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Who is Your God?   by Darryl Manning            6/3/01

INTRO:  The first two commandments speak of worship and divide humanity into two categories: those who worship God and those who worship idols

³“You shall have no other gods before^£ me. ⁴“You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.(Exodus 20:3, 4a.)

   It would be great if we could easily separate the two worshippers but we who are Christians usually are a mixture of the two. We cannot worship the God of the Bible with purity of worship until we know Him intimately. Until then we merely worship a God we have invented in our minds who usually is someone who is a lot like ourselves.

   Please don’t get me wrong, We are still Christians and still going to heaven because Jesus blood covers all our sins including wrong worship. It is just that our misinformation about God robs us of ever coming into an intimacy with Him and into a worship of the true God.

   Today we will look at three things: First: how heaven sees God.  Second: how Jesus reveals God. Third: what we can do to get a truer revelation of God.

 

How Heaven sees God. (Excerpts from Rev. 4:4-11)

Rev.4: ⁴Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on them were twenty-four elders. They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads… In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures, and they were covered with eyes, in front and in back… Day and night they never stop saying: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.”

⁹Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives for ever and ever, ¹⁰the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne, and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say: ¹¹“You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.”

 

Twenty-four elders dressed in white with golden crowns are victorious saints who now know everything about God and humanity.

            They agree with the four living creatures as to God’s

                        Holiness

                        Power

                        Eternal existence

            They fall down and worship Him

            They cast their crowns before Him

            They say He is worthy to receive

            Glory=äüîá, doxa,dox'-ah  - the kingly majesty which belongs to him as supreme ruler, majesty in the sense of the absolute perfection of the deity (Theyer)

                  Honor= ôéìÞ, timeô , tee-may' - a value, that is, money paid, or (concretely and collectively) valuables; by analogy esteem (especially of the highest degree), or the dignity itself: (Strongs)

            Power= äýíáìéò, dunamis

1) strength power, ability

1a) inherent power, power residing in a thing by virtue of its nature, or which
a person or thing exerts and puts forth

1b) power for performing miracles

1c) moral power and excellence of soul

1d) the power and influence which belong to riches and wealth

1e) power and resources arising from numbers

1f) power consisting in or resting upon armies, forces, hosts

 

Matt. 8:¹When he came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed him. ²A man with leprosy^£ came and knelt before him and said, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”

³Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” Immediately he was cured^£ of his leprosy.

⁵When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. ⁶“Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed and in terrible suffering.”

⁷Jesus said to him, “I will go and heal him.”

¹⁴When Jesus came into Peter’s house, he saw Peter’s mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever. ¹⁵He touched her hand and the fever left her, and she got up and began to wait on him.

¹⁶When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick. ¹⁷This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah:  “He took up our infirmities and carried our diseases.”^£