Astounded | Infinite (May 23rd, 20201) - Mike Armstrong

All right, grab your Bibles.

Okay, we're gonna get into the scriptures today.

We're starting off a brand new uh series, and uh we're excited for this.

And so if you could right now grab it and turn to Colossians chapter one.

Gonna be looking at a couple of different places, but Colossians uh one, verse 17 is uh the verse we're gonna springboard off of here uh this morning.

Now, uh you and I, we all know uh what it's like to witness something, to see something, to experience something, and have our minds blown.

Right?

I mean, even as I say that, maybe you're picturing that emoji of the, you know, the mind-blown emoji.

You've sent that, you've received it, you've seen it, of course.

Uh you think about all kinds of examples in life, like like going to the Grand Canyon.

We were in Arizona uh a couple of years ago and uh failed to get to the Grand Canyon.

We were just kind of thinking about that uh the other day, Ang and I.

Uh, but some of you have been there and you know what it's like.

You go in, you take it in.

It's so vast, it is it is so massive that you're just you're you're kind of in shock as you as you view this and and take it all in.

Uh some of us have had the privilege of witnessing the miracle of birth.

You go through that.

I remember uh when my son Wyatt was born, uh, our daughter Karis as well, you you you you you you take that in, you absorb that, and it is it is certainly a mind-blowing uh experience.

But then there's a million of uh a million other, you know, smaller things than that, even that we tend to be, you know, fired up about and blown away uh for.

I mean, I mean some of us are like car guys.

That's it's not me as much, but maybe you've been to the auto show, and that for you is like, man, I go there and I see, you know, I just heard there's a new Bugatti that's being released, it's like$18 million, most expensive car ever, and you you see that and you just think, this is this is wild.

My mind is blown at this car and how incredible it really is.

Now, um, you and I, again, we've experienced these kinds of jaw-dropping moments like these, where it just kind of ignites something within us, right?

Our our passion, our our sense of wow, where we are astounded.

We're astounded by these things.

Now, the the guys in our our Thursday morning men's group um will, you know, we're we're we're looking through the book um by Paul Tripp called Awk, and and and those of you who are in it will will recognize that I'm I'm drawing some inspiration for this series here from that book.

And when I say that our our hearts, okay, deep in our hearts, we all we all struggle with being astounded by by things that invariably become idolatrous, right, and cause harm, cause us harm, cause other people harm, uh, can can can create a strain on our relationship with God.

I mean, you think about things like money, right?

Some of us, some of us are astounded or in awe of money.

Right?

It's gripped our hearts, and we want it, and and and we feel amazing when we have lots of it, and we feel down or depressed when we don't have lots of it.

It's it's money, it's things like power.

Some of us have that awe of power.

We want it, we crave it.

I think sex is an obvious one uh in our world and in our lives.

We're very much astounded by that.

We're some of us are astounded by something like control.

We want to control our lives or people.

We we're astounded by the idea of acceptance.

I just I want people to like me.

I want to be accepted by people, and and the whole concept of being accepted is something that I am astounded by and I and I pursue it.

You know, the way out of really any of these pitfalls for us is what this new series is all about.

Okay, it's to be astounded by God uh more than anything else.

Okay, when we are truly blown away, as we've been talking about here, by by by Him, what that does, as that is real and as that takes root in our hearts, what that does is that begins to loosen the grip and begin to really tear down those other things that that we're astounded by and tend to be shaken by and consumed by, right?

All of those other idols that have captured our hearts.

Okay, so to get ourselves more to that point, where we're astounded by God.

What we're gonna do is we're gonna look at his attributes today.

We're gonna look at one of them today and his attributes throughout this next series.

We're gonna examine a little more closely here just what kind of God the Bible says that you and I are dealing with.

Okay, what exactly is he like?

What is he like?

Many of us we have a general sense, but some of some of our sense of what he is like is actually kind of skewed and warped and sometimes even straight up wrong.

Okay, so so with all of that said, here is our our our big idea today.

It's this, it's that I am astounded as I consider that God is infinite.

Hey infinite.

And for this, again, like I said, we're gonna be looking at Colossians 1, verse uh verse 17.

And so if you're there, uh just read this verse for me.

Now, this verse comes in the middle of a profound passage on the awesomeness of Jesus Christ and how Jesus is God, right?

We want to be astounded by God.

We want to be astounded by Christ, and certainly he is worthy of that.

Well, here's what verse 17 says.

It says, and he is before all things.

He's before all things, and in him all things hold together.

Now, the last kind of half of that verse there, that last part, is really a reference to God's sovereignty, is it not?

Right?

It's a reference to how God is, he's he's he's actually in control of all things.

He he keeps the entire cosmos, right?

The whole universe, the heavens and the earth.

He keeps them, if you think about it, according to this verse, from completely disintegrating, right?

From from completely falling apart and ceasing to exist.

Right?

You and I, we we got up today, you know, we're we're watching this, and that is because God is in control.

If he if he stopped being in control, if he stopped being sovereign, you and I our our atoms would split, they would, they we would implode, we would explode, I don't know, we would do something, but we would we we wouldn't be here anymore.

Okay, we wouldn't.

And that is because God is holding all things together, okay, which is incredible.

And I mean, we could spend you know the next while here kind of diving more into all of that, and as and as great as it would be to do that.

Really, what we're here uh to kind of focus on this morning is the first part of that verse.

Okay, that Jesus, again, who is God, is notice before all things.

Okay, so this speaks to how he is an infinite being.

Okay, Jesus, God, infinite being.

Now the reality that that God is infinite is likely, or admittedly, like the hardest of all the attributes to kind of wrap our minds around.

Because it's at the end of the day, it's impossible as finite, limited beings that we are, as humans, it's really impossible for us to completely understand and grasp God.

What we try to do, though, is we try to, and it's actually a good thing to try to, we'll get into that in a second, but we often try to put God in a box so that we understand Him and feel some measure of kind of control over all of that.

But at the end of the day, we're we're finite beings dealing with uh an infinite God.

And again, like I said, it is good though to try, to try and understand, to stretch our minds and our hearts and our our understanding of these things.

Okay, and so this first thing here, as we kind of understand that God is an infinite being, what what we're what we mean by that is that He is He is self-existing.

Okay, God is self-existing, He is He is without origin.

Okay, meaning that He always was and He always will be.

Okay, God has no beginning, He had no beginning, He has no end.

Okay, so again, He is infinite in His existence as a spiritual being.

Again, that's that's a concept that's amazing, it's awesome, and we won't completely uh understand.

But notice what Revelation uh verse eight says.

It says, I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord, who is and who was and who is to come.

Okay?

The Almighty, it says.

He who is, who was, and who is to come.

How about Isaiah 40, verse 28?

Isaiah 40:28

The first part of that verse says, Have you not known?

Have you not heard?

The Lord is the, notice, everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth.

Okay, so again, he is infinite in that he is self-existing without origin.

There is no one, there is no thing, no being who is above God, who came up with the idea of God and then created him, who made him.

There's no being above him, greater, more powerful, stronger, anything that could all that could bring him to an end either.

Okay, again, self-existing without origin.

That's kind of the first thing to understand as we think about that, the fact that God is infinite.

Second, that God is infinite is to say really that he is limitless.

He is limitless.

He is not bound by by certain things that you and I are, like time and space.

He exists outside of those two realities.

Okay, he's unlimited, he's infinite in things like his wisdom.

Right?

We just spent a number of weeks going through uh the Proverbs and that wisdom series.

He's infinite in his wisdom, he's infinite in his power.

When you think about it, he's infinite in his love and in his mercies, he's infinite in his grace uh as well, and and all of these kinds of qualities.

Okay, he is he is both measureless and boundless.

Okay, but they're there are even more, okay, when you when you consider all of that, in that he's he actually is these things as well.

These qualities, the ones that I just gave an example of there, they they make up his essential nature, his character.

Okay, and and this is where our our our our ability to our you know our natural mental ability to just kind of comprehend begins to strain under the process or under the pressure of trying to process uh all of this.

Okay, like for example, naturally, when you and I consider something like power, okay, power, that topic alone, okay, we automatically evaluate and experience the idea of power uh with limits, right, with with limitations, with with with guardrails.

Okay, I mentioned the auto show.

Again, some of us are are our car guys or truck guys, like even the most, you know, even even the most powerful supercar of all time has a top speed.

But it gets to the point where you cannot press that pedal down any further.

It cannot go any faster.

Or you think about the the strongest or or the fittest person on earth.

Okay, it can be very impressive, but but even they can only squat so much weight.

You put a a couple more plates on on the bar and and and they they they're not getting that off the ground.

Okay, but God is unlimited in in that he possesses infinite power.

And because by nature he actually is power, he can never run out of it.

Never at any point.

In fact, he never even drops, think about it.

He never even drops from 100% power to 99% power.

Yeah, like your phone does.

If you were to check your phone right now, it's probably already lost some percentage of power, even though, well, the time that I'm preaching this, it's it's morning.

Okay.

Isaiah 40, verse verse 28.

I I read the first part of the verse earlier.

Here's what the second part says.

It says, He does not faint or grow weary.

That's a mind-boggling line.

He does not faint or grow weary.

He doesn't run out of power, he doesn't get tired, never, at any point.

Now you start to apply that same thinking, that same kind of realization here to you know his infinite love, all his other characteristics, his mercy, his grace, his wisdom, right?

And you start to think about that he never runs out of those things.

That's when, you know, that's when smoke starts to come out of our ears a little bit here, as as our cognitive capabilities are just redlining, right?

The gears are grinding a little bit.

But hey, listen, don't be afraid of that.

That's actually a really good thing.

Right?

It's actually critical for you and I, as believers, to realize that you can't fully absorb the complexities of this attribute of God.

Okay, but but to try to, anyways, is is so healthy and good for us because it begins to show us here that God is just so much grander, so much greater than anything.

It's not even close.

Which it which is what helps you and I in our in our struggles, right?

As we tend to be, you know, easily astounded by by things that fall so far short of his greatness.

Right?

Or things that that are meant to, like the Grand Canyon, meant to point us towards his greatness, right?

We get so fixated on the on the creation sometimes and and forget that those things are given to us by God to tell us something of him, to point to our creator.

Right?

Where we're prone to look for ultimate hope and and meaning and and and satisfaction from you know from all kinds of things in in this created world that are frankly limited and infinite and were never intended to give us the things that we're trying to glean and and squeeze out of them.

Where if we continue to go down that road and try to be astounded and fully satisfied by something like money or sex or what have you, we end up just finding ourselves at some point in life, deep down, being left left shaken by their limitations to be able to satisfy us, not to mention our own limitations in all of that, our inability to to make them satisfy us.

Okay, but I I love this quote uh from A.W.

Tozer, and uh we'll get this on the screen for you, I think, here, but I love it.

It says, how completely satisfying to turn from our limitations to a God who has none.

I think that is the the crux of it here.

Okay, so listen, listen, as as you assess your various personal human limitations, as that becomes more clear to you as as you grow, a couple of examples.

Maybe for you it's it's felt in that desire to control the circumstances in your life, but but realizing that you ultimately can't.

And for you, that leads you to just be anxious.

Maybe it leads you to be depressed or or or angry.

Maybe that's for you.

Maybe for you it's the limitation that you recognize in yourself as a single person, right?

And trying to find uh a spouse, uh a godly spouse, and it's that ache of of loneliness that that feels so acute as as as you realize your limitations in in procuring that.

Maybe for you it's it's that inability that that you sense as you're trying to reach a wayward child.

You're trying to get through them, you're trying to help them understand, you're you're trying to show them that you love them, or that, or that the direction that they're going in is is only damaging, and and yet you're you're you're finding those efforts futile.

Listen, our limits are painfully clear at times.

But again, our God is not limited.

He is infinite.

And allow your heart and and allow your mind to be blown away.

And again, the word is astounded, right?

Astounded by by how truly great he is.

Right?

Turn to that God today.

Again, as Tozer says, be satisfied to turn from your limitations to the God who has none, right?

Turn to him.

And perhaps for you, that would be for the first time ever.

Turn to this infinite God who has infinite love for you, right?

Who has has gone through a horrible series of events that we look at on Good Friday and Easter.

He went to the cross, he died, and he and he did that for you to show you his love, to show you that he is enough to bring you into a relationship with your Maker.

And that is because our sin.

We are all sinners, we all fall short of the glory of God, but God's love is infinite and can cover that, and he has proven that through what he did on the cross and through his resurrection.

I would just encourage you, I would challenge you, I would urge you to turn to this, to turn to this God.

Confess your sin, confess your limitations, confess your brokenness, your shame, all of it.

Bring it to him.

He is a good God and he loves you more than you will ever fully be able to comprehend.

But I trust that you can comprehend some of it even now.

Turn to him, embrace him as Lord, trust him today.

Listen, this is what we talk about at our church.

It's every week getting together and reminding ourselves of how awesome our God is, and that's the point of this series.

So many of us have have come into this service today.

You're watching this video, and and you've been astounded by all kinds of things, and they're all falling short in your life.

They really are.

Maybe you're you're sensing that you're an angry person or you are stressed out all the time.

All of that is because at some in some way you're astounded by something that you can't get, or that you are reaching out for and exhausting yourself to try and procure, but you were not created to have those things satisfy you.

Only an astounding God can.

And so again, this is where we're going to be headed over the next number of weeks throughout the rest of the summer, actually, just looking at different components of our God and seeking to have our minds blown away here so that everything else in life falls underneath and in its proper place under the greatness of our God.

So I want to pray for you.

And then I've got just a brief family chat that we want to share with you right after that.

But why don't you join me as I pray?

Lord, we thank you.

Lord, we thank you that you are greater than we often uh give you credit for.

And so, Lord, I pray that you would turn our hearts to these things.

I pray that anybody who is anxious, who is worried, who is fearful, anyone struggling and wrestling right now would would come away through our time together today and and throughout the next couple of months as we work through the attributes of God, Lord, coming away with a more accurate, more more biblical understanding of who you are in a way that actually changes our lives.

Actually changes our the way we think and the way that we live, changes our emotions, changes the decisions that we make, Lord, and and makes us deeper, deeper worshippers.

And so, Lord, as we think about these things, we give this time to you and pray that you would be glorified and honored in all of it.

And it's in Christ's name we pray these things.

Amen.