"Good" is such a mediocre word, we can often misunderstand what it means that God is good. But when we open our Bibles and consider God's goodness we see that all the beautiful aspects of his character flow from it. It's not just that God is good. Our greatest joy and only hope are in the fact that is perfect goodness.

Application Questions: 

1. How do you tend to define "goodness"? Is it rooted in God or your own ideas?

2. What are some big moments in life in which you have seen God's goodness/kindness?

3. What are some small moments in life in which you have seen God's goodness/kindness?

4. What are some ways you have seen God's goodness/kindness in creation?

5. How does the gospel prove the perfect nature of God's goodness?

6. What are a few ways you would treat others differently if you were more consistently living out God's goodness toward them?

If you had to pick one word to describe God, the Bible would tell you to use the word "holy." God's holiness is a way of talking about the all the things that set him apart. God's holiness means his power, goodness, and love, are a purer, richer, and deeper than any other. Isaiah encounters God's holiness and finds himself transformed. By looking at Isaiah's experience, we learn what it means to encounter God ourselves. 

Application Questions: 

1. The word "holiness" means different things to different people. How have you understood the idea of holiness in the past? 

2. Have you ever felt overwhelmed and undone by God's holiness? What led to those experiences? How did you respond to them? 

3. How do you understand the relationship between God's holiness and God's mercy? 

4. What about God's holiness makes you holy? Have you seen that at work in your own life? 

God speaks and the universe is created. His Word is a manifestation of His power- it accomplishes His will, and there is no insecurity or uncertainty. God's power is infinite and gracious, and He chooses to use His power for our good.

Application Questions: 

1. What are some ways you see your own heart drawn towards earthly power?

2. What insecurities do you see in your own heart and life regarding power/getting what you desire?

3. How does God's power induce fear? How does God's power induce hope and peace?

4. What is gracious about God's power?

5. How can God's gracious and infinite power embolden you and strengthen you in suffering?

Thinking about the nature of God can make him feel distant. When we realize that he is transcendent, sufficient, and eternal it's hard to think of him as close. But, the eternal God is not far away, but is always fully present with us. And recognizing his presence changes everything.

Application Questions: 

1. Do you constantly recognize that God is with you, or do you often slip into a functional Deism (believing he is far away)? And why do you think that is?

2. Do you tend to think of God as always fully present with you? Or do you think of him as possibly being distracted? How does that change how you live?

3. Does the thought that God is fully with you initially bring you comfort, fear, or both? Why?

4. How might you follow David's example in praying a prayer of confession in light of God's constant presence?

One of the most comforting attributes of God is that he is unchanging. Unlike everything else in creation, God is perfectly stable, never wavering, never shifting, a rock that will never fail. James finds this truth very practical for dealing with the realities of life. In suffering and struggle, it's God's unchanging goodness that anchors us in the storm.

Application Questions: 

1. How does the idea of an unchanging God comfort you? How does it challenge you? 

2. How do you think about the gifts in your life? How might they point you to God?

3. What about God's stability makes the gospel more comforting and more joyful? 

We are working through the attributes of God, and this week we come to God's eternity. God is "from everlasting to everlasting." He stands above time, with no beginning and no end. Compared to God's eternity, we realize how temporary we are, and how all the things we put our hopes in will fade. When we understand that God is eternal, we will treat the past, the present, and the future differently, because Christ holds all of our time in his hands in love.

Application Questions: 

1. Have you ever thought about God's eternity? How might it change your perspective on things in your life now? 

2. Why does the psalmist focus so much on the brevity of life? Do you resonate with what he is saying? 

3. How have you put your hope in temporary things? 

4. How is the gospel richer and more beautiful knowing that Christ is eternal yet stepped into time for us? 

Exodus 3 is the place where someone first asks God for his name. What do we learn about from this encounter? First, we learn that God is knowable—he is not an impersonal force, but a God with a name. Second, we find he is all sufficient. Everything in existence depends on God, but he depends on nothing; we can offer him nothing, he gives us everything. Finally, we find a radical love. When the all sufficient God desires to know you, it's can't be because you offer him something. It must be pure love, which we see in its fullness in Jesus Christ.

Application Questions: 

1. How have you experienced the difference between knowing about God and knowing God? 

2. How does God's sufficiency feel humbling you? How does God's sufficiency feel freeing to you? 

3. How does God's sufficiency make his love more striking—especially when seen in the death of Christ? 

We are in a series on the attributes of God, and this morning we look at God's transcendence. When we talk about God, we're talking about someone who is bigger than we realize, above and outside of the created world. This means he is radically different from us. He is infinite, limitless, and endless. Surprisingly, it's these lofty ideas about God that are the most important for shaping our lives here—particularly because he does not stay high and distant, but comes close in love through Jesus Christ. 

Application Questions:  

1. How does the transcendence of God adjust the way you've thought about God up until now? 

2. How does the transcendence of God help you see the power and beauty of the gospel? 

3. How does the transcendence of God meet you in the struggles you face today? 

We are starting a new series on the attributes of God: who is He? What is He like? And it makes sense to begin with his reality, the fact that he really does exist. The natural world provides clues that point to God's existence, and our own hearts add clues as well. Yet the Bible suggests that we all have a complex relationship with these clues. One part of us experiences them deeply, while another part fights against them. Ultimately it is the gospel of Jesus Christ that can reconcile us to ourselves and show us the grace and love of the God who is there. 

Application Questions: 

1. How have you experienced the clues of God's reality, either in the created world or in the human heart? 

2. What reaction do you have to the idea that God exists? What do you think motivates that reaction?

3. How does the gospel make God's existence good news? 

4. How would your life be different if you kept God's reality in mind throughout your day?

As we look to a new series on the attributes of God, we start with a questions: how do we know what God is like in the first place? Much of our lives is based on what we think about God, but how do we know? In Psalm 19, David celebrates the God who speaks—in the natural world, and in the scriptures, and in our own hearts.

Application Questions: 

1. How have you experienced the "silent" word of God in the natural world? What has it communicated to you?

2. Why is the "silent" word of nature not enough? Why do we need a spoken word?

3. What about scripture stands out to you from Psalm 19:7-11? Can you relate to how David talks about scripture here?

4. Have you experienced the "searching" word of God? How can that lead you to the gospel more this week?