Who Is God--Why Jesus--Insanity For Christ Part 1

Insanity For Christ Part 1 Who Is God, Why Jesus

Calvary 1/6/2013 Isaiah 45:5-13 Luke 4:16-20

Today we are beginning a new series, Insanity For Christ, 49 Days To Transformation. The sermons are only one part of the series. If you want to find our who God is and what God is wanting to do in your life, you can if you’re willing to do the assignments and the bible studies that go along with the series. You will get far more out of it by doing it with one of our bible groups, but you can grow doing it by yourself. You don’t have to be a Christian to do the assignments or the bible study. But we all need to participate in the full 49 days. If you miss a Sunday, make sure you catch it on our website or on you smart phone.

You can go through the lessons as a family together if you can’t make it to one of the Bible study groups. If you look at the Black and White Card, you can see what the topics will be for each week, and what’s going to be the assignment. I’m guaranteeing you, you will not look at God and you will not look at yourself the same way if you do the 49 days. You will not be the same person. We will not be the same church. Now how many of you know your life would be better if the people around you were transformed by the power of God? Okay now somebody is saying that about you, so we all need some power outside of ourselves for changing?

We are calling this series Isanity for Christ, because Jesus will ask us to do things that may seem insane to others. So if you want to really know God, at times you might have to lose your mind. People have lost their minds over a lot of things, they fell in love, they got hooked on drugs, or they became famous or rich. We are losing our minds in order to find our purpose. Now God is not asking us to go crazy, God is inviting us to discover a life that has true meaning and purpose. As pastors we are inviting you to go with us on a journey to insanity, but it’s insanity for Christ. We are going to discover what it is to trust God with our minds.

Now the first thing is to discover “Who is God—Why Jesus.” Some of you may say well, I don’t really believe in God. That’s alright, God does not need for you to believe in Him for God to exist and to do what God does. The bible never attempts to prove that God exists. It simply starts out with the phrases, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. There is a good chance that most of us do not believe in the god, that you may not believe does not exist.

Most of us started out with the wrong image of God. How many of you got a view of God in the cartoons? Well we watched cartoons and God was an old white man, with a long beard usually standing on a cloud or seated in a chair. Now God was either a mean guy waiting for you to mess up so that he could get you back for doing it. God even smiled when you got punished, because God got angry when you disobeyed and only loved you when you were good.

Or God was a grandfather with the best bank account in the world. You could ask for anything and get it. When you messed up, all you had to say was you were sorry at night, and you were free to do the same thing all over again the next day. The other familiar image of God is that it is God’s job to make sure your life goes exactly as you want it to go. God is like a genie in a bottle, that stays put until you need something and God must do it, or you threaten not to rob the bottle again. “God if you don’t do this, I’m never going to pray again.” You’re actually doing God a favor by calling upon him for help.

There is nothing in the Bible that tells us that God looks like any of these images. The bible does not give us any image to associate with a picture of God. It tells us things about God, but you can’t put them in a picture. God is Light. God is Love. God is Almighty. Does that mean God looks like a bright red valentine, with muscle arms sticking out? Of course not. If you are to know who God is, you have to let go of the image of what you think God looks like. The bible tells us that God is Spirit, so we cannot see God in a physical form. If we read the bible, we can get an understanding what God is like. Let me tell you five things that we learn about God from the teachings in the bible.