Thornleigh Seventh-day Adventist Church (Sydney, Australia)

Home > Church Family > Sermon Summaries > 19 Jan 2002, Pr George Porter - Reliability

Reliability

19 Jan 2002, Pr George Porter

(George is Thornleigh's Church Pastor)

TITLE:  Reliability

THEME:   Our Reliable God

SCRIPTURE READING:   Psalm 63

INTRODUCTION:

Most of us are not 100% reliable or dependable.  May I suggest that our God is 100% reliable and dependable.  To get a glimpse of His nature is to better understand His reliability.  The Psalmist in Ps 63 gives us an awesome picture of our reliable God.

WHAT IS OUR GOD LIKE

A.    Psalm 63:1   God is "my God"  My God is in all reality my Personal God.  He satisfies all my spiritual needs in a most personal and involved way - that is He loves to be involved with me.

B.    Psalm 62:2    God is My Powerful & Glorious God.  My God is The Transcendent and Great God.

C.    Psalm 63:3-8   My God is The Immanent and Close God.  My God "Satisfies", He is "my help"  He keeps me under the shadow of His wing- My God protects me with "His Presence".

To be our 100% reliable God He must be all three: Personal, Transcend and Immanent.

WHAT IS OUR GOD LIKE?

A.    Our God is Personal   -  He is a Great friend. He is like us -Personal but very great.  Eternal- friend forever.

B.    Our God is Transcendent

Our God is not limited to the human level.  He is Eternal,Infinite and Almighty.

He is His Majesty with unlimited Dominion.  The only Person we can really call His Majesty.

He is above mankind and different from humanity and can be unapproachable when we offend His person.  That is for our benefit.

God is not limited to our natural order, He is "above".  He is the "Most High God"

C.    Our God is Immanent

The "Most High God" is also the Most Nigh God.  He is the indwelling God.  The "God Hole" Satisfier.  He is personally concerned for us His people. He is Genleness, Goodness, Tenderness, Sympathy, Patience, Immanence with Yearning Compassion.

C.S. Lewis says it all,

    "God is both further from us, and nearer to us, than any other being. He is further from us because the sheer difference between that which has Its principle of being in Itself and that which is communicated is one compared with which the difference between an archangel and a worm is quite insignificant.  He makes, we are made: He is original, we derivitive. But at the same time, and for the same reason, the intimacy between God and even the meanest creature is closer than any that creatures can attain with one another. Our life is at every moment, supplied by Him: our tiny, miraculous power of free will operates on bodies which His continual energy keeps in existence-our power to think is His power communicated to us"  (Problem of Pain)

WHAT IS OUR GOD'S NAME  - WHO IS HE?

Exodus 3:13    Moses in his dialogue with our God asked," When they ask, What is His name . What do I say?"

In verse 14 God says, "I am .  The actively being present always and continuously God.  The verb to be. The Awesome Ttranscendent Great God of the fire bush who appears in His immanent Personal Presence.  In verse 15, Our God makes it clear that this is His name forever and to all peoples on this planet for all time.  Our God is the all-inclusive God of all creation.

Our God says, "I am".  I am not I was.    Iam not I will be.  He is not I was.  He is not past.  He is not superceded.  He is not a failure.  He is not I will be.  He is not a future vain hope or possibility.  He is always "I am" being.

Jesus Christ in His Divinity made this claim in John 14:6.   "I am the Way the Truth and the Life."

Our God is Personal, Transcendent, and Immanent.   He is personal and is in us, Almighty great and eternal.  He is close and satisfies our needs with compassion.

Our God is the Presence, Power and the Purpose of our existence and being.

He is our Great and only true reliable and dependable Friend.  He is our God.  He is I am.  Do you know Him?  

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