1 00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:01,720 That's right. He came from Alaska. 2 00:00:02,120 --> 00:00:09,600 So all right, well, guys, we're going to get started on our on 3 00:00:09,600 --> 00:00:14,920 our on this new series. We are going to get into the 4 00:00:14,920 --> 00:00:20,840 attributes of God, which there's some there's a couple of really 5 00:00:20,840 --> 00:00:24,200 great books out there on the attributes of God. 6 00:00:24,320 --> 00:00:29,640 That one from AW Tozer and another one from AW Pink. 7 00:00:29,680 --> 00:00:35,920 Why they both have the initials AWI don't know, but but anyway, 8 00:00:35,920 --> 00:00:39,520 this this idea, this this concept of of the attributes of 9 00:00:39,520 --> 00:00:43,040 God. I think AW Pink in one of his 10 00:00:43,400 --> 00:00:45,880 specifically in one of the chapters of his book, he he 11 00:00:45,880 --> 00:00:50,520 gives this explanation that I thought works well for the whole 12 00:00:50,520 --> 00:00:53,000 concept of the attributes of God. 13 00:00:53,000 --> 00:00:56,720 And he says, he says. Perhaps the title of the chapter 14 00:00:56,720 --> 00:01:00,520 is not sufficiently explicit to indicate its theme. 15 00:01:01,200 --> 00:01:06,320 This is partly because so few are accustomed to meditate upon 16 00:01:06,320 --> 00:01:10,320 the personal perfections of God. Comparatively few who 17 00:01:10,320 --> 00:01:14,080 occasionally read the Bible are aware of the awe inspiring and 18 00:01:14,080 --> 00:01:18,040 worship provoking grandeur of the divine character. 19 00:01:19,440 --> 00:01:22,720 That God is great in wisdom, wondrous in power, yet full of 20 00:01:22,720 --> 00:01:25,560 mercy is assumed by many as common knowledge. 21 00:01:26,000 --> 00:01:29,200 But to entertain anything approaching on an adequate 22 00:01:29,560 --> 00:01:33,520 conception of His being, nature and attributes as revealed in 23 00:01:33,520 --> 00:01:36,640 the Scripture is something which very few people in these 24 00:01:36,640 --> 00:01:40,640 degenerate times have done. God is solitary in His 25 00:01:40,640 --> 00:01:45,320 Excellency and then He. He cited Exodus 1511 that says 26 00:01:45,720 --> 00:01:49,120 who is like unto thee, O Lord among the gods, who is like the 27 00:01:49,120 --> 00:01:53,200 glorious and holiness fearful and praises doing wonders. 28 00:01:54,280 --> 00:02:01,360 So our goal here in in this series is not to obtain a 29 00:02:01,360 --> 00:02:06,840 comprehensive understanding of all that that God is. 30 00:02:06,840 --> 00:02:09,479 That would be a great goal right, But but we know we'll 31 00:02:09,479 --> 00:02:12,120 never get there. But more appropriately to to 32 00:02:12,120 --> 00:02:16,720 gain perspective of God by understanding those those 33 00:02:16,720 --> 00:02:22,800 traits, those those attributes. So attributes that what that 34 00:02:22,920 --> 00:02:27,200 that word specifically means according to the dictionary, he 35 00:02:27,200 --> 00:02:31,920 says a quality character or characteristic ascribed to 36 00:02:31,920 --> 00:02:36,480 someone or something. So as we go through this study, 37 00:02:37,160 --> 00:02:39,800 one of the interesting things that that we'll see as we go 38 00:02:39,800 --> 00:02:42,840 through this and, and hear from the different guys that are 39 00:02:42,840 --> 00:02:45,680 going to teach it over the next several weeks or actually over 40 00:02:45,680 --> 00:02:49,400 the next two months, is, is that some of God's attributes are 41 00:02:49,400 --> 00:02:52,440 communicable, right? We hear that every once in a 42 00:02:52,440 --> 00:02:56,320 while, communicable, communicable meaning that humans 43 00:02:56,320 --> 00:03:00,600 can possess or experience them or that they can be reflected 44 00:03:00,600 --> 00:03:03,560 in, in people to a certain extent. 45 00:03:04,520 --> 00:03:11,640 And some of those are, are like gracious or, or merciful or 46 00:03:11,640 --> 00:03:16,440 loving, right? We can, we can, we can embody 47 00:03:16,440 --> 00:03:19,240 those to some extent as as humans. 48 00:03:20,120 --> 00:03:23,480 And then some of these attributes are non communicable, 49 00:03:23,480 --> 00:03:26,360 meaning that humans cannot possess them, right. 50 00:03:26,360 --> 00:03:29,360 And, and again, we'll look at some of these different ones and 51 00:03:29,360 --> 00:03:32,720 we'll see that, you know, we can't be omniscient, meaning all 52 00:03:32,720 --> 00:03:35,920 knowing we, we can't be immutable or perfect. 53 00:03:38,720 --> 00:03:41,120 I think that's, that's kind of kind of small, but I think you 54 00:03:41,120 --> 00:03:44,080 get here's. So when you look at the, those 55 00:03:44,080 --> 00:03:49,840 books, AW Tozers and AW Pinks, they both have these, these long 56 00:03:49,840 --> 00:03:52,480 lists. In fact, AW Tozer did 2 volumes 57 00:03:52,480 --> 00:03:56,240 of the attributes of God. And, and so it's not, it's not 58 00:03:56,240 --> 00:04:00,360 like a specific list exactly that we find, you know, in 59 00:04:00,360 --> 00:04:02,320 Scripture. It's things that we we read 60 00:04:02,320 --> 00:04:05,360 about in Scripture that these guys have have made these lists 61 00:04:05,360 --> 00:04:07,640 of have identified certain characteristics. 62 00:04:08,720 --> 00:04:11,760 And so in our study, we're not going to cover all of them. 63 00:04:12,560 --> 00:04:14,120 We're going to cover some of them. 64 00:04:14,480 --> 00:04:18,480 And and so here's some that I just grabbed off of some of 65 00:04:18,480 --> 00:04:20,959 these lists. And you can see here we could 66 00:04:20,959 --> 00:04:24,760 kind of look at at whether these are communicable or non 67 00:04:24,760 --> 00:04:29,200 communicable, for example, communicable, communicable of 68 00:04:29,360 --> 00:04:32,160 again, meaning something that that we can we can do. 69 00:04:32,560 --> 00:04:35,920 Can we be wise? Yeah, not always. 70 00:04:36,120 --> 00:04:38,200 Right. I wasn't looking at you, 71 00:04:38,200 --> 00:04:42,520 Richard. Can we be infinite? 72 00:04:44,320 --> 00:04:46,240 No. Can we be merciful? 73 00:04:47,040 --> 00:04:50,200 Yeah. Can we be the cornerstone? 74 00:04:50,960 --> 00:04:52,280 No. Can we be a shepherd? 75 00:04:53,040 --> 00:04:54,160 Yeah, sometimes. Right. 76 00:04:54,960 --> 00:04:56,800 So holiness. How about holiness? 77 00:04:59,840 --> 00:05:00,520 Yeah. So. 78 00:05:00,520 --> 00:05:02,760 So what we'll find with some of these, it's going to be kind of 79 00:05:02,760 --> 00:05:05,320 interesting. Is that sometimes there there's 80 00:05:05,400 --> 00:05:07,760 like, can we be holy like God? No, we can't. 81 00:05:08,040 --> 00:05:10,240 Are we called to be holy like God? 82 00:05:10,240 --> 00:05:13,920 Yes, we are. And so to an extent we can be 83 00:05:13,920 --> 00:05:18,440 right to not not to the same level that God is, but we can be 84 00:05:18,920 --> 00:05:20,960 holy compared to where we used to be. 85 00:05:21,560 --> 00:05:25,760 So, so, so some of these are like a certain way we look at 86 00:05:25,760 --> 00:05:28,440 it, we go, well, that's not, you know, we're, we'll never get, 87 00:05:28,440 --> 00:05:31,920 we're never going to be holy. And yet at the same time we can 88 00:05:31,920 --> 00:05:33,280 be. So some of them we'll see are 89 00:05:33,520 --> 00:05:37,560 communicable and non, non communicable at the same time. 90 00:05:37,560 --> 00:05:40,560 So we'll kind of just discuss some of that as we as we go 91 00:05:40,560 --> 00:05:43,000 along and we'll see that maybe on some of them, there's kind of 92 00:05:43,000 --> 00:05:46,600 varying levels of, of whether that's, you know, that's the 93 00:05:46,600 --> 00:05:51,120 case or not. And so some of these attributes, 94 00:05:51,200 --> 00:05:53,840 as we get looking at them, especially since we're not going 95 00:05:53,840 --> 00:05:57,720 to go through all of them, some of these will seem very closely 96 00:05:57,720 --> 00:06:01,560 related and, and similar. Often times we're going to use 97 00:06:01,560 --> 00:06:05,160 the same verses to, to explain them, right. 98 00:06:05,480 --> 00:06:10,000 But just like interlocking pieces of a, of a, of a puzzle 99 00:06:10,000 --> 00:06:12,600 here, like we have up here on the screen, sometimes putting 100 00:06:12,600 --> 00:06:16,560 two or three closely related pieces together helps us to 101 00:06:16,560 --> 00:06:22,680 understand the context of, of, of another, otherwise not fully 102 00:06:22,680 --> 00:06:26,120 understood or even misunderstood piece. 103 00:06:26,600 --> 00:06:32,320 So sometimes as we look at like this first week, when we look at 104 00:06:32,320 --> 00:06:35,720 this, we might not be able to necessarily wrap our, our heads 105 00:06:35,720 --> 00:06:38,400 around the, the infiniteness of God. 106 00:06:38,920 --> 00:06:41,280 Well, I can guarantee we won't be able to wrap our heads around 107 00:06:41,280 --> 00:06:46,840 that fully, but we will be able to understand that more 2345 108 00:06:46,840 --> 00:06:50,040 weeks later as we, as we start to build some of these other 109 00:06:50,040 --> 00:06:54,840 pieces, it'll help us to kind of get in a place where we can, 110 00:06:54,840 --> 00:06:58,320 where we can understand that a little bit, a little bit better. 111 00:06:59,280 --> 00:07:01,760 And as we continue through this study, we, we hope that each of 112 00:07:01,760 --> 00:07:05,400 these, these pieces that we add or that we, that we, that we 113 00:07:05,400 --> 00:07:09,640 study adds to the totality of our picture of God as we see 114 00:07:09,640 --> 00:07:13,120 that they are related to each other, but each and each of them 115 00:07:13,120 --> 00:07:18,120 is distinct from each other. So the Bible, God's word, of 116 00:07:18,120 --> 00:07:21,720 course, tells us what God is like and, and what he is not 117 00:07:21,720 --> 00:07:24,920 like. And without the authority of the 118 00:07:24,920 --> 00:07:28,800 Bible, any attempt to explain God's attributes again those 119 00:07:28,800 --> 00:07:32,120 inherent qualities that he has, any attempt to do that, to 120 00:07:32,120 --> 00:07:36,320 explain it would be no better than us just offering our 121 00:07:36,440 --> 00:07:40,360 opinions. Which if it were, if we were 122 00:07:40,360 --> 00:07:43,880 left up to our own understanding without Scripture, our opinions 123 00:07:44,120 --> 00:07:47,080 would be very they would be often incorrect. 124 00:07:47,080 --> 00:07:50,440 And in fact, they'd probably always be incorrect, especially 125 00:07:50,760 --> 00:07:54,360 in understanding God. In fact, much of what we could 126 00:07:54,360 --> 00:07:57,680 come up with to describe him would probably be simply 127 00:07:57,680 --> 00:08:01,440 heretical because we would, we would try to explain him through 128 00:08:01,440 --> 00:08:04,720 the framework of the way that we approach everything else in our 129 00:08:04,720 --> 00:08:05,560 life. Right? 130 00:08:05,840 --> 00:08:10,400 If, if, if I wanted to, to try to describe Aaron and her 131 00:08:10,400 --> 00:08:14,160 characteristics, I'd do it based off of what I see, what I hear, 132 00:08:14,560 --> 00:08:16,360 the, the way that I see the world. 133 00:08:16,360 --> 00:08:19,200 She's a human like I'm a human. So I can relate to her that way, 134 00:08:19,560 --> 00:08:22,560 but if we did it without the God's word to try to explain 135 00:08:22,560 --> 00:08:26,040 God, we'd be all over the place and, and, and miss that. 136 00:08:26,040 --> 00:08:31,160 So Scripture is, is key to to us being able to understand this. 137 00:08:32,200 --> 00:08:35,400 One of the, one of the attributes that we'll look at 138 00:08:35,400 --> 00:08:39,400 next month is that God is, is holy, right? 139 00:08:39,400 --> 00:08:42,480 He's set apart. We are in the same category. 140 00:08:42,679 --> 00:08:45,360 We're not in the same class as as God is. 141 00:08:45,360 --> 00:08:48,720 And so Jason will have that one here coming up next month and, 142 00:08:48,800 --> 00:08:50,760 and he'll walk through what that means. 143 00:08:51,280 --> 00:08:57,800 But besides the, the perfectual nature of His Holiness, he is 144 00:08:57,800 --> 00:09:01,640 simply different than we are. He is simply set apart from us. 145 00:09:01,960 --> 00:09:06,080 And, and of course, we can't, we can't obtain or experience all 146 00:09:06,080 --> 00:09:09,560 of those same attributes. So although we'll never be able 147 00:09:09,560 --> 00:09:13,640 to fully understand him, we do want to study him. 148 00:09:13,920 --> 00:09:18,160 Romans 1, 19. That's not Romans 119. 149 00:09:19,240 --> 00:09:22,720 There we go. Romans 1/19/20 says for what can 150 00:09:22,720 --> 00:09:25,960 be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it 151 00:09:25,960 --> 00:09:28,600 to them. For his invisible attributes, 152 00:09:28,600 --> 00:09:32,160 namely His eternal power and divine nature have been clearly 153 00:09:32,160 --> 00:09:36,120 perceived ever since the creation of the of the world in 154 00:09:36,120 --> 00:09:40,240 the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 155 00:09:41,520 --> 00:09:45,400 So that says what can be known, right? 156 00:09:45,400 --> 00:09:50,160 What can be known about God suggests then that there are 157 00:09:50,160 --> 00:09:54,160 some, that there are many things about God that can't be known. 158 00:09:55,720 --> 00:10:00,120 And of course Scripture backs that up in Isaiah 55 verse 9 159 00:10:00,120 --> 00:10:03,280 says for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my 160 00:10:03,280 --> 00:10:07,640 ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. 161 00:10:08,600 --> 00:10:12,160 And I'll tell you what, there's just something I think in my own 162 00:10:12,160 --> 00:10:18,280 walk, in my personal walk with, with Jesus, this concept helped 163 00:10:18,280 --> 00:10:21,920 me immensely because I'm a, you know, my background as a police 164 00:10:21,920 --> 00:10:24,200 officer was a guy who tried to figure things out, right? 165 00:10:24,200 --> 00:10:26,160 I was always looking for facts to make the case. 166 00:10:26,880 --> 00:10:29,600 And when, when you do that with God, there's lots of facts out. 167 00:10:29,600 --> 00:10:32,720 There's lots of information to get into making the case for 168 00:10:32,720 --> 00:10:37,400 him. And yet faith is, is, is 169 00:10:37,400 --> 00:10:40,720 something that that takes exactly that faith, right? 170 00:10:40,720 --> 00:10:43,000 Not, not something that we can, we can prove. 171 00:10:43,000 --> 00:10:45,640 And so when I got to this idea, when I finally got to this place 172 00:10:45,640 --> 00:10:50,160 where I was like, I'm not even meant to know all of this, There 173 00:10:50,160 --> 00:10:53,360 was a piece that I, I finally got to experience that way 174 00:10:53,800 --> 00:10:58,160 because I got to go and say it says this and I, I trust the 175 00:10:58,160 --> 00:11:00,880 Bible, I trust God's word and it says this. 176 00:11:01,360 --> 00:11:03,640 And so I'm going to rest in that, even if I can't fully 177 00:11:03,640 --> 00:11:07,200 explain that, right. And, and and as as I've grown in 178 00:11:07,200 --> 00:11:09,920 my faith, sometimes I get to a place where I can kind of 179 00:11:09,920 --> 00:11:11,760 explain some of those things, right. 180 00:11:11,760 --> 00:11:14,240 I I learned more and more and I I can't explain. 181 00:11:14,640 --> 00:11:17,000 And yet not everything is, is that way. 182 00:11:17,240 --> 00:11:22,120 So what is your best explanation of Infinity? 183 00:11:23,240 --> 00:11:28,320 Anybody got any, anything. Yeah. 184 00:11:28,320 --> 00:11:32,720 Like Buzz Lightyear, Right. What's what's what's, what's an 185 00:11:32,720 --> 00:11:35,720 explanation of Infinity never ending. 186 00:11:36,480 --> 00:11:37,800 That's what you said, too. All right. 187 00:11:38,080 --> 00:11:41,880 What else? Without beginning, without end, 188 00:11:43,320 --> 00:11:45,280 we're going to run out of these very quickly because we all have 189 00:11:45,280 --> 00:11:46,760 the same ideas. What's what's another one? 190 00:11:48,760 --> 00:11:54,880 Yes. Infinity plus Infinity, right. 191 00:11:55,440 --> 00:11:58,400 That's the that's kids have this. 192 00:11:58,640 --> 00:12:02,160 They they think about Infinity sometimes it's it's it's funny. 193 00:12:02,200 --> 00:12:04,040 I used to have this conversation with these two all the time. 194 00:12:04,120 --> 00:12:15,320 What were you going to say? Yeah, OK, so that's math. 195 00:12:16,240 --> 00:12:19,280 Math mathematicians have to think about Infinity. 196 00:12:19,960 --> 00:12:23,120 Like, honestly, if you're going to be like a, you know, some 197 00:12:23,120 --> 00:12:28,800 scientist, you know, like John, right, that does math, like this 198 00:12:28,800 --> 00:12:33,640 long of math, then, then I guarantee they, they contemplate 199 00:12:33,640 --> 00:12:37,520 that because mathematics automatically leads to like how 200 00:12:37,520 --> 00:12:41,520 big of a, of a, you know, problem can, can we have and, 201 00:12:41,520 --> 00:12:43,360 and that sort of thing. You know, I might talk about 202 00:12:43,360 --> 00:12:47,360 that here again in a little bit. But so as I was prepping for 203 00:12:47,360 --> 00:12:50,240 this and I was looking on, you know, on the Internet and 204 00:12:50,240 --> 00:12:54,320 looking for resources of how people have explained Infinity, 205 00:12:54,920 --> 00:12:56,680 Like what are the common ways that people do? 206 00:12:57,880 --> 00:13:00,160 They would get those same answers that I just got right 207 00:13:00,160 --> 00:13:04,320 forever without end, without beginning, You know, all of 208 00:13:04,320 --> 00:13:07,080 these these kind of things, about 1/2 a dozen different 209 00:13:07,080 --> 00:13:09,080 words or phrases and this symbol. 210 00:13:09,720 --> 00:13:12,400 Otherwise there was, there wasn't really a lot of 211 00:13:13,320 --> 00:13:18,080 explanation. Because like you, when you say 212 00:13:18,080 --> 00:13:22,200 forever without end, I mean, what, what better thing can you 213 00:13:22,200 --> 00:13:27,120 do to say it than that, right? Because our brains just simply 214 00:13:27,120 --> 00:13:30,840 don't function in a way to be able to, to really truly 215 00:13:30,840 --> 00:13:33,480 contemplate that. There have been arguments from 216 00:13:33,840 --> 00:13:38,160 philosophers for for generations, for for centuries 217 00:13:38,160 --> 00:13:48,320 over the idea of of Infinity. So excuse me to this is the way 218 00:13:48,320 --> 00:13:52,840 my brain works to understand. If I can't fully understand 219 00:13:52,840 --> 00:13:56,400 Infinity, then what does it mean to be the opposite? 220 00:13:56,400 --> 00:13:58,880 Which is finite, right? What is what is that? 221 00:13:59,440 --> 00:14:05,440 Well, finite defined is having definite or definable limits, 222 00:14:06,440 --> 00:14:09,240 right? So the the other one is having a 223 00:14:09,240 --> 00:14:14,320 limited nature or existence or completely determinable in 224 00:14:14,320 --> 00:14:17,800 theory or in fact by counting measurement or thought. 225 00:14:18,680 --> 00:14:22,120 And so it's funny that that this symbol is one of the things it's 226 00:14:22,120 --> 00:14:24,200 kind of hard to see there, but you guys all get the idea of the 227 00:14:24,200 --> 00:14:27,360 figure out. It's, it's often used as the 228 00:14:27,360 --> 00:14:33,120 symbol of this is a symbol of Infinity, and yet it's only 229 00:14:33,120 --> 00:14:37,400 infinite in its linear line. But sideways, there's clear 230 00:14:37,400 --> 00:14:40,800 boundaries, right? So we can't even Draw Something 231 00:14:40,800 --> 00:14:45,960 to, to get the idea of that. And, and that's actually part of 232 00:14:45,960 --> 00:14:48,800 what we do with God too. We think, oh, I've got them 233 00:14:48,840 --> 00:14:52,200 figured out this way, right? We, we've got them figured out 234 00:14:52,200 --> 00:14:55,280 with how big he is or how whatever, but we can't figure 235 00:14:55,280 --> 00:14:57,720 out the time of God. We certainly can't figure out 236 00:14:57,720 --> 00:15:00,080 how much God can love, right? We don't. 237 00:15:00,080 --> 00:15:04,680 We can't figure out how he could forgive so and so who did 238 00:15:04,800 --> 00:15:08,040 whatever it was or or how he could forgive me for all these 239 00:15:08,160 --> 00:15:10,240 terrible things that I have done. 240 00:15:10,920 --> 00:15:13,360 And yet we read that he does right? 241 00:15:13,360 --> 00:15:18,560 We we read that his that his grace and his mercy and his love 242 00:15:18,560 --> 00:15:21,120 and all of these things are are without end. 243 00:15:23,760 --> 00:15:27,800 So finite is, is something that is that has boundaries, right? 244 00:15:27,800 --> 00:15:31,480 That that we can, we can describe, we can put in our box, 245 00:15:32,760 --> 00:15:38,240 we can, we can determine in theory, right. 246 00:15:38,240 --> 00:15:41,760 So even if you look at some of these scientific theories that 247 00:15:41,760 --> 00:15:45,720 that are, you know, for, for, again, for those mathematicians, 248 00:15:45,720 --> 00:15:49,600 those, you know, the, what was the movie of the kid at, at the 249 00:15:49,600 --> 00:15:52,800 school, you know, how do you like them apples, that movie 250 00:15:53,880 --> 00:15:56,360 Goodwill Hunting? Yeah, That even those kind of, 251 00:15:56,440 --> 00:15:59,720 you know, the guys that do those, all those huge equations 252 00:15:59,720 --> 00:16:04,360 and, and that sort of thing, they, they can, they can 253 00:16:04,360 --> 00:16:08,280 understand theories. Like I get the idea of how this 254 00:16:08,280 --> 00:16:11,760 would work, but they don't necessarily have the, the, the 255 00:16:11,840 --> 00:16:14,720 equation figured out. They just know that it could 256 00:16:14,720 --> 00:16:18,080 work in a certain way. And so that's very, very small 257 00:16:18,080 --> 00:16:20,520 still compared to our, our full understanding. 258 00:16:21,080 --> 00:16:25,040 So infinite, this is one of the definitions was infinite is 259 00:16:25,400 --> 00:16:30,560 limitless or endless in space, extent or size impossible to 260 00:16:30,560 --> 00:16:34,400 measure or calculate. And some synonyms are boundless, 261 00:16:34,400 --> 00:16:38,520 unlimited without end, interminable, cosmic, 262 00:16:38,800 --> 00:16:43,520 immeasurable, fathomless, right. So again, there's not a whole 263 00:16:43,520 --> 00:16:47,600 lot to to be able to because you even some of those words we 264 00:16:47,600 --> 00:16:50,360 can't really wrap our head around. 265 00:16:51,240 --> 00:16:54,080 So as we, as we continue to delve into this study for these 266 00:16:54,080 --> 00:16:56,560 next several weeks, we can look at at each of these, these 267 00:16:56,560 --> 00:17:01,720 upcoming attributes through the lens of God's infinite nature, 268 00:17:02,160 --> 00:17:04,480 right? So when we get to love or when 269 00:17:04,480 --> 00:17:10,760 we get to mercy, then then we, we can look at it and go, we, we 270 00:17:10,760 --> 00:17:13,960 look at through this lens of infinite that love doesn't end 271 00:17:13,960 --> 00:17:17,200 or, or those different things never, never end when we study 272 00:17:17,200 --> 00:17:21,280 his goodness, right? That goodness only continues to 273 00:17:21,280 --> 00:17:27,839 get gooder right, right. And and and it's it's kind of a 274 00:17:27,839 --> 00:17:35,040 word. His no gooder, his mercy goes on 275 00:17:35,040 --> 00:17:37,000 forever. His his love has no end to it 276 00:17:37,000 --> 00:17:40,280 because God's good qualities have no limit. 277 00:17:41,920 --> 00:17:46,120 So another aspect of this is that God is self existing right? 278 00:17:46,120 --> 00:17:52,000 Some of his some of his attributes will will kind of 279 00:17:52,000 --> 00:17:57,120 delineate from from this being infinite like we're going to 280 00:17:57,120 --> 00:18:00,120 we're going to really have to understand that this this self 281 00:18:00,120 --> 00:18:03,240 existing nature of God. The word for it is called 282 00:18:03,240 --> 00:18:05,080 assayety. That's the the like the 283 00:18:05,120 --> 00:18:07,560 theological word. And that means that he is 284 00:18:07,560 --> 00:18:11,520 without a creator. Colossians 117 says, and he is 285 00:18:11,520 --> 00:18:16,560 before all things and in him all things hold together right. 286 00:18:16,560 --> 00:18:20,920 So again, just the idea of how big God is that if, if 287 00:18:21,280 --> 00:18:26,720 everything that has ever existed was infinitely big and God is 288 00:18:26,720 --> 00:18:28,400 bigger than that holding it together. 289 00:18:28,840 --> 00:18:32,360 It's like what George says, infinite Infinity plus Infinity, 290 00:18:32,720 --> 00:18:37,880 right? Doctor Adrian Rogers said, he 291 00:18:37,880 --> 00:18:41,720 said the name Jehovah is used some 6800 times in the Bible. 292 00:18:41,960 --> 00:18:44,800 It's the personal covenant name of Israel's God. 293 00:18:45,200 --> 00:18:48,160 In the King James Version of the Bible it's translated Lord God. 294 00:18:48,400 --> 00:18:51,560 Not only does it speak of God's strength, but also it speaks of 295 00:18:51,560 --> 00:18:53,680 the sovereignty of God and the goodness of God. 296 00:18:54,120 --> 00:18:58,520 The root of the of this name means self existing, one who 297 00:18:58,520 --> 00:19:01,600 never came into being and one who always will be. 298 00:19:02,240 --> 00:19:05,840 And when Moses asked God, who shall I tell Pharaoh has sent 299 00:19:05,840 --> 00:19:09,280 me, God said I am that I am right? 300 00:19:09,280 --> 00:19:14,600 That's a self existent explanation and that self 301 00:19:14,600 --> 00:19:18,600 existence speaks to the eternality of God. 302 00:19:20,480 --> 00:19:26,880 That means that Infinity ago God had was was, you know, he had 303 00:19:26,880 --> 00:19:28,640 already been around for Infinity. 304 00:19:28,640 --> 00:19:35,520 Infinities. It's impossible for us to be 305 00:19:35,520 --> 00:19:38,160 able to comprehend, right? In fact, I think that the 306 00:19:38,160 --> 00:19:41,560 infinite characteristic of God might be the single hardest 307 00:19:42,040 --> 00:19:45,320 thing for most people to get around in their position and in 308 00:19:45,320 --> 00:19:50,000 their opinion of God, because we as human beings insist on 309 00:19:50,000 --> 00:19:53,520 putting things in a a theoretical box, something that 310 00:19:53,520 --> 00:19:59,200 fits our mental aptitude and and capacity, but that is simply 311 00:19:59,200 --> 00:20:03,240 impossible. One explanation I read said in 312 00:20:03,240 --> 00:20:07,360 our in our limitedness, grasping the nature of our limitless God 313 00:20:07,360 --> 00:20:10,760 is like holding on to water as it rages down a river. 314 00:20:11,440 --> 00:20:14,840 I thought that was a pretty good explanation, right, that if you 315 00:20:14,840 --> 00:20:17,400 try, if you're standing in the in the river and you try to grab 316 00:20:17,400 --> 00:20:21,160 it and hold it back like you can, you can physically touch it 317 00:20:21,160 --> 00:20:24,800 and and it can it can impact you and it can move you, but you 318 00:20:24,800 --> 00:20:27,400 know you but you're not able to to stop it. 319 00:20:28,520 --> 00:20:32,640 Psalm 147 five says great is our Lord and abundant in power. 320 00:20:32,640 --> 00:20:35,240 His understanding is beyond measure. 321 00:20:36,080 --> 00:20:39,400 So it Infinity itself is impossible to comprehend. 322 00:20:41,920 --> 00:20:45,920 Here's this is an here's that nerdy math thing like Cole was 323 00:20:45,920 --> 00:20:48,560 talking. If we decided to write the 324 00:20:48,560 --> 00:20:51,760 number Infinity, right, if we were just going to write it out 325 00:20:52,320 --> 00:20:55,520 with digits, with numerical digits and we just began 326 00:20:55,520 --> 00:20:58,840 writing, you know, ones and, and twos and threes or whatever 327 00:20:58,840 --> 00:21:03,120 digit it is continuously for the entirety of our lives. 328 00:21:03,840 --> 00:21:06,680 If every second we're, or every, you know, 10th of a second, 329 00:21:06,680 --> 00:21:09,760 we're right in a digit and just on a whiteboard continuously 330 00:21:09,760 --> 00:21:13,400 going, you know, every second of every day for the rest of our 331 00:21:13,400 --> 00:21:20,080 lives when we die, we would have written 0% of Infinity like 332 00:21:20,080 --> 00:21:24,040 that. I don't know if that connected 333 00:21:24,040 --> 00:21:27,600 with you, but as I read that, I just was like, my gosh, we are 334 00:21:27,600 --> 00:21:30,800 small, right? We are, we are small and God is 335 00:21:30,800 --> 00:21:32,880 huge. When these guys, when my kids 336 00:21:32,880 --> 00:21:35,920 were young, I remember trying to explain this and you know, it 337 00:21:35,920 --> 00:21:38,120 would be like, well, what's the, what's the biggest number you 338 00:21:38,120 --> 00:21:42,200 can think of Infinity. And you say, well, what's about 339 00:21:42,200 --> 00:21:45,560 Infinity plus one? Oh, well, Infinity +2. 340 00:21:45,640 --> 00:21:47,360 Well, where do you stop with that? 341 00:21:47,800 --> 00:21:49,720 Because George says Infinity plus Infinity. 342 00:21:49,720 --> 00:21:51,880 But what if it's Infinity plus Infinity plus one? 343 00:21:52,840 --> 00:21:55,000 That's bigger, Huh? Right. 344 00:21:55,000 --> 00:21:58,880 Like we can, we can always, we can always go bigger. 345 00:21:59,680 --> 00:22:03,640 Nearly 400 years before Jesus was born, Aristotle worried 346 00:22:03,640 --> 00:22:05,880 about this. This is one of the things that 347 00:22:05,880 --> 00:22:09,880 he he, you know, bothered himself with and other, you 348 00:22:09,880 --> 00:22:13,160 know, puzzles concerning infinite divisibility. 349 00:22:13,880 --> 00:22:18,240 And he was this thing that I that I read said he was also 350 00:22:18,240 --> 00:22:22,760 worried about the infinitely big the universe he thought couldn't 351 00:22:22,760 --> 00:22:26,320 be infinitely big. If it were follow me on this is 352 00:22:26,320 --> 00:22:31,520 going to get the universe couldn't be infinitely big. 353 00:22:31,600 --> 00:22:35,520 If it were, then half of it would also be infinite. 354 00:22:36,680 --> 00:22:39,760 So what makes the whole infinite bigger than half of it? 355 00:22:40,080 --> 00:22:42,800 Apparently nothing. They're both infinite, so they 356 00:22:42,800 --> 00:22:46,560 must be the same size, he said, but they can't be the same size 357 00:22:46,560 --> 00:22:48,640 since 1 is half of the size of the other. 358 00:22:49,920 --> 00:22:55,200 Like this whole concept is it's it's huge. 359 00:22:55,680 --> 00:22:59,880 It, it's like a, a tangled ball of, of string or something and 360 00:22:59,880 --> 00:23:01,960 trying to make make sense of that. 361 00:23:04,160 --> 00:23:09,720 There's a lot of people limitlessness is kind of a, a 362 00:23:11,920 --> 00:23:16,560 more of a spiritual, you know, people who are, who are not 363 00:23:16,600 --> 00:23:18,320 religious, they're not believers, but they call 364 00:23:18,320 --> 00:23:21,200 themselves spiritual, right? And, and that sort of thing, 365 00:23:21,480 --> 00:23:27,360 They will, they grasp onto this idea of Infinity or or 366 00:23:27,360 --> 00:23:31,400 limitlessness, but without they try to do it without God, Right. 367 00:23:31,400 --> 00:23:35,080 And so I read something that said the concept of Infinity and 368 00:23:35,080 --> 00:23:38,640 spirituality is multifaceted, representing endless 369 00:23:38,640 --> 00:23:42,840 possibilities, unity, and the interconnectedness of all 370 00:23:42,840 --> 00:23:45,080 things. It encourages individuals to 371 00:23:45,080 --> 00:23:47,800 embrace the eternal nature of the universe and the divine, 372 00:23:48,560 --> 00:23:51,320 promoting a state of infinite love, compassion, gratitude, and 373 00:23:51,320 --> 00:23:53,240 wisdom. Infinity symbolizes balance, 374 00:23:53,240 --> 00:23:55,760 harmony, and the potential for personal growth and spiritual 375 00:23:55,760 --> 00:23:58,640 connections. Other than the word divine. 376 00:23:59,280 --> 00:24:02,280 They've completely tried to address this without God. 377 00:24:02,760 --> 00:24:07,360 It's all about humans, right? It's all about just this idea of 378 00:24:07,360 --> 00:24:09,600 energy and, and things like that. 379 00:24:10,080 --> 00:24:14,200 And and of course, they're, you know, without the idea of, of an 380 00:24:14,200 --> 00:24:20,520 all powerful, omniscient, self existent, eternal God, this is 381 00:24:20,520 --> 00:24:23,080 just going to end up running people in circles. 382 00:24:23,080 --> 00:24:26,800 It'll run us in circles still, but at least we can go, I'm 383 00:24:27,200 --> 00:24:29,880 going to stop running in circles because God exists and that's 384 00:24:29,880 --> 00:24:33,000 all I need, right. But if you, if you, if you can't 385 00:24:33,000 --> 00:24:36,080 get to that place of, of understanding God, you're going 386 00:24:36,080 --> 00:24:39,280 to run yourself in, you know, ragged trying to chase something 387 00:24:39,280 --> 00:24:43,000 down right here. Psalm. 388 00:24:44,080 --> 00:24:47,320 Oh, this is that's the wrong Psalm. 389 00:24:47,720 --> 00:24:51,960 There we go. Psalm 91 through 4 tells us that 390 00:24:51,960 --> 00:24:55,560 God exists outside of our frame of reference and outside of, I 391 00:24:55,560 --> 00:24:57,240 mean really outside of space and time. 392 00:24:57,240 --> 00:25:00,640 It says, Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all 393 00:25:00,640 --> 00:25:04,960 generations before the mountains were brought forth or at or ever 394 00:25:04,960 --> 00:25:07,880 you had formed the earth and the world from everlasting to 395 00:25:07,880 --> 00:25:10,080 everlasting. You are God, that's present 396 00:25:10,080 --> 00:25:14,040 tense from eternity past you, you are present. 397 00:25:14,640 --> 00:25:18,600 You return man to dust and say return O children of man for 398 00:25:18,600 --> 00:25:22,800 1000 years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past or 399 00:25:22,800 --> 00:25:33,640 as a a watch in the night. Now prior to creation, you know 400 00:25:33,640 --> 00:25:36,200 prior to creation and like the sun and the moon and the earth 401 00:25:36,200 --> 00:25:40,880 and those those things that we use for the element of of 402 00:25:40,880 --> 00:25:44,720 measured time. God was there right before days 403 00:25:44,880 --> 00:25:48,600 existed with the rotation of the earth and the and the moon and 404 00:25:48,600 --> 00:25:54,880 all that God existed before measured time first Peter 120 405 00:25:54,880 --> 00:25:59,040 says he was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but was 406 00:25:59,040 --> 00:26:02,640 made manifest in the last times for the sake of you. 407 00:26:02,720 --> 00:26:06,680 So so in this passage he's talking about Jesus and and 408 00:26:06,680 --> 00:26:12,560 that's really so foreknown. He, he was already well known by 409 00:26:12,560 --> 00:26:16,840 God well before the foundation of the world because he's always 410 00:26:16,840 --> 00:26:20,400 been there, right? God was always aware of himself 411 00:26:21,920 --> 00:26:25,840 well before what we recognize as the foundation of the world. 412 00:26:25,840 --> 00:26:27,480 That's the beginning of the beginning. 413 00:26:28,200 --> 00:26:32,920 God was already there and and absolutely in control forever. 414 00:26:33,960 --> 00:26:37,600 God is transcendent, meaning that he exists above and 415 00:26:37,600 --> 00:26:40,560 independent from his creation. Now. 416 00:26:42,440 --> 00:26:46,480 God's Infinity forces us, though, to a place of humility. 417 00:26:46,520 --> 00:26:49,160 Like what I was saying earlier when I was when I was reading 418 00:26:49,160 --> 00:26:51,960 some of these quotes earlier this week as I was studying, all 419 00:26:51,960 --> 00:26:54,440 I could think of was how small I am right. 420 00:26:54,760 --> 00:26:58,320 And I'm not a small dude, but I'm but but when we in that in 421 00:26:58,320 --> 00:27:05,680 that comparison to God, I'm so little and so powerless and so 422 00:27:05,680 --> 00:27:11,440 weak. AW Tozer in in the idea that 423 00:27:11,440 --> 00:27:15,480 God, that God's Infinity, forces us to this place of humility. 424 00:27:15,480 --> 00:27:20,160 AW Tozer said to admit that there is one who lies beyond us, 425 00:27:20,160 --> 00:27:23,880 who exists outside of all of our categories, who will not be 426 00:27:24,040 --> 00:27:27,120 dismissed with a name, who will not appear before the bar of our 427 00:27:27,120 --> 00:27:30,320 reason nor submit to our curious inquiries. 428 00:27:30,720 --> 00:27:33,880 This requires a great deal of humility, more than most of us 429 00:27:33,880 --> 00:27:37,360 possessed. So we save face by thinking God 430 00:27:37,360 --> 00:27:41,560 down to our level, or at least down to where we can manage Him. 431 00:27:42,400 --> 00:27:45,160 Isn't that, isn't that true? Isn't that what we do? 432 00:27:45,920 --> 00:27:49,840 Because we can't get to the place of understanding God and 433 00:27:49,840 --> 00:27:51,840 just trusting that he's as big as he is. 434 00:27:51,840 --> 00:27:54,560 What we often do is we try to define him. 435 00:27:54,920 --> 00:27:59,400 We try to, we try. I mean, we, we, we, we picture 436 00:27:59,400 --> 00:28:02,680 him as a picture of, of Jesus with white robe and sandals and 437 00:28:02,680 --> 00:28:06,840 beard and, and, and that 33 years and whatever it is, we try 438 00:28:06,840 --> 00:28:09,480 to put limits on him because that's why he, that's the way we 439 00:28:09,480 --> 00:28:13,200 face life is, is in that limited way. 440 00:28:13,920 --> 00:28:20,400 And, and rather than just simply resting in his magnanimity, in 441 00:28:20,400 --> 00:28:27,040 his vastness, in his limitlessness, what we do is we, 442 00:28:28,520 --> 00:28:33,400 we, we, we, we just insist in our own, in our own selves in 443 00:28:33,760 --> 00:28:38,680 trying to define him. Colossians three 12312 tells us 444 00:28:38,680 --> 00:28:43,080 though, to put on humility, which really isn't too difficult 445 00:28:43,080 --> 00:28:45,440 when we consider the vastness of God. 446 00:28:45,440 --> 00:28:48,240 Here's what it says in Isaiah 40 of verse 12. 447 00:28:48,400 --> 00:28:52,640 He says who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand 448 00:28:53,160 --> 00:28:58,040 right like think about that. The oceans, all of those giant 449 00:28:58,040 --> 00:29:01,920 oceans are are small enough literally physically to fit in 450 00:29:01,920 --> 00:29:07,480 his in the palm of of his spiritual hand, right. 451 00:29:07,840 --> 00:29:12,480 Like that's, that's there's, there's something there about 452 00:29:13,760 --> 00:29:16,640 understanding that that is, that is really just a wonderful. 453 00:29:17,520 --> 00:29:20,840 Again, AI think it's a place of safety, a place of security to 454 00:29:20,840 --> 00:29:24,320 know, because I think about if you don't know God, that would 455 00:29:24,320 --> 00:29:26,920 be scary, wouldn't it? It'd be scary to think that 456 00:29:26,920 --> 00:29:30,080 you're this small and that that the the world is spinning and 457 00:29:30,080 --> 00:29:32,280 out of your control and that there's nothing you can do to 458 00:29:32,280 --> 00:29:36,360 try to make it be anything. And so it would be scary, but 459 00:29:36,360 --> 00:29:39,920 when we can trust in God, then we can actually take security in 460 00:29:39,920 --> 00:29:43,400 that because we have, you know, this huge savior. 461 00:29:44,880 --> 00:29:46,480 That's the wrong passage. I don't need that one yet. 462 00:29:47,120 --> 00:29:50,360 Job 25. There's so much like this in in 463 00:29:50,720 --> 00:29:54,680 Job, right? He says how much less man who is 464 00:29:54,680 --> 00:29:57,520 a maggot and the son of man who is a worm. 465 00:29:58,200 --> 00:30:03,880 Like that's pretty, you know, we're maggots and worms, like 466 00:30:04,560 --> 00:30:10,120 the, the figurative nature of that is, is really meant to, to 467 00:30:10,520 --> 00:30:13,200 remind us that we're, we're low crawlers, right? 468 00:30:13,200 --> 00:30:15,720 We're, we're the, the, the lowest of, of the low. 469 00:30:17,880 --> 00:30:22,280 Putting on humility involves cultivating an inward aptitude 470 00:30:22,280 --> 00:30:26,640 or excuse me, attitude of, of meekness and and loneliness. 471 00:30:26,640 --> 00:30:30,280 Like like that concept of the of the worms and and the maggots, 472 00:30:30,280 --> 00:30:33,480 right, recognizing how small and and powerless and really truly 473 00:30:33,480 --> 00:30:39,880 finite we are. James 414 says, yeah, you do not 474 00:30:39,880 --> 00:30:43,160 know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life for you are a 475 00:30:43,160 --> 00:30:46,800 mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. 476 00:30:46,800 --> 00:30:50,280 Some some versions say of vapor, right. 477 00:30:50,280 --> 00:30:54,000 And I love the simplicity of of these examples for us to 478 00:30:54,000 --> 00:30:57,160 understand every every winter, maybe even this morning. 479 00:30:57,640 --> 00:31:02,040 We all are, are fascinated like, like we were when we were, you 480 00:31:02,040 --> 00:31:05,440 know, little kids about how the vapor of our breath on a cold 481 00:31:05,440 --> 00:31:09,000 day is visible for just just a moment and then it evaporates 482 00:31:09,000 --> 00:31:16,840 completely, right. Psalm 144, David says in Psalm 483 00:31:16,960 --> 00:31:21,680 144, four man is like a breath. His days are like a fleeting 484 00:31:21,680 --> 00:31:25,440 shadow, like a passing shadow. This one, this version says 485 00:31:27,160 --> 00:31:46,920 yeah. Yeah, I think, I think the 486 00:31:46,920 --> 00:31:50,120 important part of that is to understand that it's really 487 00:31:50,120 --> 00:31:53,080 about on our own we're nothing, right? 488 00:31:53,560 --> 00:32:01,840 Because you know, that's in that in that passage is Job 25, 489 00:32:02,480 --> 00:32:04,120 right? There's there's this, there's 490 00:32:04,120 --> 00:32:06,520 this conversation about who the heck do you think you are, 491 00:32:07,200 --> 00:32:08,840 right? Like were you there when the 492 00:32:08,840 --> 00:32:11,840 when the world was created? You're nothing but this without 493 00:32:11,840 --> 00:32:14,440 me, right? And so does that make sense? 494 00:32:14,440 --> 00:32:23,720 Like, yeah, yes, yes, it is. But let me just say that I'm OK 495 00:32:23,720 --> 00:32:28,840 also with even with God, I'm still minuscule and finite. 496 00:32:29,400 --> 00:32:32,520 Not to the point where I would call you a worm because I just I 497 00:32:32,520 --> 00:32:35,680 think that that is also like AI think. 498 00:32:35,800 --> 00:32:38,640 I think it's given to us in kind of like a how dare you kind of 499 00:32:38,640 --> 00:32:39,920 thing. It's a little bit of a put down 500 00:32:40,400 --> 00:32:42,520 because you're outside of your relationship, the relationship 501 00:32:42,520 --> 00:32:47,680 with without God. You you are maggot for us as 502 00:32:47,680 --> 00:32:51,640 believers, we can understand the same concept behind here about 503 00:32:51,640 --> 00:32:54,960 you are still finite. You are absolutely dependent on 504 00:32:55,440 --> 00:32:57,800 this giant God for for everything, right? 505 00:32:57,800 --> 00:32:59,640 And through that you are you have power. 506 00:33:01,080 --> 00:33:04,200 But so there's a got we got to understand that disconnect there 507 00:33:04,200 --> 00:33:05,920 or where that you know how that comes together. 508 00:33:05,920 --> 00:33:20,170 Does that answer that? So God's, God's go ahead, say 509 00:33:20,170 --> 00:33:25,810 that again. Yeah, Yeah, absolutely. 510 00:33:25,810 --> 00:33:30,130 He, he. So that doesn't mean that we 511 00:33:30,130 --> 00:33:34,130 existed, right? But God knew who we would be, 512 00:33:34,610 --> 00:33:36,410 who who we would be in his creation. 513 00:33:36,410 --> 00:33:39,850 He knew what creation was going to look like 3 days before 514 00:33:39,850 --> 00:33:44,130 creation happened, right? Five weeks, 7000 bajillion 515 00:33:44,130 --> 00:33:47,000 years, you're right, 7 eternities before creation. 516 00:33:47,000 --> 00:33:50,400 He knew what that was going to look like, but it hadn't 517 00:33:50,400 --> 00:33:53,800 happened yet. And and so we aren't we didn't 518 00:33:53,800 --> 00:33:56,960 exist that far back, but he knew what we would be. 519 00:33:56,960 --> 00:34:00,120 So when he when he knew us before he created us and as he 520 00:34:00,400 --> 00:34:05,720 wove us together in our mother's womb, God is is omniscient and 521 00:34:05,720 --> 00:34:09,639 all and all knowing. So he knows what that is going 522 00:34:09,639 --> 00:34:11,719 to be, even though we don't yet exist. 523 00:34:12,239 --> 00:34:16,679 So there's an important thing there of going, wait, did we 524 00:34:16,679 --> 00:34:19,000 exist then? And we have to understand we did 525 00:34:19,000 --> 00:34:22,120 not right? One we he knit us together. 526 00:34:22,120 --> 00:34:25,760 So we were we were something other than than a being at that 527 00:34:25,760 --> 00:34:28,880 point. We we didn't exist in a previous 528 00:34:28,880 --> 00:34:31,400 life or in in heaven or anything like that. 529 00:34:33,679 --> 00:34:36,280 When he created us is when he created us. 530 00:34:36,800 --> 00:34:39,199 But his knowledge goes back eternity. 531 00:34:39,800 --> 00:34:41,719 So he knows what tomorrow brings. 532 00:34:42,239 --> 00:34:44,360 He knows if the bears are going to score any touchdowns today, 533 00:34:44,960 --> 00:34:47,080 right? He knows all of that stuff. 534 00:34:47,520 --> 00:34:51,320 And, and, and but it just had, you know, these things haven't 535 00:34:51,320 --> 00:34:55,440 been manifest yet. Let me I'm going to. 536 00:34:56,159 --> 00:34:59,960 So he called. So when we, when we see this, I 537 00:34:59,960 --> 00:35:03,160 got to rush through a little bit of this, but because I want to 538 00:35:03,160 --> 00:35:07,360 ask a couple of questions. So when we see this, the size of 539 00:35:07,360 --> 00:35:09,360 God, it does force us to be humble. 540 00:35:09,360 --> 00:35:13,840 It forces us to, to consider our own loneliness. 541 00:35:14,400 --> 00:35:19,320 And I don't mean that in like a feel down on yourself kind of 542 00:35:19,320 --> 00:35:21,440 way. We just, we need to just, we 543 00:35:21,440 --> 00:35:25,920 need to be wonderfully happy and comfortable in knowing that we 544 00:35:25,920 --> 00:35:28,200 are God's tiny little children, right? 545 00:35:28,560 --> 00:35:30,760 But there, there's something, there's something wonderful 546 00:35:30,760 --> 00:35:33,720 about that. And yet it should also spark 547 00:35:33,720 --> 00:35:40,000 something in us to humble us to, to, to, to help us to have a 548 00:35:40,000 --> 00:35:44,040 contrite heart to come with a lowliness like like this says 549 00:35:44,040 --> 00:35:48,120 that God, great big giant God doesn't owe us anything, right? 550 00:35:48,360 --> 00:35:51,000 We can't put, we can enforce our will on him. 551 00:35:51,280 --> 00:35:54,000 We can't push him in in a certain direction. 552 00:35:55,200 --> 00:35:58,720 And God, and and that's good. It's good for us to be humble. 553 00:35:58,720 --> 00:36:02,680 God cares for the humble. In Psalm 3418, it says the Lord 554 00:36:02,680 --> 00:36:06,200 is close to the broken hearted and saves those who are crushed 555 00:36:06,200 --> 00:36:09,120 in spirit. In Psalm 25, he guides the 556 00:36:09,120 --> 00:36:12,080 humble in what is right and teaches them his way. 557 00:36:12,080 --> 00:36:15,560 In Psalm 34, the humble will hear and be glad. 558 00:36:15,560 --> 00:36:19,920 See, these are good things right when we understand how small we 559 00:36:19,920 --> 00:36:22,040 are. In James 46, God opposes the 560 00:36:22,040 --> 00:36:24,360 proud but shows favor to the humble. 561 00:36:25,360 --> 00:36:30,640 And see, here's why this idea of God's infiniteness is really 562 00:36:30,640 --> 00:36:37,320 important to us because although we didn't exist in eternity 563 00:36:37,320 --> 00:36:41,400 past, this is one of those places where that list earlier 564 00:36:41,400 --> 00:36:45,160 of the communicable versus the non communicable and how we were 565 00:36:45,160 --> 00:36:47,680 like, well, some of them you can, you could kind of achieve 566 00:36:47,680 --> 00:36:51,320 some, but not not fully to the same level as God, right? 567 00:36:51,840 --> 00:36:56,080 Here's the thing. God's promise of eternity to us 568 00:36:56,360 --> 00:37:00,960 makes us look at Infinity moving forward, not Infinity past 569 00:37:00,960 --> 00:37:04,760 necessarily, right? Not for us, for God, for God 570 00:37:04,760 --> 00:37:08,400 existed in the eternity past, but but this is an important 571 00:37:08,400 --> 00:37:16,240 thing for us to understand. So although we would all we we 572 00:37:16,240 --> 00:37:18,560 would have all understood at the beginning of this lesson that 573 00:37:18,960 --> 00:37:23,080 that God's attributes of being infinite is we would have 574 00:37:23,080 --> 00:37:25,960 probably said that's a non communicable attribute. 575 00:37:26,160 --> 00:37:29,000 It's not really entirely true. John 316 right? 576 00:37:29,240 --> 00:37:31,160 For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, 577 00:37:31,160 --> 00:37:35,360 that whoever would believe in him should not perish but have 578 00:37:35,360 --> 00:37:40,080 eternal life, right? So if that's you, then then 579 00:37:40,080 --> 00:37:44,080 being infinite moving forward, at least in our existence, that 580 00:37:44,080 --> 00:37:46,200 way we get to experience some of that. 581 00:37:46,640 --> 00:37:50,080 Now, that doesn't mean that we're going to be infinitely big 582 00:37:50,720 --> 00:37:54,440 to the same degree that God is, but we do get to experience some 583 00:37:54,760 --> 00:37:58,120 level of Infinity moving forward, right? 584 00:37:58,120 --> 00:38:01,760 Because heaven isn't, you know, like 176 days and then it's 585 00:38:01,760 --> 00:38:03,560 over. Like that's not the end of the 586 00:38:03,560 --> 00:38:05,840 prize. It is an eternity in the 587 00:38:05,840 --> 00:38:08,920 presence of God. We get to have an infinite, an 588 00:38:08,960 --> 00:38:14,680 infinite future with God. And so this concept is not 589 00:38:14,680 --> 00:38:17,200 something that we would just want to write off this idea of 590 00:38:17,200 --> 00:38:19,200 Infinity and go, well, it's too big for me. 591 00:38:19,680 --> 00:38:23,760 Well, it is too big for me, but it's that Infinity of my 592 00:38:23,760 --> 00:38:27,520 eternity with God that I desire. That's why I want to know him 593 00:38:27,520 --> 00:38:29,280 better. That's why I trust him is 594 00:38:29,280 --> 00:38:34,120 because that's where all my hope is is in eternity. 595 00:38:34,640 --> 00:38:36,280 That's, that's that's what I mean. 596 00:38:36,320 --> 00:38:39,600 That's what I'm here for, right? Is, is to worship him, to be 597 00:38:39,600 --> 00:38:43,920 with him, to glorify him for the rest of, of, of eternity. 598 00:38:43,920 --> 00:38:51,560 And so we get to experience that in John 10 verses 28 through 30, 599 00:38:51,560 --> 00:38:54,600 says I give them eternal life and they will never perish and 600 00:38:54,600 --> 00:38:56,560 no one will snatch them out of my hand. 601 00:38:56,560 --> 00:39:00,680 My Father who has given them to me is greater than all and no 602 00:39:00,680 --> 00:39:02,960 one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. 603 00:39:03,440 --> 00:39:09,080 I and the Father are one like that is is such an amazing 604 00:39:09,080 --> 00:39:13,040 promise to us, right? And so thinking back to that 605 00:39:13,040 --> 00:39:15,840 idea of writing out that digital number, right? 606 00:39:15,840 --> 00:39:20,120 If we wrote 1 digit every every half second of every day for the 607 00:39:20,120 --> 00:39:24,560 rest of our life. If we think about God writing 608 00:39:24,560 --> 00:39:28,800 out or or displaying to us his goodness and love and wisdom and 609 00:39:28,800 --> 00:39:32,920 holiness every moment of every day of his life for eternity, 610 00:39:33,800 --> 00:39:58,000 right, Go ahead. Yeah, that's a yeah. 611 00:40:02,400 --> 00:40:06,680 Yep, yes, we're we will always be infinitely smaller than him, 612 00:40:07,120 --> 00:40:09,960 right. And yet we we also get to that 613 00:40:09,960 --> 00:40:12,720 was a good example. There is a there is an aspect of 614 00:40:12,720 --> 00:40:14,960 it that we have that infinite nature, kind of like that 615 00:40:14,960 --> 00:40:16,760 design, the the figure eight thing. 616 00:40:17,320 --> 00:40:19,280 There's limits in certain directions because we don't get 617 00:40:19,280 --> 00:40:20,960 to have those same characteristics of God. 618 00:40:26,160 --> 00:40:33,280 Yeah, yeah. He exists around that, that 619 00:40:33,280 --> 00:40:34,840 thing that's infinite. He exists. 620 00:40:35,720 --> 00:40:39,240 He, he encompasses all of that exponentially, right. 621 00:40:39,720 --> 00:40:41,080 So we've got just a couple minutes. 622 00:40:41,080 --> 00:40:47,320 Let me just ask a couple of of these. 623 00:40:48,520 --> 00:40:51,080 Let's let's from a from an overall standpoint of the 624 00:40:51,080 --> 00:40:54,520 attributes of God, how and why is it helpful to study the 625 00:40:54,520 --> 00:40:57,240 attributes of God? What do you guys think, Kevin? 626 00:40:57,240 --> 00:41:00,440 That looked like a hand raise. Oh, OK, Debbie, 627 00:41:14,620 --> 00:41:30,630 direction for our own life. Yeah yes, because if I'm, let's 628 00:41:30,630 --> 00:41:35,320 say I'm super generous, right? If, if I, if I start patting 629 00:41:35,320 --> 00:41:38,560 myself on the back about my own generosity, I could get to a 630 00:41:38,560 --> 00:41:42,360 place where I think I'm the most generous that anybody ever could 631 00:41:42,360 --> 00:41:44,920 be, right? If I forget how big God is and 632 00:41:44,920 --> 00:41:46,960 that he was way, way, way more generous, right? 633 00:41:47,440 --> 00:41:49,920 It's it. So having that the perception 634 00:41:49,920 --> 00:41:52,760 and the context is, is crucial. But like you said, at first 635 00:41:53,160 --> 00:41:55,960 seeing what it is and knowing this is where I should go, 636 00:41:56,040 --> 00:41:57,280 right? Because I want to be like God. 637 00:41:57,280 --> 00:41:58,840 This is the attribute that God has. 638 00:41:59,160 --> 00:42:00,760 This is what I want to, to be like. 639 00:42:01,320 --> 00:42:05,080 What else? How, how and and why is it 640 00:42:05,080 --> 00:42:08,560 helpful to study these? Yeah, I did. 641 00:42:21,520 --> 00:42:23,520 Yeah. Did you guys hear that? 642 00:42:24,360 --> 00:42:27,960 God doesn't need us. He, he, we need him, and he 643 00:42:27,960 --> 00:42:29,720 gives that eternity to us freely. 644 00:42:44,030 --> 00:42:50,100 What else? What? 645 00:42:50,100 --> 00:43:09,680 How so? Yeah, 646 00:43:35,930 --> 00:43:57,580 yeah, yeah, that's great. 647 00:43:57,780 --> 00:44:00,140 Danny and I were having a conversation yesterday about 648 00:44:01,580 --> 00:44:05,980 about grace and and mercy and we were talking about sort of the 649 00:44:05,980 --> 00:44:10,340 human limit to how much grace you want to give, how much do 650 00:44:10,340 --> 00:44:13,140 you want to forgive somebody? And that was where we went in 651 00:44:13,140 --> 00:44:18,720 our conversation was but when we understand God's mercy, when we 652 00:44:18,720 --> 00:44:23,120 understand his attributes of, of, of that, and it's so much up 653 00:44:23,120 --> 00:44:25,040 here. It changed our opinion, didn't 654 00:44:25,840 --> 00:44:27,680 it? It was hard. 655 00:44:27,880 --> 00:44:32,560 It was hard, but, but we, but, but seeing that made us go, OK, 656 00:44:33,760 --> 00:44:36,480 even when we're, we're, when we, when we think we're done, we're 657 00:44:36,480 --> 00:44:40,000 done forgiving, we're done, you know, with demonstrating this 658 00:44:40,000 --> 00:44:43,680 attribute in our own self and we see that God has done it so 659 00:44:43,680 --> 00:44:46,240 much, much, much, much more. There we go. 660 00:44:46,240 --> 00:44:51,000 OK, I need to, I need to align myself with that, even if it's 661 00:44:51,000 --> 00:44:53,040 hard, even if it's not comfortable or something that I 662 00:44:53,040 --> 00:44:57,480 want to do right? So, so we can, when we use that 663 00:44:57,480 --> 00:45:02,080 as our model and, and our goal, it does, it helps us to 664 00:45:02,080 --> 00:45:06,480 understand how much more God deserves our worship, right? 665 00:45:06,480 --> 00:45:08,280 When we're thinking, when we're doing something amazing, we 666 00:45:08,280 --> 00:45:11,000 think, When we want to pat ourselves on the back, we think 667 00:45:11,000 --> 00:45:13,800 we've done something pretty amazing and we find out that His 668 00:45:13,800 --> 00:45:17,880 was so much more than than than ours. 669 00:45:18,440 --> 00:45:22,120 Then then we're reminded of how high He is and how much He 670 00:45:22,120 --> 00:45:32,360 deserves our utmost worship. OK, let me jump down to this 671 00:45:32,360 --> 00:45:34,240 one. Is it necessary for us to have 672 00:45:34,240 --> 00:45:38,280 some concept of this dynamic of, of God being infinite to fully 673 00:45:38,280 --> 00:45:41,040 appreciate God or to understand our need for Him? 674 00:45:43,640 --> 00:45:46,320 Do you think, do you think we have to understand that he is 675 00:45:46,640 --> 00:45:50,720 this big in order to fully understand our need for Him? 676 00:45:58,040 --> 00:46:00,360 Absolutely. If if we thought we could put 677 00:46:00,360 --> 00:46:03,840 him in a box, if we thought we could limit him, would he be 678 00:46:05,240 --> 00:46:09,120 really as important to us? He wouldn't be. 679 00:46:09,200 --> 00:46:11,560 And that's not a that's not a simple thing to say. 680 00:46:11,960 --> 00:46:16,800 God would not be worthy of worship if he wasn't what he is. 681 00:46:37,000 --> 00:46:52,830 Yeah, Yep. Right. 682 00:46:56,270 --> 00:46:57,910 Yeah. The strongest. 683 00:46:57,990 --> 00:46:59,750 Yeah. Yep. 684 00:47:03,270 --> 00:47:05,190 Yep. Uh huh. 685 00:47:06,750 --> 00:47:10,150 Yeah. It would be easy if, if we 686 00:47:10,150 --> 00:47:14,080 thought God was this big, my, my problem is really big too. 687 00:47:14,080 --> 00:47:16,280 What if it's just too big for him, right? 688 00:47:16,440 --> 00:47:17,480 Wouldn't we, wouldn't we do that? 689 00:47:17,480 --> 00:47:20,240 We would, we would over exaggerate the size of our, of 690 00:47:20,240 --> 00:47:22,000 our problems because that's what we do anyways. 691 00:47:22,440 --> 00:47:24,640 We always think our problems are so big. 692 00:47:25,440 --> 00:47:29,440 It's, it's forgetting that that God is as big as he is that that 693 00:47:29,680 --> 00:47:33,280 probably causes most of our stress when we think about the 694 00:47:33,280 --> 00:47:36,760 size of our problems. But if we have this 695 00:47:36,760 --> 00:47:41,680 understanding, if we can really to, to whatever extent possible, 696 00:47:41,680 --> 00:47:47,200 wrap our heads around the Infinity of God, the capability 697 00:47:47,200 --> 00:47:51,520 of God, that I think it helps us to genuinely understand our our 698 00:47:51,520 --> 00:47:56,600 desperate need for him, that without that we would have to 699 00:47:56,600 --> 00:47:59,680 rely on ourselves, right, If if God wasn't that. 700 00:47:59,680 --> 00:48:38,720 Go ahead, Kevin. Yeah, 701 00:48:51,450 --> 00:48:58,130 yeah, this is, this is something that we could study all of this 702 00:48:58,690 --> 00:49:02,610 and we can grow immensely in our understanding of this concept of 703 00:49:02,610 --> 00:49:07,610 God and we'll still be at 0%, right, Right. 704 00:49:07,610 --> 00:49:23,840 That same mathematic. Yeah, that's huge, right? 705 00:49:24,840 --> 00:49:27,680 Zero need for you. He has zero need for you. 706 00:49:28,480 --> 00:49:34,000 And yet he was willing to sacrifice his son to to save 707 00:49:34,000 --> 00:49:39,520 you, right? That's just, it's, it's if that 708 00:49:39,520 --> 00:49:43,280 doesn't make you feel humble and you know, whatever, if it 709 00:49:43,280 --> 00:49:47,720 doesn't make you realize your, your desperate need for somebody 710 00:49:47,720 --> 00:49:52,520 that loves that much, right? I don't know, man, it's this it, 711 00:49:52,520 --> 00:49:55,360 it really is wonderful when we are able to do that, to grasp 712 00:49:55,360 --> 00:49:57,640 that kind of concept. And again, there's something 713 00:49:57,640 --> 00:50:01,280 beautiful about the fact that we can't understand it, right? 714 00:50:01,480 --> 00:50:04,040 That we can go, well, the biggest number I can imagine, 715 00:50:04,360 --> 00:50:07,480 he's way bigger than that. I'm resting right there. 716 00:50:07,480 --> 00:50:10,400 I'm going to rest in that, that he's this big and my problem is 717 00:50:10,680 --> 00:50:14,040 miniscule for that. It's, it's like 8 minutes after 718 00:50:14,040 --> 00:50:15,520 10. So let me just pray this out and 719 00:50:15,520 --> 00:50:17,320 and then we'll go greet some new people. 720 00:50:18,480 --> 00:50:22,720 Lord, God, thank you for this concept that you are so 721 00:50:22,760 --> 00:50:27,200 infinitely bigger than our worst, wildest problem that 722 00:50:27,200 --> 00:50:30,200 we've ever faced in our humanity. 723 00:50:30,200 --> 00:50:34,880 Lord, we do focus on our problems and we and we, we see 724 00:50:34,880 --> 00:50:38,560 them as huge obstacles that we can't, we can't get over. 725 00:50:39,800 --> 00:50:43,600 But Lord, nothing that we face in front of us is as big as the 726 00:50:43,600 --> 00:50:46,560 God behind us. And, and we know that and we 727 00:50:46,560 --> 00:50:49,240 thank you for that. We thank you that you are so 728 00:50:49,240 --> 00:50:52,360 huge and that you are so good to us and that your love is never 729 00:50:52,360 --> 00:50:54,280 ending. And we thank you for the idea 730 00:50:54,280 --> 00:50:57,120 that for the infinite hope that we have of eternity with you. 731 00:50:57,960 --> 00:51:01,600 And Lord, I just ask that you would help as we get into our 732 00:51:01,600 --> 00:51:04,240 sermon today, any new visitors to come to it. 733 00:51:04,240 --> 00:51:07,600 That same kind of an understanding that they would be 734 00:51:07,600 --> 00:51:10,880 in awe of you, that they would be inspired to know more about 735 00:51:10,880 --> 00:51:14,200 you as they learn about your goodness from the preached word. 736 00:51:14,200 --> 00:51:16,640 So Lord, we thought love and thank you in Jesus name, Amen.