Sermons - October 2009

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This page was last updated 02/18/10

Week Of: October 4, 2009

Title: Your God is Too Small: The Name of God

Series: Systematic Theology - Part 3

Scripture: Matthew 6: 9-13

1. Some time ago, Mark Cuban, the owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, offered WGN Chicago Radio sport talk host David Kaplan $50,000 to change his name legally to “Dallas Maverick.” When Kaplan declined, Cuban sweetened the offer. He would pay Kaplan $100,000 and donate $100,000 to Kaplan’s favorite charity if he took the name for one year.

2. Despite some soul-searching and email bombardment from listeners, who said that Kaplan was crazy to turn down the money, Kaplan held firm. Saying: “I’d be saying that I’d do anything for money, and that bothers me,” Kaplan said. “My name is my birthright. I’d like to preserve my integrity and credibility.”

3. Being a Christian is our birthright. We have a responsibility to live every day in a way that brings honor and glory to the name of Jesus Christ, God the Father, and the Holy Spirit.

4. But what is the name of God and what does it mean when Jesus teaches us to pray according to Matthew “hallowed be thy Name” (Matthew 6:9).

5. First of all hallowed means holy. Holy is the name of God.

6. In fact so Holy is the name of God, that Jews today will not say the name of God written in Exodus 3:14 which reads, “And God said to Moses, “I am who I am” and God said, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, “I am has sent me to you.”

7. “I am” is derived from the Hebrew verb HAYAH, to be, which when referring to God is translated into English simply as Lord. However, as time went on the Jews thought that the Hebrew form of the word was so holy that they couldn’t even say it.

8. Do you remember what Isaiah said when he had a vision of God appearing to him in the Temple: “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts” (Isaiah 6:5).

9. The bottom line is that the Jews felt that the name of God was too holy to be spoken much less taken in vain. To take God’s name in vain doesn’t just mean putting a dirty word with it, but it really means anytime we don’t give the name and person of God the seriousness that He deserves. So if you don’t take God seriously then you take His name in vain. When you honor God’s name you honor God, when you don’t you dishonor God.

10. I hear this so much from people to excuse their taking God’s name in vain, they’ll say: “I don’t mean it, it is just a habit.” But whether you mean it or not you are dishonoring God, besides if you loved your mother would you dishonor her by referring to her as a female dog? No! Then why would any Christian dishonor God by using His name in vain?

11. Well you might be thinking how did they say the name of God if they couldn’t speak it? Well, they substituted another name for His name. For example, Adonai was used in Psalms 8; Isaiah 40:3-5, Ezekiel 16:8 and so forth; it means the Lord. In Genesis 1:1-3 you have the name Elohim which is translated God in the English translations but has the loose meaning of The All-Powerful One or Creator. This little pamphlet has 21 names for God that are found in the Bible and with them their meanings.

12. God’s name or the meanings of the names of God are usually taken from the various descriptions of what God has done or aspects of His character. In a broad sense, God’s names are equal to all that the Bible and creation tell us about God’s character and His attributes (Grudem, page 157).

13.              I would like to give a list of characteristics of God taken from scripture and from creation to let you know how diverse and wonderful our God is. For example, God is compared to:
               a lion (Isaiah 31:4)
               an eagle (Deuteronomy 32:11)
               a lamb (Isaiah 53:7)

               a hen (Matthew 23:37)
               the sun (Psalm 84:11)
               the morning star (Revelation 22:16)
               a light (Psalm 27:1)
               a torch (Revelation 21:23)
               a fire (Hebrews 12:29)
               a fountain (Psalm 36: 9)
               a rock (Deuteronomy 32:4)
               a hiding place (Psalm 119:114)
               a tower (Proverb 18: 10)
               a shadow (Psalm 91: 1)
               a shield (Psalm 84: 11)
               a temple (Revelation 21:22), and so forth.

The point being is that all of creation reveals something about God to us. It tells us something about this wonderful God that we worship and serve.

14.              Even human beings and their experiences are used to describe some of God’s characteristics.   For example God is called:
               a bridegroom (Isaiah 61:10)
               husband (Isaiah 54:5)
               father (Deuteronomy 32:6)
               judge and King (Isaiah 33:22)
               man of war (Exodus 15:3)
               builder and maker (Hebrews 11:10)
               shepherd (Psalm 23)
               physician (Exodus 15:26)

15. Furthermore, God is spoken of in terms of human actions such as:
   knowing (Genesis 18:21)
   remembering (Genesis 8:1)
   seeing (Genesis 1:10)
   hearing (Exodus 2:24)
   smelling (Genesis 8:21)
   tasting (Psalm 11: 5)
   sitting (Psalm 9:7)
   rising (Psalm 68:1)
   walking (Leviticus 26:12)
   wiping away tears (Isaiah 25:8), and so forth.

Human emotions are attributed to God, such as:
     joy (Isaiah 62:5)
     grief (Psalm 78:40)
     anger (Jeremiah 7:18-19)
     love (John 3:16)
     hatred (Deuteronomy 16:22)
     wrath (Psalm 2:5)

16. But why all these different metaphors to explain God—because, really, God cannot be understood in terms that we are not familiar with.

17. The Bible speaks of God in human terms and terms of the creation because He has to teach us in terms of what we know and are familiar with in our own experiences.

18. God made the universe so that it would show forth the excellence of his character and name, that it would show forth His glory.

19. God is worthy to receive glory because He created all things (Revelation 4:11); therefore all things should honor Him.

20. His name is representative of his character and his glory and should be reverenced and praise, not taken lightly or disrespectfully.

Week Of: October 11, 2009

Title: The Journey with Christ to God

Series: Revival Preparation

Scripture: Matthew 13:3-9; 18-23

1. How many of you like to take trips? For most of us it depends on how long, where the trip is going, and how we are going. Well, how about a journey? A journey sounds longer and more difficult to take than just a trip. A trip might be to go to the beach or to grandmother’s house. A journey sounds longer, more time consuming, and a lot more difficult. In our instant-gratification society, we don’t like to think of things as long and time consuming and especially something that is long, difficult, and anxious as a journey might be.

2. But life for most of us, at least those who live long enough, is a long and sometimes difficult journey to make. However, I believe the most difficult journeys are the ones we take inside – the inward journey. Down though the centuries, numerous saints of Christianity have called the inward journeys pilgrimages; pilgrimages of faith.

3. The pilgrimages of faith are nothing more than the movement of one’s life toward Christ. In the truly Biblical way of understanding things, it is not enough just “to get saved.” Salvation is also about making the most you can of your life with God while you can. Salvation is about a pilgrimage of faith that we start in this world and continue with until the day we die, and then by the grace of God throughout eternity.

4. It begins with what some have called an awakening. It is an encounter with the living God and, at the same time, it is an encounter with our true self. It is coming to see something of who God is and, at the same time, who we are. The experience can be gradual or it can be sudden and very radical. But it is what we call being “saved,” being awakened out of our spiritual sleep or spiritual death.

5. In the Gospel of Matthew, salvation is accepting what God is trying to sow in your life. What God is trying to sow is the Spirit of God that brings with it the Kingdom of Heaven.

6. The Kingdom simply means the rule of God, the influence or power of God in our lives. It is as Jesus taught his disciples to pray in the Lord’s Prayer. “Thy Kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” The Kingdom rule is the movement of everything on earth toward what it is in Heaven.

7. When God sows His seed, his Spirit among His creation, He is literally trying to get His will to be done on this earth as it is being done in Heaven.

8. So the gist of the first soil is a mind and heart that is hard as a rock. I don’t understand it, it is sad and tragic, but there are people whose minds are so made up against God, at least in Christian understanding of Him, that He is not an option. I was talking to a lady the other day who said that she was spiritual in her own way, but it did not include going to church. Now you know me well enough to know I don’t think you have to go to church to be saved. But I worry about anyone’s understanding of God that doesn’t include cooperate worship of God and fellowship with His people. What are those people going to do when they get to heaven? L Assuming that they do!

9. The next soil represents the heart of someone who is in a highly emotional state and just doesn’t stop to consider what a long term commitment to Christ means. They are the people who are running from something rather than running to God. I guess the best example might be what we call “foxhole” religion. When the bullets and bombs of life are falling all around them, they are seeking safety more than they are God.

10. Well how do you know if you are a “foxhole” baby or not? Well, if you’re here you’re probably not, but you usually don’t know until the crisis is over and then you either run from your commitment or you seek a deeper commitment.

11. The next soil is really where a revival comes into being. Soils one and two are more for the evangelistic concerns, personal and public responses to the Gospel message for salvation.

12. Soils three and four are about revival. Most people think that revival is about getting saved and while that is very, very important and always a joy and a wonderful blessing, it is not what a revival service is primarily about.

13. A revival service is about getting God’s people “revived” and spiritually awakened so that there can be spiritual fruit which will yield among other things—lost souls.

14. The thing that retards a revival, or keeps people spiritually asleep, is the very thing that Jesus is referring to in the third soil. It is when the worries and concerns of life, the things that try to dominate our attention, the things we become so obsessed with that we don’t have the time to worship and serve God. These things choke the very spiritual life out of us.

15. I go down to the clinic to see Dr. Bourgh and Dr. Holiday from time to time, as many of you do. Any way, just about every visit Dr. Bourgh tells me I have to visit the vampire. Who is that? Usually it is the lady (or it could be a man) who draws blood…

16. There are things that just draw and suck the spiritual life out of us. Or as Jesus says, they choke the very spiritual life out of us and we cannot bring forth the fruit that we should be.

17. What is fruit? Maybe, good deeds that come out of a life of faith. Or maybe what Paul calls the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.”

18. What are the characteristics of good soil that bring forth the fruit that we want? Teach-ability, a desire for something better, a desire for something deeper and fuller in our walk with God. It is a thirst to grow, to become, to do, to love, and to live abundantly in Christ. It is a belief that it is possible to become closer to God and to each other than we previously imagined.

19. What helps this soil take on the characteristics that allow the Spirit to form us and make us grow? Preaching, teaching, worship, prayer, Bible reading and study, fellowship with Christian friends. It means having people that love you, pray for you, and that won’t give up. It means being part of a community of faith that just won’t let you go.

20. They won’t let go until your roots of faith go so deep that not even the gates of hell will prevail against it. So much so that as Paul says “in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 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” (Romans 8:37-39).

21. This is what I hope from our revival, that God will allow our roots of faith to go deeper and deeper, bringing forth more and more fruit, then not even the gates of hell will prevail against us.

Week Of: October 18, 2009

Title: CHURCH REVIVAL WEEK

Speaker: Rev. Lee Kidd

No notes for these special services.

Week Of: October 25, 2009

Title: Genuine Significance

Series: Systematic Theology – Part 4

Scripture: Acts 17:22-28

1. Several years ago, I was attending an association meeting in which the speaker was from Michigan. He was talking about people in his area who were being buried or having funerals with no one there to mourn for them.

2. I thought that was really sad that someone could live a life-time and no one really cared about their passing. To live your life and no one really care whether you live or died would be so sad.

3. It is very important for every human being to feel like they matter to someone. In fact, one definition of happiness might be to have “as many people around you as possible” who care about you.

4. In fact, I think that is one very important reason why people become a part of a local congregation of believers is that they want to know that someone cares about them.

5. Ok! Let’s set that thought aside for just a moment and let me ask you a seemly non-related question. Why did God create His creation? Now let me tell you what, for the most part, theologians have thought about God for generations.

6. One… that God is absolutely perfect! In other words, God alone is perfection in the absolute! Beyond our wildest and grandest imagination God is perfect. In fact, some people have suggested that God is simple perfection. Simple, not as something that is elementary or easy to grasp (because God cannot be grasped or completely understood), but that God is simple in the sense that God has no parts, that He is absolute oneness in the most perfect sense.

7. God is absolutely divinely perfect within and of Himself. He does not grow nor change because when you are as absolutely divinely perfect as God is you do not need anything else to make yourself better. There is no better you! You’re God and because you don’t need anything there is no better and improved you to become. Amen!!

8. Hence, Paul says in our scripture this morning “nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all men life and breath and everything” (Acts 17: 24-25).

9. In the book of Job (Job 41:11) God Himself asks Job, “Who has given to me, that I should repay him? Everything under the heaven belongs to me.” Psalm 50 continues the idea in verses 10-12 by saying, “every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. I know all the birds of the air, and all that moves in the field is mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell you; for the world and all that is in it is mine.”

10. If everything is God’s and more importantly if God cannot change, grow, or for that matter be improved upon, why did God create His creation and most importantly, us?

11. Perhaps we should turn to Isaiah 43:7, the writer says: “everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.” God did not have to create us but did nevertheless to glorify him. We are to be about glorifying God—that is our purpose.

12. How does Paul say it, in Ephesians 1: 11-12? “In Him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will, in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of His glory”? We and all of God’s creation were created “for the praise of His glory.”

13. Now this blows my mind, how can God care whether I praise Him or not. Remember our analogy of what it means to compare the infinite to the finite. We are the finite and God is the infinite. Consider a small grain of sand compared to something the size of our moon. Would that be like comparing us to God? No!

14. Then take something the size of our moon and put it inside a sphere that is comparable to the size of our solar system. Take our solar system and put it in a sphere that is the size of our galaxy. Would that be like comparing a man to God? No….

15. The writer of the book of Psalms writes, “what is man that thou are mindful of him?” The writer of the Psalms didn’t have a clue how true and awesome His words were. Indeed, who are we that God should even consider us? When you are walking down the sidewalk, do you even stop to consider an insect crossing your path? Not if you’ve got shoes on… you step on it and go on.

16. But yet God has determined that you and I are important to Him. The bug actually means something to the Master and Lord of the Universe. He could step on us and go on, creating a new bigger, better, and more improved model to inhabit His creation. But He doesn’t!

17. In fact, He has determined that we mean enough to Him that He would become a man like us and die for His small but significant bugs.

18. This is our significance for existence! We are important to God! In fact, we are so important to God that He would suffer and die for us.

19. Delights in us!!!!!! Isaiah 62: 3-5 “…for the Lord delights in and your land shall be married…as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.” This is a paradox—a deliberate contradiction that leads to deeper understanding and truth. Yes, God is perfect…absolute perfection, but He also delights in His creation. The Master creator somehow loves the bugs that He has created. He cares and delights in His creation.

20. This is what blows our minds and changes our lives, when we can stop and understand it. When we grasp that we are loved by a divine absolutely perfect creator then we do find our genuine significance and reason for living.

21. I am created to be loved by the Creator. No matter how many of you may love me or not, I am a person of worth because God loves this little insignificant bug. And His love gives me significance, meaning, and purpose. This is my primary reason for being and everything else is just icing on the cake.

First Baptist Church of St. Paul, Virginia

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