In the sermon titled 'Who is this God we Serve?' by Greg Dowdall, the speaker explores the grandeur and sovereignty of God, using the metaphor of rain over vast lands to illustrate His immense power. The sermon references Job 38 to emphasize God's unmatched wisdom, questioning human understanding of creation. The speaker reflects on Psalm 8, highlighting humanity's place in God's creation and the honor bestowed upon them. The sermon underscores the theme of grace, explaining that God's greatest achievement is reconciling humanity with Himself through Jesus Christ. It emphasizes that salvation and righteousness are attained through faith, not human deeds, echoing biblical teachings from Romans and Ephesians. The sermon concludes with a call to glorify God, recognize His work through faith, and trust in His eternal plan.

Gallons each Let that soak in four and a half semi loads delivered to Elveston, Illinois at this one spot for one inch of rain To equal what God can do We all know rain doesn't fall on Helveston, Illinois at the church lot, right? It's bigger than that. Our God is bigger than that. Who is this God we serve? He makes the rain on Hancock County.

Hancock County is 519, 000 acres. In order for 519, 000 acres to receive one inch of rain. Any guess? Throw a number. 14 billion gallons of water is what it takes to make one inch of rain on Hancock County, Illinois.

14 billion with a B. I don't know what 14 billion gallons of water looks like but I know what a semi trailer looks like going down the road so let's stick with that. Any guesses how many semi loads of water that is? 2.34 million semi loads of water for one inch of rain to cover Hancock County. Now it doesn't just rain on one county most of the time, right?

So let's take Hancock and Lee County. Lee County is about two-thirds the size of Hancock County. The two together, 3.88 million semi loads of water delivered to Illinois and Iowa, tiny corner of the world to make one inch of rain, 3.88 million semi loads of water. What would it take for man to recreate this? Alright, let's keep rolling.

So we're on semis, right? Usually a weather pattern might start clear over on the coast, right? It might start by drawing up moisture off the Pacific, and it might carry it across the Rocky Mountains, might drop some on the way, might pick some up, but it might drop some right here on Hancock County. Let's assume though that it starts less than halfway across the United States between Elveston to California and let's go with Omaha, Nebraska. Omaha, Nebraska to Elveston, Illinois is 324 miles.

One trip in a semi at five and a half miles per gallon would burn 59 gallons of fuel. At two and a half dollars an acre, see now you guys know what my wife puts up with, a two and a half gallons, two and a half dollars per gallon. First of all we burn 229 million gallons of fuel, by the way, recreating that, 229 million gallons of fuel. At $2.5 a gallon, that's $573 million the man took to recreate one inch of rain on Hancock County and Lee County Illinois. Submit that bill to Congress and it would pass in a heartbeat.

It would cost more than that, it would double that, that's right. Somebody, yeah that's right, yeah. But the point is this is the God that we serve. Take a minute to step back. It's good to pursue the intricacies of God.

It is good to pursue that. Sometimes it's important to step back and think of the things that he's given us to think about, to glorify him, that he uses to glorify himself. We use, this is just math and statistics. But this is peanuts when considering the things that he's done to magnify himself in the light of eternity. Who is this God that we serve?

I want to go to Job 38. This is one of my favorite places to go to. You can turn on your Bibles, but my Bible version is a little probably more simple. Not necessarily proud of it, but it's got all my markings in it. I'm not quite ready to give it up yet.

Who is this God that we serve? This is probably, this is absolutely one of my favorites. The Lord answered Job from a whirlwind. Who is this that questions my wisdom with such ignorant words? Brace yourself because I have some questions for you and you must answer them.

Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me if you know so much. Do you know how its dimensions were determined and who did the surveying? What supports its foundations and who laid its cornerstone as the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy. Who defined the boundaries of the sea as it burst from the womb and as I clothed it with clouds and thick darkness?

For I locked it behind barred gates, limiting its shores. I said thus far and no farther will you come. Here your proud waves must stop. Have you ever commanded the morning to appear and cause the dawn to rise in the east? Have you ever told the daylight to spread to the ends of the earth to bring an end to the night's wickedness?

For the features of the earth take shape as the light approaches and the dawn is robed in red. The light disturbs and haunts the haunts of the wicked, and it stops the arm that is raised in violence. Have you explored the springs from which the seas come? Have you walked about and explored their depths? Do You know where the gates of death are located.

Have you seen the gates of utter gloom? Do you realize the extent of the earth? Tell me if you know. Where does the light come from? And where does the darkness go?

Can you take it to its home? Do you know how to get there? But of course you know all this. For you were born before it was all created. And you are so very experienced.

Have you visited the treasuries of the snow? Have you seen where the hail is made and stored? I have reserved it for the time of trouble, for the day of battle and war. Where is the path of origin of light? Where is the home of the east wind?

Who created a channel for the torrents of rain? Who laid out the path for lightning? Who makes the rain fall on barren land in a desert where no one lives? Who sends the rain that satisfies and parches ground and makes the tender grass spring up. Does the rain have a father?

Where does dew come from? Who is the mother of the ice? Who gives birth from the frost of the heavens? For the water turns to ice as hard as rock in the surface of the water freezes. Can you hold back the movements of the stars?

Are you able to restrain Pilates or Orion? Can you ensure the proper sequence of the seasons or guide the constellations of the bear with their cubs across the heavens. Do you know the laws of the universe and how God rules the earth? Can you shout to the clouds and make it rain? Can you make lightning appear and cause it to strike as you direct it?

Who gives intuition and instinct? Who is wise enough to count all the clouds? Who can tilt the water jars of heaven turning the dry dust to dumps of mud? Can you stalk prey for a lioness and satisfy the young lion's appetites as they lie in their dens or crouch in a thicket? Who provides food for the ravens when their young cry out to God as they wander about in hunger?

Who is this God that we serve? Who is this God that you serve? Now Job's response is pretty good. It says something to the extent of, I have nothing to say, I should shut my mouth. And yet, we've been called to carry on his work.

How can we filthy mortals be counted capable of carrying on his work. If I were to come up with a response for Job 38, it might be found in Psalm 8. I read this for our call to worship. O Lord our Lord, the majesty of your name fills the earth your glory is higher than the heavens Skipping down to verse 3 when I look at the sky and see the work of your fingers the moon and the stars you have Set in place What are mortals that you should think of us? Mere humans that you would care for us.

For you made us a little lower than God and you crowned us with glory and honor. You put us in charge of everything you made, giving us authority over all things, the sheep and the cattle and the wild animals, the birds in the sky, the fish in the sea and everything that swims the ocean currents. O Lord, our Lord, the majesty of your name fills the earth. Who am I that you would be mindful of me? I have Acts 17 24 through 31 in my notes.

He is the God who made the world and everything in it. Since he is the Lord of heaven and earth, he doesn't live in manmade temples and human hands can't serve his needs. He himself gives life and breath to everything and he satisfies every need there is. From one man he created all nations throughout the whole earth. He decided beforehand which should rise and fall and he determined their boundaries.

His purpose in all this was that the nation should seek after him and perhaps feel their way towards him, though he is not far from any one of us. For in him we live and move and exist. As one of your own poets says, we are his offspring and this is true. We shouldn't think of God as, and since this is true, we shouldn't think of God as an idol designed by craftsmen from gold or silver or stone. God overlooked people's former ignorance about these things, but now he commands everyone everywhere to turn from their idols and turn to him.

For he has set a day of judgment for the world with justice by the man he has appointed and he proved to everyone who this is by raising him through the dead, from the dead. God's biggest accomplishment isn't in creating the earth or establishing its boundaries of the seas or instilling instincts to its inhabitants. God's biggest accomplishment is making man right with himself. 2 Corinthians 5 21, for our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, that in him we might become the righteousness of God." God's biggest accomplishment was in taking the filth of the ones he so graciously blessed from the beginning. Let's think about that.

Adam was given a specific instruction, Live in the garden that I gave you in perfect peace and harmony with me and don't eat from the knowledge, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And what's Adam do? He eats. He says, what if you eat from it? He says, surely you will die.

But Adam didn't die. Adam was given grace from the beginning. Now he was punished, but he was given grace. He was sent out of the garden. God even provided for him.

He gave him clothes to wear. He told him what his curse would be. He let his wife go with him. He was blessed even amidst his sin. God's promise from the beginning was to graciously forgive the sinner.

Mankind blessed from the beginning who betrayed him generation after generation, and he placed that filth of sin upon his only son who was perfect from the beginning and remained pure generation after generation. Who is this God that we serve? In other words, where it says that he became sin, Jesus Christ imputed the sin that we committed, the sins that were committed of the past upon himself. And before his father, he was an idolater, he was a slanderer, He was a rebel to his parents. He became a murderer.

He became an adulter and a fornicator, and he became a thief and a liar, and he coveted greatly before his father. He became sin. Who knew no sin that we might become the righteousness of God. Who is this God that we serve? But more accurately, who is this God?

More accurately, who are we that we do not serve God? Who are we that God's work could get in our way, of our will in our life? That maybe the iniquities or the struggles that we go through in our life are God's fault. We've been given so much common grace. We have no right to point a finger at God and say, God, how can you?

How can man with nothing to offer but filthy rags bring any good works before him? Romans 3, 27 through 28. Can we boast then that we have done anything to be accepted by God? No. Because our acquittal is not based on our good deeds.

It is based on our faith. So we are made right with God through faith, not by obeying the law. For it is by grace, Ephesians 2, 8, that you have been saved through faith. It is not your own doing, it is a gift of God. It's not a result of works, so that no man may boast." Abraham was counted in Hebrews 11, along with many others, the hall of fame of faithful people of the Old Testament.

How did he prove his faith? He took his son Isaac, he built an altar, and he was ready to obey God. The perfect display of faith was in his response to his son Isaac when he says, Father, where will we get the sacrifice? And he says, the Lord will provide the sacrifice. Who are we to question God?

Ephesians 2 10. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. You see, when we look at good works as things that we plan to do today, it's foolish. Those are our thoughts. Those are our ideas.

God's good works were planned for us before eternity started. His good works were set before us. I believe it's Romans that Paul says, I should not boast of anything except for the work that Christ, that I have done for Christ. Who is this God we serve? He is the God who by grace sought us out from the beginning of time with a purpose and a plan to redeem us from sin from the beginning of time in order that we might walk in service to him.

God's plan for salvation never changed. His plan for salvation was the same from the beginning, that he was going to send a savior, that he was going to redeem his people. There's a passage, I believe in Romans, I read it last night and I can't find it, but he talks about why did God not punish to the entirety those of men of the Old Testament who sinned. It's because He was going to pay for them. It's by grace.

It was through faith that they're saved. It's not in their works. It's not in their sacrifices. It's the same faith of the New Testament that we believe that there is a Savior that came. They believe that there would be a Savior that comes to pay their price for their sins and that God would be gracious unto them.

God's plan for salvation has never changed. He has made a purpose and a plan to make us holy and one with him so that our works would not be filthy rags, but they would be received with him from a righteousness imputed by his son. Romans 1, 16-17, and then I'll end. Romans 1, 16 through 17, and then I'll end. For I am not ashamed of this good news about Christ.

It is the power of God at work saving everyone who believes, Jews first and also Gentiles. This good news tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As scriptures say, it is through faith that a righteous person is made right with God. This morning, this message is just fundamental.

It's saved through faith. By grace, None of your works, none of your doing. Lord, strip us of the works that we hang our hat on. That we take pride in. That we take pride in?

Who am I that I should boast of anything that I have done? Whether it is the work of Christ through me. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, It's only with a bowed heart that we can come before your Word to study your attributes, to study your awesome power, to be humiliated before things that we have studied for thousands of years. The intricacies of creation, infinite details, the science cannot prove.

Father, may we just stop and glorify you, give you credit, give you thanks, give you praise. Brother, not point our fingers when we don't get rain. Not point our fingers when the troubles of life come our way, when we get sick. May we count it blessed that we may encounter trials, so that the work of our faith may be exercised and proven. The lyrics of this song say, "'Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus, and how we prove you o'er and o'er.

Father, make our faith strong, Make our faith strong in You, in You alone, that You are the one true God who provides a way that we may be counted righteous. Father, forgive us of our iniquities. Forgive us of our sins. Father, as a church, may we come together and unite on the denominator that You are God, you are God alone. That your work is completed on the cross, but your work is far from done in any one of us.

Father, as we seek you for eternity, may we rest in knowing that you hold all things in your hands. We give you praise and we give you thanks this morning in Jesus name. Amen.