How Great Is Our God 

In Acts 17, as the apostle Paul approached the great city of Athens, he came not as a sightseer, but as a soul-winner. He arrived with open eyes and a broken heart. Athens was in a period of decline in the early first-century. It had a famous university and numerous beautiful buildings, but it wasn’t the influential city it once had been. The city was given over to a “cultured paganism” that was nourished by idolatry, novelty, and philosophy.

The Greek myths spoke of gods and goddesses that, in their own rivalries and ambitions, acted more like petty humans than gods; and there were plenty of deities to choose from! Someone once said that in Athens it was easier to find a god than a man. There was even an altar dedicated to “the unknown god” (sort of like our memorial to the Unknown Soldier) just in case they had missed one. Paul saw that the city was “wholly given to idolatry”—to the worship of false, non-existent gods—and it broke his heart.

Taking center stage in the Areopagus, Paul cleared his throat and announced: “Men of Athens, I notice that you are very religious in every way, for as I was walking along I saw your many shrines. And one of your altars had this inscription on it: ‘To an Unknown God.’ This God, whom you worship without knowing, is the one I’m telling you about” (Acts 17:22-23 NLT).

Paul’s audience that day consisted of primarily two schools of thought—the Epicurean philosophers and the Stoic philosophers. The Epicureans believed in a deity that was distant from humanity. They were materialists at heart who thought that the universe and everything in it was eternal—it’s just always been here. The Stoics were somewhat pantheistic—that is, they believed that the universe and everything in it was god; that the universe itself was a sort of sentient being. But Paul boldly affirmed what Moses penned long ago: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth!” God made the world and everything in it. He is not a distant God, divorced from His creation; nor is He an imprisoned God, locked inside creation. He is a creative God—the Creator of heaven and earth.

We live on a very privileged planet. The Earth is just the right distance from the Sun so that water can exist in its liquid state, which is vital for life to exist. If the Earth was 5% closer, our atmosphere would be more like Venus with temperatures up to 900º F. If it were 5% more distant, then it would be more like the frozen planet Mars. Our Moon stabilizes the Earth’s axis, thereby giving us the seasons and the tides which are vital to life. Our atmosphere is rich with the oxygen needed to support life and it blocks gamma rays, UV rays, and x-rays. The light that does penetrate is just what is needed for life. Even our address in the Milky Way is located within the relatively narrow subdivision beneficial for life to exist.

A little girl asked her mother, “Where did people come from?”

The mother answered, “A long time ago, God made Adam and Eve and they had children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren—until the whole world was filled with people.”

A couple of days later, the girl asked her father the same question. The father answered, “Well, we’re actually descended from apes, who evolved over millions of years into human beings.”

The confused girl returned to her mother and said, “Mom, why did you tell me God created people but Dad said that people come from monkeys?”

The mother answered, “Well, dear, it is very simple. I told you about my side of the family and your father told you about his.”

King David once praised God, saying, “Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! It is amazing to think about. Your workmanship is marvelous—and how well I know it” (Psalm 139:14 TLB). That was written three thousand years ago. Today, with all the scientific knowledge and technology of the ages at our fingertips, how much more amazed should we should be then at the marvelous workmanship of our Creative God

Don’t you wish that were true for all of us? We just don’t seem to age as well as God does, do we? In fact, I heard a story about a little girl who climbed up on the lap of great-grandmother, looked at her white hair and wrinkles, and then asked, “Did God make you?”

“Yes,” she said. Then she asked, “Did God make me, too?” Grandma said, “Yes.” “Well,” said the little girl, “Don’t you think He’s doing a better job these days?”

First, God has a “weak” memory.

• WEAK MEMORY

I heard about an elderly man who moved into a retirement community and it wasn’t long until he had made a number of friends among the other residents. There was one lady he was especially attracted to and she was attracted to him, too. They spent a lot of time together. Finally one evening he proposed, asking her to marry him.

The next morning he woke up remembering his proposal, but he couldn’t remember her answer. So he went to her and said, “I’m really embarrassed to admit this, but I know I proposed to you last night but I can’t remember if you said ‘Yes’ or ‘No.’”

“Oh, thank goodness!” she replied. “I remembered saying ‘Yes’ to someone but I couldn’t remember who asked me.”

Well, if you’ve ever walked into another room and forgot why you were there, don’t worry—the Bible says that even God has a few laps in memory. God says, “I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more” (Isaiah 43:25 NIV).

God has a “weak” memory—he just cannot remember forgiven sins.

This was the prayer of the ancients: “Do not remember the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions...” (Psalm 64:9 NKJV). All through both the psalms and the prophets, God promised “forgetfulness.” Jeremiah received this joyful message: “I will forgive their wickedness, and I will never again remember their sins” (Jeremiah 31:34 NLT). God reiterated the promise in the New Covenant: “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more” (Hebrews 8:12 NIV).

God’s forgiveness is so complete, it’s forgetfulness

But, when Israel offered God unacceptable sacrifices, God suddenly developed “smelling problems.” He warned that if they continued to worship lesser gods, “I will not smell the pleasing aroma of your sacrifices” (Leviticus 26:31 HCSB). Many years later, it happened that Israel continued in their disobedience and the Lord said, “I hate, I reject your festivals, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies” (Amos 5:21 KJV). The NLT has a more in-your-face translation: “I hate all your show and pretense—the hypocrisy of your religious festivals and solemn assemblies” (Amos 5:21 NLT).

The Lord just cannot stand the smell of hypocritical worship.

A man sat down to supper with his family and said grace, thanking God for the food, for the hands which prepared it, and for the source of all life. But during the meal he complained about the freshness of the bread, the bitterness of the coffee, and the overcooked roast. His young daughter questioned him, “Dad, do you think God heard you praying?”

He answered confidently, “Of course.” Then she asked, “And do you think God heard what you said about the coffee, the roast, and the bread?”

Not so confidently, he answered, “Why, yes, I believe so.”

The little girl concluded, “Then which do you think God believed, Dad?”

The man was suddenly aware that his mealtime prayer had become rote, thoughtless habit rather than an attentive and honest conversation with God. By not concentrating on that important conversation, he had left the door open to let hypocrisy sneak in. God will not accept hypocritical worship—he just cannot stand the smell!

God once told Isaiah, “These people say they are mine. They honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me” (Isaiah 29:13 NLT).

So the question is—where is your heart? When your lips sing “How great is our God,” does your heart sing along? I’m glad that God has a “weak” sense of smell because it forces me to look within, to search my own soul, to take off the mask, lay aside the pretense, stop putting on a show—and truly worship him for how great he is!

THE POWER OF GOD

Have you ever stood outside on a clear evening and gazed up at the awe inspiring beauty and majesty of the stars up above? Those gleaming lights twinkling against a black velvet sky are overwhelming not just in splendor, but in number. Have you ever tried counting the stars? Three hundred years ago astronomers believed there were just over a thousand stars in the universe, today we know that there are over 300,000,000,000 stars in our galaxy alone, which is just one of billions more galaxies stretched across the cosmos.

Yet, the Bible says, “He counts the stars and calls them all by name. How great is our Lord! His power is absolute! His understanding is beyond comprehension!” (Psalm 147:5 NLT). He counts the stars and knows them by name. I don’t want to overwhelm you with billions of stars, so let me just tell you about three. Can we handle three stars?

The first one is easy because it’s our star and it’s called the sun. Here’s an image of it t’s a little fiercer than we often imagine it, but what I want you to notice is how big it is! It’s about a million times bigger than the earth. Let me share a little illustration I learned from Louie Giglio during the How Great is our God tour.

If the earth were the size of a golf ball, then the Sun would be 15 feet in diameter. It could hold 960,000 of our earths inside of it. That’s enough golf balls to fill a school bus! So what I want you to do tomorrow is go to Wal-Mart and get yourself a golf ball, then drive out to the school and hold your golf ball up next to one of the school buses! That’s how big our Sun is—it’s a huge, massive star and it’s just one of hundreds of billions of stars in our little neighborhood, called the Milky Way galaxy.

But let me tell you about another star. Its name is Betelgeuse and it may not look as fierce, but this photo was taken from 427 light years away (427x5.88 trillion miles away). Betelgeuse is twice the size of the Earth’s orbit around the sun! If the earth were a golf ball, Betelgeuse would be the diameter of the Empire State Building stacked on top of itself six times! So here’s what I want to you to do Tuesday—you’re going to take your golf ball, get some plane tickets, fly to New York City, place your golf ball at the foot of the Empire State Building, back away until you can see the entire building, then imagine five more Empire State Buildings stacked on top of each other. That’s Betelgeuse! This is the Earth! And somewhere, you’re on it. You could fit 262 trillion Earths inside Betelgeuse. If the earth were a golf ball, that’s enough golf balls to fill up the Superdome… 3,000 times.

believe to be the biggest star in the Milky Way. It’s called Canis Majoris. [Next Slide] Here it is veiled like the glory of God behind a rainbow-colored nebula. If the earth were a golf ball, Canis Majoris would be the size of Mount Everest—six miles high! So apparently, you’re going to have to fly from New York to Katmandu Nepal. It’s the highest point on the planet and I just dare you to climb up there, unzip your parka and pull out your golf ball. You can fit seven quadrillion of our earths within Canis Majoris. Let me help you understand that number, because this star is crazy big. Who can tell me the equivalent of a million seconds ago? 12 days ago. How about a billion seconds ago? December 1980. What about a trillion seconds ago? 29,000 BC. But a quardrillion seconds ago? 31,688,764 years ago! And you can put seven quadrillion earths inside Canis Majoris. If the earth were a golf ball, that’s enough golf balls to cover the entire state of Texas 22 inches deep in golf balls! That’s how big Canis Majoris is!

And all this takes on new meaning when we read Psalm 33: “The heavens were made by the word of the Lord and all the stars by the breath of his mouth” (Psalm 33:6 NLT). In other words, God didn’t lift a finger when creating these stars; rather he simply breathes them into existence! Just a glance into the universe that God has made ought to remind us this morning that we are worshipping an unrivaled, uncontested God of infinite might and power and glory and awe! There is no one like him! He is indescribable.

But God doesn’t stop there. Not only does Psalm 147 tell us that the stars proclaim the awesome power of a star-breathing God, but it also describes the abundant provision of God.

He wants to be our Father. Like children, we are so small, and frail, and weak. We are one of 6.5 billion people on this golf ball sized planet in this massive universe that God has made! And yet, God’s greatest pleasure—the thing that brings joy to the heart of our star-breathing God—is the love, and trust, and respect of his children—you and me. If you’ve accepted Jesus as your forgiver and God as your Father, then you are the child of a star-breather.

Jesus said that the most important command in the Bible is this: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37 NIV). Loving God with every fiber of your being is the most important thing you will ever do with your life. He already loves you. And when you look at the world around you, the universe that he made for you, how can you not love him in return?

 

Written by Admin

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