Study of God
Presented, February 14, 2010 am
What Does God Mean to Me?
In our lesson today
we want to notice how we ought to respond to God.
i.
I must believe in Him
– Having established at the beginning of our study last year that God
DOES exist, and made our case for WHY we should accept the God of the
Bible, the first obvious response to how we should respond to God is to
believe in Him.
He demands it!
Heb. 11:6 says, “But
without faith it is impossible to please Him.
For he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a
rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”
1 Peter 1:20–21,
“ He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was
manifest in these last times for you
who through Him believe in God,
who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and
hope are in God.”
ii.
I must seek Him – Again
Heb. 11:6 states that He rewards those “who diligently seek
Him.”
I am reminded of what David told Solomon in
1 Chronicles 28:9 “As
for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father, and serve Him with
a loyal heart and with a willing mind; for the Lord searches all hearts
and understands all the intent of the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will
be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will cast you off forever.“
Seeking God is not a hard thing to do.
He is found in many places: He is in nature (Romans 1:20), He is
in us (we are in His image – Gen. 1:26), He is found in His word (Romans
1:17).
iii.
I need to be reconciled to Him
– since sin separates us from God
(Rom. 6:23, Isa 59:2), once we know who God is and WHAT He wants us to
do, we need obey the gospel (Gal. 3:27) and/or be reconciled to Him.
2 Corinthians 5:20 says, “Now
then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through
us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf,
be reconciled to God.”
iv.
I must believe Him
– this is the essence of faith (Not just believing in Him).
In order for God to have any impact in my life, I have to put my
trust in Him. There is no
other way.
Jeremiah 17:7 says, “Blessed
is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope is in the Lord.”
Prov. 3:5 says, “Trust
in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.”
v.
I must to reverence Him
– one of the main reasons we have
studied so extensively about God is to promote proper respect for Him.
He truly is worthy of all honor in our lives.
Psalm 89:7 says, “God
is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be held in
reverence by all those around Him.”
Hebrews 12:28 speaks of
serving God, “acceptably with
reverence and godly fear.”
Much of our problems spiritually stems from a failure to properly
reverence Him.
A healthy understanding of fear is helpful in achieving this.
vi.
I need to worship Him
– since the beginning of time, God has demanded that we worship Him.
To worship Him means that we do homage to Him (bow before Him).
This becomes obvious when we consider His greatness.
John 4:24 reminds us, “God
is Spirit. Those who worship Him must worship in Spirit and truth.”
NEVER forget, that our worship is to Him – therefore, we must respect
HIS pattern!
vii.
I ought to praise Him
– As we more fully understand our God, it ought to be demonstrated in
our words and in our actions.
Many verses bear this out.
Consider
Psalm 109:30, “I will
greatly praise the Lord with my
mouth; Yes, I will praise Him among the multitude.”
Psalm 111:1, “Praise
the Lord!
I will praise the Lord with my
whole heart, In the assembly of the upright and in the congregation.
“
viii.
I ought to humble myself before Him
– When I realize how great God is and how insignificant I really am in
the scheme of things, it ought to greatly humble me.
1 Peter 5:5-6 says, “…for
God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. Therefore humble
yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due
time.”
Psalm 149:4 says, “The LORD
takes pleasure in His people; He will beautify the humble with
salvation.”
ix.
I should strive to be like Him
– as we consider the greatness of God in all attributes (I.e. He is the
embodiment of what it means to be...) we know He is the ultimate model
we should strive to follow.
So in whatever way we can we ought to seek to be like Him!
1 Cor. 11:1 says, “Imitate
me as I also imitate Christ.”
Ephesians 5:1, “Therefore
be imitators of God as dear children.”
1 Peter 1:15,
“but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct.”
x.
I must seek to get to know Him
– The idea of knowing God means that we seek to understand Him and reach
a point where we KNOW He is there!
There is NO doubt as to His existence and what He expects of us.
1 John 5:20, “And
we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding,
that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in
His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.”
xi.
I ought to love Him
– One of the compelling themes of the New Testament is the Love of God (cf. John 3:16). When
we learn of that love, it ought to prompt us to love Him back.
1 John 4:19 says, “We
love Him because He first loved us.”
xii.
I ought to obey Him
– it goes without saying that when we understand God: Who He is, What He
expects and We the future holds, we MUST seek to obey Him.
Acts 5:29, Peter being
threatened says, “We ought to obey
God rather than men.”
1 John 2:3 “Now by this we
know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. “
1
John 5:3, “For this is the love of God, that we
keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.”
Friends: Let us NEVER arbitrarily
decide what we have to obey and what we don’t!
Obey Him in everything.
xiii.
I ought to tell others about Him
– in examining the various actions and attitudes of our lesson thus far,
it becomes clear that He is to be the central focus of our lives.
BUT, our relationship with Him is not fully realized until we are
willing to tell others about Him.
1 Peter 2:9
“But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His
own special people, that you may
proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His
marvelous light;” That
word proclaim, used only here means “to proclaim throughout” (Louw &
Nida, 33.204)
1 Thessalonians 2:8–9 , “
So, affectionately longing for you, we were well pleased to impart to
you not only the gospel of God, but also our own lives, because you had
become dear to us. For you remember, brethren, our labor and toil; for
laboring night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you,
we preached to you the gospel of God.”
xiv.
I need to not be ashamed of Him
– the real reason so many fail to tell others about God is because their
courage is not strong enough.
While deep down they may be good intentioned, IF we are not
willing to openly proclaim our God, as opposed to the false gods of this
world, we are at least to some degree ashamed of Him.
Be like the psalmist in Psalm 71:15–16, “My
mouth shall tell of Your righteousness, and Your salvation all the day,
For I do not know their limits. I will go in the strength of the Lord
God; I will make mention of Your righteousness, of Yours only.”
NEVER be ashamed of your God!
(Matt.
10:32-33)
xv.
I must prepare to be with Him
– Ultimately, isn’t this what our life as a Christian is about?
We are preparing to spend eternity with our God in heaven and
with Jesus Christ our Savior.
Amos told his audience, “Therefore
thus will I do to you, o Israel; Because I will do this to you,
Prepare to meet your God.” (Amos 4:12)
While in that text he speaks of Israel of their rejection of God,
He notes that they are going to answer before God for it.
The same is true with us!
We live preparing to die and be with God for all of eternity.
1 Thess. 4:17 speaking of
the Lord’s return and our being caught up with Him says, “And
thus we shall always be with the Lord.”
Psalm 23:6, “Surely
goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days of my life;
And I will dwell in
the house of the Lord Forever.”
If you miss heaven,
you miss everything!
1.
We don’t think we need to
– perhaps, deep down we believe that no matter what we do, in the end
God is going to save us (much like the denominational doctrine – “Once
Saved, Always Saved”).
2.
We don’t think we have to
– we have reasoned that God will accept our nominal service – i.e. going
to church every once in awhile, the occasional prayer, etc.
In other words, we are asking what is the least we can do and
still make it.
3.
We are fearful and discouraged
– because of our past failures and
present struggles, we feel that we can’t really do it, so we say,
“What’s the use?”
4.
We are lazy!
– Perhaps the greatest indictment for most of us.
We are lukewarm and negligent in our efforts to put Him first.
Our good intentions and procrastination to do what we ought to do
has become ingrained in our character, and quite frankly we are not
willing to do the HARD WORK needed to make the necessary change. BUT we
better! Our eternal destiny
depends on it!