190 Sermon Illustrations on God

Sermon in Twelve Step series Psalm 61:1-8

SURRENDER TO THE HIGHER POWER

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Step #2: Come to believe that a Power greater than ourselves can

restore us to sanity.

Step #3: Make a decision to turn our will and our lives over to

the care of God as we understand him.

I. Some things are bigger than we are.

II. Small things can get large enough to destroy us.

A. Our habits and relationships can become dangerous.

B. A definition of addiction.

C. The epiphany of inadequacy.

III. "God as we understand him."

A. Oxford Group: openness to people who are searching.

B. Are we defining God, or allowing him to define us?

C. We must understand God as Bible portrays him.

IV. God is higher than we are.

A. God is bigger than our thoughts.

B. God is bigger than our problems.

V. Surrendering to the Higher Power.

A. "Let go, and let God."

B. We must turn our will over to God.

C. Obedience - doing what God says.

D. How surrendered are you?

One day a brother was in a strange part of town and in somewhat of a rush. He needed to get some money from his bank, so he obtained directions to one of its branches-one he had never been to before.

The brother followed the advice, and sure enough there was a bank right across the street from the big store he was told to seek. He rushed in and handed over his book and other forms to the smiling teller.

"I'm sorry, sir. I can't accept this," she said. "Why not? I am sure it is all in order. I wrote it out very carefully," he countered.

"I am sure you did, but this is not our bank. The one you want is across the street." Shamefaced, he retreated to the other bank, the right one, which was also across the street from the big store, only on the other side.

In a similar way, how many people rush to a god, any god, seeking comfort, solace or salvation, only to find that it is not the God, our heavenly Father, His Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit? One may rectify going to the wrong bank, but one cannot recover from banking on the wrong god.

A poor woman who had had a hard struggle to make ends meet, and knew what it meant to have very little food, was taken on an outing to the seaside. She was delighted with the scene. As she looked out over the vast expanse of waters, tears filled her eyes and she exclaimed, "Thank God for a sight of something there is enough of!" That is how it is with the soul when it gets its first vision of the infinite fullness of God's grace in Christ. His grace is quite enough for the soul's every need.

God's attention is attracted by our weakness. A mother responds in exactly the same way. She loves all her children, but if she has one who is weak and sickly, while the others are healthy and strong, her care and attention are lavished upon the one who has most need of her protection, most claim upon her love. Her other children are able to take care of themselves, but the little delicate one, whose life hangs almost by a thread, appeals by his very weakness to her strongest instincts of maternal love. So it is with our gracious Savior. He loves us, oh, so tenderly because of our very weakness.

A young girl in an institution for the handicapped was approached by a well-meaning but tactless woman who wrote on her slate, "My dear, why are you deaf and dumb?" Tears came into the girl's eyes. Then, after a pause, taking the pencil and slate she wrote, "Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight." She could very well have asked in turn, "Why do you hear and speak?" Isn't it strange that we ask all our questions about life's sufferings and not about its blessings? Do we take it for granted we deserve them?

An amusing radio comedian of many years ago, known as the Baron Munchausen, used to spin wild and improbable tales. When anyone challenged him he would ask, "Vas you dere, Sharlie?" God was there before there was any beginning; He was there when His only begotten Son came into the world, for He entered into human flesh through Him.

He was there on the cross, for in Christ He suffered, bled and died for you and me. To anyone who questions this, you can retort, "Were you there? God was, and I prefer to take His Word for it."

The late Dr. Clarence Edward Macartney, while a theological student, visited the home of a skeptic. The skeptic's argument was as follows:

"If a man tells me that he has a horse which can trot a mile in three minutes, I tell him to bring out the horse and prove it. If you tell me that there is a God, I ask you to produce God and prove His existence." Macartney replied, "No Christian claims to know God, nor would want to know Him in that way. By that kind of searching we cannot know the Almighty to perfection. The Christian believer does not say, 'I know God,' or 'I see God,' or 'I think there is a God,' but 'I believe in God.'"

"You teach," said the Emperor Trajan to Rabbi Joshua, "that your God is everywhere, and boast that He resides among your nation; I should like to see Him." "God's presence is indeed everywhere," replied Joshua, "but He cannot be seen. No mortal eye can behold His glory."

The Emperor insisted. "Well," said Joshua "suppose we try to look first at one of His ambassadors." The Emperor consented. The Rabbi took him into the open air at noonday and bade him look at the sun in its blazing splendor. "I cannot," said Trajan. "The light dazzles me."

"You are unable," said Joshua, "to endure the light of one of His creatures, and can you expect to behold the resplendent glory of the Creator? Would not the brightness of His glory annihilate you?" This same thought is expressed in the Bible in 1 Timothy 6:16, "Who only hath immortality, dwelling in light unapproachable; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honor and power eternal. Amen." (Author's translation.)

Why does Paul call all that God bestows upon us "mysteries"? Not because they are myths, but because they are facts that we can neither understand nor explain. As Joseph Parker points out: "We know how easy it is to reduce everything to the mystery of darkness and to suppose that, because we can't see, therefore all things that are declared to be in existence cannot possibly be where they are said to be. When night comes down upon us, and the sea is covered, and the great rocks around our coast are all hidden, what would you think of a man who said, 'There is no sea; there are no rocks; there are no mountains. I deny it; I swear there is no sea!... Why, if there was an ocean, should I not see it? If there were rocks, would I not behold them?' He forgets that he is surrounded by conditions that have obscured from his vision the facts which he so emphatically denies. It should not surprise us that God's actions and providences are mysteries to us. It is natural; it could not be otherwise." "The great must always be a mystery to the little," continues Parker. "The arch must always be a mystery to the column; God must always be a mystery to His creatures.

If I could understand all, I should be all. Only the whole can comprehend the whole. Only God can understand God."

One day, as a minister sat in the office of his church to meet anyone who might have spiritual difficulties, only one person came. "What is your difficulty?" asked the minister. The man answered, "My difficulty is the ninth chapter of Romans, where it says, 'Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.'" "Yes," said the minister, "there is great difficulty in that verse; but which part of the verse is difficult for you?" "The latter part, of course," said the man. "I cannot understand why God should hate Esau." The minister replied, "The verse has often been difficult, but my difficulty has always been with the first part of the verse. I never could understand how God could love that wily, deceitful, supplanting scoundrel Jacob."

Many things must be hidden from a child, and the more sensitive he is the stricter the concealment. We are so timid and unschooled that God has to often place the shadow of His hand across our vision, just as the Alpine guide will blindfold a nervous traveler so that he may guide him unharmed across some terrifying chasm. Many of God's mysteries are things that He has hidden from us to the glory of His pity and gentleness. He has to guide us over a great many of the perilous places of life.

This was written by Danny Dutton, age 8, from Chula Vista, CA for his third grade homework assignment to “Explain God”.

“One of God’s main jobs is making people. He makes them to replace the ones that die so there will be enough people to take care of things on earth. He doesn’t make grown-ups, just babies. I think because they are smaller and easier to make. That way, He doesn’t have to take up His valuable time teaching them to talk and walk, He can just leave that to mothers and fathers.

God’s second most important job is listening to prayers. An awful lot of this goes on, since some people, like preachers and things, pray at times besides bedtime. God doesn’t have time to listen to radio or TV because of this. Because He hears everything there must be a terrible lot of noise in His ears, unless He has thought of a way to turn it off.

God sees everything and hears everything and is everywhere which keeps him pretty busy. So you shouldn’t go wasting His time by going over your mom and dad’s head asking for something they said you couldn’t have.

Atheists are people who don’t believe in God. I don’t think there are any in Chula Vista. At least there aren’t any who come to our church.

Jesus is God’s son. He used to do all the hard work like walking on water and performing miracles and trying to teach the people who didn’t want to learn about God. They finally got tired of Him preaching to them and crucified Him. But he was good and kind like his Father and He told His Father that they didn’t know what they were doing and to forgive them and God said OK.

His Dad (God) appreciated everything the He had done and all His hard work on earth so He told Him He didn’t have to go out on the road any more, He could stay in heaven. So He did.

And now He helps His Dad out by listening to prayers and seeing things which are important for God to take care of and which ones He can take care of Himself without having to bother God. Like a secretary only more important. You can pray anytime you want and they are sure to hear you because they got it worked out so one of them are on duty all the times.

You should always go to church on Sunday because it makes God happy and if there’s anybody you want to make happy, it’s God. Don’t skip church to do something you think will be more fun like going to the beach. This is wrong! And, besides, the sun doesn’t come out on the beach until noon anyway [I’ve been told].

If you don’t believe in God, besides being an atheist, you will be very lonely, because your parents can’t go everywhere with you, like to camp, but God can. It is good to know He’s around you when you’re scared in the dark or when you can’t swim very good and you get thrown into real deep water by the big kids. But you shouldn’t just always think of what God can do for you, I figure God put me here and he can take me back anytime He pleases.

And that’s why I believe in God.

We come now to what is without question the topmost rung of the ladder which the psalmist began to ascend when he entered the sanctuary of God. Here, in view of his experience, he can do nothing but give himself to the adoration of God. This is what he says: “Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you” (Psalm 73:25). The inevitable consequence of working through our problems in the presence of God is that we worship Him.

Countless times I have seen people fall upon their knees at the end of a profitable counselling session and worship God. In fact, this is one of the great purposes of Christian counselling — to enlighten people about their spiritual resources and help free them to draw closer to God. The psalmist has found that there is no one in earth or heaven who can do for him what God has done. He has come to realise that when he plays truant with the Almighty there is simply no way in which he can make sense of life; that, as Othello put it: “Chaos is come again.”

Have you come to this same place in your own life? Can you say that you have seen through everything in this life and have come to the conclusion that nothing can satisfy you but God? Then you are in the happy position of the disciples who, pausing to consider how they could replace Jesus, said “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” They saw, as hopefully you have seen, that there is no satisfying substitute for Jesus.

PRAYER:

O Father, how can I ever be grateful enough for the realisation that no one can do for me what You can do? You are my centre and my circumference; I begin and end with You. May the wonder of it go deep within me today and every day. Amen.

FURTHER STUDY:— Jer. 2:1-13; Isa. 55:1-3

1. What had the children of Israel done?

2. What did God offer them?

It took years before she finally said yes. A Welshman had fallen in love with one of his neighbors and wanted to marry her. But they had quarreled, and she refused to forgive. Shy and reluctant to face the offended woman, the persistent suitor slipped a love letter under her door every week. At last, after 42 years, he summoned up courage, knocked on her door, and asked her to become his wife. To his delight, she consented. So they were married at the age of 74! God is also a persistent lover. Century after century He sent prophets, seeking the stubborn people of Israel. Then God sent His Son. In Luke 19, we read that Jesus looked out over the city of Jerusalem and wept because of their hardness of heart (vv.41-44). Yet Jesus persisted in His loving pursuit. He opened the way for reconciliation by His redeeming sacrifice at Calvary. Today He is still asking sinners to come to Him, personally accept Him as Savior, and enjoy close fellowship with Him (Matthew 11:28). If you have come to Him, rejoice that you are His. If you have not, however, you must realize that time may run out. Don't remain forever alienated from the Lover of your soul. Trust Him today. -Vernon Grounds Why trade the hope of heaven's light For things that please the prince of night? Eternal glories wait for all Who turn and trust God's loving call. -Branon God always knocks loud enough for the seeking soul to hear

It has been stated by scientists that the eucalyptus tree is destined to save the world from a famine of wood. Its growing powers are marvelous. A certain large plantation on the Pacific coastline, set out some twenty-five years ago, has been cut down three times, and is again high in the air. It is most serviceable. It produces cordwood and piling; makes excellent fuel, protects orange and lemon groves along the coast from the ocean winds. Above all, its medicinal value for its oil extract is remarkable. In California it is a home cure for almost every ailment from simple cold to consumption. A wonderful tree, full of promise for mankind. There is another tree, however, that is destined to save the world in a higher and truer sense. The tree of shame-the Cross of Calvary-whose healing power has been proved on millions of souls, and under the Shadow of which they were shielded and sheltered from the fierce, piercing blasts of awful temptation. That is like the tree in the Paradise of God, whose leaves are for the healing of the nations.

During the Spanish-American War some transports with supplies for General Shafter's army found it impossible to secure anchorage off the coast of Cuba, and were compelled to steam slowly back and forth. This made it difficult to land the horses and mules, and it was finally decided upon to push them overboard and allow them to swim ashore. So they were pushed into the water, and soon the sea was black with animals. Some instinctively swam toward the shore; others completed circles in the water; still others, more frightened than the rest, started out to sea. It was a distressing situation, and the ship's officers showed much concern.

Finally the men who were aboard the transports espied a soldier on shore hastily making his way toward a rocky promontory. The stripes upon his uniform denoted the bugler. The jutting rocks reached, he placed the bugle to his lips and emitted one after another of the calls which the army horses and mules had learned to know so well. The sound traveled far out to sea, and was heard by every bewildered, struggling creature. Instinctively they turned and swam toward the call. The bugler stood there and sounded those calls until his lips were blue, and, when he finally did cease, every confused and trembling animal was safe.

That is about the way it is with God's call. He needs someone to sound it, and if Christians will but faithfully and earnestly sound the good tidings of the Master they will fall upon the ears of misguided and erring ones somewhere and sometime, and will be to them the means of salvation. It matters not that we may not understand how our feeble and hampered efforts are to win others to Christ. God will take care of that. It is for us to lift His call, to sound His good tidings-and to leave the rest with Him.

In 1808 a grand performance of the "Creation" took place at Vienna. Haydn himself was there, but so old and feeble that he had to be wheeled into the theater in a chair. His presence roused intense enthusiasm among the audience, which could no longer be suppressed as the chorus and the orchestra burst in full power upon the passages, "And there was light." Amid the tumult of the enraptured audience the old composer was seen striving to raise himself. Once on his feet, he mustered up all his strength, and, in reply to the applause of the audience, he cried out as loudly as he was able, "No, no! not from me, but," pointing to heaven, "from thence-from heaven above-comes all!" saying which he fell back in his chair, faint and exhausted, and had to be carried out of the room.

A young man was once employed as clerk in a telegraph office in a town in England. In some way or other God led him to see that he was a sinner, and this caused him great distress of mind. The young man went to the office one morning greatly troubled, and praying, "God be merciful to me a sinner" (Luke 18:13) when the click of his machine told him a message was coming. He looked and saw that it was from Windermere up among the beautiful lakes. There was first the name and residence of the one to whom the dispatch was sent, and then followed these words from the Bible: "Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29), and "In whom we have redemption, through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace" (Ephesians 1:7). Then followed the name of the person sending it. This was a strange message to send by telegraph! The explanation of it was this: a servant girl living in the town was distressed about her sins; having a Christian brother she wrote to him of her condition, asking the question, "What must I do to be saved?" The brother, being unable to write her at once, sent her the dispatch. The poor girl found her way to Jesus through the sweet words from her brother, and so did the young telegraph operator. This was a veritable telegram from Heaven to them both. God's word did the work.

"O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? said the Lord. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand" (Jeremiah 18:6).

Our troubles are often the pressure of the hand of God upon us as His new creation in Christ. George MacDonald stresses this when he writes: "If men would but believe that they are in a process of creation, and consent to be made-let the Maker handle them as the potter his clay, yielding themselves in respondent motion and submissive hopeful action with the turning of His wheel, they would before long find themselves able to welcome every pressure of that Hand on them, even when it is felt in pain, and sometimes not only to believe, but to recognize the Divine end in view, the bringing of a son into glory."

"I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved" (Psalms 16:8).

The story is told of Evangeline Booth visiting some wealthy friends. She herself lived in the slums of London with her grandfather of Salvation Army fame. They had barely enough to cover them, and sometimes only the food they had was what was thrown at them during their street meetings. So upon her arrival home from this particular visit, Evangeline Booth asked, "Grandpa, why don't we have things like other people?"

"Things, dear, what do you mean?" asked her grandfather.

She told him how nicely her friends were living, what fine clothes they wore, and what fine food they had eaten.

Quietly grandfather Booth told her to bring to him two pieces of paper. She did so, and he said, "Child, all my life I have given 'things' a little place in my life. I'll place a tiny circle here to represent 'things.' I've given 'others' a bigger place in my life, so we'll draw a circle around 'things' and call it 'others.' But above all, I've given God the big place in my life, so let's draw a circle around 'things' and 'others' and call it 'God.'

"Now, hand me the second piece of paper," he asked with a smile. "We'll make a tiny circle and call it 'God.' Now, then, a circle around it, and call this one 'self.' Next a large circle which we'll call 'things.'

"Look at these two papers together now, Evangeline," said the old gentleman. "You decide which is the best."

Evangeline Booth took the second sheet of paper, crumbled it and flung it through the open window as she cried, "No, grandpa, let's still let God have the big circle in our lives and keep 'things' in the smallest."

God help us all to put first things first and give Him the really big place in our life.

The Church needs at this time to prevent the godless world saying, "Where is thy God?" There is a story that seems to represent the situation in the Church truthfully, it would seem. A very busy mother went into her room one day at twilight to write a letter. She sat at her desk absorbed in filling page after page of notepaper. After some time she heard a sigh close at hand and turning her head, she saw her little son cuddled up in an armchair. "Why, sonny, how long have you been there?" she asked. "All the time, mamma," he said, "but you have been too busy to notice me." Ask God how long He has been with us, and He will say, All the time; His presence undiscovered because even the Christian people have been too busy to notice the fact-busy with their own affairs, and losing sight of the presence of God.

There is Martin Luther standing up in the minds of the Diet of Worms; there are the kings and the princes, and there are bloodhounds of Rome with their tongues thirsting for his blood-there is Martin rising in the morning as comfortable as possible, and he goes to the Diet, and delivers himself of the truth, solemnly declares that the things which he has spoken are the things which he believes, and God helping him, he will stand by them till the last. There is his life in his hands; they have him entirely in their power. The smell of John Huss's corpse has not yet passed away, and he recollects that the princes before this have violated their words; but there he stands, calm and quiet; he fears no man, for he has nothing to fear; "the peace of God which passeth all understanding" keeps his heart and mind through Jesus Christ (see Philippians 4:7). There is another scene; there is John Bradford in Newgate. He is to be burned the next morning in Smithfield, and he swings himself on the bedpost in very glee, and delights, for tomorrow is his wedding day; and he says to another, "Fine shining we shall make tomorrow, when the flame is kindled." And he smiles and laughs, and enjoys the very thought that he is about to wear the blood-red crown of martyrdom. Is Bradford mad? Ah, no; but he has got the peace of God that passeth all understanding.

- C. H. Spurgeon

When a Roman penny was made, the image or likeness of Caesar the emperor was stamped upon it, and those who used it were reckoned as his subjects and expected to obey his laws. Ages ago God Himself made something and stamped His likeness upon it, as a sign that it belonged to Him and must be used in His service. It was not a coin God made. It was a man. And God's image has been stamped upon each of us to show that we were made, not to follow our own pleasure, but to serve him.

A little girl had been away all day with the family of a neighbor; they were belated in their return, and, instead of reaching home before dark, as they expected, it was almost midnight when they arrived at the house.

"I will get out first and rouse your father," one of the gentlemen said to the little girl.

"Rouse him!" said the child; "my father won't have to be roused. He's waiting for me."

Men out of Christ, do you imagine that it is only through continued beseeching that you can gain the ear of God? Let me tell you, your Father doesn't have to be roused. He's waiting for you.

A wise father found it necessary recently to punish his little daughter. Later in the day the little girl, who had been greatly offended at first, came to where he was and, climbing into his lap, threw her arms around his neck, and said: "Papa, I do love you." "Why do you love me, my child?" the father asked. "Because you try to make me good, papa." We ought to keep that childlike wisdom throughout all our mature years. If God chastises us it is because He loves us as children, and in all His dealings with us is ever trying to make us good.