Common Ground 10.10.2012 Soli Deo Gloria: Part 5 1 5
Common Ground 10.10.2012 Soli Deo Gloria: Part 5 2 Overview Where We are Headed Previously. So, we have established that we can know God. He has spoken and has revealed Himself to us marvelously and miraculously. We understand that we are created for this very purpose; to know and enjoy Him. Last week we began to explore the infinity of God in His eternal nature. Unlike His creation, God does not exist in a time continuum. He is time s transcendent author. The eternal God simply is. We, His creation can rest in knowing that the author of moments is sovereign over their passing in our lives. Tonight. But what about the X, Y and Z? What about place and space? Where is the divine geotag? Does God have a GPS? How do we get a coordinance on the eternal one? Tonight we will continue to examine God s infinity as it relates to matter and space. The Holy God of the universe is wonderfully eternal and omnipresent, infinite in being yet intimate in relationship. Let s Move
Common Ground 10.10.2012 Soli Deo Gloria: Part 5 3 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. ~Paul
Common Ground 10.10.2012 Soli Deo Gloria: Part 5 4 Context The Book of Psalms Purpose: To provide poetry for the expression of praise, worship and confession to God. Author: Audience: Date: Setting: David, Asaph, the sons of Korah, Solomon, Herman, Ethan and Moses. Some psalms are anonymous. The Jews, God s chosen people. Between the time of Moses (c. 1440 B.C.) and the Babylonian captivity (586 B.C.). The psalms serve as a vehicle for expressions of praise. While not necessarily intended to serve as narrations, there are many parallels to historical events and life circumstances. Key Verse(s): Psalm 150:6 Let everything alive give praises to the Lord! You praise him! Hallelujah!
Common Ground 10.10.2012 Soli Deo Gloria: Part 5 5
Common Ground 10.10.2012 Soli Deo Gloria: Part 5 6 Text Psalm 139 For the director of music. Of David. A psalm. 1 O Lord, you have searched me and you know me. 2 You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. 3 You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. 4 Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord. 5 You hem me in behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me. 6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. 7 Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? 8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. 9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, 10 even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. 11 If I say, Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me, 12 even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. 13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother s womb. 14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. 15 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
Common Ground 10.10.2012 Soli Deo Gloria: Part 5 7 16 your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. 17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! 18 Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still with you. 19 If only you would slay the wicked, O God! Away from me, you bloodthirsty men! 20 They speak of you with evil intent; your adversaries misuse your name. 21 Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord, and abhor those who rise up against you? 22 I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies. 23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. 24 See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
Common Ground 10.10.2012 Soli Deo Gloria: Part 5 8 Infinity God and place How we relate to place. It s part of our identity. Context drives connotations. He s a yankee. He s a hill-billy. Stomping grounds. It s part of our experience. Google Earth, Apple Maps. Foursquare and geotags. Tom Tom and GPS. How God relates to place. God is omnipresent: Omni latin for all. - all places. God s infinity in time and space: Time Place (or Space) Time and space are caused (created). God is uncaused. Time and space are created by God. Genesis 1:1 With God there is no when. God is present at all times in His entire being. God has no moments. God is not confined to time. God is unlimited with respect to time. With God there is no where. God is present in all places in His entire being. God has no measurements. God is not confined to space. God is unlimited with respect to space.
Common Ground 10.10.2012 Soli Deo Gloria: Part 5 9 The meaning of God s presence. What do we mean when we say God is present or not present, near or far away? Jeremiah 22:23-24 23 Am I only a God nearby, declares the Lord, and not a God far away? 24 Can anyone hide in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth? declares the Lord. This points to unique or meaningful manifestation, or relational position. i.e. God is far away: Isaiah 59:2 2 But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear. Proverbs 15:29 29 The Lord is far from the wicked but he hears the prayer of the righteous. The place of God s presence. The manifest presence of God is made known in a variety of ways and locations. The Garden of Eden. The burning bush. The Tabernacle. The Temple. The purpose of God s presence. To punish. Amos 9:1-4 1 I saw the Lord standing by the altar, and he said: Strike the tops of the pillars so that the thresholds shake. Bring them down on the heads
Common Ground 10.10.2012 Soli Deo Gloria: Part 5 10 of all the people; those who are left I will kill with the sword. Not one will get away, none will escape. 2 Though they dig down to the depths of the grave, from there my hand will take them. Though they climb up to the heavens, from there I will bring them down. 3 Though they hide themselves on the top of Carmel, there I will hunt them down and seize them. Though they hide from me at the bottom of the sea, there I will command the serpent to bite them 4 Though they are driven into exile by their enemies, there I will command the sword to slay them. I will fix my eyes upon them for evil and not for good. To sustain. Colossians 1:17 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. To bless. Psalm 16:11 11 You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand. 1 Samuel 4:4 4 So the people sent men to Shiloh, and they brought back the ark of the covenant of the Lord Almighty, who is enthroned between the cherubim. And Eli s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God. Exodus 25:22 22 There, above the cover between the two cherubim that are over the ark of the Testimony, I will meet with you and give you all my commands for the Israelites. Revelation 21:3 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.
Common Ground 10.10.2012 Soli Deo Gloria: Part 5 11 Intimacy God and man Infinity is a statement of Intimacy. Other religions depict a God that is either infinite or intimate. The God of the Bible is both/and. Psalm 139:13-16 13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother s womb. 14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. 15 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, 16 your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. God is there: At the fertilization of the egg. At the combining of the DNA. At the subdividing of the cell. At the first heartbeat. At the first swallow. At the first cry. At the first step. At the first word. God has written: From birthday to deathday, all of our days before one of them has come to pass. The psalmist cries, You know! God is more than familiar, He is intimately acquainted with us.
Common Ground 10.10.2012 Soli Deo Gloria: Part 5 12 This brings great comfort to God s elect and great fear to His enemy. God is in all places, but is not all things. This is a very basic but important distinction. Pantheism teaches that all things (forces, phenomenon, people) are God. i.e. God is a natural law, a tree & a rat. This is an Eastern religious framework that is making strides in the West. Oprah- a New Age spiritual guide. God is omnipresent, but distinct from His creation. Remember, Creation is caused. God is uncaused. He is not created. This distinction is like a sponge and water.
Common Ground 10.10.2012 Soli Deo Gloria: Part 5 13 Unity Harmony with God The more we understand God s nature, the more we embrace His person. 21 Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord, and abhor those who rise up against you? We are tempted to put God in a temple. Confining God to places of worship. 1 Kings 8:27 27 But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built! Isaiah 66:1-2 1 This is what the Lord says: Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house you will build for me? Where will my resting place be? 2 Has not my hand made all these things, and so they came into being? declares the Lord. John 4:19-24 19 Sir, the woman said, I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem. 21 Jesus declared, Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.
Common Ground 10.10.2012 Soli Deo Gloria: Part 5 14 God s temple however, is in each of us. We don t have to go anywhere to worship God. He has come to us. Jesus doesn t call us to a place. He calls us to a person. ~Ravi Zacharias, The Greatness of Jesus Christ John 2:19 19 Jesus answered them, Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days. Matthew 18:20 20 For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them. John 14:19-20 19 Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.
Common Ground 10.10.2012 Soli Deo Gloria: Part 5 15 Jots Notes & prayer needs
Common Ground 10.10.2012 Soli Deo Gloria: Part 5 16