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What is God like? Now there’s a hard
question to answer!
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How can we describe Someone whose
being and power is without limits?
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In a culture that rejects the very
existence of God, how do we even begin?
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Human beings are essentially
spiritual.
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We all hunger for something deeper,
something more.
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We long to be significant, to belong.
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Since we are gathered together at a
church meeting place to worship God and his Son, Jesus, we are going to begin,
unapologetically and unashamedly, to answer the question of what God is like
with the Bible, God’s written Word.
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So, what is God like? We will to spend
the next few weeks looking at a some answers.
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Here’s what we are going to learn
today: God is Spirit and Personal, so we
can relate to him anywhere.
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First, God is Spirit.
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How do we know God is Spirit?
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For the answer, we turn to the written
word of God, the Bible.
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John
1:18, “No one has ever seen God. But the unique One, who is himself God, is
near to the Father’s heart. He has revealed God to us.” (NLT)
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Because God is Spirit, he is not
visible to fallen human beings.
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“The unique One” is a term John the
gospel writer only ever uses of Jesus, who alone can testify to what God is
like because he was with God and was God from the beginning.
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Colossians
1:15
describes Jesus this way, “He is the
image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.” (ESV)
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Jesus is the visible image of the
invisible God.
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The New Testament writers firmly
believed that because God is Spirit, he is, therefore, invisible, but they also
believed that Jesus demonstrated for us what God is like despite his invisibility
to our eyes.
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Some object by saying, “Did not people
see God sometimes?”
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Short answer to their argument is,
well, yes and no.
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When we look in the mirror, for
example, what we see is not our face, but a reflection caused by the light
reflected into our eyes from the mirror.
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Moses had quite a revealing
conversation with God about this very subject in Exodus 33 to which God said, “You cannot see my face, for man shall not
see me and live.” (Exodus 33:20, ESV)
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When we read that Moses spoke with God
face-to-face, therefore, we must understand that God and Moses were very close
relationally, not that Moses literally saw God face-to-face or else he would
have died.
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When the Jewish Scriptures speak of
seeing God, they speak of seeing a representation or manifestation like in a
mirror.
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What
does it mean that God is Spirit?
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#1. God does not have a physical body.
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A spirit does not have a physical
body. When a physical body is present, it is visible.
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Dallas Willard described spirit as
un-bodily, personal power.
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The Holy Spirit does not have a
physical body.
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Jesus said, “And now I will send the Holy Spirit, just as my Father promised. But
stay here in the city until the Holy Spirit comes and fills you with power from
heaven.” (Luke 24:49, NLT)
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Now some may argue, did not God show
Moses his back, and does not the Bible talk about God having hands, feet, eyes,
ears, etc.?
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The short answer, of course, is yes,
the Bible says those things about God.
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However, the Bible is not describing a
physical body, rather God uses images and terms our limited minds can
understand.
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Although a spirit has no physical
body, that does not prevent a spirit from taking physical shape.
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Because a spirit is un-bodily personal
power, that brings me to the next point.
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#2. God Is Everywhere.
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Theologians use the word omnipresent,
which means that God is all present or ever present.
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He is everywhere at once, in all
places.
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As David wrote in Psalm 139:7-10, “I can never escape from your Spirit! I can never get
away from your presence! If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I go down to
the grave, you are there. If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the
farthest oceans, even there your hand will guide me, and your strength will
support me.”
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What a comfort it is for believers to
know that God is always with us!
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We will never walk alone.
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Even when we try to run or hide from
God, the truth is he is with us.
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We can either ignore him and pretend
he’s not present, or we can turn to him, worship him, and receive the comfort
and strength of his presence.
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Why
is it important that God is Spirit?
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It is important for us to know that
God is Spirit because we cannot know God
through our physical senses.
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God cannot be seen, heard, or touched
in a natural or physical way.
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While there is no physical evidence
per se of his presence, his invisible attributes can be seen in creation.
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Romans 1:20, “For ever since the world
was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made,
they can clearly see his invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine
nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.” (NLT)
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Also because God is Spirit We Must Worship Him in Spirit.
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John 4:24, “God is Spirit, so those
who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.”
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True worship takes place as we trust
Jesus and have a relationship with God.
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Psalm 51:6, “Behold, you delight in
truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.” (ESV)
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Through a relationship with Jesus, we
no longer worship through ritual but directly as we reflect the grace, truth,
love, and power of God, and rejoice in him through singing, praying, listening
to his word, and serving others.
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Earlier, I said what we are going to
learn today: God is Spirit and Personal,
so we can relate to him anywhere.
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We’ve looked at the first part of our
lesson now let’s move on to the second.
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God
is Personal.
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God is not some impersonal force like
in Star Wars, rather he is personal.
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How do we know that God is personal?
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The Bible provides many examples, but
I will simply mention three.
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#1. God thinks.
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Isaiah 55:8-9, “For my thoughts are
not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the
heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my
thoughts than your thoughts.” (ESV)
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#2. God feels.
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He loves, for example. John 3:16, “For
God so loved the world, that he gave his unique Son, that whoever believes in
him should not perish but have eternal life.”
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#3. God wills.
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Psalm 115:3, “Our God is in the
heavens; he does all that he pleases.”
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That God does everything that pleases
him shows us that he has a will.
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He acts to carry out his plans
according to his own choosing, by the authority of his will.
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These scriptures and many others show
us that God is personal.
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From the very beginning, God has shown
his personhood.
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He walked and talked with the man,
Adam, and his wife, Eve, in the garden.
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God spoke with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob,
Moses and many others.
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That brings us to another question: why is it important that God is personal?
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It is important that God is personal
because faith is a relationship and a relationship exists between two or more
persons.
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If God were some impersonal force, we
would not be able to have a personal relationship with him.
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If God were impersonal, then we would
be able to use or manipulate such force or power for our own purposes.
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But God is a person, and we are made
in his image to have a relationship with him.
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Because God is personal, we can go to
him with every joy and sorrow, in every need and trial, and he hears us.
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The apostle Paul wrote that since God “did not spare even his own son but
gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else?” (Romans 8:32,
NLT)
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Jesus said, “Or which one of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a
stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are
evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your
Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” (Matthew
7:9-11, ESV)
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Because God is personal, he cares for
us personally.
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God
is Spirit and Personal, so we can relate to him anywhere.
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As we begin to think about what this
means for our everyday lives, I want to send us home with two things we can practice.
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As I ponder the reality that God is
Spirit and God is personal and I can relate to him anywhere, the first thing
that comes to me is gratitude.
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#1. Practice gratitude.
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Thank God that we can know truth
because we know him through his Son, Jesus by his Holy Spirit.
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Thank him for his work in our hearts
and our minds.
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Thank him that the time of empty rituals
is over, but we can worship him directly through the Holy Spirit who is in us.
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#2. Practice His Presence.
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What I mean when I say practice his
presence is to practice being aware that God is there.
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Because God is always present, we can
practice going about our daily tasks and relationships with the awareness that
God is with us.
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Jesus said, “I am with you always.”
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Because God is Spirit and personal, we
can relate to him anywhere.
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The more I practice his presence the
more convinced I am that I live differently when I’m paying attention to the
wonderful reality that God is with me.
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So, I encourage you to practice his
presence.
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Start with little things such as the
hourly chime of a clock, brushing your teeth, getting dressed, packing lunch,
preparing a meal.
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Then try moving from small tasks into
relationships.
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Whether we are visiting with friends
and family, talking on the phone, conducting business, or composing an email,
it is a simple and helpful practice to remember that God is with us.
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Let’s remember to practice gratitude
and practice his presence.
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God is Spirit and Personal, so we
can relate to him anywhere.
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