Seeing God As He Is
Series: Seeing God as he wants you to see him
August 24, 2022
michael Boyd
LISTEN ON MIXLR @ HTTP://MIXLR.COM/PASTORGBCSL WATCH US ON YOU TUBE LIVE @ HTTTP://WWW.YOUTUBE.COM/GRACECHURCH-SLUS/LIVE Join us on Discord at the Grace Baptist Church Hangout HTTPS://DISCORD.GG/U9YZT9DQ Why is there a need to see God rightly? John 17:3, 25-26 3 Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. 25 Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. 26I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.
Episode Notes
God invites us to know Him. Life is a friendship with God.
If we are made to have fellowship with God, then knowing Him must be the goal of our lives.
Our knowledge of God is affected by TWO things:
(1) HOW YOU SEE GOD
Who we perceive God to be, greatly affects the way we live.
What you think about God shapes your whole relationship with Him.
(2) HOW YOU THINK GOD SEES YOU
What you believe God thinks about you determines how close you will grow toward Him.
Misconceptions about God will create barriers to an intimate relationship with Him.
How you see God and how you think God sees you, affects the quality of life you have.
THE COMMON ERRORS ABOUT GOD
(1) We tend to assume that God is just like us
Isa 40:25-28 "To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?" says the Holy One. 26 Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing. 27 Why do you say, O Jacob, and complain, O Israel, "My way is hidden from the LORD; my cause is disregarded by my God"? 28 Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.”
Isa 50:2 “Was my arm too short to ransom you? Do I lack the strength to rescue you?”
Rom 11:33-36 33 Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! 34 "Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?" 35 "Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?" 36 For from him [source] and through him [cause] and to him [for His glory] are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.
(2) We tend to reduce God to human terms
Rom 1:21-23 21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
Job 38:4-7 4 "Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand. 5 Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it? 6 On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone - 7 while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?
We cannot reduce Him to the status of a servant, there only to meet our needs, and make sure we have a good life.
God did not exist for us; we exist for Him.
CONCLUSION
Who is God to you? What do you think about, when you think of God?
The right perception of God is liberating – it frees us to enjoy God’s love and His grace, free from fear, suspicion, doubt or despair.
We have confidence in Him because we know who He is.
So if you are in despair or feeling hopeless, it is usually because you’ve forgotten something about God’s character – or that we have not learned it yet.
And God can be revealing Himself to you, in a newer ways, through that experience and struggle.
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