Amelia Church of Christ - Christian Church in Amelia, OH near Cincinnati in Clermont County

I have an older brother who lives in Virginia. Growing up with Jeff was interesting He’s 11 years older than me, so I watched Jeff go through his teen years while I was very young. You just never knew what Jeff was going to do. Although he’s nothing like this now, he had a little bit of a wild streak during his teen years. Dad was pretty resourceful, though. He had people lined up everywhere who would keep an eye on Jeff. One time, Jeff went to a basketball game in another county. When he got back home, Dad told him everything he did at that basketball game. Dad knew that he was acting stupid, playing air-guitar during halftime in an attempt to flirt with a particular girl. Jeff was flabbergasted. He asked, “How did you know I did that? You weren’t there!” Dad replied, “I have eyes everywhere.”

To Jeff, it must have seemed like Dad was everywhere and knew everything that he did. Obviously that wasn’t true. Dad had lined up an entire crew of people to help him out and keep an eye on Jeff. No one person can be everywhere. No one person can see and know everything. Maybe that’s why it’s so amazing that God can. God can be everywhere at one time. God can see and know everything.

In theological terms, we say that God is omniscient and omnipresent. These look like big impressive words, but the meanings are simple when you break them down.

Omni is Latin for all. Science comes from the Latin for knowledge.

So omniscience means all knowledge. God is omniscient, meaning God possesses all knowledge.

Now, breaking apart the word omnipresence is super simple, isn’t it? We all know the meaning of the word presence.

So omnipresence means all presence.

Big deal. Nobody came here for a Latin lesson today. If you did, man, you need to get a life. I’m sure we’re all wondering what the point of all this is? The point is found in the second installment in our series,What’s God Really Like?

Last week we learned that God is supreme. He is supreme over all creation. All creation is held together in him. Outside of him, there is nothing. God is the main reality in the universe, and we need to see that supremacy even in the smallest, most insignificant details of our lives.

This week, as we open up the Bible, we see that God is omniscient and omnipresent, or that He knows everything and is everywhere.

Omniscience

We’re going to start with this idea of an omniscient, all-knowing, God. Most of us were exposed to the idea of omniscience while we were pretty young. We were taught about a person who knew everything. Remember?

“You’d better watch out, you’d better not cry, you’d better not pout, I’m telling you why, Santa Claus is coming to town. He sees you when you’re sleeping, He knows when you’re awake, He knows if you’ve been bad or good, So be good for goodness sake…”

Santa saw us when we were sleeping. He knew when we were awake. He knew if we’d been bad or good. Santa was constantly keeping tabs on us. This guy knew everything about us, and rewarded us accordingly. How many of your parents would whip this out on you every once in a while? “You know, Santa’s watching you. Santa knows that you’ve been a bad boy or bad girl. You might just get some coal in your stocking on Christmas morning, because Santa knows.” That worked on me. I didn’t want any goofy coal in my stocking. I wasn’t sure exactly how Santa knew what I was up to, but I was sure that he did. It was probably my first exposure to this idea of omniscience.

Now, take that childhood understanding of Santa Claus, and then expand it infinitely.

Psalm 147:5 says, “Our LORD is great and powerful! He understands everything.” (CEV) There is nothing that is beyond God’s knowledge or understanding. If it can be known, He knows it. God knows and understands everything…from the greatest mysteries of the universe to the number of hairs on your head.

God even knows how many licks it takes to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop. If it can be known, God knows it.

Now let’s take that truth from the Scripture and make it a bit more personal.

In the book of Ezekiel, God says, “I know the things that come into your mind, every one of them.” (Ezekiel 11:5, KJV)

In Acts, the Bible tells us that, “God knows the hearts of all men.” (Acts 15:8, New Life Version)

God knows everything about you. He knows what is in your mind and your heart. There is nothing in your life that is hidden from him. He knows you, all of you…all the way down to your very deepest and secret thoughts, dreams, and desires.

Check out this verse: “And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” (Hebrews 4:13, ESV)

Not exactly a warm and fuzzy thought, is it? I was watching a news show the other day and they did one of those goofy fashion segments that I hate. It was on a news channel, but I think the news ceases when we’re talking about the latest fashion designs.

Anyway, the segment was all about how to choose your attire when you’re heading out for a day at the beach. The designer said, “Almost all of us have some flaw or imperfection in our body that we want to hide.” So they were highlighting all these men and women’s swimsuits that are designed to hide these imperfections. If a woman wants to draw attention away from her hips, she should wear this suit. If a man wants to take attention away from his big belly, he should wear these trunks.

Honestly, these things didn’t work. The woman still had big hips and the man still had a big belly. But something the designer said really stuck with me. She said that 50% of men are uncomfortable with heading out to the beach in their swimwear. I’ll admit that I’m in that 50% grouping. I know you think I have this greek godlike body, but it’s all smoke and mirrors. As my wife. She’ll tell you the truth. And I’m convinced that the other 50% of guys who aren’t uncomfortable in swimwear….it’s not that they’ve got these rock hard bodies. It’s just because they’re too stupid to realize how bad their bodies really are. It’s like the fat old guy who thinks he looks groovy in Speedos. They don’t have hard bodies. They just have hard heads. Guys, Speedos don’t even look good on Olympic swimmers. If they don’t look good on them, they probably aren’t going to work for you, either.

And then get this…90% of women are uncomfortable being seen in a bathing suit. Statistically, 90% of you ladies don’t like the idea of heading out to the beach in a swimsuit.

It’s because a lot of us, men and women, have something about our bodies that we want to keep hidden. And that’s why this verse from Hebrews is so cutting. We are completely naked and exposed in God’s sight.

Most of us would be uncomfortable if we had to stand up in front of everybody here in a swimsuit. Most of you would not want to do that. You’d be uncomfortable because there’s just too much of you that’s revealed.

But most of us would probably want to die if our secret thoughts and feelings and actions were put on display for everybody to see. And yet, that’s how we stand before God. Nothing is hidden from his sight. There’s nothing about us that he doesn’t know. There are no secrets. He knows you, intimately and completely.

The omniscience of God means that He knows everything. He can recall all that is past. He sees all that is present. He knows all that is future. He understands the mysteries that have baffled the most brilliant scientists. He sees and knows what is happening here, and on the other side of the globe. And beyond all that, He knows you and He knows me. Inside and out. Through and through.

Omnipresence

Now let’s transition to God’s omnipresence. Not only does God know everything, but He is also everywhere. He is omnipresent. He is all present.

In 1990, Bette Midler released a song called From a Distance. In that song, she sings that, “God is watching us…from a distance.” She’s partially right. God is watching us, but not from a distance. God is, in fact, very close to us, because His presence is everywhere.

God says in the Old Testament book of Jeremiah, “Am I not a God near at hand…and not a God far off? Can anyone hide out in a corner where I can't see him? Am I not present everywhere, whether seen or unseen?” (Jeremiah 23:23-24, The Message)

A lot of new cars today are coming equipped with Onstar technology. It’s a technology that connects you to the Onstar center in case of an emergency. They can then contact the police, ambulance, or whatever else you need. It’s all available at the push of a button.

The slogan for Onstar is “always there.” They want their customers to feel safe because, if they run into trouble out on the road, Onstar is “always there” to help.

God wants us to know the same thing. He’s always there. In fact, He’s everywhere. He’s everywhere, at the same time.

God is fully present in all space all the time. God is omnipresent, meaning that he has all presence. This doesn’t just mean that God is everywhere. The “omni” in omnipresence doesn’t just mean that God is in all places. It also means that all of God is in all places. Not only is God everywhere, but all of God is everywhere all the time.

Theologians refer to this as God’s immensity. God is fully present in all space all the time. We have God’s full presence here in Amelia, and believers who are worshipping on the other side of the globe in China also are experiencing God’s full presence.

This is what David wrote in Psalm 139.

“Where could I go to escape from Your Spirit or from Your sight? If I were to climb up to the highest heavens, you would be there. If I were to dig down to the world of the dead, you would also be there.

Suppose I had wings like the dawning day and flew across the ocean. Even then, Your powerful arm would guide and protect me.” (Psalm 139:7-10, CEV)

There is nowhere that we can go that would be outside of God’s presence. He is everywhere. He is present in this room, and He is present on the most distant planet…all at the same time.

God is omniscient, or all-knowing. God is omnipresent, or all-present. We’ve waded through a lot of theology so far. But for these truths to become real to us, we’ve got to see how this impacts our lives. In each message in our What’s God Really Like? series, we’ll explore impact points. Places where the truth we have learned from the Bible impacts our lives.

God is omniscient. God is omnipresent. How does that affect your life today, tomorrow, and next Tuesday? There are a couple of impact points that we need to remember.

Because God knows everything and is everywhere, my motives matter.

I had an awesome experience a few weeks ago when I got to take an insiders tour of Great American Ballpark. It was so cool to be in the Reds dugout, to see their clubhouse, to tour the press box. I loved seeing the parts of the park that I never get to experience.

One really interesting part of the tour was meeting Glenn Sample. Glenn is the official scorer for the Reds. He’s the one who decides if it’s a base hit or an error. His opinion is the one that matters when it comes to the stats you read in the paper the next day.

Glenn showed us the official rulebook published by Major League Baseball. It’s so intricate and involved that Glenn spends time reading it before every ballgame. Even though he’s been the Reds official scorer for decades, he still spends time reading the rules before every game because knowing the rulebook is the key component to doing his job.

When I ask the question, “What’s God Really Like?” a lot of us see him as the official scorekeeper of our lives. And in truth, that’s what he is…but not the way a lot of us understand it.

We read this verse from Hebrews earlier…“And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” (Hebrews 4:13, ESV)

God is omniscient and omnipresent, meaning the he sees and knows us through and through. And this verse tells us that we are accountable to God. He is the judge. He is the scorekeeper. But a lot of us have a misunderstanding of his rulebook.

We see God as simply keeping track of what we do and what we don’t do. It’s all focused on deeds. Either you kept a rule or you broke a rule. It’s true that God sees and knows what we do, but it’s deeper than that. God’s knowledge and presence are deeper than our external actions. They extend past external demonstrations and get to our heart.

1 Samuel 16 reminds us, “Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7, NIV)

God isn’t just present in your actions. He is present in your heart. God doesn’t just know your actions. He knows the motive of your heart that is behind your actions. That throws a new spin on things, doesn’t it?

We can become so legalistic in our thinking. As long as we come to church, our check is good with God. Pitch a couple of bucks in the plate, even better. Sing the songs, better still. Come to Sunday School, man, God is impressed with you. Don’t drink, don’t smoke, don’t cuss, you are heaven bound with the hammer down.

We get so focused on following these perceived rules down to the letter that we miss the whole point. The impetus behind the entire Bible is that God wants to be with us. He wants a relationship with us. He’s not just concerned about rule-keeping.

Why was Jesus so hard on the Pharisees? After all, they were very religious. They were the best when it comes to rule-keeping. And yet Jesus consistently cut into them. Why? He was so hard on them because they missed the bigger picture.

God is present in your heart. He knows your thoughts. He’s ultimately concerned about your motives. It’s not just about avoiding the wrong things. It’s not just about doing the right things. It’s about the motive behind it all.

God is not impressed with your ability to keep the rules. Partially because you can’t keep the rules. No one can. The Bible tells us that we have all sinned. We have all fallen short of God’s standard.

But the other reason that rule-keeping doesn’t impress God is because we misunderstand the rules. The rules are not the point, in and of themselves. God has given us principles to live by. He has issued commandments to govern our lives. But the endpoint is not the rules themselves. The rules are in place to facilitate our relationship with God.

It comes down to a question of duty or devotion.

Wives, let me ask you something. Would you rather your husband do something out of duty or devotion? Would you rather receive a bouquet of flowers on Valentine’s Day, or some nondescript ordinary day? Flowers on Valentine’s Day probably mean that he got them for you out of duty. He thought, “It’s Valentine’s Day. Better get flowers.”

But when he gets you flowers on an ordinary day, you know that he’s simply giving you flowers because he loves you and he wants you to know it.

The result is the same. You got a bouquet of flowers. But the motives behind the two bouquets are incredibly different. Which would mean more to you? You want the flowers given out of devotion, not out of duty.

That’s because motives matter. If you’re just putting in your time to look religious and score points with “the man upstairs,” save your energy. God knows our hearts. He is present in our minds. Our motives are no secret to him. That’s why God isn’t impressed with our actions if our motives aren’t pure.

One more impact point for us today…Because God knows everything and is everywhere, my life is never beyond his reach.

Those who have been in the ACC family for a while know that one of my favorite TV shows is Everybody Loves Raymond. Some of you have told me that you like it, too. There is one episode where Robert accidentally loses Ray’s wedding ring down a heating vent in a hotel room. He can still see it, and he does everything he can to reach it. But when he finally touches it, he actually knocks it completely out of sight. It fell too far to be reached.

A lot of you feel the same way. You’ve fallen so far away from God that you feel like you’re out of His sight. You’re beyond His reach. You’re involved in so much sin that God can’t reach you anymore. You have made such a mess of your life that you’re sure that God can’t get to you anymore. You feel like you’ve fallen too far to be rescued. God couldn’t possibly reach me where I am, and even if He could, I’m sure He wouldn’t want to.

But remember the words of the Psalmist. “Where could I go to escape from Your Spirit or from your sight?” (Psalm 139:7, CEV)

You can’t fall too far. You can’t live outside of God. You can’t get away from his presence. You’re never out of his sight. And even if you feel like you’re out of His reach, you’re not. He’s right with you. And you are so valuable to Him that He’s never going to leave you.

We read these verses from Hebrews last week. “God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man to do me?” (Hebrews 13:5-6, NIV)

God is here. He is all-knowing. He knows what a mess you’ve made of your life, but he has still promised to never leave you. He wants to be present in your life anyway. You may be running from Him, but you can’t outrun Him, so maybe you need to stop running. You may have fallen far, but you can’t fall too far for an all-present God to reach you.

There’s an incredible story in Genesis 28 about a man named Jacob. Jacob wasn’t exactly a spiritual giant. In fact, in this part of his story, we find that Jacob was on the run from his brother Esau because Jacob was a liar. He had conned both his brother Esau and their father, Isaac.

The Bible says that Jacob “came to a certain place and stayed the night there…”(Genesis 28:11a, NIV) A certain place. That’s the Hebrew way of saying that Jacob was in no place in particular. He was in the middle of nowhere.

Not only was Jacob physically in the middle of nowhere, but he was also nowhere spiritually. He hadn’t done anything to win God’s favor or approval. But as he spent the night in the middle of nowhere, Jacob had a dream.

In his dream, “there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And…the angels of God were ascending and descending on it! And…the LORD stood above it and said,

"I am the LORD, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac… I am with you and will keep you wherever you go…”(Genesis 28:12-13, 15, ESV)

Some of you grew up singing a song based on this story. The song says, “We are climbing Jacob’s ladder.” You sing it in a round and each round goes higher and higher. Some of you remember the old song.

John Ortberg wisely points out that “the song gets the story wrong. It’s not a ladder for human beings to climb up. It’s a ladder for God to come down. All the way down to where we live.”

God met Jacob in the middle of his nowhere. And God will meet you in your nowhere, too. You have not fallen too far. Your life hasn’t faded from his sight. You are not forgotten.

Maybe today is the day that you allow Him to rescue you. God is all-knowing. He knows your sins. Your weaknesses. Your failures. Your messes. He knows.

And yet he is still present. In spite of your flaws and flubs, he still wants a relationship with you. The cross is his ladder. The cross is the ladder that can reach you, no matter how far you have fallen. You can’t fall out of his sight. You can’t fall further than his presence. No matter how far you have gone, the cross stands as the greatest reminder that God is willing to go further. He is willing to endure hell on the cross to give you the promise of heaven in your life.

Mike Edmisten

Tags: Genesis 28, God's nature, grace, Hebrews 4, legalism, motives, omniscience, omnipresence, Psalm 139, What's God Really Like