Father, as we begin the world that we learned about you as a child, we freely sing the song that You Hold the Whole World in Your Hands. Sometimes, as we get older, we forget who You are and how big You are. Problems become bigger and greater and more intimidating. But, Father, help us to capture the faith of our youth, to see You for the God that You are, how big You are and how great You are. Let us see that greatness be manifested in our lives. I pray in Jesus name, Amen. Weve been sharing for 10 weeks in a row these scriptures. It would probably be good to recap the story one more time. As I read through it, my mind thinks of lessons that we talked about, about fear, courage, and patience. The story is rich in its content. We begin reading with Verse 22 of Matthew 14 (page 970 in pew Bibles), Immediately, Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of Him to the other side while he dismissed the crowd. After He had dismissed them, He went up on a mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, He was there alone, but the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind against it. During the fourth watch of the night, Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw Him walking on the lake, they were terrified. Its a ghost, they said and cried out in fear. But Jesus immediately said to them, Take courage! It is I. Dont be afraid. Lord, if its You, Peter replied, tell me to come to You on the water. Come, He said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, Lord, save me! Immediately Jesus reached out His hand and caught him. You of little faith, He said, why did you doubt? When they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. And heres our focal point this morning, Verse 33: Then those who were in the boat worshiped Him, saying, Truly You are the Son of God. God had become bigger in their eyes. This morning, we ask the question, How big is your God? I want to read a quote from our book today. He tends to like to quote C.S. Lewis in the Chronicles of Narnia. As you know, the lion figure represents the Lord. His name is Aslan. One of the children comes across Aslan after not seeing him for a long time. She says, Aslan, youre bigger. That is because you are older, little one, he answered. Not because you are? Im not, but every year you grow, you will find me bigger. And so its true with us. Every year we grow, and hopefully through this series that weve been on, we see God bigger than we did before. Were more willing to take steps of faith and spiritual risks, knowing that God is with us. Lets turn in our Bibles to 1 Kings, Chapter 18. Were going to stay here for a little while. This is a story about a man who really had a big view of God. His name was Elijah. Elijah lived in a time when Israel was trying to follow after many gods. There was the god of the Canaanites, the Baals and the Ashtoreth. There was Pagan worship that was everywhere in the land. Elijah was one of the few voices that stood up for the God of Heaven. One day, they squared off. Elijah verses 850 (count them), 850 Pagan prophets. It seems like hes outnumbered, doesnt it? The rules were Lets have it out. Lets have a show-down. Lets see whose God is the greatest God. Here are the rules: Were going to have a sacrifice, but were not going to start our own fire to consume the sacrifice. Were going to depend on the God of Heaven or Baal to send fire to consume the sacrifice. So, were going to see whose God is really powerful. Were going to see whose God really does answer prayers. So, Elijah says to all the people who had assembled to watch this spectacle, this showdown; in Verse 21 (page 350), Elijah addresses the people by saying, How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal is God, follow him. Theres not room in your life for two gods. If God of Heaven is God, He is so big that there is no room for any other gods. You need to make a choice. Are you going to follow the gods of this world, or are you going to follow the one true God? So the stage is set. Elijah, being the gentleman that he is, says to the prophets of Baal, You can have the stage first. So they do. They take the sacrifice, put it on the altar, and they begin to pray to Baal to send fire to consume the sacrifice. Things arent going well. From morning till noon, they cry out (Verse 26), Oh Baal, answer us! they shouted. But there was no response; no one answered. And they danced around the altar they had made. This was not a beautiful dance like Elizabeth did this morning for us. They werent twirling and spinning. They were crying and moaning and cutting themselves. Now Elijah is going to go from being confident to cocky. Im afraid hes going to cross a line here. Elijah began to taunt them, Shout louder! he said. In sports, its called trash talking. Surely, he is a god. Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened. All right, Elijah, youre trash talking. That takes nerve! It takes nerve if your opponent is 850 strong, and theres only one of you. But he knows how big his God is. So they shouted louder and slashed themselves with swords and spears, as was their custom, until their blood flowed. What a fun religion that is! Midday passed, and they continued their frantic prophesying until the time for the evening sacrifice. If we just cut ourselves more, if we just shout louder, maybe hell answer us. But there was no response. No one answered-no one paid attention. So it is with everyone who puts hope in a God other than the God of Heaven. Any other thing, any other person you make your God besides the God of Heaven, youre going to find the same thing is true: therell be no response. Then Elijah said to all of the people, Come here to me. Hed earned an audience. They were willing to listen. He had them prepare the altar, and he did something unusual. He dug a trench around the altar, and he had them take these large jars of water, these four large jars, and dump water on the sacrifice. Then he said, Do it again. Then he said a third time, Do it again. So after the third time, it was just drenched with water. He drenched the wood and filled the trench hed made around the sacrifice. Then Elijah was going to prepare to call on God to send fire from Heaven. Imagine if youre Elijah. Its easy for us to sit here because we know the end of the story, but what if that had been you that day? What if the prophets of Baal are looking at you to find out that they are worshiping the wrong God? What if the people of Israel are looking at you to see if your God answers by fire? The pressure is on, right? What if you get up there and say, Oh God of Heaven, send fire! and no fire comes? Youre on the line, right? People are going to say, Well your God is not powerful either! Its a tie! There is no powerful God. Now we really have problems! Then it rests on your shoulders. That took a lot of faith, didnt it? Its called Fire from Heaven. Well, I have a buddy who is a pastor who has a bold faith. Its one thing I respect about the guy. He just has a bold faith. He went on a missions trip recently to Kenya. In Kenya, theyre going through a drought, and it had not rained in months. They were explaining that to him, and he says, We need to pray for rain. The pastor agreed, Yes, we need to pray for rain. Rain is good. Weve been praying for rain. He said, No! We need to pray for it to rain today. Im not sure thats such a good idea, Pastor thought to himself. So my friend got up to speak, and he prayed for rain today. See, a lot of people had asked for it to rain, but nobody had ever asked for it to rain today. He prayed the prayer. The people got excited. They clapped and praised God. They were excited because they knew their God was a big God! The leadership of the church confronted him afterwards and said, You shouldnt do that! You shouldnt get the peoples hopes up like that. His response was, Is not God a big God? Didnt He send rain in the Bible? Well, yes. Well, why cant He deal with today? Well, He can. But what if He doesnt? they would say. Guess what happened that afternoon? Storm clouds rolled in. He said it rained for hours and hours. He said, I changed my mission. I began to go around Kenya praying for rain everywhere I went. He said, And God sent rain. So its a no-brainer that his new nickname is Rainman. So, now when I see him, I say, Hey, its Rainman. Yup, definitely. Yup, definitely its the Rainman. Remember that movie? If youve not seen that movie, I just looked like a total idiot saying that. If you havent seen it, its Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise. Its a good movie, rent it, and then I wont seem so dumb. He is a big God, and God sent rain in Kenya. So Elijah looks to Heaven and he says, Oh, Lord God, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. In other words, he wasnt just there showing off. Answer me, O Lord, answer me so these people will know that you, O Lord, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again. Then when he prayed that prayer, the fire consumed the sacrifice in the water. The fire of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench. When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, The Lord-He is God! The Lord-He is God! Was God bigger in their eyes at that point in time? Absolutely. God had become bigger. They began to realize who the true God is, that there was room for worship of no one else. I want to share a story with you. Do you like stories this morning? You could get some popcorn and come back and listen. I want to share a true story of a friend of mine. The reason I want to share this story is because it captures this truth. It brings it to modern times of somebody I know. His name is Greg Speck. He is a youth speaker extraordinaire. He was in youth ministry before I went into youth ministry, which was 1982, and he is still going strong, so hes like a guru. He travels around the world as a youth minister. Greg shared a story in the early 1980s. He was a pastor at a church called Temple Baptist in Rockford, Illinois. Its a good, solid church there. We worked with them when I was in Rockford. Pastor Ortberg who wrote the book that we just concluded studying was from that church. Gary Smalley, another well-known speaker, is from that church. Greg got his start there as well. It was after a Sunday night service that he received a phone call. One of his parishioners said, Hey, Greg, can you come out to the house? He said, Well, sure. Whats up? He said, Weve got a young man that showed up on our doorstep, and we think hes demonized. Were not used to doing anything about this because were Baptists. We dont know what to do. Can you help us? He said, Well, Ill try. So he gets in his car and drives over to the house. When he gets there, a young man, tall and thin in his early 20s, is on the floor on his hands and knees. He is making a growling sound. Greg says, What happened? He said, He rang the doorbell. We answered. This young man was covered in blood from head to toe. We began to clean him up, thinking hed been in some sort of an accident. When we cleaned him up, we saw no cuts, no injuries, nothing. We asked him what happened. He explained he was involved in a satanic ritual that night and had washed himself in the blood. He was confused and he was scared. They began to talk to him about the Lord, and as soon as they mentioned Jesus Christ, he went ballistic. He began to throw himself into things, crash into the wall. He ended up on all fours, and hes been like that ever since. Greg though he would just establish a rapport with him. So Greg said he went over to him and put his right arm on his left shoulder and said, Hi, Im Greg. When he put his arm on his shoulder, the young man reared up, eyes closed, and started swinging his arms in Gregs direction. Greg said, I reached up to cover because I knew I was going to get tagged, but then after a few seconds I realized not one blow was landing. He said that began a battle. And, Im not saying this is the best way to perform an exorcism, but what they decided to do was one man got on his left arm, one man got on his right arm, one man got on both legs, and Greg got on his chest. They said, In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I command you to leave this young mans body. The young man would become, at certain points, normal. You could even talk to him. At other times, his pupils would dilate, and his voice would change. He would have this super-human strength and would be shouting, LEAVE ME ALONE! He would kind of lift them up with his arms. They would be like, WHOA! Were dealing with something supernatural here. A breakthrough came when Greg felt the Holy Spirit draw his attention to a ring on his finger. He said, Whats that ring? Can you tell me about that ring, Dave? (His name has been changed to protect his identity.) A voice came out of that young man and said, That ring is my life! You touch the ring, and I die! Greg says, I took the ring. I knew what we had to do. He went on, Not long after that, it broke. Whatever the spirit was, it broke. He had deliverance, and he was like, What are you guys doing on my arms? Where am I? I want out of here! And he was free. Greg took the ring and said, Im going to use this ring when I go to speak around the country. He had a cassette tape made of the exorcism because he wanted the young man to hear the torment he was going through after he was set free. He said, Ill just take this tape and this ring, and Ill play it for kids. Ill say, Dont get involved in the occult. Dont get involved in this kind of thing. The Holy Spirit impressed upon Greg that he needed to destroy the ring. So when he got home, he took the ring and smashed it up. He obliterated it. He went inside the house, thinking that was the end, and he had quite a story to tell tomorrow. Soon after that, the phone rings. Its a nice man, very polite man. He said, Hello, is this Pastor Greg Speck? He said, Yes it is. He said, Do you know a young man named Dave? He began to put two and two together and said, Kind of. Were not best friends or anything, but I know who he is. He said, Did you take from him a ring? He said, I did. He said, Mr. Speck, we need to have that ring back. Greg said, Well, weve got a little problem. I dont have the ring. The man said, That ring is very important to us, Mr. Speck. Were going to need to have it back. I dont have the ring. I destroyed the ring. Im very sorry to hear that, Mr. Speck. The man hung up the phone. Fifteen minutes later, he called back again. He said, Were going to need that ring, Mr. Speck. He said, I dont have the ring, but I will tell you this. If I did have the ring, I wouldnt give it to you. Greg said he had a boldness that was not from me. He said, Well, Mr. Speck, then youre going to have to get forgiveness. Greg said, What do you mean Im going to have to get forgiveness? He began to describe a ritual. Greg said, By the way, who are you? He said, I cant tell you who I am, but I will tell you where Im from. Im from the church of Satan here in Rockford. Greg thought to himself, Didnt know we had a church of Satan here in Rockford. Never saw that building before. He says, We will come to your home. They described a ritual in which they would sacrifice an animal. Theyd wash his hands in the blood and repeat an incantation, and hed have forgiveness. He said, Im not going to do that. Im not going to wash my hands in any…No! No! He said, Well, Mr. Speck, you know, animal sacrifice for forgiveness of sin is in the Bible. He had him look up a passage in Leviticus. He said, Its very Biblical, Greg. He said, Well come to your house, and besides that, whos going to know? Greg said, Ive heard the enemy say that to me many times when he temps me. Whos going to know? Ive never heard it in an audible voice before. He said, Two people: Gods going to know, and Im going to know, and the answer is no, and he ended the conversation. The phone rings again a half hour later, and its his buddy. He said, Its interesting how Satan describes himself as an angel of light. This guy didnt call (with a rough voice) and say, Im from the church of Satan. Ahhhh! He was as polite as could be. He said, Mr. Speck, Ive talked to our leader, our high priest, and shes very upset with you. She has destroyed men greater than you, Godly men. He said, Really? Have you seen her do it? The voice answered and said, No, but shes told me about it, and she can destroy you as well if we dont get the ring back. I dont have the ring. Ive destroyed the ring. I will not give the ring to you. Then his demeanor changed. He went from being friendly and nice to not very nice at all. He changed his tone and said, Well, then, Mr. Speck, Im afraid were going to have to destroy your church, and he hung up the phone. Well, thats not good news. He said, Well, this is wonderful. Ill show up in the morning for work, and there will be blood all over the walls, and there will be things desecrated and furniture broken up, windows smashed, and my pastor will say, Whos responsible for this? Ill say, ah ah ah. He says, I have to call him. So he called Pastor Gordon Hanstead and said, Pastor Hanstead, weve got a problem. He explained the whole scenario, and he said, Now, they said theyre going to destroy our church. Do you know what Pastor Hanstead said? Good job, Greg! Excellent work! Let them come and do something like that! Well call the newspaper. Well call the television. Well call radio! Well expose them! Excellent job, Greg! Greg was like, I knew that. So he felt like he could go to sleep and rest and know everything was going to be fine. The phone rings. Its his buddy, Mr. Speck? He said, Yes? Greg said he wanted to answer the phone and go, Hello, Won-Ton Laundry. Greg said, Do you need directions? Cant find me? He said, Mr. Speck, you know we need to have the ring. Greg said he wanted to say, What part of I dont have the ring; Ive destroyed the ring; even if I had the ring, I wouldnt give it to you dont you understand? The man ran through that dialog, and he said, Youll have to gain forgiveness. Those are your two choices. He said, I have a third choice besides giving you the ring and gaining forgiveness, and that is to do none of the above. Thats what I choose. He said, I want you to do me a favor. You quoted Leviticus to me tonight. Let me read to you from Isaiah, the 41st chapter. I want you to find your high priest, and I want you to read her this scripture from Isaiah. In Verse 10, you can read along if youd like, this is what Greg Speck read to the man from the church of Satan, So do not fear, for I am with you. Do not be dismayed, I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. You read that to her, and you tell her that thats me. Then he continued to read, All who rage against you will surely be ashamed and disgraced. Those who oppose you will be as nothing and parish. Though you search for your enemies, you will not find them. Those who wage war against you will be as nothing at all. For I am the Lord, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, 'Do not fear; I will help you. Tell her those verses are about her. He said, Well, Mr. Speck, I dont think Ill be able to do that. I just need to have the ring. He said, You can go ahead and destroy my church if you want to, but youre not going to get the ring. Then he said these words, Well, Mr. Speck, I doubt very seriously if youll see the light of day, and he hung up the phone. Talk about Satan as a roaring lion, ha? He said, Ive never had my life threatened before. Its not a fun thing. The thought of people from this church of Satan showing up at your house in black robes with daggers, that youre going to be a sacrifice of some sort, thats not a very pleasant thought. I was scared. My heart began to pound, my throat became dry, and my hands became cold. I walked around the house, and I turned on every light I could find. I lay in bed and just began to stare at the ceiling. I was listening for every sound. Do you know what it is? Have you ever been scared and every sound is just magnified? Whats that? He said, My neighbor would yawn, and Id go, wahhhh! I was just on edge. The Lord said to him, Greg, read your Bible. He said, So I began to continue to read in Isaiah, but if you would have asked me what I read, I would tell you I had no idea. He was reading the Bible, but his mind was someplace else. His mind was thinking, Ive got these guys coming to get me, and who knows what theyre going to do to me? Hes thinking about his wife; hes thinking about his child; hes thinking about his church. Hes full of fear. For a moment, Greg forgot how big his God was. He said, Then something changed as I was reading through the words, I came across Isaiah 51:12, and it came alive to me. This is what it says (page 729), I, even I, am He who comforts you. Who are you that you fear mortal men, the sons of men, who are but grass... God reminds him, these people are just men. …that you forget the Lord, your Maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth, that you live in constant terror every day because of the wrath of the oppressor, who is bent on destruction? Thats me! Thats what he said, Thats me! For where is the wrath of the oppressor? The cowering prisoners will soon be set free… There he was, a prisoner in his own home, cowering in his own bed. Whos he going to call? Remember this is the early 1980s. Later on, the church of Satan would become almost obnoxious. Theyd be out doing rituals in our local parks, and wed read stories in the news about sacrifices going on. So, we woke up and said, Hey, this is real. Its not just the exorcist. There are people who really believe this, worship the devil and practice this kind of black magic and sorcery and Satanism. It really happens. But in 1982, or whatever year this was in the early 80s, you couldnt call the police and say, Hi, yeah this is Greg Speck. I was wondering if you could come to my home. There are some people who want to kill me. Yeah, from the church of Satan in Rockford. That wasnt going to fly. So, he said, Im just trapped in my own home. What do I do? God says, …they will not die in their dungeon, nor will they lack bread. For I am the Lord your God, who churns up the sea so that its waves roar-the Lord Almighty is his name. Remember who I am, Greg. I have put my words in your mouth and covered you with the shadow of my hand. Do you know what Greg did after he read that scripture? He said, I felt such a peace, such a presence that I went around the house, and I turned off every light. I came into my bedroom, and I got my pajamas on, turned off my light, and I lay down. Within a few minutes, I was sound asleep. The next sound I heard was the alarm clock. I saw the sun shining, and I heard the birds singing outside my window. I was alive. Nobody had come. Nobody had hurt me. He went to work and told the story to his pastor and his colleagues, this amazing story. He came home that night, and at 11 oclock, the phone rang. Its his good friend. He said, Hello, Mr. Speck. He said, Hello. He said, I want you to know something. Our high priest has decided that she will forgive you. He said, What? He said, She is going to forgive you. Forgive me? He said, You come and you say I need to gain forgiveness and wash my hands in the blood. Youre going to destroy my church. Im not going to see the light of day, and now youre telling me you forgave me? Let me tell you something. With all your leaders power, all her rituals, and all her ceremonies, and all of her incantations, the truth of the matter is, she couldnt even harm a speck. Little pun there. Then he confesses, I really didnt say that. I thought of that later. But what I said to her is, With all of her power, she couldnt hurt me because she serves a second rate power. We never want to try to take on the enemy in our own might and strength. The Bible says hes a fallen being, the highest angel who has fallen. Hes a powerful being, but as powerful as he is, if you are in Christ this morning, you need not fear him. If he were to manifest himself in your room tonight, physically manifest himself, little you, who says Im not that strong in my faith. Im not that knowledgeable of the Bible, little you could turn to him and say, In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, whom I serve, leave my presence, and he would have to go. Greg said, With all her power, she couldnt harm me. He said, I want to meet your leader. Well go to McDonalds. Well talk face to face. I want a chance to talk to her. He said, I dont think shell do that Mr. Speck, but I just wanted to call and let you know that news. The turning point for the story, and that was the last contact he ever had by the way, was when Greg remembered how big his God was. Thats when he got out of the boat. He remembered how big his God was. The turning point for Elijah was to remember how big his God is. The turning point for you is to remember how big your God is. Its been my prayer that through this series that weve studied these principles of faith, that you see how big God is. In Elijahs words, If the gods of this world are God, then worship them, but if God in Heaven is God, then Hes worth everything! Hes big! Theres no room for another God. Our faith will rise to the point where we take those spiritual risks. We dare to believe God. We dare to trust Him. We dare to act upon His word. He is the God who sent the rain. Hes the God who caused Peter to walk in the water. Hes the God who consumed the sacrifice. Hes the God who protected that young youth pastor, and Hes your God as well. What were going to do this morning to end our service is something a little different. Normally, we have one of our pastors or me close in prayer. Our programming team does a wonderful job of bringing elements of programming into our services to help communicate a message-be it a clip, a song, a drama, or media. One of the things we did a while ago, I cant think of an element of programming in the service that elicited more of a response in a positive way than did this excerpt from this sermon. It talks about the greatness of God and the bigness of God, so I thought it would be appropriate to end our service in that same way, to reprise that clip. So this is something were going to listen to and look at as he talks about the greatness of God. This will conclude our service. Im not going to come back up. Nobody else is going to lead us in prayer. Were going to listen to this, and then what Id like us to do when its all said and done is just give the Lord a round of applause, thanking Him for His greatness, thanking Him for the principles of faith that we have learned and celebrating who He is. As soon as those applauds are done, our service is dismissed. (You can purchase a copy of it here: http://www.sermonspice.com/search/that+s+my+king/) Besides that, after the first time, I dont want to follow this guy again. Lets listen.