You get a thought like this and you think, Lord, are they gonna get bored with this? You know, you're just gonna get tired of it. It's gonna be like that old deacon that went to his preacher and he said, preacher, you just preach on hell all the time. He said, I'm sick of hearing on hell all the time. He said, preach on love. Preacher brought the next message, man, it was, love God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, with all thy mind. The next message was, Love God instead of the world. The next message was love your wife and leave everybody else's alone. A fourth Sunday man, a deacon went up to him and said, get preaching on hell again, will ya? I'll tell you what, we cannot exhaust the greatness of God. We cannot do it. And the fact is that we are so undernourished when it comes to that subject, we can't digest what we hear and what we see. That's a fact. It'd be like me taking you down to NASA and trying to explain the detailed intricacies of the space shuttle to you. You can't appreciate it until you spend some time there, until you learn enough about it to where you can actually say, wow, look at that. You go down there, all you do is just see the form. It's like just a shape, you know, kind of like a glass darkly. except we've been so undernourished on this business of who God is and how great he is and what he does and why he does it and all the rest of that, our thoughts have been so self-centered all of our life and our Christian life that they are just all about us. And when we start talking about him, it's kind of like you're just getting started. This morning I was looking in the mirror, you know, and seeing some of that stuff that God made, like I'm looking at right now. That's just amazing to me. Go out there and you look at my car out there. I think it was made by Volkswagen in Germany. You know, I look at you and I see something that the creator made and he didn't stop with that. He made that car out there too. He made the radio and he made the radio waves and the electronics and everything else. Man, he makes a whole thing. And we kind of miss all of that. You know, we talk about it. It's a little bit like salvation. You get so familiar with the subject that you hear it over and over that it means nothing to you. It's kind of like air conditioning. We don't appreciate the air conditioning in this building. You would after a hurricane, though. And a lot of us have lost that sense of real gratitude we had when that power came back on that first night after that thing. It was like, oh, yes. It turned the switch and it started working again. What's that funny noise? A bathroom fan? Oh. Anyway, I got some questions for you here this morning. We'll look at this before we get back into the Sunday school lesson. Three questions. Who is God? Who are we? What's he want? Now those are three really big questions. You're not gonna cover them in just a few minutes here. So we'll just kind of do it in an outline form. Who is God? He's an eternal being. Now you can't compare time and eternity. You know, that's like comparing apples and oranges. But you can't compare them. But if you were gonna try to compare time and eternity, around the outside of the Earth is about 25,000 miles, you know, around the equator. It's a little bit bigger this way than it is that way, a little bit. But anyway, if you were to compare it, you got 25,000 miles. You know, 2,500 miles is just a little bit further than from, say, Jacksonville out to Los Angeles. It's about like that distance. That's 10% of going around the earth. If you were to measure that thing out, and you get it down to where you're looking at a tape measure, and you're measuring the last inch, or the first inch of that dimension, you ever seen down there on them tape measures where they got all those little marks? We used to get guys in the sheet metal trade, they couldn't even read a ruler, and the guy'd say, okay, give me two and 13 sixteenths, he'd go. Oh, what's that? That's one of the big marks in between and two of the littler marks in between and then one more of them littler marks. A 16th of an inch, you know, it's just a little tiny bit. Anyway, it would be like looking at that one 16th of an inch and then that ain't small enough either. You gotta go clear down to just the width of the painted mark on there. And that's about the time span from Adam to us. If you're going around the world. because you cannot compare time to eternity. Now, he's locked us into time, and he's got some things set up on that time schedule. He's got them planned, and one day he's gonna say, okay, no more time. No more time, why? Because everything's the way I want it to be, and now that I got it the way I want it to be, I don't want it changing on me. It's fixed from now on. You say, how long? Well, as long as he lasts. We have eternal life, right? and we will be with him for how long? Forever. I mean, I don't expect him to evict us after he moves us in, do you? You're gonna be there a while, man. Anyway, he speaks to create, and he's created all things, known and unknown to us. You know, they're still finding out there's brand new stars out there and brand new solar systems and stuff that's beyond the beyond, you know? We don't know what all he's made. What did he make past eternity? Future eternity that we only have questions about. He makes it all. And he does it using words. Let there be light. Stuff goes out there. Create the firmament in the midst. There it goes. Create the sun, the moon, the stars. Get out there, guys. What size? Don't you think he's got every tiny, tiny minute detail included in those instructions? He sure does. He's got that thing down, you know, he really does. I think the earth rotates 24 hours, 59 minutes and four seconds to get around one time. You think that was an accident? Not at all. He does that stuff on purpose. He keeps it all together by the power of His words. He holds the stuff together. Once He sets it out there and gets it going, He says, okay, now it's established. You just stay that way. Yes, sir. He holds it together with His power. He has unlimited life. He has unlimited power. He has unlimited understanding. He has unlimited talent. He has an unlimited mental capacity. He has unlimited mobility. He has unlimited emotions. He has an unlimited awareness. He has an unlimited presence and a whole lot more than I couldn't even list right now. Who is that? That's the one that makes this stuff you're looking at. That's the one that made it. That's the one that made your mommy and your daddy and your grandparents and your great grandparents and their parents and their great, great, great, great grandparents and made Adam and Eve and made John the Baptist and made George Washington and Abraham Lincoln and everybody else you ever met and heard of. He made them all. And he has a reason for doing that stuff. Not only did he make it, he's the rightful owner of everything that he's made. You know what you can do with your money? You can spend it any way you want. You know that? Why? Because it's yours. Oh God, there's a loving God. He wouldn't send anybody to hell. You got a mighty small God in your mind, don't you? Who do you think you're talking about, man? I'm mad at God. Man, you talk about a fool. I like that when a guy says, I don't believe in God. I said, man. You gotta be about the dumbest guy I ever met in my life. Yeah, the Bible says the fool has said it in his heart and you blabbed it right out your mouth. You gotta be so much dumber than that, it's unbelievable. Well, I still don't believe in God. I said, well, you know, it's better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt. They just keep on doing it, crazy people. Who is God? Not only is the rightful owner, He can do anything he wants. You know, that's exactly what he does do. Do you realize there was no place ever recorded in the scripture where God was forced to do anything? When it comes right down, it even gets down to the point where it pleased God to bruise him. You understand that? Man, I don't. I don't understand that. Why not? That part of our education been left out a lot, hadn't it? We kind of missed out on a lot of this. And he has absolutely no equals. He may have enemies, but he doesn't have any equals. Now question, who are we? Well, we're part of his creation, just part of it. We're unique because we've been given a free will. The planets don't have a free will. The plants don't have a free will. The stars don't have a free will. The animals don't have a free will. they go and do what God's told them to go and do. And on very few exceptions, because of the sin that man brought onto this earth, the stuff is messed up and it's under the curse. But in general, they all do what God tells them to do. We're the only ones down here that he has trouble with. Isn't that strange? We've been given a free will from the very beginning with Adam and Eve. We're created for his pleasure. We've all become self-serving. You know what that's like? That's like a politician. You send him up to Washington, D.C. to represent you and to do the things that you guys have elected him to do, to become a public servant and to express your desires to the rest of the country and get that stuff enacted if you can get it done. With what? Your money that you earned. That's what it's supposed to be. You know what they do instead, don't you? They get up there and they become self-serving, and they get all they can get their grubby hands on. If that doesn't sound bad to you, how would you feel about a policeman that was on the take getting everything he could possibly get, letting the crooks go free, and taking money from them left and right to keep him safe, when he's being paid to protect you? It's just that backwards. You say, well, those guys are bad guys. All we like sheep have gone astray. We've turned everyone to his own way. Every one of us. We are all self-serving. We're all about us. You say, who are we? Well, we're his creation and we've turned everyone to our own way and we all become self-serving. Man, that's us, at his very best state is without purpose. You say, what? God made something that didn't have any purpose? I didn't say God didn't make something that had purpose. I said man at his very best state has no purpose. Man, and his best state is altogether vanity. You know what a vanity mirror is for, don't you? Sitting down there and fixing up a busted wreck, man. Putting a new paint job on an old car. That's what it's for. You polish that thing up, it's still an old car, man. I got it all shined up. Okay, let's go to the store. Head off down the road, but boy, look at it shine. Anyway, we're without purpose since we fell. Why? Because that wasn't what we were created for. We did that to ourselves. There is not one that doeth good, not a single one. He said, well, I remember these verses in there, but that's not how you feel when you start looking around and complimenting people, you know? You see them programs, angels in our midst, you know? I was telling Brother Jim this morning, I said, man, you're generous and kind and patient and all this stuff. He said, oh man, you must be talking about somebody else. I said, no, the only way you can say that with honesty is you gotta compare him to other people you know that aren't quite that nice and that kind and that generous and stuff like that. He said, well, they're supposed to be without wisdom, you know, if they do that. I said, that's exactly right. But come on, man, who in the world would you ever compliment if you compared him to God? You know, you can't compare yourself to God and get anywhere. Anyway, there's none that doeth good, no not one. What we consider good is worthless to God. You understand that? I mean, we got this twisted perspective that we just think it's so much about us and what we do and what he likes and stuff. There's seven major mistakes that people make in life, major ones. And one of them is you think everybody likes what you like. Another one's you think everybody else would do something the way you would do it. I mean, those are just a couple of them. You know what you think? You think if you think it's good, he thinks it's good. There's not one of us, not one of us, that is worth anything to God. All of our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. That's the best we can do, man. What we call good, God says, man, they're worthless to me. Why? Because we are so messed up, you know? Our education has been lacking in a lot of these areas. About the only time you ever hear these verses is when somebody's lost. You don't hear that repeated to Christians very much. Why? Because they want to come in and feel good when they come in and feel better when they leave. They want to be able to go excited and come back more excited, you know? Well, that ain't the truth. If you're ever going to be set free, you're going to have to have the truth. And the truth about us is we just ain't any good. Ever since we fell, we're just not any good. That's the problem. We continue to exist moment by moment because He sustains us. You say, the saved? Everybody. Everything continues to exist moment by moment because He sustains it. In Him we live and move and have our being. You say, is that just the saved? No, that's everybody. I mean, what could they possibly do without God? What do you think would happen if God ceased to exist? What do you think would happen? Everything else would cease. It's all part of Him. He sustains it all. Now with the saved, with us, we're redeemed, we're bought, we're adopted, we're protected, we're provided for, we have an eternal future. And that's for the saved. And God provided every bit of that. The only thing you brought to the table was your will. You know, he that will come with me, I will no wise cast out. Basically, it's a matter of will you or won't you, that's what it's all about. We are loved beyond our understanding. And you guys know it so. Who in the world could love you with a love like he loves when you're the kind of people you are? I mean, you know, it's easy to love somebody that's sweet and nice and kind. Man, there's a movie my wife and I saw one time. There's one of them salient lines. You know, that movie, a lot of that movies has some great lines in them. Some of them apply to life in a real strange way. But this one movie, this guy's asking this guy, he says, what is there about you to love anyway? That's a really good question. You think people ought to love you? What is there about you that people ought to love? What is there about you that God ought to love? My goodness, man, you can't name a thing. There's just something about Him with that love that you can't understand that He does love us, and He cares that much about us. Now, what does He want from us? That gets real interesting. What can we give Him that He doesn't already have? We've talked about some of this stuff, you know? I mean, really, honestly. We're created for His pleasure, right? Don't you think we kind of did a bum job with that? I mean, really, don't you really think we did kind of a bum job with that? He said he created all things and for his pleasure they are and were created. He didn't say just us. He created the stars out there for his pleasure and the firmament for his pleasure and the trees and the animals and the rain and the wind. I mean, the whole thing just for his pleasure. And he puts us down here, the only thing with his free will. So what's he really want? The only thing that I can figure out honestly that God wants from us is He loves us with His undying love and He wants us to return a little bit of that love to Him. That's what He wants. And He wants us to understand who He is and to learn to know Him and to appreciate Him for who He really is. That's what He wants. Not only that, He wants it to be our idea. Now that's something, that is really something when you begin to understand who we are and who he is and what he wants. As he wants it to be your idea. And when it's your idea and you get up there in front of him, you will have accomplished what he desired from you. Because everything else he can fix and put together. From that point on, everything else he's gonna take care of. That's what he wants. In the meantime, we just go through our daily life, you know, and think, well, it's about us. You know about the only difference between you and a lost man is, don't you? You say, well, I'm saved, they're lost. Wasn't the blood shed for them too? Isn't it all right there for them too? You don't have anything they don't have. The only difference between you and them is you brought your will to that table and says, yes, I'll accept him. Yes, I wanna be saved. About the only difference between you and them is that you love him back and they don't, and you should appreciate him more. They don't appreciate him at all, man. I mean, they are of their father, the devil, and he's angry with the wicked every day. But every one of those people that's still breathing can pass from death unto life just like that and become one of you. And that's what God's got set up down here. This thing is nothing more than basically a threshing machine that just separates the wheat from the tares. And the separating thing is what will we bring to the table? What do we want? Do we want what's best for us? All we like sheep have gone astray. We've turned everyone to his own way. Or do we want what's best for him? Thou shalt love the Lord with all thy might, with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy strength. That's what he really wants. If you love me, keep my commandments. And Brother Mark read this the other day and I flipped open to it this morning and started reading through there and I said, oh man, Lord, that is just great. So we're gonna reverse this Sunday school lesson here. You got all of the commentary before, now read the verses that go along with it a little bit. Colossians 1, verse 12 to 17. You need to get your Bible open and look through this. This is good stuff. Colossians 1. Verse 12, giving thanks unto the Father which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and hath translated us unto the kingdom of his dear Son. Doesn't that put a different twist on it when you start thinking about who God is and who we really are and what he wants and how Jesus Christ fits into this thing? I don't know about you, but that just warms my heart to know that he did all that stuff, man. Verse 14, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins, who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. For by him were all things created that are in heaven, that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created by him and for him. And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. Now that is somebody, I kid you not. And not only that, he's more real than you and I are. Because we're just kind of temporary. The part of me that you see is gonna go back to dust if he leaves it alone. The part of me that you don't see, that's gonna go someplace else. But what you see right here, it's just temporary. You see that stuff? But there isn't anything about God that's temporary. He's more real than you and I are. Let's close in prayer.