Carmel Singles Retreat - Session 3(2)

8/14/2019 Carmel Singles Retreat - Session 3(2)

1/22

The sufficiency of God in all things

Definition of the sufficiency of God - God possesses withinhimself, intrinsically and eternally, every quality ininfinite measure.

In other words - God has no need for anything outside of

who God is, in and of himself. God needs nothingapart from himself, for he possesses every qualitywithin himself.

Exodus 3:14 - God said to Moses, 1aI AM WHO 1I AM;

and He said, Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel,1I AM has sent me to you.

Biblical Insight:

God has no needs or restrictions outside of Himself1


2/22

God has this attribute intrinsically but we possess our attributes

derivately in that we had to get them from someone else.

God possesses all His qualities by nature: It is Gods nature to be

good, loving, holy, just and beautiful

God possesses these qualities eternally there was never a time in

the past and never a time in the future when He wont have these

qualities.

God possesses these qualities in infinite measure which means there

are no limits or restrictions to His love, wisdom and justice.

So is this view taught in Scripture?


3/22

Please turn in your Bibles to Psalm 50

Background Israel is on trial and God is acting in the role of both

judge and prosecuting attorney who is charging them. God isholding Israel accountable before His bar of justice.

Psalm 50:4 God is talking about the people of Israel and those who

have practiced the sacrificial system that God has put in place.

Psalm 50:4-6 are what I am calling the set up verses:

God is calling heaven and earth to bear witness

His people are on trial and God is judging them

So we need to know What is the charge that God is bringing

against His people?


4/22

Read Psalm 50:7-12

You may be asking the question What in the world is going on

here?

God first tells the people of what they are NOT guilty of.

They are not guilty of failing to bring sacrifices before Him becauseHe says that they are doing that.

God says you are bringing your bulls and male goats from your

field


5/22

So Israel might ask So what are we doing wrong?

You told us to bring sacrifices and that is exactly what we are

doing, we are bringing our sacrifices.

However, Israel is evidently doing this with the same mindset

toward sacrificing that we common to those pagan nations that

were surrounding them.

The pagan nations around Israel believed that their gods were

needy. They thought that the gods got hungry literally andtherefore they would bring a sacrifice to their particular god to

eat and then be satisfied. When the tummy of this god was full

then he would bless those who fed him. This is probably the

religion that occupies almost 2/3s of our current world.


6/22

Illustration a person goes on a missions trip to Madagascar and

discovers that they are big on ancestor worship. People spend time

doing whatever the deceased grand father liked to do.

So what picture does this paint for us about God? As we sacrifice

these things to Him we are helping Him out and contributing to His

needs. Its a good thing that we are here because if we werent Hewould lack.

Go back to verse 8 The problem isnt their sacrificing but theirthinking about sacrificing

Do you see the problem?


7/22

These Israelites are worshipping God as if He were needy, and they

are going to give in order to help Him out.

Application for consideration:

How many people in the evangelical church think this exact same

way?

In the giving of their tithes and offerings

Going to the mission field

Serving in a particular ministry

There is an underlining thinking that to this degree poordesperate, poor hungry, poor helpless God and I am going to save

the day with my gift, sacrifice, service and life.

And God says to that type of mindset Dont give it!


8/22

Read Psalm 50 verse 13 Question Is that what you think I am

doing, eating flesh and drinking blood in order to satisfy My

hunger?

Did you not understand what I said in verses 10-12?

Verse 14 What does thanksgiving imply, in terms of

relationship to God?

We are the total recipients of His gifts and He is the Giver!


9/22

God says you think you are offering in order to help me out?

No, instead offer me a thanksgiving.

I am the Giver and You are the receiverI am the full One and You are the empty one

I am the wise One and You are the foolish one

I am powerful and You are weak Read Psalm 50:14-15 and getthe order right

You are to call upon me God is the rescuer, helper, strong hold,

rock, refuge, provider, protector, shield,

And then it says He will rescue you because we are weak, needy

and helpless

Oh brothers and sisters in Christ learn this truth for your prayer

life and be transformed!


10/22

Now turn to Isaiah 40:12-17 Still under the attribute of the self

sufficiency of God

In verses 12-13 you have rhetorical questions which means the

answers to the questions are obvious that you dont have to give

the answer.

Look at verse 12 and look at all the metaphors and think of

these images

Do you know anyone who is big enough to scoop up the Atlantic

Ocean or the Pacific Ocean in His hand? How big is God?


11/22

Illustration # 1

Going to the beach and grabbing up all the water in your two

hands and seeing what difference it really makes.So what is the picture of God here?

1. He is big

2. He is powerful

3. He is immense

Lesson for the grandkids someday if I scoop all the water in theocean in my hands you cant tell anything. But can you imagine a

God who can scoop up all the water in all the oceans in the palm

of His hand.


12/22

Illustration #2

God marks off a span, which is the distance between you thumb

and little finger.

Think of it light traveling at 186,000 miles per second and it takes

approximately 7 minutes to get to us from the sun to the earth.

The next closest start is 4 and years from the time it leaves the

star to planet earth and by the way this is our next door neighborwhich is the Milky Way Galaxy.

When you look at the stars on a clear night almost every star you

see is in the Milky Way Galaxy of which there are about 10

billion stars and those are the ones in our neighborhood.Separated by an average distance of about 10 light years spanning

out across this Milky Way Galaxy.


13/22

Which begs the question, how many Galaxies are out there? The

Hubble telescope still finds more and more but it seems as

though there are millions upon millions more spread out across

this universe. And they are hundreds of thousands of light yearsaway so who do you know that can mark them off between His

thumb and little finger? Who could possibly do this?

Answer only God

How big is God?

Then the next image who do you know who can calculate the

dust and weigh the mountains ranges of the Rockies and the

Himalayas on a scale?

God is so great, so powerful and so huge that He can do this with

no problem


14/22

Verse 13 A shift in the topic it is no longer the bigness and

enormous nature of God but instead it is His knowledge and

wisdom

What is the answer to these questions Who has taught God?

Who has advised God?

Answer - No one

God doesnt need any advice because He already knows it all

Illustration Contrast this with a President who takes office and

states that he will have no advisors but himself. What would wesay about a President like that? We would say that he is a fool.


15/22

Folks we need to remember this image of God when we pray and

we need to pray like the Lord Jesus. How did He pray? Our

Father which art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name!

Father God you are separate and above all creation in Your

wisdom, supremacy, and majesty! And then we pray that by the

Spirit we might get in tune with the will of God, this is not a will

we are trying to shape but one that is already established.

Jesus praying in the garden, not My will but Thy will be done!

God needs no advisors because His wisdom is flawless!


16/22

Can you imagine all the problems in the world and God doesnt

need help from anyone!

The nations all of our collective prowess and military power,technological advancements, wealth, wisdom, and all the

resources that we have are but a drop of water in a bucket or a

speck of dust on a scale to God.

Illustration My foot is injured and I have Plantar Fasciitis.Nancy went on the internet the other day and there were

thousands of entries just on one section of the foot. I was

overwhelmed with all the information.

Imagine if someone from a campground is bringing back abucket of water from a stream and they only spill one single

drop. What would you say? Basically they didnt spill

anything and surely it would not be even noticed.


17/22

Illustration:

Housewife goes to the deli to buy a couple of pounds of ham and

the butcher is getting ready to weigh and price it and the lady sayswait a minute. And the man says what is the problem and she

says there is a speck of dust on the scales.

What is the point of these images?

Just keep reading we were a speck of dust but look at Isaiah

40:17 now we are down to nothing and keep reading, the nations

now are less than nothing!

TrivialInconsequential they dont matter or even make a difference


18/22

So we need to be careful here and think and meditate on what this

really means.

Are we to take this as meaning that God doesnt care about the

nations?

So is does NOT mean that God doesnt care about the nations for all

we have to do is read Psalm 2:8 Christ came for the nations(Revelation 5:9 and Genesis 12 all the nations will be blessed)

So what does God mean when we are less than nothing before Him.It means in comparison to Gods wisdom, knowledge, power and

greatness that could contribute anything to God.


19/22

Illustration: Me going up to Tiger Woods at the Wachovia and

offering him some tips on driving the golf ball a little further.

What information do I have that could benefit his golf game?

The point here is what can the nations of the world add to the

infinite power, wisdom and knowledge of God?

Answer nothing


20/22

Turn to Acts 17:24-25

Paul is in Athens, which was the religious center of the world at

that time. They had represented in their city all gods and it was

as polytheistic as one could imagine. The irony is the one God

they didnt know was the true and living God.

Main point of these two verses God is self sufficient

How could it be possible for God to need anything in creationwhen He gave everything for creation to exist. There is nothing

that God needs!

Illustration teaching that Jesus died for you and since He died

for you what are you prepared and willing to do for Him.

And we grow up with this attitude that the tithe is Gods and

everything else is mine

You must stay in position as receiver and God must be the giver!


21/22

Some final thoughts

We live in a culture that encourages us to have a very man-centered

theology.

Many times we process the gospel this way: If Jesus died for me

then what am I going to do for Him.

Unfortunately that leads to religious living and not gospel living.

Religious living says I will do for God and then He will approve of

me. Whereas gospel living says I am already approved of by God

on the basis of the death of Christ and now I want to do for Him.

This type of living comes from delighting in Him not a duty

performed for Him.

Since God is sufficient in all ways and in all things we can not add

anything to who He is nor what He has done.


22/22

Some final thoughts

We must learn how to align our lives under the waterfall of Gods

grace where He is always in position of the Giver and we are

always in position of the receiver.

Yes we must serve but as defined in 1 Peter 4:11 - whoever

serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which Godsupplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus

Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever.

Amen.

Therefore our serving comes through His strength and not ourswhich means we must receive that from Him. Once again grace is

showing up to give us what we dont deserve!

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Carmel Singles Retreat - Session 3(2)

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