Explain the meaning and significance of God’s omniscience:
Intro: As I was driving to school the other day, I noticed a small white house with broken shutters and a bright neon sign in the front yard advertising the services of a Fortune Teller. I must confess that I was intrigued by the idea of knowing what the future might hold.…. “Wouldn’t it be great if we really could find out what the future holds…I’m a senior in highschool and I have lots of unanswered questions about this very topic: What am I going to be when I grow up? Will I find a husband? Will I have children? Will I have enough money to live on? I believe these questions are pretty common for people my age. If I could know the answers wouldn’t life be easier? Wouldn’t it be tempting to pay the price and find out? Don’t worry, I already know how silly it would be to do that. I’m not going to throw away my hard earned money for what I know is nothing but a money making scam. I know this because I understand that there is only one BEING capable of knowing the future and that BEING is God. Today I have been asked to explain the meaning and significance of God’s ominiscience and I’ll use my illustration of a fortune teller to help you understand the answer to this question. I’ll start by defining and explaining what the word means, then I’ll show you what the Bible says about God’s omniscience and then I’ll move on to explaining how this should effect Christians as they walk out their faith in the real world.
First lets examine a dictionary definition of the word Ominiscience: Websters On line dictionary defines Omniscience as: the state or quality of being omniscient. Omniscient is further defined as : having infinite knowledge; knowing all things. If we look at these definitions we begin to understand that God knows all things. We can also conclude that if he knows all things past, present and future. If we take things one step further we can see how this relates to us personally and know that God knows our past, our present and our future. Now that’s a lot to take in, so let me give another illustration to help you understand this. Let me take you to the Macy’s day thanksgiving parade. If we had a front row seat we could see the huge massive blow up balloons walking by in front of us. We’d turn our heads as the first balloon marched pass, and then we would turn our head again anticipating yet another grand balloon to pass after the first one. We wouldn’t be able to know for sure what the next balloon would be because each balloon was inflated and started at a different time in a different location. We also wouldn’t be able to see where the balloons are going or what will happen to them when they finish their march along 34th street. We could predict that they would most likely be deflated and folded up neatly but we wouldn’t be able to see this action unfold unless we followed the balloon to its final destination. God has a different vantage point when watching this parade. As an omniscient God he sees past present and future at the same time. He knew before it happened that the balloons would be blown up, he saw them blown up, he saw them marching, and he saw the end of the parade all in the same moment. That’s a big thought to absorb so lets take a minute to further see how this applies in scripture.
Acts 15:18
Known to God are all his works from the beginning of the world.
Psalm 33:13
The Lord looks from heaven; he beholds all the sons of men.
Isaiah 46:10
Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure.
Hebrews 4:13 Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give an account
Proverbs 5:21: For a man’s ways are in full view of the Lord, and he examines all his paths.
Psalm 139 states: O Lord, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise, you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down, you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord. You hem me in – behind and before.
These are awesome scriptures that just start to show how God is all knowing. They reflect that fact that God knows past present and future and they provide specific challenges for those of us who call our selves believers.
My final point will challenge you to understand how God’s ominiscience should effect our worship, our respect, and our sense of comfort.
God’s omniscience must challenge us as believers:
First of all God’s omniscience should influence our worship: If we truly understand and believe in God and His omniscience, then we should be in awe of HIM. Our thoughts, our energies, our passions, and our pursuits should reflect the fact that we worship an all knowing God.
It should affect us by making us respect a God who knows our thoughts. We need to be continually conscious of our thoughts and our actions knowing that they are seen and judged by an omniscient God.
Finally we should take comfort knowing that God is all knowing and his plans for our future are planned for our best interest. For he knows the plans he has for us. Plans to prosper us not to harm us. If God knows the future why should we worry. We can simply rest in his perfect plan and feel grateful for his love and mercy in our lives.
In conclusion you can bet that I won’t be wasting my money or my time seeking out the wisdom of a fortune teller. I have no reason to do so, because I believe that God is all knowing and Omniscient, I believe the scriptures that reflect this reality and I take comfort in the fact that I can worship and respect an awesome God who knows all the details of my future.
