Faith Like a Child - 4
My God Can Do Anything
December 22, 2013
For the past 3 weeks we’ve been looking at what it means to have the faith of a child. We’ve talked about the fact that a child would say
My God is With Me
My God is For Me
My God Forgives Me
And as we look at the final week of this Christmas series, remember the scripture that this is based off of. It’s the time Jesus was with parents and their children. He was laying hands on them and blessing them and praying for them, and probably hugging them and loving them. The disciples thought this was a waste of time and tried to get the kids away from Jesus, but Jesus didn’t want that. He wanted to hang with them, because He felt the kids got what the adults couldn’t understand. So, in Mark 10:15 Jesus made this pronouncement ~
Truly, I tell you, anyone who will not receive the Kingdom of God like a little child will . . . . . . never enter it. That’s a pretty bold statement to make, because many of the disciples would have struggled to make it into the kingdom with their attitude.
Jesus was saying, 'I want you to have faith in me, faith in God just like a little child would, to believe with the innocence and simple faith — just like a little child.'
If it’s possible, can you remember what it was like to hear the Christmas story for the first time? Maybe like you were a little child. The Bible teaches us that an angel of the Lord, don't just hear that and go, "Yea, yea, an angel!" I mean, we're talking a real angel! If you saw an angel you'd be taking a picture and it would be up on Instagram in seconds! An angel of the Lord appears to a teenage girl named Mary, who's a virgin. And the angel says:
28 And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you! “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.
31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.
32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.
And this teen girl asks what any of us would have asked; she asked ~
34 And Mary said to the angel, How will this be, since I am a virgin?
35 And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; So the Holy One to be born will be called the Son of God..."
And verse 37 is our key verse for today; the angel of the Lord said what I want all of you to say. Say it with me ~
"For nothing is impossible with God."
Say it again, like you mean it! For nothing is impossible with God. All of a sudden 700-year old prophesies are about to come alive. God is going to do something a human being could not do. What is impossible for man is possible for God. And through a young virgin girl, God would become flesh and dwell in this world, and the angel declares the truth that I pray you'll believe like a child that nothing is impossible with God.
So, today, we’re looking at the OMNIPOTENCE of God. That means God is All-Powerful. You won't find the word omnipotent in the Bible, but you will find God described as Almighty about 350 times. And this word is only used for God.
So, as we look at the power of God. A child would say, "My God can do anything."
There is nothing impossible with my God! What is impossible with man is totally and completely possible with my God. My God can do anything.
Now, why is this so important? I can guarantee you that right now there are many of us who are facing impossible challenges, significant trials, situations we don't know how to get out of and we genuinely need the power of God, of the God who can do anything.
And I know there are those of you either in your life or in the lives of people that are very close to you that really need the faith to believe in a God who says, "With me all things are possible."
And so, today, is to show you the power of God, through the power of God’s Word. Hopefully we can believe a little more that all things are possible with God who can.
When we face something impossible, we often think, "I can't do anything about this," I believe a child would say: "My God can!"
I love Jeremiah's words in Jeremiah 32:17, he says:
17 ‘Ah, Lord God! It is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm!
It’s great to look outside and see the sky in all it’s glory and thank God, or look at the budding trees and the blooming daffodils. To look at the beach and proclaim ~ "Wow, my God did that! He created all of this."
Then Jeremiah adds these great words ~ Nothing is too hard for you!
Isn’t that Great — My God can! Nothing is too hard for you, God!
Isn’t it great when you see a little child with great faith? Their dog is sick and they say God will heal my dog, you don’t think so, but the dog gets better and the kid reminds you, “My God can!"
For those of you that are Christians and have faith in the power of God, I want to ask you some questions and if you believe God can, I just want you to say, "My God can!"
How many of you, if you have a broken relationship and you can't seem to forgive or get over it and it is strained, how many of you believe that God can heal and restore your relationship? If you believe it say it out loud!
My God can!
I wonder if anybody here believes if you're in financial trouble that we serve a God who is the provider and He can rescue you from financial bondage. If you believe it say it like you mean it!
My God can!
I wonder if there's anybody here who believes in a God that heals, that the name of Jesus is bigger and stronger than any name and that at the name of Jesus and by His wounds we can be healed. If you believe in a God who heals say my God can!
My God can!
I wonder if there are any of you who have people you love who don't believe in God, but you believe God can reach them by His power and Spirit. Do you believe God can reach your loved ones who don’t know Him? If you believe it say it!
My God can!
Do you believe in the power of Almighty God?!
And not only will a child believe in a God that can, but a child will take that further and proclaim “my God can and my God will!”
I love the faith of a little child in the Old Testament. It’s an old story. Sometimes when armies would fight, one side would send out their strongest and best warrior. And that warrior would challenge the strongest and best from the opposing army. And those two would duel and whichever one won would determine the winner. And this is exactly what happened when the Philistines and the Israelites were about to fight. The biggest and strongest Philistine, a giant, named Goliath, came out and looked at the Israelite army and said, 'Anybody want some of this?'
And the Israelites go, 'Ahh, no thank you, not me!'
And day after day that's what the giant did, 'Anybody want some?'
'No, no, no!'
And guess who took up the challenge? A little child, a little boy who should have been off tending sheep but just happened to believe that his God was bigger than the opposing giant. And the little boy said, 'Who are you to come against the armies of my living God?'
And the Israelite king, King Saul said, 'Go home little boy, you'll get hurt!'
And David said, 'No I'm not! Let me and God get him!'
In 1 Samuel 17:45, David said to Goliath the Philistine:
"You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name..."
Everybody say it aloud: "...of the Lord of Hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defiled."
This day the Lord will..."
Not He might, my God will!
"...the Lord will hand you over to me, and I'll strike you down and cut off your head..."
That's pretty cocky! But he believed it and trusted in the Lord. And when everybody else thought Goliath was too big to beat, David was like —
‘My God is too big to miss! Give me some stones and move out of the way!’ And he took the giant down, because he didn't just believe that his God could, but he believed his God would.
The problem for many of us is — we believe God can but when it came to us, we don't believe God will! You believe God might do it for somebody else, but you don't believe God will do it for you. Maybe you've heard about God doing really incredible things, but you think God's going to do it way over there; God's never going to do it over here. A child has the faith to believe not only my God can — but my God will.
I pray today that if you face something difficult that you will have the faith to believe in a God that can; that all things are possible with our God, and you'll also have the personal faith to believe in a God that will. Not just that He can, but that He will and that this will go deep into your soul that you will totally and completely believe in a God who says, "With me all things are possible."
So I want to ask you the question, "What do you do when you know He can and you believe He will and He doesn't? What do you do? When you really do have the faith of a child and you've seen God do bigger things than you're asking for and you know it's got to be His plan and it would be so easy and it would make your life so much different and you ask Him and you believe and He doesn't? What do you do?
What do you do when you pray and pray and believe that God will heal your loved one. You trust it, you know it, you believe it, but the healing you hoped for in this life was meant to be healing which came in eternity. What do you do when you know God can and He doesn't?
I want you to think about Mary. We read her story at the beginning. And I want you to try if you can, not just to think about it like it's just another year of hearing the Christmas story; but I want you to try to think about it as if it was personal to you. If you're a parent, I want you to think about Jesus being your child. Do you know how much you love your kids? I love my kids so much it hurts. Like I don't know how I could love them anymore. Well, imagine if your kid was perfect, never sinned! You'd be like, "Yeah, I love those three a lot, but that one, wow! That one's something special!" Imagine that the cost she paid when she said to the angel, "May it be done unto me according to your Word."
Imagine that during her day she was probably an immoral outcast, the pain she endured. And then imagine her saying yes to God to raise the Son of God and watching her Son brutally tortured and abused, beaten so badly that His face didn't even look like a human face, His body so bloodied by being whipped with lashes, which contained bones and stones. Imagine the horror of being His mom when she watched them drive stakes through His body. Don't you know she had faith to believe that God could stop that? Don't you know that any mom alive would have asked God to "Stop!"
Jesus even prayed in the Garden, He said, 'If there's any other way, let's do it that way! May this cup be removed from me?'
And yet, even though she knew God could do anything, God didn't. Even though Jesus knew His Father could, He didn’t. What did He do? There's a tremendous child-like faith that believes my God can. And there's even a bigger child-like faith that believes my God will. But I believe the deepest kind of child-like faith is the one who says:
"My God can and my God will and even if He doesn't I still believe."
Even if God doesn't do what I think He should and could, I believe in a God whose ways are higher. I believe in a God who is for me. I believe in a God who is with me. I believe in a God who forgives me. I believe in a God who has plans to bless me and to prosper me, not to harm me and to give me a future. I believe in a God who is so good, He's working in all things to bring about good.
My faith in God is not based on what He does, but on who He is. We need to have faith like 3 Hebrew children in the Old Testament; Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, when basically, King Nebuchadnezzar had a decree, saying ~
“Whenever the horn sounds, everyone must fall down and worship. If they don’t, they will be put in a blazing furnace!'
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego refused to bow down and worship anyone other than God. When Nebuchadnezzar called them in, they said “no way, we only bow down to God.” The king was furious with them and told them if they don’t worship him, they will be thrown into the blazing furnace.
And they basically said, “Okie dokie King, go for it!”
Now Nebuchadnezzar was beside himself with anger. He said to make the furnace hotter than it’s ever been. And he asked them what they have to say now. This is what they said ~
17 If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and HE WILL deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand.
18 But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”
Because we believe our God can and we believe our God will and even if He doesn't — we still believe. And it's my prayer today that you would hear the story like a child fulfilling prophesies of over seven centuries, that the virgin would be with child and Jesus was born. The wise men worship Him, the shepherds gather, the star hung in the sky. And if God can bring the Savior of the world through a virgin, then we serve a God who can do anything. My God can, my God will, and even if He doesn't I still believe.
