-Transcript-
00:35 Amen. Thank you for joining me. Good to be at the cafe today.
00:40 I hope you are doing well and today we have a wonderful topic. We are discussing the Almighty God, the powerful traits of God.
00:50 You know, I titled this message, Would You Ask Me Who God Is? I heard a song, a were testifying through the song about all of God’s power, majesty, and grace, and love.
01:05 And it just rung true in my heart that, you know, God is so amazing and we don’t testify enough of exactly who He is. You know, when we think of God, what do we think?
01:15 You know, can we even name specific traits? If we can, if we can do this, if we can name traits of God, if we know Him well enough to name His traits, because He has them, by the way, amen, then we can meditate on who He is.
01:31 And the scripture tells us that will bring us closer to Him and bring peace in our life as well.
01:52 Isaiah 26:3, Thou will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee because he trusteth in thee. You know, keeping our mind on Christ and God the Father will enrich the Holy Spirit living within us.
01:56 See, God made us to worship Him, to bring Him glory, to desire His presence, to be at peace in His presence.
02:04 And so when we seek to know Him better, we are fulfilling the reason or part of the reason why we have been created.
02:14 And it’s very important to think about that because oftentimes we get caught up as Christians in following the commandments, maybe in trying not to sin, fall into temptation, in evangelism, and all of these things are great aspects of the Christian walk.
02:29 But at the same time, we should not lose sight of who God is.
02:42 And we should not lose sight of the fact that there are times and seasons where He wants us to just meditate on who He is. The best advice, the most godly advice I could give anyone that is struggling today is to think about God. Think about Him.
03:02 You know, you pray to God and ask Him to help you as you struggle. I imagine Him responding, maybe just through a thought or in your heart or through the word, think on me, think about me.
03:09 People might think, well, how’s that going to solve my problem? Well, once we get to know who He is, then you realize He can easily solve your problem.
03:15 But beyond that, as our mind is stayed on Him, we have perfect peace. As Isaiah 26:3 says, the key word in Isaiah 26:3 is trust. Thou will keep Him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee because, because He trusteth in Thee.
03:28 You know, trust and faith go hand in hand. And so if you don’t believe in God, chances are you’re not going to think about Him a whole lot. If you say that you’re a Christian, and you really don’t have a belief, you don’t have faith, you just say you are and you live like the world, then you don’t really trust Him.
03:46 You don’t really believe. If you trusted Him, if you believed, you would think about Him. Amen.
03:50 You would meditate on Him. You would want people to come up to you and say, who is this God that you serve? This God that you worship? This God that you devote so much time to?
04:01 Who is He? You would beg for that because you would have such a great answer on who God is. And I think we need to start when we look at God’s traits, by looking at the magnitude of God.
04:15 Revelation 1, chapter 1 verse 8, the magnitude of God. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, sayeth the Lord, which is and which was and which is to come, the Almighty. Revelation 1:8 tells us He is everything.
04:33 He is the first, so there’s none before Him. He’s Alpha, and He’s Omega. He’s the last, there is none after Him.
04:41 And He is eternal. He is and was and is to come. The idea is God is perpetual.
04:48 We look at time in a different scope, in a different manner. We look at time through the lens of so many hours in the day, and so-and-so lives so long. You say, Brother Clark, where do we get that idea to look at time? I would say the Bible.
05:04 I mean, the Bible gives us information about seasons, about how there’s day and night, so that we can keep track of time, and how so-and-so lived a hundred years.
05:15 And in the Old Testament, you had folks living up to seven, eight, nine hundred years, and you get all of this information in the Bible about the years, and the times, and the seasons.
05:21 And so it is something that we have been brought up in, and it is of God, but God transcends it.
05:29 Amen. He is the Creator of all things. So we know God’s all-powerful. He created time.
05:36 He created space. He created the stars. He did all of these things, as we read about in Genesis.
05:41 And God tells us a lot more about himself through his Word. And as we study his Holy Word, we then see God working in our lives, and the lives of others, as we see these characteristics come to life.
05:53 So it’s such a simple question, who is God, and who is God to you? But it’s such a profound answer to be found in the Scriptures, and to be studied, and meditated upon.
06:03 Because when we understand who God is, we can worship him better, with more passion, with more authority rooted in God’s Word, with more love, with more context, knowing who he is.
06:20 You know, he is all-powerful. We talked about his magnitude, God’s magnitude, being from the beginning, and all the way through to the ending, being here, never dying.
06:33 Amen. None before him, none after him, always eternal, perpetual. That’s our God. And that is why he was able to bear our sins on the cross at Calvary, and be crucified, and be put to death, so to speak,
06:44 even though he was risen, resurrected three days later, and walked the earth 40 days and 40 nights, was seen by over 500, and is at the right hand of the Father today, and will never go through that again.
06:55 He died on Calvary one time, for everyone, for all times. And he’s all-powerful. So don’t let anyone make you think that he was subjected to Calvary against his will.
07:06 That was Christ’s obedience, amen? That was God in the flesh being obedient, and saying, I will do something for man, sinful man, that they cannot do for themselves.
07:17 I will be the propitiation. I will be the payment to fulfill the debt, to the debt of sin for all mankind, past, present, and future, for this one instance on the cross.
07:25 We’ll solve it all for all eternity. It broke the devil’s back, amen. It’s been done. That free gift of salvation is available to all, to any that’ll accept it, amen. And yet we see that many are skeptical, and that many put their trust in false things.
07:41 Many don’t want to get to know the characteristics of God. Many, I believe, are afraid to get to know the characteristics of God, lest they really start to fear him. Matthew 19:26, Oh, very familiar verse, Matthew 19:26.
08:05 With men, this is impossible. With God, all things are impossible. Well, what’s the context of this verse? What happens when you go up a few verses in Matthew 19?
08:14 You read that this is about the rich man having a chance to go to heaven, being like a camel going through the eye of a needle.
08:22 And again, I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God, Matthew 19:24.
08:30 And so we see here, two verses earlier, Jesus is saying it’s very, very hard for a rich man to go to heaven, but with men, it’s impossible. God, all things are possible.
08:40 So if you’re rich, you still have a chance to go to heaven. But why is it so hard for you? Because oftentimes people put their faith in riches. And I knew someone that encountered some wealth.
08:54 I mean, it wasn’t astronomical, but it was more than the average person would have. And he told me the hardest part of his life was not letting money solve all the problems. And that is was an honest statement.
09:03 He came from very little. And he said it was that was the hardest part, not letting money solve all the problems. And that’s what the rich often do is they worship money, they live for money.
09:09 And they believe money will solve every issue they have. And in the devil’s the little g God of this world, the devil’s universe, devil’s world, money goes a long way. But in God’s eyes, it’s nothing.
09:24 He created everything. What is it to God? And he says, even out of here out of his mercy with God, all things are possible, lest anyone think that they couldn’t achieve heaven. By being saved.
09:35 Amen. All can be saved. The richest man can be saved in the poorest man can be saved and both need to be saved.
09:42 And we see in Luke1:37, for with God, nothing shall be impossible. Well, what’s the context of this verse here, we heard that all things are possible in Matthew 19:26. And now here in Luke 1:37, we see for with God, nothing shall be impossible.
10:00 We see God’s all powerful nature mentioned here again, the context of this verse, Mary is being told by the angel that she’s going to give birth to Jesus and she hasn’t known her husband, so to speak, you can read through the lines.
10:11 And so she says, How can I do that? That would be a virgin birth. And the angel saying for with God, nothing’s impossible.
10:17 And then out of God’s mercy, one of my favorite passages in the Bible, out of God’s mercy and love, and and knowing how to deal with us, as in humans, he has Elizabeth pregnant with John the Baptist,
10:33 which was miraculous in its own way, because she was older. And if you read about that, it was a very miraculous thing. Zacharias and Elizabeth giving birth to John the Baptist is a huge deal.
10:42 The name john was given to given to him and he was mute, he couldn’t speak and all of this this incredible pregnancy and birth to come of John the Baptist was foretelling what Mary would see with Jesus in terms of this incredible pregnancy.
10:54 And so the angel allows Mary to understand that Elizabeth that’s her cousin is pregnant with john the baptist and allows Mary to go and spend time with Elizabeth. And that’s where john kicks and leaps in the womb.
11:13 And you see the first encounter of john the baptist and Jesus before they were even born. Amen. It’s a wonderful passage of Scripture.
11:22 And it’s so amazing because it shows God’s heart and his love. And instead of just saying things and commanding them, he’s showing and he’s allowing Elizabeth to serve as an example for Mary.
11:34 And what we see here is, as Luke 1:37 reads, for with God, nothing shall be impossible.
11:44 You know, God has all power, which means nothing is out of his control. The idea here, the Bible word would be sovereign, God is sovereign. You know, imagine a king of a nation with all rule with complete power over everything and everyone.
11:58 That’s God except he is supernaturally sovereign. He transcends space and time. He’s more sovereign than the most sovereign leader on earth.
12:02 Amen. He transcends space and time. He has all power in heaven.
12:09 He has all power in hell. He has all power on earth. He has all power in the universe.
12:13 He is the creator of all things. He is alpha and omega. He is everything and he will not be second place to anyone.
12:25 To anyone. Amen. You have to understand God’s power to properly put in perspective that we should fear him and that we should know that he is a mighty God.
12:29 You know, what is too hard for an all-powerful God? Nothing. Jeremiah 32:27. Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh.
12:44 Is there anything too hard for me? Jeremiah 32:27. God’s asking plainly, what’s too hard for me? I’m God, what is too hard for me? Jeremiah 32:27 kind of reminds me of the book of Job as well.
12:59 When God rebukes Job essentially for complaining and asking why not knowing what was going on.
13:06 Very real human emotions. But God’s saying, are you gonna approach me? Are you going to try to get into my head and see who I am? We wouldn’t want to do that. The context of this verse was the Israelites pride and unbelief had led to their destruction.
13:20 So, he can be all-powerful for you or all-powerful against you. For the believer, how does he use his power?
13:29 He can help you and bless you as you get into his word. And he can draw you near to him as you draw near to his word and to him.
13:35 There’s so much that he can do for you if you believe and have faith. And if you don’t have faith, the Bible says it’s impossible to please God. If you don’t have faith, it’s impossible to please God.
13:44 And so we see here that God is all-powerful and the trait of his power allows us to see that he can and will do great things for and with the believer, for those that truly believe that he is who he says he is and he’s a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. To quoteHebrews 11:6, we must seek the Lord here today. He is worthy to be praised.
14:10 Thank you for listening. Take care. God bless and amen.