HOW GREAT IS OUR GOD (PART 4)
Scott R. Bayles, pastor
Blooming Grove Christian Church: 5/6/2012
A fifth grade teacher in a Christian school once asked her class to look at TV commercials and see if they could use them in some way to communicate ideas about God. Here are some of the results:
GOD is like a FORD ... He’s built tough.
GOD is like COKE ... He’s the real thing, baby.
GOD is like ALLSTATE ... You’re in good hands with Him.
GOD is like TIDE ... He gets the stains out that others leave behind.
GOD is like HALLMARK CARDS ... He cares enough to send His very best.
The truth is, though—no matter how many metaphors we might find, there is nothing in history, or humanity, or the ages, or nature that offers us anything to compare to him or understand him. God is simply uncontainable. Untamable. Unchangeable. Incomparable. Indescribable. You are amazing God.
I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that Chris Tomlin struggled for a long time to find the words to his song, How Great is our God. And again, who could blame him? How do you describe the greatness and awesomeness of a God that’s beautiful beyond description? Too marvelous for words? Too wonderful for comprehension? Like nothing ever seen or heard. Chris certainly wasn’t the first singer/song-writer to face that struggle though.
The book of Psalms is the largest book of the Bible because it’s actually a collection of ancient hymns—songs, inspired by the Holy Spirit and penned by artists and kings, like David or Solomon. Most of these psalms sing of the greatness of God. This morning, I’d like to focus on one in particular—Psalm 147, which opens with these words of celebration: “Praise the Lord. How good it is to sing praises to our God” (Psalm 147:1 NIV). It then goes on to highlight three aspects of God’s greatness.
First, this Psalm points us to the power of God.
• 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 [Next Slide] It’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 [Next Slide] 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.
Bare with me, though, because I want to tell you about one more star. Recently, astronomers discovered what they 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.
• THE PROVISION OF GOD
God wasn’t content to just scatter the stars across the universe. The Bible goes on to say: “He covers the heavens with clouds, provides rain for the earth, and makes the grass grow in mountain pastures. He gives food to the wild animals and feeds the young ravens when they cry” (Psalm 147:8-9 NLT).
In other words, God didn’t just set the Earth in motion and then leave it to fend for itself; rather, God continues to care for it and for everyone on it. God provides for us. He gives us life, but he gives us so much more. John describes it this way: “From his abundance we have all received one gracious blessing after another” (John 1:16 NLT).
I want to encourage you to take some time this week to count your blessings—everything from family and friends to the gas in your car and the clothes on your back. And I think you’ll find that God has provided for you in countless ways. We feel it in the warmth of the Sun and every gentle breeze. We see it in every rainbow, every blade of grass, every new birth, and every child’s face. God sends you flowers every spring and a sunrise every morning. Whenever you want to talk, he’ll listen. And he does it all because he loves you! You were created by the same God who breathed out the stars, and he loves you unconditionally. He sees the depths of your heart and he loves you the same.
In a Dennis the Menace comic strip form way back, Dennis and his little friend, Joey, are leaving Mrs. Wilson’s house with their hands full of cookies. As you may remember, Dennis is not always very considerate toward the Wilsons who are his next-door neighbors (especially Mr. Wilson).
But Joey says, “I wonder what we did to deserve this?”
Dennis answered, “Look, Joey, Mrs. Wilson gives us cookies not because we’re nice, but because she’s nice.”
What’s true of Mrs. Wilson is true of our God. He loves us and he provides for us not because of how great we are, but because of how great he is!
Finally, in addition to the amazing power and provision of God, Psalm 147 reveals God’s greatest pleasure.
• THE PLEASURE OF GOD
And do you know what God’s greatest pleasure is? It’s you. The Bible says, “He takes no pleasure in the strength of a horse or in human might. The Lord is pleased with those who respect him, with those who trust his love” (Psalm 147:10-11 NLT/NCV).
God’s greatest pleasure is you.
Your life is a miracle, and the Creator of the universe knows you by name. He’s big enough to breathe out stars, yet intricate enough to fashion together the trillions of cells that make up every facet of who you are. The God who spoke the universe into existence made you, too, and knows everything about you. From the smallest molecule to the situation you find yourself in right now, he knows and he cares. He created this entire cosmos, so that he could have a relationship with you. Just look at all that God has done to win your heart!
And what does he want from us? The same thing anybody wants in a relationship—love and respect. That’s what we want in our marriages. I want my wife’s love. She wants my respect. And vice-versa. It’s what we want from our children. I want my kids to listen to me and obey me, but I also want them to love me because I’m their dad. That’s what God wants from us!
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?
Conclusion:
How great is our God? Our God is greater, our God is stronger, our God higher than any other. He is an infinite, invisible, incomparable God of unlimited might and majesty and glory and greatness! There is no one else like him in all of creation! The power of God is immeasurable. The provision of God is incalculable. The pleasure of God is intimate—personal. That’s why we love him. That’s why we worship him. That’s how great he is.
Invitation:
As our praise team comes forward and leads us in worship, I want to encourage you to let the words of this song sink deep into your heart. If you don’t have a relationship with God already, I want you to know that there is a God of infinite power and passion who loved us enough to become one of us—to cloak his eternal majesty in human flesh. Jesus is the visible image of the invisible God. He lived and died to bridge the gap between us and God and he invites you to put your faith in him. If there is any way I can help with that, come talk to me.
