Understanding

Understanding God

(1 Corinthians 2:9-16)

Truth: God reveals himself through his Spirit

Opening Illustration:

Last week my little boy was watching a biblical based cartoon. The cartoon was about the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. After the cartoon was over he looked at his mom and made this statement. I sure am glad I watched that cartoon today. Robin knowing something else was on his mind asked him why. He said to her Now I know what Jesus looks like in case He ever comes to our church.

I don't know about you but I am like Price. I want to know what God looks like. I want to understand where He lives. I want to know what God has got in store for me. I want to know what He thinks about. I also want to understand Him when He talks.

Before I became a Christian I always heard people talking about seeing the hand of God. Or sometimes I would here people say that God spoke to them almost audibly. Man I wanted to hear God speak to me. I had so many questions I wanted to ask Him. So this is what I did. I would get by myself and I would talk to God but I never heard him say anything. So after several years I ended up accepting Christ as my savior. One day I had a chance to ask a pastor about what God sounds like when He talks. I figured if anyone knows what God sounds like it's a pastor. He explained to me that God speaks to spiritually. So then when I prayed a sat down and closed my eyes and I would see this little blue light swirling around like a cloud it would get closer and then it would go away. I figured that was my Spirit that I was looking at. So I would sit there and try to concentrate hard enough to see if God would show up in that blue light. He never did. As I grew in the Lord I began to understand what it meant to hear God and to see God's hand in my life. I began to understand what happened to me when I became a Christian.

Transition:

Since then I have talked to many people who have the same questions I did. Where is God? How do you here Him and I don't? What does He look like? How do you know when God is talking to you? I think it is safe to say that everyone in here wants to understand God more. Tonight we are going to see how to understand God. Romans 8:9 tells us that if you are really a child of God than you have the Holy Spirit indwelling inside of you. When you become a Christian, when you bow down and ask Jesus to be Lord of your life, then the Spirit of God comes inside of you and regenerates you. Basically the Spirit makes you a new creation, but He does not leave He stays inside you. Some of you think I am talking craziness again but it is true. If you are truly a Christian than the Spirit of God lives inside of you. Tonight we are going to see that through this spirit that lives inside of you God reveals Himself.

Let's look together at 1 Corinthians 2: 9-16

Paul through this text points out 3 ways that the Holy Spirit reveals God to us.

Point 1:

Through the Holy Spirit God reveals His grace/blessings

Paul quotes Isaiah 64:4 by telling us that "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the hearts of man, The things which God has prepared for those