It’s a popular phrase today, “I deserve”. People all over saying “well I deserve this or I deserve that”. We all feel like there is something we all deserve, that we are entitled to. Whether it’s to be treated a certain way, or to have a good life, maybe we deserve a raise, or just to be heard. But what about God, what does He deserve? Sometimes we get so caught up in our own lives we seldom think of what others might deserve and probably never even think about what God deserves.
What does God deserve today? “Well He’s God He always has what He wants.” Not true. Surprisingly, and sadly, God doesn’t always get what He is so deserving of. Well, that should change. We want to focus in on what we think God really deserves. In this multipart series we will be looking at things we believe that God is deserving of.
PART 1: God deserves to be SEEN
We all want to be seen, to be noticed, so you know what I’m talking about here. And we’re just human, not much to look at really, not that exciting. God is so amazing, so wonderful, He deserves to be seen for who He really is, not who we have made him out to be. We all think we know exactly who God is and what he looks like. But all too often our image of God is way off and isn’t based on actually seeing Him but on ideas and traditions passed down by others who they themselves probably had never truly seen the Lord.
“How many churches are full of people and even pastors and leaders who have never really encountered God”
Whoa, hold on a second there, let’s look at this even closer. How many churches are full of people and even pastors and leaders who have never really encountered God, have never really seen who He truly is. But yet they still get together week after week serving a God they don’t even know. They only have an idea, a picture of who God is and what He looks like, but most times that picture isn’t even close to who God really is. God is far better than we can imagine and God deserves to be seen, really seen, for who He really is, not what we and the world and religion have made him out to be. People today have so many opinions about who God is and what He wants and yet most of these people have no idea what God really looks like.
Who are you Lord?
Find this hard to believe? Ok, let’s go even farther. Take Saul of Tarsus who later became the Apostle Paul. When Paul was Saul he encountered God on the road to Damascus. In fact, he encountered God in such a dramatic, powerful and totally unexpected way, that it shocked Paul. Instead of “oh hey God it’s you”, His response was “who are you! Who is this radiant powerful all consuming Person who has just completely brought me to my knees?”
This was Saul, the perfect Pharisee, he had served God diligently all his life in fact more diligently than any other religious person of the time. The Bible says about Paul, “And as for righteousness, I obeyed the law without fault.” Who today can say they are faultless in their religion, Paul was the poster child of the perfect religious specimen. Today he would be touted as one of the great religious leaders of our time, but yet, even Paul had never truly seen or encountered God.
Again, how many churches are full of people who have served God their whole life but wouldn’t recognize Jesus if He ever really showed up, Or worse, maybe Jesus has shown up but because no one recognized Him, he couldn’t do much, He was pushed into the corner by our traditions and religion. Or even worse yet, Jesus showed up but wasn’t welcomed because He didn’t fit the image we had of Him. We politely asked Him to leave and shut the door. Pause and let that break your heart for a moment.
Most of us only know the image that has been given to us and sadly most churches are portraying a poor image of who God really is. We all need to really look up and see who God really is instead of assuming we know.
Seeing God Changes you
When you really see God it changes you, you just don’t continue on the path you are going like it’s no big deal. When people in the Bible really saw God their whole lives changed forever.
Job served God faithfully, in fact God even told the devil, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him”. After all that Job went through and when he finally, really saw God, his response was, “I had only heard about you before, but now I have seen you with my own eyes. I take back everything I said, and I sit in dust and ashes to show my repentance.” I think this is true for most of us, “God we have only ever heard about You, if we could ever really see You we would shut our mouths and repent, for we were wrong about You.” Repentance is truly seeing this God you serve and realizing you were wrong about Him this whole time.”
“Unless God does something, none of us stands a chance”
When the prophet Isaiah saw the lord his response was “Woe to me!, I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.” Translation, “ Im a wretch, everyone around me is a wretch and we’re all toast. Unless God does something, none of us stands a chance”
I don’t get this vibe in most churches. I think most churches must be full of people who have never truly seen God including the pastors and leaders otherwise they would not be saying most of what they are saying, or doing most the things they are doing. Just go on Facebook or the media and look at what most christians are saying and you realize that they probably have never really seen God. They only serve an image of God created by men.
Most churches have so misrepresented God that a lot of people today want nothing to do with Church. Why, because they are lost sinners who don’t want God? No because they are sick of worthless religion that produces nothing but strife. They want something real. God deserves to be seen, and people all over deserve a real chance to see God for who He really is.
Seeing produces a response
When you really see God You see how absolutely pure, holy, majestic and good He is. It ruins you, it unhinges you because he is so much more amazing than we are or can understand. Revelation 1:17 “When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead,” When was the last church service you were in when people dropped to the floor as if dead because they had really seen the lord? “Well that was the olden days, God doesn’t do that anymore.” Are you sure? Or are you listening to people who have never seen God talk about things they have no idea about? Are you willing to take that chance?
“No“, it’s because we have seen the Lord and we are nothing like Him. We are undone and must change.”
Really seeing God shuts the mouths of gossips, turns the hearts of the wicked, brings the proudest to their knees, silences wickedness. We stop tearing down others, we stop acting certain ways, we are more cautious with what we do and say. Why, Because we are morally correct and want to do the right thing? Because our religion dictates what we should act like? No, it’s because we have seen the Lord and we are nothing like Him. We are undone and must change.
Some of the greatest men and women of the Bible saw God and were crushed by the sinfulness of their hearts. Yet we are comfortable with the condition of ours. What makes us so much better than these great men and women? Are we that much more righteous, or have we never really seen?
Open your eyes and look
In order to see you have to look. Duh, big revelation right? But seriously, where are we looking?. Our lives are so busy and full, usually we are only looking at our small little world. Our jobs, what needs to be done, children, bills, shopping, entertainment, running here, running there, our appearance, our home etc. We have this little bubble of our own world that most of us live within. We barely look outside our little realm at other people, let alone look up and try to catch a glimpse of God. And worse a lot churches don’t really allow the opportunity to really see God. A lot are just feeding on the self centeredness of our lives.
We should be going to church to actually see God, to look up and strain until we catch a glimpse. After all isn’t that what church should be about. To go and worship and look up and see God and stop seeing everything else. To stop looking at our lives and our problems and our worries and just look up and See! See the God who created the universe, who holds all of creation in His hands. To put aside our preconceived notions and all of our knowledge and our understanding. To put aside the images we have, the information we know, and really allow ourselves to see God for Who He is.
God deserves to be seen. He is standing above everything all day long doing nothing but good, radiant, marvelous, exquisite, captivating, Holy. But He is so covered up by so much misinformation. So many false images, ideas, opinions of who He is. Covered by so many other non important things, so many other gods wanting to make Him look bad, so many teachings of men.
See for yourself
Don’t take anyone else’s word for it, look and see for yourself who God is and what He really looks like. Look and see and decide for yourself, and let what you see change you forever. Find a church where God, and not man is on display. Where He is allowed to be as visible as He wants to be. A place where our lives center around Him, a place where you can really look up and see. Then decide if God is worth it or not. But don’t make that decision until you have truly seen Him. He deserves that much.
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