“Who is God?”

Part 1 of 4

“F R I E N D   D A Y”

Welcome to our semi-annual Friend Day, we are glad you’re here…

I read about this guy who had been lost and walking in the desert for about 2 weeks. One hot day, he sees the home of a missionary. Tired and weak, he crawls up to the house and collapses on the doorstep. The missionary finds him and nurses him back to health. Feeling better, the man asks the missionary for directions to the nearest town. On his way out the backdoor, he sees this horse. He goes back into the house and asks the missionary, "Could I borrow your horse and give it back when I reach the town?"      The missionary says, "Sure but there is a special thing about this horse. You have to say 'Thank God' to make it go and 'Amen' to make it stop."         Not paying much attention, the man says, "Sure, ok."           So he gets on the horse and says, "Thank God" and the horse starts walking. Then he says, "Thank God, thank God," and the horse starts trotting. Feeling really brave, the man says, "Thank God, thank God, thank God, thank God, thank God" and the horse just takes off. Pretty soon he sees this cliff coming up and he's doing everything he can to make the horse stop.    "Whoa, stop, hold on!!!!" Finally he remembers, "Amen!!" The horse stops 4 inches from the cliff. Then the man leans back in the saddle and says, "Thank God."

Wasn’t our Fall Festival/Chili cook-off great? I estimated 260 people or so! Big thank you to everyone who made chili… all those who setup/cleaned up & helped in so many different areas… and a big thank you to Donnie LaBar (tractor/hayrides) and Bonnie Evans (made it happen)!

WHO IS GOD?  Is there any question greater than this? New series… feel totally overwhelmed…

Colossians 2:2b-3 “…That they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, ³ in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

How does the “finite” grapple to understand the “infinite”?

è God knows no boundaries. He is without measure. Infinite by definition impacts all of the other attributes of God. Since God is infinite, everything else about Him must also be infinite… infinite in love, mercy, wrath, grace, justice, righteousness… God is infinite in every sense…

Isaiah 55:8-9 ⁸ "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. ⁹ "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

In today’s world we’re bombarded by lies with over 4200 + religions… (some say 11,000 or more)

Man attempts to define God or to bring God down to his own finite level of understanding…

	God has been described as everything from an impersonal life-force to the Big guy upstairs to an aged grandfatherly type to mother nature to the great spirit in the sky to a figment of our imagination…
	A.W. Tozer writes in his book, “The Knowledge of the Holy” - “Man’s spiritual history will positively demonstrate that no religion has ever been greater than its idea of God. Worship is pure or base as the worshipper entertains high or low thoughts of God.”

Who is God? 

Is He… Allah in Islam?  Buddha in Buddhism?  Shiva in Hinduism?  Am I a god as in New Age?  God is everything and everything is God as in Pantheism? There is no God as in Atheism/Agnostics?... leading to   the big bang (Ylem), Secular humanism, evolution, educated science and enlightenment lies…

CAN WE KNOW WHO GOD IS? 

Is there any question greater than this… WHO IS GOD?

If God did not choose to reveal Himself, Man would never be able to know Him…

God Reveals Himself through…

è The Witness of Creation - The Universe, Vastness, Smallness, Complexity, Order…

Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

·         God doesn’t try to prove His existence… He just states the fact…

·         Before the universe & time began God existed… God created “bara” – instantaneous, miraculous, something out of nothing… God spoke and created the universe… matter, time, space, atoms, force fields… vastness and smallness, the complexities and the order of all things…

·         The Hubble Space Telescope spent 10 days in December 1995 observing a single tiny patch of sky near the Big Dipper/north Star. These observations resulted in the deepest image of the sky ever, called the Hubble Deep Field (HDF), revealing billions of galaxies fainter than had ever been seen before. (It was like looking through an 8’ drinking straw at the blackest part of the sky)

·         A Nebula called fittingly, the “Eye of God” - 700 light years away in the constellation Aquarius…

Psalms 19:1-4 ¹ The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. ² Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. ³ There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. ⁴ Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world…

è The Witness of His Word - Absolute Truth (Laws), History, Prophets, Miraculous events…

2 Timothy 3:16 All Scripture is God-breathed…

Matthew 24:35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

·         Inspiration/God-breathed… God the Holy Spirit superintended 40 authors over 1400 years

·         Everyone has a basis of authority which becomes a base of operation for his thinking & actions

·         The Bible still stands strong in man’s attempt to excuse it, ridicule it or to destroy it…

·         It’s truth that stands forever… Prophets proclaimed Him… transcendent God became flesh…

·         Creation, Manna, Red Sea crossing the, Walls of Jericho, OT, NT characters, Jesus Christ…

·         We see God’s Shekinah glory, His manifest presence to the nation of Israel… To Moses/ Israelites

Exodus 19:16-19 “…there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast. Everyone in the camp trembled. ¹⁷ Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet with God… ¹⁸ Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the LORD descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, the whole mountain trembled violently…the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder.

·         Here’s a picture of Mt Sinai today with its scorched peak still visible… God is real… Revelation!

·         God revealed Himself through His creation… Through His Word and also through His Son Jesus

è The Witness of His Son - Messiah – Miracles – Crucifixion – Resurrection – Changed Lives…

John 1:18 No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father's side, has made him known.

Heb 1:1-2 ¹ In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, ² but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe.

·         The long awaited Messiah, predicted in Gen 3:15… hundreds of prophecies all perfectly fulfilled

·         Born of a virgin, announced to the shepherds by an angelic host of angels… “Immanuel” is born

·         Jesus fed the thousands, healed the blind, raised the dead… God in the flesh dying for sinful man

·         Resurrection… Jesus conquered the grave, sin, death and hell… seen by over 500 witnesses!

·         Historically existed… changed history of the world from BC to AD… changes lives today!

·         The Lord Jesus testifies…

John 14:9 “…Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father…”

John 10:30 “I and the Father are one."

Psalms 46:10 "Be still, and know that I am God; (How can I know this God, this Infinite One?)

God reveals Himself through Creation, His Word and His Son… Are you getting a better idea of who God is?

(I encourage you to be here over the next three weeks… looking at His attritubes… His abode in heave)

God is…

Ø  Omnipotent - All Powerful - Infinite in power

Jeremiah 32:17 "Ah, Sovereign LORD, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you.

Ø  Omniscience - All Knowing – Infinite in knowledge

Psalms 139:1-2 ¹ O LORD, you have searched me and you know me. ² You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.

Ø  Omnipresent - Everywhere Present – Infinite in Time & Space

Psalms 139:7-8 ⁷ Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? ⁸ If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

Ø  Eternal – Without Beginning or End… Forever – Infinite in Being (forever present, self-existent One)

Psalms 90:2 Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

Who is God?  There is no greater question…

God Offers…

Ø  Eternal Life through Faith in His Son

John 17:1-3 “…³ Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.

John 10:28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish…”

John 3:14-16 “… the Son of Man must be lifted up, ¹⁵ that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. ¹⁶ "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Eternal Life is offered to you by the Eternal God…

Do you have eternal life?  If you have never really accepted Jesus as your personal Savior, would you do it right now? Do not delay or put it off. If you would like to receive Christ by faith, pray this simple prayer in your heart:  Dear Lord, I acknowledge that I am a sinner. I believe Jesus died for my sins on the cross, and rose again the third day. I repent of my sins. By faith I receive the Lord Jesus as my Savior. You promised to save me, and I believe You, because You are God and cannot lie. I believe right now that the Lord Jesus is my personal Savior, and that all my sins are forgiven through His precious blood. I thank You for saving me.  In Jesus’ name, Amen.