Understanding God Series

INTRODUCTION

Today, we are beginning our new series, “The Mystery Machine.” So take your worship programs out and turn to the last page – you will find some message notes – this will help you follow along and give you some “next steps” for this week!

A Baptist preacher, while beginning his sermon, said this to the congregation: "I’m gonna tell you the same thing Elizabeth Taylor told all her husbands. And that is - ’I’m not gonna keep you long!’"

One of the early church leaders, Augustine, was once accosted by a non-believer who showed him his idol and said, "Here is my god; where is thine?" Augustine replied, "I cannot show you my God; not because there is no God to show but because you have no eyes to see Him."

So today, as we start off this new series about understanding the mystery of God I would like us to start off by praying that we would “see” God today!

Would you join me in prayer by standing …

{ Prayer – “that we would see God” }

Remain standing as we read our Scripture today …

Exodus 3:14, 15: “God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers — the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob — has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation.”

You may be seated …

So let me paint the picture for you … Moses sees a burning bush on top of a mountain … he is curios … the bush is on fire, but it is not being consumed, or burned up … so he approaches the bush … and then the bush talks to him … God identifies himself and gives Moses the mission of freeing the Israelites who were in slavery for 100-400 years (depends on which scholar you ask). Moses comes up with excuses, but ultimately concedes and says, “Yes,” to the mission.

Moses has a question though. He asks God, “Who should I say sent me?”

God responds, “Tell them I Am Who I Am … I AM has sent me.”

This was enough for Moses … to be honest, if a burning bush identified itself as “I AM” I probably would pay attention!

“I AM” is a significant statement throughout the entire Bible … because God identified himself as I am “something” throughout the entire Bible.

“I AM” is the first name that God gave himself … So I guess you have to ask: What does “I AM” mean to me?

God is eternally existent - He laid the foundations of the earth and created all things.

God is the Alpha and Omega - just as he created all things, He will exist forever.

God is unchanging. He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.

When you have a hard time figuring out life and wondering where God fits, meditate on this truth – God says, “I AM everything to you.”

I AM … your provider, healer, friend, future, father and so much more!

Whatever we lack in life, whatever our shortcomings, the “I AM” is there is meet us and make up the difference and be everything you and I need!

That’s a pretty amazing attribute of God!

God is the “I AM.”

Unpacking God to fully understand him is IMPOSSIBLE for the greatest of minds … but it’s not really about unpacking God … it’s not about discovering some “new” thing …

You see, it takes FAITH to believe in someone or something you cannot see – God is beyond our ability to explain Him … because He is God!

Whatever we know about God is not because we “made it up” but because God allowed us to DISCOVER HIM … he graciously revealed himself to us!

How did He do this? Primarily through His Word.

So, how does God reveal himself to us? The Trinity … the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The trinity is NOT something that we created or conjured up so that we can “figure” God out.

God is trinity – he is three persons in one!

Several hundred years ago a man by the name of St. Athanatius wrote what is called the Athanasian Creed … it gives us a pretty clear definition of the trinity … “… we worship one God in trinity and Trinity in unity … for there is one person of the Father, another of the son and another of the Holy Spirit; but the Godhead of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit is all one – the glory equal, the majesty co-eternal. Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Spirit. So the Father is God, the Son is God and the Holy Spirit is God, yet they are not three Gods, but one.”