Actual warning labels from products
• Sign on the side of a massage chair: "Do not use massage chair without clothing."
• "Do not use snow blower on the roof."
• "Do not allow children to play in the dishwasher."
• A warning on an electric router made for carpenters: "This product not intended for use as a dental drill."
• On a baby stroller: "Remove child before folding."
• On a bottle of prescription sleeping pills: "Warning: May cause drowsiness."
• A sticker on a toilet at a public facility in Ann Arbor, Michigan: "Recycled flush water unsafe for drinking."
• An "Aim-n-Flame" fireplace lighter cautions: "Do not use near fire, flame, or sparks."
• On a cartridge for a laser printer: "Do not eat toner."
• On a household iron warns: "Never iron clothes while they are being worn."
• On a blanket from Taiwan: "Not to be used as protection from a tornado"
• On a Taiwanese shampoo bottle: "Use repeatedly for severe damage"
• On a hairdryer: "Do not use while sleeping"
• On a bag of corn chips: "You could be a winner! No purchase necessary. Details inside."
• On a bar of Dial soap: "Directions: Use like regular soap."
• On Marks & Spencer Bread Pudding: "Product will be hot after heating"
• On a Korean kitchen knife: Warning: Keep out of children"
• On a string of Chinese-made Christmas lights: "For indoor or outdoor use only"
• On a Superman Halloween Costume: "This costume will not enable your children to fly"
Indebted to Chip Ingram and his book by the same title.
A.W. Tozer in Knowledge of the Holy:
What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. The history of mankind will probably show that no people has ever risen above its religion, and man’s spiritual history will positively demonstrate that no religion has ever been greater that its idea of God. Worship is pure or base as the worshipper entertains high or low thoughts of God. For this reason the gravest question before the Church is always God Himself, as the most portentous fact about any man is not what he at a given time may say or do, but what he in his deep heart conceives God to be like. We tend by a secret law of the soul to move toward our mental image of God.
Seeing God with 20/20 vision:
Illustration: LASIK surgery for my eyes. We need spiritual LASIK
1. God is not like us
"To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?" says the Holy One.
Isaiah 40:25 (NIV)
"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Isaiah 55:8,9 (NIV)
Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! "Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?" "Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?" For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.
Romans 11:33-36 (NIV)
2. Left to ourselves, we tend to reduce God to manageable terms
• Trivializing God
Illustration: Exodus 32:1-6
• People had seen the power of the invisible God through his miracles (plagues, parting of the Red Sea, God’s presence through the pillar of cloud by day and fire at night
• Moses goes up on the mountain to receive the ten commandments and the people reduce God to something they can see and manage
How we do the same thing:
o We redefine God as the “self-help genie”
We demand that God get busy and keep us comfortable and happy
o We reduce the Christian life to a formula
If I read the Bible each day, say a few prayers, go to church every Sunday, give some money and read some Christian self-help books, then life will be great. I’ve done my part, so now God is obligated to do his part:
o Give me a great marriage
o Make all my kids turn out right
o Have all the possessions I want
o Keep me healthy
o Keep any bad things from happening to me
o Never allow me to get sad or depressed
• “Salad Bar” Religion
Pick and choose what we like from among all the different world religions:
• God is loving, so he couldn’t ever bring judgment
• I like heaven, but not hell
• Essentially this is nothing more than worship of self – we make God just like us.
3. God can only be known as he reveals himself to us.
• Through nature
The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Psalm 19:1 (NIV)
For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities - his eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
Romans 1:20 (NIV)
• Through His Word
You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me…
John 5:39 (NIV)
• Through His Son
Jesus answered: "Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father…
John 14:9 (NIV)
Two crucial questions:
1. Is it really possible to see God just as He is?
• Yes – I can know him truly
• No – I cannot know him exhaustively
Then Moses said, "Now show me your glory." And the LORD said, "I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. But," he said, "you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live."
Exodus 33:18-20
2. What must I do to see God as He really is?
• Seek Him
For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.
Jeremiah 29:11-13 (NIV)
"So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. "Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"
Luke 11:9-13 (NIV)
My son,
if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding,
and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding,
and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure,
then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God.
Proverbs 2:1-5 (NIV)
1) Hear, read, study, memorize, meditate and apply God’s Word
2) Develop a passionate prayer life
3) Make your quest for God a priority
No one else can take those steps for you. I can’t do it. Denny can’t do it. Over the next 7 weeks, we’re going to do our best to give you some tools to see God as he longs for you to see him. But you have to decide right now whether you’re willing to take the time and effort to dig into God’s Word and to cry out to God and to make the quest for God a priority in your life.
A.W. Tozer in Knowledge of the Holy:
What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.
