“What We Believe…” God the Father 1 Corinthians 8:6
As the day of September 11 grows closer there are a lot of people once again discussing – GOD.
What is odd is - that church attendance now is no more than it was at Pre-Sept 11 levels.
During the last year, there has been no lasting change in people’s religious practices. Immediately after the attacks, church attendance rose for several weeks and then fell back to normal levels by November.
People may be asking but they aren’t asking in churches.
So what do you tell some one when they ask, and they eventually will, what you believe about God…
Anyone who has ever stared into a star covered night, into the vastness of all that God has created can appreciate the difficulty of trying to describe God in a thirty minute sermon.
I will not try to cover all that GOD is – frankly because I can’t and we don’t have enough time. But just because we cannot fully understand all of God does not mean we don’t try to learn more about Him… so we will look at what we know God to be…
First what GOD is not - God is not “the boss”, not the “big man” and He is not the “man upstairs.”
God is not an unknown He is mis-known (if you don’t believe that then explain why atheists argue against something they say doesn’t exist).
God is not a celestial bell hop or slot machine. Nor is He a genie.
But OH…WHAT HE IS – He is Unfathomable - A pastor of old, John Wesley said... “Give me a worm that can understand a man, and I will give you a man who can understand God.”
And in Psalm 145:3, David said of God, “His greatness is unsearchable.” We can only scratch the surface of understanding…
Folks, it is impossible for our finite minds to understand an infinite God.
God Himself says in Isaiah 55:8 that His thoughts are not our thoughts and that His ways are not our ways. Our understanding, our capacity to fathom the truth of God changes but GOD, Himself is
Unchanging – In Malachi 3:6 God says that HE does not change. The Bible and the nation of Israel – even Israel’s enemies never questioned God’s existence – they knew HE was…
In all eternity He was and is. Even His name Jehovah means – “I am what I am”, and “I will be who that I will be.” He is the same yesterday today and tomorrow. He cannot love you less and He cannot love you more… He does not change!
And God is – OMNIPRESENT = All Present –
In 2 Chronicles 6:18 it reads:
"But will God indeed dwell with men on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain You; how much less this temple which I have built!”
Because He is all-present He is not confined to either time or space.
Years ago there was a really nice song by Bette Midler – called “God is Watching Us.” It said that God was watching us from a distance. While it makes for a nice song it is theologically incorrect. He is not a distant God – He is an all present God!
David understood this concept – in Psalms 139 he basically says - that there was no place I can go to hide or get away from God
for where ever I go – YOU God are there.
When you are at your worst – God is there. When you are at your best – God is there.
When you think you are alone… you not – GOD IS THERE!
And God is - OMNISCIENT = All Knowing – Because God is not confined to time like we are He knows what we call past, present and future. Yet while He knows what will happen He is not a puppet master – He allows us free choice – does He know the choices – yes – but He does not predetermine them.
Parents you can understand this on a limited scale. When your child asks to do something or go somewhere… you can fairly accurately know what they will be up to.
That is why you tell them no, you can’t or yes you can… Kids you can understand this because when you have done something it never seems to fail that by the time you get home mom already knows, please undestand when you get home and mom says; "where have you been?" SHE ALREADY KNOWS...!
But do you know what is amazing here is that He knows what we will do… yet He still loves us.
The Psalmist wrote– in 147:5 “Great is our Lord, and abundant in strength; His understanding is infinite.”
Finally God is - OMNIPOTENT = All Powerful – All of creation, all the universe holds is subject to Him. As Jeremiah writes –“Ah, Lord GOD, you have made heaven and earth by your great might, with your outstretched arm; nothing is impossible to you.” (Jeremiah 32:17)
All of God’s power is in complete harmony with His wisdom, His presence and His will. God is all powerful – as such nothing is impossible for Him.
The only limits to God’s power are self-imposed. While He is all powerful there are some things He cannot do. He cannot lie, He cannot love you less… these limits don’t make Him weak but are evidence of His power.
Because of what we believe we must respond to God. But How Do We Respond –
People have responded in a lot of ways to what they think God to be… they just have not done anything with it. They respond by crying out in the moment of need but when the need passes their done with God until the next crisis – if at all.
People respond with criticism or skepticism because they don’t want to admit that there is a God; they don’t want to admit that this life isn’t about them…
But you will have to respond to God, sometime, somehow, someway… let me share with you the biblical response to what God is… first -
There is only ONE God…so we are to REVERE Him. (Worship, be in awe of, a healthy fear)
Our first response should be one of reverence, worship and awe. David in Psalms 8:3 – 4 says;
“I look up at your heavens, shaped by your fingers, at the moon and the stars you set firm, what are human beings that you spare a thought for them or the child of Adam that you care for him?”
That alone is reason enough to revere God… that the one who created the entire universe – all that it contains, the one and only true God would – would - as David said –
“…You have made him (humans) a little lower than the angels, And You have crowned him with glory and honor.”
When we consider the fact - THAT HE is and WHAT HE has done for us, when we consider all the things His hands have made, then bow in humble reverence and know… that even this alone is reason enough to worship and revere Him…
And then to know that He is MERICFUL… we can RELY on HIM. (Trust, depend)
Several years back there was an earthquake in Mexico City. A small elementary school was completely demolished. In a small air pocket in the rubble several young boys were trapped. Frightened and in the dark they began to cry – except for one little boy. This one child kept telling the others, “my father will come for me; he will not let me die…” he continued to say that over and over.
Outside the rescue workers were giving up for the night, except for one man who continued to dig in the broken concrete with his bare hands. For several hours he dug, until he heard the faint cries of his son. He began to call out his son’s name – and through the rubble a small hand reached out to feel the hand of his father. The little boy said, “I told you he would be save us.”
God is like that father… because He knows, because He is powerful, because He will be present with us, we know that He is merciful and that we can rely on Him, trust Him and depend on Him to be there… ever present, knowing and understanding where we are and what we need.
This all present, all knowing, all powerful God has made Himself ACCESSIBLE… so we must respond in a RELATIONSHIP. (one of devotion, love)
What and awesome thing to consider, that the one true God made Himself know, made Himself truly accessible to you for one reason. That is to share a relationship of love and devotion with you.
So your response should be to accept that love and enter into that relationship that God desires to have with you
You WILL have to respond one day… let me ask you - why not today?
