Living Stones Church Sparks

## Pay Attention To What We Hear - Stay the course - Don’t be led astrayseriousness of it. ## The Word Has Weight - It has been proven throughout history - Punishment is swift and just > You who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it. [**Acts 7:53**](https://my.bible.com/bible/59/ACT.7.53.ESV) ## There is no hiding from the truth - The Lord has spoken - The gift of salvation - It is upheld by those who heard > But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business. [**Matthew 22:5**](https://my.bible.com/bible/59/MAT.22.5.ESV) - *Salvation* by such a great savior as is Jesus - *Salvation* at such and awesome and great cost - *Salvation* from the cost of our sin ## Distributed according to his will - Spoken to us by his word - Confirmed with signs and wonders and miracles - Gifts of the Holy Spirit

> If God is unchanging, why did he flood the earth in the time of Noah and then "change" his mind? Or in 2 Samuel when he relented and did not destroy Israel. He seems to "realize" he shouldn't have done that, even though he knows all. - Genesis 6:6 - 2 Samuel 24:16 > All of these sermons have been very eye opening to me about how I did, should, and do think about God and through all of this I have been diving deeper and deeper into my prayer but I can't tell if He is responding. I can't tell if he is speaking to me, and sometimes I think I am seeing signs from Him but how do I differentiate between these things and know if he is responding to me? - John 1:14 > If God created all things, who made him? - Genesis 1:1 - John 1 - Exodus 3:14 - Isaiah 40:28 > In the view of the Israelites of the Exodus, God repeatedly declares that He will make pharaoh stubborn, and then as a consequence for Pharaoh’s stubbornness, God sends suffering and death on Egyptian people and animals (not just pharaoh). While this demonstrates God’s omnipotence, (1) where is his love? (2) how is God not responsible for evil by causing pharaoh to reject him? - Exodus 9:12 - Romans 9:17-24 - Romans 1:24 > Since God is unchanging, why do we not see miracles like we did in the Bible happening anymore? For instance laying hands and seeing the leper healed. I know God does miracles every day, but it would be so encouraging to see the blind see and the dead raised. - James 5:14 - Luke 5:17-26 > Should Christians picket abortion clinics, or boycott gay bakeries? Do Christians need to protect God's sovereignty? - Deuteronomy 32:39 - James 4:17 - 1 Corinthians 5:12

## Our Hope is in God’s Unchangeableness - God is Immutable - We’re Not - We Need a Savior Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. - **Hebrews 13:8** "O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?" When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory." For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. **1 Corinthians 15:50-55**

- God fully knows himself, every possibility, and every actuality, immediately and simultaneously. - God governs the course of history so that, in the long run, his glory will be more fully displayed, and his people more fully satisfied than would have been the case in any other world. - John Piper - ”God knows instantly and effortlessly all matter and all matters, all mind and every mind, all spirit and every spirit, all being and every being, all creaturehood and all creatures, every plurality and all pluralities, all law and every law, all relations, all causes, all thoughts, all mysteries, all enigmas, all feeling, all desires, every unuttered secret, all thrones and dominions, all personalities, all things visible, and invisible in heaven and in earth, motion, space, time, life, death, good, evil, heaven, and hell.” *A.W. Tozer* - You have been weighed. You have been measured, and you have been found wanting. - **Daniel 5:27** - God knows you - Every moment of your existence and every thought, action, and intention spoken or unspoken, seen or unseen, known or unknown, is fully known by God. - And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account. - **Hebrews 4:13** - Sometimes we think we know better. (PS. 139:6) - Sometimes we think we know better. (PS. 139:6) - Often we hide. (PS 139:7-12) - “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” Jeremiah 1:5 - - Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. - **Ephesians 1:3-6** - For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. Romans 8:29 - But if anyone loves God, he is known by God. 1 Corinthians 8:3 - Being known by God is to be loved by God. - Worshipping God All-knowing. - God’s thoughts are infinitely valuable. - Worshipping God All-knowing - Align our thoughts with God’s thoughts and pray accordingly. - Worshipping God All-knowing - Invite God to know what he already knows - God knows where you need shalom (peace). - Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. - **Philippians 4:5-7**. - God knows the way to the eternal. - Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. - **John 14:6** - For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. - **1 Corinthians 1:18**

- God’s “name” means his nature and character. - God’s Transcendence —> God’s nature of Awe-Filling Greatness - Transcendence only belongs to God. - Yahweh is my name and I will not share my glory with another. **Isaiah 42:8** - I am the LORD, and there is no other, besides me there is no God… **Isaiah 45:5** - “Thus you will know that I am in the midst of Israel, And that I am the LORD your God, And there is no other; And My people will never be put to shame. **Joel 2:27** - Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. **1 Timothy 1:17** - Transcendence means everyone and everything. - “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine!” ― *Abraham Kuyper* - God’s Transcendence forces us to consider how little we are. - Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me. “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements—surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy? **Job 38:4-7** - “Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, that a flood of waters may cover you? Can you send forth lightnings, that they may go and say to you, ‘Here we are’? Who has put wisdom in the inward parts or given understanding to the mind? **Job 38:34–36** - God’s Transcendence forces us to consider how sinful we are. - The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard. Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them he has set a tent for the sun. Psalm 19:4 - The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds; there is none who does good. The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one. Have they no knowledge, all the evildoers who eat up my people as they eat bread and do not call upon the Lord? **Psalm 14:1-4** - God’s mindfulness about us is not about us but God. - Use everything as a way to see the Transcendence of God. - The awe-filling greatness of God gets established through the weakness, not in the strength. - On behalf of this man I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses— though if I should wish to boast, I would not be a fool, for I would be speaking the truth; but I refrain from it, so that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me. So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. **2 Corinthians 12:5-10** - Because of the Transcendence of God, we don’t have to fear weakness, but we can boast in God through weakness. - Worship is the Transcendence of God through the work of our everyday life. - For “God has put all things in subjection under his feet.” But when it says, “all things are put in subjection,” it is plain that he is excepted who put all things in subjection under him. When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all. **1 Corinthians 15:27-28**

- Genesis 3:15 - Det: 8:1-3 - Exodus 17:7 - Psalm 2:7-8 > Matter of comfort to all the saints. In the temptation of Christ it appears, that our enemy is subtle, spiteful, and very daring in his temptations; but it appears withal, that he is not invincible. Though he is a strong man armed, yet the Captain of our salvation is stronger than he. It is some comfort to us to think that Christ suffered, being tempted; for thus it appears that temptations, if not yielded to, are not sins, they are afflictions only, and such as may be pleased. And we have a High Priest who knows, by experience, what it is to be tempted, and who therefore is the more tenderly touch with the feelings of our infirmities in an hour of temptation, …. > > ….But it is much more a comfort to think that Christ conquered, being tempted, and conquered for us; not only that the enemy we grapple with is a conquered, baffled, disarmed enemy, but that we are interested in Christ’s victory over him, and through him are more than conquerors > > -- Matthew Henry

# Confrontation of Christmas - Matthew 1:18-25 ### Advent confronts us with a personal God. ### People were just as shocked by the supernatural birth of Jesus then as we would be now. ### If God must think and act as you would, then instead of you worshipping God, God worships you. - Joseph loved Mary. - Joseph loved God. His fear kept him from genuine love. ### Joseph is more afraid of the dilemma of his circumstance than the dilemma of his existence. ### Jesus *(Yeshua)* means *God Saves*. ### Advent confronts us with our fears > 1. We fear people because they can expose and humiliate us. > 2. We fear people because they can reject, ridicule, or despise us. > 3. We fear people because they can attack, oppress, or threaten us. > > “…self-esteem and self-worth exists because it is trying to help us with a real problem. The problem is that we really are not okay. There is no reason why we should feel great about ourselves. We truly are deficient. The meager props of the self-esteem teaching will eventually collapse as people realize that their problem is much deeper. The problem is, in part, our nakedness before God.” ~ Ed Welch ### Advent confronts us with a new life. ### When Joseph woke…(v. 24) ### When Joseph woke…(v. 24) ### He did as the angel of the Lord commanded him. ### In light of the arrival of Jesus, Joseph… - Risked misunderstanding and scandal. - Brought meaning to ordinary life. - Surrendered to his Son.