There, oh ho! The sound guys do that to me at our church too. But usually they're right over there where the pulpit is and they're like, very Pentecostal. And I, it's good. We are here tonight because Jesus Christ rose from the grave to save sinful man. That's why we're here tonight. That's the whole reason we're here. The God of the Bible is a great God. He is a great God. We have a great God. Do you know Him? We really talked about that in our first message. Talk about a proper understanding of God is essential to salvation. A complete understanding of God is not essential to salvation. You don't have to know it all to be saved, praise God, because we'll probably never know it all. Probably a lot of heaven is getting to know this God that we know just so little about. The way we know God, how do we get to know God? And we're going to break that up into two messages. The way we know God is knowing who He is and what He does. And if you have a lot of notepaper, you'll probably take two sides of notes, but I wanted you to endeavor to write down. Knowing God, who He is and what He does, and just as we go, hopefully you can follow the ABCs. Last time I preached this, I missed one letter of the alphabet. I know, so that'll be your quiz by the end of next message tomorrow. You can see if I miss any letter of the alphabet. So my desire is to give you this in a good amount of time, but that it would soak into your minds. Who is God? Well, first of all, you know who God is. He is the Alpha and Omega. He's the Alpha and Omega. Revelation 1-8, and I'm going to give you some verses. A lot of them I'll quote. I'll tell you what they are. You will probably not have time to look them up. And I'm just knowing me, I'll probably get to the end of the message and I'm just going to say them. And if you want those references, I would more gladly give them to you afterwards. But I'm probably just going to get excited because God is exciting. He is a good God and He is a God that you can get excited about. But He is the Alpha and Omega. Revelation 1.8 says, I'm the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty." He's also all-powerful. Matthew 20, 18 says, Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, what's the next two words? All power is given unto me in heaven and earth. That's our God. If you wanna know who God is, He is the Alpha Omega, He is all-powerful, He's the bread of life. John 6, 32 says, then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven, but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. For the bread from heaven is he which cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world. Then said he unto them, Lord, even more, evermore, give us this bread. Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger. He that believeth on me shall never thirst. But he also bears our burdens, and his burden is light. Matthew 11, 28 says, Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and lonely of heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. is light. He's also the bright and morning star. Revelation 22 verse number 16 says this, I, Jesus, sent mine angel to testify unto you those things in the churches. I am the root and offspring of David the bright and morning star. That's our God. We want you to know who God is and the way you know him He's knowing who He is and what He does. And certainly that's not all. He is Christ. Matthew 16 verse number 15 says this, He said unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus answered and said, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I'm giving you the first verse and quoting probably three of those, so you can do some Bible study and look up the rest of those. But not only is he Christ, but you know what he does? He cares for you. our God cares for you. If you are sitting in this room tonight, there is a person that cares for you. You know what? There's also a person that knows you. Isn't it wonderful that person actually knows you, cares for you? I remember the time there's been A couple times in my life where I've been saved for a long time since probably between 8 and 10 is when I got saved and got baptized when I was 12. And there's been several times where the reality of Jesus saving me and me being so unworthy hit me. I remember one time I just got back from Chicago, I lived there from about 17 to 21, and I remember walking to my Honda CRX Civic SI. I used to race that thing. I lived in Oakbrook, Illinois. And if you know anything about Oakbrook, Illinois, it is where McDonald's started. Oakbrook, Illinois is where McDonald's started. They have the fanciest McDonald's you've ever been to. I went to McDonald's and they had a chef there making omelets. In McDonald's, I'm like, this is crazy, I like this. When I lived there, I would be late to work, but I knew this, if I would bring my boss a breakfast, not breakfast sandwich, breakfast burrito from McDonald's, all would be forgiven. So anytime I was late, I got in my car, I drove to McDonald's, got two breakfast burritos, brought one for him and one for me, and all was forgiven. Jesus doesn't work on penance, but my boss definitely did. I could certainly pay him off, and it was a wonderful thing. Well, and I was walking back that day, I got back to my house, I showed my mom and dad my first, this car, this Civic CRX SI. I'd race these people, I'd race Porsches. And when I say race, I would attempt to race Porsches. I remember this one time, this Porsche turned a corner, I was in my little hatchback, and I'm like, I'm gonna race this guy, it was standard. And so I'm like. And I remember getting to his, like he didn't know I was racing him, that's the best way to do it. And I remember, I got to his front door and I remember thinking, man, he just took off. And I looked down, I'm like, we are going 75 miles an hour. And he left me like I was standing still. I'm like, I even had a head start of the guy. And that was probably when I decided that Porsches was my favorite car. One day, I will own one of those cars. But my parents, as I'm trying to show them this wonderful car, I walk back from my house. My house is over here, the garage is over here. And I'm walking back, and I had this thought, God, why did you save me? Why? I mean, I was serving in a Christian ministry, singing in the choir, going to church all the time, and I thought, I remember breaking down, I was probably 19 years old, and just breaking down, no one's there around, and just crying and saying, God, why did you save me? I'm grateful, I just, I don't, I do not understand why. because he knows me and he still loves me. He still cares about me. Listen, God loves you and he cares about you even though he knows you. Bible says this, 1 Peter 5, 7, casting all your care upon him for he, careth for you. He is deity. Do you know that Jesus Christ is God? Hopefully you got that from the last message. If not, you should have. Jesus said this, I and my Father are one. He was despised and rejected. Isaiah 53, verse number three says this. He is despised and rejected, a man rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with griefs. And we hid as it were our faces from him. He was despised and we esteemed him not. He daily loadeth us with benefits. Blessed be the Lord who daily loadeth us, loadeth us, that's how you say that, with benefits. Even the God of our salvation, Selah, think about that is what he's saying. Listen, God loads you with benefits every day. I like baked potatoes, loaded baked potatoes. I love loaded baked potatoes. We have this restaurant in Arkansas, it's called Jamie's. and they have a pulled pork stuffed baked potato. And it literally, they bring out a baby. I mean, they put that thing on there, it is ginormous. I'm like, where do you grow these? I know I have cancer today, because that is not natural, how big that baked potato is. They load it, man, they load it. You know what God does? Every day of your life, you know what God has done for you, if you're saved, that is? He's loaded you with benefits. I mean, He has given you so many benefits, you will never, never understand them all. Hopefully by the end of this week, you'll start taking advantage of some of those things. But he daily loadeth us with benefits. He is Emmanuel. Matthew 1, 23 says this, behold, a virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth a son and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which is being interpreted God with us. He is the everlasting God. Genesis 21, verse number 33 says this, and Abraham planted a grove in Beersheba. And called there on the name of the Lord the everlasting God. He's an everlasting God. He exalts the humble. Luke 18, 14. I tell you, this man went down to his health rather justified than the other. For everyone that exalted themselves shall be abased. And he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. He exalts those that humble themselves. He is the first and the last, Revelation 117. And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he said, and he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, fear not, I am the first and the last. He worshiped God most of the time. When you hear in the Bible where somebody actually sees God Almighty or even Jesus in his righteousness, you know what they do? They worship. And in case you don't know what worship is, worship is not this. Worship is not this. You know what this is? Blessed be the name of the Lord is not worship. None of that. What we just did, those two songs we sang, and we could sing and sing and sing, not worship. This is what worship is. Oh, God, I am not worthy. Worship is bowing down. It literally means to bow down. When people get in the presence of God, They do what this man does, they fall down. And that's what really salvation is, just falling before Jesus Christ and asking Him to save you. He is the first and the last. He is also faithful. 1 Thessalonians 5.24 says this. Faithful is he that called you who will also do it. He fulfills our needs. Philippians 4.19. But my God shall supply all your needs according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus. That is our God, the God of the Bible. How do we know God? We have to know who he is and what he does. He is the good master. Matthew 19 verse number 16 says this, Behold, one came unto him and saying, Good master, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life? He is also the great high priest. Hebrews 9 11 says this, But Christ being come a high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands. That is to say, not of this building. He is the great high priest. He also gives us every good gift. God gives you, if there is anything in your life that you have ever gotten that is really good. I mean, sometimes we get things and they're not that good. How many of you have a cell phone? Just be honest. Say, I am a pagan. I don't want you to say that. I don't know if those are good. I think they probably are. Laptops, computers. How many of you have a gaming system of some sorts? How many of you ever played on a real game boy? OK, we're going to do a quiz if you know what a real Game Boy is. The real Game Boys had no color, zero color, and no lights. They had a light boy. And it was the coolest thing. I got a Game Boy because I was a nerd like that. And we would play it. I played Donkey Kong and those other things on there. And it was like three buttons on the thing. It was so wonderful. But when it got dark, guess what? Couldn't play it, because it had no backlight on the screen. And so they invented this light bulb, and you'd slide on it and have a light on it, and it was pretty cool. I don't know if those are good things. Probably that would be hard to say that was a good thing. I'm not sure if you could say that. The Bible says, James 1, James 1, 17 says this, every, every single, every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the Father of lights, in whom there is no variableness. Neither a shadow of turning. If you have anything good in your life, that is all from God. And all the things that you don't have that are bad in your life, somewhere else, probably you or Satan of the world, there's a lot of ways we get bad things, but all the good things are for God. We have a good God. And the only way you're going to know God is know who He is and what He does. John the Baptist, he's about ready to die. He's already said, behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world. He has seen a dove, the Holy Spirit, descend upon Jesus. And he's made those statements. Fast forward in life, he's in jail. I have never been in jail because I did something wrong, although I've preached in jail before. And hopefully when people go to jail, they have some retrospect, they think about what they've done. You know what John the Baptist is having? He's thinking about what he's done. And he's thinking about Jesus Christ. And you know what? He sends some people and says, hey, wait a minute. Are you the person that we're waiting for or do we wait for somebody else? This was his cousin. He grew up probably close to this guy somewhere. He grew up close to God. And yet, you know what he's asking? Are you really God? Do you know how Jesus answers him? He does not say, yes. That's not what he says. He tells them, essentially tells the disciples, go tell John what I do. Because my works speak about me. The lame are healed, the blind see. That's his answer. And when the answer comes back to John, he goes, oh yeah, that's God. Because if you're going to know God, you need to know who he is and what he does. He hears our cry. He hears our cry. Jeremiah 33.3, it's a phone call verse. You should see in your mind, Jeremiah 33, three is a phone call verse. Call unto me and I will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not. He heals the brokenhearted. Psalms 147 verse number three. He healeth the brokenhearted and bindeth up their wounds. He heals our broken hearts. There is a, I don't know if it's a, I almost hate to say things that are popular, any more popular, but there is a wave of people that just struggle in their hearts and in their minds. And I remember some people having panic attacks, and I'm like, I don't know what a panic attack is. For me, a panic attack is seeing two one-pound burgers on my plate, and thinking, how am I going to eat these all? Anybody ever been to Fuddruckers before? That is a great restaurant. They sell a one pound hamburger and fries. And I have ate it three times in my life. And afterwards, let me tell you, there might be some panicking going on. Like, whoa, this is not good, or it is, I'm not sure. And I may glide to that, but you know what? people do have broken hearts. And some of you that may have just laughed, or maybe just couldn't laugh, are in this room because you have a broken heart. And there is a God that heals our broken hearts. I had a pastor say once, you're not even being a parent until they reach 18, just wait. I was like, okay, five more years and then I'm gonna be a parent. I'm not sure what that means, but I'm looking forward to 18. Broken hearts are part of this life. You're never gonna go through this life without having a broken heart. But if you know God, if you know God, you know someone that heals the broken hearted. He is the I am, that's who our God is. Revelation 22, 12 says, I am the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Jesus saith unto them before Abraham was? I am, that's who God is. He is the innocent that was sacrificed for the guilty. First Peter 1 18. For as much as you know that you are not redeemed with corruptible things such as silver and gold from your vain conversation received by the traditions of your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ as a lamb without blemish and without spot. He was the innocent. that was sacrificed for the guilty. He is a just God. Isaiah 45, verse number 21. Tell me, and I'll bring them near. Yea, let them take counsel together. Who hath declared this from ancient times? Who hath told it from that time? Have not I the Lord, and is there no God else besides me, a just God and a Savior? There is none beside me. He's a just God, but he's also Jesus. He is J-E-S-U-S. Yes, that's who he is, Matthew 121. And she shall bring forth a son and shall call his name, Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. He is Jehovah. He is the judge of all judges. Hebrews 12 verse number 23, to the great assembly, to the church of the firstborn, which is written in heaven, to the God, to God the judge of all. and to the spirits of just men made perfect. He judges both the saved and the sinners, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that everyone may receive the things done in his body according to that he had done it, whether it be good or bad, that's the saved, but he also judges the lost. And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them. He judges both the saved and the lost. He's the just judge, but He also justifies us. He makes it as if we've never, ever sinned. Romans 5, 1. Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with him through our Lord Jesus Christ. He justifies us. He is the King of Kings. Man, that is one that I love, the King of Kings moniker, the name for him. I love that. I went to London for our third anniversary. Me and my wife went to London. And when you go to London, you can tour the Tower of London. And in Tower of London, they have where you can go buy the crown jewels. And you walk by the crown jewels and they're wonderful and you can look at them, they're amazing. And anytime I think about a crown, you know what I think about? I think about the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. That's our God, He's the King of Kings. First Timothy 6.15, which in times past, he show who is the blessed and only potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords. But he's also kind. Our God is kind. But after that, the kindness of love, our God, our savior toward man appeared. He is a kind God. And then, of course, I've said it, but he is the Lord of lords. Deuteronomy 10.17 says this, For the Lord our God, He is the God of gods, the Lord of lords, the great God, and almighty and terrible, which regardeth not persons, neither taketh reward. He's the lamb that was slain before the foundation of the earth. Revelation 5.12, saying with a loud voice, worthy is the lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing. He is love. You know what love is. Love is not an emotion. Love is a person. And if you don't know God, you do not know love. The world has that one right. They know that love, it'll get you through. There's so many songs about love will get you through, and that's true. That is a true thing that they have, but they are misled. They think that love is some emotion or some relationship, human relationship that you have, but it's not. God is love. You will never, never know love until you know God. If you end up marrying somebody one day, that would be a wonderful thing. The Bible says it's a good thing. He that findeth a wife findeth a good thing, and findeth obtaining favor of the Lord. It's a good thing to be married. But you don't need to be married to have love. Hopefully, hopefully you guys have some love in your life right now. And hopefully not all of you are married. Especially some of these boys, I pity the fool. It's sad, sad day for your life, or for someone's life. You know what, God, he is also life. God is life, I am the way, the truth, and the? Life, God is life. God is long-suffering. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise. That was 2 Peter 3.9, some of these I'm giving you, some of them you just have to look up. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some may count slackness, but is long-suffering to us, we're not willing that any should perish. That was what the last message was about, but that all should come to repentance. He is Messiah. He's Messiah. When I was studying this, I thought, man, Messiah, I'm going to look that up. There must be so many mentions of Messiah in the Bible. And the answer is yes and also no. It is in your Bible two times, the actual word Messiah. Oh, I learned something. Now, when it's talking about Messiah and what he does, that's in there a lot. But Deuteronomy chapter number nine is where you find both mentions of the Messiah. Deuteronomy 9 verse number 25 is one of those mentions. He is Messiah. Deuteronomy 9.25. Know therefore and understand," talk about knowing God and He's saying, hey, no, I want you to understand some things, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore to the building of Jerusalem, the Messiah, the Prince shall be seven weeks and three score and two weeks, the street shall be built again, the wall even in troublesome times. He's the Messiah. But he's also meek and lowly. Matthew 9, 11, 29. Matthew 11, 29. He's meek and lowly. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me. You know what God wants you to do right now? Learn about him. Everything that I've been telling you tonight, you know why I want you to do? Learn. Why do you want to learn? Why do you want to know about God? Because he says, I'm meek and lowly of heart. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, and ye shall find rest for your souls. The more you know God, the more you're gonna be at rest in the world. And sadly, probably there's some people in this room that you have gone through things that I pray that I'll never have to go through. I just hope I never have to go through some of the things you've gone through. But there is rest for your souls. And the more you get to know God, The more you can have rest, because we live in a troublesome world, but we have a God that is meek and lowly, and you can have rest for your souls. It is possible to lay your head down at night and your entire world be in chaos, and you could go to sleep. You have good sleep if you know the God of gods. He's meek and lowly, but he also makes us whole. Job 5.18, he maketh sore and bindeth up, he woundeth and his hands make whole. He maketh us whole. He also is no ordinary man. God is no ordinary man. Matthew 27 verse number 58 says this. Now when the centurion and they that were with him watching Jesus saw the earthquake and those things that were done, they feared greatly saying, truly, this is the Son of God. Listen, those unsaved people that were killing Jesus when He died, you know what they said? This is no ordinary man. This is God. Those people probably, right there, those people probably, you just heard the sinner's prayer. More than likely, these two people got saved right then. Whoa, that's God. The person we just killed, he's no ordinary man, that is God. We've killed thousands and thousands and thousands of these people, but nobody like this. He never forsakes his own. Hebrews 13 five, let your conversation be without covetousness and be content with such things as ye have. For he has said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake you. Listen, we have a God, a great God. Do you know who he is? And do you know what he does? Our invitation tonight is gonna be simply this. Would you just take one of these things about God, and when you say God, thank you. Thank you that that's the God of the world. That's my God, and I love Him. That's my Jesus. He died for me. We should be able to say for all the world to see, that's my God. And we should never, never, never be ashamed to let people know the God that we have. Would you stand to your feet with your heads bowed and your eyes closed? We'll have invitation time. Do you know God and do you know what He does? We're going to pray and just give you some time. You can come forward. You can kneel in your seat right there. But let's just take some time and say, God, thank you for who you are and what you do. Father in heaven, Lord, you are a great God. Lord, there is no way that a human like myself could ever portray or paint a picture that is worthy of you. And Lord, I'm trying as hard as I can, Lord, to let these teens and adults know, man, who you are. God, I love you. Lord, thank you for being who you are. Even though I know I will never understand who you are, but I just stand in awe. You truly are amazing. Lord, may we just take some time to be grateful for the God of the world. Lord, work in the hearts tonight. Then as we finish this message tomorrow, Lord, I pray that we would just stand in awe and know our God. With heads bowed and eyes closed, as the piano begins to play, would you just take some time? You can kneel there at your chair. You can come forward. There's an altar here. Would you just say, God, thank you. Thank you for who you are. and what you do. The invitation is open. If God has spoken to you, respond how you would have him to respond.