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Podcast 42 - Who Is God
36 Plays7 days ago
Join us as we discuss the most important question we can possibly ask ourselves
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Transcript
Introduction to Theology and Wisdom
00:00:09
Speaker
Hey, welcome back to Grove Hill and our podcast. My friends Kyle Hess, John Ballard here next to me, and we are taking on subjects of theology theology yep and great theological depth and showing every bit of our wisdom.
Who is God?
00:00:25
Speaker
And then we spend the next 20 minutes just talking. Hey, I'm excited to be talking about this subject today because it is really the most important question that we ask of our our of our existence. Who is God? And I would be real careful to frame that question that way. Who is God? Not who do we think God is or how does God appear to us? But who is God? Now, where do we go to get that answer?
God's Eternal Nature and Independence
00:00:49
Speaker
Scripture. Very good. Right to the Word. Absolutely. And so the Word has some things to tell us. Now, we could sit here all day and talk about the different characteristics of God. That would take forever. um So we we just pulled out some that are kind of...
00:01:04
Speaker
highlights of who he is. i think big big rocks for us today and we're gonna talk about them just a little bit. First thing that we we came to is that God is the self-existent creator. He is the one who's created all of this and kind of attached to that God is the eternal, eternally existing creator. What does that mean?
00:01:26
Speaker
Before anything there was. Before anything there was. And I think that's the parts of God that most people, or I say most people, some people don't like because it's not, it's past their reasoning.
00:01:42
Speaker
They can't, they can't grapple with it. They can't touch it. They can't feel it. So that doesn't make sense. And sometimes we have to understand the bigness of, it's not just our little world, or our comprehension, our things. And so I think before there was God has always been,
00:02:02
Speaker
Yeah. You want to add to that? No, I just think that's great. One of my favorite moments in all of Scripture, my favorite, I guess if you will, statements from God, is when Moses is standing at the burning bush and he looks at God's bush there and says, all right, these guys are going to ask me when I get back to Egypt, who are you? And God gives, ah just it's ah just a five-word sentence, but it's so powerful. I am who I am.
Perceptions of God vs. Self-Revelation
00:02:28
Speaker
And that carries with it a whole lot of implications. Number one, it means that God is who he is outside of everything else. He doesn't depend on anything else. He doesn't need anything to define him. In fact, everything outside of him is incapable of defining him. It also means he wasn't created. And more importantly for you and I, perhaps, is it means that he can be for us whatever we need for him to be. he has the ability, the desire to do that. He just, he simply is. Mm-hmm. And that's a powerful moment for Moses. It's ah such a powerful moment for the people of Israel that it literally is a phrase that is repeated for centuries throughout Israel as a description of who God is. It's a mind-boggling thought when you begin to unpack it. I think it was a fair question
00:03:14
Speaker
that Moses asked that. Because if you're um if you go to anybody on the street and say, who is God? Every
God's Constancy and Control
00:03:22
Speaker
single person is going to have an opinion of who God is. Whether maybe they're abused as a child and they think God is this distant, mean, how would could he allow that to happen kind of person. But we allow our circumstances, we allow our experience to decide who God is. And that's not what Moses is saying. Hey,
00:03:39
Speaker
If they ask who's sending me, he wanted God's opinion, who do I say that you are? Right? Like, who are you? And then that's when he comes across and says, i am, right? We hear many more I am statements in scripture, yes and each one of them defines who God is. yes Not the circumstances that the people are in, not the experience that they experienced, but who God said he was and I think that's the most important thing in this discussion of who God is is not who is God to you or who is God to you is Who does God say and what does scripture say? He is I want to emphasize something you said there because I don't want to pass over i think it's an important statement that in every one of those situations no matter how many times it's repeated through scripture and no matter how many times it comes up God is
00:04:26
Speaker
I am. Which means it's not the situation that determines who he is. it is he who controls the situation. yep And that's just an incredible thought because you know we we tend to come to God and go, okay God, I'm going through this and this and this. In our mind, okay, God's limited to helping us in this particular way. That's the only way he can answer me. And God's going, no, no, no, no I got this. right I knew it was going to happen before he ever came up against it. And then nothing about this has challenged me, changed me.
00:04:55
Speaker
It's not a confrontation. i got this in my back pocket. So it's a comforting thing. yeah It doesn't change at all. absolutely um Did you have a scripture with that
Understanding God's Holiness
00:05:05
Speaker
one? It was just the i am from the bush. Yeah. right. Cool. um Second one. This is really important. When God is holy, God is holy. What does it mean for God to be holy? What does the word holy mean? Actually, we throw that word around a lot in church. Can I just say i used to be, ah and by the way, shout out to those that probably had influence on me in my first 18 years, but There were seasons where I was scared to death about God. that
00:05:31
Speaker
I heard holy, and i thought, you know, the words reverent, the words, man, you know, we've never seen someone look at the face of God. We've seen all these things that have been attributed in Scripture, and that it ties in with His holiness. ah But first off, I was scared to death. But as I got to know more about who God is,
00:05:52
Speaker
Yes, we should be in in necessarily not scared, but in fear of, man, God does have wrath for sin.
00:06:03
Speaker
But we should also be holy and and see His holiness as a a good thing. God's holiness has refined the areas of um his people in the Old Testament.
00:06:18
Speaker
He's done these things for the benefit of us. ah Although he didn't do that just for us, they were for our benefit. But I believe God's holiness, as I've looked at it, um started off fearful, but in the end, I've seen it as oh so necessary. yeah Because we have a world that's saying, oh God is love, God is love.
00:06:39
Speaker
God is holy. And because God is holy, yes, there are other aspects that get displayed, but we can't take away God's holiness and the reverence, I believe, that He deserves.
00:06:51
Speaker
ah God's holiness is the standard, and it's what points us to the cross. yeah um'm I'm a simple man, and when I was in law enforcement, I either wore black shirts or white shirts off duty. I just had packs of shirts, and I just buy a pack of 10 or whatever. And I would have them categories and I'd have my clean white shirts and then I'd have my dirty white shirts and I would, it was kind of the standard, right?
00:07:13
Speaker
Well, I had my clean white shirts and then Kelly bought me a pack of brand new shirts. And I put the clean, what I thought was clean, white shirt next to the brand new shirt and it revealed how dirty that shirt actually was. And that's what God's holiness naturally does to us as man. good We look at God's holiness and we go like whoa, that's that's the standard. And so we think we're good.
00:07:34
Speaker
We think we can do good works. We think we can earn something. But when we're compared against the holiness of God, we realize we need the cross. We need Jesus. That's good. Yeah. I like that. If you went on the street and asked people, give me a give me a description of God, they would use words like kind and compassionate and powerful and all those different things. And and one of the top ones that's going to come up is love. God is love. look be Everybody loves that aspect of it. There's only one attribute in the entire Bible where the Bible uses it three times, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. And it comes from that moment where Isaiah is confronted face to face with the character of God, with the person of God, and he realizes how morally perfect he is, how absolutely, completely, 100% he And...
God's Love, Justice, and Misconceptions
00:08:23
Speaker
um and you know, here's Isaiah, who's a pretty good dude himself, walks into the presence of God, he doesn't walk away and man, God is compassionate, man, God is kind, man, God is strong.
00:08:38
Speaker
He didn't even say God is loving. He says, holy, holy, holy. And then, to borrow from your illustration, he goes, man, I just realized how unclean I am. I just realized just how desperately I need a Savior.
00:08:51
Speaker
That's good. yeah um I don't want to pass over the... God is love part. What's next on our list? I'll wait then. Jump into God is love. Is there question you want to ask or you want me to just start talking about it? No, God is love. Talk about it. There we go. I'm going to turn to 1 John 4, starting in verse 16. It says, So we have come to know and believe the love that God has for us. God is love.
00:09:20
Speaker
And whoever abides in the love abides in God, and who and God abides in him. And so Scripture states that God is love. And so there's this huge misconception because um I would say a lot of culture would say that God is angry and God is wrathful and God is hateful or mean or just distant. um But what you need to know is Scripture from cover to cover is literally God extending his love towards us. And you say, well, you know, God commanded that groups of people be wiped out in history. Yeah, he did. Because of their disobedience, because their constant rejection of him, and because of the the sinful things that they were doing. And so if there's a murderer in town, it's not loving for us to allow them to go.
00:10:05
Speaker
It's loving for us to stop them. And so in the times that God reveals his wrath, it's because there's disobedience after disobedience after disobedience. And then he's protecting his people from that disobedience. And so there is wrath involved, but this whole book is centered around who God is and God is love.
00:10:26
Speaker
I love this illustration. I read the other day in a book. Sorry, I can't remember where it was, but my apologies to who the author if I murder the illustration. I've never been to Australia, but if I went down to Australia and went down to the Coral Sea and took off my shirt and but my bathing suit went running towards the ocean to jump in, awkward how loving would it be for people who are from Australia sitting on that beach to be sitting there to not go, do not jump into that water. There's something called a box fish there, which is a poisonous jellyfish that can kill a man in five minutes.
00:11:00
Speaker
If they sat there and cheered me on and said, hey, go swim, have a great time. It's a big ocean. It's all yours. That would not be loving. Right. No. And so when the world hears Christians saying, hey, there's a way that God wants us to live and that's not it. It's not an unloving thing. It is saying you step into that minefield, you're going to get hurt. yeah
Personal Stories of Sovereignty and Trust
00:11:21
Speaker
You're going to get hurt. So i love love, the way the world sees God's love, is sentimental. That's not God's love. God's love is sacrificial. right
00:11:31
Speaker
As you said, you know all the way through the book it talks about it. My favorite verse of Scripture, Romans 5, 8, God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. That's amazing love. Because there are very few people that I know in this world who would go out and die for someone who was their enemy.
00:11:48
Speaker
You ever heard that term, ah some people are playing checkers and the the other ones playing chess? Yeah. And that doesn't even do it justice. But God's thinking about the long game of eternity. That's right. When we're thinking about the moment of, do I want to do the hard thing and it's right? Or do I want to just do the easy thing because it's my comfort? And I think a lot of times the world has said, we're going to be comfortable. Yeah, yeah, for sure. all right, in another trait. God is sovereign. God is sovereign.
00:12:19
Speaker
Nothing catches him off guard. if So what does that mean for you and I? We see the small picture. ah We see what's in front of us. We see what hurts us and what benefits us. He sees, like you just said, he sees the long game. He knows he has authority over all.
00:12:38
Speaker
And um when we're experiencing a hardship, we see the hardship. He sees the refinement of who it can make us be. And so um the fact that things happen in your life that may not be good in your opinion, doesn't mean that God doesn't care about you. um In fact, he cares about you so much that he's not going to let that situation go to waste and he's going to build on it and create you into who he wants you to be.
00:13:04
Speaker
I have never had to wrestle with this so much as I have the last four weeks. um In the passing of my son, and ah I still see God as sovereign. Amen. And ah there's not and i want to I want to talk to the people who have like maybe questioned for a second and just say, hey, it's okay that you, for a split second, are wondering, okay, why did you do this, God? But there's the difference. Why Because God invites those things, but don't question the person of God. You may question, okay, how does this all work out? right But sometimes God will say, hey, i you may not know right now, right but in other seasons, and even right now, is walking through that same question of, you know, are you sovereign God? Well, of course, yes. But but why?
00:13:59
Speaker
I don't know why, I just trust. Even whenever I'm not seeing the whole completed plan. yeah But God is sovereign. and And His body of proof, none better.
00:14:12
Speaker
Because He's proven Himself in a multiple amount of ways. And i love how He does it in His Word. But even where He doesn't have to, throughout the world in the scope of the life that had been lived.
00:14:27
Speaker
He does it through those methods. And I think it's just like a layering of evidence where God says, I'm going to show you who I am and let let the chips fall where they may. But man, is God sovereign? And I i believe that so strongly. So let me let me offer a word of caution here because Trusting in the sovereignty of God does not mean you understand everything he does. right In fact, it's an acknowledgement that you won't understand it, that you still trust him. um
00:15:00
Speaker
Some of you, many of you probably as listeners don't understand what John was just referring to. John's husband and his wife's six-year-old son passed away a few weeks ago, about a month ago. yeah yeah Six weeks old. yeah says six I keep saying six months. It was six weeks old. um There's not a person in our congregation who can answer the question why. no But as a congregation, we keep trusting that God is on his throne. yeah um He makes governments rise and fall. He uses the lives of the meek and the weak, and he can use the lives of the strong. And yes, he can use the birth and the life of a six-week-old child for his glory. um
00:15:35
Speaker
that's a hard thing to do in those moments. You you hurt with your friends. you You weep those tears. You don't understand why your wife of 40 years has to die when she does. You don't understand why your teenager chooses the way he does. You just have to trust those things. And to John's point,
00:15:53
Speaker
his track record has been impeccable. wow you know I think the problem, and this is the caution I was getting to, is this. The problem is that when we see sovereignty of God and we hear about God being a father, we we compare it to our fathers. yeah And our fathers don't get everything right. They may have sovereignty, but they don't get everything right. God has sovereignty and he always gets it right. The use of that authority and that power. That's why he is so trustworthy. That does not mean you should not trust your dad. It just means that God's infinitely more trustworthy. yeah
00:16:27
Speaker
I think people associate the sovereignty with control. And what I mean by that is, yes, God is in control. but he doesn't sit there and control us. like We have a free will, and so there's certain things in life that happen, and it's one because of our sin nature that things take place, or just... just the happenstance of a car accident, whatever it may be. And um there's a free will in that.
00:16:51
Speaker
Now, God oversees all that, but He doesn't control us like robots so that everything's perfect in our life. um There's a free will aspect aspect of it that is actually the most loving thing that God could do is allow us to have that free will. um And His desire is that in that free will, we constantly turn back
God's Relational Nature
00:17:10
Speaker
to Him. And I think of what you said, John, He gave us the ability to reason, And so we have to think through things. yeah And so when something bad happens, it would be foolish not to say, God, where where is this taking how is this taking place? What do I need to see? But I think your posture at that point, which um you and Becca did phenomenal, it was...
00:17:30
Speaker
asking the question of why while sitting at the feet of Jesus, rather than asking the question of why while pushing him away. Right. Why did you do this? No, it was more like, Lord, what's going to come of this? you And it was it was as you guys walk through, it's just beautiful to watch.
00:17:46
Speaker
One of the more mind-blowing aspects of God is that He is a personal God. um If you follow other religions throughout the course of history, where you realize that many of them have God to sit on mountaintops and overlook their people, or they are way off in the distance, don't have anything to do with humanity.
00:18:06
Speaker
um some even Some people even who say they believe in God try to to put God in that same box. More of a deism kind of thing. But the Bible says that our God is a personal God. What does that mean for us?
00:18:20
Speaker
ah when you When you said that, for some reason, there were the words, ah I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, came to mind. a lot of people see that as a very negative thing. In fact, Oprah Winfrey was like, that's why I don't follow God, because he said he's a jealous God. Well, we don't really care what Oprah Winfrey says. Here's a place for you.
00:18:39
Speaker
But think about that. He desires so much of our time to be spent with Him. And so he is He's jealous over us. Not meaning anything other than He desires to have more of us for Himself, right? And so just a beautiful picture of of God of the universe saying... i want I want you to come to me. I want you to come to me and spend that time with him. It's pretty cool. Because most other gods, it's it's this off-distance deism where it's like, I'm God, your servant, that's it.
00:19:13
Speaker
He desires a relationship with us. One of the big factors of differentiation between God, the God of the Bible, versus every other um deity that people claim because he's omnipresent. He is big, but yet he is dwelling inside the believer's heart through the Holy Spirit. And it's it's amazing to see that both of those can happen at the same time because we don't see that anywhere else in the world and where there has been a pointing to that and it's been false, it's been disproven time and time again. But the God of the Bible, as He being far and away beyond our comprehension, but also being near and dear to our hearts,
00:19:59
Speaker
is amazing to me. and And I think of the word Abba, Father. yeah And where I was fearful of, you know, God, don't smite me because I just sinned right now. I've seen a God who is Abba, who is Father, and who loves me and cares for me and and and walks with me. And it's so personal.
00:20:19
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. God doesn't want to be a God who is just known about. He wants to be a God that's known. And um that speaks to a different kind of person personal nature, intimacy with us, those kinds of things.
00:20:35
Speaker
um Yeah, i just I think so many times we feel like if we can keep God at arm's length, that it kind of keeps him safer, that we're kind of insulated from him. So the invitation is to really to invite him in and to call him Father. I think if you look back to how he originally created it, you think of Adam and Eve and he created the garden and says he walked with them and dwelled with them and had conversations with them. that's That's the way he originally designed it. And then we got in with sin and just and shook it up, right? And so um we have that ability through Jesus Christ to now again walk with the Lord and have fellowship with the Lord. And it's it's pretty cool.
Strengthening Faith through Clear Understanding
00:21:15
Speaker
right, one more and then we'll wrap it up. God is worthy. That's an open-ended one right there. He's worthy of what? Praise. Praise. um The one thing that I think of, and this kind of turns my direction, because as a believer, the one thing, how I communicate with God is obviously through reading His Word and knowing who He is, but through prayer. And one of the first things that I try to do in my prayers is, you know, as I know more of who He is, i have adoration. And and
00:21:48
Speaker
he's worthy, like back to the burden of proof because of all these things that not just I've seen, but the world has seen and the things that your Holy Spirit reveals, man, I have no other first response than to say you're worthy and, uh, go back to the Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord almighty. He is worthy. And that's what comes to mind as I think about how my praise is directed, how my prayers are directed. Yeah. Yeah.
00:22:16
Speaker
I think when we look at people, um I judge, right? So I judge whether you're worthy of my love or not, or whether you're worthy of my love or not. And I look at your character. I look at what you've done. I look at the wrong things you've done. um And we assess it that way. When we look at God, his his character is perfect. and His holiness is is that. It's holy.
00:22:36
Speaker
And so there's nothing to necessarily question about who he is, because like you said, the proof is there. He's stated it. and then he's fulfilled it.
00:22:47
Speaker
And everything he's ever stated, he's fulfilled. I mean, except for future prophecy. But anything he's ever stated, he's fulfilled. And so to look at that and go... There is no fault in this God. He is worthy. He is worthy to be praised. He is worthy to be honored. And he's worthy to live a life for. That's good.
00:23:06
Speaker
I think he's worthy of worship. um And worship is not singing a song on Sunday morning or even listening to ah a pastor preach a sermon. Worship is about giving to a thing or a person in this case.
00:23:21
Speaker
um giving it the weight of your attention that your whole life is centered around the value of that person yeah um so i would sum all this up by just simply saying the the big need of christians today is not more information about god we've got more books and websites and tv programs and videos and and you know classes you can take, all that kind of stuff. I think the thing that will help strengthen and recapture the the heart of the church today is a clearer vision of who God is. Amen to that. Getting away from all the distorted ideas, the exaggerations. I think when I think about that, what comes to my mind is the shack.
00:24:06
Speaker
that book, you know, and they turned it into a movie. And God bless the poor woman who wrote it and other people who watched the movie. God is a black woman? I mean, what what characteristics? Not that a woman's bad or a black person's bad or whatever, but That's not even one one millionth of the character of God. How do you try to picture God in a person? yeah what a what a That's a dud. I'm sorry. have to say it. So anyway, the more accurately we know him, the deeper we'll trust him, the the deeper we'll fall in love with him, the easier it'll be to worship him, and the church will do a better job of reflecting him, which we, let's be honest, aren't great at. no The church doesn't do a perfect job of that. So, going back to our our subject of last week, good theology begins with the right understanding of who God is.
Exploring God's Character and Community Impact
00:24:57
Speaker
yeah
00:24:57
Speaker
And that's the place to begin your journey as a Christian, as you're looking for those answers. And as a skeptic, if you're trying to test the waters on Christianity, start with this question of who God is, and we would tell you, all three of us,
00:25:09
Speaker
Pick up this book and begin to read. Start to read about the character of God, the way he's revealed himself to humanity, the things he's done for be humanity, ah just all of those things. And begin to ask those questions. Find yourself a good church or any other Christian who can help steer through those tough passages and help you answer some of those questions. If nothing else, reach out to one of our staff. We'll be very happy to walk you through these things because this book and the answer to that question changes everything about your existence.
00:25:40
Speaker
It changes who you are, it changes the way you think, it changes your perception of life, and obviously it changes your perception of death and what happens next. So all that in mind, thanks for joining us today. Hopefully we've kind of helped make God a little more approachable for you and given you just a slightly clearer vision of God. It's an important topic. Hope you'll come back and join us
Conclusion and Invitation to Engage
00:26:01
Speaker
next week. I'm going to ask my buddy Kyle Hiss to close us with prayer for a wrap-up today.
00:26:05
Speaker
Father, you are worthy and you are holy. and you set the standard for our whole life. And so as we open your word and and really truly seek you, I pray that we find the character that you designed us to find.
00:26:24
Speaker
And so Lord, thank you for being so trustworthy throughout all of history. And thank you for proving yourself time and time again so that when we go through trials and we go through hard times, ah we can hold on to that that God that we know to be true.
00:26:37
Speaker
Father, I pray that our opinions fall to the wayside, our experiences fall to the wayside, and that we just truly seek the truth of your word. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. We'd love to have you come back and join us next week and every week that follows as we get together and we talk about the things that matter in this life and the life to come.
00:26:54
Speaker
excited about the opportunities we have to deal with these conversations in a place where hopefully it's helpful to you and your family and if you ever have questions you need answered feel free to shoot a message to us and let us know we're here every week and we would love for you to click like share the podcast and let others know about what we're doing here also 8 9 30 and 11 if you're local we'd love for you to come join us at grove hill church see what's going on in our church it's exciting days as we work our way through the book of james this summer so thanks for joining us Bye.