Not a Salesman

Acts 14:15-17 

“Men! Why are you doing these things? We are men also, with the same nature as you, and we are proclaiming good news to you, that you should turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and everything in them. In past generations He allowed all the nations to go their own way, although He did not leave Himself without a witness, since He did good: giving you rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, and satisfying your hearts with food and happiness.”

HAVE YOU EVER GONE INTO A DEPARTMENT STORE to look for a new pair of jeans, and about five steps in encounter an overeager sales clerk asking you, “Is there anything I can help you with today?”

What causes us to be so hesitant to take them up on their offer? Is it because we genuinely don’t want any help at all in the process of locating and purchasing jeans? Or is it because we’re afraid that the sales clerk is more interested in padding her commission check than helping us find a pair that fits right?

This dilemma is a regular occurrence in our fallen world. We struggle to discern what others’ intentions are. Do they really want to help with something, or do they simply want to receive something in return? Compare this feeling to when a friend offers to go along and help. It is easier to accept a friend’s help because you generally know his motives.

What about the conversations and relationship you have with God? Do you ever wonder about His intentions for us? Do you ever question your intentions for Him?

God does not hide His intentions. He intends for us to worship and obey Him. He gave us the heavens, the earth, the sea, and everything in it to enjoy so that we might come to know Him. He gives us rain and food to sustain our physical needs. He gave His only Son to die on a cross to purchase our salvation. He has met and continues to meet every one of our needs so that we understand and accept the truth of the Gospel.

God’s intentions are crystal clear. He created us, this world, and everything in it so that we might know Him and make Him known.

PAUSE AND REFLECT

▷ Why do we so often question other people’s intentions? 

▷ Have you ever questioned God’s intentions for your life? Why or why not?

▷ When you approach God in prayer, what are your intentions? Are you more sales person or friend?

Without Excuse

Rom. 1:20 

From the creation of the world His invisible attributes, that is, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what He has made. As a result, people are without excuse.

IMAGINE YOU’RE A REPORTER for your school newspaper and your school has agreed to host a neutral-site football game. That is, two teams that you know nothing about are going to be playing on your school’s field. You are given the assignment of covering the game for the paper.

As you arrive to the game and make your way through the stands to the press box, you see multiple things that give clues as to people’s roles and responsibilities: You notice a woman who is wearing a big button containing the photo of number 87 and quickly discern that she is a proud parent. You see a man standing on the field wearing a black and white striped shirt, and know immediately he is there to referee the game. A man wearing a headset is obviously the coach. A group in uniform carrying instruments plays in the band. The list goes on and on.

Even though you know nothing about either school, within seconds you can discern parents, coaches, players, band members, cheerleaders, referees and more by looking out and seeing their distinguishing characteristics. You can know important qualities about these people simply by noticing key traits they posses.

In a similar manner, we can know much about God by looking at His creation. None of those individuals tries to hide his role in the football game, and God does not try to hide His role in the creation of the world. Beaches, mountains, forests, deserts, stars, sunrises, sunsets, rainstorms, and everything else we encounter in this world point us to the reality of who God is. Paul says that when we stop and really think about all the amazing things we see in this world, we cannot help but be confronted with the reality of a powerful and creative God!

PAUSE AND REFLECT

▷ What are some things we can learn about God by simply looking at the world around us?

▷ What are some things that we can’t learn about God simply by looking at the world around us?

▷ Why can’t we learn everything about God simply by looking at His creation?

The Signs Are Everywhere

Ps. 19:1-6 

"The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky proclaims the work of

His hands. Day after day they pour out speech; night after night they communicate knowledge. There is no speech; there are no words; their voice is not heard. Their message has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the inhabited world. In the heavens He has pitched a tent for the sun. It is like a groom coming from the bridal chamber; it rejoices like an athlete running a course. It rises from one end of the heavens and circles to their other end; nothing is hidden from its heat."

“I HAVE TO SEE IT TO BELIEVE IT.” 

Have you ever said those words? Did you really mean them? For example, have you ever seen a Dish Network satellite orbiting our earth? Do you have to see it to believe that it’s there? Or can you trust that it’s out there because you’ve watched TV at someone’s house that has a dish and a receiver?

No sane person would question the existence of Dish Network satellites orbiting our earth, even though they can’t see the physical satellite. Instead, they see the results of the satellite, which are the television programs they watch. No one believes in the existence of satellites because they actually see the satellites. They believe in satellites because the video image points back to the existence of the satellite.

Think about that idea for a minute. We believe in satellites not because we can see them directly, but because there is overwhelming evidence pointing to their existence. We can use this same line of reasoning when we think about God. Though we don’t see Him face-to-face, we see a multitude of things in creation that point us to the fact that He exists. In this short passage above, we see two of these many pointers. The amazing contents of the skies, including the sun, the stars, the moon, the clouds, the atmosphere, and everything else up there point to the glory of God. Further, the separating of days and nights and the components of each of these further point to God. In essence, all of creation points us toward the reality of our God and Creator.

PAUSE AND REFLECT

▷ What are some other things that we can’t see directly, but have results to point back to their existence? (i.e. gravity, wireless Internet, cell phone coverage, etc.)

▷ What evidences of God’s existence do you see?

▷ Why do so many people have to “see” something in order

to believe it?

The God Who Speaks | Part 1

IN THE 1998 FILM The Truman Show, Jim Carrey plays Truman Burbank, a generally cheerful insurance adjuster in a cozy island town whose days run like clockwork—until the day a stage light falls out of the heavens and crashes near his car. As Truman begins paying attention to the world around him, he discovers little by little that he is the unwitting star of a reality television show. He begins looking back through his life and at the world around him, and he sees that the clues to reality were there all along.

The Truman Show is just a movie, of course, but it is still a good metaphor for how billions of people live their lives in this world every day. They go about their routines, sometimes suspecting the world around them is trying to tell them something about itself and what’s outside of it but failing over and over again to put those clues together. Meanwhile, billions of other people see the signs in daily life (the sun’s rising, the sea’s swelling, the changing of the seasons, the clockwork of the solar system, the intricacies of DNA) as if they are peeks behind the stage. 

The world is telling us something; we just know it! It’s telling us something about itself, about us, and about what’s behind it all.

But what? What is it saying?

What are some of the hints and clues we see in creation that point us to the existence of a Creator? 

Conversely, what are some of the aspects of creation that cause some people to believe that no Creator exists? 

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Sunday Recap 9/16

In addition to posting the weekly devotions for The Gospel Project, we'll be doing our best to provide you with a weekend recap (like the one below) which will simply provide a summary of the main points from the weekend message. Enjoy!







Here are 3 Truths that flow from the reality of God as Speaker.

The God Who Speaks...

1. HAS AUTHORITY (GEN. 1:1-3).

Words change things. When a pastor stands next to a gushing groom and a beaming bride and says, “I now pronounce you husband and wife,” their status changes. They become united before God and God’s people. They are ushered into the union of holy matrimony. The spoken word changed them forever because it was spoken with authority. But words have no authority in themselves. Words are only powerful when spoken by someone with power.
Responding to the powerful nature of God’s speech, the psalmist praised God for His creative authority: “Praise Him, sun and moon; praise Him, all you shining stars. Praise Him, highest heavens, and you waters above the heavens. Let them praise the name of Yahweh, for He commanded, and they were created” (Ps. 148:3-5). Notice the progression: God commanded, and the universe was created.
Words matter. Words carry weight. And the weightiest words are those uttered by the most glorious (the weightiest) Being in the universe. His words matter because of who He is. 

2. IS MERCIFUL (EX. 3:2-6).

We have no right to demand an audience with God. God is not accountable to us; we are accountable to Him. God would have been fully just and righteous to create this world and leave it to natural processes, never to intervene, never to communicate with His human creatures, and never

to involve Himself with our human plight. There is nothing about our existence that forces God to be a God who reveals Himself. And yet God speaks. The very fact that we are created is a result of God’s grace.

He created us to fellowship with Him, to join in the love song the three Persons of the Trinity sing to one another. Out of grace—not necessity—God has created this world. He has spoken, and therefore, we exist. It is also an act of grace that God would reveal Himself to us personally. God was

under no obligation to pull back the curtain and let us see aspects of His character and evidences of His power. He could have spoken the world into existence and then never spoken again, leaving us in ignorance about our Creator and our purpose.

Here we see the good news of the gospel! The gospel is the story of a God who issues a call to helpless sinners. In our blindness and deafness, we are imprisoned by our own sinfulness. We cannot see the goodness of God until He gives us new eyes. We cannot hear the voice of God until He

opens our ears. Like Helen Keller, we struggle to make sense of the world around us—why we are here and where we are going.
But God—out of sheer grace—chose to enter our world of darkness through the person of Jesus

Christ. In His perfect life and sacrificial death, Jesus revealed God to us. He showed us God’s character. He demonstrated the love at the heart of the Father’s authority. 

3. GIVES US TASKS (GEN 1:27-30).

If it is true that God has spoken, then there is nothing greater we can do than listen to what our Creator has said. Once we recognize the authority of the God who speaks and the mercy from which He speaks, we are then responsible to lovingly and willingly obey God’s commands. The command has been issued. What will our response be?
In Genesis 1:27-30, God told the first humans, Adam and Eve, what He expected of them. Notice the progression again: God created (authority); then He blessed (mercy). Finally, He gave tasks.
Out of His authority, God created Adam and Eve. Out of His mercy, He blessed them. Then God’s mercy led to His tasking Adam and Eve with cultivating His good creation. Too many times, we get the order backwards. We begin with the tasks of the Christian life and seek to receive God’s blessing as a result of our obedience. But the gospel turns these expectations upside down. God first blesses His children. Only then does He task them with ruling wisely over the earth.

When we begin with the task rather than the blessing, we cut ourselves off from the very power that is necessary to fulfill the tasks God has given us. The blessing of the gospel—the gift of undeserved grace—should motivate and drive our obedience. As we embrace the gospel, the gospel then empowers our love for God and for our neighbor.
When we begin with our obedience instead of God’s blessing, we invert the gospel. We begin to think that we can somehow put God in our debt. If we only do enough good works, maybe God will bless us. This is humanity’s futile attempt at keeping control. We’d rather think that God owes us. As long as we think someone owes us, we maintain a sense of control.
Grace—in contrast—is scary! When we come to understand that accomplishing our task is made possible only because of God’s initial blessing of grace, then there is nothing God can’t ask of us. There is nothing He owes us. We owe Him everything—our very lives. 

Night Under The Stars

THIS Friday (9.7.12) 

 Come enjoy the arts & talent of Seacoast and the melodic ingeniousness of AJ Degrasse!