Inhabited by the Big G
The Reality of God-in-me
1/22/03
I. Introduction
A little girl sat at the breakfast table with her parents one morning. Dad was reading the newspaper. Mom was making waffles. The little girl sat, wide-eyed, staring at her orange juice. She thought for a minute, and then asked the question, “Daddy?” “Yes, sweetie,” he said. “Jesus is God, right?” “Yes,” he answered. “Then God lives in my heart, right?” “Yes, sweetie, God lives in your heart.” “Ok,” she said, then she sat quietly for a while, and took a sip of her juice. Then she asked another question, “Daddy?” “Yes, sweetie,” he said. “How big is God?” “Well, God is big. Remember the song we like to sing, He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands?” “Yeah,” she answers. He says, “God is big enough to hold the world in his hands. That’s big, isn’t it?” “Yeah, that’s really big.” She seemed content with his answer, and she again sat quietly and had another sip of juice. “Daddy, if God is that big, and he lives in my heart, wouldn’t He stick out?”
This little girl’s question definitely makes you think. Why doesn’t God stick out if He lives in our hearts? Or does he? We’re going to look a little bit deeper at the reality of God living inside of us, and exactly what that means.
II. How?
How does God live inside of us?
Before we can know anything about God living inside of us, we must know some things, or be reminded, of some things about the nature of man. Man is a spirit being. He has a soul, which includes his mind and his emotions. He lives in a physical body. (1 Thessalonians 5:23 “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely: and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”)
When you become born again, the moment you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, your spirit is re-born, your nature is changed. 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation: old things have passed away, behold, all things have become new.”
At this point, you become a child of God, God is your Father. You become a new creation. You also become the temple of God. That means God takes residence inside of you. He makes you His home. In the Old Testament, they had the temple, inside it was the Holy place, and then the Holy of Holies, which is where God was. In the New Testament, because of Jesus’ sacrifice, we who accept Him as our savior become the temple.
2 Corinthians 6:16 “For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: ‘I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God and they shall be my people.’”
1 Corinthians 6:19 “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?”
Ok, so the Big G is living in me. I’m his house. What’s the catch? You’d think the God of the Universe would stay at the 5 Star Resort, or the Ritz-Carlton? Or, forget the fancy hotels. I mean, the God who made heaven and earth would obviously live in the biggest mansion in the world, yet He chose man, a cardboard box compared to the Ritz. Why would He do it? He loves you. He wants to be as close to you as possible. It doesn’t get any closer than living inside somebody, does it? God doesn’t live inside man because he’s the roomiest place on the planet and he’s got a great view. No. God comes to live in you…for you. God’s purpose is always to make you better. No matter where you start out in life, God always wants to bring you to a higher place. He came to earth specifically for that purpose. He brought people into your life to tell you that you could be born again and that He could live inside of you. He made his home in you. He put you here in a good church where people tell you that he came to give you the abundant life. Why? To make you better.
III. Better than Ever
How does God living in me, propping his feet up on my heart, watching the soap opera of my life through the television of my eyes, make me better?
1 John 4:4 “You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.”
Because God is in you, you’re already one up on the world. Because God is in you, the score is You-100, the world-0. You have an immediate advantage, just because God is living big on the inside of you. Oh, you’re definitely better. Think about this: student with God versus world with the devil, or student without God versus world with the devil. Which would you choose? Student with God. Which is better? Plain Ice Cream or an Ice Cream with some sort of topping--hot fudge, strawberries, etc. The one with the topping. A student with God is always better than a student without God. He’s like the topping on the ice cream. He makes it better.
With God on the inside of you, the odds are always in your favor. With God on the inside of you, the impossible becomes possible, the unmovable becomes movable, the undoable becomes doable, the broken becomes fixed, the lost becomes found, the poor becomes rich, the sick becomes healthy, and the dead becomes alive. With God, an empty world is completely turned upside down and inside out, transforming the big ol’ trash heap that was ugly and barren into a land flowing with milk and honey. I’d say that’s a lot better.
IV. The Possibilities are Endless
Matthew 19:26 “But Jesus looked at them and said to them, ‘With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.’”
Mark 9:23 “Jesus said to him, ‘If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.’”
My grandma used to tell me, “You can do anything if you set your mind to it.” Well, granny was quoting Scripture when she said that. With God living on the inside of me, anything is possible.
When I was five years old, my dad tried to teach me to play the guitar. Well, I was five. I couldn’t press down on the strings hard enough. I couldn’t stretch my hand to play a chord. I couldn’t strum the guitar with any observable amount of rhythm. I thought it was impossible, so I was content to strum loud and dance hard with my little blue Smurf guitar and sing the little blue Smurf song – la la la la la la la la la la la- until I was 14, and then I asked my dad to try to teach me again. And you’re all witnesses of the outcome. What I thought at one point was impossible, was in fact a possibility.
How many of ya’ll can think of something that seems impossible? Well, what seems impossible isn’t, because with God all things are possible. How many things are possible? ALL.
V. Useless Without God
John 15:1-5 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.”
Glove Illustration. A glove can accomplish nothing by itself. It just lies there. It has no power of its own. However, if I put my hand in the glove, each finger of the glove moves with the movement of my hand. It’s an instrument of my hand. The moving and direction come from my hand. We’re like the glove. Without God, we can do nothing. We just lie there. We have no power of our own. But with God, we can move and wiggle. We can pick up things. We can slap somebody. We can accomplish great things. With God, all things are possible. Without God, nothing is possible.
Philippians 4:13 “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” The verse doesn’t just stop after the word “things.” It doesn’t just say “I can do all things.” Because that’s not true, unless you add the “through Christ who strengthens me.” You can do all things with God living inside of you. Without Him, you’re out of luck. Without Him, there are a number of things that you can’t do. You can’t go to Heaven when you die. You can’t resist the devil. You can’t escape from temptation. You can’t perform a miracle. You can’t experience true love. Without God, where would you be?
When we grasp the reality of the fact that God, the Creator of the Universe, the Author of life everywhere, has come down from Heaven, and through the power of the Holy Spirit, lives within us—then our very beings shall radiate LIFE!
Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world. Get a hold of that. Say this: God lives big on the inside of me. The same mighty Spirit that raised Christ from the dead lives in you. It’s no wonder the Bible says, “all things are possible to him who believes.” It is because the God with whom all things are possible lives within us!
’’Anything God has ever done, He can do now.
Anything God has ever done anywhere, He can do here.
Anything God has ever done for anyone, He can do for you.’’
-A.W. Tozer
Let’s pray.
