Witnessing To The "Gods" Series

OPEN: A Sunday School teacher once asked her students: “What do you think God looks like?” These were some of the answers:

- He looks like Billy Graham.

- He’s an old man because of all the years He’s been alive.

- He looks like a human being with a heart, feet, eyes like fire, and… He shampoos his hair everyday.

- He’s tall, gray hair, yellow skin… and brown sad eyes just like my puppy’s

- He looks like my daddy. He’s tall. He wears a jumpsuit on weekends and has a bald head.

- He looks like Jesus, but I’ll tell you a secret. I’m not sure ‘cause I’ve never seen him.

- I think He’s an old man with a long, gray beard. And He sits on a throne like a king, and drinks all the Dr. Pepper He wants.

You see, that is what young children think about when they think of God.

But when we read Psalm 138, we find that David was not a young child when he wrote this. He was a man who was approximately 40 yrs. old (and some Scholars believe he’s about to become the King of all Israel). And in this Psalm, David tells HIS own description of who God is.

And it’s summed up in verse 6:

“ Though the LORD is on high, he looks upon the lowly, but the proud he knows from afar.” Psalm 138:6

That’s another way of saying what God tells us in James 4:6

"God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble."

This is David’s God.

He’s a great God, who loves little people.

He loves the lowly, the insignificant, the small people.

God may be WAYYY up high, but He looks down with kindness on the lowly. It’s only the so-called “impressive”, the proud, the significant people of this world… that don’t impress Him.

Isaiah said it this way:

“(God) tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young.”

He Cares For You!!!

And Isaiah continues: “WHO has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens? WHO has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance? WHO has understood the mind of the LORD, or instructed him as his counselor? WHOM did the LORD consult to enlighten him, and who taught him the right way? WHO was it that taught him knowledge or showed him the path of understanding?”

ANSWER: nobody. God is WAYYY up there… WAY UP THERE.

Then Isaiah says “Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket; they are regarded as dust on the scales; he weighs the islands as though they were fine dust. Lebanon is not sufficient for altar fires, nor its animals enough for burnt offerings. Before him all the nations are as nothing; they are regarded by him as worthless and less than nothing...”

The “impressive people” aren’t all that impressive to God.

IN FACT (Isaiah says) “He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing. No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown, no sooner do they take root in the ground, than he blows on them and they wither, and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff.

"To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?" says the Holy One. Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing…”

“Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.

HE’S WAY UP THERE!!!

But then Isaiah tells us: “He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” (Isaiah 40:11-31)

Our God is a great God who loves small people.

He cares for the weary and the weak and the tired and struggling.

That’s what David is saying in Psalm 138.

Our God is a great God… He’s wayyy up there, but He’s not so far away that He can’t listen to the humble prayer of a humble man/woman.

In the Gospel of Luke Jesus tells this parable: