Who Is God?
Who is God? • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 1 viewTo know who God is we must be willing to pay the price.
Notes
Transcript
Getting to Know God
Over the previous 7 years our Christian faith has come under heavy scrutiny. It would be one thing if it was from external influences, however, when you look at the numbers it is more an internal struggle that is occuring that is causing the people of God to walk away from their faith believing there is no God.
From 2016 to 2023 we have seen a decline in belief in God from 74% to less than 60%.
This may cause us to ask who is to blame… maybe its the parents after all millennials who are now the majority in parenthood are people born in the 80’s to mid 90’s… maybe its our society don’t we see the decline in morality? Perhaps its social media as its holds our youth and young adults hostage???
It is my assertion that while these may contribute to the people walking away it is more of a systemic epidemic that we are facing. That is, we have taught people not to know God but how to fall in love with a made image of the one true God, the people love what He can do for them and have not come to know who God.
This is not a situation reduced to our time as the heroes of our faith have had similar encounters.
We see a
Job who in the face of crises realizes he knows about God but does not know Him…
David who after being anointed and appointed to kingship is left questioning God where are you…
Abraham who reaches the point where the promise comes into question
Elijah who believes he is all alone even after seeing His power…
The list goes on… in these heroes of our faith is found something that everyone of us will go through…
That is on the road to not just knowing about God but actually knowing God there is a cost to pay…on this journey to know the different parts of who God is in order for us to make it into that space we will have to lay a part of us down…
Like each of these heroes of the faith in our raising an altar before the Lord we will declare what we have come to know God as.
To know who God is we must be willing to pay the price.
To know who God is we must be willing to pay the price.
Our God is Multifaceted
Our God is Multifaceted
Eph 3:14-17 Paul prays for the reader of the Letter to be strengthened in the Spirit to be rooted in Christ
Having been rooted in Christ we are told of the dimensions of the God we serve
so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
It is going to take faith to know God
Whatever it is that can be known about God must be done to operate in Love and not arrogance
You may be able…you will have the strength to be able to understand
width of who God is
length of who God is
height of who God is
the depth of who God is
To know God is to also know the love of Christ.
More than the cross
More than a passive knowledge of Christ
but in knowing the love of Christ
you may truly know who God is
Section closes with that in knowing the multifaceted God your will be filled with the fullness of God
not of this world
not of the self
or even what the self wants God to be
How much of our God do we know?
If you knew that to know more of God you would have to sacrifice more of yourself would?
Consider the heroes of the faith when they were promised more what did it cost them?
When they paid the price was it worth it?
Do not settle in the experience of another
Do not settle in the experience of another
If our God is multifaceted and we desire to live in His fullness can we honestly know this God through someone else’s encounter?
As they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them, “Peace to you!”
But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit.
And he said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts?
See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.”
And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet.
And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?”
They gave him a piece of broiled fish,
2 men on the road to Emaus have this encounter with Christ and do not realize they are walking and telling this man a story about Himself
how many times do we tell Jesus who He is and what He has done instead of allowing Him to minister to our souls
These men are in the middle of telling the disciples about their encounter when Jesus appears to them
They realize they missed it and now the disciples are in the same disbelief…
They walked ith Christ ate with Him, how did they not know
Ghost!!! Jesus has to tell them to touch His nail pierced hands
Notice how they want Thomas to live in their encounter
Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came.
8 days go by an entire week of hearing “we saw Jesus… we touched His nail pierced hands…”
Consider how we want others to live in the experience of our encounter… “Look what the Lord did for me…” Instead of saying we have seen now you should desire to see Him as well
Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.”
Thomas likely said I hear you want I want to know…I want to have the encounter myself…I dont want to live in the experience of your encounter
Jesus appears and says here Thomas you asked to see… now your eyes have beheld Me”
Thomas’ response is telling of his posture not of disbelief but of desiring so much to know Him and have an encounter for himself
“My Lord and My God”
What did it cost Thomas to get to know Jesus this way? What altar did Thomas raise after this encounter?
Thomas would live the next 30 or so years declaring who God is, what Jesus did, and in about 72 AD while in prayer is killed with a spear… similar to the wound he had his hand in when Jesus showed Him his side.
How many of us want to know Jesus so much that we are willing to give the remainder of our years in service to Him?
The Eternal Purpose in Knowing God
The Eternal Purpose in Knowing God
so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.
This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord,
in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him.
At no point in time were we as Christians called to just knowing about God
We are being revealed the unsearchable riches of God…the manifold wisdom of God
It is our call to let all know (even authorities in the heavenly spaces) the mysteries hidden in God since the beginning the time.
You have a call to tell the world and angelical host of who God is… do you think it is enough just know about God to tell who God is
Over the next few weeks the challenge for you as we engage the various heroes of the faith is learn the how and why we need to know God so we can grow into our eternal purpose in God.