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Thank you for my brother Andy to always be prepared. Thank you. You are In our lives.
So as we've been doing, you know, we've looked at a couple of men I was thinking again this morning.
How.
There's a tendency at times as you start to look at different characteristics with different attributes of God that we begin to Compartmentize Them and and we should not right because if you think about it, they're all they're all Attributes of God in absolute perfection and and they all kind of link together, right?
So if God is omnipotent, well, then that leads us to the reality that That he's omnipresent. If he's omnipresent and that leads to the reality that he's omniscient. And that's what we're gonna look at this morning.
And then maybe if we have time, we'll look at the goodness of God because that is another character of God that that I think many times becomes overlooked or not looked at enough. The fact that God is good and and That's something that many many people, you know that basic conversation that people have Is man basically good or is he basically evil and you know, it's it's really kind of hard to convince people that Men are basically evil, right?
It really goes against the flow of this world because this world really wants to say that that God is is is That man is basically good and. Well, I'll tell you what reading a newspaper kind of Shoots that down.
Just just listen. I'm just reading last night about another mass killing in In California, right? Yeah, some guy shot up another Some ballroom or something like that. And then the other day somebody shot up a.
Mauler.
Just it just goes on and on and on. But anyway, so I want to look at the omni omniscience of God this morning and again. Hooking them all together or linking them all together in a way that we can get a better view and a better understanding of this God that we worship and I just don't think that we ever really.
To me it's it's expansive for me to think these this way isn't it something that that you and I Can contemplate a God who is beyond ultimately? Understanding in full. That that's a glorious truth when you think about it that that God Surpasses all our thoughts, but as far as the omniscience or the omnipresence of God, let me Let me read a little bit of what Sproul said because I thought it was pretty good.
He said this when we speak of God's omnipresence. We usually mean that his presence is in all places there is no place where God is not yet as Spirit. God does not occupy any place in the sense that physical Objects occupy space.
He has no physical qualities that can occupy space the key to understanding this is that is in terms of another dimension and we talked about this that God is is. Have being the great other he's able to.
God is ever Present and God is ever present in absolute completeness and so, you know as we think about that and then we move into this thought of that that God is the God who Knows all that is something that I think becomes Astounding the more we think about it.
Here's what I was thinking I was thinking about if you think about the complexity of the world we live in. And then you think of the diversity of the world we live in. And then we we add to that the reality that that God knows it all.
He doesn't know most of it. He doesn't know 99 of God knows it all because he's ever-present, right? And if you think about that, but but just from that from those two standpoints of both the diversity that we see in the world.
We'll just take our own lives so there's only a couple of us sitting here and yet we live such diverse lives, don't we From the simplest things to the most complex things. You just take it in in what people do on Thanksgiving everybody has something different and everybody has a.
Different.
Palette and everybody has different tastes and everybody has Does it this way in that way and and you think about that and then you add to it the complexity of it all and Yet God knows every single aspect of it and and again to to to my way of thinking that is of such Magnitude that I really struggle.
I struggle with it. I don't know how it is with you, but I and I don't mean struggling the wrong way. I mean struggle in a way that it's just it's so amazing. I find myself more and more Saying God, are you really that big and and I and I don't know if that's Not saying it in the right way, but have you ever thought that God are you really that are you that big and that immense and that that you not only Are all powerful, but you and all present but you all knowing.
And Again to me and you know, the scriptures are very clear about that. I was thinking about that verse in Acts which says known unto God from all eternity or all his works known to God.
From.
All eternity or all his works or he knows the end from the beginning in the beginning from the end. And we were talking this morning right. And I don't know why but I've been thinking lately how long do I get to live.
What's what's the day that's been a member of which I asked what Job said. Right. The God had appointed a day for him and God knows exactly what day it is. And There's there's a sense of comfort to me in that.
But there's a sense of awe. That that rises out of me. And and you know and I know brother Bert you and I had talked about this a couple weeks ago that these are the very things that So many people spend so little time considering.
I Mean we'll we'll talk about and I'm not opposed to it. We'll talk about. Well. What this means. What that means in the Bible. And. And We'll try to interpret certain things. And those things are great in.
And I think we should right. We should search the scriptures out to see if if the things that we believe is so. But I do think that many times we just bypass the very things that.
Are.
The anchor are the things that hold us the rock solid things that just like it said when Jesus said Those that built the house on the rock. They don't they don't fall they stand. And again, I'm not opposed to it, but I do think something like this that If you were to sit and to just meditate on the fact that God knows everything About everybody in Totality and then throw if you want throw another layer on it and say God not only knows everything about everybody in this country.
But God knows everything about everybody in this whole world. And then if you want take that and throw another layer on top of it and say no God knows everything from about everybody from every culture and in time past and.
And again, you can just continually I think of it. I don't know if you guys why I know you you remember color forms. You remember how? You you don't know what I'm talking about. Yeah. Okay. Do you do you?
Yeah, yeah and used to be able to take these little figures and put them put characters on. It was like a sticky kind of thing and so you would have they had animals and. And the thing about it that was you can continually add layer on top of layer on top of layer and then pull them off.
It was it was like magnetic. It wasn't it was like stickers sister but anyway, they used to sell cold forms and they always had a subject matter whether it would be the jungle or Little Jill and whatever whatever it was, but but I think about that and I think about.
At times when we think about this fact that God not only knows the end from the beginning but in absolute totality. Did that truly is it just you can add layer on top of layer not only that but think about it from.
Well.
How about in the future? How about in eternity? How about when we cross the river? How about when? Does not God know exactly? Everything that's going to take place in eternity. Is he again? Is he that big?
Is he truly one who is not only all-powerful, but all-knowing and and. As we consider it and as we think of it and I thought of what it says, right? It's familiar to us. But in this context my thoughts are not your thoughts and neither are my ways your ways.
My thoughts are higher than your thoughts and my ways are higher than your ways. And so when you think about that and you think about the reality of of how God knows everything and it really should be the I Think it should be maybe we can discuss it for me.
I think it ought to be the thrust if you will of our personal study not not just that God is but who God is and That the more that we can grow in the knowledge.
And.
Learn the height and the depth and the length and the breath of the love of God which is in Christ Jesus that the more we will become able to Function and not only function but prosper, you know. And Again, maybe maybe it's a different way for different people.
But for me, I I've always found Meditating on the very character of God to be not only challenging but comforting and and Causing me to to want to know more of him again. Not just merely what the scriptures say about him, but to really kind of sit and meditate.
Do you think that that people actually? Do that.
Brother.
I do think about I do think about that. But I tell you I think this worldly life robs us a lot of a lot of that contemplation. Yeah, because we're so tired. Right now we don't like to admit that but we are we're tired.
Sure in many forms and in many ways. Yeah, and sometimes I don't. And then others I think think I think of it out of drudgery so much and I can't believe our Christian could look at it. Right.
Yeah.
Right, right and and yet we can anticipate it with an expectation, right? But I do think you're right. This world has a way of kind of diluting or stealing from us just to The reality of not only that God is but who he is.
Absolutely, it's a draw to to. Because he's he's inexhaustible and in many things in this world it they are there they. There's an end to it. There's a there's a finality about it. But when we think about God, there is no finality.
There is no. Getting to the point where you could say I got this. Because God cannot be gotten and certainly we've looked at scriptures like that right that he dwells in the light that no man can approach and and in those different things and so I do think there is a deficiency.
When it comes to people contemplating the being of God and and the The fact that he is everything in absolute perfection and so, you know you read something like In Ezekiel 11 it says That he knows the things that come into your mind.
I find myself more and more. It's just the four of us. I don't know we're on. We're on air. So I got to be a little bit careful. I find myself more and more confessing my thoughts. In in I always did but I find myself more the more I consider the immensity of God and the greatness of God and ultimately his character and his being in the goodness of God and the holiness of God and I find myself more and more struggling with my own thoughts.
Because there's so small there's so There's so worldly. I'm not trying to say I'm.
I'm in center and needed to save you right? And so but I think that's part of maturity, right? I do think we should become just like it says where John the Baptist said it.
That.
He must increase and we must decrease right. And I wonder if sometimes if people really consider that as In order to see him clearer we have to see ourselves clearer and the more we see ourselves. Man I'll tell you It's ugly to look at yourself.
I don't know how it is for. And then I wonder sometimes the mighty only one is doing this. And no, right because that's really the Christian walk is to get to the point where God becomes the all-in-all.
And That's the problem with religion right. Because religion just won't do it you were talking about, you know. The Roman Catholicism aspect of it. Those kinds of things never really lead you they lead you to a system.
They don't lead you to a person right. And and when you don't have someone to look to but rather you're looking at Something it changes it. So, you know all these attributes of God and all these characteristics that we Seek to understand concerning God.
And I think good. The the more you learn especially knowing he's Eternal knowing that he's he knows all things. He's all things. Doesn't learn. He doesn't learn anything. Pretty normal things, right.
But.
Increases it the more you learn. I mean in our society man. We're so self-sufficient as men. We can we can do things and we a lot of times we just like we try to figure things out our own, right? Yeah, when we instead of going to God and I'm just terrible at this instead of going God first Cindy gets mad at me I try to figure it out first and do that kind of thing first and then.
When nothing works because it's not supposed to work. I go to God right last resort I think I would knowing the study right knowing. Yeah more helps increase our faith. Yes with him.
Yeah, I think you're right when you say it that way and that's one of the tendencies of our own hearts, right it's to say.
Either.
I can't figure it out Lord. So I need your help now. Or I got this and I don't really need you at this moment, right? And I'll call on you when when it gets really rough and and and you you begin to think about that.
And then you think about something like that that God knows the end from the beginning and God knows. Look, what does the psalm say in psalm 139 says? I I know the thoughts that come into your mind every single one of them.
There's not a word on my mouth that you haven't already considered and I believe so. I really do. I think that that's part of the sanctification process that. You know, I was reading I've been reading just for whatever reason one of the things I've been doing.
I've been reading through 2nd Samuel again. And I was reading in chapter I want to say it's either 13 or 14. But I was reading where David Continued to go out in battle and it was one thing after another was the Philistines and then there was this nation in that nation.
But there was two times in that chapter. I think it's chapter 13 2nd Samuel 13 where it says the Lord preserved David wherever he went. And and then I read a couple more verses he fought a couple more people and then it said the Lord preserved David wherever he went and I thought about that and I thought about the context of the reality that God knows the end from the beginning and God knows all things and again, such a.
Such a marvelous thought and to your point. How often is we neglect that we shoot right past that it's it's almost like we're going so fast and so hard. That we don't even stop to consider. That he not only knows but that he cares for us.
Right casting all our cares on him for he what he cares for us and he's just as much as he preserved David. Is he's preserving me and preserving you and preserving you and preserving you and preserving all his people and such again, these kinds of thoughts are not easy to.
Maybe let me ask you this way. Did you ever get to the point? We almost have to say What I can't handle anymore right this moment. It's like it's you know, people call it like an epiphany. People say I had an epiphany, but I've gotten and I can't say many times in my life.
But there have been times in my own personal life Where I've almost had to say Lord it's it's too much for me at this point and and and then. Be careful what you ask for.
Usually you just go and then you want it back right? But there's this reality and again things like this. God knows the very thoughts of our mind and our heart and.
The scriptures really kind of settle us down. In that great that that's what the scriptures in part. That's what it does. Would you and I say that we become more and more settled as we go on with the Lord?
As we press on and where's it isn't in Hosea where it says. That we press on in knowing the Lord. Trying to think of that scripture. It's in my cause a of four or five where it says. We would press on in the knowledge of God.
And and and the more you do that the more you become. Yeah, you looking it up brother.
Yeah, yes.
Yes, yes. If you looked up knowledge it probably. Well, I'm gonna find it now because.
It says.
Go forward or something something of that nature. I know it's in there now. Isn't that cool? That's I don't know about you, but I do that right? Do you do that? Yeah, when something comes into your mind and and then you can't remember exactly where it is.
You got to go find it. You got to have it. Yeah, it's in but it but it's what it's really talking about is the fact of Press it on in the knowledge of God. And now I'm gonna.
Say one of my biggest struggles as far as lack of faith is Leaving. Putting my my boys in the hands of God and me not trying to control every aspect of their life.
That's it.
No, yeah, just go, you know, just not putting not putting my boys in the hands of the Lord and me trying to.
Direct.
Their lives and serve what and whatever I do, you know. You can't do this here. You can't do that. They're grown men, right. And I'm still trying to do stuff right because I wonder and then in me personally I wonder like where did I go wrong with it?
Because I was in the military. I was gone so much. Hmm that my boys turned out the way they were. Yeah, you know because they're brought up, man. Yeah, and I know yeah, you have the same stuff going on but um just Put him in the Lord's hand.
I it's just tough.
It's almost like I think at times we almost want it we're almost trying to coach God. Like Lord, I know you're in control, but but here's my suggestion.
Right.
And it always leads to.
It might be an easier for me. Yeah, absolutely.
And there are there issues makes my life hard or good.
Because it involves all it always involves us. It's because again ultimately.
It's.
It really is what we want right, not what we need but what we we want and so. Again at times I do think we try to coach God, but that's you're right sister. That's what it is. Says a six months has come and let us return to the Lord for he is torn, but he will heal us.
He has stricken, but he will bind us up after two days. He will revive us on the third day. He will raise us up that we may live in his sight. Let us know let us pursue the knowledge of the Lord. His going forth is established as the morning.
And he will come to us like the rain that that scripture about. Let us pursue the knowledge of God. And again, not knowing about God knowing God Right to that point of what Jesus said, this is life eternal what to know you The only true God in Jesus Christ whom you sent and so when you think about these things.
And I agree. You're saying and and it's a comfort to me to hear other people at times confess that they struggle with the same things that I'm struggling with right because it helped because I do think the devil Wants to separate us, right?
And if he can separate us by making us think that we are oddballs In our thoughts. Well good then he's already accomplished What his purpose is and that is to separate us? But when we start talking about these things and we start talking about the realities of how This fight goes on within us and we are honest about it rather than dishonest or hiding it and you begin to think about all those things and I Can really relate to what you just said as far as we are at times trying to Make things happen right and We'll use sometimes we'll use any means Right to whatever to get to that end but it is really a selfish end because is it really for God's glory or is it for Your comfort, you know your peace your sense of that exactly of getting rid of anxiety.
You know, and I think we all have that in certain ways and yet God knows all of that He knows. Not only does he know the end He knows the means To that end right in the most minutest detail. You know, I think it's in joy.
I know it's a joke where it says that God knows when when the deer gives birth In the on the top of the mountain or to go gives birth on the top of the mountain. No one else knows. But God knows. And again those kinds of thoughts I don't know how it is.
It almost lifts me off the ground of this world because again this world has so much Gravity to kind of pull us down and and when you can escape if you will Into the very presence of God to contemplate him and his character and his being.
It is something that I think a lot of people they miss they don't enjoy. Maybe I put it that way don't enjoy God. They might worship God. They might serve God. They might obey God, but but how many people truly enjoy the fact that God is who he is and again, I Don't know.
Huh.
Yeah, and it's true and and I'm not saying you special I think that that what does it say and I say it says You will keep him in and I was thinking about this last night because I was troubled about something.
You will keep him in perfect Peace whose mind is stayed on me because he trusts me. And then I started to. I was thinking okay so I don't have peace right now, and I didn't have peace at the moment when I was contemplating and I said, okay.
So is that not a promise of God that he will keep me in perfect? Peace whose mind is stayed on you because I trusted him. So that means what work backwards. That means I'm not trusting him. And the result of that is I can't find peace.
And again, a lot of it is because I'm still trying to insert my will my desire.
My.
Engulfed my agenda right and just doesn't. In that sense God doesn't bend like we've been and God doesn't you know, he is. He is unchangeable. And again, it goes back to the very attributes of God. And so when you think about that, I thought about this it says in 1st Samuel.
It says for the Lord is the God of knowledge. Not not any knowledge all knowledge. The knowledge that knows when the deer gives birth on it on the mountain, right? The knowledge to know that when I was thinking about for whatever reason I think about when my dog's gonna die.
I Mean, she's 11 years old and she's got some issues and whatnot. God knows exactly the end of that. Right, he knows when the bird falls from the sky and When you consider those things It kind of flattens Some of the tension away at least for me it does so again.
That's why I think that as we consider Who God is great is the Lord and mighty in power and then in Psalm 147 5 it says his understanding is Infinite. That's exactly what it says. This great is our Lord and mighty in power and his understanding is infinite.
And when you and I think about that and consider it Take it from two standpoints. Take it from the believers standpoint take it from the standpoint of having not only an Understanding of who God is but then and on top of it that he's for us.
If God before us who could be against us and Again, the bigger God gets and then the reality of if God before us who could be against us that grows at the same time right because they they're hooked together and Then you think about it from an unbelieving standpoint.
I know we've talked about this and and I think all of us We have would how could you live? In a world and not know God. Right, just think about that how many people do not know God and what it must be like and again.
It's like once the lights are on. How you begin to understand how could it be that people dwell in darkness and not only do they dwell in darkness? But it says they love the darkness and you're more content in the darkness than they are in the light and yet the light is So spectacular.
Why would anybody not want to come to a God of infinite power a God of Infinite worth a God of of all goodness and it just to me again, it's It becomes more it becomes more and more of a Long put it this way.
Walking with God is a journey, isn't it? It truly is and the more you the more you grow in it and even unknown to ourselves at times we become Fuller in our appreciation of who God is, right? If you had to measure on a scale and I I try to think about things like this if I didn't measure on a scale.
How often do I really think about God? I'm not saying that You go around 24 hours every second and you're fully conscious of it. But but the reality is how many times when you drift do you drift to the Lord?
Rather than from the Lord and to your point where you I think you were saying before this world has a.
Way.
About taking us and drifting us away from the very Attributes of God in the very character of God and and we fall for them so easily.
Don't we even as Christian we fall for so we think there's some well, there's just innocence in social media. There's innocence and communication. There's innocence and all this but yeah, there is some but you know.
Like a hammer it can be used to hammer a nail or beat a person to death. Yeah. It just depends, you know what you're doing with it and I'm afraid even as Christians we're not doing what we should be doing with it.
I mean, I asked my kids my high school kids how much time they spend on social media or video games. You realize it's four to five hours a day and we wonder why they're that generation is.
Like.
They're numb. Yeah, they're numb.
They have no comprehension of life.
Much less God much less God.
It's to the point right like EJ or are you weary. Not so much but EJ he's a gamer. He loves that stuff. It just infiltrates his life, right? He just loves it. And that's our fault because we're in charge of it.
So we like another day I got convicted with this with his game and I got convicted. Like dude, you got you we're gonna we're gonna read we're gonna read. We're gonna read an hour or 20 minutes 30 minutes hour or whatever every day and get off that thing, right?
And then like last night I told yesterday I told him Not roadblocks could be already kicked him off roadblocks. That's bad. But what's the other one babe? Minecraft the stuff that they taught. I was I was he fell asleep and he was watching some Minecraft and he had these commentaries.
I don't know if you've seen it, but you may not have but they these grown men. Usually like 20 sweater there they they get in there on Minecraft and they'd send messages to kids.