We began the first week of this series by saying, “The most important thing about a person is what they think about when they think about God.” The reality is that we all have a picture of God, and that picture, whatever it is, determines how we live our lives.
For most of us, our picture of God is really small. We see God the way we saw Him as a child or we think about God only as a distant mysterious Being who got everything started. And we’re not alone in our distorted view of God. There are people in their 40s, 50s, even 80s who have a very small picture of God. They might think God is big while they sing about Him on Sunday. They might know that God did amazing things back in the stories of days past, like in the Bible. They may even know stories about how God showed up in someone else’s life. But for them, in their own lives, God is relatively inactive, small and insignificant.
We can’t allow for our personal view of God to stay the same and dictate how God actually works.
Everyone goes through a time of doubt. Back in Africa I had seen some awesome things happen, but I wanted to know for sure that God was who He said He was. It was a moment in which I needed some clarity. So I prayed and asked God to show me that He was real. I wanted to experience Him in a new way.
Now my room was the typical teenager’s room, posters were up on the walls and all of that. Right after I prayed, and I mean as soon as I opened my eyes. A poster fell off of the wall. I sat up and picked it off the floor checking the “Sticky-tac” on the back and making sure it was ready to be put back up. As soon as I flipped it over to the poster side it hit me like a ton of bricks. It was a Christian poster with big bold letters saying “No Doubt”. It quoted a scripture verse about how God will always be with us and never forsake us, but the “no doubt” was what struck me.
God is not so big that He will not interact with us on a tiny scale. God is not so small that He can’t make things like that happen to show us just a little bit about who He is, or what His character is like.
We all come to points in our lives when that small God is not enough. And that’s when we all need Somebody bigger.
God is a big God. You may not realize just how big He is and the incredible depth to not only His bigness but to His nature and His character.
*Ge 1:14–19 14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, 1516 And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. 17 And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, 18 to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day. and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so.
If you read this cluster of verses you get the idea that God is a big God. He created the Sun and the Moon. That alone is a crazy thing to think about! He created the Sun to give us light and life on the earth. He created the moon to rule over the night and cause waves in the oceans. That is just one small factor in the greatness of God. You could spend years studying the effects that the sun and moon have on the earth and be blown away at the intricacy that God put into motion in one day.
But if you stop there and just say, well, my God made the sun and moon and leave it at that, you would be missing out! The most incredible thing stated here is almost like it was an afterthought. (Vs. 16) “And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars.” And the stars? What? Think about that for a second. The sun is one of trillions and trillions of stars.
Have you ever been somewhere at night and seen the stars in all their brilliance? Not just looking up into the sky on a clear Fairborn night, but being somewhere that city lights and smog don’t interfere with your view of the stars? It is incredible! (Story about time in Tanguieta).
Video: Awe Factor of God (Shows the huge nature of space) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbaGg5xNjT8
You would never know God to be that big unless you understood the universe in that way. Don’t trap God into your little box and say, this is the only way that I know Him, this is the only way that He will work. God is so much bigger than that! If you let that be your defining characterization of God you will miss out on Him revealing Himself in new amazing ways!
Most of us tend to picture God in one of two ways. When we are really little, we think about God primarily as a caregiver. Many people never really expand this view. When they think about God, they think about a nice, loving God who offers comfort in times of trouble, blesses the food they eat and maybe helps on a test from time to time. For many people, they don’t even pray unless they are facing some kind of tragedy. This view of God says God exists to provide for us and make us happy.
As we get a little older, some of us expand this view of God into one that tells us that God is a rule-giver. If you see God as a rule-giver, then you know the God who set up boundaries for the people He created and loved. This is the view many people have when they follow God on the premise that following Him leads to good things, a healthy lifestyle, wisdom or intimacy. In other words, God comes to make us good.
Both of these Godviews show us amazing aspects of God’s character. Yes, God is both of those things. He does offer comfort, and He does offer rules. But last week we talked about how those aren’t God’s primary goals. Because when we are really honest, we can admit a caregiver and a rule-giver aren’t really enough. We want something more. We want adventure and excitement. And if the real truth were known, because of our limited Godview, there are many other things apart from God that grab our attention. There are many other things that can seem appealing, something we want to be involved with.
We walk away because we think we know all about Him. The mystery is gone. We walk away from our picture of Him because He’s so small, so boring, so predictable.
The exodus story—the story of Moses and the Israelites—is epic. If you’ve never read it, you can find the whole thing in the book of Exodus in the Old Testament. And I promise you it’s worth reading. It’s one of those kind of stories when God shows up and does some amazing things. Plus, there’s a lot of human drama as well. One prominent theme of this story is how much the Israelite’s view of God played into their grand adventure.
The Israelites were slaves in Egypt. The God who had described the Israelites as His people in the days of Abraham and Joseph seemed distant. Some even wondered if He had forgotten about them because they had cried out to Him but nothing seemed to change. But God was listening.
*Ex 2:23–25 23 During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. 24 And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. 25 God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.
(NIV - God was concerned about them)
But before God acted, another player in this story had his view of God altered. You see Moses, the hero of the story, was hiding out in the desert in a place called Midian. He was a wanted man, guilty of murder. He had fled Egypt to escape punishment and start a new life, and he was content that life in Midian was as good as it would get. He didn’t deserve anything else.
But even though Moses was content with his life the way it was, God wasn’t. So God showed up and interacted with Moses through a burning bush.
*Ex 3:3–6 3 And Moses said, “I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.” 4 When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” 5 Then he said, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” 6 And he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
God called Moses to be the one to lead His people out of Egypt. God showed patience with Moses as the two went back and forth on why Moses thought someone else should lead.
*Exodus 4:10-12 10 But Moses said to the Lord, “Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue.” 11 Then the Lord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? 12 Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.”
And when this encounter was over, Moses walked away with a different Godview—but this was just the beginning.
Moses went to Pharaoh just as God instructed, and he delivered God’s message to release the Israelites. This was an incredibly bold move. A person doesn’t get that bold on his or her own. Something (or Someone) has to empower them. There are no self-help books that can bring that kind of courage, especially when you consider where Moses was before and where he is now. On his own he wasn’t a very confident guy, but his encounter at the burning bush had stretched his Godview. He knew he was following a God that demanded his life and complete surrender.
God worked through Moses to continue altering people’s view of Him through a series of miraculous signs including ten plagues that eventually led to the Israelites release. Burning bushes, plagues—most of us would think that would be enough to convince them of God’s character. “Okay, God cares about the Israelites and He wants to let the Egyptians know they need to let them go. End of story.” But God doesn’t stop there. He doesn’t say, “Okay, you’ve got Me figured out.” No, God kept revealing more of Himself. When the Israelites left Israel, God took the form of cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night, leading the people every step of the way.
When the Egyptians started pursuing them, God parted the Red sea and allowed His people to walk across on dry ground. Then once every one was safe on the other side, God allowed the sea to flow back together and crush the Egyptians pursuing them.
End of story? No way. God fed the people manna and quail morning and night. He provided water in the desert for them to drink. And all along, the Israelites doubted. They wrestled with fear, wondering if God had done all He was going to do. They grumbled, they complained, they whined. But God continued to show them how big He really is. God led Moses to a mountain top and gave Moses the laws that would protect their community and give them guidelines on how to live in ways that would show a respect and love for God and for others.
But God still wasn’t finished revealing who He is. In fact, from that moment on, Moses met with God in what was called “The Tent of Meeting” in a way that no one else had ever interacted with God up to that point on a consistent basis—personally. *Exodus 33:11 11Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. Thus the
The God who showed up in a burning bush, plagues, pillar of fire, a parted sea, manna, quail, still had more of Himself to reveal to Moses. And beyond the regular time of talking to Moses as a friend, God led Moses back up the mountain to show Moses something else.
As Moses encountered God there, God passed by Moses and revealed His heart to Moses:
*Exodus 34:6 (Re-carving the 10 Commandments)
6 The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,
God revealed to Moses that He was more than a caregiver, providing manna and quail. He was more than a rule-giver, providing the Ten Commandments. God gave direction and inspiration to the Israelites. God showed up in ways no one would have expected. And for a God who had revealed Himself in so many ways to His people, there was still more for them to discover. That’s what makes the journey so big. That’s what makes this relationship, this life of following God such an amazing journey.
When we think about an extraordinary life it can sometimes sound overwhelming. I think we sometimes hear stories about the disciples or Bible heroes like Moses and we think, “That’s great. But what does that look like for me?” I mean tomorrow morning you and I are going to wake up in our own reality. Most of the year you’re sitting in school—and let’s face it, there’s nothing really glamorous about sitting through 50 minutes of U.S. history in a room of concrete blocks and fluorescent lights. And this summer you’re either flipping burgers, babysitting kids or staring at a computer screen.
I don’t know about all of you, but most of you probably aren’t going to lead a revolution to get people out of slavery. Most of you aren’t going to find the cure for a major world disease. Most of you aren’t going to end world hunger. Some of you might. God might use some of you for some earth-shaking, history-defining, culture-revolutionizing kind of thing. Our God is big enough to do that in all of us. But God is also big enough to make extraordinary things out of our ordinary lives. And the only way it begins is when we have a big and ever-growing GodView.
I don’t know about all of you, but most of you probably aren’t going to lead a revolution to get people out of slavery. Most of you aren’t going to find the cure for a major world disease. Most of you aren’t going to end world hunger. Some of you might. God might use some of you for some earth-shaking, history-defining, culture-revolutionizing kind of thing. Our God is big enough to do that in all of us. But God is also big enough to make extraordinary things out of our ordinary lives. And the only way it begins is when we have a big and ever-growing GodView.
Guys, our mission here is not to grow this youth group into a place that has 120 students gathering on Wednesday nights. But our mission is to be faithful to what God has called us to do. If you are open to God using you, you will start to see amazing things happen. What is it that you need to start doing? Is it just to live a life that reflects Christ to your school? Do you need to start speaking up about your relationship with God to your friends?
When you are open and ask God to start working in your life you will be blown away at the things He will do.
Story about Genette and Justin. Giving up “our” time at home to be a witness. That is an incredible thing when you just allow God to work. You can be a part of that!
Our soul is longing for a God who doesn’t have limits. Yet how often do we reject God when He pushes past our view of Him? How often do we say, “No, thanks, I’m okay with where I am,” when God is saying, “I want you to know Me more. I want to go on this adventure with you.”
We often try so hard to jam God into our little picture. We already have expectations about who God is supposed to be and what God is supposed to do. It will be a tendency that each one of us will have to fight for the rest of our lives. But God doesn’t work very well with our small pictures.
I am learning to change the way I pray. Instead of saying, “God, please do as I ask,” I am learning
to pray, “God do as you will.” I am looking for His answers to prayer.
That is the prayer of the follower of Jesus. God wherever. Whatever. You are in control. Come the way You want to come. Be the kind of God You want to be. We always wonder why life is so boring. It isn’t until we pray that prayer and begin to see God as a big God that we live differently. People who begin to allow God to come as an amazing God begin to live amazing lives.
You know what this means for many of us. God isn’t going to be just a rule-giver. This means for some of us, God isn’t going to be just a caregiver. This means God is about to climb out of the box you have put Him in. When the God that we know is just a set of rules, when God is just a caregiver, we do not expect for Him to do amazing things in our lives.
The reason many of us look back on the past year and are stuck in friendships, stuck in bad dating relationships, or sitting on the same addictions is because the God that you know isn’t the God who frees people. He isn’t a God who heals wounds, He isn’t a God who sets the captives free. Consequently, you don’t expect that much out of Him. You don’t expect Him to be able to work in your life that way. It’s not a life problem, it’s a picture problem. You have a really shallow view of God. You don’t allow God to come in surprising and amazing ways, you only invite God to meet your very limited expectations.
We could come up with lists of things that we need to work on to be better, but all of the self-help tactics in the world can’t remedy a jaded picture of God. When you came to church, when you said “yes” to Jesus, you said “yes” to a caregiver, you said “yes” to a provider, but more than that you said “yes” to attaching your life to an amazing, romantic, fearless, limitless God who can daily work in your life and can daily shape your character and values by just coming to know who He is.
We all have to come to a place where we can say, “The God I knew when I first met Him is far more personal now, is far more in view now than He was in the beginning. And His love, His character—everything about Him—is so much more vast and mysterious than I ever thought.”
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