make an ark of acacia wood. Two cubits and a half shall be its length, a cubit and a half its breadth, and a cubit and a half its height.”
• Placed in Most Holy Place where God’s Shekinah emanated from it
• Represented the presence of God
• Contents: Tablets of the Law, Aaron rod, jar of manna
• Some people misunderstood it to be putting God in a box
B. When the Ark was LOST (2 Chronicles 35:3)
“And he said to the Levites who taught all Israel and who were holy to the Lord, “Put the holy ark in the house that Solomon the son of David, king of Israel, built. You need not carry it on your shoulders. Now serve the Lord your God and his people Israel.”
C. Possible LOCATIONS of the Ark
1. DESTROYED
2. Underneath the TEMPLE
3. ETHIOPIA
D. Does the Ark need to be FOUND?
Jeremiah 3:16, And when you have multiplied and been fruitful in the land, in those days, declares the Lord, they shall no more say, “The ark of the covenant of the Lord.” It shall not come to mind or be remembered or missed; it shall not be made again.
This first question I label, “sensational.” The second, a life issue.
II. Is It a Sin to be DEPRESSED?
A. Many CAUSES of Depression
1. ANGER projected inward (frustration)
2. Body or brain CHEMISTRY
3. Circumstances that BLEAK
B. There is a time for EVERYTHING under the sun, (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8)
In his book The Pressure’s Off, Larry Crabb tells this story from his childhood.
One Saturday afternoon, I decided I was a big boy and could use the bathroom without anyone’s help. So I climbed the stairs, closed and locked the door behind me, and for the next few minutes felt very self-sufficient.
Then it was time to leave. I couldn’t unlock the door. I tried with every ounce of my three-year-old strength, but I couldn’t do it. I panicked. I felt …"I might spend the rest of my life in this bathroom."
My parents…heard my desperate scream. "Are you okay?" Mother shouted through the door she couldn’t open from the outside. "Did you fall? Have you hit your head?" "I can’t unlock the door!" I yelled. "Get me out of here!"
I wasn’t aware of it right then, but Dad raced down the stairs, ran to the garage to find the ladder… and leaned it against the side of the house just beneath the bedroom window. With adult strength, he pried it open, then climbed …[in] and with that same strength, turned the lock and opened the door.
"Thanks, Dad," I said—and ran out to play.
That’s how I thought the Christian life was supposed to work… God shows up. He hears my cry—"Get me out of here! I want to play!"—and unlocks the door to the blessings I desire. But now I’m realizing the Christian life doesn’t work that way.
[Kenneth Michell, Sermon Central]
C. MANY examples of godly persons who were depressed
• Abraham (Genesis 15)
• Hannah (I Samuel 1)
• Elijah (1 Kings 19)
• David (Psalm 13)
D. God can help us during times of depression and DESPAIR
1. Should Christians ever get medication? In some instances, yes.
2. Does trying to get a person to deny their depression help? No — opposite.
3. Your instances of depression might not be same as what others face.
4. Listen, pray, agree, visit.
III. Where Did God COME From?
A. God is Self-DERIVED and has always been.
1. Psalm 90:2, “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
2. Aseity, “the quality or state of being self-derived or self-originated; specifically : the absolute self-sufficiency, independence, and autonomy of God.” (Merriam-Webster)
B. TIME and space are created entities.
Romans 8:38-39, “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come [time] , nor powers, nor height nor depth [space] , nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
C. There are two categories: The CREATOR and the created.
John 1:1-3, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.”
D. By definition and Name, God is YAHWEH, the self-existent One.
1. God is not the “man upstairs.”
2. We exist only at his pleasure.
3. When I dream, all my dreams dissipate. We are not dreams, but God has consciously created us and keeps us existing. He is not one of us.
This is one reason why God deserves our worship, allegiance, obedience, and reverence. We exist solely for His pleasure and at His discretion. Fortunately, this Creator loves us intensely, and wants a relationship with us.
