How Big is Your God?

A Sermon delivered to All Saints Anglican Church on April 13, 2008 at St. Mary's Medical Center Convent Chapel, based on Nehemiah 9:6-15

Fill in the musical blank as I sing:
My dog’s bigger than (your dog).
My Dog’s bigger than (your’s).
My dog’s bigger ‘cause he eats (Kennel Ration).
My dog’s bigger than (your’s).

Remember that from the 60’s? Let’s be a little impertinent and turn this around and ask:

How Big is your God? …

Is your God the One who made heaven, the heaven of heavens with all their angelic hosts, the earth and all that is on it? Does your God preserve the sea and all that is in it? Does the host of Heaven bow down and worship your God?

Does your God make Covenants with people and does He keep them forever? Does he perform signs and wonders for His covenant people and lead them through deep waters - set pillars of cloud and fire to guide them through the desert, and then give them food from heaven to eat?

Is your God Gracious and Merciful, slow to anger and abounding in Steadfast Love, keeping faith with his people even when they lose faith and turn to worship other Gods? …

Is He?

Does He lead you beside still waters and restore your soul? Is He with you even in the shadow of Death?

Does He prepare a table before you in the Presence of your enemies? Does he anoint your head with oil and make your cup overflow?

Could you identify the sound of your God’s voice?

If someone was trying to imitate your God and disguised their voice to sound like His, could you tell the difference? Do you trust that voice enough to follow it wherever it leads you?

And would you willingly give up something precious for your God if that thing or person was leading you away from your God?

Would you?

If not, your God is too small and you need a bigger one to follow.

The Big God of Scripture

You need the One found in the pages of Nehemiah and Psalm 23 and John 10 and Acts 7 – a God who is Big enough and powerful enough to command the universe, but One who is loving enough to care for you and to desire a close personal relationship with you.

You need a God that you are willing to die for but One that you are willing to Live for as well - A God that speaks to you personally and a God that demands your allegiance because he made you – a God that is High and Lifted up – but one who stoops to help you in your weakness.

Friends, do you have a God like this?

Discovering the True God of the Bible

In our lesson from Nehemiah today, we pick up the story mid – way through - after Nehemiah had returned to Jerusalem from Babylon and reconstructed the walls around the city despite the opposition of the surrounding peoples. A census had been taken of all the returned exiles and on a great day of dedication, the people had stood from early morning to until mid-day as the Book of the Law of Moses was read out in their hearing. They wept when they heard the law, and then they celebrated a Holy Day with feasting.

They constructed booths out of branches and lived in them for seven days while they were listening to the word and its explanation. And on the eighth day they confessed their sins before God and worshipped Him.

The Levite priests (be thankful you didn’t have to read their names today) told the people to Stand up and bless the Lord because His name is exalted above all blessing and praise. He’s a big God and He deserves all the praise we can muster before him.

The people praised God and recounted his actions in history towards them – and they confessed their sins very specifically – for a long time, a quarter of a day.

And then they made a written covenant with this God and sealed their names upon it. They solemnly swore to observe the Law he had given to Moses, to not allow intermarriage with the people of the surrounding areas, to observe the Sabbath and the year of Jubilee, and to bring the firstfruits of their labor to the Lord for the maintenance of the temple worship, saying “We will not neglect the house of our God.” (Neh 10:39).

Because Jerusalem’s walls had been torn down, it wasn’t safe to live there for many years, so after the new wall was completed the peoplecast lots and chose 10 % of the population to live there, while the rest of the people lived in smaller outlying towns. They dedicated the wall they had built and began daily temple worship, offering ‘great sacrifices’ with great joy – all because they were serving a great God.

Nehemiah’s Reforms

And then Nehemiah sets about cleaning house. He separates out from Israel all of foreign descent. No Ammonites or Moabites welcome –because their people did not help the Israelites and hired Balaam to curse them.

But then Nehemiah goes back to Babylon for several years. When he returns, he finds things have fallen apart. He discovers that the corrupt priest Eliashib had created a nice little crib for his homey Tobia in the temple – and he throws them both out on their ears and cleanses the place, returning it to its sacred storehouse function.

He discovers that the Levites had not been given their portion and they had had to go out and work in the fields instead of worshipping God. Nehemiah restores the tithe and the people bring in their first fruits to the Lord.

The observance of the Sabbath had gone by the boards, and he restores it – by force.

And then comes the coup de grace: Nehemiah learns that the Jews had married women of Ashdod, Ammon and Moab and that half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod, not Hebrew. Listen to how he handles this situation:

“And I confronted them and cursed them and beat some of them and pulled out their hair. And I made them take an oath in the name of God” …that they would not intermarry with the surrounding peoples! (Wow!)

The last thing he does is to chase off the son-in-law of Sanballat, who had caused so much trouble to the people.

And Nehemiah closes his book by asking God to remember him for God because he had cleansed everything foreign.

Now, is your God as big as Nehemiah’s?

For the sake of your God, are you willing to cleanse out of your life anything that displeases God? Are you willing to attempt big huge projects on behalf of your God because you love Him and the Law he has set before you? Are you willing to bring him the first and the best of all you have to offer?

And are you willing to stand up for righteousness and confront God’s people when they stray? ( Can you imagine Nehemiah at General Conference 2003?...!)

Are you? If you are, it’s because you have caught a vision for a God that is High and Lifted up, worthy of honor, much to be feared and obeyed as the absolute, sovereign Creator.

The Rest of the Story….

But this is only half the story about our God. The rest of it (as Paul Harvey says) is that God is a God of love, who desires an intimate relationship with you, the sheep of his hand.

Our Big View of God must include his power and righteousness. Without this we are impoverished as people. But our big view also has to include fact that Jesus died on the cross for us and has wiped away our certificate of debt before God the righteous judge.

This same God has sent His Holy Spirit to live inside of us and to have intimate fellowship with us. When Jesus said, in Rev. 3:20, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock, If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him and he with me”, he wasn’t talking to non -believers, He was talking to the lukewarm church at Laodicea, trying to reprove and discipline them so that they could enter in to this close, loving relationship with God and eventually share the very throne of God with Him!

God, our God, Loves you and wants to spend time with you! This is the most amazing thing in the Universe! Surely there can be no higher privilege than to Hobnob with the Most High!

So let me challenge and encourage you to do some things:

1) Repent of your obtuseness in the Face of a Holy and Awesome God. He is your maker and he deserves the very best you have to offer, even if you don’t understand Him or what He’s doing in your life.

2) Love Him and spend time with him every day! This Mighty God of ours also cares about each hair on your head. He has an infinite amount of time for you – and for me too. No problem is too small for Him. “Cast your burden upon the Lord – for he will sustain you…” (Ps. 55:22).

3) Don’t fall prey to Benjamin Franklin’s quip that “God helps those who help themselves.” It’s cute, but it ain’t right. God emphatically helps those who call upon Him for wisdom and then do what He tells them to do. This is the opposite of self-sufficiency.

4) Give Him yourself – it’s the best and only thing you really have to Give Him.
I’d like to close with this prayer of dedication that we usually pray during our Celtic Eucharist

Prayer of Dedication

Each thing I have received,
from YOU it came.

Each thing for which I hope,
from YOUR love it will come.

Each thing I enjoy,
it is of YOUR Bounty.

So I am giving YOU offering with my
whole thought.

I am giving YOU Love with my
whole heart.

I am giving YOU affection with my
whole devotion.

And I am giving You my soul,
O God of all Gods.
AMEN.