Big Idea: The God we commune with is both far beyond our experience and yet near to us in our experiences. We serve both a sovereign and sympathetic King.
Doctrine may divide, but it is because doctrine defines.
“The study of religious truth ought to be undertaken… with a view to the improvement of the heart. When learned, it ought not to be laid on the shelf, as an object of [contemplation]; but it should be deposited deep in the heart, where its sanctifying power ought to be felt. To study theology, for the purpose of gratifying curiosity… is an abuse of what ought to be regarded as most holy.” – John L. Dagg; Manual of Theology
Doctrine _____________ who we believe God to be so that we can love and worship him more _________________ and more _________________.
Trinity
2-1 There are three persons in the Godhead: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. These three are one God, the same in substance, eternally equal in power and glory.
God the Father
3-1 There is but one living and true God, immanent, transcendent, infinite in being and perfection, pure spirit, invisible, immutable, eternal, almighty, all wise, most holy, most free, most loving, most gracious, most merciful, longsuffering, abundant in goodness and truth, forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin, the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him, and withal most just and terrible in His judgments, hating all sin. He will by no means clear the guilty.
Our God is ________________________. (Creator)
Transcendent:
Psalm 135:5–7 (ESV) — 5 For I know that the Lord is great, and that our Lord is above all gods. 6 Whatever the Lord pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps. 7 He it is who makes the clouds rise at the end of the earth, who makes lightnings for the rain and brings forth the wind from his storehouses.
Our God is ________________________. (Covenant Keeper)
Immanent:
Acts 17:24–25 (ESV) — 24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.
“The technical term used to speak of God’s involvement in creation is the word immanent, meaning ‘remaining in’ creation. The God of the Bible is no abstract deity removed from, and uninterested in his creation. The Bible is the story of God’s involvement with his creation, and particularly the people in it.” – Wayne Grudem; Systematic Theology
God commits himself to the created order.
Psalm 34:18 (ESV) — 18 The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.
Psalm 147:3 (ESV) — 3 He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.
Because God is transcendent he is ___________________ over our circumstances, because he his immanent he is ___________________ to our circumstances.
Questions to Consider
How might the scriptures listed above comfort you in the midst of hardship?
In what ways are you trusting God with your circumstances?
What would a prayer of trust look like in the midst of your circumstances?
In what ways is God using your circumstances to draw you closer to himself?
