PART I
Intro: respond to question, “What is your favorite thing about God?”
• My favorite thing about God – that if you ask enough “why” questions, it always goes back to his love.
Welcome to Summer Fest
Intro to series – how we’re approaching it (short messages, responding to kids’ questions, topics)
Brief aside: Husbands retreat
[PRAY]
First big question (asked by Milo Bender): What does God look like?
Engage with kids:
• What does happiness feel like?
• What does summer break sound like?
It is difficult to capture those ideas in words, isn’t it? Because the reality goes way beyond what we’re able to describe. The same thing is true for the nature of God.
What does God look like?
Short answer: he is invisible
Long answer: he is beyond our comprehension
When we use words to describe God like “Big” or “Loving” those words fall short, don’t they? Because they don’t even come close to capturing how “big” or “loving” God is.
Which is why the authors of the Bible use images and metaphors to capture who God is.
Examples: thunderstorm, shepherd, a whisper on the wind – he’s not really any of those things, but they help us feel what he is like in our hearts…
Let me give you two other examples:
[aside – God is not a boy or a girl]
Psalm 91:1-4
Those who live in the shelter of the Most High
will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
He will cover you with his feathers.
He will shelter you with his wings.
Psalm 18:1-2
I love you, LORD;
you are my strength.
The LORD is my rock, my fortress, and my savior;
my God is my rock, in whom I find protection.
He is my shield, the power that saves me,
and my place of safety.
God is not a literal fortress or a literal mother hen. But what the biblical authors want us to feel in our bones is that God will protect us to the end.
What does God look like? He’s invisible. But what does he look like? He looks like the one who will protect and shelter us until the very end…
PART II
Question 2: Why haven’t I heard from God?
Expectations – voice from the sky or something
God does not always speak the way we expect.
My own experience of hearing from God.
• Direct voice only one time
• What I’ve learned – God speaks to us in many different ways
o Through the Bible
o Through others
o Through music, art, nature
• It always aligns with Jesus
It’s ok if you haven’t heard directly from God. But I encourage you to keep listening!
Matthew 28:20
Be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.