Someone asked me this week, "Is our new Worship Service from 11:30 to 12:45 or 11:30 to 1:30?" And I said, "Well," and before I could get another word in, she said, "What I need to know is what time do you stop talking."
And I said, "When my stomach starts growling. We finish when I’m hungry."
When we are thinking clearly, we know that Sunday Worship Service is not about my talking but about worshipping God. Yet, many people have differing motives for coming to church. Some come to church out of routine; some come to church for friendship; and some come to church simply to learn what the Bible says. Some are here for yourselves and not for God. In fact, some aren’t even sure there is a God.
Some of you have visited my new home. I have a detached garage, which I’ve turned into my office. On my way from my office to my home, some twenty feet away, I was stopped by one of my neighbors. He told me he was a Baptist, but he’s not interested in organized religion anymore.
I said, "I’m sorry, you must have been hurt by the church." And he was.
Over the past 15 years as a Christian, I’ve discovered the evolution of an atheist. Atheists are not born; they are made. Most atheists are atheists because of one of three reasons. They are atheists because they’ve been hurt by a person or persons representing God or some authority figure in their lives; they are atheists because they’ve been taught or indoctrinated to believe that there is no God, or they are atheists because they are living in a sinful lifestyle that keeps them from seeing God.
Human beings who have not been hurt by persons or institutions associated with religion usually don’t have a problem believing in God. People who have not been indoctrinated to believe that there is no God usually have no problem believing in God. People who are willing to let go of a sinful lifestyle usually have no problem believing in God.
Most people can look at the world in which they live, the creation and themselves, and simply conclude that there must be a Creator. Complex design presupposes an Intelligent Designer, namely, God.
The first sentence of the first book in the Bible reads, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1)." The Bible does not spend anytime proving there is a God. It assumes that people naturally believe there is a God. The only question is, "What is God like?"
This morning, and several other Sunday mornings after Easter Sunday, we will be looking at the question, "If there is a God, what’s He like?" We will learn from what the Bible says about what God is like.
This past week, I got my haircut not from my usual hair stylist. What I pictured for my haircut and what he pictured for my haircut were very different. When he got done, he said, "Try this on for awhile; I think you’ll like it." I wasn’t sure how to answer, since he was already done. I wasn’t going to tip him, but we talked, and he knew I was a pastor.
Each one of us has a picture of God that has developed over the years with the help of the media, the church or from life experiences. Whether we like those pictures of God in our minds is irrelevant. What is relevant is what is God really like. And when it comes to describing God, no one has the authority to say, "Try on this picture of God for awhile; I think you’ll like it."
Only God has the right and ability to describe Himself accurately. And He does this in His Word, the Bible. The Bible is our authority for learning what God is like.
Our church’s statement of belief about God comes from the Bible. Let me read our statement of belief about God, "We believe there is only one living and true God, the Maker and supreme Ruler of Heaven and earth. He is holy and worthy of all honor, confidence and love. He exists in three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, equal in divinity, and executing distinct but harmonious roles in the great work of restoring creation to God’s original intent and value." (Exodus 20:2,3; Matthew 28:19; John 1:1; 1 Corinthians 8:6; 2 Corinthians 13:14; Hebrews 9:14; 1 Peter 1:17-21; Revelation 4:11; 1 John 5:7)
You might say, "Why should I care? I just had a horrible week at work, and my anxiety is more real than your description of God. Or, I’m trying to break a lust habit, an anger habit or an eating habit, and my guilt is more real than your description of God. Or, I’ve been living life without God all these years, and my material success is more real than your description of God."
Why should you care? There are many reasons why knowing what God is like is of absolute importance to our lives. Let me share two of these reasons with you.
First, the Bible tells us in Genesis 1:26-27, "Then God said, ’Let us make man[kind] in our image, in our likeness. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.’"
In other words, we will know ourselves better, not by going to a psychologist or by reading books on human potential, but by knowing what God is like. God made mankind in His image. When we learn what God is like, we will also discover what God made us to be like.
This is not to say that we grow into gods, as the Mormons believe. Yet, the Bible calls us to be godly or god-like, and we will look at what attributes of God He intended for mankind to take on.
Second, what God is like effects how we live our lives. If we believe God is an angry Parent, we will live our lives to appease Him. Our lives become a series of actions motivated by the fear of angering God or by the need to hide our failures, less we incur more anger from God.
If we believe God is a heavenly Grandfather, we will live our lives expecting Him to spoil us. Our lives become a series of actions motivated by getting what we want in terms of material and emotional experiences.
What we belief about God determine how we behave in life. If we are wrong, we will pay the high price of wasting our lives in wrong actions and emotions and missing out on a right relationship with God. If we are right, we will be rewarded with fulfilling lives and right and healthy relationships with God.
In the remaining time, I want introduce to you the first of nine attributes or characteristics of God. God is not limited to these nine attributes, but I’ve chosen these nine to answer the question, "Why should I care what God is like?" Let’s look together.
First, we find from the Bible that God is self-existent.
Genesis 1:1 tells us, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."
The Psalmist wrote in Psalm 90:1-2, "Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations. Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God."
Jesus said in John 5:26, "For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself."
God said in Psalm 50:9-10, 12, "I have no need of a bull from your stall or of goats from your pens, for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills.... If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it."
Acts 17:25 reads, "And [God] is not served by human hands, as if He needed anything, because He himself gives all men life and breath and everything else."
Each one of us in this room was created. In other words, there was a time when we did not exist. Before 1967, I didn’t exist.
That is not the case with God. God always existed, from the very beginning, before there was time. God brought forth time, space and life.
Furthermore, each one of us in this room is dependent on others and other things to survive. That is not the case with God. He doesn’t need our help, our abilities or our contributions. He is the Creator of all there is, and the Owner by right of creation.
The bad news is that you are not needed by God. The good news is that God loves you anyways. The bad news is that if you were to die tomorrow, you wouldn’t even leave a hole in the ground very long. The good news is that God loves you anyways. The bad news is that you are dependent on oxygen, water, food and shelter to survive. The good news is that God created for you a world with all you need.
The Bible tells us that the true God is self-existent. He doesn’t need our money. He doesn’t need our abilities. He doesn’t need our time and efforts.
Okay, but why should we care? We should care because this means that what a self-existent God commands us to do is for our own good, not for His. Let me say it again, "What a self-existent God commands us to do is for our own good, not for His."
God commands us to give Him 10 % of our income. Listen, God isn’t broke. To give God 10% of our income requires that we trust Him to provide sufficiently. To give God 10% requires that we spend wisely. He is training us to trust Him, to be financially responsible and to be self-disciplined.
God calls us to make disciples of all nations. Listen, God isn’t short-handed. To make disciples requires more than our natural talents; it requires the supernatural intervention of God. And to make disciples, we ourselves need to be growing disciples. God is training us to trust Him. He is training us to be better disciples.
Mark 10:45 tells of God coming in the form of a man, in Jesus Christ, "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." In other words, whey you serve other people, you are growing in your likeness to God Himself. You are reflecting the image of God.
Why should we care? Because God is self-existent, we approach the commands from God in the Bible with a new perspective. We now ask, "What good thing does God want me to gain from this?" God calls us to forgive others. God calls us to endure suffering. God calls us to trust Him. God calls us to love our wives. God calls us to respect our husbands. God calls us to submit to one another. God calls us to keep our promises. God calls us to morally pure.
"What good thing does God want me to gain from carrying out His commands?"
John Piper wrote, "What is God looking for in the world? Assistants? No. The gospel is not a help-wanted ad. It is a help-available ad. God is not looking for people to work for Him but people who let Him work mightily in and through them."
