God's Personality (5)

What is a wonderful privilege to be able to study the character and the nature and the attributes of our great God, the one who is the great I am, the one who is above all, and his sovereign is ruling on his throne, his wonderful privilege to be able to explore what God's Word says about him. And that's what we're attempting to do to find out what the Bible teaches about God, and that's the title of our study, what the Bible says, or what the Bible teaches about God. Certainly, there's much more even in the Word of God than we can possibly grasp or fully understand about God, but we're doing our best to find some of the truths and see, at least in simple terms, what the Bible teaches about God. We've spent several weeks now talking about the personality of God, and just to remind you once again that we're not talking about personality in the terms that we typically think of it, of having an outgoing personality or an introverted or pleasant personality or a dominant personality. That's not the way we're using the Word. We're using the Word personality in its truest sense, the qualities of personhood, the fact that God really is a person. He is not an influence of force and idea, anything like that, which most Eastern religions, by the way, teach that God is. That he is just a force or an idea or a state of being or something like that. But God is a real person as the Bible describes him. And we're taking the seven common characteristics of personality or personhood and finding that they all are found ascribed to God in the Word of God. So we've looked at the fact that he is living, he is intelligent, he is purposive. In other words, he acts with a goal in mind. He is free, he is not constrained by anything in his creation. He is self-conscious, he is totally aware of who he is, what he thinks, what he plans, not like the the bird that we were talking about last week that sees itself in the mirror and pecks at that image in the mirror, not realizing that that is him or her. Not going to try to decide which gender that dumb bird may be. That's too dangerous. Any bird just does not have that kind of self-consciousness. And then we saw that God is emotional in the sense that God has genuine feelings without being mixed with human imperfections and weaknesses. God has genuine feelings and we looked at a number of those last week. We're going to look at the last characteristic of personhood tonight. And that is the fact that God is spirit. God is spirit. Now we as people have a spirit. Animals have some form of self-awareness, but not a spirit. And so a person has a spirit. God is a spirit. God is pure spirit. And we're going to see what that means tonight, at least, as best we can understand or as best as my simple mind can explain it at least. Let's begin in John chapter 4, verse 24. Very familiar passage in John chapter 4, where Jesus is speaking with the woman of the well about her spiritual need. And that great example of connecting with people and witnessing to people begins with common ground, talking about the need for physical water and leads from that directly into the need for spiritual water, the water that is everlasting that springs up from within. Wells up to eternal life. Jesus says in verse 14. And as he gets deeper into the conversation, he points out her sinfulness. He says, go call your husband, come back. And she says, I have no husband. He says, you're right. When you say you have no husband, the fact is you've had five husbands. The man you have now is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true. He says that in verse 18. So she's beginning to get very uncomfortable by this point and wants to change the subject. And so she says, sir, I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem. I'm in verse 20 now. So she wants to change the subject, but she also is asking a very legitimate question when she perceives it as a prophet. She wants clarification as to what is the appropriate place to worship because Jews worship in Jerusalem. Her Samaritan forebears have always worshiped on that mountain just outside of Cicare. He says, woman, believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the father, neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem, use Samaritan's worship. What you do not know, we worship what we do know for salvation is from the Jews. Now here's the point, verse 23 that I'm getting to. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the father in the spirit and in truth for they are the kind of worshipers the father seeks. God is spirit. And his worshipers must worship in the spirit or in spirit and in truth. There's some questions whether or not he's talking about the Holy Spirit there or worship him with our spirit. Our spirit can connect with God because he is spirit and we are created with the spirit. So God is a spirit. God is a spirit being. Jesus' point basically is that the geographical location of worship, the place of worship, is not important because God is a spirit. He is not restricted to a particular location. So you cannot say this is the only place where God can be worshiped because God is spirit. He does not reside in one location where he is worshiped. He's spirit. One other passage which is not quite as clear and strong but at least bears on the topic and that is Hebrews 12.9 where there's an interesting name used or title used of God. In talking about the fact that God disciplines us as his children, he gives the illustration the writer of Hebrews does of fathers disciplining their children. He says in verse 7, in door hardship, as discipline God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? If you're not disciplined and everyone undergoes discipline then you are not legitimate but not true sons and daughters at all. Now verse 9, moreover we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the father of spirits and live? The main title Father of Spirits which seems to indicate that God is the originator of our spirit and thus makes the connection between us because we have a spirit and God who is a spirit. Remember we've talked about the fact that our spirit basically enables us to communicate with God and to relate to Him. We'll talk a little bit more about that in just a little bit. But even that title indicates that God Himself is a spirit being kind of a backdoor way of saying it but does at least indicate that. So God is a spirit. God is pure spirit. Before we flesh out what that means, any questions or comments? Yes John. When the true worshippers were worshipped the father in spirit and truth. What the end truth is. I think the truth that Jesus is referring to in John 4 in case you may not have heard John in the back is asking in John 4 when Jesus says worship and spirit and truth. What is the truth? What is that referring to? There are a couple different ways of looking at that. Some people believe it means insincereity and truthfulness from our perspective. I personally believe that Jesus is talking about in line with truth which is the Bible. So our worship is in spirit. In other words our spirit connects with God. So we worship Him in spirit in the sense that we worship Him with all that we are. All that we are. Our whole spirit connects with Him in worship. But our worship is also to be in line with truth, the truth of God's word and those two balance each other by the way. There are a lot of folks who say well I worship Him in spirit. Why does it let everything go and I just let myself go and I just worship Him whatever comes to mind or whatever I feel like and that can get wild and woolly because that must be balanced with the truth of God's word. I guess I have on my mind right now a conference that is going out right now as I speak in Master's Seminary and Grace Community Church John MacArthur is leading a conference on Strange Fire, the name of the conference. It's about the Charismatic Movement and he's dealing with this very thing brought in a banner group of speakers to be in this conference dealing with the fanaticism within the Charismatic Movement or some of the many of the fringe elements of the Charismatic Movement. And so that's kind of where my thought is right now. There is a lot of Strange Fire out there. And the balance with worshiping in spirit is to worship in truth, those two balance each other and both are important. It's not enough just to worship Him in truth either just make sure okay Bible, Bible, Bible but have no spirit with it, no real hard involvement just all like a pouring computer calculating everything about God just worshiping Him in truth, the two are balanced must be balanced. I think Walt had his hand up first and then we'll come to Margaret okay Walt. In the context of God's Father of Jesus, that's the purpose of God's Father of Spirit, the reason for the suffering of the Father of Spirit and the Father of Jesus. I'm not sure how to answer that. God is the Father of Jesus not in the sense that Jesus was born from the Father as we think of a Father. And that gets into a debate that has raged throughout church history on the eternal generation of the Son, is what theologians call it, has Jesus always been the Son of the Father? And I would say yes, there was not a point in time where He became the Son, where He was born. Okay, so we can't really think in terms of God being Jesus' Father in the sense that we think of a Father and a Son. It's the relationship is the same but it did not originate the same way, maybe that's the best way to put it. But the Father of Spirit, God did originate man's spirit when He breathed into Adam and so that's where that comes from. Okay, oh Margaret, I'm sorry, but forget about you, sorry. We get to know about the cares made and that if you went in all the trouble of what it is possible to see things getting there and maybe they don't get lost. Certainly is possible, the question is with an unrestrained expression of the Spirit, is it possible for Satan to get in and manipulate that? And it certainly is possible. I think we have to be careful not to ascribe to Satan, we have to be careful about saying, oh that's the devil, that's the devil. If it's clearly against the scriptures then we could say that confidently but it is quite possible for Satan to be involved in that kind of thing. Because we know that He mimics and imitates whatever God does, He's a deceiver and He imitates, I mean classic example, in the tribulation time, He will imitate the Trinity. You know, with Himself and the Antichrist and the false prophet and He will imitate the miracles of Jesus, He will imitate the resurrection of Jesus with the Antichrist. He will imitate, He's a great imitator and Paul speaks of that in 2 Corinthians chapter 11 where he talks about being deceived from the simplicity that is in Christ through the devil himself. So yeah, the devil can get into any movement including unrestrained emotional expression in worship if it's not balanced with truth. Okay, yes, Robin? Yes, yes, there is that in what Jesus is saying, the fact that Jesus is introducing a form of worship through His death on the cross and the spread of the gospel that will not be geographically centered in one location. Now, we have to be a little careful with that because people were able to worship even in the Old Testament outside of the temple but there were certain religious observances and spiritual ceremonies and so forth that were restricted to the temple. But the word of God was taught in 48 cities where the Levites lived and taught people and so forth. So there was, but the actual worship itself was restricted to the temple. And that's broadened greatly in Jesus' ministry. So yes, you're right, or Jesus introducing the church. Yes. Okay. You ready? Ready to move on? All right, what spirit means? What does it mean that God is a spirit? First of all, it means that God has no body. Now, don't put no embodied together. It doesn't mean God has nobody, but God has no physical body. Okay. Look at Luke 24, Luke 24 verse 39. This is after the resurrection when Jesus appears in the upper room to the disciples. It hasn't been too long ago where we were looking at this passage in our series in the life of Christ. They're startled in verse 37 and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. The Greek word is Numa, which is the word for spirit. Now, the older versions use the word spirit. Newer versions use the word ghost because that's what we would relate to. But it really is the word spirit. They were thinking they were seeing an apparition, some kind of ghost or spirit being they didn't think it was really Jesus. He said to the verse 38, why are you troubled? Why do doubts rise in your minds? Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself. Touch me and see a ghost or, again, Numa spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have. So Jesus is making the point that a pure spirit and thus a pure spirit being has no flesh and bones. Now, a spirit may inhabit a body but pure spirit has no body. A pure spirit being is without a body. So when we say that God is spirit we're saying God has no body. Now, I know what some of you are thinking. Wait a second. The Bible talks about if you'll hang onto that thought we're going to get to that in just a minute. Okay, a few minutes. But just pure terminology, spirit means he does not have a body. Secondly, it means that God is invisible and incorruptible. God is invisible and incorruptible. Actually, these verses are on the screen, aren't they? And so was Luke 24, sorry about that. John 118. No one has ever seen God but the one and only son who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father has made him known. Okay, notice the first expression there in that verse no one has ever seen God. Jesus makes him known in flesh and bones in a visible form but no one has ever seen God. Now, I know you got questions about that too. We will get to those in a few moments of hang on, hang on to those questions. But the idea is that God as a spirit is not visible to us. No one has ever seen him. Look at the next verse, 1 Timothy 117. Now to the king, eternal, immortal, invisible. The only God, the honor and glory forever and ever, amen. So God is invisible. He is not visible to the human eye. He is also immortal which means what? Forever never dies. Okay, he does not decay or die which is another way of saying he does not age. He does not decay. He does not have a human body. A body. Alright, so he is immortal, incorruptible is another way to say it and he is invisible. The third verse is 1 Timothy 6, 15 to 16, which God will bring about in his own time. God, the blessed and only ruler, the king of kings and lord of lords, who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, who no one has seen or can see. So again, God is invisible. He does not have a body and God is immortal. He does not age or decay. So that is another meaning of the idea of spirit. The third meaning of this is that God has no earthly or physical resemblance. There is nothing to compare him to in an earthly or physical way. We are going to look at these verses and draw a couple of inferences from them and then we will open it up for questions. Exodus 20 verse 4, this is part of the Ten Commandments. You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. Now what is he guarding them against doing? What is he not wanting them to do? He does not want anything to come before God, anything to be worshiped instead of God. Isn't there kind of a slippery slope to that though? If you try to picture God or make some kind of representation of God, then that object that is your representation of God becomes very precious to you, very sacred to you, and inevitably because we are flesh and blood and we relate to what we see, we tend to then begin to think of that rather than God. And our worship, our allegiance, shifts over to that. That is the reason for that warning. God says, don't do that. Don't try to make an image of God is the intent. Don't try to make a physical representation of God in any form, whether it is anything in heaven above or on earth or in the waters, anything. Don't do that because the natural tendency will then be to slip into a very literal form of idolatry, where the object that represents God becomes God or becomes so sacred and special that it is treated as though it were God. This is very clear in Deuteronomy 4. Notice these verses. God says to the people of Israel, you saw no form of any kind the day the Lord spoke to you at horror about of the fire. Therefore watch yourselves very carefully so that you do not become corrupt and make for yourselves an idol, an image of any shape, whether formed like a man or a woman or like any animal on earth or any bird that flies in the air or like any creature that moves along the ground or any fish in the waters below. And when you look up to the sky and see the sun, the moon and the stars, all the heavenly array do not be enticed into bowing down to them and worshipping things, the Lord your God has apportioned to all the nations under heaven. Now everything that the nation of Israel was warned against there has happened in other cultures and it would eventually happen in Israel too. Every form of idolatry mentioned nations are guilty of. It just shows the human tendency to want to have something we can see that we fear, that we reverence, that we worship and it goes on in verse 23 to say be careful not to forget the covenant of the Lord your God that he made with you. Do not make for yourselves an idol in the form of anything the Lord your God has forbidden that's kind of the summary what we just saw. Note the warning about making any likeness of God. Don't try to make any image that represents God because that image then becomes sacred, it's just an inevitable tendency to fall into idolatry. So God being spirit means he has no body, he's incorruptible, he's invisible and he has no earthly or physical resemblance. There's nothing that we should try to picture him as in his creation. Now there are definitely some problems in understanding this truth. In grasping what's being said here with the fact that God is a spirit, he has no body, he's invisible, there are some difficulties in understanding that and one of them is this. Man is created in God's image. Let's look at the verses and then we'll grapple with what that means the verses in Genesis 1. Then God said let us make mankind in our image in our likeness so that they may rule over the fish of the sea birds of the sky, livestock and all the wild animals over all the creatures that move along the ground. So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created the male and female he created them. God has no body, he's invisible and yet he made us in his image. What does that mean? Does it mean that we physically resemble God? What does that mean? We have a lot of traits that are invisible, okay? All right. Speaking of our spirit, okay? Both of those thoughts are involved here. Is he talking about a physical likeness? Did God make us in his physical likeness? He can't have? He doesn't have a physical likeness, he has no body, so we are not made in his image in the sense that we look like him. Okay? What then is the image and likeness of God? What is yes? He's invisible in his image, he's always the same. Okay? All right. If there was a physical resemblance then we would all look the same. That's very possible. Yes. Is the image in the spirit, can that be a connection there? You're being likeness. To a spirit being? Yeah. We're not doing something with the image. Yeah, we've got to do something with the image. You're right. It means something. You have the path that keeps you in the breath of self-right. Okay. All right. What have we just finished studying? The personality of God, characteristics like he's living, he's purpose of, he's free, he's intelligent, and so the characteristics of personality, all of them have to do with inward characteristics. That touch on the idea of the spirit or who we are inside as persons. It is at least partly in that sense, I believe, that the Bible speaks of us being made in God's image. Remember, we talked about this, I think maybe last week, that when we talk about the qualities of personhood and then ascribe them to God, we're really doing it backwards. God has not made an eye image. It's not like, okay, we know what personhood means, what it means to be a person. So let's go back and find out if that's true of God and then we can say God is a person. That's kind of the way we've proved God's personality. But the actual reality is the opposite. God is the true person and we are made in his image. We are living purpose of free, although that's compromised somewhat by the sin nature, as we've seen. All of those characteristics we have because God had them first, okay, and he made us in his image. And so we are persons because we got that from him, not the other way around. So at least in that sense, it means that. But there's another sense in which the image and likeness of God is intended. What do you think that might be? Just issues of personality, but issues of morality. Did I hear that? That's what I was wanting to hear. Morality. We share a moral likeness with God. In other words, we have the capacity as human beings to detect the difference between right and wrong. There is a moral likeness, okay? Conscience is included in that, yes. But it's not the sum of it. It's not the whole of it. Conscience is a function of our immaterial being, just like our mind, our emotion, our will, our soul, our spirit. Conscience is another function of our immaterial part. So it's included, yes. But it's not the whole of it. Yes. So I feel so good. Yes. Yes. Once we are conceived, our spirit is immortal. It is not eternal. And I'm glad you choose the word immoral. It is not eternal because that would mean it existed before we were conceived. And there are some cults that believe that. We don't believe the Bible teaches that. The soul, and this gets into the doctrine of man, the soul is passed down through our parents, just like our material characteristics, our immaterial characteristics are too. But there's a beginning point to that. But once our soul is conceived, once we are conceived, the soul will last forever. But there is a moral likeness to God. God has made us with the capacity to relate to him, to understand the difference between right and wrong. That has been damaged in the fall, but it is still a part of the image of God in us. Because James 3, in talking about speech, our speech is, how can you bless God? And then at the same time, curse man who has made in God's image. Okay. We are in God's image, even though that image has been marred by the fall and our sin, we still bear the image of God. We are his image bearers. So we're created in God's image, but that does not mean a physical resemblance. It means that we have personality. We are persons like he is because he created us that way. And we have a moral likeness. We have the capacity to understand the difference between right and wrong and relate to him on that level. Is that ever changed in the way you see Christ? What is the difference? That theory never changes in the way as far as our likeness is for Christ. Is that we really feel the truth in Christ? Yes. The whole theory. Yes. Now, our likeness, our ability to truly reflect the image of God has been seriously marred by sin and by the fall. But it's interesting that Paul talks about its ineffesis 4, I believe, where he talks about being restored to the image of God as God works with us in sanctification and causing us to become more like Christ. We are being restored to his image. So that is the work that God is doing in us after salvation. Terribly ruined by the fall, but being restored as God grows us in Christ. Yes, John? Does a serial killer know the difference between right and wrong? By that point, probably not, although he may. Here we are getting into the area where a person's conscience or their ability to hear the voice of God's spirit, and it is God's Holy Spirit that is that link between our spirit and God. Where a person's ability to either reflect a good conscience or hear the Holy Spirit can be deadened. You know, Paul speaks of a seared conscience, one that's been burned, cauterized, or where it has no feeling anymore. And that can happen to where a person does not any longer distinguish the difference between right and wrong. But that's because of a continual pattern of sin that has deadened the conscience and further damage that reflection of the image of God. Some of them just have mental illness. That's certainly true in some cases. Yes. Byron? Yes. And what you're touching on there is a very good blending of what the Bible uses these two terms, soul and spirit. The soul is our self-awareness. It's the Greek word, suke, that we get our word psychology from. And the whole science of the functioning of the human mind is really a reflection of the biblical concept of the soul. And the soul does overlap with the spirit, although they have two different functions, there's a lot of overlap, even to the point that the Hebrew and Greek words for soul and spirit are sometimes used interchangeably in the Bible. So that's a good point. There can very well be a connection between a person's ability to function mentally and their understanding of right and wrong. But let me say this too. Both have been damaged by the fall and both can be further corrupted by repeated sin. Okay. Pat? Oh, yes. God does communicate with us through our conscience. It is not a hundred percent reliable because our conscience can be damaged by sin too. But God does speak to us through our conscience. I mean, Romans 2 talks about that. That that pagan Gentiles know the difference between right and wrong simply by the conscience that God works through. Paul talks about that Romans 2. So yes, God does work through our conscience. But here's the difference. God's spirit is always hundred percent a reliable guide. Our conscience can fail us because like any other part of our being, our emotions, our will, our mind, whatever, our conscience can be twisted and perverted by sin. We're deadened. So it's not not a hundred percent reliable, but God does speak through our conscience. No question. Okay. This is fun. This is really getting fun. Number two, let's let's take a look at that. I would like to finish this, but I don't think we're going to get to another difficulty is bodily expressions that are used of God in the Bible. Doesn't the Bible talk about the hand of the Lord? Doesn't the Bible talk about the arm of the Lord has done this? Doesn't the Bible say his feet? You know, tread upon the mountains. Doesn't say the mouth of the Lord has spoken this. The eyes of the Lord go to and fro throughout the earth. Seeking whose pure and heart toward him. Doesn't the Bible say the ear of the Lord is not dull hearing to hear our prayers? Doesn't the Bible use bodily terms of God? So how can we say that God does not have a body that he is a spirit? Pardon me? He's helping us to understand. Okay. Hang on to that thought. Anything else here? You know, it really frustrates the discussion when somebody gives the right answer very first thing. You know, it just there's no good of given thick. Exactly. Put those two together now. How could we understand how a spirit being can hear without envisioning ears? I mean, as physical beings, we communicate, we associate hearing with ears. We associate speaking with an elf. We associate strength with an arm or the leg or something like that. The back or whatever. So God is simply communicating to us in language that we understand. The Bible is not saying God literally has arms, feet, mouth, eyes, whatever, but it is for our benefit so that we can understand his character and his working. That the Bible uses these word pictures, we might call them or metaphors to describe how God works. Okay. I think that's I think that's the answer. So we solved that one pretty easily. Any question there? About that. Okay, let's at least start the last one. I don't know that we'll be able to finish it. Visible manifestations of God. In other words, the Bible. The Bible does say that some people saw God. It says that nobody can see God, but then it does say some people did see God. So is there a contradiction there? We saw the verse in John 118 earlier. No man has ever seen God, but the one and only Christ visibly manifests him in his incarnation. But then there are passages like Genesis 32 20. I wish I had put these on the screen for sake of time. But Genesis 32 20 when Jacob has wrestled with the angel of the Lord and he says in verse 20. It's later in the chapter. Jacob wrestles with God beginning in verse 22. It's verse 30. So Jacob called the place. It's a place. Penny ale saying it is because I saw God face to face and yet my life was spared. Okay, there are other passages like this. For instance, in Exodus 24, 10 where the elders and Moses see God on the mount. Horob, even though the Bible says you can never see God, but listen to this. It's better to make the case by reading the passage. Exodus 24, verse 10. Verse 9 says Moses and Aaron, they dabbing abih you in the 70 elders of Israel went up, verse 10 and saw the God of Israel under his feet was something like a pavement made of lapis lazuli as bright blue as the sky. Okay, no one has ever seen God, but then the Bible says they saw God. And there are other passages like this too. Samson's parents say we have seen God. Okay, what what is happening there? What? How can both of those be true? A vision? Theophany where God makes an appearance in a form that we can see. I think that's part of the answer. I think that does at least answer some of these appearances. What John has mentioned, but we have a theophany is that at times God will manifest himself in a way which causes us to be able to see him. It is not looking at the pure glory of God in his spirit form. When the Bible says no man has seen God nor can any man see him, that's what it's talking about. That we cannot see God in his spirit being pure full glory. In fact, you remember the story of Moses in Exodus 32 asking to see God's glory and God said no man can see my face. And he said, I'll hide you in the cleft of the rock and I'll pass by and you can see the after effects of my glory, but you can't look on my glory and live. So when the Bible says no man has seen God, it means nobody has seen God looked him in the face in all of his glory, but sometimes God does manifest himself in a physical way so that he appears. But God must take on a physical form willingly in order for that to happen. Yeah, good question, Barry. Does the fall have something to do with that? Yes, because God did walk in the garden. Although even there he may have, he obviously took on some kind of physical form. So he clothed himself in a physical form. So even there it may have been, it may have been a physical manifestation of God and not in his pure glory. Right. Yeah, that's what that's what Barry was saying that because man had not yet sinned before sin, that was possible. Let me just throw this out and then we've got to go. It's two minutes after already. Will we see God in heaven? It's a wonderful thought and I believe the answer is yes. I wish we could discuss this more, but I believe the answer is yes. Read Revelation 224 when it says we will see his face, talks about God and the Lamb and we will see his face. If we cannot see God now in his glory, then why can we see him in heaven? We'll be a glorified body, right? No man can see God and live in all of his glory because we are limited to the kind of body we have and limited by our sins. We are not limited to the kind of body we have. We are not limited to the kind of body we have and limited by our sins. I believe in heaven and there is some controversy about this, not everybody agrees with this, but I do believe in heaven that we will see him. Revelation 21 and 22 seems to describe him being with us and us seeing him face to face. He said that to people in their physical bodies while he was on earth and so he was saying what John says in John 118, no man has ever seen God, but Christ has manifested him. So if you've seen him, you've seen God. You've seen the Father. But I don't know that that will be the same in eternity future. I think we will see God the Father. I don't think I will be disappointed either way. You have a songwriter that says that and I think maybe he got it right from Revelation 22 and 24. Okay, we've got to go or the kids will tear down the building before we're able to get to them. So let's go. Let's pray. Father, thank you for the awesome privilege of exploring you, getting to know you better. Lord, it is of your grace that you even allow us to look into your word and find out more about you. And so we thank you for the opportunity and privilege to do that. As we learn more about you, may we come to know you better and understand who we are in comparison to your greatness, your awesomeness, in Jesus' name, amen.