1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:09,320 Boy, General William Booth would be proud of these guys. 2 00:00:09,320 --> 00:00:13,800 Being a former sousaphone player, I'm always partial to a good tuba, and John, you do a 3 00:00:13,800 --> 00:00:15,800 good job on that thing. 4 00:00:15,800 --> 00:00:18,800 Oh, no. 5 00:00:18,800 --> 00:00:25,400 My lips are far out of shape for that. 6 00:00:25,400 --> 00:00:28,760 We have things to pray about as a church. 7 00:00:28,760 --> 00:00:35,840 As I told you this morning in the second service, our elders have approved a tentative plan 8 00:00:35,840 --> 00:00:39,760 that would see us begin a new building a year from this summer. 9 00:00:39,760 --> 00:00:46,080 Of course, it takes a few months to get into a building, and so we're going to have to 10 00:00:46,080 --> 00:00:52,600 make some adjustments, the good kind of adjustments, in our ministry so that we can continue to 11 00:00:52,600 --> 00:00:53,600 grow. 12 00:00:53,600 --> 00:00:57,880 This morning our facilities were just about filled in both services. 13 00:00:57,880 --> 00:01:04,160 We had just a little bit over 800 apparently in worship today, and we anticipate that that 14 00:01:04,160 --> 00:01:08,480 will increase up until the time college is out, and then it's always an interesting 15 00:01:08,480 --> 00:01:11,360 summer when our college students leave us. 16 00:01:11,360 --> 00:01:17,600 But we're going to pray that many of them will get jobs in the Twin Cities this summer. 17 00:01:17,600 --> 00:01:21,160 We are going to have to expand to three services, it would appear, somewhere down the road rather 18 00:01:21,160 --> 00:01:24,400 soon, at least for the duration of the spring. 19 00:01:24,400 --> 00:01:31,280 So you pray that God will give us wisdom to know how we can be innovative and so we can 20 00:01:31,280 --> 00:01:33,720 house what God wants to do in our midst. 21 00:01:33,720 --> 00:01:38,240 We praise the Lord for this, and we praise the Lord for you being here tonight, and I 22 00:01:38,240 --> 00:01:41,120 praise the Lord that I'm here tonight. 23 00:01:41,120 --> 00:01:42,700 It's good to see you. 24 00:01:42,700 --> 00:01:46,160 I look down here in the front and see Mr. and Mrs. Kenny King from over at the other 25 00:01:46,160 --> 00:01:50,440 church, and they're always right down in that very spot when I preach over there, so 26 00:01:50,440 --> 00:01:55,240 I'm a little confused as to where I am this evening, but I look around and see all of 27 00:01:55,240 --> 00:01:57,320 you and I know where I am. 28 00:01:57,320 --> 00:02:06,000 You're such good-looking people, with some exceptions, but for the most part—yes, sure, 29 00:02:06,000 --> 00:02:13,240 that's who I was talking about—but for the most part, very good-looking congregation. 30 00:02:13,240 --> 00:02:21,600 I was thinking about Dick and came across a poem this week about some monkeys, and I 31 00:02:21,600 --> 00:02:23,920 thought I'd read it to you tonight. 32 00:02:23,920 --> 00:02:29,360 We've been talking on Sunday evenings about what God is like, and tonight we're going 33 00:02:29,360 --> 00:02:32,520 to talk about the personality of God. 34 00:02:32,520 --> 00:02:37,520 We've been talking at previous times about the fact that God created us, and this is 35 00:02:37,520 --> 00:02:43,560 a poem that talks about three monkeys. 36 00:02:43,560 --> 00:02:49,280 Three monkeys sat in a coconut tree discussing things as they're said to be. 37 00:02:49,280 --> 00:02:55,200 Said one to the others, Now listen, you two, there's a certain rumor that can't be 38 00:02:55,200 --> 00:02:59,820 true, that humans descended from our noble race. 39 00:02:59,820 --> 00:03:04,080 The very idea is a shocking disgrace. 40 00:03:04,080 --> 00:03:09,440 Never did a monkey desert his wife, starved her babies, and ruined her life. 41 00:03:09,440 --> 00:03:14,280 And you've never known a mother monk to leave her babies with others debunked, or 42 00:03:14,280 --> 00:03:19,800 pass them on from one to another till they scarcely know who is their mother. 43 00:03:19,800 --> 00:03:25,560 And another thing you'll never see—a monk build a fence around a coconut tree, and let 44 00:03:25,560 --> 00:03:30,200 the coconuts all go to waste, forbidding any other monks to taste. 45 00:03:30,200 --> 00:03:35,200 Why if I put a fence around a tree, starvation would force you to steal from me. 46 00:03:35,200 --> 00:03:41,600 Here's another thing a monk won't do—go out at night and get in a stew, making Whoopi, 47 00:03:41,600 --> 00:03:47,360 disgracing his life, then reel home madly and beat up his wife. 48 00:03:47,360 --> 00:03:51,760 They call this all pleasure and make a big fuss. 49 00:03:51,760 --> 00:03:58,800 They've descended from something, but not from us. 50 00:03:58,800 --> 00:04:02,960 I concur with the monkey. 51 00:04:02,960 --> 00:04:11,480 How good God is to us, and tonight we want to talk about the fact that God is a personality. 52 00:04:11,480 --> 00:04:16,000 There are various concepts and views about God's existence. 53 00:04:16,000 --> 00:04:22,400 Of course, the atheist says that there is no God. 54 00:04:22,400 --> 00:04:31,960 He can't arrive at that conclusion intellectually, but he arrives at it emotionally and volitionally, 55 00:04:31,960 --> 00:04:34,320 willfully. 56 00:04:34,320 --> 00:04:40,080 The agnostic says, well, we can't know whether there's a God or not. 57 00:04:40,080 --> 00:04:46,560 The pantheist says that everything around us is God, and God is everything around us. 58 00:04:46,560 --> 00:04:51,840 The deist says that God is a supreme being, but he is impersonal, and somewhere at the 59 00:04:51,840 --> 00:04:54,160 other side of the universe looking after things. 60 00:04:54,160 --> 00:04:58,840 He's not really very interested in what's going on in the world. 61 00:04:58,840 --> 00:05:06,960 The theist declares that God is a personal God who is separate and above His creation. 62 00:05:06,960 --> 00:05:13,640 Of course, it is this latter view which the Bible reveals. 63 00:05:13,640 --> 00:05:21,120 It is that God is the Creator, and He is above and separate from the creation that He has 64 00:05:21,120 --> 00:05:23,600 called into existence. 65 00:05:23,600 --> 00:05:31,760 The Bible does not reveal God in the neuter as if He were only a force, a feeling, a principle, 66 00:05:31,760 --> 00:05:40,460 or some cosmic energy, but the Bible uses personal pronouns to speak about God, indicating 67 00:05:40,460 --> 00:05:45,280 that God in fact is a personality. 68 00:05:45,280 --> 00:05:51,880 Not in the mere human sense as we think of persons and personalities, but God is in fact 69 00:05:51,880 --> 00:05:54,560 a personality. 70 00:05:54,560 --> 00:05:57,920 Some view God as rather cold and calculating. 71 00:05:57,920 --> 00:06:04,680 They see God as only fate, that man is helpless and hopeless, they would seem to say, but 72 00:06:04,680 --> 00:06:07,520 not so according to the Bible. 73 00:06:07,520 --> 00:06:16,480 God is loving and kind as well as just and holy, and He is willing to aid man, to be 74 00:06:16,480 --> 00:06:20,480 with man, to save man. 75 00:06:20,480 --> 00:06:24,020 There are a number of reasons why we believe in a personal God, and I'd like for us to 76 00:06:24,020 --> 00:06:26,660 think about some of those tonight. 77 00:06:26,660 --> 00:06:34,800 Why we believe in a God who exhibits personality. 78 00:06:34,800 --> 00:06:44,760 Personality is usually thought of as constituted by emotions, intellect, and will. 79 00:06:44,760 --> 00:06:48,840 You are a person because you have those faculties. 80 00:06:48,840 --> 00:06:57,080 You are able to feel, you are able to think, and you are able to decide. 81 00:06:57,080 --> 00:07:01,880 Now we talk about a dog having a good personality. 82 00:07:01,880 --> 00:07:07,480 I don't think I've ever met one yet that really did, but we talk about a dog with a 83 00:07:07,480 --> 00:07:08,760 good personality. 84 00:07:08,760 --> 00:07:16,000 Our poodle is not a personality. 85 00:07:16,000 --> 00:07:22,920 In fact, well they should call her a puddle, but that poodle is an interesting dog, but 86 00:07:22,920 --> 00:07:30,000 she doesn't have personality in the sense we're talking about here. 87 00:07:30,000 --> 00:07:39,000 We human beings are personalities because we have feelers, and choosers, and thinkers. 88 00:07:39,000 --> 00:07:44,240 Now God is a personality because He has the same faculties. 89 00:07:44,240 --> 00:07:51,200 Not on a mere human level, His faculties are perfect to an infinite degree. 90 00:07:51,200 --> 00:08:02,960 His ability to feel, to decide, and to know are vastly different from our own. 91 00:08:02,960 --> 00:08:08,640 One of the reasons that we believe that God is a personal God is because the Bible says 92 00:08:08,640 --> 00:08:09,640 that He has feelings. 93 00:08:09,640 --> 00:08:14,280 I'd like for you to open your Bible with me and look at some of the feelings that God 94 00:08:14,280 --> 00:08:17,000 has. 95 00:08:17,000 --> 00:08:23,160 Humans call this the sensibility of God, rather than using the mere human term emotions, but 96 00:08:23,160 --> 00:08:25,320 it's the same thought. 97 00:08:25,320 --> 00:08:33,220 Turn to Genesis 6 and verse 6. 98 00:08:33,220 --> 00:08:39,920 We have here the record of what man was like in those days before the Flood. 99 00:08:39,920 --> 00:08:48,200 The population of the world had grown numerically and it had declined morally. 100 00:08:48,200 --> 00:08:56,320 In Genesis 6, verse 5, it says, the Lord saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had 101 00:08:56,320 --> 00:09:04,200 become and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. 102 00:09:04,200 --> 00:09:13,480 Look at verse 6, the Lord was grieved that He had made man on the earth and his heart 103 00:09:13,480 --> 00:09:15,840 was filled with pain. 104 00:09:15,840 --> 00:09:22,160 It's difficult for us to identify with this kind of grief and pain because it's talking 105 00:09:22,160 --> 00:09:28,840 about the grief and the inward pain of one who is infinitely perfect. 106 00:09:28,840 --> 00:09:36,560 Here we see that God is not just an impersonal force, but He is a being who can be grieved 107 00:09:36,560 --> 00:09:43,320 and who can feel pain within as God does here as He sees the wickedness of man. 108 00:09:43,320 --> 00:09:51,080 Again, in Ephesians chapter 4, we are commanded, grieve not the Holy Spirit by whom you are 109 00:09:51,080 --> 00:09:53,440 sealed unto the day of redemption. 110 00:09:53,440 --> 00:09:57,320 I'm glad for that verse being balanced the way it is. 111 00:09:57,320 --> 00:10:02,200 There are some people who say that we can grieve away the Holy Spirit and thus lose 112 00:10:02,200 --> 00:10:08,480 our salvation, but clearly in that verse it says that we are not to grieve the Holy Spirit 113 00:10:08,480 --> 00:10:14,840 by whom we are sealed unto the day of salvation. 114 00:10:14,840 --> 00:10:20,360 Though the Holy Spirit is a seal guaranteeing our salvation, nonetheless He can be grieved 115 00:10:20,360 --> 00:10:24,320 as God. 116 00:10:24,320 --> 00:10:32,640 I wonder if the thing that caused Peter to repent in tears after his denial of our Lord 117 00:10:32,640 --> 00:10:39,340 was not a look at the Savior's face there in that courtyard and seeing within the eyes 118 00:10:39,340 --> 00:10:48,360 of our Lord the love and the grief that our Savior felt for Peter. 119 00:10:48,360 --> 00:10:51,520 Peter felt that he would not deny the Lord. 120 00:10:51,520 --> 00:10:54,320 He said, though all others forsake you, I'll never forsake you. 121 00:10:54,320 --> 00:10:59,280 And Jesus said, before the cock crows three times, you'll deny me. 122 00:10:59,280 --> 00:11:01,800 And he did. 123 00:11:01,800 --> 00:11:02,800 The Lord knew Peter. 124 00:11:02,800 --> 00:11:06,960 The Lord knows us. 125 00:11:06,960 --> 00:11:13,920 And when we fail the Lord, His heart is grieved with our own in our failure. 126 00:11:13,920 --> 00:11:17,960 And then let's quote together that very familiar verse that even the smallest children here 127 00:11:17,960 --> 00:11:22,800 tonight probably have begun to memorize, John 3.16. 128 00:11:22,800 --> 00:11:29,840 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth 129 00:11:29,840 --> 00:11:35,280 in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 130 00:11:35,280 --> 00:11:38,320 There it says that God loves. 131 00:11:38,320 --> 00:11:40,880 God loves. 132 00:11:40,880 --> 00:11:44,440 A force does not love. 133 00:11:44,440 --> 00:11:48,000 A personal God does. 134 00:11:48,000 --> 00:11:53,840 And God loves all the world, and He loves you tonight. 135 00:11:53,840 --> 00:11:58,960 His heart is filled with concern and care for you because He loves. 136 00:11:58,960 --> 00:12:07,680 He's a person, infinitely majestic in His perfection, but He is a person who loves. 137 00:12:07,680 --> 00:12:15,140 And then turn to Genesis, or rather to Proverbs, chapter 6, and we notice another of the sensibilities 138 00:12:15,140 --> 00:12:18,680 of God. 139 00:12:18,680 --> 00:12:30,800 Proverbs chapter 6, verse 16. 140 00:12:30,800 --> 00:12:41,320 The writer says, There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to Him. 141 00:12:41,320 --> 00:12:49,080 Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked 142 00:12:49,080 --> 00:12:57,140 schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies, 143 00:12:57,140 --> 00:13:01,440 and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers. 144 00:13:01,440 --> 00:13:04,560 It says here that there are some things that God hates. 145 00:13:04,560 --> 00:13:08,480 He finds them detestable. 146 00:13:08,480 --> 00:13:12,740 His holy nature revolts against these things. 147 00:13:12,740 --> 00:13:23,320 There are some things that God hates with a perfect sinless hatred. 148 00:13:23,320 --> 00:13:32,080 And then turn back to Deuteronomy chapter 6, and we notice another of the sensibilities 149 00:13:32,080 --> 00:13:37,680 of our glorious God. 150 00:13:37,680 --> 00:13:51,560 In writing to the Israelites, and speaking to them rather, and then having it recorded 151 00:13:51,560 --> 00:13:59,920 later, Moses says these words, verse 15, For the Lord your God who is among you is a jealous 152 00:13:59,920 --> 00:14:06,200 God, and his anger will burn against you, and he will destroy you from the face of the 153 00:14:06,200 --> 00:14:07,200 land. 154 00:14:07,200 --> 00:14:14,680 The verse comes on the end of a warning to them not to serve other gods, false gods. 155 00:14:14,680 --> 00:14:15,820 Why? 156 00:14:15,820 --> 00:14:24,120 Because he is a jealous God who has anger, righteous anger within him. 157 00:14:24,120 --> 00:14:27,620 A force doesn't get angry. 158 00:14:27,620 --> 00:14:38,400 Cosmic energy is not jealous, but God is a jealous God, and he can be angry against sin. 159 00:14:38,400 --> 00:14:44,360 That anger, that perfect anger is expressed by Jesus when he went into the temple and 160 00:14:44,360 --> 00:14:46,880 saw it being misused. 161 00:14:46,880 --> 00:14:52,040 It had become a den of thieves instead of the house of God, and he drove out those people 162 00:14:52,040 --> 00:14:54,720 who were disgracing the temple of the Lord. 163 00:14:54,720 --> 00:14:58,560 He drove them out with a perfect anger. 164 00:14:58,560 --> 00:15:04,360 He was jealous for the house of his father. 165 00:15:04,360 --> 00:15:07,080 God has emotions. 166 00:15:07,080 --> 00:15:09,360 God has sensibility. 167 00:15:09,360 --> 00:15:14,520 These include his holiness, his justice, his love, his goodness, his truth, all of these 168 00:15:14,520 --> 00:15:17,840 things. 169 00:15:17,840 --> 00:15:23,840 We know that God is a personal God because he has these characteristics. 170 00:15:23,840 --> 00:15:29,320 And then I want you to notice too that God not only has emotions, but he has intelligence. 171 00:15:29,320 --> 00:15:34,560 And really the proper way to say it is that God is omniscient. 172 00:15:34,560 --> 00:15:39,120 God has all intelligence or all knowledge resident within himself. 173 00:15:39,120 --> 00:15:43,000 Let's turn to three passages and just read them without much comment. 174 00:15:43,000 --> 00:15:49,840 Psalm 147 verse 5. 175 00:15:49,840 --> 00:15:58,840 In describing our Lord's intelligence, it says, Great is our Lord, and mighty in power, 176 00:15:58,840 --> 00:16:04,160 his understanding has no limit. 177 00:16:04,160 --> 00:16:09,080 I think all of us would confess tonight that there is a quick limit to our understanding 178 00:16:09,080 --> 00:16:11,160 of things. 179 00:16:11,160 --> 00:16:16,440 Even the smartest among us is not able to comprehend all things. 180 00:16:16,440 --> 00:16:21,280 There is so much knowledge being poured out into the world these days that no man can 181 00:16:21,280 --> 00:16:23,480 absorb it all. 182 00:16:23,480 --> 00:16:29,640 But God not only is aware of everything that man is just discovering, but God knows everything 183 00:16:29,640 --> 00:16:33,240 man hasn't the foggiest idea about yet. 184 00:16:33,240 --> 00:16:38,120 There is no limit to his understanding. 185 00:16:38,120 --> 00:16:44,920 And then look at Isaiah chapter 40 verse 28. 186 00:16:44,920 --> 00:16:51,200 Isaiah 40 verse 28. 187 00:16:51,200 --> 00:16:53,960 Prophet says, Do you not know? 188 00:16:53,960 --> 00:16:56,120 Have you not heard? 189 00:16:56,120 --> 00:17:01,880 The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth. 190 00:17:01,880 --> 00:17:10,480 He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. 191 00:17:10,480 --> 00:17:18,720 There are some people who refuse to believe in God because they cannot understand him. 192 00:17:18,720 --> 00:17:24,360 If we could understand God, he wouldn't be a God worth trusting in. 193 00:17:24,360 --> 00:17:30,800 If our finite, weak minds could encompass God and comprehend him, he would not be very 194 00:17:30,800 --> 00:17:33,240 bigwitty. 195 00:17:33,240 --> 00:17:38,600 One of the most marvelous things about our God is that he cannot be comprehended by us. 196 00:17:38,600 --> 00:17:41,920 His understanding no one can fathom. 197 00:17:41,920 --> 00:18:06,640 And then to Acts chapter 15 verse 18, Acts 15, 18, where it says, Known unto God are 198 00:18:06,640 --> 00:18:12,640 all his works from the beginning of the age. 199 00:18:12,640 --> 00:18:15,540 God knows everything he's ever done. 200 00:18:15,540 --> 00:18:17,360 We are just discovering. 201 00:18:17,360 --> 00:18:20,160 We are still probing. 202 00:18:20,160 --> 00:18:28,680 We are just observing in our most advanced science. 203 00:18:28,680 --> 00:18:31,200 But God knows how he's done everything. 204 00:18:31,200 --> 00:18:36,420 Every work he has ever accomplished is completely known to him. 205 00:18:36,420 --> 00:18:38,700 God knows all time. 206 00:18:38,700 --> 00:18:41,200 He knows the past. 207 00:18:41,200 --> 00:18:43,300 He knows the present. 208 00:18:43,300 --> 00:18:45,160 He knows the future. 209 00:18:45,160 --> 00:18:46,920 We don't. 210 00:18:46,920 --> 00:18:55,340 He knows all of that because he stands back from time and sees it completed in his eternity. 211 00:18:55,340 --> 00:18:59,440 God knows all possibilities. 212 00:18:59,440 --> 00:19:04,600 God knows what would have happened if what did happen had not happened. 213 00:19:04,600 --> 00:19:08,080 Don't ask me to repeat it. 214 00:19:08,080 --> 00:19:11,060 God knows every possibility. 215 00:19:11,060 --> 00:19:16,600 What if you had made a different decision ten years ago to take that other job or to 216 00:19:16,600 --> 00:19:23,760 marry that other person or to do any one of a thousand things perhaps, or you came to 217 00:19:23,760 --> 00:19:26,320 a crossroad and made a certain decision. 218 00:19:26,320 --> 00:19:31,240 God knows the end result of every possible decision you might have ever made. 219 00:19:31,240 --> 00:19:32,460 He knows it. 220 00:19:32,460 --> 00:19:35,960 He knows all possibilities. 221 00:19:35,960 --> 00:19:42,280 This is very practical because it means that all of us are forever within his observation. 222 00:19:42,280 --> 00:19:43,280 He knows us. 223 00:19:43,280 --> 00:19:46,280 I am reminded of Hagar. 224 00:19:46,280 --> 00:19:49,040 Do you remember her? 225 00:19:49,040 --> 00:19:54,440 A rather sad person, I think, on the pages of the Old Testament. 226 00:19:54,440 --> 00:19:58,320 She was the handmaid of what very famous first lady? 227 00:19:58,320 --> 00:20:01,960 Right, Sarah. 228 00:20:01,960 --> 00:20:07,440 God had promised Abraham a son, and when Sarah was unable to produce that son naturally, 229 00:20:07,440 --> 00:20:13,640 she suggested that according to the custom of that day, that Abraham have a child by 230 00:20:13,640 --> 00:20:15,920 Hagar, her handmaid. 231 00:20:15,920 --> 00:20:22,560 She felt that she could build a family through this maiden of hers. 232 00:20:22,560 --> 00:20:24,300 And so that happened. 233 00:20:24,300 --> 00:20:28,680 She conceived and brought forth a son. 234 00:20:28,680 --> 00:20:30,520 His name was Ishmael. 235 00:20:30,520 --> 00:20:33,880 He was named Ishmael by the angel of the Lord, by the way. 236 00:20:33,880 --> 00:20:36,840 That was a name that God chose for him. 237 00:20:36,840 --> 00:20:43,820 The name means God hears, and here's how the name came about. 238 00:20:43,820 --> 00:20:52,480 After she was with child, Hagar began to despise Sarah and to mock her because she had been 239 00:20:52,480 --> 00:20:55,180 unable to conceive. 240 00:20:55,180 --> 00:20:58,940 And that got under Sarah's skin. 241 00:20:58,940 --> 00:21:02,780 And she finally went to Abraham and said, now look what you've done. 242 00:21:02,780 --> 00:21:06,720 Does that sound familiar? 243 00:21:06,720 --> 00:21:09,200 And then Abraham said, well, you worry about it. 244 00:21:09,200 --> 00:21:10,200 She's your handmaid. 245 00:21:10,200 --> 00:21:12,940 Does that sound familiar? 246 00:21:12,940 --> 00:21:15,280 And so Sarah did. 247 00:21:15,280 --> 00:21:20,680 She so mistreated Hagar that Hagar took off and ran. 248 00:21:20,680 --> 00:21:24,840 She got out into the middle of the wilderness. 249 00:21:24,840 --> 00:21:25,840 Thought she was all alone. 250 00:21:25,840 --> 00:21:27,320 Thought she was going to die. 251 00:21:27,320 --> 00:21:36,280 And the angel of the Lord, in other words, the Son of God, before he was born, a pre-incarnate 252 00:21:36,280 --> 00:21:43,160 appearance of God the Son, the angel of the Lord came to that desert and spoke with her 253 00:21:43,160 --> 00:21:48,280 and said, where did you come from and where are you going? 254 00:21:48,280 --> 00:21:49,920 And she began to relate her story. 255 00:21:49,920 --> 00:21:55,000 And the angel of the Lord blessed her and gave the name Ishmael to her son and said, 256 00:21:55,000 --> 00:21:58,480 he's going to be a wild donkey of a man. 257 00:21:58,480 --> 00:22:00,320 That's quite a blessing, isn't it? 258 00:22:00,320 --> 00:22:03,400 Pretty descriptive, though, of his descendants. 259 00:22:03,400 --> 00:22:11,040 Wild people, nomadic people. 260 00:22:11,040 --> 00:22:18,880 And she called the name of that place, there was a well there, and she called it the well 261 00:22:18,880 --> 00:22:22,400 of the one who hears and sees me. 262 00:22:22,400 --> 00:22:28,420 And her statement to the angel of the Lord was, thou God seest me. 263 00:22:28,420 --> 00:22:33,160 Some of you boys and girls have memorized that in your programs here at the church. 264 00:22:33,160 --> 00:22:35,560 Maybe your parents have taught it to you. 265 00:22:35,560 --> 00:22:38,360 Thou God seest me. 266 00:22:38,360 --> 00:22:43,560 Why is he able to see Hagar, this good for nothing handmaid out in the middle of the 267 00:22:43,560 --> 00:22:44,560 desert? 268 00:22:44,560 --> 00:22:46,640 Because God sees everything. 269 00:22:46,640 --> 00:22:48,920 There's nothing that is not known to God. 270 00:22:48,920 --> 00:22:53,480 A sparrow does not fall but that God knows it. 271 00:22:53,480 --> 00:22:57,920 I think I told you before about the first sparrow I shot when I was about 12 years old 272 00:22:57,920 --> 00:23:01,160 with a BB gun. 273 00:23:01,160 --> 00:23:07,360 I remember pointing that gun up into the tree outside our house and watching that BB fly 274 00:23:07,360 --> 00:23:12,800 up, as you can do with one of those things, and I saw the bird fall. 275 00:23:12,800 --> 00:23:19,160 And I remember the sick feeling that came over me as I saw a living creature fall dead 276 00:23:19,160 --> 00:23:25,400 because of my stupidity as a young boy. 277 00:23:25,400 --> 00:23:30,000 And immediately the verse came to my mind that God just saw that sparrow fall. 278 00:23:30,000 --> 00:23:32,160 God knows it. 279 00:23:32,160 --> 00:23:33,960 You see a little bird. 280 00:23:33,960 --> 00:23:35,880 God knows how many hairs in your head. 281 00:23:35,880 --> 00:23:38,200 You know what that proves? 282 00:23:38,200 --> 00:23:44,880 God can subtract as well as add. 283 00:23:44,880 --> 00:23:49,800 God is a good mathematician. 284 00:23:49,800 --> 00:23:51,160 You see God knows everything. 285 00:23:51,160 --> 00:23:53,080 His intelligence no one can fathom. 286 00:23:53,080 --> 00:23:54,080 It's impossible. 287 00:23:54,080 --> 00:23:59,440 Let's go on. 288 00:23:59,440 --> 00:24:00,640 What else can God do? 289 00:24:00,640 --> 00:24:01,640 God can choose. 290 00:24:01,640 --> 00:24:03,680 He can will to do things. 291 00:24:03,680 --> 00:24:04,680 He has volition. 292 00:24:04,680 --> 00:24:11,680 Dr. Schaeffer says in his theology, he puts into effect all he has designed. 293 00:24:11,680 --> 00:24:17,160 In other words, God can only design something with his perfect intelligence, but then he 294 00:24:17,160 --> 00:24:19,760 can will it to be carried out. 295 00:24:19,760 --> 00:24:25,920 Now you and I can scheme some pretty clever things and then find ourselves short of the 296 00:24:25,920 --> 00:24:30,240 capacity to carry out our plans, but not so with God. 297 00:24:30,240 --> 00:24:34,440 He can do whatever he wants to do. 298 00:24:34,440 --> 00:24:39,880 Turn to Psalm 115 and look at verse 3 as we see this. 299 00:24:39,880 --> 00:24:47,200 Psalm 115 verse 3. 300 00:24:47,200 --> 00:24:50,720 Our God is in heaven. 301 00:24:50,720 --> 00:24:54,120 Let's back up and read the first and second verses too. 302 00:24:54,120 --> 00:24:55,120 Psalm 115. 303 00:24:55,120 --> 00:25:01,400 Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name be the glory because of your love and 304 00:25:01,400 --> 00:25:03,000 faithfulness. 305 00:25:03,000 --> 00:25:06,840 Why do the nations say, where is their God? 306 00:25:06,840 --> 00:25:10,040 Of course, that's what the nations said about Israel. 307 00:25:10,040 --> 00:25:15,120 All of the other nations had their gods neatly housed away in these little buildings and 308 00:25:15,120 --> 00:25:22,160 they could go and pat their God on the leg and bow down to him and burn sacrifices before 309 00:25:22,160 --> 00:25:23,160 him. 310 00:25:23,160 --> 00:25:25,520 They could see the God that they had made out of wood and stone. 311 00:25:25,520 --> 00:25:28,080 And they would say to Israel, now where is your God? 312 00:25:28,080 --> 00:25:32,920 Well, the answer is our God is in heaven. 313 00:25:32,920 --> 00:25:38,120 He does whatever pleases him. 314 00:25:38,120 --> 00:25:43,920 Now when God does something, he never does anything that contradicts his own character. 315 00:25:43,920 --> 00:25:47,260 God can do anything, but he cannot sin, for example. 316 00:25:47,260 --> 00:25:51,520 He will not sin because that's a contradiction of his holiness. 317 00:25:51,520 --> 00:25:58,440 But other than contradicting himself, God can do anything he well pleases. 318 00:25:58,440 --> 00:26:02,120 He has the power to bring it about. 319 00:26:02,120 --> 00:26:13,600 Let's look at one more place in Isaiah 46 and verse 10 as we see a similar thought. 320 00:26:13,600 --> 00:26:18,320 By the way, if you would just like a good devotional exercise sometime, go to Isaiah 321 00:26:18,320 --> 00:26:26,640 and read chapters 40 up through about 48 in one sitting and just see how God has revealed 322 00:26:26,640 --> 00:26:29,640 to you in these pages. 323 00:26:29,640 --> 00:26:34,320 Revelation of the person of God through Isaiah. 324 00:26:34,320 --> 00:26:42,600 But here in Isaiah 46 verse 10, it says, I make known the end from the beginning, God 325 00:26:42,600 --> 00:26:47,760 speaking, from ancient times what is still to come. 326 00:26:47,760 --> 00:26:56,640 I say my purpose will stand and I will do all that I please, and he will. 327 00:26:56,640 --> 00:27:05,840 Now because God has volition, we know that he is personal, not just a force. 328 00:27:05,840 --> 00:27:13,360 Now beyond these faculties that constitute personality, we know that God is a person 329 00:27:13,360 --> 00:27:14,880 for a couple of other reasons. 330 00:27:14,880 --> 00:27:18,200 Number one, he has power. 331 00:27:18,200 --> 00:27:22,160 He has power to do intelligent things like create. 332 00:27:22,160 --> 00:27:27,240 Go back and read about creation in those first chapters of Genesis and marvel at what it 333 00:27:27,240 --> 00:27:28,240 says. 334 00:27:28,240 --> 00:27:30,600 And never does the Bible argue for God's existence. 335 00:27:30,600 --> 00:27:34,560 It merely proclaims it, in the beginning, God. 336 00:27:34,560 --> 00:27:37,420 How profound is that? 337 00:27:37,420 --> 00:27:41,320 In the beginning, God created. 338 00:27:41,320 --> 00:27:46,960 The word means that he brought into being that which did not exist before. 339 00:27:46,960 --> 00:27:49,560 He created something out of nothing. 340 00:27:49,560 --> 00:28:00,400 Now we have capacity to create by making new things out of elements that already exist. 341 00:28:00,400 --> 00:28:05,880 We can take a piece of wood and fashion it into a new shape, or we can take chemicals 342 00:28:05,880 --> 00:28:08,960 and combine them and come up with a new substance. 343 00:28:08,960 --> 00:28:18,400 But God alone can call into existence what never existed before, and he did that. 344 00:28:18,400 --> 00:28:24,280 And then he not only created it, but he proclaimed it to be good. 345 00:28:24,280 --> 00:28:28,720 He could make that judgment about it, and it was good. 346 00:28:28,720 --> 00:28:31,960 Then he reasoned Adam's need for a helpmate. 347 00:28:31,960 --> 00:28:34,840 He knew that. 348 00:28:34,840 --> 00:28:41,120 When man sinned, God knew it and came in search of man. 349 00:28:41,120 --> 00:28:44,040 God pronounced judgment upon sin. 350 00:28:44,040 --> 00:28:50,320 And then he graciously provided salvation through the shedding of the blood of an animal 351 00:28:50,320 --> 00:28:55,360 and clothed these two naked human beings. 352 00:28:55,360 --> 00:29:02,120 All of that reveals not just an impersonal force, but a God who cares, a God who loves, 353 00:29:02,120 --> 00:29:05,040 a God who has power to do whatever he pleases. 354 00:29:05,040 --> 00:29:09,040 A personal God, if you please. 355 00:29:09,040 --> 00:29:11,560 There are many other things that God has power to do. 356 00:29:11,560 --> 00:29:15,400 But let me mention a fifth reason why we know he is a personal God. 357 00:29:15,400 --> 00:29:24,200 It is because of the names that he chooses to reveal himself. 358 00:29:24,200 --> 00:29:30,040 God does not call himself the force. 359 00:29:30,040 --> 00:29:32,920 That's not his name. 360 00:29:32,920 --> 00:29:36,200 God calls himself by personal names. 361 00:29:36,200 --> 00:29:39,480 For example, the name Elohim. 362 00:29:39,480 --> 00:29:43,960 It's used 2,570 times in the Bible. 363 00:29:43,960 --> 00:29:50,480 It's the first name that God uses to express himself to man, Elohim. 364 00:29:50,480 --> 00:29:54,240 And it means the Almighty. 365 00:29:54,240 --> 00:30:00,960 It reveals him as one who is powerful, as Elohim he created. 366 00:30:00,960 --> 00:30:08,080 But then the name that probably is more meaningful to us is the name that we pronounce Jehovah, 367 00:30:08,080 --> 00:30:11,280 the actual pronunciation of it is not known. 368 00:30:11,280 --> 00:30:17,920 It may be closer to Yahweh, but it's a name that is used approximately 6,000 times in 369 00:30:17,920 --> 00:30:19,760 the Bible. 370 00:30:19,760 --> 00:30:27,920 It is the name that God uses when he makes a covenant with his people. 371 00:30:27,920 --> 00:30:35,040 When God appeared to Moses down on the top of Mount Sinai, Moses was concerned as to 372 00:30:35,040 --> 00:30:38,400 what he should tell the people, who sent me? 373 00:30:38,400 --> 00:30:45,200 And God said, when they ask you that, you tell them that I am has sent you. 374 00:30:45,200 --> 00:30:48,440 That's this name, Jehovah. 375 00:30:48,440 --> 00:30:55,040 In our English Bibles, it's usually put down as capital L, capital O, capital R, capital 376 00:30:55,040 --> 00:31:03,800 D, Lord, to distinguish it from capital L, O, R, D, which is another name for God. 377 00:31:03,800 --> 00:31:09,780 It is the name that means he is the self-existent one. 378 00:31:09,780 --> 00:31:16,440 It is the name that means he is free, that he is purposeful, that he is a self-sufficient 379 00:31:16,440 --> 00:31:18,620 personality. 380 00:31:18,620 --> 00:31:24,840 This idea that God created man because he is lonely could be best described by that 381 00:31:24,840 --> 00:31:32,100 old theological term we talked about a long time ago, baloney. 382 00:31:32,100 --> 00:31:33,760 God is not lonely. 383 00:31:33,760 --> 00:31:37,400 He did not create man because he sat up there and wondered, now who am I going to talk to 384 00:31:37,400 --> 00:31:41,480 today? 385 00:31:41,480 --> 00:31:43,400 God is self-sufficient. 386 00:31:43,400 --> 00:31:47,460 He needs no one. 387 00:31:47,460 --> 00:31:51,880 But because of his nature, he also relates to the creation that he made. 388 00:31:51,880 --> 00:31:55,360 That's what he wants to do. 389 00:31:55,360 --> 00:31:58,880 It helps us to understand what the Bible is all about. 390 00:31:58,880 --> 00:32:04,680 Folks, it's important for us to understand that the theme of the Bible is not the salvation 391 00:32:04,680 --> 00:32:05,680 of man. 392 00:32:05,680 --> 00:32:07,640 Did you know that? 393 00:32:07,640 --> 00:32:11,120 That is not the theme of the Bible. 394 00:32:11,120 --> 00:32:15,960 The theme of the Bible is the glory of God. 395 00:32:15,960 --> 00:32:20,400 There's a difference there. 396 00:32:20,400 --> 00:32:22,760 God's priority is not saving man. 397 00:32:22,760 --> 00:32:25,840 God's priority is glorifying himself. 398 00:32:25,840 --> 00:32:32,840 And one of the ways in which he does that is to save man. 399 00:32:32,840 --> 00:32:38,320 God needs no one, but he chooses to love us and to be related to us. 400 00:32:38,320 --> 00:32:45,720 God uses that name Jehovah in union with a number of other words that help us to understand 401 00:32:45,720 --> 00:32:47,080 what he's like. 402 00:32:47,080 --> 00:32:50,880 For example, he calls himself Jehovah Jireh. 403 00:32:50,880 --> 00:32:51,880 You've heard that, haven't you? 404 00:32:51,880 --> 00:32:53,800 In fact, I think we heard it tonight. 405 00:32:53,800 --> 00:32:54,800 Did you use that dick? 406 00:32:54,800 --> 00:32:59,640 I think we did, or somebody said the Lord provides, and that's what the name means. 407 00:32:59,640 --> 00:33:07,120 Can anybody tell me the incident in the Old Testament where this name Jehovah Jireh is 408 00:33:07,120 --> 00:33:11,760 first revealed? 409 00:33:11,760 --> 00:33:12,760 What incident, John? 410 00:33:12,760 --> 00:33:18,720 It's exactly right. 411 00:33:18,720 --> 00:33:26,840 In Genesis chapter 22, when God provided the ram for Abraham to sacrifice, when he saw 412 00:33:26,840 --> 00:33:30,880 that in his heart he'd already sacrificed Isaac. 413 00:33:30,880 --> 00:33:33,640 Jehovah Jireh, the Lord will provide. 414 00:33:33,640 --> 00:33:41,440 Then there's the name Jehovah Rafa, which means I am the Lord that heals you. 415 00:33:41,440 --> 00:33:45,760 It's a name that was revealed after the children of Israel had crossed over the Red Sea, and 416 00:33:45,760 --> 00:33:50,880 they came to the bitter waters of Merah, and the waters were healed. 417 00:33:50,880 --> 00:33:54,320 And there God revealed himself as the one who heals. 418 00:33:54,320 --> 00:34:01,440 A couple of chapters later in Exodus, he reveals himself as Jehovah Nisi. 419 00:34:01,440 --> 00:34:08,440 God revealed that name when he gave his people victory over the Amalekites. 420 00:34:08,440 --> 00:34:13,720 It is a name that reveals that he is the God who is the banner of his people, the God who 421 00:34:13,720 --> 00:34:16,520 leads his people in victory. 422 00:34:16,520 --> 00:34:19,320 He calls himself Jehovah Shalom. 423 00:34:19,320 --> 00:34:24,320 You don't have to work very hard at figuring that out, do you? 424 00:34:24,320 --> 00:34:25,320 God is peace. 425 00:34:25,320 --> 00:34:30,080 It was the name that he revealed to Gideon and judges. 426 00:34:30,080 --> 00:34:40,240 Jehovah Sidgenu in Jeremiah 23, the Lord my righteousness, and then Jehovah Shama in Ezekiel 427 00:34:40,240 --> 00:34:41,720 chapter 48. 428 00:34:41,720 --> 00:34:52,880 Ezekiel closes his book, chapters 40 through 48, with a fantastic description of the Jerusalem 429 00:34:52,880 --> 00:34:57,520 in the kingdom age to come. 430 00:34:57,520 --> 00:35:03,160 And the best thing about the whole place is the last phrase in the whole book which says 431 00:35:03,160 --> 00:35:10,880 Jehovah Shama, which means the Lord is there. 432 00:35:10,880 --> 00:35:13,440 The Lord is present there. 433 00:35:13,440 --> 00:35:15,720 That's what makes heaven heaven. 434 00:35:15,720 --> 00:35:20,840 It's not the pearly gates and the streets of gold that those things would be interesting 435 00:35:20,840 --> 00:35:22,800 to look at. 436 00:35:22,800 --> 00:35:26,040 The thing that makes heaven heaven is the fact that that's where our Lord is. 437 00:35:26,040 --> 00:35:32,240 He's a personal God, and he revealed himself in the person of Jesus Christ. 438 00:35:32,240 --> 00:35:37,920 Now there are some practical things that we want to comment about and then we'll be done. 439 00:35:37,920 --> 00:35:43,440 First, because God is a personal God, there is no other God like him. 440 00:35:43,440 --> 00:35:47,360 He is unique. 441 00:35:47,360 --> 00:35:55,000 The world has many religions, but Christianity is not one of them, because Christianity is 442 00:35:55,000 --> 00:35:58,280 not in the world or from the world, rather. 443 00:35:58,280 --> 00:36:03,120 It is from God. 444 00:36:03,120 --> 00:36:09,440 The other religions of the world create their philosophies, they set up their gods, they 445 00:36:09,440 --> 00:36:11,480 are man-made. 446 00:36:11,480 --> 00:36:14,280 The biblical Christianity comes the reverse direction. 447 00:36:14,280 --> 00:36:17,080 It is from God down to man. 448 00:36:17,080 --> 00:36:20,600 It is the truth. 449 00:36:20,600 --> 00:36:27,660 One of my favorite, I think one of the funniest stories in the Old Testament is when the ark 450 00:36:27,660 --> 00:36:29,720 of the Lord was captured by the Philistines. 451 00:36:29,720 --> 00:36:31,880 Do you remember that? 452 00:36:31,880 --> 00:36:33,800 It's a riot. 453 00:36:33,800 --> 00:36:37,280 Go back and read it sometime in 1 Samuel chapter 5. 454 00:36:37,280 --> 00:36:40,620 The Philistines thought they had really pulled a good one. 455 00:36:40,620 --> 00:36:47,640 They got the ark of the Lord, which was the symbol of God's presence among his people. 456 00:36:47,640 --> 00:36:52,640 And they with great ceremony brought this ark of God and they put it down in a certain 457 00:36:52,640 --> 00:37:00,820 city in the temple of Dagon, who was their deity. 458 00:37:00,820 --> 00:37:03,560 And they thought, we have now won. 459 00:37:03,560 --> 00:37:04,560 The victory is ours. 460 00:37:04,560 --> 00:37:06,560 And they all went to bed and had a good night's rest. 461 00:37:06,560 --> 00:37:10,280 And they got up in the morning and went out in the temple and there was Dagon, flat on 462 00:37:10,280 --> 00:37:14,840 his face, before the ark of the Lord. 463 00:37:14,840 --> 00:37:20,040 And then one of the funniest phrases, it says they picked up their god and they put him 464 00:37:20,040 --> 00:37:22,240 back on his pedestal. 465 00:37:22,240 --> 00:37:25,600 Can you imagine picking up your god and putting him back on the pedestal? 466 00:37:25,600 --> 00:37:28,000 And everything was fine that day. 467 00:37:28,000 --> 00:37:32,360 They went to bed, got up the next morning and they went out and here was Dagon again, 468 00:37:32,360 --> 00:37:35,320 flat on his face, and this time he had gone to pieces. 469 00:37:35,320 --> 00:37:37,440 He was all cut up. 470 00:37:37,440 --> 00:37:39,360 He was in pieces. 471 00:37:39,360 --> 00:37:47,160 God had chopped him because that false god was in the presence of the true god of the 472 00:37:47,160 --> 00:37:48,160 universe. 473 00:37:48,160 --> 00:37:52,560 And I tell you, the Philistines did everything they could to get rid of that ark. 474 00:37:52,560 --> 00:37:56,080 They didn't want it anymore. 475 00:37:56,080 --> 00:38:03,760 You go to Mount Carmel with the prophet Elijah and see the victory that God gives over Baal. 476 00:38:03,760 --> 00:38:10,240 And then, folks, how dare us put other little gods into our lives and allow this great god 477 00:38:10,240 --> 00:38:14,560 that we serve, the only true god of the universe, to take second or third or fourth or tenth 478 00:38:14,560 --> 00:38:16,240 place. 479 00:38:16,240 --> 00:38:17,240 God forgive us. 480 00:38:17,240 --> 00:38:21,880 I shall have no other gods before me. 481 00:38:21,880 --> 00:38:26,840 And we have this practical aspect that we are made in the image of God, not physically 482 00:38:26,840 --> 00:38:32,080 of course because God has no body, but we also have personality. 483 00:38:32,080 --> 00:38:40,600 And our personalities, even after the fall, have essential aspects to them. 484 00:38:40,600 --> 00:38:46,720 Sin has affected us in every way, but we still have the ability to feel and to think and 485 00:38:46,720 --> 00:38:47,720 to choose. 486 00:38:47,720 --> 00:38:52,400 One of the marvelous things is that God by the Holy Spirit now lives in us. 487 00:38:52,400 --> 00:38:53,400 We have new life. 488 00:38:53,400 --> 00:38:55,480 And what is he doing? 489 00:38:55,480 --> 00:38:59,240 He's changing us in our personality. 490 00:38:59,240 --> 00:39:08,320 He's giving us a new will, a new mind that's being renewed after the likeness of Himself. 491 00:39:08,320 --> 00:39:13,880 He's giving us a new will to choose to do the right things. 492 00:39:13,880 --> 00:39:16,840 God is renewing us in His image. 493 00:39:16,840 --> 00:39:17,840 That's a marvelous thing. 494 00:39:17,840 --> 00:39:21,320 How's He doing in your life? 495 00:39:21,320 --> 00:39:27,280 Dick sang this morning that song that is an old one, but a beautiful one, Jesus revealed 496 00:39:27,280 --> 00:39:29,240 in me. 497 00:39:29,240 --> 00:39:31,240 That's what God wants to do this week. 498 00:39:31,240 --> 00:39:37,760 He wants to reveal Himself in you by the way you think, the way you choose, the way you 499 00:39:37,760 --> 00:39:39,960 feel. 500 00:39:39,960 --> 00:39:44,840 And then finally, we are related to God as a personal creator. 501 00:39:44,840 --> 00:39:50,320 We speak about Him as being our personal Savior, and He is. 502 00:39:50,320 --> 00:39:52,480 He is our personal guide through life. 503 00:39:52,480 --> 00:39:54,120 He is our personal friend. 504 00:39:54,120 --> 00:39:55,960 He calls Himself that. 505 00:39:55,960 --> 00:40:01,280 And He's our personal judge too, because every one of us will give account of Himself 506 00:40:01,280 --> 00:40:03,360 to God. 507 00:40:03,360 --> 00:40:04,880 God is a personal God. 508 00:40:04,880 --> 00:40:08,920 And as a personal God, He cares about you. 509 00:40:08,920 --> 00:40:11,480 He loves you. 510 00:40:11,480 --> 00:40:13,080 He knows your concerns. 511 00:40:13,080 --> 00:40:15,440 He knows your heartaches tonight. 512 00:40:15,440 --> 00:40:18,280 He's aware of the questions you have in your mind. 513 00:40:18,280 --> 00:40:22,120 And He wants to show Himself real and powerful on your behalf. 514 00:40:22,120 --> 00:40:27,480 But He can only do that if we take time to listen to Him. 515 00:40:27,480 --> 00:40:29,440 Are you? 516 00:40:29,440 --> 00:40:33,200 If you want to know another person, you have to spend time with them. 517 00:40:33,200 --> 00:40:40,720 That's the way you get to know your husband or your wife, your children, everybody. 518 00:40:40,720 --> 00:40:44,160 The only way we can get to know God is by spending time with Him. 519 00:40:44,160 --> 00:40:49,360 And some of us have to confess tonight that we haven't spent very much time with the 520 00:40:49,360 --> 00:40:50,680 Lord. 521 00:40:50,680 --> 00:41:00,320 We spend more time with Dan Rather in CBS News than we spend with the God of the universe. 522 00:41:00,320 --> 00:41:06,280 We spend more time with our girlfriend or our boyfriend than we do in the presence of 523 00:41:06,280 --> 00:41:07,440 God. 524 00:41:07,440 --> 00:41:12,360 If we want to know God, this great personal God has revealed Himself, we have to be with 525 00:41:12,360 --> 00:41:13,840 Him. 526 00:41:13,840 --> 00:41:19,000 Now, God is not off running somewhere looking after other things. 527 00:41:19,000 --> 00:41:20,960 God is right there with you tonight. 528 00:41:20,960 --> 00:41:23,080 He'll be with you as you sleep. 529 00:41:23,080 --> 00:41:25,200 He'll be with you in the morning when you wake. 530 00:41:25,200 --> 00:41:29,600 He's just waiting for you to say something to Him. 531 00:41:29,600 --> 00:41:36,300 If you've been ignoring God, then will you say something to Him right now? 532 00:41:36,300 --> 00:41:40,840 And will you commit yourself to spend a little bit more time with Him this week, reading 533 00:41:40,840 --> 00:41:45,360 His Word, understanding what He's like, praying, talking to Him? 534 00:41:45,360 --> 00:41:50,520 Will you allow this great personal God to be real to you? 535 00:41:50,520 --> 00:41:51,600 I hope you will. 536 00:41:51,600 --> 00:41:54,200 I want to do that. 537 00:41:54,200 --> 00:41:55,920 Let's pray. 538 00:41:55,920 --> 00:42:06,400 Lord, so easily we get caught up in the busy activities of life and we miss the things 539 00:42:06,400 --> 00:42:08,160 that are most important. 540 00:42:08,160 --> 00:42:11,160 Forgive us. 541 00:42:11,160 --> 00:42:19,600 I pray, Father, that we will learn, each one of us, how much You love us, how much You 542 00:42:19,600 --> 00:42:27,600 care for us, and how much You want to speak with us and hear us as we speak with You. 543 00:42:27,600 --> 00:42:32,960 Some of us tonight have confessed with shame that recently we have been ignoring You. 544 00:42:32,960 --> 00:42:37,040 It may be that even other gods have come into our lives. 545 00:42:37,040 --> 00:42:40,800 We do right now forsake them. 546 00:42:40,800 --> 00:42:50,440 We confess our discourteous and even blasphemous silence. 547 00:42:50,440 --> 00:42:52,980 We acknowledge Your presence. 548 00:42:52,980 --> 00:42:55,120 We express our love. 549 00:42:55,120 --> 00:42:59,640 Thank You for being so good and wonderful to us. 550 00:42:59,640 --> 00:43:04,820 May each of us know You better next Lord's Day because we will have spent more time with 551 00:43:04,820 --> 00:43:07,400 You this week. 552 00:43:07,400 --> 00:43:12,760 In Jesus' name I pray, amen.