Omnipotent God

Omnipotent God:

Is There Anything Too Hard For Him?

TCF Sermon

September 25, 2005

I want to start with a little demonstration here this morning. I have here a precious coin (it’s really just a quarter, but pretend with me). I have a friend who has entrusted this coin to me to keep and protect for her. This friend knows I’m a good guy. This friend knows I care deeply about her, and would do anything to help her. This friend trusts my love for her, and knows I’m reliable and won’t lose it.

But there’s one thing this friend doesn’t know, and that’s what we’ll demonstrate here.

(pick one person from the congregation to help – ask him or her to try to take the coin from you - assume the first one can’t because you pick someone much smaller than you)

Now, it seems that not only am I a good guy, and that I love my friend, but, I’m also able to protect her precious possession. Yet, what if someone bigger than (name) came to try to take this coin. How about Dave Troutman? Dave’s certainly bigger than me. (call Dave forward, and Dave is able to take the coin).

Now, this friend trusted me. I’m a good guy, I care about my friend, and would do anything I can to protect her possession. But there’s one problem. I’m not strong enough, not powerful enough. Oh, I do love my friend dearly, and I really want to protect her possession, just as she trusted me to do. But even though I can protect it against some who would try to steal it, I’m not all-powerful. There’s always likely to be someone stronger than me.

So, the question is, based on what we’ve learned by this illustration, can my friend really trust me? She might trust my intentions, she might trust my love for her, but she can’t trust my power, my strength, my might. It’s not for lack of desire that I can’t do what I said I’d do, it’s for lack of power and strength.

So, consequently, she can’t really trust me. That’s not my fault, but I’m not omnipotent.

When it comes to the things of God, the question of trust is a critical one. As believers in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, we’re trusting not only in His love for us, but we’re trusting in His wisdom, and we’re trusting in His power, and His sovereignty.

If any of these foundational truths about our great God -

1. He is infinitely powerful and sovereign

2. He is infinite in His wisdom

3. He is absolutely perfect in His love

- if any one of these things about God are not true, we cannot trust God….He isn’t completely worthy of our trust. What’s more, if we don’t really believe that all three of these things are true, then, again, we are not able to trust God. If they’re just not true, or if we just cannot believe these things are true, then we cannot trust Him.

This is where we must turn to the Word of God, and this morning, we’re just going to look at one aspect of that trust…the aspect we illustrated a moment ago.

The power, or in this case, the omnipotence, the all-encompassing power, of God. He’s omnipotent, and I’m not.

Let’s start by noting that, though this doctrine is under attack today, even by people within the church (as we’ll look at in a moment), this is a truth that is clearly taught in scripture. We’ll see that as we reference several passages of scripture this morning, starting with:

Genesis 17:1 (NIV) When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said, "I am God Almighty;

Note: this is the first reference to God as Almighty.

Genesis 18:14 (NIV) Is anything too hard for the LORD?

Jeremiah 32:27 (NIV) "I am the LORD, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me?

Now, for my friend, who entrusted that coin to me, to truly trust me, she’d have to be able to say and believe about me, what God claimed about Himself here in Jeremiah, what God said about Himself in both passages from Genesis, she’d have to be able to say, “Bill, I know that you are the boss, the big cheese of all mankind; nothing is too hard for you.” Of course, that’s not true. There are a lot of things that are too hard for me.

Yes, I know the Word says we can do all things through Christ, but work with me here. In the context of these passages of scripture, we’re referring clearly to the omnipotence of God.

So, while I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, I don’t think any of us would abuse that passage by saying it means: “I am omnipotent through Christ.”