I mentioned in my last post that I was going to flesh out a little on this ace sermon I heard on Sunday. If you want to listen to it yourself you can right here (the sermon is called Weight of Glory by Andrew Wilson)
Now I liked it for 3 reasons (I could be doing a sermon myself here! Ha)
#1. It was looking at a part of the Bible I don't read hardly at all because it's really hard to understand. Revelation is the last book of the Bible and if you read it even as a Christian you can get a little confused/scared/totally bewildered. This talk was all about Revelation 4:1-11. He broke each verse down and explained actually what is going on, how much is symbolism, how much is cultural references etc. I like that because I could actually follow what is going on. He didn't assume that people already know loads because when it comes to this part of the Bible I know very very little.
#2. It made me re-assess my view of God. I think often I put God into this box of what he can and cannot do in my life and in the world. The guy speaking used this illustration of looking at how we often say that God created the world...then showed a picture of the earth. He then showed the earth in comparison the the other planets and showed how the earth is actually somewhere in the middle with regards to size. He then showed the earth in comparison to the sun (it's very small), he then showed the sun in comparison to other suns (by this point the earth cannot be seen at this scale), he then showed the sun compared to the biggest sun we know of (our sun was 1 pixel). And made the comment that we often think we are the centre of the universe....uh...clearly not. I far FAR too often forget that I serve a God who is in control of EVERYTHING. Like he holds the stars in place, knows when a single bird falls to the ground, sustains everything by his word...that is insane when you try to think about it. And verse 3 of that passage says he does that all from sitting on a throne - he isn't stressed out or rushing around. He is in complete control because he is bigger than I am and is not limited by the constraints of a human body/mentality that I am. It was good to be reminded of how much bigger he is.
#3. It was really challenging. You may have read in my last post about my excitement that the word "glory" literally translated means "weighty". So when we talking about God being glorious we are actually saying he is richer, fuller, deeper than we are - he displaces everything. The speaker used this illustration of having a washing up bowl of water and saying we were the water, he then put this piece of paper on top and it floated there. His point was that many of us love God and like him to be in our lives, love the fact that he loves us unconditionally and that he is always there for us, but we haven't grasped WHO God is - like his is magnificent! He then had a brick which he threw into this bowl and the water went EVERYWHERE. He was saying that when we really get who God is and how totally mind-blowingly-vast he is, our lives are completely displaced by the weight of his glory. We will act differently because we realise we have constant access to a God who is always capable, we will be secure in who we are because there is a God who created heavens and all of the worlds beautiful places who also took the time to knit us together inside our mums.
Now for me it was a challenge because I think I have been in the place where my life has been impacted by who God is....but then I have gotten lazy or forgotten his amazing-ness. I want to live in that place of trusting in a God who controls everything from a seated, calm, loving position.
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