Youth and the Awesomeness of God, Part 3 (Part 1 of 2)

The Series Approach to God's Awesomeness

We've been going through our series on the awesomeness of God. The main idea is a three-step approach. First, we examine passages of scripture that relate to who God is, what God does, and how he has revealed himself. We see him for who he is in each context.

Then we look at what God says about humanity and what God says about Jesus Christ. With those concepts, we go into the third point: being enamored with the awesomeness of God. That's the purpose. We're studying scripture to get to a point of being enamored with God's awesomeness, which brings privileges and benefits to our lives.

When we're enamored with the awesomeness of God, it affects us deeply because we understand what makes God awesome and how it impacts our lives. It causes us to enjoy it, love it, and want to spend more time dwelling on it. The awesomeness of God is awesome.

Comparing Everything to God

When we compare the awesomeness of God to anything else, we see that other things are not awesome. God is the highest awesome, so all non-God things are non-awesome. We've drawn logical conclusions from scripture: God's existence is the epitome of existence, while man's existence is non-existence in comparison.

God exists more like existence than we do; we are more like non-existence compared to him. When we compare awesomeness, we are more like non-awesomeness. Activities, entertainment, movies with explosions and CGI—none of them are remotely awesome compared to God.

The genuine experience of anything awesome depends on our understanding of God's awesomeness, our gratitude, and attributing it to him. The church camp we just returned from was awesome only because God is awesome—not because of repelling or ropes courses.

Relationships—friendships, romantic ones, marriages, family—are awesome because God is awesome and gives good relationships. We fail to experience God's awesomeness in them when we experience sin consistently.

Example: Marriages

Consider two married couples. Couple A is at each other's throats; Couple B is getting along great. The spouse in Couple A envies Couple B's "good marriage." But every marriage is absolutely, statically, constantly awesome. What hinders recognizing that is not experiencing God's awesomeness.

Even in conflict, spouses can enjoy the awesomeness of marriage by enjoying the awesomeness of God. Beholding God's awesomeness reveals how not awesome sin is, correcting issues and enhancing the marriage experience.

Example: Singleness and Isolation

I'm single and someone else has a relationship; I'm isolated and someone has friends or a circle. My position seems not as awesome. But for the person dwelling in God's awesomeness, everything is by God's good pleasure for my best—like Joseph in Genesis.

His brothers sold him into slavery, but later he said, "What you intended for evil, God intended for good." Slavery wasn't awesome on the surface, but it was—God worked it for Joseph's good and Israel's survival during famine. Joseph was in charge, welcoming God's people.

Where I am is exactly where God wants me. Focusing on God's awesomeness over sin's deceptive awesomeness frees me to enjoy him in every circumstance.

God's Pronouncements on Humanity and Christ

Tonight, we'll look more at God's sovereignty and awesomeness, then examine a New Testament claim about Christ. God pronounces not-awesome things about mankind post-fall: spiritually dead, whitewashed tombs, sons of Satan, brood of vipers, dead in trespasses and sins, incapable of understanding God, thinking his things moronic, destined for eternal wrath.

Man is nothing, a mere breath. But God's pronouncements about Christ are dramatically different in content and tone.

Review from Last Week

From last week: I should be as concerned about God's pleasure as he is, because that's where my pleasure comes from. Trinitarianism shows God as the highest good, with pleasure reciprocated among the three persons. He saves us into that fellowship.

Second, I should trust God more, knowing he controls every detail. Being under his control is not terrible—it's desirable. He won't program us incorrectly.

Third, I should thank God more. In his sovereignty, he decrees good things, and even permitted bad things work for our good. We've always experienced God's goodness—even before salvation, as he was patient, not willing any perish (2 Peter 3:9).

Scripture on Sovereignty Over Good and Bad Times

Ecclesiastes 7:14: "When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider: God has made the one as well as the other. Therefore, a man cannot discover anything after him."

When you recognize God's total sovereignty, nothing else is needed. Focusing on his infinite awesomeness fills a lifetime, even with finite revelation in scripture.

When times are good, be happy—God made them for that. Some say God wants holiness, not happiness, but true happiness is in holiness. Jesus said, abide in me, obey, and my joy will be in you (John 15).

When times are bad, consider God. Happiness ties to considering his sovereignty over both, bringing harmony and completeness. Bad times aren't mistakes—they're God's. (Not license to sin; his sovereignty permits sin for knowing his love, grace, mercy through salvation and discipline.)

Adversity is God's grace to avoid comfort in this life, longing for eternity with him. Yet living is Christ, dying gain—we wait for his appointed time.

Isaiah 45:7: "I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the Lord, do all these things."

This is Yahweh speaking. God creates light and darkness, prosperity and disaster—not absences, but created realities.

Recall Job: righteous, yet lost family, health. His wife said curse God and die; he replied, shall we accept good from God and not disaster? (Same Hebrew word as "evil," ra'. What you intended for ra', God intended for good, tov.)

Beholding God's sovereignty—over disaster too—after scary pronouncements on mankind, reveals him fully.

God's Pronouncement on Humanity and Christ

To determine our eternal future, this God looks at us and says we are sinful, no good, nothing pleasing, incapable. But then in Matthew 3:17:

Behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

If you read through the Gospels, you know God is talking about Jesus. Having seen the awesomeness of God—His complete sovereignty over everything—and heard His pronouncements on mankind, nothing good, it seems His love is entirely on this individual. “This is my beloved Son” is a super emphatic declaration of endearment. With Him, God is exceedingly pleased.

God’s sovereignty means He can do with us whatever He pleases. He’s not impressed with us; He’s offended by our sinful, wretched lives. But this person—Jesus Christ—He loves and is well pleased with. Jesus had the inheritance, equality, and position of God, total deity, unhindered pleasure, no suffering. Yet He didn’t consider equality with God something to cling to. He became like us and suffered.

The God incapable of death, sorrow, or misery chose to take on humanity, guaranteeing He would experience those things—not from His own sin, but as a holy, sinless being in a sinful world, receiving sin’s actions against Him. He lived under His humanity, depending on His heavenly Father, exemplifying a Christian lifestyle, then saved us. He brought us into relationship with Himself, uniting us with Him. You can be treated as the beloved Son in whom God is well pleased.

Scriptures Affirming God's Sovereignty

Impress this on your hearts:

Job 42:2 – I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted.

Psalm 115:3 – Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.

Isaiah 14:27 – For the Lord Almighty has purposed, and who will annul it? His hand is stretched out, and who will turn it back?

Isaiah 43:13 – Yes, from now on I am he. There is none who can deliver from my hand; when I act, who can reverse it?

Isaiah 46:10 – I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.’

Daniel 4:35 – All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back his hand or say to him, “What have you done?”

Then God says of Jesus Christ: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

Responses to God's Awesomeness

Seeing God’s awesomeness, what He says about us, and what He says about Christ should cause three things.

1. Despair of ourselves—in a healthy way. Recognize something in me needs to change because God is pleased with Christ, not me. I’m not good; Christ is. This needs to change into Christ and salvation. The old me is depressing, not enjoyable. What God says about me before Christ is terrifying given His awesomeness.

2. Desperation for Christ—I need to be found in Him, surrounded by Him, possessing His righteousness. Everything about Him that pleases the Father is what I want. This defines how I pursue activities and spend time: beholding God’s awesomeness, humanity’s reality, and access to Christ. Spend more time learning about Him, becoming like Him. It should wake us at night, bother us where we don’t reflect Christ.

3. Dead to sin—God hates sin and sinners. But with Christ, there’s no hatred, only perfect love. Sin offends God; I want nothing to do with it. Be diligent: identify sin from Scripture, get rid of it, participate in what Christ did to please God.

We despair of ourselves—I don’t like the old me. We’re desperate for Christ—I want the new me. We’re dead to sin—this stuff in my heart must go. I want more of God’s pleasure, more of Christ, present in every area until thoroughly consumed with Him.