Sermon: "The Mighty Acts of God"
Today is our “All Church Picnic” which our Adult Sunday School Department organizes every year. The meal will be served from 12 noon to 2:30 p.m. and all you need to bring is your appetite and a willingness to have a good time. There will be various games and activities for both children and adults throughout the afternoon.
The question is, what type of sermon do you preach to people getting ready to go on a picnic? Maybe it would help if we defined picnic.
PICNIC – A pleasure outing at which a meal is eaten outdoors.
Since most of you will enjoy your delicious meal in doors, in air-conditioning, I guess our outing isn’t technically a picnic, but who cares!!! We will enjoy the food, perhaps meet some people we don’t know, maybe meet some friends we haven’t seen in a while and all in all have a pleasurable experience.
So what kind of sermon would be good preparation for a group of people getting ready to go on a picnic?
It should no doubt be inspiring and uplifting. It should probably fill your heart with praise and thanksgiving. Surely it should give you a great desire to see people come to believe in Jesus. What a shame it would be to see people go and have a great time at our picnic, but spend eternity in hell.
Of course the sermon must also be meaningful to those of you, who for various reasons, will not be going to the picnic.
That sounds like a big job for one sermon, but I think today’s message is up to the challenge. It’s called – “The Mighty Acts of God.”
Your heart can be filled with praise for God and you can be a valuable servant for him as you come to understand the mighty acts of God.
Our scripture text for this morning is just one little obscure verse found in the Psalms.
PSALM 44:1 – We have heard with our ears, O God; our fathers have told us what you did in their days, in days long ago.
The psalmist wrote … “We have heard with our ears.” The mighty acts of God were evidently subjects of common conversation … and look who it was that was sharing these stories about the mighty acts of God … “Our fathers have told us.”
By fathers he may have been referring to their earthly fathers or he may have been referring to older men in general. In any event, men were involved in telling others about the mighty acts of God. Here are some interesting quotes I came upon as I was studying for this lesson.
“Fathers teach your children about the mighty acts of God so that they might have faith to rely upon and seek him in times of need or danger.” – John Mayer
“While the songs of nations sing of the heroism of their ancestors, the song of God’s children celebrate the works of God.” – Augustus Tholuck
To begin this morning I would like to look at ….
I. SOME WONDERFUL STORIES OF THE MIGHTY ACTS OF GOD
First some …
A. BIBLICAL EXAMPLES OF THE MIGHTY ACTS OF GOD
I love the Picture Bible and use it often to help people get an overview of the Bible. We will use some pictures from it as we look at some mighty acts of God.
See how many of these mighty acts of God you know.
1. God parts the Red Sea
And his people cross over on dry land. Moses has just led two million of God’s people out of Egypt. Their backs are to the Red Sea and Pharaoh and his army is approaching. It looks like the Children of Israel will be taken back to Egypt and once again be slaves. But then a mighty act of God saves his people. He parts the Red Sea.
Another mighty act of God is when …
2. God uses Gideon and 300 men to defeat the Midianites
The Midianites terrorized and stole from God’s people for seven years. The Israelites were reduced to hiding in caves.
God calls Gideon to free his people from the Midianites. Gideon assembles an army of 32,000 men. God tells Gideon that’s too many soldiers. Gideon tells his army that anyone who is afraid to fight against the mighty Midianites is free to go home. Twenty two thousand leave. Listen to what God said to Gideon.
JUDGES 7:4-6 – 4But the Lord said to Gideon, “There are still too many men. Take them down to the water, and I will sift them for you there. If I say, ‘this one shall go with you,’ he shall go; but if I say, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ he shall not go.”
5So Gideon took the men down to the water. There the Lord told him, “Separate those who lap the water with their tongues like a dog from those who kneel down to drink.” 6Three hundred men lapped with their hands to their mouths. All the rest got down on their knees to drink.
In obedience to God’s command, Gideon sent all but the 300 men home. Gideon then gave each of his 300 men a trumpet, a torch and a clay jar. He had them cover the flame of the torch with the clay jar. He then scattered his men on the mountains surrounding the Midianite camp. In the middle of the night they blew their trumpets and revealed their torches. Here is what happened.
JUDGES 7:22a – When the three hundred trumpets sounded, the Lord caused the men throughout the camp to turn on each other with their swords. The army fled.
What a mighty act of God, and we know it was God who gave Gideon the wisdom to know how to use the 300 men and it was God who frightened the Midianites to the point where they first attacked one another and then took off running like frightened rabbits because earlier God said …
JUDGES 7:2 – The Lord said to Gideon, “You have too many men for me to deliver Midian into their hands. In order that Israel may not boast against me that her own strength has saved her.”
Are you familiar with these mighty acts of God? Are you helping to pass them on to others? The Bible is packed with accounts of the mighty acts of God. Let’s look at another …
3. God neutralizes the poison of a viper
Paul had just survived a terrible storm that left him and all those who had survived being shipwrecked soaking wet on the shore of a small island called Malta. Here is what happened.
ACTS 28:1-6 – 1Once safely on shore, we found out that the island was called Malta. 2The islanders showed us unusual kindness. They built a fire and welcomed us all because it was raining and cold. 3Paul gathered a pile of brushwood and, as he put it on the fire, a viper, driven out by the heat, fastened itself on his hand. 4When the islanders saw the snake hanging from his hand, they said to each other, “This man must be a murderer; for though he escaped from the sea, Justice has not allowed him to live.” 5But Paul shook the snake off into the fire and suffered no ill effects. 6The people expected him to swell up or suddenly fall dead, but after waiting a long time and seeing nothing unusual happen to him, they changed their minds and said he was a god.
God kept Paul from being killed by the viper. The poison had no effect on Paul.
It is inspiring, interesting and encouraging to study the mighty acts of God that are recorded in our Bibles. We need those who come after us to say …
PSALM 44:1a – We have heard with our ears, O God.
But the account of God’s mighty acts are not limited to our Bibles. We should also share …
B. EXAMPLES OF GOD’S MIGHTY ACTS IN THE CHURCH AGE
The Church Age began when Jesus came to earth and continues right up to today.
Have you ever heard of the mighty act God did through Martin Luther? Martin Luther preached about the grace of God and God took that voice and started the Reformation which freed Christianity from the darkness of Rome.
Are you familiar with the mighty acts God performed through George Whitefield?
George Whitefield was born in 1714. His father died while he was a young boy. His mother kept the Bell Inn in Gloucester, England. Whitefield was a small man who was not healthy, but God used him to bring thousands of people into his kingdom. He was famous for his preaching in America and was a major part of The Great Awakening movement of Christian revivals in America and England. In an age when crossing the Atlantic Ocean was a long and hazardous adventure, he visited American seven times. It is estimated that he preached 18,000 times in his lifetime.
Have you and your children heard of the mighty acts God performed through…
John Wesley
Fannie Crosby
George Muller
Jonathan Edwards
Jim Elliot
Joni Eareckson Tada
We need to be sharing stories concerning the mighty acts of God. We will look at why we should be doing this in a few moments, but first let me ask you if you are familiar with the mighty acts of God that began in this little building.
In 1955 a group of approximately 25 people met in this building. With only $1,700 in their Building Fund they decided to build a new church building at a cost of $75,000. That would be like us today building a $3,000,000 addition with only $69,000 in our Building Fund. God did a mighty work. The building was built (our current chapel) and he turned that small group of people into a church of nearly 1,000 people.
We serve a God who is constantly performing mighty acts, so let’s take a moment and look at …
II. SOME OBSERVATIONS CONCERNING GOD’S MIGHTY ACTS
A. GOD’S MIGHTY ACTS ARE NOT LIMITED BY TIME
The Bible says …
II PETER 3:8 – But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.
God’s hands are not tied by time. He may do a mighty act suddenly or he may choose to take years, and in some cases, centuries.
The thing we must remember is that we should not try to put God in a box.
The Apostle Peter stood up and preached and that very day 3,000 people came to believe in Jesus. That was a mighty act of God.
In 1955 a small group of people decided to build a new church building. Today, 42 years later, we are a congregation of nearly 1,000, and who knows what God has in mind for the future. We are involved in a mighty act of God.
The next thing we see is that …
B. GOD’S MIGHTY ACTS ARE OFTEN DONE THROUGH INSIGNIFICANT INSTRUMENTS
Gideon was a simple farm boy, but God did a mighty act through him.
Moses was tending to his father-in-law’s animals until God choose to use him to divide the Red Sea.
Most of the twelve apostles of Jesus were just common, ordinary people, but God did many mighty acts through them.
Fanny Crosby was blind, but God used her to write hundreds of songs that have touched millions of people.
Most of you who now call Five Forks your church home could not name any of the people who in 1955 voted to build a new church and that’s okay, because it helps us give the glory to God and not to people.
I love the way Charles Spurgeon spoke to this topic. He said …
“His wonders are not done with the whirlwind and the storm; He does them by the still small voice, that the glory may be His and the honour all His own. Does not this open a field of encouragement to you and to me? Why may not we be employed in doing some mighty work for God here?”
That is the heart of our message this morning. God can use you to accomplish his mighty acts.
Allow that to sink in while we look at other observations concerning God’s mighty acts.
C. GOD’S MIGHTY ACTS ARE GENERALLY DONE THROUGH PEOPLE OF FAITH
It took Gideon a little while to be sure of what God wanted, but once he understood, he moved ahead without wavering. We haven’t talked about the mighty acts God did through David, but it took faith to face the giant Goliath with just a sling shot. Earlier we mentioned a man by the name of George Muller. Hopefully you know something about the mighty acts God did through him. In a nutshell he ran an orphanage on nothing but faith. Sometimes not knowing where the food was going to come from to feed the children. But George Muller had faith in God and the food came when it was needed.
I mean what I am going to say next in a very respectful and honoring way … those 25 people in 1955 who voted to build a new church had more faith than business sense. Praise God for that.
Here is another observation concerning God’s mighty acts.
D. GOD’S MIGHTY ACTS ARE NORMALLY PRECEDED BY GREAT PRAYER
Moses, Gideon, David and Peter all spent time in prayer. Wesley, Muller, Jim Elliot and Joni all understood the importance of prayer … and yes, some, if not all, of those twenty five people gathered in that little white church back in 1955 knew that prayer had to be a part of their building effort.
If you want to see God perform mighty acts in your life, in our church and in our community you need to be willing to do the hard work of praying. Yes, praying can sometimes be very hard. It was hard for both Jesus and his disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane. Hard for Jesus because he knew what God the Father was asking him to do and hard for the disciples because their bodies were tired.
The last observation we are going to look at concerning God’s mighty acts is …
E. GOD’S MIGHTY ACTS DESERVE OUR PRAISE AND THANKSGIVING
We should constantly be praising and thanking God for the mighty acts he is doing in our lives and in our church. If you cannot find anything to thank and praise him for in the present, then thank and praise him for his mighty acts in the past.
May the One Hundred and Fiftieth Psalm be the constant cry of our hearts.
PSALM 150:1-6 – 1Praise the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens. 2Praise him for his acts of power; praise him for his surpassing greatness. 3Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet, praise him with the harp and lyre, 4praise him with tambourine and dancing, praise him with the strings and flute, 5praise him with the clash of cymbals, praise him with resounding cymbals. 6Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord.
CONCLUSION
I hope you will take the time to go to the picnic this afternoon. As you do, look around at all the people and thank God for each one of them and ask him to do mighty acts in their lives and in the life of our church.
Looking at the bigger picture I hope you will do the following things:
1. Tell others, particularly your children, about the mighty acts of God. This means you may have to take the time to learn about them yourself.
2. Through prayer, ask God to do mighty works through you and through our church. Remember God often uses insignificant instruments.
3. Praise and thank God constantly for the mighty acts he performs in your life and in the life of our church.
PSALM 44:1 – We have heard with our ears, O God; our fathers have told us what you did in their days, in days long ago.