Text: Genesis 2:7; Habakkuk 2:18-20 | Listen to Message
It’s one of the most obvious facts about God, but also one of the most underappreciated: he’s alive! We serve a living, personal God, and yet we often act as if he’s little more than a dead hero who wrote a book of rules we’re supposed to follow. God isn’t an abstract sovereign, impersonal force, cosmic force, universal energy, or simply the figment of someone’s overactive imagination.
Living: God is a living, personal, relational, triune Being.
Key Verses: Genesis 2:7; Job 12:10; Psalm 42:1-2; Jeremiah 10:1-10; Habakkuk 2:18-20; Matthew 16:13-18; John 11:25; Acts 17:25;
One of the most basic questions of philosophy – and a question everyone must answer somehow – is, “Where did we come from?” What is the source of life? Are we the result of statistically-impossible cosmic mishap or were we fashioned in the image of God, as Genesis 1:26-27 asserts? Did an asteroid or lightning strike a pond 3 billion years ago, spontaneously creating the first RNA nucleotide, or did the Living God breathe out the breath of life?
Naturalism requires a lot of faith, only to hand us a life with no ultimate meaning, purpose, or trajectory. Human existence is a freak accident, a lucky fluke.
In contrast, the Bible also requires a lot of faith, but shows us a life with intrinsic purpose, dignity, and worth. Human life came from a good and sovereign God who wants a relationship with us – now and forever.
So how do we respond to a God who is living, personal, and relational.
1. Worship him alone.
Though most of us don’t literally bow down to idols of wood and stone, we do construct false gods. We give something the first place in our hearts. We love, treasure, and serve something. And if that something is not the God of the Bible, we’re serving something just as dead and lifeless as a statue. Instead of limping back and forth between multiple gods that have no real power (1 Kings 18:21), worship the One who does.
2. Know him and relate to him.
Don’t be content with knowing facts about God; strive to know him. Walking with God is not just about information, it’s about relationship. Because God is alive, he knows all about you and he himself is knowable. So engage in the two-way conversation of listening to his voice in the Word and speaking your heart back to him. Love him, not as you love your favorite dead author but as you love your best friend.
3. Trust him to act.
The eyes of God see. The ears of God hear. The mind of God thinks on you. The heart of God loves you and breaks for you. Doing life with him is never wasted, even when you don’t always perceive the full truth. Learn to wait on him, believing that he is active and engaged in our lives.
Sermon Notes & Application Questions