How Big Is Your God? (Rev. Dr. Charley Reeb)
I remember overhearing a man reflecting on his life. I was at a hospital in Atlanta visiting a member of another church. I had just left the hospital room and was walking through a long hallway that led to the exit of the hospital. As I was headed out, I noticed a small chapel close the exit, and I decided to go in. I was going through a lot of things at the time, and I was drawn to that little hospital chapel. I felt like sitting in a sacred space and praying from the depths of my being.
There were only two people in this small chapel when I walked in. There was an older gentleman who looked to be in his 60’s and a younger man in his 30’s. The younger man was just getting up from kneeling at the altar when I walked in and the older man was sitting in a pew with his arms folded. As I sat in one of the pews to pray, I overheard the two men speaking to each other (you could hear everything because the chapel was so small). They sounded like they were friends or family – I am not sure which. I tried the best I could to block out their conversation, but it was difficult. The older man was talking with the younger man about his life, going on and on about all the mistakes he had made and to make sure he did not make the same ones. He told the young man that he was glad he was praying and going to church because he never did and he regretted it.
The tone of the older man sounded defeated and hopeless. Before I got up to leave the older man said something I will never forget. He said to the young man, “You know, I think I would have been a different man if I had had a different God.”
A Different God
I thought that was one of the most profound things I had ever heard – “I would have been a different man if I had had a different God.” Certainly, people become what they worship, and what they worship determines who they will be. This is why I emphasize consistent attendance at worship because I know that the more often we worship God the more likely we will be transformed into the people that God wants us to be. What we worship determines who we will be, which is why we must be very careful about what we choose to worship.
This was on Paul’s heart as he entered Athens and noticed all the different gods that were being worshiped. The Athenians had manufactured a god to fit every fancy. There was a god for pleasure, a god for progress, a god for health, a god for war, a god for sex. They even covered all their bases and built shrines to “unknown gods” just in case they were missing a few that they could not identify. There were idols everywhere, and the Athenians believed that if you needed something, wanted something, you could simply throw up a prayer to one of these gods and maybe they would help you.
It was within this context that Paul preached to the great philosophers of Athens who worshipped these gods. You see, it was a custom among the philosophers of Athens to gather in the city and debate great ideas. Paul, being a very educated man, knew how to speak to these men in a way that would enable them to hear the gospel. The special sermon he preached is powerful and still very relevant to us.
Everyone Is Religious
Paul is clever, and he begins his sermon not by berating his audience but by complimenting them on how religious they are. In verse 22, he begins, “Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way.” Paul knew that his best point of contact with this crowd was not their lack of belief but their desire to worship something bigger than themselves.
This may come as a surprise to some of you, but everyone is religious. Everyone believes in something. Everyone worships something. We Christians tend to split people into two categories: the religious and the non-religious, the spiritual and the non-spiritual, those who are open to faith and those who are not. The truth of the matter is every human being is religious and latches on to someone or something that drives them, motivates them, inspires them, and dictates their decisions in life. There are no real atheists. Everyone has faith in something.
We are not unlike Paul’s crowd. Our culture may not have the primitive idols of old, but they are idols just the same. We just dress them up a little better. John Calvin said it best: “The human mind is a perpetual factory for idols.” Just walk out the doors of this church and drive down the street and you will see idols everywhere. Just turn on the television and watch commercials and you will see our abundance of idols. You will find people who worship their cars, people who worship fashion, people who worship food, people who worship money, people who worship sports, people who worship pleasure, people who worship good luck, people who worship leaders, and people who worship anything “big” in our culture. There are those who worship “the secret,” some vague power that rewards you if you think the right thoughts and punishes you if you think the wrong thoughts. There are those who worship astrology, parapsychology and transcendental meditation. All of these idols are the by-product of a culture driven to worship something bigger than what we can fathom.
We are not a culture of heartless, faithless people that don’t believe in anything. We are not a culture that many well intended but misinformed believers would portray as “non-religious.” We are a culture of people that want desperately to believe in something bigger than us and we will make as many idols as we can to satisfy that need. Paul knew this and we should learn it. Every human being has been designed, programmed to worship, to have faith, to be religious. Everyone looks at beauty and wants to know what is beyond it. Everyone looks at a vast body of water and wants to know the source of it. Everyone looks at a sunset and desires to know who designed it. Everyone sees wrong and wants something to make it right. Everyone see injustice and wants someone to bring justice. Everyone is seeking fulfillment outside themselves. You see, ministry is not about getting people to believe in God so much as it is getting people to believe in the right God, the only God, the true God. Paul said to the Athenians, “I see how extremely religious you are in every way.”
There Is Only One God
Knowing his crowd and how religious they were, Paul then moved quite cleverly to the gospel by bringing up an inscription to one of their gods. He says in verse 23, “As I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown God.’ What therefore you worship as unknown I proclaim to you.’”
Paul was telling the crowd that day that all their searching, all their energy to create idols, all the worship of gods was simply their groping to find and worship the true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and, most importantly, the God revealed in Jesus Christ! Paul is saying, “This is who you are really looking for. This is the only God who will satisfy you. This is the only God who will save you. This God was not made or created by anyone. This God does not live in a shrine. This God was not manufactured by human imagination. This God is the only true God who made everything and everyone. This God is a living, penetrating entity that desires an intimate relationship with his children.”
Some may ask, “Well, how do I know that among all the gods and religions in this world, that the God of the Bible is the only true God?” Answer: The God of the Bible is the only God that has come into this world and proven his love for us!
Suppose a man who cannot swim is thrown into a lake. What is the best word Confucius has for the drowning man? “Profit by your experience.” What is the most helpful message the Buddha has for him? “Struggle.” What is the most encouraging teaching of Hinduism for the sinking man? “You may have another opportunity in the next incarnation.” What do the gods of our culture say (pleasure, money, sports)? “Just be thankful for all the good times you had.” But what does Jesus Christ, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, say? “Take hold of my hand. I will save you!” We may search and search and make idols of things, but the God of the Bible is the only God who has searched for us and proven his love for us.
Someone put it this way: “Buddha never claimed to be God. Confucius never claimed to be God. Mohammed never claimed to be God. Yet Jesus claimed to be the true and living God! Buddha simply said, ‘I am a teacher in search for truth.’ Jesus said, ‘I am the truth.’ Confucius said, ‘I never claimed to be holy.’ Jesus said, ‘Who convicts me of sin?’ Mohammed said, ‘Unless God throws his cloak over me, I am doomed.’ Jesus said, ‘Because I live you also will live. If you believe in me, you will never die.’”
This is how we know the God of the Bible is the only true, living God. Every other god we worship will disappoint, will fail us, will die, will fade away—not God Almighty.
This is why we do such a disservice to people and this world when we support and perpetuate the awful, syrupy, not to mention false and dangerous notion that “it does not matter what you believe as long as you believe in something.” Oh yeah?! I know this is not politically correct, but I work for God! It does matter! It does matter what we believe in, for unless we believe in Jesus, unless we follow Jesus, we will never live out our destiny. We will never be whole. We will never be the people God wants us to be. As Paul said, “In him we live and move and have our being.” Augustine put it this way: “Our hearts are restless until we rest in you, O Lord.”
Repent!
Paul ends his sermon to the Athenians by telling them to repent and believe in the gospel. We are called to do the same. We are called by God to give up our idols and the manufactured gods we worship and repent. Now, there is a word we don’t like—repent. We feel it is too “tent-revivalish,” too “old-fashioned.” Some feel it is not “seeker-sensitive” or “politically correct.” The truth is that repent it is the only word that leads to the abundant life in God. The problem is that many folks have the wrong understanding of repentance. Some think “repent” means to act sorry when you are caught. This is not what it means. Repent means to make a “U-Turn” with your life—to turn from sin and head straight for God. If you need an image, think of the prodigal son. There he was, in the midst of pig slop, and he came to himself. He fled from his life of sin and ran straight back to his father. When his father saw his son from far away, he ran after him and put his arms around him. That is repentance. The Bible says, “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.”
Recently, one of my friends and his family was on vacation in Sweden. One day they went to a children’s zoo. They had a great time, but while my friend was in the zoo he witnessed something very, very strange. He watched as little kids with pacifiers in their mouths dropped their pacifiers into this big pit. One by one they would come and drop their binkies into this pit, and then they would start crying and reach back for it. Well, my friend was more than curious, so he walked up to the pit and saw hundreds and hundreds of pacifiers on the ground. He was baffled, so he asked an attendant who spoke English, and the attendant told him it was “pacifier heaven.” The attendant went on to tell him that within that particular town in Sweden there is a long-standing tradition that when kids are at an age when they need to give up their pacifiers, the family takes them to “pacifier heaven,” and they give it up.
Some of us need to get rid of our pacifiers. Some of us need to put away childish things – our hollow idols, our impotent gods, our neurotic superstitions that we have grown accustomed to, and turn to God. Some of us need to throw our pacifiers away and worship the true, living God. Some of us need to stop settling for a half-baked life and a half-baked faith and embrace the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. How about it? Are you ready grow up and live the life God has for you? How big is your god? Whatever it is, it is not worth comparing with God Almighty.
Jesus says, “I stand at the door and knock.” Will you open it and let him come in? The only thing you stand to lose is your brokenness and despair. What you have to gain is a life you have been hungering and thirsting for. Let him in. Let him in. Amen.