This is the 1st part of a 4-part discussion on God’s Expectations of us – – we encourage you to take this, read it and use it as a discussion guide with your family and others as you get together. Your interaction is welcome…
God created all therefore everything belongs to God…
The first expectation of God is that…
I. WE ACKNOWLEDGE GOD FOR WHO HE IS
In this article we are going to concentrate on how to practice this …
Another word for Acknowledging God for who He is – is Worship –
It’s giving to God the credit HE deserves.
In order to acknowledge God for who He is we must:
Know Him,
Believe that He is and is worthy to be acknowledged
And also the better we know Him the better we can acknowledge Him.
We need to come and worship God and worship Him with everything that is in us.
We need to let our bodies in on what’s going on!
Is it OK to:
• sing in church
• stand, sit, kneel in church
• clap our hands
• lift our hands
• applaud the Lord (give praise and honor the Lord right now?)
• dance
• jump, leap, cry laugh….
It’s all found in Scripture – God wants us to come to Him with our whole being
From the Scriptures we can assume that God created for a purpose -Look at His Word – God wants us to enjoy Him and honor Him:
Rev 4:11 “You are worthy, O Lord our God, to receive glory and honor and power. For you created everything, and it is for your pleasure that they exist and were created.”
II. WE ACKNOWLEDGE GOD BECAUSE WE ARE CREATED FOR HIS PLEASURE
Psalm 149:4 For the LORD takes pleasure in His people…
Read Nehemiah 8 – How is the Word of God treated and responded to? What do the people do when they hear the Word? Do they acknowledge God? How?
We are created for God’s pleasure …
Go through Psalm 139 – How does the Psalmist emphasize our need to Acknowledge God?
Psalm 139 reveals how God owns everything and we need to acknowledge Him for what He has done. Because He has created us for His Own Pleasure!
ALSO…
III. WE ACKNOWLEDGE GOD IN OUR DAILY LIVES
It’s one thing to acknowledge God in worship at church
What about our daily lives.
Look at Deuteronomy 6 Acknowledging God
Is continuous God – all the time – everywhere – everyplace – that’s not popular but that’s what it takes to live in victory in this world – spontaneity of the heart
People in the Old Testament times got into trouble when they failed to acknowledge God –
The children of Israel did some pretty stupid things crossing the wilderness – picture it…
God brought them out of Egypt with a mighty hand – through many signs and wonders – even to the death of every first born in Egypt including the first born of the animals.
God made such an impact that the Egyptians begged them to leave and paid them to do so – they left wealthy beyond their imaginations.
God lead the out – through the Red Sea on dry ground – they saw their enemies buried at sea – guided by a pillar of cloud that blocked the hot sun during the day – and a pillar of fire at night that kept them warm. This was a very visible sign of God’s presence.
God provided them food from the sky (manna and quail) and water from rocks – for 40 years of wandering their clothing never wore out.
Did they acknowledge God for His provision?
They complained over and over again – often asking to go back to Egypt where they had leaks and garlic (forgetting their slavery).
They never trusted or acknowledged God for who He was and is for very long.
They were into the trinity of self “Me”, “Myself”, and “I”!
God disciplined them – they had failed in responsibility, accountability and there were dire consequences for their failure.
Often even the most godly failed to acknowledge God – Moses and Aaron at the waters of Meribah (Numbers 20:24; Ex. 17:7) and they never entered the promised land. They let their anger against the people cloud what God was doing.
Once in the land of Canaan (Joshua 9:14) – the Gibeonites come to Joshua and the leaders pretending to be from a distant land (in reality they were from just over the hill) – the make a treaty with them without consulting God. Failure to acknowledge God
We fail to Acknowledge God when we do it on our own, in our own strength (we act or plan first, then ask God to bless us).
In the New Testament – it was Ananias and Saphira who failed to acknowledge God – they sold land and lied about it to the Apostles and God – the consequences was death.
When we fail to acknowledge God there are consequences.
We must be Acknowledging God in our Daily Lives
IV. WE ACKNOWLEDGE GOD FOR WHO HE IS AND WHAT HE HAS DONE AND IS DOING
We need to acknowledge God in our daily lives.
Begin by asking God when you rise up: “Lord, how can I acknowledge you today?” – Then start looking where God is going to show you where and how for that day.
At the end of your day ask God as you lay your head on your pillow – “Lord where have I acknowledged you today and where have I failed to do so?” (Confess and start afresh – see Lamentations 3:22-23)
It might be something as simple as a quick quiet prayer acknowledging God several times throughout your day.
It might be something more direct of responding to someone’s need with the Love of Christ.
Sometimes you “Praise the Lord” publicly, verbally, honestly, other times quietly between you and God – but it must always begin in your heart – see what Jesus said in Luke 6:45 and John 4:24…
Acknowledging God is not hard when we remember that we must – but we have an enemy who doesn’t want us to do it –
He ties us up in all sorts of cares and things of the world that make us forget or even worse tells us – it’s all about ME not HIM (God).