5 things you may not realize about God - and why it matters...

Tonight we gather in the Fireside Room at NRN at 6:30pm for our Prayer Encounter.  As we prepare to meet this evening for prayer I would challenge us to think about our image of God. 
Have you ever spent much time thinking about what God is like? Maybe it’s just me, but I often wonder what it will be like when I get to heaven and get to meet Him face-to-face for the first time.

Will I be surprised by what He looks like?

Will I be caught off guard by any of His qualities?

And yet sometimes I forget I have a very real, very tangible representation of God’s character and presence right in front of me—Jesus.

John 5:19 (NIV) says: “Jesus gave them this answer: ‘Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.’”

In other words, Jesus is the exact representation of the Father. If we want to know what God is like, all we have to do is look to Jesus. And when we look to Jesus in the scriptures, we find some qualities of God that might sound surprising at first.

First, Jesus is fun.

Think about the wedding feast in Cana; Jesus turns the water into wine so the party can keep going. The party has already been going on for awhile, but Jesus isn’t shutting things down and telling people to go home and get a good night’s sleep. He’s providing everything they need to keep celebrating.

This is not a common message to hear from or among Christians, but it’s true.

God wants you to have fun.

Second, He is kind and compassionate.

Jesus heals people who are outcasts and rejects. Consider the lepers, for example, who were the lowest of low in society. There were rules about them being in public. They certainly weren’t allowed to touch people or be near any crowds.

And yet Jesus reaches out and touches them. Many times.

God is the kind of God who shows kindness to the “least of these,” the people everyone else rejects. Consider what this means for you: there is literally nothing you could do that would make you “untouchable” to the Father.

Isn’t that amazing?

Third, our Father is generous.

Jesus feeds five thousand people who come to hear Him preach and teach. And He doesn’t just feed them the bare minimum. He feeds them until they are full.

If you look in your life, you might see evidence of this, too.

God is a God who is generous and extravagant with His goodness toward us. He loves lavishly and fully. He has everything and holds nothing back from you.

Fourth, He is accepting.

God isn’t a judgmental God. Is that surprising to you? Many of us think of the Father as harsh and mean. But, He isn’t. You know how we know?

He doesn’t separate the righteous from the unrighteous. He’s doesn’t judge us. He loves us even though we are all messed up.

Think about Jesus when the woman caught in adultery was thrown down at His feet and the religious leaders were ready to stone her. After everyone had walked away, Jesus looked at her and said, “Where are those who condemn you?” Then Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.”

That’s how the Father is towards us.

The Father is forgiving, like Jesus with this woman. He is loving and tender, like Jesus with the kids who sat up in His lap.

Fifth, He is redeeming.

Think about Jesus with Zacchaeus, the tax collector who had cheated any number of people out of money. He was hated and ostracized in his community, but Jesus gave him another chance.

The Father is like this with you. He loves you just the way you are.

He accepts you even in your sins.

This is the Father who has adopted you into his family.

This all might seem a little commonplace. It might even feel like “review”—especially if you’ve been a Christian all of your life. But how you see the Father is so vital.

How you see the Father shapes the person you become.

Jesus was the man He was because—and only because—of the Father He had. He makes this clear on several occasions in scripture.

Look at John 8. Jesus is talking to some Jewish leaders and they are disagreeing with Jesus on how the Father acts towards His children. Jesus tells them if they listen to Him and do what He says, they will be free indeed. They argue that they have never been slaves. Jesus tells them if that were true, they wouldn’t be trying to kill Him. If His Father were their Father, they would be in the same family.

All I’ve done, Jesus reassures them, is act and speak like my Father. Then, in verse 38 Jesus says: “I am telling you what my Father has shown me.”

“But you do what your father has told you.” (John 8:38 ERV)

We become a representation of the image we have of the Father.

Ask yourself this: what thoughts do you have about the Father when you are in trouble or facing difficulty, when you’ve messed up or sinned? How do you think God thinks and acts towards you? How you think about Him will not only impact how you respond to Him, but it will also impact who you are becoming.

What is your image of the Father?