• In His Children's Book, Entitled Is A Blue ...

  Contributed by Sermon Central on Jun 18, 2007 (message contributor)

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  Tags:  Parable Pharisee

In his children’s book, entitled "Is A Blue Whale The Biggest Thing There Is?" Robert Wells takes us from a size that we can grasp to one that we cannot grasp. The largest animal on Earth is a blue whale - the flippers on his tail alone are bigger than most animals on the Earth However, a blue whale isn’t anywhere near as big as a mountain. If we were to put 100 blue whales in a huge jar, we could put millions of "blue whale jars" inside a hollowed-out Mount Everest; yet Mount Everest isn’t anywhere near as big as the Earth. If we stacked 100 Mount Everests on top of one another, it would just be a whisker on the face of the Earth.

And, my brothers and sisters, the Earth isn’t anywhere near as big as the Sun. But, the Sun, which is a medium-sized star, isn’t anywhere near as big as a red super-giant star called "Antares." Yet, Antares isn’t anywhere near as big as the Milky Way Galaxy. Billions of stars, including super-giants like Antares, as well as countless comets and asteroids, make up the Milky Way Galaxy. But, the Milky Way Galaxy isn’t anywhere near as big as the Universe. There are billions of galaxies in the Universe. And yet, filled with billions of galaxies, the Universe is almost totally empty. The distances from one galaxy to another are beyond our own imagination.

The Creator of this vast Universe is Almighty God, who with a Word spoke everything into existence; a God who is present everywhere within and without this Universe; a God who upholds and sustains everything with His mighty Power With all of that in mind, there is a dilemma that we all find ourselves in: "How can we approach a God as great as this?" As we consider this Creator of the Universe, the "Master Architect" of all that is, we find ourselves in a position of wanting to know Him; but, not quite knowing how to approach Him. Jesus, the Christ, used the "Parable of the Pharisee and the Publican (or, Tax Collector)" to show us that there are two (2) ways to approach Almighty God - one of which is acceptable and the other which is not

This sermon leans heavily upon a sermon, written by Rev. Dr. Barry L. Davis, entitled "Two Approaches To God," found at www.sermonworld.com, and used by permission.