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Location:
6425 Jefferson Rd. For
directions, click here.
Jerry
Varnado,
pastor February
3, 2002 I
suspect most of us wouldn't be
familiar with the Hebrew term,
El Shaddai, if Amy Grant
hadn't recorded a song by that
title. Many Christians listened
and sang along with Amy without
knowing what the words meant. 9-The
God
Who
Fills
Heaven
and
Earth We've
used the word "almighty" to
describe God so often for such a
long time that we don't really
give it much thought. Today
I want us to think about that
word and its implications. What
does "almighty" mean? To
find the answer, I did the
obvious thing -- I looked in the
dictionary. And here's what I
found: "Absolute
power." OK then, what does
"absolute mean"? How
about "power"? Now,
think again about what God said
to Abram: "I am God Almighty."
What He's saying is this: "I have
absolute, unlimited,
unconditional power." To
what can we compare this
statement? Even if I came to you
and said: "I'm Jerry Varnado and
I have 12 nuclear bombs in my
briefcase and hundreds more at
home!" -- that's a lot of power,
but there are still limitations
on my power. But God is saying,
"There are no limitations
on me; I am God
Almighty." Let's
delve into this word "power" a
bit more. We can see from the
definition there are two
dimensions to power. One
has to do with the ability to
act; we're talking muscle here,
the power to make things happen
in this world. In the New
Testament, the Greek word
dunamis is almost always
used to denote power. The English
word dynamite is a derivative of
dunamis. It is an
explosive, dynamic
force. A
major part of the
sermon last
week
was that one of the implications
of God being the "living God" is
that He can act in the physical
world; He has power. To say that
God is "almighty" means that
there is no limit to God's power;
no limit to His ability to
produce an effect, to make things
happen in this physical
world. The
other dimension to the meaning of
power is "the possession of
authority over others." We can
easily see the connection between
the two. In this world it is
usually those with the most
muscle who have the most
authority. It naturally follows
that if God is almighty, if He is
omnipotent, then He has unlimited
authority. This
is exactly what the Bible
teaches. Read with me three
passages: "Then
Jesus came to them and said,
'All
authority
in heaven and on earth has
been given to me.'" (Matthew
28:18) "I
pray also that the eyes of
your heart may be enlightened
in order that you may know the
hope to which he has called
you, the riches of his
glorious inheritance in the
saints, and his
incomparably
great
power
for us who believe. That power
is like the working of his
mighty strength, which he
exerted in Christ when he
raised him from the dead and
seated him at his right hand
in the heavenly realms,
far
above all rule and authority,
power and dominion, and every
title that can be
given,
not only in the present age
but also in the one to come.
And God placed all things
under his feet and appointed
him to be head over everything
for
the
church,
which is his body, the
fullness of him who fills
everything in every way."
(Ephesians 1:18-23) That
phrase, "for the church," is key.
Christ exerts His power "for the
church" -- that's you and
me. Now,
theologically we say that God is
"sovereign," which means He has
supreme, permanent, authority
over all things in the whole
universe. But the Bible makes
clear God's understanding and use
His authority does not mirror the
understanding and use of
authority that characterizes this
fallen world. And the Scriptures
also tell us that we're to copy
God, not the world. Look, for
example, at Matthew
20:25-27: All
of what I have said thus far
consists of theological
statements about God that we
believe are the truth because the
Bible says so. But there is a
problem. At
times things happen that seem to
contradict what we believe about
God. There is the whole problem
of evil. If God is love, good,
kind and almighty why does bad
stuff happen, especially to good
people? If God is in control why
is this world in such a mess?
Isn't it possible for God to stop
all this stuff and make things
right? It does say in the Bible a
number of times that with God all
things are possible. The
answer is found in the fact that
there are some limitations on
God's power. I'm not talking
about limitations outside the
person of God, but self-imposed
limitations. There are some
things that God either cannot or
will not do -- by His own choice
and decision. Let me mention two
of them. First,
God can't do anything
inconsistent with His character
or nature. We've
already
talked
about
the fact that God is holy; that
He is altogether complete within
Himself. Every part of God's
being is in perfect harmony with
and is consistent with every
other part of His being. If God
were to act in a way that is
inconsistent with His nature or
His character, we couldn't
maintain that He is
holy. Jesus
taught us this truth. Consider
the principle he set forth in
Matthew 7:18: "A good tree cannot
bear bad fruit, and a bad tree
cannot bear good
fruit." Therefore,
God cannot be tempted by evil and
does not tempt anyone with evil
(James 1:13). It follows that God
cannot lie (Titus 1:2) and by
implication God cannot commit any
other act that falls within God's
definition of evil or sin. To do
so would be inconsistent with who
God is; it would be contrary to
His nature, to His perfect
holiness. Second,
God will not violate our human
will. I don't mean that God will
not act against our will, but
that as a fact of creation God
has given humans what we call
free moral agency, and he will
not interfere with it. That means
that God has granted us the right
and the power to choose good or
evil. We can choose to accept or
reject God's offer of salvation
in Jesus Christ. This
is a wonderful gift but also a
terrible plague. It is this free
will, granted to the human race,
that is the source of all the
evil, hardship, pain and
suffering that we see and
experience in this world. Why did
God give us such a thing knowing
what the result would
be? The
answer is simple: there was no
other way to accomplish God's
purposes. The foundation of God's
kingdom is love. To be in the
kingdom of God means we are
living in a love relationship
with God that leads to a love
relationship with others and even
prompts us to love our
enemies. What
does the New Testament mean by
love? Is it that warm, fuzzy
feeling we get sometimes with
some people? The answer to that
is "No"! The
Greek word used to denote the
love of God and the love we are
to receive and give is
agape. This word describes
love that is not a passive
feeling but an active
commitment. In
1 John 3:17, the Apostle would
thus say that the if we see a
fellow Christian in need and
don't help when we have the
ability to help the love of God
is not in us. This
agape love requires that
we behave in a manner consistent
with the well being of the
beloved. Therefore, love is not
something that simply overcomes
us, but rather it is a decision,
an act of our will; we choose to
love or not to love. This is the
very nature of love, you cannot
hold a gun to someone's head and
make them love you, there has to
be a choice involved or it's not
love. So
humans had to have freedom of
choice to participate in the
kingdom of God, because the
kingdom of God is founded upon
love, which is a decision, a
choice. For love to exist outside
the person of God, we had to have
free moral agency. God knew all
this and He knew that people
would rebel against His love, but
He chose to create the human race
anyway. In
His sovereign wisdom, God
determined that whatever
suffering it took, the fulfilled
kingdom would be worth it. In
fact Paul wrote in Romans 8:18,
"I consider that our present
sufferings are not worth
comparing with the glory that
will be revealed in
us." But
God does not pass the buck. The
cross is a dramatic statement by
God that He has assumed the
ultimate responsibility for sin
and its consequences. The cross
is God saying "I made the world
in which sin and suffering are
possible and I'm paying for your
redemption from it, I'm paving
the way for you who will trust me
to know the joy of living in a
kingdom of love." The
fact that we experience hardship,
difficulty, calamity, disaster,
pain and suffering does not mean
God has lost control or has
abandoned us. It
could mean a number of things. It
may mean that we're drifting from
God and experiencing His
discipline. It could mean we've
let our armor down and the devil
is getting to us. Or, it could
mean that we've simply hit a bump
in the rough road of living in a
fallen world. God doesn't always
protect us from such things but
He promises to always be with us
and give us victory over
them. In
fact Paul writes in all these
things we are more than
conquerors, because our God is El
Shaddai -- God Almighty, and His
power lives in us.
Gateway
Church gathers
for worship
Sundays
at 10:30 a.m.
(Hwy. 129) in Athens,
Georgia.
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of the
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A
GATEWAY SERMON
El
Shaddai, God Almighty
(Seventh
in the series, Knowing
God)
Gateway
Church,
Athens GA
(Genesis
17:1)
El simply means God.
Shaddai means
almighty.
In
this
series
Almighty:
Having absolute power;
all-powerful, [as in]
"almighty God."
(American
Heritage Talking
Dictionary)
Absolute:
1. Perfect in quality or
nature; complete. 2. Not
mixed; pure. 3. Not limited by
restrictions or exceptions;
unconditional; unqualified in
extent or degree.
(American
Heritage Talking
Dictionary)
Power:
The ability to act or
produce an effect; the
possession of authority over
others.
(Holman
Bible Dictionary)
He's got the
power"For
you, O LORD, are the
Most
High
over all the earth; you are
exalted
far
above
all gods." (Psalm 97:9)
"Jesus
called them together and said,
'You know that the rulers of
the Gentiles lord it over
them, and their high officials
exercise authority over them.
Not so with you. Instead,
whoever wants to become great
among you must be your
servant, and whoever wants to
be first must be your
slave.'"
What
God can't do
'An active
commitment'
More than
conquerors
An
audio tape of this sermon is
available
free of charge (U.S. requests
only).
Request
a tape by calling
or writing the Gateway Church
office.
Please specify tape number
020203a: El Shaddai, God
Almighty.
©
2002 Gerald R.
Varnado