Word of the Week - Unlocking Omniscience: Understanding God's All-Knowing Nature
The focus of this week's podcast is on the attribute of God known as omniscience, which signifies that God is all-knowing. Pastor Josh Massaro delves into the profound implications of this truth, emphasizing that God possesses complete knowledge of our past, present, and future, including our innermost thoughts and intentions. He reassures listeners that, despite our human limitations, we can find comfort in knowing that God is aware of our struggles, needs, and the details of our lives. The episode explores how this understanding encourages authenticity and transparency in our relationship with God, urging us to seek His wisdom when we are uncertain. Ultimately, listeners are reminded of the beauty and assurance that comes from trusting in a God who knows all and cares deeply for each of us.
Pastor Josh Massaro presents an engaging exploration of omniscience in this enlightening episode of the 'Word of the Week' podcast series. He articulates that God's omniscience signifies an all-encompassing awareness of every detail of existence—past, present, and future. This profound attribute of God is not only a theological concept but a source of comfort for believers. Drawing on biblical passages, including Matthew 10:29-30 and Psalm 139, Pastor Josh emphasizes how God's intimate knowledge extends to our innermost thoughts and needs. He paints a vivid picture of a God who is aware of the struggles we face and the desires of our hearts, offering reassurance that we are never overlooked or forgotten.
Throughout the episode, Pastor Josh delves into the implications of God's omniscience for personal faith and spirituality. He encourages listeners to embrace transparency in their relationship with God, challenging them to confront any hidden fears or sins. As he discusses the potential discomfort that may arise from God’s ability to know all, he skillfully redirects the conversation towards the hope and grace that can be found in acknowledging our vulnerabilities. By referencing 1 John 3:20, he reassures listeners that despite our shortcomings, God’s understanding of our nature leads to unwavering love and forgiveness.
In a compelling conclusion, Pastor Josh urges believers to lean into God’s omniscience during times of uncertainty and decision-making. He highlights James 1:5 as a directive to seek divine wisdom, reinforcing the idea that God delights in providing guidance to those who earnestly ask. The episode not only elucidates the nature of God's omniscience but also serves as a powerful reminder to trust in His perfect knowledge and love, encouraging listeners to find peace in the assurance that God knows and cares for them deeply. This insightful discussion wraps up with an invitation for listeners to reflect on how they can actively seek and rely on God's wisdom in their daily lives.
Takeaways:
- God's omniscience means He knows everything about our lives, including our thoughts and struggles.
- Even when we face the unknown, we can trust God's all-knowing nature for guidance.
- Scripture reassures us that God cares deeply about our needs and future circumstances.
- We should approach God with honesty, knowing we cannot hide our sins from Him.
- In times of uncertainty, asking God for wisdom is essential, as He provides generously.
- God's love and grace are evident in His omniscience, as He sent Jesus knowing our flaws.
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This podcast is produced by Ralph Estep, Jr., host of the Ask Ralph Podcast, a daily podcast on Christian Finance you can find it at https://www.askralphpodcast.com/
00:00 - None
00:00 - Introduction to the Podcast
00:06 - Word of the Week Series Overview
00:31 - Exploring Omniscience: God's All-Knowing Nature
03:27 - Scriptural Insights on God's Omniscience
03:38 - God's Knowledge of Our Lives and Needs
09:53 - Trusting in God's Wisdom
14:31 - Conclusion and Reflection on Omniscience
14:35 - Outro and Upcoming Topics
Pastor Josh
Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church Podcast, where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.
Pastor Josh
In this podcast series, we're going to be looking into biblical words that have great significance to our faith.
Pastor Josh
The name of this series is called the Word of the Week, where once a week we will dive deeper into these words that we are familiar with in Scripture.
Pastor Josh
So come along with me.
Pastor Josh
Let's study the Word of the week.
Pastor Josh
Pastor Josh here.
Pastor Josh
The Word of the Week is omniscient.
Pastor Josh
We have started a study last week on the attributes of God.
Pastor Josh
We talked about the attributes of God that we can mirror in our own lives and live out to a degree in our own lives.
Pastor Josh
Obviously not to perfection, but to some degree follow.
Pastor Josh
But then we also talked about the attributes, the incommunicable attributes of God in which we cannot obtain.
Pastor Josh
And one of those would be what we talked about last week.
Pastor Josh
Omnipotence.
Pastor Josh
God's all powerful nature.
Pastor Josh
No limitations.
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He is all powerful.
Pastor Josh
This week we're going to be studying the word omniscient, which means all knowing.
Pastor Josh
It means that God knows everything.
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He has complete knowledge of past, present and future.
Pastor Josh
He knows what we think.
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He knows our intentions.
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He knows the answer to every question.
Pastor Josh
Ultimately, we know that God is not limited in his strength, but God is not limited in his knowledge.
Pastor Josh
All of us to some degree, are limited.
Pastor Josh
Some know more things than others about different topics.
Pastor Josh
But all of us are limited in the concept of knowing different ideas or solutions or even facts.
Pastor Josh
And so we can see in Scripture that it talks about God not just being wise.
Pastor Josh
God is more than just wise, and he's more than just being of knowledge, but he is the God of all knowledge.
Pastor Josh
Over and over again in Scripture, we see that God knows everything.
Pastor Josh
I think of the passage of Scripture in Matthew, chapter 10, verses 29, 30.
Pastor Josh
Obviously, the Lord's talking here about individuals that are worried or there's some anxiety about the unknown.
Pastor Josh
And Jesus is talking about the understanding that God he knows even when the sparrows fall.
Pastor Josh
He says, are not two sparrows sold for a farthing?
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And one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father, but the very hairs of your head are numbered.
Pastor Josh
And so there's this beautiful thought about the fact that God knows everything about us.
Pastor Josh
And if he cares about the future of a sparrow, we know that he cares about our own life.
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And so he's talking here about this understanding that God knows everything about us.
Pastor Josh
He knows the hair on our heads.
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He knows the thoughts in our heart.
Pastor Josh
And so we can know that God knows about our struggles.
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He knows about our needs.
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We don't even have to tell him now.
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He wants us to tell Him.
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In that relationship of a father and child, he wants us to tell him.
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But he knows all of our needs.
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The Bible says in First John, chapter three, verse 20.
Pastor Josh
For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our hearts and he knoweth all things.
Pastor Josh
So there's another statement here of the understanding that God knows all things.
Pastor Josh
He knows our heart, he knows our thoughts.
Pastor Josh
And even In Isaiah, chapter 46, it says this in verse nine, Remember the former things of old, for I am God and there is none else.
Pastor Josh
I am God and there is none like me.
Pastor Josh
Declaring the end from the beginning, from the ancient times, the things that are not yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure.
Pastor Josh
So God knows everything in the moment, but God also knows everything about the past.
Pastor Josh
He knows everything about the future.
Pastor Josh
He knows what's going to happen in our life.
Pastor Josh
Now that doesn't mean that we.
Pastor Josh
We are without choice and that we're forced to do things.
Pastor Josh
It just is God's living outside of space and time and he knows our decisions.
Pastor Josh
And so as, as a Christian, we can take comfort in that, that God knows our heart, he knows our failures, he knows our struggles, but yet he still loves us.
Pastor Josh
And we have a God who cares about us.
Pastor Josh
We'll talk more about his attribute of love later on in the study.
Pastor Josh
But ultimately it's a.
Pastor Josh
It's a wonderful thing to know that God knows where we are.
Pastor Josh
He understands our struggles, even if we don't even know what our struggles completely are.
Pastor Josh
He knows what's coming in our future, and he's preparing us for that.
Pastor Josh
I think of Psalm 139, 4.
Pastor Josh
In this verse, we see that he knows our very thoughts even before we speak it out.
Pastor Josh
Psalm 134, verse.
Pastor Josh
Excuse me.
Pastor Josh
Psalm 139, verse 4.
Pastor Josh
For there is not a word in my tongue but lo, O Lord, thou knowest it all together.
Pastor Josh
And so what we can tell from this passage is that God knows what we're going to say even before we say it.
Pastor Josh
He knows our hearts from a distance.
Pastor Josh
He knows our wants, our, and more importantly, our needs.
Pastor Josh
And he provides for our needs.
Pastor Josh
And so this is just one element of God's perfect character, is that he is all knowing.
Pastor Josh
And we even see this in the life of Jesus, in His Deity on this earth.
Pastor Josh
I mean, there are times where he understands the thoughts of people.
Pastor Josh
He discerns their hearts.
Pastor Josh
And that's not just Him.
Pastor Josh
Feeling it.
Pastor Josh
That's him knowing it.
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And we know that God, even in the case of.
Pastor Josh
In John chapter 1, Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him and saith unto him, behold, an Israelite indeed in whom is no guile.
Pastor Josh
Nathaniel said unto him, whence knowest thou me?
Pastor Josh
And Jesus answered and said unto him, before that Philip called thee.
Pastor Josh
When thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee.
Pastor Josh
And so Jesus is exercising his omniscience by saying, hey, I knew you before you knew me.
Pastor Josh
I saw you under the fig tree.
Pastor Josh
And there's a lot of speculation on what that means.
Pastor Josh
Most people believe, most commentators believe that Nathaniel was probably having some kind of moment where he was calling out to God and seeking after him and trying to struggle through something.
Pastor Josh
And what Jesus essentially tells Nathaniel is, I saw you there.
Pastor Josh
I saw you in your deepest, darkest moment.
Pastor Josh
I saw you thinking through those things and contemplating and asking God.
Pastor Josh
And so this is a beautiful reminder that God knows all.
Pastor Josh
Now, for some people, depending on where you stand before him, the fact that God knows all can maybe even be a fearful thing.
Pastor Josh
Because if we're hiding iniquity in our hearts, if we're harboring sin in our lives, or maybe we are trying to hide something from somebody else, or trying to hide something for God, what we can tell through this attribute is that we can't hide anything from God.
Pastor Josh
We might be able to hide it from others around us.
Pastor Josh
We might even be able to lie to ourselves, but the truth is that there's nothing that we can hide from God.
Pastor Josh
And so instead of trying to run away from him, instead of trying to hide things from Him, I think that this truth brings us to a place of authenticity before him, transparency before Him.
Pastor Josh
And I think that this can, like I said before, if this is a truth that makes you uncomfortable, it might be time for us to inspect our own lives, to say, what am I trying to hide from God?
Pastor Josh
Is there something in my life that I'm ashamed of?
Pastor Josh
If so, the Beauty is that first John 1, chapter 9 tells us that if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Pastor Josh
And so Jesus knows our thoughts.
Pastor Josh
And so therefore, and this is another beautiful thing, that if you think back to Romans chapter 5, verse 8, it says, but God commendeth or demonstrate his love towards us.
Pastor Josh
And that while we were at sinners, Christ died for us.
Pastor Josh
So the beauty here is that the Lord knew our thoughts, Jesus knew that we would rebel, but nonetheless, he died on the cross.
Pastor Josh
For our sins because of his love for us.
Pastor Josh
So God loves us so much he sent his only begotten Son, knowing that we would fail, knowing the future, knowing that we would sin, but yet still because of his love, he shows his grace in sending Jesus for us.
Pastor Josh
And so that plays all into the understanding of God's omniscience.
Pastor Josh
He knows all.
Pastor Josh
He knows everything in this world.
Pastor Josh
He knows what is done in private.
Pastor Josh
He knows what's done obviously in public.
Pastor Josh
And so he knows not only the smallest details of our life, but those that are surrounding our life.
Pastor Josh
He knows what people have done to us.
Pastor Josh
He knows what's going to happen tomorrow.
Pastor Josh
He knows the outcome of, you know, elections, he knows the outcome of sicknesses.
Pastor Josh
And he knows all of these things.
Pastor Josh
But yet still we as Christians sometimes struggle with the unknown.
Pastor Josh
And understandably so, because we are humans and so we don't know the future.
Pastor Josh
But I think what we can do with this is with many of the attributes of God rely on faith to know that God has it under control, to rely in faith in God, that He knows my needs and will provide my needs in the midst of the loss, in the midst of brokenness, in the midst of confusion.
Pastor Josh
And so we humbly have to seek after the Lord in this.
Pastor Josh
And to know God's omniscient nature is to know that we have a God who is not limited by circumstance.
Pastor Josh
I can tell you that there are many times in my life where I come to a scenario and I don't know what to do.
Pastor Josh
I don't know what the right decision is.
Pastor Josh
And even if I sometimes know that, hey, this decision here is going to go this way, or this decision here might go this way, ultimately I am limited in my wisdom because ultimately I'm not God.
Pastor Josh
And what I have to understand that as a Christian is when there are times in my life when I don't know what to do.
Pastor Josh
The Bible actually tells us what we should do, and that's found in the book of James.
Pastor Josh
I have a sermon entitled what to do when you don't know what to do.
Pastor Josh
And there's going to be times in our life where we have hit our wall as a human, we have hit our wall as a finite, limited creation of God where we don't know what to do.
Pastor Josh
And in James chapter one, verse, verse five, it says, if any of you lack wisdom, right?
Pastor Josh
So if any of you lack wisdom, which for me that happens quite frequently, he gives us what we are to do, what we are to do when we don't know what to Do.
Pastor Josh
He says, let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally and abradeth not, meaning he doesn't get upset with us when we do this, and it shall be given him, but let him ask in faith, nothing wavering, for he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.
Pastor Josh
And so what the Bible tells us here is that when we do lack wisdom, when we don't know the answers, we go to the one who does know the answers.
Pastor Josh
And the Bible says, let him.
Pastor Josh
When we ask in faith, let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally, meaning giveth wisdom liberally.
Pastor Josh
God pours that out to us as generously, and he doesn't hold it against us.
Pastor Josh
When we go back, and we go back and we go back, we can go as many times as we want for that wisdom that well does not run dry.
Pastor Josh
The Bible says when we do that, he will give it to us at the end of that verse, in verse 5, and it shall be given him.
Pastor Josh
But it does tell us that we have to ask in faith, and that's what we mentioned before.
Pastor Josh
Knowing that God is omniscient leads us to a place of faith, leads us to a place of trust.
Pastor Josh
Like, if he knows what he's doing, okay, if God knows what he's doing, which we must believe that he does, then we can trust in Him.
Pastor Josh
Through this process, I recently had an opportunity to ride in a Tesla car.
Pastor Josh
Now, I don't know what your opinions are on these electric cars these days, but one of the.
Pastor Josh
One of the things that the car does is actually automatic driving.
Pastor Josh
Now, you got to pay attention.
Pastor Josh
You can't sleep at the wheel or read a book at the wheel.
Pastor Josh
Your eyes have to be up on the road.
Pastor Josh
But I had to get in the car, and the person that was taking me on the ride said, okay, you just got to trust it.
Pastor Josh
And so I didn't have my hand on the steering wheel, didn't have my feet on the gas.
Pastor Josh
And it was very interesting because everything in me wanted to step on the brake.
Pastor Josh
Everything in me wanted to turn the wheel.
Pastor Josh
But the way that the car was designed, it handled it itself, and that took a lot of trust.
Pastor Josh
I had to trust the person that designed that car.
Pastor Josh
And whether that trust was in the right place or not, I don't know.
Pastor Josh
I ended up safe at the end.
Pastor Josh
But the truth is that sometimes, as Christians, we have to trust our designer.
Pastor Josh
We have to trust our creator to go through that process and to say, lord, you know better than me.
Pastor Josh
So therefore I'm not going to question, I'm not going to doubt, I'm not going to try to figure this out on my own.
Pastor Josh
Like so many other folks in scripture, we see that God tells them something, tells them to trust him, but yet they try to figure out on their own, try to make it their own way.
Pastor Josh
Obviously a great example of that would be Abraham.
Pastor Josh
But you know what?
Pastor Josh
I have been Abraham in my life.
Pastor Josh
When God has told me to go through something, or at least allowed me to go through something, I've not trusted in Him.
Pastor Josh
I've tried to figure it out on my own in my limited knowledge, my limited wisdom.
Pastor Josh
And so therefore the lesson of God's omniscient nature is this.
Pastor Josh
I can trust in him because he knows the outcome, he knows the answer.
Pastor Josh
He knows what's best for me, even when I don't know what's best.
Pastor Josh
And so what an amazing truth it is to know that God is all knowing that he sent his only begotten Son for us.
Pastor Josh
Knowing yes, that we would sin, but knowing that love is this amazing, amazing character trait of God.
Pastor Josh
And we will talk about his love later on.
Pastor Josh
But this lesson today was about his omniscient nature.
Pastor Josh
So I encourage you to rest in that wonderful truth of his omnipotence, his all powerful nature and then today his omniscience, his all knowing nature.
Pastor Josh
We're going to come back next week and look at his omnipresence, which means he's everywhere all at once.
Pastor Josh
And these omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent attributes all tie in together into his attributes and his character.
Pastor Josh
So looking forward to studying that with you next week.
Pastor Josh
Thank you for listening this week.
Pastor Josh
Remember, God is omniscient.
Pastor Josh
He knows all.
Pastor Josh
And that is a beautiful truth that we can take in our lives.
Pastor Josh
And to go to him according to James Chapter one and ask him for that wisdom that he has and he will give that to us with no limit.
Pastor Josh
I hope you have a wonderful rest of your week.
Pastor Josh
Thank you for listening to the podcast.
Pastor Josh
We look forward to talking to you next week on another Word of the Week episode.
Pastor Josh
God bless you.
Pastor Josh
Take care.
Pastor Josh
We'll talk to you soon.
Pastor Josh
Hey, I really appreciate that you listen to the Word of the Week podcast.
Pastor Josh
If you have any questions about the podcast or about our church, Middletown Baptist Church, you can find more information about us on Facebook or YouTube or you can find the podcast on NBCpodcast.org you can contact me directly at Josh Massaro at Middletown Baptist Church dot org.
Pastor Josh
Stay tuned for future Word of the Week episodes where we dive deeper into words that impact our life according to scripture.
Pastor Josh
Thank you so much.
Pastor Josh
God bless.
Pastor Josh
We'll talk to you soon.
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