My God Is AWESOME

My God Is AWESOME!

Introduction:

I would like for us, as I begin this message today to ponder the Universe…
We need to do that in order for us to understand a little of what our passage will speak about today.
The moon that we see most nights orbits the earth roughly 239,000 miles above us

If we were to travel by plane at about 500 miles/hour
It would take 19 days non-stop to get there!

The Sun is 93,000,000 miles from earth.

If we boarded a jumbo jet today and travel to the sun, we would not arrive there until 2029.
That is 21 years from now!
That would also be non-stop…
Where were you 21 years ago? That is a long time; can you imagine traveling that long without a break, in order to reach the sun?
If you prefer driving… well, it can’t be done in a lifetime, I would take roughly 200 years, NOT including gas and rest stops.

The closest Star is about 4.3 light years away

Light travels at the rate of 186,000 miles/sec
Multiply that out (186,000 miles/second X 60 seconds/minute X 60 minutes/hour X 24 hours/day X 365 days/year = 5,865,696,000,000 miles/year) and you get close to 6 Trillion miles in a year
If you were to board that same jet at 500 miles/hour and travel to the nearest star it would take about 51 Billion years to get there!!!

Scientists estimate that there are billions of galaxies, each of them loaded with billions of stars.

Galaxies tend to group together.
Ours (Milky Way) is grouped with at least 30 other galaxies.
Other cluster could contain as many as thousands of galaxies.
In 1994 a cocoon-shaped cluster of galaxies was discovered.

i. The distance across this galaxy alone was calculated at six hundred and fifty millions light years.

ii. Can you imagine traveling across that galaxy?

iii. My brain hurts just trying!!?!?!?!?!

Our finite minds cannot even begin to comprehend distances this immense and yet God can measure all this with the SPAN of His hand. Explain span!

i. Mine roughly 9 inches

ii. From thumb to little finger stretched out!

God not only measures this with his hand but he know how many stars there are in the universe i. Not only that he has them all named…

ii. Psalm 147:4-5 Our Scripture Meditation “He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name. Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit.”

iii. There are estimated to be 70 Sextillion stars up there

iv. Try to contemplate 100 Billion!

1. If you were to count to 250 a minute – day and night – it would take you about 1000 years to count to 100 billion

2. 100,000,000,000 (100 Billion – 9 zeros after the number)

3. 70,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (21 zeros after the #)

v. That is the number of stars in the heavens and God calls them all by name! That is all we know about SO FAR!

We are not the first to contemplate the greatness of God! #. David did it and then recorded his thoughts in our text this morning
Read Psalm 8:1-9
In this passage David answers this question: What is it that makes our God so majestic or awesome and therefore Praiseworthy? With five answers.
Let’s us take a look at each of the five answers.

Outline:

I His Majestic Name Is Known Throughout The Earth – Vs. 1

A David starts and ends this psalm with this statement (vs. 1) Read

B Again in Psalm 19:1 David says, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands.”

C As we sang in the hymn earlier “How Majestic is Your Name” we are to praise Him because of His majesty.

D I would like to read to you Charles Spurgeon’s commentary on this thought…

1 Spurgeon writes “The whole creation is full of His glory and radiant with the excellence of his power. His goodness and wisdom are manifested on every hand. The countless myriads of earthly beings, from man to the creeping worm, are all supported and nourished by Him. The fabric of the universe leans on His eternal arm. Universally He is present; everywhere His name is excellent. Travel the silent valleys where rocks enclose you on either side, rising like heaven’s battlements until you can see but a strip of blue sky. You may be the only traveler who has passed through that glen; the birds are frightened, and the moss may tremble beneath the first step of a human foot. Yet God is there in a thousand wonders, upholding the rocky barriers, filling the flowers with perfume, and refreshing the lonely pines with His breath. Descend to the lowest depths of the ocean where the water sleeps undisturbed and the sand is motionless in unbroken quiet. The glory of the Lord is there, revealing its excellence in the silent palace of the sea. Borrow the wings of the morning and fly to the farthest parts of the sea. God is there. Fly to the highest heaven, and God is praised in everlasting song. His brightness shines in the sky. His glory exceeds the glory of the starry heavens and above the region of the stars He has set His everlasting throne; there He dwells in ineffable light. O come let us adore Him.”

E What a tribute to the glory of God

F The introduction was an attempt to get you to try and think about the Majesty of God, He is so much bigger than we can ever imagine, Praise His Name!

G What is it that makes our God so majestic or awesome and therefore praiseworthy?

II His Methods In Dealing With His Enemies – Vs. 2

A To accomplish His victories and to triumph over the schemes of the Devil, God at times uses the most foolish, simplest, and weakest of instruments; which in turn demonstrates his Ultimate mighty power.

B Consider Gideon and how “he” triumphed over such a vast army…

1 He along with 300 men took trumpets and clay pots and at the signal

2 Blew the trumpets and smashed the pots, and what happened?

3 “The Lord caused the men throughout the camp to turn on each other with their swords”

C This is an amazing verse 2

1 What is there that is weaker than children and infants?

2 Yet in the hands of God they can be used and have been used to triumph over God’s enemies and defeat Satan.

3 In Matthew 21:14-17 Jesus uses children to silence His enemies.

a “The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them. But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple area, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they were indignant. “Do you hear what these children are saying?” they asked him. “Yes,” replied Jesus, “have you never read, “‘from the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise’?” And he left them and went out of the city to Bethany, where he spent the night.”

b “God doesn’t use the qualified he qualifies the Chosen”

4 Last Sunday morning we saw how Jesus used a child to put the disciples in their place and teach them humility.

D God is worthy of our praise because of the methods in dealing with His enemies.

E What is it that makes our God so majestic or awesome and therefore praiseworthy?

III How About The Beauty, Complexity, And Vastness Of The Created Order – Vs. 3

A The theory of evolution is a pathetic attempt at an answer for how we got our world here and how we came to be.

B There is only one reasonable conclusion for how this universe and how we came to be:

1 God made it and us by His power and His wisdom.

2 The complexity and design of all things points without a doubt to an intelligent and powerful designer, which is God.

C When I look outside and see all the different things that God made; the sun, moon, stars, planets, solar systems, animals, and changing seasons – I Praise God!

D When I contemplate the complexity of the human body and all its systems and how they work perfectly together – I Praise God!

E When I think of how our earth is at just the right distance from the sun so that it doesn’t freeze or burn up, or that the earth is tilted at just the perfect angle and how it hangs in space (what keeps it right there?) – I praise God!

F This takes us right into the fourth reason David gives…

G What is it that makes our God so majestic or awesome and therefore praiseworthy?

IV Our Uniqueness As Human Beings. Created In The Image Of God – Vs. 5

A In Vs. 3 of our text a wonderful picture is drawn for us.

1 Just imagine David on a hillside at night staring up into the sky

2 It is a cloudless night

3 Pollution and man made lights are not invented yet!

4 Just imagine how clear and how much he could see on that night.

5 What does he see? Countless stars, the Milky Way (have you even been out to the Great Plains and been there at night?)

6 It is amazing how much more brilliant the night sky is and how many more stars you can see when man isn’t interfering!

B David is in awe of how much bigger than himself God is, as he takes it all in

1 He realizes that he is but a speck upon this tiny earth in this incredibly vast universe that God made.

2 And so David asks a very normal question: “What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?”

a In other words David is saying, “Why do you care about me God, little old me but a speck in such a vast universe that you have created?”

b There is an important note here: David does not ask, “God, do you care about me?” No, he knows that God cares about him, and acts on his behalf.

c His question is, “Why do you care about me?”

3 The reason that God cares for us is because we, the sons of Adam – the first man, have been made in the image of God.

a Genesis 1:26-27 “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”

b Unfortunately our English translation of v. 5 does not do proper justice to the text. Where it says “Angles” or “Heavenly Beings” the Hebrew text actually says “God” or if you prefer it is the Name Elohim

i Elohim: being a name for God occurs 2602 times in the O.T.

ii Same word in Hebrew that was used in Gen. 1 when God said “Let us…”

c Anyway as one being made in and bearing the image of God, we are of incredible worth and value to God.

C In our world today, with it’s evolutionary beliefs, what value on humans is there?

1 We are just a more highly evolved being.

2 The strong survive and the weak are expendable. That is what they teach!

3 We are nothing more than the result of a genetic accident in this laboratory called earth.

4 That is the lie that Satan wants us to believe.

D That is not what the Bible teaches, we are the pinnacle of God creating work

E Since we bear His image He is worthy of our praise. We owe our creator respect and praise and honor

F Jesus illustrated this to us in Matthew 22

1 The Pharisees are trying to trap Jesus on the issue of paying taxes.

2 Jesus knowing their intent says in vs. 18-21 “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius, and he asked them, “Whose portrait is this? And whose inscription?” “Caesar’s,” they replied. Then he said to them, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”

3 As the coin bore Caesar’s image and belonged to him for his use, so we too who bear God’s image, and who were created to reflect His glory, belong to God for His holy use – we need to fully surrender ourselves to Him.

G What is it that makes our God so majestic or awesome and therefore praiseworthy?

V The Fact That He’s Delegated To Us Authority To Exercise Dominion Over This Earth Vs. 6-8

A Since we bear His image He has given us an incredible responsibility, taking care of His earth and His creation on this globe.

B As God exercises careful and holy dominion over the whole universe, we who bear His image and who inhabit this earth are to emulate Him, within the scope of our abilities.

C Taking care of this world is our job as humans.

D Gen. 1 God told man to subdue the earth and placed everything under his command.

E But because of the fall in Gen. 3 we are unable to rule this world the way God intended and commanded us to.

F Perfect dominion is only through Christ. He alone is Lord of all creation.

1 When He came to earth, He exercised the dominion that Adam lost.

2 He ruled over the fish, the birds, all animals and all creation, displayed in His many miracles.

G We are to do our best and continue to look to Christ and His wisdom and strength.

H Where we messed up God provided a way!

1 “God Will Make a Way” – familiar chorus goes like this.

2 God will make a way where there seems to be no way.

3 He works in ways we cannot see;

4 He will make a way for me.

5 He will be my guide,

6 Hold me closely to His side.

7 With love and strength for each new day;

8 He will make a way, He will make a way

I Jesus provided the Perfect WAY for us.

1 Salvation… in accepting the Free gift of salvation we can once again be the way that God intended us to be, once we are in heaven and we are like Him, Perfect!

J What is it that makes our God so majestic or awesome and therefore praiseworthy?

Conclusion:

His Majestic Name Is Known Throughout The Earth
His Methods In Dealing With His Enemies
How About The Beauty, Complexity, And Vastness Of The Created Order
Our Uniqueness As Human Beings. Created In The Image Of God
The Fact That He’s Delegated To Us Authority To Exercise Dominion Over This Earth

Hymn # 121 “How Majestic Is Your Name”