Hi All
Notes are below. Click here to download the audio file to your computer!
Chris
When was the last time you sat or stood in awe of God?
I am not asking for you to work it up, to DEVELOP an awe for God by practicing it.
Bible says
Psalm 46:10 Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth! (NKJV)
God declares that He WILL be exalted among the nations and the earth, not YOU SHALL exalt me among the nations and the earth. It will happen.
We will be a part of this if we are in awe of Him.
A big part of this is your mental image of God:
2. What is your mental image of God?
Judge with arms folded, lightning bolt in hand to strike at will
Strict parent - He has forgiven you and is OK with you, but don’t you dare mess up now
Benevolent Father, dotes on you when you ask, but he’s got plenty of kids and you are just one of them (so you try not to bother Him too much)
Sugardaddy – gives you everything you want when you ask
Answer – none of the above
Could I venture to say that our thoughts of God are so fallen, that unless we go back to the Word of God and searched it up carefully to see what God says, we’re likely to have a wrong image of Him, that it will be based on other things? Family, popular culture, church traditions and common church teachings, anything else but the pure word of God.
3. God’s Word Needed…
Romans 2:4 Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? (NKJV)
As we start to build a mental image of God in our minds, as this becomes more and more real to us, we start to change the way we think, and the eternal life that God wants us to benefit from starts to manifest.
Beware not to reject teachings about His goodness, that it has to be tempered by our performance.
Romans 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. (NKJV)
We need to build an image of God in our hearts according to the Word. We need to actively seek to build this. If we don’t, the world will put that image in.
Every area we don’t fill with the Word of God is another area the world will mold us.
4. Knowing God
God’s Love – Love that surpasses knowledge
God’s Grace – Abundant, abounding grace
God’s Mercy – Infinite mercy
God’s Life – the Eternal Life in knowing Him
So far we’ve learned that God loves us
Each of us is so precious to Him and He is overjoyed to receive us (Luke 15)
Given us everything we need for godly living, (2 Pet 1:3-4, 1 Cor 9:8)
Is for us not against us, is one with us, gives us power beyond all we can ask or imagine?
Wants to live His life through you that you might have the fullest of Him
And many more verses
Rom 8:31-32 Given us His best in His Son
John 10:10 Gave me abundant life
Rom 5:17 given us abundant grace
Eph 1:3 blessed me with EVERY spiritual blessing in heavenly places
1 Cor 15:57 gave me VICTORY over sin and death
2 Tim 1:7 power and of love and a sound mind
He wants to live through us that our lives be full, knowing His love for us.
5. Fallen Short
Need to reiterate how far we’ve fallen short
Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, (NKJV)
We are all unwhole. Intrinsically, sin has tainted us, made us imperfect.
Knowing we are sinners is not for us to travail and wail, or for us to determine in our hearts to do better.
Until we know that no amount of our human effort will make us worthy, we won’t know what this means.
It is to rely on the finished work of Jesus that has made us acceptable.
6. Like Peter’s First Encounter
Luke 5:8 When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!” (NKJV)
When you focus on yourself, this notion of falling short makes us despair
Isaiah 6:5 So I said: “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, The Lord of hosts.” (NKJV)
7. Given His Glory, His Life
John 17:22 And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: 23 I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me. (NKJV)
Jesus gave us His glory, that we might be one, that the world would come to know Him. This is possible only because He died on our behalf and rose from the dead!
John 17: 20 “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; (NKJV)
Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, (NKJV)
2 Peter 1:2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, 3 as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, 4 by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. (NKJV)
Given us all things pertaining to life and godliness, make us partakers of the divine nature, escaping the corruption that is in the world.
1 John 5:12 He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. (NASB95)
This is the Eternal Life He has put in you and wants for you to live out with His power!
8. Peter Take 2
John 6:68 But Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” (NKJV)
By this time, Peter had been fed the Word and he couldn’t do without it. He was in awe.
9. Peter Take 3
Acts 2:38 Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.” 40 And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation.” (NKJV)
Acts 3:12 So when Peter saw it, he responded to the people: “Men of Israel, why do you marvel at this? Or why look so intently at us, as though by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? (NKJV)
Acts 3:19 Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, (NKJV)
God working through Peter – he was now a vessel of honour.
When we are awed by His goodness to us in spite of our fallen natures, we want to do nothing but tell people about it.
10. In Awe of God’s Goodness to Us
As we discover God’s goodness to us through Jesus Christ at the Cross, as we learn more about what happened there and how it has affected us for all of Eternity, we become more and more in awe of His grace to us!
A gospel without the cross is meaningless, powerless. We have to examine what was accomplished at the cross, very very carefully.
11. What Makes A Difference
Matthew 5:3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (NKJV)
Poor in spirit - To know we are not worthy in ourselves but to be thankful that He considers us worthy by the blood. To yearn more and more for the things of God.
Never, ever reach a status quo in the Lord.
12. The Take Away
- God loves us so much, that He gave Himself in His Son to us. He wants us to know Him, that we may know Love, that we may be saved, blessed, made whole.
- He is our Eternal Life and He wants us to let Him live through us, to trust Him in His Word so we live in victory and prosper in every area of our lives.
- This can only happen if we seek Him in His Word and allow Him to mold us through the changing of our minds.
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