Friday, March 14, 2014
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The world looks a little different through three-year-old eyes. Peter was three and he was the grandson of one of our ministry team. Little Peter was out with his Mom, and they drove past this construction site and saw one of those giant cranes. Well, Peter got all wide-eyed, and he's watching this mechanized monster moving things around. Finally, in total amazement, he tried to find a way to express how big that crane looked to him. Here's what he said: "Mommy, it's bigger than God!"
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Bigger than God Illusion."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from 1 Samuel 17:33, and we are watching the army of Israel being totally intimidated by Goliath, the Philistine giant. David, this little guy-teenage guy probably-wants to go out and fight him. But Saul, the king, replies in verse 33, "You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a young man, and he has been a warrior from his youth." And then in Verse 37, David says, "The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine."
So by the time we get to verse 45, David charges the giant. David said to the Philistine, "You come against me with sword and spear and javelin. But I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hands." Now, the Israeli army looked at Goliath and said, "He's bigger than God!" And they retreated.
David seemed like the least likely person to take on the giant, but he was the only person there who believed that God was bigger than the giant. So David, it says, "ran quickly toward the battle lines to meet him." The Jews of Moses' day and Joshua's day? Well, they made the same mistake when they measuring the challenge in front of them. They looked at the Promised Land and they saw walls, and cities, and warriors that were bigger than they were. And Joshua said, "Hey, God's bigger than they are." But unbelief won the day, and so the people got to spend 40 years wandering in the wilderness as a result.
"It's bigger than God!" That's what unbelief really is saying. It's what worry is saying. We don't really believe that theologically, but practically we seem to. We get beaten by the walls, beaten by the giants and the obstacles, because we think, "This one's pretty big, maybe too big for God."
So what's the big thing that's making you afraid, making you discouraged? "These bills are bigger than God." Really? "This crisis is bigger than God." Is it? Really? "This pain, this illness, this family problem; it's bigger than...." Oh, forget it! It's nowhere near bigger than God! Nothing is! Compared to you, the challenge or the obstacle is huge. But what are you going to do with God, who created a hundred billion galaxies; who controls a hundred billion galaxies and everything in them? Why don't you measure your monster next to Him? You'll find your fear turning to faith and your stress melting into peace.
It's just this awesome God we serve! You walk by faith. You measure the giant by the size of your God, not your God by the size of the giant. Are you encountering something really big right now? Well, be awed, but not by what's big, but by your God who's bigger. That's what our little friend saw, something that was bigger than he was so he thought it was bigger than God is.
And, remember, worry and unbelief always make that mistake. If you're making that mistake right now, don't miss a miracle because you let something loom larger in your heart than the awesome God of the creation, the awesome God of the cross, the awesome God of an empty tomb, the God of the second chances; the God of the universe.