Understand God Better to Better Understand Who You Are

Redeemer Church, Monroe

(Here are some notes from my July 9, 2017 sermon, especially for my Redeemer family. Hope this helps!)

Yesterday morning at Redeemer I spoke on this:

When you get a greater revelation of who God is,

you get a greater revelation of who you are.

When you gain a greater revelation of who you are,

you are prepared to battle Satan, the real enemy of our souls. (Yes, I have always believed in Satan. Check this out, e.g. - Reviving Old Scratch: Demons and the Devil for Doubters and the Disenchanted.

To grow in identity, discipline yourself to meditate on the attributes of God. Such as...   

God is Independent. (aseity; a se, “from himself”)

God does not need us or the rest of creation for anything.


Yet you and I and the rest of creation can glorify him and bring him joy.

Acts 17:24-25 - “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. ²⁵ And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything.

·         

God is Unchangeable (immutability)

God is unchanging in his being, perfections, purposes, and promises, yet God does act and feel emotions, and he acts and feels differently in response to different situations.

Malachi 3:6 – “For I, the Lord, do not change.”

James 1:17 - Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

·         

God is Eternal (Timeless: without beginning or end – if something doesn’t have a beginning or an end, it would be timeless. It hasn’t existed for any number of years.))

Ps 90:2 – “Before you ever formed the earth and the world, from Everlasting to everlasting you are God.”

God sees all time equally vividly. Ps. 90:4 – Whether a thousand years or a day, it’s all the same to you.

God is Omnipresent

God does not have size or spatial dimensions and is present at every point of space with his whole being, yet God acts differently in different places.

God created space; therefore, God is not limited by space.

Jeremiah 23:23-24 – Can a person hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? Says the Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth? Says the Lord.

God is a Spirit.

John 4:24 – God is spirit.

God exists as a being that is not made of physical matter – at all.

This means that God has no parts or dimensions (like, “How tall is God?”)

God exists as pure spirit, and this is the most excellent form of existence there is.

This means God is invisible. 1 John 4:12 – No one has seen God.

Didn’t Moses see God? Not his face. Which means: not his essence.

But one day, 1 John 3:2, We shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. We will have spiritual bodies.



God is All-knowing (omniscience)

1 John 3:20 – God knows everything.

Jesus said the Father knows what we need before we ask him - Matthew 6:8.

God even knows how many hairs are on your head - Matthew 10:30. (In my case, it’s the final countdown…)

God gives us access to his knowledge, at times supernaturally. 1 Corinthians 12:8 – a word, or message of knowledge (one of the spiritual gifts).



God is All-powerful – able to everything that can be done

Is anything too hard for the Lord? (Genesis 18:14)  

Acts 1:8-9 – “You will receive POWER when the Holy Spirit comes upon you." God shares his power with us.

God is Good

Psalm 119:68 - You are good and you do good; teach me your statutes.

God is the final standard of good. All that God is and does is worthy of approval.

If there is no God, goodness does not exist at all. See, e.g., atheist Richard Dawkins's admission of this in his book The Blind Watchmaker.

    
God is Love (omnibenevolent)

1 John 4:8 – God is love.

God’s love means that god eternally gives himself to others.

In an infinite understatement, I conclude that God is great. There is no one like our God.

This tells me two things about you, and me, and our identity.

#1 - You and I were created in God’s image, after God’s likeness.

#2 – God has come to make him home in us. Jesus said, in John 14:23 - “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.”         

That is… within you…  if you are a follower of Jesus…

                             … if your allegiance is to Jesus as Lord…,

                             …then Christ, the hope of glory, is in you.

When you walk into a room…  everything should change…

                             ..  because… 

… the almighty, all-knowing, necessarily existent, all-loving, everlasting, good, merciful, patient, kind, self-controlled, joyful, beautiful, spiritual, faithful, gracious, wise God who made all things and sustains all things…

          …lives in you!

One more attribute of God…  His Wrath.

God’s wrath means he intensely hates all sin. Someone has to hate sin, right?

God is like a good doctor who hates disease, and has come to eradicate it in you. I find that loving, and beautiful.

This was the mission of Jesus. 1 John 3: 8 sums it up this way: “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.”

Yesterday morning I made an analogy between the movie "Wonder Woman," and the wrath of God. Wonder Woman...
1) came to understand her identity; and
2) was focused on her mission (to kill Ares, the Greek god of war).

Once we understand our identity, we will understand our mission.

Coming full circle (I hope!) - when we gain greater revelation of who God is, we will gain greater revelation of our identity, of who we are.

So, make it a habit to ponder and meditate on the greatness of our God.

***

If you want to go really deep in your understanding of God and his attributes, you'll find nothing better than Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology, chapters 11-14.

I have also learned much about God by having a praying life. I share my thoughts in Praying: Reflections on 40 Years of Solitary Conversations with God.

https://www.amazon.com/Praying-John-Piippo/dp/1512737356/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1499693330&sr=1-1

The Core Identity of a Jesus-Follower

Lake Michigan

I don't use the word "Christian" much anymore, especially in secular contexts. It is so misunderstood. In our culture it connotes nominalism and hypocrisy, layered over with judgmentalism and hatred. That is what a lot of people think about Christianity and "Christians." I like Jesus-follower" instead. I am a follower of Jesus. Imperfectly, I might add.

Anyone who does not follow after Jesus is not a "Christian." "Making a decision" means nothing if the result is not following. What we follow is the way of Jesus. This is the way of love. Love is the heart of the real thing.

Love is the rule of authentic Jesus-followers. Real Jesus-love has three aspects:

1. The knowledge and experience of being-loved by God.
2. Loving God in heart, soul, mind, and strength.
3. Loving others with the love of God.

#1, writes Henri Nouwen, is the core moment and experience in the life of every Jesus-follower. As it was in the life of Jesus. At Jesus' baptism the Father told the world that, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased." (Matthew 3:17) Nouwen says:

"I think his whole life is continually claiming that identity in the midst of everything. There are times in which he is praised, times when he is despised or rejected, but he keeps saying, "Others will leave me alone, but my Father will not leave me alone. I am the beloved Sonof God. I am the hope found in that identity."

Prayer, says Nouwen, is listening to the voice of the One who calles you "my beloved." "I love you," says God, often. Prayer includes constantly going back to that truth of who we are (I am God's beloved son/daughter) and claiming this for ourselves. So Nouwen writes:

"I'm not what I do. I'm not what people say about me. I'm not what I have.... [In the end] my spiritual identity is not rooted in the world, the things the world gives me. My life is rooted in my spiritual identity. Whatever we do, we have to go back regularly to that place of core identity." (Nouwen, The Only Necessary Thing: Living a Prayerful Life, 67)

Gaining Greater Revelation About Our Identity

A photo of one of my favorite postcards

Tomorrow morning at Redeemer I am going to preach on "Gaining Greater Revelation About Our Identity." One point I will make is this: When Scripture tells us that Satan comes to rob and steal, that which he robs humanity of is our identity. What, then, we are left with is pitiful, and leaves us on our own to fabricate our identity (on, e.g., social media).

By way of background, let me explain.

My days of teaching logic at Monroe County Community College are over. I did this for seventeen years. I will teach my Philosophy of Religion class this fall. This is one of my great academic joys. I teach this class in three sections:

I. Philosophical Arguments for God's Existence

a. Anselm's Ontological Argument for God's Existence (with a hat tip to Alvin Plantinga's Modal Version of the Ontological Argument)

b. Gaunilo's criticism of Anselm, and why this criticism fails

c. Kant's criticism of the Ontological Argument (and why Plantinga's Modal Version is not subject to Kant's criticism)

d. William Lane Craig's Kalam Cosmological Argument for the Existence of God

e. The Fine-tuning Argument for God's Existence based on anthropic coincidences at the origin of the universe

II. The Argument from Evil Against the Existence of God (The main philosophical argument against God's existence)

a. Mackie's Logical Argument from Evil Against the Existence of God

b. Buddhism's idea that evil is an illusion

c. Plantinga's refutation of Mackie's Logical Argument

d. Rowe's Evidential Argument from Evil Against the Existence of God

e. Wykstra's refutation of Rowe's argument

III. The Logic of Atheism and Theism

a. Nietsche's "Parable of the Madman"

b. Russell's "A Free Man's Worship"

c. Stephen Jay Gould's argument that science and religion do not conflict

d. William Lane Craig's Moral Argument for God's Existence

In Section III I assist the atheists and skeptics in my class to understand the logical implications of their worldview. From atheism, for example, a certain view of humanity follows. This is expressed by, e.g., atheist Richard Dawkins, who writes:

“In a universe of blind physical forces and genetic replication, some people are going to get hurt, other people are going to get lucky, and you won’t find any rhyme or reason in it, nor any justice. The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil and no good, nothing but blind pitiless indifference.” (Dawkins, The Blind Watchmaker, p.133)

I agree with Dawkins, if there is no God, as does theistic philosopher William Lane Craig. Craig writes:

"If there is no God, then any ground for regarding the herd morality evolved by homo sapiens as objectively true seems to have been removed. After all, what is so special about human beings? They are just accidental by-products of nature which have evolved relatively recently on an infinitesimal speck of dust lost somewhere in a hostile and mindless universe and which are doomed to perish individually and collectively in a relatively short time." (Craig, "The Indispensability of Theological Meta-ethical Foundations for Morality")  

Because Craig, and I, do believe God exists, a greater understanding of who God is gives greater revelation of our identity, of who we are.

I'm going to preach this tomorrow at Redeemer, in more detail, especially the part about understanding who God is.

Being Is More Important than Doing or Having

Chicago

The good parent loves their child not for what the child can give them, but simply because this is their child. Their child, as a baby, can give them nothing in terms of productivity. The baby has no material goods that benefit them. The baby adds no value in terms of its doing and having.

Their baby can, and should, give them joy. But their joy will not be because of what the child produces or has. To the contrary, their work load and responsibilities drastically increase. Now, more than ever, their individual lives are less their own.

Whatever worth the child has is only in its being. Not in its doing. Not in its having. This is how God loves us.

When we go alone to a quiet place to pray, God will reveal his love to us. God loves us not for what we bring to the table, not for what we do, and not for what we have. We possess no instrinsic good that God needs. God doesn't need us. This is God's independence. (See Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, on the incommunicable attributes of God). This is important.

Henri Nouwen writes: "It is in this solitude that we discover that being is more important than having, and that we are worth more than the results of our efforts." (Nouwen, The Only Necessary Thing, 43)

Over the years, as I have been privileged to read and respond to the spiritual journals of pastors and Christian leaders, I have seen God tell them, "I love you." I experience this myself. God's love sustains me. In his spiritual journal former General Secretary of the United Nations Dag Hammarskjold wrote, "reputation increases, ability decreases." God's love sustains me as I grow older, since whatever miniscule human abilities I had are wasting away.

When the music fades. When all has slipped away. What then shall I do? We simply come. We discover that God loves us for who we are.

In the God-relationship being is more important than doing or having. This truth is impossible to grasp in the Consumer Church. 

How to Be Influential

I'm carrying this 3X5 card with me today.

It's Friday morning. Linda and I are back from our conference, and some time with our families in Illinois.

I'm going to have oatmeal for breakfast. I'll put a pinch of salt in it. Just a little bit. It will make a difference. The salt influences the flavor in a positive way.

I want my life to make a difference, for Christ. This is my life purpose.

Jesus told his disciples,

“Let me tell you why you are here. You’re here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You’ve lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage."

- Matthew 5:13, The Message

How can I have salt-seasoning influence?

Don't try to be influential.

Focus all energies on my connection with Jesus, and be influenced myself.

The influence of Christ in me will salt the earth I walk on today.

***

My first book is Praying: Reflections on 40 Years of Solitary Conversations with God.

My second book is Leading the Presence-Driven Church (Aug/Sept 2017)

Presence-Driven Churches Won't Have an "Order of Service"

Chicago

A Presence-Driven Church won't have a "program."

Some churches have "bulletins." In the bulletin there is a program, or order of service. This indicates how the program will go.

As I approach Sunday morning I have a basic structure in mind, which looks like this at Redeemer.

Opening Song

Pray for Kids

Worship

Announcements

Offering

Preaching

Ministry time

I add, "Whatever God wants to do." This is where things get different. The Holy Spirit is directing things, and the Holy Spirit cannot be boxed in by a preconceived order of service. It is up to us to discern where God is taking us. For example, times of ministering to one another break in at any time. This is all about discernment.

The idea of a "program," wrote A.W. Tozer, came from the theater. You would go to the show and get a program. The program said something like,

Act I

Act II

Intermission

Act III

There might be notes of what to expect, like explanations of scenes in the play. Everyone knows how long the play will last. It's all timed and scripted.

None of this applies to the Holy Spirit. The movements of the Spirit are essentially unpredictable and nonprogrammable. We can have a preconceived format (like beginning the gathering by welcoming people), but God cannot be formatted.

The introduction of the order of service formalized Church as a show, with a largely passive audience watching a few religious leaders do their thing in a darkened room, with a lighted stage.

The show usurped the Holy Spirit's showing up. This is the worst possible thing that could happen.

Presence-Driven Churches won't have a "order of service," because the Holy Spirit cannot be ordered and shoved into a preconceived box.

***

My two books are:

Praying: Reflections on 40 Years of Solitary Conversations with God

Leading the Presence-Driven Church (August/Sept 2017)

Hearing God: The Distinction between Discernment and Decision-Making

We Can Experience God Now and Here

Chicago

(Linda and I are still on vacation. We'll be home this weekend. I'm looking forward to preaching at redeemer this Sunday morning on some things God showed me at our conference last week. I'll share a couple of testimonies of healing. Plus, we'll pray for anyone who would like prayers for healing.)

One of my philosophical heroes is Dallas Willard. Willard was a brilliant phenomenologist who made major contributions to this area of philosophy.

The best book Linda and I read in the last six months is a series of reflections on Willard's life, called Eternal Living: Reflections on Dallas Willard's Teaching on Faith and Formation. Dallas was presence-driven, believing we can know God, experientially.

Gary Moon says the "greatest discovery and most important theme of [Willard's] writing was: We can live our lives in a constant and transforming friendship with a loving God." (In Ib.).

Dallas believed in "the here, now and forever presence and experiential reality of God.,, He believed God is present in a real sense and that when you talk with him a two-way conversation is possible. And for Dallas, the light and life of God was very real and present." (Ib., Kindle Locations 299-307). 

This is my experience as well, which I partially document in my book Praying. Willard, myself, and many others have discovered the reality of Jesus' words, "You will experience the truth, and the truth will set you free." Now, and here.

"Knock" (Download my song)

You can download my song "Knock" here. 

KNOCK   E – C#m – A2 – F#m7

– John Piippo

E                C#m

I will knock over and over again

              A2                              F#m7

Until the doors unlock and the light streams in

E                     C#m

I will seek the Kingdom and Your righteousness

             A2                           B2

Where mercy falls and the poor are blessed

                E                                     C#m

Let Your Kingdom come, Let Your will be done

              A2                                B2

And the dead are raised   I will sing Your praise

        E                                          C#m

The oppressed go free   And the blind can see

              A2             B2          C#m

As Your heaven invades the earth

              A2            B2            E    -   C#m   - A2   - F#m7

As Your heaven invades the earth

Consumer Churches and Performance-Driven Churches: Some Posts

Chicago

Eugene Peterson has written, "A consumer church is an antichrist church."

Here are some things I have written about Performance-Based  Churches and Consumer Churches. (The two go together: church leaders must put on a good show so the people will keep coming and buying it.)

The Entertainment-and-Performance-Driven Church is Like a Drug-Addicted Athlete (The Presence-Driven Church)

Performance-driven Churches Reduce the Real Jesus

Reject Performance-Based Churches

Pastors Don't Need to Be Awesome, Just Faithful

Elemental Chaos and the Presence of God (The Presence-Driven Church) [Note: the false self has a performance-driven orientation.]

The Performance-Driven Church Isn't Relevant

Presence-Driven Churches Cannot Have Multiple Stacked Services

A Consumer Church Is an Antichrist Church

Consumer Religion Fuels Clergy Burnout

Secularism Breeds Entertainment-Consumer-Driven Churches (The Presence-Driven Church)

The Most Immature and Mindless Church the World Has Ever Seen

Kill Performancism in Worship ("Oh Magnify My Face With Me")