Free files for youth pastors:

02 – Doctrine of God: God is Great (ppt)

02 – Doctrine of God: God is Great (mp3)

02 – Doctrine of God: God is Great (fillout sheet)

02 – Doctrine of God: God is Great (notes)

One question I love to get students thinking about is “What kind of spouse do you want to live with for the rest of your life?” I want them to go ahead and think of those real important qualities that truly matter as that will affect both who and how they date. If you’re a student reading this, go ahead and do that now… In the same way, God has qualities and characteristics. They are what we call His attributes. Who do you imagine God to be? Do you know what God is REALLY like? God wants us to know Him!

As always, Satan wants to mess things up and get people to believe false truths about who God is. One heresy out there is called “Process Theology” which says that God is always changing and growing along with the creation. Another heresy is “Open Theism” which is a fasle view of God’s knowledge saying that God doesn’t really know the future but the future is wide-slap open to Him. He doesn’t know what will happen.

As those are obvious heresies (false doctrines) of God, let’s move on to what is true about who God really is. Remember, when we are talking about this, we are talking about a TRIUNE God who is ONE. We aren’t just talking about the Father, nor are we just talking about the Son or the Holy Spirit. But these attributes are for all 3 Persons of the Trinity who make up one GOD! And God is all about the glory of the Son.

Now read Psalm 145. Here, David is listing many of God’s attributes. He says that God is so great that even if we sit and try to imagine the greatness of God for the rest of our lives…we’ll never be able to imagine Him as great in our minds as He truly is (Psalm 145:3). God’s attributes can be divided into His greatness and His goodness. The first area of God’s attributes is His greatness. There are a lot of great people in the world, but usually if they have become great, they are no longer good. Likewise, those who are usually very good to us aren’t seen as great in the world’s eyes. When we see God in His greatness, then we will be more thankful for His goodness. So let’s look at His greatness!

The greatness of God is His transcendence (glory over all creation). He is…

Unrivaled (Sovereign): God answers to no one. There are no other gods before God. No one can take His throne or rule. He is God over all whether spirit, human, or creature.

Self-Sufficient (Aseity): God relies on no one. God eternally exists on His own. He needs no one to create Him, care for Him, or serve Him. He sufficiently exists in Trinity.

Eternal: God has and will always exist. He is not bound by time. There has never been a time when He didn’t exist. God will eternally rule over creation through His Son.

Spirit: God has no body or form. God is not the old man in the long, white beard nor is He the figure in a glowing, white robe. God is Spirit. That is why God-idols are sin.

Unchanging (Immutability): in His person, plan, etc. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. God does not grow in Godliness because then He wasn’t God before.

All-Powerful (Omnipotent): God can do anything possible. There is nothing within God’s holy character that He cannot do. God does whatever fulfills His purposes.

All-Knowing (Omniscient): God knows everything perfectly. God knows the future perfectly, He knows each person personally, and even knows all possibilities fully.

All-Present (Omnipresent): God is everywhere at all times. God is everywhere at all times including all places and all times. Even hell is the presence God in His wrath.

God said that He created humanity in His image (Genesis 1:26-28). Many people say that God’s lesser attributes (attributes of goodness) are only those that God has shared with us. I don’t think so. I think God has also shared with us His attributes of greatness to some degree either now or in eternal life. God’s image in man is sharing everything that He is with us. Yet we will never fully become a God! So, know God to be you.