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| Rev. Brent Russett |
Pastor of Sunnyside Wesleyan Church in Ottawa:
http://www.sunnysidechurchottawa.com/ _______________________________________________________
PODCAST LINK to CFRA broadcast - Sunday, June 18th, 2017:
Broadcast Notes:
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God Is Who He Says He Is
Good morning and Welcome to good news in the morning.
I am so glad that you have tuned into the program today. My name is Brent
Russett. I am the Senior Pastor at Sunnyside Wesleyan Church here in Ottawa. I
have been pastoring there for 27 years. One of the things I love to do is show
how God’s word that was written a long time ago, connects with our world right
now.
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I want to thank Clifford and Alice Miller for
sponsoring today’s program. Thank you for helping us share God’s word with
people. May you know God’s blessing.
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I
know that some of you who are listening have been followers of Jesus for a long
time, and I know that others of you think of yourself as spiritual, but you are
not really sure of this Christian thing, and I know others of you just curious
about how people of faith think. I trust that wherever you are on yours
spiritual journey, that you will find this program interesting and informative,
and I believe that for those of you desire it, God can use a program like this
to take you another step closer to Him.
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This morning I want you to know one big
truth. God is who he says he is.
Before
I get to how this affects how we live, let me just say it is important that you
understand this, to live well in our culture. Now I realize, that when we say
“God is who he says he is.” We have to answer the question of about the where
do we find the words of God? Where does he tell us who he is?
We as
Christians trust the scriptures, the bible. We believe that God by the Power of
his Holy Spirit, inspired people to write down what he wanted to communicate
about himself. The bible is full of history and poetry, and letters to
churches, and instructions to individuals – but in the middle of all that God
shows who he is.
I
know some of you have some real questions about whether or not the bible is
reliable. I have been there. I have come to the conclusion that it is. If you
are interested in investigating that more I would refer you to a website called
Dig and Delve. It has video’s of a conference that was held last year about the
reliability of the Bible. - Go to their website: Diganddelve.ca
I think it will help you with some of your questions about the reliability of
the Bible.
This
morning we are looking at God is who he says he is. It is important that you know where to find
what God has said about himself. You find it in the Bible.
*****
I
want to start off by talking about some of the mistakes we make when we are
thinking about who God is.
One of the great
theological discussions of 2016 was “Is the Muslim God and Christian God, the
same God?” If you trying to figure it out philosophically, then you may come up
with one answer. If you look at what God says about himself in Scripture you
will come up with another answers.
Philosophically,
we can says, both God were seen in the Old Testament.. The Muslims have one
invisible, all powerful, all seeing God. The Christians have one invisible, all
powerful, all seeing God. Therefore they must be the same God.
But
that is kind of like taking a sparse wooden kitchen chair, and a plump
cushioned living room chair, and saying they are the same thing – they are both
chairs – but are they the same? Well yes and no.
Our
scriptures says, In the beginning was the word and word was with God and the
word was God. Jesus was and is God.
Hebrews
1:3 (NLT)
3 The Son radiates God’s
own glory and expresses the very character of God, and he sustains everything
by the mighty power of his command…
If you told a Muslim that God had a
son – well Mohamad spoke about that and used stronger words than heresy. We as
Christians believe in the triune God, Father Son and Holy Spirit. We get there
because we believe that God has revealed himself through his only begotten son,
Jesus Christ and we believe that the New Testament is an expression of God’s
revelations to us.
Is the Muslim God and the Christian
God the same God. Philosophically you get one answers. But if you believe that
God was revealing himself in the person of Jesus Christ, and through the bible,
then you come up with another answer.
I want you to know that God is who
he says he is, not who philosophy says he is. God is who is says he is in his
word, the Bible.
*****
Another
common mistake that is made in our culture when it comes to who God is, == is
that instead of saying “God is who he says he is” People say “God is who I say
he is.” There is a big difference between God is who he says he is – and God is
who I say he is.
What often
happens in our culture is that we end up taking pieces of spirituality from
here, and a little from there, and then we figure out what our values are, and
then we promote them and attribute them to God.
So,
in our culture God is loving and tolerant, and non judgemental. God might judge
the terrorist and the drug dealers because of the destruction they bring, but
God would never judge me, because I am doing what is right in my own eyes.
The
god of my own making is someone who is always there to help, but never demands
anything from us. He is always at my disposal even though I pay him little
attention. That is often then God we get when we buy into the idea that “God is
who I say He is.”
Some
people think about God in just the opposite way. They see God as someone
sitting up in heaven looking to strike us with lightening or hit us over the
head with his spiritual baseball bat when we step out of line.
But I
got to tell you, that kind of God is unhelpful. You see --What you believe about God does not change who God is, but it can sure
can mess up who you are.
A.W.
Tozer, one of the greatest ministers and devotional writers of the last century
said this, “What comes into your mind
when you think about God is the most important thing about you”.
You
are defined by your perception of God. I say that because your relationship
with God will define you. It will cause you to walk in spiritual awareness or
spiritual darkness. It will cause you to become responsive to the will and
voice of God or to do things your own way. It will cause you to grow into the
image of a God who is good and gracious and loving and holy, or it will cause
you to be the center of your own life. Your relationship with God will define
who you are.
Your
perception of God will either deepen your relationship with God, or it will
cause your relationship to remain shallow. You perception of God will push you
away from him or draw you to him.
Yanit
Ross says:
“Our faulty views of God
can cause us to fear intimacy with Him, and inspire us to labor for Him out of
duty or fear rather than out of love. If we see God as a loving Father, we will
draw near to Him; if He seems to be a harsh judge, we will withdraw from Him.
If we do not believe God cares about us, we will be overly focused on caring
for ourselves. If we feel insignificant or ignored by Him, we will weary
ourselves seeking significance from people.
Distorted images of God
affect how we worship Him. We may question if He is worthy of our worship. Our
witness will also be affected; the more we admire and love Him, the more we
want others to know Him like we do. We can rise no higher in our spiritual life
than our view or concept of God.”
…
Just as in a family the parents give
a child self-worth, value, security and identity, the same is true in the spiritual
realm. Our heavenly Father gives us value, worth, security and identity, as his
children if we really know who he is. If our image of him is distorted, then
our self-worth, value, security and identity will be distorted as well.
It is
important that you know that God is who he says he is, and that you get to know
what God has to say about himself.
I
want to expand your view of God so I am going to play you a short cIip of Dr
Jim Altizer doing his best to describe the indescribable.
Dr. Altizer is a professor of worship at
Azusa Pacific University. In this audio clip he describes some of the character
of God.
Audio
Clip – Jim Altizer – the Attributes of God. 3:15
Listen to the poetry of the prophet Isaiah as he
attempts to describes the God who is.
Isaiah
40:12–14 (NLT)
The
Lord Has No Equal
12 Who else has held the
oceans in his hand?
Who
has measured off the heavens with his fingers?
Who
else knows the weight of the earth
or
has weighed the mountains and hills on a scale?
13 Who is able to advise
the Spirit of the Lord?*
Who
knows enough to give him advice or teach him?
14 Has the Lord ever needed
anyone’s advice?
Does
he need instruction about what is good?
Did
someone teach him what is right
or
show him the path of justice?
Listen
as God describes part of who he is.
Isaiah
40:25–31 (NLT)
25 “To whom will you
compare me?
Who
is my equal?” asks the Holy One.
26 Look up into the
heavens.
Who
created all the stars?
He
brings them out like an army, one after another,
calling
each by its name.
Because
of his great power and incomparable strength,
not
a single one is missing.
27 O Jacob, how can you say
the Lord does not see your troubles?
O
Israel, how can you say God ignores your rights?
28 Have you never heard?
Have
you never understood?
The
Lord is the everlasting God,
the
Creator of all the earth.
He
never grows weak or weary.
No
one can measure the depths of his understanding.
29 He gives power to the
weak
and
strength to the powerless.
30 Even youths will become
weak and tired,
and
young men will fall in exhaustion.
31 But those who trust in
the Lord will find new strength.
They
will soar high on wings like eagles.
They
will run and not grow weary.
They
will walk and not faint.
We
tend to focus on those last, beautiful, poetic verses
Isaiah
40:31 (NRSV)
31 but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength,
they
shall mount up with wings like eagles,
they
shall run and not be weary,
they
shall walk and not faint.
But
the promise of God stem from the character of God. It stems from who God is. It
stems from who God says he is. The question is always, will you trust that God
is who he says he is.
This
is a mark of spiritual maturity. A deep settled faith in the Character of God. Will
you trust that God is who he says he is. And sometimes that is not easy.
Will
you trust that God is good, even when life isn’t good. Will you trust in the
love of God, even when you are feeling self condemnation. Will you trust in the
grace of God even when you feel like you don’t deserve anything. Will you trust
in the justice of God even when you are being unjustly treated.
Will
you trust in strength of God when you are feeling weak. Will you trust in the
provision of God, when you don’t understand where that provision is going to
come from. Will you trust in the wisdom of God even when it goes against your
wisdom or our culture’s wisdom, or your friend’s wisdom.
Will
you trust in the goodness of God even when your prayers are not answered. Will
you trust in the love of God even when life doesn’t turn out the way you want.
These
things are not always easy to do, but they are the marks of a spiritually
mature person. They are the marks of one who has learned that God is who he
says he is, even when life disappoints.
Here
is what these kind of people have discovered. They can’t see life from God’s
eternal perspective. They can’t know what God knows about the future. They
can’t understand all that God knows, but they have come to trust the character
of God. They have come to trust God when he says he is good – because they have
seen enough to know that it is true, even when life is unfair. They have
experienced the kindness and faithfulness of God – and so they can trust God on
the worst days of the worst parts of their lives.
They
know that God is who he said he is. They don’t try to make him into something
else. They don’t try to distort him. They trust him. And as they do, they find
that he gives them a sense of his presence that allows them to handle what life
brings their way. They have a sense of personal security, even though all of
life seems really insecure. They have come to know that he is who he says he is
– and they trust him for it.
The
question is are you willing to take God at his word and believe that God is who
he says he is? If you are then the obvious follow up question is how do you
embrace the character of God. Before we go there we are going to listen to
Steve Green sing about the character of God in the song
Immortal,
Invisible. – Steve Green 3:44
How
do you embrace the character of God.
First,
You
have to know the character of God. To do that you are going to have to go where
God talks about himself – the bible.
When
you are reading the Bible, look for what God says about himself. Or look at
what his actions reveal about himself. The bible is about God’s revelation of
himself.
Sometimes
it is very explicit
Exodus
34:6–7 (NIV)
6 And he passed in front
of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God,
slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, 7 maintaining
love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not
leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for
the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.”
Sometimes it is
very subtle. Some of you will know the story that Jesus told of the prodigal
son. Think about what tells us about who God is.
As you are
reading a story like that, ask the
question, what does this teach me about God. If you are going to trust what God
says about himself then you need to know what God says. If you are going to
trust in the character of God, then you need to know what God has to say about
who he is. Get to know what God has to say about himself. Read the bible –
If you have never
read the bible before then I would encourage you to do that. If you don’t have
one at home, you can go to Biblegateway.com and read it there.
The bible is made
up of 66 books with 40 different authors. So I would encourage you not to start
at the beginning like you would with most books,, but start in the book of
John. Look it up in the index. It is the story of Jesus – when you are reading
the book of John, ask yourself, what does this tell me about who God is.
When you are
reading scripture, take note of the names of God. The name of God reveal his
character. They are worthy studying.
So you
are reading the bible, and you see what God says about who he is – The question
is what do you do with that.
Respond to God’s revelations of Himself
I
would suggest that there are a few good
responses to seeing who God is The first response is prayer and worship.
Thank God for who he is. Prayers like, “Lord you have shown me in your word
that you are faithful – thankyou for your faithfulness. Lord thankyou that you
are trust worthy. Lord help me to trust in your faithfulness.
Praying back to
God his character is also a good thing to do.
God I thank you
that you are good. You have revealed yourself to be good. All that you are and
all that you made is good. God help me to trust in your goodness, even when
life is tough, and the circumstances are not good. Help me to trust in your
goodness even when I go through difficult times. Thank you that you are good.
Thank you that my current circumstances do not dictate who you are.
Praying back to
God his character is something that his both helpful and it can be profound.
The other thing
that his helpful to do when you see who God has revealed himself to be is to
“God you have shown me who you are, what does that mean for me as I walk in
relationship with you?”
Prayer and or worship, and then asking the
question, “God you have shown me who you are, what does that mean for me as I
walk in relationship with you.”
In
some ways you were created to reflect God. You were not created to reflect his
Omnipotence, but you were created to reflect his love. When you see who God is,
you ask yourself, what does this mean for me as I walk in relationship with
you?”
For
some of his characteristics it will mean that you look at how to reflect them
in your own life. In other ways, like the fact that God is everywhere present,
means that the situations that you find yourself in, in this coming week, God
is already there.
God
is who he says he is. Trusting the character of God is fundamental for
spiritual maturity. It is fundamental for your life and growth and walk as a
Christian. Today I want to encourage you to push into God.
Let’s pray;
Lord
Jesus, thank you so much for who you are.
God,
thank you, for revealing yourself in your Word.
Lord,
we know, and have come to see, that you are who you say you are.
Help
us, Lord, to sort that out with who I say you are, or what philosophy says you are.
Lord,
help us to take your revelation of yourself, in your Word and help us to live it
out well, as we trust in your character.
We
pray this in Jesus’ name. AMEN.
I
want to thank Clifford and Alice Miller again for sponsoring todays program.
Thank you for enabling me to share about who God is.
My
name is Brent Russett and it has been a privilege to spend some time in God’s
word with you and bring you some good news in the morning.
By Rev. Brent Russett
Pastor of Sunnyside Wesleyan Church in Ottawa:
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