Today we are starting a new sermon series. It's a summer message series. All summer long, we're going to be looking at what are called the attributes of God. Now some of you may be going, what are attributes of God? And if you're asking that question, here's the answer to at least or according to at least one theologian, Charles Ryrie says, the attributes of God are the perfections or characteristics that constitute his nature and make him who he is. In other words, they tell us about his character. They tell us about who God is. These are the kind of things that help us know more about who God is. And if we know more about who God is, then it also teaches us how we can relate to him. You guys know how this works. You have family members, you have friends, you have people that you work with, and they all have different characteristics. They all have a different personality. And based on their personality, based on their characteristics, you learn how you relate with them. You may have a different type of relationship with one person, as opposed to a different person, because of their personality and the depth of closeness and all of those things. And the more we learn about the characteristics of God and who he is, the more we can enter into that relationship that we were designed to have with him, and experience the kind of relationship that we are supposed to have with him. Now, when we talk about these and we're talking about getting to know who God is, some of you, when we start a series like this, may wonder, can we really know? I mean, can we really know who God is and all these things about him? How do we know these attributes are true? Well, the short answer to that is because God has revealed Himself to us. He's revealed Himself to us in two ways. We talk about God's revelation through what's called general revelation, everybody say general revelation, and through special revelation, everybody say special revelation. General revelation has to do with the general truths that can be known about God through nature. For example, the apostle Paul in Romans, chapter one, verse 20, says, For since the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities, His power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. In other words, Paul says the invisible qualities that we cannot see necessarily can actually be seen in some way through what has been made. Well, what's been made, whatever God created. So in some way, if God is the Creator of all things, and he created his creation, then as we look at that creation, it says something about the Creator. It's a reflection of the Creator. So at least in a general way, we can kind of learn something about who God is through nature and the things that he created. Now, specific revelation has to do with God's specific and direct communication His revelation to humanity through the Bible and through the person and work of Jesus Christ. In John chapter one, we read this that no one has ever seen God but the one and only son who is Himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father has made him known. Made who known? God known. Jesus Christ has made God known. He specifically revealed who God is to us, how, because He is God. God, the son took on human flesh, and so then he appeared before us and walked among us. And so we can know more about who God is through the person of Jesus Christ, who is God Himself, Emmanuel God in the flesh. We can know more about God through Jesus's words, through the things that he taught. He specifically taught us about who he is, about who God is. He revealed Himself through His character, the way that he carried himself and interacted on the earth. We learn more about God. And he revealed himself through his actions, his deeds and his miracles. And so if you want to specifically know who God is, look no further than Jesus, Christ, but specific revelation also tells us that not only has God revealed Himself through the person and work of Jesus Christ, but also through Scripture. In Second Timothy, 316, we're taught that all scripture is God breathed. In other words, they're his words. They come out of his mouth. Now we know that human authors were the ones that were writing these things, but God was breathing his breath, putting those exact words on their minds, inspiring them to write what it is that they were writing down. And so it was him who was revealing himself to the person that was writing, and then through them, revealing Himself to us, even today. And so when we look at the Bible, one of the things that we begin to see are all of these various attributes of God, these characteristics of God, they're they're all over the place. And so what we're going to be doing this summer is highlighting those attributes that we see in Scripture that were God breathed, that God revealed to us to know more about who he is for the purpose of learning how to relate with him and have a better relationship and experience Him in our lives. So most of the time, throughout the summer, we're just going to be talking about one single attribute each particular Sunday, and just really diving into it deep, and what that means for us, but today to really get us kicked off and just come out of the gate, you know, moving really quickly, we're going to talk about three of them now, two of them I'm going to put together. And the reason why is because even though they're not the exact same thing. They're so interrelated that it's really hard not to talk about them together. And so here's the first attribute that we're talking about, the first characteristic of God, or the first two God's aseity, or aseity, which is basically self existence and then His eternality. All right, when we talk about aseity, it refers to God's self existence. He exists independently of anything or anyone else, and is the source of his own being. Think about that for a second. That's a really hard thing to wrap our minds around. But in John, chapter five, verse 26 we're told that the Father has lifein himself.In other words, God is nota created being. Life just exists within himself. No one created God, and He did not create himself. I was talking to a few of the kids who had accepted Christ at VBS, and we were talking about baptism, and asked if they had any questions. And they didn't have a question about baptism. They had a question about how God was created. And one of them said, Well, no one created God. He created himself. Now it went, well, you're half right, you're right that no one created him, but he didn't create himself. He was not a created and is not a created being. In other words, there's never a moment that God didn't exist. It wasn't like he wasn't here in one moment and then all of a sudden he began to exist in the next moment, he's just always been here. And so when we're talking about the one who is self existent, within which life exists himself, it's hard not to talk about his attribute of eternality, because that means that he's been here forever, no beginning and end. So when we talk about his eternity. It refers to God's existence outside of time, meaning he is not bound by the limitations of time, as humans experience it. And Isaiah, chapter 40, verse 28 says, Do you not know? Have you not heard the Lord is the ever lasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He's just all ways been here. I don't know if you remember, but in Exodus, chapter three, Moses, God is appearing to Moses, and Moses is having this conversation with him and and Moses says, hey, if I'm gonna go to these people, what should I tell them your name is? Who do I tell them that I'm talking to in this moment, and you may remember this, but here's how God answered him. Says, God said to Moses, I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites I am. Has sentyounot. I've become.Not. I am becoming or I will become just I am. I'm just here. I've just always existed. I have no starting point, I have no ending point. I've just always been here. I'm self existent, and I've been here for eternity. I exist outside of time. So when we're talking about this, having the attributes of self, existence, aseity and eternity means this, that God is not dependent on anything or anyone, not dependent on anything or anyone. Now think about. About that for a moment. When a child is born into this world, they're dependent on parents, mom and a dad, to keep them alive. Animals are dependent upon their surroundings for life. Trees and plants are dependent upon the sun and rain for life. Every living thing is dependent on someone or something,but not God.God is not dependent upon anything. Anyone or anything is independent and exists in and of himself. I think this is one of the hardest things for us to think about and try to understand, because everything else around us has a starting point. And so when you really start to think about, okay, God's just life itself. He's just always been here. I think when we really dwell on that, even though I don't know if we can fully grasp it, it will cause two reactions on us, upon us, when we really start and think about those things, the very first realization, or thing that it should cause us to think is this, you, I am not the center of the universe, right? I mean, because sometimes we tend to think we are. We live our lives as we are, if you're like me, sometimes we think this world is here for me. Everyone is here to make me happy and exist, to entertain me or give me what I need, or what it is that I feel like I want in this moment. But when we consider who God really is, the self existent, one just always been here, who is life itself? I mean, you can't help but almost fall on your knees and be humbled, going, oh my gosh, I am not the main character in the story, right? David, when he was writing Psalm eight, begins to get at this. He says, Lord Our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. You have set your glory in the heavens. When I consider Your heavens, when I think about and I dwell upon your heavens, and think about the work of Your fingers and the moon and the stars which you have set in place. What is mankind that You are mindful of them? I mean, you get the sense that David's dwelling upon who God really is and in the heavens and his his glory and and the one who is life itself and self existent and eternal, and he's going, Oh my gosh. How humbling, like how majestic is your name in all the earth. It should cause us to worship him for being who he is. Now the second reaction that it causes among us, though, when we stop and think about it and we'll see David say this in just a second as well, it speaks of how incredibly valuable that you are to God. I mean, think about this with me. If God did not need, he didn't need to create anything at all. If he is a self existent being and has everything that he needs in and of himself, then he did not need to create you for any reason. He had everything in his, within his existence, that he would ever need, just fully dependent upon himself. And yet he chose, he still chose to create this world, and he chose to create you specifically, and that makes you incredibly valuable to God, incredibly significant to God, incredibly meaningful to him. You have purpose. It means that you are not an accident. It means that you are not a mistake, and that you are here for a reason, and that too will cause us to fall on our knees and praise God and thank him.It's what David continued to do.He said this. We stopped with this. He said, What is mankind? That you're mindful of them, human beings, that you care for them. And then he talks about what he's done for us and how He cares for us. He says, You've made us them a little lower than the angels, and crowned them with glory and honor. You've made us rulers over the works of your hands. You put everything under our feet, all flocks and herds and the animals of the wild, the birds in the sky and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the sea. Lord, our Lord. He cries it again, how majestic is your name in all the earth? He starts with praise. He's dwelling on God, and he's humbled and going, oh my gosh, why would you even think about us? And then he starts talking about all the things that the self existent, Eternal God of the universe allows us to rule and reign over and be involved in alongside of him. And he returns and prays, going, oh my gosh, how majestic is your name still in all the earth, even more so. And so, I mean, gosh, as you. And I think about those things, it just cries out how much we really are loved, how valuable that we are to God. And think about this, the self existent God, Eternal God, thinks of you, values you enough to create the world and you in it. And then what did we do? How did we respond? By turning our backs on him at that point, the self existent God who had everything that he needed in and of himself, could have gone well, I gave him a try and then just been done with us, right? But he wasn't done. Ever since sin entered the picture in Genesis three, the rest of the Old Testament, leading up to Jesus, is him pursuing us, and in him moving into the story himself, the main character, chasing after us. So much so, I mean pursuing us so much so that the self existent God, the Eternal God, entered into time, space and matter in the person of Jesus Christ to come on a rescue mission for you who he was not dependent upon in the first place. How valuable and loved you must be. Oh my gosh, thank you, Jesus. So we cry out when we think about those things ourselves. Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all of the earth.So this is the first twoattributes that we're talking about today, his aseity, his his self, existence and His eternality. One more, this is beautiful God. One of God's attributes is an attribute of immutability. He's immutable, which refers to how God is unchangeable. If he's unchangeable, that means he's unchanging. He doesn't change. He is never inconsistent. He's never growing, he's never developing. He continues to be the same. We see some verses that highlight this here, Malachi, chapter three, the Lord declares himself. I the Lord, do not change. Let's just say it simply right. I the Lord do not James 117 every good and perfect gift is from above coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change, like the shifting shadows. I like the way J i Packer defines immutability. He says, God exists forever and is always the same. He does not grow older. His life does not wax or wane. He does not gain new powers, nor lose those that he once had. He does not mature or develop. He does not get stronger. He does not get weaker. He does not get more wise as time goes by. Wow,he's just always thesame. Now,if you haven't thought it yet, you should be extremely thankful that that is true, because that means that whatever attributes we're going to talk about this summer are going to consistently be the same about him. You can always count on them to be true. If you're going to experience a relationship with the Living God, then you can count on experiencing it in a consistent manner. He's not going to wake up one morning and be in a different mood than the next morning. He's not even going to wake up because he doesn't sleep. Okay, so I just thought about that as I was saying that we're not going to go into great detail, and I hesitated to do this because I didn't want you to know all of them. I just want you to keep coming, but I'm going to do it anyway, because I want you to admit you to initially think about it in the different attributes that we're going to talk about this summer, and how they reflect or what this immutability attribute has to say about each one of those. So these are a lot of the things that we're going to talk about this summer, these specific attributes, that God has an attribute of goodness, that he is good. God is good. He can't act in any way other than doing what is good. It's part of his nature. It who he is. And if he's unmutable or immutable, it means that He'll never change into someone who's not good. He'll always be good, and he'll always act in ways that are good towards you. Can someone say, Amen to that. Thank you. God has the attribute of sovereignty, which means he's the chief Supreme Being in all of the universe. He holds all things together in his hands. And if he's unchanging, there will never be a time where he is not in charge. There will be, never be a. Another who surpasses God in His greatness and who rules the universe, He will always be in control. Can I get another? Amen. God is omnipresent. He's present. Everywhere. There is nowhere that you can go without being in the presence of God. And since He'll never change, there will never be a moment that you are apart from God Amen. He's omniscient. God is all knowing. He knows all things actual. He knows all things that are even possible. And since he's unchanging, he'll never not know something. He's always going to know what's going on in your life and in the world. He's going to know how to fix something that's broken in your life. He's always going to know the best thing to do in any situation and circumstance that's going on in our world or in your life. Amen, God is omnipotent. He's all powerful. There is nothing too big for God to be able to do or accomplish. And once again, if he's unchanging, he'll never not be all powerful. There will never be a time when God is not strong enough to overcome the evil in our world or the things going on in your life. Amen. Amen, God is love. It's who he is. And since God is unchanging, there will never be a time when God is not love. He won't change and become unloving. He won't change and all of a sudden become cruel or mean. Amen. And God is faithful. He is steadfast. Has a steadfast commitment to his promises, his actions, his character, and even when people are unfaithful to him. And since he will never change, that means His promises won't ever change. He will always be faithful to keephis promises. Amen. Amen.You probably know people in your life, some friends, some co workers,maybe someone even in your own family,that can be incredibly loving and caring in one moment,and all of a sudden, thingschange on a dime, and they became mean and aggressive, angry, cruel,maybe even abusive,and you don't even know what it was that changed. And it may be all the time. It may not have been just something that happened, and then they're consistently this way the next day. They may be completely loving and caring, and it may happen all day, but you're walking around on eggshells. You're living them to all of a sudden react so mean, so cruel and potentially abusive to you in that situation, oh my gosh. Had to live in that kind of fear when you're in a relationship with someone else. You don't ever have to worry about that in your relationship with God, you don't have to walk around on eggshells. You don't have to walk around in fear, because it is a consistent relationship. He's never going to all of a sudden change and flip a switch and just go, I'm unloving. I'm not good anymore. I'm cruel, I'm mean. This is part of his nature, and it's always part of his nature, and he will act consistently in the relationship that you have with him. Everybody say, Man, I mean, that is such good news. Such good news. So today, as we kind of try to land this plane, the sermon a little bit here, again, we're focusing on these three attributes of God, his aseity, his self, existence, His eternality, his immutability. God is life. He's where All of life comes from. And again, since you're one of his creations, that means you're not an accident, you're not a mistake. You You are made on purpose, butyou are not self existent,even though you're valuable, even though you have purpose, He created you to rule on this earth in some way and be a part of the things that are doing. You are not created to be self existent. You are not created to operate in your own power and in your own strength and in your own ways. You are created as a dependent being to live dependently upon God. And you are the branch. He is the vine. The life giving stuff comes through the vine in a connected sense, and you are dependent upon that vine to produce the things through you that get produced. And so you'll only experience the relationship that you have with the God of the universe if you quit acting in your flesh and in your own strength. Faith and choose to turn towards him and live dependently upon Him to be your source. Again, God's immutable. He doesn't change his character, and promises do not change. You can count on him. You can trust in His love. You can trust in His grace for you. And so if you've put your faith and trust in Jesus to forgive your sins, you've been joined into this spiritual union where you are now one spirit with him. You are a father, and in a father, son or father, daughter, father, child relationship with him, and you can begin to experience Him and walk in dependence upon him. And you don't have to live in fear. You don't have to worry constantly if he's going to change his mood and treat you differently. So what's the application? How about you? Enjoy your relationship with him that he designed and created you to have and to live intimately with him. In he entered this world to pursue you and rescue you from sin so that he could enjoy you. Think about that the self existent one pursued you so he can enjoy you. You make him smile when he thinks of you, when he interacts with you. So why don't you enjoy him? Turn towards him today and experience the relationship that you were always created to have with him, and if you've never put your faith and trust in Jesus, there were 12 kids at VBS who said, I didn't know him. I walked into VBS and I all of a sudden, a light bulb moment happened. Now I know what Jesus and the cross are all about. I'm receiving His free gift of salvation. And and all of a sudden they were transformed and changed, and they became someone that they were not in the same thing can happen to you and you can enter into a relationship with the Living God of the universe and be with him now and experience him now and for the rest of your life and all the way through eternity, if you'll just receive His free gift of salvation that He purchased for you on the cross. In the way you do that is through faith. You put your faith and trust in Jesus to be your Lord and Savior, to be the Way, the Truth and the Life, and that no one comes to the Father except through Him. Let me pray for you,Father, as weconsider who you are,that you are the self existent one, one who's always been here, and that you are unchanging, we are humbled. How majestic is your name in all the earth. Thank you for creating us and showing us value and worth and love and giving us meaning and purpose and inviting us into your story. You're the main character, but we get to be characters in the story with you. What an adventure. Wow. Thank you that you never change. And then we get to consistently experience Your goodness and Your faithfulness and your power and your presence and your knowledge and wisdom and all of who you are. Allow us to enjoy you. God, I pray for anyone who's here, kids, adults, anyone who's in this room watching online in this moment, who may have been listening today, and starting to realize that they've never put their faith and trust in you to receive this free gift of salvation that you're offering them, and if that's you, and you are starting to realize that you're missing out on this, and you're you're ready, you're ready to accept him right now In this moment, and to put your faith and trust in Him, I want to invite you just to say a simple prayer of faith. You don't have to say it out loud. You could just say it in the quietness of your heart. You could just say, God, I recognize that I'm a sinner and that my sin separates me from you,but thank you Jesusfor coming to die on the cross for my sins,and thank you God for raising Him from the dead.Right now, in this moment,I receive your gift of salvation. I place my faith and trust in you Jesus to be the Way, the Truth and the Life to be my Lord and Savior. Please forgive meand come dwell in meand give me eternal life.Teach me how to experience my new relationship with you now each and every single day as I live dependently upon you in Jesus name Amen. Well, thank you guys for being here to worship with us today to celebrate what God did at VBS. And we're not going to have a traditional invitation time today, but I want you to know that I will be down. On front. And so if you have questions about anything that we talked about in today's message about taking that step of salvation, about joining our church, or anything else, be sure to come by and find me on your way out. Other than that, God bless, turn to your neighbor and say, I'm glad you came to church today. You guys have a great day, and we'll see you back here next time.