Life of Paul Part 19 - How to Have a Big God

Let's turn to Acts chapter 13, if we can. And we're going to continue in our study of the life of the great man, the Apostle Paul, Acts chapter 13. And I want to start today with a question.

Here's my question. As pastor of McLean Bible Church, what should be my number one objective when it comes to your life? Or to put that question a different way, what should be the primary thing that I want to see happen in your life and the life of everybody else who attends McLean Bible Church? Now that's a pretty good question, isn't it?

And what's the answer? Well, the answer from my point of view is that my number one mission as your pastor is to enlarge your concept of God. My job is to expand your understanding of who God is, His size, His power, His awesomeness, His authority, His majesty. Not you understand to make God bigger, but to help you and me really get a grasp on how big and awesome God already is. See, to Jeremiah, God said, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh.

Is there anything too hard for me? To Abraham, God said, is anything too hard for the Lord? To Mary, the mother of Jesus, it was said, for with God, nothing shall be impossible. To the disciples, Jesus said, for with God, all things are possible. And what was it that God was trying to do in the lives of all these people by saying this to them? Friends, He was trying to enlarge their view of God to expand their understanding of the awesomeness and the power of Almighty God. And as followers of Christ here in the 21st century, it seems to me that the lesson that God was out to teach these people in the past is, above all else, the very same lesson that God wants to teach you and me.

God wants to so grip our lives with His greatness that it transforms both our world view and the way we live our everyday life each and every moment of every day. And this, above all else, is what I'm out to see happen in your life as you attend McLean Bible Church. Now, we're in the study of the life of the Apostle Paul. We're just finishing up his first missionary journey. And what I want to show you today is that Paul's entire first missionary journey was predicated on the fact that the Apostle Paul had a big view of God. He had an enlarged concept of God, and that's what lay at the heart of the whole first missionary journey. Once we finish doing that, then we're going to come on and talk about your life and my life and how you and I can have a big view of God, too.

So that's our plan. Let's dig in here in Acts chapter 13. Remember, as we pick up the story here, the Apostle Paul was serving as the associate pastor of the church at Antioch in Syria.

Everything was going great. He was happy as happy could be when God suddenly interjected Himself into Paul's very comfortable little life and said this. Verse 2, he said, Set apart for me, Barnabas and Paul, for the work to which I have called them. He said, Hey, Paul, I got a special job I want you to go do for me. It involves you stepping out by faith. It involves you moving outside your comfort zone. It involves your taking a risk at my request.

Will you do it? Now, what was this risk that God was asking the Apostle Paul to take? Well, the Lord was asking Paul to set off into totally unknown territory without anything but the clothes on his back, without any means of visible support, without any advanced itinerary as to where he was going, without any bodyguards, without any security people, to leave that little tiny speck called the Middle East and to invade the massive Roman Empire with the message of Jesus Christ. In fact, let's show you a map to give you an idea how massive the Roman Empire really was.

Here's where Paul was stationed right over here in Antioch in Syria. And all that you see colored here represents the Roman Empire at the time of the Apostle Paul. It was a massive sized empire.

It was a colossal empire. And God asked the Apostle Paul to invade this empire with a message that was guaranteed to make everybody mad everywhere he went. And this was his job. He said, Well, now, Lon, if everything you say is true, why in the world would the Apostle Paul have ever accepted an assignment like this? I mean, this assignment sounds like Gilligan taking on the U.S. Navy in the SS minnow.

I mean, why would anybody do that? Well, the answer, friend, is that the Apostle Paul agreed to accept this assignment because he understood the size, the majesty, the power and the awesomeness of God. Paul understood that one plus God is a majority. Paul understood that what Nebuchadnezzar said in Daniel four was right. All the peoples of the earth, including the Roman Empire, are inconsequential when compared to God.

God does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and with the peoples of the earth. And nobody, not even Caesar himself, can hold back God's hand. Folks, as far as human logic was concerned, the Apostle Paul was hopelessly outnumbered.

But actually, the exact opposite was the truth. Caesar and the Roman Empire were the ones that were outnumbered. And it was because of what the Apostle Paul did that God was able to demonstrate that for the whole world to see. Because of what the Apostle Paul did, Christianity spread through the Roman Empire like a wildfire. Because of what the Apostle Paul did, tens of thousands of people gave their life to Christ in the Roman Empire. Because of what the Apostle Paul did, churches sprang up all over the Roman world. And because of the process that the Apostle Paul put in motion a century and a half later or two, Emperor Constantine himself, the Roman Emperor, would come to Christ and the history of the entire world would radically shift. All because one man, one man was willing to step out in faith and take risks for God. Why?

Because his view of God was big enough that he could handle the assignment. Now that's the end of our passage for today because we have a really important question we need to ask. And I know everybody knows the question, so let's honor the question with our best effort here. Here we go.

Ready? One, two, three. So what?

Ah, that was good. You say, Lon, so what? I mean, I think Paul's a great guy and I really like what he did and I really respect him, but I'm not Paul. I could never do something like this. I mean, he was a special guy.

Uh-uh, please, don't you even kid yourself like that. There was nothing special about Paul. He had hemoglobin just like you. He had a blood type just like you. His organs worked just like your organs worked. There wasn't a thing special about him except his view of God.

That was the only thing special about this guy. And it's a view of God that God wants you and me to have in the 21st century. A big view of God. That's what was special about Paul, but you and I can have that too.

Let's talk about how. You know, several years ago, as you know, I lead trips to Israel every year, sometimes a couple times a year. And a number of years ago, the guy who runs my tours over there for me organizes all suggested we ought to go to a new place I'd never been before. It was called Mensa Christi, which in Latin means the table of the Lord. And it's a little Franciscan monastery and church right down on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. It commemorates John chapter 21, where Jesus met with Peter after he'd come back from fishing and they have breakfast together.

And he says, feed my lamb, feed my sheep. So we went there. It's a serene, it's a beautiful little place. And as I was walking down the sidewalk and we were walking in, there were two, a stone wall on either side. And in this stone wall was this really dull brown plaque that was mortared into the wall.

And I stopped to read it. And this plaque changed my life. I know you might find it hard to believe that a dull brown plaque could change your life, but it did. Because here's what was written on it.

And I've got a picture of the plaque for you. It says, the deeds and miracles of Jesus are not actions of the past. Jesus is waiting for those who are still prepared to take risks at his word because they trust his power utterly. I'm telling you, that quote blew me away. I just I want to read it again to you. The deeds and miracles of Jesus are not deeds of the past.

Rather, Jesus is still looking for people who are willing when he asks them to, to step out and take risks like Paul did. Why? Because they trust his power utterly. I was so moved by this quote. We took a picture of it. I had a friend of mine blow it up. I framed it, put it on the wall in my hallway.

I walked by it 10 times a day. And every time I do, I stop and read it. And I remind myself that the people in the 21st century that God is looking for are people who are willing to see obstacles, who are willing to see problems through the lens of God's unlimited power and through the lens of God's boundless authority. This is what God is looking for in you and in me. People who have a big view of God to the point that, like Paul, they'll step out and accept an assignment that even looks crazy to the world. But they trust the power of God utterly. See, it was because Abraham had a big view of God, friends, that he could follow God out into uncharted territory. It's because he had a big view of God that he could trust God to give him an impossible son. It's because Moses had a big view of God that he could open the Red Sea. It's because Elijah had a big view of God that he could call down fire from heaven. It's because Joshua had a big view of God that he could walk around the city of Jericho seven times, scream and watch the walls fall down.

It's because Caleb had a big view of God that even after he went and spied out the Promised Land and saw all the obstacles that was there, all cities, the big giants, he still came back and built a case that the Israelites should go ahead and invade the land anyway. Listen to what he said, Numbers 14. He said, If the Lord is pleased with us, he will lead us into this land. Only do not rebel against the Lord and do not be afraid of the people in this land.

We will swallow them up because the Lord is with us. What you're hearing here is a man whose focus was not on the obstacles, but on the power of God, who saw the difficulties in that land through the lens of the unlimited power of God. Hey, it was because Daniel had a big view of God that he could go into the lion's den. It's because his three friends had a big view of God.

They went in the fiery furnace. It's because Ruth had a big view of God that she was willing to follow her mother in law to a strange land. It's because David had a big view of God that he went out there and faced Goliath.

Listen to what he said. He said, Goliath, you come against me with a sword and a spear and a javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, whom you have defied. And this day, the Lord is going to hand you over to me and I'm going to strike you down and I'm going to cut your head off, son, so that all the world will know that there is a God in Israel. You say, man, was he a courageous young man. Courage had nothing to do with it.

It wasn't about courage. This was about a person's view of God. David's view of God was so big that Goliath, even though he was nine and a half feet tall, looked like a midget. And that was the basis on which David went out there.

Not his personal courage, but his view of God. And if you look in the New Testament, you'll find that Jesus spent three years trying to teach the disciples one lesson. And that lesson was the size, the power and the awesomeness of God, because he knew that the most important training he could ever give these future leaders of Christendom was to train them to have a big view of God.

And, folks, if that's what Jesus felt they needed, then that's certainly what we need in the 21st century. So it leads us to the million dollar question, how? Lon, how can I get a big view of God like this? How can I enlarge, how can I expand my understanding of who God is? How can I increase my concept of the power of God?

Well, I'm going to give you four suggestions that will help. But let me just say before I give them to you that we need to remind ourselves that this is a spiritual endeavor. This is a supernatural endeavor. Only the Holy Spirit can open our hearts and open our minds and help us really understand who God is. So we can do all the natural things in the world we want.

We can't make this happen. God has to do this for us. But the four steps I'm going to give you are four things that will speed the process up, four things that will accelerate and facilitate the Spirit of God doing this in our lives.

OK, so what are they? Number one, number one, if you want a bigger view of God, saturate your life with the Word of God. Now you say, but Lon, I already read my Bible and my Bible reading is not expanding my view of God the way you're talking about. Well, friend, maybe you're reading your Bible wrong.

So what are you talking about? How can you read the Bible wrong? Well, of course you can read the Bible wrong. Jesus said, Luke 24, he said, in beginning with Moses and all the prophets, the Bible says, now that means going all the way back to Genesis Chapter one and going all the way through the Old Testament.

Look what it says here. Jesus explained to them what was said in all the scriptures about theology. No doctrine, no prophecy, no Christian life truth, no. What was said in the scriptures about himself. See, friends, every piece of history in the Bible, every piece of doctrine in the Bible, every piece of church teaching in the Bible, every piece of prophecy in the Bible, every piece of Christian life truth in the Bible, every miracle Jesus did, every word he spoke, every action he took is all aimed at one thing.

And that is revealing to us who God is, revealing to us the power of God, the attributes of God, the person of God, how God ticks, the way God thinks, why God does what God does. And the correct way to read the Bible is on every single page to say to ourselves, now what does this passage teach me about God? There's nothing wrong with theology. There's nothing wrong with church truth.

There's nothing wrong with Christian life truth. But that is not the highest reason why God wrote the Bible. It's not why he picked the passages he did to be in there. Every single page is meant to teach us something about God himself. And when we ask that question, that's the right way to read the Bible. When we ask that question about every page we read, that's when God will reveal himself, enhance our understanding of who he is and expand our conception of his greatness. Read the Bible correctly, saturate ourselves with it and let God show us who he is. Number two is if we want a bigger view of God, number two, we can pray for a bigger view of God. We can pray for God to give this to us. You see, many of us, when we come to God in prayer as followers of Christ, we are so consumed, so caught up with all of our problems that we never get beyond all our problems to really do in prayer what is the highest purpose of prayer. And that is to create a link where we get to know God better. Now you say, Lon, is there anything wrong with praying about our problems? No. Anything wrong with praying about the things we're dealing with in life?

No, of course not. I'm just saying that's not the highest purpose for prayer. And some of us get so bogged down there we never get to the highest purpose for prayer. Listen to what David prayed, Psalm 25. He said, Lord, show me your ways.

Teach me your path. Let me see who you really are, God. Moses, Exodus 33. Moses said, Lord, show me your glory.

I want to know who you are. Moses didn't come to God and the first thing out of his mouth was, God, what am I going to do? I got all these Israelites down there building all these golden things and they all want to go back to Egypt. What am I going to do with all these people? They're murmuring and complaining and grumbling and making my life miserable.

That ain't what he said. He said, Lord, I want to know you. That's the first reason that I'm here to meet with you.

Not my problems, but you. And frankly, friends, God was honored by these requests. God did what these guys asked for. How do you think David knew enough about God that he could write the 23rd Psalm? Well, it's because he had prayed the 25th Psalm and said, God, show me who you are. God did. And he wrote the 23rd Psalm because God showed him who God was. And listen, you want to know God bigger and better than you know God.

Now, my advice to you is ask him, ask him, make it your number one priority in prayer, not to talk to God about your problems, but to let God really reveal who he is to you. You say, well, Lon, how does God do that? What's the mechanism God uses to do that?

I don't have the slightest idea. And what difference does it make anyway? I don't care what the mechanism is. Who cares how God does it? As long as God does it, that's all we care about, right?

And he will. May I take a break here for just a minute and say, if you're here and you've never trusted Christ as your real and personal savior, that there's a wonderful message here for you. You see, when we come to Christ, there's a lot more benefits than just having our wrongdoings forgiven and getting to go to heaven.

One of those wonderful benefits is that God himself invites us to come into a personal relationship, a personal intimacy where he's happy to show us and teach us who he really is, to let us get to know the living God of the universe. You know, if the president of the United States invited us down to the White House, invited us in personally to meet him, wanted to shake our hand, we'd all be so nervous, we'd be standing there going, Hama, Hama, Hama, Hama. We wouldn't even know what to say to the man. And then if he said to us, you know, every Wednesday what I'd love to do, could we have lunch every Wednesday, you and me? I'd love for you to get to know me. I'd like to get to know you.

I'd like to really show you who I am and how I really think and let you become my friend. Man, we'd be so excited, we'd rush out of there, we'd go call every friend we've got, go, do you know what just happened? We'd call our enemies. We didn't call our mother and say, do you know what just happened? Well, friends, the living God of the universe when we come to Christ is inviting us to meet with him not just every Wednesday, but to meet with him every moment of every day and let him show us who he is.

I mean, it doesn't get any better than that. Go call your mother and tell your mother that God just invited you into that kind of special relationship and it's all waiting for you right on the other side of a decision to accept Jesus Christ. You want to know God? Friend, he's happy to let you know who he is, but you've got to do it through Jesus Christ. Something to think about.

Hey, let's go on. Number three, got two more to go. How are we going to get to know God better and appreciate God better? Number three, read the biographies of the great men and women of God down through history.

You know, it's very interesting. The first thing God said to Moses from the burning bush. Do you remember that? He didn't say to Moses, first thing out of his mouth was not Moses.

I want you to go schwack, you old Brenner. That's not the first thing he said. The first thing he said was, I am the God of your fathers. I'm the God of Abraham. I am the God of Isaac. I am the God of Jacob. Now, why would that be the very first thing he says to Moses? Well, because, friends, he wanted Moses to understand that the very same God who preserved Abraham through uncharted territory, the very same God who gave Abraham and Sarah their miracle son, the very same God who sent down fire from heaven to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, the very same God who protected Isaac and preserved Jacob and brought Joseph out of jail to be the prime minister of Egypt, that same God was the God who was going to walk with Moses. And you see, when we become students of what God has done in the past, it charges us up for what God can do in the present because we look at what God has done for these great men and women of God of the past and then we hear God say to us, hey, you know what? I'm the very same God. You've got the very same God that they had and if I can do that for them, guess what?

I can still do it for you. As followers of Christ, we owe it to ourselves to read the biographies of Hudson Taylor and William Carey, of George Whitfield and John Wesley, of George Mueller and Mother Teresa and Adoniram Judson and Fanny Crosby and Dwight L. Moody. You say, Lon, I never even heard of some of these people.

Well, duh, that's part of the issue here. Not only should we know these people's names, we ought to know what God did for them, the way God revealed his power through these people because you and I have the very same God they have. And if you could do it for them, he can do it for us.

We've got all these books in our bookstore. You go down there and get some of these and make yourself a student of what God did in the lives of these people. Fourth and finally, if we really want to see God revealed to us and show us how large he is, fourth and finally, we need to give God the chance to demonstrate his greatness to us in our everyday experience.

You know, an army can drill, an army can practice, an army can train all at once, but an army never knows how great it is till it goes into combat, till it's proven in combat. And, friends, we can read the Bible, we can pray, we can read about all the great things God did for these wonderful other people in the past, but we will never really gain an understanding of the greatness of God until we test it in our own everyday experience. And every time you and I are willing to step out in faith, every time we're willing to take a little bit of risk, every time we're willing to trust God for something, and every time God comes through and God does what we ask for and even beyond what we ask for, that's another little brick in the wall of building a big view of God. Building a big view of God is a process. Nobody's born like this. It's built one brick at a time, and those bricks come from allowing God in our everyday experience to show us who He is.

We've got to give Him the chance to do that. Summer before last, my son John and I, he was 15 at the time, we had an opportunity, we had to be in Los Angeles for a meeting on a Sunday, but we decided to go out a couple days earlier because the Atlanta Braves, our favorite team, was playing the San Francisco Giants in San Francisco at brand new Pac Bell Park. And we thought, wouldn't it be cool to go to this game while we're out there anyway? So we flew out, but I started, the game was in August, I started in February trying to get tickets. I called Pac Bell Stadium, sorry we don't have any tickets. I'm like, you've got to have tickets, this is February, we're sold out. So I went on the internet looking for tickets, you know, at the site for divine tickets. Nope, no tickets.

I'm like, this is nutty, this is February. I called all my friends in San Francisco and I said, look, do you guys have any chits you can call in and get us two tickets to this game? Nobody could get us tickets, Friday night game.

So we went anyway. And my son John said to me, how do you think we're going to get in? I said, John, I have a God, and so do you, who owns every single seat in that stadium. All 50,000 seats belong to him, he's going to get us in that stadium. So the day of the game, Friday afternoon, we're getting ready to go to the stadium. Now, John, let's pray, we sat in the hotel room, and I prayed and I said this, I said, now, Lord, you know, we have come all the way from the East Coast to see this game. And we want to see this game. And we were asking you, Lord, is it somebody who's got two tickets?

We don't care, we don't really care what the reason is. Have them have something come up in their family. Have them have something come up at work. Have them have a business meeting that wasn't planned, that the boss makes them stay.

That's exactly what I said, for some business meeting they weren't expecting. We don't care, we need two tickets. And, Lord, we've come an awful long way to see this game. I would like to ask you to give us those tickets right behind home plate. In Jesus' name, amen. That was our prayer.

No, I'm not kidding you. We walked down to Pac Bell Stadium, I asked the policeman at the crossing, I said, where would I go to find scalpers selling tickets? He said, you've got to be nuts. There's no scalpers out here today, there's no tickets to be found. So I started just walking around the stadium, yelling, I need two, I need two, I need two.

John wouldn't even walk with me, he was way behind. I need two, anybody got two, I need two, anybody got two? People looked at me like, one guy even said to me, you're not going to find two tickets to this game. I'm like, I need two, I need two.

We walked around the whole stadium and on the backside of the stadium I'm screaming, I need two. And this young man came up to me, very Natalie dressed, very sharp young man, and he said, you need two tickets? I said, I do. He said, you are not going to believe what happened to me. He said, I got two tickets. He said, let me tell you what happened. He said, my boss tonight called a business meeting.

I'm not lying to you. He said, and why in the world he would ever call a business meeting on a Friday night at the last minute? He said, he just called it an hour ago. He said, I cannot understand why in the world he'd call a business meeting.

I can't get out of it. I tried, I've had these tickets for almost a year. I'm sick. He said, I'm sick, but I got to go to the business meeting. I said, so I got to sell them. I said, well, where are they? He said, they're right behind home plate.

Honest, I'm telling you the truth. I thought John was going to have a coronary right there out in front of the stadium. We bought the tickets, went in, sat down. I mean, these were primo seats, man.

I mean, these were awesome seats. And I said to John, I said, John, you see what just happened here? Don't you ever forget what happened here today. The whole reason God did this is not so we could see the game. That has nothing to do with it. The reason God did this is to teach you as a young man that you've got an awesome God. I don't want you to ever forget that. This has nothing to do with the ball game.

Right? Now, listen. Friends, God, you know, you say, well, Lon, God just likes you. No, no, no. That has nothing to do with this. That doesn't have a thing to do with this. All we did is step out and give God a chance to show us who he was. And God was pleased to take that opportunity. And you say, well, that's tempting the Lord. No, it isn't.

No, it isn't. Listen to Psalm 81, verse 10. I am the Lord your God. God says, open your mouth wide like a little child and I'll feel it. All we did was open our mouth wide and God filled it. Now, this is not a life first for dentists. You understand what I'm saying? Open your mouth wide and I will feel it.

No, no, no. This is an invitation from Almighty God for us to put him to the test and see if he won't demonstrate to us his greatness to such a degree that we all have to stand back and go, holy smokes. Would you look at what just happened? What a God I've got. Friends, the problem we don't see enough of that is simply because we don't give God a chance. We're so worried about protecting God from maybe not being able to be up to what we ask him to do.

Can I give you peace advice? Don't you worry about protecting God. God's plenty big enough to protect himself. He doesn't need you to run interference for him. What God needs is for you and me to have enough confidence in him that we'll give him the opportunity to show who he is.

That's what he needs. And maybe you're not ready, your view of God isn't big enough right now that you can trust God to open the Red Sea. Okay, fine. But is your view of God big enough that maybe you could trust him to find some lost keys or that you could trust him to find lost sneakers for your kids or that you could trust him to open up an opportunity for you to share Christ with somebody at your school or somebody at work or that you could trust him that he's big enough to help you find that new job or help you find that house that you need? Or what about parking spaces?

Can you trust him that he's big enough to give you a parking space? You say, what? Are you nuts?

What are you talking about? Hey, I never go into Washington without praying for a parking space. When I'm with the family, we stop. The whole family prays for a parking space. You say, you must be crazy.

I'm not crazy. I got a God who owns every single parking space in Washington, D.C. And all I've got to do is ask him and he can clear any space for me. And you would not believe some of the parking spaces we find in Washington, D.C. You say, well, how come God doesn't do that for me? Have you ever asked him?

Did you ever ask him? Did you ever open your mouth wide so he could fill it? I mean, God can't fill the mouth that's shut. You got to open it and give him a chance. And when you do, God will show you how great he is. Trust me. And your conception of God will start to grow one brick at a time if you just give him a chance.

Let's summarize. God wants you to be like the apostle Paul. He wants you and me to be like Caleb and Moses and Abraham and Daniel and Ruth and Elijah.

These people were nothing special except that they had a special understanding of the power of God. And God wants you and me to have the same thing. He wants us to see the obstacles of life through the unlimited power and the boundless authority of God. How do we get there? Well, the Spirit of God's got to do it. But here are four things we can do to help. Number one, we can read and saturate our lives with the Word of God and read it properly, looking for God on every page. Number two, we can ask God in prayer to expand our understanding of who he is. Third, we can become students of the great men and women of God in the past and let God say to us, I'm the same God who did it for them. And number four and finally, we can give God a chance in our everyday experience to demonstrate his power.

We can open our mouth wide so he can feel it. And friends, remember, God is looking for people today who are still willing, like Paul, to step out and take risk at his word because they trust his power utterly. That's what we're going to try to do in your life. When you leave here after attending McLean Bible Church six months, six years or 60 years, we don't care. I want you to walk away and say, well, one thing that church did for me, man, that church taught me how to have a big God.

If we do that, we have hit the ball out the park. Let's pray together. Lord Jesus, thanks for talking to us today about right down where we live. And Lord, remind us that you are still looking for Apostle Paul's.

You are still looking for men and women who are willing to step out and take risk at your word because they know how big you are. They understand the power of God. Lord, expand our view of God, enlarge our concept of God as we follow four little simple steps. God, may the Spirit of God take us and give us such a concept of God that no matter what he ever asks us to do, we will be willing to do it because we trust his power utterly. Change our lives because we were here today, Lord, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.