WGCC How Big Is Your God?
Isn’t it amazing to see how things can change so drastically in a short amount of time? I mean you hear people talk about the good ‘ol days. A time when things were supposedly better than they are now, I assume people here in Illinois talk about the good ol days. And it’s starting to get really sad for me, because I find myself starting to say things like, “I remember when the price of gas was under a dollar a gallon.” Or “When I was a kid there were no cell phones.” Oh that makes me feel old! To think that I remember when there were no cell phones or internet, CD’s, DVD’s.
But it’s amazing how things can change and when they do we remember the good ol days. But it can just be a different way of life. During the summers growing up I worked with my dad doing plumbing work. And I remember one day we were working at one’s couple’s home and they were retired, and in their retirement they were doing a lot of traveling.
The husband asked me what I liked to do in my spare time and I mentioned a few things and I said that my brothers and I liked to go camping. And we did, dad would take us camping quite a bit, and we really enjoyed it. And the guy said you like camping huh, well let me show you something. We stepped outside and in a barn by the side of his house was a huge RV. He said to me, let me show you how we camp. He stepped in that RV, and pressed a button and the whole thing went “whoosh” and lowered so you could get in it.
Then you stepped inside and it was amazing! There were couches and tables and tv’s. There was so much room, and we walked to the back and he said oh here’s the master bedroom. It was a room with a big bed and a shower. I mean to tell you this thing was nicer than my house! And I remember looking at my dad and saying and to think you made us go camping in a tent and sleep on the ground!!
But it’s true, and probably most of you who have ever gone camping before probably were like me you didn’t go camping to live easy, you don’t go camping and stay in the Ritz Carlton hotel, you went to “rough it.” You have to get the full experience of being out in the wilderness, catching, scaling, and cooking your dinner, and smelling like a foot.
But there are so many things in life that are just like that. When I watch farmers out working in their fields in the big tractors, with the air-conditioned cabs and the power-steering and other features I think that sure is a far cry from what people used years ago. In the good ol days. Must have not been too good I guess!
But I guess a lot of it comes down to preference. If you prefer to go camping or fishing or anything else the simple way, that’s great. But if you prefer to go the high-tech super overdrive way, you can certainly do that today. It just depends on the level of simplicity that you enjoy.
We have become so very accustomed to having choices. We can have things exactly the way that we want, we can customize and specialize anything to have it exactly the way that we want it. We have adopted a “Burger King” mentality, as their slogan proudly states, that you can have it your way. We want it our way. And this way of living translates right into our spiritual lives as well. We try to force our faith and our God to fit into the capacity that we set, that we’re comfortable with.
When we set these kinds of limitations, we lose sight of what God is, and how big God truly is. We’ve been talking the past couple weeks about vision, and how we can have vision as a church and how we can become people of vision. But vision is useless if you have a small view of God. Because if you have a small view of God, then you limit his power, his sacrifice, and his provision and impact in your life.
So I would ask you this morning how big is your God? How big is your view or concept of God? Jesus said in Mark 11:22 to “Have faith in God.” But it seems like every generation is asking which God am I supposed to have faith in? You see as Christians and especially as Christians living in the 21st century I think we send a lot of mixed messages to people. For instance, is it a sin to dance?
Now if you asked the younger people here today, they would say of course it’s not! But if you had asked my grandma, she would have told you absolutely it’s a sin to dance, you may as well be dancing with Satan himself! What about music in church, should it be traditional, should it be contemporary, should there be any at all? If you asked the folks at the non-instrumental church I’m sure they’re going to tell you it’s a complete heresy to have any music in the church period!
We send these mixed messages, and people are wondering which God should I have faith in, the Christian God, the Methodist God, the Catholic God, the Presbyterian God, which one?? What is God, and how big is your God? It can be confusing, especially for those who haven’t been raised in Christian homes.
What is God, someone once said that “God is a lot like our Preacher. I don’t see him through the week and I don’t understand him on Sunday.”
This morning I want to dive into this question of how big God is. And I know that there is no way possible that we could discuss all of the attributes of God in one service. We could talk forever about how big He truly is. It’s impossible to describe God, because He’s indescribable! But for our purpose this morning I want to share with you three attributes of God that reveal how big and how awesome God truly is.
The first is that our God is a God who CREATES. Genesis 1 tells us, READ vs 1-3. Then later God says let there be sky, and there was. Then he said let there be land, and there was, and then plants and stars, and sea creatures, and birds, and land creatures, and man. And six days later, the universe, and the world and everything in it was created, and God said it was good.
You see God spoke all of this into existence. With just a single word spoken from his mouth, God created something from nothing. He breathed into dust from his hand and man was created. We sometimes fail to recognize that despite our own limitations, God has none! He isn’t bound by gravity, or space, or time. Someone once asked me, how could it be that God has ALWAYS existed? Doesn’t everything that exists have to have had a beginning? Doesn’t everything start somewhere?
And I said yes you’re right, but you have to remember that if what you’re saying is true, that even time itself had to have started somewhere. And if time was started, then someone had to have set time in place. And I’m not talking about calendars and hours, those are creations of man, I’m talking about the day and the night, the very existence of time. God created it, and God is not limited by His creation. He is the creator, not the creation. So do I believe that God has always existed with no beginning and no end? Yes I do. And I also believe that God is in no way bound by time or any other creation, and because of that I believe that God is present at this very moment. He is present and with us right now, and God is also present in the future and in the past, because God is not bound by time, He isn’t restricted by it.
We forget sometimes that God is the CREATOR of the universe. We’re talking the entire universe, do you know how big that is? If you think the earth is big, consider how small it is in our solar system. And if you think that our solar system is huge consider that it is just a speck in our galaxy, which contains trillions of other planets and stars. And if you think wow, our galaxy is huge, remember that our galaxy is just a small speck in our galaxy cluster which is home to billions of other galaxies, all containing trillions and trillions of other planets and stars and solar systems. And if you think oh my, our galaxy cluster is massive, consider that our galaxy cluster is just a very small speck in our universe!
And God created it all. Isaiah writes, “Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls the each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.”
Makes you feel pretty small doesn’t it? Isn’t it amazing to think that a God who could create the vastness of the universe, loves little tiny insignificant you so much that He would die for you? How powerful, how awesome our God is. We’re told that God is so big that the train of his robe fills the temple. Now you know what a temple looks like, we’re talking something that would stretch the length of several football fields, and wide and tall. And the train of God’s robe, the bottom cuff of his robe, FILLS the temple!
That’s huge! If our God is big enough that just the very bottom cuff of His robe fills a temple, can you imagine how big God is who wears that robe? We somehow over look the fact that God is so big, and when we think about Jesus, we picture that pretty Jesus with the blue eyes and the clear complexion and the perfectly groomed hair. We picture the lamb, and forget that Jesus is also called the Lion. Remember Revelation 19 that describes Jesus as having eyes like blazing fire. And on his head are many crowns, and he’s wearing a robe that’s dipped in blood and the armies of heaven follow him on their white horses. And he has a sword, yes a sharp double edged sword, not in his hand but coming straight out of his mouth! And written on his robe and on his thigh are the words King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
This is the great and awesome God that spoke the heavens and the earth into existence, and formed you in your mother’s womb. Our God truly is an awesome God, and if that God isn’t moving mountains in your life today, if He isn’t speaking and moving in your life, then your God isn’t big enough!
There’s another attribute of God I want to discuss. That is that our God is a God who RESTORES. Our God is a restorer! My dad loves to take on projects. If you ever had the chance to visit my parents house in Kentucky, you would be amazed at what dad does. For one thing, I wouldn’t have to give you an address or tell you how to find their house, all I’d have to do is tell you what road they live on, and trust me you would find it. It’s hard to miss, you travel down their road and it’s about as crooked as a dog’s hind leg. That’s part of the challenge of going to my parents house is getting there without getting carsick! But you go about 5 miles and then you go over this hill, do you guys know what a hill is here in Illinois?? Ok I wasn’t sure if you were familiar with what a hill looks like here or not! Just kidding!
But anyway you go over this hill, and you can see this great big two story yellow house and the closer you get you’ll notice there is a shed, we call it the man house, and there is a rear-end of an old Corvette bumper attached to the side of the shed and the tail lights actually light up. You’ll also notice the stop light that he has wired up over the driveway, that works and the crosswalk sign that works.
There are several barns that are covered in different metal signs, one that is a garage with a hydraulic lift for working on cars, one that is for washing and waxing cars, and one that is for storing and doing detail work. And my dad did all this himself, he even built the barns. He really likes projects! And one thing he really enjoys is restoring vehicles. He has an old vintage Ford truck that he bought and it was rusted out and in bad condition. And he has completely rebuilt this truck, and restored it so it runs like new!
It took a lot of work, but dad replaced everything on the truck that was bad of rusty of not working with new parts, and it looks better than the day it first rolled out of the factory. God does the same thing with us. When you and I were born, we were pure. We were completely innocence and perfect, without sin. You see you were born without any sort of blemish, you weren’t a drug addict. You weren’t born an alcoholic, or addicted to pornography. No one was born a murderer or an atheist or a rapist. You were a pure child of God.
But something has happened along the way, and the perfect finish, that innocence has been beaten up and bruised and broken. Our fenders our damaged, our windshields are cracked. The seats are ripped up, the motor doesn’t run smoothly anymore, and we’re rusted out. But God does something amazing in that he takes this worn out soul, and he restores it.
Psalm 23 tells us, That the Lord is our shepherd, that he makes us lie down in green pastures beside the quiet water he leads us and he restores my soul.
1 Peter 5:10 promises, “And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.”
Even when we run away, when we turn our backs on God, He gently calls us back to His side. He doesn’t force us, He doesn’t make us live a certain way. Instead He lets us choose our own way. God is gracious enough that He allows us to have free will over our own lives, and when we fall down, He’s right there waiting with open arms to catch us.
Perhaps the biggest example of how God restores broken lives is through Jesus. We see throughout scripture time and time again, that with just a conversation people’s lives were radically restored. Just a single word from Jesus and people felt an abundance of mercy and grace, and restoration. There was the woman caught in adultery, who was brought before Jesus for judgment. Te crowd was ready to stone her for her sins and affairs. And Jesus just responded by challenging the mob that he who was without sin should cast the first stone. As they all dropped their stones and walked away, Jesus looked into the eyes of a woman who had been broken, and he said “Who here condemns you?” When she responded with no one sir, he told her, “then neither do I condemn you, Go and sin no more.”
In Jesus we find restoration. We find mercy and grace, and a love that brings us back to innocence. Because of His blood that was shed, because of the sacrifice that He made on a cross taking all of our ugly sin on himself, we are clean. We are as innocent as newborn babies. We are restored. We have this promise, in Christ, and Peter tells us in Acts chapter 3, “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, and the he may send the Christ, who has been appointed for you- even Jesus.
He goes on to say that “Jesus must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to RESTORE EVERYTHING, as he promised long ago.”
Our God is a God who restores, and I have to say to you this morning that if God isn’t restoring your life, and you don’t believe that God has the ability or the desire to reach you where you are and pick you up and restore your soul, then your God isn’t big enough!
There is one last attribute of God that I want to share with you. And again there are so many awesome things that we could discuss, because our God is awesome. But this morning I’m just going to discuss one more and that is that our God is a God who TRANSFORMS.
God has the power to transform lives, to completely change a person and make them new.
I mentioned that my dad likes to restore cars. It’s true, but if my dad were restoring a 57 Chevy, when he’s finished it’s still going to be a 57 Chevy. He’s not going to take a 57 Chev and transform it into a 2007 Ford Mustang. But God does that in our lives, he takes something that is broken and dead, and he restores our soul and he transforms our lives!
2 Corinthians 5:17 reminds us that “If anyone is in Christ, he is a NEW creation, the old has gone and the new has come!”
That’s what God does in our lives through Jesus! He has the power to create in us a new life! A life that honors God, that is devoted to following and serving Him. I said earlier that our God is a God who creates. You can see how the 3 points this morning all tie together because not only did our God create the universe in all its vastness, but he created us as well, male and female, black and white, young and old, University of Kentucky fans and everyone else. (Laughter) He made us all!
And when we mess up and that perfect creation that we once were is no more, God can restore our souls and transform our hearts and our minds and our lives and turn it into something that glorifies Christ, and truly shows his awesome nature. God can transform us, he can create in us a new life!
I met a man several years ago, named John in Honduras. He was about my height in his mid 30’s. A missionary friend of mine met John a few years before on the street. He was homeless, lived in a cemetery of all places. He spent every dime he could on drugs, living for the moment. His life was a wreck, when he was a young man he attended church, but his life had somewhere along the road fallen apart and lead him to this cemetery where he would spend his days getting high, finding some scraps of food to eat and waiting to die.
He said he fully expected to die in that cemetery, and figured that his body would be found and tossed in an unmarked grave somewhere. But this missionary friend of mine met John and introduced him to Jesus Christ. And his life was transformed. John is now the minister at one of the largest churches in Honduras. He is happily married with three kids. Literally thousands of lives across Central America have been impacted by his ministry and his heart for the Lord.
John is a marvelous example of a life that has been transformed by the love of Christ. There are millions of people all over the world who share John’s testimony. There are many in this room right now who could stand up this morning and say my life has been transformed by God. And you could say I’ve found a freedom in Christ, that is like nothing else I’ve ever known. You’ve probably heard the saying that there is a God-shaped hole inside all of us.
There is a void, an emptiness that we all have felt, and you may try different things to fill that void and nothing seems to work. But those of us who have been transformed can say with confidence there’s only one thing that fills that emptiness, and it fills you completely and you won’t feel empty again later. And that is Jesus Christ! Listen to 2 Corinthians 3:17 and 18.
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It says we are being transformed into His likeness. What an incredible truth, to know that, if we let him, God can transform us into His likeness. His likeness, the God that created the heavens and the earth, the God who is perfectly holy, who is full of mercy and grace. He can make us like Him.
I was flipping through the channels the other day and I came across this show called “Made.” I’m sure probably most of the teenagers here have seen it before, but from what I understood on the show they would feature a teenager who wasn’t happy with themselves and they “make” them into the type of person that they feel will make them happy. And on the show there was this teenage girl, she sort of had a punk look to her, and she said that she wasn’t happy with who she was, and she thought if she was like the cheerleaders at her school that she would be happy, and it would make her a confident person and she would be complete.
And you know what, they made her into a cheerleader, they did her hair different and put on some make up and put her in a cheerleader outfit and voila! Now she’s a cheerleader. But you know what, that was a complete and total waste of time. If anything they hurt that girl because when we focus on the physical, we’re missing the main thing. God doesn’t care about our outside appearance, God cares about what’s inside and that is what He transforms and makes into a new and beautiful creation that exalts Him as Lord.
I asked the question at the beginning of my sermon How big is your God? I hope some wheels have begun to turn in your head and in your heart about just how big is He to you personally. Because if your God isn’t big enough, you’re truly missing out on the wonder and the phenomenal experience of what it’s like to know the Living God.
Close.
