Living in the Awe of God
Various Scriptures
June 27, 2004
Introduction
One of the themes of my life is that God is worthy of praise. He is awesome. He is deserving of our devotion and our awe.
But when was the last time we really just sat back, looked at God in the Scriptures and said, ¡§Wow¡KYou are incredible. You are awesome and glorious and majestic. Your worthy of all praise.¡¨
We say that God is worthy of my praise and I go, ¡§Yeah ¡V Like God really needs to earn my praise.¡¨
The Bible says in Job 25:2 ¡V
"Dominion and awe belong to God; he establishes order in the heights of heaven.¡¨
What we need to understand, folks, is that God already has it coming! He deserves it just because of who He is, not to mention what He does and says.
This morning I just want to give us three ways for us to find awe for God. There are plenty of places to find awe, but I want to focus on these three.
And if you will reflect on these through the rest of the week, asking God really reveal Himself and His awesomeness in these, I believe your life will be changed.
So let¡¦s dive right in, okay? First¡K
We find awe for God¡K
1. In who He is.
Exodus 15:11
"Who among the gods is like you, O LORD? Who is like you--majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders?
Isaiah 40:25
"To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?" says the Holy One.
He is the Creator who put all the stars and heavens in place. He created this earth and all that is in it.
Ralph Waldo Emerson observed that if the constellations appeared only once in a thousand years, imagine what an exciting event that would be. But because they are there every night, we barely give them a look. (SermonCentral.com)
And not only did He create them, He holds them in place!
Listen to Isaiah 40:26 ¡V
Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.
Because of WHOSE mighty hand? Yours? Mine? Not hardly.
God, the Creator is the one who holds the universe in His hands, and He takes care of it.
I¡¦m sure someone can give us scientific explanations of how the universe holds together, but they cannot explain the why, or the who.
He created you and me, believe it or not! And He created us each uniquely. Jesus tells us that the very hairs on our heads are numbered. And even with the few of us in here who make it easy for Him to count, that is still a massive thing.
I read this story recently that I thought you¡¦d enjoy:
In dire need of a beauty makeover, I went to my salon with a fashion magazine photo of a gorgeous, young, lustrous-haired model.
I showed the stylist the trendy new cut I wanted and settled into the chair as he began humming a catchy tune and got to work on my thin, graying hair.
I was delighted by his cheerful attitude until I recognized the melody. It was the theme from "Mission: Impossible."
(http://www.cybersalt.org/cleanlaugh ¡V SermonCentral.com)
Over 6 billion people in the world, and He knows that kind of detail about every single one. That¡¦s awesome, wouldn¡¦t you say? I¡¦d say.
So God¡¦s the Creator and Sustainer. What else is He?
He is the Master of the Universe. He created it, He sustains it, and He runs it. That¡¦s powerful. That should bring us to awe of Him.
He is holy. Perfectly holy. Not just holy on the outside, but perfectly holy through and through. He is so holy that the Bible says He cannot even look on sin. And yet when we confess our sins, He forgives and purifies. How¡¦s that for awesome?
He is jealous. Did you know that? The Bible says God is jealous for His glory, and refuses to let another have it.
He is also an angry God. We don¡¦t like to think of this, but the Bible says it¡¦s true. This anger is an outgrowth, if you will, of His holiness. God is angered by sin, and since God is also just, He punishes it.
But He is also love. And that love drove Him to save us. And so He is also the Savior. The Savior who shows grace to undeserving people.
God would be perfectly just to punish everybody for their sins. Yet the gracious God said that He would rather punish His perfect, sinless Son instead.
Doesn¡¦t that fill you with awe? If not, then I would suggest that you take some time even during the rest of the service to pray to God, asking Him to show you just how that should fill you with awe.
You see, I don¡¦t deserve a God like this. I don¡¦t deserve a God who, in spite of His activities keeping the universe intact, loves me and made provision for me.
But God is also an active God, and that leads me to the second are we find awe of God for, and that is¡K
2. In what He does.
Psalm 66:5
Come and see what God has done, how awesome his works in man’s behalf!
Psalm 68:35
You are awesome, O God, in your sanctuary; the God of Israel gives power and strength to his people.
I¡¦ve already talked about how God created and sustained the universe. But these two verses suggest the awesomeness and the awesome power of God in the lives of His people.
It¡¦s just incredible to me that God would want to have anything to do with anybody, much less me.
I am not perfect, and am full of flaws, and believe me, nobody knows that better than me. Okay, maybe my mother-in-law, but other than God, that¡¦s all!
God doesn¡¦t want to just be a part of your life. He wants to transform it, and He wants to run it. And when He runs it, when He gets the final say in everything, His power is magnified in our lives.
Henry Varley said this, maybe you¡¦ve heard it:
¡§The world has yet to see what God can do with and for and through and in a man who is fully consecrated to Him.¡¨
In a seminary missions class, Herbert Jackson told how, as a new missionary, he was assigned a car that would not start without a push. After pondering his problem, he devised a plan. He went to the school near his home, got permission to take some children out of class, and had them push his car off. As he made his rounds, he would either park on a hill or leave the engine running. He used this ingenious procedure for two years.
Ill health forced the Jackson family to leave, and a new missionary came to that station. When Jackson proudly began to explain his arrangement for getting the car started, the new man began looking under the hood. Before the explanation was complete, the new missionary interrupted, "Why, Dr. Jackson, I believe the only trouble is this loose cable." He gave the cable a twist, stepped into the car, pushed the switch, and to Jackson¡¦s astonishment, the engine roared to life. For two years needless trouble had become routine. The power was there all the time. Only a loose connection kept Jackson from putting that power to work. (Contributed by: David Yarbrough ¡V SermonCentral.com)
Here¡¦s the thing that really gets me: not only is God able to do things in and through me, He actually wants to do things in and through me.
The Bible says that God gave us His great and precious promises so that we could partake in the divine nature. That doesn¡¦t happen unless God is actively working in your life, right?
And when I reflect on the fact that God wants to be involved in my life, I am filled with awe. I don¡¦t have anything special to offer Him. All I have is me. And God says, ¡§You know what, Brian? That¡¦s all I need. Just let me run the show and watch what happens, okay?¡¨
And I watch what happens. I am continually amazed at what God does. And I am humbled.
Am I the only one who finds it just absolutely amazing that God would have anything to do with him?
Folks, find awe in what God does in the lives of His people. Find awe in what God does in your life.
Thirdly, we need to find awe for God¡K
3. In what He says.
Matthew 7:28-29
When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, 29 because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.
I found 36 references in the gospels to people being amazed by Jesus and His teachings.
I mentioned a couple weeks ago that Jesus was the kind of rabbi who had authority, and it attracted people.
When was the last time you just allowed yourself to be awed by the words of God?
It¡¦s been a while for me, but lately, I have been having a blast.
Let me make a suggestion to you: get a red-letter Bible if you don¡¦t have one. Then just read the words of Jesus. Listen to Him speak to you through the pages of Scripture and be amazed, just as those people were who heard Him 2000 years ago.
I have been noting in my Bible as I read, every time it says that the people were amazed at Jesus and His words.
And I also found something else interesting: in one passage, it says that Jesus was the one who was amazed. You know what He was amazed at? The lack of faith He found in one town He ministered in.
Would He be amazed in the same way about you? I hope not! And if you choose to allow yourself to be amazed and find awe in Christ and His words, you will not have to worry about that.
So how should we respond?
It¡¦s not enough to just stand in awe. We need to respond. We need to do something with the awe. We can¡¦t just stand around with our mouths open.
Ecclesiastes 5:7
Much dreaming and many words are meaningless. Therefore stand in awe of God.
We can sing ¡§Our God is an awesome God,¡¨ all day, but unless we let that truth impact us in our daily living, it¡¦s just a bunch of hot air. And Lord knows we have enough of that right now until November.
So how do we respond? What do we do with the awe that we experience in God? Well, let me suggest that you simply¡K
Say ¡§Yes!¡¨
Some of you have already figured out by looking at your outlines that the word ¡§yes¡¨ is an acronym.
Let¡¦s take a look at each one of these letters, okay? First, we need to¡K
ľ Yield.
It all begins with you making a conscious decision to let Him have His way. You decide that God really is worthy of awe and worthy of your total love and allegiance.
You know, if you are not experiencing this kind of awe on occasion, it may be because you have not fully yielded yourself to Him, allowing His Holy Spirit to fill you to overflowing.
Remember a few weeks ago, when I said that we cannot live in compartments, but that everything in our lives needs to be ¡§submerged¡¨ in God?
That¡¦s what yielding is all about. You¡¦re saying, ¡§Okay God, it¡¦s all Yours. Do what You will in my life ¡V make me usable for your kingdom.¡¨
So first, you need to yield, next you need to¡K
ľ Examine.
Examine the Scriptures, examine yourself, and let God examine you.
This is hard, because when you do this, you open yourself up to finding things out about yourself that you don¡¦t want to know.
How do I know this? Because God does it to me, just like I¡¦m suggesting you let God do it to you.
These messages aren¡¦t just for you. They¡¦re for me as well. Since beginning this message, I have had the opportunity to examine myself and let God examine me.
The problem with doing that is that God brings to my attention things that I have done, said, or not done or said, and I am reminded that I am far from perfect.
I need the forgiveness of people as well as the forgiveness of God. Just last night I needed to ask the forgiveness of some people. I hate that. But if I¡¦m serious about letting God do awesome things in me and through me and for me and with me, then I need to allow God to root out the garbage that¡¦s in the way.
This kind of examination keeps us from thinking too highly of ourselves, as God tells us in the book of Romans, chapter 12. We tend to avoid pride when we are aware of the fact that God is still doing His thing in us, and won¡¦t be completely finished until we meet Him in heaven.
The third thing we need to do in saying ¡§yes¡¨ to God is to¡K
ľ Serve.
You can¡¦t get by with just thinking awesome thoughts about God. They need to overflow into your relationships with people, in your jobs, in your family, or whatever.
Being in love with an awesome God means letting others see that God in you.
Serve Him by doing your work well. Serve Him by loving His children, and offering hope to those who are not yet His children.
Serve Him by loving your family. Serve Him by getting to know Him better in His word and prayer.
Folks, living in awe of God must affect how you live for Him, or it is not really awe.
It might be respect, or it might even be a bit of excitement, but it is not really awe. If you read the Bible, and find those people who lived in awe, not just experienced it once in a while, but really lived in awe, it caused them to have a heart for people.
Why, because God cares for people. He is glorified in His people, and wants more people to be glorified in. And that happens when we allow God to move in us in service.
Conclusion
In working on this message, one thing kept coming to mind: that this message is wholly inadequate to describe the awesomeness of God.
By the way, that would NOT be a good place for an ¡§amen!¡¨
It¡¦s also wholly inadequate in trying to describe to you how you should respond. My little acronym is memorable, and maybe even cute, but it is not adequate to describe how being in awe of God should impact us.
I can¡¦t describe it any better, so I¡¦m asking God to tell you through His Spirit in your own heart.
I¡¦ve mentioned before that for some reason, God has allowed me to fall in love with Him more than ever before. And I think one of the reasons this is happening (and it¡¦s continuing to happen) is that I am allowing myself to be awed by God.
When I reflect on how awesome He is, and how much He cares for me, I just about lose it. I can¡¦t explain it, but it¡¦s true.
And so I invite you to join me in being awed by God, and allow it change your life like He¡¦s changing mine.
Let¡¦s pray.
