How do you understand God and His interaction with our world? How has your view of God and his involvement in our lives influenced your faith journey?  Join us to explore the depth of God's workings and discover a fresh perspective that might transform how we perceive and interact with Him. Let's dive into this eye-opening journey together! IT'S EASY TO GIVE at Harmony, text any amount to (859) 459-0316  to get started (or give online @ my.harmonychurch.cc/give ).  Get the fill in the blank bulletins my.harmonychurch.cc/bulletins.

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OPENING ILLUSTRATION:

I have one gift in life.  Just one, maybe two actually, my wife says I’m dashingly good looking.  But other than that, I have this gift where I can hyper focus on something I want to learn until I become good at it.  The moment I’m good at it.  I’m done with it…  Lol.  I wanted to become good at training dogs.  I literally studied dog psychology and learned all kinds of interesting things.  I worked with our Black Lab Quincy and trained her, she’s literally the perfect dog.  And then…  I was done…  Lol.  We got another little dog named Rosie, she’s a terror - she’s not that bad, but I didn’t work with her.  Why?  Cause I figured it out…

I’ve done this with cycling on a bike.  Making knives.  I even got this close to doing comedy at a comedy club…

it was actually a huge fear I had when I came to Jesus that I would “figure it out” and end up walking away…

If I’ve learned anything, it’s that God is infinitely big and I will never reach the end of learning Him…

But there is good news about me being like this…  It means I’ve asked lots of questions and have figured somethings out…

Last week we talked about how God specifically wants to partner with Humans in this world.

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This week we are going to talk about how God works in general…

A couple of ground rules:

1. I do NOT know everything - I’m doing my best to honor God and how He works, but go and study and double-check me
2. I’m going to give you a framework for how to think about God - this CAN NOT and will not be a complete framework, keep studying
3. This is going to push your paradigm of how you think of God, keep studying and learning about Him

ILLUSTRATION:

Most people do not give much thought to God or how He works and it causes HUGE problems. They’ve heard words that start with “Omni” omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent.  They see God as this all-powerful being who can do anything any time and they end up with some HUGE problems.  Like, “if God is all powerful, why didn’t He stop the pain I went through?”  The answers are grim, right?  Either God doesn’t care or doesn’t know - it’s no wonder so many people have run from God.

So many see God almost like a Genie in a bottle - when you rub the lamp through prayer He comes - and as long as you’ve still got enough wishes - you can get what you want.

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That may not be exactly how you perceive Him, but it’s probably somewhere in that vein - there are probably parts of that idea that pervade your thinking…

But that is not how God operates, and is NOT who He is.  You must address this thinking to find movement in your relationship with God.

Let’s look at how God works, the predicament of the world, and God’s solution.

How God works:

I want to reach a peculiar passage:

Zechariah 2:1-5

Then I looked up, and there before me was a man with a measuring line in his hand. 2 I asked, “Where are you going?”

He answered me, “To measure Jerusalem, to find out how wide and how long it is.”

3 While the angel who was speaking to me was leaving, another angel came to meet him 4 and said to him: “Run, tell that young man, ‘Jerusalem will be a city without walls because of the great number of people and animals in it. 5 And I myself will be a wall of fire around it,’ declares the Lord, ‘and I will be its glory within.’

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Why does God need anyone to measure Jerusalem for Him?  Why does appear like God added to His order (run and tell him)? Doesn’t God already know the measurements of Jerusalem?  Did He not think it all through beforehand?  

What is going on here?

This is just one place we could ask this question.  Have you ever wondered, why does God need Moses to go to Pharaoh, couldn’t He have just told him to let the people go?  Shoot, couldn’t he have just set the people free, or not let them become slaves in the first place?  Or what about when the first non-Jewish people became Christians, why did God have to involve Peter and angels in it?  God can clearly speak to people - so why does He need to involve people?

What is going on?

this is where understanding how God works will aid you hugely…

I want to share 

How God Works:

• God seems to prefer working in community (He almost always chooses to involve humans or spiritual beings in the work He undertakes)

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• Because God created a physical & spiritual world, He necessarily limits Himself in order to work in unison with that created world - He typically interacts within the laws He placed to govern those worlds.

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-God does not need to wait for things - but He does

-God does not need messengers - but He uses them

-God does not need to listen - and yet He enjoys the prayers of His people

There is a way things work with God - a physics to the Kingdom of God and the Spiritual Realm

The predicament of the world:

Next week we are going to dial into this story even more.  But one of the most telling passages I can show you to illustrate this is the temptation of Jesus 

Matthew

Matthew 4:8-10

8 Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 And he said to Him, “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.”

10 Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’ ”

What is going on here?  I want you to notice something.  Jesus doesn’t say, “The kingdoms of the world are not yours to offer…”  He says, “You shall only worship God.”

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Jesus seems to think the enemy is offering something He really has the ability to deliver on.

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Not only is there a way God works, but there is also an enemy in this world who has real authority in the world.

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Here’s what you need to know about the enemy:

-The enemy is not the equal opposite of God

-Jesus calls Satan the God of this world- He has authority because mankind has given it to Him

-By giving Him allegiance, humanity disrupted our 

relationship with God and all creation - sin entered the world

-Humanity became subject to law & death

God’s solution:

Romans 3:25-26

25 God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— 26 he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.

Paul is saying that through Jesus’ blood, we are made whole.

ILLUSTRATION:

If you ever seen someone in a movie kill a dog you better know this, that person is going to die a merciless death, and when they do - every person in the theater is going to be excited about it.  

Why?  Why do we all want people to get what’s coming to them?

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The Bible calls this “Justice”

It’s the idea that if I’ve done something wrong - that me getting away with that is actually unloving to the person I did the wrong thing to…

Paul says that through Jesus dying on the cross, He both justified us and was able to still be “Just”

He’s saying, that Jesus, in Himself satisfied the debt we owed - a death for our sinfulness.  But He was also able to free us from under the law and death code of the enemy.

Jesus’ death destroyed the hold of the law and death.

Paul says it this way:

1 Corinthians 15:56 

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.

Jesus destroyed death, and when He did, He destroyed the power of sin - which came from the law (knowing good and evil).  

-He freed us from the grip of the enemy - whose power over us was our own arrogance to try and live life apart from God.

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Jesus’ resurrection from the dead was the nail in the coffin for the enemy and the start of a new life for Humanity

Because God's spiritual physics ride on authority.

When we accept Christ- place our Faith in Him, we transfer our authority - the allegiance of our heart from Satan to God

-It's why we still continue at times to struggle, because allegiance can shift

-we gain access to the Holy Spirit - God takes up residence in us to provide freedom for us and to lead and walk with us.

-we now are learning how to live a new life that is no longer tainted by the corruption of the evil one, but is the way of the King

What does this mean for us?

-God will sometimes take His time or not work in ways that you would imagine he would if you think he’s just a great Genie in the sky

-It means God is waring in the spiritual realm for your soul and there is a battle going on around us that is more than just the physical

-It means salvation is free and not earned, but you still have a VITAL role to play in the Kingdom of God (God works in community)

-It means, you ARE not done knowing God

CLOSING ILLUSTRATION:

The other day, I was sitting at a stop sign and a school bus pulled up next to me.  I couldn’t see past the bus, it was on my left side.  I had seen right before it pulled up that the road was clear.  So, I pulled out a little more to try and look and almost just went for it.  Right at that moment, another school bus came barreling down the road right in front of me.  I had just stopped short.  I realized in that moment, I could have been a goner.  Why?  Because I couldn’t see past the bus that was next to me…  Some of you have been sideswiped in this life and the big reason for it is you have had this huge block in the way you see God.  You’re mad at Him cause of something that happened to you or didn’t happen.  You gave up on Him because whatever you thought was supposed to happen didn’t happen.  I get it.  I’m not blaming you.  But I am asking you to realize now, that sometimes the problem was, there was something in your way of seeing reality for what it really was.  If I expect someone to be something they are not, that’s on me, not them.