Looking for More: The Mighty God. Frederick Buechner, in The Hungering Dark, writes:
Those who believe in God can never in a way be sure of him again. Once they have seen him in a stable, they can never be sure where he will appear or to what lengths he will go or to what ludicrous depths of self-humiliation he will descend in his wild pursuit of man. If the holiness and the awful power and majesty of God were present in this least auspicious of all events, this birth of a peasant's child, then there is no place or time so lowly and earthbound but that holiness can be present there too. And this means that we are never safe, that there is no place where we can hide from God, no place where we are safe from his power to break in two and re-create the human heart, because it is just where he seems most helpless that he is most strong, and just where we least expect him that he comes most fully. Citation: Frederick Buechner, The Hungering Dark (Harper San Francisco, 1985); submitted by Bill White; Paramount, California
It was seven hundred years before the birth of Christ when Isaiah the prophet attempted to paint a picture of what Jesus would be like. He wrote these words:
“For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. And the government will rest on his shoulders. These will be his royal titles: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6
His name is Wonderful – This takes care of the Dullness of life.
His name is Counselor– This takes care of the Decisions of life.
His name is Mighty God – This takes care of the Demands of life.
His name is Eternal Father– This takes care of the Dimensions of life.
His name is Prince of Peace – This takes care of the Disturbances of life.
All of us from time to time experience stress. This stress usually comes from the demands that life puts on us. With every decade of age, we find more and or different things to stress out about.
The first clue that a new mom was under stress from her duties as a wife, new mother, and graduate student came during a long-overdue dental appointment. She had arranged for someone to baby-sit and for another student to take notes for her in class. The dentist gave her a strange look as she sat down in the chair for a root canal and sighed, "Wow, it's nice to be able to relax."
I want to suggest to you that the baby born in Bethlehem was and will always be the best Christmas present ever. He came to bring us many things but the greatest gift of all was the salvation that we did not deserve. Christmas has become a very interesting time in our country. There are those who fall all over themselves to keep Christ or the message of Christmas from showing up. School systems are often the leader in this blatant attempt to be politically correct.
There is no such thing as a politically correct Christmas. It is about Jesus. Sorry but that is the way it is.
In 1993, the senior class of River Valley High School in Three Oaks, Michigan, found an interesting way to acknowledge God. Aware of all the threats about openly praying to God at their graduation, these seniors devised a unique plan. Once the diplomas were received, an unidentified graduate deliberately sneezed very loudly. In unison, all ninety-five graduates exclaimed, “God bless you!” The ACLU is probably still trying to figure out if that’s legal. NEWSLETTER Newsletter, July 1996, p. 2
1. He is able to save us.
Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them. Heb. 7:25
A. In creation God showed us His hand.
B. In salvation He shows us His heart.
You have come into this room today from all kinds of walks of life. Some of you no doubt have done things for which you are not very proud of. In fact, you may feel overwhelmed by the circumstances of your life. The good news is that God is able to meet you wherever you are and save you. You don’t have to come to this church of six months or a year and try to prove that you are worthy to be saved. You don’t have to come to church and get God’s approval through some kind of points system for bringing your Bible or singing or staying awake during the sermon. There is nothing you can do to earn the gift of salvation. It is free and God offers it to you today. You just have to receive it.
2. He is able to sustain and support us.
GARDEN GROVE, Calif. (AP) - The longtime conductor of the Crystal Cathedral Orchestra - a composer and arranger who worked with Celine Dion and John Tesh - shot himself to death at the soaring glass-and-steel church Friday after a nine-hour standoff that started just before a Christmas pageant was to begin. Johnnie Carl, 57, got into argument Thursday evening with another employee, went back to his office and fired four shots, then barricaded himself in a bathroom and committed suicide as police officers tried to talk to him, authorities said. Carl, conductor at the cathedral for nearly 30 years, had grappled with depression, authorities said. The 128-foot-high church, designed in part by the architect Philip Johnson and completed in 1980, is home to the Rev. Robert Schuller's Crystal Cathedral Ministries and claims a congregation of more than 10,000. Carl directed the music on Schuller's internationally televised "Hour of Power" broadcast from the cathedral.
He is able to support us when life seems to be falling apart.
“To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy...” Jude 24
Jude says He is able to keep us from stumbling and falling. We can put all of our cares on Him. Missionary in Peru. Climbed all day and was exhausted and at the end of the day she sat down tried to rest. One of the guides, sat down and put his back against her back and she knew that he also had been walking all day so she didn’t put much weight on him. He sensed it and told her, “If you love me, lean hard,” He wanted to support this missionary lady. That reminds me of God. He just says to us all through the Bible that we should lean on Him and accept His love.
He is able to hold the weight of the cares that are pressing in on you today. The story is told about a man who purchased a Rolls Royce. He couldn’t believe the power of this handmade automobile. He said, “I’ve got to find out how much horsepower this car has. He emailed the company over in Derby England and asks the question and he got a one word response. ADEQUATE.
Sometimes we treat God like the Rolls Royce. It’s almost like we want to know if God can really support us when life is overwhelming us. He is adequate. He is the source of strength that is greater than any other source.
3. He is able to secure us.
“That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.” II Timothy 1:12
Paul says I have entrusted everything to God.
Paul says I know WHOM I have believed. Not what I believe.
God can only protect or guard what has been given him. God can only secure what has been given to Him. There is nothing He can do about your life if you are holding on to it.
The only things that are secure in your life are the things that you have surrendered to God. Sometimes there are Christians who live like this and I don’t understand it. There are people who are just determined to hold on their life. They may make it to heaven but they seemed to be convinced they have to be miserable in the process.
Your children are not protected by God until you give them to Him. You need to release them to Him. Your wife, your husband, your job, your money, your house and all the rest of the stuff of your life is not secure until you have placed in God’s hands.
Paul says I am absolutely sure that God is able to keep what I have given to Him. We need to live a surrendered life. You know when some of us are the most surrendered? When we are doing something that we fear. You wouldn’t believe how much I talk to God when I fly. I have flown more this year than any ever I believe. You know what I am learning to do? Trust God. I am coming to the place that I believe that God won’t let anything happen to me until He is done with the ministry that He has called me to do. ( Now that’s a scary line of thinking if you are not doing what God wants you to do.)
I am confident in God and I am not my own. I am His. I have placed my life, my marriage, my family, my ministry, my future, my home, my health, everything I have I want to be His.
This is the Lordship of Christ issue. What are you doing about it with your life? We are always grabbing for control of our life but if you looking for more you need to let go and let God.
Talking about flying causes me to think about a story I heard the other day about a plane that lost an engine and the pilot came on the intercom and informed the passenger’s that they should not worry because there were three more engines and besides that there are four bishops on board. A lady in her eighties, looked at the person sitting next to her and said, “I would prefer to have four engines and three bishops.
4. He is able to strengthen us.
“For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge–that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” Ephesians 3:14-19
What Paul is saying here is that it is possible for us to be strengthened by God. Let’s talk for a few moments about how God strengthens us.
Look at three verses in 2 Cor. 12:
Levels of strength given by God.
“To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” II Cor. 12:7-10
- Escape ver. 8 First level we always seek. Fire escape.
- Endurance ver. 9 God takes him to the next level. “My grace...”
- Enjoyment ver. 9 “I will boast gladly...” no more martyrdom.
- Empowerment ver. 9 “so that Christ’s power may rest on me.” People in crisis who get special empowerment from Christ.
5. He is able to stretch us.
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” Eph. 3:20-21
In this season of searching and wanting something to be different you don’t need to look for any more than Jesus. You may have come in here today discouraged and even confused but Jesus is all you need.
Are you building a relationship with Him? Have you surrendered your life to Him?
Antonio Stradivarius was an Italian violin maker who lived from 1644–1737. His violins are now the most prized violins ever made because of the rich and resonating sound they produce. The unique sound of a Stradivarius violin cannot be duplicated. Surprisingly, these precious instruments were not made from treasured pieces of wood, but instead were carved from discarded lumber. Stradivarius, who was very poor and could not afford fine materials like his contemporaries, got most of his wood from the dirty harbors where he lived. He would take those waterlogged pieces of wood to his shop, clean them up, and from those pieces of trashed lumber, he would create instruments of rare beauty. It has since been discovered that while the wood floated in those dirty harbors, microbes went into the wood and ate out the center of those cells. This left just the fibrous infrastructure of the wood that created resonating chambers for the music. From wood that nobody wanted, Stradivarius produced violins that everybody wants. Just as this poor violin maker transformed trash into treasures, God can and wants to transform every one of us into the treasured image of his Son, Jesus Christ. He can rescue us from the sludge of our sin and transform us into instruments of beauty and grace.“Loving Christ,” Joseph Stowell, Seeds Tape Ministry, C9834
This sermon adapted from the Injoy Holiday series.
2004/12/19
