Well, we're reading from Acts chapter 17, here are the word of God. God, who made the world and everything in it, since he is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands, nor is he worshipped with men's hands as though he needed anything, since he gives to all life, breath, and all things. Father, as we come to continue to worship you in response to your word, we thank you that it's not because of any need in you. but it's because you've drawn our hearts out in love. And I pray that you would anoint my lips, that you would enable my speech to be pleasing in your sight, and that you would accompany the scriptures that I am preaching to the hearts of this, your people. I pray the same for Michael Elliott and for Gary as they're preaching out of town. And Father, for pulpits all across this nation and this world, that your word would triumph in the lives of your people. Draw us into your heart, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. Now I'm curious, how many here have even heard of the aseity of God before it was announced that, yeah, I didn't think there would be too many people that would do that. Now if I was really brave, I could ask, how many people are excited to be hearing about God's aseity? Okay, there are probably a few more than you might get in some churches. And when we talk about aseity with some Christians, their eyes kind of glaze over, and I suspect it's because most systematic theologies, when they deal with the aseity of God, don't show the practical implications of it. None of my theology books, with the exception of John Frame's, are very practical other than showing some philosophical ramifications and in very complicated terms. Well, I promise you this morning you will see that this doctrine is no exception to my belief that all doctrine is exceedingly practical and useful. And it's got more use than impressing your friends with the fact that you know what a Saiyete means after today. Dr. Gordon Clark said that this doctrine is probably the most foundational doctrine in understanding God. And I agree with that. And so let's define the doctrine. Let's see if it's biblical before we begin to apply it. Roman numeral I, point A, gives a definition, and we've got to start there. The word aseity is taken from the Latin, ase, meaning on himself, or more literally, from oneself. It means that God did not come from anywhere or receive anything from anyone or anything outside of himself. He depends on himself and on no other. He is independent, He is self-sufficient, He is self-existent, and in need of absolutely nothing. He doesn't need you, He doesn't need me. God doesn't even need your love, your worship, your wisdom, your service, or anything else. Isn't that a surprise? I think we tend to think a little bit more highly of ourselves than we ought. But before creation, before time even existed, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit existed alone, yet in perfect love, fellowship, and without any sense of need. There was a total satisfaction and contentment within the Godhead. All that He has done in creation is really just the outflow of His character. Now why do I say that that is such good news? Someone might feel if God doesn't need me, then I'm insignificant. I'm unimportant. I don't think I like that doctrine. It doesn't give me any self-esteem. And I will have to admit that it is a very humbling doctrine. There's going to be zero self-esteem you're going to get this morning from this doctrine. But, once we are humbled, it is an incredibly encouraging and liberating and freeing doctrine. It really is. Can you imagine how awful it would be to discover that the only reason God loved you is because He needed you, and He wanted to get things out of you, and He wanted to manipulate you? You've probably all experienced relationships where you thought the person loved you, but the only reason that they hung around you is what they could get out of you. And that's not the case with God. Because aseity means God has no needs, God cannot be selfish. And if it was not for this doctrine of aseity, really God could be misunderstood as being the biggest user of all. And this is the way some books present him, that God was lonely, and so God created humans. That's really nonsense. He always had perfect fellowship in the Trinity, three persons and one God, not three gods, one God and three persons. And the point is that need is not a good basis for love in human relationships, and it's certainly not good if God had such emotional needs. Another example. Can you imagine how frightening it would be to discover that God couldn't do certain things because he had needs and inadequacies? just like any other person. Rabbi Harold Kushner wrote a horrible book called When Bad Things Happen to Good People. He saw God as having needs and insufficiencies, and I want you to listen to this sample statement from his book, why I consider it to be such a horrible and blasphemous theology. He said, bad things do happen to good people in this world, but it is not God who wills it. God would like people to get what they deserve in life, but he cannot always arrange it. Even God has a hard time keeping chaos in check and limiting the damage evil can do. Oh, wow. What a depressing theology. Today we're going to be seeing this horrible view of God that will actually leave people feeling hopeless. It might make you feel like your financial deal fell through because God wasn't able to work all things together for your good. Maybe if he had a little bit more time he would have been able to make that financial deal work out, or if he could have influenced enough people to help him cooperate with you. But we know this is false. Romans 8, 28 is true because God has no needs. In other words, because of this doctrine of aseity. The aseity of God is a critically important doctrine, and yet it's a doctrine that many Arminian Christians regularly deny. And let me start with a quote on prayer that denies God's aseity. This quote comes from an incredibly popular book on prayer. I've learned a number of good things from this book, but in this book, the anonymous author makes this mistake. He says, the fact remains that when we pray for others, somehow or other, it opens the way for God to influence those we pray for. God needs our prayers or he would not beg us to pray. Sorry, that is absolutely wrong. Here's another quote from an Arminian author. Colbert Rutenberg says, God, who in his love wills to give so much, can be frustrated by our refusal to receive. At this point, the sin that God hates inevitably determines the relationship, and we know God only in his judgment to our condemnation and to his infinite sorrow. When God finds us, he comes not as one who confers a favor out of his superfluity, He comes asking a favor of us. He stands as a beggar at our door. He makes no effort to break in upon our independence. He merely pleads that we will be so good as not to refuse the gift which he has traveled so far to bring. I think that is about as clear a denial of the aseity of God as you could get. And again, talk about a depressing theology. And yet, bad theology quotes like this could be quoted a number of times from Arminians and openness of God theologians and Roman Catholics and others. The doctrine of aseity corrects these ill-founded ideas. Let's take a look at a few scriptures that illustrate this doctrine. People sometimes say that God needs our worship or our service, but let's go back to Acts 17. Let's read once again what Paul said in Acts 17, verses 24 through 25. These verses speak to really more than one facet of a saiety. It says, God who made the world and everything in it. Now just consider that for a second. If God made everything in this world, then logically God is not dependent upon this creation, rather the creation is dependent upon Him. It says, since he is Lord of heaven and earth, as Lord he is not dependent, instead heaven and earth are dependent on him. Since he is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. In other words, God is not limited by space. He doesn't need to be in the right place at the right time, and because he wasn't there, you know, things got messed up. Verse 25, nor is he worshiped with men's hands as though he needed anything, since he gives to all life, breath, and all things. So Paul says, God doesn't need our worship. He doesn't need anything else from us. After all, we wouldn't even be able to sing praises to him if he didn't give us life, the breath that we're breathing as we're singing, and all things. There is nothing we can give to God that He has not first given to us. Scripture says we love because He first loved us. In fact, Romans 5 verse 5 says we couldn't have any divine agape love if God did not first shed forth in our hearts that agape love. So we're loving with a divinely given love. In Luke 17.10, Christ said, So likewise you, when you have done all those things which you were commanded, say, We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do. commands us to believe that we are unprofitable servants, it means that our service doesn't profit God, right? It doesn't fill up some lack that He has. It's for our good that we serve. It's not for His profit. Next, he doesn't need all of the sacrifices that men might make. Turn with me to Psalm 50, and we're going to read verses 8 through 13. We're going to actually sing this psalm after the message, but this is another passage that puts us in our place when we think a little bit too highly of ourselves. God had commanded the Israelites to make sacrifices, and so it was their duty to do that, no question about that. But rather than engaging in the duty out of love and out of gratitude, the Israelites were doing this in order to manipulate God. Hey God, look at all of the sacrifices we're making for you. You owe us. What are you going to do for us in return? And since God doesn't have any need, He can't be manipulated, and so God responds by saying, and I'm going to begin reading at verse 8 of Psalm 50, I will not reprove you for your sacrifices or burnt offerings which are continually before me. I will not take a bull from your house nor goats out of your folds, for every beast of the forest is mine and the cattle on a thousand hills. I know all the birds of the mountains and the wild beasts of the field are mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world is mine in all of its fullness. Will I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats? Offer to God thanksgiving and pay your vows to the Most High. Call upon me in the day of trouble, I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me. So he is saying that we are the only ones that benefit by glorifying the Lord. He needs nothing. He calls us to worship in order to usher us into the perfect fellowship that the triune God already has. And because he has no needs, he can overflow in generosity, desiring us to enter into the abundance that he has. Perhaps you have heard name-it-and-claim-it types commanding God to do things in their prayers. Boy, some of the pastors that I've heard do, it makes the hair stand up on my neck. You know, it's just commanding God. Heal, in the name of Jesus, heal. And they command God to multiply the money that they have sacrificially given to the Lord. I've given $1,000, now I'm expecting $10,000 from the Lord in return. But Romans 11.35 says, or who has first given to him and it shall be repaid to him? And the implied answer is no one. God is never indebted to us because he doesn't need our gifts in the first place. And furthermore, everything that we give to God in the offering box in the back of the auditorium, he's already given to us. We're not owners, we're stewards, right? And so if you think that you've earned God's favor by putting money into the offering box, you're mistaken. It's a love relationship, not a merit relationship. And I'm so thankful that part of the overflow of God's heart in giving to us enables us to imitate Him by giving to Him even though He doesn't need it. And let me use an illustration to show why giving gifts to God can still be seen as a significant act of love. A father doesn't need the scribbled love notes that his three-year-old child makes, and yet that father delights in those scribbled notes and puts them on the wall and finds great delight in it because this is a love note from the child. It's imperfect, and yet it is received. So it's love that needs to drive our giving to the Lord, and hopefully that makes sense. Next, God doesn't need your wisdom. Now you probably already figured that out before I preached on omniscience last week, but it bears repeating with respect to his aseity. Job 22 verse 2 says, Can a man be profitable to God, though he who is wise may be profitable to himself? Is it any pleasure to the Almighty that you are righteous, or is it gain to Him that you make your ways blameless? So God doesn't gain from our wisdom, since He already knows everything that needs to be known. But though this doctrine may make us feel very, very small in one sense, it is liberating in another sense, because we don't have to earn God's favor, praise God. The whole world is not going to fall apart because we got limitations in our wisdom. Praise God. Next, God doesn't command us to be righteous so as to help God out somehow. And the verse we just read, you know, mentioned that along with wisdom. Does he gain from our righteousness? That verse says no. It's for our own good that he commands us to be righteous, but consider the following two verses from Job that deny that God gets any benefit whatsoever from our righteousness. If you are righteous, what do you give him, or what does he receive from your hand? Is it any pleasure to the Almighty that you are righteous, or is it gain to him that you make your ways blameless? Next, God doesn't need our witness or our testimony in order to advance His cause. In John 2, verse 25, it says, Jesus did not need anyone to testify of Him. No one needed to. Well, if that's the case, why are we commanded to testify to His name and engage in evangelism? You know, is God in need of our testimony? No. He could convert the whole world in an instant if He wanted to, but He has allowed us to witness, and He's made our witness and our testimony to be significant because He accompanies it with His grace. He accompanies it with His power and enables us to grow in our relationship with Him. He makes us to have a significant part of His history. It's a God-centered reason, not a man-centered reason. Nehemiah 9 verse 5 says, God doesn't need man to glorify Him, since He is already glorious, far above all blessing and praise that we could bring to Him. We glorify Him because it makes us more and more like the triune God, and thus benefits us. The Father glorifies the Son, the Son glorifies the Father, the Spirit glorifies the Son and the Father, and the doctrine of aseity means that no person of the Trinity selfishly seeks his own glory. That's biblical. They're always selflessly glorifying each other, and the more we become transformed into the image of Jesus, the more we delight in glorifying God, not to gain favor, but simply because we see how awesome He is and we can't help but adore Him and glorify Him. And you can study some of the other passages and subpoints in your outline that I've given there. You can study those for yourself. I give passages which show how all idols need man in some way. By the way, that's probably why men like idols. Those idols are limited. They're finite. They need man. They could be manipulated. Or at least people think that they can. Those idols are beholden to man. They're dependent in some way. They need us, and we like to be needed. But God says He doesn't need us, and that's humbling. The outline points out that an aspect of a saiety is that God owns everything in this universe and does not owe us anything. Now Job started talking as if God owed him an answer. Can you imagine that? But here's how the Living Bible nicely translates God's answer. I owe no one anything. Everything under heaven is mine. Job 41 verse 11. Now if God owes us nothing, that means that when he binds himself with a promise, It's God's character alone that obligates God to follow through on fulfilling that promise. Well, God's character is a much better foundation for praying than thinking God owes us. So I'm not in any way questioning that God must follow through on his promises, but he must follow through because he has obligated himself to do so, and his attributes of faithfulness and truthfulness mean we can bank on his promises. I'm just saying that the obligation has nothing to do with us, and it has everything to do with Him. He makes His promises because He is a self-giving and a generous God by nature. As Acts 17 says, He gives all things. I want you to turn with me to Exodus chapter 3, and we'll finish off our description of God's aseity with this passage. I think this is one of the most beautiful summaries of God's aseity in the Bible. It's the use of the name I Am. Moses was a man who sensed a huge need in himself. You could say that he was insecure, and God's solution was not to build up Moses' self-esteem. It's really a backwards way of gaining security. Self-esteem is not a sure foundation for security at all. But look at Exodus 3, beginning at verse 4. So when the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, here I am. Then he said, do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground. So God's solution to Moses' inadequacy was not to say, Moses, you're such a swell guy. That was not at all what he was going to do. was so overwhelmed with God, he didn't even feel he was worthy to stand on the same ground to which God had appeared. Not at all. There was no way you could convince Moses, I'm okay and you're okay, which is the title of a wretched book out there, which I would encourage you not to read. Instead, God takes Moses' attention off of himself and off of his inadequacies and onto God's total sufficiency. You see, if God needs nothing and he has everything, then he's the one that can meet all of our needs, right? And so God speaks of all of the blessings he had already given to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in verses 6 through 9. Then in verse 10 he says, come now therefore, and the therefore is pointing back to God's total sufficiency, come now therefore and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt. Now Moses initially misses the point and he is immediately overwhelmed with the sense of his inadequacy and he says, no way, I can't do this. His first excuse is given in verse 11. But Moses said to God, who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt? Moses was in effect saying, I'm needy. I can't do this. There's no way I can do this. You know, I've got all kinds of lacks and inadequacies. I'm timid. I'm not a good speaker. I'm not well known. And here comes God's solution. So he said, I will certainly be with you. That's the answer. I will certainly be with you. And for each excuse that Moses brings up, God points Moses to himself and the fact that he, that is God, can handle any situation. Now, Moses had a hard time trusting God's sufficiency. Moses thought God needed someone who could speak better. And God said, hey, who made man's mouth? I'm the one who made your mouth. You don't think you can come through for me? I am sufficient for you." And so God answers all seven of Moses' excuses by pointing to his all-sufficiency. But I think verses 14 through 15 sum up the aseity of God so well. God said to Moses, I am who I am. And he said, thus you shall say to the children of Israel, I am has sent me to you. Moreover, God said to Moses, thus you shall say to the children of Israel, the Lord, and any time in the New King James you see Lord in all capital letters, it's the name Yehovah, which by the way is the sister word to I am. It's the root word of I am, right? I am is the root word of Yehovah, I should say. So he says, The Lord, God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob has sent me to you. This is my name forever, and this is my memorial to all generations. So central to God's character and being is that he is eternally present and self-existing. He did not come from others, he just is. And by the way, when Jesus used that title, I am, he was claiming to be God. When he said, before Abraham was, I am, he was claiming to be very God, a very, he was claiming to have this attribute of a saty, and the Jews recognized it because they didn't think he was God. They picked up stones to stone him because they knew exactly what he was saying. He was claiming a saty. But wrapped up in the name I Am and its sister word, Yehovah, is God's lordship over all. Nothing else is an eternally self-conscious I Am. We came from God and are therefore dependent and totally accountable to God. And so that I Am, that term, speaks of God's all-sufficiency, not I will become. But I am. And because God has no needs, he can convince Moses that he can supply any needs that he may have. Are you weak? I am the Almighty. Are you in bondage? I am the Redeemer of Israel. Are you filled with sorrow and grief? God says, I am your comfort. I am the joy of your salvation. I am the bread of life. I am the living water. I am the light of the world. I am the first and the last. I am the deliverer. I am the true and the faithful one. You can fill in a multitude of other I am's which come out of the fact He has no needs, but He overflows for our needs. And I'm going to skip over some of the other sub-points in scriptures that show God is independent of all things in His thought, His will, His power, and His counsel. In contrast, Acts 17, 25 through 28 says all things are dependent upon Him. And thus there is this vast creator-creature distinction that we have talked about before that can never be crossed. We can never be like God, as some heretics insist, because we can never have a saiety. Okay, it's an incommunicable attribute. So hopefully by now you're convinced it's a biblical doctrine, and I want to look next at what difference it should make in how we live. Now, obviously, we can't imitate a saiety itself or we would be God. If you read in systematic theologies, they usually group God's attributes under two categories. There are communicable attributes like love and holiness and mercy, and there are incommunicable attributes like what Daniel preached on, his infinity, his a saiety, and by incommunicable, it means God could not communicate His infinity or His aseity or any other incommunicable attribute in the least little bit into us because we're creatures. By very definition, we cannot have aseity. It's unique to God. So let's look at some of the practical applications. First of all, the more you understand this attribute, the more you will realize how unselfish God is, and how absolutely selfless God's love and all of his other attributes are. And I'm gonna take the first three sub-points together because I think they answer a frequent objection from atheists that we actually began the service with, and I think they bring real comfort. If you've listened to very many debates of atheists with Christians, you're probably familiar with their accusation that the Christian God is a narcissistic, self-absorbed, selfish God. They say, your God is selfish. All he wants is recognition, glory, attention, worship, and service. What kind of God is that? It's all about him and his desires. He commands you to be self-sacrificing. But him? No. He wants everything for himself. Here's another quote from an atheist blog. I'm having trouble seeing the Christian God as anything other than totally narcissistic and self-centered. Here's a quick outline of why, and he gives a number of reasons. And he says, God values his own glory and honor over the well-being of humans. God chooses himself over people for his own benefit. God is selfish. So what are we to think about that? I've actually read a number of ill-informed Christian blogs that really struggle with this idea of selfishness. One blog that I read said, okay, so God is selfish, get over it. But that's not a good answer at all. Selfishness is one of the horrible sins that the Bible condemns in man. In fact, the book of Philippians calls us to imitate God in being unselfish. Okay? Just read the book of Philippians sometimes and you will see that it commands us to imitate God's selfless concern for others. And so if, as some assert, God is selfish to the core of His being just like we humans are, we've got a major, major problem. And the Scriptures in the first three points give some good answers. The first answer is that God is not a solitary person. God is a trinity. The Islamic God is an isolated, singular person. And if he had love at all before there was any world to love, Who would he love? He would have only been able to love himself, and so it's not surprising to see the Islamic God being very, very selfish. But since God is a trinity, we see a radically different character to his love. His love is agape love, which is self-giving, self-sacrificing love. Agape love is the exact opposite of narcissistic love. The Father loves the Son and the Spirit, not himself. Likewise, the Father praises and glorifies the Son and the Spirit, not Himself. And you see examples of the Father even deflecting praise to the Son. This is My beloved Son, hear Him. Mark 9 verse 7. On another occasion, He said, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And likewise, the Father is represented as giving the Son glory, giving the Son a people, that's you and me, giving the Son a world, giving the Son all things. So He gave everything. He gave His all to the Son. Well, the Son's love is the same. He gives His all to the Spirit, and at the second coming, He's going to give it all back to the Father. The Son's intense desire is to glorify the Father and please Him. Hebrews 5.5 says, So also Christ did not glorify Himself to become High Priest, but it was He who said to Him, You are my Son, today I have begotten You. Acts 7.55 is one of many passages that shows that the Holy Spirit glorifies the Son and the Father. The Son so honors the Spirit that He says, any blasphemy against Me and against the Father will be forgiven, but blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. He's honoring the Holy Spirit. And so you can see that... Excuse me. So you can see that the Father and the Son and the Spirit are all passionate about each other. What's the Spirit's passion? It's to lift up the Son and the Father. And so Father, Son, and Spirit, they're always flowing outward to each other in fellowship, praise, glory, and gifts. Why does the Son want to glorify the Father? Because that's the passion of His heart. Why does the Father want to glorify the Son? That's the passion of His heart. And if you're indwelt with the Holy Spirit, you cannot help but glorify the Son and the Father because it's the passion of the Holy Spirit. It is because the Holy Spirit fills you that you want to worship and you want to sing God's praises. It brings you great joy, just as glorifying the Son and the Father brings great joy to the Holy Spirit. And it's because Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are so God-focused that they created all things to be God-focused. That is not selfishness. That is considering the interests of each other person of the Trinity to be better than their own. It's the antithesis of selfishness. Humility and meekness are actually two of the communicable attributes of God. God is the most humble, the most meek person in the universe. Each of the persons are the most humble. And besides, how could God be selfish when he needs nothing? He can't. Acts 17.25 again, nor is he worshipped with men's hands as though he needed anything. since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. Because He doesn't have any needs, it's impossible for Him to be selfish or to serve His own needs. If He doesn't have any needs, He can't logically be said to serve His own needs, right? And yet it would be a mistake to say that because God doesn't need us, He doesn't love us. There is no greater love that God could have than the love that he bestows upon us, is what the scripture says. God values us, he delights in us, not because we're good or because we've contributed anything additional to him, but because it's of his very nature to be self-giving. So it would be a mistake to say that because God doesn't need us, He doesn't love us very much. It's precisely because He doesn't have any needs that He has the most selfless, highest degree of agape love or self-giving, sacrificial love. Now just by way of illustration, it would be a mistake for us to say that we can only love a husband or a wife who still meets our needs. Or we can only love a person in the church who is lovable. I've read books that actually say you can't love others until you love and accept yourself. That's absolute nonsense. The Bible says the exact opposite. Here's what Christ says. Christ says you can't even be his disciple unless you hate your own flesh also. That's incredible. We tend to love people who are easy to get along with, who are fun, in some way meet our needs, but Christ commands us to love our enemies as well. If you have love for your enemies, you have begun to take on the character of divine love. Paul commanded us, let no one seek his own, but each one the other's well-being, 1 Corinthians 10.24. But because selfishness is so hateful to God, he is guaranteed that those who put themselves first will find themselves last. Those who seek their own welfare only will never be satisfied. Whereas God puts you first when you put yourself last. That's the cool thing about it. And so we can imitate the results of God's aseity, his communicable attributes, because God has promised to meet all of our needs in Christ Jesus. Now another practical implication of God's aseity is that this attribute means that God cannot be manipulated by us. I know I've already hinted at this. But the way some people pray, you would think God was dependent upon us. Listen to this quote from a popular book on the gospel. The author over and over paints God as dependent upon us and having needs. He says, God stands as a beggar at our door. He makes no effort to break in upon our independence. Well, that strips God of his Godhood. Our prayers need to be more full of praise for who he is, more full of scriptural promises that we're laying claim to, and more full of thanksgiving for what he has done. In other words, we need to be more God-centered. I was reading a blog where a reformed guy was arguing with a purpose-driven life guy. And the reformed guy was rightly arguing. that God was God-centered, and the purpose-driven life guy said that God was man-centered, or he'd be selfish. And he said no. God would cease to be God if he was not God-centered. So I hope by now you see the foolishness of a man-centered theology. It will strip God of his godhood and ironically rob man of all that man needs. I think it was Michael Horton who said that the God of evangelicals has become way too small. If we see God for who he really is and we see how feeble we really are, Our prayer life, far from being diminished, will be energized. We won't try to manipulate Him. Instead, we'll be able to pray in faith for this world's true needs and our true needs, knowing that God loves us and loves to give all good things. But we'll seek to glorify Him with everything that He gives to us. Next, God's aseity frees us up from having to impress God. That was the point of Psalm 50. Rather than bringing worship out of hearts of love and gratitude, the psalmist complains that the Israelites were seeking to impress God with their pomp and ceremony and the amount of skill and sacrifice that was involved in their worship. And what the psalmist is pointing out, God sees into the hearts. He sees whether we're worshiping out of love, or whether we're just doing it to worship or doing it to impress others. God would far rather be listening to singing that was off-key from hearts of love than to be listening to awesome bands and music that was right on tune, and yet they were doing it out of pride and self-seeking. So realizing that God isn't impressed, doesn't have needs, helps us to focus on what is important, relationship with Him, which again is the main theme of this mini-series. The next point says that if God needs nothing, that means that His actions towards others are self-giving rather than self-serving. And we need to interpret God's providences this way. When a tragedy hits you, If we really understand God's attributes, we'll be able to say with Joseph that God intended it for good. You meant evil against me, but God intended it for good. Others feel that maybe God doesn't care. God doesn't love me. He's being selfish with his abundance. He's holding out on me. God's wisdom assures us that this thing that came into our lives has meaning. It's rational. It's part of an all-wise plan. God's power assures us that God is in complete control. God's personality assures us that he's not done this in a cold and calculated way. And God's aseity assures us that there was not a speck of selfishness involved. And people say, yeah, well, what about sending people to hell? Well, I believe even the doctrine of reprobation shows God's aseity, that this is true. Romans 9 tells us that God endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted for destruction. Now, doing this was self-sacrificial. He endured with much longsuffering. Ephesians 3 tells us that God allowed all of this to show forth the glory of his attributes to the church. We would never have known the depths of God's love if God had not allowed sin. Nor would we have known his wrath, his justice, his mercy, or his other attributes to the same degree. So God benefited the church in all that he did. We've been seeing over the past four weeks, God is unbelievably generous in making all of his attributes work for our benefit. And it's this doctrine of aseity that enables that to be true. And I think we can encourage our hearts in that. God is the great I am who overflows in generosity to his people. Next, it means that even though God has made our work significant, the burden for success does not rest on our shoulders. Praise God. He has made us significant even though we're not needed. In Matthew 6, Jesus was speaking against the tyranny of the urgent that so many of us find ourselves involved in. And he said this, are you not of more value than they? God values you as a person, not just for what you produce. We have this tendency to think we're not going to be significant unless we produce a lot. No, God values you as a person, not just for what you produce. I praise God for that. It's liberating. The God who created the universe on day one could produce all of the works that every saint has produced from creation to the present in an instant. And so he doesn't need those works. He gives us those labors so that we share in his attributes, enter into his fellowship, and it's fellowship with the triune God that's the goal of all that we do. And that relates to the next point as well. It says it means that your relationship to God is more important than trying to impress God, Amos 5, 20 through 23. And God has ordained that it's better for us, Jeremiah 7, 21 through 23. Now in Amos, God actually despised the wonderful songs and sacrifices and all of the beautiful worship that they were offering up, and He despised it because they were offering these things out of relationship with Him. That means that their worship and service had actually lost its purpose. In Jeremiah 7, God said that the temple worship He instituted was not for the sake of worship. It's not worship for the sake of worship. It was to draw them into relationship with Him. We serve Him because He, not because He needs our service, but because we love Him and want to bless Him, just as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit love to bless each other. Next, even though we do not have a seate, since it's an incommunicable attribute, God does share the communicable attributes that flow out of His aseity. Generosity, love, responsibility, service. And I'll just illustrate with two verses from Galatians 6 that may at first seem contradictory, but I think it gives a balance. Just as each person of the Trinity loves, glorifies, serves, and points to the other persons of the Trinity, not to himself, Galatians 2.2 says, bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. But just as each person of the Trinity is utterly unselfish, verse 5 says, for each one shall bear his own load. So when each person not only bears his own load, but willingly serves other people's loads, it's a joy to serve and it's a joy to be served. And by the way, if you're unwilling to be served by others in the church, you're not imitating the Trinity either. I have known people who are so prideful, they will never allow anybody to serve them. They're not imitating the Trinity. And so Galatians 6, 2, and 5 illustrate this balance of serving selflessly, yet willing to be served. But another way that we can grow to appreciate God's aseity, and we'll end with this, is to not act as if we are self-sufficient. Unlike God, who is 100% independent of creation, 100% self-sufficient, we are 100% dependent upon Him and not sufficient to ourselves. And so while we serve God faithfully, we can acknowledge that even the things we're doing come from Him. In other words, we're totally dependent. I once read a book about the Amazon River. It's an incredibly huge river. It accounts for, let me get it here, one-fifth of all the fresh water that pours into the oceans of the world. At its estuary, it's 150 miles wide. mainstream is 50 miles wide. It's got such power that it pours fresh water 200 miles out into the ocean. So you could be completely out of sight of land and you're still in fresh water. Well, there are stories of sailing ships in the olden days that would be be calmed in the ocean far off of the South American coast and would run out of water. And one of the accounts that I read is the ship paddled out to another ship that was becalmed and said, can you spare a little bit of water? And the word that came back was, just lower your buckets. You're in the mighty mouth of the Amazon. So much water was available and yet thirsting to death. The doctrine of God's aseity assures us that there is no need for you to thirst. Because God has no need, he is always overflowing and supplying our needs. And so lower your buckets and drink from the living rivers of water that Christ offers in His grace. There is more than enough for your every need. Don't make excuses like Moses made to God. Believe Him, trust Him, go forth in obedience to His word. Amen. Father, we thank you that you are sufficient and more than sufficient for all of our needs. We thank you that you are so selfless. We want to become more and more selfless like you. We thank you for your generosity, for your agape love. We thank you that all of your attributes of holiness, patience, loving kindness, service, administration, all of the things that make you the incredible governor of this universe, are administered on our behalf, and we want to imitate you by being selfless ourselves. We know that we cannot do this in ourselves because we don't have a saiety, but we can become selfless as we drink of the grace that flows from Christ. So help us, day by day, moment by moment, to do this. In Jesus' name, amen.