Beliefs: Relatable Attributes (S08, E02)

Greetings and welcome to the Faith Chapel podcast. My name is Jason,

and I am the pastor of Faith Chapel.

In the podcast, we are going through a series looking at core beliefs of the Christian faith.

This will be a five-episode series

that takes a look at some of the key doctrines of Protestant beliefs.

We continue this series by looking at ways that we can relate to God.

God is all-powerful, all-knowing, and everywhere present all at the same time.

These and more are incommunicable attributes of God.

But God also possesses characteristics that we possess as well.

What are these and how do they teach us more about God?

Thanks for joining us as we dive into this discussion.

Over the last couple of weeks, we have been talking about some of the different attributes of God.

We have learned last week specifically about some incommunicable attributes

of God, and these are attributes of God that we really don't have the ability

to understand from experience.

Like the idea of being omniscient or all-knowing.

Like you and I, we can know some things. We can even perceive some things.

The Holy Spirit can reveal things to us, but to be all knowing and knowing what

everyone's thinking all at the same time is not something we can really relate to.

The attributes of God that we are going to be talking about today are relatable.

These attributes that we experience them more fully than the incommunicable

attributes that God has and possesses.

And throughout this time, I feel like I'm constantly reminding you that it's

a good thing, at least in my mind, to know that we can't fully grasp all of God.

If God was something that we could put a formula together and say,

okay, these aspects of God, we can understand, we can get, then in my opinion,

God wouldn't be worth worshiping.

He wouldn't be worth surrendering all of our lives to.

Only because God is completely unknowable, that we won't know him completely.

That that's what makes him worth worshiping.

That's what makes us, that's what makes it for me, we're surrendering everything to.

And so it's a good thing that we don't know everything about God.

Because it makes him unique. It makes him supernatural.

Outside of what we can study and know for certain.

And that's really, really good. The idea of relatableness is something that

the advertisers really know.

They really focus on making their products relatable to us.

So if you've watched children's commercials recently that promote the purchase

of toys, then you know that they want all the kids in there to be smiling.

They want them to be having a good time because that's something that kids want to have happen.

They also want these toys to be played with because somehow,

someway, if a kid is playing with a toy that you have neglected for years,

but suddenly they pick it up, then you want that toy. You want to play with

it. You want to grab it from them.

And so these are relatable things that the advertisers know when they really try to.

Layout so that people want their product.

Or if you see an advertisement for a party or something like that,

this food is going to lighten up the party.

It's going to really cause people to have fun. So you're going to showcase that

because you want it to be relatable.

I want that to happen in my party, so I'm going to go and purchase that food.

It's something that is relatable to them.

If you've ever had an issue with a car and you see a car pulling out of a garage

and it's working, like the mechanic wants you to say, this is what happens when you come here.

Your car is going to work.

These are all ways that they're trying to relate to us and try to get us to

either purchase their product or to go and get their service.

They're trying to make it relatable to us.

God has attributes, has gifted us attributes that make him relatable to us because they showcase,

who he is when we experience these things.

And so we're going to look at a passage of scripture and discern and pull out

of there four different characteristics that are relatable to us as human beings

that God also possesses.

And this is not an exhaustive list. It would take many, many hours to go over

all of these attributes of God.

This is just a quick snapshot of it, but they're important to help us to really

connect with, to really relate to God and His activity in this world.

And so we're going to be in John chapter 16.

John 16 · chapter mention

We're going to start in verse 25.

Jesus is speaking here in what the scholars call the Olivet Discourse.

He's on the Mount of Olives, and he is telling his disciples what's going to happen coming up.

They've had the Last Supper, Jesus has issued phrases, has told them phrases

like, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

He's issued phrases that say, I am the vine, you are the branches apart from

me. You cannot bear fruit.

He's talked about the Holy Spirit. He's gone through a whole list of things

for the disciples right now. And in verse 25, he's nearing the end of the speech.

He says in these words, I have spoken of these matters in figures of speech,

but soon I will stop speaking figuratively and will tell you plainly all about the Father.

Then you will ask in my name. I'm not saying I will ask the Father on your behalf,

for the Father himself loves you dearly because you love me and believe that I came from God.

And so Jesus is saying, when I resurrect from the grave, this is in the time

that's coming, when I resurrect from the grave, I will talk less figuratively to you.

But I want you to tell you this one thing right now, that you can ask in my

name and the Father will hear you because he loves you.

Because the father loves you.

This is an attribute that you and I can understand. This is an attribute that

we can relate to. There are people in our lives that we love, that we cherish.

And when Jesus says he's going to listen to you because he loves you,

it's not just a head nod and trying to rephrase things so you think he's listening,

like he is actively listening.

It's like he's looking deep in your eyes and he's depending upon every word

that you're saying. Of course, he's not.

He is totally self-reliant. We talked about his independence last week.

But he is actively listening to every word you say.

Why? Because you love Jesus.

God the Father loves you.

This is what Jesus is talking about.

And you and I, we live in a culture that has downplayed love in one sense,

and then elevated love in a completely wrong sense.

You see, in the English language, we have only one word that the Greeks have four words for love.

And so we say, I love macaroni and cheese. We say, I love my pet.

Our last pet was Atreyu, and so I love Atreyu.

I love my kids. I love my wife. It's one word for all of those,

but surely we understand that we don't mean the same thing for every one of those.

We don't hold macaroni or pizza or biscuits and gravy in the same light that

we hold our children or our spouses.

We don't hold our pets, even though they are very dear to us,

and even though it caused tears when we had to say goodbye to Atreyu.

We don't hold our pets in the same light as we hold our children and our family.

And this does a disservice to this word love, because we equate love to feelings or emotions.

Or even desires.

But love in God's sense is an action.

It's something that he does for us. He's going to explain this in this passage a little bit later on.

But it was what God did for us that showed love.

It's not how he felt about us. It's not the emotions he has towards us.

It's what he did for us.

And so I want to show you a couple of more scripture passages that talk about

the love of God. We're going to start with a psalm.

And in Psalm 86, 5, it says, Oh Lord, you are so good, so ready to forgive,

so full of unfailing love for all who ask for your help.

So this one equates God's love for asking for help. It's something that he's

doing. He is helping us. It's an action that he does.

You are providing, whether it's protection, maybe it's healing,

you are providing for us. And this is what your unfailing love is like.

Let's look at the next one. The next one comes from 1 John.

John, who wrote the Gospel of John that we're reading from, says this,

But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

God is acting upon his grace, upon his mercy towards those that he loves.

And what do we need to do?

To show love. We need to do love.

And again, this isn't something that our society wants.

Completely understands. I would argue that they've contorted it in a way that

is not biblical because we think of love as a desire or a feeling.

And God's like, no, no, no, no, no. It's something that you do.

And so when we think about love, do we provide presence to those that we care about.

If it's a birthday or a Christmas or just to say something nice or to do something

nice for that person, that's showcasing love.

And so when we do this, we can see the other person's face light up.

Or when we do an act of service without being told, we complete our honeydew

list without the list being written.

That's an act of love. That's showcasing love.

And so this is a relatable attribute of God because this is what God has gifted to us.

The ability to connect with other people in love.

To show them that we literally care about them.

Not just to say the words, but to do something for them.

And God did something for us by sending Jesus, his son to die on the cross.

Jesus or God said, I'm sending myself to take away their penalty for the sins

that they have committed or they will commit.

I am sending my son.

And this is how we know that God loves us because of the cross of Jesus Christ,

is the ultimate gift to us, the ultimate sacrifice.

Moving on to the next relatable attribute, picking up in verse 28 of John 16.

Jesus' words again, Yes, I came from the Father into the world,

and now I will leave the world and return to the Father.

Then the disciples said, At last you are speaking plainly and not figuratively.

Now we understand that you know everything, and there is no need to question you.

From this, we believe that you came from God.

Jesus asked, do you finally believe?

But the time is coming. Indeed, it's here now when you will be scattered,

each one going his own way, leaving me alone.

Yet I am not alone because the Father is with me.

I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me.

Here on earth, you will have many trials and sorrows, but take heart because

I have overcome the world.

And the relatable attribute that God has gifted to us that showcases him is the relationship.

You and I, we are made for relationships.

This is what God created us to be. He saw that Adam was alone in the garden

and he needed a suitable helper.

He needed someone to connect with. He brought every animal in front of Adam

and he says, none of them are good enough. And so he took Adam's Eve and created Eve.

He took Adam's rib and created Eve, a suitable helper, someone with connection.

Someone who is able to be drawn together because God has this attribute.

Jesus says even when the officers come to arrest me and they take me captive

and you all leave me I will not be alone but

I have the father with me I have this relationship with him.

And this goes on from eternity past to eternity in the future.

This is something that will not cease to exist.

God is perfectly united with Father as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

But for you and me, he created us in this way. He created Adam and Eve in this capacity.

And then God walked in the garden with them. God talked to Noah and Abraham.

He appeared as a burning bush to Moses and Moses saw the back of God as he passed by.

And more and more examples where God is in relationship with us.

And this is what scripture declares. God is relatable to us because we have

this connection, not only with other people, but with him.

A scripture, we're gonna read another scripture passage that talks about this Psalm 19, eight.

If we could go back, it says, as the scriptures say, oh, sorry,

yes, Ephesians. This is the book of Ephesians.

As the scriptures say, a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his

wife and the two are united into one flesh.

This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one.

And so what he's saying here is the relationship between husband and wife is

like the relationship between Jesus and the church.

And we are to surrender to Jesus. We are to submit to Jesus.

His job is to love us sacrificially, which again, he showed us on the cross.

And our job is to surrender to his authority.

Again, it's this idea of a relationship. And Paul uses as an illustration the

most intimate relationship that we have.

A husband and a wife. This is what Jesus has done for us.

Our other scripture passage in this section shows this relationship as well.

The disciples come to Jesus and they say, teach us to pray.

And then Jesus gives them what we call the Lord's prayer. And he says,

pray like this, our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy.

We're to relate to God. We're to relate to God as our Father who lives in heaven.

It's again, the idea of a relationship that we have.

It's relatable because some of us have really good relationships with our fathers.

And this is what the relationship with God is supposed to be like.

I know some of us don't, so it's hard to relate to God in this capacity,

but this is who God is, a good, loving Father who we can cry out, Abba, Dad,

and who really, really cares for us.

God is relational.

And we can relate to him because he created us to be in relationships with not

just him, but with other people.

Moving on, chapter 16 has ended with the last phrase. Now we're going to chapter 17, verse 1.

After saying all these things, Jesus looked up to heaven and said,

Father, the hour has come.

Glorify your son so he can give glory back to you.

For you have given him authority over everyone. He gives eternal life to each one you have given him.

And this is the way to have eternal life, to know you, the only true God,

and Jesus Christ, the one you have sent to earth.

So this showcases the righteousness of God.

God cannot look over sins.

He cannot do that because it would be unjust or unright of him to do that.

But because he sent Jesus into the world to die for our sins,

all who confess with their mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in their heart

that God raised him from the dead are given the righteousness of Christ.

This, in this capacity and in this way, God shows himself to be righteous.

All of the teachings of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy,

all of those 613 teachings that we can glean out of there are meant to showcase

the righteousness of God.

At the beginning of the book of Leviticus, Scripture says God talked to Moses from the tent.

So God was dwelling in this tent of meeting, and Moses couldn't enter it.

But at the end of Leviticus, when Numbers start, The first words of Numbers

are God spoke with Moses in the tent.

Moses was in relationship with God because all of the teachings that God had

handed down, they worked and they allowed human beings to be in the presence of God.

This is the righteousness of God and all that he does is right.

We have a couple of scripture verses for this as well.

So Psalm 19, 8, the commandments of the Lord are right, bringing joy to the heart.

The commands of the Lord are clear, giving insight for living.

God created us and so he knows how best we should live and what he decrees and

what he says is constantly right.

This goes back to what we talked about, surrendering to and submitting to the

authority of Jesus and saying yes to him.

He is trustworthy and true.

And he is constantly righteous.

The next verse we have comes from Romans.

For God presented Jesus as sacrifice for sin.

People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood.

This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish

those who sinned in times past, for he was looking ahead and including them

in what he would do in this present time.

God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just,

and he makes sinners right in his sight when they believe in Jesus.

The ability for us to be in eternity with God is all about God being just and right and fair.

He is perfect in his righteousness and justice. And you and I,

we have the ability to say, okay, that seems right to us.

That is a good thing. That is a righteous thing to do.

You and I, we're not perfect at it. As I told the kids, sometimes we choose

right and wrong for ourselves and we ignore what God says, but we have the ability

to say, okay, this is a just and right law.

It's right not to steal from another person.

It is right for us not to murder.

It is right for us not to backstab our spouse by committing adultery.

It's right we can formulate these things and we know them and God imparted that

to us so that we can know in part how righteous he is.

Turning back to John chapter 17, the last two verses.

John 17 · chapter mention

I brought glory to you here on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.

Now, Father, bring me into the glory we shared before the world began.

And this showcases the holiness of God.

Holy means set apart. It's uniqueness, difference.

There is something that sets you apart from me.

And we all have the ability to be unique.

God designs us so that our fingerprints don't match any other fingerprint.

You and I have the ability to be holy and distinct based upon our hair and eye

color, based upon our looks, based upon lots of different scenarios.

And this is ability that we can know that God possesses because we possess it as well.

Let's go to the next scripture passage. This is in Isaiah.

And they is the seraphim, the angels that are surrounding God's throne.

And these creatures are designed as having six wings, two that cover their eyes

in front of God, two that cover their feet, and two where they're flying with.

And these people, as they are flying around the throne, shielding their eyes

and their feet, they were calling out to each other, holy, holy,

holy is the Lord of heaven's armies.

The whole earth is filled with his glory.

Jesus, back in John 17, says, I am returning to the glory that we've had since

the beginning, since before creation.

Since before anything was created, You and I in the spirit, we existed in perfect

harmony and in perfect unity.

And I'm returning to that. This sets God apart as holy because you and I,

we did not have not existed from eternity past.

We have not existed for all time.

But Jesus can say this. The father can say this. The Holy Spirit can say this.

And so these angels, which we would very much consider set apart,

if we saw these face to face, we'd be like, I've never seen anything like you in the world.

If we could even speak, we might just fall over fainting because of just the sight that they are.

But these creatures who are set apart can't even look at God.

They shield their eyes from the gloriousness of God. And they say, You are set apart.

You are unique. You are different. You are holy, holy, holy.

And so this one might not seem totally

relatable to us, but scripture also declares in the book of Hebrews.

Work at living in peace with everyone and work at living a holy life,

a set apart, a different life.

For those who are not set apart will not see the Lord.

When the Holy Spirit comes inside of us, we are unique.

In Sunday school this morning, we watched a video that talked about how a kernel

of popcorn, very, very rudimentary.

You can't consume it. You can't eat it.

But when the liquid inside this kernel gets hot enough, it pops.

And what's on the inside as a kernel becomes on the outside as a popped kernel.

And that's what you and I are like. We are set apart.

We are unique. We are different. We are able to, Jesus says,

forgive those who have hurt us.

He actually ties our forgiveness to our ability to forgive in the Lord's prayer.

Some people can't do that. They just hold on to people who have bullied them or hurt them.

But we as followers of Jesus can be holy and offer forgiveness where the world

says there should be no forgiveness.

The world says we, because of the Spirit, can be compassionate and kind and

filled with unfailing love for other people because the Spirit is inside of

us and God is gifting to us,

the ability to be set apart and to be holy.

You and I, we can relate to God because he is relatable.

He is someone that has gifted us similar characteristics of him so that we can go and talk to him.

In the midst of grief and hurting and loss, Jesus wept over the death of Lazarus.

He knows what that's like. If we're going through severe physical pain,

Jesus knows what that is like because he suffered on the cross.

Jesus is the one who we can turn to and relate to because he experienced what we have experienced.

And he has similar qualities to us. Now I'm going to say it again.

They're to an infinite number of greater than us.

But he has experienced what we are and we can come to him because he knows what

pain is he knows what suffering is he knows what rejection is like he knows

what being abandoned by friends on this earth is like.

And he says to me, take heart. I have overcome this world.

In the coming weeks, we have a couple of opportunities for you.

If you would like to be baptized, we are planning a baptism service.

We have some that have expressed the desire to be baptized by pouring.

And we have some that have desired the experience of being baptized and fully being fully submerged.

And so if that's something that you feel as you relate to God and as you understand

more and more about God, something that you want to do, I encourage you to come and talk to me.

Other thing is that if you are not a member of Faith Chapel,

we're going to be opening it up at the end of this series for you to become

a member of Faith Chapel if you would like to do that.

If that is something that you desire in your heart, as we learn about God and

as we continue to go through what Faith Chapel believes, I encourage you to

come and talk to me as well.

These are ways that we can respond to the relatability of God and the awe-inspiringness.

That God is everywhere present, that he is all-knowing and that he is all-powerful,

things that you and I, we cannot understand because of experience.

And so I just really encourage you to be processing over these things.

If any one of these things is what you have a desire to do, please come and

see me. If you don't want to see me in person, my email is in the bulletin. Please send me an email.

God is somebody worth surrendering everything to.

He is faithful and just. He is righteous and he is holy.

And he showcases that you and I are meant to be in a relationship,

not just with each other, but also with him.

He is worthy of worship and surrender. Let me pray.

God, you are beyond complete knowing and I praise you for that.

I praise you and I thank you, God.

That you have a desire to be in a relationship with us and to set us apart as

being holy from this world, set

apart unique, different from this world by gifting us your Holy Spirit.

And I pray, Father, that you will open up people's hearts right now if they

have not received you. And I pray that you will instill that spirit inside of them.

I pray, Father, that each and every one of us will completely surrender to you.

Jesus, I lay this all at your feet.

Thank you again for joining us in our discussion of the communicable attributes of God.

God is a complex being, and as humans with finite minds, we cannot understand everything about God.

But characteristics we do possess, along with God, help us understand Him better.

If you would like more information about Faith Chapel and its ministries,

please visit the website gofaithchapel.org.

Next week we will continue this discussion by looking at the authority of scripture have a great week.