Overview/advice for leaders
What is your favorite food? What makes it your favorite?
[Emphasize that there can be only one favorite. No ties! Point out connections between group members' responses, especially those who did not know each other before starting this series, as a way of building camaraderie (i.e., "I noticed you two chose your favorite food early in life, where others have chosen new favorites more recently.").]
Introduction/outline of lesson series
Looking over 3-4 proofs of God's existence
God is three Persons who care about you. But before that, God is. God is and, at the end of all things, God is. God is the original cause and God is the ultimate reaction.
If you had been attending my church the last year or so, you would have heard a few different preachers call on and call back to a particular illustration. They quote a Bible verse and build to a crescendo, then emphatically state, “but God!” The speaker then makes the point that we, or the world, or Christ’s followers back in the day, had one expectation of the way something was going to go down or of how God was going to react. “But God” does things differently. “But God” thinks and acts in God’s own way, in God’s own fashion. “But God” is not ruled by our expectations. “But God” is divine and, thus, alien, meaning different, other.
I like the point. It is a good point. The only problem I have with the illustration is that our preachers are very unfortunate in how they pronounce “but God.” Inevitably, every time they say it, they emphasize the “but” as much as the “God”. It comes out sounding like, “Butt God.” As in, B-U-T-T God. As in, Angus the God of Butts.
The first time I heard our senior pastor say it, I thought, “Oh! that is cute. Why am I the only one laughing?” Then he said it again. And again. And again. Always the same pronunciation. Before the sermon was over, I was cracking up, but internally, like a good Christian. I had made a game of it in my head and I texted my friend Justin, who was in a different row in the same service, “Na na na na na na, Butt God!” He did not get that I was referencing the Batman theme song because he could not hear my awesome vocalizations over text.
If it had stopped there, that would have been a cherished memory in Justin and I’s friendship. It did not stop there, though. A few months later, an associate pastor made the same point in a different sermon. I was glad to hear it. It is a good point. He used it in context, as a call-back, and with the same wrong pronunciation. I was in disbelief. “Do they not hear it?” A few months after that, our youth pastor did the same thing. By now, it had gone past the point where I could have politely said something. I am now permanently committed to riding it out, hoping they forget, and trying not to laugh out loud.
It is a shame, though, because their original point really is a good point. It is an awesome thread that ties a bunch of similar, but diverse, verses together. Genesis 50:20: “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good…” Psalm 73:26: “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” Matthew 19:26: “Jesus looked at them and said, ‘With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Acts 3:15: “You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead.” And one more that applies to us more than others, from 1 Corinthians 1:26 and 27: “Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.”
This is what you would expect, “but God…” “But God” does things differently. “But God” thinks and acts in God’s own way, in God’s own fashion. “But God” is not ruled by our expectations. “But God” is divine and, thus, alien, meaning different, other. It is a good point. I think it pairs especially well with another one, and that is this: Before all things, God is.
God kicks off the Bible. Genesis 1:1: “In the beginning, God…” God stands in the center of the law. Deuteronomy 6:4: “Hear, O Israel, God is our God…” God defines the gospel. John 3:16: “For God so loved the world He gave His one and only Son, that whosoever…” God is. God is three Persons who care about you. But before that, God is. God is. God’s existence is the thing on which everything is based. “God is” permeates everything. “God is” defines everything in relief to itself.
God is. God’s existence provides purpose, offers perspective, allows a path to salvation. God is and, because God is, I am and you are and this group is. God is, and we do not fully understand that and we do not fully realize that, but God is. God is. We are images and imitations and echoes and shadows of God. God is. We constantly fall short of what we are and what we are supposed to be, but God is. God always has been. God always will be. Forever and ever, God is. Maranatha, come quickly, Lord Jesus. So let it be, amen